While idly browsing the British Pathé archive I found this litte gem, strangely reminiscent of Michael Bentine's Potty Time. Click on the picture to run VT..
I've watched the Pathe clip 3 times now - it's very entertaining but I'm really not sure what is going on - the vehicles are moving on magnets(?) - what makes the big waves in the landscape, or is that just the wind? And what is that smoke device?
Thank you for that. I like the connection to Michael Bentine, as I remember his @It's A Square World@ programme, with his superb models of 'invisible' characters, all done with string and bits of wood. His Autobiography, @The Long Banana Skin@ is well worth a read, especially for his wartime experiences (as the only Peruvian in the RAF).
Both clips are wonderful! It's been many years since I saw Potty Time! Wouldn't be allowed on TV nowadays of course - pity as it's all good fun. The Pathe news clip is very interesting. I'm not sure being the chaps under the table would be much fun for long. It was probably a choice between that or Mess-Waitering duties (I'd have chosen the magnetic sticks and crouching down option too!).
When I was in the Canadian Army in the 1980s, we used something like that canvas panorama for practicing calling in artillery fire missions. It was called a "smoke table" and as we practiced using map and compass while observing the canvas field to give fire orders, a litte oil heater would puff smoke up through the hessian to show where the rounds had "landed". Nothing else moved, though.
11 comments:
Nice find
Potty Time-that brings back some memories!
I've watched the Pathe clip 3 times now - it's very entertaining but I'm really not sure what is going on - the vehicles are moving on magnets(?) - what makes the big waves in the landscape, or is that just the wind? And what is that smoke device?
I'll have to watch it again, now...
Thank you for that. I like the connection to Michael Bentine, as I remember his @It's A Square World@ programme, with his superb models of 'invisible' characters, all done with string and bits of wood. His Autobiography, @The Long Banana Skin@ is well worth a read, especially for his wartime experiences (as the only Peruvian in the RAF).
And as the only pilot to need a braille instrument panel!
Its a great book.
Both clips are wonderful! It's been many years since I saw Potty Time! Wouldn't be allowed on TV nowadays of course - pity as it's all good fun. The Pathe news clip is very interesting. I'm not sure being the chaps under the table would be much fun for long. It was probably a choice between that or Mess-Waitering duties (I'd have chosen the magnetic sticks and crouching down option too!).
Thanks for that training video. I started pondering how to build one but finding chaps to crawl around under it could be a problem.
Both brilliant clips, Potty Time was a childhood favourite :-)
When I was in the Canadian Army in the 1980s, we used something like that canvas panorama for practicing calling in artillery fire missions. It was called a "smoke table" and as we practiced using map and compass while observing the canvas field to give fire orders, a litte oil heater would puff smoke up through the hessian to show where the rounds had "landed". Nothing else moved, though.
Nowadays it is all done on a computer, of course.
I want one !!!
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