A review of research and development in guided missiles by the United States Air Force from 1919 to 1948. Interior of a steel mill shows workers performing various duties around an open furnace. The exhaust section of a JB-2, flames erupting from the same. A JB-2 launching. It taxis in a wooded area. A large explosion. The exhaust section of V-2 during launching. Failed test as a V-2 rocket streaks down towards the earth after a launch and slams into a wooded area, with a huge explosion resulting. The first guided missile robot torpedo aircraft crashes at Arcadia, Florida. First successful launching of the U.S. aerial guided missile. Exhaust section of JB-2 starting operation attached to a wing of a B-17. The B-17 launching. JB-2 in flight. PQ-8 target aircraft dives towards the slope of a mountain and explodes. An atomic bomb explosion. Atomic cloud formation rises up in the air from the Trinity test, the first atomic explosion, in New Mexico.
U.S. Army radar equipment used to contact the moon. Steel structure of a radar. Men work at controls. Moon in the background of the radar. Animation shows distance of moon and earth being 238000 miles. Radar beam reaches to the earth in 2.4 seconds. Radar rays go to moon and comes back to earth after reflecting. Readings of radar shows signals. Picture of the surface of the moon. Narrator says, "no longer beyond men's dreaming is the possibility of reusable airplane-like space ships to commute between the two planets (the earth and the moon)" as animation shows an aircraft space ship flying from the earth to the moon (foreshadowing the NASA Space Shuttle program).
Sports in United States. Men's final 220 yard ice skate race and Women's 230 yard final race in Minnesota, United States. Men's final 880 yard race. Girls race in snow shoes at Lewiston, Maine. Women with ice shoes, a girl falls at the beginning of the race. Men's race and pole vault at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Commuters climbing stairs from subway to street and seen inside the lobby of a New York City office building. An electric utility switch yard. Heavy construction equipment in operation and interior of private home, where electricity is always available. Boy playing with electric railroad toy trains on floor of living room. A woman housewife using an electric mixer in a vintage 1940s kitchen. A man turns on a wall light switch. View of turbine generator deck in a power plant. Use of fuel to produce electricity is explained by animation. Burning of fuel to transform water to steam. The steam is directed towards a windmill which converts heat energy into mechanical energy. This mechanical energy is converted into electric energy by a turbine generator. The working of turbine generator is explained.
Manufacture of rotors of turbine generators used in power plants in the United States. Working of rotors in a turbine generator is explained. A worker at the nose section of a turbine generator. Cars on a road. Workers at the turbine generator. Engineers work on drawings and designs of the turbine generators. Engineers and workers carry out testing in air test laboratory. Data analysis done in a laboratory. Technicians work with various equipment. Tests carried out to check which metal stands the turbine temperature best. Various metal alloys are tested by technicians under high temperature and loads. Women workers at machines carry out differential analysis. Engineers examine a chart of a diagram of a turbine generator. Men work at a furnace in the plant. A heated metal chunk is deformed by hydraulic presses. Manufacture of turbine rotors shows technicians conducting various tests and working with different machinery and equipment for high performance. They work on turbine components. Magnetic inspection in the process of turbine manufacturing. Cavities are detected by X-rays. A rotor of a turbine in final stages of completion. Final inspections and checkups by technicians and workers. Turbine generation in operation.
Atomic furnace can be source of heat to drive turbine generator in a power plant in the United States. Conversion of fuel into electric power is explained by animation. Burning of fuel to transform water to steam. The steam is directed towards a turbine which converts heat energy into mechanical energy. This mechanical energy is converted into electric energy by a turbine generator. Exteriors of a power plant showing electric transmission towers and lines. Pedestrians and traffic along a city street with many 1940s cars and taxi cabs going by. A machinist and a welder at work. An electric powered railroad train with passenger cars approaching a train station. Telephone operators at a switchboard. Windows of building lit up at night. Evening scene at Times Square, Manhattan, New York City as sun is setting and neon lights are shining. A private home in the suburbs with window illuminated at night. A turbine generator in a power plant.