0:00:04 > 0:00:08One of my earliest memories of industry as a small boy is actually
0:00:08 > 0:00:15coming along this very canal when I were about seven or eight, with my father, on a bicycle.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Now, I've never been able to swim, you know, I used to ride along the
0:00:18 > 0:00:23edge of this here tow path or the actual curve on the edge
0:00:23 > 0:00:25and it's a wonder I never fell in, you know.
0:00:25 > 0:00:30And it were a strange place, you know, it's amazing that's really its survived all the, you know...
0:00:30 > 0:00:3550 years, it's still here and all.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38The thing is it were like a time warp, you know?
0:00:38 > 0:00:40There were the remains of old workings,
0:00:40 > 0:00:45wooden pit head gears, and bits of old jib cranes that had all fallen down.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49And it were all very sad in a way, you know, but it never left me mind,
0:00:49 > 0:00:53you know, it got me my first interest in industry going in a way.
0:01:15 > 0:01:21The Industrial Revolution was a time when Britain invented machines that were to change the world.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24It was one of the most important periods in our history,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28but Fred felt it had never really had the attention it deserved.
0:01:31 > 0:01:37Fred was very passionate about engineers and machinery from the past;
0:01:37 > 0:01:39it was a love affair with Fred.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42When I first came here Fred showed me all round the
0:01:42 > 0:01:45garden and explained all about the machines here,
0:01:45 > 0:01:52all the steam engines, and he was like somebody who was explaining like a proud father would about a child.
0:01:52 > 0:02:00What each little item of machinery consisted of, what it did, how it had been made.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04A lot of it went over my head a lot of it was technical and I couldn't
0:02:04 > 0:02:05understand what he was saying,
0:02:05 > 0:02:07but the passion was there...
0:02:07 > 0:02:13and I think most people tapped into that passion, he was able to communicate that very well.
0:02:15 > 0:02:20Through this passion for Britain's industrial past and the machines of a bygone age,
0:02:20 > 0:02:23Fred reminded us of a time when Britain led the world.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29Between 1710 and 1712,
0:02:29 > 0:02:36Thomas Newcomen invented a brand new type of steam engine, the atmospheric engine,
0:02:36 > 0:02:41which was designed solely for one purpose, to pump water from deep mine shafts.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46The first one was installed here in Staffordshire at a colliery
0:02:46 > 0:02:51and it proved to be the world's most successful steam engine.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54Of course, it were used near here at Dudley Castle for
0:02:54 > 0:02:58pumping water out of the many coal mines that were in the area.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05There's very few Newcomen and pumping engines left, and here
0:03:05 > 0:03:09at the Black Country Living Museum they've built a full-size replica
0:03:09 > 0:03:11with a beautiful engine house.
0:03:11 > 0:03:18When it's actually in motion you can, like, step back in time to 1712.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23On the end of the beam, of course, you can see the pump rod which disappears down the mine shaft
0:03:23 > 0:03:25to the pumps in the sump at the bottom.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30This, of course, forces up the water up the rising main and...
0:03:30 > 0:03:32and they let it run away wherever they can.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36For a long time, never understood why,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40people didn't really appreciate Britain's industrial heritage.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45And I suppose it started 40 or even 50 years ago in places like this and Beamish and Ironbridge,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48began to get an interest in it but it needed popularising.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51One of the things that Fred did was bring it to the TV audience,
0:03:51 > 0:03:56which increased it hugely and got more and more people interested.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00- We've got to be very grateful for all he did there.- Hello, Roger.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02You all right?
0:04:02 > 0:04:08- Yeah. Not so bad, thanks, Fred. - Yeah, this is Roger who is the chief engineer of this wonderful creation.
0:04:08 > 0:04:13He's going to tell me how it works, he's one of the few men who actually knows how it works.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15Shall I stop it, while we're talking?
0:04:20 > 0:04:23- Is that the brake?- That's a bit of string and the nail!
