Crowd gathered around viewing early helicopter with multiple tiers of rotating blades. Various VIPs attending the demonstration, including Argentine inventor of the helicopter, Raúl Pateras Pescara. View of people looking at helicopter. Tests in Issy France outside a large hangar shows helicopter rising from ground about six feet and then landing. Action is repeated. View of rotor blades, rotor columns and fuselage section of helicopter.
Snow in Washington DC. Men shovel snow. U.S. Capitol building in the background. White House in the snow. Lincoln Memorial with horse drawn sleighs in foreground. Children slide down hill in front of Lincoln Memorial on sleds.
Army Air Corps under direction of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell bombs the decommissioned battleships "New Jersey" (BB-16) and "Virginia" (BB-13) at Diamond Shoals, N.C. Chemical Warfare Smoke Curtain seen. Officers check the bomber aircraft before take off. USS New Jersey BB-16 anchored and after several bomb droppings sinks in the Atlantic Ocean off North Carolina.
USS battleship Virginia BB13 bombed by Army Air Service Martin Bomber. A 1,100 pounds bomb demolishes the ship. USS Virginia sinks beneath the waves.
USS Virginia takes direct bomb hit on after part. Hit tumbles main mast. Ship enveloped in black smoke. Extensive damage seen. Ship starts sinking and flips over. The keel is exposed. Portion of bow seen as it plunges below surface. A ship seen in background.
Dramatization depicts the use of safety devices in the petroleum industry. John Swift, Chief Safety Engineer in the Western Oil Company in front of his house with his family. He waits for his son Bill Swift. Bill at a petrol pump station smoking in a 'No Smoking Zone'. He meets his companion while his father waits for him. He reaches home and picks his father. He drives carelessly and is scolded by his father. John visits Field Warehouse of his company and talks about safety devices to another man. Bill takes a job in another oil company. Bill wearing dirty clothes drives a car and smokes while oil lies on the ground. Bill falls down on the ground. John Swift checks machines for safety. Safety devices like 'Cat Head Guard', 'Back up ropes on tongs' and 'Safety belts' are seen.