Editor's Note:
The UW Audio Visual Services Materials Library has more than 1,200 reels of film from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, documenting life at the University through telecourses, commercial films and original productions. Some of the short films are easily identifiable, but many more remain mysteries. Who shot these films and why? Can you help answer those questions? Faculty and staff can use the comments field at the end of the story to send ideas. Those outside the University can e-mail filmarc@u.washington.edu.
This week's film, Arson, depicts CSI, UW style. It opens with three men walking down the street toward a fire-damaged building. We see a sign: "Danger, No Trespassing on These Premises, Karl Hermann, State Fire Marshall and Insurance Commissioner." The three men go in and begin inspecting the scene. They look at the doorway and a burnt handkerchief on the living room rug. Finally they take a sample of the rug and place it in a metal container.
The scene shifts to the UW, where a man goes through some double doors, one marked "Department of Health Services" and the other "Department of Environmental Health." He hands the sample to a man in a lab coat, who puts the sample through a series of experiments involving charts and graphs.
The film is silent. It was made in about 1971 and is just under two minutes. What UW Film Archives Specialist Hannah Palin would like to know is, the location of the fire and why the two UW departments were involved in investigating it, and what kind of research is being conducted on the arson samples. And as always, she wants to know why this film was taken and how it was used.
Thanks to UW Radiation Safety Officer Stan Addison, Palin learned there is a book describing the experiments depicted in last week's film, and she welcomes further comments. Now see if you can help her out with Arson.