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00:06Oh
00:30Woof, woof!
01:05I suppose a detective catches a crook
01:08because he follows a trail
01:10from one uniquely relevant event or person to another
01:14until he finds a unique piece of evidence
01:16that points to the only person in the world
01:19who could have done the deed.
01:21And strangely enough,
01:23the story I'm about to tell you
01:25about why modern detectives are able to do that at all
01:29follows exactly the same kind of trail
01:31from one unique character to another through history.
01:35Here's my first unique character.
01:38Steve Davis, one of the best snooker players in the world.
01:42You should see him in action.
01:44In fact, why don't you?
02:18Mr Davis is uniquely relevant to this detective story,
02:21not just for his unbelievable skill at the table,
02:25but to draw your attention to one of the tools of his trade.
02:31This, to all modern detectives,
02:33probably the most unique piece of evidence in history.
02:36But if I tell you any more, I'll give it away.
02:39Thank you very much, Steve.
02:41Thank you, and I've been asked to give you this.
02:44So, now you're thoroughly mystified,
02:46here's a tale of unique historical characters
02:49whose unique actions will lead us back to that unique ball.
02:52In a show entitled...
03:21And, speaking of individuals,
03:23I don't suppose there's ever been an individual
03:26quite like the one we call Renaissance Man.
03:28You know, those people who once knew everything
03:30and wants to know about everything.
03:31Like this guy, George Bauer.
03:34The first character in our historical detective story,
03:37and he was here in the 16th century at Bologna University.
03:55George Bauer was really quite a guy.
03:57He taught Greek, then Latin, then grammar.
04:01Then he went into physics, then chemistry,
04:03then linguistics, and then publishing.
04:05And then, in the middle of the 16th century,
04:08he came here.
04:09To northern Italy,
04:11to the best university in Europe.
04:13Because he'd finally decided what he really wanted to be.
04:22A doctor.
04:29This place had all the latest anatomy techniques and stuff,
04:32and the classes were jammed.
04:36Anyway, George finishes the course,
04:37and in time goes off to become a GP
04:40in a mining town in what would now be the Czech Republic,
04:43where he promptly writes a multi-volume reference book.
04:47But not about medicine.
04:49About mining, of course.
04:51After all, George is a unique Renaissance man,
04:53so mining is just another string to his bow.
04:59The book covered everything from surface operations
05:01all the way down to the bottom of a mine
05:04and anything you might do on the way.
05:06Ore-crushing, smelting, tunneling, ventilating.
05:09The illustrated manual of all a miner needed to know.
05:13Or rather, anybody interested in buying a mine needed to know.
05:18The first example in history of a technological bestseller.
05:22And our second piece of evidence.
05:25Now, if you bought a mine
05:27that George's assaying techniques showed
05:29was full of what you particularly wanted,
05:31I mean really valuable stuff like copper,
05:33then as a financial investor,
05:35you would know in advance
05:36that things financial were going to go with a bang.
05:45Copper was so valuable
05:47because it helped to make the Renaissance equivalent
05:49of the gift for the man who has everything,
05:51a bronze cannon.
05:53Because what you had to have in the 16th century,
05:56if you were a new nation,
05:57an ambitious king,
05:59a bunch of world explorers all fighting the Pope,
06:01which describes the countries of Europe
06:03one way or another at the time,
06:06what you absolutely had to have
06:08was firepower.
06:12Everybody was doing it.
06:13Hardly a 16th century week went by
06:15without a war somewhere.
06:16All made that bit easier
06:18thanks to the unique talents of George Bauer.
06:21Now, the only fly in the ointment
06:23for cannon-firing princes and such
06:25was that fighting battles back then
06:27wasn't like it is today.
06:28There was no such thing as a regular army,
06:30which gave them a particularly inconvenient problem.
06:34They couldn't get hold of money
06:36when they needed it
06:38to pay their mercenary troops
06:39when they wanted it,
06:40which was always yesterday,
06:41because there were no banks.
