0:00:04 > 0:00:06Hello, and welcome to The Genius of Invention,
0:00:06 > 0:00:09tonight from BBC Broadcasting House.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11Now, the fact that you are able to watch us
0:00:11 > 0:00:16is thanks to some brilliant and eccentric inventors.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18Among them are many British giants of innovation
0:00:18 > 0:00:21who had the vision to freeze time through photography
0:00:21 > 0:00:24and pioneered the magic of the moving image.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27They've made the world smaller, faster and more vivid.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30And they've brought faraway worlds to our homes.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32How and why did that happen?
0:00:32 > 0:00:35We're going to explore the very nature of invention.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38How blind luck, stubbornness and flashes of genius
0:00:38 > 0:00:42combined to build our glorious, technicolour world.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53Hello, I'm Michael Mosley.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56- As usual, I'm joined by Doctor Cassie Newland.- Hello.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59- And Professor Mark Miodownik.- Hello.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02Now, there are so many people around the world
0:01:02 > 0:01:04vying for a position in tonight's hall of fame,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08but we're going to focus on three pivotal inventions
0:01:08 > 0:01:11that changed how we saw the world.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15We'll follow a trail of invention born out of our desire
0:01:15 > 0:01:18to record and share our life stories.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21From fixing the shadows through photography
0:01:21 > 0:01:25to moving pictures and then sending them across the airwaves.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Television.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31They all have the capacity to reproduce and reflect our world.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34They have the power to capture our imagination
0:01:34 > 0:01:37in unique and unforgettable ways.
0:01:38 > 0:01:43200 years ago, it took eight hours to create a single photograph.
0:01:43 > 0:01:44Today, we can conjure up
0:01:44 > 0:01:48an infinite number of worlds through virtual reality.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52Tonight, we celebrate the inventors and inventions
0:01:52 > 0:01:54that changed our perspective.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Our timeline begins with photography.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00And it was William Henry Fox Talbot
0:02:00 > 0:02:03who succeeded where others had failed.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05But his breakthrough was at risk
0:02:05 > 0:02:09from the occupational hazard of all inventors. Competition.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11Fox Talbot had been working on
0:02:11 > 0:02:13his own photographic technique for five years.
0:02:13 > 0:02:18And he had no idea that Daguerre was about to unleash this bombshell.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20It was an invention from a different field
0:02:20 > 0:02:24that overcame the barriers to capturing motion.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27And it was, of course, a substance, not a technology,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30that created the movie industry in the first place.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35Although it wasn't just what was on the screen that proved inflammatory.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39The next challenge, transmitting pictures at a distance,
0:02:39 > 0:02:42was resolved by a fiery showdown between a corporate giant
0:02:42 > 0:02:45and maverick inventor John Logie Baird.
0:02:46 > 0:02:47At the end of the contest,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51the best system would be awarded the coveted contract
0:02:51 > 0:02:53to broadcast to the nation.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55The loser would go home with nothing.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02And one of our most successful inventors, Sir James Dyson,
0:03:02 > 0:03:06shares his thoughts on Britain's role in shaping the modern world.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09Part of the reason is we like being eccentric.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11We're an island race who likes to be different.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15And we're quite grand in our thought.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18Conquering the world and ruling the seas and so on.
0:03:18 > 0:03:19That's deep in our history.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30So, Cassie, why do you think these three inventions are so important?
0:03:30 > 0:03:32Oh, they're just wonderfully descriptive
0:03:32 > 0:03:35of how we came to be the modern people we are.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39Visual image is so primary in the way we view our world.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43It's about becoming critically self-reflective, all those things.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45Is this nonsense you expect from a social scientist?
0:03:45 > 0:03:46I'm not sure I really agree.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Visual image has always been about the material fact.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52First it was cave paintings, then it was drawings on canvas and paper,
0:03:52 > 0:03:54and then it was photography.
0:03:54 > 0:03:55Chemistry made photography possible.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58And then it was plastics made the cinema possible.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00We get more and more materials, so it's a materials story.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03I think you're both wrong. I think it's down to personalities.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06You've got Fox Talbot, he's got something brilliant,
0:04:06 > 0:04:07but he hasn't got the personality to sell it,
0:04:07 > 0:04:11whereas Logie Baird has something which frankly is not that brilliant,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13and yet he had the personality, which makes it happen.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14Anyway, this building
0:04:14 > 0:04:17has been at the heart of the story for the last 80 years.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21I've been taking a quick look around.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24Broadcasting House is better known as the home of radio.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28But it was here that the first faint flickers of television
0:04:28 > 0:04:30were fanned into life.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33In 1932, from the basement here,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36John Logie Baird, the father of mechanical television,
0:04:36 > 0:04:40first began broadcasting experimental television pictures.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44It was the year Broadcasting House opened -
0:04:44 > 0:04:48the first purpose-built broadcast centre in Britain.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50In the 80 years since,
0:04:50 > 0:04:54it has expanded to a network of radio, television, internet
0:04:54 > 0:04:59that now reaches over 240 million people worldwide.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06But it's not just the BBC that's changed.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10Other national and independent companies
0:05:10 > 0:05:12have combined to help make British broadcasting
0:05:12 > 0:05:14amongst the best in the world.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18And as the number of channels has grown,
0:05:18 > 0:05:20so, too, have the ways we can access them.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25But news remains at the heart of broadcasting.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27When the BBC first moved into Broadcasting House,
0:05:27 > 0:05:31newscasters were exquisitely attired
0:05:31 > 0:05:34and spoke in RP, received pronunciation.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38Now, these days, the BBC has gone from dinner jackets to digital,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41and stays in contact with the world
0:05:41 > 0:05:44via an extensive network of cable and satellite.
0:05:44 > 0:05:49When Broadcasting House opened, it was a feat of audio engineering.
0:05:49 > 0:05:5522 radio studios and 50 miles of electrical wiring.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57Eight decades later, John Logie Baird's vision
0:05:57 > 0:06:02of a fully-fledged television service has finally been realised.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07The studios here are very buzzy places.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11And they are the product of decades of technological development.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14From topical discussion programmes like this one
0:06:14 > 0:06:18to virtual-reality studios where sets appear
0:06:18 > 0:06:21and change at the touch of a button.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25Today, the only real limit is imagination.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29But none of this technology would be possible
0:06:29 > 0:06:32without understanding our first invention - photography.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36And it seems to be an invention whose time had come.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39Loads of people were involved in the inventions that paved the way for it.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42The camera obscura is at least 1,000 years old.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45But it was a device that only captured a temporary image
0:06:45 > 0:06:46while the sun was out.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49But this is more of an aid for artists.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51Because you can draw around the projected image
0:06:51 > 0:06:53and know that you've got everything right.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57And the 18th century was all about the mastery of nature,
0:06:57 > 0:06:59the scientific enlightenment.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02Optics and perspective were rational ways of understanding
0:07:02 > 0:07:04and representing the world.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07If only there was a way to fix the pictures.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12For me, the father of photography is this man, Nicephore Niepce.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15All images, videos, films, internet, TV,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18everything can be traced back to this heliograph.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Now, heliograph literally means sun writing.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27This is a view from Niepce's house in France taken in 1826.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29It's made using a camera obscura
0:07:29 > 0:07:32and the exposure took eight hours.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34It changed everything.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38It's quite hard for us to appreciate what a huge technical achievement this was.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42So we set historical photographer Terry King a challenge.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46For those who appreciated the natural world,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49photography was an invention born of necessity.
