BOMBPROOF

since winning its independence the United States has been involved in six major Wars an average of one every 30 years at any time in the future this nation may be attacked by an enemy armed with atomic or hydrogen bombs [Music] [Music] this is the film Chronicle of an event that could take place in any Target City it's called bomb prooof [Music] h 8 days after the impact of an hbomb the city continues to claw itself out of [Music] the yeah ask him to come back [Music] [Music] 7 days with practically no sleep at all I wonder how long we can keep it up the city continues to claw itself and although the full extent of the bomb damage is still being determined the north central manufacturing area is a scene of complete destruction we've all got nothing to go back to now Donovan's plant really got it it's nothing but a vacant lot a prairie that means that everyone in town is out of a job say I I've got some questions I want to ask him Mr Donovan I'm Fred Bates I've been working for you and your dad before you for 40 years I'll be 65 next year now that the plant's been blown to Kingdom Come what's going to happen to my pension I own some Donovan stock what about my savings I delivered two truckloads of paint to your factory the day before the bomb hit I didn't even have time to Bill it I got 10 days of back pay coming what's the matter with you people V you know there's a war going on our plant has been destroyed but the company is still in business in addition to being civil defense headquarters this happens to be the temporary Office of the President of dunan manufacturing brother you're going to get your pension Madam your investment is safe you'll be paid for your paint within 90 days you'll have your job back in less than 90 days now that's a lot of baloney Donovan your Factory is nothing but a big radioactive hole in the ground you're through I'm through we're all through we might as well go live in caves Charlie you can just thank God you happen to be wrong we've got the people to start over again our records are still intact records big deal records what good of Records the Factory's gone the foundation is gone even the records are the New Foundation listen all of you I want to tell you something that you don't know this goes back to 3 years ago and something that began one day in my office during an evacuation [Music] drill here's the evening paper Mr Donovan thank you this is one of the best drills we've ever had yes someday it may save thousands of [Music] [Applause] [Music] lives what would happen if an hbomb hit this plant complete destruction it would probably mean the end of dunan manufacturing but it wouldn't have to be the end they could move in new machines we'd get them from somewhere along with new stocks of raw materials in the beginning we'd have some pretty makeshift Arrangements but with our people saved and filled with the will to win we could carry on but one thing is sure in our line of business it's almost impossible to build from scratch without out records people and Records we can evacuate people or get them to shelter but how can we save our records yes Mr Donovan you asked me to buzz you when Mr Stone got back in thank you yes Caleb how about that integrated CD plan how's it shaping up it's coming along fine JB I'm working with ls aen of civil defense our industry representative as a matter of fact he's coming over this afternoon so we wonder if civil defense has any advice on how we can preserve our Vital Records we have tons of them in short Mr aen how can we make them bomb proof your first line of defense for your Vital Records is a plan of office protection which employees are taught to act at the earliest [Music] alert records stored in the company Vault will have good protection unless your plant happens to be in the inner ring of total Destruction total Destruction yes total Destruction directly under an hbomb burst you could have a hole a mile wide and 175 ft deep the only sure method of protecting Vital Records whether it's company records or just a few personal documents such as a birth certificate is to duplicate them and store them at dispersal points safely outside the target area there are four ways of duplicating your records you can make handwritten copies typewritten duplicates carbon copies or photocopies which do you recommend it depends on the nature a number of Records to be duplicated JB I know our records are important but it just isn't practical to copy them all we have at least 300,000 documents it would cost a fortune to copy them by hand or typewriter I don't go for these hand or typewriting methods of copying either too many chances for errors how about photocopying 300,000 photo stats on blueprints costing at least a dollar a piece we just couldn't afford it now just a second Caleb when you spoke of photocopies did you have microfilming in mind it's one problem process you would probably want to consider lots of business firms are now using it so is the government microfilming sounds like a good idea if it doesn't cost too much are the machines very expensive no more so than other office equipment Western steel has a microfilm installation here in town maybe you could talk to them about it how about that Caleb want to go over to Western steel this afternoon I don't know about this Phil business if you want records to last they ought to be on permanent rag paper the National Bureau of Standards considers microfilm just as permanent as rag paper well gentlemen I must be going one more thing how long does the bureau standard think film will last they estimate about 500 [Music] years this is our microfilming section this is a combination recorder and reader this machine automatically feeds documents of assorted sizes into the recorder both sides of each document are being photographed on microfilm as fast as the oper can load the feeder every one of the documents in this entire file cabinet has been microfilmed their microfilm images are stored in a container as small as this 16 mm film box now this single microfilm file cabinet contains photographic records of every important document in this entire plant this one film file cabinet is the equivalent of 100 four drawer files we always have a microfilm made in duplicate and the other set stored at another location for safekeeping is it much of a job to find a document when you want it not at all let's say I want to find a statement issued last month I turn in the master index file to the statement section for the month of March and I find that the statement I want is on Roll number 62 at index Point number 258 I locate roll 62 in this drawer just takes a few seconds now I'll have the operator show you the items on the reader she puts the roll in the reader and she turns the film until the reference number appears on the index meter and there's your statement this is remarkable what if you need a copy of that item on paper Miss Matson would you make us print of this item by the way where do you have the actual role of film developed most people send their exposed film to a micr film developing Center there are many of them strategically located around the country they process the film and mail it back the day it's received we have a security problem so we have our own machine can a microfilm copy be used as legal evidence microfilm images are acceptable in federal courts as primary evidence and in all courts is secondary evidence notice how even the smallest type reproduces with complete legibility thank you miss m oh miss uh how many years experience have you had with this machine oh I've just been here since last week Sir John I'm [Music] sold now that we've solved the problem of how to duplicate our records how do we make them bombproof you can't store them here this town's an enemy Target for sure it ought to be a protected Place 20 or 30 Mi or more from town There's an abandoned coal mine over near Belleville yes in Granite cave at jeon you know any small town bank vault will do microfilm takes very little space I know just the place and what did you finally decide on Mr D Donovan the First National Bank of rolling Hollow rolling Hollow gosh sakes I was born there well here's your chance to make a trip back home maybe we can scrape up enough gasoline to make the trip this afternoon Fred here's the container with your pension record in it the accounts receivable the insurance policies the bank statements the formulas our machine designs and our Personnel records and for every name in this microfilm file there's a man or woman ready to go back to [Music] work we've got every document the company needs to get on its feet again and we've got got the people [Music] too we can build again we will build [Music] [Applause] again for