From the Vault

Shows the "life" of postage stamps from their manufacture at the Bureau of Engraving to their delivery on an envelope to an addressee. Consists mostly of scenes of postal employees and equipment. The picture is introduced and narrated by Postmaster General James A. Farley.

Olympics in the early 1900s.

Part 1, a 90-mm antiaircraft gun is described and test fired singly and in battery at Ft Monroe, Va. Part 2, a 37-mm, remote-controlled antiaircraft gun is test fired at Ft. Monroe and its operation is described. Part 3, a 16-inch howitzer is fired at Ft. Storey, Va.

Various Atomic Bombs being tested. Atomic blasts. A Bomb.

Shows firing of tank-mounted and portable flame throwers. Fuels are mixed and thickened to various consistencies by the addition of napalm and peptizers and by aging, and are fired against a target. Animation shows the relation of temperature to stirring time.

BUSHIP INFLATABLE BOAT TEST Training Tank U.S. Sub Base New London

Part 1, rockets are fired on the ground, in the air, and on landing craft. Part 2, Pres. Peron is inaugurated and reviews a parade in Buenos Aires. Part 3, the fuselage of an 8-motor seaplane is hauled to the ocean in California. Part 4, Bidault, Bevin, Molotov, and Byrnes arrive as the Council of Foreign Ministers reconvenes in Paris (June 15). Part 5, European Jewish refugees land in Palestine. Citizens of Amman, Transjordan, celebrate their forthcoming independence from Britain. Amir Abdullah reviews Arab troops. Part 6, Bernard Baruch speaks to the UN Atomic Energy Commission on international atomic control. Shows Gen. Groves and Trygve Lie.

President Ronald Reagan's Speech on Space Shuttle Challenger

Demonstrates how to build an igloo. Men locate a site and dig a pit. Snow blocks are cut from the pit. The blocks are trimmed and joined into a circular foundation. The first layer is cut to form an incline. The remaining blocks are placed in a spiral. Before the dome is finished, a door is cut. One man enters the igloo and helps place the last blocks.

A test engineer, Mr. Harold M. Graham, is strapped into the belt, ascends, passes over vehicles, and comes back to the ground

Coverage of the inauguration of John F. Kennedy as US President at the Capitol Building and the inaugural parade.

This film documents testing of civilian protective masks on children. First, the footage shows children's heads as they were measured to ensure an appropriate fit for the mask. Second, banana oil was used to check that the masks did not allow leaks. Third, children were placed in a chamber where an aerosol spray of the microbial organisms were released. The masks were then tested for traces of leakage.

An explosion occurred in the Women's Rest Room, Fourth Floor, Tenth Corridor, E Ring of the Pentagon. Film shows the damage caused by that explosion.

Restrained and unrestrained, various titles labeling different types of crash tests performed.

Shows wide-spread devastation and deprivation resulting from the war and conducive to disease and epidemics. Explains how these dangers can be combatted. Contains many scenes of personal suffering of war refugees and displaced persons. Shows how uncontrolled reunions spread diseases. Medicines are made and administered. Italians are isolated and inoculated. Swamps are drained and sprayed and natives treated in the South Pacific. Europeans receive food and clothing from United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and military units, are pooled for identification, and return to their homes. Includes views of the San Francisco Conference.

Women manufacture superchargers for airplane motors. Reel 1, new workers report at the plant, are interviewed, assigned jobs, and receive uniforms. Trainees are instructed in the operation of turret lathes and multiple drill presses. Reel 2, women operate milling machines, lathes, grinders, tapping machines, punch presses, and hydraulic presses. Shows superchargers being crated and women's locker room facilities.

Jan Christian Smuts, Vyacheslav Molotov, Sec. Stettinius, and other delegates to the United Nations conference deplane and detrain in San Francisco. Shows U.S. war casualties and flags flying at half-mast on Roosevelt's death. Pres. Truman addresses conference delegates via radio. Sec. Stettinius confers with Anthony Eden and Molotov. Conference delegates register, attend meetings, speak, browse through the San Francisco art gallery, and look at Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms paintings. Charts the UN organization and shows United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) supplies being loaded aboard ships. Reel 2, conference delegates watch a motion picture on the German surrender, speak, and sign the UN charter. Pres. Truman watches Sec. of Stettinius sign for the U.S. Pres. Truman speaks. UN flags wave in a breeze.

Shows a normal work night of workers, particularly women, at a British gun factory. Consists mostly of special-effect shots of factory equipment and personnel. The workers dance, sing, and eat lunch at 1:00 a.m. and have tea at 4:00 o'clock.

On the Canadian atomic project at Chalk River. Diagrams the U-235 atom, atom smashing with isotopes, and the development of new radioactive isotopes. Uranium is mined. Shows scientists at the project, laboratory scenes, lead blocks designed for protection against radiation, microchemistry (working with small amounts of radioactive materiel) operations, cans of waste marked "active," and signs indicating permissible radiation "doses" and prescribing safety limits upon time spent near radioactive materials.

From the Vault: The Cape (1963)

Moon Footage from Apollo 8 Spacecraft

Shows a reservoir at Albany under construction. Garments for relief families are made in WPA sewing rooms. A marionette show is presented at a Buffalo school. Shows scenes at the West Point Military Academy and the Palisades Interstate Park. Dramatizes the part played by WPA crime laboratory technicians in capturing a safecracker. Shows views of restored Fort Niagara. County roads and forest roads in the Adirondacks are constructed.

On activities at Republic Steel Co. plants. Women work in a metallurgical laboratory, test steel by weighing, move steel from blast furnaces to forges with cranes, weld tank treads and landing barges, operate company locomotives and tractors, load freight cars, and oil machinery. Shows cafeteria and washroom facilities, and describes production records set by units operated by women.

Shows the destruction in Nagasaki, Japan post nuclear bomb.

Shows how a poppy grows and how opium is obtained from it. Consists mostly of microscopic studies of poppies. Shows how the poisonous latex from the stem and the seed capsule is dried to make opium; how the opium is weighed and distributed; how it effects someone who smokes it.