Title:THE PARAVANE - A DEVICE THAT MADE MINES USELESS : invented by Lieut Dennis Burney, RN [Main Title]
Film Number:IWM 585
Other titles:
Summary: Information film about the paravane, probably made just after the war.
Description: Still portrait of Lieutenant Burney in an oval frame. Medium shot along Vickers assembly room. Women welders. Man finishes casings on a wheel. Paravane body tested in a small water tank. Bench assembly of paravane; women paint it, men make final adjustments. High-angle medium shot as a train carries completed paravanes along a pier on their way to the ships. Camera circles bows of a merchantman to show attachment gear, and diagrams illustrate the positions of the shoe at the forefoot, and the streamed paravanes. Close-up as shoe slides down stem into the water. Medium shot as merchantman underway hoists out paravanes, and high-angle medium shot inboard as paravane is lowered away. Animated diagram of streamed paravane slicing through mine cables, is intercut with film of mines surfacing in ship's wake. High-angle medium shot as paravane is hoisted inboard, and medium shot as shoe is hauled up stem. Final close-up of an example of steel cable cut by a paravane.