0:07:51 > 0:07:52Before the 1820s,
0:07:52 > 0:07:58the only way to permanently record people and places was through art.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00And with a background in lithography,
0:08:00 > 0:08:02Niepce overcame his poor draughtsmanship
0:08:02 > 0:08:04by using a camera obscura
0:08:04 > 0:08:07and obsessively trying to fix the images he obtained with it.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13He did all sorts of strange things, like trying to introduce new gases
0:08:13 > 0:08:16like hydrogen, actually into the camera obscura.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19It didn't make a difference, but he tried anything to see if it worked.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22I think it was a matter of money -
0:08:22 > 0:08:26just finding something that was industrially more efficient.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30Others had already tried and failed to fix images.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33In the 1790s, the British scientist Thomas Wedgwood
0:08:33 > 0:08:35used an earlier discovery
0:08:35 > 0:08:37that silver nitrate and silver chloride darken
0:08:37 > 0:08:40when exposed to light to make sun prints.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43But he couldn't fix them, and his images turned black.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47Niepce's knowledge of light-sensitive chemicals from his printmaking days
0:08:47 > 0:08:51had shown that asphalt, which hardens when exposed to sunlight,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54might hold the secret to permanent pictures.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59And after six years of trial and error, his persistence paid off.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02He finally cracked the formula.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Essentially, asphaltum, which is the stuff we get on the roads,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08it was called at the time, Bitumen of Judea,
0:09:08 > 0:09:14is dissolved in a thinner - lavender oil or turpentine -
0:09:14 > 0:09:17and you get exactly the right consistency.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21That is then coated onto a piece of metal
0:09:21 > 0:09:24and then exposed to light in a camera obscura.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26And that produces the image on the plate.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32Niepce discovered that the areas where the paste was exposed to light turned hard
0:09:32 > 0:09:36and the dark areas stayed soft and could be washed away,
0:09:36 > 0:09:38leaving a permanent image directly from nature.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43But Niepce took the first ever photograph in the south of France,
0:09:43 > 0:09:45not during an English winter.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49So Terry's exposing his plate for several days
0:09:49 > 0:09:51in the hope of his own eureka moment.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Just leave it there to see what happens.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00And Terry will be joining us later
0:10:00 > 0:10:02to show us the results of his experiment.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05I must admit, Mark, this is not what you expect to, er...
0:10:05 > 0:10:07- Lavender, yeah?- Yeah.- Goodness!
0:10:07 > 0:10:10What's incredible is if you look at these ingredients,
0:10:10 > 0:10:11they're all readily available.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15They're kind of mundane - lavender, bitumen, pewter.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17And he's creating something really extraordinary -
0:10:17 > 0:10:20a photosensitive chemical that can create the first photographic image.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23That is very marvellous.
0:10:23 > 0:10:24But his story does not end well.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27To find out how his discoveries were soon to be overshadowed,
0:10:27 > 0:10:31I visited Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40Like most breakthroughs, the birth of photography
0:10:40 > 0:10:44reveals as much about the inventors as their inventions.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Niepce's was secretive, and for years, guarded his process.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50It might have stayed that way, but for the persistence
0:10:50 > 0:10:55of a flamboyant lighting designer called Louis Daguerre.
0:10:55 > 0:11:00Daguerre persuaded a reluctant Niepce to share his secrets.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04And in 1829, they signed a formal agreement to work together.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07Unfortunately, Niepce then died.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09Now, this left Daguerre,
0:11:09 > 0:11:14who had no scientific training, to go on working alone.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18But Daguerre continued experimenting.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21This time using silver-coated copper plates
0:11:21 > 0:11:25sensitised with iodine which were exposed in his camera.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27The story goes that having broken a thermometer,
0:11:27 > 0:11:31the mercury vapour caused a beautiful, sharp image
0:11:31 > 0:11:34to develop on the plate, which he fixed with salt solution.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39Daguerre had finally achieved what so many before him had failed to do.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42He'd captured and permanently fixed an image.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47The announcement that Daguerre had perfected a process
0:11:47 > 0:11:50came in January 1839.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53And, of course, with typical brashness,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56he named the method after himself.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01The French government rewarded Daguerre with a pension for life
0:12:01 > 0:12:05and made the process free across France.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Daguerre from day one was the centre of the universe.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10The Daguerreotype, Daguerromania.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13You know, it took hold of the world.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15But in a small corner of Britain,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18this announcement was unhappily received.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21News of Daguerre's breakthrough was a horrible shock
0:12:21 > 0:12:24to the owner of this place, Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28I imagine gentleman scholar William Henry Fox Talbot
0:12:28 > 0:12:31pacing around agitatedly
0:12:31 > 0:12:33as he read about it in a French newspaper.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36This was such a shock because Fox Talbot
0:12:36 > 0:12:40had been working on his own photographic technique for five years
0:12:40 > 0:12:45and he had no idea that Daguerre was about to unleash this bombshell.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Unlike his rival, Talbot was a keen scientist
0:12:50 > 0:12:53and had produced an entirely different method,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56using paper instead of metal plates.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Will you take your coat off, sir?
0:12:59 > 0:13:01It's important that you remain completely motionless.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04With just a minute's exposure,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07small particles formed a faint image on the paper
0:13:07 > 0:13:09which could be developed and fixed.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13One, two, three.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16He named his process the Calotype.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21But Talbot, a perfectionist,
0:13:21 > 0:13:23thought his invention wasn't ready to be unveiled.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25So he kept it to himself.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29- So you have these two great rivals. - Yes.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32And what is the critical difference between their processes?
0:13:32 > 0:13:34They're almost like day and night.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36I mean, a Calotype, you hold it up and you look
0:13:36 > 0:13:39and you see that dark is light and light is dark.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42It's obviously reversed, it's a negative.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46From that, you can make as many prints that look exactly like this as possible.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48You can make 100, you can make 1,000.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52With a Daguerreotype, it's on a metal plate.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55The plate that goes in the camera is the plate you take home.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58And it's a one-off, direct, positive image.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Do you think it's because of their different personalities
0:14:01 > 0:14:03that their inventions kind of emerged in different ways?
0:14:03 > 0:14:06Daguerre was a well-known man about town.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08He loved going to parties,
0:14:08 > 0:14:10he loved entering parties walking on his hands.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14He was an artist who came late to science.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17Talbot, on the other hand, was awkward in crowds,
0:14:17 > 0:14:19awkward in public situations.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22He was the scientist who took a scientific approach
0:14:22 > 0:14:24to the invention of photography.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28Although Talbot couldn't match his rival's quality one-offs,
0:14:28 > 0:14:32he had moved photography into the world of printing and reproduction -
0:14:32 > 0:14:34a huge step forward.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38There you go. So that's the paper.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40Thank you.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42But instead of being celebrated,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Talbot was condemned for being too slow off the mark.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48Under pressure to make up for his earlier mistake,
0:14:48 > 0:14:52he quickly published and slapped a tight patent on his invention.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55Now, that is rather good, actually.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57I'm beginning to see it now.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00The issue was about priority.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04He wanted to show that he had also perfected a method
0:15:04 > 0:15:07at the same time, if not before.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10That was all purely a matter for him of his scientific integrity,
0:15:10 > 0:15:14of how his colleagues in the scientific world viewed him.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19But vociferous opponents claimed Talbot was trying to profit
0:15:19 > 0:15:22from a process that was not even his own invention,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25merely an advance on the work of others.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28He was vilified and received nothing but abuse.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31That's the irony of history.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33Sometimes, the real heroes of invention
0:15:33 > 0:15:36aren't necessarily the ones who are celebrated.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41There are so many heroes in that wonderful fertile period
0:15:41 > 0:15:46of exploration in photographic methods who are still unsung.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50Daguerre became rich and famous.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52And when he died in 1851,
0:15:52 > 0:15:55his technique was still the most popular.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Talbot, well, he got terrible press
0:15:58 > 0:16:01and was always seen somehow as second rate.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03And that is terribly unfair.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06Because it's his invention of the negative
0:16:06 > 0:16:10which would form the backbone of photography up to the digital age.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17- Would you like to see your picture? - I would love to.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19Are you ready?
