Pattern For Progress is a short 1940s film produced by Audio Productions, Inc. for ESSO and Ethyl Corporation. It is “the story of a farm and a family,” which shows how machines increase the power of farming operations, therefore increasing production and revenue. The film opens with shots of fields and farms, including a farm family swimming with ducks (01:10). The film talks about farm families being the roots of our national life and presents viewers with scenes of farming and baling hay. The oil industry is invested in farm families by constantly supporting the development of farming power, developing fuels at refineries (01:51), producing lubricants needed for farm equipment, and developing chemicals for plant fertilizer. A truck hauls fuel to a farm (02:13). The story of the John and Mary’s farm is narrated by their son, Johnny. Johnny recounts the history of his family’s farm by reading passages from his father’s diary. The newly married John and Mary arrive at their farm in horse and buggy (04:06). They work the farm, enduring the hard times, such as buying an overpriced mare (05:55) and losing a crop of hay. Over the years, advances in technology change life on the farm: in 1910, the family gets a telephone (07:57). The labor-intensive tasks of ploughing the land with a horse-drawn wood plough (08:26), feeding chickens, and canning food are improved when then family finally has enough money to purchase a tractor. In 1918, John’s new tractor pays for itself. Using the power from the tractor, John ploughs (10:53), mows, tills the soil, pulls a side-delivery rake (11:26), and runs his feed grinder (11:53). Power increases John’s production and reinforces his belief in the importance of incorporating power and new methods of farming into his work. John meets with a tractor salesman who explains how a new high-pressure power stroke engine delivers more power. A tank wagon driver arrives to deliver oil and gasoline at John’s farm (14:35) and take orders for the next delivery. With the power of his tractor, John can harvest his crops and then help his neighbor out, as the neighbor still uses a horse-drawn wheat combine (17:08). John drives his tractor, pulling his combine (18:15) into the night with the lights of the tractor guiding the way. The film concludes with Johnny talking about the influence his father had on neighboring farms, where neighbors ended up buying power machines like a forage harvester (19:33); a terracer (19:39), a tractor-drawn combine harvester (20:03), and other gasoline-powered farming tools.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com