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00:00Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
00:30A steam-powered maths engine actually worked.
00:33He thinks maybe I can make steam do the job the brains do.
00:38Nobody else would come even close to that thought.
00:44These are the most remarkable and mysterious objects on Earth.
00:49Hidden away in museums, laboratories and storage rooms.
00:56Now, new research and technology can get under their skin.
01:00Like never before.
01:02We can rebuild them.
01:05Pull them apart.
01:08And zoom in.
01:10To reveal the unbelievable.
01:13The ancient.
01:16And the truly bizarre.
01:17These are the world's strangest things.
01:22At the beginning of the 20th century,
01:34this strange-looking skull is the most sensational discovery in the archaeological world.
01:40But it falls victim to a shocking controversy.
01:45For a hundred years, it's been locked away at the Natural History Museum in London.
01:50Now, using cutting-edge digital technology,
01:54we can examine it in forensic detail.
02:02This is Piltdown Man.
02:07A human ancestor unlike anything ever discovered.
02:11With a skull like ours, but the huge jaw and teeth of an ape.
02:16When it's revealed in 1912, it is exactly what scientists are searching for.
02:23Solid evidence for Darwin's controversial theory on human evolution.
02:28This was concrete proof of a connection between apes and humans.
02:35A perfect missing link.
02:38But look much closer.
02:39And there's something not quite right about this find.
02:45The molar teeth in the ape-like jaw have microscopic abrasion marks not seen on any other fossil.
02:53And hidden in cavities around the skull is some kind of artificial material.
03:00All this evidence points to one scandalous conclusion.
03:04Piltdown Man was not the missing link.
03:06It was a forgery.
03:09Since the fake was uncovered, there have been many suspects.
03:14But the true identity of the forger has eluded experts.
03:20Now, new research can definitively name him.
03:25Who is he?
03:27What is the truth behind this strange hybrid skull?
03:31And how does it fool the world for almost half a century?
03:35This story of scientific fraud begins in the English county of Sussex in a quiet village called Piltdown.
03:46The discoverer of Piltdown Man was Charles Dawson, a solicitor from around Hastings in the south of England.
03:55Dawson is an amateur archaeologist with a stellar track record for unearthing unusual artifacts.
04:01It's earned him the nickname of the wizard of Sussex.
04:09In a gravel pit in Piltdown, he uncovers his greatest find.
04:14In 1912, Dawson writes to Arthur Smith Woodward at the Natural History Museum in London,
04:23explaining that he had found a series of interesting flints and a fragment of a human skull.
04:28Smith Woodward is a big wheel in the world of paleontology.
04:35He knows the discovery of a genuine human skull in this context would be big news.
04:42The gravels was thought to be half a million years old.
04:46If this was true, then these bones, if human, would be the oldest yet known, not only in England, but in the world.
04:54Smith Woodward heads to Piltdown, and over the following months, he and Dawson appear to hit the jackpot.
05:04They find more skull fragments, a fragment of jawbone, and a canine.
05:12The dark brown staining of all the finds seems to confirm that they've been buried in the ground together for a very long time.
05:20Smith Woodward hurries back to London with the finds.
05:23He's got this collection of fragments of skull and jaw, and he embarks on putting these pieces back together to completing this puzzle
05:32and reconstructing what this skull and jaw might have looked like.
05:36He fills in the gaps between the fossil fragments using imagination and plaster molds.
05:42What he ends up with is unlike any ancient human remains ever discovered.
05:51The rear of the skull looked very much like a modern human skull, whereas the jaw looked like it belonged to an ape.
06:00This find sends shockwaves through the scientific world.
06:08And it's all because of this man, Charles Darwin.
06:11The finding of Piltdown Man is just a little more than 50 years after the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species,
06:20a text which deals with the evolution of a number of different animal and plant species.
06:27He claims humans and apes are close relatives with a common ancestor.
06:35But 50 years after Darwin publishes his theory, there's very little evidence to back it up.
06:42That's when Charles Dawson and Piltdown Man ride to the rescue of science.
06:47Half man, half ape was exactly what scholars were looking for, to substantiate Darwin's theory.
06:53Piltdown Man is the smoking gun that proves Darwin right.
07:01This discovery was a really big moment for Smith, Woodward and Dawson,
07:05a kind of definitive moment in their careers.
07:08It couldn't really get much higher than that.
07:11In 1913, Dawson achieves scientific immortality
07:16when Piltdown Man is formally named Eoanthropus Dawsoni,
07:21literally Dawson's Dawn Man.
07:23Unfortunately, there's one big problem with all of this.
07:28Piltdown Man could not be the missing link.
07:32It was a forgery.
07:36What gives this audaciously faked skull away?
07:42While Piltdown Man is locked away in the Natural History Museum,
07:48archaeologists begin turning up ancient humans that look nothing like it.
07:52It was becoming apparent that the ancestors of humanity had started out
07:57small-brained and upright, rather than large-brained.
