This 1971 Encyclopedia of Britannica educational classroom film, created in collaboration with Dr. Lawrence Welsh of Northwestern University, makes use of footage from a film created by Budapest Studios in Hungary to illustrate the phenomenon of light polarization, using mid-century modern furniture and colorful photographic effects. Opening titles (0:12). A man driving a car at night squints into the distance. His POV reveals low visibility and glare from oncoming headlines due to light refraction through drops of snow and moisture. A rack focus on the snowy windshield. A hand braces for a collision (0:33). Closeup on a hand adjusting the focus of automobile headlights and applying a polarization filter (0:45). The car turns on its headlights in darkness (0:49). A photographic camera lens polarization filter rotates to reveal the angle of polarization. People reflected in a shop window vanish, revealing a toy store display as polarization is applied (0:58). A photographer with a TLR medium format camera installs a polarization filter, and frames a shot of a hotel. He pushes the trigger on a shutter release cable. The developed photograph with and without the light filter in a mockup that shows reduced blueness in the sky (1:18). A living room with mid-century modern furniture. A glass balcony door opens near a triangular coffee table top. The door reflects neighboring windows. The tabletop reflects the door, but not the neighboring windows reflected in the polarized glass door (1:33). Animation illustrates white lines as light rays falling on the glass door. The white lines oscillate, and only polarized light reflects into the room (2:06). The sine-wave shaped lines of light bounce over to the tabletop. The tabletop is angled, revealing the reflection of the windows in the glass door (2:42). A sheet of glass is angled in a stand on the tabletop. More sheets of angled glass are added. A box holds a stack of glass sheets (3:26). Looking through the device, we see the effects of light polarization on various parts of the mod living room (4:05). A rippling underwater scene (4:39). A chunk of calcite crystal over the words, “Double Refraction.” Animated waves representing light pass through the crystal, splitting into two rays, illustrating the double refraction phenomenon (4:46). A large Polaroid brand filter is removed from a box and held up to the camera (5:14). A visualization of synthetic fibers, stretching into parallel lines. Two filters are held up in a Venn-diagram-like pattern. One filter rotates, showing a cumulative subtraction of visible light (5:28). A cigar is tapped into an ashtray, which then shatters. A glass bottle explodes on a cooling rack. A piece of technical glassware is examined with polarized glasses to reveal irregularities (6:07). An architectural illustration of a cinema and a polarized plastic model representing the load-bearing base of the building. Stress points reveal colorful, iridescent, rainbow-like effects (6:49). A polarized plastic crane hook. A model railway bridge made of transparent gelatin darkens at stress points as a toy train passes (7:31). A rubber membrane under polarized light produces shifting colors. Plastic drafting guides show similar color patterns. An eye looks into a microscope. Colorful crystalline structures in microscopic photography (8:08). Folded cellophane produces a spectrum of geometric patterns. Layered cellophane shows graduated shades of blue and magenta. A butterfly and a star made of diamond shapes show a similarly polarized color palate. More psychedelic patterns of iridescent light reflections (8:53). End credits (10:03). Hungarian director Judit Vass is credited for the original Budapest Studios production. Designer Magda Revesz provided the mid-century modern set decor. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference." This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
