British Pathe

M/S of a packing case being thrown out of a high window in a warehouse; low angle M/S of the man who threw it looking towards the ground. Another man walks along, picks it up and walks off as commentator tells us this is part of an experiment to test the type of packing required to protect special eggs...

M/S of a packing case being thrown out of a high window in a warehouse; low angle M/S of the man who threw it looking towards the ground. Another man walks along, picks it up and walks off as commentator tells us this is part of an experiment to test the type of packing required to protect special eggs at a factory in Bermondsey, London.

Inside the factory we see two men open the case, then open a smaller case inside, and take off a layer of brown foam-type stuff to reveal six unharmed eggs inside. One of them takes an egg out and we see them breaking the egg on the side of a glass; half of the shell falls into the glass and one of the men looks quite shocked. C/U of a pair of wrinkly man's hands twisting the stem of an exotic pink flower (an orchid?) and putting it into what seems to be a glass tube. The man, Joseph Hughes, then puts it into a tissue paper-lined box and packs more turquoise tissue paper around it as a glamorous blonde watches carefully.

C/U of some goldfish swimming around in a tank as someone tries to catch them in a net; M/S shows it is the glamorous blonde, having trouble catching those slippery fellas. Packing expert Bryan Harrison enters shot, hands the blonde a plastic bag containing some water, and shows us the right way to take a fish from the tank by pushing the net up against the glass, thereby trapping Mr Fish. He plops two fish into the plastic bag, then seals the top on a special machine and puts the bag into a cardboard box. Commentator says "Providing it arrives at its destination within seventeen hours, the fish can be dropped into a pond in perfect condition".

Note: print is badly scratched and is vinegar syndrome-infected. Negs used for Digibeta transfer - some neg sparkle. The factory seen is E H (Service Depot) Ltd. On file is a lengthy press release ('The Story of a Revolution in Packing'), plus a letter to Pathe from Ian Johnson at Wigmore Public Relations suggesting this story, and offering to supply a helicopter which could drop the box of eggs from 50 ft for a final shot!