England
English
00:11:05
400 ft
16mm
B&W
Silent
"Burnford's picture was not only good from the documentary angle, but was very well photographed. It showed the lumbering industry in England starting with the felling of trees and then through the mills and then to the things built of wood, showing the most dramatic incidents." American Cinematographer, Feb. 1937, 73.
"Opens with various mature trees shown in full leaf. Men remove the bark from lower part of mature hardwoods and fell them with axes and long, two-man saws. Montage of falling trees. Bark prised from the fallen trunks. The torn-out root-base is sawn off and the trunks dragged from the forest by a team of heavy horses. The team drags the trunks onto the cart with the chain and the very largest trunks taken on a five-horse cart. At the lumber yard a large bandsaw divides the trunks in half and these are sliced. Men are show playing darts with the resulting, shaped, dartboards. SUB-TITLE - Harvest from over the seas. A ship - 'Karin Thorden' - docks, her decks stacked with timber already cut. Cranes transfer timber to barges, rafts and lorries. SUB-TITLE - For joinery. At the woodwork shop, specialised machines divide the wood into still smaller pieces and cut mortises and tenons and window frames are assembled. SUB-TITLE - For building. Workmen, on site, put up the roof timbers of a house. SUB-TITLE - For paper. Slow mixing of wood pulp. Smoothed out and rolled, dried and calendared. The large, wide rolls progress through the huge machines and sheets are slid off. SUB-TITLE - For music. Violin and Cello makers at work with hand tools, then a finished violin is played. SUB-TITLE - For flying. A bi-plane takes off. At the aeroplane factory, sections of the wooden wing frames are assembled, wing coverings doped. SUB-TITLE - For sailing. Large, J-class yachts tacking. J KI 7 featured. Finally, there are shots of mature, forest trees" (EAFA Database).
This film is a part of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers Collection held by the East Anglian Film Archive.
IAC Film Library Catalogue (Silent and Sound). Institute of Amateur Cinematographers, 1975.
Institute of Amateur Cinematographers Collection, East Anglian Film Archive
"A film of timber and its uses. After some views of trees standing against the sky, we see the fellers at work. The log is trimmed and hauled by chains up a ramp of poles on to a wagon: four horses draw the logs away to the sawmill; here the logs are sawn lengthwise to make planks and crosswise to make dart boards. The scene changes to the harbour where the timber ship has brought in wood from overseas. Cranes lift the planks into a barge; the timber is stacked by the dockside awaiting transport. The following uses for wood are then shown: for joinery, the parts of a window frame being made by machine, and finally fitted together into the finished frame; in building, illustrated by the fixing of roof rafters; in the making of paper; in the making of a violin; in the construction of aeroplanes; and finally, scenes of sailing yachts on the water remind us of its use in vessel building." National Film Library Catalogue, 1938 Edition, 156-157.
Amateur Cinema