Produced by Paul Thoma, this fragmentary short “The World is Round” is hosted by Ralph Berton and dates to the late 1940s. It features early footage of the upper atmosphere and space shot using a camera mounted in a rocket. The rocket used was probably a modified German V-2 that was part of “Project Blossom”, a post-war U.S. effort to test and expand the capabilities of the German rockets. Blossom took place at White Sands under direction of the Air Material Command starting in 1947. At (1:05) footage is shown from the tail of the rocket during the flight, that shows the curvature of the Earth.

Motion picture films don’t last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we’ve worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies — including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you’d like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below.

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