5kAqgUmG

100:07
2at the dawn of the 19th century in a
300:11
4cellar in Mayfair the most famous
500:14
6scientist of the time Humphrey Davy
700:16
8built an extraordinary piece of
900:18
10electrical equipment four metres wide
1100:22
12twice as long and containing stinking
1300:25
14stacks of acid and metal it had been
1500:27
16created to pump out more electricity
1700:30
18than had ever been possible before it
1900:33
20was in fact the biggest battery the
2100:36
22world had ever seen
2300:37
24and with it Davy was about to propel us
2500:41
26into a new age
2700:45
28[Music]
2900:49
30[Applause]
3100:50
32[Music]
3300:55
34that moment would take place at a
3500:58
36lecture at the Royal Institution in
3701:01
38front of hundreds of London's great and
3901:03
40good filled with anticipation they
4101:06
42packed the seats hoping to witness a new
4301:09
44and exciting electrical wonder but what
4501:12
46they would see that night with something
4701:15
48truly unique something they'd remember
4901:18
50for the rest of their lives using just
5101:21
52two simple carbon rods Humphrey Davy was
5301:25
54about to unleash the true potential of
5501:27
56electricity
5701:29
58[Music]
5901:35
60electricity is one of nature's most
6101:37
62awesome phenomena and the most powerful
6301:41
64manifestation of its we ever see is
6501:44
66lightning
6701:48
68this is the story of how we first
6901:50
70dreamed of controlling this primal force
7101:53
72of nature and how we would ultimately
7301:55
74become its master it's a 300 year tale
7502:01
76of dazzling leaps of imagination and
7702:04
78extraordinary experiments it's a story
7902:15
80of maverick geniuses who used
8102:18
82electricity to light our cities to
8302:21
84communicate across the seas and through
8502:23
86the air to create modern industry and to
8702:26
88give us the digital revolution
8902:32
90but in this film we'll tell the story of
9102:35
92the very first scientists who started to
9302:38
94unlock the mysteries of electricity
9502:41
96because there's something alive in there
9702:44
98they studied it's curious link to life
9902:47
100build strange and powerful instruments
10102:50
102to create it and even tamed lightning
10302:53
104itself
10502:55
106it was these men who truly laid the
10702:58
108foundations of the modern world
10903:01
110and it all started with a spark imagine
11103:20
112our world without electricity it will be
11303:26
114darn cold and quiet in many ways it will
11503:32
116be like the beginning of the 18th
11703:34
118century where how a story begins
11903:39
120[Music]
12103:42
122this is the Royal Society in London in
12303:47
124the early 1700s after years in the
12503:50
126wilderness Isaac Newton finally took
12703:53
128control of it after the death of his
12903:55
130arch enemy Robert Hooke Newton brought
13104:01
132in his own people to the key jobs to
13304:04
134help shore up his new position the new
13504:07
136head of demonstrations there was 35 year
13704:09
138old Frances Hawkes be notes from the
13904:13
140Royal Society in 1705 reveal how hard
14104:17
142Hawks be tried to stamp his personality
14304:20
144on its weekly meetings producing ever
14504:22
146more spectacular experiments to impress
14704:25
148his masters in November he came up with
14904:34
150this a rotating glass sphere he was able
15104:38
152to remove the air from inside it using a
15304:41
154new machine the air pump on his machine
15504:45
156a handle allowed him to spin the sphere
15704:50
158one by one the tangles in the room will
15904:53
160put out and France has placed his hand
16104:58
162against the sphere the audience were
16305:02
164about to see something amazing
16505:08
166[Music]
16705:11
168inside the glass sphere a strange
16905:14
170ethereal light began to form dancing
17105:18
172around his hand a light no one had ever
17305:21
174seen before that's fantastic
17505:27
176it's sooo beautiful blue glows is
17705:29
178marking out the shape of my hands but
17905:31
180then doing right round the ball there's
18105:34
182something alive in there
18305:40
184it's difficult to really understand why
18505:43
186this dancing blue light meant so much
18705:47
188but we have to be reminded at the time
18905:50
190natural phenomena like this was seemed
19105:53
192to be the work of the Almighty this was
19305:56
194still a period when even in Isaac
19505:58
196Newton's theory God was constantly
19706:01
198intervening in the conduct of the world
19906:04
200and so it made sense for a lot of people
20106:06
202to interpret natural phenomena as acts
20306:11
204of God so when a mere mortal meddled
20506:14
206with God's work
20706:16
208it was almost beyond rational
20906:18
210comprehension Hawks B never realized the
21106:23
212full significance of his experiment he
21306:25
214lost interest in his glowing sphere and
21506:27
216spent the last few years of his life
21706:29
218building ever more spectacular
21906:31
220experiments for Isaac Newton to test his
22106:34
222other theories he never realized that it
22306:37
224unwittingly started an electrical
22506:40
226revolution before Hawks be electricity
22706:49
228had been merely a curiosity
22906:51
230the ancient Greeks rubbed amber which
23106:54
232they called electron to get small shocks
23306:57
234and even Queen Elizabeth the first
23507:01
236marveled at static electricity power to
23707:04
238lift feathers but now Hawks B's machine
23907:09
240could make electricity at the turn of a
24107:12
242handle and you could see it
24307:17
244and perhaps even more importantly his
24507:20
246invention coincided with the birth of a
24707:22
248new movement sweeping across Europe
24907:24
250called the Enlightenment enlightened
25107:28
252intellectuals used reason to question
25307:31
254the world and their legacy was radical
25507:34
256politics iconoclastic art and natural
25707:38
258philosophy or science but ironically
25907:47
260Hawkes B's new machine wasn't
26107:49
262immediately embraced by most of these
26307:51
264intellectuals but instead by conjurer's
26507:55
266and street magicians and those with an
26707:58
268interest in electricity called
26908:00
270themselves electricians one story tells
27108:07
272of a dinner party attended by an
27308:10
274Austrian count the electrician had
27508:13
276placed some feathers on the table and
27708:15
278then charged up a glass rod with a silk
27908:18
280handkerchief he then astonished the
28108:21
282guests by lifting up the feathers with
28308:24
284the rod he then went on to charge
28508:28
286himself up using one of Hawkes B's
28708:31
288electrical machines and gave the guests
28908:35
290electric shocks presumably to squeals of
29108:38
292delight but for his ps2 resistance
29308:41
294he placed a glass of cognac in the
29508:43
296center of the table charged himself up
29708:46
298again and lit it with a spark from the
29908:49
300tip of his finger there was a trick
30108:54
302called the electrical beatification in
30308:57
304which the victim sits on an insulated
30508:59
306chair and above his head hangs a metal
30709:04
308crown that doesn't quite touch his head
30909:07
310and then if the crown is electrified
31109:10
312then you get an electric discharge
31309:12
314around the crown that looks exactly like
31509:15
316a halo which is why it's called the
31709:18
318electric beatification
31909:22
320as England in the rest of Europe whence
32109:26
322electricity crazy the spectacles grew
32309:29
324bigger and the more curious electricians
32509:32
326started to ask more profound questions
32709:34
328not only how can we make our shows
32909:37
330bigger and better but how can we control
33109:40
332this amazing power and for some can this
33309:44
334incredible electrical fire do more than
33509:47
336just entertain
33709:50
338[Music]
33909:57
340one of the first early breakthroughs
34110:00
342would never have happened had it not
34310:03
344been for a terrible accident
34510:08
346this is Charterhouse in the center of
34710:11
348London over the past 400 years it's been
34910:14
350a charitable home for young orphans and
35110:16
352elderly gentlemen and sometime in the
35310:19
3541720s it also became home to one Steven
35510:23
356gray
35710:25
358[Music]
35910:28
360Stephen gray had been a successful silk
36110:30
362Daiya from Canterbury he was used to
36310:33
364seeing electric sparks leap from the
36510:36
366silk and they fascinated him
36710:38
368unfortunately a crippling accident ended
36910:41
370his career and left him destitute but
37110:45
372then he was offered a new life here at
37310:48
374Charterhouse and with it the time to
37510:50
376perform his own electrical experiments
37710:53
378[Music]
37910:59
380here at Charterhouse possibly in this
38111:02
382very room
38311:03
384the great chamber Steven gray built a
38511:06
386wooden frame from the top beam he
38711:09
388suspended two swings using silk rope he
38911:14
390also had a device like this a hoax beam
39111:17
392machine for generating static
39311:19
394electricity now with a large audience in
39511:24
396attendance he got one of the orphan boys
39711:27
398who lived here at Charterhouse to lie
39911:29
400across the two swings gray placed some
40111:35
402gold leaf in front of him
40311:46
404[Music]
40511:50
406he then generated electricity and
40711:52
408charged the boy through a connecting rod
40912:01
410[Music]
41112:12
412gold leaf even feathers left to the boys
41312:16
414fingers some of the audience claimed
41512:18
416they could even see sparks flying out
41712:20
418from his fingertips show business indeed
41912:23
420[Music]
42112:28
422but to the curious and inquiring mind of
42312:32
424Stephen gray this said something else as
42512:34
426well
42712:35
428electricity could move from the machine
42912:39
430to the boy's body through to his hands
43112:42
432but the silk rope stopped it dead
43312:47
434it meant the mysterious electrical fluid
43512:51
436could flow through some things but not
43712:55
438through others
43912:57
440[Music]
44113:04
442it led gray to divide the world into two
44313:08
444different kinds of substances
44513:10
446he called them insulators and conductors
44713:14
448insulators held electric charge within
44913:16
450them and wouldn't let it move like the
45113:19
452silk or hair glass and resin
45313:23
454whereas conductors allowed electricity
45513:25
456to flow through them like the boy or
45713:28
458metals it's a distinction which is still
45913:33
460crucial even today just think of these
46113:39
462electric pylons they work on the same
46313:44
464principle that graded used nearly 300
46513:48
466years ago the wires are conductors the
46713:55
468glass and ceramic objects between the
46913:57
470wire and the metal of the pylon are
47113:59
472insulators that stop the electricity
47314:02
474leaking from the wires into the pylon
47514:05
476and down to the earth
47714:09
478they're just like the silk ropes in
47914:12
480Gray's experiment back in the 1730's
48114:19
482grey's experiment may have astounded all
48314:23
484who saw it but it had a frustrating
48514:25
486drawback try as he might grey couldn't
48714:31
488contain the electricity he was
48914:33
490generating for long it left from the
49114:36
492machine to the boy and was quickly gone
49314:39
494the next step in our story came when we
49514:43
496learnt how to store electricity but that
49714:46
498would take place not in Britain but
49914:48
500across the channel in mainland Europe
50114:54
502[Music]
50315:05
504across the channel electricians were
50515:08
506just as busy as their British
50715:09
508counterparts and one center for
50915:12
510electrical research was here in Leiden
51115:15
512Holland and it was here that a professor
51315:20
514came up with an invention that many
51515:22
516still regard as the most significant of
51715:25
518the 18th century one that in some form
51915:28
520or another can still be found in almost
52115:30
522every electrical device today that
52315:34
524professor was Pieter van Mushin Brook
52515:37
526unlike Hawkes being gray mission Brook
52715:41
528was born into academia but ironically
52915:47
530enough his breakthrough came not because
53115:50
532of his rigorous science but because of a
53315:52
534simple human mistake he was trying to
53516:00
536find a way to store electrical charge
53716:03
538ready for his demonstrations and you can
53916:06
540almost hear his train of thought as he
54116:08
542tries to figure this out if electricity
54316:13
544is a fluid that flows a bit like water
54516:16
546then maybe you can store it in the same
54716:19
548way that you can store water so mission
54916:25
550Brook went to his laboratory to try to
55116:27
552make a device to store electricity
55316:31
554Russian Brook started to think literally
55516:34
556he took a glass jar and poured in some
55716:38
558water he then placed inside it a length
55916:44
560of conducting wire which was connected
56116:49
562at the top to a hawk's B electric
56316:51
564machine then he put the jar on an
56516:55
566insulator to help keep the charge in the
56716:58
568jar he then tried to pour the
56917:03
570electricity into the jar produced by the
57117:05
572machine via the wire down through into
57317:09
574the water
57517:10
576but whatever he tried the charge just
57717:14
578wouldn't stay in the jar then one day by
57917:20
580accident he forgot to put the jar on the
58117:23
582insulator but charges instead while it
58317:26
584was still in his hand
58517:28
586[Music]
58717:34
588finally holding the jar with one hand he
58917:37
590touched the top with the other and
59117:39
592received such a powerful electric shock
59317:42
594he was almost thrown to the ground he
59517:45
596writes it's a new but terrible
59717:47
598experiments which I advise you never to
59917:50
600try nor would I who've experienced it
60117:53
602and survived by the grace of God do it
60317:55
604again for all the kingdom of France so
60517:59
606I'm going to heed his advice not touch
60718:01
608the top but instead see if I can get a
60918:04
610spark off of it the sheer power of the
61118:13
612electricity which flew from the jar was
61318:16
614greater than any seen before and even
61518:20
616more surprisingly the jar could stall
61718:23
618that electricity for hours even days so
61918:31
620in honor of the city where motion Brooke
62118:33
622made his discovery they called it the
62318:36
624Leyden jar
62518:39
626and it's Fame swept across the world and
62718:43
628very rapidly from 1745 through the rest
62918:46
630of the 1740s the news of this it's
63118:49
632called the Leyden jar goes global it
63318:52
634spreads from Japan in East Asia to
63518:56
636Philadelphia in eastern America it
63718:59
638became one of the first quick globalized
63919:04
640scientific news items but although the
64119:09
642Leyden jar became a global electrical
64319:12
644phenomenon no one had the slightest idea
64519:15
646how it worked you have a jar of electric
64719:20
648fluid and it turns out that you've got a
64919:22
650bigger shock from the jar if you allow
65119:25
652the electric fluid to drain away to the
65319:28
654earth why is the shock bigger if the
65519:32
656jars leaking why isn't the shock bigger
65719:35
658if you make sure that all the electric
65919:38
660fluid stays inside the jar that was how
66119:40
662mid 18th century electrical philosophers
66319:43
664were faced with this challenge
66519:45
666[Music]
66719:48
668electricity was without doubt a
66919:51
670fantastical wonder it could shock and
67119:55
672spark it could now be stored and moved
67319:58
674around yet what electricity was how it
67520:03
676worked and why did all these things was
67720:06
678nothing less than a complete mystery
67920:09
680[Music]
68120:21
682within ten years a new breakthrough was
68320:24
684to come from an unexpected quarter from
68520:28
686a man politically and philosophically at
68720:31
688war with the London establishment and
68920:34
690even more shockingly for the British
69120:36
692electrical elite that man was merely a
69320:40
694colonial an American this painting of
69520:48
696Benjamin Franklin hangs here at the
69720:50
698Royal Society in London Franklin was a
69920:54
700passionate supporter of American
70120:56
702emancipation and saw the pursuit of
70320:59
704rational science and particularly
70521:01
706electricity as a way of rolling back
70721:04
708ignorant false idols and ultimately his
70921:08
710intellectually elitist colonial masters
71121:11
712and this is mixed with a profoundly
71321:16
714egalitarian Democratic idea that
71521:19
716Franklin and his allies have which is
71721:21
718this is a phenomenon open to everyone
71921:24
720here's something that the elite doesn't
72121:27
722really understand and we might be able
72321:29
724to understand it here's something that
72521:32
726the elite can't really control but we
72721:35
728might be able to control and here's
72921:37
730something above all which is the source
73121:40
732of superstition and we rational
73321:45
734egalitarian potentially democratic
73521:47
736intellectuals we will be able to reason
73721:50
738it out without appearing to be the
73921:53
740slaves of magic or mystery
74121:56
742so Franklin decided to use the power of
74322:00
744reason to rationally explain what many
74522:03
746considered a magical phenomenon
74722:06
748lightning this is probably one of the
74922:13
750most famous scientific images of the
75122:15
75218th century
75322:16
754it shows Benjamin Franklin the heroic
75522:19
756scientist flying a kite in a storm
75722:23
758proving that lightning is electrical
75922:26
760but although Franklin proposed this
76122:29
762experiment he almost certainly never
76322:32
764performed it much more likely is that
76522:38
766his most significant experiment was
76722:40
768another one which he proposed but didn't
76922:42
770even conduct in fact it didn't even
77122:44
772happen in America it took place here in
77322:47
774a small village north of Paris called
77522:50
776Mali level the French adored Franklin
77722:58
778especially his anti British politics and
77923:00
780they took it upon themselves to perform
78123:03
782his other lightning experiments without
78323:05
784him
78523:07
786I've come to the very spot where that
78723:10
788experiment took place
78923:12
790[Music]
79123:19
792in May 17:52 George Louis LeClair known
79323:24
794across France as the Comte de Buffon and
79523:26
796his friend Tommy Francois de Labarre
79723:29
798erected a 40-foot metal pole more than
79923:33
800twice as high as this one held in place
80123:36
802by three wooden staves just outside deli
80323:39
804bars house here in Mali level the metal
80523:42
806pole rested at the bottom inside an
80723:45
808empty wine bottle
80923:50
810Franklin's big idea had been that the
81123:53
812long pole would capture the lightning
81323:55
814pass it down the metal rod and store it
81523:58
816in the wine bottle at the base which
81724:00
818worked as a Leyden jar then he could
81924:04
820confirm what lightning actually was all
82124:08
822his French followers had to do was wait
82324:11
824for a storm and then on May 23rd the
82524:20
826heavens opened
82724:23
828at 12:20 a loud thunderclap was heard as
82924:27
830lightning hit the top of the pole an
83124:31
832assistant ran to the bottle a spark left
83324:35
834a cross between the metal and his finger
83524:38
836with a loud crack and a sulfurous smell
83724:40
838burning his hand the spark revealed
83924:44
840lightning for what it really was it was
84124:48
842the same as the electricity made by man
84324:54
844it's hard to overestimate the
84524:56
846significance of this moment Nature had
84724:59
848been mastered not only that but the
84925:01
850wrath of God itself had been brought
85125:04
852under the control of mankind it was a
85325:07
854kind of heresy Franklin's experiment was
85525:11
856very important because it showed that
85725:14
858lightning storms produce or are produced
85925:17
860by electricity and that you can bring
86125:19
862this electricity down electricity is a
86325:23
864force of nature that's waiting out there
86525:26
866to be attacked next Franklin turned his
86725:31
868rational mind to another question why
86925:35
870the Leyden jar made the biggest sparks
87125:38
872when it was held in the hand why didn't
87325:41
874all the electricity just drain away and
87525:45
876drawing on his experience as a
87725:47
878successful businessman he saw something
87925:50
880no one else had that liked money in a
88125:54
882bank electricity can be in credit what
88325:58
884he called positive or debit negative for
88526:04
886him the problem of the Leyden jar is a
88726:06
888problem of Accountancy Franklin's idea
88926:09
890was every body has around it an
89126:14
892electrical atmosphere and there's a
89326:18
894natural amount of electric fluid around
89526:20
896each body if there's too much we'll call
89726:24
898it positive if there's too little we'll
89926:27
900call it negative and nature is organized
90126:30
902so the positives and the negatives
90326:32
904always want to balance out like an ideal
90526:37
906American economy Franklin's insight was
90726:43
908that electricity was actually just
90926:45
910positive charge flowing to cancel out
91126:48
912negative charge and he believed this
91326:51
914simple idea could solve the mystery of
91526:54
916the Leyden jar as the jar is charged up
91727:01
918negative electrical charge is poured
91927:04
920down the wire and into the water if the
92127:08
922jar rests on an insulator a small amount
92327:11
924builds up in the water but if instead
92527:18
926the jar is held by someone as it's being
92727:21
928charged positive electric charge is
92927:24
930sucked up through their body from the
93127:27
932ground to the outside of the jar trying
93327:31
934to cancel out the negative charge inside
93527:35
936but the positive and negative charges
93727:37
938are stopped from cancelling out by the
93927:40
940glass which acts as an insulator so
94127:44
942instead the charge just grows and grows
94327:47
944on both sides of the glass
94527:52
946then touching the top of the jar with
94727:55
948the other hand completes a circuit
94927:58
950allowing the negative charge on the
95128:00
952inside to pass through the hand to the
95328:03
954positive on the outside
95528:05
956finally canceling it out
95728:10
958the movement of this charge causes a
95928:13
960massive shock and often a spark the
96128:22
962modern equivalents of the Leyden jar is
96328:24
964this the capacitor and it's one of the
96528:27
966most ubiquitous of electronic components
96728:30
968is found everywhere there are a number
96928:33
970of smaller ones scattered around on this
97128:35
972circuit board from a computer they help
97328:38
974smooth out electrical surges protecting
97528:41
976sensitive components even in the most
97728:44
978modern electric circuit solving the
97928:58
980mystery of the Leyden jar and
98129:00
982recognizing lightning as merely a kind
98329:03
984of electricity with two great successes
98529:06
986for Franklin and the new enlightenment
98729:08
988movement but the forces of trade and
98929:14
990commerce which helped fuel the
99129:15
992Enlightenment were about to throw up a
99329:18
994new and even more perplexing electrical
99529:22
996mystery a completely new kind of
99729:25
998electricity this is the English Channel
99929:33
1000by the 17th and 18th centuries a good
100129:36
1002fraction of the world's wealth flowed up
100329:39
1004this stretch of water from all corners
100529:41
1006of the British Empire and beyond on its
100729:44
1008way to London spices from India sugar
100929:47
1010from the Caribbean wheat from America
101129:49
1012tea from China but of course it wasn't
101329:52
1014just commerce new plants and animal
101530:00
1016specimens from all over the world came
101730:02
1018flooding into London including one that
101930:05
1020particularly fascinated the
102130:07
1022electrician's called the torpedo fish it
102330:13
1024been the stuff of fishermen's tales its
102530:16
1026sting it was said was capable of
102730:19
1028knocking a grown man down but as the
102930:23
1030electricians started to investigate the
103130:25
1032sting they realized it felt strangely
103330:28
1034similar to a shock from a Leyden jar
103530:34
1036could it sting actually be an electric
103730:37
1038shock at first many people dismiss the
103930:45
1040torpedo fishes shock as a cult some said
104130:48
1042it was probably just the fish biting
104330:50
1044others that it couldn't be a shock
104530:52
1046because without a spark
104730:54
1048it just wasn't electricity but for most
104930:57
1050this was a very strange and inexplicable
105130:59
1052new mystery and it would take one of the
105331:02
1054oddest yet most brilliant characters in
105531:05
1056British science to begin to unlock the
105731:07
1058secrets of the torpedo fish
105931:14
1060this is the only picture in existence of
106131:18
1062the pathologically shy but exceptional
106331:21
1064Henry Cavendish this one only exists
106531:25
1066because an artist sketched his coat as
106731:27
1068it hung on a peg then filled in the face
106931:30
1070from memory
107131:35
1072his family were fantastically rich they
107331:39
1074were the Devonshire's who still owned
107531:41
1076Chatsworth House in Derbyshire but Henry
107731:45
1078Cavendish decided to turn his back on
107931:48
1080his family's wealth and status to live
108131:50
1082in London near his beloved Royal Society
108331:53
1084where he could quietly pursue his
108531:55
1086passion for experimental science when he
108731:59
1088heard about the electric torpedo fish he
108932:02
1090was intrigued a friend wrote to him on
109132:05
1092this my first experience of the effects
109332:09
1094of the torpedo I exclaimed that this is
109532:12
1096certainly electricity but how and to
109732:17
1098work out how a living thing could
109932:20
1100produce electricity he decided to make
110132:23
1102his own artificial fish these are his
110332:29
1104plans to Leyden jars shaped like the
110532:32
1106fish which were buried under sand when
110732:36
1108the sand was touched they discharged
110932:38
1110giving a nasty shock his model helped
111132:42
1112convince him that the real torpedo fish
111332:45
1114was electric but it still left him with
111532:48
1116a nagging problem although both the real
111732:53
1118fish and Cavendish's artificial one gave
111932:56
1120powerful electric shocks the real fish
112132:59
1122never sparked Cavendish was perplexed
112333:03
1124how could it be the same kind of
112533:06
1126electricity if they didn't both do the
112733:09
1128same kinds of things
112933:12
1130Cavendish spent the winter of 1773 in
113133:16
1132his laboratory trying to come up with an
113333:18
1134answer and in the spring he had a
113533:21
1136brainwave Cavendish's ingenious answer
113733:26
1138was to point out a subtle distinction
113933:28
1140between the amount of electricity and
114133:31
1142its intensity the real fish produced the
114333:34
1144same current of electricity is just that
114533:37
1146it was less
114733:38
1148tense now for a physicist like me this
114933:41
1150marks a crucial turning point but it's
115133:43
1152the moment when to genuinely innovative
115333:46
1154scientific ideas first crop up
115533:49
1156what Cavendish refers to as the amount
115733:52
1158of electricity we now call electric
115933:54
1160charge and his intensity is what we call
116133:58
1162the potential difference of voltage so
116334:05
1164the Leyden jars shock was high voltage
116534:08
1166but low charge whereas the fish was low
116734:12
1168voltage and high charge and it's
116934:16
1170possible to actually measure that hiding
117134:22
1172at the bottom of this tank under the
117334:24
1174sand is the torpedo Mar Murata and it's
117534:27
1176an electric ray you can just see his
117734:30
1178eyes protruding from the sand this is a
117934:33
1180fully grown female and I'm going to try
118134:36
1182and measure the electricity gives off
118334:39
1184with this bait I've got this fish
118534:41
1186connected to a metal rod and hooked up
118734:44
1188to an oscilloscope to see if I can
118934:46
1190measure the voltage as it catches its
119134:48
1192prey so here goes
119334:53
1194oh there's one
119535:07
1196[Music]
119735:09
1198and there's another one the fish gave a
119935:12
1200shock of about 240 volts the same as
120135:16
1202mains electricity but still roughly ten
120335:20
1204times less than the Leyden jar well that
120535:24
1206would have given me quite a nasty shock
120735:25
1208and I can only try and imagine what it
120935:28
1210must have been like for scientists in
121135:30
1212the 18th century to witness this an
121335:32
1214animal a fish producing its own
121535:35
1216electricity
121735:38
1218Cavendish had shown that the torpedo
121935:41
1220fish made electricity but he didn't know
122135:44
1222if it was the same kind of electricity
122335:46
1224as that made from an electrical machine
122535:50
1226is the electrical shock that a torpedo
122735:54
1228produces is it the same as produced by
122935:57
1230an electrical machine or are there two
123136:00
1232kinds as a kind that's generated
123336:02
1234artificially or is there a kind of
123536:04
1236animal electricity that only exists in
123736:07
1238living bodies this is a huge debate that
123936:09
1240divided opinion for several decades
124136:15
1242and out of that bitter debate came a new
124336:19
1244discovery the discovery that electricity
124536:22
1246needn't be a brief shot or spark but
124736:25
1248could actually be continuous and the
124936:29
1250generation of continuous electricity
125136:31
1252would ultimately propel us into our
125336:34
1254modern age
125536:36
1256[Music]
125736:48
1258but the next step in the story of
125936:50
1260electricity would come about because of
126136:53
1262a fierce personal and professional
126336:54
1264rivalry between two Italian academics
126537:01
1266[Music]
126737:13
1268this is the long year University
126937:16
1270one of the oldest in Europe in the late
127137:19
127218th century the city of Bologna was
127337:21
1274ruled from papal Rome which meant that
127537:24
1276the university was powerful but
127737:26
1278conservative in its thinking it was
127937:32
1280steeped in traditional Christianity one
128137:35
1282where God ruled earth from heaven but
128337:38
1284that the way he ran the world was hidden
128537:41
1286from us mere mortals we were not meant
128737:44
1288to understand him only to serve Him and
128937:47
1290one of the university's brightest stars
129137:50
1292was the anatomist Luigi Eliseo Galvani
129337:54
1294but in a neighboring city a rival
129537:57
1296electrician was about to take Galvani to
129738:00
1298task
129938:10
1300this is jávea only a hundred fifty miles
130138:14
1302from bologna but by the end of the 18th
130338:16
1304century worlds apart politically it was
130538:20
1306part of the Austrian Empire which put it
130738:22
1308at the very heart of the European
130938:24
1310enlightenment liberal in its thinking
131138:26
1312politically radical and obsessed with
131338:29
1314the new science of electricity it was
131538:32
1316also home to Alessandro Volta
131738:39
1318Alessandro Volta couldn't have been more
131938:42
1320unlike Galvani from an old Lombardi
132138:45
1322family he was young arrogant charismatic
132338:48
1324a real ladies man and he courted
132538:51
1326controversy
132738:52
1328unlike Galvani he liked to show off his
132938:55
1330experiments on an international stage to
133138:57
1332any audience Voltas ideas were
133339:01
1334unfettered by Galvani's religious dogma
133539:05
1336like Benjamin Franklin and the European
133739:08
1338enlightenment he believed in rationality
133939:11
1340the scientific truth like a Greek God
134139:14
1342would cast ignorant to the floor
134339:17
1344superstition was the enemy reason was
134539:21
1346the future both men were fascinated by
134739:27
1348electricity and both brought their
134939:29
1350different ways of seeing the world to
135139:32
1352bear on it
135339:32
1354[Music]
135539:44
1356Galvani had been attracted to the use of
135739:47
1358electricity in medical treatments for
135939:50
1360instance in 1759 here in Bologna
136139:54
1362electricity was used on the muscles of a
136339:57
1364paralyzed man one report said it was a
136540:02
1366fine sight to see the mastoid rotate the
136740:06
1368head the biceps bend the elbow in short
136940:10
1370to see the force and vitality of all the
137140:13
1372motions occurring in every paralyzed
137340:16
1374muscle subjected to the stimulus
137540:27
1376Galvani believed these kinds of examples
137740:30
1378revealed that the body worked using
137940:33
1380animal electricity a fluid that flows
138140:36
1382from the brain through the nerves into
138340:39
1384the muscles where it's turned into
138540:41
1386motion and who devised a series of
138740:45
1388grisly experiments to prove it
138941:02
1390now the first prepared a frog he writes
139141:07
1392the Frog is skinned and disemboweled
139341:10
1394only their lower limbs are left join
139541:11
1396together containing just the cruel
139741:13
1398nerves well I've left my frog mostly
139941:16
1400intact but I've exposed the nerves that
140141:19
1402connect to the frog's legs then he used
140341:22
1404hawks bees electrical machine to
140541:25
1406generate the electrostatic charge that
140741:28
1408would accumulate and travel along this
140941:30
1410arm and out through this copper wire
141141:34
1412then he connected the charge carrying
141341:37
1414wire to the Frog and another to the
141541:40
1416nerve just above the leg let's see what
141741:45
1418happens and the frog's leg twitches just
141941:51
1420as he makes contact there we go now for
142141:56
1422Galvani what was going on there was that
142341:59
1424there's a strange special kind of entity
142542:03
1426in them in the animal muscle which he
142742:06
1428calls animal electricity it's not like
142942:08
1430any other electricity its intrinsic to
143142:10
1432living beings
143342:15
1434but for Volta animal electricity smacked
143542:19
1436of superstition and magic it had no
143742:22
1438place in rational and enlightened
143942:25
1440science Volta saw the experiment
144142:30
1442completely differently to Galvani he
144342:33
1444believed it reveals something totally
144542:35
1446new for him the legs weren't jumping as
144742:38
1448a result of the release of animal
144942:41
1450electricity from within them but because
145142:43
1452of the artificial electricity from
145342:45
1454outside the legs were merely the
145542:47
1456indicator
145742:48
1458they were only twitching because of the
145942:51
1460electricity from the horse B machine
146142:56
1462back in Bologna Galvani reacted
146342:59
1464furiously to vaulters ideas he believed
146543:03
1466Volta had crossed a fundamental line
146743:05
1468from electrical experiment into God's
146943:09
1470realm and that was tantamount to heresy
147143:13
1472to have a kind of spirit like
147343:16
1474electricity to have that produced
147543:18
1476artificially and to say that that spirit
147743:21
1478that living force their agency was the
147943:24
1480same that something produced by God that
148143:26
1482God had put into a living human body or
148343:29
1484a frog's body that seemed sacrilegious
148543:32
1486to them because it was eliminating this
148743:34
1488boundary between God's realm of the
148943:36
1490divine and the mundane realm of the
149143:39
1492material
149343:43
1494spurred on by his religious indignation
149543:47
1496Galvani announced a new series of
149743:49
1498experimental results which would prove
149943:51
1500that Volta was wrong during one of his
150143:56
1502experiments he hung his frogs on an iron
150344:00
1504wire and saw something totally
150544:02
1506unexpected if he connected a copper wire
150744:06
1508to the wire the Frog was hanging from
150944:09
1510and then touched the other end of the
151144:11
1512copper to the nerve it seemed to him
151344:16
1514that he could make the frog's leg twitch
151544:18
1516without any electricity at all Cavani
151744:29
1518came to the conclusion that it must have
151944:33
1520been something inside the frog's even if
152144:38
1522dead that continued for a while after
152344:41
1524death to produce some kind of
152544:44
1526electricity and the metal wires was
152744:47
1528somehow releasing that electricity over
152944:52
1530the next month's Galvani's experiments
153144:54
1532focused on isolating this animal
153344:57
1534electricity using combinations of frog
153545:00
1536and metal Leyden jars and electrical
153745:02
1538machines for Galvani these experiments
153945:07
1540were proof that the electricity was
154145:09
1542originating within the frog itself the
154345:13
1544frogs muscles were Leyden jars storing
154545:16
1546up the electrical fluid and then
154745:18
1548releasing it in a burst on the 30th of
154945:21
1550October 1786 he published his findings
155145:24
1552in a book de animali
155345:27
1554electricity of animal electricity
155545:32
1556Galvani was so confident of his ideas he
155745:36
1558even sent a copy of his book to Volta
155945:40
1560but Volta just couldn't stomach
156145:42
1562Galvani's idea of animal electricity he
156345:46
1564thought the electricity just had to come
156545:49
1566from somewhere else but where
156746:03
1568in the 1790s here at the University of
156946:06
1570Pavia almost certainly in this lecture
157146:09
1572theater which still bears his name
157346:11
1574voltar began his search for the new
157546:14
1576source of electricity his suspicions
157746:19
1578focused on the metals that Galvani had
157946:22
1580used to make his front legs twitch his
158146:25
1582curiosity had been piqued by an odd
158346:28
1584phenomenon that he'd come across how
158546:30
1586combinations of metals tasted he found
158746:37
1588that if he took two different metal
158946:39
1590coins and placed them on the tip of his
159146:41
1592tongue and then placed a silver spoon on
159346:45
1594top of both he got a kind of tingling
159546:49
1596sensation rather like the tingling you'd
159746:51
1598get from the discharge of a Leyden jar
159946:54
1600Volta concluded that he could taste
160146:56
1602electricity and that it must be coming
160346:59
1604from the contact between the different
160547:01
1606metals in the coins and spoon his theory
160747:05
1608flew in the face of Galvani's the frog's
160947:07
1610leg switched not because of its own
161147:10
1612animal electricity but because it was
161347:12
1614reacting for the electricity from the
161547:14
1616metals but the electricity his coins
161747:18
1618generated was incredibly weak how could
161947:22
1620he make it stronger
162147:24
1622[Music]
162347:28
1624then an idea came to him as he revisited
162547:31
1626the scientific papers from the great
162747:34
1628British scientist Henry Cavendish and in
162947:37
