0:00:04 > 0:00:09Imagine what life was like before we could make anything cold.
0:00:09 > 0:00:14Just a few generations ago, we had no idea how to keep food fresh,
0:00:14 > 0:00:18and hot places like Arizona or Dubai
0:00:18 > 0:00:20were basically uninhabitable.
0:00:20 > 0:00:22And forget about ice cream.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27So, how did we get to today's refrigerated world?
0:00:27 > 0:00:30200 years ago, there would have been no way to escape the heat.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35'Well, it took people like the college dropout,
0:00:35 > 0:00:39'who first decided to ship ice around the world...'
0:00:39 > 0:00:41Everywhere he goes,
0:00:41 > 0:00:42the ice melts,
0:00:42 > 0:00:44but he doesn't give up.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48'..and a guy trying to feed his family in the Arctic...'
0:00:48 > 0:00:52Imagine trying to live the entire winter on, like, moose jerky(!)
0:00:52 > 0:00:55'..who winds up changing the way we eat
0:00:55 > 0:00:56'for ever.'
0:00:56 > 0:00:57Ice fisherman!
0:00:57 > 0:01:01These are classic examples of the kind of people who actually
0:01:01 > 0:01:03made the modern world,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05people you've probably never heard of.
0:01:08 > 0:01:09'They are the hobbyists,
0:01:09 > 0:01:10'garage inventors
0:01:10 > 0:01:12'and obsessive tinkerers,
0:01:12 > 0:01:15'ordinary people doing extraordinary things.'
0:01:17 > 0:01:19The thing about these pioneers is
0:01:19 > 0:01:22that they didn't just make our world a cooler place,
0:01:22 > 0:01:24but they also set in motion
0:01:24 > 0:01:27an amazing chain reaction of ideas.
0:01:31 > 0:01:32'From the places we live,
0:01:32 > 0:01:34'to the food on our plates.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37'From politics to Hollywood,
0:01:37 > 0:01:39'to mass migrations,
0:01:39 > 0:01:42'I want to show how these seemingly unconnected worlds
0:01:42 > 0:01:45'are linked by the unsung heroes of cold.'
0:01:48 > 0:01:49In all my career,
0:01:49 > 0:01:52I've been fascinated by ideas and innovation,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55from writing books about the great British innovators
0:01:55 > 0:01:58of the Enlightenment or the Industrial Revolution,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01to my work with Silicon Valley start-ups.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03And what I've learned about innovation
0:02:03 > 0:02:05is that the experiences of the past
0:02:05 > 0:02:08are still the best road map for our future,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12and that's why I want to tell you the story
0:02:12 > 0:02:13of How We Got To Now.
0:02:26 > 0:02:27Fire,
0:02:27 > 0:02:29man's original innovation.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33We've been tinkering with that for over 100,000 years.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39But what about the opposite of fire?
0:02:39 > 0:02:41What about our relationship with cold?
0:02:46 > 0:02:49I don't actually normally sleep like this in my ski gear,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53but I'm actually in one of the most extraordinary rooms
0:02:53 > 0:02:55I've ever been in. I'm in Quebec,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58in a hotel made entirely out of ice.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00I mean, not just the structure, but look around me,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03everything - this bed is made of ice, that table is made of ice,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06this object, I don't even know what that is, but it's made of ice.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08I mean, normally when you check in to your room
0:03:08 > 0:03:10and it's ten below freezing,
0:03:10 > 0:03:12you're, like, calling the front desk to complain,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15but people come from all over the world to stay at this hotel.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Apart from an average temperature below freezing
0:03:21 > 0:03:23and the fact that it all melts every spring,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26this is just like a normal hotel -
0:03:26 > 0:03:28dozens of rooms,
0:03:28 > 0:03:29a front desk,
0:03:29 > 0:03:31a grand lobby.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33It's even got a chapel.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36And, of course, a bar.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39The refrigerators are there actually to keep the drinks warm,
0:03:39 > 0:03:43because it's actually warmer in the fridge than it is in the ambient
0:03:43 > 0:03:46temperature of the hotel. Otherwise, all the drinks would freeze.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50The really cool thing about this place, though,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54is how its 15,000-tonne snow structure is put together.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01Remember when you were a kid and you had like a competition with
0:04:01 > 0:04:04the neighbours over who could build the biggest snow fort?
0:04:05 > 0:04:07These guys are going to win that competition.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10I mean, look at all this gear, they're blowing all this
0:04:10 > 0:04:13snow on top of these metal moulds that form
0:04:13 > 0:04:17the shape of the roof of the new hotel rooms that they're building.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19And then they basically... All of that snow,
0:04:19 > 0:04:21they let it compact and then they just pull the mould out.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24It's like, physically like making a cake,
0:04:24 > 0:04:26only the cake is a 40-room hotel.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34For Jacques Desbois, the man who created this palace of ice,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37it is a symbol of how far the French-Canadian settlers
0:04:37 > 0:04:40of Quebec have come in their relationship with cold.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Snow and ice, it's just kind of like an inconvenience, you know,
0:04:46 > 0:04:48it's getting your car stuck in it or something like that,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51but there's so much creativity and innovation here,
0:04:51 > 0:04:53in this space.
0:04:53 > 0:04:54You know, we...
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Well, in a way, this is an igloo.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59- Mm-hm.- It's a huge igloo. - Right, right.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02And we're at a point that,
0:05:02 > 0:05:04that snow shelter,
0:05:04 > 0:05:06which was used for survival
0:05:06 > 0:05:08centuries and centuries ago,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12now exists for our own pleasure,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15for our own amazement.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17And in Quebec Province, here,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21our ancestors were Mediterranean people
0:05:21 > 0:05:23that have lost their way.
0:05:23 > 0:05:24- Right.- They were thinking...
0:05:24 > 0:05:28They were looking for tropical places in Asia,
0:05:28 > 0:05:32but more and more, we are becoming real Northern people.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34Right, embracing winter...
0:05:34 > 0:05:37Yeah, sure, and it's a way
0:05:37 > 0:05:40to make people realise that snow,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43it's not only an inconvenience, but we can take advantage of it.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54People have been doing imaginative things with ice
0:05:54 > 0:05:57in frozen parts of the world for ever.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59But just 200 years ago,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02eons after we first mastered fire,
0:06:02 > 0:06:04something profound changed.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08We began to realise that we could use ice and cold as tools
0:06:08 > 0:06:11to make life better in warmer climates.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15And that revolution began with a simple idea,
0:06:15 > 0:06:17one of those little pleasures of modern life
0:06:17 > 0:06:20that we take for granted -
0:06:20 > 0:06:23an ice cold drink on a hot summer's day.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Meet Frederic Tudor,
0:06:31 > 0:06:33a wealthy young Bostonian.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39In 1805,
0:06:39 > 0:06:40aged just 21,
0:06:40 > 0:06:44Tudor visits the fine state of South Carolina...
0:06:45 > 0:06:49..the perfect environment for the fashionable elite.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55Or at least, it would be the perfect environment
0:06:55 > 0:06:58if it weren't so insanely hot!
