"Connections with James Burke" Limitless Energy

1 00:00:00,734 --> 00:00:03,484 Enjoy! 2 00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:05,932 In the next 20 years, 3 00:00:05,932 --> 00:00:07,140 we're about to see 4 00:00:07,140 --> 00:00:09,540 what may turn out to be the biggest changes 5 00:00:09,540 --> 00:00:11,883 to the way we live in human history. 6 00:00:19,890 --> 00:00:22,320 I'm James Burke and I'm gonna take you 7 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:24,030 on a journey through time 8 00:00:24,030 --> 00:00:26,790 joining up the dots in about 10 connections, 9 00:00:26,790 --> 00:00:28,530 charting the people, objects, 10 00:00:28,530 --> 00:00:30,960 and ideas that change history 11 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:32,583 in the most surprising ways. 12 00:00:35,584 --> 00:00:38,190 ..to tell you the incredible story 13 00:00:38,190 --> 00:00:40,000 of how we got here 14 00:00:41,681 --> 00:00:43,203 and where we're going next. 15 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:51,210 this series is about the process of change 16 00:00:51,210 --> 00:00:52,890 and why the future is being shaped 17 00:00:52,890 --> 00:00:55,770 by everything we do and is not going 18 00:00:55,770 --> 00:00:57,370 to be what we expect 19 00:00:58,650 --> 00:01:00,870 because that's the way change happens. 20 00:01:00,870 --> 00:01:03,270 Cause and effect. 21 00:01:03,270 --> 00:01:05,700 You innovate to solve a problem 22 00:01:05,700 --> 00:01:07,470 and even if you succeed, 23 00:01:07,470 --> 00:01:09,300 there's always an unexpected outcome 24 00:01:09,300 --> 00:01:10,470 that triggers the need 25 00:01:10,470 --> 00:01:12,933 for another innovation and so on. 26 00:01:14,940 --> 00:01:16,680 That's why nobody in the past knew 27 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:18,250 what was coming next 28 00:01:19,405 --> 00:01:20,405 nor will you. 29 00:01:21,825 --> 00:01:24,030 The sequence of connections leads 30 00:01:24,030 --> 00:01:26,940 like a falling set of dominoes to an innovation 31 00:01:26,940 --> 00:01:29,073 that's set to transform humankind. 32 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:32,580 So where do we want to go from here? 33 00:01:32,580 --> 00:01:33,930 What's the next connection? 34 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:41,074 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm 35 00:01:50,070 --> 00:01:51,693 So this is where we are heading, 36 00:01:55,230 --> 00:01:59,250 a future with clean, limitless energy, 37 00:01:59,250 --> 00:02:01,785 no more worries about fossil fuels 38 00:02:01,785 --> 00:02:04,710 and the mess they're causing with the climate. 39 00:02:04,710 --> 00:02:06,510 Because it looks like we're discovering 40 00:02:06,510 --> 00:02:08,970 new materials that can almost 41 00:02:08,970 --> 00:02:11,070 be described as magical, 42 00:02:11,070 --> 00:02:14,040 super advanced photosensitive materials 43 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:14,873 that can convert the energy 44 00:02:14,873 --> 00:02:17,670 in sunlight into electricity. 45 00:02:17,670 --> 00:02:20,400 And that you can apply to almost anything 46 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:22,410 so that any surface hit 47 00:02:22,410 --> 00:02:24,360 by solar radiation will turn 48 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:26,553 into its own power source. 49 00:02:28,380 --> 00:02:29,700 How do we get to this world 50 00:02:29,700 --> 00:02:31,713 of almost infinite, clean energy? 51 00:02:34,530 --> 00:02:36,720 Well, we start back in the past 52 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:39,153 with this, the humble spud. 53 00:02:40,050 --> 00:02:41,460 Well, maybe not so humble, 54 00:02:41,460 --> 00:02:43,980 rather one of the greatest movers 55 00:02:43,980 --> 00:02:45,813 and shakers in history. 56 00:02:50,730 --> 00:02:52,320 Potatoes have been cultivated 57 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:54,120 in the Andes in South America 58 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:57,372 for thousands of years feeding the Incas, 59 00:02:57,372 --> 00:02:59,640 a civilization that had the good sense 60 00:02:59,640 --> 00:03:01,470 to revere the sun long 61 00:03:01,470 --> 00:03:04,083 before we could extract electrical energy from it. 62 00:03:06,020 --> 00:03:07,260 By the 16th century, 63 00:03:07,260 --> 00:03:09,360 they had built an extensive empire stretching 64 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:12,273 for thousands of miles along the Pacific coast. 65 00:03:19,980 --> 00:03:24,510 At this time there are maybe 3,000 varieties of potato. 66 00:03:24,510 --> 00:03:26,400 The Incas cook with them. 67 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:28,040 They even freeze-dry them. 68 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:29,940 Practically every village has its 69 00:03:29,940 --> 00:03:31,830 own type of potato. 70 00:03:31,830 --> 00:03:33,780 They're even buried in people's graves. 71 00:03:35,730 --> 00:03:37,650 There's a potato goddess. 72 00:03:37,650 --> 00:03:39,120 Not surprising any of that 73 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,190 since the whole giant Incan empire 74 00:03:41,190 --> 00:03:43,410 and its giant armies survive 75 00:03:43,410 --> 00:03:46,053 and prosper thanks to eating spuds. 76 00:03:47,820 --> 00:03:51,030 Then in 1519 Spanish soldiers come 77 00:03:51,030 --> 00:03:54,420 explorers called conquistadors arrived 78 00:03:54,420 --> 00:03:56,640 in the continent from Europe. 79 00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:57,780 They were hungry for gold, 80 00:03:57,780 --> 00:03:59,550 silver, and any other treasure 81 00:03:59,550 --> 00:04:01,050 they could lay their hands on. 82 00:04:02,730 --> 00:04:05,040 The Spanish conquistadors, keen to exploit 83 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:06,720 any valuable resources they find 84 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:08,490 in this new world try 85 00:04:08,490 --> 00:04:10,321 these weird looking veggies. 86 00:04:14,100 --> 00:04:17,460 And by 1567 South American potatoes are 87 00:04:17,460 --> 00:04:20,460 on a ship back to the Canaries and then Europe. 88 00:04:20,460 --> 00:04:22,417 And they're mostly fed to pigs. 89 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:29,040 In France despite dozens of famines in 300 years, 90 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:30,603 no human being will touch them. 91 00:04:32,310 --> 00:04:34,930 Resistance to potatoes is a French characteristic 92 00:04:36,510 --> 00:04:39,663 because the French blame spuds for causing leprosy. 93 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:43,270 And they're generally supposed to be poisonous. 94 00:04:46,350 --> 00:04:48,300 Gradually the dietary virtues 95 00:04:48,300 --> 00:04:50,760 of the potato long known by the Incas 96 00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:52,620 become recognized in most of Europe. 97 00:04:52,620 --> 00:04:55,110 So does the fact that potatoes generate 98 00:04:55,110 --> 00:04:58,080 more edible food than the same acreage of wheat 99 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:00,780 but the French are still stubbornly resistant to them. 100 00:05:02,790 --> 00:05:04,680 In late 18th century France 101 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,300 with a rapidly growing number of mouths to feed 102 00:05:08,310 --> 00:05:10,080 and political turmoil disrupting 103 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:13,470 everything including food supplies, 104 00:05:13,470 --> 00:05:16,050 a French pharmacist sees spuds 105 00:05:16,050 --> 00:05:18,600 as the answer to the food crisis. 106 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:21,480 His name is Parmentier 107 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:23,880 and he ends up a major medical figure, 108 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:25,680 especially in the field of public health 109 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:29,703 and nutrition with over 180 publications to his name. 110 00:05:32,580 --> 00:05:35,730 He's also the father of potato cooking in Europe. 111 00:05:35,730 --> 00:05:39,805 If you've ever eaten cottage pie, he's to blame. 112 00:05:39,805 --> 00:05:42,110 Because at one point he's a prisoner of war 113 00:05:42,110 --> 00:05:44,940 in a German jail and fed on spuds 114 00:05:44,940 --> 00:05:47,070 and becomes a convert. 115 00:05:47,070 --> 00:05:48,960 Back home after the war, 116 00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:52,323 he brings the words potato and cuisine together. 117 00:05:55,290 --> 00:05:59,073 Parmentier launches a pro spud publicity offensive. 118 00:06:00,780 --> 00:06:04,043 He writes a load of scientific articles on potatoes 119 00:06:04,043 --> 00:06:08,760 and clears a patch of ground in Paris growing spuds 120 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:10,890 and under armed guard. 121 00:06:10,890 --> 00:06:13,110 So when the guards leave every evening, 122 00:06:13,110 --> 00:06:14,640 the vegetables will be stolen 123 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:17,220 during the night and he hopes eaten 124 00:06:17,220 --> 00:06:18,723 by starving poor people. 125 00:06:20,580 --> 00:06:22,380 Because if it has a guard, 126 00:06:22,380 --> 00:06:23,823 it must be valuable, right? 127 00:06:26,310 --> 00:06:29,190 He also hosts and publicizes dinner parties 128 00:06:29,190 --> 00:06:31,200 for famous people like Benjamin Franklin 129 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:35,340 where all 20 courses are made from potatoes. 130 00:06:35,340 --> 00:06:36,720 And he sends potato flowers 131 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:38,700 to French Queen Marie Antoinette 132 00:06:38,700 --> 00:06:41,070 and gets the French King Louis XVI 133 00:06:41,070 --> 00:06:42,933 to put one in his button hole. 134 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:46,530 Quite a coup. 135 00:06:46,530 --> 00:06:47,940 This is a time when the gap 136 00:06:47,940 --> 00:06:49,350 between royals and subjects has 137 00:06:49,350 --> 00:06:51,840 never been wider and Queen Marie Antoinette 138 00:06:51,840 --> 00:06:54,690 in particular has been derided by historians 139 00:06:54,690 --> 00:06:57,040 for lack of compassion for the starving public. 140 00:06:58,380 --> 00:06:59,358 But it's not true 141 00:06:59,358 --> 00:07:01,980 because along with Parmentier and others, 142 00:07:01,980 --> 00:07:03,630 she promotes the idea 143 00:07:03,630 --> 00:07:05,130 that spuds might be the answer 144 00:07:05,130 --> 00:07:06,810 to famine and starvation. 145 00:07:06,810 --> 00:07:08,400 She's also said to have 146 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:10,601 donated widely to charitable causes 147 00:07:10,601 --> 00:07:13,050 and her bedchamber maid describes her 148 00:07:13,050 --> 00:07:15,603 as so happy at doing good. 149 00:07:23,310 --> 00:07:27,150 One particular individual Marie Antoinette helps is 150 00:07:27,150 --> 00:07:31,083 a divorcee, name of Princess Louise de Stolberg. 151 00:07:33,930 --> 00:07:36,660 Princess Louise's marriage is arranged 152 00:07:36,660 --> 00:07:38,850 to strengthen royal allegiances 153 00:07:38,850 --> 00:07:41,550 to a man who turns out to be drunk 154 00:07:41,550 --> 00:07:43,140 from breakfast to bedtime, 155 00:07:43,140 --> 00:07:44,640 who locks her in her room, 156 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:47,343 beats her, and is 30 years older than she is. 157 00:07:49,461 --> 00:07:51,420 In the end she manages to escape 158 00:07:51,420 --> 00:07:53,520 into the safety of a convent 159 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:55,110 and eventually thanks in part 160 00:07:55,110 --> 00:07:56,250 to Marie Antoinette's moral 161 00:07:56,250 --> 00:07:58,260 and financial support manages 162 00:07:58,260 --> 00:07:59,820 to get a legal separation 163 00:07:59,820 --> 00:08:02,043 from the monster husband she's deserted. 164 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:06,390 Not easy given who he is. 165 00:08:06,390 --> 00:08:08,973 Well who he says he is, 166 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:12,333 the king of Great Britain. 167 00:08:14,850 --> 00:08:19,020 Meet Charles Edward Louis Philip Casimir Stuart 168 00:08:19,020 --> 00:08:21,843 or Bonnie Prince Charlie as he's better known. 169 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:25,710 Bonnie Prince Charlie is the grandson 170 00:08:25,710 --> 00:08:28,200 of the deposed British King James II 171 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:30,420 who's been thrown out by the British government 172 00:08:30,420 --> 00:08:31,620 because he's a Catholic. 173 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:38,520 Charlie himself is born in Rome 174 00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:40,290 and grows up believing his supporters 175 00:08:40,290 --> 00:08:43,410 back in the British Isles called the Jacobites 176 00:08:43,410 --> 00:08:44,400 will one day help him 177 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:45,843 get back the British throne. 178 00:08:47,310 --> 00:08:50,610 Okay, first the name, Bonnie is Scottish 179 00:08:50,610 --> 00:08:52,680 for good looking which he is 180 00:08:52,680 --> 00:08:56,160 when in 1745 at the age of 24, 181 00:08:56,160 --> 00:08:57,930 he turns up in Scotland 182 00:08:57,930 --> 00:08:59,673 and raises a Jacobite army. 183 00:09:03,051 --> 00:09:04,440 After a number of battles 184 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:06,270 with the British government forces, 185 00:09:06,270 --> 00:09:08,070 the decisive confrontation happens 186 00:09:08,070 --> 00:09:11,010 close to the Scottish village of Culloden, 187 00:09:11,010 --> 00:09:13,470 where Charlie's 5,000 Jacobites are 188 00:09:13,470 --> 00:09:16,200 outnumbered by 9,000 British soldiers 189 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:18,993 and a cavalry four times larger than his own. 190 00:09:21,030 --> 00:09:25,080 Forty minutes later and the Jacobite army has been defeated. 191 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:27,510 Bonnie Prince Charlie's on the run for several months, 192 00:09:27,510 --> 00:09:30,420 ending up on the Scottish island of Skye 193 00:09:30,420 --> 00:09:32,676 until he escapes to France. 194 00:09:38,580 --> 00:09:41,580 The whole sorry tale of Bonnie Prince Charlie 195 00:09:41,580 --> 00:09:42,840 and his failed attempt 196 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:44,910 to seize the throne will later 197 00:09:44,910 --> 00:09:46,710 become the stuff of legend 198 00:09:46,710 --> 00:09:49,670 including this lyrical lullaby. 199 00:09:49,670 --> 00:09:54,368 ♪ Onward the sailors cry ♪ 200 00:09:54,368 --> 00:09:59,368 ♪ Carry the lad that's born to be king ♪ 201 00:09:59,766 --> 00:10:03,180 ♪ Over the sea to Skye ♪ 202 00:10:03,180 --> 00:10:04,902 The myth is born. 203 00:10:04,902 --> 00:10:07,386 ♪ Burned are our homes ♪ 204 00:10:07,386 --> 00:10:09,732 ♪ Exile and death ♪ 205 00:10:09,732 --> 00:10:11,550 ♪ Scatter the loyal men ♪ 206 00:10:11,550 --> 00:10:14,850 And even today some Scots lift a glass 207 00:10:14,850 --> 00:10:18,961 and toast what they call the king over the water. 208 00:10:18,961 --> 00:10:22,461 ♪ Charlie will come again ♪ 209 00:10:23,580 --> 00:10:26,010 Of course Charlie doesn't come again. 210 00:10:26,010 --> 00:10:29,130 The French promise military support and then don't. 211 00:10:29,130 --> 00:10:30,270 Charlie then spends the rest 212 00:10:30,270 --> 00:10:32,430 of his life wandering around Italy, 213 00:10:32,430 --> 00:10:34,350 settling finally back in Rome, 214 00:10:34,350 --> 00:10:37,650 bitter, arrogant, permanently drunk, 215 00:10:37,650 --> 00:10:40,815 and calling himself Charles III of England. 