1630particular his famous work on the
163147:39
1632electric torpedo fish he went back and
163347:46
1634took a closer look at the torpedo fish
163547:49
1636and in particular the repeating pattern
163747:51
1638of chambers in its back he wondered
163947:54
1640whether it was this repeating pattern
164147:56
1642that held the key to its powerful
164347:59
1644electric shock perhaps each chamber was
164548:04
1646like his coins and spoon each generating
164748:07
1648a tiny amount of electricity and perhaps
164948:11
1650the fish's powerful shock results from
165148:14
1652the pattern of chambers repeating over
165348:17
1654and over again with growing confidence
165548:21
1656in his new ideas Volta decided to fight
165748:25
1658back by building his own artificial
165948:28
1660version of the torpedo fish so he copied
166148:33
1662the torpedo fish by repeating its
166348:35
1664pattern but using metal here's what he
166548:39
1666did he took a copper metal plate and
166748:42
1668then placed above it a piece of card
166948:45
1670soaked in dilute acid then above that he
167148:48
1672took another metal and placed it on top
167348:50
1674all he had here was exactly the same
167548:53
1676thing as Galvani's two wires but now
167748:57
1678Volta repeated the process what he was
167949:01
1680doing here was building a pile of metal
168149:04
1682in fact his invention became known as
168349:08
1684the pile
168549:13
1686but it's what it could do that was the
168749:16
1688really incredible revelation Volta then
168949:18
1690tried his pile out on himself by getting
169149:21
1692two wires and attaching them to each end
169349:23
1694of the pile and bringing the other ends
169549:26
1696to touch his tongue he could actually
169749:30
1698taste the electricity this time it was
169949:34
1700more powerful than normal and it was
170149:36
1702constant he'd created the first battery
170349:45
1704the machine was no longer an electrical
170549:49
1706and mechanical machine it was just
170749:51
1708purely
170949:52
1710electrical machine and so he proved that
171149:56
1712a machine imitating the fish could work
171349:58
1714that what he called the metal or contact
171550:02
1716the electricity of different methods
171750:04
1718could work and that he regarded as his
171950:09
1720final winning move in the controversy
172150:13
1722with givanni what vaulters piles showed
172350:16
1724was that you could develop all the
172550:19
1726phenomena of animal electricity without
172750:22
1728any animals being present so from the
172950:25
1730voltaic point of view it seemed as if
173150:28
1732Galvani was wrong there's nothing
173350:31
1734special about the electricity in animals
173550:34
1736it's electricity and it can be
173750:37
1738completely mimicked by this artificial
173950:40
1740pile but the biggest surprise for Volta
174150:45
1742was that the electricity it generated
174350:47
1744was continuous in fact it poured out
174550:51
1746like water in a stream and just as in a
174750:54
1748stream where the measure of the amount
174950:56
1750of water flowing is called a current so
175150:59
1752the electricity flowing out of the pile
175351:02
1754became known as an electrical current
175551:09
1756[Music]
175751:10
1758200 years after Volta we finally
175951:14
1760understand what electricity actually is
176151:18
1762the atoms in metals like all atoms have
176351:22
1764electrically charged electrons
176551:24
1766surrounding a nucleus but in metals the
176751:28
1768atoms share their outer electrons with
176951:30
1770each other in a unique way which means
177151:33
1772they can move from one atom to the next
177351:36
1774[Music]
177551:39
1776if those electrons move in the same
177751:41
1778direction at the same time the
177951:44
1780cumulative effect is a movement of
178151:46
1782electric charge this flow of electrons
178351:51
1784is what we call an electric current
178551:55
1786[Music]
178752:00
1788within weeks of bolts of publishing
178952:02
1790details of his pile scientists were
179152:05
1792discovering something incredible about
179352:07
1794what it could do
179552:15
1796its effect on ordinary water was
179752:18
1798completely unexpected the constant
179952:21
1800stream of electric charge into the water
180152:23
1802was ripping it up into its constituent
180352:26
1804parts
180552:27
1806the gases oxygen and hydrogen
180752:30
1808electricity was heralding the dawn of a
180952:34
1810new age a new age where electricity
181152:37
1812system mere curiosity and started being
181352:41
1814genuinely useful with constant flowing
181552:45
1816current electricity new chemical
181752:48
1818elements could be isolated with ease and
181952:50
1820this laid the foundations for chemistry
182152:54
1822physics and modern industry
182352:59
1824vaulters pile changed everything
182553:02
1826[Music]
182753:07
1828the poem made Volta and international
182953:10
1830celebrity fated by the powerful and the
183153:13
1832rich
183353:15
1834in recognition a fundamental measure of
183553:18
1836electricity was named in his honor the
183753:21
1838vault
183953:26
1840but his scientific adversary didn't fare
184153:30
1842quite so well Luigi Eliseo Galvani died
184353:35
1844on the 4th of December 1798 depressed
184553:39
1846and in poverty for me though it's not
184753:43
1848the invention of the battery that marks
184953:45
1850the crucial turning points in the story
185153:47
1852of electricity it's what happened next
185354:01
1854it took place in London's Royal
185554:04
1856Institution it was a moment that marked
185754:07
1858the end of one era and the beginning of
185954:10
1860another
186154:11
1862[Music]
186354:14
1864it was overseen by Humphrey Davy the
186554:18
1866first of a new generation of
186754:20
1868electricians young confident and
186954:22
1870fascinated by the possibilities of
187154:24
1872continuous electrical current
187354:28
1874so in 1808 he built the world's largest
187554:32
1876battery it filled an entire room
187754:35
1878underneath the Royal Institution it had
187954:39
1880over 800 individual voltaic piles
188154:42
1882attached together
188354:44
1884it must have hissed and breathed
188554:47
1886sulfurous fumes in a darkened room lit
188754:53
1888by centuries-old technology
188954:55
1890candles and oil lamps davy connected his
189154:59
1892battery to two carbon filaments and
189355:02
1894brought the tips together the continuous
189555:06
1896flow of electricity from the battery
189755:07
1898through the filaments left across the
189955:10
1900gap giving rise to a constant and
190155:13
1902blindingly bright spark
190355:18
1904[Music]
190555:22
1906out of the darkness came the lights
190755:38
1908Davy's arclights truly symbolizes the
190955:42
1910end of one era and the beginning of our
191155:45
1912era the era of electricity
191355:51
1914[Music]
191555:59
1916but there has truly grisly coda to this
191756:02
1918story in 1803
191956:05
1920Galvani's nephew 1 Giovanni aldini came
192156:09
1922to London with a terrifying new
192356:11
1924experiment a convicted murderer called
192556:14
1926George Foster had just been hanged in
192756:17
1928new gates and when the body was cut down
192956:19
1930from the gallows it was brought directly
193156:21
1932to the lecture theatre where eldini
193356:24
1934started his mccard work using a voltaic
193556:31
1936pile he began to apply an electric
193756:34
1938current to the dead man's body then
193956:38
1940eldini put one electrical conductor in
194156:41
1942the dead man's anus and the other at the
194356:44
1944top of his spine foresters limp dead
194556:47
1946body sat bolt upright and his spine
194756:50
1948arched and twisted for a moment it
194956:54
1950seemed as though the dead body had been
195156:56
1952brought back to life
195356:59
1954it appeared as though electricity might
195557:02
1956have the power of Resurrection and this
195757:06
1958made a profound impact on a young writer
195957:09
1960called Mary Shelley Mary Shelley wrote
196157:18
1962one of the most powerful and enduring
196357:20
1964stories ever based partly here on Lake
196557:23
1966Como Frankenstein tells the story of a
196757:26
1968scientist a Galvin is probably based on
196957:29
1970eldini who brings a monster to life
197157:31
1972using electricity and then disgusted by
197357:35
1974his own arrogance he abandons his
197557:37
1976creation just like Davey's art clamp
197757:41
1978this book symbolizes changing times the
197957:45
1980end of the era of miracles and romance
198157:48
1982and the beginning of the era of
198357:50
1984rationality industry and science
198558:04
1986and it's that new age we explore in the
198758:09
1988next program because at the start of the
198958:11
199019th century scientists realized that
199158:14
1992electricity was intimately connected
199358:17
1994with another of nature's mysterious
199558:19
1996forces magnetism and that realization
199758:24
1998would completely transform our world
199958:36
2000electricity is one of nature's greatest
200158:39
2002forces and by the middle of the 20th
200358:44
2004century we'd harnessed its to light and
200558:47
2006power our modern world hundreds of years
200758:52
2008of scientific discoveries and inventions
200958:54
2010brought us here but it would take the
201158:58
2012eccentric genius of one man to unlock
201359:01
2014the full potential of electrical power
201559:05
2016in the winter of 1943 Nikola Tesla
201759:10
2018looked towns across the Manhattan
201959:12
2020skyline for the very last time Tesla had
202159:16
2022been born into a world powered by steam
202359:18
2024and lit by gas but before his eyes he
202559:23
2026saw a new world a world transformed a
202759:27
2028world powered by electricity his world
202959:37
2030frail lonely and still mourning the
203159:41
2032death of one of his beloved pigeons this
203359:44
2034extraordinary and eccentric genius knew
203559:47
2036that his life's work was done and he lay
203759:51
2038back on his bed to die it will be three
203959:54
2040days before anyone found his body
204160:08
2042just over 200 years ago early scientists
204360:12
2044discovered electricity could be much
204560:15
2046more than simply a static charge it
204760:19
2048could be made to flow in a continuous
204960:21
2050current
205160:22
2052[Music]
205360:27
2054but they were about to discover
205560:30
2056something profound that electricity is
205760:33
2058connected to magnetism
205960:36
2060harnessing the link between magnetism
206160:39
2062and electricity would completely
206360:41
2064transform the world and allow us to
206560:44
2066generate seemingly limitless amounts of
206760:47
2068electrical power
206960:52
2070[Music]
207160:56
2072this is the story of how scientists and
207360:59
2074engineers unlocked the nature of
207561:02
2076electricity and then used it in an
207761:04
2078extraordinary century of innovation and
207961:07
2080invention but not before one of the most
208161:12
2082shocking engineering rivalries in
208361:14
2084history was finally laid to rest
208561:33
2086our story begins in London at the
208761:36
2088beginning of the 19th century with a
208961:39
2090young man who would further our
209161:40
2092understanding of electricity as much as
209361:43
2094any other on the 29th of February 1812 a
209561:47
209620 year old self educated book binder
209761:51
2098called Michael Faraday came here to the
209961:54
2100Royal Institution of Great Britain he
210162:04
2102was surrounded by the great and the good
210362:07
2104of the academic world and he was about
210562:09
2106to listen to one of the greatest
210762:11
2108scientific minds of the age Faraday the
210962:18
2110son of a blacksmith had finished his
211162:21
2112formal education when he was just 12
211362:23
2114years old he would never get to
211562:25
2116university but he wasn't finished with
211762:28
2118learning as he was fascinated by science
211962:34
2120Faraday worked long and hard during the
212162:37
2122day burning books but in the evenings he
212362:41
2124would read whatever scientific
212562:42
2126literature he could lay his hands on he
212762:45
2128loved learning new things about the
212962:48
2130world and he had this constant desire
213162:50
2132this passion to understand why things
213362:53
2134were the way they were reading
213562:59
2136scientific papers was one thing but to
213763:02
2138really satisfy his craving for knowledge
213963:05
2140Faraday was desperate to see the
214163:08
2142experiments themselves and he eventually
214363:10
2144got his chance when he was given a
214563:13
2146ticket to attend one of the last
214763:15
2148lectures of England's greatest chemists
214963:18
2150at the time sir Humphrey Davy
215163:23
2152it was to change young Faraday's life
215363:26
2154forever
215563:30
2156after watching Devi or inspired and full
215763:33
2158of ideas Faraday knew what he wanted to
215963:36
2160do with his life he was determined to
216163:38
2162dedicate himself to furthering science
216363:43
2164and that's just what he did within a
216563:46
2166year Devi had appointed him as an
216763:49
2168assistant at the Royal Institution with
216963:54
2170Devi as his patron and well his boss
217163:57
2172faraday studied all manner of chemistry
217364:01
2174but what would inspire his greatest
217564:04
2176breakthroughs with the invisible forces
217764:07
2178of electricity and magnetism in 1820
217964:15
2180both were being studied by a Danish
218164:17
2182scientist Hans Christian Oersted who'd
218364:21
2184made an extraordinary discovery
218564:25
2186he passed electric current through a
218764:28
2188copper rod and brought it close to a
218964:30
2190magnetic compass needle and saw that it
219164:34
2192made the needle rotate to earth stead it
219364:38
2194was remarkable he'd shown for the first
219564:41
2196time then electric currents can create a
219764:45
2198magnetic force
219964:46
2200he'd bound electricity and magnetism
220164:49
2202together today we call it
220364:52
2204electromagnetism and it's one of the
220564:54
2206fundamental forces of nature versus
220764:59
2208discovery sparked off a whole new Specht
220965:02
2210of inventive activity around and about
221165:07
2212the fields of electricity you can almost
221365:10
2214see electrical experimenters vying
221565:13
2216competing with each other to find new
221765:15
2218links between electricity and the other
221965:17
2220powers of nature at the Royal
222165:20
2222Institution Faraday set about recreating
222365:23
2224Earth's Ted's work which would mark his
222565:26
2226first steps to fame and fortune
222765:29
2228and through his rigorous research he
222965:33
2230concluded that there must be a flow of
223165:35
2232forces acting between the wire and the
223365:39
2234compass needle the device he designed to
223565:42
2236demonstrate it would change the course
223765:44
2238of history
223965:46
2240Faraday created a circuit using a
224165:49
2242battery like this a pair of wires and a
224365:53
2244mercury bath
224565:54
2246now the circuit carries on through these
224765:56
2248copper posts and this wire hangs freely
224966:00
2250it dangles into the mercury now because
225166:03
2252mercury is such a good conductor it
225366:05
2254completes the circuit when the current
225566:10
2256runs through the circuit it generates a
225766:15
2258circular magnetic force field around the
225966:18
2260wire now this interacts with the
226166:20
2262magnetism from a permanent magnet that
226366:22
2264Faraday had placed in the middle of the
226566:24
2266mercury together they forced the wire to
226766:28
2268move Faraday had proved that this
226966:31
2270invisible force really does exist
227166:34
2272and he could see its effect circular
227366:36
2274motion this beautiful device was the
227566:40
2276first to convert electric current into
227766:44
2278continuous motion basically it's the
227966:47
2280earliest ever electric motor the Faraday
228166:56
2282was about to take this experiment
228366:58
2284further one of the lasting effects of
228567:04
2286Faraday's discovery of literally
228767:06
2288rotations in 1821 was that it showed
228967:09
2290that there was a relationship of some
229167:10
2292sort between electricity magnetism and
229367:14
2294motion Faraday explored this
229567:19
2296relationship in detail and set himself
229767:21
2298an even more difficult challenge to use
229967:26
2300magnetism and motion to make electricity
230167:33
2302eventually his obsession hard work and
230367:36
2304determination paid off
230567:40
2306the breakthrough came on the 17th of
230767:43
2308October 1831 when Faraday took a magnet
230967:48
2310like this and moved it in and out of a
231167:52
2312coil of wire he was able to detect a
231367:56
2314tiny electric current in the coil moving
231568:00
2316one way and then the other
231768:08
2318Faraday knew he was onto something a few
231968:11
2320days later instead of moving the magnet
232168:14
2322through the conducting wire coil he set
232368:17
2324up the equivalent experiment by moving a
232568:19
2326conducting copper plate through the
232768:22
2328magnetic field he didn't know it at the
232968:28
2330time but as his spinning disk cut
233168:31
2332through this magnetic field billions of
233368:34
2334negatively charged electrons were
233568:37
2336deflected from their original circular
233768:39
2338course and began to drift towards the
233968:42
2340edge a negative charge built up at the
234168:46
2342outer edge of the disk leaving a
234368:48
2344positive charge at the center and once
234568:51
2346the disk was connected to wires the
234768:54
2348electrons flowed in a steady stream
234968:57
2350Faraday had generated a continuous flow
235169:01
2352of electric current unlike a battery his
235369:06
2354current flowed for as long as his copper
235569:08
2356disc was spun he'd created electrical
235769:12
2358power directly from mechanical power
235969:15
2360though Faraday's discovery of induction
236169:17
2362was extraordinarily important in its own
236369:19
2364right and had profound effects for the
236569:23
2366understanding of electricity and
236769:24
2368technology for the rest of the 19th
236969:27
2370century but Faraday what it did was to
237169:30
2372open a decade of powerful research
237369:33
2374because it gave him the clue about how
237569:36
2376he should pursue a search while Faraday
237769:39
2378continued his work trying to understand
237969:42
2380the very nature of electricity inventors
238169:45
2382from across Europe were less interested
238369:47
2384in the science and more interested in
238569:50
2386how electricity could make their money
238769:54
2388what's actually quite remarkable
238969:55
2390certainly from a contemporary
239169:57
2392perspective is that by and large nobody
239370:01
2394really seems to care very much what
239570:03
2396electricity is you don't have great
239770:06
2398theoretical debates as to whether as a
239970:08
2400force of a fluid on a principle or a
240170:10
2402power what they're really interested in
240370:13
2404is what a lectures that you can do
240570:17
2406Ferriday living in a world of steam
240770:20
2408power was informing the scientific
240970:22
2410community about the nature of
241170:24
2412electricity but at the same time another
241370:28
2414breakthrough in how we could actually
241570:30
2416use it has been made this will be the
241770:34
2418first device that really brought
241970:36
2420electricity out of the laboratory and
242170:39
2422into the hands of ordinary people the
242370:43