0:04:23 > 0:04:26You don't seem to turn any taps off, do you...
0:04:26 > 0:04:29- to stop the thing? - Well, we've got a very simple boiler.
0:04:29 > 0:04:34When Newcomen conceived of this engine, there was no boiler technology,
0:04:34 > 0:04:39the only thing there was was like a giant kettle from the brewing industry and that's what this is.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44The original had a copper bottom and a lead top, which occasionally would melt,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48and the cylinder is mounted directly above that with a valve.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51It's quite simple, really, isn't it, how it works?
0:04:51 > 0:04:55It is simple, but it's a very, very difficult engine to keep running.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58Most of the work is in keeping the fire right,
0:04:58 > 0:05:03as you say, no valves or anything, so, if the fire's wrong, it just stops and it'll stop very quickly.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05Industrial history had got...
0:05:05 > 0:05:09almost a little bit, sort of academic, in some ways.
0:05:09 > 0:05:16It had started off with volunteers and then had become a little more professional, a little more academic
0:05:16 > 0:05:23and I think Fred's programmes have actually brought the whole thing back more into the public realm
0:05:23 > 0:05:26and allowed just the normal person to become...
0:05:26 > 0:05:30to feel they are able to get more involved in industrial history.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34Well, Roger is now going to activate the engine. Aren't you, Roger?
0:05:34 > 0:05:37- That's what it's all about.- Yeah.
0:05:37 > 0:05:45In real way, in 1712, this were the cutting edge of technology you know, before then...
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Shall we carry on?
0:05:56 > 0:05:58I hope you got that.
0:05:58 > 0:06:05Fred had a real talent for raising awareness in the areas that he personally was interested in,
0:06:05 > 0:06:11Great at telling stories and great at condensing
0:06:11 > 0:06:19the years of politics and finance and engineering and technology
0:06:19 > 0:06:22into a digestible story.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26A good example of this is the way Fred tells the story of Richard Trevithick
0:06:26 > 0:06:29and the early development of the steam engine in Cornwall.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37Richard Trevithick was a brilliant engineer and inventor and he never really got true
0:06:37 > 0:06:42recognition for his contribution to the development of the steam engine.
0:06:42 > 0:06:48He was a larger than life character who, sort of, were famed for his bare knuckle fighting
0:06:48 > 0:06:51and he had this wonderful ability to solve problems that
0:06:51 > 0:06:56perplexed better engineers, more well-educated engineers like...
0:06:56 > 0:06:59A bit like me, sort of semi illiterate, but yet
0:06:59 > 0:07:04he had this brilliant touch of solving these unbelievable problems.
0:07:04 > 0:07:10He made a fortune and lost a fortune, he went off to South America to the silver mines there
0:07:10 > 0:07:13and came back a, sort of, broken man, you know?
0:07:13 > 0:07:18The thing is that, after all them important things that he did for the
0:07:18 > 0:07:23development of the steam engine, you know, he died a pauper and nobody really knows where he's buried.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27I think industrial history and the whole
0:07:27 > 0:07:33understanding of our industrial past is a bit of a Cinderella in historical terms
0:07:33 > 0:07:34and people have
0:07:34 > 0:07:42tended to go for... for kings and queens and high flown lives and people in very fancy costumes
0:07:42 > 0:07:48but actually I think Fred helped people to understand that there is
0:07:48 > 0:07:53something very special, very heroic about the Industrial Revolution
0:07:53 > 0:07:55and about the...
0:07:55 > 0:08:02lives that it influenced and about the things and places that it produced.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08Trevithick was born at Ilogan, near Cambourne,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12but his family soon moved to this cottage here, nearby, and his father
0:08:12 > 0:08:15was the manager of the Wheel Chance Copper Mine.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20He spent his childhood here and went to the village school, but the headmaster's
0:08:20 > 0:08:24description of him were, "He's a loafer and inattentive and...