0:06:58 > 0:07:00I mean, it is really humid, and look at me,
0:07:00 > 0:07:02I've got like seven layers on.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04I mean, it looks good, but, you know,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07until you die of heat stroke in the middle of the afternoon.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10But 200 years ago, there would have been no way to escape
0:07:10 > 0:07:13the heat of these long summer months in the South,
0:07:13 > 0:07:17and Frederic Tudor found it unbearable.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20'Back then, living in a hot place,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23'you would never experience anything cold.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26'I mean, warm lemonade, anyone?'
0:07:26 > 0:07:29And this gets him thinking about home,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32about the cold of the North.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36And it inspires him to start taking notes in a journal.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39He calls it the Ice House Diary.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43In New England, there's a resource that's free
0:07:43 > 0:07:45and abundant during winter...
0:07:46 > 0:07:48..ice.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51Upper class families store it for the summer
0:07:51 > 0:07:52and use it to make ice cream,
0:07:52 > 0:07:54chill drinks and preserve food.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00Tudor thinks, "What if I could cut ice from frozen lakes
0:08:00 > 0:08:02"and ship it to people in hot places?"
0:08:04 > 0:08:05He writes about,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08"The transporting of ice to popular climes."
0:08:18 > 0:08:22Tudor thinks that ice is going to make him rich.
0:08:22 > 0:08:23But the reality is,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25in 1805,
0:08:25 > 0:08:29moving ice long distances is impossible.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33And even if you could get it to some far away, hot location,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36there's no way it would last.
0:08:36 > 0:08:37'In one of his first attempts,
0:08:37 > 0:08:42'Tudor sends a ship full of ice 3,200 kilometres
0:08:42 > 0:08:45'from Boston to the Caribbean island of Martinique.
0:08:46 > 0:08:47'It almost all melts
0:08:47 > 0:08:49'and his attempts to transport ice
0:08:49 > 0:08:53'lose Tudor the modern equivalent of nearly 1 million.'
0:08:55 > 0:08:58Tudor's attempts to bring ice to the South
0:08:58 > 0:09:01end up landing him in a debtors' prison.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05He loses his friends and his family fortune.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08He ultimately has a nervous breakdown.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10'His basic problem is simple -
0:09:10 > 0:09:14'back then, no-one knows how to keep frozen water frozen.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20'And everyone thinks his idea is nuts.'
0:09:23 > 0:09:26OK, so, the way I see it is... Tudor's problem is
0:09:26 > 0:09:29that his idea is really only half-baked,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32and if you think about it, it's just a fragment of an idea, really,
0:09:32 > 0:09:37and it's going to take him decades to get all the pieces together.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39It's what I call the "slow hunch".
0:09:41 > 0:09:45'If you want to understand how big ideas truly change the world,
0:09:45 > 0:09:49'you need to get rid of the myth of the eureka moment.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53'The truth is, there's no such thing as
0:09:53 > 0:09:57'a light-bulb going off in the mind of a lone genius.'
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Our best ideas start as something else,
0:10:01 > 0:10:03a vague sense of possibility,
0:10:03 > 0:10:04a hint of something bigger...
0:10:07 > 0:10:10'Trying to turn his hunch into a viable business,
0:10:10 > 0:10:14'Tudor endures more than a decade of disaster.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17'At one point, he even writes to himself...'
0:10:26 > 0:10:28'All the signs suggest that Tudor's dream
0:10:28 > 0:10:30'is going to come to nothing.'
0:10:33 > 0:10:35So, what does he do next?
0:10:35 > 0:10:39He packs up a ship filled with ice and heads south.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42Tudor's perseverance might seem crazy to us now,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45but the thing is, he's sensing that his slow hunch
0:10:45 > 0:10:47is finally going to pay off.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49Let me show you why.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53Tudor's problem is, how do you move ice around without it melting?
0:10:53 > 0:10:56But now he has his light-bulb moment,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59except that it's not really a light-bulb moment,
0:10:59 > 0:11:00because it takes him ten years.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04But he realises that, thanks to the lumber trade,
0:11:04 > 0:11:06New England is filled with another abundant
0:11:06 > 0:11:09and free resource that will solve his problem...
0:11:11 > 0:11:13..sawdust.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15So, let me show you how he would do it.
0:11:15 > 0:11:17I feel like I'm actually doing a cooking show here,
0:11:17 > 0:11:19but basically he would take these ships
0:11:19 > 0:11:21and line them entirely with sawdust,
0:11:21 > 0:11:23and he would fill the space
0:11:23 > 0:11:25between all the blocks of ice.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28And then he would put another layer of ice on top of the sawdust.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30And when he did this, he found that sawdust
0:11:30 > 0:11:32was the perfect insulator.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34The ice wouldn't melt.
0:11:34 > 0:11:35It was beautifully simple.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40'Tudor's bigger challenge, though,
0:11:40 > 0:11:44'is how to store ice once it arrives in sunnier climes.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53'But he has a plan.'
0:11:55 > 0:11:58I'm in the low country of South Carolina.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00It's late July
0:12:00 > 0:12:03and it's pretty humid.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07But imagine what it would have been like 150 years ago.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09It's sweltering like this for months on end
0:12:09 > 0:12:12and there's literally no way to escape the heat.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16There's no air conditioning, there's no refrigeration,
0:12:16 > 0:12:18and then you walk into a space like this.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21This may look like an ordinary 19th century barn,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23but if I open up this hatch,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27you find something miraculous.
0:12:27 > 0:12:32It's a giant frozen chunk of Massachusetts.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35It may seem like I'm just in a hole in the bottom of a barn here,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39but actually, this was state-of-the-art technology
0:12:39 > 0:12:40in the middle of the 19th century.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43In fact, you can really feel how effective it is.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47I mean, my upper body is still really quite warm and humid,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49but my pants are starting to freeze.
0:12:49 > 0:12:50And the key thing here is...
0:12:50 > 0:12:53is this cavity on the side of the structure,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55this is double-shelled insulation,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58and this was the major breakthrough that helped him
0:12:58 > 0:13:01take these giant blocks of ice that you see
0:13:01 > 0:13:03and keep them cold for long periods of time.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05And it was so efficient,
0:13:05 > 0:13:07that a large block of ice like this
0:13:07 > 0:13:10would actually last for four to six months
0:13:10 > 0:13:11through the hottest time of the year.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16'Tudor can now move and store ice.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18'But next, he has to sell it.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24'The thing is, in the early 19th century,
0:13:24 > 0:13:26'most people in hot places
0:13:26 > 0:13:28'have never seen or thought about ice.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34'They have no idea what to do with it,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37'and Tudor might as well be selling smartphones.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39'So, to generate demand,
0:13:39 > 0:13:41'he gives away free samples...
0:13:43 > 0:13:45'..and a huge new industry is born.'
0:13:47 > 0:13:49POLAR BEAR GROWLS
0:13:52 > 0:13:53Ice cream,
0:13:53 > 0:13:55cocktails,
0:13:55 > 0:13:56chilled food...
0:13:58 > 0:14:00America gets hooked.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05Soon, hundreds of thousands of people work the Ice Harvest.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10In New York, the iceman cometh...