06:43Well, not banks we'd call banks.
06:49And even if you did find somebody
06:51with a bit of cash to help you out,
06:52the interest rates could be 30%.
06:56But as one famous mercenary said
06:58to Louis XIII,
07:00to go to war,
07:00you only need three things.
07:02Money, money, and money.
07:04What is this?
07:07Kings, of course, weren't stony broke.
07:09They just had cash flow problems.
07:12By the time you'd collected
07:13your annual taxes,
07:15tithes, rents, revenues,
07:17or whatever,
07:17your mercenaries had hightailed it
07:19to work for somebody
07:20who could pay them regularly
07:21every Friday evening.
07:23And all armies
07:24were mercenaries.
07:27Which is why the royals back then
07:29were up to here in hock
07:30to the next character
07:31in our detective story.
07:35Anton Fugger.
07:39Because he lent money
07:40to everybody from Russia
07:42to here in Hispaniola.
07:44In this case,
07:44to the particular royal
07:45who owned that palace
07:46down there
07:47at the end of the street.
07:52Nice piece of property,
07:53isn't it?
07:54Well, Hispaniola
07:55was the Caribbean headquarters
07:57for the conquest of America.
07:59But not even that
08:00would turn out to be enough
08:01to make up for
08:02the monetary miscalculations
08:03of this royal borrower.
08:06Because what was going on
08:07between him and Anton Fugger
08:09needed more collateral
08:10than even he had
08:12at the end of the day.
08:16Because nobody ever
08:17burnt the financial candle
08:18at both ends
08:19quite like this chap.
08:22Charles V of Spain,
08:23Europe,
08:24and the New World.
08:25Who was unique.
08:27Uniquely bankrupt.
08:28See, Charles hocked
08:29his entire income
08:30from Hispaniola,
08:32Spain,
08:33Naples,
08:34Sicily,
08:35Holland,
08:35and Austria
08:36so as to borrow
08:37a fortune from the Fuggers
08:39so as to bribe
08:40everybody in sight,
08:41kings and archbishops mostly,
08:43so as to vote him
08:44rather than the other
08:45candidate for the job,
08:46the King of France,
08:47the position of
08:48Holy Roman Emperor.
08:50Now,
08:51Charles wasn't poor,
08:52but not even all
08:54the boatloads
08:55of Inca gold and silver
08:56coming through this palace
08:57in Hispaniola
08:57on its way back to Europe
08:59was enough
08:59for that kind of debt.
09:01So,
09:02finally,
09:03he kind of declared bankruptcy
09:05and the Fuggers
09:06went out of business.
09:08And so did Charles,
09:10leaving his son,
09:11Philip II,
09:12with the royal crest,
09:14the royal crown,
09:15and a royal financial pain.
09:19Phil,
09:20a chip off the old block,
09:21tried solving the problem
09:22in the traditional manner
09:23by invading someone.
09:25Picked the wrong person
09:26to do it to, though.
09:27A uniquely talented woman
09:29called Queen Elizabeth
09:30of England.
09:39Elizabeth was running things
09:41in 1588
09:42when Philip made his plan,
09:44which was to head up
09:45the English Channel
09:46with an invasion fleet
09:47called,
09:48for psychological warfare reasons,
09:50the Armada,
09:51meaning
09:52tons of guns.
09:54Philip's grand plan
09:55was to wipe out
09:56the English Navy
09:57and the English Navy
09:57take over
09:58a fast-growing economy
09:59and get some money.
10:02As the shock news
10:03of the approaching
10:04Spanish megafleet
10:05reached the English
10:05naval high command,
10:07they were out
10:07having a quiet game
10:08of bowls.
10:10So, like any Englishman
10:12would in moments
10:13of impending disaster,
10:14they went on
10:15with their game.
10:16Hold on, hold on,
10:17hard luck.
