Emett's Tractor (1960)

M/S of a field at the Norwich Agricultural Show, Norfolk; Rowland Emett walks along carrying a model of a man's head under his arm that wears a straw hat and bushy moustache.
M/Ss of a bizarre and detailed automation machine called Emett's Tractor; there is a farmer-type figure in a smock and straw hat sitting on the tractor seat, in front is a male figure in country clothes without a head sitting on a tree, and RE fixes the head he is carrying onto this model.
RE picks up an automated bird; C/U of the bird and the mechanism below it. RE checks the front of the machine and clutches his head as a carrot sticking on a spike knocks it. He walks to the other end of the machine and places a tiny egg, taken from his top pocket, into a small nest sticking out on a wire - this evidently starts the machine working.
C/Us of the wheels of the tractor turning; one of the spokes is a furled umbrella; and all other parts of the machine seem to be moving, although it is quite hard to see how they all interact. The figure with moustache swings a long bendy pitchfork to and fro and the bird flies up and down; the farmer, 'Willie', bobs up and down on the tractor seat; wheels and cylinders move round and up and down; a bird's nest is seen in the wires of a moving cylinder.
M/S of a wire with vegetables stuck through it spiralling round a long metal pole with a spike on the end. C/Us of RE looking up at his invention and squinting in the sun; then of a second bird flapping up and down on it's nest at the top of the machine as we hear the sound of a cuckoo - most peculiar!
Note: print is quite scratched. On file are two nice 10 x 8 b/w photos that make it easier to see what the machine looked like. Also, a leaflet about the machine suggests that it was part of publicity for Lucas Electrical Equipment of Birmingham and their Lucas B90 Immediate Exchange Scheme for farmers' tractor equipment. See also 'Emett's Ideal Home' - CP 113 and 'Emett's Computer' - CP 617.
FILM ID:107.3
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