0:14:12 > 0:14:16Nearly half the city's population keeps ice at home.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Reports of mild winters create panic
0:14:19 > 0:14:22and something extraordinary happens.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Previously, Americans had only eaten fresh food
0:14:27 > 0:14:29produced on their doorstep.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34Now, trains chilled with ice
0:14:34 > 0:14:36create a food network.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40Produce from the South and West
0:14:40 > 0:14:42become staples of Northern meals.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48'When you realise that about 1,000 food trains bring perishable food
0:14:48 > 0:14:51'to New York every week, you'll understand that ice for refrigeration
0:14:51 > 0:14:54'is something of the first water.'
0:14:54 > 0:14:57We become much healthier and better nourished...
0:14:58 > 0:14:59..while our cities,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02freed from the limits of their surrounding resources,
0:15:02 > 0:15:04experience rapid growth
0:15:04 > 0:15:07and a rise in new businesses.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11Cold is shaping a new America.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14In 1912 in New York City,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18the Armato family set up their own ice delivery company
0:15:18 > 0:15:20to meet the demands of the ice craze.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24It was founded by Salvatore Armato,
0:15:24 > 0:15:26passed on to Anthony,
0:15:26 > 0:15:27and on to Joe,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30and today it belongs to Salvatore's great-grandchildren,
0:15:30 > 0:15:32Bennie, Tony and Chris.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34Let's go deliver some ice.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38Put it right across your shoulder, Steven.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41OK, let's see if I can lift it. Oh, my God!
0:15:41 > 0:15:45This routine of delivering ice hasn't changed much
0:15:45 > 0:15:48since the days thousands of icemen worked the streets
0:15:48 > 0:15:51of New York to keep on top of restaurants' daily demands.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57So, you guys now have like a fork-lift
0:15:57 > 0:15:59to move these giant blocks of ice around,
0:15:59 > 0:16:00but back in the day, you know,
0:16:00 > 0:16:03your grandfather's time, what...
0:16:03 > 0:16:05How would they move these huge blocks around?
0:16:05 > 0:16:08These are the ice tongs, these are the tools that the icemen
0:16:08 > 0:16:10used in the older days.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12Basically, they would manoeuvre the blocks,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15take it, drop it,
0:16:15 > 0:16:17spin it, put it up and down,
0:16:17 > 0:16:20they would be able to put it on their shoulder...
0:16:20 > 0:16:22Oh, that's... Yes.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25You know, go up a flight of stairs, which I'm not going to do.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27- Oh, come on! Can I try?- Of course.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29Cos I'm thinking that this may be a backup career for me
0:16:29 > 0:16:31if this television stuff doesn't work out.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33Here we go, ready?
0:16:33 > 0:16:35Oh, my God, it's really heavy,
0:16:35 > 0:16:37but I got it... Over an inch above the ground,
0:16:37 > 0:16:38did you see that?
0:16:38 > 0:16:41All right, this is not my profession, I think,
0:16:41 > 0:16:43but incredibly cool.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46'It's amazing to think that the New York City ice trade
0:16:46 > 0:16:49'can be traced back to Frederic Tudor's insane idea
0:16:49 > 0:16:52'of transporting ice across land and oceans.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55'Back in the 19th century,
0:16:55 > 0:16:59'ice had become America's second biggest export, after cotton.
0:17:01 > 0:17:02'India, the Caribbean,
0:17:02 > 0:17:07'even Queen Victoria has New England ice served with dinner.'
0:17:09 > 0:17:12But what I find incredible is how primitive our ideas
0:17:12 > 0:17:14about cold are at this point.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17I mean, this is the middle of the 19th century, right,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20it's an era of coal-powered factories and railroads,
0:17:20 > 0:17:23and telegraph wires connecting cities.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26And yet, the state-of-the-art in cold technology
0:17:26 > 0:17:29is cutting chunks of frozen water out of a lake!
0:17:36 > 0:17:40'But Tudor hasn't just created a global appetite for ice...
0:17:42 > 0:17:45'..he's also created a platform for ideas about cold...
0:17:46 > 0:17:49'..which will soon trigger a chain of events
0:17:49 > 0:17:51'not even Tudor could have imagined.'
0:17:52 > 0:17:56I read this article the other week about scientists who
0:17:56 > 0:18:00discovered this primitive ski in a Swedish bog,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03and when they dated it, it turned out that it was 4,000 years old.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06And I thought,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08skiing is really a microcosm of our whole
0:18:08 > 0:18:10relationship to cold.
0:18:12 > 0:18:18We've literally spent eons taking the natural cold of snow and ice
0:18:18 > 0:18:20and figuring out fun ways to do things with it.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24But then cold got so fun
0:18:24 > 0:18:27that everybody wanted a piece of the action,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31and so we started tinkering with making artificial cold.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37And that's when things started to get really weird.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42'OK, enough television trickery.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44'I'm not really in the mountains.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48'This is one of the world's biggest indoor ski resorts.'
0:18:51 > 0:18:53But it gets even crazier.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Come on, you got to check this out.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08The modern world of cold does not get any weirder than this.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19I'm standing above the city of Dubai.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21We're in the middle of the Arabian Desert,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24it's about 100 degrees out, it's 8am in the morning,
0:19:24 > 0:19:27which means I have to take my ski gear off,
0:19:27 > 0:19:31cos it's insane to be out here wearing this. Er...
0:19:31 > 0:19:34and here we are in this vast city in the desert
0:19:34 > 0:19:36and yet, beneath me...
0:19:38 > 0:19:41'..are skiers, ski lifts, real snow,
0:19:41 > 0:19:43'a toboggan run
0:19:43 > 0:19:46'and, get this, penguins.'
0:19:49 > 0:19:54Now, Ski Dubai might look like some sort of futuristic spacecraft
0:19:54 > 0:19:56that has crashed into a parking garage.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00'But in fact, some of the technology keeping this place cold
0:20:00 > 0:20:02'is 200 years old.'
0:20:04 > 0:20:08I'm here in the space between the ceiling of the indoor ski slope
0:20:08 > 0:20:13and the roof of the overall structure and it's really strange,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16a little bit creepy space, they call it the void.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18And it's an extraordinary space because basically,
0:20:18 > 0:20:21this is the primary means of insulation they're using here,
0:20:21 > 0:20:25it's just the gas or the air that's keeping the temperature
0:20:25 > 0:20:3028 degrees Fahrenheit below me and 110 right above me
0:20:30 > 0:20:32and what I love about this is that the principle
0:20:32 > 0:20:35of using the air in this void
0:20:35 > 0:20:39to keep the ski slope cool is something Frederic Tudor would've recognised in a heartbeat,
0:20:39 > 0:20:43it's basically the same design that he used in his ice house.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51'And down below, on the slopes,
0:20:51 > 0:20:53'there's another 19th century innovation
0:20:53 > 0:20:57'making the snow and maintaining a temperature just below freezing.'
0:20:59 > 0:21:00Artificial cold.
0:21:02 > 0:21:07So there's an entire winter wonderland on the other side of that wall,
0:21:07 > 0:21:09and yet we are in the middle of the desert,
0:21:09 > 0:21:13it's 110 degrees outside, how do you pull this off?
0:21:13 > 0:21:15There what you need is a really, really big fridge.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19It's the same principle as a fridge that I've got in my house?
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Absolutely, the refrigeration is very much the same
0:21:22 > 0:21:23as the fridge in your house
0:21:23 > 0:21:26and even the way the building is constructed and designed
0:21:26 > 0:21:28- is very similar to a fridge. - Do you worry
0:21:28 > 0:21:31about the cold escaping when people are coming in and out?
0:21:31 > 0:21:33I mean, is that a big concern?
0:21:33 > 0:21:36Yeah, think of your fridge at home, right?
0:21:36 > 0:21:38Every time you get an orange juice out, you open the door
0:21:38 > 0:21:40and all the cold air rushes out.
0:21:40 > 0:21:45If you look at your fridge again and you mimic Ski Dubai, your fridge,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48your big American fridge would have a door the size of my thumb.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51- Really?- We only have three doors leading into ski Dubai from outside,
0:21:51 > 0:21:56so we can control that air flow in and out very, very well.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06'This place and the fact that I'm hanging out in the middle
0:22:06 > 0:22:09'of the Arabian desert with a bunch of penguins
0:22:09 > 0:22:11'is proof of just how sophisticated
0:22:11 > 0:22:14'the modern use of artificial cold has become.'
0:22:20 > 0:22:23'But the beginnings of man-made refrigeration
0:22:23 > 0:22:25'were far from being fun.'
0:22:29 > 0:22:33It's an innovation born of suffering and war.
0:22:33 > 0:22:34MOSQUITOES BUZZING
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Like much of the South,
0:22:36 > 0:22:39Florida has a sub-tropical climate.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42That means mosquitoes.
0:22:44 > 0:22:45And in the 1840s,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49mosquitoes mean diseases like malaria are rife.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55In 1841, an outbreak of yellow fever
0:22:55 > 0:22:58decimates the population of northern Florida.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06In the middle of all this death and misery
0:23:06 > 0:23:11there's this guy, Dr John Gorrie,
0:23:11 > 0:23:13who is about to start working on an idea
0:23:13 > 0:23:18that is so big it will ultimately transform all of our lives.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22But the thing about it is, today he's completely unknown
0:23:22 > 0:23:24and what I find fascinating about Gorrie's life
0:23:24 > 0:23:28is it's a great reminder of one the most important things about innovation,
0:23:28 > 0:23:30which is that timing is everything.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32MOSQUITOES BUZZING
0:23:38 > 0:23:43Gorrie's hospital is filled with patients burning up with fever.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46I mean, just imagine what a hospital would've been like
0:23:46 > 0:23:49in the American South in 1842.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53You take all the advanced technology of a modern hospital out
0:23:53 > 0:23:55and you're left basically just with beds
0:23:55 > 0:23:58and patients dying in the sweltering heat.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03But Gorrie thinks that if he can cool the air
0:24:03 > 0:24:08around his feverish patients, he can both ease their suffering
0:24:08 > 0:24:10and stop the spread of disease.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14So he sets out to build a contraption to do just that.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22This is how Gorrie's design would've worked.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25He's got a chimney bringing in air from above the hospital
0:24:25 > 0:24:28that flows down over this giant basin
0:24:28 > 0:24:35and he would take these huge blocks of ice and put them in the basin
0:24:35 > 0:24:36and the result would be...
0:24:36 > 0:24:41perfectly chilled air flows over the patients in their beds,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44reducing their fevers, potentially saving their lives.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46It's a brilliant idea
0:24:46 > 0:24:50and it's all in the service of Gorrie being a better physician.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54THUNDERCLAP
0:24:56 > 0:24:59But Florida isn't done with Gorrie yet.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01Shipwrecks along Hurricane Alley
0:25:01 > 0:25:05mean delayed ice shipments from Frederic Tudor's New England.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09So one day, Gorrie's supply runs dry.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15Now, Gorrie has the crazy idea to make his own ice.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17But how?
0:25:17 > 0:25:22Luckily, Gorrie is living at the perfect time to have this idea.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24For all of human history
0:25:24 > 0:25:28you couldn't even conceive of making artificial cold,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30but then, somehow,
0:25:30 > 0:25:32in the middle of the 19th century,
0:25:32 > 0:25:34the idea becomes imaginable.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37So how do we explain this kind of breakthrough?
0:25:37 > 0:25:40I mean, it's not like there's some kind of solitary genius
0:25:40 > 0:25:42who's so much more brilliant than everybody else,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45they come up with the idea on their own.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49And that's because ideas are fundamentally networks
0:25:49 > 0:25:50of other ideas.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57'We take the tools,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00'concepts and scientific understanding of our time
0:26:00 > 0:26:04'and then remix them into something new.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07'But if you don't have the right building blocks,
0:26:07 > 0:26:09'you can't make the breakthrough,
0:26:09 > 0:26:11'however brilliant you might be.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13'The smartest mind in the world
0:26:13 > 0:26:17'couldn't invent a refrigerator in the middle of the 17th century.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20'But by 1850, the pieces had come together.'
0:26:20 > 0:26:24The first thing that had to happen seems almost comical to us now,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28we had to discover that air was actually made of something,
0:26:28 > 0:26:32that it wasn't just empty space between objects.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37That happened in the 1600s,
0:26:37 > 0:26:41when scientists used a pump to suck air from a jar
0:26:41 > 0:26:44and discovered the vacuum...
0:26:44 > 0:26:49proving that air was made from some mysterious, invisible elements.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53We then found that when air, or other gases,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56are squashed together, they heat up
0:26:56 > 0:27:00and when they are stretched out, they cool down.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02The thermometer comes along,
0:27:02 > 0:27:04followed by a universal scale or two,
0:27:04 > 0:27:06allowing us to measure temperature.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10Now, amazing machines can be built
0:27:10 > 0:27:14that convert the heat from gases into a usable energy.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20Gorrie brings all these ideas together and builds
0:27:20 > 0:27:24America's first mechanical refrigerator.
0:27:24 > 0:27:26A machine that makes ice.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31And then Gorrie applies for a patent for his invention,
0:27:31 > 0:27:34and listen to the language he uses to describe this thing.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38"Artificial cold might better serve mankind.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40"Fruits and vegetables, and meat
0:27:40 > 0:27:44"will be preserved in transit by my refrigeration system
0:27:44 > 0:27:46"and thereby enjoyed by all."
0:27:46 > 0:27:51He completely nails the modern world of artificial cold.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55The rural doctor has created a technology
0:27:55 > 0:27:58that's now as ubiquitous as the light bulb.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03So why isn't John Gorrie as famous as Thomas Edison?
0:28:03 > 0:28:08So he's got a magical, artificial ice-making machine in the South
0:28:08 > 0:28:11and one would think that would be a huge financial success.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13There's a proven market for ice,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15there's a machine that will do it artificially...
0:28:15 > 0:28:18That's true, but the problem is that there was a lot
0:28:18 > 0:28:21that had to be done to perfect the equipment.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24John Gorrie had a basic idea, he had a vision,
0:28:24 > 0:28:28he had a machine that rudimentally did it but it had to be perfected
0:28:28 > 0:28:31and it had to be brought into a point
0:28:31 > 0:28:34where you could afford to use the machine to make ice.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40Like any new technological innovation,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43Gorrie's working prototype needs development.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47The problem is, his man-made ice invention hasn't exactly
0:28:47 > 0:28:49come along at a great time,
0:28:49 > 0:28:53because this is an era dominated by the now very powerful
0:28:53 > 0:28:57and ruthless natural ice baron, Frederic Tudor.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01People who were in the business of harvesting so-called natural ice
0:29:01 > 0:29:03from rivers and lakes,
0:29:03 > 0:29:07they saw a threat to their business by a machine that could actually
0:29:07 > 0:29:10make the ice and of course they were the ones who came up with
0:29:10 > 0:29:14the term "artificial ice" - in other words, fake ice. It's not real ice.