216 00:10:40,815 --> 00:10:44,065 ♪ Over the sea to Skye ♪ 217 00:10:45,810 --> 00:10:48,240 Okay, where are we so far on our journey 218 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:50,523 towards a future with limitless energy? 219 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:56,010 Conquistadors bring the potato 220 00:10:56,010 --> 00:10:57,345 from the Andes to Europe 221 00:10:57,345 --> 00:10:59,070 where the idea of eating them 222 00:10:59,070 --> 00:11:02,430 slowly takes hold thanks to Parmentier 223 00:11:02,430 --> 00:11:04,249 who convinces Marie Antoinette, 224 00:11:04,249 --> 00:11:06,240 a queen concerned for the welfare 225 00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:07,830 of those less fortunate, 226 00:11:07,830 --> 00:11:09,660 one of whom a princess, 227 00:11:09,660 --> 00:11:11,310 she helps escape an abusive 228 00:11:11,310 --> 00:11:12,990 and drunk husband pretender 229 00:11:12,990 --> 00:11:15,510 to the British throne, Bonnie Prince Charlie. 230 00:11:15,510 --> 00:11:18,390 His attempt to seize the British crown is spoiled 231 00:11:18,390 --> 00:11:21,423 and he's forced to flee to Rome in defeat. 232 00:11:24,750 --> 00:11:26,790 Anybody who supported Charlie is 233 00:11:26,790 --> 00:11:27,873 now also on the run, 234 00:11:28,770 --> 00:11:31,110 including a family called Byres 235 00:11:31,110 --> 00:11:33,180 who follow him to Rome. 236 00:11:33,180 --> 00:11:36,930 By 1780 the son, James Byres, 237 00:11:36,930 --> 00:11:38,490 is making ends meet by showing 238 00:11:38,490 --> 00:11:40,860 around visiting British aristocrats 239 00:11:40,860 --> 00:11:42,570 on their traditional European 240 00:11:42,570 --> 00:11:45,360 grand tour for self-improvement. 241 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:46,890 One of the must see sites 242 00:11:46,890 --> 00:11:49,870 on the tour is the latest hole in the ground 243 00:11:50,820 --> 00:11:53,400 and tres chic subject of Anglo chatter 244 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:54,960 and class, blah, blah 245 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:57,303 as it still is, Pompeii. 246 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:01,563 Archaeology, it seems is where it's at. 247 00:12:02,869 --> 00:12:07,440 Well unearthed artifacts, well tomb robbing, 248 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:09,820 turning up the kind of stuff Byres buys 249 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:13,383 and sells onto rich and gullible customers. 250 00:12:14,610 --> 00:12:18,090 So around 1778 something becomes available 251 00:12:18,090 --> 00:12:20,610 which is A, ancient Roman, 252 00:12:20,610 --> 00:12:23,550 but B, doesn't need digging up. 253 00:12:23,550 --> 00:12:25,740 And C, is going cheap 254 00:12:25,740 --> 00:12:27,423 because the owner needs the cash. 255 00:12:28,350 --> 00:12:30,153 Well, Byres is in like a shot. 256 00:12:32,190 --> 00:12:36,150 This is what he buys, a Roman vase. 257 00:12:36,150 --> 00:12:37,200 It doesn't look much 258 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:39,273 but it's going to change history. 259 00:12:42,930 --> 00:12:46,710 So 10 inches tall, made in BC 20 something 260 00:12:46,710 --> 00:12:49,593 just after the ancient Romans learned to blow glass. 261 00:12:51,030 --> 00:12:54,090 First you make a vase of blue-black glass, 262 00:12:54,090 --> 00:12:56,670 then dip it in molten white glass. 263 00:12:56,670 --> 00:12:59,070 Then you carve through the white glass 264 00:12:59,070 --> 00:13:00,900 to make the cameos. 265 00:13:00,900 --> 00:13:02,340 Experts think it would originally 266 00:13:02,340 --> 00:13:04,443 have taken two years to do. 267 00:13:05,610 --> 00:13:07,083 For Byres it's easy money. 268 00:13:08,130 --> 00:13:10,053 He sells it on and makes a fortune. 269 00:13:11,310 --> 00:13:12,813 Eventually the vase ends up 270 00:13:12,813 --> 00:13:14,730 with the Duchess of Portland 271 00:13:14,730 --> 00:13:17,883 and becomes known as the Portland Vase. 272 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:23,719 See, once the Portland Vase is in England, 273 00:13:23,719 --> 00:13:26,190 it's celebrated as one of the greatest works 274 00:13:26,190 --> 00:13:28,230 of art from the ancient world 275 00:13:28,230 --> 00:13:30,180 because at the time the techniques 276 00:13:30,180 --> 00:13:31,110 and the materials used 277 00:13:31,110 --> 00:13:33,393 to make it baffle everybody. 278 00:13:34,620 --> 00:13:37,980 But one man has spotted a business opportunity. 279 00:13:37,980 --> 00:13:41,250 Josiah Wedgwood is already a big shot 280 00:13:41,250 --> 00:13:43,710 because of the habit today worldwide 281 00:13:43,710 --> 00:13:47,883 that identifies the English worldwide, a cuppa. 282 00:13:51,434 --> 00:13:53,803 I'm not talking about the tea but the cup. 283 00:13:59,490 --> 00:14:01,530 See, Wedgwood himself is already 284 00:14:01,530 --> 00:14:02,820 doing pretty nicely thanks 285 00:14:02,820 --> 00:14:03,900 to the way he's responded 286 00:14:03,900 --> 00:14:05,820 to the mania for tea drinking 287 00:14:05,820 --> 00:14:08,463 by mass producing fake porcelain. 288 00:14:09,390 --> 00:14:11,220 Real porcelain comes from China 289 00:14:11,220 --> 00:14:12,480 and is so expensive 290 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:14,190 that only the uppermost crust can 291 00:14:14,190 --> 00:14:15,940 afford to drink their tea out of it 292 00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:18,960 which doesn't stop the new Industrial Revolution 293 00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:21,120 middle class upwardly mobile wannabees 294 00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:22,773 from wishing to do the same. 295 00:14:26,048 --> 00:14:27,780 So Wedgwood produces something 296 00:14:27,780 --> 00:14:29,580 that looks like porcelain 297 00:14:29,580 --> 00:14:31,430 but costs less than an arm and a leg. 298 00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:34,683 It's called creamware. 299 00:14:35,550 --> 00:14:37,470 Basically it's cream colored 300 00:14:37,470 --> 00:14:41,264 and carries a scene or a motif of some kind. 301 00:14:41,264 --> 00:14:43,380 And then Wedgwood wins a contract 302 00:14:43,380 --> 00:14:46,410 to make a green and gold creamware tea service 303 00:14:46,410 --> 00:14:47,823 for the British queen. 304 00:14:50,084 --> 00:14:51,810 With the queen's permission, 305 00:14:51,810 --> 00:14:55,293 the wily Wedgwood then calls his stuff Queens Ware 306 00:14:55,293 --> 00:14:58,923 and gets a royal warrant as potter to the queen. 307 00:15:00,570 --> 00:15:03,993 This trick is what you call a license to print money. 308 00:15:05,490 --> 00:15:08,580 And when the Portland Vase makes a splash with the bigwigs, 309 00:15:08,580 --> 00:15:11,073 Wedgwood realizes it could make him even richer. 310 00:15:12,030 --> 00:15:13,680 If he can just make a copy 311 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:15,810 of this baffling ancient wonder, 312 00:15:15,810 --> 00:15:18,093 his other products will fly off the shelf. 313 00:15:19,980 --> 00:15:22,680 Ooh, this is rather nice. 314 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:25,200 Because the one thing Wedgwood has 315 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:26,970 besides the talent for making plates 316 00:15:26,970 --> 00:15:28,650 and saucers and such is 317 00:15:28,650 --> 00:15:31,200 that he knows what to make 318 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:32,433 and how to sell it. 319 00:15:33,570 --> 00:15:35,580 He starts the first product placement 320 00:15:35,580 --> 00:15:37,113 and influence their marketing. 321 00:15:39,493 --> 00:15:40,740 And he hypes his stuff 322 00:15:40,740 --> 00:15:43,770 with private for your eyes only viewings 323 00:15:43,770 --> 00:15:45,033 of the latest product. 