This early black and white film is one of a 1950-1960 television series Industry on Parade, produced by the National Association of Manufacturers; an Arthur Lodge Productions Inc. This episode has four segments and two advertisements. Nebraska. A railway yard is full of old steam locomotives. Engine 9500 waits to be turned into scrap (:28-1:25). The Paxton-Mitchell Co in Omaha is shown. Engineers work on designs to convert train engine parts from steam to diesel. Molten steel is poured into molds from large conveyer buckets. An automatic cutoff valve for engine air conditioners is put together. A system for testing worn engine bearings is shown. An automatic door is tested. A diesel train moves through the countryside (1:26-3:25). The advertisement shows shots of different factory workers (3:26-4:02). New York. A woman sits down in the vision testing chair at an ophthalmologist office. The female doctor inserts a test contact into her eye. An eye testing device is brought up to her face and a vision chart shown. To make the contacts, the technician mixes a paste-like substance and an impression of the eye is made by inserting this into the female patient’s eye. A convex casting is made in a NY laboratory. The contact lens is made from Lucite (used from 1940-1949). The grinding and finishing process is shown. The large contact lens that covers the white of the eye is inserted (4:04-8:24). Florida. Cattail rushes are shown being harvested in southern Florida. Fronds are cut from a Cabbage Palmetto by employees of Vic-Roth Weavers in Miami. Finished products are woven from these materials. A man sits down at a large loom. The wood strips are used horizontally and yarn vertically. Two men work at a 10” wide loom. A mother and two children sit on a 1950s couch with a finished woven curtain hanging behind them (8:26-10:28). The advertisement shows a woman entering a voting booth. A New Hampshire “Instructions to Voters” paper is shown, and other shots of people working various jobs (10:29-11:08). Oregon. A 1949 Sno-Cat vehicle moves through and over snow drifts. The manufacturing process is shown at Tucker Sno-Cat Corporation in Medford. The pontoons are attached, followed by the track. The vehicle and its unique suspension are shown going over deep snow on hills (11:10-13:22).

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