Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 6261 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| FUTURE SCIENTISTS | 1966 | 1966-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 35mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Sound Duration: 30 secs Credits: Fundamental Films |
| Summary The following is a 1966 advertisement for Waddingtons science-themed activing set called ‘Future Scientists’. The science kit contains the following tools and instruments: a microscope, empty slides, insect specimens, dissecting instruments and a user manual. |
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Description
The following is a 1966 advertisement for Waddingtons science-themed activing set called ‘Future Scientists’. The science kit contains the following tools and instruments: a microscope, empty slides, insect specimens, dissecting instruments and a user manual.
The advert begins with a shot of a child holding the product box in their hands.
An unseen narrator consistently verbally outlines the product’s selling points. He states that the activity set has “amazing secrets” and is especially...
The following is a 1966 advertisement for Waddingtons science-themed activing set called ‘Future Scientists’. The science kit contains the following tools and instruments: a microscope, empty slides, insect specimens, dissecting instruments and a user manual.
The advert begins with a shot of a child holding the product box in their hands.
An unseen narrator consistently verbally outlines the product’s selling points. He states that the activity set has “amazing secrets” and is especially created “for the men of the future.”
There are a number of close-up shots of various materials under the microscope including plants and insects.
There is then a shot of a child looking through the microscope.
The power of the microscope is then displayed in the advert. A sample of material is shown magnified 100x, then 200x, and finally 300x, in a series of quick edits.
After another shot of the product box, there are then close-ups of the individual items that come with the activity kit. These include scientific instruments and a number of different organic samples for the microscope.
The final shot shows a boy looking through the microscope.
Context
What curious boy, or girl, can resist peering into the microcosms? Before chemistry sets went sadly out of fashion, in 1964 Waddingtons saw a market for microscopes among all the budding young scientists. More famous for games like Monopoly and Cleudo, Waddingtons also had an extensive educational series of which Future Scientists, the “complete micro-laboratory”, along with their chemistry sets, of which was a key part.
Described as a high-power microscope, the set also included twenty...
What curious boy, or girl, can resist peering into the microcosms? Before chemistry sets went sadly out of fashion, in 1964 Waddingtons saw a market for microscopes among all the budding young scientists. More famous for games like Monopoly and Cleudo, Waddingtons also had an extensive educational series of which Future Scientists, the “complete micro-laboratory”, along with their chemistry sets, of which was a key part.
Described as a high-power microscope, the set also included twenty vials of various substances, all at a price 69/6 –roughly £3.50 in current money. This was an innocuous alternative to chemistry sets which could still produce explosions. The decline in sales of these may have something to do with the gradual omission of such interesting stuff as sodium cyanide and uranium dust, or anything else that the prospective terrorist could use. Although invariably aimed at boys, products like Future Scientists also launched many girls as well onto a scientific path, as testified by distinguished British engineer Dr Dame Sue Ion, whose own career was inspired by experimenting with chemistry sets back in the 1960s. |