08:01This is a complete opposite of Piltdown Man.
08:03So, behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum, alarm bells are ringing.
08:13In 1949, they date Piltdown Man using the best available techniques.
08:18The first results are alarming.
08:22This seemed to show that these remains were certainly no older than 50,000 years ago.
08:2950,000 years ago, modern humans have already been around for a very long time.
08:35Piltdown Man cannot be the missing link.
08:39Maybe it was all just a simple mistake.
08:44In 1953, the skull is retested using a new technology.
08:50Further dating, as radiocarbon dating became possible,
08:54showed that we were looking at a medieval human skull
08:57coupled with a 500-year-old orangutan jar fragment.
09:04There is no time in history when orangutans have been native to Britain.
09:09This isn't simply an error.
09:11It's a deliberate fake.
09:14How has the forger got away with it for four decades?
09:17This was a carefully planned, if somewhat clumsy, forgery.
09:24One thing that convinces experts is the brown coloring of the buried finds.
09:30In real fossils, color this dark results from very long-term exposure
09:34to minerals in the groundwater.
09:37But under chemical analysis, Piltdown Man's coloring falls apart.
09:41The forger had stained all of the bone remains
09:45as well as associated stone tools and bone implements
09:50with sodium bichromate,
09:52a solution which produced a brown stain
09:55making them look associated with one another.
09:59And there are other devious tricks.
10:03When bones fossilize, they mineralize,
10:05and they become heavier, stone-like.
10:08This was a problem which confronted the forger.
10:11how to make the bones heavier.
10:14The Piltdown bones are too young to be fossilized,
10:17yet they are heavy.
10:20Detailed examination reveals something extraordinary.
10:24The forger used natural crevices in the bones
10:27to hide away bits of stone to give them greater weight.
10:32The deeper they dig, the worse it gets.
10:36The canine tooth is definitely from an orangutan,
10:39yet the molars appear remarkably human.
10:42But extreme magnification reveals rows of tiny linear abrasions.
10:48Under microscopic examination,
10:51it was clear that the molars had been filed down
10:54in order to make them look more human.
10:56And there are some glaring mistakes.
11:00When the forger makes the fake,
11:05he uses putty to seal in stones into the jaw
11:08and the teeth cavities to give it this weight.
11:11But it would have been quite obvious to people looking at that
11:13that those cavities had been sealed in that way.
11:16Why isn't this obvious evidence of fraud spotted by experts?
11:23It's all because Piltdown man is considered too important to be handled.
11:28What happens is a series of casts are produced.
11:31And this is really crucial because the casting process
11:35masks all the differences in materials,
11:37but also many of the differences in textures
11:39that would have given some of those signs of forgery
11:43away to researchers looking at them.
11:44And the forger has one more vital tool in his arsenal.
11:50National pride.
11:54If we go back to 1912,
11:56there had not yet been any human fossil finds of importance in Britain.
12:02Meanwhile, the French have found Cro-Magnon man.
12:06And the Germans have Neanderthals and Homo heidelbergensis.
12:10One French archaeologist apparently describes the British as pebble hunters.
12:17Piltdown man puts those Continentals right in their place.
12:21This is exactly what people want to find in exactly the right place,
12:26being made by exactly the right kinds of people for the British academic establishment.
12:30I think that plays a big role into how readily the fake is accepted by British academics.
12:37Which leaves just one question.
12:40Who did it?
12:41Now, after a hundred years, new research can finally uncover the forger's identity.
12:47Suspicion has fallen on several individuals.
12:55The celebrated academic.
12:57The charismatic lawyer.
12:59And the famous author.
13:02It's straight out of the pages of an Agatha Christie whodunit.
13:05Or perhaps a Sherlock Holmes novel.
13:10Which leads rather neatly to the first possibility.
13:14One of the suspects for the forger was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
13:19the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
13:23He was a man who had an interest in science.
13:25And in fact, he belonged to the same archaeological society as Dawson himself.
13:32And he sometimes played golf in Piltdown.
13:35But what is his motive?
13:39He had become increasingly involved in spiritualism.
13:42And was an object of mockery by the scientific community.
13:46Spiritualists claim they can communicate with the dead.
13:50But by 1912, spiritualism has been widely debunked.
13:55And ridiculed by scientists.
13:58So he developed something of a kind of defensive attitude against science.
14:04And the theory was that this might have been his way of getting his own back.
14:09But there's one big hole in the theory.
14:13He never tells anyone.
14:15If Conan Doyle had done this to embarrass the paleoanthropological community,
14:21he would have sprung the trap in his lifetime.
14:24And he didn't.
14:25So I think this alone allows us to eliminate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
14:32Another obvious suspect is Arthur Smith Woodward,
14:36the paleontologist who pieces the skull together.
14:40He had the expertise to create a hoax of this sort.
14:44He had access to the materials.
14:45Someone who stood to gain a great deal in terms of their own career
14:50from such a famous discovery.
