Incendiary Bomb Practice

Men and women of the ARP learn how to deal with incendiary bombs, evacuate buildings and rescue the injured from smoke and flames in this fascinating short film from Sydney Bligh.

This short training film starts with an instructor using a rope cradle to evacuate a building. He then opens the doors of a smoke-filled shed revealing a rescue in progress before showing everyone an incendiary bomb. We then see a fire being fought with jets of water from a stirrup-pump. A woman with goggles enters and exits the smoky shed while others operate the pump. We then see men using a rescue technique while another constructs a rope cradle into which an ARP man sits.

Sydney Bligh ran a wireless and electronics shop called S.W.Bligh, which was on North Lane in Canterbury. He was an early pioneer of radio, beginning his experiments in 1913 using the call-sign BXA. By the early 1920s Bligh was broadcasting his own shows - before becoming one of the founder members of the British Broadcasting Company. As well as his work as an amateur filmmaker he also was an early pioneer of television and developed some components that improved television reception.