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Six Degrees with Mike Rowe - Se1 - Ep05 HD Watch [Full Movie] [Full Storyline]Full EP - Full
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00:063, 2, 1.
00:10We live in amazing times.
00:12That's what I'm talking about!
00:14Uncertain times.
00:15Times that make us scratch our heads and wonder,
00:18what in the hell is that?
00:21Join me on a search for answers.
00:23Answers that require puppets, tuba players,
00:27unexpected discoveries, and a little help
00:30from my old buddy Chuck.
00:33Together, we're going to prove that every single thing
00:37in our crazy and unpredictable world is connected.
00:41Genius.
00:42I'm Mike Rowe.
00:42It's alive!
00:44And this is 6 Degrees.
00:50April 14th, 2019.
00:53Or April 14th, 2018.
00:58Or April 14th, 2015.
01:02Doesn't matter what year it is.
01:04What matters is that it's April 14th,
01:08and you've done it again.
01:09You've put it off to the last moment.
01:12Your duty as a patriotic American to pay your taxes.
01:18Why do you do this year after year?
01:21Why do you wait until the last possible second?
01:24Don't you know that procrastination is the thief of time?
01:27Of course you do.
01:28You just don't care because this is how you roll.
01:31You like the pressure.
01:33You like waiting for the very last moment.
01:36Most importantly, you like sending in your returns
01:39with zero mathematical mistakes.
01:42How do you do it?
01:43What's your secret?
01:44The way I heard it, the answer starts with sheep.
01:53That's right, sheep.
01:55Yeah, I know it sounds like a stretch,
01:56and there will be some pit stops along the way,
01:59but by the end of our journey,
02:01it will be made crystal clear
02:03how a sheep can do your taxes.
02:08And cut.
02:09We got it?
02:10Got that. Moving on.
02:12We're happy?
02:12Retake. We're happy.
02:13Great.
02:14Love it when they're happy.
02:16Our show actually begins in 1760, April 14th.
02:21I don't know about the date, but it's definitely 1760,
02:25when this guy, Robert Bakewell,
02:29is about to become the pioneer
02:32of the agricultural revolution in England.
02:38He is a very big deal.
02:40He inherited his family's farm, and recently he's been touring Europe,
02:45getting up to speed on the latest farming techniques.
02:48Today, however, he's looking at these sheep, and he's saying to himself,
02:54they look kind of yummy.
02:56People don't really eat sheep in these days.
02:59They're mainly bred for their wool, but Bakewell is saying if they were bigger,
03:03and if they were plumper, well, then they would be more delicious.
03:08The question is, how do you get a bigger, plumper sheep?
03:12Incest.
03:13Actually, selective breeding, but that wasn't a term yet.
03:17So, Bakewell starts thinking, if I want more sheep to look like the sheep I want to replicate,
03:23then I've got to hook them up together.
03:25The question is, how do we best demonstrate the technique here on a family-friendly show?
03:32I'm going with green screen and animation.
03:37Before Bakewell took over, sheep were allowed to co-mingle and breed with whichever partner they pleased.
03:43Sure, sounds romantic, but the resulting offspring had a random, not necessarily ideal set of traits.
03:50Often, that meant scrawny sheep, fit to be sweaters and not much else.
03:54Bakewell wanted to be more deliberate.
03:56His sheep were going to mate on his terms.
04:01So, he separated the males and females so that he could better control the breeding process.
04:07He called this process In and In, a method that ensures preferable traits are exaggerated even if the sheep are
04:15related.
04:16Awkward, but it works.
04:19The result? The Lester sheep.
04:21A hornless animal that produced a fine yield of fatty meat.
04:25But Bakewell didn't just breed for quality.
04:28He also bred for quantity, and he branched out from sheep to cows, creating a whole new breed of longhorn
04:35cattle.
04:36Robert Bakewell's innovations in the selective breeding of animals inspired farmers to crossbreed plants for higher crop yields,
04:44and looked for new ways to modernize farming.
04:52And when it came to modernizing farming, nobody had a greater impact than Jethro Tull.
04:59No, no. Not that Jethro Tull.
05:02The original Jethro Tull.
05:05Why?
05:05Because the original Jethro Tull was also a rock star.
05:10An agricultural rock star whose first great hit climbed the charts over 300 years ago.
05:15There he is right now, back there on the green screen.
05:18I mean, back there on the farm he inherited from his father, back when people wore funny hats and never
05:24cut their hair.
05:25If he looks a bit out of sorts, it's because Jethro Tull does not like what he sees.
05:30His farm hands are throwing his seeds somewhat indiscriminately into his freshly furrowed ground.
05:37This method of seeding is called broadcasting.
05:40So-called because the seeds are cast onto the ground broadly.
05:45With no real concern of which ones take root and which ones do not.
05:50In much the same way broadcast TV is produced today.
05:53It's a time-honored but incredibly wasteful and inefficient way to grow food.
05:58What an incredibly wasteful and inefficient way to grow food.
06:03Truth be told, Jethro Tull is not a farmer by trade.
06:07He studied to be a lawyer.
06:08He enjoys the finer things in life and believes fervently that in most pursuits there simply has to be a
06:15better way.
06:16There simply has to be a better way.
06:18And of course, there is.
06:20He just hasn't figured it out yet.
06:23But he will.
06:25Back in the 1700s, farming was so incredibly inefficient that everybody had to do it.
06:32By necessity.
06:33It was the only way we could grow enough food to feed all of the people.
06:37That's what Jethro Tull is trying to fix.
06:40Carry on.
06:55Jethro Tull does not yet have a name for his invention, but he knows what he wants it to do.
07:01He wants it to bring uniformity to the planting process.
07:05He wants his seeds planted in a straight line, at equal depths, and in equal distribution.
07:12I mean really.
07:13How hard can it be?
07:16Carry on.
07:31I don't mean to imply in this montage that Jethro Tull was a big drinker.
07:36But we know he enjoyed his wine.
07:39Jethro Tull traveled to wineries throughout Europe and noted the cultivation methods employed in various vineyards where it was common
07:46to hoe the ground between the vines rather than spreading fertilizer.
07:51These trips to European wineries would inform many of his other beliefs and inventions as well as his fondness for
07:59the noble grape.
08:01Carry on.
08:20And there it is. The invention that will change everything. He'll call it the seed drill.
08:25I'll call it the seed drill.
08:28And so too will the rest of the world.
08:31Cheers to you, Jethro Tull.
08:43Jethro Tull's groundbreaking innovation marked the beginning of an agricultural revolution.
08:49When farmers embraced the seed drill and the horse-drawn hoe, they increased their productivity and crop yields tenfold.
08:56That drove millions of people out of rural areas and into cities where tens of thousands were employed in factories
09:04instead of farmsteads.
09:06This shift from an agrarian society to an industrial society picked up steam.
09:11Literally, with the invention of the steam engine, people found all sorts of clever ways to attach steam engines to
09:18all sorts of machines.
09:20Then there were steamboats. Then there were trains.
09:23People and products were traveling everywhere with lightning speed.
09:28Productivity exploded exponentially and people were suddenly working like never before.
09:35Consumer demand required factories to remain open around the clock, which meant night shifts for thousands of workers.
09:42And that brings us to this guy.
09:45Kerosene.
09:47Overnight, the demand for kerosene went through the roof.
09:50Much like your cell phone does today, the kerosene lamp kept the work day going long into the night.
09:58Say hi to Robert Chezzabro.
10:04Or Robert Chezzabro.
10:06Or Robert Chezzabro.
10:08How you pronounce his name depends entirely on what internet site you prefer, as does most of the information in
10:16this program.
10:17Take note of his face, however.
10:19You'll see it again.
10:21Robert's done well over the years, figuring out ways to clarify kerosene.
10:25But he's about to embark on a whole new adventure, a dermatological adventure, defined by unexpected twists and turns, including
10:34a random meeting with this guy.
10:41Edwin Drake.
10:43Fascinating fella.
10:44Used to work for the railroad.
10:46Drake started off his career as a conductor on the New Haven line.
10:50But when he fell ill, the railroad company let him go.
10:53They did, however, allow him to retain his privileges as a railroad conductor, which included free travel on any railway.
11:01Now he's taken his family on a vacation all over the country.
11:05They've just checked in to this quaint little country inn somewhere in western Pennsylvania.