0:08:24 > 0:08:27"and, sort of, very slow."
0:08:27 > 0:08:32He spent his time wandering round looking at the tin mines and the machinery that existed at the time.
0:08:32 > 0:08:39He amazed his superiors and so-called men of better education by his unbelievable ability
0:08:39 > 0:08:43for solving mechanical problems without the aid of arithmetic.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45Just by his own intuition, you know?
0:08:45 > 0:08:50You felt that he knew more than you did but not much, that he'd discovered it minutes
0:08:50 > 0:08:54before you switched on your TV and he couldn't wait to tell you about it.
0:08:54 > 0:09:00Trevithick's use of strong steam meant that you could build an engine that weighed ten tons
0:09:00 > 0:09:04that would do the same work as an engine that weighed 650 tons.
0:09:04 > 0:09:11All of Trevithick's early engines were designed to run along the road, you know, and here at Cambourne
0:09:11 > 0:09:18they built a reproduction of the Puffing Devil, which is a quite interesting piece of machinery.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20And the lads on top here are...
0:09:20 > 0:09:23one of them is going to tell me how it all works and all about it.
0:09:33 > 0:09:40So much unlike... sort of, slick television presenters, which I thought was great.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42I mean, I don't... not many TV presenters
0:09:42 > 0:09:45wear overalls and mean it, if you see what I mean, or cloth caps.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49They'd wear it because their stylist told them to.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53And... and... but that wasn't the case with Fred at all.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57You knew he was wearing a cloth cap for real, which was fantastic.
0:10:09 > 0:10:15Passion and enthusiasm are hugely important in trying to get people involved in their heritage.
0:10:15 > 0:10:16I think that Fred did a great deal,
0:10:16 > 0:10:21especially in industrial heritage, which has been an area, although it's been expanding
0:10:21 > 0:10:26over the years, that has very much been misunderstood by many people.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31Whilst he was working as the engineer at the wonderfully named
0:10:31 > 0:10:35Ding Dong Mine in Penzance - super name that, innit?
0:10:35 > 0:10:39He developed his first high pressure engine which,
0:10:39 > 0:10:44of course, led to these great monsters like this one here at Cornish mines.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48You know, I mean, this is a super engine, innit, biggest one I've ever seen.
0:10:48 > 0:10:54The advances Trevithick made in pumping engines and winding engines
0:10:54 > 0:11:00definitely gave Cornwall an unbelievable prosperity
0:11:00 > 0:11:03in between about 1800 and 1870.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07Another great idea that Richard Trevithick came up with was the
0:11:07 > 0:11:10chimney, of course, which improved the draught
0:11:10 > 0:11:16on the boilers and eventually became quite common in, all industrial areas, on the skyline.
0:11:16 > 0:11:23The engineers and manufacturers of Cornwall started to build their own engines, their own pumping engines,
0:11:23 > 0:11:25like the Allman Brothers and Harveys,
0:11:25 > 0:11:31eventually became world famous in the field of pumping engines.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36This behind me is the mine at Lavant and it went more than 1,800 feet down
0:11:36 > 0:11:40and then more than a mile under the Atlantic Ocean towards America.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46Quite an incredible feat... If you look down into this great chasm
0:11:46 > 0:11:52you can see various flights of stone steps coming up the cliffside.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57Now, in the olden days, before the days of steam winders and wire ropes and cages,
0:11:57 > 0:11:59the miners had to get down the face of the cliff,
0:11:59 > 0:12:05far down nearer to the sea as they could, and then enter by an "addit" that met the main shaft going down,
0:12:05 > 0:12:12then continue the journey for 1,800 feet on ladders with various platforms down the shaft.
