- In the days of King Arthur, they lived in Camelot, a source who entertained the royal court with miraculous feet South, magic high.

Above the castle walls, the ancient Necro meets with members of the magic round table.

Come with us now to the secret room of Merlin, the Magica.

- Welcome, welcome to my secret room.

It's nice to see you again.

I'm particularly happy that you came today because, well, we have a very, very special illusion, and it's well, why, why, why talk about it.

I'll let Michael the page bring in the surprise and you can, well, you can judge for yourself, Michael.

I'll take that now if I may.

Thank you very much, Mike.

You're getting bigger every day, aren't you?

I hope.

I hope you like that trick.

It was the, the famous floating ball as performed by the late and great Theodore Bamberg.

His stage name was Oto, and I hope his living son enjoys that trick when he sees it.

Right now, it's time to consult the mighty sword.

Excalibur, will you help me?

Please?

Thank you.

Let's say all the magic words together.

Do you remember them?

It goes like this, fiddly, die fiddly D magic sword.

Rise for me.

Let's say it together.

And I think the sword will rise, and we'll see what's written on the blade today.

Our theme word on the blade.

Okay, here we go.

Fiddly, die fiddly.

D, magic sword rise for me.

And the theme word today, it's a tiny one, isn't it?

Only three letters.

A IR air.

Air is all about us.

We breathe it and without it, we'd be mighty, unhealthy persons.

I'm afraid.

This gentleman right here is happy for a good reason.

He's looking up in the air and he's smiling.

And when you smile real hard, sometimes your eyes are closed, like that sort of a squid eye.

And of course you have to have a happy mouth when you smile, right?

And his arms are outstretched for a good reason.

This fellow is breathing plenty of good, healthy air.

It's quite a chest.

He has mighty large chest.

How do we know that air is about us?

How can we tell?

Well, there are many signs.

If his fellow would look above him, he'd see a big cottony cloud, and the air is moving that cloud.

You've seen clouds move slowly, lazily, and some clouds move very fast.

This cloud has a flat base and it builds up towards the top.

It's called a, an alto cumulus clouds.

And here's another one.

And these clouds are moving in this direction.

There's another indication that there's air about us.

We see a kite in the air.

And a young man down at the end of that kite string is having fun because he's flying that kite in a very windy day.

Kite flying is particularly good in March, isn't it?

What other evidences of air can you think of?

Hmm.

Well, birds fly in the air.

Air has weight.

It weighs air, actually weighs something.

It isn't weightless and it's strong enough to, it has enough weight to support the flight of airplanes.

Now, this countryside looks very nice, but there's a very unfortunate thing that sometimes takes place.

Excuse me.

Over here we have some tall buildings and some smoke stacks, and this shows that the wind is blowing from this direction.

I'm sorry.

Evidently I haven't been breathing enough pure air lately.

You know, someday if this keeps up, we have all this smog, as it's called in some parts of the country.

It won't be too good for the human lungs, will it?

And our nice pure air won't be breathable anymore.

So it pays, I guess, not to burn, refuse wood and waste material and your incinerator in a neighborhood where it'll hurt people's lungs or drive automobiles with, with faulty mufflers because automobile exhaust is bad.

So we like to breathe good clean air as this fellow's doing right here.

Another evidence of air moving is of course, when the clouds become super saturated and precipitation or rain takes place, and you can always tell the direction the air is below.

The wind is blowing by the slant of the rain coming out of the clouds is profiled against the sunlight.

And of course, the wind is blowing from that direction.

We breathe air and air does work for us.

We have it in our tire and your automobile at home, your daddy at least has it in his tire.

We don't have modern automobiles here at Camelot and Air does other things.

Very important work.

I can't think of the work that air does offhand, but we have a very learned young lady.

She reads a great deal, Betty the bookworm.

And I think perhaps if I talk to Betty, she could tell us some of the things that that air does.

I'm gonna call her, she's in her book of knowledge right now.

My very good friend Betty the bookworm.

Hello - Betty.

Hi Merlin.

Hello, Betty.

- Are you?

How are you?

- I'm just fine.

- That's - Nice.

You don't sound good, Merlin.

- I, I have a little cold.

- Aw, - I haven't been taking my breathing exercises lately.

