DRINKING HEALTH

Year Published: 1906

Creator: #VALUE!

Format: 16mm

Description: This black-and-white silent educational film produced by Films of Commerce Co. is part of a series of National Health Council films designed to educate viewers on water sanitation and safe health practices. The film opens with a title card: "Water is necessary for life" (0:31). A rushing river and waterfall. Title card: "To supply safe water, American communities spend millions of dollars— they build mammoth dams and reservoirs" (1:06). The New Croton Dam, built in 1906, which spans the Croton River as part of the New York City water supply system (1:15). A fountain and lake near the dam. Title card: "The human body is mostly water. A chemist would analyze a person something like this" (2:02). Diagram showing chemical constituents of the human body (75% water) (2:42). Title card: "Water is healthful. (1) It is a necessary part of the blood circulation" (2:46). Closeup of blood circulating through the body. Men playing handball (3:16); title cards describing how water replaces loss through perspiration and lubricates the body (3:30). Closeup of female eyes blinking; man lubricating a steam engine. Title card describing how water keeps the body clean (3:54); child rubbing face with washcloth. Title card: water helps avoid constipation (4:20); a man fills an office water cooler cup. Title card: "Health authorities recommend at least two quarts of water daily" (4:46). A clock; a boy wakes up, brushes teeth, drinks from water fountain (5:28), drinks water with dinner, drinks after playing outside. Harvard football players in leather helmets drink water at practice; title card says giving players paper water cups, started by Coach Houghton, is now general practice (6:25). An employee gives factory workers cups of water (7:07). Title card from National Safety Council describes benefits of giving employees water (7:17). Title card describes dangers of drinking "from a common glass;" multiple workers shown refilling a glass from a water fountain (7:45). Quote from Dr. Alvin Davidson at Lafayette College describing germs on public drinking cups. Bacteria from the glass is shown growing on an agar plate (9:47). A female scientist examines them under a microscope. Colonies for pneumonia, diphtheria, tuberculosis, trench mouth (10:26). Part two of film starts at 11:15. Different varieties of drinking glasses; a common drinking cup is defined as "any drinking vessel not sterilized between users" (11:47). List of diseases U.S. Public Health Service says are spread by common cups (12:13). Children drinking from unsterilized glasses at a soda fountain (13:21). A skull-and-crossbones shadow passing over a glass. Title card saying sterilization requires live steam or air at 250 degrees Fahrenheit or boiling for 5 minutes (14:45); title card from Dr. Theodore Appell promoting paper cups. Sign for Martin’s Store in background at a soda fountain with paper cups (15:44). "Safe drinking water ahead" sign on an auto route (15:51). A tourist drinks from a tin can at an outdoor water source; two boys go to drink from the same can, but their mother gives them paper cups instead. A wayside cart owner rinses communal glasses in a bucket of water (17:20). A waitress serves restaurant patrons with paper cups. A man in overalls drinks from a dipper and bucket; title card "This is the safe way" and bucket is replaced with paper cups (18:15). Children in Scout uniforms drink from paper cups on a camping trip. Title card forbidding common cups in waiting rooms, trains, boats, airplanes (19:22). Passengers disembark from a United Airlines plane (19:42). Title cards: "Modern Transportation" (20:00), "Modern Sanitation" (20:24). A stewardess serves passengers in single service cups. Film ends showing drinking glasses replaced by paper cups. "Are you getting this protection?" End credits.  

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