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00:00Oh, my God.
00:57Oh, my God.
01:00...continents at virtually the speed of light.
01:31Without long-distance communication, the modern world would not function as it does.
01:36That's obvious.
01:37Take this equipment, for instance.
01:39It's a receiving system in contact with a navigational satellite 600 miles up,
01:44circling the Earth north-south so that as the Earth turns beneath it,
01:48the satellite covers the entire globe.
01:51Now, as it comes over, it broadcasts two things.
01:53It says where it is, and it sends out a continuous note at a very precise frequency.
01:59Now, if you compare that note to the sound, say, of the whistle of a train,
02:03as the train comes towards you and goes away, the note rises and then falls, like this.
02:12Now, the way the note rises or falls depends on where you hear it from.
02:17If you knew exactly where the train was,
02:20then what you were listening to would tell you where you were
02:22because you'd only hear it that way in that place.
02:24And that's what this equipment does.
02:28There's the receiver locking into the signal from the satellite.
02:36Now, the computer is working out the one location on Earth
02:39where a satellite at that particular point in space would give it the noise it's hearing.
02:44OK.
02:45Here's where we are.
02:47North, 43 degrees, 42 minutes, 12.1 seconds.
02:53East, 4 degrees, 43 minutes, 18.8 seconds.
02:58Right, you check those numbers out on a map, and this is where it says we are.
03:02South of France, near the town of Arles, at a position accurate to within 30 feet,
03:08precisely there where it says there is an ancient aqueduct.
03:13There it is.
03:19Telecommunications can pinpoint somebody, like that did.
03:23Or because he picks up a telephone.
03:25Or because he's on a computer data bank.
03:28We organise ourselves better because of that.
03:31The question is, how well organised will we become?
03:36Too well?
03:38To a certain extent, the modern world would fall apart without that organisational ability.
03:44The new community of nations that has grown up from the bits and pieces of the old European empires,
03:49the French, the English, the Dutch, the Spanish, the Portuguese,
03:53is held together because we can organise.
03:56But what will that organisational network, that communications network, do to us next?
04:04Well, the answer to that question may lie in the past,
04:07because this kind of situation's happened before.
04:10The last time a world empire fell apart was about 1,500 years ago.
04:15Then the empire was Roman.
04:23Now, this is the accepted view of the fall of Rome.
04:26You know, rape and pillage, destruction the way Hollywood does it.
04:30But what really let the barbarians walk all over the Romans
04:33was something it won't take you a second to sympathise with.
04:37The taxes were too high.
04:38To pay for the army that was losing all the battles,
04:41and a bunch of freeloaders in government,
04:43and of course, to pay for thousands of civil servants.
04:46So, for the Western Romans, better the barbarian you didn't know
04:50than the tax collector you did.
04:52So, the place fell apart.
04:54The imperial provinces cracked up into small barbarian kingdoms.
04:59And all that big-time stuff you have to have with imperial government,
05:03you know, superhighways, theatres, aqueducts,
05:06were no longer worth the upkeep.
05:08That's why we're here, outside Arles.
05:10This aqueduct fed the biggest industrial complex in Europe with water
05:14to run the wheels of the great grain mills at Barbagal.
05:17Twenty-eight tonnes of flour a day,
05:20a technological marvel perhaps to be lost forever in the chaos.
05:24All through this period, the so-called Dark Ages,
05:27the one organisation that still functioned internationally,
05:30still travelled the Roman roads when nobody else would,
05:33handling the king's local and foreign affairs
05:34because its members could still read and write,
05:37was the church.
05:38It had a fully operational network of communications
05:41from bishop to bishop throughout Europe.
05:43And that's what held things together.
05:45The church then was like our telecommunications now.
05:49And so the knowledge that the monks had accumulated gradually spread.
05:53Knowledge like how Barbagal had worked with the great water wheel
05:56and the gearing system that made it so efficient.
05:59And in the end, by the Middle Ages,
06:02look what they did with that wheel.
06:05Here's the wheel being operated by water.
06:07And here's the gearing system,
06:09turning the horizontal movement vertical,
06:11then horizontal again, and then vertical again
06:13in order to operate the millstones.
06:16Here's another system operating a trip hammer
06:18for bashing things like mineral ore or cloth or leather,
06:21soften it up.
06:22Here's a system that operates a similar trip hammer device,
06:24but it's to work a suction pump for a water supply.
06:28Same system again, operating two levers,
06:30pressing on bellows for a blast furnace.
06:33And finally, over here,
06:34a crank that turns a circular movement
06:37into back and forward movement for a sawmill.
06:40Beautiful system.
06:42So, put yourself in their position.
06:44The wars are all over.
06:45There's loads of productive land everywhere.
06:47You've got water coming out of your ears
06:48and an amazing machine to use to harness the power.
06:51What would you do?
06:53Yes, you'd have yourself a medieval industrial revolution.
07:05The great thing about these wheels
07:07was that they were easy to make
07:08and they'd work almost anywhere.
07:11You lived up a mountain, hollow a few trees out,
07:14and you had yourself a wooden aqueduct.
07:21Horizontal wheels didn't need gears
07:23because they spun millstones directly above.
07:26You could turn a vertical wheel
07:27with water falling from above
07:29or flowing past below in a river.
07:31And with gears,
07:32you could slow down the effect of a fast stream
07:34or speed up a slow one.
07:38Water power made you a lot of bread,
07:40in both senses.
07:42But the star of the show was this,
07:44the cam.
07:46With a cam,
07:48you can trip hammers to pound things with,
07:50harder and faster than any human being.
07:56And build yourself mills to work.
