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00:00So, let's go.
00:54This is many people's vision of the world of the future.
00:58In many ways, it represents the world we already live in.
01:01Massive, complex, the end product of everything technology can do.
01:05A structure that depends for its existence on the production line
01:09and the world the production line has generated.
01:13That production line has done many things to us
01:16by giving everybody everything everybody else has.
01:18The same houses, the same daily routine of work,
01:21the same cars to go to that work, the same dependence on the clock,
01:25the same cities crisscrossed by roads that fill up twice a day,
01:29the same view of the world from the same television set,
01:32the same hopes, dreams, ambitions.
01:35Because of the production line, the world we live in has two faces.
01:39One is of immense variety.
01:42Travel anywhere fast.
01:43Eat food from the other side of the world.
01:45See the world from the comfort of your own living room.
01:47Dress like a peacock.
01:49All you need is money.
01:50The other face to our life isn't varied at all
01:54because all this only works if you have the energy you need
01:58and everybody's energy comes from the same limited source.
02:05This planet.
02:08That energy is the common fire that warms us all.
02:12But as the world has become more and more interdependent,
02:16more people rely on the same fire from the same oil well,
02:20the same electricity grid, the same boiler in the basement.
02:24We take it for granted and we use it as if it were unlimited
02:29because we like to be warm.
02:31But what will happen to us if it runs out?
02:34How will we manage if the cold comes again?
02:38As it did once before.
03:02Take yourself back a thousand years
03:05to another common fire burning in the isolated farmsteads of northern Europe.
03:09In their manor houses, the Saxons ate together
03:12and at night everybody, including the animals, slept together,
03:16huddled round that fire.
03:18The population was small, scattered in lonely communities across the land,
03:22each manor making its own clothing, tools, food,
03:27sharing what little there was.
03:29Winter is warmer than a warm cometh.
03:34That guy may sound a bit weird to you,
03:36but the travelling poet was a kind of wandering newspaper
03:39bringing stories of the outside world into their lives.
03:43Few people ventured out past the local fields.
03:45Beyond those fields lay nothing but forests full of bogeymen.
03:49You knew that because the storyteller told you so.
03:55No houses, no companionship, no people.
04:03Above all, no kinsmen to share work and food and the fire with.
04:07One of the reasons these tiny communities went on existing at all
04:11was because they had plenty to eat,
04:13because the weather was warmer then than now,
04:15so the growing season was longer.
04:17It didn't last, thanks to something extraordinary
04:20that happened outside.
04:40And the incredible thing is,
04:43it started here, in the frozen north.
04:53Another one of those totally unforeseeable events
04:56that causes things to change.
04:57In this case, the trigger was either something
05:00that happened on the surface of the sun
05:01or deep in the earth.
05:04Because it was either lack of sunspots
05:07or a lot of volcanic activity
05:09that caused the weather to change.
05:11And when that happened, everything changed.
05:16See, nobody knows for sure,
05:18but there appears to be a connection
05:20between sunspots and the weather.
05:22Less spots, less heat.
05:24And volcanic eruptions
05:26spew up vast veils of dust
05:28that hang, oh, about 30 miles up in the atmosphere
05:31and effectively screen out the sun's heat.
05:34Whichever it was,
05:35there was suddenly white Christmas time
05:37where there hadn't been before.
05:42Let me give you a small meteorology lesson.
05:45The temperature drops.
05:47That makes more ice
05:48up here in the frozen lands north of the Arctic Circle.
05:51And when that happens, glaciers like this one I'm on now
05:55start expanding and start to move south.
05:59That's what happened in the 13th century.
06:02And as these cold regions expanded,
06:04so too did the pack ice out at sea,
06:07growing, moving south.
06:09By 1250, there were icebergs in the Atlantic
06:12where none had ever been seen before.
06:14And land that had been fertile froze solid.
06:18That's when Greenland stopped being green
06:20and started being the colour it is today.
06:23This colour.
06:31Now, all this ice and snow and stuff
06:34up here in the frozen north
06:36caused the track of the Atlantic Depressions
06:38to swing south.
06:40And that's when the rest of Europe got it.
06:43And did they get it?
06:44All those monastic chroniclers
06:46stopped spreading rumours about what the abbot was up to
06:48and started writing things like,
06:50By God, it's cold.
06:53By 1300, if you had buttons,
06:56you'd have buttoned up.
06:57The rivers and lakes froze solid.
07:00Everywhere, it was like you were suddenly living
07:02500 feet higher up than you had been.
07:10Worst of all,
07:11the bad weather hit the food supply.
07:14This, wheat.
07:17It was either too wet for you to sow it
07:19or you had to harvest it in pelting rain.
07:22And then, without adequate drying systems,
07:24the wheat went mouldy on you.
07:26Now, why that was bad news
07:28was because this bread
07:30was king of the diet.
07:32Everything else you ate
07:33was quite literally known as
07:35only something that goes with bread.
07:39But for my money,
07:40what was infinitely worse
07:42was this.
07:44It got too cold
07:50to go vines north of France.
07:52And that was the end of the Chateau-bottled
07:54fruity little numbers from England.
08:00I said the change in the weather
08:02had a widespread effect,
08:03but not because of the food and the drink.
08:05Because it got too damn cold
08:08to stay alive in winter
08:09unless something pretty serious
08:11was done pretty quick.
08:13That something
08:13may well be in your home today.
08:16But when it originally appeared,
08:18the first thing it did
08:19was to change the shape
08:20of the old manor house, remember?
08:22For good.
08:27Thanks to the weather
08:28in this part of the world
08:29that kicked off
08:30the medieval Ice Age.
08:36Only about six generations
08:38after the mini Ice Age
08:40had set in,
08:41the upper classes in England
08:42were living in places like this.
08:44Hardwick Hall
08:45in Derbyshire,
08:47built for the Countess of Shrewsbury
08:49on money from her three husbands
08:51in 1597.
08:55Nice little place, isn't it?
08:57Amazingly modern.
08:58I mean, buildings
08:59hardly changed since this.
09:01And yet it's very different
09:02from that manor house
09:03you just saw.
09:05You could probably pick up
09:06a place like this
09:06for about a million.
09:08Bargain, really.
09:11Let me show you what you'll get
09:13for your money.
09:14Most of it
09:15because of that big freeze-up
09:17back in the 14th century.
09:19The very first thing I did
09:20when it started raining a lot
09:21was to lay paving
09:22to save themselves from,
09:24you know,
09:25walking in a sea of mud
09:25outside the houses.
09:29Next we come to the Great Hall,
09:31featuring an invention
09:32which you probably take for granted,
09:34but which back in the 12th century
09:35was the very latest improvement.
09:38Think about it.
09:39It's snowing a blizzard outside.
09:40You've got to keep warm.
09:42But how do you fix a fire
09:43so that it has its own draft
09:44so that you don't have to keep
09:46the doors open all the time
09:47and freeze to death?
09:48What do you give a fire
09:50so that it has its own draft?
09:52Yes.
09:53A chimney.
09:55But nobody knows
09:56where they got the theory from
09:57to build the chimney
09:58from metal workers or smithies,
10:00but what a difference it made.
10:02Look at this.
10:04That's the plan
10:05of the old manor hall
10:06you saw just now.
10:07And this
10:09is the plan of this house.
10:11Look at all those rooms.
10:12Now, you don't build those rooms
10:13unless you can heat them.
10:15The idea was
10:17that if you put a fire up
10:18against a wall like that,
10:18why not put a fire
10:19on the other side of the wall?
10:20They could both use the same flue.
10:22You'd get two fires
10:23for the price of one.
10:25Well,
10:26the first major change
10:27the chimney caused
10:28was the separation
10:30of the classes.
10:31The lords and ladies
10:32left the bedding
10:33down here in the great hall
10:34to the dogs
10:35and the servants
10:35and passing strangers
10:37and cleared off
10:37to live in their own
10:38private apartments.
10:39And the upper
10:40and lower classes
10:41never came that close again.
10:50Cozy little offices,
10:51don't you think?
10:52This was the next kind of room
10:54they put a fireplace into
10:55so that the scribes
10:56could do all their work
10:57right through the winter
10:58without the ink freezing
11:00in their ink wells,
11:01which it had done before.
11:03That did the European economy
11:05a real favour, you know.
11:06I mean, being able
11:07to conduct your business
11:08right the way through the year.
11:16Oh, like the staircase?
11:19What's new about that?
11:20It is.
11:21See, with fires in every room,
11:23you could build up
11:23just as well as you could build out.
11:25Servants downstairs, of course.
11:27Upstairs was warmer.
11:28It was getting so cold
11:30that even the painters noticed it.
11:31I mean, take a look at that Bruegel.
11:34Frozen ponds, snow everywhere,
11:36little village with the chimney pots working,
11:38see?
11:39Now, that was only worth painting
11:41because it was a totally new experience
11:43being that cold.
11:46Indoors, they hung cloth on the wall
11:48to keep out the draft
11:49and later on they turned into
11:50these fancy tapestries
11:51and they put rugs everywhere,
11:53even on the tables.
11:54They kept their bodies warm
11:56with two major 13th century inventions.
11:59Here's a bit of 13th century art.
12:02Very nice, too.
12:03But look what the Virgin's doing.
12:06See?
12:06One of those two inventions.
12:09Knitting.
12:11The second invention
12:12also kept people pretty snug.
12:15Buttons.
12:16And a lot less people down to cold.
12:18And now we come
12:20to the high great chamber.
12:23Not bad for a living room, is it?
12:25And everything again done for warmth.
12:26The woven matting on the floor.
12:28Oh, and look here under the tapestry.
12:29Wooden wainscoting,
12:30good against draughts.
12:32And admire, if you will,
12:32this very beautiful plaster work.
12:34That's originally a mini Ice Age idea.
12:37In the first place
12:38they put it around the chimney
12:38because it was fireproof.
12:40Then they put it on the walls
12:41to block up the draughty cracks.
12:43Then finally they moulded it
12:44and painted it like that.
12:46And as people's indoor lives got warmer,
12:48their habits changed.
12:49They started playing more games
12:50like, oh, backgammon,
12:53drafts, shuffleboard.
12:54There was a lot more music,
12:56a lot more reading,
12:57a lot more intellectual activity in general.
13:00Oh, and a lot more furniture.
13:03But the place where the biggest change
13:05took place was here,
13:06in the bedroom.
13:09Private little place, isn't it?
13:11Never used to be like that.
13:12Everybody used to sleep in the hall.
13:13But with separate fireplaces,
13:16sleep and undressing and sex
13:18became things you only did in private.
13:21Our modern preoccupation with privacy
13:24starts here.
13:28So does cleanliness.
13:30Hot fires, hot water,
13:33hot baths.
13:34And if it got too cold
13:36to go to the toilet outside,
13:37well, you could always try one of these,
13:38indoor, portable varieties.
13:40Note the padded seat for winter use.
13:42Or you could build yourself
13:43one of those rather rude
13:44half-inside, half-outside affairs,
13:46like that.
13:48Another Bruegel.
13:50In the 14th century,
13:51you could eat in your private dining room
13:53by the fire.
13:55And hygiene began to affect table manners.
13:58You washed your hands before dinner.
13:59You used a fork.
14:01There were separate table settings
14:03and there were separate chairs
14:05instead of benches.
14:06And they used table linen.
14:08Already, it's remarkably modern.
14:11And, of course, the kitchen.
14:14Again, thanks to the fireplace,
14:17a separate room.
14:20By the 15th century,
14:22they knew enough about hot air
14:23going up the flue
14:24to put turbines in chimneys
14:26and run roasting spits with them
14:28via gears and a drive chain
14:30like on a bicycle.
