This black & white promotional film, masquerading as an educational film, is about the measurement of time through the ages. Presented by the Elgin National Watch Company. Copyright 1943.

Opening titles: The Elgin National Watch Company presents “Time” (:14-:23). A man carves lines into a tree branch. Shadow of a tree moves across a field. Stick in the ground’s shadow moves. Sun dial. Different types of sun dials. Stars in the night sky. Groups of stars. Time tables. Egyptians walk with camels. Clouds in the sky (:24-2:13). Globe spins with a shadow on it. Spring, summer, fall, winter – changing seasons suggest idea of time. Family unit, mother and young child. Mountains in the distance. A grandmother, mother, young child. Ancient Redwood tree (2:14-3:52). Lincoln Memorial. Farmers plow the field. Ocean water. Golden egg opens to reveal a maze of dials. Timepieces including pocket watches. Modern watches including women’s models with thin metal bands (made by Elgin of course!). Nature is the master clock. Shadows and stars (3:53-5:15). Group of stars is moving as time marches on. Earth travels around the Sun once every year. Earth spins. Earth, sun, and a star (5:16-7:09). Star overhead of the Earth. People walk in a city. Large clock on a city street. Elgin, IL, watches are made here. Celestial meridian. A person uses a telescope, the beats of the clock are linked to tape which is linked to the telescope (7:10-9:29). Mean Solar Time Clock and Sidereal Time Clock. Watches and time pieces. Sun dial of the ancients. Stars in the nighttime sky. Modern watches (9:30-10:57) including thin pocket watches with the Lord Elgin brand visible and tank wristwatches at 10:45. A doctor looks at his time piece as he takes a pulse (11:11). Factory. A stationmaster holds a railroad pocket watch (11:27). At 10:17, close up on a an Elgin 559 21-jewel watch mechanism. Water powered clock developed by the Egyptians. Face of various clocks (10:58-12:17). Sand in a hour glass. Candle clock literally burns away the hours. Ancient Rome. Grandfather clocks and others powered by pendulums. At (14:13) various designs are shown. These are escapements — a mechanism in a clock or watch that alternately checks and releases the train by a fixed amount and gives impulses to the timekeeping element and periodically releases the gear train to move forward, advancing the clock’s hands (12:18-14:30). Galileo discovered the crucial property that makes pendulums useful as timekeepers, called isochronism; a pendulum or balance that takes the same time to complete a swing no matter how big the swing is, has the property of isochronism. Pendulum swings (14:31-15:37). Hour glasses. No end credits.

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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