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Learn about the history behind our documentary film archive from the 1940s.
Looking Through Glass
About the film
The traditional and modern manufacture of glass, glass research, and its applications.
- Release year - 1943
- Director - Cecil Musk
- Production company - Merton Park
- Cinematographer - A.T. Dinsdale
- Composer - Leslie Bridgewater
- Editor - Cath Miller
- Sound recording - Al Rhind
- Running time (minutes) - 17 mins 20 secs
Original description
The manufacture of glass
'Britain has attained a leading position in the manufacture of glass. Sand purification is carried out on a considerable scale. There are shots of furnaces, of bubbling molten glass, of glass being ground and polished and of the cutter at work. Scientific instruments and perfectly balanced lenses are made in Britain today.'
(Films of Britain - British Council Film Department Catalogue - 1942-1943)
Did you know?
- Looking Through Glass features shots of Professor William E. S. Turner (1881-1963) considered on the great pioneers of glass research and technology. 1943, the year this film was made, was a significant year for W.E.S. Turner, as he had married famed glass artist Helen Munro and established what would come to be known as the Turner Museum of Glass at the University of Sheffield, which houses Munro’s wedding dress made entirely of glass fibre - one of the items in the BBC’s A History of the World in 100 Objects.
- Composer Leslie Bridgewater was known as somewhat of a character, and Pathé even made the film Personality: Meet Leslie Bridgewater (1945) about him and his clock collection.
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