- Well, well you just better Merlin.

- Well, let's see you take a deep breath.

Oh, that sounded - Bad.

How was that?

- Yes.

- You know, you didn't say awful lot of things about air.

- Well, I know I didn't tell me something - About it.

Well, you forgot to mention all the important things that air does.

It really sort of works for us.

- Like how, how does it work?

- Well, oh gee, I don't know.

It just, it just does lots of things.

- I know.

It flies a kite.

- Yeah.

And it, and it, oh, hey Merle, I've got an idea.

- What is it?

- What?

I bet you I can imitate something and you tell me what it is.

And that's what the air works.

- Alright?

Why don't you imitate some air?

Sounds - Okay - Now, just a minute, Betty, I want you to play this game too.

It's a lot of fun.

See if, if you can figure out the type of air sound that Betty's imitating.

Alright.

- Okay.

I gotta get ready.

I'm ready.

Get ready.

Ready?

- Yes.

- Here we go.

- I, I, I know, I think I know exactly what that air sound was, Betty, because I looked in my crystal ball the other day and I saw an airplane.

I bet that's an airplane sound - Right?

Do you, can you do another know you're smarter than I thought.

- You know, I'm pretty smart.

- Yeah, I guess.

Well, you know, I've been working on my jet, but I can't quite get it.

Hey, I've got another one.

Are you ready?

- I'm ready.

- Okay, here we go.

- Alright.

That, what's that?

That, that was an easy one.

I also saw in my crystal ball the A train.

And that sound like a train sound, - Right?

Merlin - Air makes the whistle go in the train, you know, - Right.

Merlin.

What else happens?

- Well, air also can be heated and made into steam and it, and it makes a steam locomotive go.

It does work in an engine.

Steam engine.

Hey, - Hey Merlin, look out.

You have that train.

Look out.

Here.

Here, here it comes again.

Here it comes.

Watch, watch out.

Here comes a train.

Wait a minute.

- Oh, that was a fast train Betty - Boy.

It sure was Merlin.

It - Certainly was.

How about another, oh, I got a cinder in my eye from that train.

- Did - You?

You know, another air sound?

- Yeah, I know another one.

Hey, you know, I bet the boys and girls all know this one.

Merlin.

This is kind of familiar.

You oughta get this one Ready, Merlin.

I'm ready.

Okay, here we go.

- I know it's the kind of sound that that air makes when it burns in the fireplace, right?

Of what wood makes.

But it had what?

What does burning have to do with with air?

- Really?

Oh golly.

Merlin.

Don't you know that for heaven's sakes?

You know the air has lots and lots of oxygen and oxygen burns and that's what makes the fire - Go.

You need oxygen for fire, - Right?

You always have to have that.

Merl, - I'm gonna have to read more.

- Yeah.

Merlin, I've been meaning to talk to you about that.

- How about another air sound?

- Okay, this is a familiar one too, - If you can get this.

- Okay, ready?

Here we go.

We're - Ready.

- What's - That?

- What Beg Pardon?

What?

Carpet sweeper.

What's that?

They said it was a carpet sweeper.

Was that - Right?

Nuts.

You got that one too?

Hey, that's pretty good everybody.

Yeah.

Okay, let me think if I can think of just one more.

- No, we did a carpet sweeper.

An airplane We did fire.

And a train with the steam whistle.

And we'll do one more.

We have time.

We - Like one more.

Okay.

I got a good one.

Merlin.

This has something, something to do with, well, sort of like snoozing.

Okay.

Are you ready for this - One?

What do you mean snoozing?

- Like sleep.

- Well, okay.

Alright.

- Okay, here we go.

- Go ahead.

- Okay.

- That was a trumpet playing taps like they do in a military base when the soldiers go to bed at night.

- Right.

Merlin.

You know, and they play that every - Night.

You gotta be sleepy though, to have taps play, - Boy.

You sure do.

What's that?

It's an awfully pretty thing.

- What?

Excuse me.

- What?

Jay Merlin are.

Are you sleepy?

Do you want me to do it again?

- Would you play taps again?

- Okay, here we go.

- Betty.

The bookworm was portrayed by Helen Segund, directed by Rich Nud.

Merlin was produced in the studios of Ohio University Television, Athens, Ohio.