2424Telegraph the key to understanding the
242570:50
2426Telegraph is understanding a special
242770:52
2428kind of magnets and electromagnets
242970:55
2430basically a magnet created by an
243170:58
2432electric current the first
243371:03
2434electromagnets were developed
243571:05
2436independently by William sturgeon in
243771:07
2438Britain and Joseph Henry in America and
243971:10
2440just as Faraday had discovered that by
244171:13
2442coiling his wire he could increase the
244371:16
2444current in it produced by the moving
244571:18
2446magnets so Henry and sturgeon discovered
244771:21
2448that by adding more coils in their
244971:24
2450currents carrying wires they could make
245171:26
2452a more concentrated magnetic field
245371:29
2454basically the more coils the more turns
245571:31
2456the stronger the magnet so if I pass a
245771:35
2458current through this electromagnet you
245971:38
2460can actually see the effects of the
246171:41
2462magnetic field this is the standard
246371:43
2464school experiments of sprinkling iron
246571:46
2466filings on top of the magnet like if
246771:49
2468it's a tap see the iron filings to
246971:52
2470follow the contours of the field this
247171:55
2472allows us to visualize the effects of
247371:57
2474magnetism to make an electromagnet even
247572:03
2476stronger Henry and sturgeon discovered
247772:06
2478that they could place certain kinds of
247972:08
2480metal inside the electromagnetic coil
248172:11
2482the reason iron is so effective is
248372:14
2484fascinating because you can think of it
248572:16
2486as being made up of lots of tiny magnets
248772:18
2488all pointing in random directions at the
248972:21
2490moment this is not a magnet the tiny
249172:24
2492magnets inside are aligned similarly to
249372:27
2494these compass needles if you see they're
249572:29
2496all pointing in
249772:30
2498different directions but when you apply
249972:32
2500a magnetic field they all align together
250172:38
2502they all combine these magnets and
250372:40
2504cumulative Li they add to the strength
250572:42
2506of the electromagnet so what Henry and
250772:46
2508Sturgeon did was place two
250972:48
2510electromagnetic coils on each arm of
251172:51
2512their horseshoe to create something it
251372:54
2514was many many times more powerful and we
251573:02
2516can see the power of this horseshoe
251773:04
2518electromagnet if I turn it on and use
251973:08
2520something slightly bigger than iron
252173:10
2522filings these more pieces of iron the
252373:14
2524strength of the magnetic field holding
252573:17
2526them in place what's important to
252773:21
2528remember of course is that this
252973:22
2530electromagnet only works all the time
253173:26
2532there's a current passing through it as
253373:28
2534soon as I turn off the current the
253573:32
2536magnetism disappears early experimenters
253773:37
2538showed off this power by lifting metal
253973:40
2540weights Henry even made one big enough
254173:43
2542to lift a ton and a half of metal
254373:46
2544impressive but not world-changing but
254573:50
2546place that magnet much further away at
254773:52
2548the end of a wire and suddenly you can
254973:55
2550make something happen at your command in
255173:57
2552an instant
255374:03
2554this ability to control a magnet at a
255574:07
2556distance is one of the most useful
255774:09
2558things we've ever discovered if
255974:14
2560electricity can be made visible a long
256174:16
2562way away from the original source of
256374:19
2564power then you've got a source of
256574:21
2566instantaneous communication by the
256774:27
2568middle of the 1840s Samuel Morse had
256974:31
2570developed a messaging system based on
257174:33
2572how long an electrical circuit was
257374:36
2574switched on or off a long pulse of
257574:39
2576currents for a - a short burst for a dot
257774:43
2578this allowed messages to be sent and
257974:45
2580received by using a simple code
258174:49
2582contemporary early Victorian
258374:51
2584commentators reflect on the fact that
258574:54
2586electricity on a telegraph is literally
258774:57
2588making their world a smaller place you
258975:00
2590very often get a sort of rhetoric
259175:01
2592throughout the 19th century when people
259375:03
2594are talking by the telegraph about how
259575:06
2596more communication more understanding
259775:10
2598will render war obsolete because we'll
259975:14
2600all understand each other better
260175:16
2602I mean retrospectively it seems
260375:18
2604hopelessly Tokyo
260575:20
2606[Music]
260775:23
2608by the 1850s Europe and America were
260975:27
2610criss crossed with land-based telegraph
261175:30
2612wires but the dream of instant global
261375:33
2614communication was frustratingly out of
261575:36
2616reach this was because there was still
261775:39
2618no cable capable of carrying messages
261975:42
2620between two of the greatest powers on
262175:46
2622earth Britain and America many experts
262375:50
2624were convinced that a working Atlantic
262575:52
2626cable was impossible but those who
262775:55
2628disagreed knew that if they could solve
262975:57
2630this problem it could make them serious
263175:59
2632money and in the 1850s American
263376:02
2634businessman and British engineers joined
263576:05
2636forces to prove this could be done
263776:11
2638attempt after attempt ended in disaster
263976:14
2640the heavy cables kept snapping in heavy
264176:17
2642seas and storms
264376:21
2644finally on the 29th of July 1858 two
264576:25
2646parts of a cable were spliced together
264776:28
2648in mid-atlantic you see a single cable
264976:31
2650was simply too big to have been carried
265176:33
2652by one ship then one end was taken to
265376:36
2654Newfoundland and the other end to
265576:38
2656Southwest Ireland six days later the
265776:42
2658first direct link between the two most
265976:45
2660powerful nations in the world was in
266176:47
2662place the project was hailed a huge
266376:52
2664success and a formal message of
266576:54
2666congratulations was sent from Queen
266776:57
2668Victoria to President Buchanan but
266977:01
2670before the celebrations were over things
267177:03
2672started to go very wrong
267377:06
2674this is chief engineer brights original
267577:09
2676notebook if you see here Queen
267777:12
2678Victoria's original message now it's
267977:15
2680only 98 words long but it took 16 hours
268177:19
2682to transmit the telegraph operators on
268377:23
2684the other side found it very hard to
268577:25
2686decipher the message the electrical
268777:28
2688signals that they are receiving were
268977:29
2690were blurred and distorted and they kept
269177:32
2692asking for words to be repeated over and
269377:35
2694over again so you can see here repeat
269577:38
2696after sending waiting to receive no
269777:40
2698signals clearly transmitting across the
269977:44
2700Atlantic wasn't going to be as
270177:46
2702straightforward as people had hoped over
270377:51
2704the next few days several hundred
270577:53
2706messages were exchanged
270777:55
2708but those arriving in Newfoundland
270977:57
2710became almost impossible to decipher
271178:00
2712just a jumbled mess of dots and dashes
271378:03
2714there was a serious problem with the
271578:05
2716cable and it was getting worse while the
271778:09
27181858 cable was never fully repaired and
271978:13
2720the end finally came when British
272178:16
2722engineer Wildmon Whitehouse mistakenly
272378:19
2724believed that by increasing the signal
272578:22
2726voltage he could force the messages
272778:25
2728through to Newfoundland the cable simply
272978:28
2730stopped working altogether
273178:30
2732[Music]
273378:34
2734at the time increasing the voltage by
273578:38
2736using more powerful batteries made sense
273778:41
2738most experts believed electric current
273978:44
2740flowed through a cable like a fluid in a
274178:47
2742pipe increasing the voltage was the
274378:50
2744equivalent of increasing the pressure in
274578:53
2746the system forcing the current through
274778:55
2748to the other end
274978:57
2750but the Telegraph was actually carrying
275179:00
2752pulses or ripples of currents along the
275379:03
2754cable not a continuous stream and over
275579:07
2756long distances these pulses were
275779:09
2758becoming distorted making it difficult
275979:12
2760to tell what was a short dot and which
276179:16
2762was a longer - by studying the
276379:19
2764effectiveness of underwater cabling
276579:22
2766scientists were beginning to understand
276779:24
2768that electric currents didn't always
276979:27
2770flow like water but was also creating
277179:30
2772invisible electromagnetic waves or
277379:33
2774ripples and it's this breakthrough that
277579:37
2776would lead to a new branch of research
277779:40
2778into the electromagnetic spectrum and
277979:43
2780solve the problems of the Atlantic
278179:45
2782Telegraph in effect the transatlantic
278379:50
2784cable was a giant ambitious hugely
278579:53
2786expensive experiment the failure of
278779:57
2788science to keep pace with technology
278979:59
2790have been exposed and a new more
279180:04
2792theoretical and for me much more
279380:06
2794exciting approach to understanding
279580:10
2796electricity began to unfold
279780:17
2798armed with this new understanding of how
279980:20
2800electric pulses actually moved along the
280180:22
2802cable improvements were made to its
280380:25
2804composition design and how it was laid
280580:31
2806it would take another eight years of
280780:34
2808scientists and engineers working
280980:36
2810together before a working Cable was
281180:39
2812finally put in place and on Friday the
281380:45
281427th of July 1866 a message was sent
281580:49
2816from Ireland to Newfoundland clear and
281780:52
2818crisp the Treaty of Peace has been
281980:57
2820signed between Austria and Prussia at
282181:00
2822last the dream of instant transatlantic
282381:04
2824communication had become a reality the
282581:10
2826success of the 1866 cable makes the
282781:13
2828world a smaller place yet again
282981:19
2830a change for a world in where it took
283181:22
2832days or weeks or months for information
283381:25
2834to travel into a world in which
283581:28
2836information two seconds or minutes to
283781:31
2838travel yeah is far more profound I think
283981:34
2840than anything that's taken place during
284181:35
2842my lifetime
284381:39
2844the invention of the Telegraph changed
284581:42
2846ordinary people's lives but it will be
284781:46
2848the breakthroughs in how we used
284981:47
2850continuously flowing electric currents
285181:50
2852they would have an even greater impact
285381:55
2854because inventors were developing a new
285581:58
2856way of using electricity to make
285782:05
2858something every person in the world
285982:07
2860would want electric light until the 19th
286182:17
2862century we only knew of one way to make
286382:21
2864our own light burn things and by the
286582:33
2866middle of the 19th century we've
286782:35
2868perfected a very effective way of
286982:37
2870lighting our homes using gas
287182:43
2872[Music]
287382:44
2874a typical British home in the 1860s
287582:47
2876would have been lit like this highly
287782:50
2878flammable gas would have been pumped
287982:52
2880directly into people's houses through a
288182:54
2882network of pipes but these gas lamps
288383:00
2884were too dull for large outdoor areas so
288583:05
2886railway stations and streets began to be
288783:08
2888lit from a more powerful source electric
288983:11
2890arc lights the first arc lights were
289183:17
2892demonstrated by Michael Faraday's mentor
289383:19
2894Sir Humphrey Davy at the Royal
289583:22
2896Institution as early as 1808 and they
289783:25
2898worked by passing a continuous spark of
289983:28
2900electricity across two carbon rods but
290183:34
2902their intense white glow was just too
290383:37
2904bright to the people's homes for an
290583:40
2906electric light to compete with gas it
290783:42
2908would need to be subdivided into many
290983:44
2910smaller less powerful and more gentle
291183:47
2912lamps whoever succeeded in bringing
291383:50
2914electric lights to every home in the
291583:53
2916land was guaranteed fame and fortune and
291783:56
2918by the early 1880s the most famous most
291984:00
2920prodigious most fiercely competitive
292184:02
2922inventor in the world had taken on the
292384:05
2924challenge the American Thomas Alva
292584:09
2926Edison for Edison invention was a
292784:14
2928passion it's what he loved doing he
292984:17
2930loved being in laboratory the first
293184:20
2932thing that drove that passion is that it
293384:22
2934was a lot of fun for us I think that was
293584:25
2936the thing that he found most exciting is
293784:28
2938that this was something he did well and
293984:31
2940it allowed all of his creativity to come
294184:34
2942to the floor Edison is mr. electrical
294384:37
2944invention
294584:40
2946he's the man they trust he's the man
294784:43
2948that they think can do anything he's
294984:46
2950also the man who has his carefully
295184:50
2952cultivated connections with
295384:51
2954entrepreneurs where people are willing
295584:54
2956to put you put their cash where Edison's
295784:58
2958mouth is so to speak and back in in the
295985:00
2960sort of venture for Edison the money was
296185:02
2962probably the least important reason for
296385:04
2964Edison the money was important for one
296585:06
2966reason to allow him to do the next
296785:08
2968project
296985:12
2970Edison had assembled a group of young
297185:15
2972and talented engineers at a cutting-edge
297385:18
2974laboratory in New Jersey 26 miles from
297585:21
2976Manhattan Menlo Park would become the
297785:27
2978world's first research and development
297985:29
2980facility allowing Edison's team to
298185:32
2982invent on an industrial scale
298385:36
2984they worked incredible hours you know
298585:39
2986one of them talked about how he ever
298785:41
2988hardly ever saw his children because he
298985:43
2990was in the lab all the time
299185:46
2992[Music]
299385:50
2994but they knew they were in the midst of
299585:52
2996something really important right that if
299785:54
2998Edison succeeded right if they succeeded
299985:56
3000with Edison that their futures were
300185:58
3002secure
300385:59
3004[Music]
300586:05
3006Edison's dream was to bring electric
300786:08
3008lights to every home in the land and
300986:10
3010with his team of engineers behind him
301186:13
3012and the vision of an electric future
301386:15
3014ahead he launched his campaign the race
301586:20
3016to bring electric light to the world was
301786:23
3018to play out in the great cities of the
301986:25
3020time New York Paris London
302186:30
3022Edison's Menlo Park team set about
302386:32
3024developing a totally different form of
302586:36
3026electric lamp the incandescent light
302786:39
3028bulb in fact Edison's light bulb design
302986:43
3030wasn't all that new or unique French
303186:47
3032Russian Belgian and British inventors
303386:49
3034had been perfecting similar bulbs for
303586:52
3036over 40 years and one of them an
303786:57
3038Englishman Joseph Swan had been
303986:59
3040developing his own version of an
304187:01
3042incandescent lamp both Swan and Edison's
304387:05
3044light bulbs work by passing an electric
304587:07
3046current through a filament now a
304787:10
3048filament is a material in which the
304987:12
3050electric current flows through with more
305187:15
3052difficulty than it does through the
305387:17
3054copper wire in the rest of the circuit
305587:19
3056and it relies on the idea of resistance
305787:23
3058now inside this jar I have a filament
305987:25
3060made out of ordinary pencil lit and we
306187:28
3062can see what happens as I pass a current
306387:30
3064through it down at the atomic scale the
306587:35
3066atoms in the filament impede the flow of
306787:37
3068electricity so it takes more energy to
306987:40
3070force it through and this energy is
307187:43
3072deposited in the filament as heat now as
307387:46
3074it heats up it's resistance goes up
307587:48
3076which again raises its temperature until
307787:51
3078it glows white hot
307987:55
3080now one of the first materials Edison
308187:58
3082used for his filaments was platinum with
308388:05
3084its relatively high melting point
308588:08
3086platinum could be heated to a white-hot
308788:11
3088temperature without melting it could
308988:14
3090also be stretched into thin strands and
309188:16
3092the thinner the Strand the more
309388:19
3094resistance it offered to the current
309588:21
3096passing through it but platinum was
309788:24
3098expensive and didn't offer enough
309988:26
3100resistance the race was on to find a
310188:32
3102better alternative and the solution came
310388:35
3104when the Menlo Park team switched to a
310588:38
3106method Swan was also developing using a
310788:41
3108vacuum to stop Cheaper carbon filaments
310988:44
3110from burning up too quickly Edison and
311188:48
3112Swan
311388:49
3114tested all kinds of different materials
311588:52
3116for their filaments everything from raw
311788:54
3118silk and parchments to cork edison even
311988:58
3120tested his engineers beard hair
312189:01
3122eventually he settled on bamboo fiber
312389:04
3124while Swan used a treated cotton thread
312589:08
3126Edison and swans light bulb designs were
312789:11
3128very similar eventually they came to an
312989:13
3130agreement and went into partnership to
313189:16
3132sell light bulbs in the UK today many
313389:20
3134people still believe that Edison alone
313589:23
3136invented the light bulb while Swan has
313789:27
3138become a footnote in history
313989:35
3140but his incandescent bulb was only part
314189:39
3142of Edison's strategy he'd also invented
314389:42
3144an entire electrical system of sockets
314589:45
3146cables and meters to go with it and
314789:48
3148being a brilliant businessman he
314989:51
3150developed a groundbreaking new way of
315189:54
3152distributing electricity Edison knew
315389:57
3154that the key to making money from his
315589:59
3156system was to generate the electricity
315790:02
3158in a Central Station and then sell it to
315990:05
3160as many customers as possible it seems
316190:07
3162obvious to us now but until then anyone
316390:10
3164who wanted to use electricity had to
316590:12
3166have their own noisy generator to make
316790:15
3168it
316990:17
3170Edison's ambition was huge
317190:20
3172he wanted to lights the fastest-growing
317390:23
3174and most exciting city in the world
317590:30
3176New York in the summer of 1882 Edison
317790:36
3178stood in a unique position at the center
317990:39
3180of 19th century science and invention
318190:42
3182he'd patented a cutting-edge
318390:44
3184incandescent light bulb
318590:46
3186he'd amassed an unprecedented knowledge
318790:48
3188of electrical engineering and above all
318990:51
3190he'd cultivated a reputation among the
319190:53
3192American public of being such a genius
319390:56
3194inventor that journalists hung on his
319590:59
3196every word and the financial muscle of
319791:01
3198Wall Street was quick to throw itself
319991:04
3200behind his new ideas his vision to
320191:07
3202electrify Manhattan and then of course
320391:09
3204the rest of the world was seemingly
320591:12
3206within his grasp because Edison and his
320791:20
3208team were about to launch their most
320991:22
3210expensive and risky project yet
321191:25
3212America's first power station generating
321391:29
3214continuous direct current just before 3
321591:35
3216p.m. on the 4th of September 1880 -
321791:38
3218Thomas Edison surrounded by a gaggle of
321991:42
3220bankers dignitaries and reporters
322191:44
3222entered JP Morgan's building right
322391:46
3224behind me flicked one of the Edison
322591:49
3226patented switches and 100 of his
322791:52
3228incandescent bulbs began to glow turning
322991:56
3230to a nearby journalist he said I have
323191:59
3232accomplished all that I promised
323392:04
3234half a mile away on Pearl Street
323592:07
3236Edison's new power station costing half
323792:10
3238a million dollars and four years of hard
323992:13
3240work had sprung into life
324192:16
3242the currents surged through buried
324392:19
3244cables stretching out in each direction
324592:23
3246of course it might seem obvious to us
324792:26
3248now but in New York back in the early
324992:28
32501880s the idea of burying in epic cables
325192:32
3252underground seemed like an unnecessary
325392:34
3254expense this street would have been
325592:37
3256criss crossed with hundreds of cables
325792:39
3258used for Telegraph's telephones and arc
325992:42
3260street lighting looking up you'd have
326192:45
3262seen a tangled mass of black spaghetti
326392:48
3264blocking out the light Edison knew this
326592:52
3266dangerous situation had to change and
326792:54
3268for him to make as much money as he
326992:57
3270could
327192:57
3272electricity needed rebranding it had to
327393:01
3274be considered safe so Edison is arguing
327593:05
3276both for the greater safety of his DC
327793:08
3278the voltage system and for underground
327993:11
3280lines he can argue that he has a much
328193:15
3282safer system than electric arc light for
328393:18
3284streets or gas lighting for indoor
328593:21
3286lighting right he doesn't have to worry
328793:23
3288about fires doesn't have to worry about
328993:25
3290electrocution that all of this is much
329193:27
3292safer because of the system he's created
329393:29
3294with this underground system burying
329593:34
3296every cable was not only very expensive
329793:36
3298but was a logistical nightmare because
329993:39
3300this was one of the busiest square miles
330193:41
3302in the world
330393:42
3304Edison chose this area for a reason
330593:46
3306Wall Street's rich important influential
330793:51
3308because for Edison's system to make
330993:53
3310money all these wealthy customers had to
331193:56
3312be within a mile of his power station
331394:02
3314and this was because Edison calculated
331594:05
3316the thickest cable he could afford would
331794:08
3318only carry an adequate amount of his
331994:10
3320continuous direct current to customers
332194:14
3322within this range this was a huge leap
332394:18
3324forward because for the first time
332594:20
3326dozens of customers could be supplied by
332794:23
3328just one power station but there was a
332994:27
3330big problem Edison's Network could never
333194:30
3332be economical in lighting America's new
333394:33
3334suburbs they just didn't have the
333594:35
3336concentration of customers needed to
333794:38
3338make building these expensive power
333994:40
3340stations worthwhile how do we stuck with
334194:44
3342Edison's way of generating and
334394:46
3344distributing electricity the world would
334594:49
3346be a very different place we'd have to
334794:52
3348have power stations scattered around no
334994:55
3350more than a mile apart even in the
335194:58
3352centers of our towns and cities and it
335395:00
3354will be extraordinarily expensive to
335595:03
3356even provide power for smaller
335795:04
3358communities but someone who held the
335995:11
3360answers to these problems was about to
336195:14
3362enter the story someone who would help
336395:17
3364create the modern world and who'd play
336595:20
3366an integral part in one of the biggest
336795:22
3368fallouts in scientific history his name
336995:26
3370was Nikola Tesla and he was right under
337195:29
3372Edison's nose
337395:37
3374Nikola Tesla was a Serbian inventor who
337595:41
3376was born in Croatia and who worked for
337795:43
3378Edison briefly after arriving in New
337995:45
3380York at the age of 28 European
338195:49
3382introverted a deep thinker he was
338395:53
3384everything Edison wasn't Edison and
338595:57
3386Tesla could not be more different in the
338795:58
3388way that they handled herself appearance
338996:01
3390and their and their manners and the way
339196:02
3392that they constructed a public image for
339396:04
3394themselves Edison could care less about
339596:07
3396the clothes that he had on and if he
339796:09
3398spilled chemicals on his good Sunday
339996:10
3400suit then he spilled chemicals on his
340196:12
3402good Sunday suit he he was you know
340396:15
3404basically a very very kind of Slav 'only
340596:18
3406guy Tesla on the other hand even as a
340796:21
3408young man in his mid-20s is thinking
340996:23
3410about his appearance how he comes across
341196:25
3412to people so he cares about his clothes
341396:27
3414he cares about his manner indeed he even
341596:30
3416cares about how is how his photograph
341796:32
3418his portraits are taken and he always
341996:34
3420wants to make sure that he has a nice
342196:35
34223/4 profile so you don't see that the
342396:38
3424fact that he has a bit of a pointy chin
342596:42
3426the life and death of Nikola Tesla is
342796:45
3428one of the most fascinating yet tragic
342996:48
3430stories of scientific brilliance
343196:51
3432cutthroat business and shocking public
343396:54
3434relations stunts
343596:57
3436[Music]
343796:58
3438the American public may have been wowed
343997:02
3440by Edison's new direct current power
344197:04
3442stations but Tesla was less impressed he
344397:08
3444had a dream electricity could be
344597:10
3446transmitted across entire cities or even
344797:13
3448nations and he believed he knew how it
344997:17
3450could be done by using a different type
345197:20
3452of electric current
345397:27
3454Electrical experts know that the smaller
345597:31
3456the current sent down a cable the
345797:33
3458smaller the losses in it through
345997:35
3460resistance and so the longer the cable
346197:38
3462could be Tesla proposed using a method
346397:42
3464of transmitting electricity where the
346597:44
3466currents could be lowered without a fall
346797:47
3468in the amount of electrical power at the
346997:49
3470other end it was called alternating
347197:52
3472currents alternating current is exactly
347397:57
3474there it's electric current that
347597:59
3476alternates between moving in one
347798:01
3478direction then the opposite direction
347998:03
3480very quickly as opposed to a direct
348198:07
3482current which moves only in one
348398:09
3484direction Tesla was interested in
348598:12
3486alternating current because like other
348798:15
3488electrical engineers in the late 1880s
348998:17
3490he realized that as you raise the
349198:20
3492voltage of any current that you transmit
349398:23
3494from point A to point B is going to be
349598:25
3496more efficient to have a higher voltage
349798:29
3498and since the amount of electric power
349998:31
3500in a cable is its voltage multiplied by
350198:34
3502its current increasing the voltage meant
350398:37
3504the current in the cables could be
350598:39
3506reduced and so losses due to resistance
350798:42
3508would be less however you don't want
350998:46
3510very high voltages on the order of say
351198:48
351220,000 volts coming into your home so
351398:50
3514you need to step down the current that
351598:53
3516is being transmitted over a distance
351798:55
3518into your home and to do that you need a
351998:57
3520converter or transform alternating
352199:00
3522current allows you to use a transformer
352399:03
3524to make that switch from the high
352599:05
3526transmission voltage to the lower
352799:07
3528voltage that you're going to use at
352999:09
3530consumption
353199:10
3532[Music]
353399:13
3534perfecting the technology to transmit
353599:15
3536electricity hundreds of miles from where
353799:18
3538it was generated would mark a huge step
353999:21
3540towards the modern world and a wealthy
354199:25
3542industrialist rapport was already
354399:28
3544developing the solution his name was
354599:31
3546George Westinghouse Westinghouse
354799:35
3548believed alternating currents was the
354999:37
3550future but it had a big drawback while
355199:41
3552it was fine for electric light unlike
355399:43
3554direct currents
355599:45
3556there was no practical motor that could
355799:47
3558run on it and no one believed there ever
355999:50
3560would be apart from Nikola Tesla Tesla
356199:55
3562as an inventor like to say that the
356399:58
3564first thing you need to do is not to
3565100:00
3566build something but to imagine it to
3567100:03
3568think it through to plan it and he had
3569100:05
3570what modern-day psychologists would call
3571100:07
3572an eidetic memory he could basically
3573100:10
3574remember everything that he saw and then
3575100:13
3576visualize it in three dimensions and
3577100:15
3578they often say that the people that have
3579100:17
3580this skill see it about an arm's length
3581100:19
3582away out here and they see it in three
3583100:22
3584dimensions in that space and all the
3585100:24
3586indications are is is Tesla had that
3587100:26
3588ability
3589100:28
3590[Music]
3591100:30
3592this is a Tesla egg it's a replica of
3593100:37
3594the one Tesla used to demonstrate his
3595100:40
3596greatest breakthrough and one of the
3597100:43
3598most important inventions of all time it
3599100:46
3600showed how rotary movements can be
3601100:49
3602produced directly from an alternating
3603100:51
3604current crucially one that could be
3605100:54
3606generated thousands of miles away this
3607100:57
3608was something that had never been done
3609100:58
3610before
3611100:59
3612[Music]
3613101:08
3614when Tesla was working on the
3615101:10
3616alternating current motor he was
3617101:12
3618thinking big and he was not just
3619101:14
3620tinkering with one little component of
3621101:16
3622the motor and saying gee if I can make
3623101:19
3624that a little bit better who will work
3625101:20
3626out he's actually thinking about an
3627101:22
3628entire system that involves the
3629101:24
3630generator the wires to the motor and the
3631101:28
3632motor itself he's a complete maverick
3633101:30
3634he's thinking outside the box he's doing
3635101:32
3636things very differently than any of his
3637101:34
3638fellow contemporary inventors Tesla's
3639101:37
3640solution was ingenious he fed more than
3641101:41
3642one alternating current into his motor
3643101:43
3644and timed them so that they followed in
3645101:46
3646sequence with each other
3647101:48
3648the first alternating current energized
3649101:51
3650a coil of wire inside the motor creating
3651101:55
3652an electromagnetic field which attracted
3653101:58
3654the motor central moving part to it and
3655102:00
3656then fade it the second overlapping
3657102:04
3658current fed the next coil dragging the
3659102:07
3660movie part around further before it
3661102:09
3662faded and the same for the third coil
3663102:12
3664and the fourth the result was a
3665102:15
3666revolving magnetic field strong enough
3667102:18
3668to make the motor or in this case his
3669102:20
3670egg spin Tesla designed an entire
3671102:24
3672electrical system around this called
3673102:27
3674polyphase transmission this meant a
3675102:30
3676noisy and smelly power station
3677102:32
3678generating lots of useful alternating
3679102:34
3680current could now be situated away from
3681102:37
3682populated areas and for the first time
3683102:41
3684you can build large power stations
3685102:44
3686wherever you want on the edge of town or
3687102:46
3688a waterfall like Niagara and you can
3689102:48
3690then distribute the power over long
3691102:50
3692distances and serve all the people in a
3693102:53
3694major city or metropolitan center
3695102:56
3696Tesla's breakthrough was the last piece
3697102:59
3698of the jigsaw but he still had to
3699103:02
3700convince the world that his solution was
3701103:05
3702better than the direct current method
3703103:07
3704championed by Edison
3705103:14
3706Edinson continued to roll out his direct
3707103:17
3708current system building power stations
3709103:20
3710across New York State the then Tesla met
3711103:27
3712George Westinghouse the man who could
3713103:30
3714make his dreams into a reality in July
3715103:35
37161888 Westinghouse made an offer for
3717103:38
3718Tesla's patents which has become part of
3719103:41
3720the mystery of folklore surrounding the
3721103:44
3722whole Nikola Tesla story and where it's
3723103:47
3724difficult to separate fact from fiction
3725103:51
3726Tesla was paid seventy five thousand
3727103:54
3728dollars for his alternating current
3729103:56
3730patents and offered two dollars 50 for
3731103:59
3732every horsepower his motors would
3733104:01
3734generate this should have guaranteed him
3735104:04
3736vast wealth for the rest of his life but
3737104:07
3738that isn't what happened it's clear to
3739104:13
3740us now that at the time the a/c system
3741104:15
3742was a much better method of transmitting
3743104:18
3744electric power and you'd think that with
3745104:20
3746Tesla's breakthroughs nothing could
3747104:23
3748stand in the way of the success of AC /
3749104:26
3750DC but one man still believed totally in
3751104:30
3752his direct current inventions from the
3753104:33
3754filaments of the bulbs to the switches
3755104:35
3756sockets and generators and he wasn't
3757104:39
3758about to waste millions of dollars on
3759104:41
3760changing them Edison the battle lines
3761104:48
3762were drawn Westinghouse and Tesla went
3763104:51
3764toe to toe with Edison for New York's
3765104:54
3766lucrative lighting contracts two
3767104:57
3768completely different systems battling it
3769104:59
3770out for one ultimate prize the chance to
3771105:04
3772light up America and then the world it
3773105:08
3774will become known as the war of the
3775105:10
3776currents
3777105:14
3778both camps tried to undercut each other
3779105:17
3780on cost but Edison believed his beloved
3781105:21
3782direct-current was better than
3783105:23
3784alternating current because it was safer
3785105:28
3786touching an Edison cable with its low
3787105:31
3788voltage was painful but relatively
3789105:33
3790harmless
3791105:34
3792whereas alternating current cables
3793105:37
3794carried a much higher voltage and
3795105:39
3796touching them could be deadly so what
3797105:45
3798our son was trying to do was to again
3799105:48
3800define his DC system right as the safe
3801105:51
3802system it's better than electric street
3803105:54
3804arc lights it's better than cabs and
3805105:58
3806it's now better than high voltage AC
3807106:00
3808incandescent light it's the system
3809106:04
3810that's safe you adopt the Edison system
3811106:06
3812you can be sure it's going to be safe
3813106:09
3814[Music]
3815106:10
3816Edison claimed that AC was a more
3817106:13
3818dangerous type of current than DC and he
3819106:16
3820highlighted every accident to
3821106:18
3822Westinghouse's workman and every fire
3823106:21
3824caused by short circuits
3825106:29
3826it was a potent message because in the
3827106:31
38281880s many people were still terrified
3829106:34
3830by electricity it could shock and even
3831106:38
3832kill in an instant and the reasons why
3833106:40
3834still weren't fully understood
3835106:42
3836for many the idea of piping this
3837106:45
3838invisible killer into their homes was
3839106:48
3840utterly ludicrous so the weapon used in
3841106:54
3842the War of the currents was fear and a
3843107:02
3844little-known electrical engineer Harold
3845107:05
3846P Brown was about to take the fight
3847107:08
3848against AC to a whole new level it was
3849107:15
3850to prove one of the most extreme and
3851107:18
3852negative publicity campaigns in history
3853107:21
3854Brown had devised a unique and
3855107:25
3856theatrical way of demonstrating the
3857107:28
3858deadly power of AC and it was eager to
3859107:32
3860share it with the world so on a warm
3861107:35
3862summer's evening in July 1888 he
3863107:39
3864gathered together 75 of the country's
3865107:42
3866top electrical engineers and reporters
3867107:45
3868to witness a spectacle they would never
3869107:49
3870forget
3871107:51
3872[Music]
3873107:54
3874Brown's plan was extremely macabre he'd
3875107:58
3876paid a team of street urchins to collect
3877108:01
3878together stray dogs roaming Manhattan
3879108:03
3880out on stage he addressed his audience I
3881108:07
3882have asked you here gentlemen to witness
3883108:10
3884the experimental application of
3885108:13
3886electricity to a number of brutes his
3887108:18
3888demonstration involved electrocuting the
3889108:22
3890dogs with DC and AC power in an attempt
3891108:27
3892to show that AC current killed them more
3893108:29
3894quickly and it wasn't just dogs Brown
3895108:34
3896went on to make public spectacles of
3897108:36
3898killing a calf and even a horse and he
3899108:41
3900moved from dogs to larger animals for a
3901108:44
3902reason he wanted to show that the AC
3903108:46
3904form of electricity was so dangerous it
3905108:49
3906could kill any large mammal including
3907108:53
3908humans
3909109:00
3910[Music]
3911109:03
3912Brown's animal experiments had persuaded
3913109:06
3914American politicians the most humane
3915109:09
3916method of executing condemned criminals
3917109:12
3918should be with alternating current
3919109:14
3920generated by westinghouse machines
3921109:18
3922Edison's lawyers even suggested a new
3923109:21
3924term to describe being electrocuted in
3925109:24
3926this way to be Westinghouse and at
3927109:30
3928precisely 632 on the morning of the 6th
3929109:34
3930of August 1890 a 45 year old man William
3931109:38
3932Kemmler was strapped to a wooden chair
3933109:41
3934and to soaking wet electrodes were
3935109:44
3936carefully attached to him and as 26
3937109:48
3938officials and doctors looked on from an
3939109:49
3940adjoining room Kemmler said goodbye to
3941109:52
3942the prison chaplain and waited the
3943110:01
3944execution of William Kemmler marked the
3945110:04
3946lowest point in the war of the currents
3947110:06
3948but it wouldn't try to mark the end
3949110:09
3950because Nikola Tesla was about to do
3951110:11
3952something that had never been seen
3953110:13
3954before something so wondrous and daring
3955110:16
3956that it would live on forever in the
3957110:19
3958memories of those who saw
3959110:26
3960[Applause]
3961110:30
3962[Music]
3963110:44
3964Tesla had been developing a method of
3965110:46
3966generating very high-frequency
3967110:48
3968alternating currents and on May 21st
3969110:51
39701891 at a meeting of top electrical
3971110:55
3972engineers he demonstrated it
3973110:59
3974[Music]
3975110:59
3976[Applause]
3977111:03
3978in an almost magical display of awesome
3979111:07
3980power and Wonder and without wearing any
3981111:09
3982safety chain mail or Mouse pins of
3983111:12
3984thousands of volts produced by a Tesla
3985111:15
3986coil passed across his body and through
3987111:18
3988the end of a lab that he was holding
3989111:26
3990Tesla's alternating current was at such
3991111:30
3992a high frequency that it passed through
3993111:32
3994his body without causing serious harm or
3995111:35
3996even pain this demonstrations showed
3997111:39
3998that it handled correctly alternating
3999111:42
4000currents at extremely high voltages
4001111:44
4002could be safe the War of the currents
4003111:48
4004had been won by Westinghouse and Tesla
4005111:52
4006in 1896 the new power station was
4007111:56
4008completed at Niagara Falls using
4009111:59
4010Westinghouse AC generators to produce
4011112:01
4012Tesla's polyphase currents finally huge
4013112:06
4014amounts of power could be transmitted
4015112:08
4016from the Falls to nearby Buffalo and
4017112:11
4018then a few years later the Niagara plant
4019112:14
4020was providing power to New York City
4021112:17
4022itself and today almost all of the
4023112:21
4024electricity generated in the world is
4025112:24
4026done so using Tesla's system
4027112:33
4028but Tesla story doesn't end in fame and
4029112:37
4030fortune although he went on to make
4031112:42
4032significant contributions to many other
4033112:44
4034areas of science and invention to save
4035112:47
4036George Westinghouse from ruin after a
4037112:50
4038stock market crash he gave up his claim
4039112:53
4040to the royalties from his polyphase
4041112:55
4042inventions Nikola Tesla was a uniquely
4043113:01
4044talented man and we owe him so much but
4045113:04
4046it was also hugely complicated and sadly
4047113:08
4048later in life he became more and more
4049113:09
4050troubled he was fixated with the number
4051113:12
4052three counting it out loud as he walked
4053113:15
4054and he developed strange phobias with
4055113:18
4056germs and with women wearing pearl
4057113:21
4058jewelry in many ways his brilliant mind
4059113:25
4060simply spun out of control
4061113:30
4062as Tesla's life unraveled he withdrew
4063113:34
4064from people and found emotional comfort
4065113:37
4066elsewhere he became obsessed with
4067113:40
4068pigeons and was regularly seen feeding
4069113:42
4070them here in Bryant Park in the center
4071113:45
4072of Manhattan he even fell in love with
4073113:48
4074one particularly unusual white bird and
4075113:51
4076when it died he was left heartbroken
4077114:05
4078as an old man Tesla was left almost
4079114:09
4080bankrupt and alone living as a semi
4081114:12
4082recluse in this hotel
4083114:21
4084his last years were spent here in room 3
4085114:24
40863 to 7 of The New Yorker Hotel sad
4087114:28
4088confused destitute
4089114:36
4090Edison went on to become an American
4091114:39
4092hero and his company would form part of
4093114:43
4094General Electric even today one of the
4095114:47
4096world's biggest multinational
4097114:48
4098corporations in January 1943 the story
4099114:55
4100of Nikola Tesla was coming to an end but
4101115:00
4102looking out across the Manhattan skyline
4103115:02
4104for the very last time he saw a sky lit
4105115:07
4106up with twinkling lights and a million
4107115:09
4108lives transformed by his genius
4109115:22
4110[Music]
4111115:28
4112the ability to generate and transmit
4113115:31
4114electricity and the invention of
4115115:33
4116machines to use it have changed our
4117115:36
4118world in ways we couldn't possibly have
4119115:38
4120imagined
4121115:40
4122wicca now generates billions of watts of
4123115:44
4124electricity every second every hour
4125115:48
4126every day and whether we do it using
4127115:51
4128coal gas on nuclear fission power
4129115:56
4130stations all rely on the principles
4131115:59
4132discovered and developed by Michael
4133116:01
4134Faraday Nikola Tesla and all the other
4135116:05
4136early electrical engineers from an
4137116:07
4138amazing age of invention
4139116:10
4140we now take electricity for granted and
4141116:13
4142have forgotten how magical and
4143116:16
4144mysterious a force it once was but
4145116:19
4146there's something we should never forget
4147116:21
4148today without it the modern world would
4149116:25
4150collapse around us and our lives would
4151116:28
4152be very very different
4153116:31
4154[Music]
4155116:36
4156in the next episode we tell of the
4157116:39
4158electrical revelations that led to a
4159116:41
4160revolution in our understanding of this
4161116:44
4162amazing force
4163116:52
4164[Music]
4165116:57
4166on the 14th of august 1894 an excited
4167117:02
4168crowd gathered outside offered Natural
4169117:05
4170History Museum this huge gothic building
4171117:10
4172was hosting the annual meeting of the
4173117:13
4174British Association for the Advancement
4175117:14
4176of science over 2000 tickets have been
4177117:19
4178sold in advance and the museum was
4179117:22
4180already packed waiting for the next talk
4181117:24
4182to be given by Professor Oliver Lodge
4183117:29
4184his name might not be familiar to us now
4185117:32
4186but his discoveries should have made him
4187117:35
4188as famous as some of the other great
4189117:37
4190Electrical pioneers of history people
4191117:40
4192like Benjamin Franklin Alessandro Volta
4193117:45
4194or even the great Michael Faraday
4195117:49
4196quite unwittingly he would set in motion
4197117:52
4198a series of events that would
4199117:55
4200revolutionize the Victorian world of
4201117:57
4202brass and telegraph wire this lecture
4203118:01
4204would mark the birth of the modern
4205118:03
4206electrical world a world dominated by
4207118:06
4208silicon and mass wireless communication
4209118:10
4210[Music]
4211118:13
4212in this program we discover how
4213118:16
4214electricity connected the world together
4215118:19
4216through broadcasting with computer
4217118:21
4218networks and how we finally learned to
4219118:25
4220unravel and exploit electricity at an
4221118:28
4222atomic level
4223118:29
4224[Music]
4225118:30
4226after centuries of man's experiments
4227118:35
4228with electricity a new age of real
4229118:38
4230understanding was now dawning
4231118:46
4232[Music]
4233119:04
4234these tubes are not plugged into any
4235119:08
4236power source but they still light up its
4237119:12
4238electricity's invisible effect an effect
4239119:15
4240not just confined to the wires it flows
4241119:18
4242through in the middle of the 19th
4243119:22
4244century a great theory was proposed to
4245119:25
4246explain how this could be the theory
4247119:30
4248says that surrounding any electric
4249119:32
4250charge and there's a lot of electricity
4251119:35
4252flowing above my head is a force field
4253119:38
4254these fluorescent tubes are lit purely
4255119:42
4256because they're under the influence of
4257119:44
4258the force field
4259119:45
4260from the power cables above
4261119:50
4262the theory that a flow of electricity
4263119:53
4264could in some way create an invisible
4265119:55
4266force field was originally proposed by
4267119:58
4268Michael Faraday but it would take a
4269120:01
4270brilliant young Scotsman called James
4271120:03
4272Clark Maxwell who would prove Faraday
4273120:06
4274correct and not through experimentation
4275120:09
4276but through mathematics
4277120:12
4278[Music]
4279120:13
4280this was all a far cry from the typical
4281120:16
428219th century way of understanding how
4283120:19
4284the world works which was essentially to
4285120:22
4286see it as a physical machine
4287120:27
4288[Applause]
4289120:28
4290[Music]
4291120:32
4292before Maxwell scientists had often
4293120:35
4294built strange machines or devised
4295120:37
4296wondrous experiments to create and
4297120:40
4298measure electricity that Maxwell was
4299120:44
4300different he was interested in the
4301120:46
4302numbers and his new theory not only
4303120:49
4304revealed electricity's invisible force
4305120:51
4306field but how it could be manipulated it
4307120:55
4308would prove to be one of the most
4309120:57
4310important scientific discoveries of all
4311120:59
4312time Maxwell was a mathematician and a
4313121:03
4314great one and he saw electricity and
4315121:05
4316magnetism in an entirely new way he
4317121:07
4318expressed it all in terms of very
4319121:09
4320compact mathematical equations and the
4321121:11
4322most important thing is that in
4323121:13
4324Maxwell's equations is an understanding
4325121:16
4326of electricity and magnetism as
4327121:19
4328something linked and as something that
4329121:22
4330can occur in waves
4331121:24
4332[Music]
4333121:32
4334Maxwell's calculations showed how these
4335121:35
4336fields could be disturbed
4337121:37
4338rather like touching the surface of
4339121:40
4340water with your finger changing the
4341121:42
4342direction of the electric current would
4343121:45
4344create a ripple or wave through these
4345121:48
4346electric and magnetic fields and
4347121:50
4348constantly changing the direction of the
4349121:53
4350flow of the currents forwards and
4351121:55
4352backwards like an alternating current
4353121:57
4354would produce a whole series of waves
4355122:02
4356waves that would carry energy Maxwell's
4357122:07
4358maths was telling him that changing
4359122:10
4360electric currents would be constantly
4361122:12
4362sending out great waves of energy into
4363122:15
4364their surroundings waves that would
4365122:17
4366carry on forever unless something absorb
4367122:20
4368them
4369122:33
4370Maxwell's maths was so advanced and
4371122:36
4372complicated that only a handful of
4373122:38
4374people understood it at the time and
4375122:40
4376although his work was still only a
4377122:43
4378theory it inspired a young German
4379122:46
4380physicist called Heinrich Hertz Hertz
4381122:50
4382decided to dedicate himself to designing
4383122:53
4384an experiment to prove that Maxwell's
4385122:56
4386waves really existed and here it is this
4387123:03
4388is Hertz his original apparatus and his
4389123:07
4390beauty is in its sheer simplicity he
4391123:10
4392generates an alternating current that
4393123:12
4394runs along these metal rods with a spark
4395123:16
4396that jumps across the gap between these
4397123:18
4398two spheres now if Maxwell was right
4399123:22
4400then this alternating current should
4401123:24
4402generate an invisible electromagnetic
4403123:27
4404wave that spreads out into the
4405123:29
4406surroundings if you place a wire in the
4407123:33
4408path of that wave then at the wire there
4409123:36
4410should be a changing electromagnetic
4411123:39
4412field which should induce an electric
4413123:42
4414current in the wire so what Hertz did
4415123:45
4416was build this ring of wire his receiver
4417123:49
4418that he could carry around in different
4419123:51
4420positions in the room to see if he could
4421123:53
4422detect the presence of the wave and the
4423123:56
4424way he did that was leave a very tiny
4425123:59
4426gap in the wire across which a spark
4427124:02
4428would jump if a current runs through the
4429124:05
4430ring now because the current is so weak
4431124:09
4432that spark is very very faint and her
4433124:13
4434spent pretty much most of 1887 in a
4435124:17
4436darkened room staring intensely through
4437124:19
4438a lens to see if he could detect the
4439124:22
4440presence of this faint spark
4441124:32
4442but Hertz wasn't alone in trying to
4443124:35
4444create Maxwell's waves
4445124:38
4446back in England a young physics
4447124:40
4448professor called Oliver Lodge had been
4449124:43
4450fascinated by the topic for years but
4451124:46
4452hadn't had the time to design any
4453124:48
4454experiments to try to discover them then
4455124:53
4456one day in early 1888 while setting up
4457124:57
4458an experiment on lightning protection he
4459124:59
4460noticed something unusual Lodge noticed
4461125:06
4462that when he set up his equipment and
4463125:08
4464sent an alternating current around the
4465125:11
4466wires he could see glowing patches
4467125:15
4468between the wires and with a bit of
4469125:17
4470tweaking he saw these glowing patches
4471125:19
4472formed a pattern the blue glow an
4473125:23
4474electrical sparks occurred in distinct
4475125:26
4476patches evenly spaced along the wires he
4477125:29
4478realized they were the peaks and troughs
4479125:31
4480of a wave an invisible electromagnetic
4481125:35
4482wave Lodge had proved that Maxwell was
4483125:39
4484right finally by accident Lodge had
4485125:44
4486created Maxwell's electromagnetic waves
4487125:46
4488around the wires the big question had
4489125:51
4490been answered
4491125:52
4492[Music]
4493125:54
4494filled with excitement at his Discovery
4495125:56
4496Lodge prepared announce it to the world
4497125:59
4498that summers and your scientific meeting
4499126:02
4500run by the British Association before it
4501126:07
4502though he decided to go on holiday his
4503126:11
4504timing couldn't have been worse because
4505126:13
4506back in Germany and at exactly the same
4507126:16
4508time Heinrich Hertz was also testing
4509126:19
4510Maxwell's theories eventually Hertz
4511126:27
4512found what he was looking for a minut
4513126:30
4514spark and as he carried his receiver
4515126:34
4516around to different positions in the
4517126:35
4518room he was able to map out the shape of
4519126:39
4520the waves being produced by his
4521126:40
4522apparatus and he checked each of
4523126:43
4524Maxwell's calculations carefully and
4525126:45
4526tested them experimentally it was a tour
4527126:49
4528de force of experimental science back in
4529126:57
4530Britain as the crowds gathered for the
4531127:00
4532British Association meeting Oliver Lodge
4533127:02
4534returned from holiday relaxed and full
4535127:05
4536of anticipation
4537127:08
4538[Music]
4539127:10
4540this lodge thought would be his moment
4541127:14
4542of triumph when he could announce his
4543127:16
4544discovery of Maxwell's waves his great
4545127:20
4546friend the mathematician Fitzgerald was
4547127:22
4548due to give the opening address in the
4549127:24
4550meeting but in it he proclaimed that
4551127:27
4552Heinrich Hertz had just published
4553127:29
4554astounding results he had detected
4555127:32
4556Maxwell's waves traveling through space
4557127:35
4558we have snatched the Thunderbolt from
4559127:38
4560Jove himself and enslaved the
4561127:41
4562all-pervading ether he announced well I
4563127:45
4564can only imagine how Lodge must have
4565127:47
4566felt having his Thunder stolen professor
4567127:53
4568Oliver Lodge had lost his moment of
4569127:55
4570triumph pipped at the post by Heinrich
4571127:58
4572Hertz heard a spectacular demonstration
4573128:02
4574of electromagnetic waves what we now
4575128:04
4576call radio waves even though he didn't
4577128:06
4578know it at the time is going to lead to
4579128:07
4580a whole revolution in communications
4581128:09
4582over the next century
4583128:11
4584[Music]
4585128:16
4586Maxwell's theory had shown how electric
4587128:18
4588charges could create a force field
4589128:20
4590around them and that waves could spread
4591128:24
4592through these fields like ripples on a
4593128:26
4594pond and Hertz had built a device that
4595128:32
4596could actually create and detect the
4597128:34
4598waves as they passed through the air but
4599128:39
4600almost immediately there would be
4601128:41
4602another revelation in our understanding
4603128:43
4604of electricity a revelation that would
4605128:46
4606once again involve professor Oliver
4607128:48
4608Lodge and once again his Thunder would
4609128:52
4610be stolen the story stands in Oxford in
4611129:09
4612the summer of 1894 Hertz had died
4613129:12
4614suddenly earlier that year and so large
4615129:15
4616prepared a memorial lecture with a
4617129:17
4618demonstration that would bring the idea
4619129:20
4620of waves to a wider audience Lodge had
4621129:25
4622worked on his lecture he'd researched
4623129:27
4624better ways of detecting the waves and
4625129:30
4626he'd borrowed new apparatus from friends
4627129:33
4628he'd made some significant advances in
4629129:36
4630the technology designed to detect the
4631129:39
4632waves this bit of apparatus generates an
4633129:44
4634alternating current and a spark across
4635129:47
4636this gap the alternating current sends
4637129:51
4638out an electromagnetic wave just as
4639129:54
4640Maxwell predicted that is picked up by
4641129:57
4642the receiver it sets off a very weak
4643130:00
4644electric current through these two
4645130:02
4646antennae now this is what Hertz had done
4647130:05
4648lodges improvements on this was to set
4649130:09
4650up this tube full of iron filings the
4651130:12
4652weak electric current passes through the
4653130:14
4654filings forcing them to clump together
4655130:17
4656and when they do they close a second
4657130:20
4658electric circuit and set off the bail so
4659130:23
4660if I push the button on this end
4661130:26
4662it sets off the bell at the receiver and
4663130:29
4664it's doing that with no connections
4665130:31
4666between the two it's like magic you
4667130:41
4668could imagine a packed house lots of
4669130:43
4670people in the audience and what they
4671130:46
4672suddenly see is as if by magic of bell
4673130:51
4674ringing is quite incredible it might not
4675130:56
4676have been the most dramatic
4677130:57
4678demonstration the audience had ever seen
4679130:59
4680but it certainly still created a
4681131:02
4682sensation among the crowd lodges
4683131:05
4684apparatus laid out like this no longer
4685131:08
4686looked like a scientific experiment in
4687131:10
4688fact it looked remarkably like those
4689131:13
4690telegraph machines that had
4691131:15
4692revolutionized communication but without
4693131:18
4694those long cables stretching between the
4695131:21
4696sending and receiving stations to the
4697131:24
4698more worldly and savvy members of the
4699131:26
4700audience this was clearly more than
4701131:28
4702showing the maestro Maxwell was right
4703131:31
4704this was a revolutionary new form of
4705131:35
4706communication Lodge publishes lecture
4707131:43
4708notes on how electromagnetic waves could
4709131:45
4710be sent and received using his new
4711131:48
4712improvements
4713131:50
4714all around the world inventors amateur
4715131:53
4716enthusiasts and scientists read lodges
4717131:56
4718reports with excitement and began
4719131:58
4720experimenting with Hertzian waves to
4721132:04
4722utterly different characters were to be
4723132:07
4724inspired by it
4725132:09
4726both would bring improvements to the
4727132:11
4728wireless Telegraph and both will be
4729132:14
4730remembered and for their contribution to
4731132:16
4732science
4733132:16
4734far more than Oliver Lodge the first was
4735132:21
4736ghoulia mo Marconi Marconi was a very
4737132:25
4738intelligent astute and a very charming
4739132:27
4740individual he definitely had the Italian
4741132:30
4742Irish charm he could apply this to
4743132:33
4744almost anyone from sort of young ladies
4745132:35
4746to world-renowned scientists Marconi was
4747132:40
4748no scientist but he read all he could of
4749132:43
4750other people's work in order to put
4751132:45
4752together his own wireless Telegraph
4753132:48
4754system and it's possible that because he
4755132:51
4756was brought up in Bologna and it was
4757132:52
4758fairly close to the Italian coast that
4759132:54
4760he saw the potential of wireless
4761132:56
4762communications in relation to maritime
4763132:58
4764usage fairly early on then aged only 22
4765133:03
4766he came to London with his Irish mother
4767133:06
4768to market it the other person inspired
4769133:12
4770by lodges lecture was a teacher at the
4771133:15
4772Presidency College in Calcutta called
4773133:17
4774Jagadish Chandra Bose despite degrees
4775133:23
4776from London and Cambridge the
4777133:25
4778appointment of an Indian as a scientist
4779133:27
4780in Calcutta had been a battle against
4781133:30
4782racial prejudice
4783133:33
4784Indians it was said didn't have the
4785133:36
4786requisite temperament for exact science
4787133:39
4788well Bose was determined to prove this
4789133:42
4790wrong and here in the archives we could
4791133:44
4792see just how fast he's set to work this
4793133:48
4794is a report of the 66th meeting of the
4795133:52
4796British Association and Liverpool
4797133:54
4798September 1896 and here is Bose
4799133:59
4800the first Indian ever to present at the
4801134:02
4802Association meeting talking about his
4803134:04
4804work and demonstrating his apparatus he
4805134:07
4806built and improved on the detector that
4807134:10
4808Lodge described because in the hot
4809134:13
4810sticky Indian climates he'd found that
4811134:15
4812the metal filings inside the tube that
4813134:17
4814Lodge used to do to detect the waves
4815134:20
4816became rusty and stuck together so Bose
4817134:22
4818had to build a more practical detector
4819134:25
4820using a coiled wire instead his work was
4821134:29
4822described as a sensation the detector
4823134:34
4824was extremely reliable and could work on
4825134:36
4826board ships so had great potential for
4827134:39
4828the vast British naval fleet Britain was
4829134:42
4830the center of a vast telecommunications
4831134:45
4832network which stretched almost around
4833134:47
4834the world which was used to support an
4835134:50
4836equally vast maritime network of
4837134:53
4838merchant and naval vessels which were
4839134:56
4840used to support the British Empire but
4841134:59
4842Bose a pure scientist wasn't interested
4843135:02
4844in the commercial potential of wireless
4845135:04
4846signals
4847135:05
4848unlike Marconi this was a sort of a new
4849135:10
4850cutting-edge field but Marconi wasn't a
4851135:13
4852trained scientist so he did come things
4853135:16
4854in a fairly different way which is made
4855135:17
4856may have been why he progressed so
4857135:18
4858quickly in the first place and he was
4859135:21
4860very good at forming connections with
4861135:24
4862the people that he needed to form
4863135:26
4864connections with to enable his work to
4865135:28
4866be done
4867135:31
4868Marconi used his connections to go
4869135:33
4870straight to the only place that had the
4871135:36
4872resources to help him the British post
4873135:42
4874office was a hugely powerful institution
4875135:45
4876when Marconi first arrived in London in
4877135:48
48781896 these buildings were newly
4879135:51
4880completed and already healing with
4881135:53
4882business from the Empire's postal and
4883135:56
4884telegraph eServices Marconi had brought
4885136:00
4886his Telegraph system with him from Italy
4887136:02
4888claiming it could send wireless signals
4889136:05
4890over unheard-of distances and the post
4891136:08
4892office engineer in chief William priest
4893136:11
4894immediately saw the technology's
4895136:13
4896potential
4897136:15
4898so priests offered Marconi the great
4899136:18
4900financial and engineering resources of
4901136:21
4902the post office and they started work up
4903136:24
4904on the roof the old headquarters of the
4905136:29
4906post office were right there and between
4907136:32
4908this roof and that one Marconi and the
4909136:35
4910post office engineers would practice
4911136:37
4912sending and receiving electromagnetic
4913136:39
4914waves
4915136:40
4916the engineers helped him improve his
4917136:43
4918apparatus and then priests and Marconi
4919136:46
4920together
4921136:47
4922demonstrated it to influential people in
4923136:49
4924government and the Navy
4925136:54
4926what priests didn't realize was that
4927136:57
4928even as he was proudly announcing
4929136:59
4930Marconi's successful partnership with
4931137:02
4932the post office Marconi was making plans
4933137:05
4934behind the scenes he'd applied for a
4935137:09
4936British patent on the whole field of
4937137:11
4938wireless telegraphy and was planning on
4939137:13
4940setting up his own company when the
4941137:17
4942patent was granted all hell broke loose
4943137:20
4944in the scientific community that patent
4945137:27
4946was itself revolutionary you see patents
4947137:34
4948could only be taken out of things that
4949137:36
4950weren't public knowledge but Marconi
4951137:39
4952famously had hidden his equipment in a
4953137:42
4954secret box and here it is when his
4955137:50
4956patent was finally granted Marconi
4957137:53
4958ceremoniously opened the box
4959137:55
4960everyone was keen to see what inventions
4961137:58
4962lay within batteries forming a circuit
4963138:05
4964iron filings in the tube to complete the
4965138:07
4966circuit to ring the bell on top nothing
4967138:10
4968they hadn't seen before and yet Marconi
4969138:14
4970had patented the lot
4971138:16
4972[Music]
4973138:18
4974the reason why mark Holi is famous it's
4975138:20
4976not because of that invention it doesn't
4977138:22
4978invent radio right but he improves it
4979138:25
4980and turns it into a system Lodge doesn't
4981138:28
4982do that and that's why remember Marconi
4983138:31
4984and that's why we don't remember Lodge
4985138:34
4986[Music]
4987138:37
4988the scientific world was up in arms he
4989138:41
4990was this young man who knew very little
4991138:43
4992about the science behind his equipment
4993138:45
4994about to make his fortune from their
4995138:49
4996work even his great supporter priests
4997138:51
4998was disappointed and hurt when he found
4999138:54
5000out that Marconi was about to go it
5001138:56
5002alone and set up his own company Lodge
5003138:59
5004and other scientists began a frenzy of
5005139:03
5006patenting every tiny detail and
5007139:06
5008improvement they made to their equipment
5009139:10
5010this new atmosphere shocked Bose when he
5011139:14
5012returned to Britain Bose wrote home to
5013139:19
5014India in disgust of what he found in
5015139:21
5016England money money money
5017139:24
5018all the time what a devouring greed I
5019139:27
5020wish you could see the craze for money
5021139:30
5022of the people here his disillusionment
5023139:34
5024with the changes he saw in the country
5025139:37
5026he revered for its scientific integrity
5027139:39
5028and an excellence is palpable eventually
5029139:43
5030though it was his friends who convinced
5031139:46
5032Bose to take out his one and only patent
5033139:49
5034on his discovery of a new kind of
5035139:51
5036detector for waves it was this discovery
5037139:55
5038that would lead to perhaps an even
5039139:57
5040greater revolution for the world he had
5041140:01
5042discovered the power of crystals this
5043140:06
5044were places older techniques using iron
5045140:08
5046filings which are messy and they
5047140:10
5048don't work well and here's a whole new
5049140:12
5050way of detecting radio waves and it's
5051140:15
5052one that's going to be the sense of a
5053140:16
5054radio industry BOCES discovery was
5055140:21
5056simple but it would truly shape the
5057140:24
5058modern world when some crystals are
5059140:28
5060touched with metal to test their
5061140:30
5062electrical conductivity they can show
5063140:32
5064rather odd and very behavior take this
5065140:36
5066crystal for example if I can touch us in
5067140:39
5068exactly the right spot with the tip of
5069140:41
5070this metal wire and then hook it up to a
5071140:45
5072battery it gives quite a significant
5073140:49
5074current but if I switch around my
5075140:52
5076connections to the battery and try and
5077140:54
5078pass the current through in the opposite
5079140:56
5080direction it's a lot less it's not a
5081141:03
5082full conductor of electricity
5083141:05
5084it's a semiconductor and it found its
5085141:09
5086first use in detecting electromagnetic
5087141:12
5088waves when boasts used a crystal like
5089141:16
5090this in his circuits instead of the
5091141:18
5092tuber filings he found it was a much
5093141:21
5094more efficient and effective detector of
5095141:23
5096electromagnetic waves it was this
5097141:27
5098strange property of the junction between
5099141:30
5100the wire known as the cat's whisker and
5101141:33
5102the crystal which allowed current to
5103141:35
5104pass much more easily in one direction
5105141:37
5106than the other that meant it could be
5107141:40
5108used to extract a signal from
5109141:42
5110electromagnetic waves
5111141:45
5112at the time no one had any idea why
5113141:49
5114certain crystals acted in this way but
5115141:53
5116two scientists and engineers the strange
5117141:56
5118behavior had a profound an almost
5119141:59
5120miraculous practical effect with
5121142:03
5122crystals as detectors now it was
5123142:06
5124possible to broadcast and detects the
5125142:10
5126actual sound of a human voice or music
5127142:21
5128[Applause]
5129142:25
5130in his Oxford lecture in 1894 Oliver
5131142:29
5132Lodge had opened a Pandora's box as an
5133142:33
5134academic he'd failed to foresee that the
5135142:35
5136scientific discoveries he'd been such a
5137142:38
5138part of had such commercial potential
5139142:42
5140the one Paton he had managed to secure
5141142:45
5142the crucial means of tuning a receiver
5143142:47
5144to a particular radio signal was bought
5145142:50
5146off him by Marconi's powerful company
5147142:58
5148perhaps the worst indignation for lodge
5149143:01
5150though would come in 1909 when Marconi
5151143:05
5152was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics
5153143:07
5154for wireless communication it's
5155143:11
5156difficult to imagine a bigger snub to
5157143:14
5158the physicist who's so narrowly missed
5159143:16
5160out to hers in the discovery of radio
5161143:18
5162waves and who'd then go on to show the
5163143:21
5164world how they could be sent and
5165143:22
5166received
5167143:25
5168but despite the snub Lodge remained
5169143:28
5170magnanimous using the new broadcasting
5171143:31
5172technology that resulted from his work
5173143:34
5174to give credit to others as this rare
5175143:37
5176film of him shows pets made a great
5177143:40
5178advance he discovered how to produce and
5179143:44
5180detect waves in space thus bringing the
5181143:48
5182ether into practical use politics Farah
5183143:53
5184Singh is for the transmission of
5185143:54
5186intelligence in a way which is
5187143:56
5188subsequently been elaborated by a number
5189143:58
5190of people today we can hardly imagine a
5191144:13
5192world without broadcasting to imagine a
5193144:16
5194time when radio waves hadn't even been
5195144:18
5196dreamt of Engineers continued to refine
5197144:23
5198and perfect our ability to transmit and
5199144:26
5200receive electromagnetic waves but their
5201144:29
5202initial discovery was ultimately a
5203144:31
5204triumph of pure science from Maxwell
5205144:34
5206through Hertz to launch but still the
5207144:38
5208very nature of electricity itself
5209144:40
5210remained unexplained what created those
5211144:44
5212electrical charges and currents in the
5213144:47
5214first place
5215144:47
5216[Music]
5217144:50
5218although scientists were learning to
5219144:52
5220exploit electricity they still didn't
5221144:55
5222know what it actually was but this
5223144:59
5224question was being answered with
5225145:01
5226experiments looking into how electricity
5227145:03
5228flowed through different materials back
5229145:07
5230in the 1850s one of Germany's great
5231145:10
5232experimentalists and a talented glass
5233145:13
5234blower Heinrich Geissler created these
5235145:16
5236beautiful show pieces
5237145:20
5238[Music]
5239145:26
5240Geisler pumped most of the air out of
5241145:30
5242these intricate glass tubes and then had
5243145:32
5244small amounts of other gases pumped in
5245145:35
5246[Music]
5247145:37
5248he then passed an electrical current
5249145:41
5250through them they glowed with stunning
5251145:44
5252colors and the current flowing through
5253145:46
5254the gas seemed tangible although they
5255145:51
5256were designed purely for entertainment
5257145:53
5258over the next 50 years scientists or
5259145:57
5260guys --less tubes has a chance to study
5261146:00
5262how electricity flowed efforts were made
5263146:04
5264to pump more and more air out of the
5265146:07
5266tubes could the electric current pass
5267146:10
5268through nothingness through the vacuum
5269146:14
5270[Music]
5271146:17
5272this is a very rare flipbook film of the
5273146:22
5274british scientist who created a vacuum
5275146:25
5276good enough to answer that question
5277146:27
5278his name was William Crookes crooks
5279146:33
5280created tubes like this he pumped out as
5281146:36
5282much of the air as he could so that it
5283146:38
5284was as close to a vacuum as he could
5285146:40
5286make it then when he passed an electric
5287146:43
5288current through the tube he noticed a
5289146:49
5290bright glow on the far end a beam seemed
5291146:53
5292to be shining through the tube and
5293146:55
5294hitting the glass at the other end it
5295146:58
5296seemed at last we could see electricity
5297147:01
5298the beam became known as a cathode ray
5299147:03
5300and this tube was the forerunner of the
5301147:07
5302cathode ray tube that was used in
5303147:09
5304television sets for decades
5305147:16
5306physicist JJ Thompson discovered that
5307147:20
5308these beams were made up of tiny
5309147:22
5310negatively charged particles and because
5311147:25
5312they were carriers of electricity they
5313147:28
5314became known as electrons because the
5315147:33
5316electrons only moved in one direction
5317147:34
5318from the heated metal plate through the
5319147:37
5320positively charged plate at the other
5321147:39
5322end they behaved in exactly the same way
5323147:42
5324as BOCES semiconductor crystals but
5325147:45
5326whereas BOCES crystals were naturally
5327147:48
5328temperamental you had to find the right
5329147:50
5330spot for them to work these tubes could
5331147:53
5332be manufactured consistently they became
5333147:57
5334known as valves and they soon replaced
5335148:00
5336crystals in radio sets everywhere
5337148:03
5338[Music]
5339148:06
5340these discoveries would lead to an
5341148:09
5342explosion of new technology early 20th
5343148:13
5344century electronics is all about what
5345148:15
5346you can do with valves so the radio
5347148:18
5348industry is built on Valve's early
5349148:20
5350television is built in Valve's early
5351148:22
5352computers are built with valves these
5353148:24
5354are the things that you build the
5355148:25
5356electronic world with having discovered
5357148:30
5358how to manipulate electrons flowing
5359148:33
5360through a vacuum scientists were now
5361148:35
5362keen to understand how they could flow
5363148:38
5364through other materials but that meant
5365148:42
5366understanding the things that made up
5367148:44
5368materials atoms
5369148:46
5370[Music]
5371148:57
5372it was in the early years of the 20th
5373149:00
5374century that we finally got a handle on
5375149:03
5376exactly what atoms were made up of and
5377149:06
5378how they behaved and so what electricity
5379149:09
5380actually was on the atomic scale at the
5381149:15
5382University of Manchester Ernest
5383149:17
5384Rutherford's team were studying the
5385149:19
5386inner structure of the atom and
5387149:21
5388producing a picture to describe what an
5389149:24
5390atom looked like this revelation would
5391149:27
5392finally help explain some of the more
5393149:29
5394puzzling features of electricity by 1913
5395149:34
5396the picture of the atom was one in which
5397149:37
5398you had a positively charged nucleus in
5399149:39
5400the middle surrounded by negatively
5401149:41
5402charged orbiting electrons in patterns
5403149:44
5404called shells each of these shells
5405149:48
5406corresponding to an electron with a
5407149:50
5408particular energy now given an energy
5409149:54
5410boost an electron could jump from an
5411149:56
5412inner shell to an outer one and the
5413149:59
5414energy had to be just right if it wasn't
5415150:01
5416enough the electron wouldn't make the
5417150:03
5418transition and this boost was often
5419150:06
5420temporary because the electron would
5421150:08
5422then drop back down again to his
5423150:10
5424original shell as it did this it had to
5425150:13
5426give off its excess energy by spitting
5427150:16
5428out a photon and the energy of each
5429150:19
5430photon depended on its wavelength or as
5431150:23
5432we would perceive it it's color
5433150:29
5434understanding the structure of atoms
5435150:31
5436could now also explain nature's great
5437150:33
5438electrical light shows just like guys
5439150:39
5440--less tubes the type of gas the
5441150:41
5442electricity passes through defines its
5443150:44
5444color lightning has a blue tinge because
5445150:50
5446of the nitrogen in our atmosphere higher
5447150:55
5448in the atmosphere the gases are
5449150:57
5450different and so is the color of the
5451150:59
5452photons they produce creating the
5453151:02
5454spectacular Aurora's
5455151:04
5456[Music]
5457151:10
5458understanding atoms how they fit
5459151:12
5460together in materials and how their
5461151:15
5462electrons behave was the final key to
5463151:18
5464understanding the fundamental nature of
5465151:21
5466electricity this is a Wimshurst machine
5467151:30
5468and it's used to generate electric
5469151:32
5470charge
5471151:35
5472electrons are rubbed off these discs and
5473151:37
5474start a flow of electricity through the
5475151:40
5476metal arms of the machine
5477151:44
5478now metals conducts electricity because
5479151:48
5480the electrons are very weakly bound
5481151:49
5482inside their atoms and so can slosh
5483151:52
5484about and be used to flow as electricity
5485151:56
5486insulators on the other hand don't
5487151:58
5488conduct electricity because the
5489152:00
5490electrons are very tightly bound inside
5491152:02
5492the atoms and are not free to move about
5493152:04
5494the flow of electrons and hence
5495152:08
5496electricity through materials was now
5497152:11
5498understood conductors and insulators
5499152:13
5500could be explained what was more
5501152:16
5502difficult to understand was the strange
5503152:18
5504properties of semiconductors our modern
5505152:25
5506electronic world is built upon
5507152:27
5508semiconductors and would grind to a halt
5509152:30
5510without them Jagadish Chandra Bose may
5511152:35
5512have stumbled upon their properties back
5513152:37
5514in the 1890s but no one could have
5515152:40
5516foreseen just how important they were to
5517152:43
5518become but with the outbreak of the
5519152:46
5520Second World War things were about to
5521152:49
5522change
5523152:51
5524[Music]
5525152:55
5526here in Oxford this newly-built physics
5527152:58
5528laboratory was immediately handed over
5529153:00
5530to the war research effort the
5531153:03
5532researchers here were tasked with
5533153:05
5534improving the British radar system radar
5535153:13
5536was a technology that used
5537153:15
5538electromagnetic waves to detect enemy
5539153:18
5540bombers and as its accuracy improved it
5541153:21
5542became clear that valves just weren't up
5543153:24
5544to the job so the team had to turn to
5545153:31
5546old technology instead of valves they
5547153:34
5548used semiconductor crystals now they
5549153:38
5550didn't use the same sort of crystals
5551153:39
5552that Bost had developed instead they use
5553153:42
5554silicon this device is the silicon
5555153:48
5556crystal receiver as a tiny tungsten wire
5557153:52
5558coiled down and touching the surface of
5559153:54
5560a little silicon crystal it's incredible
5561153:58
5562how important a device it was it was the
5563154:05
5564first time silicon had really been
5565154:07
5566exploited as a semiconductor but for it
5567154:10
5568to work it needed to be very pure and
5569154:13
5570both sides in the war put a lot of
5571154:16
5572resources into purifying it in fact the
5573154:21
5574British had better silicon devices so
5575154:24
5576they must have had some course of
5577154:26
5578silicon already at a time which we were
5579154:30
5580just started with no MP in Berlin
5581154:34
5582the British had better silicon
5583154:37
5584semiconductors because they had help
5585154:39
5586from laboratories in the u.s. in
5587154:41
5588particular the famous Bell Labs and it
5589154:45
5590wasn't long before physicists realized
5591154:47
5592that if semiconductors could replace
5593154:49
5594valves in radar perhaps they could
5595154:52
5596replace valves in other devices too like
5597154:56
5598amplifiers the simple vacuum tube with
5599155:02
5600its one-way stream of electrons had been
5601155:04
5602modified to produce a new device by
5603155:07
5604placing a metal grille in the path of
5605155:10
5606the electrons and applying a tiny
5607155:11
5608voltage to it a dramatic change in the
5609155:14
5610strength of the beam could be produced
5611155:16
5612these valves worked as amplifiers
5613155:19
5614turning a very weak electrical signal
5615155:21
5616into a much stronger one an amplifier is
5617155:24
5618something and once it's really simple
5619155:26
5620you just take a small current you turn
5621155:29
5622it into a large account but in other
5623155:31
5624ways it changes the world because when
5625155:35
5626you can amplify a signal you can send it
5627155:37
5628anywhere in the world as soon as the war
5629155:43
5630was over German experts Herbert matarae
5631155:46
5632and his colleague Heinrich Velka started
5633155:50
5634to build a semiconductor device that
5635155:52
5636could be used as an electrical amplifier
5637155:56
5638and here is that first working model
5639155:59
5640that matter am Valkyr made if you look
5641156:03
5642inside you can see the tiny crystal and
5643156:06
5644the wires that make contact with it if
5645156:10
5646you pass a small current through one of
5647156:12
5648the wires this allows a much larger
5649156:15
5650current to flow through the other one so
5651156:17
5652it was acting as a signal amplifier
5653156:23
5654these tiny devices could replace big
5655156:27
5656expensive valves in long-distance
5657156:29
5658telephone networks radios and other
5659156:32
5660equipments where a faint signal needed
5661156:35
5662boosting matter a immediately realized
5663156:39
5664what he'd created but as bosses were
5665156:41
5666initially not interested not that is
5667156:44
5668until a paper appeared in a journal
5669156:46
5670announcing that Bell Labs discovery
5671156:52
5672a research team there had stumbled
5673156:55
5674across the same effect and now they were
5675156:57
5676announcing their invention to the world
5677157:00
5678they called it the transistor
5679157:04
5680they had December 1947 and we had at the
5681157:08
5682beginning 48 but just just just life you
5683157:13
5684know they had a little bit earlier the
5685157:17
5686effect mmm
5687157:18
5688but funnily enough the transistors were
5689157:21
5690just no good although the European
5691157:25
5692device was more reliable than Bell Labs
5693157:29
5694more experimental model neither quite
5695157:32
5696fulfilled their promise they worked that
5697157:35
5698were just too delicate so the search was
5699157:39
5700on for a more robust way to amplify
5701157:42
5702electrical signals and the breakthrough
5703157:44
5704came by accident in Bell Labs silicon
5705157:50
5706crystal expert Russell all noticed that
5707157:53
5708one of his silicon ingots had a really
5709157:55
5710bizarre property it seemed to be able to
5711157:58
5712generate his own voltage and when he
5713158:01
5714tried to measure this by hooking it up
5715158:03
5716to an oscilloscope he noticed that the
5717158:05
5718voltage changed all the time the amount
5719158:08
5720of voltage generated seemed to depend on
5721158:11
5722how much light there was in the room so
5723158:14
5724by casting a shadow over the crystal he
5725158:18
5726saw the voltage dropped more light meant
5727158:21
5728the voltage went up what's more when he
5729158:25
5730turned a fan on between the lamp and the
5731158:28
5732crystal the voltage started to oscillate
5733158:32
5734with the same frequency that the blades
5735158:35
5736of the fan were casting shadows over the
5737158:38
5738crystal
5739158:38
5740[Music]
5741158:41
5742one of olds colleagues immediately
5743158:45
5744realized that the ingot had a crack in
5745158:47
5746it that formed a natural Junction and
5747158:49
5748this tiny natural Junction in an
5749158:52
5750otherwise solid block was acting just
5751158:55
5752like the much more delicate junction
5753158:58
5754between the end of a wire and a crystal
5755159:00
5756that boasts had discovered except here
5757159:04
5758it was sensitive to light the ingots had
5759159:09
5760cracked because either side contains
5761159:12
5762slightly different amounts of impurities
5763159:16
5764one side had slightly more of the
5765159:18
5766element phosphorus while the other has
5767159:22
5768slightly more of a different impurity
5769159:24
5770boron and electrons seem to be able to
5771159:27
5772move across from the phosphorus side to
5773159:29
5774the boron side but not vice-versa
5775159:33
5776photons of light shining down onto the
5777159:35
5778crystal were knocking electrons out of
5779159:37
5780the atoms but it was the impurity atoms
5781159:40
5782were driving this flow
5783159:44
5784phosphorus has an electron that is going
5785159:46
5786spare and boron is keen to accept
5787159:51
5788another so electrons tended to flow from
5789159:55
5790the phosphorus side to the ball on side
5791159:57
5792and crucially only flowed one way across
5793160:01
5794the junction
5795160:03
5796[Music]
5797160:07
5798the head of the semiconductor team
5799160:10
5800William Shockley saw the potential of
5801160:13
5802this one-way junction with inner crystal
5803160:16
5804but how would it be possible to create a
5805160:19
5806crystal with two junctions in it that
5807160:21
5808could be used as an amplifier another
5809160:26
5810researcher at Bell Labs called Gordon
5811160:28
5812teal had been working on a technique
5813160:30
5814that would allow just that
5815160:33
5816[Music]
5817160:35
5818he discovered a special way to grow
5819160:38
5820single crystals of the semiconductor
5821160:40
5822germanium
5823160:44
5824in this research institute they grow
5825160:47
5826semiconductor crystals in the same way
5827160:50
5828that teal did back in Bell Labs over
5829160:53
5830here they grow them much much bigger at
5831161:00
5832the bottom of this VAT is a container
5833161:03
5834with glowing hot molten germanium just
5835161:07
5836as pure as you can get it inside it are
5837161:10
5838a few atoms of whatever impurity is
5839161:13
5840required to alter is conductive
5841161:16
5842properties now the rotating arm above
5843161:19
5844has a seed crystal at the bottom that
5845161:22
5846has been dipped into the liquid and will
5847161:24
5848be slowly raised up again
5849161:31
5850as the germanium cools and hardens it
5851161:35
5852forms a long crystal like an icicle
5853161:37
5854below the seed the whole length is one
5855161:41
5856single beautiful germanium crystal
5857161:45
5858[Music]
5859161:51
5860Teil worked out that as the crystal is
5861161:54
5862growing other impurities can be added to
5863161:58
5864the vats and mixed in this gives us a
5865162:00
5866single crystal with thin layers of
5867162:04
5868different impurities creating junctions
5869162:08
5870within the crystal
5871162:10
5872[Applause]
5873162:10
5874[Music]
5875162:16
5876this crystal with two junctions in it
5877162:19
5878was Shockley's dream applying a small
5879162:23
5880current through the very thin middle
5881162:25
5882section allows a much larger current to
5883162:28
5884flow through the whole triple sandwich
5885162:34
5886from a single crystal like this hundreds
5887162:38
5888of tiny solid blocks could be cut each
5889162:41
5890containing the two junctions that would
5891162:44
5892allow the movement of electrons through
5893162:46
5894them to be precisely controlled
5895162:50
5896these tiny and reliable devices could be
5897162:54
5898used in all sorts of electrical
5899162:56
5900equipment you cannot have the electronic
5901163:00
5902equipment that we have without tiny
5903163:01
5904components and you get a weird effect
5905163:03
5906that it is smaller they get the more
5907163:05
5908reliable they get it's a win-win
5909163:07
5910situation the Bell Labs team were
5911163:12
5912awarded the Nobel Prize for their
5913163:14
5914world-changing invention while a
5915163:16
5916European team were forgotten William
5917163:24
5918Shockley left Bell Labs and in 1955 set
5919163:28
5920up his own semiconductor laboratory in
5921163:31
5922rural California recruiting the
5923163:33
5924country's best physics graduates but the
5925163:37
5926celebratory mood didn't last long
5927163:39
5928because Shockley was almost impossible
5929163:41
5930to work for people left his company
5931163:45
5932because they just disliked the way he
5933163:48
5934treated them so the fact that Shockley
5935163:51
5936was actually such a get is why you have
5937163:55
5938Silicon Valley it starts that whole
5939163:57
5940process of spin-off and growth and new
5941164:01
5942companies and it all starts off with
5943164:04
5944Shockley being such a shocking human
5945164:06
5946being
5947164:10
5948[Music]
5949164:16
5950the new companies were in competition
5951164:19
5952with each other to come up with the
5953164:21
5954latest semiconductor devices they may
5955164:24
5956transistors so small that huge numbers
5957164:27
5958of them could be incorporated into an
5959164:30
5960electrical circuit printed on a single
5961164:32
5962slice of semiconductor crystal these
5963164:39
5964tiny and reliable chips could be used in
5965164:43
5966all sorts of electrical equipment most
5967164:46
5968famously in computers a new age had
5969164:50
5970dawned today microchips are everywhere
5971165:03
5972they've transformed almost every aspect
5973165:06
5974of modern life
5975165:08
5976from communication to transport and
5977165:10
5978entertainment but perhaps just as
5979165:14
5980importantly our computers have become so
5981165:17
5982powerful they're helping us to
5983165:19
5984understand the universe in all its
5985165:21
5986complexity
5987165:24
5988a single microchip like this one today
5989165:29
5990can contain around 4 billion transistors
5991165:34
5992it's incredible how far technology has
5993165:37
5994come in 60 years it's easy to think that
5995165:44
5996with the great leaps we've made in
5997165:46
5998understanding and exploiting electricity
5999165:48
6000there's little left to learn about it
6001165:52
6002but we'd be wrong for instance making
6003165:57
6004the circuits smaller and smaller meant
6005166:01
6006that a particular feature of electricity
6007166:03
6008that had been known about for over a
6009166:05
6010century was becoming more and more
6011166:07
6012problematic resistance a computer chip
6013166:14
6014has to be continuously cooled if you
6015166:17
6016take away the fan this is what happens
6017166:22
6018Wow that's shooting up 100 120 130
6019166:26
6020degrees
6021166:30
6022[Music]
6023166:32
6024200 degrees and it cut out that just
6025166:36
6026took a few seconds and the chip is well
6027166:38
6028and truly cooked you see as the
6029166:41
6030electrons flow through the chip they're
6031166:44
6032not just traveling around unimpeded
6033166:46
6034they're bumping into the atoms of
6035166:48
6036silicon and the energy being lost by
6037166:51
6038these electrons is producing Heat now
6039166:55
6040sometimes this was useful inventors made
6041166:58
6042electric heaters and ovens and whenever
6043167:01
6044they got something to glow white-hot
6045167:03
6046well that's a light bulb but resistance
6047167:06
6048in electronic apparatus and in power
6049167:09
6050lines is the major waste of energy and a
6051167:12
6052huge problem
6053167:18
6054it's thought that resistance wastes up
6055167:21
6056to 20 percent of all the electricity we
6057167:24
6058generate it's one of the greatest
6059167:27
6060problems of modern times and the search
6061167:31
6062is on for a way to solve the problem of
6063167:34
6064resistance what we think of as
6065167:41
6066temperature is really a measure of how
6067167:44
6068much the atoms of the material are
6069167:46
6070vibrating and if the atoms are vibrating
6071167:49
6072then electrons flowing through are more
6073167:53
6074likely to bump into them so in general
6075167:55
6076the hotter the material the higher its
6077167:58
6078electrical resistance and the cooler it
6079168:00
6080is the lower the resistance but what
6081168:03
6082happens if you call something right down
6083168:05
6084close to absolute zero minus 273 degrees
6085168:10
6086Celsius well an absolute zero there's no
6087168:14
6088heat at all and so the atoms aren't
6089168:17
6090moving at all what happens then to the
6091168:20
6092flow of electricity the flow of
6093168:22
6094electrons
6095168:26
6096[Music]
6097168:27
6098using a special device called a cryostat
6099168:30
6100that can keep things close to absolute
6101168:33
6102zero we can find out inside this
6103168:37
6104cryostat in this coil is mercury the
6105168:40
6106famous liquid metal and it forms part of
6107168:43
6108an electric circuit now this equipment
6109168:46
6110here measures the resistance in the
6111168:48
6112mercury but look what happens as I lower
6113168:51
6114the mercury into the coldest part of the
6115168:54
6116cryostat there it is the resistance has
6117169:01
6118dropped to absolutely nothing mercury
6119169:04
6120like many substances we now know have
6121169:07
6122this property is called becoming
6123169:09
6124superconducting which means there have
6125169:11
6126no resistance at all to the flow of
6127169:14
6128electricity but these materials only
6129169:18
6130work when they are very very cold if we
6131169:22
6132could use a superconducting material in
6133169:25
6134our power cables and in our electronic
6135169:28
6136apparatus we'd avoid using so much of
6137169:31
6138our precious electrical energy through
6139169:33
6140resistance the problem of course is that
6141169:39
6142superconductors had to be kept at
6143169:41
6144extremely low temperatures then in 1986
6145169:46
6146a breakthrough was made in a small
6147169:51
6148laboratory near Zurich Switzerland IBM
6149169:53
6150physicists recently discovered their
6151169:55
6152superconductivity and the class of
6153169:57
6154materials that is being called one of
6155169:59
6156the most important scientific
6157170:00
6158breakthroughs in many decades this is a
6159170:05
6160block of the same material made by the
6161170:08
6162researchers in Switzerland it doesn't
6163170:11
6164look very remarkable but if you cool it
6165170:13
6166down with liquid nitrogen something
6167170:15
6168special happens it becomes a
6169170:19
6170superconductor
6171170:20
6172and because electricity and magnetism
6173170:23
6174are so tightly linked that gives it
6175170:25
6176equally extraordinary magnetic
6177170:27
6178properties this magnet is suspended
6179170:32
6180levitating above the superconductor the
6181170:38
6182exciting thing is that although cold
6183170:41
6184this material is way above absolute zero
6185170:48
6186[Music]
6187170:54
6188these magnetic fields are so strong that
6189170:58
6190not only can they support the weight of
6191171:00
6192this magnet but they should also support
6193171:03
6194my weight I'm about to be levitated
6195171:08
6196it's very very strange sensation
6197171:15
6198when this material was first discovered
6199171:18
6200in 1986 it created a revolution not only
6201171:22
6202had no one considered that it might be
6203171:24
6204superconducting but it was doing so at a
6205171:26
6206temperature much warmer than anyone has
6207171:29
6208thought possible
6209171:30
6210we are tantalisingly close to getting
6211171:33
6212room-temperature superconductors we're
6213171:35
6214not there yet but one day a new material
6215171:38
6216will be found and when we put that into
6217171:40
6218our electronic equipment we could build
6219171:42
6220a cheaper better more sustainable world
6221171:47
6222today materials have been produced that
6223171:51
6224exhibit this phenomenon at the sort of
6225171:53
6226temperatures you get in your freezer but
6227171:56
6228these new superconductors can't be fully
6229171:58
6230explained by the theoreticians so
6231172:01
6232without a complete understanding
6233172:03
6234experimentalists are often guided as
6235172:06
6236much by luck as they are by a proper
6237172:08
6238scientific understanding recently a
6239172:12
6240laboratory in Japan held a party in
6241172:15
6242which they ended up dosing their
6243172:17
6244superconductors with a range of
6245172:19
6246alcoholic beverages unexpectedly they
6247172:22
6248found that red wine improves the
6249172:25
6250performance of the superconductors
6251172:27
6252[Music]
6253172:30
6254Electrical research now has the
6255172:33
6256potential once again to revolutionize
6257172:36
6258our world if room-temperature
6259172:39
6260superconductors can be found
6261172:46
6262[Music]
6263172:51
6264our addiction electricity's power is
6265172:54
6266only increasing and when we fully
6267172:57
6268understand how to exploit
6269172:59
6270superconductors a new electrical world
6271173:03
6272will be upon us it's going to lead to
6273173:05
6274one of the most exciting periods of
6275173:08
6276human discovery and invention a brand
6277173:11
6278new set of tools techniques and
6279173:13
6280technologies to once again transform the
6281173:17
6282world
6283173:18
6284[Music]
6285173:24
6286electricity has changed our world only a
6287173:28
6288few hundred years ago it was seen as a
6289173:30
6290mysterious and magical wonder
6291173:34
6292then it left out of the laboratory with
6293173:37
6294a series of strange and wondrous
6295173:39
6296experiments eventually being captured
6297173:43
6298and put to use it revolutionized
6299173:47
6300communication first through cables and
6301173:50
6302then as waves through electricity's
6303173:52
6304far-reaching fields it powers and lights
6305173:57
6306the modern world today we can hardly
6307174:00
6308imagine life without electricity it
6309174:03
6310defines our era and will be utterly lost
6311174:06
6312without it
6313174:09
6314and yet it still offers us more we stand
6315174:14
6316once again at the beginning of a new age
6317174:17
6318of discovery a new revolution
6319174:26
6320but above all else there's one thing
6321174:29
6322that all those who deal in the science
6323174:31
6324of electricity know it's story is not
6325174:35
6326over yet
6327174:37
6328[Music]
6329174:47
6330[Music]
6331174:51
6332you