0:16:20 > 0:16:21HE LAUGHS
0:16:22 > 0:16:26Oh, dear! My first reaction is that I look about 120, don't I?
0:16:26 > 0:16:28150, actually!
0:16:28 > 0:16:31It looks like it was kind of an original taken there.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33Do you think that looks like me at all?
0:16:33 > 0:16:35It looks like you will be in about...yeah.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38- It looks like your grandad. - THEY LAUGH
0:16:38 > 0:16:41Can you print that off? I want to take that home.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43I do think that is an extraordinary photograph
0:16:43 > 0:16:45taken using Talbot's method.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49And it makes you wonder why didn't Talbot get more recognition?
0:16:49 > 0:16:52Was it really just down to his personality?
0:16:52 > 0:16:57With me is Professor Brian Winston, who is a historian of the media.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59So, is it about personality?
0:16:59 > 0:17:01I think personality does play a role in this,
0:17:01 > 0:17:04but not, I think, in ways that are generally accepted.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07I think the last thing personality has any effect on
0:17:07 > 0:17:10is the actual device, the technology.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13That seems to me that's a very much hit-and-miss affair.
0:17:13 > 0:17:14But the effectiveness
0:17:14 > 0:17:15with which a thing
0:17:15 > 0:17:17acquires the name
0:17:17 > 0:17:19of a person
0:17:19 > 0:17:22is really a bit like becoming a star actor.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25You know, it's more luck than anything else,
0:17:25 > 0:17:30coupled with a great deal of commercial acumen.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34How much of a motivator do you think fame is for an inventor?
0:17:34 > 0:17:38I'm not sure that fame is as big a motivator
0:17:38 > 0:17:40as making a buck, frankly.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42I think a lot of these guys were trying to make a living.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46You look at some of the things we've got on the table here, Rubik's Cube.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48I mean, the man's an architect.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52Presumably, there weren't that many buildings going up in Hungary!
0:17:52 > 0:17:55There's no question that people would benefit enormously
0:17:55 > 0:17:57if their name was attached.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59How important is public relations in this -
0:17:59 > 0:18:01having a good PR machine, a good story to tell?
0:18:01 > 0:18:03There's no question about that.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06Edison once said invention is 99-percent perspiration,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08one-percent inspiration.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10Actually, I think it's probably 97-percent perspiration
0:18:10 > 0:18:13and one-percent inspiration and two-percent PR.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17There's all that national competition, personal competition,
0:18:17 > 0:18:19show business, luck, etcetera, etcetera.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22All of this comes into that two percent.
0:18:22 > 0:18:23Thank you very much, Brian.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25And thank you, Michael. Thank you.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28So perhaps all Talbot needed was better PR.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30But fantastic though his method was,
0:18:30 > 0:18:32it still lacked the magic ingredient
0:18:32 > 0:18:35that could bring photography in from the dark,
0:18:35 > 0:18:36as Mark's about to find out.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41I'm outside for this part because I don't want to be responsible
0:18:41 > 0:18:43for burning down one of the BBC buildings.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46And I'm joined by Andrea Sella, Professor of Chemistry at UCL.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49He's going to take us through some demos involved in early photography.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52Well, the big problem in photography in the 19th century
0:18:52 > 0:18:55was really doing things indoors.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57Sometime around 1830,
0:18:57 > 0:18:58someone discovered
0:18:58 > 0:19:01that if you took carbon disulfide
0:19:01 > 0:19:04and you mixed it with nitric oxide,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07then you could get a really quite amazing mixture.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09- Now, put your specs on.- Yeah.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Terrible stuff!
0:19:12 > 0:19:14It does stink, I agree.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18So...open it up at the top. You ready?
0:19:18 > 0:19:20- Yeah.- Pour it in.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24And now it's going to build up some pressure.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27- Oooh!- I can feel that. I can smell that.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30- Yeah. Well, you're downwind. - Yeah, yeah.
0:19:30 > 0:19:31Bad place to stand.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33OK. And now I've just got to mix it.
0:19:33 > 0:19:38Just to make sure that everything is...well mixed in the tube.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41OK. So we're kind of ready to go.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45- OK.- Now, I'll just release the last of the pressure.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49OK. And now we're going to light it up at the top.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52Um...
0:19:52 > 0:19:56this always makes me just a little nervous.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59- You ready?- Yeah. Go on.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01Whoa! LAUGHTER
0:20:03 > 0:20:05- So you can imagine... - That's what I call a flash!
0:20:05 > 0:20:08Well, you can just imagine, you know, why it is
0:20:08 > 0:20:11that some of those 19th-century photographs,
0:20:11 > 0:20:13- they look kind of shell-shocked. - Yeah, their expressions!
0:20:13 > 0:20:15OK. Now it all makes sense.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19Photography had two huge effects.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22Firstly, it allowed everybody to create images of themselves
0:20:22 > 0:20:23that would outlive them.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26And that was previously only available to the rich and powerful.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28And secondly, it shrunk the world.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30And Michael's been finding out
0:20:30 > 0:20:33how photography is still at the heart of the modern news-gathering machine.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39As photographic equipment became ever more portable,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42photography moved from capturing portraits and landscapes
0:20:42 > 0:20:45to documenting events across the globe.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47Photographic journalists began using pictures
0:20:47 > 0:20:51to tell news stories more vividly than any headline.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54The appeal of photographs to news organisations
0:20:54 > 0:20:57is they can deliver a real emotional punch.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00They make you feel happy, sad, outraged.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03And when you get the right picture with the right story,
0:21:03 > 0:21:05then the effect is really potent.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Today, the BBC News picture desk
0:21:08 > 0:21:11receives a stream of 10,000 photographs a day
0:21:11 > 0:21:13from journalists and agencies around the world.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16The Royal Wedding, for instance, pictures were arriving,
0:21:16 > 0:21:17so the kiss on the balcony,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20the pictures arrived within two minutes of it actually happening.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23Because they were all set up to transmit, and, bang, they come in.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27Go back 20 years, 30 pictures a day would come in on the wires.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29They were printed out on various machines
0:21:29 > 0:21:32which were a bit like photocopiers or fax machines almost.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36The fact that it took 10 minutes for a picture to arrive didn't matter.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39- This one here, what's this? - This is the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43It's a wire photo that was transmitted in black and white.
0:21:43 > 0:21:44Talk me through it.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48These would come across as a yellow and a blue and a red.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52And then you'd reconstitute them by putting them under a copy camera,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56then you'd photograph them with the appropriate filter one after the other.
0:21:56 > 0:21:57And as long as you didn't jog them, you ended up
0:21:57 > 0:22:00with a perfectly registered colour picture at the end of it.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03It's curious how driven we are by pictures.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06Yeah. I mean, the demand for pictures now is much, much higher.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09It's not always drama you're after, sometimes it's the human side of things.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11And...and people are always the strongest.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15It's getting that...that connection with the people in the picture.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19The rise of user-generated content, readers sending in pictures,
0:22:19 > 0:22:21has made a lot of difference to us.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24It's often said, but everyone's a photographer now.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28Most people have that in their pocket these days with their phone.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31I guess the change now that you've got user-generated content
0:22:31 > 0:22:34is almost as profound as the original photographic revolution.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37It's kind of been called the second revolution of photography,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40from the one 100 or so years ago when the Box Brownie put photography
0:22:40 > 0:22:42in the hands of the masses.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44And now it's once again in the hands of the masses,
0:22:44 > 0:22:46but not just the ability to take pictures,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49it's also the ability to publish them and share them
0:22:49 > 0:22:51and not just with your mates down the pub
0:22:51 > 0:22:53or your friends from a shoebox under the bed.