14:31And hotter the fire,
14:33faster the turbine spins,
14:34quicker the meat turns,
14:36doesn't get burnt.
14:37Clever, eh?
14:42You must admit,
14:43it is a very nice piece of property.
14:45But why it matters so much to our story
14:48is that in every single one
14:49of its heated rooms
14:50it had this,
14:52a glass window.
14:54But it had so many more glass windows
14:57than anybody else
14:57that at the time
14:59this place was known as Hardwick Hall,
15:01more glass than wall.
15:25Now, this is just one of the places
15:26that got built in the great 16th century property boom.
15:29And as the houses went up,
15:31the forests came down.
15:38And these guys were the villains of the peace.
15:40The people cutting down trees
15:42to make charcoal for fuel
15:43for their glass-making furnaces
15:45to make the windows everybody wanted.
15:47So much wood was going up in smoke,
15:49the government passed laws
15:50to try and save the forests
15:52for the people who'd be really sunk without wood.
15:55And the navy.
15:57But by the beginning of the 17th century,
15:59things had got desperate.
16:01There had to be somewhere else
16:02the glass-makers could go
16:03and chop their firewood.
16:09And then they found the ideal place.
16:28See, glass-making needs sand and wood, mainly.
16:31And that's just what there was tons of here.
16:34And in 1608, it was all absolutely free.
16:38The one-year-old colony at Jamestown, Virginia,
16:41was built on sand.
16:42And as for forests,
16:43you couldn't see the wood for the trees.
16:46So the master plan
16:48was to send glass-makers over here
16:50to get on with it.
16:52By the boatload.
17:03If you think about it,
17:05things must have been pretty far gone
17:06to try a harebrained scheme like this.
17:09I mean, 4,000 miles in a leaky boat
17:12to make glass surrounded by Indians and wild animals?
17:16Well, they managed to talk a grand total of eight idiots
17:19into coming to blow bubbles in America.
17:21But one hard winter,
17:24and they all gave up.
17:44The plot now shifts from glass to iron
17:46for one of the oldest reasons in the world.
17:49We come now to one of those deeply meaningful moments in history
17:52when things change because of the basic drives in mankind.
17:56You know, a belief in progress,
17:58fundamental insight into the nature of things,
18:00a dogged persistence in making ideas work,
18:02the joy of discovery, that sort of thing.
18:04The extraordinary change that was to happen
18:07because of the failure
18:08to bring boatloads of glass-makers here to Jamestown
18:10was a result of one of those visions people have.
18:13In this case, the desire to make as much as possible,
18:17as fast as possible, of this stuff.
18:22Money.
18:51So, if you're ready for a devious tale
18:53in 1566 found copper.
18:55Now, the other thing Elizabeth wanted to do
18:57was to get the wool market back on its feet
19:00so she could tax it,
19:02but she didn't have enough brass
19:04to make these carding combs
19:06essential in the production of wool.
19:08So, some more German miners,
19:11with an eye to financial gain,
19:13came over and in 1566
19:14they found
19:17calamine,
19:18one of the essential ingredients in making brass,
19:20near Bristol.
19:22Now, the metal-making boom that followed
19:24used wood for furnace fuel
19:26just as fast as the glass-makers had.
19:28And then, in 1611,
19:31enter Sir Edward Zanch,
19:33a crafty courtier,
19:35with an eye for a fast buck,
19:36who says,
19:37me and my partners
19:38have come up with
19:39an absolutely brilliant solution.
19:42Let's use coal to make glass.
19:45So, Zouch gives the king
19:47£1,000
19:48and in return
19:49the king gives Zouch a monopoly
19:50to use his new coal furnace
19:52to make glass.
19:53Well then, Zouch runs out of money
19:55and along comes a settancer,
19:58Robert Mansell,
19:59who, guess what,
19:59owned coal mines,
20:00who gives Zouch some more money
20:02to pay off his debts
20:03and buys him out.
20:05One year later,
20:06Mansell gets the king,
20:08amidst rumours of bribery,
20:11to make it illegal
20:12to make glass with anything but coal.
20:15And then he really starts coining it.
20:17Well, in 1622,
20:19Mansell gets hauled up
20:20before a court
20:21by his competitors
20:22and listening to him on the jury
20:24is a certain Viscount Grandison,
20:25who, hearing all about these things,
20:27immediately goes into the lucrative business
20:30of coal furnaces.
20:31Well, his grandson eventually sets up
20:34using coal to smelt lead near Bristol.
20:37And then one day,
20:38when he doesn't pay his partners
20:39and what he owes them,
20:40one of them leaves him
20:41and goes off and starts smelting copper,
20:44also near Bristol.
20:47So, by now in Bristol,
20:49there's a great deal of copper and calamine
20:50and brass begins to look very profitable.
20:53So, in 1699,
20:55a young Quaker called Abraham Darby turns up.
20:57Now, he knows about brass
20:59because he's been making malt mills
21:01for the people who make beer.
21:04So, he decides there's a lot of money
21:06to be made in brass household utensils,
21:08which he makes
21:09until he notices the Dutch
21:10making a great deal more
21:11out of iron pots.
21:14So, he goes into that.
21:16In 1709,
21:17he moves to nearby Coalbrookdale,
21:19where he's heard
21:20there's a lot of good coal to be had
21:21for not very much money.
21:23Now, because his old mates
21:25in the brewing business
21:26used coke to dry their malt,
21:28he tries coke in his furnace,
21:30and because the coke is pure,
21:32he makes iron without impurities in it,
21:34and everybody but everybody
21:36wants to buy it.
21:39So, here we are
21:40at a totally new way
21:41of making iron
21:42thanks to inventive genius.
21:45And, of course,
21:46that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,
21:49and a lot of that.
21:50Still, on with the story.