07:58Timber, oil, grain, leather,
08:00cloth, iron, beer,
08:02wire, sugar, coin,
08:03you name it.
08:29It took a lot of energetic monks
08:31to get it all together.
08:32Now, they were energetic
08:34because in 1098,
08:36a bunch of Benedictines,
08:37fed up with the luxury and the ritual,
08:39lit out for the wild country
08:40and the simple life.
08:42And St. Benedict's original idea
08:44that hard work was good for the soul.
08:46But it was the way
08:47these Cistercians organized themselves
08:49that turned them into
08:50a medieval multinational
08:52and gave Europe systems management.
08:57See, each monastery
08:59had to be self-sufficient in food.
09:00So they cut back on the praying
09:02and added six hours labor a day.
09:04They went into rearing animals,
09:07clearing and draining land.
09:09They went out looking for new plants.
09:10they could grow
09:11and they wrote each other
09:12reports on the latest developments.
09:14Like this one,
09:15growing vines on bad land,
09:17hillside terraces.
09:23They used all the technology available,
09:26wine presses, water mills,
09:27iron foundries.
09:29A Cistercian Abbey was like a corporation
09:30with the special advantage
09:32that at the end of a hard day's business
09:34they served the house wine
09:36and the company canteen.
09:42Mind you, the food wasn't that hot.
09:44No meat.
09:45They sold all that.
09:46Just vegetables,
09:47nettle soup,
09:48a few roots,
09:49bread,
09:50and silence
09:51while you listen to instructive selections
09:53from the corporation handbook
09:54on getting spiritual
09:55and managerial strategy right,
09:57otherwise known as
09:58the rule of St. Benedict.
10:08Well, with this kind of organization,
10:10how could you fail?
10:11Within a century,
10:12there were nearly 600 Cistercian monasteries.
10:24These monks did everything
10:26with fanatical discipline.
10:27Nothing got in the way.
10:28No fancy architecture
10:30or ritual or colour
10:31to distract from the corporate image
10:32of efficiency.
10:33And as their lands
10:34and their management techniques developed,
10:36the news spread
10:37to the world outside.
10:47Maybe their single biggest success
10:49was their sheep-rearing techniques
10:50because by the 13th century,
10:52they were producing
10:53the best wool in Europe.
10:56So,
10:58there were the Europeans
11:00of the 12th century
11:01with all that amazing
11:02water power technology
11:04and the red-hot
11:06industrial management systems
11:08worked out by the Cistercians
11:10almost waiting for something to happen.
11:13Something that would
11:14generate enough money
11:16to trigger the economy
11:18off into high gear.
11:20And when that
11:21something happened,
11:24it was one of those examples
11:25of the way
11:26change can come about
11:28quite unexpectedly.
11:30Because
11:31the two inventions
11:33that were to trigger
11:34the great leap forward
11:35could never have been foreseen
11:37here in Europe
11:38because they came from China.
11:41The Arabs brought them to us.
11:43And what a gift
11:44they were.
11:47The first one
11:48of those Chinese gifts
11:50was a new loom
11:51and it immediately
11:52caused a problem.
11:53It speeded up weaving
11:55because the thread-lifting business
11:57was now done
11:58by foot pedals,
11:59not by the weaver's hands
12:00anymore.
12:01The new loom
12:02produced cloths so fast
12:03they ran into the problem
12:04of not enough yarn.
12:06See,
12:07up to then,
12:08you spun yarn
12:09in a way
12:09that hadn't changed
12:10for centuries.
12:11You teased the fibres
12:12out of the mass
12:13and hand-twisted them
12:14onto a spindle.
12:15Took hours.
12:17Then,
12:17in the 13th century,
12:19the second Chinese idea
12:20arrived
12:21and solved the problem
12:22because it produced yarn
12:23fast enough
12:24to keep up
12:24with the new loom.
12:26It was the spinning wheel.
12:28Early on,
12:29they didn't have much more
12:30than the wheel
12:30and the spindle.
12:31Foot pedals came later.
12:32But these two
12:34simple bits of machinery
12:36fitted together
12:37like bits of a jigsaw.
12:38And when they did,
12:40the places they were used
12:41got very,
12:42very rich.
12:50Places like Bruges.
13:13Bruges was one
13:14of the richest
13:15of the medieval cities
13:16built by the woollen trade.
13:17And if you know
13:18anybody called Draper,
13:19boy,
13:20were his ancestors
13:20well off.
13:21The cloth merchants
13:22made so much loot,
13:23they didn't know
13:24what to do with it.
13:25They built roads,
13:26canals, guild halls,
13:28cathedrals.
13:28They even had
13:29their own laws.
13:30And in spite of all that,
13:31they still had enough money
13:33left for high-technology music.
13:42Not just this kind of toy.
13:44The kind you can still hear
13:45in the cathedral towers
13:46all over Belgium,
13:47where the Carrion
13:49still plays.
13:53recognise the mechanism?
13:55It's the cam again,
13:57tripping levers
13:57that pulled wires
13:58that eventually pulled
13:59the clapper
14:00on one or other
14:01of a number of
14:01differently-tuned bells.
14:04You've set the cams
14:05in like pegs
14:06to trip certain levers
14:07and ring certain bells.
14:12Now, the reason all the good burgers
14:13had all these extra goodies
14:14was because they'd found
14:16a new market for their wool.
14:23See, all over Europe
14:25people now had surplus
14:26and surplus always looks
14:28for a ready market.
14:30South from Scandinavia
14:31and England and Flanders
14:32came fur and wool and cloth.
14:35North through the Mediterranean,
14:36through Genoa and Venice
14:37came silk and spices
14:38from the Far East.
