Plot

In the laboratory, glass is rolled like a carpet and spun into cloth. Cotton, corn and wood are utilized to form new substances. Additional treasures of the sea are sought - the beach is plowed and seeded for clams; factories are constructed to draw up food from the sea. The sun is harnessed. A solar heat machine is used to produce steam which in turn operates a generator for an electric refrigerator. White mice, with a three-year life span, are organically like man. The effects of diet, in a memory test, are illustrated by the mouse's activities in threading a maze in its search for the food placed at the end. Other tests illustrate their reactions to color. The true value of plastic surgery lies in its ability to restore broken men disfigured either from war or industrial accidents. Even in some of the state penal institutions it has been used to change the tough-looking features of some of the inmates whose entry into crime may have been occasioned by the thought that their appearance made them unwelcome by society. The commentator closes with the statement that it is this group of discoveries and workers which builds for the future - this unknown army of the passing parade.—Catalog of films for classroom use (1941)

The "new roadways" of the title refer to various projects, carried out in the USA's research laboratories, that benefit mankind. These include solar energy projects, making glass that can be rolled up like a carpet, and diet experiments with mice that might lead to a cure for color blindness.—David Glagovsky <dglagovsky@prodigy.net>