TV, Bricks, Crayons Curious Cat

Hello, children, what are you doing?

We're sticking our pictures up on the wall.

That's great,

but have you ever thought about how important walls are?

That wall doesn't just hold your pictures up,

it's holding up the roof above our heads and the whole school.

It has to be very strong to do that.

Do you know what it's made of?

Is it made out of bricks?

That's right. But what are bricks made from?

Mm... I don't know.

Bricks start their journey in the ground, as clay.

Clay is a type of rock.

In fact, clay is made up of tiny bits of rock,

smaller than a grain of sand.

The clay is dug up by big diggers in quarries.

Clay is special because when it is mixed with water,

it becomes very sticky and it can be made into lots of different shapes.

This is why it can be used to make lots of things

like plates, cups and bricks.

Clay is the main ingredient to make a brick,

but a lot has to be done to the clay before it can hold up a building.

Would you like to find out more?

BOTH: Yes, please!

Off you go to the brick factory to find out more from my friend Graham.

Hello, children. My name is Graham.

I run this brick factory.

Would you like us to show you how we make our bricks?

BOTH: Yeah!

Come on, then. Let's see what we can find.

All the clay comes to the factory from local quarries,

ready to be made into bricks.

The first thing to do is to move the clay from the yard into the factory.

Wow!

It travels on a conveyor, way up in the air.

You can follow it to see what happens next.

There's the conveyor belt,

so the clay was there and it goes all the way up into the factory.

Wow!

The next stage is to get rid of all the lumps.

The conveyor takes the clay to a big machine that crushes it.

To see inside the crusher, you need to climb up all these stairs.

Careful now!

There you go. If you look in,

those big rollers are crushing up the clay, can you see?

BOTH: Yeah.

Each one of those weighs about ten tonnes.

Wow!

Now the clay is smoother, water is added.

So the big mixer we saw up there, that's crushing the clay.

And we also start adding some water to the clay.

Why do you add water?

We have to make sure the clay is nice and soft

so that we can mould it into bricks.

To see how soft the clay needs to be,

Keith can show you how he makes bricks by hand.

Hello, kids. My name's Keith.

I'm going to show you now how to make a handmade brick, OK?

BOTH: Yeah!

What we do, we get the clay,

which is the same as the clay they use down in the factories.

We get enough clay to make the brick.

Then, we roll it in the sand.

Why do you roll it in the sand?

I roll it in the sand so when we make the brick,

it doesn't stick in the mould.

So if we didn't do that, we wouldn't be able to get the bricks out

and they wouldn't be no good.

OK. Then we pick it up, place it in there.

This is the noisy bit.

OK?

Then, we cut that off.

We use that to make another brick.

And we turn it over,

give it a little tap, like that.

Then we put it on here, look.

And lift it up.

And that's the brick.

It's amazing.

Who wants to make a brick?

Me, me, me!

Put it on top of there, that's it.

Pat it down.

That's it.

That's it. Pat it on top.

That's it, pull it towards you.

Bring it over here.

There we are, there we go.

These are how bricks have been made for thousands of years,

but now the majority of them are made in the factories.

We can't make enough for all the houses

that are being built nowadays.

What happens next?

Well, Graham will show you what happens next.

-Shall we go and see him?

-BOTH: Yeah!

Come on, then.

In order to make lots of bricks in the factory,

a massive machine is used.

Just like Keith, the machine squeezes the clay into moulds.

Each rectangle shape makes a brick.

So this is actually bricks being made,

where the soft, sticky clay is coming down through the machine

and the press block there is just

squeezing the right amount of clay into the mould.

So very, very soft, sticky clay.

Lovely to play with.

The bricks are pushed out of the mould using sand.

This is exactly the same as Keith and his handmade bricks.

But the sand has another really important job.

We use different types of sand to give us different colours of bricks.

So we can make purple bricks, black bricks, red bricks.

In fact, the bricks we're making today,

that you've seen all the clay coming into the factory,

will actually come out yellow.

So a nice buff clay, yellow sand and stain will make a yellow brick.

Red sand with a red clay.

And then we can even put a colorant on the brick.

So lots and lots of different sands, colours, stains

will make lots of pretty different-coloured bricks. OK?

Now, the bricks have to be made hard

and the first part of this is to dry them.

Once we've made our bricks, we then have to dry them.

So we put them into dryers.

They're in the dryers for about 24 hours.

The temperature of the dryers is up to 100 degrees Celsius,

so very, very hot.

That's why there's sometimes steam coming out of the dryers,

cos that's the water coming out of the bricks.

Why do you remove the water?

If we didn't remove the water before they go into the kiln,

they would actually explode. The water would get trapped

in the middle of the brick and they'd shatter.

And we don't like shattered bricks. We like perfect bricks.

OK, shall we go and see the next stage and the kiln?

Yes, please.

Once the bricks are nice and dry, they go to the kiln to be fired.

So these have just come through the kiln,

and the kiln is a really, really hot oven.

It's a hot temperature of 1,080 degrees centigrade.

So, in a minute, the doors will automatically open,

and we'll see all the red-hot bricks inside.

Oh, yeah.

Wow!

It looks really hot.

That's right, children. Those flames are firing the bricks,

hardening them so they're strong enough to hold up a house.

That's the end of our day.

This is where the bricks are finally selected.

We package them up and send them off all over the UK

for people to build houses, hospitals and schools.

So you now know exactly how to make bricks,

so you can go off now and tell Curious Cat all about it, can't you?

BOTH: Yeah!

So, children, how was your journey?

It was great.

We made our own bricks! See?

That's fantastic! What did you learn?

Bricks are made of clay and water.

The water makes the clay easy to mould.

The mixture is squished and squashed so it is all the same.

It's put into a mould to make a brick shape.

It is dried to get rid of all the water so it wouldn't explode.

It gets really hot in the kiln and this makes the brick really strong.

The bricks are packed up to go to building sites.

Well done, children!

Now you know how clay becomes strong enough

to hold up the school and your houses.

It's time to say goodbye.

BOTH: Bye-bye, Curious Cat.

Goodbye, children!

Hello, children.

BOTH: Hello, Curious Cat!

-What are you doing?

-We're watching a programme on TV.

Do you know how TV is made?

BOTH: No.

Well, go and meet my friend Steve who can tell you all about it.

-Hi!

-Hi, Louis. Hi, Kai.

-Hi!

-Would you like to see how we make television?

-BOTH: Yes, please!

Follow me.

It all starts in the television studio, where programmes are filmed.

For live TV, the studio is connected to a special room,

where everything is controlled.

The people who run the show sit in here telling everyone,

including the presenters, what to do.

Coming to camera three, then. Last ten seconds...

In three, two, one...

That bit is the important bit, yeah?

Let's find out what a presenter does.

-Hello!

-Hello, how lovely to see you.

Welcome to my studio.

Kai and Louis, this is Matt.

He presents The One Show live for BBC.

He's going to tell us what being a live presenter is all about.

-Ahh!

-What is being a live presenter all about?

Well, it's a very good question.

Basically, you've got half an hour

to get loads of information into a show.

We've got lots of different films. And the key is knowing your guest.

Right, lads, you see this?

This is a special little tool that all presenters have

and it's called an earpiece.

And this fastens, it's a bit like a walkie-talkie system, OK?

And this is like, you'd go, "Cccrr, hello," right?

But what you do is you fasten that to the end

and then you stick this bit in your ear,

tuck it all in behind so no-one can see it,

and you can hear what people are saying in the gallery.

And this is a special room where lots of people are talking.

So Steve sits in there, he's the director.

From this special room, Steve can talk to Matt in his earpiece.

But Matt uses another clever piece of technology

that tells him what to say.

It's called an autocue.

We've seen how Matt and the professionals do it.

They read the words on the screen in front of the camera.

Lots of people have helped to write for them.

The screen is see-through and the camera is hidden behind it.

This means the presenters are looking directly at the camera

as they read their words.

It must be really hard listening and reading at the same time.

Why don't you have a go!

Kai, you read the words from the autocue.

And, Louis, you tell him things to do,

just like the people talking to Matt in his earpiece.

We've got you on camera. Action!

Today, we will learn how TV is made.

Put your right arm up.

We are on the set of The One Show...

Put your left arm up.

We are filming behind the scenes...

Put your right arm down.

Here, we will learn about filming a live TV show...

Put your left arm down.

Next, we will see how the show is sent to TVs...

Put both arms up.

..all around the country.

Put both arms down.

You've had a go at reading and listening at the same time.

It's difficult, isn't it? BOTH: Yeah.

While Matt is listening to his earpiece and reading the autocue,

the cameras are recording his image and sound.

Why don't you have a go on the cameras?

Studio cameras are really big.

