Test Tube Tale presents the "magic of chemistry," showing how industrial chemists have altered our immediate environment. Men, the experimenters,
fabricate products for women to use: windowshades, upholstery, nylon stockings, transparent plastic raincoats. The camera dwells tellingly on the
young chemist's older sister, showing her legs as she dons new synthetic stockings. "Chemistry is responsible, too, for the gossamer-light threads of
these new stockings." Music issues from a new plastic radio.
But chemistry is not just the bringer of goods to be worn and consumed. It also protects against dirt, disease and pollution. In an unintentionally
revealing sequence, the film shows how soot, dust and sulfuric acid emanating from factory chimneys and auto exhausts cause metal and stone to decay.
Chemistry becomes the protector against damage, much of it of its own making. A decade and a half before Silent Spring, Test Tube Tale reveals the
dangers of pollution and the hidden costs of industrial development. Circling without a solution, technology creates problems and responds to them
with more technology.
Test Tube Tale makes no mention that much of the world is already at war. However, it's a strong (if implicit) statement that industrial chemistry was
a a strategically important industry to the United States in 1941, especially given the worldwide strength of Germany's chemical combines. In
addition, the duPont family, who held a controlling interest in General Motors, would have viewed the message of this film through friendly eyes.
As in The 1936 All-American Soap Box Derby, this film ends with a call to young men, which one might interpret as a plug for a strategically important
industry: "Great things have been done. But much more remains to be accomplished. Some young man, perhaps one watching this very picture, may develop
a startling new formula from a test-tube experiment, may give the world finer things to use , to wear, to better man's health. In this new world of industrial chemistry, the horizon is unlimited. Unexplored
potentialities beckon. Hidden secrets of nature sound a call to this young man, the industrial chemist, the pioneer of tomorrow." Rubbing his eyes, a
young experimenter opens his window to reveal a still image of the rising sun, on which is then superimposed an image of a bubbling beaker .
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