14:40East from France and Spain
14:41came salt, wine
14:42and cordovan leather.
14:44And from Russia,
14:45fur, I suppose,
14:46everybody's crossroads
14:48lay in the county of Champagne
14:49at four little towns
14:51where they set up
14:52the first international markets
14:53called the Champagne Fairs.
15:02The biggest fair
15:03was held at Troyes,
15:04in those days
15:05half the size of London.
15:06And merchants turned up
15:07because they got a special
15:08safe conduct from the king
15:10and armed guards
15:11along the road.
15:12Of course, the town
15:13made a bit out of it too.
15:14You had to pay a license
15:15to set up your stall
15:16and there was a sales tax.
15:18Isn't there always?
15:19And you had to pay
15:20to come in and out of town.
15:22Not that any of this
15:23bothered the merchants.
15:24They just upped the price.
15:25Funny how some things
15:27don't change.
15:28Anyway,
15:29this international money-making
15:31went like a house on fire.
15:33Especially among those
15:34able to turn up
15:35with the very, very rare stuff.
15:37Like silk,
15:39where you really made a packet.
15:49Most of the really fancy stuff
15:51was brought by the Italians
15:52who practically ran the place.
15:54By 1275,
15:56there were no less than
15:5715 Italian cities
15:58who had consulates
15:59here in Troyes.
16:05The reason the Italians
16:07mattered so much
16:08was because
16:09when everybody got back
16:10from a crusade
16:11in the Middle East
16:12to their rather dull
16:14northern European town,
16:15all they could talk about
16:17were the amazing luxuries
16:19of the mysterious Orient.
16:20Silk, cinnamon, pepper,
16:23elephant tusks.
16:25Things which the Italians
16:26were very well placed
16:27to provide at the fairs.
16:29The Venetians,
16:30the Genoese,
16:31and the Pisans
16:32all had trading colonies
16:33all around the eastern Mediterranean,
16:35where they could pick up stuff
16:36from as far away as China.
16:38Well, there was so much money
16:39to be made here.
16:41And given the fact
16:42that the Genoese
16:43have always had a reputation
16:44for being where the profits are,
16:46it's not surprising
16:47that it was probably they
16:48who came up with a way
16:50to keep the financial ball
16:51rolling, so to speak,
16:52with this thing.
16:54It's an investment contract
16:55called a commender.
16:57Now, this is a copy.
16:58But this particular one
16:59was written
17:00on the 14th of November, 1244,
17:03and it's a contract
17:04between a travelling merchant
17:05called John of the Parish
17:07of Saint-Genesias
17:08and a draper called Otto,
17:10there's Otto,
17:11who is investing
17:1481 Genoese pounds
17:15as a share
17:17in a load of purple cloth
17:18and gold silk
17:19that John the merchant
17:20is bringing up here
17:21to the Champagne fairs.
17:22The agreement goes on
17:23to say that John
17:24can use his discretion
17:25as to where and when he trades
17:26on condition
17:27that when he gets back to Genoa,
17:29Otto gets detailed accounts
17:30and his share of the profits.
17:33This tatty bit of paper,
17:35which looks like
17:36an everyday affair thing
17:37you write in the back
17:37of an envelope, practically,
17:39represents a really
17:40fundamental innovation
17:42because it brought everybody,
17:44rich and poor,
17:45who had any spare cash
17:46in on the act
17:47and that spread the risk
17:48and that encouraged
17:50more merchants
17:50to go to more places.
17:52So the Champagne fairs
17:54and others,
17:55places like this,
17:56really boomed.
17:58CHEERING
18:06It looked as if good times
18:08were here to stay.
18:13And then at the beginning
18:14of the 14th century
18:15came a change in the weather.
18:17Freezing winters
18:18and rainy summers.
18:20Bad harvests followed
18:22and then famine.
18:24With little or no surplus crops
18:26to sell,
18:27money became tight
18:28and the fairs began to fail.
18:30All over Europe,
18:31people tightened their belts.
18:33And in this weakened condition,
18:35they were virtually defenseless
18:36against attack.
18:37And when it came,
18:39in 1347,
18:40the effect was devastating.
18:43All the more so
18:44because they had no defense
18:45against the enemy.
18:47It was a flea.
18:55The flea carried
18:56the Black Death
18:57and from when it arrived
18:58in Europe in 1347
19:00on board ship
19:01from the Crimea
19:01to when it receded
19:03only four years later,
19:04it killed maybe
19:0540 million people.
19:07200,000 villages
19:09were totally wiped out.
19:10At the height of the plague,
19:11there weren't enough living
19:12to bury the dead.
19:14The flea sucked the disease
19:16in rat's blood
19:16and when the rat died,
19:18it jumped onto people
19:18and bit them.
19:20The effect was appalling,
19:22from fever to abscesses
19:23in the groin and armpits
19:24to death inside 24 hours.
19:26Black pustules spread
19:28all over the body,
19:29which was why they called it
19:30the Black Death.
19:31The effects were particularly bad
19:33in the towns,
19:34packed with people busy
19:35making all that money.
19:36The plague ripped through them.
19:46And a new face appeared
19:48in all the pictures.
19:49And for those with itchy feet,
19:51a new kind of dance
19:52you could unexpectedly
19:53find yourself swinging to.
19:54The dance of death.
20:07One grimly enjoyable thing
20:08came out of it all.
20:09The people who died
20:10left their money
20:11to the people who lived.
20:13All they could hope for
20:14was that they'd survive
20:15to enjoy it.
20:20Well, no nightmare
20:21lasts forever.
20:22By 1351,
20:23the worst was over.
