The Staff of Life. A Measure of Progress.
Series
- Series Name
- Eve And Everybody’s Film Review
Issue
Story
- Story No. within this Issue
- 5 / 6
- Summary
- NoS Summary - contrasting bread making in caveman days with modern methods.
NoS synopsis: "Bread-making gives eloquent testimony to the advance of civilisation from primitive days to the present. The primitive woman had first to grind the flour..." High angle of a woman posing as a "primitive woman" - with dishevelled hair and dirty clothes she crouches on the ground grinding wheat. A fire burns beside her as she shelters under some rocks. C/U of the woman, she is wearing an animal skin outfit and grinding the flour between two rocks. C/U of the grinding process. "Nowadays, the baker receives his flour already ground... by the ton!" L/S of sacks of flour being wheeled into a warehouse. "The processes have altered but little - but what a difference in methods." Our primitive woman mixes the flour with water by hand. She then kneads the dough on top of the stone. "The automatic dough mixer of today." We see the automatic dough mixer. "Out it comes, by the hundreds of pounds, thouroughly mixed!" C/U of dough being mixed and pouring out the other end. "The dough must be separated into small rolls - larger now than then - and worked into smooth shapes." C/U of our cavewoman kneading her dough. C/U of the dough. She separates the dough into smaller pieces. "And what a difference in the baking methodes - then and now." The automated version of this is seen. Small pieces of dough travel on a conveyor belt within the bakery. We see the dough balls travelling down a chute. Baker picks the dough up and throws it into baking tins. C/U of the tins filled with dough. "The same principle of the heated stone - but with a few improvements!" C/U of bread being placed on a hot stone. M/S of two bakers at work loading the ovens. C/U of the bread being lifted off the primitive stone. The bread is unloaded from the ovens. - Keywords
- Food and cooking
- Footage sources
- Pathe Review Issue No. 5/1924
Pathe Exchange
- Written sources
- Pathe Inventory File Tin No.196
British Pathe Database 1997 Reference No. EP196
Pathe Eve 473-493 Boxfile Issue sheet
National Film Archive Catalogue
- Credits:
-
- Production Co.
- British Pathe Ltd.
- Length of story (in feet)
- 271
This series is held by:
Film Archive
- Name
- British Film Institute (BFI)
- For BFI National Archive enquiries:
nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk
For commercial/footage reuse enquiries:
footage.films@bfi.org.uk - Web
- http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web
- Phone
- 020 7255 1444
- Fax
- 020 7580 7503
- Address
- 21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN - Notes
- The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).
- Series held
- View all series held by British Film Institute (BFI)
- Name
- British Pathe Ltd
- info@britishpathe.com
- Web
- https://www.britishpathe.com/
- Phone
- 0207 665 8340
- Address
- 3.29 Canterbury Court
1-3 Brixton Road
London
SW9 6DE - Notes
- Pathe now also handles the Reuters Historical Collection, which includes the British Paramount, Empire British, Gaumont Graphic and Gaumont British newsreels.
- Series held
- View all series held by British Pathe Ltd
How to cite this record
'The Staff of Life. A Measure of Progress.', Eve And Everybody’s Film Review Issue No. 484, 11 Sep 1930. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/newsonscreen/search/index.php/story/332527 (Accessed 05 Mar 2026)