First scene shows commuters in rush hour arriving and departing a major rapid transit station. Motor vehicles (mostly buses) are parked beside the station and electric street cars are lined up behing one another along the tracks. (No women are evident in the crowd of commuters.) Next is a nighttime scene showing commuters climbing stairs from a station platform, in what appears to be an incident of some kind. An empty streetcar is parked next to the platform. A flare is burning on the track and some passengers are walking along the tracks to the stairs .Another flare is burning on the platform, itself.
At beginning, Henry Ford is seen standing next to his son, Edsel Ford, and speaking to him. They are in a laboratory. A ford automobile engine is sitting next to them. A new segment shows them walking through a machine shop, where various machine tools are seen. A few men are seen working at these machines in the background. As they pass a particular machine, it attracts Henry Ford's attention and he pauses to examine it more closely.
American scientist Robert H. Goddard tests a rocket in Roswell, New Mexico during the 1930s. Title card “United States Marine Corps”. Program host, Dennis James, introduces. Early rocket launchpad built in 1927 by American scientist Robert H. Goddard. Robert H. Goddard and his assistants unload a rocket at their test site located in Roswell, New Mexico. Robert H. Goddard demonstrates an early gyroscope used for automatic stabilization. Assistants securing the rocket into the launchpad. Robert H. Goddard and his assistants watch the rocket from the observation shed during ignition. Distant view of rocket as it shoots straight up to 7500 feet in the 1930s. Robert H. Goddard and his assistants examine rocket and parachute after landing.
Pusher snowplow attached to a steam locomotive cuts through deep snow in Silverton, Colorado, United States. Plow pushes back snow from train tracks. Snowplow pushes away 20-feet of snow while men look on. Men help snow pusher with shovels to clear out snow. Snow drift blasted with dynamite. Men shoveling out snow. Point of view POV from top of steam locomotive as it plows through snow.
Japanese 9th Division regular army troops marching outside a compound in Shanghai, China. Soldiers with bayonets sit on top of a moving truck. Soldiers hold a Japanese flag while sitting on top of supplies from a moving truck. Japanese soldiers cross the Huangpu Creek bridge. Soldiers with bayonets marching in the International Settlement of Shanghai. Kenkichi Ueda, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Imperial Army standing in front of a barracks. General Ueda and soldiers enter the barracks together. Soldiers firing artillery at Shanghai. Shanghai being bombarded. Japanese gunners pull artillery back into place with ropes after recoil drives cannon backwards. An artillery fires more shells. A burning house. Japanese soldier riding a motorcycle with sidecar. A Japanese soldier uses a pair of binoculars. Thick smoke forms over Shanghai. Japanese soldiers running in Shanghai. Soldiers running past a tank. Type 87 Model 25 Vickers Crossley "Dowa" armored car equipped with two Vickers 303 machine guns moving down street. Inside view of Type 87 Model 25 armored car. Japanese soldiers firing with machine guns next Type 87 Model 25. A dead Chinese man lying on the snow. Japanese soldiers firing with machine guns beside a tank. Japanese soldiers standing on a bridge. Japanese soldiers capture Chinese spies dressed as women and farmers. Two Japanese soldiers support an injured comrade. Chinese captives kneeling beside Japanese soldiers at train depot. Chinese refugees leaving Shanghai on foot. Chinese locals stand on boats sailing out of Shanghai. Panicking crowds leaving Shanghai en masse.
Policemen rush to contain the resistance by the Bonus Marchers, a group of demonstrators made up of 17 000 United States World War I veterans demanding early cash redemption of their service certificates during the Great Depression. Bonus Expeditionary Force demonstrators throw smoke bombs and fight with police in their trashed Hooverville camp on the Anacostia Flats (now Section C of Anacostia Park in Washington DC). Bonus Expeditionary Force Hooverville camp in flames during confrontation with army sent by General Douglas MacArthur. American soldiers confronting the Bonus Marchers in Anacostia Park. Remnants of Bonus Army camp in smoke. Bonus Expeditionary Force demonstrators cover faces to protect themselves from smoke. Bonus camp in flames, with the United States Capitol dome in the background.