20:31When it was all over,
20:33the survivors went insane,
20:34trying to forget
20:35the horror they'd lived through.
20:36Life everywhere in Europe
20:38became one long
20:39hysterical shindig.
20:46People spent the money
20:47the plague had given them
20:48on the wildest outfit
20:49they could buy.
20:50If you were rich,
20:51silk embroidered
20:52with gold wire
20:53was the thing.
20:54The middle classes
20:55went into expensive
20:56little numbers
20:57in wool and velvet.
20:58And the peasants?
20:59Well, thanks to that loom
21:00way back
21:01and the fact that
21:02flax is cheap to grow,
21:04linen was their thing.
21:05Well, it was
21:05everybody's thing, really.
21:07In hats and shirts
21:08and bed sheets.
21:10And especially
21:11if you take an indiscreet look
21:13up the nearest girl's skirt,
21:15underwear.
21:16That, underwear.
21:18And just this once,
21:19that's the great historical trigger
21:21of change.
21:21What you're looking at now,
21:23yes,
21:24frilly knickers.
21:36This is the first result
21:38of the great 14th century
21:39bed linen and underwear boom.
21:41The guy who used to go around
21:43collecting bones for fertilizer
21:44now started collecting linen, too.
21:46He became a rag and bone man.
21:49Why?
21:50Well, that's the second result
21:51of everybody wearing linen
21:52because when they wore it out,
21:54they threw it away.
21:55So there was this great pile
21:57of linen rag.
21:58And guess who went bananas
22:00about that?
22:03OK, let me give you a clue.
22:04The first thing that happens
22:06to the linen in this process
22:07is that they take it
22:08and rip it against a knife
22:10to make the rags even smaller.
22:12And what is shredded linen rag
22:14absolutely perfect for making?
22:17Yes, paper.
22:21So the papermakers
22:22got an unexpected linen rag bonanza
22:25pounded by hammers,
22:26tripped again by the can.
22:35You bash the rag in water and gum
22:37for 48 hours
22:38and the sludge you get
22:40is paper pulp.
22:41Slosh that onto a wire mesh frame,
22:44count five,
22:44and you've got yourself
22:45a sheet of paper.
22:46Well, a sheet of very wet paper.
22:48So the next thing you do,
22:50no prices,
22:51is dry it.
22:52Funny coincidence,
22:53the wire mesh frame.
22:55A lot of wire makers about,
22:56making all that gold embroidery
22:58people had started wearing.
22:59Anyway, the paper.
23:00You lay each sheet
23:02between layers of wool and cloth
23:03to soak up the moisture.
23:05Looks more like a sheet of porridge,
23:06doesn't it?
23:11And when you've got a big pile of wool and wet paper sandwiches stacked up,
23:15you call the lads.
23:20All you do now is squeeze the pile in a press
23:22until you've got nearly all the water out of the paper,
23:25when you hang it up to dry,
23:27and that's all there is to it.
23:29Funny how it all comes together here in the paper mill.
23:31The water power to run the cams,
23:33tripping the hammers to make the pulp.
23:35The wine press come linen press
23:37to squeeze out the water.
23:39And thanks to the automatic loom,
23:41the linen that makes the pulp.
23:42And because of all that free linen,
23:45suddenly the cheapest thing around
23:46was paper.
24:02This is one of those moments in history
24:04when things come together like a jigsaw
24:07to produce something entirely new.
24:10Look at the bits we've got so far.
24:12Because of the linen,
24:13we have cheap paper.
24:15The Black Death is just over.
24:17So the economy of Europe is on the up and up.
24:21Administration is expanding.
24:23There are many more clerks needed
24:25to do all the paperwork.
24:26However, the Black Death has killed half the clerks off.
24:29So they cost a great deal.
24:32So we have extremely cheap paper,
24:34and the cost of a man who writes on it
24:36has gone up astronomically.
24:37What do you need to solve that problem?
24:41Yes, printing.
24:43And that's exactly what happened.
24:45But before the final bit of the jigsaw could be put into place,
24:48you needed one particular skill,
24:50the kind of skill, say, a goldsmith has.
24:54If you come upstairs with me, I'll show you what I mean.
25:01You see, printing had been around for centuries,
25:04in the case of the Chinese, for a thousand years.
25:06But it was printing with blocks, like this.
25:10The trouble was, those blocks, being made of wood,
25:13would tend to wear down,
25:14and in any case, they only did the one thing.
25:17Now, what our goldsmith friend did,
25:20and by the way, his name was Johann Gutenberg,
25:22and he lived in Mainz, in Germany, in the 1450s,
25:25he used his expertise with precious metal.
25:28He knew what that was, the hallmark,
25:31and he knew that the hallmark was made with a punch.
25:33So he took a punch,
25:34and he carved a letter on the end of it,
25:37and using the punch,
25:38he punched that letter into a soft copper bar.
25:41Then, he designed a mould in two bits,
25:45so that it comes apart.
25:47You put the mould together like that.
25:49You slide into the mould,
25:50the letter you want to make, any letter.
25:53Close it tight with a big spring.
25:56Turn it over.
25:59And then, very, very carefully,
26:01you put molten lead alloy
26:05into the mould, like this.
26:10Leave it for just a few seconds,
26:12and then you break the mould,
26:16and the letter is there,
26:21ready to print with.
26:24And that letter A will go anywhere on the page
26:27you want to put a letter A.
26:28It will go in the place of any other letter A.
26:30The mould makes all the letters,
26:31so they're all the same size.
26:33It makes all the spaces,
26:34so they're all the same size.
26:35So the printing is uniform.