21:52All this mining activity in England
21:54had created
21:55a totally new kind of problem,
21:57and Abraham Darby,
21:59clever, resourceful,
22:00and rich,
22:02was just the man to solve it.
22:06The problem Darby eventually solved
22:08first appeared here,
22:10off the Cornish coast.
22:15Most of the mines
22:16south-west of Bristol
22:17went out under the sea,
22:19so they flooded.
22:27By 1700,
22:28the flooding was so bad,
22:29the mining industry here
22:30was in a state of crisis.
22:33The crisis was resolved
22:35by a couple of fellows
22:35living in Dartmouth,
22:37whose livelihood
22:37depended on the mines.
22:39One was an ironmonger
22:40called Thomas Newcomen,
22:41and the other one
22:42was his partner,
22:43John Cayley,
22:43who was a plumber.
22:45Now, Newcomen knew
22:46about the flooding
22:47in the mines
22:47because he did business
22:48with them.
22:49So, what he did
22:50was to put together
22:52a few ideas
22:53that, oh,
22:54a dozen people
22:54had tried before him
22:55and failed with,
22:57introduced one new
22:59major component,
23:00and had himself
23:01a disastrous accident
23:02that showed him
23:03exactly how to make
23:03the thing work properly.
23:10Part of why it worked
23:11was because of the brewers.
23:13They were boiling up
23:14their malt in boilers
23:15made of copper,
23:16which would take
23:16plenty of heat
23:17and pressure.
23:18So, Newcomen grabbed
23:19that idea
23:20to help him
23:21with his idea.
23:25This was the result,
23:27the Newcomen engine.
23:31What Newcomen did
23:32was to build a cylinder
23:33with a piston inside it,
23:35and then underneath it
23:36he put a boiler
23:37of the kind
23:37that the local brewers
23:38were using.
23:40His new component
23:41was that,
23:42fixing the top
23:43of the piston
23:44to a chain
23:44and fixing the chain
23:46to the great beam
23:47so that as it
23:48seesawed up and down,
23:49the other end
23:50worked the pumps
23:51that lifted the water
23:52up from the mine.
23:54How he made it work
23:55was like this.
23:56Around the cylinder,
23:57he built a jacket
23:59with cold water
24:00inside it
24:01to keep the temperature
24:02of the cylinder down.
24:03Right.
24:04The steam comes up
24:05from the boiler
24:05into the cold cylinder
24:07where it condenses.
24:08that makes a vacuum
24:09and the atmospheric pressure
24:11on top of the piston
24:12then pushes the piston
24:13down into the vacuum.
24:15When it's right
24:16at the bottom,
24:17the weight on the other end
24:18of the beam
24:19lifts the piston
24:20back up again,
24:21more steam comes in
24:22and the cycle continues.
24:24Now, it didn't work
24:24all that well.
24:26And then one day,
24:27the cylinder developed
24:28a leak
24:28and the water
24:30in the jacket
24:30went through the leak
24:31into the cylinder
24:32the precise moment
24:33it was full of steam.
24:34Caused the steam
24:35to condense instantaneously
24:36and made such a good vacuum
24:38that the piston
24:39came roaring down
24:39the cylinder
24:40went through the bottom
24:41of the cylinder
24:41and buried itself
24:42in a boiler.
24:43And the minute Newcomen
24:44saw that,
24:45he knew he'd got it made.
24:46So he booked himself
24:47another cylinder,
24:48no jacket this time,
24:49but with a system
24:50that permitted
24:51a controlled jet
24:52of cold water
24:52to go into the cylinder
24:54each time it filled
24:55with steam
24:56so that on each cycle
24:57he'd got a good vacuum
24:58and a faster stroke.
25:00The engine went into
25:01the mines
25:02for the first time
25:03in 1712
25:04and it was an instant
25:05and total success.
25:06Everybody wanted one.
25:07And that gave Newcomen
25:08a really big headache
25:09because he'd been making
25:11the cylinders out of brass
25:13and in those days
25:13brass was way too expensive.
25:15So somehow,
25:17somewhere,
25:17a cheaper cylinder
25:18had to be found.
25:33You remember the fellow
25:34I told you about,
25:35Abraham Darby,
25:36who'd gone off
25:37to make iron pots
25:37at Colebrookdale
25:38near Bristol?
25:39Well,
25:40this is where he comes
25:41back into the story
25:42because this
25:43is Colebrookdale.
25:44By the time Newcomen
25:46was looking for
25:47a cheaper metal
25:47than brass
25:48for his cylinders,
25:49Darby's crowd here
25:50had come up
25:51with the answer.
25:52Do you remember
25:53Darby used Coke fires
25:54to melt his iron?
25:56Coke's clean
25:57so the Coke fumes
25:57don't dirty the melting
25:58iron in the furnace
25:59so it comes out pure
26:01and strong enough
26:02to make cheap cylinders
26:03for Newcomen's engine.
26:15Well,
26:16you can guess
26:17where we go next,
26:18for a minute or two anyway,
26:19the steam engine.
26:20But to get there
26:21took two coincidences.
26:24The first one happened
26:25when the Newcomen engine
26:26had been working happily
26:28all over the place
26:28for about 50 years.
26:30In 1763,
26:31there was a model
26:33of the Newcomen engine
26:34like this one
26:34in Glasgow University
26:35and it broke down.
26:37So they asked
26:37the university repairman
26:38to fix it.
26:40While he was fixing it,
26:41he realised
26:41that the Newcomen engine
26:42was really not as efficient
26:43as it could have been
26:44for this reason.
26:47As the jet of water
26:48came into the main cylinder
26:50to condense the steam,
26:51it also cooled
26:53the cylinder down
26:53so that the next time
26:55the steam came
26:55into the cylinder,
26:56it began to condense
26:57a little bit early
26:58and that repeated
26:59each time the cycle occurred
27:00and the cylinder
27:01got colder and colder.
