Professor Powell’s Stratosphere Balloon (1950)

Unissued / Unused material. Professor Powell’s stratospheric balloon. Bristol. CU unrolling long sheet of plastic onto bench. MS smoothing out plastic sheet. Various shots marking out panels on sheet. MS looking through sheet as man marks panels. CU girl cutting panels in plastic sheet. Various shots girls sealing the panels with an electric iron. CU tin box placed onto panel. CU clock. Various shots assembling the clock apparatus. LS girls working sewing machines. CU girls examining panels through microscopes. CU apparatus to show speed of ascent. MS Professor Powell speaking:- (natural sound) “These pieces of equipment are to be attached to the tail of a balloon, which is going to rise to a height of about 20 miles into the atmosphere. The most important features are these radio transmitters which tell us the height of the balloon, and particularly these photographic plates, these plates enable us to study, what we call cosmic radiation. This radiation, the cosmic radiation, consists of very fa