14:53But if the forgery is discovered,
14:55it would destroy his hard-won international reputation.
14:59He had everything to lose.
15:01I personally, I just can't see it.
15:04Last, but most definitely not least,
15:07Charles Dawson.
15:08He was the only one who ever claimed to make these particular finds.
15:16He clearly had ambitions.
15:19And after he died, these finds just stopped.
15:25For a century, suspicion has shifted from one suspect to another.
15:31Now, the latest research has finally cracked the case.
15:34The key is another artefact,
15:39hidden away in a back room at the Natural History Museum.
15:43Piltdown Man 2.
15:45Dawson has this other site, Piltdown 2,
15:48which is about a mile away from the original Piltdown site.
15:50And at that site, he makes a discovery,
15:53another hominine cranium,
15:55with exactly the same kinds of staining
15:58observed at Piltdown 1.
16:00In 2016,
16:05a new study throws every modern scientific technique available
16:09at both Piltdown specimens.
16:12The results are conclusive.
16:15The teeth from Piltdown 2
16:17come from exactly the same orangutan as Piltdown 1.
16:21Also, there's a similar technique
16:23in terms of sealing stones into the jaw using putty,
16:26and that is chemically the same kind of putty
16:29that was used at Piltdown 1.
16:31So, whoever created Piltdown Man
16:34must have created Piltdown Man 2 as well.
16:38Of all the suspects,
16:39only one of them knew about Piltdown 2.
16:42And that's Charles Dawson.
16:45Charles Dawson,
16:46faked Piltdown Man.
16:48And a new examination of his other astonishing finds,
16:54the ones that earned him the title
16:55Wizard of Sussex,
16:57is the final nail in his coffin.
17:00Almost every single one is a fake.
17:04It turns out Dawson is already an old hand at forgery
17:08long before Piltdown Man turns up.
17:11After more than a century,
17:15the case of the Piltdown Man finally closed.
17:27The United Nations Security Council,
17:30May 1960.
17:33The world gets its first sight of an object
17:35that has sent shockwaves
17:37through the shady world of American espionage.
17:40A Soviet bug,
17:43unlike anything ever seen before.
17:49It's been listening in
17:51to the U.S. ambassador's office in Moscow.
17:58Imagine if,
17:59during the most dangerous period
18:01of your country's history,
18:03your most dangerous enemy
18:05was listening to your every word.
18:07What terrifies American spies
18:10is that it's evaded detection
18:12for seven years.
18:14The Americans knew what to expect
18:16from the Soviets.
18:18The issue was they were dealing with a device
18:20that they never expected
18:22and had no means of detecting.
18:26And they just can't figure it out.
18:28The Americans had no idea
18:31what they were looking at.
18:32They had no idea how it worked.
18:34It was so bizarre to them
18:37that they simply called it the thing.
18:40If they can't make sense of it,
18:42the Russians can just do the same thing
18:44over and over again.
18:45Now, to unlock its secrets,
18:49we've brought it back.
18:53A carved wooden plaque
18:55of the great American seal.
18:59Inside,
19:00nothing but a few pieces of metal work.
19:01It was just a metal cylinder
19:05with a little bit of metal
19:06attached to it.
19:07It looks completely innocuous.
19:09That was all there was to it.
19:11An electronic listening bug
19:13with no electronics.
19:17It hasn't got batteries.
19:18It hasn't got wires.
19:19It doesn't have a huge radio antenna
19:20dangling it out the back.
19:22It's basically completely undetectable.
19:26How does it work?
19:28Who is the Soviet genius
19:30who dreams it up?
19:33Why did it baffle American experts
19:35for so long?
19:41After the end of World War II,
19:43spying becomes an essential tool
19:45in the new Cold War battle
19:47between Russia
19:48and its former ally, America.
19:51Spaso House,
19:53the U.S. ambassador's residence
19:54in Moscow,
19:55is an obvious Soviet target.
19:58So, 1945,
20:00The U.S. ambassador
20:01is given a ceremonial presentation
20:04of a wooden version
20:06of the Great Seal
20:07of the United States,
20:08and it's delivered to him
20:09by the young pioneers.
20:11This is the Soviet equivalent
20:12of the Boy Scouts.
20:14What the ambassador didn't realize
20:16is that the bug
20:17was already in it.
20:20It's hung proudly on the wall
20:22in the ambassador's private office.
20:24The U.S. has been duped,
20:27and it doesn't even know it.
20:29This is not cloak and dagger.
20:31This is not a man in a fedora
20:33and a trench coat.
20:35The most powerful country
20:36in the world
20:37was hoodwinked
20:38by the equivalent
20:40of a bunch of Boy Scouts.
20:41How do the Americans
20:45miss it?
20:46They know Russia
20:47is going to try something.
20:49The Americans knew
20:51what to expect
20:51from the Soviets.
20:54They went over Spaso House
20:56with a fine-tooth comb.
