50 Years of Mechanical Progress (x2 copies, 1 English, 1 French)

Record options

  • Release Date: 1st January 1955
  • Asset ID: 803641
  • Synopsis: Archive footage shows events of world and Castrol's part in them from 1899 to 1949. ‘The Sprinkled Sprinkler’.
  • Shotlist: Early silent film shows a man watering a garden with a hose; young boy stands on the hose so the man looks down the end then gets an eyeful when the boys takes his foot away. The man catches the lad and gives him a spanking. Commentators (one male, one female with French accent) mention Louis Lumiere and his invention of moving images which in 1895 set the theme of ‘movement’ for the next 50 years. Footage of employees leaving Lumiere’s factory around the same time. Women trying on fashionable hats and parading in draped clothes. Big Wheel in Vienna. C/U of piece of cylindrical metal. Bust of Wakefield. Steam train, Metro station in Paris, horse-drawn carriages. Newsreel footage of funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901. Steam-powered bus or car turning round and round in demonstration. 1903 Paris-Vienna car race. Frail-looking biplane as Charles Voisin flies 80 yards in 1907. Louis Bleriot in flight in his plane. 1908, Alberto Santos-Dumont in his plane. Bleriot walking with crutches then taking off in plane to fly the channel in 1909. Funeral of King Leopold VII of Brussels; Albert I, who succeeded him, seen on horseback, talking to people in crowd. 1909, Wakefield launches Castrol; machinery wheels turning round; group shot (still) of men – presumably Wakefield is among them. Coronation of Edward VII in 1910: ornate coach passing Trafalgar Square. Horse-drawn carriages and cars on road. Woman modelling chinchilla fur coat and muff; woman admiring a white plume in her elaborate hairdo; children and baby in pram pose with mother in mourning dress (?). Tour de France for cycles and cars. 1911, Jules Bedrine (sp?) wins Paris-Madrid race in mono-plane. Early airbus on experimental flight. Pagou (sp?) flies plane looping the loop. Crowds of people running with Pagou (?) lifted on their shoulders. First World War; soldiers firing shells; taxis on their way to the Front in France; tank rolling over hill. George Guillamere (sp?) receiving medal. Aircraft in World War One, in flight, on bombing raid. Cars racing at Le Mans. Mussolini marching on Rome. Boxers George Carpentier (?) and Jack Dempsey (not fighting). Cars and electric trams in Paris. Rudolph Valentino lying in state after his death in New York; crowds outside. Man and woman dancing the Charleston. Charles Lindberg climbs into plane and takes off on flight to cross the Atlantic in 1927. Several shots of Henry Seagrave and Malcolm Campbell breaking speed records. “It is always Castrol which is behind the winner” says VO. Chemists and engineers at work in Castrol laboratories; 1935 sees Patent Castrol announced. Professor Picard going up in strange hot air or weather balloon. Funeral of Albert I of Belgium. Nazi soldiers on parade, Hitler giving salute, surrounded by men. More speed tests: Campbell, George Eyston. Second World War: shells exploding, bombs being dropped, planes in flight, soldiers and tanks on manoeuvres, Atom bomb mushroom cloud. More research at Castrol; tanker truck moving out of refinery. Turbo jet flaming; jet planes taking off. Tiny, pointed aircraft (“flying stiletto”) taking off. Chimpanzee wearing white trousers, striped jersey and racing helmet with Castrol sign on his back riding a small motorbike around; Castrol cans on the front and back of the bike. Chimp standing beside bike and holding up can.
  • Production Company: None
  • Licensing Restrictions: Please note that this film may include footage and/or music sourced from multiple rights holders. For information on re-use of content in a new production, please contact BPVL@bp.com
  • Viewing Restrictions: Public
  • Format: BetaSP_Small
  • Alternative Language Notes: None