26:36But it's the interchangeability of the letters
26:39that is at the heart of Gutenberg's invention.
26:43If you think about it,
26:44it was a good deal easier for a European to do
26:47than, say, for a Chinese,
26:49because the Chinese language
26:50has thousands of characters,
26:52and if you made every one of them,
26:54you'd need a space
26:55as big as this printing room in Antwerp
26:57just to store them in,
26:58whereas the Latin alphabet at the time
27:01only had 23 letters to be made.
27:04As for the printing itself,
27:05well, that was a bit of a cinch.
27:07This press was just an adaptation
27:11of a linen press
27:12that had been around for centuries,
27:14as had the ink and the paper.
27:20This is the first dated piece of printing
27:25we know of.
27:26There may be earlier ones,
27:28but this one has a date on it.
27:30And the people who did it
27:31were very proud of what they'd done.
27:32It's the introduction to a book of Psalms,
27:35and the text says,
27:37This work,
27:39adorned with the magnificence
27:40of capital letters,
27:42was fashioned
27:43with the use of a mechanical process
27:45for printing and making letters
27:46without the use of a pen.
27:48And then it says
27:49the name of the two men
27:50who were so proud of what they'd done,
27:51Joachim Forst
27:52and Peter Schoeffer.
27:55And then the date,
27:5614th of August,
27:581457.
28:05The coming of the book
28:07changed everything.
28:09Perhaps the most obvious change
28:11was the appearance of the bookshop,
28:13where you could come in
28:13and buy anything you wanted to read.
28:15Knowledge was no longer
28:17the private property
28:17of the priest
28:19or the prince
28:20or the scholar.
28:21If you could pay
28:22and you could read,
28:24it was all yours.
28:26The new book's also
28:28standardised spelling.
28:30They carried an author's name
28:32and they encouraged accuracy
28:34because the books
28:35could be widely read
28:36by people who knew more
28:37about the subject perhaps
28:38than the author himself.
28:40But perhaps most fundamental of all,
28:41the new books
28:42gave birth to the specialisation
28:44that is the blessing
28:46or the bane,
28:47depending on your point of view,
28:49of our modern world.
28:50Because, you see,
28:51the architects and the engineers
28:52started to write about
28:53what they knew
28:54in terms that only their
28:55co-professionals would understand.
28:58The generation
28:59that first read
29:00these new books
29:00could as easily
29:02turn its hand
29:02to the lute
29:03or the sword
29:04or the architect's drawing.
29:06And because of printing,
29:08they were the last generation
29:09to be able to do that.
29:11The coming of the books
29:12must have seemed
29:13as if it was going
29:14to turn the world
29:15upside down
29:15in the way it spread
29:17and democratised knowledge.
29:20And one of the few men
29:22responsible for that spread
29:23was an Italian
29:25called Aldus Minutius.
29:26And he realised
29:27that what people needed
29:28and wanted
29:29was cheap, standard books
29:32that they could carry with them
29:33anywhere they went
29:34in their saddlebags.
29:35And so he produced
29:35the world's first pocket edition.
29:38And he did so
29:39in what by 1500
29:40was the printing capital
29:42of Europe,
29:42Venice.
30:02used to blow their own trumpet
30:03a lot,
30:04the 16th century Venetians.
30:05Well, you couldn't blame them.
30:07There were, after all,
30:08more millionaires
30:09per square inch here
30:10than anywhere else in Europe.
30:12Biggest navy,
30:13biggest overseas
30:13commercial empire,
30:15biggest bank balance.
30:16Venice was queen of the seas.
30:18Of course,
30:18there was nowhere else
30:19she could have been queen of.
30:20Not much land in Venice.
30:26She was a city
30:27full of businessmen.
30:28And because of her connections
30:29with Constantinople,
30:31she was also full of Greeks,
30:32refugees from when
30:33the Turks invaded it in 1453.
30:36And it was the Greek connection
30:37that gave the printer
30:39Aldus Minutius
30:39his big chance.
30:48Because Aldus
30:49got the Greek refugees
30:50to work for him.
30:51And because of that,
30:52his books gave the world
30:53a taste for the knowledge
30:54and the style
30:55of ancient Greece.
30:59He turned out dictionaries
31:00and grammar books first
31:01so his customers
31:02could learn Greek.
31:03And then, of course,
31:04they could move on
31:05to reading the Greek books
31:06he would sell them.
31:07No fool he.
31:08Well, the new books
31:10got everybody turned on
31:11to matters ancient.
31:13One of the earliest bestsellers
31:14was a Roman thing
31:15on architecture
31:16that got people
31:17into big prestige building projects.
31:19People like Michelangelo.
31:31Thanks to Aldus
31:32and the Venetian printing presses,
31:33in 1500,
31:35only 50 years after Gutenberg,
31:36there were no less
31:37than 20 million books
31:38in existence.
31:39In 1515,
31:41Aldus died.
31:54Aldus Manutius was laid to rest
31:55with his books
31:56heaped around him
31:57as a mark of respect
31:58for what he'd done,
31:59which was to print
32:00every major Greek classic
32:02in existence
32:02and invent a new kind
32:04of letter type
32:04for his pocket editions.
32:06It was a kind of print
32:07that would pack a lot
32:07into a tight space.
32:09We call it italic.
32:10So now the world
32:11could start worrying
32:12about something
32:13it had never had to worry
32:14about before,
32:15the small print.
32:29But above all,
32:30thanks to books,
32:31the world learnt
32:32about Greek science.
32:34This was one of the books
32:35that made the greatest impact
32:36of all
32:37by the Greek hero
32:38of Alexandria.
