British Pathe

Reel 1.

Pathe News items: "The King Opens Power Station". Aerial shot of Kingston-on-Thames power station. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth are greeted by Lady Mayoress and other dignitaries. King makes a speech. Shots of him and the Queen. He declares the power station open and flicks a...

Reel 1.

Pathe News items: "The King Opens Power Station". Aerial shot of Kingston-on-Thames power station. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth are greeted by Lady Mayoress and other dignitaries. King makes a speech. Shots of him and the Queen. He declares the power station open and flicks a switch. Plaque is unveiled. Interior of the station as the King and Queen are shown around. Soundtrack talks of this "newly nationalised industry" and gives details of how the station was built. This is probably a duplicate of item 1440.22 - date is 1948.

"Britain Prepares for Cold Snap". A man chops up tinder wood. Woman leans out of house window beckoning someone in. She pulls her dressing gown around her neck as if feeling the cold. Man builds an outside fire. Montage showing domestic use of electricity "the inside story of modern man's home": flicking a light switch, lights go on, vacuum cleaner, radio dials turned, ironing, woman putting kettle on as man ties his tie. He flicks a light switch, lights don't go on. Wife picks up the kettle, not working. Bacon in the pan is not cooking. Clock has stopped. Power cut. Exterior and interior of power stations. Man talking on the telephone to Scottish power station. Levers pulled, gauges move. Wife cooks bacon on outside fire, husband looks out of the window as he lathers up for a shave. Wife looks up and smiles. According to old database the location for the husband and wife scenes is Chessington and the power station is St. Paul's.

Unedited material. C/U of electricity wires, camera pans along to pylons. Shots of electricity pylons from different angles. Construction site - probably Richmond-on-Thames power station. Many men working. Battersea power station. Different views of building under construction and Battersea power station. Inside a control room. Man speaks into telephone. C/U of a voltmeter and other gauges.

C/Us of various equipment. A frequency meter. Man operates controls in front of a large bank of gauges. Top shot of interior of a power station. C/U of a control being moved between "on load" and "increase load" settings. Man (whose trousers are held up with a tie instead of a belt!) operates controls. Clock. Light goes on. Light switch being flicked. Man checks various gauges and equipment writing results on a large board.

Vacuum cleaner being used on a very nice 1940s flowery carpet. Radio dials being turned. Lights going on. An iron being used. Woman boiling a kettle, husband comes into the kitchen tying his tie. Woman leans out of a house window and beckons someone inside. She pulls her dressing gown around her as if cold. More gauges. Mute. Unedited material. Cows being milked with a machine - pumps clamped on to their udders. We see the milk being drawn up a pipe into a metal canister. Shot of a man milking cow by hand. We see his concentrated face. Then camera pans down to the udders and the bucket collecting the milk. Ambient sound from the cowshed. No commentary.

Electricity pylons. Various angles and panning shots. Farm scenes. Cows walking to the milking sheds. C/U of man's face as he milks a cow. C/U of cow's face. C/U of piece of farm machinery in operation. C/U of pigs eating. Country landscapes. Village street. Hardware shop. Liquid being poured through a funnel. Young girl walks out of shop carrying a canister. Elderly woman pours liquid from canister into oil lamp base? Man climbs to top of telegraph pole? Men pull wires for attachment to the poles. Camera follows the wires to the roof of a farmhouse. C/U of electricity controls, substation, switches being flicked, light bulb going on. Man smoking a cigarette works at a lathe.

Other men using electricity for their work (short shots). Cow shed. Two men chat about the new electric milking machine. The man we saw milking the cows says how good it is. A large group of men use long poles to push telegraph pole (electricity pole) up then fill in the ground around it. Wires are lifted up and attached to the poles. Shot of the farmhouse with electric wires and poles in the foreground. Scenic landscape of the farm and land around it.

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Note: Originally 4 reels, this material has been spliced together. The news items have sound, other material mostly silent with some ambient sound.