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00:19Ever heard of Murphy's Law?
00:22You know, the one that says,
00:23if anything can go wrong, it will.
00:26Well, if Murphy's Law ever strikes,
00:28this is the safest place to be.
00:31Lloyd's of London.
00:39Because there is nothing you can't insure against at Lloyd's.
00:44All you have to do is pay the premium.
00:47And boy, have they insured against some really weird things
00:50around here over the years.
00:53Piracy, lying, death by gin,
00:56spacecraft parachute failure,
00:58dead horses,
01:00you name it.
01:11And the reason they can do all these crazy things,
01:14and sometimes insure stuff for hundreds of million dollars at a time,
01:18is because for 300 years,
01:20the underwriters here have spread the risk.
01:22Look, each underwriter takes a part of the risk
01:25until the entire risk is covered.
01:29At which point, Lloyd's can write the policy.
01:31And the whole astronomically risky business relies totally on two things.
01:37International law for determining responsibility if disaster strikes.
01:43And a signature from Lloyd's
01:46to determine responsibility if disaster strikes.
01:49Next to the two magic words that bind everybody under law.
01:54Sign here.
02:17It is supremely ironic that international law all started with an act of skullduggery.
02:23Here, in the world's busiest shipping lane,
02:26then and now,
02:28the Straits of Malacca,
02:29the stretch of water running between Indonesia and Singapore.
02:49In 1604,
02:51a Portuguese galleon is trundling home
02:53with a cargo of fat profit in the form of spices,
02:57when suddenly out of nowhere comes a Dutch warship
02:59and snaffles the lot.
03:01Just like that,
03:02on the open sea.
03:04Causes one almighty stink.
03:07Of course, the whole thing is set up by the Dutch,
03:09who then hire one of their hot-shot lawyers,
03:12a fellow called De Groot,
03:13to prove that what looked like
03:15piracy, stealing, smash-and-grab,
03:17or anything else you want to call it,
03:19wasn't.
03:20Which he does.
03:22And a lot more.
03:29De Groot basically comes up with the concept of
03:32the open sea that belongs to nobody,
03:34so you can't monopolise trade on it,
03:36which is what the Spanish and Portuguese have done with the spice trade,
03:40hence the Dutch piracy.
03:46In 1625,
03:48De Groot goes all the way
03:49and invents only the whole of international law as we know it,
03:53basically because, without it,
03:55trade and exploration and colonialism and all that
03:59are going to go from disorganised to chaotic.
04:03I mean, the Western powers are up every undiscovered backwater,
04:07planting the flag on anything dry enough to land on,
04:10the popes carving up Brazil before anybody's even been there,
04:14the Turks claim to own only the entire planet,
04:18Protestant legislation doesn't work in Catholic countries,
04:20and nobody is asking any local natives
04:23their opinion about anything.
04:25So whose law is right?
04:27Especially when it comes down to the essential matters in life,
04:30money and commerce.
04:33Well, De Groot says anybody should be free
04:35to buy and sell anything they like,
04:37writes out some rules for weighing the evidence
04:40and basically invents international law.
04:59Law is only any good as long as everybody plays by the rules,
05:02which, back then, you wouldn't have bet on.
05:0616.
05:09Too many.
05:12Which is why, a little later,
05:14a Frenchman called Blaise Pascal
05:16was to be found at the gaming tables
05:17trying to work out the odds that would tell lawyers
05:20which way a jury would jump one way or the other.
05:23Well, to be fair,
05:24he was also trying to come up with a foolproof system
05:27for an aristocratic pal.
05:30And in case you're that way inclined,
05:32Pascal worked out that an even chance
05:34of getting a pair of sixes
05:35needed 24.555 rolls of the dice,
05:39if you know of lasted that long.
05:42But Pascal's real trump card was this little trick.
05:46It's called the mathematical triangle,
05:49and you can do all sorts of amazing things with it.
05:53Here's just one.