32:39It details how to make
32:40machines using
32:41the natural forces
32:42of air
32:43or steam
32:44or water
32:44as power sources.
32:46It's really talking
32:47about complicated toys.
32:48But this book
32:49and others like it
32:51put the world
32:52of Greek science
32:53and the ancient past
32:54into the hands
32:54of the armourers
32:55and the architects
32:56and the engineers
32:57working for the princes
32:58and bishops
32:59of 16th century Italy.
33:01And look how the armourers
33:02immediately begin to work
33:03in the antique style.
33:04On this tapestry,
33:05this bunch of soldiers,
33:06they're using the latest
33:07in handguns,
33:08and yet they themselves
33:09are dressed like
33:10Caesar's centurions.
33:12As the wealth
33:14of the mysterious
33:14East and West
33:15began to pour
33:16into Europe
33:17and the population
33:18began to soar,
33:19the princes also
33:20began to embellish
33:21their growing cities
33:22with elaborate
33:23water supply systems
33:24operated by the same
33:26mechanical devices
33:27as were shown
33:28in the Greek
33:29and Roman books.
33:30And in their homes,
33:31the aristocrats
33:32would hang tapestries
33:33like this one
33:34containing scenes
33:35of fantastic inventions
33:36like the flying throne
33:37being carried into the sky
33:38by winged beasts
33:39that can never quite
33:41make the piece of ham
33:42above their heads.
33:43Or the mythical story
33:44of Alexander the Great
33:45exploring the oceans
33:47on board a submarine.
33:49What the princes wanted
33:50were things, toys,
33:52that would show off
33:53their wealth and position
33:54in a way that would
33:55amuse and impress
33:56their friends.
33:57And now,
33:58their armourers
33:59and their engineers
34:00had the techniques
34:00to do it.
34:02One of the most famous
34:03armourers of the time,
34:04a fellow called
34:05Bartholomew Campi
34:06switched, for example,
34:08from making this
34:08rather complex armour,
34:10the gauntlet,
34:11to making things like this.
34:13It's a clockwork tortoise
34:15carrying the god Poseidon
34:17and it was used
34:18at the dinner table
34:19because they would
34:20set it down
34:22and it would take
34:23toothpicks
34:24from one guest
34:25to another
34:25around the table.
34:27The vogue
34:28for automatic machines
34:30spread everywhere
34:31and with the help
34:32of the hydraulic engineers,
34:33it spread in a form
34:34that would bring people
34:35hundreds of miles
34:36just to take a look.
34:49This is one of the best ones
34:50still working,
34:51the castle of Helbrunn
34:52outside Salzburg,
34:54built in 1615
34:55so the prince archbishop
34:56and his guests
34:57could have a little
34:58water-powered fun and games.
35:00The whole place works
35:01on water turbines
35:02running the familiar cylinder
35:04with pegs in it,
35:05operating 16th century Disneyland.
35:15The name of the game
35:16was to get the most
35:17unexpected things
35:18to spurt water
35:19all over the suckers
35:20who come to dinner.
35:21Everybody laugh,
35:22ha-ha,
35:22because the host
35:23was a prince.
35:24And besides,
35:25you got a free meal
35:26out of it all.
35:27Well, that's not all
35:28you got out of it.
35:41Of course, ha-ha,
35:42you couldn't get up
35:43until the prince did,
35:43and of course, ha-ha,
35:45he didn't need to.
35:49The craze for automatic machinery
35:50that spread through Europe
35:52came here, too, of course.
35:53Here, the pegged cylinders
35:55run an entire village
35:56of mechanical puppets
35:57working like the carillon
35:58in Belgium did
35:59on wires and levers.
36:01The whole thing's
36:01only 18 feet wide,
36:02and they packed
36:03113 little people
36:05into that space.
36:09Over the top of all
36:10this water-powered wizardry,
36:11there was a mechanical organ
36:12to drown the machinery noise.
36:14And as you left,
36:16the prince would politely
36:17raise his hat.
36:34Mechanical organs and things
36:35might have stayed just that
36:36if it hadn't been
36:37for another craze
36:38sweeping Europe,
36:39a mania for Chinese fashions,
36:40particularly in dress,
36:41when, at the beginning
36:43of the 18th century,
36:43very complicated patterns
36:45became all the rage,
36:46especially in France,
36:47and particularly in silk.
36:51By the beginning
36:52of the 18th century,
36:53the demand for this
36:54kind of pattern
36:55was giving the silk weavers
36:57of Lyon a real headache
36:58because silk weaving
36:59isn't just the simple
37:00over-and-under business
37:01of ordinary weaving.
37:02It's much more complicated.
37:03I mean, take a look at this.
37:04This already complicated pattern,
37:06if you follow it across,
37:07there, you see suddenly
37:09for about five threads
37:11that particular orange.
37:12So it comes in, say,
37:13at thread 530,
37:15and it disappears again
37:16at thread 535.
37:18Now, if you get that
37:19one thread wrong,
37:20you've blown it.
37:22Let me show you
37:23on this little model loom here
37:24how they cracked that problem.
37:27Every thread runs through
37:29a tiny ring on a cord
37:31so that if you want
37:32to lift the thread,
37:33you pull the cord up,
37:34the thread lifts,
37:35and in this case,
37:36the crossing thread
37:37would go underneath
37:37and in the final pattern
37:39not be seen.
37:40Now, if you tie together
37:42all the cords
37:43for all the threads
37:44that you want to lift
37:44into one bunch,
37:46then one pull
37:47will lift them all,
37:48like this.