27:02He realised
27:03that what you had to have
27:04was a cylinder
27:04that would do
27:05two jobs at once.
27:06It had to be boiling hot
27:08so that the steam
27:08wouldn't start
27:09to condense early
27:10and it had to be cold enough
27:12when necessary
27:13to condense the steam.
27:14Now you can't do that
27:15with one cylinder.
27:16So he built another one
27:17connected to the main cylinder
27:19with a tube.
27:20Around that second cylinder
27:21he ran cold water
27:23to keep the temperature down
27:24and he had a pump there
27:25in order to get a vacuum
27:26in that cylinder.
27:28OK.
27:28The steam comes
27:29into the main cylinder
27:30and it's sucked
27:31immediately into
27:32the second cylinder
27:33where it condenses
27:34instantaneously.
27:35The vacuum then forms
27:37through the whole system
27:37and the main piston
27:39comes down.
27:40The man who developed
27:41that separate condenser
27:42was called James Watt
27:44and he now had a machine
27:46that was so efficient
27:47that the precision
27:48with which the cylinders
27:49were made
27:49just wasn't up to it.
27:51The pistons
27:52didn't have a good fit
27:53and they wobbled around.
27:54It took one more step
27:56before Watt could say
27:57that he had
27:58a full-blooded
27:58efficient steam engine
27:59and that next step
28:01happened because
28:02of some trouble
28:03artillery regiments
28:04were having in France.
28:11In 1773
28:13the French army
28:13asked an English iron maker
28:15called John Wilkinson
28:16if he could solve a problem.
28:18See, instead of firing
28:19their cannons kept on
28:21doing this.
28:24Not too good for morale.
28:27It was probably
28:28the French connection
28:29that spurred Wilkinson
28:31to develop this
28:32a new way
28:34of boring cannon barrels
28:35and he did it in 1774
28:37in his iron works
28:38in Staffordshire
28:39back in England.
28:39Now, much of what he did
28:41wasn't new.
28:43He took a solid
28:44cast iron cannon
28:45on the grounds
28:46that if you make a cannon
28:48in one piece
28:48it's less likely
28:49to blow up
28:49when you fire it
28:50and he mounted it
28:51horizontally
28:52and then using
28:53horse power
28:54or water power
28:55he spun it.
28:56Now, that wasn't new either.
28:59What was new
29:00was this
29:00a screw and cog system
29:02for advancing a bar
29:04very slowly
29:06towards the cannon
29:07so that the cutting head
29:09on the end of the bar
29:10enters the cannon
29:12dead centre
29:13and then
29:14bores it out
29:15with extreme accuracy.
29:19Now, if you could do that
29:21to a cannon
29:21you could do it
29:22to a cylinder
29:23and by this time
29:24that was just what
29:26James Watt had been
29:27waiting 12 long years for.
29:29In 1775
29:30Wilkinson delivered
29:31the first cylinders
29:32to Birmingham
29:33to Watt's works
29:34and the age of steam power
29:36had arrived.
29:39You know,
29:40the steam engine
29:41is a beautiful example
29:42of how innovation happens
29:44bit by bit.
29:45There's the
29:46mine draining problem
29:47Newcomen's engine
29:48the brewer's boiler
29:51Watt's condenser
29:52Wilkinson's cannon borer.
29:54No one man
29:54does it all.
29:56In spite of the myth
29:57James Watt
29:58did not invent
29:59the steam engine
29:59he only invented
30:00a vital bit of it
30:01and it's only when
30:02all the bits
30:03come together
30:04that the final form
30:05of the steam engine
30:06comes into existence
30:08and when it does
30:09that's when it causes
30:11widespread change
30:12change to occur
30:12in this case
30:13the industrial revolution.
30:29This is the standard view
30:31of the industrial revolution
30:32black satanic machines
30:41but although these machines
30:42slammed the world
30:43into the industrial age
30:45didn't they just
30:45they did something else too
30:47something genetic.
30:55Steam power began
30:56by changing the shape
30:58of the countryside
30:58with the mines
30:59and the factories.
31:00It went on
31:01to change the people
31:02themselves
31:02genetically
31:04because when it was
31:05used for transportation
31:06on the new railways
31:08people started marrying
31:09much further afield
31:10not just the girl next door.
31:12The travel bug
31:13hit everybody.
31:24Thanks to John Wilkinson's
31:26cylinders
31:26steam power
31:27was to take people
31:28all over the world
31:29all over the world
31:29and now
31:30it would no longer matter
31:31to a ship's captain
31:32which way the wind
31:33was blowing
31:33with steamships
31:34like these
31:36still running
31:36on the Italian lakes.
31:38Why are we on
31:39an Italian lake?
31:40Well that's something else
31:41that has to do
31:42with Wilkinson.
31:47Now the dynamic world
31:49of iron and steam
31:50made a lot of people
31:51a lot of money
31:52including of course
31:53John Wilkinson
31:54the man from whom
31:56everybody bought
31:57their steam engine cylinders
31:58which is just as well
31:59because he needed the cash.
32:01Well he didn't.
32:02His brother-in-law did.
32:04You see
32:04at the impressionable
32:06age of 18
32:06his sister Mary
32:08married a man
32:08called Joseph Priestley
32:09a Protestant minister
32:11who failed in the pulpit
32:12because he had a stammer
32:13a bit of an amateur scientist
32:15he discovered oxygen
32:17and to judge by his letters
32:21a real creep
32:22because he married Mary
32:23for her money
32:24and when he discovered
32:25she didn't have any
32:26he sponged off her brother.
32:32Well in 1767
32:35he and Mary
32:36found themselves
32:37living in Leeds
32:37next door to a brewery
32:39where Priestley
32:40divided his time
32:41between preaching badly
32:43and sniffing
32:44scientifically
32:45around the place
32:46next door.
32:47Now during this
32:47scientific sniffing
32:48he discovered
32:50that there was
32:50a nine inch layer
32:51of gas
32:52floating above the beer
32:53in the vats
32:54and it did very
32:55mysterious things
32:55like candles
32:56went out in it
32:57and mice died in it.
32:59Ether
33:00didn't seem to do
33:01very much at all
33:02but before he had a chance
33:03to find out why
33:03he dropped a load of it
33:04into the beer
33:05and the brewer slung him out
33:06but not before he had
33:08also discovered
33:09that if you
33:10poured water
33:11from one glass
33:12into another
33:12back and forth
33:13in the gas
33:14the gas
33:15the gas
33:15went into the water
33:15and made fizzy bubbles.
33:26Mmm
33:26tasted great.
33:28Priestley had invented
33:29soda water.
33:31The fact that the Navy
33:32refused to
33:33try it out
33:34as a possible cure
33:35for scurvy
33:36only whetted
33:37Priestley's appetite.
33:39By 1770
33:40he was using
33:41gun barrels
33:41made by his
33:42brother-in-law John
33:43free of charge
33:44of course
33:45and heating substances
33:46up in them
33:47and exploding the gases
33:48that came off
33:49using the new
33:50electric spark
33:51that was around
33:51at the time.
33:53Well he got so excited
33:54about these bangs
33:54he was making
33:55that he wrote
33:56to a fellow investigator.
33:58The letter begins
33:59I've only just received
34:00your two letters
34:00because apparently
34:01they were sent
34:02with an Italian singer
34:02who's only just got here
34:03and then goes on
34:05to detail the rest
34:06of his new discoveries.
34:08And this letter
34:09is why we are
34:10on a lake
34:11in northern Italy
34:11because it was sent
34:13to a man called
34:13Alessandro Volta
34:14who lived here
34:16in Como
34:16and quite by accident
34:19the letter arrived
34:21in just the right place
34:22at just the right time.
34:31It was the right place
34:33because Como
34:34was surrounded
34:34by marshland
34:35and what happened
34:37next has to do
34:38with the fact
34:39that marshland
34:39can be very unhealthy.
34:42It was just the right time
34:44because when Priestley's letter
34:46arrived
34:46Volta had just finished
34:48inventing
34:49a new way
34:50of making the spark
34:51that Priestley was using
34:52to explode his gases with.
34:53It was a kind of
34:54portable electricity generator
34:56and it was to turn out
34:58to be absolutely vital
34:59in the business
34:59of identifying bad smells.
35:02Let me explain.
35:04Priestley's letter
35:05sent Volta off
35:06on a trail
35:06that everybody else
35:07was on at the time
35:09investigating what kind
35:10of gases were mixed up
35:11in air.
35:12Now some people
35:13like Priestley
35:13got substances
35:14and burned them
35:15and exploded the gases
35:15that came off.
35:16Other people
35:17put acid on metal
35:19and looked at the fumes.
35:21Volta?
35:21Well, he went fishing.
35:23In 1776
35:24his boat was in
35:26an area of reeds
35:28in a marshy part
35:28of Lake Maggiore
35:29when he couldn't help
35:30noticing that some bubbles
35:32were coming up
35:32from the marsh.
35:35I say he couldn't
35:37help noticing it
35:38because the smell
35:39practically made him
35:40throw up.
35:41But in true
35:42investigative style
35:43he approached
35:43the mysterious stuff
35:44with a lighted taper.
35:47Marsh gas.
35:48Methane.
35:49Only Volta called it
35:50inflammable air.
35:54At this point
35:55he got out
35:56his portable
35:56electricity machine.
35:59Pretty much
36:00all that was known
36:00about electricity
36:01at the time
36:02was that
36:02if you rubbed
36:03certain substances
36:04they gave off sparks.
36:06Now Volta
36:06chose this substance.
36:08It's a cake
36:09made of
36:09three parts turpentine
36:11and one part wax.
36:12And if you rub it
36:13with a
36:13cat skin
36:16briskly
36:16like this
36:19and then put
36:20this lid
36:21on top of it
36:22and then make
36:23contact between
36:23the lid
36:24and the metal
36:24base
36:25like that
36:26that lid
36:27now has
36:27a fairly stiff
36:28charge of
36:28static electricity
36:29in it
36:30and it will
36:30retain that
36:31charge
36:31almost permanently
36:32which is why
36:33Volta called this
36:34his eternal
36:35electricity machine.
36:38Now
36:38Volta used to
36:40carry this
36:40charged lid
36:41around
36:41as a power
36:42source for
36:43his next
36:43invention
36:44which was
36:44based on
36:45Priestley's idea
36:46of using
36:46an electric
36:47spark
36:48to explode
36:48gases
36:49only Volta
36:50did it
36:50with style.
36:51He had himself
36:52a glass
36:53pistol made.
36:54See?
36:55Two wires
36:56from the outside
36:57run in
36:57to the inside
36:59where they
36:59almost meet.
37:00What you do
37:01is you fill
37:01the pistol up
37:02with inflammable
37:02air
37:03put a cork
37:04in the end
37:04of it
37:04then very
37:05carefully
37:06earth that
37:06wire
37:07and bring
37:08the lid
37:08over
37:09until it
37:09touches the
37:10other wire
37:10at which
37:11point
37:11the current
37:12runs down
37:12the wire
37:13jumps across
37:14the gap
37:14forms a spark
37:15ignites the
37:16inflammable air
37:16and
37:24Volta had
37:25two great
37:25ideas immediately.
37:26The first
37:27was to turn
37:27this into
37:28the new
37:28terror weapon
37:29the electric
37:29glass bomb.
37:31Never got
37:31anywhere of course
37:32but the second
37:33was that this
37:34was an excellent
37:35instrument for
37:35finding bad
37:36air because
37:37he'd already
37:38proved that
37:38bad air
37:39exploded.
