Dr. Loren C. Eiseley, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, lectures from material in his 1958 prize-winning book, "Darwin's Century." He explains why he teaches and how man's brain receives impressions and profits from experiences. He reads from Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" as well as from Alfred Russel Wallace's work that recognizes man's brain as the totally new factor in the history of life. Man has the ability to invent, progress, and make changes in his surroundings; and man's ethics, arts, and religions determine his cruelty or humaneness. Dr. Eiseley notes that man is relatively young in the total history of life, but with his mechanical inventions and implements of war and power of choice for good or evil, man and his science have made humanity's extinction possible. Showing a chart of anthropoidal skulls of man's ancestors, Dr. Eiseley says the potential destiny of man is unknown. Because of the Cold War, we need to take responsibility now for spiritual greatness. He warns that man should not abandon or forget how he has always tried to transcend himself spiritually, and he quotes C. S. Lewis on the rationality of man.

Rear Admiral Thomas F. Connolly outlines Project Transit, the first operational navigation satellite system for the use of submarines and surface vessels. He gives credit for this idea to Dr. William Guier and Dr. George Weiffenbach, of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL), who realized that after the launch of Russian Sputnik I they could track its position by observing the Sputnik's Doppler shift. Frank McClure, heard of research at APL, visualized that the opposite would then be true: a satellite in orbit could determine a point of reference on earth. Dr. Richard Kershner, former head of the Terrier surface to air missile program at APL, headed the designing and building of the Transit satellite. Dr. Kershner explains why the Doppler technique is highly accurate, and an animated segment simplifies this phenomenon. Using a chart and a mock up, Dr. Kershner describes the construction and sections of Transit I and how it functions, including its solar cells, radiation shield, and telemetering system. Film clips taken at APL show testing of weights on the satellite as well as the shake test, centrifuge test, and heat/cold tests. Additional film clips show the tracking stations, to monitor the satellite's received signals, in Maryland, New Mexico, and Texas, plus two mobile vans stationed in Washington and Newfoundland. Rear Admiral Connolly discusses the future of this project as it adds more satellites and notes that this television program is the first to reveal Project Transit, "the practical navigational system of the future." Host Lynn Poole concludes this twelfth anniversary program by pointing out that it is the oldest program on network television. He reminisces about the four stations on the network (Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York) when the first program premiered on March 9, 1948. Poole also shows clips from "Fear," the oldest program kinescoped (October 3, 1950), the 1952 three-part series on outer space featuring Heinz Haber and Wernher Von Braun, and APL's Dr. Ralph E. Gibson's orbital shots of "The World from 70 Miles Up" (December 17, 1948). Poole quotes Isaiah Bowman, Johns Hopkins' president in 1948: "Television is an exciting new medium by which we can extend the knowledge of a university beyond the confines of the classroom and the campus to those who are curious about the world in which they live."

This program celebrates the 150th anniversary of the tin can. To meet military demands for preserved foods during war, Nicholas Appert devised a method of preserving foods by heating them in sealed containers to destroy the bacteria. In 1812 Peter Durand invented the tin can and the first canning factory opened in Great Britain. A dramatization describes a typical 1815 dinner consisting predominantly of pickled, salted, smoked, and dried foods. Thomas Kensett patented Durand's tin cans in the U.S. in 1825. During the Civil War demands for canned foods increased, boosting mass production of the tin cans. Other products began appearing in cans, such as I. W. Lyons' tooth powder for home use; Gerhard Mennen's talcum powder for babies, in a lithographed can with a sprinkle top; and Gilbert Van Camp's pork and beans combination. A selection of 1880s mass produced, decorative tins display a variety of products, many non-perishable. Soldering the tops of cans by hand gave way to open-topped cans that could be seamed shut by machine. The only exception to this were condensed or evaporated milk cans, patented in 1856 by Gail Borden. A film shows a canning factory, producing 30,000 cans per hour, from cutting the tin plate to testing and shipping the final products. The aerosol can, first used in World War II for insecticide, is also discussed.