10:18Because they knew
10:19that they could finish
10:20their match
10:21and still get out there
10:22before the Armada
10:23was within spitting distance
10:24and still clobber them.
10:27Yeah, you got it.
10:28Yeah, we'll bowl.
10:30Because thanks to
10:31Queen Elizabeth,
10:32they had new,
10:33high-tech,
10:33high-speed ships
10:34able to run circles
10:35round this parish,
10:36which they did
10:38and won it.
10:39Wait, you're right.
10:41Take on.
10:52Cheers.
10:54But the Armada
10:55had given the English
10:56the kind of scare
10:57you don't forget.
10:58So by the mid-17th century,
11:00they,
11:00and then everybody else,
11:02were into building
11:02really big ships.
11:04I mean,
11:04one of those monsters
11:05took 1,000 oak trees.
11:07Well, that put the kibosh
11:08on people making glass
11:09because they'd been
11:11chopping down all the wood
11:12to make charcoal
11:13for fuel
11:14for their glass furnaces.
11:15Well, they got out
11:16of wood pretty quick
11:17and turned to coal
11:18for fuel
11:19and a new kind of glass
11:20for the big new
11:21building boom
11:22because by the late
11:2317th century,
11:24there were new housing
11:25starts all over Europe.
11:26The particular one
11:27I happen to be at right now
11:28was just the biggest
11:30one of all.
11:37The Palace of Versailles
11:39outside Paris.
11:40A glazier's dream.
11:42I mean,
11:43look at all those windows.
11:47Well,
11:48with plenty of coal
11:49around for fuel,
11:50the glassmaker
11:51started to experiment
11:52and in 1674,
11:54an Englishman
11:54called Ravenscroft
11:55put powdered flint
11:57and lead oxide
11:57into his glass
11:58and got stuff
11:59so transparent
12:00you could read
12:01a newspaper through it.
12:04New thing at the time
12:05that, newspapers,
12:06and clear glass,
12:07of course.
12:08A year later,
12:09a Frenchman called
12:10Nehu
12:10came up with a way
12:11of making big slabs
12:12of it,
12:13thus inventing
12:13plate glass.
12:14As it happens,
12:15the factory he ran
12:16in 1688
12:17still produces glass
12:18today,
12:19Saint-Gobain.
12:22Another clue
12:22in our detective story.
12:24Anyway,
12:25after windows,
12:26plate glass got used
12:27for the one thing
12:28that makes any room
12:29bigger and brighter.
12:30Not surprisingly,
12:31in a world filled
12:32with candles,
12:33it got used
12:35for mirrors.
12:44The Versailles Hall
12:45of Mirrors
12:46started a new craze
12:47among the willfully
12:48extravagant,
12:49and there were plenty
12:50of them around.
12:51Because for the first time,
12:52in an age when nothing
12:54mattered more than your image,
12:55think what it must have
12:56been like to see yourself
12:58again and again
12:59and again
13:00and again
13:01and again.
13:03Everybody had to have
13:04their own hall of mirrors.
13:08Now,
13:09this may not look
13:10like much to you,
13:11but back then,
13:12this mirror
13:13was a miracle
13:14in precision.
13:15Clear image,
13:16smooth,
13:17carefully ground surface,
13:19undistorted reflection.
13:20Just what you needed
13:22if you were one
13:22of two people.
13:23The fellow who paid
13:24for all this,
13:25Louis XIV,
13:26the egomaniac
13:28whose glory is reflected here
13:29and who called himself
13:30the Sun King,
13:31and the next character
13:33in our historical
13:33detective story,
13:35an English precision freak
13:36called James Hadley,
13:40who put two new
13:42precision mirrors
13:43on a navigation instrument
13:44he invented
13:44called a sextant.
13:47Line up the horizon
13:48through the telescope
13:49on the half-silvered mirror.
13:51With the top mirror,
13:52move the image of a star
13:54so it's superimposed
13:55on the horizon
13:56in the half-silvered mirror.
13:57Read the angle
13:58off the bottom scale.
14:00Then,
14:00do the same again
14:01with another star.
14:03Then,
14:04your star tables
14:05will tell you
14:06where on earth
14:06you would have to be
14:08to get those two stars
14:09at those two angles.
14:12So now you know
14:13where your ship is.
14:15So,
14:15now you know that fact,
14:17you can try another trick.
14:19Check your distance
14:20from an onshore headland,
14:22turn the sextant flat
14:23and measure the horizontal angle
14:25to the next headland.
14:27Basic geometry
14:28will then tell you
14:29how far apart
14:29those headlands are.
14:32This was the technique
14:33used in the 1770s
14:35by a couple of surveyors
14:36from the Royal American Regiment
14:38called Debar and Holland.
14:40They mapped
14:41the east coast of America
14:42for the British.
14:48The reason we paid somebody
14:50to map America
14:51was because we owned it.
14:53And besides,
14:54we needed the charts
14:55so that our ships
14:56could get over there
14:57with guns and soldiers
14:58and supplies
14:58to fight
14:59the American revolutionaries.
15:01Unfortunately,
15:02by the time the charts
15:03were ready,
15:04we'd lost the war.
15:06Still,
15:07Debar and Holland
15:07did teach Captain Cook
15:09who then went off
15:10and found Australia
15:11and New Zealand for us.
15:12win some,
15:14lose some.
15:17Which left only one problem.
15:19Heights.
15:21There still weren't any
15:22on maps yet.
15:23Until the next character
15:25in our detective story.
15:27This chap.
15:30Over there.
15:35His name was Saussure
15:37and he lived here in Switzerland
15:38and he was unique.
15:40Uniquely obsessed
15:41by Mont Blanc.
15:48In 1787,
15:50he climbed it
15:50with a barometer
15:51to measure the height.
15:52The Swiss were so
15:53knocked out by this feat
15:54they nearly changed the name
15:56from Mont Blanc
15:57to Mont Saussure.
15:58And because Saussure
16:00also started all that
16:01mountaineering and skiing stuff
16:02that brings all the tourists in.
16:04Anyway,
16:05up there,
16:06Saussure got turned on
16:07by what he saw.
16:08No,
16:09not that.
16:12This.
16:13Bits of granite
16:14and shellfish fossils.
16:16Saussure reckoned
16:17if you found shellfish
16:18up a mountain,
16:19the ancient seabed
16:20must have risen
16:21to become mountains.
16:23Why?
16:24Because the mountains
16:24were made of granite.
16:26Volcanic upheavals
16:27of molten granite
16:28way back.
16:30And since granite
16:31didn't exactly
16:31wear down easily,
16:33then the present-day
16:34erosion you could see
16:35in granite rocks
16:35must have taken
16:36quite a while.
16:37And if that took
16:38a long time,
16:40how long had it taken
16:41to cause the erosion
16:42you could see
16:43all around you
16:44on the mountains?
16:49So Saussure wrote
16:50a book saying
16:51if erosion
16:52took the same
16:52amount of time
16:53in the ancient past
16:54as it did today,
16:55that meant
16:56the ancient past
16:57was really ancient.
16:59The earth
16:59was incredibly old.
17:05More evidence.
17:12Well, I don't have
17:13to tell you
17:14where that would lead.
17:15Saussure's ideas
17:16eventually got
17:17to Charles Darwin
17:18who used
17:19the enormous age
17:20of the earth
17:20to back his theory
17:22of evolution
17:22where species
17:24with the luck
17:25to have certain
17:25characteristics
17:26survive change.
17:27The others
17:28end up like
17:29these people.
17:30All luck.
17:32Now,
17:34Darwin happened
17:34to have a cousin
17:35whose name
17:36was Francis Galton.
17:38He had a unique thought.
17:41Could you make
17:42your own luck?
17:42If you happen
17:43to be a member
17:44of a good family,
17:45his words,
17:46could you keep
17:47the luck
17:47in the family
17:48by marrying
17:49somebody from
17:49another good family
17:51like his?
17:58Galton studied
17:59funeral records
18:00and death certificates
18:01and came to the conclusion
18:03that the data
18:03backed him up.
18:04It showed
18:05what he said,
18:06eminent men
18:06came from
18:07eminent families
18:08and imbeciles
18:09came from imbeciles.
18:10He called his theory
18:11eugenics,
18:12set up a professorship
18:13in it
18:14and became
18:14the darling
18:15of the new thinkers,
18:16especially those
18:17writing American
18:18immigration quota laws
18:19in 1924
18:20who used eugenics
18:22to keep out
18:22what were called
18:23undesirables.
18:24In 1934,
18:26the Nazis
18:27used Galton's
18:28sincere attempt
18:29to discover
18:29why people
18:30were different
18:31to give spurious
18:32credentials
18:32to their policies
18:33on racial purity.
18:36Poor old Galton
18:36would have turned
18:37in his grave.
18:42I said at the beginning
18:43that this detective story
18:45would involve
18:45a series
18:46of unique people
18:46which now of course
18:48includes you and me
18:49because as Francis Galton
18:51was trying to point out
18:52we're all unique.
18:53Each of us
18:54has a unique mix
18:55of genetic inheritance
18:57which is why
18:57Galton's work
18:58resulted in something else
18:59much more important
19:01than just his book
19:02about good breeding.
19:04Galton
19:04was trying to pinpoint
19:06the way in which
19:07we're all different
19:07and he found it
19:08in a code
19:09he thought up.
19:10It's a code
19:11that tells how
19:11you are uniquely you
19:14and that would also
19:15identify
19:17these detective story
19:18clues I've picked up
19:19as we went along
19:20and prove that I was
19:21there just now
19:23in Bologna University
19:27at that bank
19:28in Hispaniola
19:31up the mountain
19:32with Saussure
19:34and at the
19:35Palace of Versailles
19:36because my version
19:38of the code
19:38is all over
19:39these clues.
19:42Here's the code.
19:45The code describes
19:46a different pattern
19:47everybody has.
19:49Some bits of the pattern
19:50are identified
19:51by a pair of letters.
19:53Other bits
19:54are given a number.
19:57Take a look
19:58at one particular
19:58bit of detail.
20:00This number.
20:01Nine.
20:02It's the number
20:03of times
20:04my pattern
20:05crosses a reference line
20:06from one feature
20:07in the pattern
20:08to another.
20:08In my case
20:09the pattern
20:10crosses the reference line
20:11nine times.
20:13So,
20:14with Galton's code
20:15you can identify
20:16my unique patterns
20:17in any one
20:18of these.
20:24My fingerprint.
20:26That's what Galton
20:27invented at the turn
20:28of the century.
20:29Fingerprinting.
20:31The number
20:31of possible
20:32pattern variations
20:33and the number
20:34of possible
20:35fingerprint ridges
20:36crossing that
20:37reference line
20:38on any single print
20:39means that the chances
20:41of you and anybody
20:42else having the same
20:42set of fingerprints
20:43is one in ten trillion.
20:47And that's the end
20:49of the story
20:49because in 1902
20:51for the first time ever
20:53Scotland Yard
20:54used fingerprints
20:55to catch a petty
20:56criminal
20:56called Harry Jackson.
20:59And you know
21:00how they knew
21:00who'd done it?
21:01Remember this?
21:03The fingerprints
21:04at the scene
21:04of crime
21:05matched the fingerprints
21:06they found
21:07all over the stuff
21:08he'd stolen.
21:10A set of billiard balls.
21:13Case closed.
21:42A set of billiard balls.
21:51using our own
21:52could
21:54at
21:54that scene do
22:01работы
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