11:11They have no idea that some other people will be checking into this inn as well.
11:16In one of those delicious historical moments of serendipity, we have George Bissell and John Eveleth.
11:24These guys will go on to start Seneca Oil, the first petroleum company.
11:28They're here on business.
11:30They don't know Edwin Drake is here.
11:32Edwin Drake doesn't know that they're here, but in a few moments, they're going to sit down and have a
11:36chat.
11:37A little chat that changes everything.
11:41Looking back, it's one of those moments in history that almost feels like it was destined, but it wasn't.
11:48This little serendipitous meeting was entirely accidental.
11:52These two guys, Bissell and Eveleth, they have no idea their company is going to be worth a fortune because
11:59they don't even know the value of petroleum.
12:01All they know is they found a puddle of the stuff in Titusville and discovered that it would burn in
12:07a lamp just like whale oil.
12:09Well, Edwin Drake understands the implications of that.
12:13In fact, he's thinking to himself right now, wait a minute.
12:15What if we take the power of a locomotive, a steam engine, and use that power to drive a pipe
12:21through the puddle down into the bedrock itself?
12:25The answer to that question was something to drink to.
12:29Cheers.
12:29There he is.
12:30See?
12:39August 29th, 1859, Titusville, Pennsylvania.
12:44It's been four years since Drake made his deal with the boys at Seneca Oil.
12:49Four long years.
12:52And here on the oil fields, the mood is not good.
12:56In fact, a lot of these drillers have begun to refer to him as, as Crazy Drake.
13:00They know all here, Crazy Drake.
13:02He's right! You moron!
13:04They're skeptical, and for good reason.
13:06People have thought about digging for oil and mining for oil, but nobody has ever even contemplated the idea of
13:15drilling for oil.
13:16It's a crazy notion.
13:18The question is, will Drake's craziness be rewarded?
13:24And I think the answer is yes.
13:26Rewarded over and over and over again.
13:38Good news for Drake.
13:40Good news for his partners.
13:43And great news for the whales.
13:46Until now, the oil we need comes from the whales.
13:50And getting oil from a whale is not like getting milk from a cow.
13:56It was more like a genocide.
13:59Look at this.
14:00Even in black and white, it was a bloodbath.
14:03Blood and guts and poking and ripping and tearing and swearing.
14:07And yet, demand was so unbelievably high that the whales very nearly went extinct.
14:14Whaling was the fifth largest industry in the United States, with 15,000 right whales slaughtered in the mid-1800s.
14:22They called them right whales because they were the right whales to kill.
14:26And boy, did we.
14:27By 1930, marine biologists estimated there were less than a hundred right whales left in the North Atlantic.
14:34Their extinction was all but guaranteed.
14:38In other words, the more oil we got out of the ground, the less oil we needed from the whales.
14:44Now, I'm not saying that the oil industry saved the whales.
14:48That would be impossibly ironic.
14:50What I'm saying is...
14:53Actually, I'm saying the oil industry saved the whales.
14:57From guys like him.
14:58Remember Robert Chesaburo?
15:00Or Chesabra?
15:01Or Chesabru?
15:03Well, back in Brooklyn, things aren't going so well for his lamp oil business.
15:07Or big whale, as I like to call it.
15:09The ingenious process of extracting petroleum from the ground using a steam engine powered drill completely redefined the business of
15:18oil exploration.
15:20And now, everything that Chesaburo or Chesabra or Chesabru worked for is going up in flames.
15:26His life's work is about to become a historical footnote.
15:30It's all over.
15:34Until it isn't.
15:36Chesaburo, or Chesabra, or Chesabru, gets a wild hare and hops on a train to Pennsylvania to see for himself
15:44precisely what this Drake fellow has done.
15:47I mean seriously.
15:49Who is this guy?
15:50That question runs through Robert's mind like a steam powered locomotive.
15:54How is it that Edwin Drake, a former train conductor who knew nothing about chemistry or geology or internal combustion,
16:02could put him out of business?
16:04Surely, a man of science like Chesaburo, or Chesabra, or Chesabru, could improve upon the process.
16:12When he heard they struck oil here in Titusville, he spent his life savings to come here.
16:17Because Robert Chesabro knows the world is about to change.
16:20The question is, how can he profit from it?
16:25Will he devise a new and exciting way to get the oil out of the ground?
16:29No.
16:29Will he find a better way to sell the oil on the open market?
16:32No.
16:33Chesabro, like so many other geniuses before him, figures out that there's money to be made in the byproduct.
16:40In this case, a byproduct called Rod Wax.
16:45Over time, these will get larger.
16:49Rod Wax is a disgusting, scummy byproduct that clogs up the drills that Drake has been using.
16:55The workers, however, have found a clever use for the junk, applying it to their chapped lips, dry skin, and
17:01calloused hands.
17:03Full disclosure, none of these actors have calloused hands, which is why we're playing it wide, for the most part.
17:09See?
17:10Look at that close-up.
17:11That guy hadn't worked a day in his life.
17:14Moving on.
17:21Robert realized that Rod Wax might be good for something besides waxing your rod.
17:28And so he filed a patent.
17:30I found it online.
17:31It reads,
17:32Be it known that I, Robert A. Chesabro, of the city, county, and state of New York, have invented a
17:37new and useful product from petroleum, which I have named.
17:41You know the name.
17:42He went with the German word for water and the Greek word for oil.
17:47Vaseline.
17:48Not only will it keep your lips smooth and soft, as you'll see in the next act, it just might
17:54save your life.
17:57Today, we're looking at the ways sheep can do your taxes.
18:02How?
18:02Well, it starts with Robert Bakewell inbreeding sheep for plumper meat, which caused the agricultural and then the industrial revolution,
18:09which increased demand for oil, which in turn led to the advent of Vaseline, which is great for calloused hands
18:14and a host of other uses.
18:16Nowadays, I think it's safe to say a pharmacy is a pretty boring place.
18:20They all look pretty much the same.
18:22Back in 1874, you walk into a pharmacy, no telling what you see.
18:31You might see something like this, a sales call from the immortal Robert Chesabro, or Chesabro, or Chesabro.
18:42This guy has already turned rod wax into Vaseline.
18:45He knows he's got a winner on his hands.
18:47He has his patent.
18:48Now he's got to sell it.
18:49And so he goes door to door to pharmacies all over the country, extolling the virtues of his magical elixir
18:58to a very skeptical group, pharmacists.
19:02These pharmacists have seen everything.
19:04They've heard it all before.
19:05So by and large, they're not going to say yes to a product they can't even get out of the
19:11jar.
19:11But Chesabro, or Chesabro, or Chesabro, is in no way discouraged.
19:16He knows what he has to do.
19:17So he rolls up his sleeves and reveals an arm covered with scars.
19:23Why?
19:23Because for the last year, he's been pouring acid onto his skin.
19:27Don't try this at home.
19:29Good God, Matt!
19:30The Vaseline goes on the burn.
19:32The pain goes away, but he's got to take it a step further.
19:36So what does Chesabro do?
19:38He opens up another jar of his magical elixir, and he takes his index finger, and he sticks it inside,
19:46and he eats it.
19:50Don't try that at home either, but that's what he did to sell his product.
19:55When a man eats his product right before your wondering eyes, you have no choice but to take all you
20:00can get.
20:00I'll take all I can get.
20:02And that's the way it was back in 1874.
20:05Chesabro, or Chesabro, or Chesabro sold 1,400 jars of Vaseline every day.
20:11He built a multi-billion dollar brand.
20:13And today, if you Google Vaseline uses, you will see an endless list of possibilities.
20:21However, when it comes to creative things to do with Vaseline, nobody went further than this guy.
20:31You kind of have to see it to believe it.
20:42It's 1927.
20:43We're in Belgium, specifically in Brussels at the 5th Solvay Conference on Electrons and Protons.
20:51This conference might not sound like a must-see event, but it was a very big deal, which is why
20:55Albert Einstein is here,
20:57and Marie Curie is here, and Niels Bohr is here, and Auguste Picard is here, all the big brains.
21:03In fact, 17 of the attendees of this conference would go on to win a Nobel Prize.
21:09So, it's just an extraordinary gathering of the minds and a great opportunity for me to pull off a photobomb
21:15of the ages.
21:21If you were a fly on the wall of history, eavesdropping on the conversations here in Brussels,
21:27you would no doubt leave the most intelligent fly in the history of the universe,
21:31because what's being discussed is mind-blowing.
21:34Right here on the corner, for instance, Einstein and Picard are having a fascinating conversation.
21:38Einstein is discussing his general theory of relativity, and Picard has just suggested that he can help improve that theory
21:45if he can only get up into the stratosphere somehow and conduct research on cosmic rays.
21:52Einstein's buying it.
21:54Picard wondered if cosmic rays could be used as a power source to rival petroleum.
22:01This is one of the first attempts to harness and understand solar energy.
22:05Now, flying into the stratosphere was a tall order.
22:09It starts about six miles above the planet.
22:12So, Picard would need to invent an air-pressurized cabin to get there.
22:17And so, he did exactly that.
22:20Auguste created the first pressurized airborne cabin to ever be attached to a balloon.
22:27After a few failed attempts due to weather, Auguste and his assistant, Paul Kipfer, were ready to go.
22:37Pardon me just a second. It's a big day.
22:40May 27, 1931.
22:42One of the craziest balloon launches in the history of the world is about to happen right now.
22:46In that cabin is Auguste Picard and his assistant, Paul Kipfer.
22:50They have no idea what's about to happen to them.
22:53It's a blustery day, and some damage has been sustained in the cabin.
22:57Neither man knows about it.
22:58Plus, their crew didn't count them down.
23:00They just let go of the ropes, and suddenly these two guys are rising toward the heavens.
23:05Toward God only knows what.
23:08It was an adventure best recreated here with the assistance of puppets.
23:16Picard and Kipfer rise over 51,000 feet in the air to study cosmic rays.
23:22Astonishing, but there was a hole in their plan in the form of a physical hole in their cabin.
23:27Their supply of oxygen is leaking out, and if they don't act quickly, they'll suffocate.
23:32But nine miles up in the sky is not the ideal place to find a hardware store.
23:37Fortunately, Picard was packing a magical elixir that was perfect for this particular predicament.
23:42It was made of towel, a fibrous material, and, you guessed it, Vaseline.
23:48Picard applied it to the leak and saved the day.
23:51The Vaseline mixture kept the cabin pressure and oxygen level stable.
23:56We knew Vaseline was versatile and delicious, but this was something else.
24:01These men are alive for two reasons, quick thinking and Vaseline.
24:06But not only does the Vaseline save their life, it allows them to become the first two men to ever
24:11see
24:11the curvature of the Earth.
24:14In less than half an hour, they rise 51,000 feet.
24:18That's nine miles.
24:19That would have been incredible.
24:21It would have also been terrifying, because these guys are literally trapped in their cabin
24:25miles above the Earth with no way to land.
24:28Their instruments are breaking, and their oxygen levels are running low.
24:31They're at the mercy of the elements.
24:33Fortunately, the elements were merciful.
24:36The cooler air contracted the balloon's gas, and they crash-landed in the Alps.
24:43A team of skiers rescued Picard and Kipfer, along with that incredible jar of Vaseline
24:49that saved the day.
25:05Picard also influenced this man.
25:10Robert Esno-Cartali.
25:12His friends called him R.E.P. for short.
25:16And for those of you who don't speak French, R.E.P. is a little peeved by the news of
25:20Auguste Picard's
25:21first successful flight to study the atmosphere.
25:25Because when it comes to air travel, Robert has a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
25:29Can you sleep with me?
25:32This evening, isn't it?
25:34Today, mankind bore witness to the first successful flight of the Wright brothers in their strange flying machine.
25:42That chip on Robert's shoulder has been there most of his life.
25:46Here he is in 1903.
25:48A young man dreaming of flight when he hears that Orville and Wilbur Wright just beat him to it.
25:55Personne ne peut voler d'une dune de sable!
25:57No, no.
25:58Not the radio.
25:58Not the...
25:59Man hates radios.
26:01That inspired R.E.P. to get to work on his own version of a flying machine,
26:06which he cleverly named the R.E.P. Monoplane.
26:11The name didn't take off, but the plane did, briefly.
26:15Got about half a mile before he crashed.
26:19So were the Wright brothers listening when R.E.P. wrecked his plane?
26:23I like to think so.
26:24His flight was viewed as unsuccessful, but his plane was the first to feature a joystick control that's still used
26:31in planes today.
26:32R.E.P. vowed never to fly a plane again, but he didn't lose his interest in flight.
26:38More specifically, in space flight.
26:44There you go.
26:45Happy?
26:46Merci.
26:51Bonvenue, mesdames et messieurs.
26:54In 1912, R.E.P. gives a lecture to a room full of esteemed aeronautical scientists on the subject of
27:01space flight.
27:02He presents mathematical equations for exactly how much fuel it would take for a rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere
27:11and how much it would take to get to the moon.
27:14Remember, this is 1912, and R.E.P. has drawn up schematics for a passive energy spaceship.
27:23When the pressurized cabin is cold, he explained, the spaceship will turn its metallic side to the sun, and when
27:32it needs to cool down, the ship can turn over on its darker side.
27:36R.E.P. is practically laughed out of the room.
27:40He doesn't gain any attention from the scientific community, but he does land a pretty sweet job designing rockets for
27:48the French military.
27:49With money to burn, R.E.P. sets out to design a rocket propelled by gasoline and liquid oxygen.
27:56I ask you, what could possibly go wrong?
28:00Back to where we began in 1931.
28:03It's taken R.E.P. three years of careful experimentation.
28:09And approximately four fingers.
28:16But blowing off most of his hand doesn't stop him.
28:19R.E.P. perfects his liquid oxygen to gasoline ratio and successfully launches a rocket later that year.
28:27But, once again, no one seems to notice.
28:30R.E.P. Today the New York Yankees beat the Chicago Cubs in a World Series...
28:35Except for this guy, Arthur C. Clarke.
28:39But he's not a rocket scientist, or an astrophysicist, or a thrower of perfectly good radios.
28:46He's a sci-fi nerd. Maybe the greatest sci-fi nerd of all time.
28:50He wrote the Sentinel.
28:52He co-wrote the screenplay for 2001, The Space Odyssey with Stanley Kubrick.
28:57He not only believed that mankind would travel through space.
29:01He believed we'd live in a world beyond this one.
29:05Now, this is a situation where art imitates life that imitates art.
29:09Just like the Star Trek flip phone that influenced Motorola, or that guy who built the flying Iron Man suit.
29:17Scientists were influenced by a work of fiction in 1945 when Arthur C. Clarke penned an essay for Wireless World
29:26magazine.
29:27Clarke proposed in that essay that a worldwide communication system for telephones and televisions could be achieved by using three
29:36geostationary satellites orbiting Earth.
29:43The scientists of the world listened.
29:47And they didn't just get to work.
29:49They made things interesting.
29:51They put money on it.
29:52Now, we got ourselves a good old-fashioned space race.
29:56The space race best brought to life with puppets.
30:04This is the classic tale of the tortoise and the hare.
30:11Comrade Mikhail Tikaravov, or Russian Bunny Mike, as his friends like to call him, led a monk's existence and lived
30:17only for rockets.
30:18He headed up the Russian space program in the 1950s and was considered by Stalin to be one of Russian's
30:24most brilliant minds.
30:26That's not true.
30:27Stalin actually couldn't stand him or the space program.
30:30It wasn't until a year after Stalin's death in 1954 that Russian Bunny Mike was given the go-ahead to
30:37officially develop a satellite.
30:40And here's our tortoise, John P. Hagen.
30:43He's heading up a top-secret program for NASA right now, and he's running a bit behind.
30:51You see, the U.S. is spying on Russia's space program, who is in turn spying back on NASA.
30:57We've got spies spying on spies, and everyone is in the know.
31:01Russia knows that John P. Hagen's NASA team is way behind, and the U.S. knows that Mikhail Tikaravov's USSR
31:08team is way ahead.
31:10But they don't seem to care.
31:13You see, Mikhail's team had a secret weapon.
31:16Back in World War II, Russian troops recovered a secret rocket that the Germans...
31:46Now, notice, slamlak no
31:49Highly, managingdy yet, they decided to take to step damage...
32:09I can't stand here.
32:10Let's go ahead and leave anyone here.
32:10Wish us access andOkay tips for those who have thought of it.
32:11You've now NEARlofrom here.
32:12Put messages in the wrong road.
32:15How psychological no time is epic.
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