Fourth generation glassblower John Lehman makes a glass trap for a vacuum system as specified by chemistry professor John Gryder. Mr. Lehman and Dr. Gryder explain the process of making the glass piece, including "pulling points," using both cross fires and torch to heat the glass as it evolves. A brief film explores the history of glass, from volcanic obsidian to the man-made glass of the Egyptians. In 300 B.C. the blowpipe was invented, opening the way to new uses of glass. At the first American colony in Jamestown, Virginia, Captain John Smith built a glass factory. A film shows a reenactment of an early American glassblower making a bottle. Dr. Gryder displays historical tools still used in the art plus modern ones that have been added. Manufacturers of glass have changed the assumed properties of glass, making it pliant, strong, heat and cold resistant, etc. for new functions. Mr. Lehman completes the glass piece, inserts it in the vacuum system, and tests it for leaks.

Johns Hopkins University president Milton S. Eisenhower briefly summarizes the life of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), a poet and philosopher exiled from his native Florence. He then interviews Dr. Charles Singleton, Johns Hopkins professor of humanistic studies, about Dante's "Divine Comedy." Dr. Singleton explains that the poem is divided into 100 cantos and 3 canticles: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradisio, each of which he describes with diagrams. The poem tells the tale of a journey through the afterlife to God and can be read in the literal sense as well as an allegory. Dr. Singleton reads verses from Canto I in Italian and translates. St. Augustine's phrase "the unquiet heart," from "The Confessions," is the basis of Dante's allegory, a notion of the living's journey of mind and heart to God. He describes the image of a flame and how it rises upwards, seeking its proper place. Dr. Eisenhower comments that Dante's poem invites readers on a journey to escape provincialism.

This program introduces radar-tracking of storms with a filmed sequence of a time lapse PPI (plan position indicator) scope view of a hurricane. Dr. George Benton, Johns Hopkins University professor of meteorology, describes the origins of radar (an acronym for radio detection and ranging) and how it works. First used to detect and track airplanes, radar now locates clouds and precipitation. Dr. Benton compares echoes from 1 cm, 10 cm, and 23 cm wavelength radar sets used to detect various types of weather. Captain Howard Orville, meteorologist consultant for Bendix-Freeze Corp. in Baltimore, lists some of the milestones in radar history: 1922, A. Hoyt Taylor was one of the inventors of radar; 1941, the first hailstorm was tracked; and 1944, the first eye of a hurricane was tracked. He stresses the importance of radar in meteorology and displays the tracks of hurricanes Diane, Connie, and Audrey on a map. Dr. Benton describes types of storms and the amount of warning time radar can provide.

Lynn Poole interviews Dr. S. Fred Singer, associate professor of physics at University of Maryland, scientific consultant on U.S. Air Force's FARSIDE project, and father of the earliest practical satellite, MOUSE (Minimal Orbital Unmanned Satellite). Dr. Singer lists the primary contributors to propulsion: Newton, Tsiolkovsky, Oberth, and Goddard. He explains that the technical aspects of a rocket include propulsion, guidance, payload, and reentry. Currently chemical propulsion systems are used to launch rockets, but other propulsion systems, such as iron, photon, fusion, and fission, are being studied. Dr. Singer sketches a diagram to explain how gravitational pull and velocity make a satellite orbit and notes that a velocity greater than seven miles per second results in "escape velocity" and non-return of the satellite. The purpose of basic research, he says, is to train young people, such as the University of Maryland students who designed and built Terrapin and Oriole rockets.

Dr. Charles R. Anderson, professor of American literature at Johns Hopkins University, discusses the life, family, and poetry of Emily Dickinson, who lived in Amherst, Massachusetts from 1830-1886. At age 28 Dickinson fell in love with a married minister, her personality changed, and she began to write poetry, publishing just seven poems and keeping nearly 2,000 in her room. He seclusion became extreme as she renounced the world. However, her poetry keenly expressed New England village life as a microcosm of the larger world. Dr. Anderson discusses some of her more satirical poems, such as "The Show is not the Show" (no. 1206) comparing the human race to a menagerie. Other poems reveal the travesty of brokers and bankers, the village gossips ("The Leaves like Women interchange," no. 987), and the conventional ladies of the town ("What Soft-Cherubic Creatures," no. 130). However, Dickinson shows understanding and compassion for the town drunkard in "The Ditch is dear to the Drunkard."

