Shell Film Unit

A celebration of Shell Petroleum, tracing its manufacture from discovery in oil fields to its eventual use as fuel for modern living across the globe.

A documentary record of the 1949 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, documenting the race and the postwar revival of British motor racing.

A documentary demonstrating the evolution of lubrication since Egyptian times and how modern machines have advanced.

Highlights of the Belgian Grand Prix from Spa-Francorchamps on June 5th, 1955.

In this informative 1938 film, we explore the fundamental types of car suspension prevalent during that era. As a wheel glides along a road, it encounters bumps caused by uneven surfaces. To prevent incessant jolting, the wheels are securely attached to the car using a system that allows for flexibility.

The main industrial processes concerned with the shaping of metal under pressure.

A BAFTA award documentary about the threats of floods in Australia, the special water schemes devised and the forerunner of these projects, the Snowy Mountains scheme.

Documentary highlights of the 1951 Monte Carlo Rally and its international competition.

A documentary looking at a day at Croydon Airport south of London.

A BAFTA award winning documentary on the basic principles and applications of hydrostatics.

A BAFTA award nominated reworking of a 1957 documentary using models and animation to explain the need to mix air and petrol in the correct proportions to create an efficient fuel for an engine.

A documentary looking at how truly international air travel (and transportation) has become and at the benefits in trade, medicine and communications that have ensued.

A British documentary on tunneling if a building falls in ruins.

A documentary record of the 1953 Mille Miglia, tracing the race across Italy from Brescia to Rome and back.

A short documentary looking at the science of life itself and at the international collaboration involved in it's study.

A documentary investigating the science, aerodynamics and technologies involved in enabling aircraft to travel at speeds approaching or surpassing that of sound.

An introduction to the sport of flying model aircraft. Made with assistance of the Society of Model Aeronautical Engineers.

Highlights from the 6th Farnborough Airshow in 1951.

Follows the life cycle of the desert locust.

A BAFTA award winning documentary. Locations for the film range from Alaska and the southwest of the USA to the Eastern woodlands. It depicts geologists, archaeologists, anthropologists and scientists from other disciplines piecing together the clues to man's rise from ice age hunter to builder of complex societies more than 2000 years before Columbus set sail for the New World.