20:58Everything entering
20:59the residence
20:59gets a detailed security check.
21:02But the thing
21:03is not spotted.
21:04It passed all the security screening
21:07in the American embassy
21:08because they x-rayed it,
21:09and there was just nothing there.
21:10It really is
21:11beautifully innocuous.
21:14After years
21:15eavesdropping U.S. secrets,
21:17radio transmissions
21:18from the thing
21:19are detected
21:19purely by chance.
21:22The way that this is discovered,
21:24some of that information
21:25is still classified.
21:26It was either an American
21:27or a British radio operator
21:29heard something
21:30that was coming out
21:31of the ambassador's office
21:32in Spaso House.
21:33These radio transmissions
21:34can only mean one thing,
21:37a bug.
21:39Once they know it's there,
21:41it doesn't take long to find.
21:43But at this point,
21:44it's already been in there
21:45for seven years.
21:47How has the thing
21:48evaded the most
21:49technologically sophisticated
21:50country on Earth?
21:56When this carved seal
21:58was inspected,
21:59within it was found
22:01a very innocuous
22:03little object.
22:04so it was basically
22:05just a metal cylinder
22:07with a little bit
22:08of metal
22:09attached to it.
22:11It was almost literally,
22:13there was nothing to it.
22:14No one can make sense of it.
22:17For the life of them,
22:18they can't figure out
22:19how it works.
22:20It doesn't conform
22:21to any conventional
22:23specifications
22:25for a listening device.
22:26The inexplicable bug
22:29finally ends up
22:30on the desk
22:31of a technical expert
22:32at British Intelligence.
22:34So they send it
22:35to Peter Wright
22:37at MI5,
22:38and his job
22:39is to figure out
22:40how this bug
22:42actually works.
22:43It takes Wright
22:4410 weeks
22:45to crack the thing's secret.
22:47What he finds
22:48is a work of genius.
22:50The principle
22:51behind the thing
22:52is a phenomenon
22:54called resonance.
22:57One of the best-known
22:58examples of resonance
22:59is a wine glass
23:00partially filled
23:01with water.
23:03If you wet your finger
23:04and then move it slowly
23:05around the rim
23:06of a wine glass,
23:06you're causing it
23:07to vibrate very slightly.
23:09And you can play
23:10a musical note.
23:11This resonance effect
23:14happens because
23:15the length
23:15of that particular
23:16sound wave
23:17fits into the space
23:18above the liquid.
23:22A metal container
23:23has exactly the same
23:24effect on radio waves
23:26that a wine glass
23:27does on sound waves.
23:29And that is the secret
23:30of the thing.
23:32The thing is a tiny
23:33cylinder of metal,
23:35and that cylinder
23:35has a particular
23:36resonant frequency
23:37for radio waves.
23:38So if you shine waves
23:39at it at exactly
23:40that frequency,
23:40it will send
23:41that same frequency
23:42back at you.
23:45Turning the bug on
23:46is child's play
23:47for the Soviets.
23:49Outside the
23:50ambassador's residence,
23:52there was a van
23:53that was broadcasting
23:54an intense radio
23:56frequency beam
23:57into the room.
24:00And that radio
24:00frequency signal
24:01would set the cavity
24:02vibrating.
24:05The genius was then
24:06to put a tiny,
24:07thin layer of silver foil
24:08on one end
24:09of this cylinder.
24:09sound from speech
24:12in the room
24:12makes the foil
24:13move in and out,
24:15very slightly changing
24:16the size of the space
24:17inside the cylinder.
24:19And that changes
24:20the radio waves
24:21retransmitted by it.
24:23So really,
24:24the people in the van
24:25just had to put on
24:26a pair of headphones
24:27and listen with
24:28a radio receiver,
24:29and they could hear
24:30what was going on
24:31inside the room.
24:32No wonder it takes
24:34so many years
24:35to spot the bug.
24:36If you're not
24:37transmitting radio waves
24:38to it,
24:39it does absolutely
24:40nothing.
24:40It's completely
24:41undetectable.
24:42Unless you happen
24:43to catch them
24:43in the act
24:44when they're outside
24:45in their van
24:45transmitting radio waves,
24:47then you're just
24:47not going to find anything.
24:48The Thing is a work
24:52of genius.
24:54But the mastermind
24:55behind it
24:55is not some
24:56shadowy spy.
24:57In fact,
24:58he's world famous.
25:00Not for espionage,
25:02but incredibly,
25:03for pop music
25:04and horror movies.
25:06Who on earth
25:08is he?
25:09He was a kind
25:16of scientific superstar.
25:18He was a physicist
25:19by training.
25:19He was from
25:20a family of musicians,
25:21but his real genius
25:23was electronics.
25:25His name
25:25is Lev Sergivik Termin,
25:29better known
25:29in the West
25:30as Leon Theremin.
25:33And his claim
25:33to fame up
25:34to that point
25:34was he'd invented
25:35something called
25:36the etherphone.
