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. Bene places the remaining piece of fabric into a beaker filled with a murky green chemical. Low angle shot of Bene as he checks the time on his wrist watch. C/U of Bene's face. C/U of Bene lifting the pieces from the beaker - one has changed colour to red, the other to purple. The narrator explains in the second beaker a "negative is prepared from the photosensitised silk" while in the third beaker "the colours are developed". C/U of two coloured pieces of silk - one orange, one red - being stirred around in another beaker. C/U of Bene. Bene takes the red piece out and holds it up to the light. The process increases the strength and elasticity of the fabric and as the narrator points out the new colours achieved are completely fast.
Bene carrying a beaker full of clear chemicals and yellow silk over to another desk. Bene lifts out the piece of yellow silk and squeezes it dry in a dishcloth. He then places it on a tray under a light bulb. He places a paper doily onto a fabric and then places a cardboard frame over the silk so only the doily covered fabric is exposed to the light - when the fabric is at this light sensitive stage patterns can be created. C/U of the bulb being switched on. C/U of the fabric under the doily. C/U of Bene's wrist watch. "After a lapse of ten minutes", Bene switches off the light. He removes the frame and the doily and dips the fabric in another chemical solution which acts as a developing agent. Top shot of the silk, now red, in colour being lifted from the beaker and rinsed clean in water. Bene squeezes the material dry before stretching it over the top of the beaker to expose the pretty yellow and red pattern created by the doily.
Please watch the process through:
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/magic-dyes-aka-a-new-invention-for-textiles
