Film, Motion Picture

A Visit to Detroit's Bureau of Plumbing Inspection

Silent 16mm film shot mostly in black and white and partially in color, showing both the inner workings and on-site operations of the City of Detroit Department of Building and Safety Engineering Bureau of Plumbing Inspection. The film focuses on the bureau's office and chain of paperwork, an inspection of a house under construction at various times, and of the bureau's plumbing lab. The film is divided into a series of segments, each introduced by a magnet board title card.

The film opens with a series of title cards: "A Visit to Detroit's Bureau of Plumbing Inspection," "Bureau of Plumbing," "Dept. of Bldg & Safety Engineering," "City of Detroit," "L Glen Shields Chief. Bureau of Plumbing," "July 1951," and "Filmed by W. Wilbur White." These are followed by shots of a pair of sample documents, made out to names like John Doe and James Roe. These include a Department of Public Works Application for Sewer Permit, a City of Detroit Department of Water Supply receipt.

The film then follows similar forms around the office. First a woman is shown filling out paperwork, and consulting a card file. Then the form is taken to a cashier's window where a transaction occurs. Following a shot of a Bureau of Plumbing Inspection sign, the paperwork is dropped off with another woman at another desk. After a color shot of a City of Detroit Department of Building and Safety Engineering form, an office worker is filmed going through the permit filing system. Next a form is shown being placed into the Inspectors Daily Work Box. Here an inspector takes it, and at his desk fills out an Inspectors Daily Route Report form. Following some interaction between an inspector and a woman at a desk, the woman is shown holding an Inspector Report form.

Back-to-back title cards announce the next section as "Field Inspections," and "Field Sewer." Here a group of workers are shown in a field, where a steam shovel digs a trench as a man assembles pipe segments within it.

Another title card then read, "Building Sewer to Main Drain." A worker is then show observing plumbing at a construction site.

Yet another title card announces, "Open Ring Joint of Bitumastic Caulked 'Doughnut'" before a shot of a plumbing joint.

The title card "Storm Drains" then precedes shots of exposed storm drainage pipes in a basement.

The next segment is announced by the title card "Rough Plumbing." Here a worker is shown arriving at a house under construction. After a shot of a building permit, he observes exposed plumbing in the building's basement.

The next segment begins with a title card that reads, "3" Tapped Tee-Wye For Bath Room Group." Plumbing junctions and a roof-top vent are shown in another building under construction. A "Detroit Building Trades Council Plumber" pin on a man's hat in central in one shot during this segment. The inspector is also shown writing on the building permit from the previous segment. This segment ends with a shot down a residential street.

A title card reading "Final" introduces what appears to be a final plumbing inspection. The sane inspector looks at the plumbing in a bathroom, kitchen, and basement. The segment again ends with pans around the neighborhood.

The next section is titled "Office Procedure." This section features the office of Bureau Chief L. Glen Shields; a typist busy at work filling out forms; the filing areas for violations, permits, and plumber licenses; the Chief Clerk at his desk; the office of Supervising Engineers O.K. Klafter and Lyle M. Reading; the Supervising Inspector's office; pans across busy office areas; and more forms passing from desk to desk.

A series of color shots then show an array of different forms laid out on a flow chart display with labels.

The final section of the film begins with the title cards "Plumbing Lab, City of Detroit," "Demonstration of Cross Connections," and is also in color. Here workers demonstrate the plumbing lab complete with toilets, sinks, a bath tub, a water tank, color-coded pipes, and colored water moving through translucent pipes.

The film closes with the title cards, "Detroit Bureau of Plumbing, "Enjoyed Your Visit. Thanks, Come Again."

The film is on a brown metal reel housed within a brown metal canister labeled "Visit With Detroit's Bureau of Plumbing Inspection, July 1951." This canister, along with reels 2015.007.065 and 2015.007.065, are housed within a latching metal mailing container. Several mailing labels are on the case, but the only legible one is from Dearborn Public Schools, and lists the City of Detroit Department of Buildings and Safety Engineering, in the 4th Floor of the City-County Building as the recipient.