0:22:53 > 0:22:58You can put them up there and obviously, the world is there to view them.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02The thing that strikes me is how quickly it all happened.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06Because 20 years ago, I was a director on Tomorrow's World,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10I was in Japan, I had these new prototype digital cameras.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14I told the world, "The digital camera is coming." It cost £10,000 then.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17And I had no idea it was going to take off like that.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21That's the thing, isn't it? You can't know which inventions
0:23:21 > 0:23:24are going to be the future and which ones are going to be history.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26You can see it with photography.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29No-one could have really predicted the evolution of that technology.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31And our next invention is similarly so.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34A new material comes in from left field
0:23:34 > 0:23:37and completely revolutionises the way we see ourselves.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41The motion picture has its origins in the 19th century
0:23:41 > 0:23:43with scientists who were far more interested
0:23:43 > 0:23:46in understanding movement, rather than in trying to create it.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49And it begins with this man, Eadweard Muybridge,
0:23:49 > 0:23:50the father of cinematography.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54Now, Muybridge had been charged with discovering whether a horse's feet
0:23:54 > 0:23:57all left the ground at the same time when it was trotting and galloping,
0:23:57 > 0:23:59and he did it in a very clever way.
0:23:59 > 0:24:00This is his machinery.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04It's a row of cameras all operated by tripwires.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07And what happens is the horse gallops towards the tripwires
0:24:07 > 0:24:11and as it hits them, every camera in the row takes a tiny picture.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14The tripwires operate a shutter, click, click, click,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17and that is the fundamental part of this invention.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20What it produces is a set of photographs
0:24:20 > 0:24:22which quite clearly demonstrate
0:24:22 > 0:24:24that a horse's feet do leave the ground,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26but more importantly, when you project them
0:24:26 > 0:24:29at the magic rate of at least 12 frames per second,
0:24:29 > 0:24:32fool the human brain into thinking that it's seeing motion.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35Yes, but the pictures were exposed on glass plates
0:24:35 > 0:24:37and this had an obvious disadvantage.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40It severely limited the number of photos
0:24:40 > 0:24:41that could be taken in a sequence.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44And his work was scientific, anyway.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47He wasn't trying to create motion pictures as we know them.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49It was a dead end.
0:24:49 > 0:24:50There was a flurry of breakthroughs
0:24:50 > 0:24:52in the second half of the 19th century.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55By the 1880s, experimenters understood
0:24:55 > 0:24:57the principles of moving pictures.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00They understood lenses, movement and projection.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03But it would take the invention of an important new material
0:25:03 > 0:25:06for cinematography itself to take off.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09'Although early experimenters had made great strides studying
0:25:09 > 0:25:13'movement they could go no further with the existing materials.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17'Glass plates were heavy and fragile and paper tore easily.
0:25:17 > 0:25:22'Neither met the demands of capturing the moving image.'
0:25:22 > 0:25:25As a scientist and a massive film fan, I've always been
0:25:25 > 0:25:28fascinated by the role of materials in the making of movies.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32And it was of course a substance, not a technology, that created
0:25:32 > 0:25:34the movie industry in the first place.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39And that substance is this - celluloid.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43'And like many wonder materials, celluloid was originally
0:25:43 > 0:25:46'conceived for a very different purpose.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50'It was developed in 1870 as a substitute for ivory
0:25:50 > 0:25:52'in billiard balls by American John Wesley Hyatt.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57'But it was its versatility that ensured its continued use.'
0:25:57 > 0:25:59Throughout the 1870s, it was used widely for a whole range
0:25:59 > 0:26:01of applications.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03You could buy celluloid shirt collars,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07shirt cuffs, even celluloid false teeth.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12It was the British manufacturer John Carbutt who
0:26:12 > 0:26:14discovered that this colourless, light,
0:26:14 > 0:26:19durable plastic had a more illuminating purpose - photography.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22He coated thin sheets with photographic emulsion
0:26:22 > 0:26:25and used them instead of glass plates.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28But it was only when Kodak boss George Eastman produced
0:26:28 > 0:26:31celluloid in rolls for his new stills camera
0:26:31 > 0:26:34that its potential for film-makers was unleashed.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38'They had seen how roll film revolutionised stills photography
0:26:38 > 0:26:41'and realised it might also unlock
0:26:41 > 0:26:43'the secrets of capturing motion.'
0:26:43 > 0:26:45And celluloid rolls drove
0:26:45 > 0:26:49early film pioneers to design new camera technology that
0:26:49 > 0:26:53took advantage of this wonderful flexible plastic.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58'It would influence the design of the film camera for years to come.
0:26:58 > 0:27:04'The perforations and sprocket rollers enabled the film to
0:27:04 > 0:27:08'flow through the camera. A spinning shutter allowed for rapid
0:27:08 > 0:27:10'exposures, and a claw mechanism ensured the film could be moved
0:27:10 > 0:27:13'and stopped for each frame up to 20 times a second.'
0:27:14 > 0:27:18The claw, which was really the Lumieres' contribution,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21was inspired by the sewing machine.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24It's interesting that you are taking an idea from one application
0:27:24 > 0:27:31and using it in another and this is the way that advances happen.
0:27:31 > 0:27:36In 1895, the film-making pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumiere introduced
0:27:36 > 0:27:41their Cinematographe - a camera and projector in one, and unveiled
0:27:41 > 0:27:44the world's first cinema performance of moving pictures on celluloid.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49It's to a paying audience, of only about 30, 35 people,
0:27:49 > 0:27:50but within a week or so,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53they're having 2,000 people a day coming through the doors.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57As other experimenters rushed to exploit the union of machines
0:27:57 > 0:28:00and materials, the film industry was born.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03'Some of the results of those pioneering experiments are housed
0:28:03 > 0:28:07'in the British Film Institute's master film store in Warwickshire.'
0:28:07 > 0:28:10At this former nuclear defence facility, they have
0:28:10 > 0:28:13one of the largest collections of early celluloid nitrate films
0:28:13 > 0:28:15in the world.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17- Hello.- Do you want to come this way?
0:28:17 > 0:28:21What would it have been like going to an early cinema, what would we have seen?
0:28:21 > 0:28:25You're talking about minute or less for most films.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27They kind of slowly build up in length,
0:28:27 > 0:28:32so by 1905, our most popular film hit was Rescued By Rover,
0:28:32 > 0:28:35that ran to 6½ marvellous minutes.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40It was so popular that the negatives were worn out,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43because so many prints had to be struck from it.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46What happened at the end of the life of these films?
0:28:46 > 0:28:48Most of them were simply chucked out.
0:28:48 > 0:28:50I think it's important to remember that then
0:28:50 > 0:28:54they were not seen as art or culture in any way, shape or form,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57they were purely product, and, actually, a lot of them
0:28:57 > 0:29:01were just melted down to get the silver content out of them.
0:29:01 > 0:29:06'It's not just their historical value that demands such high security.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10'There was a dangerous flaw in the properties of early celluloid film -
0:29:10 > 0:29:12'flammability.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18'And this demonstration reveals why the invention of cinema itself
0:29:18 > 0:29:19'was under threat.'
0:29:19 > 0:29:21We're getting there.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23Are you ready? Let's go for it!
0:29:32 > 0:29:36It's the sense that that's a tiny bit of a reel, just imagine a whole archive.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44Reports of cinema fires ignited fears about public safety,
0:29:44 > 0:29:50and in 1909, the Cinematograph Act was passed, requiring the careful handling of film.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53But it would take another 40 years before the development
0:29:53 > 0:29:57of non-flammable celluloid, appropriately called "safety film".
0:29:57 > 0:30:02Celluloid reigned supreme for over 100 years, and even in our
0:30:02 > 0:30:06digital age, it remains a symbol for the magic of the moving image.
0:30:06 > 0:30:11At its heart, cinema consisted of images that were projected
0:30:11 > 0:30:13onto a screen.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16And you need a material, and that material was celluloid.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20So, without the invention of celluloid there would have
0:30:20 > 0:30:23been no moving pictures and no cinema as we know it today.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30And cinema in the UK was introduced just down the road from here
0:30:30 > 0:30:32by the Lumiere brothers.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35Now surprisingly enough, Louis Lumiere said,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38"Ze cinema is an invention without any future..." He got that
0:30:38 > 0:30:42wrong, didn't he? And that raises an interesting question.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45How long do inventions take to really catch on?
0:30:45 > 0:30:48Or the diffusion rate, to use the jargon.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51I'm joined by Dr Jonathan Liebenau from the London School of Economics.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Well, Jonathan, I have a graph here
0:30:54 > 0:30:55and it shows years
0:30:55 > 0:30:58to reach 50% household ownership.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02And here we go...it's electricity 40 years, 50 years,
0:31:02 > 0:31:06and the telephone has taken an impressive 71 years.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08What are the most significant factors which
0:31:08 > 0:31:10determine whether something takes off?
0:31:10 > 0:31:14Well, first of all, whether people appreciate the invention.
0:31:14 > 0:31:19Whether it fits into what they understand about their needs
0:31:19 > 0:31:20and aspirations.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23It also needs to be affordable and it has to be legal.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27And legal doesn't just mean that it's not illegal.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31But that it's governed by a system where people can feel that they
0:31:31 > 0:31:35trust the way in which their money is spent, their time is spent, and
0:31:35 > 0:31:42the tools that they use are going to be properly fitting in together.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44Do you think it's predictable?
0:31:44 > 0:31:49Now it depends on whether you're talking about really novel changes,
0:31:49 > 0:31:51in which case it's very difficult to tell,
0:31:51 > 0:31:53or whether it's an incremental change,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57where it fits into a system that is in place.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01The telephone needed a whole new system, not only a system
0:32:01 > 0:32:05of telephone connections, but a system of ways to use the telephone
0:32:05 > 0:32:11and it also fitted in pretty quickly to a government-regulated form.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15Whereas the internet was built on top of the telephone system,
0:32:15 > 0:32:18it already was in place, and there was an opportunity for it to diffuse
0:32:18 > 0:32:22very quickly, once people had an idea of what its utility would be.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26What sort of technology out there should I be putting my money into?
0:32:26 > 0:32:29I'm not going to give you financial guidance.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32But I think the electric car is something,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35if you had patient capital, that it would be a good thing to invest in.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37How patient?
0:32:37 > 0:32:40Perhaps 15 years or so,
0:32:40 > 0:32:43in terms of paying off your investment.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46I'll have you on the sofa in 15 years' time and we'll find out.
0:32:46 > 0:32:47Thank you, Jonathan.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51Now, with all the technological elements for cinema in place,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55it was time to turn to what was actually being shown, and to whom.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58We asked film historian and broadcaster Matthew Sweet
0:32:58 > 0:33:02to investigate the murky world of early film censorship.
0:33:02 > 0:33:07'The extraordinary power of the cinematic moving images to enthral,
0:33:07 > 0:33:12'amaze and move the audience meant its popularity, particularly among
0:33:12 > 0:33:16'the urban poor, could no longer be ignored by the authorities.'
0:33:16 > 0:33:19And with the introduction of the 1909 Cinematograph Act,
0:33:19 > 0:33:23the film business became official.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27Regulated. Out went screenings in tents and converted shops.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31In came purpose-built legitimate picture houses.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33With usherettes. And drinks on sticks.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36And a whole lot of official opinions about disgraceful
0:33:36 > 0:33:39things going on in the auditorium.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43'Like many new inventions, cinema came with its own army of naysayers
0:33:43 > 0:33:46'and doom-mongers.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49'Chief constables and teachers' groups blamed the movies
0:33:49 > 0:33:54'for poor eyesight, headaches, and an increase in the suicide rate.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58'The Catholic Church even banned its priests from attending.'
0:33:58 > 0:34:01So what was it about cinemas that people felt was so awful?
0:34:01 > 0:34:04Well, obviously they were dark, dirty, smelly places,
0:34:04 > 0:34:06places where you could catch diseases.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10There was this general kind of patrician's sense that working-class
0:34:10 > 0:34:13people would sit there in the dark and they'd get up to stuff.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17- What kind of stuff? - Well, er, sex, basically.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20Kissing, er, general sort of immoral activity.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24'But while you could sanitise a cinema,
0:34:24 > 0:34:28'and its audience, with a jolly good spray of cleaning fluid,
0:34:28 > 0:34:32'upon the screen was something beyond the reach of disinfectant.'
0:34:32 > 0:34:36There WERE a lot of films being made which had sexual content,
0:34:36 > 0:34:40but we're not talking about hardcore pornography in any way, shape or form.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44What we're talking about is a mild form of titillation, at best.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48The other thing that we're talking about is petty crime,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51and there was this worry about people sort of seeing what kind of
0:34:51 > 0:34:54crimes could be done and saying, "Ah, that's a good idea, let's try that."
0:34:56 > 0:34:59It's a familiar argument. The impressionable,
0:34:59 > 0:35:02who are generally never the people who want to censor things,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06had to be protected from what they saw in the cinema.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08It was all too inflammatory.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11So local councils got together to impose
0:35:11 > 0:35:15certain conditions about what could be shown in their area.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18That didn't go down too well with the people who were putting
0:35:18 > 0:35:20this stuff on the screen.
0:35:22 > 0:35:27'The film companies suspected state censorship was on its way.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30'So, in 1912, to pre-empt any government meddling,
0:35:30 > 0:35:34they founded the British Board of Film Censors.'
0:35:34 > 0:35:39In the very beginning, the BBFC only had two real problems.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44One was nudity and the other was the realistic portrayal of Christ.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48At the time, it was seen as a real issue.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51It was a question of taste and not offending churchgoers,
0:35:51 > 0:35:53which was most people.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57'But soon the list of objections grew.'
0:35:58 > 0:36:02In these ledgers are recorded all the titles of the films that
0:36:02 > 0:36:06were put out and the ones that were censored.
0:36:06 > 0:36:11A film called The Baboon's Knife has had its title changed to
0:36:11 > 0:36:16The Baboon's Revenge On The Conscience Of The Great Unknown.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18The ways of the censor are strange.
0:36:18 > 0:36:23'But the BBFC soon came under fire for its seemingly heavy-handed
0:36:23 > 0:36:28'responses, so in 1916, it published a 43-point list
0:36:28 > 0:36:32'explaining exactly when content would get the chop.'
0:36:32 > 0:36:35"Excessively passionate love scenes.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39"Bathing scenes passing the limits of propriety.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43"Scenes tending to disparage public characters or institutions."
0:36:43 > 0:36:48It's like an all-you-can-eat menu of early 20th-century anxiety.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53We have a kind of image of the censor as a man with a big
0:36:53 > 0:36:57pair of scissors cutting bits out of films, so we imagine that
0:36:57 > 0:37:01somewhere all these lovely little bits of films will exist.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04Er, but there isn't, er, regrettably a lovely archive of little
0:37:04 > 0:37:08clips of naughty scenes taken out of films. Wouldn't it be lovely?
0:37:11 > 0:37:15'By 1917, anxiety about cinema had become so great that
0:37:15 > 0:37:19'a special commission was set up to examine its impact.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22'After months of investigation, they delivered their verdict -
0:37:22 > 0:37:25'tighten censorship and turn up the lights.'
0:37:25 > 0:37:29But here's the most important conclusion they reached.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32The cinema couldn't be reformed out of existence.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37The machine couldn't be un-invented, despite the flea-biting, snogging, and the copycat crime.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40The movies were more powerful than moralism.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42And they still are.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48I love the fact that, as we've seen right across the series,
0:37:48 > 0:37:51new inventions can set off some sort of moral panic.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54When the steam engine first came along, people thought it would
0:37:54 > 0:37:58make their heads explode or their wombs fly out.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02Now, do you think all inventions create this moral panic?
0:38:02 > 0:38:04Well, sometimes.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07The thing is about inventions, we're talking about things
0:38:07 > 0:38:11which revolutionise the world, and sometimes a moral panic is justified.
0:38:11 > 0:38:16Much as I like cars, they are the biggest killer of young people worldwide.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19But they don't actually produce moral panic, do they?
0:38:19 > 0:38:20Well, they should, that's my point.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23But we see that with ALL of the visual innovations.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27You know, computer games, video nasties, social networking sites.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29"We must look after children, we must look after
0:38:29 > 0:38:31"the working classes in the cinemas in the dark."
0:38:31 > 0:38:33And I see here, "TV is to blame."
0:38:33 > 0:38:37- And that is our final invention. - The television.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41'Few things could shrink the world as much as the ability to see
0:38:41 > 0:38:43'live images in our own homes.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46'Celluloid had given us moving images at the cinema.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48'The next step was to discover a way
0:38:48 > 0:38:51'of transmitting them live over distance.'
0:38:51 > 0:38:56By the 1930s, there had been over 50 serious proposals for television.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58The competition was international,
0:38:58 > 0:39:01with inventors working in 11 different countries.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05Right from the start, the ideas for how a television would work
0:39:05 > 0:39:08broadly fitted into two camps - mechanical techniques, using
0:39:08 > 0:39:10a spinning Nipkow disc, and electronic techniques.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14And this was a fight that would last for decades to come.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20Mechanical television was first out of the blocks,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24thanks to an obsessive Scottish engineer, John Logie Baird.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27Baird had been a prolific, largely unsuccessful, inventor
0:39:27 > 0:39:29since childhood.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33But it was here in Hastings that he had the idea that would
0:39:33 > 0:39:36change his life. Why not convert pictures into signals
0:39:36 > 0:39:39and send them through the air?
0:39:39 > 0:39:42Baird actually didn't invent any of the component parts that went
0:39:42 > 0:39:46together to make television, but his strength lay in the fact
0:39:46 > 0:39:50that as an inventor, he could look at these disparate inventions
0:39:50 > 0:39:55and pluck together the bits that he needed to get what he wanted.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01'Baird created his first prototype using a combination
0:40:01 > 0:40:07'of recycled parts and four key inventions from other people.'
0:40:07 > 0:40:09So this is what he started with.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12He got a hatbox, he cut some holes in it,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15made it spin to scan the image.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19The thing he made it spin with was this, an adapted fan engine.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22And then he wanted to focus the image,
0:40:22 > 0:40:26so he used the lens from a bicycle lamp.
0:40:26 > 0:40:32Next, he takes that image and he passes it through this,
0:40:32 > 0:40:37this is a selenium cell which he got from a local army surplus store,
0:40:37 > 0:40:39and that creates an electrical signal.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43Electrical signal goes into this, which he also bought from an army surplus store, this is
0:40:43 > 0:40:47an amplifier and that creates a bigger signal...which then passes
0:40:47 > 0:40:53into this, a neon lamp which glows, depending on the signal it gets.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58And that, in turn, is projected through another spinning disc.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01He mounts the whole ramshackle device onto what's called
0:41:01 > 0:41:04a "coffin board", which was used by local undertakers to carry
0:41:04 > 0:41:07dead bodies on.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10'Despite appearances,
0:41:10 > 0:41:15'this homespun equipment was about to make history.'
0:41:15 > 0:41:17- Hi there.- Hi. Good to meet you.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20So I've got this idea that he's got all these bits of apparatus...
0:41:20 > 0:41:21Did it really work?
0:41:21 > 0:41:25Originally, he could show just basically a black cross,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29a bit flickery and a bit wobbly, and he could just about, with some
0:41:29 > 0:41:32special focusing, just about get a white blob of a face,
0:41:32 > 0:41:35with a blob for each of the eyes and a third blob for the mouth.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38He said if the person spoke, you could just see the bottom blob
0:41:38 > 0:41:42wiggling a little bit but he knew, "This is going to work."
0:41:42 > 0:41:45But as a lone inventor, Baird needed support.
0:41:45 > 0:41:49He placed an advert in The Times and later met businessman
0:41:49 > 0:41:53Wilfred Day, who sent him funds and equipment.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56He rented a studio in this Hastings arcade
0:41:56 > 0:42:00and threw himself into achieving that elusive clear picture.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03On one occasion, he actually blows himself up.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06He's joining all these batteries up,
0:42:06 > 0:42:08not a good idea, and he gets a 1,200-volt shock.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11And he's found, with burns, on the other side of the lab.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15So the landlord here, not very happy,
0:42:15 > 0:42:18and eventually tells Baird he's got to go.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22So, in 1924, Baird moved to London
0:42:22 > 0:42:25and set up a lab in an attic studio in Soho.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28He was using better amplifiers, better valves.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31He was putting more light on the subject, in fact he was putting
0:42:31 > 0:42:34so much light on the subject that he actually set fire to
0:42:34 > 0:42:38someone's hair and after that no-one would sit in front of his camera.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41So he bought an old ventriloquist's dummy's head which
0:42:41 > 0:42:46he called Stooky Bill, and Stooky Bill would sit under these very hot
0:42:46 > 0:42:50bright lights for hours on end without complaining.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57'But finally, after months of frustration, his hard work paid off.'
0:42:57 > 0:43:01On 2nd October, 1925, he finally managed to get
0:43:01 > 0:43:04the image of Stooky Bill transmitted across the room.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08It was blurry, it was out of focus,
0:43:08 > 0:43:12but it was a recognisable face.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19In 1926, John Logie Baird demonstrated his mechanical
0:43:19 > 0:43:22television for the first time,
0:43:22 > 0:43:25and we've got a reconstruction of that here.
0:43:25 > 0:43:30He invited members of the Royal Institution but we've invited Cassie,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34who's just as good, I think, if not better, and this is how it worked.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37So you had a model who could be seen to be moving in real time,
0:43:37 > 0:43:42and you had a camera with a spinning disc in it, and that has 30 holes.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Now those 30 holes, by spinning around, they scan Cassie's
0:43:45 > 0:43:48face into 30 lines of dark and light, which are captured
0:43:48 > 0:43:51on a photosensitive cell here at the back.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54That's turned into electricity, and that electric signal of dark
0:43:54 > 0:43:57and light is recreated over here in the receiver,
0:43:57 > 0:43:59which is essentially just the opposite of the camera.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03A light is turned on and off due to that signal,
0:44:03 > 0:44:07and this spinning disc has 30 holes, and if those two are synched together in the right way,
0:44:07 > 0:44:10you get lines, and actually a full picture,
0:44:10 > 0:44:13and that is television for the first time.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17At the time, it must have been an absolutely marvellously
0:44:17 > 0:44:20extraordinary moment to see.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22The Baird company was really taking off.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25They could transmit across a room, they could transmit
0:44:25 > 0:44:29down the 400 miles of telephone cable between London and Glasgow.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32But what they really wanted to do was broadcast on the airwaves.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34They needed a transmitter.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37So the next move was to take the system to the only official
0:44:37 > 0:44:40broadcaster in the UK, the BBC.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46All inventions if they are to change our lives,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49need to find supporters beyond the workshop.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52For television, that meant attracting an audience.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59In 1932, Baird began test transmissions from Broadcasting House.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03But he soon had competition from a rival system -
0:45:03 > 0:45:08electronic television, led by the powerful corporation EMI.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12'The government had to select the best invention.'
0:45:12 > 0:45:16They asked the BBC to conduct an extraordinary experiment in which
0:45:16 > 0:45:20mechanical and electronic television would compete head-to-head.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22And this is the site of the battle -
0:45:22 > 0:45:25Alexandra Palace in North London, which, in November, 1936,
0:45:25 > 0:45:30would play host to the world's first television talent contest.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34'A former Victorian entertainment venue, the site had the height
0:45:34 > 0:45:38'and range for the transmitter and space for two separate studios.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42'Baird Television Ltd's mechanical system was given Studio B,
0:45:42 > 0:45:47'while in Studio A were the newcomers, now called Marconi- EMI.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51'Their system employed electronic technology, which had been
0:45:51 > 0:45:55'proposed by Scottish scientist AA Campbell-Swinton in 1908,
0:45:55 > 0:45:59'based on the recently invented cathode ray tube.'
0:46:00 > 0:46:0476 years ago, this studio would have been full of people
0:46:04 > 0:46:07and equipment from the Marconi-EMI team.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10Both teams were given six months to prove themselves.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14At the end of the contest, the best system would be awarded -
0:46:14 > 0:46:16the coveted contract to broadcast to the nation.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20The loser would go home with nothing.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24'Transmission started on 2nd November, 1936.
0:46:24 > 0:46:29'The opening ceremony was broadcast twice, first with the Baird cameras,
0:46:29 > 0:46:33'and then again on the Marconi-EMI system.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37'To the viewer at home, the picture quality was evenly matched,
0:46:37 > 0:46:41'but Baird knew he had a battle on his hands.'
0:46:41 > 0:46:46The mechanical systems Baird was using had been refined
0:46:46 > 0:46:51over 10, 12 years and had got as far as they could possibly go,
0:46:51 > 0:46:55whereas the EMI electronic system was still in its infancy.
0:46:56 > 0:47:01Despite this, EMI's Emitron camera showcased the latest advances
0:47:01 > 0:47:03in electronics.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07The camera pointed towards the host and the picture
0:47:07 > 0:47:11focused onto a light-sensitive plate inside a cathode ray tube.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15The plate was then scanned using a beam of electrons,
0:47:15 > 0:47:19which was directed in lines across the image by electromagnets.
0:47:19 > 0:47:25This produced a series of electrical signals which were sent to a transmitter.
0:47:25 > 0:47:27The brighter the area on the picture, the stronger the signal.
0:47:27 > 0:47:32At the other end, another cathode ray tube converted the signal
0:47:32 > 0:47:34back into an electron stream.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38This was directed in parallel lines onto a fluorescent TV screen,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41and the successive scans built up as a picture.
0:47:41 > 0:47:46EMI had three cameras in the studio and you could take a picture
0:47:46 > 0:47:50from any one of the three cameras. You could put the camera on wheels,
0:47:50 > 0:47:54it was relatively light, and you could wheel it around the studio.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57It was television as we understand it today.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02Under pressure to match the quality of this slick new system,
0:48:02 > 0:48:04Baird devised an incredibly complicated technology
0:48:04 > 0:48:07based on celluloid.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12They filmed what happened in the studio on film.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15The film came straight out of the bottom of the camera,
0:48:15 > 0:48:16into developer,
0:48:16 > 0:48:21into fixer, and then into water, and while still wet and underwater,
0:48:21 > 0:48:26about 54 seconds later, it was scanned to produce a television picture.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32'Baird's system, while offering good picture quality, was flawed.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35'The cameras couldn't move, the developing process required
0:48:35 > 0:48:38'dangerous chemicals, and it wasn't live.'
0:48:38 > 0:48:43It soon became clear that Baird's mechanical system had reached the end of the road,
0:48:43 > 0:48:46while, for electronic television, it was just the beginning.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49Marconi-EMI offered superior performance
0:48:49 > 0:48:51and were improving every day.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54As one of the producers said, "It was like using Morse code in one room
0:48:54 > 0:48:56"when you knew that next door you could telephone."
0:48:59 > 0:49:03It is in the nature of invention that first is not always best.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06The incremental improvements and adaptations of rival systems
0:49:06 > 0:49:10can take an invention further than the original inventor ever could.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14After three months, Marconi-EMI was declared the winner.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17Baird had lost out.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22In defence of Baird, to say that his system failed is
0:49:22 > 0:49:26rather like saying that Trevithick's first steam
0:49:26 > 0:49:30locomotive in the streets of Cornwall failed and therefore
0:49:30 > 0:49:34he has nothing to do with the history of the motorised vehicle.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38If you go back to the beginning of any invention,
0:49:38 > 0:49:41it bears no resemblance to the state it's now in.
0:49:41 > 0:49:42That shouldn't really
0:49:42 > 0:49:44detract from the fact
0:49:44 > 0:49:48that he was the person who proved to everyone it could be done.
0:49:53 > 0:49:57I'm joined by Iain Baird, who's curator of broadcast at the National
0:49:57 > 0:50:01Media Museum in Bradford and is the grandson of John Logie Baird.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04Your grandfather must have been very disappointed with
0:50:04 > 0:50:06the outcome of those trials.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08He was very upset, he was much more upset
0:50:08 > 0:50:10than people in his company were,
0:50:10 > 0:50:11because they thought, "We can make
0:50:11 > 0:50:13"money by selling television sets."
0:50:13 > 0:50:17But he didn't get too discouraged by it and he did move forward.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20Not only did he invent the first working prototype, but
0:50:20 > 0:50:24he championed it. In a sense, that's part of why he's so great, isn't it?
0:50:24 > 0:50:27He was a champion of television,
0:50:27 > 0:50:30he believed in it, and he could see it being used in a broadcast
0:50:30 > 0:50:33application, whereas a lot of people at the time didn't see a use
0:50:33 > 0:50:36for it. They said, "We have radio, we have the cinema," and so he took
0:50:36 > 0:50:41it from being a scientific, almost a science fiction sort of Wellsian
0:50:41 > 0:50:45device to being something that by the '50s, it had become commonplace.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48So what set your grandfather apart from other inventors?
0:50:48 > 0:50:53On the surface, he didn't appear to be completely scientific.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56He was quite personable, he had a good sense of humour,
0:50:56 > 0:50:57which he'd learned from his father.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00He had people skills and he was an inventor?! Amazing.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04At the beginning, he seemed a little quiet, but was actually quite humorous,
0:51:04 > 0:51:07so he would very often work late at night to develop an idea
0:51:07 > 0:51:10and it was his technical enthusiasm which was quite contagious.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13Yeah, I think he was a man of the people in a lot of ways,
0:51:13 > 0:51:17a champion of coming from poverty, which was definitely
0:51:17 > 0:51:19a condition that he had to face during his career,
0:51:19 > 0:51:22to develop something that would change the world.
0:51:22 > 0:51:23Thanks, Iain.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26Now, you'll remember that earlier in the programme,
0:51:26 > 0:51:29we set photographer Terry King the task of reproducing
0:51:29 > 0:51:32the technique Niepce used back in 1826.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35It's time to find out how he got on.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41Having been inspired by Niepce's experiments with turpentine,
0:51:41 > 0:51:45asphalt and lavender oil, Terry hopes to have perfected the formula
0:51:45 > 0:51:48used to make the world's first photograph.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51Like his predecessor, Terry's camera's been set to capture
0:51:51 > 0:51:54the view from a window onto a pewter plate.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57I think I have actually got windows coming through.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59This is the wishful-thinking bit.
0:51:59 > 0:52:05But can our inventions enthusiast achieve the same success?
0:52:05 > 0:52:07So, Terry, how did it go?
0:52:07 > 0:52:11Well, because there wasn't much light and there was mist and fog...
0:52:11 > 0:52:12Is this a lot of excuses?
0:52:12 > 0:52:16It's a lot of excuses to say that in fact there wasn't enough
0:52:16 > 0:52:18light to harden the asphaltum to make it work for us.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21We had a very faint impression on there,
0:52:21 > 0:52:26but as we tried to develop it in turpentine, it all just washed away.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29- Ah.- Apart from anything else, this process shows us
0:52:29 > 0:52:31quite what an achievement it was for Niepce.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34Well, I think it certainly was an achievement.
0:52:34 > 0:52:39It took him, in fact, six years of hard work,
0:52:39 > 0:52:40and then it took everybody else
0:52:40 > 0:52:44another 30 years to achieve what Niepce wanted to achieve.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46But he set the whole thing in motion.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49And there's a beautiful moment when he cracks it
0:52:49 > 0:52:51and he writes a letter home to his brother, and it says...
0:53:03 > 0:53:04Well, I'm sure it was.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08But we have to remember that the first photograph was really what it was.
0:53:08 > 0:53:09He had nothing to compare it with.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13And I know how difficult it was to produce an image, simply
0:53:13 > 0:53:18because it took me months and months and months to find out what
0:53:18 > 0:53:22dilution the asphalt should be and how long the exposure should be.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26In fact, I've got one here which was done using Niepce's process.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29Ah, but it's obviously not a view out of a window?
0:53:29 > 0:53:33No, this is a contact print which I made
0:53:33 > 0:53:38putting a leaf on the asphaltum under a UV light.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41We had hindsight, poor old Niepce certainly didn't.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45And that makes him the kind of person that, in my view,
0:53:45 > 0:53:47we can reasonably call him a genius.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49Terry, thank you so much for coming.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52- It's been a very great pleasure. - Thank you.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00So that concludes our story of 12 inventions
0:54:00 > 0:54:01that shape all our lives.
0:54:01 > 0:54:07It's a tale of how the work of a handful of brilliant minds,
0:54:07 > 0:54:12together with the discoveries of countless lesser-known inventors
0:54:12 > 0:54:17and the institutions that supported them combined to make our modern world.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20We have seen how critical invention has been
0:54:20 > 0:54:22in transforming our relationship with power,
0:54:22 > 0:54:27how a transport revolution brought us closer together,
0:54:27 > 0:54:31how cabled and wireless communication shrank our planet,
0:54:31 > 0:54:36and how still and moving images allowed us to record and share the world.
0:54:38 > 0:54:43'Together, they all show The Genius Of Invention.'
0:54:43 > 0:54:46The truth is that quite a lot of the inventions
0:54:46 > 0:54:49we have focused on have British roots.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53Do you think we are being incredibly xenophobic or do you
0:54:53 > 0:54:57think there's actually something peculiarly inventive about the British?
0:54:57 > 0:54:59There is something peculiar about Britain, in inventiveness.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03I think it's a very creative culture, and it's quite unusual for that.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06You can see it in our humour, and I think you can see it in our engineering.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08I think we're terrible at making money out of that.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12And we weren't in the 19th century, but we've somehow lost
0:55:12 > 0:55:15the knack of turning that great inventiveness into some bucks.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18Which brings me neatly onto our final film.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20I went to meet Sir James Dyson, one of our more successful
0:55:20 > 0:55:23inventors, to see what he thinks about the nature of British
0:55:23 > 0:55:26inventiveness and what lies ahead.
0:55:26 > 0:55:31Like many inventors, Sir James Dyson struggled for years before
0:55:31 > 0:55:34he launched the product that would make his name
0:55:34 > 0:55:36and fortune - the bagless vacuum cleaner.
0:55:36 > 0:55:42'Since then, he's filed over 3,500 patents and played
0:55:42 > 0:55:45'a significant role in keeping Britain's inventive spirit alive.'
0:55:45 > 0:55:48So, do you think the British are particularly inventive?
0:55:48 > 0:55:51Yes, part of the reason is we like being eccentric.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54We're an island race, we like to be different.
0:55:54 > 0:55:55And we're quite grand
0:55:55 > 0:55:58in our thought, you know, conquering
0:55:58 > 0:56:02the world, ruling the seas and so on, that's deep in our history.
0:56:02 > 0:56:04And that's given us this independence of spirit,
0:56:04 > 0:56:11and a desire to create things that we can ship to the world.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13Do you have hero inventors?
0:56:13 > 0:56:15Whittle was incredibly inspirational.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20I love his story, this uneducated person who built model
0:56:20 > 0:56:23aeroplanes, and ended up getting a double First at Cambridge,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26while at the same time building the world's first jet engine.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29I mean, it was the most extraordinary invention.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33'Sir James believes we can keep our place as a world leader
0:56:33 > 0:56:35'in design and innovation.'
0:56:35 > 0:56:39Do you think that everything that can be invented has been invented?
0:56:39 > 0:56:43Oh, now is an absolutely wonderful moment where we've got to stop using
0:56:43 > 0:56:47all these resources, so engineering now is very, very exciting.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51You don't build the biggest and the fastest, you have to build something that uses
0:56:51 > 0:56:56less electricity, less water, fewer materials, that lasts longer.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59So I think a lot of the inventions will come in materials,
0:56:59 > 0:57:03materials that answer that call, and then engineers and scientists
0:57:03 > 0:57:07will be able to use that to create really interesting products.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10So I think now,
0:57:10 > 0:57:14we're just at the start of what I think will be a glorious age.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17If we were to come back in 20 years' time, what do you imagine
0:57:17 > 0:57:20we would be talking about?
0:57:20 > 0:57:23I would like to think we have cracked the power problem.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27So, you know, your family sunshine holiday becomes a civic duty.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30Formula One becomes an eco sport.
0:57:30 > 0:57:32I would love to hear that that's what we're doing.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35- OK. I'd love to hear it, too. I'm not optimistic. And you?- I am!
0:57:35 > 0:57:38I also think we'll have cracked self-healing materials.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41I think we'll be making bridges that heal themselves.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44And in doing so, we will have sort of blurred the boundary
0:57:44 > 0:57:47between this inanimate world, this stuff, and the animate world.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49And that will be a blurred region.
0:57:49 > 0:57:51I think that will be tremendously exciting.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55In the same spirit, I'm quite optimistic about 3D printing.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58They've already created a trachea which
0:57:58 > 0:58:01they put into a human being and I can imagine in the future
0:58:01 > 0:58:05that we will be printing lungs, livers, maybe even hearts.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08That's it from us. Thank you, Mark, thank you, Cassie.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11Now, I personally feel better informed
0:58:11 > 0:58:14and more optimistic about the future having made this series.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16We have learnt an awful lot about inventions
0:58:16 > 0:58:19but we have also discovered something about ourselves.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22We make inventions, but they also make us.
0:58:22 > 0:58:27- That's The Genius Of Invention. Goodbye.- Goodbye.- Goodbye.
0:58:57 > 0:59:00Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd