0:00:32 > 0:00:36I'm going to tell you something about my life.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40My name is Florence Nightingale.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44I was born in the year 1820 in Italy,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47and named after a famous city there,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50but I grew up in England in a large country house.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56The story I will tell you starts when I was still a girl,
0:00:56 > 0:01:00when I began to imagine the life I could lead,
0:01:00 > 0:01:05when I got hold of the idea that I might do something with my life,
0:01:05 > 0:01:07and I wouldn't let it go.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17I grew up with my sister Parthenhope,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20who was also named after an Italian town.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24We were a wealthy family and our father wanted to educate us himself.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30From a young age, I loved to read, and I wanted to learn.
0:01:30 > 0:01:36I was neat and orderly, and liked everything to be in its place.
0:01:36 > 0:01:41My sister, on the other hand, just wanted to play around.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44In lessons she did her best to distract me.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47But I would not be distracted.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52I had this idea that I would do something with my life
0:01:52 > 0:01:55and I wouldn't let it go.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09Wherever I was, I was only happy if I had a book in my hand,
0:02:09 > 0:02:11much to my sisters' frustration.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19They said I was a bookworm.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25But it was more than that.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29I knew even then I didn't want to be like other girls.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45I grew up with my head in books and, over time,
0:02:45 > 0:02:49I formed a very clear idea of what it was that I wanted to do.
0:02:53 > 0:02:59What I wanted to do was work, and the work I wanted to do was nursing.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10My family didn't approve.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12What they expected of me,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15all they thought I should aim for in my life,
0:03:15 > 0:03:17was to find a respectable man to marry me.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24I knew that being a wife and mother would never be enough.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28I had this idea that I would do something with my life
0:03:28 > 0:03:31and I wouldn't let it go.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43I stuck to my books, and refused to give in.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45I would not change my course.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56At that time nurses got no training at all, but I had other ideas.
0:04:01 > 0:04:06So long as my father refused to let me work, I stuck to my books,
0:04:06 > 0:04:11refining my ideas about how I would teach nurses to help the sick.
0:04:22 > 0:04:28Eventually, I got the chance that all these years I'd been waiting for.
0:04:31 > 0:04:36I was asked to train a team of nurses for work in the Crimea,
0:04:36 > 0:04:38a place far away where there was a war.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44There was a hospital there near the battlefield where injured
0:04:44 > 0:04:47soldiers were brought in, but were never getting better.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55I trained my nurses in
0:04:55 > 0:04:59fundamental principles of cleanliness and hygiene.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04I wanted them neat and orderly, and everything just so.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13Soon we were packed and ready to leave,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17for a war that had until now had seemed so far away,
0:05:17 > 0:05:20in a country most of them had never even heard of.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31Even I had a little apprehension,
0:05:31 > 0:05:33not so much for what we might find,
0:05:33 > 0:05:38but because I knew this was my chance to prove my worth as a nurse.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42The journey to Scutari in Turkey took several weeks.
0:05:46 > 0:05:47We arrived and it was hot.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54The hospital itself was in the shell of an old army fort,
0:05:54 > 0:05:55close to the battlefield.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08As we walked towards it, I didn't quite know what we'd find.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22Whatever we had imagined, this was worse.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25The first thing to hit you was the smell,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33the stench of sickness and filth.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45Soldiers lay on the floor in pools of blood,
0:06:45 > 0:06:50undressed wounds were covered in flies, sheets, such as there were,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53were crawling with lice and maggots.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55It was a hell on earth.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10I knew in an instant what needed to be done.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17First, I had to persuade the doctor to let us get to work.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20I knew what I wanted to do and I wouldn't let it go.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26He resisted but, in the end, he said that things
0:07:26 > 0:07:29had got so bad, he was willing to let me try.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Here was my chance to prove what I believed were
0:07:43 > 0:07:49the first principles of good nursing, cleanliness and hygiene.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53I set my nurses to cleaning every inch, every crevice,
0:07:53 > 0:07:55every corner of the place.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02First we swept.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05I believed that when the wounded came to us,
0:08:05 > 0:08:07they should expect not dirt and disease,
0:08:07 > 0:08:09but good food and clean sheets
0:08:09 > 0:08:14and fresh air and the chance for nature to heal their wounds.
