Let Shell's great automotive instructional videos teach you all about cars the old-fashioned way

These days, if you want to learn something, you probably go to the Internet. There are plenty of eager tutors on YouTube ready to wave whiteboards and ideas at you, or you can check out Wikipedia to learn from expert articles of varying quality. However, looking back to the 20th century, there is a far finer educational resource – the educational film.

As it turned out, the Shell Oil Company was a prolific producer of these films. The company has shot and curated a great content library. The films deal with a wide range of topics in the automotive sector and many technical topics beyond that. The reason it came to my attention? Because the Shell Historical Film Archive has started sharing these beautiful films on YouTube.

If you still have gaps in your automotive knowledge – especially the basics – these films may be just the thing for you. Despite their age – some are almost 100 years old – the concepts and explanations contained within are still completely valid today. In addition, these films far exceed the quality of many modern teaching materials.

The old ways were better

These films have something very special: their production quality. You will be presented with beautiful recordings, filmed by experts with high-quality equipment. Take for example Engine lubrication explained from 1968, as embedded above. A modern YouTube video might contain some basic diagrams and some stock photos of someone pouring oil into an engine [Ed Note: To Be fair, many modern videos have amazing CAD imagery, and I’d argue we’re at the peak of video production, but I do love the old-timey, physical shots here.  -DT]. In contrast, Shell built a complete four-cylinder engine model with a transparent head, block and oil pan. The film shows us in full motion video, Exactly how oil flows through all parts of the engine, from the oil pan to the crankshaft to the cams. We are then greeted by a soft-spoken British gentleman who explains what is happening. You'll float away on a cloud of knowledge as he utters sweet utterances like “big-end bearings” and “gudgeon pins.”

Things get better from there. The film even goes so far as to present animations about how engine oil works on a molecular level, covering topics such as sludge formation, temperature-sensitive viscosity and oxidation. It's all super intuitive if you can do it in the truest sense of the word see What's wrong. The only flaw is that the conversion to digital video has at times rendered some of the finer animations so unclear that they are slightly less understandable.

This is how technical content is to be conveyed. Clear descriptions from authoritative voices with the best practical demonstrations. If you've ever seen US Army instructional films from the 1950s, you'll be familiar with this type of lesson.

Shell's videos cover a wide range of topics. Whether you want to learn more about car suspension in 1938, how the diesel engine worked, or hydraulic power transmission, Shell Film Unit has it all covered. The organization has produced films over the years on all sorts of technology topics related to Shell's operations and many of more general interest.

The company was founded in 1934 by legendary documentary filmmaker John Grierson. Films were often shown in cinemas and in non-theatrical institutions such as universities and schools, which relied on these films as a valuable technical resource. Shell's films would later be distributed in many languages ​​around the world. The work even led to the founding of a branch of the Shell Film Unit Australia in 1948. The Antipodean offshoot produced a wide range of local content on 16mm film, covering the local oil industry, natural sciences and Australian motorsport.

You might think this is just a quick, simple look at diesel engines, but it's surprisingly comprehensive. It starts with the context of diesel engines and then gets into the nitty-gritty. Experience combustion in a cylinder in slow motion! Heck, it even covers opposed piston engines and flushing! Clean up, people!

As covered by the British Film Institutethe rise of new technologies would lead to a decline in the organization's work. Non-theatrical distribution of films declined as video became the format of choice in this regard. The organization was renamed the “Shell Film and Video Unit” and continued its work, although the production of high-quality technical documentaries declined in the following years. The golden era of these documentaries spanned from approximately 1934 to 1984, when the organization finally transferred its entire archive to the British Film Institute's National Film and Television Archive.

We have great content on YouTube and Netflix these days, but I wish we had more videos like this, based on physical models, commissioned at this scale by large companies. Which companies are reviving the effects of chemicals and lubricants at the molecular level? There are still instructional videos being made – great videos that use animation to show all sorts of intricacies – but I don't see too many at this level that show the actual hardware.

I suspect a lot of it comes down to money. There is simply no business reason to produce high quality content at this level/scale anymore. This is expensive – it requires engineers to prepare content, models and equipment, and a talented team to film, animate and narrate everything. None of this is cheap and there aren't many paying customers for this type of content.

For whatever reason, Shell has spent much of the last century producing high quality content that was essentially just for the public good (and of course it was an advertisement for Shell products by people who were familiar with engines who use shell oil). This is something that I don't think is the case with many oil companies today. If I were supreme ruler of trade, I would make something like this mandatory. It could only be a good thing.

Image credit: Shell via YouTube screenshot