05:55That's not a row,
05:56so this is row one,
05:57row two,
05:58row three.
06:00One and three's four,
06:01and three's seven,
06:02and one's eight.
06:03The number of ways three coins can fall
06:05is eight.
06:08And most probably,
06:09this way.
06:11Once, three heads.
06:12Three times out of eight,
06:14two heads and a tail.
06:15Three times out of eight,
06:16two tails and a head.
06:18And once, three tails.
06:20And you can build this triangle up
06:22as big as you like
06:23and handle really astronomically big numbers.
06:27What Pascal had invented here
06:29was probability math.
06:31Just as well,
06:32because he was about to get into deep doo-doo
06:34with the church about just that.
06:36Probability.
06:41I suppose Pascal was the 17th century equivalent
06:45of a hippie,
06:46an unconventional free thinker.
06:48A very dangerous thing to be
06:50back at a time
06:51when the church had power
06:52of a thumbscrew.
06:53So when he got friendly
06:54with some freedom of conscience activists,
06:57very probably,
06:58things were going to get nasty.
07:03Pascal's friends
07:04were called Jansenists.
07:05And basically,
07:06they said,
07:07look,
07:07if you've got a problem
07:08with a matter of conscience
07:09that's bothering you,
07:10say,
07:11like this,
07:12then you bother the church with it
07:14and the church will tell you
07:15what to do.
07:16Because it's probable
07:17the church knows best.
07:18The Jansenists said,
07:20come on,
07:21it's much more probable
07:23you know best.
07:24After all,
07:25it's your conscience.
07:31Well,
07:32all this went over
07:34with kings and popes
07:35like a lead balloon.
07:37If you could hop on your bike
07:38and escape to Holland,
07:39you might get away with it.
07:40But in France,
07:41for instance,
07:42the church went absolutely ape.
07:44Because if individuals
07:46didn't have to obey the church,
07:48who would they obey?
07:50So by 1700,
07:52most Jansenists
07:53were either under house arrest,
07:55in hiding,
07:56or dead.
07:57Because if the power that be said,
07:59keep your mouth shut back then,
08:01you did.
08:03Mind you,
08:04some monks did,
08:05anyway.
08:26Here's a couple of 17th century monks
08:28dishing the dirt on the abbot,
08:31cracking the latest jokes,
08:32and generally networking.
08:34Want to listen in?
08:36OK.
08:37Here you go.
08:45No,
08:45there's nothing wrong
08:46with your hearing.
08:47These guys belong
08:48to a silent order,
08:49and back then,
08:50they're only allowed
08:51to talk with their hands.
08:53So not surprisingly,
08:54it's a monk
08:55who invents a sign language
08:56for deaf people to use
08:57to communicate.
08:59And then,
09:00an out-of-work Jansenist priest
09:01opens a school to teach it.
09:03But by mid-19th century,
09:05there's a row
09:06about whether to teach
09:07deaf people to make signs
09:09or sounds.
09:10And you've already heard
09:11about that argument
09:12if you ever went to the movie
09:14My Fair Lady.
09:17Say your alphabet.
09:18I know my alphabet.
09:20Do you think I know nothing?
09:21I don't need to be taught
09:22like a child.
09:23Professor Higgins
09:24in the original play
09:25is based on a real
09:27Scottish elocution teacher
09:28who'd invented
09:29something called
09:29visible speech.
09:31Symbols for sounds
09:32that Higgins uses
09:33to write down
09:34Eliza Doolittle's
09:35speech patterns.
09:36I
09:37B
09:38C
09:38D
09:39Stop!
09:41Listen to this, Pickering.
09:42This is what we pay for
09:44as elementary education.
09:46This unfortunate animal
09:48has been locked up
09:49for nine years
09:50in school
09:50at our expense
09:51to teach her to read
09:52and speak the language
09:53of Shakespeare
09:53and Milton.
09:55And the result is
09:56I
09:57Bay
09:57Say
09:58Day
10:00Say
10:01A
10:01B
10:02C
10:02D
10:02But I'm saying it!
10:05I
10:06B
10:06Say
10:07Stop!
10:08Say
10:09A cup of tea
10:10A cup of tea
10:12Put your tongue forward
10:15until it squeezes
10:16against the top
10:17of your lower teeth.
10:18Now say
10:19Cup
10:21C
10:22C
10:24I
10:24Can't
10:28Cup
10:30The Scotsman's
10:31Visible Speech Book
10:32pushed that idea
10:33about teaching
10:34deaf people
10:35to make sounds.
10:36It was an idea
10:37that would lead
10:38to one of the most
10:39important inventions
10:40in the modern world
10:40because in 1874
10:42that Scots
10:44elocution teacher's
10:45son was in Boston
10:46teaching deaf people
10:47to talk
10:48and his problem was
10:50how would deaf people
10:51know when they were
10:52making the right noises?
10:54Tee
10:54Tee
10:55Tee
10:55Tee
10:55I can't hear no difference
10:57except it sounds
10:58more genteel
10:59like when you say it.
11:00Well if you can hear
11:01that difference
11:01what the devil are you
11:02crying for?
11:03Pick it in
11:03and give it a chocolate.
11:04By the time I've finished
11:05we shall hear
11:06music in the weather
11:08patterns of Europe.
11:09The rain in Spain
11:10falls mainly
11:11on the plain.
11:13And then he came
11:15across this French
11:16gizmo.
11:17You speak
11:18down a horn
11:18at a thin membrane
11:20it vibrates
11:22and a bristle
11:23attached to it
11:23moves up and down
11:24and traces
11:26a wiggly line
11:27on smoked glass.
11:29The rain
11:30in Spain
11:34falls mainly
11:35on the plain.
11:38The rain
11:39in Spain.
11:41This gave our
11:43Scotsman son
11:44an idea.
11:46If you could get
11:47a metal membrane
11:48to vibrate
11:49and wriggle
11:49a bit of iron
11:50in and out
11:50of a copper coil
11:52attached to a battery
11:53you'd get wavy
11:54electricity
11:54that would go
11:55down a line
11:56and cause the reverse
11:57to happen at the other end.
11:59Make another membrane
12:00wriggle
12:00and reproduce
12:01the original sound.
12:03Hi Jehovah
12:05what have I done?
12:09We call
12:11the Scotsman's
12:12son's idea
12:13and by the way
12:14his name was
12:14Alexander Graham Bell
12:15the telephone.
12:31Meanwhile
12:32where the whole
12:33business of writing
12:34down speech
12:34as wriggly lines
12:35goes next
12:36the international
12:37community
12:38and all that
12:39United Nations
12:39Geneva speak talk
12:41every mind-numbing
12:42word of which
12:43has to be
12:44painstakingly recorded
12:45so it can be
12:46published in a dozen
12:47languages
12:48for nobody to read.
12:50Record keeping
12:51was the problem
12:52facing international
12:53organisations
12:54when they started
12:55back in the late
12:5619th century.
12:57A problem solved
12:58by visible speech.
12:59Well this version
13:01of visible speech
13:02shorthand
13:03the breaking up
13:04of speech
13:04sounds into symbols
13:05that can be written
13:06down as fast
13:07as anybody can talk.
13:09In other words
13:11the use of the
13:12wiggly line
13:13and the invention
13:14of
13:14take a letter
13:15Miss Smith.
13:17Now Isaac Pittman
13:18who invented
13:20shorthand
13:20was also a closet
13:22pacifist
13:23and very keen
13:23on promoting
13:24international
13:25understanding
13:26through the use
13:26of shorthand
13:27because it fitted
13:29all languages
13:29at all international
13:30meetings
13:31because it was
13:32phonetic
13:33so it was common
13:34to all languages
13:35spoken by all delegates.
13:38If there is a crime
13:39with respect to which
13:41any group in the world
13:42any significant group
13:43of states
13:44is opposed to that
13:45being a crime
13:45of the German
13:46national law.
13:56The whole
13:57common language
13:58thing
13:59got taken up
14:00in a very big way
14:00by a failed
14:01Russian eye doctor
14:02who invented
14:04a whole new
14:04international language
14:05called Esperanto
14:07on the basis
14:08that it would bring
14:09peace on earth
14:09and end all wars
14:11and besides
14:11save a ton of money
14:13on interpreters
14:14and translators
14:14sitting in booths
14:15like these
14:16doing things like this.
14:22Esperanto
14:23nearly got made
14:24official here
14:25when this place
14:25was the League of Nations
14:27as a matter of fact.
14:28Nearly.
14:34Well, even if
14:35Esperanto
14:36didn't catch on
14:37at the end
14:37of the 19th century
14:38with a war
14:39somewhere every
14:40ten minutes
14:40they were rather
14:41keen to find
14:42something
14:43that might help
14:44promote some measure
14:45of international
14:46understanding.
14:48the problem
14:49was solved
14:50by Pittman
14:51with a development
14:52on his phonetic
14:54spelling idea
14:54because there is
14:56nothing in any
14:57language around
14:58the globe
14:58that you cannot say
15:00using the
15:01international phonetic
15:02alphabet.
15:03Well, within seconds
15:05of the alphabet
15:05coming out
15:06every research student
15:08in sight
15:09was grabbing
15:09for the nearest
15:10grant proposal
15:11one of which
15:12was for
15:12a cosy little
15:13piece of research
15:14that some
15:15German guy
15:15fiddled
15:16called
15:16a phonetic
15:18examination
15:18of the
15:19French accent
15:20made more
15:22properly scientific
15:23by some help
15:24from one of his
15:24physicist pals
15:25a guy called
15:26Pringsheim
15:32Katie
15:34is that
15:35you
15:35Katie
15:36Pringsheim's
15:37claim to fame
15:38was that he
15:39used this
15:39little toy
15:40the radiometer
15:41to study
15:42infrared radiation
15:43because back
15:44then
15:44everybody thought
15:46the little
15:46paddles
15:47spun round
15:47when any
15:48kind of
15:48radiation
15:49particles
15:50infrared
15:51for instance
15:51hit them
15:53they were wrong
15:54as it happens
15:55meanwhile
15:56what's all this
15:57funny business
15:58about Katie
15:59Katie
16:01have you come
16:02to speak
16:02with us
16:05I want
16:06to speak
16:07to you
16:07well
16:08the guy
16:08in the middle
16:09is Sir
16:09William Crookes
16:10who invented
16:11the radiometer
16:12and saw
16:13something that
16:13wasn't really
16:14happening
16:15radiometers
16:16being spun
16:16by light
16:17he saw
16:18other things
16:19that weren't
16:20really happening
16:21too
16:21like Katie
16:23King
16:23who was a ghost
16:24and other
16:25such psychic
16:26stuff the
16:27Victorians
16:27were all
16:28heavily into
16:30why have you
16:31come to see
16:32us
16:33is it to see
16:34Sir William Crookes
16:35yes
16:36there were even
16:36photographs of
16:37Sir William
16:38taken arm in
16:38arm with the
16:39ghostly Katie
16:39so it was said
16:41it is gone
16:42yes
16:43it is gone
16:45just for tonight
16:50okay
16:51back to the
16:52radiometer
16:54and what
16:55wasn't really
16:55happening with
16:56it
16:56because it
16:58turned out
16:58it wasn't
16:59light that
17:00made the
17:00little veins
17:00spin
17:01it was
17:02commonal garden
17:03heat flow
17:12this humdrum
17:13fact was revealed
17:14by an English
17:15engineer who
17:16wait for it
17:17knew more about
