UNITED NEWS [Series Title]

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  • Title: UNITED NEWS [Series Title]
  • Film Number: UNY 169
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Edition of US-produced wartime newsreel featuring a visit to Washington by Chinese Premier T V Soong, a demonstration of radar technology, and footage of the testing of the atomic bomb.
  • Description: 'China's premier, T V Soong, visits United States'; at Washington a B-24 transport aircraft [serial 9680] taxiing. Close-up of the nose, bearing an insignia of an eagle beneath the word 'America' in Russian Cyrillic script, and an English inscription 'Grandpappy'. T V Soong steps down and is greeted. Close-up Soong. 'Allies reveal secrets of radar'; in a United States Navy laboratory two civilian scients, Dr Albert Hoyt Taylor and his assistant Leo Young in discussion next to the XAF radar set; a placard notes it as the US Navy's first radar, dating from 1938. Stock footage; a man handles a cathode ray tube. Animated diagrams demonstrate the operation of the tube, and of the principles of radar. Further diagram illustrates the use of airborne radar to detect ships, and the different radar cross-sections given by ships in different orientations, and the return given by a landmass. Aerial view of a US Navy PBY Catalina flying boat in flight. Close-up of a radar's cathode ray tube, showing the scanning time base and the apparent trace of an enemy fleet. Aerial view of shipping below. Animated diagram shows a ring of radar installations around an industrial centre, detecting an incoming aircraft. Interior American fighter control room; orders are passed to a searchlight unit which successfully illuminates the aircraft. Radar-aimed anti-aircraft guns open fire and the target falls in flames. Use of radar for maritime navigation. Diagram and tube close-up show the use of ground-scanning radar for navigation. A C-47 Skytrain (Dakota) in flight (model shot). Close-up pilot at the controls. A radar operator conducts a ground-controlled approach, giving radar-based directions to the pilot. Close-up of a radar glide slope and drift indicator. The Dakota sets down safely (also a model shot). 'Atomic bomb secrets to be closely guarded'; sequence of shots, fading from one to another, showing scientists at work. Exterior view of a round, low building with cupola (the cyclotron building at University of California, Berkeley?). Interior with Dr Ernest Lawrence at work. Animated illuminated diagram shows the structure of an atom, and the splitting of uranium into barium and krypton. Exterior wide and panning views of the K-25 uranium enrichment facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Civilian workers. Wide shot, New Mexico desert. Night shot shows the Trinity nuclear explosion at Alamogordo from a distance of six miles. Wider shot shows the explosion and rising fireball. Third view of the explosion. President Truman addresses camera; he speaks of the atom bomb as 'too dangerous to be loose in a lawless world', the need for secrecy by the United States, Canada and Britain, and of his intention to institute controls on the technology. He hopes that the bomb's 'power be made an overwhelming influence toward world peace. We must constitute ourselves trustees of this new force, to prevent its misuse, and to turn it into the channels of service to mankind.' He thanks God that this power should have come to the United States, and prays for God's guidance in its use.
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: UNY 169
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1945-08-24
  • Production Country: United States of America
  • Production Details: Office of War Information (Sponsor) United Newsreel Corporation (Production company)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Soong, T V (person) Taylor, Albert Hoyt (person) Young, Leo Crawford (person) Lawrence, Ernest Orlando (person) Truman, Harry S (person) God (person)
  • Keywords:
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 892 ft; Running time: 10 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    UNY 169

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