0:12:12 > 0:12:18And then, of course, they'd got to go for a mile underneath the ocean before they actually started work,
0:12:18 > 0:12:20you know? They must have been some special men.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26This engine here were what were known as the fast winder
0:12:26 > 0:12:31and, of course, it's based on a James Watt beam engine principle,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34but it were built by Harveys of Hale in 1840.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39And it wound skips of ore from a shaft 1,800 feet deep in five minutes.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44- Right, Dick, are you going to let me have a go?- Yeah, certainly.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47- What's first job? Take the brake off?- Yeah.
0:12:47 > 0:12:48Right. How many times?
0:12:48 > 0:12:51Wait a minute.
0:12:51 > 0:12:52- Is that enough?- It's OK.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55- Give her a bit of steam. - Yeah, about there.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03- Ah, wonderful.- I think Fred's contribution was enormous because his
0:13:03 > 0:13:08passion and interest wasn't for a single subject or a single machine.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11It was... his passion was for steam engines in their context.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Whether it was on railways or in factories, it didn't really matter,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18so I think his programmes had such a wide appeal
0:13:18 > 0:13:23because it wasn't just one machine after another, it was looking at places and people.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25Yeah, of course.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Up there you can see the great beam racking up and down.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30The thing is, it's a bit unusual because the
0:13:30 > 0:13:35pumping engines have half the beam sticking outside into space.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38This one's all inside the engine house.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43A bit different. I suppose the man who did the winding would be here all day, you know,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45he wouldn't like ocean and the wind blowing.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50Down below there, that's the condenser, which,
0:13:50 > 0:13:56of course, makes the vacuum to make the piston go up and down a lot easier.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00You know, with... is approximately 14 pounds
0:14:00 > 0:14:05per square inch less pressure, you know, against the steam, you know,
0:14:05 > 0:14:07that makes it much more economical.
0:14:07 > 0:14:12That's why Cornish steam engines very economical.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16It'd be a feat of engineering just getting the engineer
0:14:16 > 0:14:18on the edge of this great plate.
0:14:18 > 0:14:23- Yeah, yeah.- Yeah.- No heavy lifting gear or anything like that.- No, no.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28I think Fred had really quite a big influence in popularising
0:14:28 > 0:14:35the Industrial Revolution and the history of machinery.
0:14:35 > 0:14:41Fred obviously has a passion for machinery and that, I think, comes over in every programme.
0:14:41 > 0:14:48And he particularly loved the golden age of engineering, the golden age of mechanical engineering.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52I mean, in the 1700s and before that, machinery
0:14:52 > 0:14:56is stuff that people have to work quite hard to make work at all
0:14:56 > 0:15:01so it tends to be iron and black and with big pieces of wood in it.
0:15:01 > 0:15:07In spite of Newcomben's unbelievable success and the worldwide acclaim for these engines,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10they had a lot of weak points, you know? Like this particular bit here
0:15:10 > 0:15:15is the injection cock for condensing the steam inside the cylinder,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19and, of course, what happened were every time, every stroke,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22the cold water going in cooled off all the cylinder,
0:15:22 > 0:15:26so part of the next lot of steam had to warm it all up again, you know?
0:15:26 > 0:15:30It were all right if you had lots of fuel, but places like Cornwall
0:15:30 > 0:15:33where, you know, they've got to bring it a long way...
0:15:33 > 0:15:38It's reputed that there were one company in Cornwall that actually owned a thousand horses
0:15:38 > 0:15:45to get the coal from the sea what had come from South Wales down into where the tin mines were.
0:15:45 > 0:15:51And, of course, reputed to burn as much as 12 tons of coal in a day, you know?
0:15:51 > 0:15:55So when you took it away from the coalfields it weren't very efficient at all.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59And they were also quite dangerous, like the type of boiler they had
0:15:59 > 0:16:02were a pretty flimsy affair, you know?
0:16:02 > 0:16:06Some of them were of iron plate, some of them top part were lead,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09and, of course, it's not noted for its great strength
0:16:09 > 0:16:14and, of course, there were frequent explosions even though they only used very low pressures, you know?
