Through Life’s Windows: Series Three

Series

Series Name: Around The Town

Issue

Issue No.

116

Date Released

16 Feb 1922

Length of issue (in feet)

750

Stories in this Issue:

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 6

Section Title

Through Life’s Windows

Summary

Summary - Cartoon about the human eye
NoS synopsis: Lead title: Cartoon of a turning globe with a sun and moon either side. Text written in stars "Beauty and Celebrity. Literature, Science and Art. Sole Distributors ... The Gaumont Coy. Ltd..." The Globe turns into a film of people and traffic milling round Eros, then fades to the Palace of Westminster, then fades to the turning globe again. New cartoon of a crown of olive with "No.116" inside and a ribbon which reads "Around the Town"
'"Through Life’s Windows-" A unique film study of your eyes - Series 3 -' intertitle witha cartoon of a pair of glasses behind. ‘Last week we showed you the formation and nerve centres of your eyes.' ‘Do you understand how your eye works? It is simple enough (when you know). Here are some direct rays of light.' Five straight while horizontal lines appear at once on a dark background. ‘In the path of these rays we place a glass nessel, filled with liquid. Watch the effect.' A glass box full of water is placed in the path of the light. The light rays bend inside it. ‘The rays of light were deflected. A glass lens causes deflection in a similar way.' A hand pushes a lens into the path of the five rays seen before. They converge and diverge. The lens is removed. ‘With a concave lens, the rays of light diverge.' A concave lens is pushed into place and the light diverges. ‘Lenses can thus be combined to give all sorts of results.' A concave and a convex lens are both placed in the path of the light so that the rays diverge then converge. ‘Many people’s eyes are so shaped that they cannot focus on an object at certain distances.' Drawing of a cross-section of the eye, with the light converging just before the retina. This is pointed out. A concave lens is added to the pisture and the light converges in the correct place. ‘This is how things appear when you are near-sighted.' Blurred footage of a farm. ‘But viewed through a corrected lens, the image falls further back, in sharp focus.' The focus is gradually corrected to show farm workers working then back to blurred again. ‘This is what it feels like to be far-sighted...' A seated man picks up a newspaper. He holds it at arm’s length to read it. '...and this is what things look like’. A blurred image of the magazine page. ‘But with correct glasses...' A glass is placed over the lens so that the page is readable. It reads "For the Well Dressed Man. CLothes and Accessories for the Nearer South By Robert Lloyd Trevor" and there is a picture of three hats. It is a page from Vanity Fair. Mid shot of the came man reading his magazine but wearing glasses. ‘Your eyes are your most valuable possession. You will never get another pair.'

Keywords

Health and medicine; Science and technology

Written sources

Kinematograph Weekly 23 February 1922, p53.
The Bioscope 16 February 1922, p10.
Viewing Copy - bfi Used for synopsis

Credits:

Production Co.: Around the Town Ltd.

Length of story (in feet)

271

This series is held by:

Film Archive

Name: British Film Institute (BFI)
Email: For BFI National Archive enquiries:
nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk
For commercial/footage reuse enquiries:
footage.films@bfi.org.uk
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Phone: 020 7255 1444
Fax: 020 7580 7503
Address: 21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN
Notes: The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).
Series held: View all series held by British Film Institute (BFI)

Record Stats