SCIENTISTS AT WORK 1943 - 1970 - 6 OCTOBER @ 12.10pm
A 50 minute compilation of newsreels celebrating the work of New Zealand scientists. These include the work of scientists in war time, how to exterminate wasps by blowing DDT into their nests, DSIR workers visiting White Island, the Director of the Dominion museum visiting Fiordland,, the Gracefield Laboratory celebrating its centennial, and the 1965 eclipse of the sun + more
In conjunction with National Library’s exhibition Butterflies, Boffins & Black Smokers
THE FILM ARCHIVE PRESENTS
Scientists at Work 1943 - 1970
Friday 6 October 2006 @ 12.10pm - National Library auditorium
SCIENTISTS IN WARTIME ... INSTRUMENT MAKING 1943, 3.00
A young Auckland scientist works on a reflector for the armed forces. Other scientists work on various inventions with glass to assist in the war effort. WEEKLY REVIEW 110, NFU.
SCIENCE IN NEW ZEALAND ... NEW BUILDING FOR PLANT CHEMISTRY, 1946, 2.10 The new laboratory at Palmerston North is shown. WEEKLY REVIEW 265
ANTARCTIC OUTPOST CAMPBELL ISLAND 1947, 8.48
The ketch Ranui leaves New Zealand bound for Campbell Island, 290 miles south. Operated by the Ministry Of Works, the Ranui is taking meteorologists and scientists to relieve others on the island. It will be twelve months before they return to New Zealand. Naturalist J.Sorenson, leader of the expedition, will be studying sea-elephants, sealions, penguins and other inhabitants of the Sub Antarctic island. WEEKLY REVIEW 284
NORTH ISLAND... WASPS 1949. 6.00
A plague of wasps in the Waikato is damaging fruit, getting into water troughs and causing havoc for beekeepers. Methods of exterminating wasps include burning and blowing DDT powder into their nests are detailed. A national publicity campaign offers money in exchange for dead wasps; 18,000 corpses were received in 1948. WEEKLY REVIEW 397
VOLCANIC FURY...WHITE ISLAND 1950. 11,00
A party of scientific workers from the NZ Government Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, land at Traitor Bay. The object of the party is to survey the island’s structure, examine its minerals and study its volcanic activity. A survey of the work and experiments carried out is captured on film. NEW ZEALAND BIRDS: A survey of the flightless, nocturnal kiwi on a kiwi farm. American naturalist, Dr LRJ Mourie visits Kapiti Island, Dr Mourie, Director of America’s Wilderness Society, studies methods of bird protection, one of his special interests. NEW ZEALAND MIRRORS No. 1 - 4
FIORDLAND... SOUNDS CRUISE, 1950, 4.00
Two scientists, Mr Falla, Director of the Dominion Museum, and WH Dawbin, a zoologist at Victoria College, Melbourne, take a cruise up Milford Sound aboard the vessel Alert. They pass Mitre Peak and the Bowen Falls as they head out to Doubtful Sound. The scientists dredge the seabed for specimens; they find a rare sea lily and some sea coral. WEEKLY REVIEW 451.
100 YEARS OF CHEMISTRY 1965 , 6.00
At Gracefield in the Hutt Valley, the DSIR Chemistry Laboratory celebrates its centennial. With a staff of 180, this film surveys some of the work carried out there. PICTORIAL PARADE 170
ECLIPSE OF THE SUN 1965, 9.33
Wellington members of the Royal Astrological Society gather at the Carter Observatory for a briefing by the Director Ivan Thomson before the imminent eclipse on 31st May. The last eclipse occurred in 1895. The next will be in the year 2028. Various tests are undertaken on equipment in preparation for this major event. Checked at the Carter Observatory, some will be packed and despatched for Manowai, the Cook Islands Eclipse site. Mr Pritchard, a part time astronomer and engineer, made some of the equipment at home in his spare time.The studies of other centres and institutions around New Zealand are also surveyed. PICTORIAL PARADE 167
CRATER LAKE 1970, 3.00
Scientists from the DSIR are ferried to the edge of Mt Ruapehu’s crater lake on board an airforce helicopter. Once 1,000 ft deep the crater is now only 200 ft deep as a result of the sudden 1969 eruption. During the 1953 eruption, 151 people were killed in the Tangiwai disaster. Volcanologists are now studying it more closely. This film surveys the work carried out by DSIR scientists. PICTORIAL PARADE 230.