0:16:14 > 0:16:18The only pressure they needed were a few pounds to make the thing work.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24The other thing, of course, that were wrong with it in a way were,
0:16:24 > 0:16:29it only produced a reciprocating motion, which means up and down,
0:16:29 > 0:16:36which meant it could only be used really for pumping coal mine shafts out, getting the water up.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38What really were needed were a few improvements in it
0:16:38 > 0:16:43and some form of turning it into a rotary machine, you know,
0:16:43 > 0:16:48that could drive the new machines in textile mills and iron workses
0:16:48 > 0:16:53that were springing up all over the place at this period in our history.
0:16:53 > 0:17:00By the early 1800s and through to the early 1900s, that's the golden age of mechanical engineering.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04Those very, very beautiful machines which you can see running,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08and you can just look at them and they are, sort of, logic expressed in metal.
0:17:08 > 0:17:14That golden age of mechanical engineering, Fred really helped to bring that to life for people.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18Because the Industrial Revolution really is the only time
0:17:18 > 0:17:22when this island has been centre stage in terms of world history.
0:17:22 > 0:17:28This is the time when Britain led the world - it's its big contribution to the world, really.
0:17:55 > 0:18:01Reputedly, the man who decided to connect the cylinder up to the crank shaft is Richard Trevithick.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05Along with a gentleman in Leeds called Matthew Murray,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08they developed the horizontal type of engine,
0:18:08 > 0:18:15and there were literally thousands of engines like this made, from little teeny ones three foot long,
0:18:15 > 0:18:20to the biggest one on record were made by a company in Bolton called Nick Hargreaves's,
0:18:20 > 0:18:24and reputedly the cylinder were ten feet long.
0:18:24 > 0:18:29It had ten foot stroke on it, you know, an incredible machine, you know, and all.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32I don't know how many hundred horsepower, but it's supposed to be
0:18:32 > 0:18:36the biggest single cylinder horizontal steam engine ever made.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39I've got some drawings of it in a book at home.
0:18:39 > 0:18:44You've only got to look at some of the work that Fred did
0:18:44 > 0:18:47when he's looking at some of the great mill engines or the like
0:18:47 > 0:18:51and going almost overboard about them, to realise that
0:18:51 > 0:18:55he appreciated the skill and quality that went into them
0:18:55 > 0:18:58and that that comes over and people stop to think about it.
0:18:58 > 0:19:03Not everything the Victorians did was great or good quality by any means,
0:19:03 > 0:19:08but he tended to pick the really good things and put over exactly how important it was to get things right.
0:19:08 > 0:19:16The horizontal steam engine was much easier to manufacture in all sizes and, sort of,
0:19:16 > 0:19:21you didn't have to have a great big tall engine room to keep it in.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25And so they made hundreds and hundreds of them, everywhere.
0:19:25 > 0:19:31Really, to build an engine like this all as you needed were a big lathe, a shaper and a good iron founder,
0:19:31 > 0:19:36and you could make one in a shed. I've more or less done it myself once or twice.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40Industrial history and industrial archaeology is a relatively new area
0:19:40 > 0:19:43and is greatly misunderstood by many people.
0:19:43 > 0:19:49They see a...like a load of angle iron rusting away in a corner, not realising the importance of that.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52And so, through bringing it to television and bringing it to life,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56Fred has been hugely important in making people, the wider population,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59understand the importance of our industrial heritage.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02Britain's industrial heritage is absolutely unique.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06The birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, this is where it all started.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09We can't lose these wonderful buildings and wonderful monuments
0:20:09 > 0:20:15to that age of utter ingenuity and great, great expansion.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18So Fred has been extremely important in putting that on television
0:20:18 > 0:20:22and getting people, and therefore getting politicians,
0:20:22 > 0:20:27the ones who have the power of life and death over these great monuments, to understand what it's all about.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33Steam power didn't really cause the Industrial Revolution
0:20:33 > 0:20:36but it played a very important part in it.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41The factory system, of course, were developed from the textile industry
0:20:41 > 0:20:47and, of course, all this were done a long time before the steam engine became fully developed.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53Quarry Bank Mill at Styal is hidden away behind Manchester Airport
0:20:53 > 0:20:57and it is, without a doubt, one of the very best places
0:20:57 > 0:21:02where you can see the steam engine and water power working together.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05The original water wheel was designed and built by
0:21:05 > 0:21:09Sir William Fairburn of Manchester who were very famous for his...