37:54Now, in a complicated pattern,
37:56there would be a lot
37:56of those cords to pull,
37:58and the children
37:59whose job it was to do it
38:00would get tired
38:00and pull the wrong cords
38:01and maybe ruin a week's work.
38:02So, in 1725,
38:05a Lyonnais weaver
38:06called Basile Bouchon
38:07solved the problem
38:08because his father
38:10was an organ builder,
38:11because his father
38:12used these things
38:13for his automated organs.
38:15Remember the organs?
38:17Used the same cylinder
38:18with pegs in it
38:18to make music
38:19as they'd used
38:20in Belgium
38:21to work their bell-ringing
38:22carry-on,
38:23and they'd originally
38:24got that idea
38:25from the cams
38:26set onto the shaft
38:27of the paper mill.
38:29Bouchon saw
38:29that the piece of paper
38:31that you give to the carpenter
38:32to tell him
38:32where to put these pegs
38:33on the cylinder
38:34was in fact
38:36a kind of control mechanism.
38:38So he put it on a loom.
38:40Look.
38:42Each control cord
38:44comes over and down here,
38:45and whether or not
38:47it's moved
38:47depends on this
38:49horizontal needle here.
38:54Okay, now for the control mechanism part.
38:58What Basile Bouchon did
38:59was put a roll
39:01of purpurated paper
39:03up against the needles,
39:04the cross needles,
39:05and where there was a hole,
39:07the needles stayed put
39:08because they came
39:08through the holes.
39:09And where there was not a hole,
39:10as in the case
39:11of these four needles here,
39:12the paper pushed
39:14the cross needles
39:15so that all four needles
39:16and all their threads
39:17operated simultaneously
39:18like this.
39:25And to change the pattern,
39:26you simply move the paper
39:27along one row of holes.
39:28But the paper tore,
39:30and the weaver
39:31has placed it
39:32in the wrong position.
39:33So around 1740,
39:34another weaver from Lyon
39:35called Falcon
39:37came up with this idea.
39:38He put each pattern
39:40on a separate card.
39:41Now the card was more durable
39:42and you couldn't really mistake
39:44how you should position it.
39:46Around 1750,
39:47one of the greatest
39:48machine makers of all time,
39:50a man called Volcançon,
39:51who was also the inspector
39:52for silk factories,
39:53automated the entire process.
39:55He put the perforated roll
39:57around a cylinder
39:58and mounted the cylinder
39:59on a chassis
40:00which went backwards
40:00and forwards
40:01on water power like this.
40:02And as it did so,
40:03it clicked forward
40:05one row of holes
40:06automatically each time.
40:09Now, that was limited
40:10to how much paper
40:11you could put
40:11around the cylinder
40:12and it put men out of work.
40:14So for nearly 50 years,
40:16this loom moldered
40:17unnoticed here
40:18in the Paris Museum
40:19of Arts and Crafts.
40:21Until just after 1800,
40:22another weaver
40:23who happened to be here
40:24at the time
40:24was asked to put it together.
40:26And in doing so,
40:27he made a few changes.
40:28He put Volcançon's idea
40:30together with Falcon's cards
40:32and came up with this.
40:34It's automated
40:36and it has the advantage
40:37that if you want
40:37to increase the pattern,
40:39you simply add more cards.
40:41Now, for that minor amendment,
40:43he got all the glory
40:44because to this day,
40:45the entire concept
40:46is named after this man.
40:48This is a Jacquard loom.
40:50And boy,
40:51what a success that was.
40:54Well, not in France
40:55because the revolutionaries
40:56decided they didn't like
40:57fancy aristocratic patterns,
40:59but in England
41:00where the loom ended up
41:01making things like
41:02paisley shawls
41:03very popular
41:05and where these cards
41:06got picked up
41:07for a very different reason.
41:08They got used
41:10to control
41:10automatic riveting machines
41:12that by the mid-19th century
41:14helped to build
41:15the great new iron ships
41:16that were to make
41:17the crossing of the Atlantic
41:18safer and faster,
41:20just in time
41:21to handle
41:22the biggest load
41:22of passengers
41:23that any shipping lines
41:24have ever carried,
41:25the poor,
41:26huddled masses of Europe.
41:32And though they didn't know it,
41:34these immigrants
41:35were to trigger off
41:35the development
41:36of one of the modern world's
41:37most extraordinary invention.
41:42By the 1870s,
41:43the immigrants
41:44were stepping ashore
41:45on American soil
41:45at a rate of over 7,000
41:47every day.
41:48The journey across the Atlantic
41:50had taken anything
41:51from 12 days
41:52to three weeks
41:53and most of them
41:54travelled in conditions
41:55that varied from bad
41:56to appalling.
41:58Many of the bigger ships
41:59were designed
41:59with only one thing in mind,
42:00to carry as many immigrants
42:02as possible.
42:03And so,
42:05they came,
42:06in filth
42:07and degradation,
42:08packed in like cattle,
42:10treated much the same.
42:11The vast majority
42:12came to New York,
42:14at first to the immigration depot
42:16at Castle Garden.
42:17And then later,
42:18here,
42:19to the place
42:20that was to become
42:20a symbol both
42:21of everything
42:22that America offered
42:24and the terrible fear
42:26that at the very gates
42:27of freedom
42:28they would be turned away.
42:30Here,
42:31at Ellis Island.
42:42It took only a few hours
42:44to be accepted or rejected
42:45and much of that time
42:47was spent
42:48confused and bewildered
42:49waiting,
42:50clutching their cardboard
42:52suitcases
42:52tied up with string.
42:55Everything they possessed.
42:56Some of them,
42:58those who could write,
42:59even left their names
43:00on the walls
43:01as if to say,
43:03look,
43:05I made it.
43:17And then came
43:18the moment of truth.
43:20The point at which
43:20they either passed
43:21or failed
43:23the test
43:24to become American.
43:25What none of them
43:26could have known
43:26was how easy
43:27that test was.
43:28A quick look
43:29at the eyes,
43:30the hands,
43:30and the throat,
43:31and then the writing down
43:32of their particular details.
43:34The point at which
43:35many of them
43:35lost their old names
43:36because the inspectors
43:37couldn't spell them
43:38and they couldn't write them.
43:39So they became
43:40Smith,
43:41Brown,
43:42Jones.
43:44Eight out of ten people
43:46passed the test,
43:47but with one inspector
43:48handling 500 people a day,
43:50it was almost a case of
43:50if you could walk,
43:52you were in.
43:55In the 30 years
43:56between 1850 and 1880,
43:58nearly 8 million people
43:59got in.
44:00And as the country grew
44:01and the frontiers
44:02pushed west,
44:03the immigrants
44:04were swallowed up
44:05to disappear
44:06in the vast open spaces
44:07of this enormous country.
44:09The trouble was,
44:10every ten years,
44:11the government
44:11had to find them all again
44:12for the national census.
44:14And as the population
44:15soared,
44:16the paperwork
44:16for doing that
44:17became unbelievable.
44:19And then,
44:19in 1880,
44:21an army surgeon
44:22called John Shaw Billings,
44:24who was working
44:24on the census,
44:25was watching the mountains
44:26of paperwork
44:27being shuffled
44:28when he happened
44:29to mention to his
44:29young engineer assistant
44:30that he reckoned
44:31that the Jacquard cards
44:33with their punched holes
44:34ought to be able
44:35to carry information.
44:36You know,
44:36if a man was married,
44:37you'd punch a hole,
44:38and if he wasn't,
44:39you wouldn't.
44:41The young engineer,
44:43Herman Hollerith,
44:43worked on the idea
44:44and came up with this.
44:47It's called a tabulator,
44:48and it works on cards
44:49like these,
44:51the size of a dollar bill
44:52of the period.
44:52Now,
44:52Hollerith chose that size
44:54because they already had
44:55holders for dollar bills,
44:56and what that meant
44:57was he wouldn't have to
44:58design and build one himself.
45:00No fool.
45:01So,
45:02you put the card in here.
45:04Now,
45:05let's say we're talking
45:05about a white male
45:07aged 35
45:08who is single,
45:10lives in Maine,
45:10and came originally
45:11from Russia.
45:13Right.
45:13You punch
45:14white,
45:17male,
45:2035,
45:22single,
45:24the code for the state,
45:26Maine,
45:29and finally,
45:31Russia.
45:33Now,
45:34you take the card out,
45:35see the little holes,
45:36and put it into this press.
45:38Now,
45:39when you push this press down,
45:40these little needles here
45:42with springs on them
45:43either go
45:44through a hole
45:45or they don't.
45:48Remember Jacquard?
45:50And if they do go through a hole,
45:52they make electrical contact
45:53down there.
45:56And that triggers
45:57these counters up here
45:58one click forward.
46:00Now,
46:00depending on what you want to count,
46:01do you program the counters?
46:03Say you just want
46:04a general population figure.
46:05Then all these
46:06are the states and territories
46:07of which that is Maine
46:09and that one in the corner
46:10is the grand total.
46:12So,
46:12our man in Maine
46:13would add
46:14one to Maine
46:15and one to the grand total
46:16like this.
46:21and the bell told you
46:23and the bell told you
46:23you'd done it.
46:24Now,
46:24the census involved
46:26much more detailed analysis
46:27than that.
46:28So,
46:29Hollerith also designed
46:30a sorter,
46:30this cabinet
46:31with lots of boxes in it
46:32connected to the tabulator.
46:34Now,
46:34let's say
46:35you want to take
46:36a particular look
46:36at all 35-year-old men.
46:38What you do
46:39is program the tabulator
46:40so that when one of them
46:41comes under the press,
46:43it causes a particular box
46:44to flip open
46:45like this.
46:47And you pop the card
46:49into the box
46:51and at the end of the day
46:53you took out
46:54all the 35-year-olds
46:56and ran them
46:57back under the press
46:58to see where they all lived
47:00and to see
47:00how many of them there were.
47:01And you could do that
47:03with any bit of information
47:04on a card
47:05or any mixture
47:06of bits of information
47:07on a card.
47:09Well,
47:09the 1880 census
47:11had taken
47:12all over seven years
47:13to complete
47:13with a new tabulator,
47:15the 1890 census
47:16was finished
47:17in half that time
47:18and they checked
47:19the total twice.
47:2062,947,714.
47:35So,
47:36the trail has brought us
47:37from the water wheel
47:39to the loom
47:40and the linen it produced
47:42that made paper so cheap
47:43it spurred the development
47:44of printing
47:45of books
47:46that interested people
47:47in things like
47:48automated organs
47:49whose pegged cylinders
47:50gave the French silk weavers
47:52the opportunity
47:53the opportunity
47:53to run their looms
47:54with perforated cards
47:56that Hollerith used
47:57to count Americans
47:58who had once passed
47:59through this hall
48:00in Ellis Island.
48:02Gateway to the one country
48:04that more than any other
48:05would fall apart
48:05if it weren't for Hollerith's card
48:07used to program
48:09the computers
48:09without whose help
48:11the entire massive structure
48:12of the modern world
48:13would fall down.
48:16Most of the ancestors
48:17of the computer
48:18brought people pleasure.
48:19What will it bring us?
48:21And I'll see you in more dots.
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