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Join this channel to get access to perks: Want to learn more about Periscope Film and get access to exclusive swag? Join us on Patreon. Visit Visit our website This film is presented by the Stanford Research Institute and was produced by Graphic Films Corp. in 1954. “The City That Disappears“ was meant to raise awareness on the effect of industrial and daily activities on aggravation of smog in Los Angeles. The Stanford Research Institute started research on smog in the late 1940s. Official synopsis: All too often, the City of Los Angeles disappears under a blanket of smog. This film details the cause... an inversion layer 1000 feet thick above the Los Angeles basin. Adding to the problem are auto exhausts, industrial smokestacks and other smoke-spewing sources. We are shown laboratory scenes of how the Air Pollution Control District has been working to control the emissions that pollute the air. Cartoon character “Mister O'Grady“ in the office, who checks the weather (4:44). Map of West Coast demonstrating the inversion layer hitting California (5:17). Los Angeles (5:27). Inversion layer depicted (5:28). Fume, gas, & smokes produced by human activities (5:56). Inversion layer compressing smokes (6:07). “Meteorology” book (6:20). Map showing the wind flow (6:47). Scientist calculating his measures (8:27). One character starts rubbing his eye with a handkerchief (8:50). He tries to catch smog in a bottle (8:56) & brings it to the team (9:16). View of Los Angeles with the smog (10:01). the sky with the smog (10:34). Building of Stanford Research Institute (11:05). Scientists using equipment of the lab (11:16). Flask with clear water & a scientist dropping mixed chemicals in it (11:43). Several drops of chemicals being dropped in the flask (12:00). Two mission priests walking (12:14). Wheel rolling (12:28). Two oxen attached to a wooden stick (12:34). Carriage driving around the mountains (12:45). Train moving (12:59) & a man driving a car (13:06). Car moving material in a construction site (13:27). Oil refinery with smoke coming out of the equipment (13:33). Train moving along the track (13:42). Wood slicing machine (14:06) & house construction (14:10). The changes in the water flask while pouring more chemicals (14:35). Smoke coming out of coal burning factories (15:06). The building of Air Pollution Control (15:58). A man taking note on a notebook as he observes in the smoke (16:13). Industrial equipment to recycle waste material (16:25) & equipment from the steel industry (16:32). Bag houses to capture metallurgical fume (16:42). Equipment to recover Sulphur Dioxide in oil refineries (16:57). Processed Sulphur (17:06). Smoking acres in the open burning dumps (17:11). Collecting waste in incinerator in Burbank, California (17:26). Municipal incinerators collecting waste in either Alhambra or Beverly Hills (17:36). Classroom (18:03). Man looking through a microscope (18:10). Substances in an ocean air through a microscope (18:20). Scientists with equipment to record on top of a mountain studying the smog (18:40). Two scientists examining the trap they sat to catch the pollutants (18:57). Scrubbers as air pollution control device set in an automobile (19:05). The dust camera (19:12). Impactors with recorded substances to plaster them into a plate of glass (19:18). A man using the mass spectrometers (19:26). Scientist examining artificial smog in a lab at Palo Alto (19:30). Scientists recording eye irritation (20:01). “Oxidant Concentration Recorder” an instrument that measures impurity in air (20:31). Particles of the smog shown through a magnifying glass (21:11). Oxidant concentration measurement instrument (21:25). Magnifying glass showing the animated particles in the smog (21:38). “Organics” combining with “Oxidants” (21:46). Fuel filler pipe pouring gas in the car tank (22:02). Smoke coming out of a vehicle’s exhaust (22:14). Two men dumping a ladle of hot iron in a foundry (22:45). making pizza in a kitchen oven (22:55). Smoke from an oil refinery (23:10). Machine that creates asphalt (23:35). A man burning scrap wood in a furniture factory in lumber yard (24:28). Backyard incinerator (24:42). Activities that create smog (24:58). Construction equipment (25:32). View of the sky with cubic clean air (26:29). Overhead power lines (26:41). View of the city with the smog (26:50). California Institute of Technology campus (27:20). Building of University of California (27:27), University of Southern California (27:31) and the lab at Stanford Research Institute (27:34). 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