37:40At the time
37:41everybody thought
37:42that malaria
37:42came from bad
37:43air.
37:44Malaria is
37:45Italian for
37:45bad air.
37:46So for the
37:47next 30 years
37:48people went
37:49around poking
37:49the new
37:50instruments at
37:50cesspits,
37:52bogs,
37:53dung heaps,
37:54sewers,
37:55you name it.
37:56If it was
37:56indescribably
37:57awful they'd
37:58sniff it.
37:59Now the
37:59bad air brigade
38:00became really
38:01rather fashionable.
38:02Napoleon in
38:04his North
38:04African campaign
38:05ordered a
38:05bad smell map
38:06of Egypt to
38:07be made.
38:08Now there's
38:08a thought.
38:10Of course they
38:10were all on
38:10the wrong trail.
38:11Malaria had
38:12nothing at all
38:12to do with bad
38:13air.
38:14So in the
38:15long run the
38:15electric pistol
38:16was a bit of a
38:17flop.
38:17And there it
38:18might have
38:18ended.
38:19Except for what
38:20happened about
38:211850 in the
38:23Arctic Ocean.
38:29By then these
38:30Yankee whaling
38:31ships were
38:32having to go
38:32up to the
38:33North Pacific
38:33to find whales.
38:34The Atlantic
38:35was almost
38:35fished out.
38:36So the price
38:37of whale oil
38:38for lamps
38:38was rocketing.
38:40In 1859
38:42a bogus army
38:43colonel dug a
38:43hole in
38:44Pennsylvania
38:45and found
38:46the answer.
38:47Oil.
38:49Our hero's
38:50name was
38:50Edwin Drake
38:51and thanks
38:52to him
38:52there'd be
38:53oil lamps
38:53forever.
38:54Well, what
38:55else could
38:55you do with
38:55it?
39:06Now, I'm
39:07sorry to do
39:08this to you
39:08but do you
39:08remember Priestley
39:09and his soda
39:10water?
39:16Well, guess
39:17where his soda
39:18water went
39:18over very
39:19big?
39:20Germany.
39:20In the
39:21health resorts
39:22full of
39:22people taking
39:22their punishment
39:23I mean
39:24cures with
39:24Teutonic
39:25thoroughness.
39:26Gallons of
39:26sulphur water
39:27forced down
39:28with every
39:28mouthful of
39:29lettuce.
39:30No wonder
39:30they went
39:30for Priestley's
39:31fizz.
39:31You ever
39:32tried straight
39:32sulphur water?
39:34Anyway, it
39:35was at one
39:35of these
39:36spas that
39:37something got
39:37done to
39:38that oil
39:38they discovered
39:39in America.
39:40Something that
39:41involved Priestley
39:42yet again.
39:52this funny
39:53little workshop
39:54in a garden
39:54is in a
39:55spa town
39:55in Germany.
39:56It's called
39:57Bad Cannstatt
39:59and it's in
40:00what is now
40:00a suburb
40:01of modern
40:01Stuttgart.
40:03And it was
40:04here that a
40:05couple of men
40:06called Gottlieb
40:07Daimler and
40:08Wilhelm Maybach
40:10found another
40:11use for oil
40:12that was to
40:13produce one
40:14of our modern
40:15world's most
40:16vital and
40:16most commonplace
40:17inventions.
40:18Both men
40:19up until
40:201882 had
40:21worked for
40:21the company
40:22that made
40:22auto engines.
40:24They were
40:24used to power
40:25everything from
40:25sewing machines
40:26to saws.
40:28You had a
40:28cylinder with a
40:29piston in it.
40:30As the piston
40:31went down it
40:31sucked in a
40:32mixture of
40:32town gas
40:33and air.
40:35Then the
40:35piston came back
40:36up again and
40:36compressed the
40:37mixture.
40:37You lit the
40:38mixture, it
40:39exploded, it
40:39pushed the
40:39piston down
40:40again.
40:40The piston
40:41came back
40:41up yet
40:42again, this
40:42time pushing
40:43the exhaust
40:44fumes out.
40:45And then when
40:45it went down
40:46again it
40:46brought in a
40:47new fresh
40:48mixture and
40:49the cycle
40:49continued.
40:50There were
40:51two things
40:51wrong with
40:52that.
40:52One, it
40:54weighed a
40:54tonne and
40:55two, you
40:56couldn't go
40:56anywhere with
40:57it because you
40:57had to stay
40:58connected to
40:58supply of
40:59town gas.
41:00What Daimler
41:01and Maybach
41:02did was to
41:03replace the
41:03town gas
41:04air mixture
41:05with a
41:06by-product of
41:06oil called
41:07gasoline which
41:09explodes easily.
41:10Too easily.
41:14This was their
41:15first attempt
41:16here.
41:17In 1883, Maybach
41:19designed a
41:20system to pass
41:20hot air which
41:21came in here
41:22over the top
41:23of gasoline which
41:25was being pumped
41:25up from a little
41:26reservoir down here
41:27and as the hot air
41:28passed over it, it
41:28picked up the
41:29gasoline fumes and
41:30the mixture went on
41:31round and into the
41:31engine cylinder.
41:33Now, the other end
41:34of that hot tube there
41:36sticks into the
41:37cylinder and it's the
41:38other end of that
41:38hot tube that causes
41:39the mixture to
41:40explode.
41:40Now, the strength
41:41of the explosion
41:42depends on the
41:43mixture and you set
41:44that pretty well
41:45once and for all
41:46with this air valve
41:47here and then you
41:48trundle off at your
41:49one and only speed.
41:50It was in 1892 that
41:53Maybach made his
41:54really great invention
41:55and this is where
41:56Priestley comes back
41:57into the story.
