0:00:04 > 0:00:06Welcome back to The Genius Of Invention,
0:00:06 > 0:00:08tonight from BT Control Room,
0:00:08 > 0:00:10the National Network Centre in Shropshire.
0:00:10 > 0:00:15From the screens behind me, we can keep track of the 200 million
0:00:15 > 0:00:20phone calls which go to, from and around the UK every single day.
0:00:20 > 0:00:21We are a chatty lot.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24We take this instant worldwide contact for granted,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27but it relies on an extraordinary network of connections.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32And this network can be traced back to a number of engineering breakthroughs, many of them British.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35In this series, we're exploring the colourful inventors,
0:00:35 > 0:00:39inventions, and Britain's role in shaping the modern world,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43because nothing has shrunk the globe more than our subject tonight -
0:00:43 > 0:00:45instant communication.
0:00:55 > 0:00:56So far in the series,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59we've discovered how heavy machinery gave us power.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04And the quest for efficient engines enabled us
0:01:04 > 0:01:06to travel further...and faster.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12But tonight, it's the invisible world of electricity that drove
0:01:12 > 0:01:17something even more fundamental to us - connecting with others.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20I'm Michael Mosley, and as ever, I'm joined by my own lovely
0:01:20 > 0:01:25geniuses - Prof Mark Miodownik and Dr Cassie Newland.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28- Hi.- Together, we're going to unravel the great stories
0:01:28 > 0:01:31behind the communications revolution that allowed us
0:01:31 > 0:01:34to move from a world of handwritten notes, pigeons
0:01:34 > 0:01:39and waving flags to the instant digital world we see around us.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41We will follow a trail of invention,
0:01:41 > 0:01:45born out of our innate desire for social contact.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49From the electric telegraph to the telephone
0:01:49 > 0:01:51and, finally, wireless communication.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56All three harness the seemingly magical power
0:01:56 > 0:02:00of electromagnetism to send messages over a distance,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04with each scientific advance creating new ways to interact.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09Our timeline begins almost 200 years ago,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12with Cooke and Wheatstone's electric telegraph,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15an invention that launched the first information superhighway
0:02:15 > 0:02:17and led to a wired-up globe.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23The dream of an interconnected world bound by telegraph wires
0:02:23 > 0:02:25was one step closer.
0:02:25 > 0:02:2940 years later came the transmission of the human voice...
0:02:29 > 0:02:33with Bell's telephone. We could now talk across oceans and continents.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38But this most personal of technological revolutions
0:02:38 > 0:02:42required a social revolution too.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Victorian society was governed by all kinds of rules
0:02:45 > 0:02:47and rituals and masses of etiquette.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51The telephone cut across it all, and people found it awkward
0:02:51 > 0:02:53and uncomfortable.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Finally, in the 1890s, the problem of how to transmit messages
0:02:57 > 0:03:01without wires was overcome by the controversial entrepreneur
0:03:01 > 0:03:04Marconi and his magic box.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07This was the start of the wireless age.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12Marconi had increased the range, introduced aerials and an earth return,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15and shown that wireless could be used to communicate.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19But the question remained, had he actually invented anything?
0:03:19 > 0:03:25These breakthroughs led directly to our digital world of fibre-optics
0:03:25 > 0:03:26and satellites.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33Billions of messages transmitted instantly, everywhere, all the time.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39Tonight's inventions represent pivotal moments on that journey.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43OK. We've only picked three out of many possible contenders,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45so are they the right three?
0:03:45 > 0:03:48Absolutely. They are the perfect examples of the massive social impacts
0:03:48 > 0:03:51that telecommunications technologies have.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53The telegraph, for example.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57In 1840, a letter to India takes two years to get a response.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01By 1850, using the telegraph, it takes four minutes.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04I'm not sure you could think of anything which has a bigger impact than that.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07The phone is this instant communication of the human voice,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09and that's an incredible moment -
0:04:09 > 0:04:13suddenly there's wires with dots and dashes, then you suddenly have the whole voice.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17And Alexander Graham Bell is the guy everyone thinks invented the telephone, but did he?
0:04:17 > 0:04:19And then, of course, Marconi comes along.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22He takes a whole lot of existing technologies, puts them together,
0:04:22 > 0:04:24gets rid of the cable altogether, and you get radio.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28It's not quite like that. Marconi's technologies that he's drawing on are doing
0:04:28 > 0:04:31entirely different jobs in other fields of engineering.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33- And, actually...- Anyway, enough of this for the moment.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36What I like about Marconi and the wireless is it leads obviously
0:04:36 > 0:04:40to the mobile phone, which is my favourite invention, what I own.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44Which is ironic also, because I hate talking on the telephone.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47Now, there would be no point in having a phone without
0:04:47 > 0:04:48the infrastructure to support it,
0:04:48 > 0:04:52And as well as this place, BT has a connected site,
0:04:52 > 0:04:54a satellite uplink centre, down the road.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58Cassie went there to see how they keep us all in touch.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02In the peaceful valley between the Malvern Hills
0:05:02 > 0:05:04and the Black Mountains of Wales
0:05:04 > 0:05:09lies one of the most advanced communication hubs in Britain.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13Welcome to Madley, the largest earth station in the world.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17It's the beating heart of telecommunications.
0:05:17 > 0:05:2165 satellite dishes and a network of fibre-optic cables provide
0:05:21 > 0:05:26a gateway from Britain to almost every corner of the globe.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30They carry hundreds of thousands of telephone calls, texts, faxes,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33internet and TV links every day.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37And the chances are, if you've called abroad, it will have been routed through here.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41When the dish Madley 1 was built in 1978,
0:05:41 > 0:05:46it had the initial capacity to send 2,000 international phone calls
0:05:46 > 0:05:49via a satellite 22,000 miles above the Indian Ocean
0:05:49 > 0:05:52to 34 countries in less than a second.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56But today, two-thirds of Madley's communications
0:05:56 > 0:05:59are carried along a network of fibre-optic cables which can
0:05:59 > 0:06:02deal with 20 million phone calls at any time.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07And it's thanks to these two technologies from the communications satellites
0:06:07 > 0:06:11high above the Earth's surface to the miles of cables below the ground
0:06:11 > 0:06:15that mean we live in an invisible world of connectivity, which
0:06:15 > 0:06:18enables us to communicate across the globe at the speed of light,
0:06:18 > 0:06:20and all at the touch of a button.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24What is amazing is that when you make a phone call, you do not
0:06:24 > 0:06:27think how it gets from A to B.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29Well, there are about a million calls going on in the UK
0:06:29 > 0:06:32right at this moment, and quite a few of them are being monitored
0:06:32 > 0:06:36from here, because this place doesn't just deal with BT customers.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39OK, Tony. So who is talking to whom?
0:06:39 > 0:06:42There's a lot of activity going on between Wolverhampton, Birmingham,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45up towards Manchester, as an example.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47So that's a very busy route at the moment.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Now, the difference between this and traffic is,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53if I have to go between Wolverhampton and Birmingham, I have to choose a route,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56whereas you can basically, on the telephone, bung me via Delhi.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58It's very much like the motorway network that
0:06:58 > 0:07:01if there is some congestion or a route that's very busy,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04then we'll just divert you round another route anywhere
0:07:04 > 0:07:08in the UK or worldwide, and you will have no idea that it's happened.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11So the people in Birmingham and Manchester are obviously very chatty. Thank you.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14Steve, you are international, aren't you?
0:07:14 > 0:07:17- That's correct. - So who's talking to whom?
0:07:17 > 0:07:18At the minute,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21we're looking at some congestion going out to our Asia region.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24- So that's to Hong Kong? - That's correct.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27So we're looking at our transatlantic sub-sea cables,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30and we can see all of those at any one time.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34What this map here is showing me is that there is some congestion on the route out to Hong Kong.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36OK. It's fantastic, isn't it?