324 00:15:47,070 --> 00:15:48,720 It takes Wedgwood four years 325 00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:49,680 of trial and testing 326 00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:52,410 to crack the 2,000 year old techniques used 327 00:15:52,410 --> 00:15:54,510 to make the Portland Vase. 328 00:15:54,510 --> 00:15:56,610 But when he's happy with his copy, 329 00:15:56,610 --> 00:15:57,510 he sends it to some 330 00:15:57,510 --> 00:15:59,670 of the most influential scientific thinkers 331 00:15:59,670 --> 00:16:01,999 and movers and shakers of the time 332 00:16:01,999 --> 00:16:03,663 to get their seal of approval. 333 00:16:05,340 --> 00:16:07,500 It's a typical piece of Wedgwood theater, 334 00:16:07,500 --> 00:16:10,020 never intended to be a mass market item 335 00:16:10,020 --> 00:16:12,600 but instead to show off his skill 336 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:14,043 as a master potter. 337 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:16,080 It all works. 338 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:18,510 He sends the vase off on a grand tour of Europe, 339 00:16:18,510 --> 00:16:20,880 calls it my great work, 340 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:22,623 and they're fighting for a ticket. 341 00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:28,500 Now, Wedgwood's sales agent in Europe is 342 00:16:28,500 --> 00:16:30,753 this guy, William Nicholson. 343 00:16:32,220 --> 00:16:34,410 Not content with selling crockery, 344 00:16:34,410 --> 00:16:36,480 he also dabbles in science, 345 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:39,360 translating journals, teaching maths, 346 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:41,560 and general all around intellectual thought. 347 00:16:42,900 --> 00:16:46,150 Now Nicholson is fascinated by a fish 348 00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:49,637 not for eating off his fancy Wedgwood plates 349 00:16:49,637 --> 00:16:50,910 but because he has 350 00:16:50,910 --> 00:16:53,703 some fishy thoughts about electricity. 351 00:16:58,710 --> 00:17:01,747 The electric ray swims about the ocean bottom 352 00:17:01,747 --> 00:17:04,920 using its electrical powers to stun things it wants 353 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:08,040 to scare off or better eat. 354 00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:09,570 The bigger the electric ray, 355 00:17:09,570 --> 00:17:12,540 the bigger the shock, and the bigger the lunch. 356 00:17:12,540 --> 00:17:15,870 Some electric rays weigh up to 200 pounds 357 00:17:15,870 --> 00:17:18,420 and can kill a small shark 358 00:17:18,420 --> 00:17:20,220 or paralyze you come to think of it. 359 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:23,403 And Nicholson wants to know how they do it. 360 00:17:25,170 --> 00:17:27,390 By now, he's cashed in on his association 361 00:17:27,390 --> 00:17:30,120 with Wedgwood and used Wedgwood's contact 362 00:17:30,120 --> 00:17:32,500 to get a seat at the scientific high table 363 00:17:33,930 --> 00:17:36,150 where he hears about an Italian professor 364 00:17:36,150 --> 00:17:38,830 of anatomy called Luigi Galvani. 365 00:17:41,443 --> 00:17:43,577 In the 1780s, Galvani uses metal hooks 366 00:17:44,730 --> 00:17:49,050 to hang half dissected frogs onto an iron railing. 367 00:17:49,050 --> 00:17:50,970 The frogs are to be dissected later 368 00:17:50,970 --> 00:17:52,830 on by his students. 369 00:17:52,830 --> 00:17:56,940 The professor notices that occasionally the dead frogs seem 370 00:17:56,940 --> 00:17:59,763 to twitch as if they were still alive. 371 00:18:01,290 --> 00:18:02,880 He wonders if this is something 372 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:04,620 to do with lightning 373 00:18:04,620 --> 00:18:07,593 but it also happens on clear, sunny days. 374 00:18:09,270 --> 00:18:10,860 Then in 1786 he takes 375 00:18:10,860 --> 00:18:13,620 his experimental frog into his lab. 376 00:18:13,620 --> 00:18:15,090 He puts one end of an iron wire 377 00:18:15,090 --> 00:18:19,080 to its leg muscle and a copper wire to its nerve, 378 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:22,953 connects the two wires and the frog leg spasms. 379 00:18:27,570 --> 00:18:29,700 Galvani announces he has discovered 380 00:18:29,700 --> 00:18:32,463 animal electricity made by animals. 381 00:18:35,321 --> 00:18:36,840 Quick as a flash, 382 00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:38,890 everybody and their dog is trying it out 383 00:18:40,830 --> 00:18:43,680 even giving folks small electrical shocks 384 00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:45,663 as a kind of puerile treatment. 385 00:18:46,890 --> 00:18:49,380 Galvani's breakthrough is so important 386 00:18:49,380 --> 00:18:51,870 Galvani get his own verb in the English language. 387 00:18:51,870 --> 00:18:53,280 And so Nicholson is, 388 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:56,670 sorry galvanized to get to the bottom 389 00:18:56,670 --> 00:18:58,383 of the stingray's source of shock. 390 00:19:00,630 --> 00:19:02,331 He gets out his fish slice 391 00:19:02,331 --> 00:19:04,560 and discovers that on either side 392 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:06,540 of the electric ray's dorsal fin, 393 00:19:06,540 --> 00:19:08,100 there's a large area filled 394 00:19:08,100 --> 00:19:09,600 with an organ composed of groups 395 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:10,800 of hundreds of stacks 396 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:14,997 of tiny, flat, circular, gelatinous cells. 397 00:19:14,997 --> 00:19:16,680 And it's from this organ 398 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:19,200 that the ray gets it killer zap 399 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,173 because the stack of cells makes electricity. 400 00:19:23,670 --> 00:19:26,670 So in 1797, Nicholson tells the world 401 00:19:26,670 --> 00:19:28,380 about the stack arrangement 402 00:19:28,380 --> 00:19:29,940 and he's able to do that 403 00:19:29,940 --> 00:19:31,680 because his other claim to fame is 404 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:34,590 having started the 18th century equivalent 405 00:19:34,590 --> 00:19:37,350 of a geek magazine filled with articles 406 00:19:37,350 --> 00:19:39,693 all about the latest gizmos and discoveries. 407 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:45,150 His article on the electric ray is read by 408 00:19:45,150 --> 00:19:46,860 and knocks the socks off 409 00:19:46,860 --> 00:19:50,640 this Italian person, Alessandro Volta, 410 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:54,570 who some say borrows all Nicholson's ideas 411 00:19:54,570 --> 00:19:56,640 and wins awards for his trouble. 412 00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:00,330 And by awards I mean the French Legion of Honor 413 00:20:00,330 --> 00:20:02,010 and the title of count of Italy 414 00:20:02,010 --> 00:20:03,090 and a load of money 415 00:20:03,090 --> 00:20:04,790 from the French emperor, Napoleon. 416 00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:09,210 To be fair, Volta does some of his own work 417 00:20:09,210 --> 00:20:11,730 but it is inspired by Nicholson's drawings 418 00:20:11,730 --> 00:20:13,950 of the electric raised cells. 419 00:20:13,950 --> 00:20:17,040 Like inventing this, a pile of disks 420 00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:18,960 of alternating zinc and copper 421 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:21,630 interspersed by wet cardboard disks 422 00:20:21,630 --> 00:20:24,780 which when soaked in a saline or acid solution, 423 00:20:24,780 --> 00:20:26,253 holds an electric charge. 424 00:20:27,660 --> 00:20:29,883 Volta calls this his pile. 425 00:20:30,870 --> 00:20:31,863 We say battery. 426 00:20:33,510 --> 00:20:37,140 Invented in 1800 say the history books by Volta 427 00:20:37,140 --> 00:20:40,443 or now you know may be kind of invented. 428 00:20:42,410 --> 00:20:45,150 Okay, where are we so far on our journey 429 00:20:45,150 --> 00:20:47,463 towards a future with limitless energy? 430 00:20:50,224 --> 00:20:52,080 South American potatoes arrive 431 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,050 in Europe championed by Parmentier 432 00:20:55,050 --> 00:20:57,200 who wins over French Queen Marie Antoinette 433 00:20:58,380 --> 00:21:00,120 who helps the ex-wife of pretender 434 00:21:00,120 --> 00:21:02,520 to the British throne, Bonnie Prince Charlie, 435 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:04,740 who after his uprising is defeated, 436 00:21:04,740 --> 00:21:06,845 flees to Rome with his followers, 437 00:21:06,845 --> 00:21:09,553 one of whom, James Byres, while buying 438 00:21:09,553 --> 00:21:11,490 and selling antiques comes 439 00:21:11,490 --> 00:21:14,430 across the ancient Portland Vase 440 00:21:14,430 --> 00:21:15,720 which causes a big splash 441 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:17,967 noticed by pottery magnate, Wedgwood, 442 00:21:17,967 --> 00:21:19,920 who copies it to impress his friends 443 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:21,750 and get more sales. 444 00:21:21,750 --> 00:21:24,720 His assistant, Nicholson, uses his position 445 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:26,970 to mix with leading scientific thinkers 446 00:21:26,970 --> 00:21:30,600 and explore how electric rays get their sparks. 447 00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:33,030 And this rather unfairly inspires Volta 448 00:21:33,030 --> 00:21:34,293 to create the battery. 449 00:21:41,010 --> 00:21:42,273 So now here we go again. 450 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:47,640 Now there's a ready supply of electricity, 451 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:50,460 boffins everywhere start to build contraptions 452 00:21:50,460 --> 00:21:53,550 that will do magic things with electricity. 453 00:21:53,550 --> 00:21:57,010 Like for instance, the magnetico electrico celestial bed 454 00:21:58,860 --> 00:22:00,750 in which couples who can't conceive, 455 00:22:00,750 --> 00:22:01,650 they are told can. 456 00:22:05,603 --> 00:22:07,890 Or like in 1802, the case of an Italian professor 457 00:22:07,890 --> 00:22:10,980 of law and spare time experimenter called Romagnosi 458 00:22:10,980 --> 00:22:13,090 who in the classic geek manner thinks 459 00:22:16,350 --> 00:22:18,753 and waves a Volta battery at a compass. 460 00:22:19,650 --> 00:22:21,660 Bingo, at a distance with 461 00:22:21,660 --> 00:22:23,760 nothing linking it to the battery, 462 00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:25,053 the compass needle moves. 463 00:22:28,500 --> 00:22:32,310 So now electricity isn't just touch and shock. 464 00:22:32,310 --> 00:22:34,620 And whatever it is, holy shmoly, 465 00:22:34,620 --> 00:22:36,470 it's going through the air invisibly. 466 00:22:39,570 --> 00:22:42,210 Twenty years later when a Danish guy called Oersted 467 00:22:42,210 --> 00:22:45,000 repeats this trick and here we go again 468 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:46,530 gets all the credit, 469 00:22:46,530 --> 00:22:47,970 what's happening appears to be nothing 470 00:22:47,970 --> 00:22:50,313 less than a mystery new force 471 00:22:50,313 --> 00:22:54,517 which will become known as electromagnetism. 472 00:22:54,517 --> 00:22:56,580 Electromagnetism is of course one 473 00:22:56,580 --> 00:22:59,460 of the greatest future shaping discoveries in history. 474 00:22:59,460 --> 00:23:01,260 But for our purposes, 475 00:23:01,260 --> 00:23:04,540 electromagnetism takes us on a totally unexpected thread 476 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:09,210 which will involve a darkened laboratory 477 00:23:09,210 --> 00:23:10,770 and what else of course? 478 00:23:10,770 --> 00:23:13,170 A German baron and a castle 479 00:23:13,170 --> 00:23:15,117 on the outskirts of Vienna. 480 00:23:15,117 --> 00:23:16,410 It looks like the home 481 00:23:16,410 --> 00:23:18,660 of a mad scientist, don't you think? 482 00:23:18,660 --> 00:23:20,260 Well, you wouldn't be far wrong. 483 00:23:21,180 --> 00:23:25,080 The castle owner is Professor Dr. Carl Ludwig, 484 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:28,290 Baron von Reichenbach who runs an ironworks 485 00:23:28,290 --> 00:23:30,150 to make a bit of money 486 00:23:30,150 --> 00:23:32,370 but when he's not preoccupied by that, 487 00:23:32,370 --> 00:23:34,650 he dabbles in science of all kinds. 488 00:23:34,650 --> 00:23:37,600 His big obsession is electromagnetism 489 00:23:38,490 --> 00:23:43,490 and the world of the fake, the strange, and the creepy. 490 00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:54,420 That is to say one day in 1844 in Vienna, 491 00:23:54,420 --> 00:23:56,940 a doctor pal of his introduces him 492 00:23:56,940 --> 00:23:59,493 to a woman who suffers from unexplained symptoms. 493 00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:03,220 She has headaches and the occasional seizure 494 00:24:05,130 --> 00:24:06,390 and she claims she can see 495 00:24:06,390 --> 00:24:09,183 in a room too dark to see. 496 00:24:11,460 --> 00:24:13,530 With electromagnetism in mind, 497 00:24:13,530 --> 00:24:14,980 the Baron brings in a magnet. 498 00:24:17,623 --> 00:24:18,510 And lo and behold, 499 00:24:18,510 --> 00:24:20,640 the lady says she could see streams 500 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:22,270 of light coming from the magnet 501 00:24:23,580 --> 00:24:26,070 in total darkness, remember? 502 00:24:26,070 --> 00:24:27,720 So like a true geek, 503 00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:30,030 the Baron checks out a few other patients 504 00:24:30,030 --> 00:24:32,520 with ailments like his lady patient. 505 00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:34,380 The new patients have spasms, 506 00:24:34,380 --> 00:24:37,383 convulsions, tuberculosis, paralysis, 507 00:24:38,550 --> 00:24:39,903 and some of them sleepwalk. 508 00:24:41,610 --> 00:24:43,800 These folks also claim to see the light coming 509 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,533 from the magnet in the dark. 510 00:24:53,580 --> 00:24:56,070 So the Baron throws the book at them. 511 00:24:56,070 --> 00:24:59,601 Thirteen thousand tests later involving the patients, 512 00:24:59,601 --> 00:25:03,360 many magnets, and 600 different experimental materials 513 00:25:03,360 --> 00:25:06,243 the Baron says, von Reichenbach claims 514 00:25:06,243 --> 00:25:08,312 that the mystery light seems 515 00:25:08,312 --> 00:25:11,250 to be coming from all kinds of crystals 516 00:25:11,250 --> 00:25:13,230 which transmit the mystery force 517 00:25:13,230 --> 00:25:15,123 to people and things. 518 00:25:16,470 --> 00:25:17,910 The bigger the crystal, 519 00:25:17,910 --> 00:25:19,473 the bigger the mystery force. 520 00:25:21,510 --> 00:25:23,970 You may well be less than convinced by all this 521 00:25:23,970 --> 00:25:26,940 but by now the Baron is a believer 522 00:25:26,940 --> 00:25:28,890 and he gives the force a name, 523 00:25:28,890 --> 00:25:31,743 Od, as in the Norse god, Odin. 524 00:25:34,350 --> 00:25:35,850 One more bit of bologna 525 00:25:35,850 --> 00:25:37,553 and we'll have done with the Baron. 526 00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:42,780 Some of those sensitive to the Odic force 527 00:25:42,780 --> 00:25:44,550 who also claim to see auras 528 00:25:44,550 --> 00:25:46,650 when they look at each other are taken 529 00:25:46,650 --> 00:25:49,320 to a cemetery where they say 530 00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:51,210 they can see mysterious flames 531 00:25:51,210 --> 00:25:55,320 five foot high coming from new graves. 532 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:57,750 And last but not least, you knew it. 533 00:25:57,750 --> 00:26:00,000 Some of these oddballs claim to be able 534 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:01,803 to make tables tilt. 535 00:26:02,850 --> 00:26:04,350 The Baron is convinced we are talking 536 00:26:04,350 --> 00:26:06,930 about a universal force here. 537 00:26:06,930 --> 00:26:09,420 So after more than 10 years 538 00:26:09,420 --> 00:26:12,420 of what we would call double-blind tests, 539 00:26:12,420 --> 00:26:15,720 the Baron presents his 13,000 experiments 540 00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:17,043 to the science community. 