41:58You see, Priestley's
42:00work on various kinds
42:01of air and soda
42:02water and so on
42:02excited a great deal
42:03of interest among
42:04the medical circles
42:05and they decided that
42:07bad air caused
42:07disease and in order
42:09to get rid of the
42:10bad air, they turned
42:11to scent sprays to
42:13fumigate places like
42:14hospital rooms.
42:15Now, the scent spray
42:15works very simply.
42:16You use this bulb
42:17here to puff air
42:19through a tiny nozzle.
42:21In the middle of that
42:22nozzle, it narrows
42:23for a moment.
42:24At that precise point,
42:25the air speeds up
42:27and its pressure drops.
42:30At that point,
42:31you inject a jet
42:31of perfume.
42:32Now, because the air
42:33is at low pressure,
42:34the perfume atomises
42:36into tiny droplets
42:37and you get a spray
42:39like that.
42:41And that is precisely
42:43what Maybach did
42:45with his invention
42:46with the gasoline.
42:48This is it.
42:49It's called a carburettor.
42:51Now, the great thing
42:51about the carburettor
42:52is that with it,
42:53you can regulate
42:54the mixture exactly
42:55and since it's
42:56in a very fine spray,
42:57the explosion
42:58is a very efficient one.
42:59And that's why
43:00it was the carburettor
43:01that gave the Daimler
43:02Motor Company
43:03its head start
43:04over every other rival.
43:22I said Daimler got a head start.
43:24Well, in a manner of speaking
43:26because that still left
43:27the customer with the problem
43:28of getting any kind of start.
43:40still, if you persevered,
43:42hmm?
43:51By 1895,
43:52anybody who was anybody
43:53had one of the new
43:54horseless carriages.
43:59by 1896 in England,
44:01they even stopped
44:01making you have a guy
44:02walk in front with a flag.
44:21by 1899 it became obvious
44:23that igniting the mixture
44:25was a matter of great precision,
44:27especially when your piston
44:28was going up and down
44:29a thousand times a minute.
44:29And the old hot tube method
44:32just wasn't good enough.
44:33More often than not,
44:34it just stayed red hot
44:35and it ignited the mixture
44:36prematurely when the piston
44:38was in the wrong position
44:39and sometimes it blew up the car.
44:41It was one of Daimler's distributors,
44:43a man called Jelenik,
44:44who pushed hard
44:45for a new form of ignition
44:47and in 1899,
44:48Daimler adopted a system
44:49that was the direct descendant
44:51of Volta's pistol
44:52because in this engine,
44:54the ignition happens
44:55because of an electric spark.
44:57In this engine,
44:57everything comes together.
44:58Newcomen's piston,
45:00Drake's oil,
45:02the scent spray
45:02and Volta's pistol.
45:04And it was such an amazing success
45:06when they raced it
45:07on tracks like these
45:08that the company was so pleased
45:09that they called it
45:10after the daughter
45:11of the distributor
45:12who had the idea
45:12in the first place
45:13and her name was Mercedes.
45:16Now,
45:17Daimler's engines
45:18didn't just go into cars,
45:19he did an awful lot
45:20of demonstrations
45:21with the engine in boats.
45:22So it didn't come
45:23as a surprise to the company
45:24when in 1901,
45:26they got an order
45:27from a fellow
45:28who was living
45:28on the edge of a lake
45:29in Austria.
45:43This is the short story
45:45of one Wilhelm Kress,
45:46short because
45:47he didn't last long.
45:48He was a piano maker
45:50who gave up
45:50tickling the ivories
45:51in favour of designing
45:52a new terror weapon
45:53for the Austrian navy,
45:54took the idea to Vienna
45:55and sold it to the emperor
45:57in spite of the fact
45:58that Austria
45:59didn't actually
45:59have a navy at the time.
46:10Back home
46:11on his little lake
46:12outside town,
46:13Kress started assembling
46:14his infernal machine
46:15and ordered a Daimler engine
46:17which he said
46:18had to be of an absolutely
46:19exact power
46:20and exact weight.
46:22Unfortunately,
46:22somebody at the factory
46:24boomed
46:24and sent him an engine
46:25twice as heavy
46:27as poor old Kress
46:28had asked for.
46:37in 1901 Kress launched
46:39his contraption
46:39and massive engine,
46:41too massive,
46:42chugging,
46:42he spluttered along,
46:44far too slow
46:45to skip over some debris
46:46he suddenly saw
46:47floating in his path.
46:51Ah, the rewards of genius.
47:00Still, other people
47:01did take up the idea
47:02of using an engine
47:03the way Kress had.
47:04Well, not quite.
47:06It was to be
47:07another 30 years or so
47:08before the gasoline
47:10motor car engine
47:11was dropped
47:11in favour of another one.
47:12And even then,
47:13the new one
47:14still used Maybach's
47:15fuel system
47:16and the scent spray idea.
47:18The latest versions
47:20of that engine
47:20cruise along
47:21carrying hundreds
47:22of people at speeds
47:23that Kress could never
47:24have thought possible.
47:25They crossed the oceans
47:26of the world
47:27without a thought
47:28for floating debris,
47:29turning holiday making
47:30into the world's
47:31fastest growing industry
47:32with ports of call
47:33in every country.
47:35So, that's where
47:36this trail of events
47:37has brought us
47:38to a present day invention
47:40capable of annihilating
47:41distance or people.
47:43The direct modern descendant
47:45in the peaceful variety
47:46of Wilhelm Kress's failure
47:48is this,
47:50the Concorde.
47:51the modern jet aircraft
47:53and all that that implies
47:55because what Wilhelm Kress
47:56was trying to do
47:57was to get a seaplane
47:59off the water
48:00of that lake in Austria
48:01and had he done so
48:02he would have beaten
48:03the Wright brothers'
48:04first flight
48:05by two years
48:06and instead of a couple
48:07of American bicycle mechanics
48:09all the glory
48:10or the blame
48:11would have gone
48:12to an Austrian piano maker
48:14who dreamt he could fly.
48:45We'll see you next time.
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