They have a screen to see what you're filming

and buttons to control them.

They also have wheels so they can move around the studio.

I like being a cameraman.

Next, the pictures and sound

recorded on the cameras in the studio

go to a special room full of TVs.

This is where everything is controlled.

It's called the gallery.

This is the gallery or control room,

where everything is controlled on live transmissions.

The producer talks to Matt in his earpiece.

And I sit here trying to make sure the show goes out smoothly.

The producer is in charge,

and they control everything from this room using the TVs and buttons.

Steve is the director, and he tells the cameramen what to do.

Some of the TVs show what each of the studio cameras are recording.

This one is for the final programme that you watch on your TV at home.

Let's find out what the buttons do.

As you press the buttons on this row, here, it changes what happens.

Can we use these? The lever?

You can use the lever. Louis, if you just move that lever... See?

That's something called a mix effect.

So, the buttons and levers control what you see on the screens.

What happens next?

-Shall we go and find out?

-Yes.

-Yes, please.

Once the programme is ready, it can be sent

to all the houses across the country.

Once the programme is finished, it comes

to the control room and gets sent all across the country.

If you look there, you can see the programmes on air live on the BBC.

So, how does it get to the people's homes?

-I'll show you. Follow me.

-OK.

So, to send the picture to your homes,

we first have to turn it into waves.

I've got a really good way of showing you that.

If I talk into this microphone, and you look at the screen,

see the line moving?

-Yes.

-If I talk quietly, see, it's quite small?

And then if I talk loudly, see, it goes really big?

-Yeah.

-That's the sound being turned into a wave.

-Do you want to have a go?

-Yes, please.

Ahhhhhhh.

Looooooooooaaarrr.

Once we've turned it into waves, we send it to your house.

Once the pictures and sounds have been changed into waves,

they're sent to special machine called a satellite dish.

This is where we broadcast all of the BBC channels from, like CBBC.

We have to broadcast 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

If we didn't, there wouldn't be any telly.

Why do they have to point upwards, though?

So they can see a satellite in space.

That's right, and Steve's got a really good way

of demonstrating why satellite dishes point upwards.

So, imagine that light, there, is a satellite dish.

The TV signals travel in a straight line to your home.

This mug's your home.

If the dishes were on the ground, any big building

like my hand or a tree would block the signal. You see the shadow?

That's the signal blocking, so people wouldn't get a good picture.

We don't send it from the dish on the ground directly to people's homes.

Instead the dish points up at a satellite.

It's pointing at the satellite way up in space

and that beams down to people's homes,

and if you put your hands there, see?

The signal's not blocked.

There's no shadow.

So, that's why we use a satellite -

to get the signals down to everybody at once.

So, the TV waves are beamed from the satellite dish

up to a satellite in space, which sends them back down to your houses.

What do the TV waves do next?

They get converted back into sound and pictures,

-so you can watch them on your television.

-Clever idea.

-Very clever.

Hello, children. How was your journey?

It was really fun. We went behind the scenes at The One Show,

and we met the presenter, who told us all about his job.

The presenters listen to the producers in their earpiece

and they tell them what to do.

I read from the autocue and Louis told me stuff to do.

It was very hard to read and listen at the same time.

We filmed stuff on the big cameras and it was really fun.

The pictures and sounds go into a special room where

they put together the programmes.

Then the programme is made into a wave which can travel really far

in a straight line.

Waves can't go round objects,

so they're sent up to a satellite in space.

Then the waves are sent down to all the TVs in the UK.

That's great, children. So, now you know all about how TV is made.

It's time to say goodbye.

BOTH: Goodbye, Curious Cat.

Goodbye, children.

Hello, children.

BOTH: Hello, Curious Cat.

What are you doing?

We're drawing pictures with crayons.

We've drawn pictures of you.

Wow, that's great.

Crayons can be all sorts of different colours,

not just orange and purple.

Do you know what they're made of?

Are they made of wax?

Yes, that's right.

And wax is made from oil,

a black, shiny liquid that comes from underground.

Oil is found in rocks which have lots of little holes in them

like a sponge.

These rocks, filled with oil, are deep under the sea,

or are in the ground under our feet.

Big machines drill down to where the oil is and take it out.

Oil is really useful for all sorts of things.

It goes to a factory,

where it's made into all sorts of stuff,

including petrol for cars, the chemicals which make plastics,

and the main ingredient for crayons

which is called paraffin wax.

Do you want to find out what happens to the wax next,

to make it into different-coloured crayons?

Yes, please!

OK, then, off you go!

Liam runs the only children's crayon factory in the UK.

They can make all your favourite colours.

He'll tell you where it all starts.

Wax is the main ingredient we use to make crayons.

It arrives in small flakes, so it's easier to heat up and melt.

It feels a bit hard and squishy.

That's right, but the wax is too hard to write on paper,

so we add a chemical,

which makes the wax softer, so it can draw on paper.

It's very soft.

Next, we put the two ingredients in this big pot,

which heats and melts it into a liquid, like ice cream in the sun.

It heats it up 120 degrees, which is hotter than a boiling kettle.

Wow, that sounds really hot.

When the wax gets that hot, it melts into a liquid

that can be poured into a bucket ready for what happens next.

Why is the wax really watery?

It does look like water, doesn't it?

The wax becomes clear when it melts, so it looks just like water.

Now the wax is ready, we need to add some colour.

But it's difficult to add colour to wax so we need to force it together.

Would you like to see? BOTH: Yes, please.

So, here are the colours. They are incredibly strong.

If you touched the powder,

you wouldn't be able to wash it off for a long time.

And these are the four main colours we use -

red, blue, green and yellow.

Where do those colours come from?

For thousands of years, colours came from plants and animals.

Red used to come from crushed spiders,

yellow comes from plants and animal wee,

and blue comes from the indigo plant.

But today, we use chemicals to make our colours.

That's right, the chemicals can make all sorts of colours,

but they don't mix well with wax.

So, the next thing to do is to make the colour ready to add to the wax.

A little bit of hot wax and colour are mixed,

and put through a machine which squeezes them together.

And out comes blue colour ready to add to the wax to make crayons.

-The colour is still warm, careful when you touch it!

-Ah-ah-ah!

-Smell it, Martin.

-Ewwww.

-Smells like paint.

The colour cools down and becomes hard, ready to make crayons.

This is where the colour is added to the hot wax.

Andrew is making green crayons.

What is the white stuff for?

We add the white powder to the crayons to keep them strong,

otherwise, when you write with them, they would break.

The white powder is another chemical added to the crayon mixture.

The colour has now melted into the wax

to make a lot of green crayon mixture.

Next the crayons are made.

Next, we pour the wax on, and it sinks into the little holes,

Can you see the holes? BOTH: Yes.

Well, each of the holes makes a crayon.

The hot wax pours down into each hole to make a crayon.

Now this is the clever bit -

we circulate cold water around each crayon

to make sure it cools at just the right temperature.

If it cools too quickly,

we end up with a very bumpy crayon,

and they break easily.

The cold water inside the machine cools each crayon

in just the right way.

After a couple of minutes

the liquid wax has cooled into a solid crayon

and we scrape the rest of the wax off.

That wax goes back in the pot to be used again and again.

But where are the crayons?

If you go and pull that lever next to Andrew, you'll see.

Wow, that's clever!

Let's find out what happens next.

The last part of the process is one of the hardest,

and that's picking up all the crayons without dropping any.

Now, that may look easy, but, Hari, why don't you give it a try?

Oh, dear, Hari. It isn't as easy as it looks.

Next the crayons are labelled.

Can you see how the labelling machine works?

The crayons all line up ready.

The labels are made sticky with glue

and are stuck on, one crayon at a time.

And out roll the crayons ready to go into boxes!

So, Martin, pick three colours that you'd like

in your own box of crayons.

Green, blue and yellow.

-Thank you. Hari, would you like to choose three?

-Yes.

Green, blue and yellow.

Thank you.

So, now you each have your own pack of crayons

to take back and show Curious Cat.

-Cool!

-That's great!

So, children, how was the crayon factory?

It was great and fun.

We got our own box of crayons!

Brilliant! And what did you learn?

The crayons are made out of wax

and another thing to make it soft enough to draw on paper.

The mixture is heated up really hot

and it becomes a runny liquid like water.

Next, the colours are added.

They don't mix well with wax,

so they are forced together in a special machine.

The colour block is added with something to make the crayons hard.

The mould is cooled with water.

The extra wax is scraped off

and used again.

The crayons come up out of the mould,

and then they are put in boxes.

They are labelled and loads of bright colours go in each box.

That sounds great!

Now you can draw lots more pictures with your crayons.

Time to say goodbye.

BOTH: Bye-bye, Curious Cat.

Goodbye, children.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd