Video Parts (2)
This clip is Part 1 of a 2-part film.
Geography Part 1
Description
The original catalog description provided by the Ford Motor Company reads as follows: Geography-The Earth: What Is It? Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Nine. Diagram showing Sun with Earth in orbit around it, positions for summer, autumn, winter, and spring, and for months. “Spring.” Men, woman, and child working in garden. “Summer.” Children swimming in lake. “Autumn.” Pickers on ladders in orchard. “Winter.” Ski jumping contest, spectators. “Day.” Children playing in sand on beach. “Night.” “Do you want to know how they do it?” Ball with map sketched on it with light on one side - hand spins ball. “This is rotation. It takes 24 hours for the earth to rotate once upon its axis. This makes our night and day.” Diagram of rotation with clock, hands move as Earth spins. Rotating globe with light on one side. “While we are waking up in Detroit.” Bedroom, man gets out of bed. “The Japanese are going to bed.” Rotating globe - Japanese home, man goes to bed. “Did you notice that the axis about which the earth rotates does not run straight up and down-but is tipped.” Ball with map sketched on it is tipped and spun. “Do you know that if this axis ran straight up and down our days and nights would all be the same length and our seasons would all be the same.” Ball spinning on straight up and down axis. “When are our days the longest?” Diagram showing Sun, Earth in orbit, seasons, position of poles for each season. “When our days are long the sun’s rays fall very straight upon us and make this part of the earth warm.” Diagram, ‘Sun rays striking direct.’ “Now our nights are so short that they do not give time enough for the earth to cool off.” Diagram, Earth, sun’s rays, ‘Summer.’ “It is now that the green things grow and we call it summer.” Tractor in field. “When are our days shortest?” Diagram, Earth in orbit around Sun, seasons. “But when the days are short the sun’s rays go glancing off.” Diagram, ‘Sun’s rays glancing off tipped plane.’ “Not enough of them hit the earth to warm it and the nights are so long that this section of the earth gets cooled off.” Diagram, Earth, sun’s rays, ‘winter.’ “Now it is winter.” Pedestrian traffic in blizzard. “How big is the earth?” Airplane in flight. “It would take this machine 10 days to go once around the earth without a stop. The actual distance is 24,000 miles.” Diagram, rotating Earth, sun’s rays, airplane flying around Earth. “Has the Earth any brothers and sisters?” Night sky. “The moon is Earth’s nearest sister and it is so far away that it would take the same airplane 100 days without a stop to reach it. The actual distance is 238,862 miles.” Airplane in flight over battlefield, soldiers on ground - diagram of Earth and moon, airplane moves between the two, ‘220 days.’ “The moon is very friendly and convenient as she throws the light of the sun back upon the dark side of the earth to light us to bed.” Diagram, ‘A portion of the sun’s surface,’ - ‘How big is the earth?’ - ‘Jupiter,’ ‘Saturn,’ ‘Neptune,’ ‘Uranus,’ ‘Venus,’ ‘Mercury,’ ‘Mars,’ ‘Earth,’ all in relative size. “It is strange how they got there is it not and how they all whirl on and on, each in its own path with never a stop or a collision. Did you ever stop to think what a big place our world really is?” Night sky, shooting stars. [1919]
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