25:37The etherphone
25:39is the world's
25:39first electronic
25:40musical instrument.
25:42It's now better
25:44known simply
25:44as the theremin.
25:46And it's an incredibly
25:47beautiful thing.
25:49A sort of wailing,
25:51plaintive,
25:51wonderful sound.
25:53It's played
25:54by two hands
25:56waved in the air
25:56above it.
25:59This was such
26:00a marvelous device
26:01that the Soviet
26:03government actually
26:04had him going
26:05on tour
26:05to show off
26:06Soviet technology.
26:09Theremin goes
26:10to Paris,
26:12London,
26:13New York
26:13to show off
26:15this marvelous
26:16new object.
26:18By the time
26:19Theremin returns
26:20to Russia
26:20in 1938,
26:22it's a very
26:22different place.
26:24Stalin is
26:25the dictator
26:26in charge
26:27of the Soviet Union.
26:29His secret police
26:30are everywhere.
26:31Because of his time
26:34in the West,
26:35Theremin is falsely
26:36accused of being
26:37a counter-revolutionary
26:38and sentenced
26:39to eight years
26:40hard labor
26:41in a gulag.
26:43But he catches
26:43a lucky break.
26:46Oddly enough,
26:47the man who saves
26:48Theremin from his
26:49fate in the gulag
26:50is absolutely
26:51one of the most
26:52dangerous,
26:53frightening people
26:54in the Soviet
26:55government,
26:56Beria.
26:58Lavrenty Beria
26:59is head of the Soviet
27:00secret police,
27:02the KGB.
27:04He offers Theremin
27:05a deal.
27:07Freedom from the gulag
27:08in exchange
27:09for an undetectable
27:10bug.
27:12Theremin delivers
27:13in spades.
27:15His genius invention,
27:16The Thing,
27:17eavesdrops on seven
27:18years of U.S.
27:19intelligence.
27:21The Soviets
27:21knew they were
27:23going to get
27:23amazing information
27:25out of this bug,
27:26but how could they
27:26have predicted
27:27how much
27:29would be going
27:29on in that
27:30seven years
27:31from 1945
27:32to 1952.
27:36In those
27:37seven years,
27:39America drops
27:39two atom bombs
27:41on Japan.
27:46Postwar Europe
27:47is carved up
27:48between Russia
27:48and the West.
27:52NATO is formed.
27:55The Berlin
27:55airlift happens.
27:56The U.S.
27:59goes to war
28:00in Korea.
28:03And The Thing
28:04listens to it all.
28:07A lot of the
28:08information that was
28:09gained for Theremin's
28:10Thing,
28:10it's been worked
28:12into Soviet policies
28:13and decisions,
28:14but we'll never be able
28:15to trace it back
28:16to exactly where
28:17it came from.
28:20But the story
28:21of The Thing
28:21does not end
28:22with its discovery.
28:27Russia may be
28:28spying on America,
28:29but America's been
28:30busy returning
28:31the favor.
28:35They create
28:36the U-2
28:37spy plane,
28:38the most
28:39technologically
28:39sophisticated aircraft
28:41in the world.
28:43It photographs
28:44Russia whilst
28:44flying so high,
28:46Russia can't hit it
28:48with their missiles.
28:48But in 1960,
28:52it all goes wrong.
28:59It turns out
29:00that the Soviets
29:01do have a weapon
29:02that can reach
29:03the U-2 spy plane
29:03and they probably
29:04shoot one down.
29:06Russia accuses
29:07the U.S.
29:08of illegal spying.
29:10U.S. ambassador
29:11to the U.N.,
29:12Henry Cabot Lodge,
29:13faces humiliation.
29:16He falls back
29:16on a classic
29:17political defense.
29:19They started it.
29:22Henry Cabot Lodge
29:23feels the need
29:25to justify
29:26the U-2 program,
29:27say, look,
29:27okay, yes,
29:28we were spying on them,
29:29but you know what?
29:30They were spying on us,
29:32and that's when
29:32he brings out
29:33The Thing.
29:35After eight years
29:36buried in the realms
29:37of classified technology,
29:39The Thing is suddenly
29:40center stage.
29:43A wooden carving
29:44and some bent
29:45pieces of metal.
29:46here was the
29:47clandestine listening device.
29:49I can only imagine
29:50that Theremin
29:50was incredibly flattered
29:52because on the one hand
29:54you have
29:54the most sophisticated
29:56piece of aerospace
29:58engineering
29:58ever developed
30:00until this time.
30:02And then on the other hand,
30:04you have
30:05a bit of metal.
30:07I mean,
30:07that's a great little
30:08comparison to have
30:09if you're the guy
30:09that invented
30:10the second one.
30:12Despite The Thing's fame,
30:14its connection
30:15to Theremin
30:15is obscured
30:16by the Soviets.
30:18It is decades
30:19before his name
30:20is finally connected
30:21to one of the most
30:22bizarre spy gadgets
30:23in history,
30:25The Thing.
