Season 2 (2005)
Release date: 2005-01-10
Episodes (10):
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1. Bread and Beer
Comedian Mark Williams explains how 19th-century Britons drank beer as a healthy alternative to water because the fermentation process killed many harmful bacteria
Release date: 2005-01-10
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2. What to Wear?
Mark Williams discovers how 19th-century hats were made of rabbit fur that had been shrunk in urine
Release date: 2005-01-17
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3. Gas on Wheels
The use of gas to power the machines and inventions from the Industrial Revolution are explained by Mark Williams
Release date: 2005-01-24
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4. Print and Paper
In a look at the history of printing, Mark Williams discovers why early typesetters arranged lower-case letters according to their usage, with the most common being in the middle
Release date: 2005-01-31
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5. Under Pressure
Mark Williams visits a pub cellar and bridges across the Tyne, all powered by hydraulics, revealing how the beer pump started a power revolution
Release date: 2005-02-07
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6. Building a Revolution
Documentary exploring how the massive construction boom triggered by the Industrial Revolution forced the building industry to find new materials to cope with increasing demand.
Release date: 2005-02-14
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7. Bright Sparks
How the electricity industry was created from scientific experimentation and entrepreneurial enthusiasm - becoming the world's main power source.
Release date: 2005-02-21
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8. Heavy Metals
The development of the Cornish mining industry, from pebble-picking in streams to the building of a honeycomb of mines below the sea
Release date: 2005-02-28
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9. Cutting it Fine
How silk was instrumental in the invention of the binary code, which went on to inspire the computer revolution.
Release date: 2005-03-07
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10. Machine Tools
Mark Williams learns about Joseph Whitworth, the man who standardised the threaded screw. Plus, the total cost of wood required to build HMS Victory
Release date: 2005-03-14