Host Lynn Poole sets the scene of the late 18th/early 19th century Rocky Mountain fur trappers who crossed the Missouri River (the "Yellow Waters") to trap beavers and sell pelts, blazing the Oregon Trail as they advanced. In 1837 Baltimore, Maryland painter Alfred Jacob Miller joined the American Fur Company caravan, with Scottish Captain William Drummond Stewart, to make a visual record of their trip to the fur traders' rendezvous in the Green River Valley of Wyoming. A map shows their route from Independence, Missouri to Oregon. Miller's sketches, later transformed into over 200 watercolors (now preserved in the Walters Art Gallery and displayed on this program) and oil paintings, chronicle such events as buffalo hunts, prairie fires, and river crossings, as well as such landmarks as Chimney Rock, Scott's Bluff, Fort Laramie, Independence Rock, and The Devil's Gate. Miller's paintings also show encounters with Sioux tribes and Black Feet Indians, various tribal members, and Indian women. The final painting shown portrays trapper Joe Walker with his new Indian wife heading into the wilderness after the rendezvous. Lynn Poole concludes the program by describing how missionaries such as Marcus and Narcissa Whitman took the Oregon Trail to Walla Walla, Washington, followed later by the many settlers moving West.

This is the final program of The Johns Hopkins University television series. In it, Dr. George Carter, geography professor at Hopkins, notes that Louis S.B. Leakey found evidence of the earliest primitive man and his tools in Kenya. He then displays revised maps of the world that reveal different land masses during glacial periods, thus allowing the Kenyan man to explore new lands and form colonies over a period of 100,000 years until the glaciers receded and the oceans returned. Dr. Carter discusses the transformation of Kenyan man from an isolated pygmy into modern man with regional or racial characteristics, such as the cave dwelling "Sinanthropus pekinesis" in northern China and the Swanscombe man in England. Glacial periods also created a land bridge near the Bering Strait, allowing animals and man to cross from Asia into North America. Tools found in the Americas plus the physical characteristics of early American Indians offer proof of waves of Asian migrations. Survivors of early man include the australoids, europids, and mongoloids. At the conclusion of the program, host Lynn Poole thanks members of the studio, university, and network for their hard work and dedication. John McClay, general manager of station WJZ-TV, expresses his gratitude to Johns Hopkins University and Lynn Poole especially. University president Milton S. Eisenhower thanks everyone responsible for the shows and announces reluctantly that "File 7" will not be on the air next season. He says that the "business of producing, creating, and presenting a weekly program has become increasingly burdensome," and because of the University's other commitments, it is unable to produce shows of the high quality expected of Johns Hopkins. Furthermore, Dr. Eisenhower hopes that this "will be only an interruption and not a permanent termination" of Hopkins educational television. Thirteen "File 7" reruns will be shown during the summer of 1960, but it will not be continued thereafter.

Two actors, James Potter and Robert Keller, open this program with a dramatization of an emergency situation in which a child is severely burned far from a treatment center. Dr. Sanford Rosenthal, pharmacologist at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases in Bethesda, MD, explains the emergency treatment he developed that is recommended in the dramatic scene: one teaspoon of salt plus half teaspoon of baking soda mixed in one quart of cool water and delivered orally to the burn victim at the rate of one quart per twenty pounds of body weight during the first 24 hours and half the amount during the next 24 hours. He explains that since 1942 National Institute of Health (NIH) has studied shock that follows severe injuries such as burns, crushing injuries, and hemorrhage. A film shows the procedure that replicated these types of injuries on female albino mice. Tissue fluid and blood rushing to the wound area result in dehydration, sodium deficiency, and reduced blood volume overall and can be corrected by administering Rosenthal's fluid treatment orally or intravenously. Dr. Kehl Markley, also of NIH, explains a chart comparing the amount of saline treatment to survival rate. He then narrates a film about 1951 experiments with human burn victims in Lima, Peru, where half received saline solution by mouth and half received plasma and glucose by vein. The two groups showed no significant differences after 24 hours, although many burn victims who survive the shock later die from infection. Dr. Markley discusses a chart of burn victims showing the number of deaths/cases of those who received saline, plasma, or both. In conclusion, the Office of Civil Defense Mobilization has recommended emergency use of saline solution for burn shock in case of a major bomb disaster.

Lynn Poole identifies the equipment in Johns Hopkins University's ham radio "shack," (station W3GQF, for students with amateur radio licenses) and shows QSL cards from around the world. A film clip shows the International Geophysical Year Expedition's ham radio shack (KC4USA) in Antarctica. Dr. Edward Krieg, ham radio operator (W3CAY) and surgeon at Bon Secour Hospital in Baltimore, shows a film clip of a ham radio operators' "field day" and explains some of the ham radio lingo, such as "CQ" for hello and "7-3" for goodbye. He notes that some hams specialize in Morse code, a requirement for getting a radio license from the FCC. A film documents the DX (distance expedition) of six ham operators who sail to Navassa Island to set up a ham station (KC4AF) there. During the four days on the island, they made over 7,000 contacts in 75 different countries before going QRT (off the air). Another film shows the amateur ham operators' free emergency network to assist disaster organizations. Sam Harris' Rhododendron Swamp VHF Society of amateur ham experimenters is featured in another film clip. Perry Klein, a teenager credited with bouncing a signal off an artificial satellite, explains how he did it and plays a recording of the signal. He calls this form of communication "high frequency satellite scatter" or "satellite bounce." Klein recommends to viewers the book "How to Become a Radio Amateur." A film clip shows Joe Pratt, a homebound polio victim in Baltimore, MD, using his ham radio to make friends. Dr. Krieg concludes the program by promoting the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) and their publication "QST."

Actor Joseph Potter, impersonating H.L. Mencken, opens this show on the "Sage of Baltimore," and quotes him throughout the program. Lynn Poole gives a pictorial account of Mencken's early life. Dr. Carl Bode, University of Maryland English professor, discusses Mencken as a critic of literature, society, and politics. He points out Mencken's contentiousness in his writing, especially in political criticism, such as his comments in 1912 on Baltimore mayor James H. Preston. Although Mencken stood up for New Realists such as Dreiser and Hemingway, he disliked the pretentiousness of many authors of his day and spoke out against bestsellers with no literary merit. With Mr. Potter's assistance, Dr. Bode describes events in Mencken's career as editor and columnist with "The Baltimore Sun" newspaper, co-editor with George Jean Nathan of "The Smart Set," editor and writer for "The American Mercury," and author of numerous books, such as "George Bernard Shaw" and "The American Language." Mr. Potter dramatizes a portion of Mencken's obituary for William Jennings Bryan, written after Bryan's death following the 1925 Scopes Trial. In 1926 the Watch and Ward Society of Boston forced off the newsstands Mencken's controversial "Hatrack" story in "The American Mercury," but Mencken prevailed. However, his unchanging views became trivial when he failed to recognize and understand the grave implications of the Great Depression or Hitler. Johns Hopkins professor emeritus Kemp Malone discusses Mencken's book "The American Language," which posits that American English was so different from British English that it should have a separate name. As an amateur philologist, Mencken also launched "American Speech," a learned journal, although he considered himself "a scout for scholars," not a scholar himself. In conclusion, Lynn Poole recommends Mencken's "A Carnival of Buncombe" for additional reading.

Actors Joseph Potter, Bob McGill, Walter Koehler, Harry Welker, and Harry Weiss dramatize the trial of Socrates Aeropagus in 399 BC. The seventy year old Athenian philosopher is under attack as a sophist and faces the Tribunal. Lynn Poole, as "chorus," intersperses descriptions of Athens, its religion, courts, and history with scenes played by costumed actors. Libelled by Aristophanes' comedy "The Clouds" and accused by the poet Meletus of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens, Socrates eloquently counters the accusations only to be voted guilty by the jury. He abides by the death penalty and prophesies that punishment will fall upon both his supporters and accusers for not examining their lives and living righteously.

Johns Hopkins University faculty member Elliott Coleman reads from his poetic works: "Spring on the Estuary," "Joyce's Grave," "Letter to Pierre Emmanuel," "Sonnets on the Roman Light," and "Aubade for Josephine Jacobsen." Poetry consultant to the Library of Congress Josephine Jacobsen reads the following of her poems: "Topic of Advent," "The Animals," "The Danish Mobile," "Painter in Xyochtl," and "The Stranger and Corrigan."