How a Bicycle is Made

About the film

The design and manufacture of Raleigh bicycles, as told by a designer to a father and son.

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Details

• Release year - 1945
• Director - Norman Lee
• Production company - Signet Pictures Corporation Ltd
• Cinematographer - Billie Williams
• Running time (minutes) - 17 mins 22 secs

Original description

A bicycle factory

'The process of manufacture is traced from the beginning; the design on paper and the raw materials. We see what goes to make the steel tubes of the frames, the handle bars, the gear wheels, the pedal cranks, the pedals, the spokes, the wheels and the hubs, until at last the complete bicycle is ready for testing.'

(Films of Britain - British Council Film Department Catalogue - 1946)

Did you know?

• This film is set in the Raleigh bicycle factory which stood on Triumph Road in Nottingham. The site was demolished in 1996, and is now the Jubilee Campus of the University of Nottingham.
• A shot of the Lenton Boulevard offices can be seen at 00:32, which is now the Marcus Garvey Centre.
• The cameraman, William 'Billie' Williams, was the father of famed cameraman Billy Williams, who was apprenticed to his father from a young age. In an interview with 'Web of Stories', he talks about his apprenticeship, and about his memories of making this film.

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