30:34Locked away
30:35in a storeroom
30:35at London's
30:36Science Museum
30:37is a genuine
30:3819th century
30:39miracle machine.
30:41A 180-year-old
30:43mechanical engine
30:44that solves
30:45complex mathematical equations.
30:48Built more than
30:49100 years
30:49before the first
30:50electronic computer,
30:52it was the only one
30:53of its kind
30:53in the world.
30:55It's hard now
30:56with all our modern computers
30:57to think about
30:57just how ridiculous
30:58an idea this must have
30:59seemed at the time.
31:01Now,
31:02brought out of the shadows
31:04and painstakingly reconstructed.
31:09This
31:10is
31:10Difference Engine
31:11No. 1.
31:13It's a problem-solving machine.
31:16Standing 72 centimeters high
31:18and 61 centimeters wide,
31:212,000 precision parts
31:23of bronze,
31:24steel,
31:25and iron.
31:26Its cogs and levers
31:27are designed
31:28to solve equations
31:29previously only managed
31:30by thinking human minds.
31:33It's meant to transform
31:35science and engineering
31:36by eliminating
31:37lethal calculation errors.
31:40Nothing like it
31:41has ever been seen before.
31:43It was utterly
31:44out of the blue
31:46and seemingly impossible.
31:50It is designed
31:51to change the world.
31:53Who invents it?
31:55How does it work?
31:56And how exactly
31:58is this machine
31:59going to start
32:00a revolution?
32:06The early 19th century
32:07is an exceedingly
32:09exciting time
32:10within Britain.
32:12Steam power
32:12is on the rise.
32:14People are beginning
32:15to see how
32:16it can be exploited.
32:19Now,
32:19instead of human labor,
32:21you would use
32:21some kind of
32:22mechanized labor
32:23to do weaving,
32:24to do construction,
32:25to do mining.
32:26So that was really
32:27the notion
32:28that you were
32:29replacing the human
32:31with the machine.
32:33But this revolution
32:35depends increasingly
32:36on mathematics.
32:39You really had
32:41to churn out
32:42results,
32:44mathematical results,
32:45in the same way
32:46as you had to
32:47churn out textiles
32:48and production
32:50of other goods.
32:52And in an age
32:54before electronic
32:55calculators,
32:56these sums rely
32:57on printed
32:58mathematical tables
33:00to assist them.
33:02All of the calculations
33:03that went into
33:03mathematical tables
33:04in the 19th century
33:05were done by computers,
33:07but not computers
33:08as we understand
33:08them today,
33:09by human computers,
33:10people who'd sit down
33:11and do all the
33:12mathematics longhand.
33:15In 1820,
33:17the Royal Astronomical
33:18Society appoints
33:19mathematician
33:20Charles Babbage
33:21to investigate
33:22concerns about errors
33:23creeping into these
33:24tables.
33:25The consequences
33:27could be enormous.
33:28You could have
33:29bridges collapsing,
33:30you could have
33:30railways that stop
33:31short.
33:32All of this
33:33engineering,
33:34all of this
33:35expansion,
33:36all of this
33:36finance is reliant
33:38upon truly
33:40accurate maths.
33:42Small mistake,
33:43big consequences.
33:45Babbage is horrified
33:47by what he finds.
33:49There was huge scope
33:50for error.
33:51There'd be the person
33:51doing the calculations,
33:53then someone would have
33:53to copy it out
33:54into a table,
33:55then someone would have
33:55to try and typeset it
33:56for printing.
33:57So every stage
33:58of this process
33:59is scoped
33:59to introduce mistakes.
34:03Babbage looked at this
34:04and out of frustration
34:05actually stated,
34:07I wish I could construct
34:07these tables out of steam.
34:10And he thinks,
34:12maybe I can make steam
34:13do the job
34:14the brains do.
34:17This idea
34:18is so far ahead
34:19of its time,
34:20it seems crazy.
34:22Nobody else
34:23would come even
34:24close to that thought.
34:27Even with all
34:28the enormous advances
34:29of the Industrial Revolution,
34:32such an idea
34:32seems impossible.
34:35But this
34:35is vintage Babbage.
34:38Babbage was
34:39a 19th century
34:40polymath.
34:42These people
34:42tended to address
34:43the problems
34:44of the time,
34:45and these were
34:45problems
34:46of the Industrial Age.
34:48So questions about,
34:50for example,
34:51the economy
34:51and industry.
34:54Those included
34:55how to make machines
34:57better,
34:57to understand
34:58how machines worked.
35:00He was basically
35:01a mathematician,
35:02but a mathematician
35:03with an unusually
35:04practical bent
35:06to his interests.
35:08and he went on
35:11to become
35:11the Lucasian
35:12professor of mathematics,
35:14a post that had
35:14previously been held
35:15by Isaac Newton
35:16and would go on
35:16to be held
35:17by Stephen Hawking.
35:22And Babbage
35:23started young.
35:25Babbage was already
35:26showing signs of brilliance
35:27and a love of invention
35:28even as a child.
35:29He developed a device
35:30which he hoped
35:31would cause him
35:31to walk on water
35:32and nearly drowned
35:33in the process.
35:34So perhaps
35:35it's not so surprising
35:36that somebody
35:37with this
35:37adventurous mind
35:39would be the sort
35:41of person
35:41to think
35:41adventurous thoughts.
35:45Babbage imagines
35:47a machine
35:47unlike any
35:48built before.
35:49Two and a half meters high,
35:52weighing over
35:523,600 kilos
35:54and made of
35:55more than
35:5625,000 parts.
35:58This was going to be
35:58a true computational machine,
36:00not just an addition
36:01subtraction device.
36:04It will solve
36:05an equation
36:05called a polynomial
36:07from which
36:08key tables
36:09such as logarithms
36:10are calculated.
36:12And it will do this
36:14using a mathematical
36:15approach called
36:16the method
36:16of differences.
36:18So he calls it
36:19the difference engine.
36:26In 1823,
36:28Babbage persuades
36:29the British government
36:29that he can solve
36:30all their human
36:31computer problems.
36:33And they believe him.
36:36It's important
36:37to remember
36:37that this experimentation
36:38wasn't just a bit
36:39of random tinkering.
36:40This is a bloke
36:41became perhaps
36:42the most
36:43eminent
36:45maths professor
36:46of his age.
36:48The government
36:49advances him
36:501,500 pounds,
36:51the equivalent
36:52of almost
36:53200,000 pounds
36:54today.
36:55And in 1832,
36:57Babbage produces
36:58this.
37:00Difference engine
37:01number one.
37:03A prototype
37:04for Babbage's
37:05ultimate dream.
37:07Babbage's prototype
37:08was only about
37:09a third the width
37:10and height
37:11of the machine
37:11that he eventually
37:12had planned.
37:13This was already
37:15an impressive machine.
37:162,000 different
37:17brass and steel parts.
37:18and it works.
37:20It can
37:21reliably
37:23calculate
37:25the squares
37:25of numbers
37:26or the cubes
37:26of numbers
37:27or solve
37:28simple
37:28quadratic equations.
37:31Babbage's
37:31idea
37:32not only works
37:34but can be
37:34made to work
37:35in reality.
37:37It seems
37:38Babbage's
37:39self-belief
37:39is actually
37:40justified.
37:40but how
37:42does this
37:43astonishing
37:44machine
37:44actually work?
37:47You'd set it
37:48up to carry
37:48out what we
37:49now call
37:50an algorithm.
37:51So a set
37:52of steps
37:54that automatically
37:56then give you
37:56your result.
37:58But in an era
37:59long before
38:00electronics,
38:01all he has
38:02to do it
38:02with are
38:03metal cogs
38:04and levers.
38:07Difference
38:07engine number
38:08one uses
38:09a series
38:09of numbered
38:10toothed drums
38:11arranged
38:12one above
38:12the other.
38:14The actual
38:15arrangement
38:15of the numbers
38:17are going
38:17up in columns.
38:20So each
38:20numbered drum
38:21up a column
38:21represents
38:22units
38:23then tens
38:24hundreds
38:25thousands
38:26and so on.
38:28If a drum
38:29moves beyond
38:30nine
38:30and back
38:31to zero
38:31a carry
38:33mechanism
38:33adds one
38:34to the drum
38:35above.
38:36At the start
38:37all the drums
38:37are set
38:38to particular
38:38numbers depending
38:39on the planned
38:40calculation.
38:41You can think
38:42about this
38:42as arrangement
38:43of columns
38:44all turning
38:45in synchrony
38:46to do the
38:47computation itself.
38:49First,
38:50the middle
38:50column adds
38:51its values
38:52to the right
38:52column.
38:53Then the left
38:54column adds
38:55to the middle
38:55column.
38:57And the final
38:58answer is revealed
38:59on the rightmost
39:00column.
39:01And it really
39:03works.
39:05Difference
39:05engine number
39:06one is a work
39:07of genius.
39:08The perfect
39:09solution to one
39:10of the most
39:11pressing problems
39:12of the new
39:12industrial age.
39:14Truly accurate
39:15mathematics.
39:17But this
39:18prototype
39:18difference engine
39:19is as far as
39:20Babbage's grand
39:21design ever gets.
39:23The full machine
39:24is never built.
39:26What goes wrong?
39:28The full-size
39:31difference engine
39:32requires 25,000
39:34parts.
39:35And these must
39:35all mesh
39:36perfectly with
39:37each other.
39:38So every single
39:39one must be made
39:40to an astonishing
39:41level of precision
39:42or the machine
39:43will not work.
39:45So one of the
39:46things that Babbage
39:47had to deal with
39:47was tolerance.
39:48Any machine
39:50system is not
39:51perfect.
39:51So you have to
39:52decide how much
39:53inaccuracy is going
39:54to be acceptable
39:54in the design.
39:55If your tolerance
39:56was too large,
39:57with 25,000
39:58mechanisms going,
40:00the machine
40:00could jam.
40:02In the early
40:0219th century,
40:04this level of
40:04precision is the
40:05equivalent of a
40:06moonshot.
40:08Babbage promises
40:09the government
40:10a finished machine
40:10in three years.
40:12But difference
40:13engine number one,
40:14which is just
40:15the prototype,
40:16takes nine.
40:19As well as the
40:20challenge of
40:21precision engineering,
40:23Babbage faces
40:23more personal
40:24hurdles.
40:25Because diplomacy
40:26is not his
40:27greatest strength.
40:29He could be a bit
40:30abrasive at times.
40:32He would complain
40:33about the noise
40:34of children playing
40:34in the street,
40:35the noise of a
40:36barrel organ,
40:36and be really quite
40:38forceful about it,
40:40which didn't always
40:40play very well.
40:42By 1832,
40:43Babbage's forceful
40:44style becomes too
40:46much for his
40:46engineer, Joseph
40:48Clement.
40:49He and Clement
40:50fall out big time.
40:51And after that,
40:52of course,
40:52the whole project
40:53begins to grind to a
40:54world without an
40:55engineer on board,
40:57it's not really
40:57going anywhere.
40:59By 1833,
41:01the government
41:02has paid Babbage
41:03the equivalent
41:03of two million
41:04pounds and got
41:05almost nothing.
41:08They pull the plug.
41:10Babbage's
41:11difference engine
41:12was never actually
41:12made during his
41:13lifetime.
41:14It never got beyond
41:15that small
41:15prototype.
41:16But Babbage is
41:17already thinking
41:18bigger.
41:19He conjures up a
41:21version of the
41:21difference engine's
41:22calculator, bent
41:23around into a
41:24circle so that it
41:26can feed itself
41:27with its own
41:27numbers.
41:28He calls it the
41:29analytical engine.
41:31The analytic
41:32engine had a
41:32property that Babbage
41:33called eating its
41:34own tail.
41:35It would cycle
41:36through its
41:36calculations and
41:38then it would make
41:38a decision based
41:39on those calculations
41:40on what it was
41:41going to do next.
41:44It's actually
41:44something I suppose
41:46you can say closer
41:47to a thinking
41:48machine.
41:49It's a problem
41:50solving machine.
41:51and, you know,
41:52problem solving is
41:53what brains do.
41:56It was basically
41:57a programmable
41:58computer.
41:59You could tell
42:00it what you
42:00wanted to do,
42:01you could change
42:01the task,
42:02it could alter
42:02its own memory
42:03during the process
42:04of the calculations.
42:07Any calculation
42:08that we can do
42:08with a modern
42:09computer could
42:10have been done
42:10by Babbage's
42:11analytical engine
42:12or at least a
42:12version of it
42:13that was sufficiently
42:13large.
42:16Mind you,
42:17it might have
42:18taken a while.
42:20If we were to
42:20try and create
42:21Babbage's analytical
42:21engine on a scale
42:22that could even
42:23begin to emulate
42:24some of the
42:24technology in your
42:25mobile phone,
42:26it would be the
42:27size of a mountain
42:28and might take
42:29a thousand years
42:29to execute even
42:30a text message.
42:31But, theoretically,
42:33it would be capable
42:33of doing so.
42:35But no one will
42:36stump up the cash
42:37for another
42:38Grand Babbage project.
42:42Difference engine
42:43number one
42:43is as far
42:44as he ever gets.
42:50But in 1991,
42:53100 years
42:54after Babbage's
42:55death,
42:56Difference engine
42:56number two,
42:57based on an
42:58improved design
42:59he drew up,
43:00is born.
43:01So these,
43:03you know,
43:03many thousands
43:04of metal components
43:06were put together,
43:07assembled,
43:07into this gigantic
43:08block of metal
43:10and it worked.
43:12It worked perfectly
43:13as soon as
43:13they switched it on.
43:16Babbage's ideas
43:17are centuries
43:18ahead of their time.
43:20Difference engine
43:21number one
43:22helps him conceive
43:23of a thinking machine
43:24for the very first time.
43:27So although Babbage
43:28doesn't end up
43:29inventing the modern world,
43:30he's the first person
43:32to imagine it.
43:33not gonna end up
43:36and you think
43:38we will do
43:39the next day.
43:40That's why
43:41you'll be
43:43underused.
43:45But you
43:45can only
43:46see
43:48you
43:48before
43:49the
43:50time
43:51comes
43:52when
43:52you
43:53take
43:54you
43:54and
43:55you
43:56have
43:56that
43:57you
43:58and
43:59you
44:00have
44:01that
44:01you
44:03Ευχαριστώ.
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