This program follows a patient, Mrs. Baker, through the procedure of cosmetic plastic surgery, beginning with her conferences with both psychiatrist Jacobson and surgeon Edgerton. The viewers follow the patient from hospital admittance and pre-op through the actual surgery to decrease her nose size and to augment her chin with a bone graft. Dr. Edgerton discusses post-op procedures and expectations and shows pre- and post-surgery profiles of Mrs. Baker. According to the patient, the plastic surgery changed her inner feelings of worth as much as her outward appearance. Dr. Jacobson stresses that cosmetic plastic surgery should never be sought for self-indulgence, only to remove self consciousness and self doubt.

Dr. Donald Andrews, chemical professor at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), introduces this program with a brief report from the recent National Science Foundation's conference on chemistry teachers held at JHU, which encouraged coordination of the chemistry curriculum between high schools and universities. He then shows a film developed by the Hopkins chemistry department, "Operation: Chemist" by Milner Productions, which follows a representative student through the JHU chemistry program and lists the options open to him. The university's introductory chemistry course stresses quantitative rather than qualitative problems. This is followed by experimental problems and specialty fields such as organic chemistry, as taught by Dr. Alex Nickon, shown using molecular models in a research seminar, or biochemistry, using lab animals to research the relation between food and exercise on the heart. The film highlights examples of the equipment available to students.

This program celebrates with photos and songs the centuries of international university Christmases, such as at Johns Hopkins' Bologna (Italy) Center. The seventy-member Johns Hopkins University Glee Club, directed by James Mitchell, sings such pieces as "O Come, O Come, Emanuel," "Indulci Jubilo," "Salvation is Created," and "Angels We Have Heard on High." An 1884 photo shows the first 13-member Hopkins Glee Club including Woodrow Wilson, and a 1957 photo shows the traditional Gilman Hall Step Sing. Projecting into the future, an electronic brain generates Christmas songs with electrons, as they might be played in 2057. Johns Hopkins University president Milton S. Eisenhower discusses the celebration of the nativity and the Christian principles by which free men live and on which universities center their programs.

Lynn Poole shows two children album pages of lasting gifts: the oldest hymn, "Gloria in Excelsis," inserted into Mass by Pope Telesphorus, sung by the Johns Hopkins Glee Club; the custom of Christmas cards, first designed by John Callcott Horsley at the request of his friend Henry Cole in 1843, and another card designed by W.M. Edgley; the story surrounding the composition of "Silent Night," with words by Father Joseph Mohr and music by Franz Gruber and sung by a duet; the history of the Christmas tree traced to Martin Luther; the development of Santa Claus by cartoonist Thomas Nast from Dr. Clement Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nick"; the 1897 "Is there a Santa Claus" letter to "The New York Sun" and response from its editor Francis P. Church; the Welsh air "Deck the Halls" sung by a quartet; the Yule log custom; Johns Hopkins' President Milton S. Eisenhower's remarks on the significance of Christmas; and the composition of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" with words by Charles Wesley.

Dr. Donald Benson, anesthesiologist-in-charge at Johns Hopkins Hospital and associate professor of anesthesiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, announces that the expired air resuscitation method is much preferred to the prone pressure method (both of which are demonstrated) for victims in need of artificial respiration. He outlines the history of assisted ventilation, including Elijah's documented use of it in the Bible, Versalius's use of bellows to inflate lungs of animals in 1555, Hooke's discovery of the function of lungs in 1667, the development of the safety bellows for humans in 1827, and the implementation of the prone pressure method in 1893 and Britain's rocking method in 1932. Dr. Benson describes breathing's response to anaesthesia as well as the normal breathing process. A film shows a patient undergoing thoracic surgery whose breathing is controlled by a breathing bag attached to an endotrachial tube. Dr. Benson explains and demonstrates mechanical respiration.