A/V Geeks 16mm Lunch 1-21-2026

Hello everybody. I'm Skip Alimer. Welcome to the AV Geeks Lunchtime streaming show where we watch old 16 mm films. And I was busy trying to get some stuff organized. Um and so I was like, "Oh, what time is it?" Oh crap. Uh all right. So, got something set up. All right. Um, we got something on our scanner. Um, this is kind of behaving. Uh, it's not digitizing while we're watching it. Although, it is digitizing while we're watching. It's just not saving a high quality file. So, but I'm still trying to figure that out. Uh, it's a lot of updates and a lot of tweaking and maybe pulling back updates because or breaking things, you know, annoying. Anyways, uh here's a film Junior Missileman in action. Enjoy. >> [bell] [music] >> Photography sees with the eye of the camera. It makes records of people, places, and events. Photography shows shows how things happen. It lets you see the world about you right [music] here in your classroom. It is your window on the world. Now, Kodak through photography brings you this edition of the Screen News Digest. T minus 10 9 8 7 6 >> 5 4 3 2 1 ignition >> that was a neat one. >> Across the desert and out of the past comes Dr. Robert [music] Hutchings GD, father of the space age, the man who launched the world's first liquid propellant rocket [music] on March 16th, 1926 at Auburn, Massachusetts. In these exclusive motion pictures, you will follow a Goddard countdown step by step at history's first launching pad. On this 1930 rocket range in New Mexico, Dr. Goddard is pioneering procedures and systems that will be studied and copied by all who follow in his giant steps. For he and he alone is commanding general of this launching site. [music] He is in charge of range safety, data reduction, telemetry, everything. [music] With all systems go, the launch crew runs to Dr. Goddard's wooden blockhouse to wait out the final fateful seconds of the countdown. The 11 ft rocket snakes to a height of 2,000 ft, reaches a speed of 500 mph, and then starts back to Earth, signaling the end of its historic flight with the first of many mushroom clouds to rise over the New Mexico desert. >> [music] >> Robert Hutchkins Goddard is a brilliant dedicated scientist, a pioneering [music] genius who is convinced that man one day will land a rocket on the moon. [music] In the 1930s and early 1940s, Dr. Guard records a remarkable series of space age firsts, including the first parachute recovery of a rocket, the first launching of an instrument carrying rocket, and the first flight of a supersonic rocket. But America in general ignores his work. Nazi Germany and other powerhungry countries do not. German scientists keep close track on his progress and the Japanese and Italian embassies in Washington make repeated requests for information on his work. Dr. Goddard declines all such requests, but the basic patents on his rocket research are available to one and all for just 10 cents. [music] And when in 1944, the first German V2 rocket rumbles skyward, it is laid out from nose to tail in exactly the same way as Dr. Goddard's New Mexico rockets. After VE Day, American ordinance men question German scientists about their awesome rockets and they receive a surprising reply. Why do you ask us these questions? They say, why don't you ask your own Dr. Goddard? We learned these things from him. Dr. Goddard cannot answer. He is dead. But Robert Hutchings Goddard's contribution to rocketry does not end with his death. Even today, more than 20 years after his death, it is impossible to design, build, and launch a rocket without infringing on a Gddard patent. >> Two, one, ignition. Robert Hutchings Goddard's love of science lives on too in the growing number of model rocket societies that are springing up all across the United States. >> ONE IGNITION >> where it's going. >> That's amazing. The West Coina Model Rocket Society organized by the Recreation and Park Department of West Coina, California is typical of this increasing interest among teenage missile men. >> One ignition. >> Conducted under strict adult supervision, the society emphasizes safety, education, and recreation through model rocketry. Delicious. >> On the road. On the road. Go. >> Live passengers, including a wide variety of bugs and insects, ride the miniature missiles. Each rocket is required to have a recovery device. >> I don't see it. >> It's gone. >> Hop up there. And every passenger, no matter how high, how fast, and how far his flight, can look forward to a safe and gentle landing. >> It's kind of hard to go through those weeds there. >> Yeah, I know. >> After recovery, the Astro Bug is a-ok. Okay. >> The launch facilities also include a tracking system for measuring accurately the altitude of rocket flights. From pre-launch to recovery, the accent is on safety. >> It's going to be a golfer. >> Organized [music] in 1967, the West Coina Model Rocket Society has grown from 7 to more than 200 members. The model rockets are constructed of balsa [music] wood, thin cardboard tubing, unbreakable plastic, white glue, and bright paint. >> [music] >> They range in size from 4 to 48 in and in weight from 1 to 16 o. All are relatively inexpensive to buy and reasonably simple to build. [music] Aerospace workshops [music] under adult supervision are held once a week. Here, both boys and girls receive assistance in planning and constructing their model rockets. The West Cavina Society is one of the most active in existence. >> [music] >> Among the many facilities at the clubhouse is a handpowered wind tunnel that is used to test the aerodynamics of the model rockets firsthand in ways that they can see and understand. The members come to know many of the scientific principles involved in rocket flights. Static tests are also conducted from time to time to measure the thrust of the powerful little engines that are used to launch the model rockets. [music] A graph records the seconds before, during, and after the firing of the 2 oz propellant. The sudden variation indicates the moment of ignition. At a local park, three times a month, models and theories are put to the test. In the first year, 1,500 launchings are made without a single mishap. Ground zero is a small mesa that sits in a valley protected on all sides by hills, the tops of which are used for tracking and clearance stations. All launchings are under the strict supervision of advisers from [music] the West Coina Recreation and Park Department. [music] [bell] Club membership includes boys and girls ranging in age from 9 to 17. Before the [music] launchings begin, the adviser divides them into two groups. While one group launches its rockets, the other group mans the tracking, recovery, and data reduction [music] stations. Later they change places. Safety comes first, last, and always on the rocket range. Restricted area signs mark the launch site. All models are propelled by a commercially manufactured rocket engine consisting of a solid propellant, a time delay powder to allow for coasting, and an ejection charge to deploy the parachute recovery system. [music] In their flights, the club members shoot for a number of records, including altitude, duration, and spot landing [music] for single and multiple stage rockets. All models are launched electrically from a distance of 15 to 20 ft and have the capability, depending on the size and weight of the vehicle, of reaching a [music] speed of 600 mph and an altitude of 2,000 ft. [music] Two tracking stations 500 ft from ground zero monitor the launches. The flight time and angle of ascent [music] are recorded and used to plot the peak altitude of each launch. [music] >> We're armed and counting. Five 4 3 2 1 ignition. >> We have a shoot. >> It was 62 on that last one. What was the altitude? 62 >> 62 degrees >> 925 925 ft. >> Mice are among the many live passengers that have been launched and recovered safely by the members of the model rocket society. is getting open. >> Good. Good. Mean it, meet it, meet it, and catch it. Catch it. Catch it. BEAUTIFUL. >> The safe landing brings to the young rocketeers the same sense of achievement and satisfaction that comes to adult scientists in their explorations of the cosmic unknown. Mouse recovered. Mission accomplished. Models and launchings copy many of America's defense missiles. Here, a rocket is placed into a silo to simulate the underground firing of a Minuteman missile. >> This launching is photographed in slow motion and the action is onetenth its normal speed. >> One ignition. Get going, Carrie. Come on, Carrie. >> The ejection charge deploys the recovery parachute and the rocket drifts gently back to Earth. >> Next, from underwater, the model launching of a model Polaris. >> Once again, the action is slowed down. Ignition. >> Perfect. >> Hey, look at it. >> These miniature missiles that streak into the sky. And the boys and girls who build, test, and fire them are the heirs of and the links with Robert Hutchings Goddard, the father of the space age, who in his youth found the same love of science that they now know. A man who found a dream and would not give it up. A man who could truly see beyond the ears. For Robert Hutchings [music] Gunnard was the man who first awakened the powerful giant that slumbered in the liquid [music] propellant rocket. [music] Each new journey into space is its own memorial to Robert [music] Hutchings Goddard. Each new conquest in space is a reminder to the youth of today of the words that he spoke long ago. It is difficult to [music] say what is impossible. For the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. [music] The Screen News Digest, living history in the classroom, has been brought [music] to you by the Eastman Kodak Company. So, I have seen uh kids uh who are uh their parents or friends of mine. I've seen kids launch rockets in uh parks, but a lot of that interest has gone to drones because of, you know, it's remote control. You have a camera on there. And I don't know which parent thought, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll we'll let you put your pet mouse into in a rocket." Like, that's crazy. Okay, so here's uh another film uh that's about uh space. And it looks like it had some uh pretty bad uh shrinkage at the beginning, but uh it gets it clears up by the title screen. So, here's how vast is space. Enjoy. >> [music] [music] [music] >> For the most effective use of this film, we want you to imagine that this boy is fully lifesiz and at a distance of about 10 ft from from you. Our comparisons of size and distance will start with this scale. [music] [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] >> [music] >> Where does the universe begin and where does it end? How large are we in relation to our universe? Who are our neighbors in cosmic [music] space? >> [music] >> This film shows two important physical [music] concepts. The relative distances and the proportions of size to be found in space. We will take you on an imaginary journey out through space to the edge of infinity in one direction and then back to the nucleus of the atom in the other. The universe is not only all around us but is also within us. The atom in relation to man is roughly comparable to man in relation to a star. [music] In order to acquire a cosmic view of space, we need a framework on which to build our knowledge. We must therefore give strict understanding to the meaning of scale. As we move outward, each leg of our journey will take us 10 times farther away and uncover 100 times the area of the preceding position. Later we will move from the human body to the atoms within. On each leg of this journey, we will move 10 times closer and enlarge the area 100 times. To measure distance, a new square will appear whenever we move 10 times farther away from or 10 times closer to the previous position. To indicate the scale of reduction or magnification of each scene, numerical proportions will appear. The small numbers after 10 known as exponents refer to the number of zeros to be added. This is the short and practical way to express long figures. For instance, light travels at the approximate rate of 6 trillion miles per year. It can be written 6 * 10 to the 12th power. Incidentally, this is known as 1 lightyear. We see a girl living in a small town of central California. The scale is life size or one to one. That is a foot on the screen should represent a foot in actual life. We move upward 10 times with each shift of scene. The area coming into our field of vision increases a 100fold while each new image is on a scale one/tenth of the preceding. >> [music] >> When we reach a height of 2 mi, most of the hometown of our girl comes into view. On this scale, 1 foot on the screen should equal 1,000 ft in actuality. We move away from the earth at increasing rates of speed for our journey into space covers tremendous distances. We are traveling at 25,000 mph. The speed necessary to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth. We continue to accelerate and all of California comes into our field of vision. Contrasts [music] [music] of color, size, and shape, which are apparent to the human eye, tend to diminish at these distances. We see the Earth as a limited dwelling place, surrounded by darkness. Through the silent emptiness, we accelerate outward to the limits of human knowledge. Two billion light years away. The orbit of the moon and the orbit of the earth come into view. We continue to accelerate and are now exceeding the speed of light, 186,000 m/s. The Earth eventually becomes invisible to the human eye. The orbits of Venus and the other planets together with the elongated orbit of Hal's comet come into view. In reality, none of the planets would be visible at this distance. We would simply see a star, our sun, around which they revolve. It would take light 11 hours to travel across the orbit of Pluto, the farthest planet of the solar system. This is a distance of over 7 billion miles. On this scale, man would be the size of an atom. We are now one light year from the Earth. This means that in our imaginary journey, we have traveled at an average rate of 186,000 m/s for an entire year. We must realize it is quite possible that numberless other suns with their planetary families are moving through the emptiness of space. To avoid confusion, we omit from these pictures many background stars which are not of our immediate neighborhood. Our nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is four light years away from our Earth. A circle encloses all stars within 50 light years of our sun. At this distance, the sun is no longer visible to the naked eye. On this scale, the sun would be the size of an atom. One foot on the screen represents about a 100 light years. As we move outward to approximately 30,000 light years away from our Earth, we leave our own galaxy composed of about a 100 billion stars. Viewed from Earth, our galaxy appears as the Milky Way. In one spiral arm of our galaxy is located an invisible speck, our solar system, which revolves with the galaxy once every 200 million years. The universe is composed of hundreds of millions of galaxies which have a tendency to form clusters. For this vast distance, science does not yet provide us with precise data. With our finest telescopes, our knowledge at present extends to some 2 billion light years away or 12 billion trillion miles. We are able to see certainly far less than what in actuality exists. Our universe extends far beyond the limits portrayed on the screen. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> all that we have [music] seen. may be as small as a grain of salt compared to that vast expanse of the universe which [music] is yet unknown to us. Now let us return from the boundaries of outer space and investigate the minute realm of inner space by moving closer and closer to the body of man until we reach the nucleus of the atom. Once again, we begin with a scale as close to life size as possible. One foot on the screen should equal one foot in actual life. We will move closer to the face, the eyes, [music] and the skin of our girl. [music] [music] >> [music] >> We place a grain of salt to give [music] relative proportion. [music] Each new scene will represent a scale 10 times greater [music] and an enlargement of the area by 100 times. A circle represents an average human hair in scale with each scene. As we move closer, the grooves of the skin become clearly visible. The salt crystal and the hair are magnified 100 times. At a scale of a thousand to one, we observe the smallest known unit of life, the cell. Groups of similar cells form tissues. Blood vessels and sweat ducts are also seen through the microscope. We are in the final domain of scale wherein the human eye can obtain an impression of color. The smallox virus is detected by the powerful electron microscope. On this scale, the salt crystal would be the size of a house. The starch molecule and the infantile paralysis virus begin to appear within the square. At a magnification of 10 million times, we note air molecules. On this scale, the average distance between them would be the breadth of the United States. We also see the sodium and chlorine layers of the salt crystal. Finally, we approach the nucleus of the sodium atom. The darker shading indicates the probability of finding one of the 11 electrons somewhere within the sodium atom revolving at speeds of almost 700 m/s. The vastness and emptiness of space here is comparable to the distance between the sun and her planets. Our [music] journey ends at the nucleus of the atom. Science cannot yet determine the utterly minute orbits of the neutrons