0:07:36 > 0:07:39200 years ago, if you wanted to send a message to Hong Kong and get
0:07:39 > 0:07:43it back again, you would have to wait an extraordinary two years.
0:07:43 > 0:07:48- Cassie?- Yes, and if we look at the centuries before electricity,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51communication systems rely on line of sight.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55So that's things like flaming beacons on hilltops, and smoke signals.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00But actually, by the 1790s, these systems have got quite sophisticated.
0:08:00 > 0:08:01This is the Murray telegraph.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03It communicates with a system of coded shutters,
0:08:03 > 0:08:07and the Admiralty could send a message down the 200 miles
0:08:07 > 0:08:10of line between London and Plymouth in ten minutes.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14Now, the trouble with line-of-sight systems is you have to be able to see them.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17So fog, rain, any bad weather - and they don't function,
0:08:17 > 0:08:21and at night time, they're none too clever either.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25What was needed was a reliable communication system that
0:08:25 > 0:08:28could overcome the constraints of sight, time and distance.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32A technology that could function in all weathers, day and night,
0:08:32 > 0:08:34all year round.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36And it was advances in early 19th-century physics,
0:08:36 > 0:08:40particularly our understanding of electricity, that started
0:08:40 > 0:08:44a chain of events that led to our first invention - the telegraph.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48Yes, the electric telegraph was borne out of a series of incremental steps,
0:08:48 > 0:08:51one of which was the science of electromagnetism,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54and the big leap forward was in 1820, a Danish scientist
0:08:54 > 0:08:57called Orsted discovered something by accident when he was
0:08:57 > 0:08:59mucking about in his lab one day,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01and he had a battery connected to a wire,
0:09:01 > 0:09:06and he noticed that if the electric current was flowing near the compass, this happened.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08MICHAEL LAUGHS
0:09:08 > 0:09:12There's a magnetic field being generated around an electric wire.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16Now, this was completely new. They understood that you had electric currents,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19and they understood about magnetism, but they didn't know the two were related,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22and this is the birth of electromagnetism.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26The two are related. And in fact, all of this around us hinges on this discovery.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29And although the scientists took a long time to work out exactly
0:09:29 > 0:09:31what that relationship was, inventors just took this
0:09:31 > 0:09:34discovery and started making gadgets out of it.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38And we've got one here. A British scientist called Sturgeon,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42he realised that, actually, if you didn't have just a single wire, but you wrapped it thousands
0:09:42 > 0:09:46of times round an iron core, you got a much stronger magnetic effect.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48You got what's called an electromagnet.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50- So I close the circuit?- Yes.
0:09:50 > 0:09:51BELL RINGS
0:09:51 > 0:09:56- OK.- It seems trivial, but the thing is, actually you create a magnet
0:09:56 > 0:10:00can control with a switch, so you can turn the magnet on or off.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02Now this obviously is useful
0:10:02 > 0:10:04if you want to summon your servant to bring you a cup of tea.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08But did they have any idea that this was a form of communication?
0:10:08 > 0:10:11No. For that the electric telegraph had to be invented.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14This is an early example of one of the electric telegraphs.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17It was invented by Cooke and Wheatstone,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20and it's an example of a five-needle telegraph, which is
0:10:20 > 0:10:23using the same principle we just saw earlier,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26which is communicating signals via electromagnetism.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30And it's very ingenious. Can I send you a message using it?
0:10:30 > 0:10:33- Please do.- Right, hold on a minute. Let me just get the controls. OK.
0:10:33 > 0:10:38OK. Two needles pointing to the O, so that's O.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Yeah.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42- M?- Right.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48And they're pointing up along those lines, so that means G. So O-M-G.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52This is the perfect gift for a young Victorian texter.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Yeah, but it wasn't just a toy, and that's because Cooke was a businessman,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58and he had the brilliant insight that one invention can
0:10:58 > 0:11:01feed off the success of a totally unconnected invention,
0:11:01 > 0:11:03and in this case, that was the railways,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06as Cassie's been finding out.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Like many new inventions,
0:11:10 > 0:11:14the telegraph began life as a novelty rather than a necessity.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17But one event in 1845 showed
0:11:17 > 0:11:22the benefits that fast electric communication over distance could bring.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27It began on New Year's Day, with a man standing on a platform at Slough.
0:11:27 > 0:11:32His name was John Tawell, a wealthy chemist who'd made his money in
0:11:32 > 0:11:36Australia before returning to England with his wife, family and fortune.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40At 7.42, he boarded the train bound for London.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51But as the train pulled away, adrenaline was coursing through his veins.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57Minutes before, Tawell had murdered his mistress, Sarah Hart,
0:11:57 > 0:11:59poisoning her with a phial of prussic acid.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04The train was to be his getaway.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09Unbeknown to him, Tawell was spotted fleeing the scene of the crime
0:12:09 > 0:12:11and followed to the station,
0:12:11 > 0:12:16and it was now that Cooke and Wheatstone's telegraph could show its practical potential.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19Tawell thought he was going on a train,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22the fastest known means of transport.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24He was going to get to London well ahead of any chase,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27and he was going to disappear before anybody could find him.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30But there happened to be a telegraph line between Slough
0:12:30 > 0:12:34and Paddington, so the police were able to send a message down the line
0:12:34 > 0:12:38giving his description and asking for him to be arrested.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45The message is one of the most famous telegrams ever sent.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48"A murder has just been committed at Salt Hill.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52"The suspected murderer was seen to take a first-class ticket to London.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54"He is in the garb of a Kwaker."
0:13:00 > 0:13:04With only 23 letters, the telegraph operator had to think
0:13:04 > 0:13:08quickly about how to spell "Quaker", using a K-W instead of a Q-U.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12As he sat on the train, the unsuspecting Tawell must
0:13:12 > 0:13:15literally have thought he'd got away with murder.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20And as the train pulled into the station, the police were ready.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Tawell was followed to his lodgings and arrested.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27And on 28 March, he was hanged
0:13:27 > 0:13:30in front of a crowd of over 2,000 people.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36But Cooke was a visionary inventor, not a scientist,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39and recognised that, at last, his device had found an audience.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44His telegraph publicity machine went into overdrive.
0:13:44 > 0:13:50"By its powerful agency, murderers have been apprehended, thieves detected.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55"Any further allusion here to its merits would be superfluous."
0:13:55 > 0:13:58With a new technology, you often need
0:13:58 > 0:14:01a hook, a story, that gets it...
0:14:01 > 0:14:07that gets it above the everyday life, and the capture of a criminal,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11or a murderer, or something - it was a story that people could say, "Ah!
0:14:11 > 0:14:14"New technology being used here."
0:14:14 > 0:14:18The telegraph wires became known as "the cords that hanged John Tawell".
0:14:18 > 0:14:20That really made it clear to everyone what was going on,
0:14:20 > 0:14:24that this was a system that allowed you to send messages faster
0:14:24 > 0:14:26than a train could travel.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32In the early years, Cooke and Wheatstone had difficulty attracting investment.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35The Tawell case was exactly the kind of publicity they needed.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39Like so many inventions, just demonstrating that they work
0:14:39 > 0:14:42doesn't guarantee that they'll take the world by storm.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46With its new-found popularity, the telegraph
0:14:46 > 0:14:49capitalised on the railway mania that was sweeping Britain.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53In 1838, there were 500 miles of railway.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57But by 1851, 7,000 miles had been built.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01Travel and telegraphy were inextricably linked.
0:15:01 > 0:15:054,000 miles of overhead lines were strung alongside railway tracks
0:15:05 > 0:15:11in six years, sending messages at 186,000 miles a second.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16If you only have two or three lines, it's only of use to a few people.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20When you have every town and city in the land linked up,
0:15:20 > 0:15:26then it's really, really useful. You could see there was a very different world in terms of communication.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30This actually speeds up life generally.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34Now the telegraph could really begin to feed the public appetite to
0:15:34 > 0:15:36communicate electrically.
0:15:36 > 0:15:42Charles Dickens describes the telegraph as "the most wonderful of all our modern wonders".
0:15:42 > 0:15:46It had won over the railways and, thanks to stories like Tawell's,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50public imagination, too. Its potential was limitless.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58There is absolutely nothing like a good old murder to rouse British interest.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00But around the same time,
0:16:00 > 0:16:04a rival system threatened to steal Cooke and Wheatstone's thunder.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07It's a name we are far more familiar with - the American, Samuel Morse.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11To tell us more about him, I'm joined by Charlotte Connelly,
0:16:11 > 0:16:13- from the Science Museum in London. Hello.- Hi.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17Now, is it a coincidence that Morse comes in the scene around this time?
0:16:17 > 0:16:21Well, what you need to remember about inventors is that they
0:16:21 > 0:16:24are human beings who live in society, just like everyone else.
0:16:24 > 0:16:26And so, society has certain needs -
0:16:26 > 0:16:29there's lots of electrical stuff going on,
0:16:29 > 0:16:30people thinking about it,
0:16:30 > 0:16:33and a couple of people put two and two together and think,
0:16:33 > 0:16:35"We can use electricity to communicate."
0:16:35 > 0:16:39So, no, I don't think it's a coincidence that it was all happening at the same time.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42How did Morse's system differ from Cooke and Wheatstone's?
0:16:42 > 0:16:44Cooke and Wheatstone used this needle system,
0:16:44 > 0:16:48which I've seen a really nice description of as "bifocal gymnastics".
0:16:48 > 0:16:51So you need to really have some skills to read the signals,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54whereas the Morse system used a key, like the ones in front of us,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57and by tapping, it sent a signal along
0:16:57 > 0:16:59and then it made a tap at the other end.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02But he actually came up with this system where you have an alphabet,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05and each letter is assigned a particular code.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08It sends a signal along your single cable,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11and at the far end - from the very outset, actually - it recorded,
0:17:11 > 0:17:15so it used a paper tape and it marked the signal that it had received.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19So that was also a massive improvement on Cooke and Wheatstone's system.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22- So it's just simpler?- It's simpler, and it's cheaper as well.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26It only uses one line, whereas the two-needle telegraph requires two lines.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30And is Morse really the person who comes up with Morse code?
0:17:30 > 0:17:33There is some idea that it might have been his assistant, Alfred Vail.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37He made lots of adjustments and improvements to the Morse system,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41but Vail himself wrote home and wrote to friends, saying,
0:17:41 > 0:17:43"No, it's all Morse's work," so...
0:17:43 > 0:17:46- It could just be that Morse was his boss!- It could be,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48and he wouldn't be the first assistant to defer to his boss,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51but my feeling is that it was all down to Morse.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54But it's up in the air. It's certainly not definite.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Why do you think Morse gets all the glory?
0:17:57 > 0:17:59He built on the work of various people in the United States
0:17:59 > 0:18:02and in Europe, and kind of drew all the strands together.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06And he was a brilliant publicist, so a bit of showmanship certainly goes a long way.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08Thank you, Charlotte.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Now, importantly, Morse was one of the first people to imagine a wired,
0:18:12 > 0:18:14interconnected world.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16And in the 1850s, his vision came a step closer,
0:18:16 > 0:18:18but it was not an easy journey.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Our resident materials boffin Mark went to see
0:18:21 > 0:18:25how failure can be as instructive as success.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32By the 1850s, Morse's single-wire system was gaining ground in Europe,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36but to connect continents electrically involved overcoming a more hostile environment...
0:18:38 > 0:18:39..the sea.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42And after several attempts,
0:18:42 > 0:18:47the first underwater cable linking Britain and America was laid.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52On 16 August 1858, Queen Victoria sent the first transatlantic
0:18:52 > 0:18:56telegraph message to President James Buchanan in the US.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00It said, "The Queen desires to congratulate the President
0:19:00 > 0:19:05"upon successful completion of this great international work."
0:19:05 > 0:19:09A telegram may have taken 16 hours to send by Morse code,
0:19:09 > 0:19:15but the dream of an interconnected world bound by telegraph wires was one step closer.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19To celebrate what became known as the great feat of the century,
0:19:19 > 0:19:21there were carnivals and street parades.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25The 1858 transatlantic cable was a remarkable achievement.
0:19:25 > 0:19:301,200 miles of open sea, 20,000 feet deep, huge waves,
0:19:30 > 0:19:34unpredictable weather - the audacity to even propose such a project,
0:19:34 > 0:19:39let alone pull it off, that really typifies the Victorian age.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42But the celebrations were short-lived.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44Within a month, the signal was lost,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47and the cable had catastrophically failed.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50The collapse of such a monumental milestone in communications
0:19:50 > 0:19:54exposed the flawed scientific understanding of the materials,
0:19:54 > 0:19:58specifically the component at the heart of the cable - copper.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03In the mid-19th century, Britain was a copper-cable-making machine.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09The Victorians knew the importance of producing high-purity copper,
0:20:09 > 0:20:11but there was little quality control.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16With a cable long enough to span the Atlantic,
0:20:16 > 0:20:20the effect of even tiny variations in the copper's purity
0:20:20 > 0:20:22severely reduced how well it would work.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27And in addition to that, no-one understood what the effect of the
0:20:27 > 0:20:32sea water would be on a signal sent through 1,200 miles of copper cable.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35So, this is our model of the Atlantic Ocean,
0:20:35 > 0:20:39and here is the Atlantic telegraph cable,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42and at this end we have Ireland, that end we have America,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46and once you've got it all connected up...
0:20:46 > 0:20:48instant communication!
0:20:48 > 0:20:50It must have been a really delightful thing.
0:20:50 > 0:20:56However, there were some problems, one of which was that the cable's going through water.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Now, that's doesn't just mean it's a huge body of water to get through.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02The water, actually, is interacting with the signal.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06Although the copper was insulated from the water to prevent this,
0:21:06 > 0:21:08it wasn't insulated well enough.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12The further a signal passed along the cable, the weaker it became.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16Over such a long distance, by the time it reached America,
0:21:16 > 0:21:19the signal was almost non-existent.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23To make matters worse, the engineer in charge of the project
0:21:23 > 0:21:27thought that using a higher voltage would force the signal through.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30But all that did was fry the cable's insulation
0:21:30 > 0:21:33and expose its copper core.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38With the salty seawater now able to react with the copper,
0:21:38 > 0:21:42another problem accelerated the cable's deterioration.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45And when we try to send a signal through...
0:21:45 > 0:21:48You see? It starts to stop getting through.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51That's because the electric signal, as it comes through the cable,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55hits the part where it is exposed to this very conductive form of water,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57and it leaks away, essentially.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59It doesn't make it to the final destination.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02But the problems didn't end there.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06Where the copper wire is exposed, it produces tiny bubbles in the water.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08This is quite impressive.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12This was the final reason for the cable's eventual failure.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15They show you that electrolysis is happening,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18and that means the copper is dissolving into the seawater.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21Pretty soon, there won't be any copper left,
0:22:21 > 0:22:23and the cable will be severed.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26Some people claimed the wonder was not that the cable failed,
0:22:26 > 0:22:30but that it had ever worked at all.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34The dream of a wired-up world had already cost £460,000,
0:22:34 > 0:22:39leaving the team low on funds, and the public short on hope.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42But the failure was a catalyst for change.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47It highlighted the need for a better understanding of the electrical and mechanical properties of copper,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49but it would be another eight years
0:22:49 > 0:22:51before the science caught up with the ambition,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54and a successful transatlantic cable was laid.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58It's astonishing how much time, effort
0:22:58 > 0:23:01and money was put into the laying of that first transatlantic table.
