Magic Dyes Aka A New Invention For Textiles (1957)

London. M/S of a laboratory. Charles Bene, a “Hungarian chemical research worker“, is stirring one of several beakers of chemicals on a table. He picks up a piece of white silk. C/U of Bene’s hands as he cuts the silk with scissors and places the two sections in a beaker filled with a clear chemical. Bene stirs the beaker with a glass rod and, as he does so, adds another chemical from a smaller beaker. C/U of the beaker as the chemicals react and cause the silk to turn yellow. The narrator explains that Bene has invented a way of dying fabric “only without the dyes“. Top shot of the beaker containing the silk and three other beakers. Bene lifts the silk out of one beaker using the glass rod and transfers it to another. According to the narrator the chemical reaction in the first beaker has made the fabric “sensitive to light, like a photographic plate“. Bene then removes one piece of silk and places it into a third beaker filled with yet another chemical. C/U of Bene’s very serious looking face