0:29:14 > 0:29:16And the thing that's interesting about it was that
0:29:16 > 0:29:18the natural ice people said that,
0:29:18 > 0:29:21"Well, this artificial ice could make you sick
0:29:21 > 0:29:24"or it could cause disease," and things like that.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27And on the other hand, their natural ice was becoming progressively
0:29:27 > 0:29:31more from polluted sources and that was causing people to get sick.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34I would... Drinking pond water from, like, a swampy pond in New England,
0:29:34 > 0:29:36that's not something...
0:29:36 > 0:29:39I would much rather have a nice, you know, artificial ice!
0:29:39 > 0:29:41Unable to find backers,
0:29:41 > 0:29:46John Gorrie dies penniless without selling a single machine.
0:29:47 > 0:29:52But his vision of man-made refrigeration is about to inspire
0:29:52 > 0:29:54a new generation of inventors.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56It was an idea whose time had come.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00It just needed a trigger to launch it on to the public consciousness.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08That comes in the shape of the Civil War.
0:30:08 > 0:30:13The Union blockades the South to cripple the Confederate economy.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16Suddenly, the Southern States have no ice.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22Vital supplies were smuggled
0:30:22 > 0:30:26past the blockade into the Southern States.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29Blockade-runners used to hide out in creeks like this one,
0:30:29 > 0:30:32slipping out into the open ocean at night.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37But they weren't just smuggling weapons or gunpowder.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40Sometimes they had an equally precious cargo...
0:30:42 > 0:30:44..ice making machines.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46Check this out.
0:30:46 > 0:30:48This is one of the first ice making machines ever built.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51It's designed by the Frenchman Ferdinand Carre.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55It can output about 400lbs of ice in an hour.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58This thing is one of the world's first refrigerators
0:30:58 > 0:31:02and it was smuggled all the way to the American South from France.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08In the decades after the Civil War,
0:31:08 > 0:31:11artificial refrigeration patents explode,
0:31:11 > 0:31:15as a network of innovators adapt and improve on Gorrie's ideas.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19In the 20 years following Gorrie's invention,
0:31:19 > 0:31:23there are 54 separate refrigeration patents filed.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28From now on, the slow decline of the ice trade is inevitable.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34Refrigeration becomes a huge industry, and I do mean huge,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37with steam-powered monster machines soon changing
0:31:37 > 0:31:40the urban landscape of America,
0:31:40 > 0:31:44turning areas like New York's Tribeca neighbourhood
0:31:44 > 0:31:47into a hub of artificial cold.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49This building, for instance, behind me...
0:31:49 > 0:31:50Today it's a fancy condo,
0:31:50 > 0:31:53it's filled with your Robert De Niros and your supermodels.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58But 100 years ago, it was filled with eggs and milk and produce,
0:31:58 > 0:32:00feeding a growing city.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03It was a giant high-rise refrigerator.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06But as with much new technology,
0:32:06 > 0:32:10the machinery of man-made cold is destined to get smaller,
0:32:10 > 0:32:14as the idea of a once-ridiculed amateur inventor
0:32:14 > 0:32:18becomes an essential part of the modern home.
0:32:18 > 0:32:19'Here she comes,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22'the lucky woman who owns a new refrigerator!'
0:32:24 > 0:32:27Between 1945 and 1949,
0:32:27 > 0:32:31Americans purchase 20 million of these revolutionary machines.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37Now, ideas about how to fill these new refrigerators
0:32:37 > 0:32:40will have an even greater impact on our lives.
0:32:48 > 0:32:50Clarence Birdseye...
0:32:50 > 0:32:52Yes, he was a real person.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54..grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58But the story of his big idea doesn't start here.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03In fact, he couldn't wait to get away from this place.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07Birdseye had displayed an insatiable scientific curiosity,
0:33:07 > 0:33:11a streak of eccentricity and a longing for adventure.
0:33:13 > 0:33:14At 21 years old,
0:33:14 > 0:33:17he becomes a naturalist with the US Biological Survey,
0:33:17 > 0:33:21studying animal populations on the American frontier.
0:33:21 > 0:33:23He keeps a journal during this period
0:33:23 > 0:33:27and it's clear if you read it now that he's not just interested
0:33:27 > 0:33:30in scientifically assessing these critters,
0:33:30 > 0:33:35he's also obsessed with eating them, as well.
0:33:35 > 0:33:36And the weirder, the better.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38I mean, listen to this passage.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41"For Sunday dinner, we had horned owl.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43"Does that sound good?
0:33:43 > 0:33:45"Well, it was good, no matter how it sounds!"
0:33:45 > 0:33:49And he goes on to eat, over the course of his adventures,
0:33:49 > 0:33:53a beaver, a hawk, mice, gopher,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56rattlesnake, porcupine,
0:33:56 > 0:34:00chipmunk, even skunk...
0:34:00 > 0:34:02although apparently only the front half.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06And it all leads up to what he calls, "The piece de resistance,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09"one of the most scrumptious meals I ever ate."
0:34:09 > 0:34:12Which was a dish of sherry marinated lynx.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19Birdseye's diet may sound crazy,
0:34:19 > 0:34:22but this is common sense eating
0:34:22 > 0:34:26and valuable training for the ultimate survival challenge to come.
0:34:32 > 0:34:37In 1916, Birdseye brings his wife and newborn son to Labrador,
0:34:37 > 0:34:41a remote, frozen wilderness in Canada's sub-arctic north.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44It must have been quite a shock.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47I mean, besides having to be dragged through the snow
0:34:47 > 0:34:51by, like, a pack of maniacal dogs, Birdseye had moved his family
0:34:51 > 0:34:54to one of the most extreme environments on the planet.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02But this is an adventure that will change Birdseye's life,
0:35:02 > 0:35:04and ours, for ever.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11We have this cliche about innovation,
0:35:11 > 0:35:14that it just happens in Silicon Valley garages
0:35:14 > 0:35:16and corporate research development labs,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19not in an environment like this.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21I mean, I've got, like, 30mph winds blowing,
0:35:21 > 0:35:23ice pellets hitting me in the face.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25It's hard enough just to stand upright and talk,
0:35:25 > 0:35:28much less, like, have a brilliant idea.
0:35:28 > 0:35:32But in a way, it's the severity of this landscape that's kind of the point,
0:35:32 > 0:35:36because it's here in the frozen Canadian winter
0:35:36 > 0:35:39that Clarence Birdseye will have the beginning of an idea
0:35:39 > 0:35:42that will turn out to be one of the most transformative ones
0:35:42 > 0:35:44of the 20th century.
0:35:44 > 0:35:49And as always with Birdseye, this new idea will revolve around food.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57Birdseye is among a handful of settlers
0:35:57 > 0:36:01in a region the size of Britain that has no modern food network,
0:36:01 > 0:36:04no stores, no livestock and which, during the winter,
0:36:04 > 0:36:08is effectively cut off from the rest of the world.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12Everything people ate during the winter was preserved
0:36:12 > 0:36:13and cured and stockpiled.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15There was nothing fresh.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18I mean, imagine trying to live the entire winter on, like, moose jerky.
0:36:18 > 0:36:23Right? But like Dr John Gorrie before him, Birdseye is motivated
0:36:23 > 0:36:25by basic human concerns.
0:36:25 > 0:36:30He's just trying to feed good, healthy, fresh food to his family.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39But Birdseye is about to get some culinary inspiration
0:36:39 > 0:36:42from Labrador's indigenous Inuit.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46I'm standing out here on top of a frozen fjord.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49I've got 600ft of water beneath me.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53We've got white-out conditions, I can't feel my toes any more.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56Apparently the water beneath this layer of ice
0:36:56 > 0:36:59is actually shark-infested, I'm told.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02So all in all, it's a perfect day for fishing.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08And Jerri Thresher, an Inuit from Canada's Northwest Territories,
0:37:08 > 0:37:09is going to show me how...
0:37:11 > 0:37:14..once we've dug a hole through the ice.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17- Would you like to try? - Yeah, give me a chance at this.
0:37:17 > 0:37:19- OK, so I just kind of hack around the side?- Yeah.
0:37:19 > 0:37:21You want to hit the ice a little hard so,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24the harder you hit, the bigger the chunks
0:37:24 > 0:37:26and the less time it will take to make your fishing hole.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29So if this ice is three feet thick, I think it will probably take us
0:37:29 > 0:37:33- about three days to cut through this.- It would take YOU three days!
0:37:33 > 0:37:36- HE LAUGHS - It would take me three days, really?
0:37:36 > 0:37:39Spending time fishing with the Inuit,
0:37:39 > 0:37:43Birdseye notices that they use the extreme weather to their advantage.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47They freeze their fish in the open air so they can store it.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52So how important is ice fishing to Inuit culture?
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Fresh meats and fresh fish are very important.
0:37:56 > 0:37:57Right.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01Fish coming out of the water in -20 or -30,
0:38:01 > 0:38:05you can lay the fish on the side and within the hour,
0:38:05 > 0:38:06it'll be completely frozen.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08They would dig, like, caches under the ground,
0:38:08 > 0:38:12in the permafrost where it would stay cold during the entire winter,
0:38:12 > 0:38:14and there they would...
0:38:14 > 0:38:18they would store their winter supply of fish and meat.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20That's amazing. So, basically, for thousands of years
0:38:20 > 0:38:22there's frozen food
0:38:22 > 0:38:25that the Inuit culture has kind of figured out how to do.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35For Birdseye, this is a revelation.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39Freshly caught fish frozen in the arctic air
0:38:39 > 0:38:43could be kept for weeks or even months,
0:38:43 > 0:38:47and once thawed and eaten it would still taste delicious.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55He wonders if freezing can help other types of food
0:38:55 > 0:38:59stay fresh for longer, so he experiments with vegetables.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03He began to notice a pattern.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06Food frozen in the coldest depths of mid-winter
0:39:06 > 0:39:08tastes better when it's thawed
0:39:08 > 0:39:11than food frozen earlier or later in the season.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17And that's because slower freezing creates larger ice crystals,
0:39:17 > 0:39:20which damage the cellular structure of the food.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24Birdseye realised something that
0:39:24 > 0:39:28the Inuits had almost instinctively understood for thousands of years -
0:39:28 > 0:39:32that if you wanted to have really fresh frozen food,
0:39:32 > 0:39:35you had to have the smallest possible ice crystals,
0:39:35 > 0:39:39and for that you needed the fastest possible freezing time.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43This is the point where you might expect me to say,
0:39:43 > 0:39:47"And now Birdseye has an idea that changes the world,
0:39:47 > 0:39:51"and introduces the universe of frozen convenience
0:39:51 > 0:39:52"that all of us enjoy today."
0:39:52 > 0:39:55But actually, that's not what happened at all.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58Because, you see, like Frederic Tudor,
0:39:58 > 0:40:02Birdseye's hunch will take decades to finally pay off,
0:40:02 > 0:40:04but, unlike Tudor,
0:40:04 > 0:40:07Birdseye basically just forgets about his hunch.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17In 1917, Birdseye moves his family back to the United States
0:40:17 > 0:40:21and basically stops thinking about frozen food altogether.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25Back in the city he's got all the fresh produce he could possibly eat.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31For the next few years, Birdseye searches for a new career direction,
0:40:31 > 0:40:34and he ends up at the US Fisheries Association.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39Here he studies the fishing industry.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42He watches how produce makes its way from the docks to the consumer
0:40:42 > 0:40:45and notices that too many fish get spoiled
0:40:45 > 0:40:48and lose their value on the way to market.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55So Birdseye wonders, "What's the best way to get fish
0:40:55 > 0:40:59"to the kitchen in the freshest way possible?"
0:40:59 > 0:41:03And this is where, finally, his slow hunch resurfaces,
0:41:03 > 0:41:08and Birdseye decides that flash freezing is the key.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12Birdseye develops a practical process for fast-freezing food
0:41:12 > 0:41:15quickly on a commercial scale.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18It's called multi-plate flash freezing,
0:41:18 > 0:41:23an idea upon which an entire industry will be founded.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26But, of course, no matter how brilliant Birdseye's idea,
0:41:26 > 0:41:29he can't change the world all on his own.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Ideas don't really work that way.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37For frozen food to reach today's ubiquity,
0:41:37 > 0:41:40it will take a convergence of other ideas about cold.
0:41:44 > 0:41:49And that is where we meet Frederick McKinley Jones.
0:41:49 > 0:41:51Jones was born in 1893,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54and he was orphaned at the age of nine.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57By the time he was 11, he had his first full-time job,
0:41:57 > 0:42:02and by the time he was 16 he was working in an auto repair shop.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05He didn't come from the world of privilege like Frederic Tudor
0:42:05 > 0:42:10and he didn't have the advanced degrees of Dr John Gorrie,
0:42:10 > 0:42:14but he was destined to change the world every bit as much
0:42:14 > 0:42:17as those other pioneers in the story of cold.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23Jones was a natural tinkerer with a gift for innovative ideas.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25This ability would lead him
0:42:25 > 0:42:29to tackle the thorny problem of food transportation.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32Back in the 1930s, despite the Depression,
0:42:32 > 0:42:34America is changing.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38It's a convergence of ideas and technologies.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42Electricity has reached our homes and our stores,
0:42:42 > 0:42:45airplanes are becoming a common sight overhead,
0:42:45 > 0:42:48cars and trucks are beginning to populate our roads.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52But the way we deliver food long distances,
0:42:52 > 0:42:55that hasn't changed for 50 years.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59Ice-chilled food delivery had changed the world,
0:42:59 > 0:43:02but it was far from perfect.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06It was always a race against time.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09Freight trains had to stop at regular intervals
0:43:09 > 0:43:11to replace ice from track-side ice houses.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17It wasn't a perfect system, and it was even tougher in a truck,
0:43:17 > 0:43:23because any delays meant melted ice and a spoiled cargo.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26So, like Birdseye before him, Jones began to wonder
0:43:26 > 0:43:28if there was a better way.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34Jones designed a small, durable refrigerated unit
0:43:34 > 0:43:37that mounted on a truck to keep its contents chilled.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41Although he lived at a time when African-American inventors
0:43:41 > 0:43:43were rarely recognised or given opportunities,
0:43:43 > 0:43:47he managed to convince his white boss to pay for its development.
0:43:50 > 0:43:52It was a success.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55After World War II, he developed refrigerated containers
0:43:55 > 0:43:58that could be moved from train to ship to truck,
0:43:58 > 0:44:01perfecting America's food distribution network.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06For nearly a century, our food networks had relied
0:44:06 > 0:44:09on these two parallel systems -
0:44:09 > 0:44:12the older system of natural ice,
0:44:12 > 0:44:17and the new technology of artificial refrigeration.
0:44:17 > 0:44:23But Fred Jones's mobile refrigerated truck marked a turning point.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26It was the end of Frederic Tudor's ice trade.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33New ideas and inventions for making things cold come together
0:44:33 > 0:44:36and begin to transform the way we eat.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40Freezer trucks, refrigerated warehouses,
0:44:40 > 0:44:42supermarkets with freezer units,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45an electrical grid powering new suburban homes,
0:44:45 > 0:44:48with electric refrigerators in every kitchen.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54By 1944, 300,000 tonnes of frozen food are being sold
0:44:54 > 0:44:57in America in a single year.
0:44:57 > 0:44:59By the time of his death,
0:44:59 > 0:45:01the company founded by Jones - Thermo King -
0:45:01 > 0:45:05is worth the modern equivalent of a quarter of a billion dollars.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10His maverick invention not only makes him
0:45:10 > 0:45:12one of the richest black men in the country,
0:45:12 > 0:45:17it also enables frozen foods to become a part of all our lives.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23Now, flash freezing is just the beginning of the story...
0:45:25 > 0:45:27..because once they get into circulation,
0:45:27 > 0:45:31good ideas like this have a way of opening up new doors of possibility.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39And today, fast and flash freezing is shaping our world
0:45:39 > 0:45:42in profound ways that even a visionary like Birdseye
0:45:42 > 0:45:44could never have expected.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47We freeze sperm, eggs and embryos,
0:45:47 > 0:45:50creating millions of new human lives.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55So this is Eamon. Tell me the story of how this guy
0:45:55 > 0:45:57came into the world.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00Sure, well, we were lucky enough to use IVF.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02- Uh-huh.- We have a five-year-old at home
0:46:02 > 0:46:05who was conceived that day and was never frozen,
0:46:05 > 0:46:07and then we were lucky enough to freeze the extra embryos.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09Um, hopefully we'll come back and...
0:46:09 > 0:46:11So, to store them, you have to freeze them?
0:46:11 > 0:46:15Freeze them... Two days later they froze them and, you know,
0:46:15 > 0:46:16then they thawed them out and said,
0:46:16 > 0:46:19"All right, they're still good." And, like, "Great."
0:46:19 > 0:46:21And we were able to have him implanted,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24and here he is, 18 months old!
0:46:24 > 0:46:26Cos it's extraordinary to think...
0:46:26 > 0:46:28I mean, there's so many different scientific breakthroughs,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31technological breakthroughs that make IVF possible,
0:46:31 > 0:46:34but if you think about it, Eamon, without artificial cold,
0:46:34 > 0:46:37without the ability to kind of flash-freeze something,
0:46:37 > 0:46:38he wouldn't be here!
0:46:38 > 0:46:41- He wouldn't exist.- It's an extraordinary...extraordinary thing.
0:46:41 > 0:46:43We'd be a smaller family.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45We're so glad it worked out.
0:46:45 > 0:46:47- We're blessed.- We are very lucky.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52From the idea that ice could cool a drink on a summer's day
0:46:52 > 0:46:55to Clarence Birdseye's innovation,
0:46:55 > 0:46:58the journey of cold helps shape how we live now.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04But perhaps the biggest impact of all would come
0:47:04 > 0:47:09as ideas about cold start to define not just HOW we live,
0:47:09 > 0:47:10but WHERE.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23In the summer of 1925,
0:47:23 > 0:47:28a man with a big idea takes his seat in a packed New York movie theatre.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36It's the first golden age of Hollywood,
0:47:36 > 0:47:38but the crowds that are there that day are not there
0:47:38 > 0:47:40for the usual movie escapism.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44The man with a big idea has just invented something that will
0:47:44 > 0:47:46revolutionise the movies.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52The roots of this story go back to 1902
0:47:52 > 0:47:55when, on a roasting hot summer's day, the same man,
0:47:55 > 0:47:58a young engineer called Willis Carrier,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01is called out to a Brooklyn printworks with a big problem.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06The humid air inside the building
0:48:06 > 0:48:09is causing the ink to smear on their prints.
0:48:11 > 0:48:16So they need, somehow, a way to make the air consistently dry.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24Carrier starts trying to solve the humidity problem
0:48:24 > 0:48:27by taking notes in this actual journal.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31Check this out. It's filled with all these physics equations,
0:48:31 > 0:48:33so I literally have no idea what it means,
0:48:33 > 0:48:35but, I mean, it's just amazingly detailed.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39He's doing this before computers. This is a guy who clearly needed a spreadsheet.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42But out of all this amazing work,
0:48:42 > 0:48:45he comes up with a new invention,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49and he calls it, "An apparatus for treating air."
0:48:51 > 0:48:54It's basically a giant dehumidifier.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57Air goes into a refrigerated chamber,
0:48:57 > 0:49:00moisture condenses over metal coils,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03and dry cool air comes out the other end,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06which is then pumped into the print rooms.
0:49:06 > 0:49:08It stops the ink from smearing.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11But Carrier notices something interesting -
0:49:11 > 0:49:16people enjoy the cool air-conditioned air, too.
0:49:16 > 0:49:18And that's how, a few years later,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21Willis Carrier came to be sitting nervously
0:49:21 > 0:49:23in a movie theatre in New York City.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26You see, Hollywood had a problem.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30Nobody in their right mind would go see a movie in the summer.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33It was just too hot.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37But Carrier hoped that was about to change,
0:49:37 > 0:49:42thanks to a prototype AC system he'd installed in the theatre's basement -
0:49:42 > 0:49:46a monster machine similar to the one sitting in the basement
0:49:46 > 0:49:49of this Jersey City cinema, built in 1929,
0:49:49 > 0:49:53to bring a new world of "comfort cooling" to the audience sitting above.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59So, now we are in front of this massive structure.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01What is this part?
0:50:01 > 0:50:04Well, this is the big blower that pulls air in off the street
0:50:04 > 0:50:06to be conditioned and then ventilates it out the building.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09And that huge fan over there is kind of powering the whole thing?
0:50:09 > 0:50:12- That's it, yeah.- It's amazing. Well, what do you think,
0:50:12 > 0:50:14shall we try and actually turn it on?
0:50:14 > 0:50:15There's a little switch here.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18If you want... I'm just going to hide behind this pillar over here
0:50:18 > 0:50:22- cos it seems very scary.- You ready? - OK, duck and cover, here we go.
0:50:22 > 0:50:23- MACHINE WHIRS - Oh, my God!
0:50:26 > 0:50:27WHOOSHING
0:50:29 > 0:50:33- Wow.- It works. - That's extraordinary.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36I feel like a jet is about to take off.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39This is from 1929. This is the original.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41And it's still working.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44But right now, upstairs in that giant auditorium,
0:50:44 > 0:50:46people are beginning to feel cool.
0:50:46 > 0:50:49I'M beginning to feel a little cool.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52It's kind of incredible when you have a machine that's, you know,
0:50:52 > 0:50:54almost 100 years old and it's still working.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02Once the AC unit starts up, cool air is transported around the building
0:51:02 > 0:51:05via a series of enormous ducts...
0:51:09 > 0:51:13..reaching the customers via these beautifully camouflaged grilles...
0:51:15 > 0:51:18You can really... I mean, the air is really circulating here.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20It's just pouring in through this doorway.
0:51:20 > 0:51:22I think this is why they call it a house fan.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24It really ventilates the entire house.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27It's amazing. I've got dust in my eye from, like,
0:51:27 > 0:51:28the Roosevelt administration!
0:51:31 > 0:51:35Carrier's idea - AC in a cinema - is revolutionary,
0:51:35 > 0:51:37but what would the cinema-goers think?
0:51:39 > 0:51:42Carrier takes a massive risk on this one demonstration,
0:51:42 > 0:51:46even inviting Paramount Pictures' chief Adolph Zukor,
0:51:46 > 0:51:49one of Hollywood's most powerful men.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52Carrier stayed up all the night before
0:51:52 > 0:51:54trying to get the equipment ready.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57Now it was time to crank up the AC.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59He wrote later about what happened...
0:52:01 > 0:52:03"Final adjustments delayed us
0:52:03 > 0:52:05"in starting up the air conditioning system.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10"From the wings we watched in dismay as 2,000 fans fluttered."
0:52:10 > 0:52:14"But, gradually, the fans dropped into laps
0:52:14 > 0:52:18"as the effects of the air conditioning became evident."
0:52:18 > 0:52:20'We had stopped them cold
0:52:20 > 0:52:23"and breathed a great sigh of relief."
0:52:23 > 0:52:27"Afterwards, when Mr Zukor saw us, he said tersely,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30"'Yes, the people are going to like it.'"
0:52:39 > 0:52:42And that was the understatement of the century.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49Basically, you start air-conditioning theatres
0:52:49 > 0:52:53and what happens to the kind of American love of cinema?
0:52:53 > 0:52:56If you had stopped the average person in the street in, say,
0:52:56 > 0:52:581900 or 1910 and said,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01"I have a system where if you push a button you'll get cool air,"
0:53:01 > 0:53:05they would have thought you were joking - it would have been science fiction.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08So for people to actually enter a movie theatre in the 1920s
0:53:08 > 0:53:10and experience "comfort cool" for the first time,
0:53:10 > 0:53:12changed the way they thought about their environment.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15All of a sudden now, with modern air conditioning,
0:53:15 > 0:53:18on the hottest days of the year people are starting to come to the movies.
0:53:18 > 0:53:23In 1930, 80 million Americans go to the movies every week.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25That's 65% of the entire population.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28So you would say every 12 days on average
0:53:28 > 0:53:30the entire country goes to the movies.
0:53:30 > 0:53:31You can't pick a better venue
0:53:31 > 0:53:34to expose a great new innovation like this than the movies.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38So air conditioning actually ends up inventing the summer blockbuster?
0:53:38 > 0:53:42Air conditioning and movies go hand in hand throughout their entire history.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45Willis Carrier's invention -
0:53:45 > 0:53:48a machine for cooling air in a print shop -
0:53:48 > 0:53:49has changed Hollywood.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54But the idea of air conditioning proves irresistible,
0:53:54 > 0:53:58and soon it will trigger chain reactions more dramatic
0:53:58 > 0:54:01than any other innovation in the story of cold.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04AC is about to re-draw the map of the world.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09OK, so take a look at a map of the United States
0:54:09 > 0:54:11at the beginning of the 20th century.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14Everyone lives in the growing and prosperous cities
0:54:14 > 0:54:16of the North.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19The South and West, meanwhile,
0:54:19 > 0:54:21are economic backwaters.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25Towns like Phoenix and Miami are tiny.
0:54:27 > 0:54:32Las Vegas in 1910 has just 937 inhabitants.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34Why?
0:54:34 > 0:54:35Because this is the sunbelt.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39It's too hot and no-one wants to live here.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41In 1951,
0:54:41 > 0:54:43Carrier's company introduces an air conditioning unit
0:54:43 > 0:54:48that is miniaturised and affordable for a mass market,
0:54:48 > 0:54:51and that's when AC starts to go crazy.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00Between the 1950s and the 1980s,
0:55:00 > 0:55:04AC becomes ubiquitous in people's homes and cars across America.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09And just see what that does to where people are living.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12Tucson, Arizona, grows 400%
0:55:12 > 0:55:14in ten years.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16Phoenix - 300%.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19Tampa, Dallas, Houston and Atlanta -
0:55:19 > 0:55:21populations double, triple.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23And it's the same story everywhere you look.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29ARCHIVE: 'By 1960, 30,000 people will live in Broomfield Heights,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32'making it the fifth largest city...'
0:55:32 > 0:55:37Carrier's invention is circulating people as well as air,
0:55:37 > 0:55:39changing lives, changing America.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47But then something even more interesting happens.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51You see, people moving to the hot states are older
0:55:51 > 0:55:53and tend to vote Republican,
0:55:53 > 0:55:57and the growing population in the conservative South
0:55:57 > 0:56:00means more electoral college votes there.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03So check out what happens to the political map of America.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10Between 1940 and 1980,
0:56:10 > 0:56:15northern states lose an incredible 31 electoral college votes,
0:56:15 > 0:56:19while the southern states gain 29,
0:56:19 > 0:56:24doubling the number in California, Arizona and Florida -
0:56:24 > 0:56:27the vast majority voting Republican.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32This is long-zoom history.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36Less than a century after Willis Carrier started to tinker with
0:56:36 > 0:56:39stopping the ink from smearing on a page in Brooklyn,
0:56:39 > 0:56:43our mastery of molecules of air and moisture
0:56:43 > 0:56:46have helped put Ronald Reagan into the White House.
0:56:52 > 0:56:57Today, many of the world's fastest-growing cities, like Dubai,
0:56:57 > 0:56:58are in hot countries.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03It's the first mass migration in human history
0:57:03 > 0:57:06to be made possible by a home appliance.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11And all this started with a half-baked idea,
0:57:11 > 0:57:14a hunch in the mind of a maverick dreamer.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21When you think about inventions,
0:57:21 > 0:57:25we tend to be constrained by the scale of the original idea.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28So, we assume that if we invent artificial cold,
0:57:28 > 0:57:30our rooms will be cooler
0:57:30 > 0:57:33and we'll have ice cubes in our drinks on a hot summer day.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36But if you tell the story of cold that way,
0:57:36 > 0:57:39you miss the majesty of it.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43We make our ideas, and they make us in return.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46And when you look at the story from that angle,
0:57:46 > 0:57:50you can't help feel that cold isn't done with us yet.