0:21:09 > 0:21:13what they call suspension water wheels which, of course,
0:21:13 > 0:21:18I think comes from the fact that they'd put the first segment in the bottom of the water wheel pit
0:21:18 > 0:21:22and anchor it to the spokes so it'd be suspended,
0:21:22 > 0:21:27move it round one and put another in, move it round one and put another in, and it'd end up round.
0:21:27 > 0:21:32The thing is that the original one was so far gone, you know, and rotten...
0:21:32 > 0:21:37they found this one at a place called Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire
0:21:37 > 0:21:40and, of course, they'd obviously done a heck of lot of work on it.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44All the plating is all brand new, you know, the...
0:21:44 > 0:21:48Some of the spokes are original, I think, they're quite rusty.
0:21:48 > 0:21:54When this water wheel were first installed, you know, steam engines were quite well developed
0:21:54 > 0:21:58but they were a bit unreliable, and, of course, this thing runs for nothing, you know?
0:21:58 > 0:22:01And all the trouble with breaking down and bringing coal and all that,
0:22:01 > 0:22:08it still was a formidable source of power, as you can see with the size of it, you know?
0:22:08 > 0:22:11Looking through these reduction gears behind me,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15a lot of power there to drive all the machinery in the mill.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23These things are called looms, spinning properly.
0:22:23 > 0:22:29The noise levels are terrific. Can you imagine what it must have been like with...
0:22:29 > 0:22:35in a room with 1,500 of these things, all going at the same time
0:22:35 > 0:22:38for 16 hours a day, you know?
0:22:38 > 0:22:43Could see why it's all faded away. No wonder they were all deaf.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47He could be your mate. You'd want to sit in a pub
0:22:47 > 0:22:51drinking with Fred and listening to his tales,
0:22:51 > 0:22:55and I think that's what... that was one of Fred's best points.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59You could relate to him, he was a typical working man
0:22:59 > 0:23:03and yet he'd got this fascination for the subject that he loved so much
0:23:03 > 0:23:09and that really came over, and I think that's how people have become more interested in it.
0:23:09 > 0:23:15Even today, the weaving shed takes its power from the water wheel, you know?
0:23:15 > 0:23:17And this is part of the transmission,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21this great vertical shaft that comes through three floors,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24up to this level where the weaving shed is.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27And, of course, the beveled gears and then the horizontal shaft
0:23:27 > 0:23:29and then the counter shafts and then the looms proper,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32well these things were always a great source of trouble.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36The great weight of a vertical shaft, especially in a spinning mill
0:23:36 > 0:23:40which nearly always were four and five storeys high,
0:23:40 > 0:23:45they always got hot at the bottom and, of course, once it got hot, the whole mill had to stop.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50He's put engineering history onto a higher plane than it was before,
0:23:50 > 0:23:55and there must be many museums around the country that are grateful for it.
0:23:55 > 0:24:03As to... As to people's understanding of engineering, I think that was also helped.
0:24:03 > 0:24:09He was so careful to actually show you something and how something operated or how it was built.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12Basically, the transmission, you know, into the...
0:24:12 > 0:24:16from the water wheel comes up the shaft, up the vertical shaft.
0:24:16 > 0:24:22Then, of course, it's transmitted into these long ones which are called line shafts.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26In reality, these are not very long, you know?
0:24:26 > 0:24:30I mean, some of them in olden days, when the torque started at one end
0:24:30 > 0:24:34the other end didn't move for a bit til they'd twisted the shaft.
0:24:34 > 0:24:40There were such great weight on them, you know, and they started off at the driven end quite thick,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43and by the time they'd gone the full length of the weaving shed,
0:24:43 > 0:24:49they kept stepping down a bit in diameter, you know, cos of the twisting action.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53Quite an interesting... There's book upon book about mill shaft fixing
0:24:53 > 0:24:59and mill writing that, you know, it became quite an art, you know, setting up line shafts.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04Number one, they've got to be exactly dead straight and level.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08If they're a bit bent, you know, it creates a lot of trouble.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13The great problem with water wheels, they were very economical to run and all of that, like,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16but there were one big problem.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21In times of drought, the work stopped and everybody had to go home.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29Steam power was only introduced, really, to help out the water wheel, you know,
0:25:29 > 0:25:35but forward-thinking mill owners soon realised that it were a better form of power.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40In 1810, the mill owner Samuel Greg
0:25:40 > 0:25:45installed this beam engine, not to be the main source of power,
0:25:45 > 0:25:50but just to help out the water wheel in times of drought and low water.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54James Watt came up with a magnificent idea, you know?
0:25:54 > 0:26:00He separated the condensing department from the cylinder, you know, separate unit altogether.
0:26:00 > 0:26:06What happens in this case is this here is the valve chest, this rectangular shaped iron box,
0:26:06 > 0:26:12this is the exhaust pipe and, when the steam is exhausted from the cylinder through the valve chest,
0:26:12 > 0:26:16it comes down this pipe and goes into the condenser.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21And on the other end of the beam the rod that goes down the well, that's pumping up cold water
0:26:21 > 0:26:24and, of course, that goes through a pipe round the back here
0:26:24 > 0:26:31and into the condenser and condenses the steam, you see, which of course helps the engine, you know?
0:26:31 > 0:26:38The engine is not working against fifteen pounds per square inch of atmosphere, so it runs sweeter.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42It became... The ending didn't just show you what was...
0:26:42 > 0:26:44what was in front of you,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49he would actually explain the pistons, the valves and never was he happier when
0:26:49 > 0:26:52on the top of a beam engine or something like that, looking down.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55Here we can see the beam in all its glory, you know?
0:26:55 > 0:27:00This is, of course, the connected rod end which is connected to the crank shaft.
0:27:00 > 0:27:07This bit here works the water pump that pumps the water, the cold water for the condenser,
0:27:07 > 0:27:13and then, of course, James Watt's biggest and best thing, the parallel motion.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17Watt came up with this wonderful system of levers
0:27:17 > 0:27:20that does away with the arc that the end of the beam would strike -
0:27:20 > 0:27:24if you just connected the connecting rod to the end of the beam,
0:27:24 > 0:27:30at each stroke it would try and bend the connecting rod, which would be terrible for the cylinder and the...
0:27:30 > 0:27:34and the connecting rod itself.
0:27:34 > 0:27:41And this is it, the magical system of levers that keeps the piston rod in a straight line
0:27:41 > 0:27:43while the end of the beam goes up and down.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46Throughout his series, Fred's visited some of these...
0:27:46 > 0:27:51the places that are trying to restore our industrial past.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56And maybe the public didn't realise the work that was going on there.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59When you look at some of the places Fred's visited,
0:27:59 > 0:28:04even us at this site didn't realise that that was happening.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10He really brought it home to people that people are trying to restore,
0:28:10 > 0:28:15and that there are some fascinating things there for people to see.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20The series of programmes that he did on television featured,
0:28:20 > 0:28:24the machines of the Industrial Revolution, basically,
0:28:24 > 0:28:29and our empire was based on that Industrial Revolution.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32We exported engineers to the world and Fred brought that
0:28:32 > 0:28:36back into the public eye through the series of programmes he did.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 2006
0:28:40 > 0:28:44Email: subtitling@bbc.co.uk