0:08:16 > 0:08:17Then, we scrubbed.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24That way we would be in charge, order would prevail,
0:08:24 > 0:08:26and health could be restored.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33I wouldn't let my nurses rest until the place was spotless.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37I was strict with them and I suspect they found me rather stern.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Finally, we brought in fresh sheets.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58And, once clean, the hospital would stay clean.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22This was how I'd imagined it,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28clean and hygienic, and everything in its place.
0:09:28 > 0:09:33Now we could concentrate on tending to the soldiers' wounds,
0:09:33 > 0:09:35and nursing them back to health.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41The change in the hospital was immediate.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51I may have been stern with the nurses,
0:09:51 > 0:09:55but at night I walked amongst the soldiers on the wards.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05I would sit with them if they wanted, or read to them,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08or take their hand if they called out.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11After all, it was for them that we were there at all,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14and I so wanted each of them to get better.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18Because of my lantern, and my nightly rounds,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21they started to call me 'The Lady of The Lamp'.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27Soon, we were rewarded for all our efforts.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31Soldiers that would have died before were getting better,
0:10:31 > 0:10:33and some were able to leave their beds.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40It gave me such satisfaction to watch them leave.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43I'd never felt more complete.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50After the war ended,
0:10:50 > 0:10:55I stayed until every last soldier was well enough to leave.
0:10:55 > 0:10:56When I got back to England,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59I was astonished to find that I was famous!
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Not only were people talking about my work,
0:11:04 > 0:11:08but there was a trust fund that had been set up in my honour!
0:11:08 > 0:11:10It was a good deal of money and
0:11:10 > 0:11:15I used it to start up the first ever Nurses Training School in London.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20What I did changed nursing for good.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25It became a real profession, with strict principles and standards,
0:11:25 > 0:11:29and all the better for the health of the entire nation.
0:11:31 > 0:11:37As a girl, I had decided that I would do something with my life.
0:11:37 > 0:11:43I'm glad that I took hold of that idea and I never let it go.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26I'm going to tell you about something about my life.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29My name is Alexander Graham Bell.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33I was born in the year 1847 in Edinburgh.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36To understand where I ended up,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39you'll need to understand where I started from.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43So the story I will tell you begins when I was just a boy.
0:12:51 > 0:12:57By the time I was ten years old, my mother was almost deaf.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00She liked to listen to me playing the piano,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03although I'm not sure exactly what she heard.
0:13:05 > 0:13:10She would sit beside me with her hearing tube pressed to the piano,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14and seemed to like it even though I didn't really play that well.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24Because of my mother,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28I was interested from an early age in how sound works.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32I spent ages peering inside the piano, watching how,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36when I pressed a key, a little hammer hit some strings,
0:13:36 > 0:13:41making them vibrate, and I saw it was the vibration that made the sound.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47I think it was the vibrations, too, that mother could pick up
0:13:47 > 0:13:49through her hearing tube.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58Sometimes, in the next room, my father would be teaching a pupil.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02It was his job to try and help deaf people learn to speak.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09He'd invented a system that helped them learn how to
0:14:09 > 0:14:13move their throat, tongue and lips to produce the vibrations to
0:14:13 > 0:14:17make the different kinds of sounds that went into speech.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36When there were people round for tea, and the chatter was whirling
0:14:36 > 0:14:40around the room, I didn't like the thought of my mother missing out.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46So I tried to help her follow the conversation
0:14:46 > 0:14:48by tapping a code out on her arm.
0:15:11 > 0:15:16Perhaps because of my mother, I was so glad that I could hear.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19I was so aware that the world was full of sound.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26I would go out and walk sometimes just to listen,
0:15:26 > 0:15:30and it was like the whole world was vibrating all at once.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41I thought if I listened hard enough, I could even hear
0:15:41 > 0:15:45the sound of moss growing and creeping its way along a fallen tree.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07I was always tuned in to the sounds things made,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10and even when I grew up I was still listening.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20But now I had my own ideas too, about how sound worked,
0:16:20 > 0:16:25and about all the things it might be possible to do with it.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29I was itching to try some things out,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32so my father set my brother Melly and I a challenge
0:16:32 > 0:16:37to invent a machine that could replicate the human voice.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41Ha! A talking machine!
0:16:41 > 0:16:44The idea got me really excited!
0:16:46 > 0:16:47ALEXANDER GARGLES
0:16:53 > 0:16:57We tried to figure out what it was
0:16:57 > 0:17:00that made the human voice come out at all.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08We tried to think of the body as a machine,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12with all the mechanisms needed to cause a vibration to make a sound,
0:17:12 > 0:17:13but not just any sound,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17all the different kinds of sounds that make up speech.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27HORN HONKS
0:17:27 > 0:17:29WHISTLING
0:17:38 > 0:17:42We made something, and it worked!
0:17:42 > 0:17:45Well, kind of worked.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58When I wasn't thinking about machines or working on my ideas,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01I taught deaf children just like my father did.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09I never forgot that some people, like my mother,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12could hear very little or nothing at all.
0:18:15 > 0:18:21And teaching them how to make sounds spurred me on and
0:18:21 > 0:18:25I had so many ideas about how to make machines that could manipulate sound.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41Then a chance came along for me to try out some of my ideas.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45I was asked to find ways to improve the telegraph machine.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48The telegraph machine was a relatively new invention,
0:18:48 > 0:18:51used to send messages from one place to another.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Before the telegraph, messages had to be handwritten
0:18:55 > 0:18:58and sent by horse and cart!
0:18:58 > 0:19:00This was so much quicker.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02It sent messages from one place to another
0:19:02 > 0:19:07by taking the words of the message, and turning them into a code,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11like Morse code, which could be sent down an electrical wire.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15At the other end, the code was received
0:19:15 > 0:19:17and translated back into words again.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26But the big drawback was you could only send one message at a time,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29and it had to be sent from the Telegraph Office,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32which often meant there was a very long queue.
0:19:39 > 0:19:44And when the messages were received, at a Telegraph Office somewhere else,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47they had to be printed off, one at a time,
0:19:47 > 0:19:50and delivered to the right address.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57It was a clever system,
0:19:57 > 0:20:01but sending one message at a time was simply too slow.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17I was working on how to make the telegraph machine better,
0:20:17 > 0:20:21but I kept coming back to a different idea.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25What if, rather than turning a message into a code and then sending
0:20:25 > 0:20:30that code along an electric wire and turning it back into words again,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34what if you could send the sound of a human voice,
0:20:34 > 0:20:39so that one person could simply speak to another,
0:20:39 > 0:20:41even if they were far away?
0:20:50 > 0:20:55I had an idea that you could use electricity to send sound itself
0:20:55 > 0:20:59along a copper wire, but I wasn't quite sure how to build it.
0:21:01 > 0:21:06I got a man called Watson who was good with electricity to help me out.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12We rented two rooms, one next to the other.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17Together, we came up with a contraption that might just work.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25It had a mouthpiece or transmitter to speak into and then,
0:21:25 > 0:21:28using a dangerous liquid called acid, the sound would be turned
0:21:28 > 0:21:33into electricity, travel along a copper wire,
0:21:33 > 0:21:37and be turned back into sound again at the other end, at the receiver.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43We had something that we thought might work,
0:21:43 > 0:21:45and we got ready to try it out.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48But just then, at the crucial moment...
0:21:48 > 0:21:50< Come in here, Watson, I need you!
0:21:50 > 0:21:54..I spilt acid on my trousers. It was burning my leg.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56- VIA PHONE:- Watson, I need you.'
0:22:02 > 0:22:06To my utter amazement, Watson had heard me!
0:22:06 > 0:22:08The machine had worked!
0:22:10 > 0:22:14I was so excited, I almost forgot the burning sensation on my leg!
0:22:17 > 0:22:20In that moment, the telephone was born.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24It needed more work,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28but soon, I was ready to show people what I had invented.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33It caught on and it was a great success.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38Amazing to think that the device we rigged up between those two rooms
0:22:38 > 0:22:43was the first ever telephone, and now, in your world,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45there are more five billion of them!
0:22:47 > 0:22:51What had started with me playing piano for my mother,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54and peering inside to see how it worked,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59led me down a road that ended in an invention that, quite frankly,
0:22:59 > 0:23:03the world now simply couldn't do without.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47I'm going to tell you something about my life.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50My name is Harriet Tubman.
0:23:51 > 0:23:57I was born in Maryland in the United States of America in the year 1820.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01But my story starts when I was just a child
0:24:01 > 0:24:05I was born into a family of slaves.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08My mother and father were from Africa,
0:24:08 > 0:24:12but they were snatched up from their homes
0:24:12 > 0:24:16and brought to America on a ship to work for a rich landowner.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28Being a slave meant that we were owned by our master,
0:24:28 > 0:24:32and he got to decide everything we did.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36And most of what we did was working in his cotton fields.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47The seasons turned one into the next, and every year it was the same.
0:24:47 > 0:24:52We hoed the field to sow the seed to pick the cotton,
0:24:52 > 0:24:56then hoed the field to sow the seed to pick the cotton,
0:24:56 > 0:25:01over and over, till our hands were raw, our backs ached,
0:25:01 > 0:25:05our spirits worn down by the endless toil.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12From the age of six,
0:25:12 > 0:25:15my job was to carry buckets of water out to the field.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24The bucket was heavy and sometimes I could barely lift it off the ground.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27We got no money.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31We were given just about enough food to keep us from starving.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38The landowner lived in a giant house on the hill,
0:25:38 > 0:25:41with a view over all his land.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45We slept in a small hut in the forest.
0:25:48 > 0:25:53We had no furniture, and we slept on the floor, lined up like sardines.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59But still, I loved the hut, loved us all lined up together,
0:25:59 > 0:26:01keeping each other warm.
0:26:04 > 0:26:09My father snored loudest, but it was so familiar it helped me sleep.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16Sometimes, my father would take me
0:26:16 > 0:26:20into the forest that surrounded our hut and tell me things.
0:26:20 > 0:26:25He told me how moss always grew on the north side of a tree,
0:26:25 > 0:26:26how birds made their nests.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33I loved watching the birds.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37I tried to imagine what it would feel like to fly anywhere you felt like,
0:26:37 > 0:26:41high above the tree tops, looking down on everything.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48And that's how I grew up, knowing only the small world of
0:26:48 > 0:26:51the forest round our hut and the field we worked in.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58As soon as I was old enough,
0:26:58 > 0:27:02I was put to work alongside the other slaves in the field.
0:27:02 > 0:27:08I spent years that way, until my hands were raw, my back ached,
0:27:08 > 0:27:13and my spirit was worn down by the endless toil.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16Still I watched the birds.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20The slave master could keep my back bent towards the earth but
0:27:20 > 0:27:24he couldn't stop me from imagining what it might feel like to be free.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33Then, one day, we were working in the field, like every other day,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37when, all of a sudden, one of the slaves made a run for it.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43The slave master bid me go after him,
0:27:43 > 0:27:47but I just stood still and watched, admiring how brave he was,
0:27:47 > 0:27:51willing him to magically take flight and leave the ground.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53The master was furious.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00From that day on, I had dizzy spells,
0:28:00 > 0:28:04and would fall asleep without warning.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08But the strange thing was that that blow to the head
0:28:08 > 0:28:13also made something clear to me, like I'd suddenly woken up.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16I knew I had to escape,
0:28:16 > 0:28:21I had to do more than just look at the birds and dream of being free.
0:28:21 > 0:28:26In the moment that rock hit my head, I knew I just needed to be brave.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39Early one morning, I woke before the others.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41The time had come.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47I wrapped what little I had, and a small amount of food into a shawl.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57Then I took one last look at my family sleeping like sardines and
0:28:57 > 0:29:01at the space where all these years I had slept between them, and I left.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16I headed straight into the forest.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24Soon, I had walked further, and gone deeper into the forest,
0:29:24 > 0:29:26than I had ever been before.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32I headed north, knowing that way lay the border with Pennsylvania,
0:29:32 > 0:29:36where there was no slavery, and where,
0:29:36 > 0:29:38if I could get there, I could be free.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44When night approached, and the forest grew dark,
0:29:44 > 0:29:47I remembered what my father had taught me,
0:29:47 > 0:29:51that moss always grows on the north side of the trees.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57I wasn't afraid of the forest, or the dark,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00or the creatures that lived in the night,
0:30:00 > 0:30:02but I was afraid of the slave-catchers.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13Runaway slaves were worth money if they were caught,
0:30:13 > 0:30:17and there were slave-catchers out there who it made it their business
0:30:17 > 0:30:19to hunt runaways like me down.
0:30:25 > 0:30:26I had to keep my wits about me.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31I had to keep moving, stay quiet, and remember to be brave.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44I trod carefully and didn't stop to rest or sleep.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54After weeks of walking,
0:30:54 > 0:30:58I found myself at the border with Pennsylvania,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01a state where there was no slavery,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04a place where I could be something other than a slave.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now I was free.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22I felt my lungs fill with air as if for the first time.
0:31:36 > 0:31:38I was free.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43It was a feeling of such lightness.
0:31:43 > 0:31:48I thought again of the birds I'd spent all that time dreaming about.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52I chose where I walked, where I worked.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56I looked at the world around me with wide open eyes.
0:32:00 > 0:32:02But I couldn't settle.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10Less than a year after reaching freedom, I knew I had to go back.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18I went back the way I had come,
0:32:18 > 0:32:24to the place where I was a wanted runaway with a price on my head,
0:32:24 > 0:32:29but I knew I had to go return and lead my family to freedom.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Now I wasn't just responsible for myself,
0:32:39 > 0:32:44but I knew if they were scared, that I could be brave for them, too.
0:32:49 > 0:32:54I knew now that there was a network of people who wanted to help
0:32:54 > 0:32:56runaways like us escape.
0:32:56 > 0:33:01Their homes were called safe houses, and they each had a sign
0:33:01 > 0:33:05they would hang outside to show that it was safe to call.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09It was a secret held dear by all those it helped,
0:33:09 > 0:33:14and to keep the secret safe, we called the network of safe houses
0:33:14 > 0:33:16the Underground Railroad.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21It was neither a railroad nor underground,
0:33:21 > 0:33:24but the runaways were called passengers,
0:33:24 > 0:33:29and the people who helped or took people in were called conductors.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35They would feed us and send us on our way.
0:33:41 > 0:33:42We travelled at night,
0:33:42 > 0:33:46trying to stay one step ahead of the slave-catchers.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59I wasn't afraid of the forest, or the dark,
0:33:59 > 0:34:01or the creatures that lived in the night.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11I had to make sure we all made it to the border,
0:34:11 > 0:34:15so that my family too would know the taste of freedom.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23Finally, after weeks in the forest,
0:34:23 > 0:34:25we reached the border with Pennsylvania.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36I felt a happiness even greater than the first time
0:34:36 > 0:34:38I'd crossed the state line.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43I could imagine no greater joy
0:34:43 > 0:34:46than the joy I felt watching my family rejoice.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58When I saw the joy their freedom brought them,
0:34:58 > 0:35:02I knew then that I would have to go back.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06I knew then that this was what my life was for,
0:35:06 > 0:35:11to help more slaves know what it was like to be free.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15I went back time and time again
0:35:15 > 0:35:20and I led more than 70 slaves across the Underground Railroad to freedom.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24Later, they said I was a hero,
0:35:26 > 0:35:29that I'd done great things,
0:35:29 > 0:35:35but I knew all I needed to do was to be a little brave.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12I'm going to tell you something about my life.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15My name is Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
0:36:15 > 0:36:20I was born in the year 1806, before motorcars and mobile phones,
0:36:20 > 0:36:24before aeroplanes and passenger trains and television.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26I was an engineer.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30It was my job to work out how to build things.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39The seeds of the story I will tell you were sown
0:36:39 > 0:36:41when I was just a child.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45From the age of four my father insisted on teaching me himself.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48He worked as an engineer and wanted me to become one, too.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53He believed a good engineer should be able to get things exactly right,
0:36:53 > 0:36:59so he made me sit at the long desk in the study and draw circles.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05I drew circle after circle, over and over.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07Sometimes it felt like I couldn't stop.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10Circle after circle, over and over,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13until I'd completely filled the page.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18I learnt to never stop until something was just right,
0:37:18 > 0:37:23I learnt that getting something right was the most important thing.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25By the time I'd grown up,
0:37:25 > 0:37:30I could draw anything. I could build anything, too.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34I did become an engineer, as my father had hoped.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37If they needed a bridge over a river, I could build it.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42If they needed a new pier or harbour wall, I could build it.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48But what I wanted was to do was something really big,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54something bigger and better than the world had ever seen.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56I wanted to prove that there was nothing
0:37:56 > 0:37:59good engineering could not achieve.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03Finally, my chance arrived.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07I was to be Chief Engineer on a brand new railway,
0:38:07 > 0:38:10the Great Western Railway.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14It was to be a new kind of track to take a new kind of train.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18Now here was a project to put all my engineering skills to the test.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22It would be the first of its kind, something the world had never seen,
0:38:22 > 0:38:26a railway built to transport not coal and bricks and other stuff,
0:38:26 > 0:38:30but designed to carry people, passengers, from place to place.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34It would run from the capital city London,
0:38:34 > 0:38:38to the smaller city of Bristol more than 100 miles away.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41As Chief Engineer, I would need to work out the route,
0:38:41 > 0:38:45and build a track to take a train that would run faster
0:38:45 > 0:38:47than any train had ever run before.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51I wanted to plan every part of the route myself.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55I needed to see for myself what obstacles lay in the way,
0:38:55 > 0:38:58what problems there were to be solved.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08I walked and walked and walked.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13Now, here's a thing you might not know.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16I suspect you don't wear top hats.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20There were considerable advantages to the big hats popular in my day.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22They could make a short man look taller,
0:39:22 > 0:39:26and also double as a convenient place to store one's lunch!
0:39:40 > 0:39:44My aim was to build a track to take a train that could travel
0:39:44 > 0:39:49the 100 miles from London to Bristol and take no longer than four hours.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51I knew for the journey to be that quick,
0:39:51 > 0:39:54the train would need to run fast.
0:39:54 > 0:39:56And I knew that for the train to run fast,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59the track that it ran on would need to run straight.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03For the train to run fast and the track to run straight,
0:40:03 > 0:40:08it would need to cut through or cross over anything that lay in its way.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13I walked and walked.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16I would not rest and I would not waver.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19I surveyed the countryside by day,
0:40:19 > 0:40:22and at night I worked in my carriage.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29I had my measurements, I did my sums, I drew my plans.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32If there was a river, I would build a bridge over it.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35If there was a hill, I would build a tunnel through it.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39There was no problem that engineering couldn't solve,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42and I would not rest until my work was done.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46But it wasn't just the hills and the valleys
0:40:46 > 0:40:49and the rivers that I had to overcome.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52There was another obstacle that lay in the way.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54It was a problem I hadn't even thought of.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58People were terrified of trains.
0:41:03 > 0:41:05The train was still a new machine.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08Most people had never even seen one.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11I had to persuade them the railway was a good idea,
0:41:11 > 0:41:15that it could change their lives for the better.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24The fastest most people had ever travelled was
0:41:24 > 0:41:28the speed of a carriage or a trotting horse.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30Some people even thought that
0:41:30 > 0:41:34if you travelled that fast, the train would boil your brain!
0:41:34 > 0:41:35A ridiculous idea of course!
0:41:40 > 0:41:44But I knew a passenger train would be useless without passengers,
0:41:44 > 0:41:48so I did my best to convince they need not be afraid.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53I didn't know if, when the track was finished, the passengers would come.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56But, for now, I had other things to think about.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03The biggest challenge of all was a great big hill called Box Hill,
0:42:03 > 0:42:07an enormous hill, two miles wide, solid rock.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12To build a tunnel through this would take a tunnel longer than
0:42:12 > 0:42:14any that had ever been built before.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20This was the big opportunity I'd been waiting for.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33To halve the time it would take to build the tunnel, I would
0:42:33 > 0:42:37have workers digging from east and west, either side of the hill.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43This is where my measurements would need to be exact,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47my sums would need to be spot on, and my plans would need to be perfect,
0:42:47 > 0:42:50so the two halves would meet in the middle.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55Get it wrong and it would be a disastrous waste of time.
0:43:12 > 0:43:13I employed 1,500 men.
0:43:13 > 0:43:18Half of them worked through the day, half of them all through the night.
0:43:18 > 0:43:23Even with this many men, it would take five years to build.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27It would cost thousands and thousands of pounds.
0:43:27 > 0:43:32Week after week, they dug and dug, day and night,
0:43:32 > 0:43:34chipping away at the solid rock.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37Ton after ton of rock was removed,
0:43:37 > 0:43:41the two parts of the tunnel edging closer and closer together.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50Finally, the moment of truth arrived.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53The digging was nearly finished but had it worked?
0:43:54 > 0:43:58I had to be there to see for myself if I'd got it right.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24I'd done it.
0:44:24 > 0:44:29My sums were good, the two halves of the tunnel were perfectly lined up.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34Finally, the line between London and Bristol could open.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37A very straight line it was, too.
0:44:38 > 0:44:43I'd shown the world that engineering could achieve great things.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48Now I could show that it could even change the way people travelled.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53And, to my great relief, people came.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55For the first time ever,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58passengers waited on the platform for the train.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20Although some of them were still afraid,
0:45:20 > 0:45:23as they boarded the train, they were making history.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39I was proud to stand on the footplate of the train
0:45:39 > 0:45:42and feel the wind on my face as we sped, just as I'd planned,
0:45:42 > 0:45:45between London and Bristol.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50I was there. I'd made this happen.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54Nobody's brain boiled and a new era in transportation was born.
0:45:59 > 0:46:05For me, now I'd done this, I wanted to do something even bigger.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07I wanted to build an enormous steam ship to
0:46:07 > 0:46:11take people from Bristol across the Atlantic Ocean to New York.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15I was determined to succeed, I would not rest and I would not waver.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19But that's another story.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58I'm going to tell you something about my life.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00My name is Mary Anning.
0:47:00 > 0:47:06I was born in the year 1799 to a poor family in a small town by the sea.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09It's difficult to know where to start my story, because the truth is,
0:47:09 > 0:47:16I was born once, and then, when I was just 15 months old and still a baby,
0:47:16 > 0:47:18I had my second beginning.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25My mother had left me in the charge of three ladies.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29They were getting some fresh air when suddenly the sky got dark
0:47:29 > 0:47:33and a storm cloud came rolling across the sky.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38As the rain started, they ran to shelter under a tree.
0:47:43 > 0:47:48Suddenly, a great bolt of lighting leapt from the sky,
0:47:48 > 0:47:50striking the tree and the ladies with it.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56All three of the poor souls fell to the ground.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59My father came running.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09They say I was a dull child before, but that after the lightning strike
0:48:09 > 0:48:13I was bright, like the lightning itself had gone into me
0:48:13 > 0:48:15and brought me fully to life.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24I grew up by the sea.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27Every day my father would take my brother Joseph and I
0:48:27 > 0:48:30down to the beach, no matter what the weather.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47We were looking for these things we called 'curiosities'.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51They were beautiful things, hidden inside the rocks.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54I didn't know what they were, these curiosities,
0:48:54 > 0:48:58but somehow I knew that they came from another world.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02You might know them to be fossils.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05You might know that they are creatures that
0:49:05 > 0:49:08lived millions of years ago, turned to stone
0:49:08 > 0:49:10and waited to be discovered amongst the rocks.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14But we didn't know that then.
0:49:14 > 0:49:19To us, they were just beautiful mysterious things.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23I learnt how to spot them. I was good at it.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26A keen eye, my father said.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41My father taught me how to get the curiosities out of the rock.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43You had to have such patience.
0:49:43 > 0:49:49One hit too hard with a hammer and the whole thing could be in pieces.
0:49:50 > 0:49:55So I learnt to be patient and to find it one tiny chip at a time,
0:49:55 > 0:50:00to tease it out from where it had been hiding for who knows how long.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08Because we were poor,
0:50:08 > 0:50:12once we'd got the curiosities out of the rock, and cleaned them up,
0:50:12 > 0:50:16me and Joseph would sell them from a stall on the street.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26People thought they were frozen lightning bolts or
0:50:26 > 0:50:28the devil's own toenails!
0:50:29 > 0:50:32We'd sell them for a penny each.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37One day a lady came by.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40Said her name was Elizabeth Philpot.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46She showed such special interest in our fossils,
0:50:46 > 0:50:50and thought we had a fine collection.
0:50:50 > 0:50:54She seemed to know more about these things than anyone I'd ever met.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57So when she asked if I'd like to see her fossils,
0:50:57 > 0:51:00I asked father and went with her straightaway.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09I'd never seen anything so fine.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14She had them all lined up like little treasures in a special cabinet.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22There were things in that cabinet I'd never seen before,
0:51:22 > 0:51:24things that made my heart beat harder.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31Then she gave me some books to borrow.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34I was so hungry to see what they said.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43I read about all the new ideas coming from
0:51:43 > 0:51:47the best men in science, ideas that were new and strange,
0:51:47 > 0:51:52that these curiosities were really creatures from another time,
0:51:52 > 0:51:57that had died and been somehow locked up inside the stone,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00thousands, even millions of years ago.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06I started to see the fossils differently
0:52:06 > 0:52:09and imagined them coming to life!