0:23:01 > 0:23:03To talk about money and invention,
0:23:03 > 0:23:06I'm joined by Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers
0:23:06 > 0:23:10and a highly successful entrepreneur, Dr David Cleevely.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12Now, would you have put money into that project?
0:23:12 > 0:23:16Absolutely not! It's barking.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19The risks involved in laying all that cable
0:23:19 > 0:23:21and knowing whether it was going to work,
0:23:21 > 0:23:25and if it worked, whether it would work for any length of time, were far too great
0:23:25 > 0:23:28given the amount of revenue you were likely to get out of it.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31So how do you ever get a big project like that off the ground?
0:23:31 > 0:23:35You have enthusiasts who convince other people that this time around,
0:23:35 > 0:23:37it's to be different, and they sink a lot of money into it.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41- And, historically, they've tended to lose their shirts, have they?- Yes.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43The definition of a pioneer is somebody who is
0:23:43 > 0:23:45face down in a field with an arrow in their back.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47That's the way it works.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50So do you think you can be a successful inventor without money behind you?
0:23:50 > 0:23:54Having money behind you is a good piece of evidence that,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57actually, YOU are not barking mad.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01That's not to say that somebody without money doesn't have a good idea,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04but you also have to be able to convince other people.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Most of this technology is not delivered by a single person -
0:24:08 > 0:24:10it's delivered by a team -
0:24:10 > 0:24:14and so that money is part of that building-the-team.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17The transatlantic cable was a hugely ambitious project,
0:24:17 > 0:24:20but it was done without real scientific understanding.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23Do you think many inventions come out of academic
0:24:23 > 0:24:27and deep-thought processes, or is it really trial and error?
0:24:27 > 0:24:31Most of it is trial and error. You've got to start with something that's viable,
0:24:31 > 0:24:36but when it hits reality, you're normally into business plan version four
0:24:36 > 0:24:39before it actually sees any traction.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42And you've got to be very clear about this, that no matter
0:24:42 > 0:24:46how good an idea it actually is, to actually get it to market
0:24:46 > 0:24:50- and make money out of it is a very long process. - Thank you, David.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54The eventual success of the transatlantic cable spawned
0:24:54 > 0:24:57a growing network of cables under other seas.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01By 1900, 150,000 miles had been laid.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05Telegraphy led to rapid global communication,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08which profoundly changed our relationship with time,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11space and, most significantly, each other.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15The information age with its army of skilled operators was born.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20The telegraph network alerted the world to the benefits
0:25:20 > 0:25:23and opportunities of global communication,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26but the technology had gone as far as it could.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30If we were to be truly connected, what was needed was a form of
0:25:30 > 0:25:34telegraph which could do more than just transmit dots and dashes.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38We needed something that could carry the full majesty of the human voice.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40We needed the telephone.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44Yes, the telephone - an invention cloaked in controversy.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47We're going to look at the work of the man most famously associated with it,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Alexander Graham Bell.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53Now, in the 1870s, electricity was cutting-edge technology,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57and Bell and his assistant Watson were young men in their 20s
0:25:57 > 0:26:00and they wanted in on this cool new technology.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03The telegraph was here - that could send messages -
0:26:03 > 0:26:05so what else could they send via this new technology?
0:26:05 > 0:26:08Well, they thought - human speech. Why not? But how would you do it?
0:26:08 > 0:26:11You've got to turn the human speech patterns
0:26:11 > 0:26:13into an electrical pattern
0:26:13 > 0:26:16that exactly matches it, and nothing existed at the day
0:26:16 > 0:26:19that could do that, so they knew they had to invent it.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21And they weren't the only ones working on this.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24In the end, this contraption here which looks very odd,
0:26:24 > 0:26:26is a replica of one of their first goes at the problem.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30It's called a liquid telephone, and it involves a cone,
0:26:30 > 0:26:31which goes down to a membrane.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34Now, when you speak down the cone, the membrane vibrates,
0:26:34 > 0:26:39and that's connected to a needle, which is dipped in acid.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41When the parchment vibrates to the sound of your voice,
0:26:41 > 0:26:43that changes the depth of the needle in the liquid,
0:26:43 > 0:26:46and changes the current being transmitted.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50So in theory, it should be able to give you that continuous
0:26:50 > 0:26:53variation in current that you need in order to mirror the human voice.
0:26:53 > 0:26:59So we've connected this up to an oscilloscope to see if that actually does work. Let's see.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01- MUFFLED:- Hello. Hello.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04- MUFFLED:- Hello. Hello.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08It's actually not bad, and you get something out of it.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11And that first recognition must have been really promising,
0:27:11 > 0:27:13but although it looks like an electrical signal,
0:27:13 > 0:27:16it doesn't... Perhaps we haven't proved that it sounds like one,
0:27:16 > 0:27:20so now what we need to do is connect this into our sound system,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23and Paul, our sound guy, is doing that right now.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27So if I speak through this system, the question is, can he hear it?
0:27:28 > 0:27:30You ready?
0:27:30 > 0:27:32Hello? Hello?
0:27:32 > 0:27:34- MUFFLED:- Hello, Paul. Can you hear me?
0:27:34 > 0:27:37I can definitely hear something. It's not very clear.
0:27:37 > 0:27:38That is just incredible,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42that something so rudimentary like this can do that.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45It was crazy, it was weird, but it worked,
0:27:45 > 0:27:47and it was the start of the telephone.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50Now, that is a seriously clever demo.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54But it's not practical to have a liquid transmitter having acid
0:27:54 > 0:27:57just sort of sloshing around in containers. It's dangerous.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00So Bell did what good inventors do - he tinkered
0:28:00 > 0:28:04and he made incremental improvements until that prototype had been turned
0:28:04 > 0:28:09into a fully functioning system for transmitting voice over a wire.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14It was called the centennial phone. And this is how it works.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17Now, the sound waves travel in through the mouthpiece,
0:28:17 > 0:28:21hit the diaphragm, which vibrates and makes contact with
0:28:21 > 0:28:24an electromagnet inside an iron cylinder.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28This turns the vocal vibrations into a changing electrical signal which
0:28:28 > 0:28:31flows through the wire to be turned back into sounds at the other end.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34This formed the basis for how telephones would
0:28:34 > 0:28:38work for the next hundred years and introduced one of the greatest
0:28:38 > 0:28:41revolutions in communications history.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44People could now talk directly to each other over distances
0:28:44 > 0:28:47without needing someone to translate a coded message.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51Communication was quicker, easier,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54and, most importantly, more intimate than it had ever been.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58The world would never be the same again.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02Bell patented his work under the bracket "improvement in telegraphy",
0:29:02 > 0:29:05and although the phone itself would take years of refinement,
0:29:05 > 0:29:09a little over a year later, the Bell Telephone Company was born.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11To discuss what the truly extraordinary
0:29:11 > 0:29:15story of the telephone's development tells us about invention,
0:29:15 > 0:29:16inventors and their patents,
0:29:16 > 0:29:20I'm joined by Dr Richard Noakes of the University of Exeter.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24Right, we have a very clear story which goes that Bell invents
0:29:24 > 0:29:27the telephone, but it's a great deal murkier than that, isn't it?
0:29:27 > 0:29:28It certainly is.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32One thing to point out about the history of the telephone
0:29:32 > 0:29:36is that, like so many inventions in history,
0:29:36 > 0:29:38there are many more inventors than we think.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42Bell was surrounded by people who claimed exactly the same
0:29:42 > 0:29:46thing about telephony, and there were people who were a lot older
0:29:46 > 0:29:50than him who, years before he claimed to have invented the telephone,
0:29:50 > 0:29:52said, "I've done exactly the same thing."
0:29:52 > 0:29:55There is a particular battle, isn't there, around the Patent Office?
0:29:55 > 0:30:00That's right. In 1876, Bell and an American inventor
0:30:00 > 0:30:05called Elisha Gray submitted a patent for the liquid transmitter telephone,
0:30:05 > 0:30:09and this was the beginning of a very long controversy
0:30:09 > 0:30:11over who invented the telephone.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14So why doesn't Gray end up the father of the telephone?
0:30:14 > 0:30:18There are many ways in which we can define invention.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22First of all, the United States patent law from 1870
0:30:22 > 0:30:25specifies it is not who got in there first,
0:30:25 > 0:30:29it's to what extent this is a new invention.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33So you could get in there really early, in the patent office, before Mr Bell,
0:30:33 > 0:30:39but you could maybe make a pretty shoddy job of the specification.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43But Bell was much more successful because
0:30:43 > 0:30:47he simply spelt out in more detail what exactly this would look like.
0:30:47 > 0:30:51And so he was able to persuade the lawyers who were running this case,
0:30:51 > 0:30:53that he had a greater claim on the invention.
0:30:53 > 0:30:55But you see when someone like James Watt,
0:30:55 > 0:31:00he gets immortalised mainly because there are forces out there in society
0:31:00 > 0:31:02which want a middle-class hero.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05You think that is true at all of Bell?
0:31:05 > 0:31:07Every age gets the hero it wants, OK?
0:31:07 > 0:31:13So for some reason, the 19th century American and British and British-speaking audiences
0:31:13 > 0:31:16want inventors to be of a particular type.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18They have to be solitary individuals,
0:31:18 > 0:31:23they have to have had eureka moments in their workshops, and sheds.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26Why do you think we love the idea of the eureka moment so much?
0:31:26 > 0:31:28It's kind of romantic.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30What we don't like is the other story,
0:31:30 > 0:31:36which is of one man - usually a man - in a big company surrounded by his minions,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39and they're all beavering away at this one idea.
0:31:39 > 0:31:40That's too complicated.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43It's too mechanical, and messy.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46And it doesn't feel like us.
0:31:46 > 0:31:47Thank you very much, Richard.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49Now, despite its potential,
0:31:49 > 0:31:51initially the phone struggled to make an impact.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53Why was that?
0:31:53 > 0:31:56Well, there were really two reasons. First, financial.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58The vested interest of existing technology,
0:31:58 > 0:32:01in the shape of telegraph companies, used their clout
0:32:01 > 0:32:03to try and stifle the new kid on the block.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05And, secondly, the public had to catch up
0:32:05 > 0:32:08with the possibilities that the phone offered.
0:32:08 > 0:32:13We sent historian Lucy Worsley to discover how one early adopter
0:32:13 > 0:32:16was at the forefront of a cultural revolution.
0:32:17 > 0:32:22The telephone entered a world where rapid industrialisation was underway.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27But unlike other new gadgets - gas lighting and running tap water -
0:32:27 > 0:32:30the phone didn't just mark an technological change,
0:32:30 > 0:32:34but an entire shift in social behaviour.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37And its arrival was felt particularly keenly
0:32:37 > 0:32:42at one of Britain's pioneering houses, Cragside, Northumberland.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47The whole place is the epitome of Victorian elegance and eccentricity.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51It was work of the one of the 19th century's most creative figures -
0:32:51 > 0:32:53William Armstrong.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55Armstrong was an inventor and engineer
0:32:55 > 0:32:57who was fascinated by new technologies.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03Cragside had its own hydroelectric power -
0:33:03 > 0:33:06a water-powered spit.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08And even a dishwasher.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13So it's little wonder, that he was among the first
0:33:13 > 0:33:17to embrace this latest labour-saving device in 1884.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20So whereabouts were the phones installed across the estate?
0:33:20 > 0:33:25- In the butler's pantry here in the house.- This one?- This very one. Here.
0:33:25 > 0:33:31But he had the estate manager who lived the other side of the valley,
0:33:31 > 0:33:34and the head gardener, also at the other side of the valley
0:33:34 > 0:33:37and up to the stables for the head groom.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40- So he couldn't really operate without the telephone?- No.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42It was vital to the whole system.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47Hello, is there anybody there?
0:33:49 > 0:33:53At first, the phone was only taken up by the wealthy.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57But those without Armstrong's initiative could buy a metaphone
0:33:57 > 0:34:00to help with issuing orders to staff.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04The metaphone enabled you to ring down to your servant,
0:34:04 > 0:34:08rather than having to press a bell wait for the servant to come up,
0:34:08 > 0:34:10and tell them what you wanted.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13Telephone systems, like the metaphone,
0:34:13 > 0:34:18were sold as a way to save time, worry and servants!
0:34:18 > 0:34:20Not for chatting to friends.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24And early telephones also had another elitist application.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27One designed more for opera than for orders.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31This contraption here is a riff on telephone technology
0:34:31 > 0:34:33called the electrophone.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36It works like this. You invite friends around to your house
0:34:36 > 0:34:39and you're probably all dressed in evening dress,
0:34:39 > 0:34:41because this is quite an occasion.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44And you use the little mouthpiece to call the operator, to say
0:34:44 > 0:34:49"Put me through, please, to... I don't know... the Savoy Theatre. I want to hear their play tonight."
0:34:49 > 0:34:52And once you've been connected,
0:34:52 > 0:34:57you and your friends get your headsets, put them on, relax,
0:34:57 > 0:34:59and enjoy the show.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02# La donna e mobile
0:35:02 > 0:35:05# Qual piuma al vento...#
0:35:05 > 0:35:09Public electrophone salons were opened in hotels and clubs.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12Here listeners could pay to enjoy the technology,
0:35:12 > 0:35:15and show the world they were embracing modern living.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22# E di pensier...#
0:35:22 > 0:35:26APPLAUSE
0:35:26 > 0:35:28Beyond the smart metropolitan salons though,
0:35:28 > 0:35:34society at large, still remained sceptical about using the phone.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38Victorian society was governed by all kinds of rules and rituals
0:35:38 > 0:35:41and matters of etiquette that we would find ridiculous today.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44A lot of this was around socialising -
0:35:44 > 0:35:47when to pay a call, who to speak to, how to speak to them,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50had you been introduced - all that kind of thing.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52The telephone cut across it all.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56And people found it awkward and uncomfortable.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58The Victorians were hysterical about
0:35:58 > 0:36:01the fact that you couldn't see people.
0:36:01 > 0:36:03In a deeply hierarchicised society,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06where there were all these instant clues,
0:36:06 > 0:36:09now on the telephone all you had was the voice.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13And if you dissembled the voice, you had no idea who you were talking to.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17You had worries about who was at the other end,
0:36:17 > 0:36:18who's my daughter talking to,
0:36:18 > 0:36:23how do you talk to people if you don't really know who they are, if you can't see them.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25Despite anxiety about social disorder
0:36:25 > 0:36:28and catching diseases down the wire,
0:36:28 > 0:36:30Cragside's telephone directories
0:36:30 > 0:36:35reveal that Armstrong was determined to exploit the telephone's potential.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38So here's Sir WG Armstrong, and it says here he has seven lines!
0:36:38 > 0:36:42- Seven lines.- That's like his own little private network.- Yes.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44So it's going to his Elswick Works,
0:36:44 > 0:36:49there's one to Captain Noble's residence, who is a friend and partner in the business.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52But Armstrong's unusual because he can phone a friend.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56Yes, he's phoning residences rather than companies.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00- He's like a man from the 20th century, living in the 19th.- He is.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05Armstrong was clearly decades ahead of his time.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09He could see the potential that the phone had for work
0:37:09 > 0:37:12and for play, just as we use it today.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15But the rest of society would have to catch up with him,
0:37:15 > 0:37:18before the phone could really catch on.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23And we have caught up, at an extraordinary pace.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26In the 1880s there were 30,000 telephones across the world,
0:37:26 > 0:37:29now there are over six billion
0:37:29 > 0:37:33and with them we send over six trillion texts every year.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36To help me make sense of some of these figures I have
0:37:36 > 0:37:42Dr Nicola Millard who is a social media expert from BT.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44Nicola, what am I looking at behind me?