541 00:26:18,360 --> 00:26:21,783 Excruciating detail, page after page, 542 00:26:23,940 --> 00:26:26,640 after careful consideration the technical term 543 00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:28,348 his fellow scientists use 544 00:26:28,348 --> 00:26:30,090 once they've peer reviewed 545 00:26:30,090 --> 00:26:33,603 all his findings is balderdash. 546 00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:37,893 Poor old von Reichenbach with his cosmic force that wasn't. 547 00:26:40,470 --> 00:26:42,300 I wonder if he ever realized 548 00:26:42,300 --> 00:26:44,790 that something rather ordinary would be the thing 549 00:26:44,790 --> 00:26:47,010 that would immortalize him in history 550 00:26:47,010 --> 00:26:49,080 and really change the world. 551 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:52,350 See, when he's not experimenting with electromagnetism, 552 00:26:52,350 --> 00:26:53,880 von Reichenbach also dabbles 553 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:55,633 in other areas of science 554 00:26:55,633 --> 00:26:59,486 like poking around in the waste from his ironworks. 555 00:26:59,486 --> 00:27:01,290 One of the things von Reichenbach has 556 00:27:01,290 --> 00:27:03,780 to have is fuel for the furnaces. 557 00:27:03,780 --> 00:27:06,030 This involved him cooking birchwood 558 00:27:06,030 --> 00:27:07,383 to turn it into charcoal. 559 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:09,960 When you do that, 560 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:11,910 you also get tar dripping 561 00:27:11,910 --> 00:27:13,260 from the cooking birchwood. 562 00:27:14,430 --> 00:27:16,950 Von Reichenbach analyzes the tar 563 00:27:16,950 --> 00:27:19,413 and discovers what we end up calling creosote. 564 00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:23,190 Its biggest success comes 565 00:27:23,190 --> 00:27:24,570 when they find it will treat wood 566 00:27:24,570 --> 00:27:25,980 to make it waterproof 567 00:27:25,980 --> 00:27:27,903 and stop it rotting for decades. 568 00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:30,810 So wooden railroad ties are going 569 00:27:30,810 --> 00:27:33,420 to last longer before you have to replace them 570 00:27:33,420 --> 00:27:36,660 which in one case saves the American forests 571 00:27:36,660 --> 00:27:37,860 and lets them build railroads 572 00:27:37,860 --> 00:27:40,290 all over the country and open up the continent. 573 00:27:40,290 --> 00:27:43,020 By 1909, the Americans are using millions 574 00:27:43,020 --> 00:27:44,733 of gallons of creosote a year. 575 00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:48,360 And it turns out that Reichenbach can get 576 00:27:48,360 --> 00:27:51,633 even better creosote thanks to the invention of gaslight. 577 00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:58,380 Gaslight comes from cooking coal. 578 00:27:58,380 --> 00:28:00,540 So the process also creates a ton 579 00:28:00,540 --> 00:28:03,393 of leftover waste called coal tar. 580 00:28:07,530 --> 00:28:10,930 So soon everybody's distilling creosote from it 581 00:28:12,288 --> 00:28:14,400 and then even better finding 582 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:16,710 another chemical which is about 583 00:28:16,710 --> 00:28:19,080 to make somebody lots of money 584 00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:20,010 and move things along 585 00:28:20,010 --> 00:28:22,680 towards a future with limitless energy. 586 00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:24,513 It's called naphtha. 587 00:28:28,475 --> 00:28:30,960 Remember all these connections are leading us 588 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:33,663 to a future with limitless energy. 589 00:28:36,150 --> 00:28:38,730 South American potatoes impress French Queen Marie 590 00:28:38,730 --> 00:28:41,550 Antoinette who helps the ex-wife of pretender 591 00:28:41,550 --> 00:28:43,770 to the British throne, Bonnie Prince Charlie, 592 00:28:43,770 --> 00:28:46,260 who after his uprising is defeated, 593 00:28:46,260 --> 00:28:49,050 flees to Rome where one time supporter, 594 00:28:49,050 --> 00:28:53,100 James Byres, now buys themselves the Portland Vase. 595 00:28:53,100 --> 00:28:56,430 And pottery magnate, Wedgwood copies it 596 00:28:56,430 --> 00:28:58,140 to get more sales, 597 00:28:58,140 --> 00:29:00,870 raising the profile of his assistant, Nicholson, 598 00:29:00,870 --> 00:29:02,850 who uses his position to explore 599 00:29:02,850 --> 00:29:05,520 how electric rays get their spark 600 00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:07,830 inspiring Volta to create the battery 601 00:29:07,830 --> 00:29:10,890 which leads to general excitement about electromagnetism 602 00:29:10,890 --> 00:29:12,900 including Reichenbach's futile experiment 603 00:29:12,900 --> 00:29:15,420 into his mystery Odic force 604 00:29:15,420 --> 00:29:18,690 and his real future shaping success, creosote, 605 00:29:18,690 --> 00:29:21,640 which he discovers from messing with coal tar 606 00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:25,980 and a new chemical called naphtha. 607 00:29:25,980 --> 00:29:29,430 It's all thanks to a Scotsman called Charles Mackintosh 608 00:29:29,430 --> 00:29:31,920 who makes dyes and fabrics. 609 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:34,800 Like von Reichenbach, Mackintosh also enjoys 610 00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:37,233 poking around in the byproducts from fuels. 611 00:29:38,788 --> 00:29:40,200 In 1823 during the course 612 00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:42,330 of an average day experimenting 613 00:29:42,330 --> 00:29:45,450 with the waste products from his local gas work, 614 00:29:45,450 --> 00:29:48,300 Mackintosh discovers that naphtha will 615 00:29:48,300 --> 00:29:51,063 melt dried rubber back into a gloopy liquid. 616 00:29:52,860 --> 00:29:54,780 Aha, he thinks and decides 617 00:29:54,780 --> 00:29:56,490 to spread the melted rubber 618 00:29:56,490 --> 00:29:59,580 between sheets of cotton sticking them together 619 00:29:59,580 --> 00:30:01,630 and that makes cotton waterproof 620 00:30:02,610 --> 00:30:04,410 thus inventing something we Brits 621 00:30:04,410 --> 00:30:07,170 still name after him and I'm wearing now, 622 00:30:07,170 --> 00:30:11,243 the raincoat known in Britain as a Mackintosh. 623 00:30:11,243 --> 00:30:14,076 (whimsical music) 624 00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:18,810 Charles Mackintosh's new idea makes him a raincoat fortune 625 00:30:18,810 --> 00:30:21,360 because it rains a lot in Scotland, 626 00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:23,250 well the UK in general. 627 00:30:23,250 --> 00:30:25,503 So everybody wants one. 628 00:30:27,540 --> 00:30:29,280 But his production methods are really slow 629 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:31,953 because the liquid rubber is just not liquid enough. 630 00:30:33,900 --> 00:30:36,660 So he teams up with another rubber expert, 631 00:30:36,660 --> 00:30:38,733 name of Thomas Hancock. 632 00:30:39,990 --> 00:30:41,760 Hancock has invented a machine 633 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,070 for mashing up rubber into a kind of goo 634 00:30:44,070 --> 00:30:46,530 and in this state the naphtha makes the rubber 635 00:30:46,530 --> 00:30:48,603 even more liquid and easy to spread. 636 00:30:49,500 --> 00:30:51,750 Between them, Mackintosh and Hancock, 637 00:30:51,750 --> 00:30:55,020 also come up with an automatic spreading machine 638 00:30:55,020 --> 00:30:58,320 to apply this new more liquidy rubber 639 00:30:58,320 --> 00:30:59,880 replacing the laborious brushes 640 00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:02,010 that Mackintosh had been using 641 00:31:02,010 --> 00:31:04,593 and speeding up the whole manufacturing process. 642 00:31:08,910 --> 00:31:10,530 Now this is one of those times 643 00:31:10,530 --> 00:31:13,650 when connections head off in surprising ways 644 00:31:13,650 --> 00:31:16,110 because to reach our future with limitless energy, 645 00:31:16,110 --> 00:31:18,753 we first need to uncork a few bottles. 646 00:31:19,740 --> 00:31:21,510 See while Mackintosh and Hancock are 647 00:31:21,510 --> 00:31:23,970 revolutionizing overcoats with rubber, 648 00:31:23,970 --> 00:31:26,670 Hancock's brother, Charles, is obsessed 649 00:31:26,670 --> 00:31:30,420 with doing the same thing for bottle stoppers. 650 00:31:30,420 --> 00:31:32,220 Back then they're pretty useless. 651 00:31:32,220 --> 00:31:35,460 Made from straw or cork or wood or whatever, 652 00:31:35,460 --> 00:31:38,850 they'd let liquids out and impurities in. 653 00:31:38,850 --> 00:31:40,350 So using his family connections 654 00:31:40,350 --> 00:31:41,430 to the rubber industry, 655 00:31:41,430 --> 00:31:44,100 Charles gets hold of some samples 656 00:31:44,100 --> 00:31:48,390 of an amazing new rubbery material called gutta-percha, 657 00:31:48,390 --> 00:31:50,580 a type of latex newly arrived 658 00:31:50,580 --> 00:31:53,643 from Southeast Asia where it drips from trees. 659 00:31:55,380 --> 00:31:58,470 He mashes up the gutta-percha with other materials 660 00:31:58,470 --> 00:32:02,490 to create the first rubber thermoplastic blends, 661 00:32:02,490 --> 00:32:06,150 basically rubbery materials that he can mold 662 00:32:06,150 --> 00:32:07,830 into whatever shape he wants 663 00:32:07,830 --> 00:32:11,130 including bottle stoppers which now fit tightly 664 00:32:11,130 --> 00:32:14,553 in bottle tops and keep everything inside. 665 00:32:16,980 --> 00:32:19,740 So Charles Hancock quickly sets up a company 666 00:32:19,740 --> 00:32:23,200 to mass produce his miraculous rubber stoppers 667 00:32:24,731 --> 00:32:26,031 but he doesn't stop there. 668 00:32:28,530 --> 00:32:32,910 Pretty soon his imaginatively named Gutta Percha Company 669 00:32:32,910 --> 00:32:34,683 is creating belts for machinery, 670 00:32:35,670 --> 00:32:39,183 soles for shoes, and a range of toys. 671 00:32:41,340 --> 00:32:43,140 Then Charles realizes that 672 00:32:43,140 --> 00:32:46,050 if he can make gutta-percha tubing, 673 00:32:46,050 --> 00:32:48,450 it'll work very well to sheathe electrical cables 674 00:32:48,450 --> 00:32:50,613 because it's an insulator. 675 00:32:52,500 --> 00:32:54,750 And because it's also waterproof, 676 00:32:54,750 --> 00:32:56,970 it'll also protect electrical cables 677 00:32:56,970 --> 00:32:58,830 that might run the risk of getting wet 678 00:32:58,830 --> 00:33:01,830 which they would do if you were putting them 679 00:33:01,830 --> 00:33:03,843 at the bottom of the ocean, for example. 680 00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:10,950 And that's exactly what the Gutta Percha Company does. 681 00:33:10,950 --> 00:33:12,930 From 1848 to 1863, 682 00:33:12,930 --> 00:33:17,930 they produce 14,826 nautical miles of the stuff. 683 00:33:18,420 --> 00:33:20,670 Much of it destined to be chucked off the back 684 00:33:20,670 --> 00:33:22,809 of the giant SS Great Eastern, 685 00:33:22,809 --> 00:33:26,220 the largest ship on the planet at the time 686 00:33:26,220 --> 00:33:29,283 which lays the world changing transatlantic telegraph cable. 687 00:33:31,650 --> 00:33:35,130 So the electricity once found inside an electric ray, 688 00:33:35,130 --> 00:33:36,900 then harnessed in batteries is 689 00:33:36,900 --> 00:33:39,000 now back at the bottom of the ocean running 690 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,553 through gutta-percha coated cables. 691 00:33:43,020 --> 00:33:44,430 So how is all this leading us 692 00:33:44,430 --> 00:33:48,063 to a green future of limitless, clean energy? 693 00:33:50,538 --> 00:33:52,710 South American potatoes impress 694 00:33:52,710 --> 00:33:54,190 French Queen Marie Antoinette 695 00:33:55,110 --> 00:33:56,880 who helps the ex-wife of pretender 696 00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:59,280 to the British throne, Bonnie Prince Charlie, 697 00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:01,380 who flees to Rome where one of his 698 00:34:01,380 --> 00:34:04,140 many family cronies, James Byres, buys 699 00:34:04,140 --> 00:34:06,690 and sells the Portland Vase. 700 00:34:06,690 --> 00:34:09,180 Wedgwood copies it to get more sales. 701 00:34:09,180 --> 00:34:11,520 His assistant, Nicholson, discovers 702 00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:13,710 how electric rays get their spark, 703 00:34:13,710 --> 00:34:15,777 inspires Volta to invent the battery 704 00:34:15,777 --> 00:34:19,290 and the excitement of electromagnetism leading 705 00:34:19,290 --> 00:34:22,230 to Reichenbach's experiments in the discovery 706 00:34:22,230 --> 00:34:24,570 of world changing creosote 707 00:34:24,570 --> 00:34:26,350 in the byproducts from his foundry 708 00:34:27,330 --> 00:34:29,820 leading others to poke around industrial waste 709 00:34:29,820 --> 00:34:33,570 and find naphtha which will soften rubber 710 00:34:33,570 --> 00:34:36,570 in the raincoat invented by Charles Mackintosh 711 00:34:36,570 --> 00:34:38,250 whose business partner's brother, 712 00:34:38,250 --> 00:34:41,970 Charles Hancock, uses gutta-percha latex 713 00:34:41,970 --> 00:34:45,300 on the first transatlantic telegraph cable. 714 00:34:45,300 --> 00:34:46,470 And why the cable leads 715 00:34:46,470 --> 00:34:48,810 to an extraordinary new invention is 716 00:34:48,810 --> 00:34:51,093 because of an accident nobody sees coming. 717 00:34:54,754 --> 00:34:57,180 The cable laying Gutta Percha Company's 718 00:34:57,180 --> 00:34:59,943 chief electrical whiz is Willoughby Smith. 719 00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:02,910 He decides it might be best 720 00:35:02,910 --> 00:35:04,320 to double-check the cable 721 00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:05,190 since it's being dropped 722 00:35:05,190 --> 00:35:06,540 to the bottom of the ocean. 723 00:35:07,883 --> 00:35:10,290 Now, one way to test an electrical cable is 724 00:35:10,290 --> 00:35:13,173 to check the voltage across it using a voltmeter. 725 00:35:15,030 --> 00:35:16,980 Willoughby Smith does exactly this 726 00:35:16,980 --> 00:35:19,320 using a component called selenium 727 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:22,143 to test the resistance in his undersea cables. 728 00:35:24,210 --> 00:35:25,380 But then comes another one 729 00:35:25,380 --> 00:35:28,560 of those totally unexpected moments of change. 730 00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:30,462 One of the cable engineers notices 731 00:35:30,462 --> 00:35:32,220 that when you take the lid 732 00:35:32,220 --> 00:35:35,520 off the storage boxes containing the rods of selenium, 733 00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:37,830 as soon as any light hits them, 734 00:35:37,830 --> 00:35:39,130 they give off electricity. 735 00:35:43,890 --> 00:35:45,510 On our journey into the modern world 736 00:35:45,510 --> 00:35:48,460 of renewable energy, it's a huge milestone 737 00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:51,780 because Willoughby Smith discovers 738 00:35:51,780 --> 00:35:55,173 he's discovered the first photoelectric material, 739 00:35:56,460 --> 00:35:58,950 a material that makes electricity 740 00:35:58,950 --> 00:36:00,243 from being hit by light. 741 00:36:02,310 --> 00:36:04,740 And that's important because photoelectricity 742 00:36:04,740 --> 00:36:06,153 leads us to two things. 743 00:36:07,030 --> 00:36:09,830 The first is something you're very well acquainted with. 744 00:36:14,340 --> 00:36:15,450 It takes a few decades 745 00:36:15,450 --> 00:36:17,550 but finally another Scotsman called 746 00:36:17,550 --> 00:36:21,643 John Logie Baird does something with photoelectricity 747 00:36:21,643 --> 00:36:24,273 that I can only describe in very simple terms. 748 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:28,350 If you point a camera at me 749 00:36:28,350 --> 00:36:31,980 and the image illuminates a grid of selenium cells, 750 00:36:31,980 --> 00:36:33,660 each of those cells will react 751 00:36:33,660 --> 00:36:35,370 to the light hitting them 752 00:36:35,370 --> 00:36:37,520 by giving off a tiny charge of electricity. 753 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:40,710 If you take a stream of those electrical signals 754 00:36:40,710 --> 00:36:43,230 and carry them off to a screen elsewhere, 755 00:36:43,230 --> 00:36:45,993 you can rebuild the image line by line. 756 00:36:47,252 --> 00:36:48,085 There you go. 757 00:36:48,930 --> 00:36:51,000 This should be striking you as familiar 758 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:52,740 since it's what you're probably looking 759 00:36:52,740 --> 00:36:55,503 at this program on now, television. 760 00:36:57,549 --> 00:36:59,186 The vision and sound are on. 761 00:37:00,390 --> 00:37:02,193 The station goes on the air. 762 00:37:03,930 --> 00:37:06,450 TV goes on to change the world, of course, 763 00:37:06,450 --> 00:37:09,600 but it's the second thing photoelectricity does 764 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,240 that leads us to this particular future. 765 00:37:12,240 --> 00:37:14,070 See if you can use photoelectrics 766 00:37:14,070 --> 00:37:16,620 to turn energy into light, 767 00:37:16,620 --> 00:37:19,710 you can use it to turn light into energy. 768 00:37:19,710 --> 00:37:22,380 We already have solar cell technologies 769 00:37:22,380 --> 00:37:25,053 but our final connection is bigger than that. 770 00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:33,060 In 1839, a German mineralogist discovers a strange, 771 00:37:33,060 --> 00:37:37,290 shiny black mineral in the Ural Mountains in Russia. 772 00:37:37,290 --> 00:37:39,600 He names it perovskite 773 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,333 after fellow mineralogist, Lev Perovski. 774 00:37:43,620 --> 00:37:46,020 Today, the name perovskite is given 775 00:37:46,020 --> 00:37:47,520 to a family of materials 776 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:49,797 that share the same structure as this mineral. 777 00:37:49,797 --> 00:37:52,989 And in this series of programs about future changes, 778 00:37:52,989 --> 00:37:54,690 perovskite may turn out 779 00:37:54,690 --> 00:37:56,520 to be the biggest of them all. 780 00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:58,140 These materials have been found 781 00:37:58,140 --> 00:38:00,690 to have loads of useful electric properties. 782 00:38:00,690 --> 00:38:03,000 And what's even better by shifting 783 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:05,100 and changing the way they go together, 784 00:38:05,100 --> 00:38:05,970 you can use them 785 00:38:05,970 --> 00:38:08,670 for all kinds of different applications. 786 00:38:08,670 --> 00:38:10,110 This has made scientists 787 00:38:10,110 --> 00:38:12,723 around the world perovskite mad. 788 00:38:15,096 --> 00:38:17,280 The great thing about perovskite is 789 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:18,240 that it's starting to look 790 00:38:18,240 --> 00:38:19,920 like a lot of bang for the buck 791 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:22,440 in terms of light harvesting. 792 00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:25,623 That is turning light into a lot of electricity. 793 00:38:26,550 --> 00:38:29,280 It's early days what perovskite solar cells 794 00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:31,350 in the lab have already reached 795 00:38:31,350 --> 00:38:33,720 efficiency levels beyond the theoretical limits 796 00:38:33,720 --> 00:38:36,060 of the older silicone technology. 797 00:38:36,060 --> 00:38:37,800 And they have the potential 798 00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:39,500 to go a lot further in the future. 799 00:38:44,010 --> 00:38:47,160 And they can be made from resources like ammonia 800 00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:49,263 that are all around us and plentiful. 801 00:38:52,380 --> 00:38:54,150 And as if that weren't enough, 802 00:38:54,150 --> 00:38:56,640 it turns out that according to a research team 803 00:38:56,640 --> 00:38:58,740 in Sheffield University in England, 804 00:38:58,740 --> 00:39:00,390 it looks possible to make perovskite 805 00:39:00,390 --> 00:39:04,440 into a powder and then spray it onto things. 806 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:07,590 No big deal until you realize that in the future, 807 00:39:07,590 --> 00:39:10,680 things could be objects of any kind 808 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:13,996 from solar cells to a kettle, 809 00:39:13,996 --> 00:39:16,053 to a car, to a house. 810 00:39:17,430 --> 00:39:20,100 And if things could be sprayed with perovskite, 811 00:39:20,100 --> 00:39:21,720 they might produce enough power 812 00:39:21,720 --> 00:39:24,273 to become their own electricity source. 813 00:39:25,170 --> 00:39:28,173 Then no more power lines or power plants. 814 00:39:30,810 --> 00:39:34,200 If the world population could pick up perovskite power 815 00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:36,300 from any sprayed object, 816 00:39:36,300 --> 00:39:38,400 all you'd have to worry about would 817 00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:39,753 be the sun switching off. 818 00:39:40,740 --> 00:39:42,150 At night you could power 819 00:39:42,150 --> 00:39:43,680 your world from energy stored 820 00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:45,080 in batteries during the day. 821 00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:49,380 So in your perovskite sprayed environment, 822 00:39:49,380 --> 00:39:51,753 you would be energy autonomous. 823 00:39:52,620 --> 00:39:53,850 And that would go for everything, 824 00:39:53,850 --> 00:39:57,120 industry, commerce, transportation, education, 825 00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:59,583 health, investment, defense, science, 826 00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:03,420 and too many more things to count 827 00:40:03,420 --> 00:40:06,720 all may be with spray on perovskite 828 00:40:06,720 --> 00:40:09,183 energy free at source, so to speak. 829 00:40:11,220 --> 00:40:13,110 With virtually free energy, 830 00:40:13,110 --> 00:40:15,330 we could have continued economic expansion 831 00:40:15,330 --> 00:40:16,280 all over the world. 832 00:40:17,250 --> 00:40:18,780 No limit to population growth 833 00:40:18,780 --> 00:40:21,000 because with plentiful energy, 834 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:21,833 you can power machines 835 00:40:21,833 --> 00:40:24,540 to convert seawater into freshwater, 836 00:40:24,540 --> 00:40:27,210 which you can use to make the deserts bloom 837 00:40:27,210 --> 00:40:28,683 and grow food anywhere. 838 00:40:30,720 --> 00:40:32,880 Energy is the ultimate currency 839 00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:34,530 and the fuels that provide it 840 00:40:34,530 --> 00:40:36,870 are the basis for our global economy. 841 00:40:36,870 --> 00:40:39,210 If we no longer need to trade them 842 00:40:39,210 --> 00:40:41,010 or fight wars over them 843 00:40:41,010 --> 00:40:43,650 because energy is now effectively free, 844 00:40:43,650 --> 00:40:45,570 we'll have more money to spend 845 00:40:45,570 --> 00:40:48,860 on what energy makes which is... 846 00:40:50,610 --> 00:40:51,443 everything. 847 00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:56,133 The benefits are colossal. 848 00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:01,153 Worth thinking about. 848 00:41:02,305 --> 00:42:02,508 Support us and become VIP member to remove all ads from www.OpenSubtitles.org