17:18any flow
17:18than any body
17:19if it flowed
17:21he could turn it
17:22into an equation
17:22imagine
17:24well anyway
17:25he said
17:25that the vacuum
17:26inside the
17:27radiometer
17:27wasn't a total
17:28vacuum
17:29that there was
17:29a little bit
17:30of air
17:30left in there
17:31so when the
17:32light heated up
17:33the radiometer's
17:34little veins
17:34it made the
17:35air molecules
17:36near them
17:36flow
17:37and the
17:38flow pushed
17:38the veins
17:39around
17:41name of
17:42Reynolds this
17:43chap
17:43thanks to
17:44which
17:44this is
17:45here
17:48see
17:48Reynolds put
17:50flat plates
17:50of different
17:51shapes into
17:52flowing liquid
17:53and saw
17:53turbulence
17:54wakes
17:55smooth flow
17:56all that
17:57and he came
17:58up with a
17:58way to work
17:59out what
18:00shape
18:00would give
18:01what flow
18:02the speed
18:03of the flow
18:04times the
18:05density
18:05of the flow
18:06times the
18:07length of
18:07the plate
18:08gives you
18:08the plates
18:09Reynolds number
18:10that two
18:11people used
18:12at the beginning
18:12of this century
18:13to change
18:14the world
18:15with Reynolds
18:16numbers
18:16for the
18:17behaviour
18:17of air
18:18flow
18:19why I've
18:20been telling
18:20you this
18:21story riding
18:21my bike
18:31because bikes
18:32are what the
18:33Wright brothers
18:33sold and
18:34repaired
18:36before they
18:37made the
18:37world's first
18:38powered flight
18:38at Killdevil
18:40Hills
18:40North Carolina
18:45and because
18:46bikes use
18:47the first
18:47practical
18:48version of
18:48something
18:49without which
18:50the Wright's
18:50plane engine
18:51or any
18:51other engine
18:52wouldn't have
18:53worked
18:53and they
18:54wouldn't have
18:54succeeded
18:55in doing
18:56this
19:18see
19:19because that
19:21English engineer
19:21Reynolds knew
19:22about flow
19:23remember
19:23he also knew
19:25about friction
19:26and because
19:27he knew
19:27about friction
19:29he wrote
19:30the engineer's
19:30bible
19:32on lubrication
19:33don't yawn
19:34without lubrication
19:36almost nothing
19:37in the world
19:37would work
19:38lubrication
19:39that is
19:40of some
19:41little things
19:41that help
19:42the Wright brothers
19:43run their bikes
19:43and fly their
19:45plane
19:52ball bearings
19:55king of ball
19:56bearings was a
19:57fellow called
19:58Streebeck
19:58and in 1900
19:59he did everything
20:00you could do
20:01to steal spheres
20:02ran them in
20:04grooves
20:04fast and slow
20:05hot and cold
20:06large and small
20:08heavy steel
20:09and light steel
20:10day and night
20:11months on end
20:14came up with
20:15the Streebeck
20:15equation
20:16which tells you
20:17what a ball
20:17bearing will take
20:18before it goes
20:19fut
20:20in your washing
20:21machine
20:21in an airplane
20:22engine
20:23or in this
20:24escalator
20:25after Streebeck
20:26you knew what
20:27you could do
20:28with steel balls
20:29which brings me
20:30back to where
20:30I started
20:31for more reasons
20:32than one
20:38because this is
20:39another one of
20:39those lovely
20:40circles through
20:41history
20:41from insurance
20:42remember
20:43to gambling
20:45sign language
20:46Wrigley Lions
20:47shorthand
20:48aerodynamics
20:49Wright Brothers
20:50ball bearings
20:51and finally
20:52back to Lloyd's
20:57but not to the
20:58policy this time
20:59to the pen
21:01you signed it
21:01with or rather
21:04to the ball
21:05bearing on the
21:06end of the pen
21:08well that's it
21:09time to sign off
21:40you
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