0:37:44 > 0:37:47What you can see there is Monday to Friday.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50What we do is we call in a very predictable pattern.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52We are creatures of habit.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54So the first peak is, what, early morning?
0:37:54 > 0:37:57- And then afternoon, and then evening. Is that right?- Absolutely.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00The first phone calls when we get into the office,
0:38:00 > 0:38:02dies down over lunch, grows again in the afternoon,
0:38:02 > 0:38:04dies down late in the evening.
0:38:04 > 0:38:05And it's always exactly the same?
0:38:05 > 0:38:08Every week, Monday to Friday, absolutely predictable.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12That's funny. In terms of my predictability and social media
0:38:12 > 0:38:14would you care to make a few guesses?
0:38:14 > 0:38:16Social media is an interesting one,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20because what we find is that there are gender differences between social media.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23- So, Twitter - overwhelmingly male. - OK, yep, that's me.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25Facebook 50:50 sign up.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28- But actually the interactions are often women.- Yes.
0:38:28 > 0:38:29I hardly ever go to Facebook.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33My theory behind this is that Twitter is all about showing off,
0:38:33 > 0:38:35and, frankly, that's what men like to do.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37OK, fair enough. Fair cop.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40Now I want you to help me with these statistics here.
0:38:40 > 0:38:41This is disasters.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43This is all about shared experience.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47So a global disaster goes on, we all want to talk about it.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49So we're seeing a distinct call peek here.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52And this isn't just people involved in it, it's people going "Did you see?"
0:38:52 > 0:38:55"How terrible is that?" So it's all about shared experience.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57And again we're going back to primitive human behaviour.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00We love to talk. We're social creatures.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04And actually, with the telecommunications we have, it's getting richer and richer.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06It's enabling us to talk in richer mechanisms,
0:39:06 > 0:39:10so that's audio, we're starting, as we get bigger bandwidth -
0:39:10 > 0:39:12we get fibre, broadband -
0:39:12 > 0:39:13we're starting to see developments
0:39:13 > 0:39:17where technology is starting to get absorbed into things like our eyeglasses.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21So, literally, I can start to transmit to you what I'm seeing
0:39:21 > 0:39:23and broadcast it to all my friends and family.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26That's quite a scary prospect. Thank you very much Nicola.
0:39:26 > 0:39:28Thank you.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30But the very fact that my phone, my tablet,
0:39:30 > 0:39:33this video wall, can all communicate with one another
0:39:33 > 0:39:38without being joined by cables, marks the culmination of our story.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42And how this came about is one of the most significant steps in history -
0:39:42 > 0:39:44wireless communication.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46Finally the shackles were broken.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50The idea of a wireless world
0:39:50 > 0:39:53required a huge leap of imagination for the Victorians.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58The idea of easy long-distance communication without wires or cables,
0:39:58 > 0:40:00was akin to magic or the occult.
0:40:00 > 0:40:05But it was actually grounded in some pretty serious world changing science.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09Yes, there were two major breakthroughs which I want to demonstrate.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11Over here I have a piece of electrical apparatus
0:40:11 > 0:40:12called a transmitter.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14And over there I have another piece,
0:40:14 > 0:40:16which is called a receiver.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18And in-between there are no wires. Just air.
0:40:18 > 0:40:20But watch what happens when I do this.
0:40:20 > 0:40:21ELECTRICAL CRACKLE
0:40:21 > 0:40:23Now that is amazing!
0:40:23 > 0:40:26We turn on a light at a distance, with no wires in-between.
0:40:26 > 0:40:28That's a piece of magic!
0:40:29 > 0:40:31Well, how does it work?
0:40:32 > 0:40:35In 1864, James Clerk Maxwell, a physicist,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38theorised that there must be these invisible waves
0:40:38 > 0:40:40called electromagnetic waves.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43And they are created where you have an oscillating current.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45But he died before he could be proved right.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49It took another physicist, Heinrich Hertz
0:40:49 > 0:40:51to prove him right with this apparatus.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54Now this is a high voltage between two bits of an antennae
0:40:54 > 0:40:57and when you connect them up you get a spark
0:40:57 > 0:41:00which creates a current that oscillates at a very high frequency,
0:41:00 > 0:41:02and creates these invisible waves.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04This was a big deal,
0:41:04 > 0:41:06because it meant there was all this invisible stuff going on
0:41:06 > 0:41:11all around us that we could perhaps tap into and create and use.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14Now, how could you use it? Well, you need a receiver.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17And that was essentially the same kind of apparatus -
0:41:17 > 0:41:21two antennae - which would receive these electromagnetic waves
0:41:21 > 0:41:23and create small currents.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26But you needed something else that could use the power.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28Because these were tiny currents.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31And this where something else called the coherer comes in.
0:41:31 > 0:41:32A guy called Branly realises
0:41:32 > 0:41:35that if you connect two bolts with some metal powder,
0:41:35 > 0:41:37when the current runs across them
0:41:37 > 0:41:40they stick together and sort of act as a switch.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43And they allow a much bigger current to be used
0:41:43 > 0:41:45to turn the light on. And off.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47Of course, the "off" bit was difficult too.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50And that's a guy called Lodge, who manages to get that to work.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53Together they are creating some lab experiments, but it would take
0:41:53 > 0:41:56the intervention of another visionary mind
0:41:56 > 0:41:58to turn this science into an invention
0:41:58 > 0:42:01capable of profoundly changing the way we communicate.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06As with many breakthroughs the study of electromagnetic waves
0:42:06 > 0:42:11needed to travel out of the laboratory and into the real world to prove its potential.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15And it began with an experiment on a grand scale.
0:42:17 > 0:42:22In March, 1897, a 22-year-old man stood on Salisbury Plain in front
0:42:22 > 0:42:26of a crowd of high-ranking officers from the army and navy.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28His name was Guglielmo Marconi
0:42:28 > 0:42:32and he had promised to show them communication without wires.
0:42:34 > 0:42:39Marconi was determined to demonstrate that technology could send messages
0:42:39 > 0:42:43over long distances with a few modifications.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47So I've teamed up with the Royal Corps of Signals to recreate his attempt
0:42:47 > 0:42:52to turn wireless communication from a scientific idea into a workable system.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56Born into an aristocratic family,
0:42:56 > 0:43:01Marconi showed little interest in school and had failed to get into university.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06But from an early age he'd been a fanatical experimenter.
0:43:06 > 0:43:10He would never regard himself as a scientist at all.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14He didn't understand science, he was a practical inventor
0:43:14 > 0:43:16who wanted to be commercially successful
0:43:16 > 0:43:21and to be known for having achieved something practical.
0:43:24 > 0:43:29To make wireless into a product he could sell, Marconi first needed to improve its range.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36His masterstroke was that with the addition of an aerial held up by a balloon
0:43:36 > 0:43:39the signal could be transmitted further than ever before.
0:43:39 > 0:43:44If he could show his audience of top brass on Salisbury Plain he was right,
0:43:44 > 0:43:49then the military would be an obvious customer.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51I'm getting really excited now.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54Why exactly are the military so interested in wireless?
0:43:54 > 0:43:56Any commander in the field needs to know
0:43:56 > 0:43:58what is happening at his frontline.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01So the attraction of being able to get a message back instantly
0:44:01 > 0:44:08without having to lay tens or hundreds even of miles of wire is very important to him.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11So how is this going to do it? What is our kit essentially?
0:44:11 > 0:44:14What we have here is a replica of what Marconi had.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19We're using more modern components but it does exactly the same function.
0:44:19 > 0:44:24Now, to control this he has a key which can be operated,
0:44:24 > 0:44:27a Morse key, which starts the process.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29ELECTRICITY CRACKLES SHE LAUGHS
0:44:29 > 0:44:32- And when you press the key - - A big spark!- It is quite a big spark.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34And he used even bigger ones.
0:44:34 > 0:44:35ELECTRICITY CRACKLES
0:44:35 > 0:44:42When that spark happens that energy is then connected via this wire
0:44:42 > 0:44:44all the way up the antenna.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47And it radiates into space.
0:44:47 > 0:44:49- In all directions? - In all directions.
0:44:49 > 0:44:56Marconi knew if he could pick up that radiated energy several miles away, he'd have cracked it.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00We're going to try to do the same over a distance of 500 metres.
0:45:00 > 0:45:05This balloon holds up a second aerial which is connected to the receiver.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09The longer the wire we have up, the stronger the signal we get at the receiver.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13As the signal runs down the aerial it passes across the coherer
0:45:13 > 0:45:16completing the circuit and triggering the bell.
0:45:16 > 0:45:22With all of the elements in place the Royal Signals are poised to begin.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26OK, we're all set up and we're ready for test run.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29'Can you press the button, please.'
0:45:29 > 0:45:30Roger.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39Have you pressed it?
0:45:39 > 0:45:42ELECTRICITY CRACKLES
0:45:43 > 0:45:44BELL RINGS
0:45:44 > 0:45:47- Yes! SHE LAUGHS - It's working. Yeah.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51Fantastic! It does work! Do it again.
0:45:51 > 0:45:52ELECTRICITY CRACKLES
0:45:52 > 0:45:54- BELL RINGS - There we go.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57Thank you very much.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01That is so cool! Just to see it working is amazing!
0:46:01 > 0:46:07Now, that is the fundamental basis of all radio communication that's taken place ever since.
0:46:09 > 0:46:14With the proof that his system worked, Marconi immediately protected it with a patent.
0:46:14 > 0:46:19He continued to conduct experiments, refining his equipment and increasing its range...
0:46:20 > 0:46:24..until on December 12th, 1901, he achieved the unthinkable,
0:46:24 > 0:46:30sending a message over 2,000 miles across the Atlantic.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34'From my earliest experiments, I had always held the belief
0:46:34 > 0:46:35'that the day would come
0:46:35 > 0:46:43'when mankind could be able to send messages without wires and between the furthermost ends of the earth.'
0:46:43 > 0:46:47Marconi's decision to protect his invention with a patent was controversial.
0:46:47 > 0:46:51Marconi was remarkably secretive about his apparatus.
0:46:51 > 0:46:53The Times referred to it as his "magic box".
0:46:53 > 0:46:56But it makes sense, because if any scientist had looked inside the box,
0:46:56 > 0:47:00they'd have recognised pretty much every piece of apparatus in it.
0:47:00 > 0:47:06When the world finally got a glimpse inside the "magic box" there were batteries providing power,
0:47:06 > 0:47:09filings in a tube to complete the circuit and a bell on top.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13The parts were not new but the combination was.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15And Marconi patented it all.
0:47:17 > 0:47:22Marconi had increased the range, introduced aerials and an earth return,
0:47:22 > 0:47:25and shown that wireless could be used to communicate,
0:47:25 > 0:47:28but the question remained, had he actually invented anything?
0:47:28 > 0:47:31He didn't invent the coherer
0:47:31 > 0:47:34and he didn't really invent the transmitter.
0:47:34 > 0:47:40If you looked at the individual parts of it, other people could say, "Well, I did that."
0:47:40 > 0:47:45Marconi, to give him his credit, was using the work of others and was patenting the work of others,
0:47:45 > 0:47:47but no-one else had patented in the field.
0:47:47 > 0:47:53So, essentially, as he was advised by his lawyer, "Claim everything." And he did.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57Marconi wasn't a scientist, but he was an engineer and a brilliant businessman.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01But he also had the personality and drive to make things happen.
0:48:01 > 0:48:07And for me that is an equally important part of the process of invention.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11So how do you think wireless changed the world?
0:48:11 > 0:48:14Well, in practical ways, you can mount a wireless on a ship
0:48:14 > 0:48:19and if that's ship gets into trouble they can radio for help and get rescued.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21Or you can mount it on an aeroplane
0:48:21 > 0:48:26and that can fly over enemy lines and radio back the positions you want to bomb.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29But, actually, on a far bigger thought, it's the death of geography,
0:48:29 > 0:48:32it's the mastery of people over the planet.
0:48:32 > 0:48:37- Time is no object, distance is no object. We're the winners.- OK.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40- So mastery of the planet, top that. - I think it's more personal than that.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42Yes, it's a beautiful box of electronics
0:48:42 > 0:48:44and it sits in your home and tells you the news around the world,
0:48:44 > 0:48:48but how many people wake up every morning to the radio and go to sleep with the radio.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51It connects you in a way that no other bit of technology does,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54it reduces loneliness and reduces isolation.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57- I never knew you were such a warm cuddly guy. - THEY LAUGH
0:48:57 > 0:49:00Now obviously what I think is that Marconi and the wireless,
0:49:00 > 0:49:02it's the mobile phone, that's the direct link.
0:49:02 > 0:49:04- You're obsessed! - I am obsessed.
0:49:04 > 0:49:09Now guess when the first mobile phone was invented, if you like?
0:49:09 > 0:49:11- '40s? '50s?- 1960s?
0:49:11 > 0:49:13- No! - 1960s? Let me show you this.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17This remarkable piece of footage from 1922
0:49:18 > 0:49:21It's Eve's portable wireless phone.
0:49:21 > 0:49:26And she's wiring it up rather ingeniously to her umbrella.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29- Oh, it's an aerial. - Yes. Brilliant.
0:49:29 > 0:49:31And now she's ringing in to pick up...
0:49:31 > 0:49:34- It's a gramophone.- A request show. - An early request show.
0:49:34 > 0:49:39- It's an early version of Shazam. - OK. So this is possibly the first mobile phone.
0:49:39 > 0:49:44But for wireless communication to become an everyday accessory it had to leave the planet.
0:49:44 > 0:49:49And that took the development of shortwave technology and the satellite.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52Cassie's been nosing around the giant dishes of Madley.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57In 1945 the science fiction writer Arthur C Clark
0:49:57 > 0:50:01predicted it would take satellites positioned high above the earth
0:50:01 > 0:50:06to overcome the limits of communicating with wireless over long distances.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09And his vision was amazingly prescient,
0:50:09 > 0:50:14because just 17 years later Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station was built in Cornwall
0:50:14 > 0:50:17and became part of a joint British, French and American project
0:50:17 > 0:50:22to transmit live satellite pictures across the Atlantic.
0:50:24 > 0:50:31On the 10th of July, 1962, NASA launched the first active communications satellite, Telstar 1.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35- And after a shaky start... - 'That's a man's face!'
0:50:35 > 0:50:37'There it is! There it is!'
0:50:37 > 0:50:44Two weeks later, 200 million people tuned in to watch the first broadcast live via satellite.
0:50:45 > 0:50:50Telstar also made long-distance phone calls an everyday reality,
0:50:50 > 0:50:53including the first call to Britain via space.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56'Hello there. How does it sound to you?'
0:50:56 > 0:50:59'Relatively good. You're very clear.'
0:50:59 > 0:51:05Although it could only carry 600 phone calls, Telstar had shrunk the wireless world a little bit more.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08In the end when there are more satellites still,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12you'll have televisions and telephones all over the globe. A shattering thought.
0:51:12 > 0:51:20The original Telstar 1 only lasted about six months, but now there are over 900 active satellites in orbit
0:51:20 > 0:51:23and two thirds of these are helping with communications.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27Unlike Telstar 1, which circled the Earth once every two and a half hours,
0:51:27 > 0:51:30modern communication satellites are geo-stationary,
0:51:30 > 0:51:34which means their orbit keeps them in a fixed point above the surface of the Earth.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37Communication satellites act as relay stations.
0:51:37 > 0:51:42They receive high-frequency radio waves from an earth station like Madley
0:51:42 > 0:51:45and retransmit them to a different location.
0:51:45 > 0:51:50And dishes like these are where the signals begin and end their journey.
0:51:50 > 0:51:57This is Madley 1, it weighs 290 tons, it's 32 metres in diameter
0:51:57 > 0:52:00and moves less than a few millimetres a day
0:52:00 > 0:52:03as it tracks a satellite above the Indian Ocean.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05So this is where the magic happens.
0:52:05 > 0:52:07When I make a phone call, what happens to the signal?
0:52:07 > 0:52:11When you make your phone call it goes through BT's national network,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14is routed then if it's going to go internationally to here at Madley,
0:52:14 > 0:52:17where it goes through electronic processing in the main building
0:52:17 > 0:52:21before being fed across to here, the antenna building,
0:52:21 > 0:52:23where it goes through this wave guide.
0:52:23 > 0:52:28From here it is combined, fed up to the antenna, beamed out to the satellite 36,000 kilometres away
0:52:28 > 0:52:29at the speed of light.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32So is the size of the dish important?
0:52:32 > 0:52:37Yes, it is, because the size of the dish determines how much amplification we provide
0:52:37 > 0:52:39and how much we can amplify the signal being received.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41If you think of the dish as a car headlight,
0:52:41 > 0:52:45the bigger the dish, the wider the beam being provided by the car headlight.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49Obviously nowadays dishes can be smaller because satellites have got laser technology,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52so we can focus energy a lot more accurately.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56So what are the advantages of this kind of system over fibre optics?
0:52:56 > 0:53:00Satellite is global, you can reach anywhere with it now. It will happen.
0:53:00 > 0:53:05Imagine a situation where you want to reach a desert in a war zone.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08You can't run a fibre out but satellite will reach it.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12Wherever you can see the sky satellite communication is possible.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17But it's underground where most of today's communication takes place.
0:53:17 > 0:53:25Over the last 150 years the globe has been circled in over one billion kilometres of cables.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30It's incredible to think about the changes that cable technology
0:53:30 > 0:53:34has undergone since the first copper cables were laid.
0:53:34 > 0:53:39Now telecommunication cables unseen and mostly unremarked upon
0:53:39 > 0:53:44provide the web that binds our interconnected world together.
0:53:44 > 0:53:49Since the 1980s, copper cables have been replaced by fibre optics,
0:53:49 > 0:53:52carrying data as light rather than electricity.
0:53:52 > 0:53:57Today these cables carry 95% of global communication,
0:53:57 > 0:54:00much of which travels through Madley Earth Station.
0:54:00 > 0:54:05From this transmission room telephone, fax, internet and TV signals
0:54:05 > 0:54:09are sent down cables underground to either the BT Tower or to the coast
0:54:09 > 0:54:14where the cables disappear under the sea to almost everywhere in the world.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17And to make sure the signal definitely arrives,
0:54:17 > 0:54:20they send it by two different routes to the same destination.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23This is what a fibre-optic cable looks like.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26It's covered in a sort of durable polyurethane
0:54:26 > 0:54:29which not only protects it but is an excellent insulator.
0:54:29 > 0:54:34And inside this is the optic fibre.
0:54:34 > 0:54:40Now that's only 8 microns across, so that's thinner than a human hair but it's tougher than steel.
0:54:41 > 0:54:48A fibre-optic cable has a core of ultra-fine glass threads coated in a reflective material.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52An electric signal is converted into pulses of light
0:54:52 > 0:54:54billions of times a second
0:54:54 > 0:54:57and transmitted by a laser beam.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02Within the light are digitised videos, voices and computer signals.
0:55:04 > 0:55:09The outer walls act like mirrors reflecting the light onwards to its destination
0:55:09 > 0:55:14where the digital information is converted back into electrical signals.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18- So is this your fibre-optic cable? - Yes, it is.
0:55:18 > 0:55:24You can fit on this cable here up to half a million telephone calls onto a single fibre.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27My goodness! How does that compare with satellite technology?
0:55:27 > 0:55:29It's a much greater bandwidth.
0:55:29 > 0:55:31Newer technology will also increase that.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34Some equipment here, we're looking at tens of millions
0:55:34 > 0:55:36of telephone calls per second on an optical fibre.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39- Down one single wire? - On a single fibre, yes.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43- It's very impressive.- It's sounds pretty revolutionary.- Yeah.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47When you think we've gone from 100 years ago from a single copper cable encased in thick rubber
0:55:47 > 0:55:53going through to coaxial cables carrying analogue signals, to the latest fibres carrying digital,
0:55:53 > 0:55:57it's amazing how things have progressed.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01I guess that's the thing, the whole way through whether it's 1850 or 2013,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04- it's a linear technology, isn't it. - Definitely.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07This particular wire, where does this go?
0:56:07 > 0:56:11This is connected to our back-hall equipment, so there'll be a switch somewhere on site
0:56:11 > 0:56:14which will then connect it to the rest of the national network.
0:56:14 > 0:56:18- And it zooms out. - Zooms out to eventually wherever it is in the world,
0:56:18 > 0:56:20India, Europe, America, anywhere.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24- Like a giant telephone exchange plugging wires all over.- That's it.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26- It's an invisible network. - All at the speed of light.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28- Very, very fast indeed. - Excellent!
0:56:30 > 0:56:36Despite the merits of communicating without wires, we have largely remained a cabled world.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41But it's the combination of fibre optics, underwater cables and satellites
0:56:41 > 0:56:46that provides the vital infrastructure that binds us all together.
0:56:46 > 0:56:51Today, we communicate in ways we would never have dreamed of 50 years ago.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56And, importantly, we don't know which of the technologies we're currently developing
0:56:56 > 0:56:59are the ones that are going to revolutionise our future.
0:57:01 > 0:57:06So that completes our journey from the telegraph, through to the telephone,
0:57:06 > 0:57:11and on to wireless and our digital world of satellites and fibre optics.
0:57:11 > 0:57:18All are linked by a common desire to make it possible to communicate regardless of time and distance.
0:57:18 > 0:57:24What other technological advance has done so much to bring us all together?
0:57:24 > 0:57:29So we have whizzed through 200 years of history. Any final thoughts?
0:57:29 > 0:57:33What strikes me about the inventions we've considered is they're not driven by popular demand,
0:57:33 > 0:57:38it's more the inventor themselves creating a crazy world that they want to see happen.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41They're turning science fiction into engineering reality.
0:57:41 > 0:57:47And that's the point, it's not about what you make as an object, it's about that twist in consciousness
0:57:47 > 0:57:51that makes it popular enough to happen, like the communications networks.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55Thank you, Cassie. Thank you, Mark. Next time, we're moving from sound to pictures.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59We'll be showing how the birth of photography
0:57:59 > 0:58:01- shed light on the world around us. - HE LAUGHS
0:58:01 > 0:58:06How cinema changed our understanding of motion and morality.
0:58:06 > 0:58:12And why it took a battle between two rival inventions to get television on air.
0:58:12 > 0:58:19It's a story full of surprises, extraordinary characters and, of course, genius.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22But until then it's goodbye from everyone here.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24- Bye.- Bye. - Goodbye.
0:58:27 > 0:58:30Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd