Abstract
THE Petroleum Films Bureau (15, Hay Hill, Berkeley Street, London, W.I) now has a library of fifteen films about oil which may be borrowed free of charge by schools, technical colleges, scientific societies and other educational organizations. Both 35 mm. and 16 mm. sound and silent films are available. Synopses of these films giving an indication of the main themes dealt with are to be found in a catalogue recently issued by the Bureau. The films fall into three main sections, dealing with the varied aspects of oil production and drilling, some of the uses to which oil is put, and its particular adaptation to the requirements of the modern petrol engine, respectively. In the production and drilling section, there is one more or less general film giving an indication of how oilfields are discovered and wells drilled, which countries produce oil and how it is transported in tankers across the seas. This is followed by others having a more local bias. The work of James Young on the production of oil from shale and the subsequent establishment of the Scottish shale industry is only one of several themes which lend themselves admirably to pictorial dovelopment. Illustrations of the uses of oil are as diversified as they are manifold. They embrace fishing for swordfish, re-fuelling an Imperial Airways liner at Kisumu and spraying trees to destroy insects, to cite only a few examples. The films depicting first principles of internal combustion and compression ignition engines and the theory and practice of their lubrication are of necessity less spectacular in their conception. Nevertheless the diagrams and models will prove of great assistance to those seeking lucid explanations of technical details.
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Oil and its Uses. Nature 144, 1039–1040 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/1441039c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1441039c0