and the protons within. On this final scale, a man would be 10 times larger than the diameter of our solar system. Through this imaginary journey [music] to and from man, we have found life as we know it to exist in only a small segment of space. Life may also exist on other scales, infinitely smaller or larger than those we can conceive today. [music] [music] >> [music] >> Future scientists exploring beyond the presently known limits of space may perhaps find that all of space as we know of it is but a dot in an infinitely larger universe. But for this moment, our globe is our limited dwelling place and our immediate neighborhood. On this little grain, lost in the vast sands of time and space, we are fashioning the tools for actual journeys into the mysterious realms of the universe. stars and atoms. Somewhere midway between these two extremes stands man with his own world less than a speck in a corner of the infinity of space. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Wow. So yeah, this uh concept of showing the scales of um distance um both in an outer sense and an inner sense. Uh powers of 10 is the most popular of visual version of this um which came out in the 70s but there was a kind of a sketch of it. This is by the EMS, right? And Charles Emmes, uh, that came out in 1968, which I, so I have both of those. Then there was a film that came out, I feel like in 1980 that was called Cosmic Zoom. That was a Canadian version of this. And so this one came out in 1960. And so this is, I think, the first version uh, or the earlier earliest version that I've stumbled across so far. All of these are based on a book that came out in 1957 which was a photographic version of that. Um, so yeah, it's fascinating. Um, and I'm sure there's other It's so compelling. I'm sure there's other versions of this out in the world. All right, I got another film on the scanner. This is about those trucks in our neighborhood. Why are they in our neighborhood? Enjoy. >> [music] >> There are many kinds of trucks. They are used to do [music] many kinds of jobs. The workers who come to our neighborhood often use trucks to help them do their jobs. Sometimes the trucks they use are specially [music] designed for the jobs that need to be done. Let's see what some of these jobs [music] are and how trucks help [snorts] in getting the jobs done. Workers often use trucks to bring things to [snorts] our neighborhood. This truck delivers bread. Inside the truck, bread and other baked goods are kept in drawers and sliding trays. With his truck, the delivery man can bring fresh bread directly to his customers every day. This driver is using the special equipment on his truck to help him deliver a new refrigerator to a customer. The tailgate of the truck is like an elevator. It lowers the driver and his load to the street easily and safely. In some neighborhoods, the mailman delivers the mail in a three- wheeled truck like this one. He keeps the letters in the front of his truck and the packages in the back. With its single front wheel, the truck can easily turn around in small places. The door of the truck is high and wide so that the mailman can step in and out quickly. [music] Workers also use trucks to help take things away from our neighborhood. They use a trash truck like this one to help keep our neighborhood clean. It has special equipment which lifts the heavy trash cans and empties them. The truck has high sides so that it can hold a great deal of trash. Using trucks like this, [snorts] workers can take away the trash from many homes. Other workers use other kinds of trucks to take things away from our neighborhood. When someone wants to move, moving men use a large truck called a moving van to help them. The movers use a wooden bridge called a ramp to move furniture into the van. A moving van can hold all the furniture from several homes. Using a moving van, workers can carry all the things in a home to other neighborhoods near and far. Workers also use special trucks to help them do repair work in our neighborhood. This dump truck is used to pour hot asphalt into a hole in the street. With a rake, a worker smooths the asphalt over the place to be patched. A pickup truck and trailer was used to bring a heavy roller to help finish repairing the street. >> [music] >> Ah, ah. Here is another neighborhood job. This street light is burned out. Workers use this special truck to help them replace the bulb. A metal foot helps keep the truck steady. The repair man climbs into a box above the truck. The box lifts the repair man up to the lamp. Then he can easily and safely reach the burned out bulb to replace it. Using a truck like this one, workers can easily keep street lights in our neighborhood burning brightly. Sometimes an emergency occurs in our neighborhood. A fire must be put out. Firemen come quickly in their fire truck to put out the fire. [music] >> [music] >> Each fireman knows his own job. The fire truck carries many things the firemen will need. [music] Their truck is specially designed to help them put out the fire. With their special training and welle equipped fire truck, firemen handle many emergencies in our neighborhood. [music] Workers use many special kinds of trucks to help them do important jobs in our neighborhood. They bring to us many of the things we need. They carry away many things [music] and they help us in other ways. What special kinds of trucks have you seen in your neighborhood? [music] >> [music] [music] >> It's so dry here. I keep shocking myself on pieces of equipment and that can't be good for the equipment. Uh all right. Uh that film was awesome. This uh next film, this is a very odd film. I watched a little bit of it before and um yeah, this is Betty tells her story. It's very very interesting. All right. Uh, and this is a religious film, but I don't know when it get becomes a religious film.