0:52:11 > 0:52:15It gave me such a thrill to think of it.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18It was all I wanted to do, to walk on the beach
0:52:18 > 0:52:21and stare at the stones.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25It was like an itch or a twitch,
0:52:25 > 0:52:30just knowing that there were fossils out there, waiting to be discovered.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34Then a terrible thing happened.
0:52:40 > 0:52:41My father got very ill.
0:52:41 > 0:52:46He had fallen down the cliffs and just wasn't getting better.
0:52:58 > 0:53:03I was just 12 years old when my father died.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07Now I would have to walk the beach without him.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14We were more poor now than ever.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18Selling curiosities was our best chance of making money,
0:53:18 > 0:53:22so every day I went out to look for them.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26And besides, the fossils were all I thought about.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28It was like an itch or a twitch,
0:53:28 > 0:53:34knowing that there were fossils out there just waiting to be discovered.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41I grew up and I never stopped looking.
0:53:41 > 0:53:43I could see the world so clearly now.
0:53:43 > 0:53:48I knew what the scientists were saying about what they were,
0:53:48 > 0:53:52these fossils as they now were called, and I had my own ideas, too.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55It must be hard for you to imagine,
0:53:55 > 0:53:59but these were such extraordinary ideas.
0:53:59 > 0:54:04People found it hard to believe that the world could really be
0:54:04 > 0:54:08millions of years old, and that the curiosities
0:54:08 > 0:54:12were really creatures that had lived all that time ago.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26Then, one day, I was out hunting,
0:54:26 > 0:54:30eyes scanning the stones and cliffs as usual,
0:54:30 > 0:54:32and I saw something that made
0:54:32 > 0:54:35the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
0:54:41 > 0:54:46It weren't much to see, but there was a hint of something sticking out
0:54:46 > 0:54:48from a large slab of slate.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51I could have walked past it a thousand times.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55But this time, it was as if I could see beneath the surface,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59and I just knew that this was something really big.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07I'd never lift it on my own. I called some quarrymen,
0:55:07 > 0:55:11who knew me well for all the time I spent on the beach,
0:55:11 > 0:55:14to come and help carry the slab back to my work room.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37I had to calm myself down.
0:55:37 > 0:55:41I knew it would take an age, and that I had to be patient.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44I started to chip away at the great slab.
0:55:44 > 0:55:48Just like my father had taught me,
0:55:48 > 0:55:51I had to work one tiny chip at a time.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53Hurry, and I could ruin it.
0:55:53 > 0:55:59One tiny chip at a time, I waited to see what would emerge from the rock.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02One tiny chip at a time, I couldn't stop.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05I couldn't think of anything else.
0:56:08 > 0:56:09As it slowly emerged,
0:56:09 > 0:56:14I knew this was different from anything I'd found before.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20It took days, weeks, one tiny chip at a time.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32Finally, I stood back and looked at what it was that I had found.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35It was the skull of some great creature,
0:56:35 > 0:56:37a creature like nothing alive.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42I ran to fetch Elizabeth.
0:56:43 > 0:56:48She came with an important man of science, all the way from London.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53He said it were like nothing he had ever seen,
0:56:53 > 0:56:57and that he'd never seen a creature with such an enormous eye.
0:56:59 > 0:57:03He said it was important.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07He said that all of science would be amazed.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09Imagine that!
0:57:09 > 0:57:14They called it an ichthyosaur after the Greek words for 'fish lizard'.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21To my astonishment, he gave me £25 for it.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27For the first time in my life,
0:57:27 > 0:57:31my family would have no need to worry about money.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38My ichthyosaur was just the beginning.
0:57:38 > 0:57:40I never stopped looking.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44I found more things the world had never seen.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47They took my fossils up to London,
0:57:47 > 0:57:51put them on display in the British Museum.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55My finds would change the whole way the world was understood.
0:57:57 > 0:58:01But they never once said who had found them.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05The men of science wrote their books and forgot all about me.
0:58:06 > 0:58:09Now though, almost 200 years later,
0:58:09 > 0:58:14they say I was the greatest fossil hunter ever!
0:58:14 > 0:58:16How about that?
0:58:16 > 0:58:19My father would have been so proud.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23I found many incredible things,
0:58:23 > 0:58:28but just think, for every fossil I found,
0:58:28 > 0:58:34how many more may lie undiscovered right beneath your feet?
0:58:51 > 0:58:54Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd