1
00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:57,596
(Explosion)
2
00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:04,472
MAN: "Now the substance of cinnbar
is such that the more it is heated,
3
00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:07,120
the more exqisite are its sblimatibns
4
00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:10,475
Cinnabar will become mercry
5
00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:15,998
and passing throgh a series of other
sblimatibns it is again trned into cinnabar
6
00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:20,596
and ths it enables man to enjoy eternal life"
7
00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:42,588
This is the classical experiment
with which alchemists in the Middle Ages
8
00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:48,152
inspired awe in those who watched them,
all the way from China to Spain.
9
00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:54,916
They took the red dye, cinnabar,
which is a sulphide of mercury,
10
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:56,956
and heated it.
11
00:02:57,040 --> 00:03:00,396
The heat drives off the sulphur
and leaves behind
12
00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:07,318
an exquisite pearl
of the mysterious silver liquid metal, mercury,
13
00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:11,473
to astonish and strike awe into the patron.
14
00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:19,398
It's not an experiment of any importance in itself,
although it happens that sulphur and mercury
15
00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:26,113
are the two elements of which the alchemists
thought the universe is composed.
16
00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:29,955
But it does show one important thing:
17
00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:34,192
That fire has always been regarded,
not as the destroying element,
18
00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:38,068
but as the transforming element.
19
00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:40,116
That's been the magic of fire.
20
00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,988
I remember Aldous Huxley
talking to me through a long evening,
21
00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:48,550
his white hands held into the fire saying,
22
00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:53,794
"This is what transforms.
These are the legends that show it.
23
00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:59,477
Above all, the legend of the phoenix
that is reborn in the fire
24
00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:04,315
and lives over and over again
in generation after generation."
25
00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:09,194
Fire is the image of youth and blood,
26
00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,909
the symbolic colour in the ruby and cinnabar.
27
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:19,155
And when Prometheus in Greek mythology
brought fire to man, he gave him life.
28
00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:31,919
In a more practical way, fire has been known
to early man for about 400,000 years, we think.
29
00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:35,913
It's certainly found in the caves of Peking man.
30
00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:40,516
Every culture since then has used fire.
31
00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:45,151
And used it to make the simple transformations
of everyday life.
32
00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:50,155
To cook, to dry and harden wood,
to heat and split stones.
33
00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:58,634
But of course, the great transformation
that helped to make civilisation goes deeper.
34
00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:05,553
Physics is the knife
that cuts into the grain of nature.
35
00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:15,594
Fire, the flaming sword, is the knife that cuts
below the visible structure into the stone.
36
00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:25,956
That is, the extraction of metals from their ores,
37
00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:33,913
which we now know was begun
7,500 years ago, about the year 5500 BC
38
00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:36,116
in Persia and Afghanistan.
39
00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:43,031
At that time, men put the green stone malachite
into the fire in earnest,
40
00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:47,193
and from it flowed the red metal copper.
41
00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:58,480
They recognised copper because it's sometimes
found in raw lumps on the surface,
42
00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:03,918
and in that form, it had been hammered
and worked for over 2,000 years already.
43
00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:10,155
The New World too, worked copper
and smelted it by the birth of Christ,
44
00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:12,196
but it stopped there.
45
00:06:12,280 --> 00:06:17,513
Only the Old World went on
to make metal the backbone of civilised life.
46
00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:27,918
Suddenly, the range of man 's control
is increased immensely.
47
00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:38,274
He has at his command, a material
which can be moulded, drawn, hammered, cast,
48
00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:43,798
which can be made into
a tool, an ornament, a vessel,
49
00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:46,952
and which can be thrown back into the fire
and reshaped.
50
00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:51,112
It has only one shortcoming.
51
00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:54,192
Copper is a soft metal.
52
00:06:56,720 --> 00:07:02,750
As soon as it's put under strain, a copper wire,
for instance, it visibly begins to yield.
53
00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:08,270
That's because copper, like every metal,
is made up of layers of crystal.
54
00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:15,156
And it's the crystal layers which slide over
one another until finally they part.
55
00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:20,715
When the copper wire necks,
it's not so much that it fails in tension,
56
00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:23,872
as that it fails by internal slipping.
57
00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:31,069
Of course,
the coppersmith did not think like that.
58
00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:37,190
He was faced with a robust problem,
which is that copper will not take an edge.
59
00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:44,548
For a short time,
the ascent of man stood poised at the next step,
60
00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:49,031
to make a hard metal with a cutting edge.
61
00:08:20,120 --> 00:08:24,272
If that seems a large claim
for a technical advance,
62
00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:30,435
that's because, as a discovery,
the next step is so paradoxical and beautiful.
63
00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:44,712
When, to copper, you add an even softer metal,
tin, you make an alloy which is harder than iron.
64
00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:46,796
You make bronze.
65
00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:55,118
The point is that
almost any pure material is weak.
66
00:08:56,200 --> 00:09:01,832
What tin does is to add to the pure material
a kind of atomic grit,
67
00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:08,029
points of a different roughness which stick
in the crystal lattice and stop it from sliding.
68
00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:13,475
That discovery reached its finest expression
in China.
69
00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:25,349
It had come to China
almost certainly from the Middle East,
70
00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:30,389
where bronze was discovered about 3800 BC.
71
00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:34,389
The high period of bronze in China
72
00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:38,598
is also the beginning of Chinese civilisation
as we think of it.
73
00:09:38,680 --> 00:09:42,389
The Shang dynasty, before 1500 BC.
74
00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:53,509
The Shang dynasty is a time
when ceramics are also developed
75
00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:55,431
and writing becomes fixed.
76
00:09:55,520 --> 00:10:01,197
It's the calligraphy, both on the ceramics
and the bronze, which is so startling.
77
00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:07,831
The Chinese made the mould out of strips
shaped round a ceramic core.
78
00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:11,959
And because the strips are still found,
we know how the process worked.
79
00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:23,118
The proportions of copper and tin
that the Chinese used are fairly exact.
80
00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:26,192
Bronze can be made from
almost any proportion,
81
00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:29,670
between, say, 5% and 20% of tin.
82
00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:34,514
But the best Shang bronzes
are held at 15% of tin,
83
00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:38,309
and there the sharpness of the casting
is perfect.
84
00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:44,032
At that proportion,
bronze is almost three times as hard as copper.
85
00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:13,199
This is a ritual vessel
in which drink is offered to the gods.
86
00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:17,558
The Shang bronzes
are ceremonial, divine objects.
87
00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:21,269
They express for China a monumental worship,
88
00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:26,036
which in Europe at that same moment,
was building Stonehenge.
89
00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:31,317
Bronze becomes, from this time onwards,
a material for all purposes.
90
00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:33,356
The plastic of its age.
91
00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:46,750
The delight of these Chinese works,
vessels for wine and food, in part playful,
92
00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:48,796
in part divine,
93
00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:55,433
is that they form an art that grows spontaneously
out of its own technical skill.
94
00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:19,592
The scientific content
of these classical techniques is clear cut.
95
00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:24,075
With the discovery that fire will smelt metals,
96
00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:33,353
comes in time the discovery that it will fuse them
together to make an alloy with new properties.
97
00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:51,957
That's as true of iron as of copper.
98
00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:54,349
Iron is, of course, a much later discovery.
99
00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:59,468
The first positive evidence
is probably a piece of a tool
100
00:12:59,560 --> 00:13:06,477
that's been stuck in one of the pyramids,
and that gives us a date of around 2500 BC.
101
00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:15,150
But the wide use of iron is really initiated by the
Hittites round the Black Sea around 1500 BC,
102
00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:22,396
just the time of the process of casting bronze
in China, the time of Stonehenge.
103
00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:32,315
And as copper comes of age in its alloy bronze,
so iron comes of age in its alloy steel.
104
00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:38,475
Within 500 years, by 1000 BC,
steel is being made in India.
105
00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:45,671
And the exquisite properties
of different kinds of steel come to be known.
106
00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:51,395
They reach their climax, for me,
in the making of the Japanese sword,
107
00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:56,076
which has been going on in one way or another
since perhaps 800 AD.
108
00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:13,951
The making of the sword, like all
ancient metallurgy, is surrounded with ritual
109
00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:16,998
and that's for a clear-cut reason.
110
00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,876
When you have no written language,
when you have no symbolism,
111
00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:25,350
when you have nothing that can be called
a chemical formula,
112
00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:30,230
then you must have a precise ceremony
113
00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:37,874
which fixes the sequence of operations
so that they are exact and memorable.
114
00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:48,076
So, there's a kind of laying on of hands,
an apostolic succession,
115
00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:54,110
by which one generation blesses
and gives to the next the materials,
116
00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:57,670
blesses the fire,
and blesses the sword-maker.
117
00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:04,915
The man who is making this sword
holds the title of a Living Cultural Monument.
118
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:06,956
His name is Getsu,
119
00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:14,276
and in a formal sense, he's a direct descendant
in his craft of the sword-maker Masamune,
120
00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:18,717
who perfected the process in the 13th century
to repel the Mongols.
121
00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:28,077
Iron is a later discovery than copper
because at every stage it needs more heat.
122
00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:32,953
The melting point of iron
is about 1,500 degrees centigrade.
123
00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:48,748
Steel is a material
infinitely more sensitive than bronze.
124
00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:53,038
In it, iron is alloyed
with a tiny percentage of carbon.
125
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:54,917
Less than 1%, usually.
126
00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:04,911
The process of making the sword
127
00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:09,915
reflects the exquisite control of carbon
and of heat treatment
128
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:14,755
by which a steel object
is made to fit its function perfectly.
129
00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:27,918
Even the steel billet is not simple
130
00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:33,950
because a sword must combine two different,
and incompatible, properties of materials.
131
00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:38,636
A sword must be flexible and yet it must be hard.
132
00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:46,114
Those are not properties which can be built into
the same material, unless it consists of layers.
133
00:16:50,560 --> 00:16:57,398
The steel billet is cut and then doubled over,
so as to make a multitude of inner surfaces.
134
00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:19,915
The sword that Getsu makes
requires him to double the billet 15 times.
135
00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:29,079
That means that the number of layers of steel
will be two to the power of 15,
136
00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:31,833
which is well over 30,000 layers.
137
00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:49,876
Each layer must be bound to the next,
which has a different property.
138
00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:03,513
It's as if we were trying to combine the flexibility
of rubber with the hardness of glass.
139
00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:10,711
And the sword, essentially, is
an immense sandwich of these two properties.
140
00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:41,629
At the last stage, the sword is prepared by being
covered with clay to different thicknesses,
141
00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:45,349
so that when it's heated
and plunged into the water,
142
00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:48,034
it will cool at different rates.
143
00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:57,552
The temperature of the steel
for this final moment has to be judged precisely.
144
00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:05,672
And in a civilisation in which that's not done by
measurement, there is naturally a ritual formula.
145
00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:10,959
The sword is to be heated
until it glows to the colour of the morning sun.
146
00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:36,919
The climax, not so much of drama
as of chemistry, is the quenching,
147
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:40,959
which hardens the sword
and fixes the different properties within it.
148
00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:49,190
Different crystal sizes
are produced by the different rates of cooling.
149
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:53,796
Large smooth crystals,
at the flexible core of the sword,
150
00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,031
and small jagged crystals at the cutting edge.
151
00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:04,478
The two properties of rubber and glass
are finally combined in the finished sword.
152
00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:12,516
They reveal themselves
in the surface appearance of the sword,
153
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:17,515
a sheen of shot silk
by which the Japanese set high store.
154
00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:21,710
But the test of a sword,
155
00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:28,069
the test of a technical practice that has
some scientific theory, is "Does it work?"
156
00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:34,030
Can it cut the human body
in the formal ways that ritual lays down.
157
00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:38,595
Cut number two, the O-jo-dan.
158
00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:43,470
The body is simulated by packed straw -
nowadays.
159
00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:16,678
The sword is the weapon of the samurai.
160
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:35,429
By the sword,
they survived the endless civil wars
161
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,796
that divided Japan from the 12th century on.
162
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,992
Everything about them is fine metalwork.
163
00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:56,870
The flexible armour made of steel strips,
the horse trappings, the stirrup.
164
00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:02,112
And yet the samurai did not know
how to make any of these things themselves.
165
00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:06,710
Like the horsemen in other cultures,
they lived by force
166
00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:08,950
and depended, even for their weapons,
167
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:16,230
on the skill of villagers
whom they alternately protected and robbed.
168
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:08,073
In the long run,
the samurai became a set of paid mercenaries
169
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:10,276
who sold their services for gold.
170
00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:20,117
Gold is the universal prize in all countries,
in all cultures, in all ages.
171
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:25,994
MAN: Gold rosary, 16th century, English.
172
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:29,709
Gold serpent brooch 400 BC Greek
173
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:34,237
Triple gold crown of Abna 17th centry
Abyssinian
174
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:36,276
Gold snake bracelet
175
00:23:36,360 --> 00:23:38,316
FRANCIS BACON: "Gold hath these natures,
176
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:42,279
greatness of weight
closeness of parts fixatibn
177
00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:47,229
pliantness or softness immnity from rst
color or tinctre of yellow
178
00:23:47,320 --> 00:23:51,074
If a man can make a metal
that hath all these properties
179
00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:53,799
let men dispte whether it be gold or no"
180
00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:04,992
MAN: rital vessels of Achaemenid gold
6th centry BC Persian
181
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:10,234
Drinking bowl of Malik gold 8th centry BC
Persian BII's heads
182
00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:13,392
KO-HUNG: "Yellow gold
if melted a hndred times
183
00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:18,235
will not be spoiled
nor will it rot ntil the end of the world"
184
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:20,754
MAN: Pre-inca. Peruvian, 9th century.
185
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:42,996
BRONOWSKl: The touch of Midas.
186
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:45,036
Gold for greed.
187
00:24:45,120 --> 00:24:47,680
Gold for splendour.
188
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:50,516
Gold for adornment.
189
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:52,556
Gold for reverence.
190
00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:54,596
Gold for power.
191
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:56,830
Sacrificial gold.
192
00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:58,876
Life-giving gold.
193
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,713
Gold for tenderness.
194
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:04,876
Barbaric gold.
195
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:06,916
Voluptuous gold.
196
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:10,988
MAN:
197
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:10,988
MAN: Benvenuto Cellini, 16th century...
198
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:13,469
CELLINl: "When I set this work before the king
199
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,552
he gasped in amazement
and cold not take his eyes off it
200
00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:18,358
He cried in astonishment
201
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:24,276
'T his is 100 times more heavenly than I wold
ever have thoght What a marvel the man is"
202
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:30,829
BRONOWSKl: It's easy to see
that the man who made a gold artefact
203
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,150
was not just a technician, but an artist.
204
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:39,429
But it's equally important and not so easy
to recognise that the man who assayed gold
205
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:41,476
was also more than a technician.
206
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,233
To him, gold was an element of science.
207
00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:47,835
Having a technique is useful, but like every skill,
208
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:52,038
what brings it to life
is its place in a general scheme of nature.
209
00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:53,519
A theory.
210
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:03,436
Men who tested and refined gold
made visible a theory of nature.
211
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:09,152
A theory in which gold was unique
and yet might be made from other elements.
212
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:16,396
That's why so much of antiquity spent its time
and ingenuity in devising tests for pure gold.
213
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:20,711
This is a precise test by cupellation.
214
00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:25,669
A bone-ash vessel, or cupel,
is heated in the furnace
215
00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:29,116
and brought up to a temperature
much higher than pure gold requires.
216
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:39,479
The gold with its impurities, or dross,
is put in the vessel and melts.
217
00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:41,596
Gold has quite a low melting point,
218
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,309
just over 1,000 degrees centigrade,
almost the same as copper.
219
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:52,673
What happens now is that the dross leaves the
gold and is absorbed into the walls of the vessel,
220
00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:58,471
so that all at once
there's a visible separation between, as it were,
221
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:03,270
the dross of this world
and the hidden purity of the gold in the flame.
222
00:27:04,360 --> 00:27:08,148
The dream of the alchemists,
to make synthetic gold,
223
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:14,679
has in the end to be tested by the reality
of this pearl of gold that survives the assay.
224
00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:25,590
The first written reference we have to alchemy
is just over 2,000 years old
225
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:27,636
and it comes from China.
226
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:33,714
It tells how to make gold,
and to use it to prolong life.
227
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:37,349
That's an extraordinary conjunction to us.
228
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:43,276
To us, gold is precious because it's scarce.
229
00:27:43,360 --> 00:27:51,790
But to the alchemists all over the world,
gold was precious because it was incorruptible.
230
00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:56,908
No acid or alkali known to those times
would attack it.
231
00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:05,908
That indeed is how the emperor's goldsmiths
assayed, or as they would have said, parted, it.
232
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:16,915
At a time when life was thought to be
brutal, short, dirty,
233
00:28:18,120 --> 00:28:27,552
to the alchemists, gold represented
the one eternal spark of life in the human body.
234
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:35,274
And their search to transmute base metals
into gold and to find the elixir of life
235
00:28:35,360 --> 00:28:38,557
are one and the same endeavour.
236
00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:45,988
There lies, therefore, in their work,
a profound theory.
237
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:55,473
One which derives in the first place, of course,
from Greek ideas about earth, fire, air and water,
238
00:28:55,560 --> 00:29:04,116
but which, by the Middle Ages,
has taken on a new and very important form.
239
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:10,156
To the alchemists then, there was a sympathy
240
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:16,315
between the microcosm of the human body
and the macrocosm of nature.
241
00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:21,791
A volcano on a grand scale was like a boil.
242
00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:27,271
A tempest and rainstorm
was like a fit of weeping.
243
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:31,710
Under these superficial analogies,
244
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:34,678
and every scientific theory is an analogy,
245
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:40,392
lay the deeper principle,
which is that the universe and the body
246
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,951
are made of the same materials,
or principles, or elements.
247
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,000
To the alchemists,
there were two such principles.
248
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:52,959
One was mercury, which stood for everything
which is dense and permanent.
249
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:56,958
The other was sulphur,
250
00:29:57,040 --> 00:30:00,191
which stood for everything
which is inflammable and impermanent.
251
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:09,390
All material bodies, including the human body
were made from these two principles
252
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:11,710
and could be remade from them.
253
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:17,674
For instance, they believed that all metals
grow inside the earth from mercury and sulphur,
254
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:22,197
the way the bones grow
inside an embryo from the egg.
255
00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:26,438
And they really meant that analogy.
256
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:30,439
It still remains, in the symbol of medicine now.
257
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:34,991
We still use for the female
the alchemical sign for copper,
258
00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:38,117
that is what is soft, Venus.
259
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:42,311
And we use for the male
the alchemical sign for iron,
260
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:45,278
that is what is hard, Mars.
261
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:51,153
That seems a terribly childish theory today.
262
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:56,434
But our chemistry
will seem childish 500 years from now.
263
00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:02,389
A theory, in its day,
helps to solve the problems of the day.
264
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:08,435
And the medical problems
had been hamstrung until about 1500,
265
00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:16,791
by the belief of the ancients that all cures
must come either from plants or from animals,
266
00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:18,438
a kind of vitalism.
267
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:24,076
Now the alchemists
introduced minerals into medicine.
268
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:26,479
Salt, for example.
269
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:35,912
And, a very characteristic cure for a disease
which raged round Europe in 1500
270
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:37,956
and had not been known before.
271
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:42,397
The new scourge, syphilis.
272
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:47,069
To this day,
we don 't know where syphilis came from.
273
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:53,110
It may have been brought back
by the sailors in Columbus's ships.
274
00:31:55,240 --> 00:32:03,670
The cure for it turned out to depend on the use
of the most powerful alchemical metal,
275
00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:05,716
mercury.
276
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:19,877
The man who made that cure work
is a landmark from the old alchemy to the new,
277
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:25,830
on the way to chemistry, iatrochemistry,
biochemistry, the chemistry of life.
278
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:29,435
He worked in Europe in the 16th century.
279
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:38,231
The place is Basel in Switzerland.
280
00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:40,470
The year is 1527.
281
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,592
There is an instant in the ascent of man
282
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:10,073
when he steps out of the shadow land
of secret and anonymous knowledge
283
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:15,314
into the new system
of open and personal discovery.
284
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:21,631
The man that I have chosen to symbolise it
285
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:30,150
was christened Aureolus Philippus
Theophrastus Bombastus Von Hohenheim.
286
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:35,872
Happily, he gave himself the somewhat
more compact name of Paracelsus.
287
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:40,750
He was a Rabelaisian, picaresque,
wild character,
288
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:45,356
drank with students, ran after women,
travelled all over the world...
289
00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:49,914
...and until recently,
figured in the histories of science as a quack.
290
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:52,956
But that he was not.
291
00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:56,828
He was a man of divided, but profound, genius.
292
00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:06,591
He was a practical man who understood that
the treatment of a patient depends on diagnosis,
293
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:08,238
he was a brilliant diagnostician,
294
00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:14,236
and on direct application by the doctor himself,
he broke with the tradition
295
00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:17,710
by which the physician was a learned academic
296
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:20,189
who read out of a very old book,
297
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:26,037
and the poor patient was in the hands
of some assistant, who did what he was told.
298
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:29,837
That's how he came to be brought here.
299
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:34,516
This is the house, in Basel,
of Johann Frobenius,
300
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:38,354
the great Protestant and humanist printer...
301
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:45,309
...who in 1527, had a serious leg infection,
was about to be amputated,
302
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:52,397
appealed to his friends in the new movement,
who sent him Paracelsus.
303
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,392
Paracelsus threw the academics out of the room
304
00:34:55,480 --> 00:35:02,397
saved the leg and effected a cure
which echoed through Europe.
305
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:04,436
Erasmus wrote to him, saying:
306
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:10,152
"You have brought back Frobenius,
who is half my life, from the underworld."
307
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:13,873
The focus of that historic time was Basel.
308
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:18,917
Think of the dates.
309
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:21,560
Paracelsus was born in 1493.
310
00:35:22,240 --> 00:35:25,391
That was the year after
Columbus had discovered America
311
00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:27,436
and opened the New World.
312
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:30,156
Then came Luther,
313
00:35:30,240 --> 00:35:33,676
exploding the traditions of the Church,
314
00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:40,438
and here in Basel setting town against gown
in a new kind of opposition.
315
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:47,038
Humanism had flourished
even before the Reformation.
316
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:49,998
There was a university
with a democratic tradition,
317
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:53,914
so that although its medical men
looked askance at Paracelsus,
318
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:57,231
the city council could insist
that he be allowed to teach.
319
00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:00,195
A great change was blowing up in Europe.
320
00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:03,636
Greater perhaps even than the religious
and political upheaval
321
00:36:03,720 --> 00:36:05,676
that Martin Luther had set going.
322
00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:08,634
The symbolic year of destiny was just ahead:
323
00:36:08,720 --> 00:36:11,393
1543.
324
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:16,508
In that year three books were published
that changed the mind of Europe.
325
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:19,353
The anatomical drawings of Vesalius;
326
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:26,029
the first translation of the Greek mathematics
and physics of Archimedes;
327
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:33,114
and the book by Nicolaus Copernicus
on The Revolution Of The Heavenly Orbs,
328
00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:35,555
which put the sun at the centre of the heaven
329
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:39,519
and created what is now called
the Scientific Revolution.
330
00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:47,596
(Bells ringing)
331
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:11,431
All that battle between past and future
is summarised prophetically in 1527
332
00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:15,115
in a single action
outside the minster here at Basel.
333
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:19,239
Paracelsus publicly threw
into the traditional student bonfire
334
00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:26,158
an ancient medical textbook by Avicenna,
an Arab follower of Aristotle.
335
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:35,472
There is something symbolic
about that midsummer bonfire
336
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:40,588
which I will try to conjure into the present.
337
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:46,271
Fire is the alchemists' element,
338
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:53,277
by which man is able to cut deeply
into the structure of matter.
339
00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:56,316
Then is fire itself a form of matter?
340
00:37:58,040 --> 00:37:59,996
If you believe that,
341
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:03,550
you have to give it
all sorts of impossible properties.
342
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:05,596
Such as that it is...
343
00:38:10,720 --> 00:38:12,676
lighter than nothing.
344
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:16,836
200 years after Paracelsus
345
00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:21,471
that is what chemists tried to do
in the theory of phlogiston.
346
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:25,788
But there is no such substance as phlogiston,
347
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:31,591
just as there is no such principle
as the vital principle,
348
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:39,677
because fire is not material,
any more than life is material.
349
00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:47,668
Fire is a process of transformation and change,
350
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:53,915
by which material elements are rejoined
into new combinations.
351
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:59,232
The nature of chemical processes
was only understood
352
00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:04,394
when fire itself came to be understood
as a process.
353
00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:09,111
The gesture of Paracelsus had said,
354
00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:11,270
"Science cannot look back to the past.
355
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:14,238
There never was a golden age."
356
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:21,310
It took another 250 years
to discover the new element oxygen,
357
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:24,278
which at last explained the nature of fire,
358
00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:28,638
and took chemistry forward
out of the Middle Ages.
359
00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:35,397
I'm in the Smithsonian in Washington,
360
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:39,352
in what remains of Priestley's laboratory.
361
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:42,079
Of course, I have no business to be here.
362
00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:45,997
This apparatus ought to be in Birmingham,
in England,
363
00:39:46,600 --> 00:39:51,833
where Priestley did his most splendid work -
the centre of the Industrial Revolution.
364
00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:53,876
Why is it here?
365
00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:58,636
Because a mob drove Priestley
out of Birmingham in 1791.
366
00:39:58,720 --> 00:40:04,875
I would like to be able to tell you that the mob
that destroyed Priestley's house in Birmingham
367
00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:10,592
shattered the dream
of a beautiful, lovable, charming creature.
368
00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:15,869
Alas, I doubt if that would really be true.
369
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,560
I don 't think that Priestley was very lovable.
370
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:26,878
I suspect that he was a rather difficult,
cold, cantankerous,
371
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:31,556
precise, prim, puritanical man.
372
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:37,313
But the ascent of man
is not made by lovable people.
373
00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:40,875
It's made by people who have two qualities:
374
00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:45,276
An immense integrity
375
00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:48,116
and at least a little genius.
376
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:54,357
The discovery that he made
was that air is not an elementary substance.
377
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:57,476
That it's composed of several gases,
378
00:40:57,560 --> 00:40:59,516
and that among those, oxygen -
379
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:04,037
what he called dephlogisticated air -
380
00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:08,716
is the one that is essential
to the life of animals.
381
00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:15,438
On 1 st August 1774,
he made some oxygen,
382
00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:19,149
and saw, to his astonishment,
how brightly a candle burned in it.
383
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:22,195
In October of that year he went to Paris,
384
00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:24,714
he asked Lavoisier and many others about it,
385
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:26,950
but it was not until he himself came back
386
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:33,149
and on the 8th March 1775,
put a mouse into oxygen
387
00:41:33,240 --> 00:41:37,199
that he realised how well one breathed in that.
388
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:41,114
A day or two after, he wrote a delightful letter.
He said to Franklin:
389
00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:50,040
"Two mice and I are the only creatures who've
had the exquisite pleasure of breathing it."
390
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:58,276
He also discovered that the plants
breathe out oxygen in sunlight.
391
00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:02,516
Of course, that is the basis of the animals
who breathe it in.
392
00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:05,558
The next hundred years
were to show this was crucial,
393
00:42:06,720 --> 00:42:13,671
that animals would not have evolved at all
if the plants hadn 't made the oxygen first.
394
00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:17,309
But, of course, in the 1770s,
nobody had thought of that.
395
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:27,472
The discovery of oxygen was given meaning
by the clear revolutionary mind of Lavoisier,
396
00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:29,710
who perished in the French Revolution.
397
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:34,713
Lavoisier repeated an experiment of Priestley's,
398
00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:39,078
which is almost a caricature
of one of the classical experiments of alchemy.
399
00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:43,551
Both men heated the red oxide of mercury
using a burning glass -
400
00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:46,108
the burning glass was fashionable just then -
401
00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:50,273
in a vessel in which they could see gas
being produced and could collect it.
402
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:52,316
The gas was oxygen.
403
00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:54,470
That was the qualitative experiment,
404
00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:57,710
but to Lavoisier it was the instant clue
405
00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:01,713
that chemical decomposition
could be quantified.
406
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:06,756
The idea was simple and radical:
407
00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:09,308
Run the experiment in both directions
408
00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:12,472
and measure the quantities exactly.
409
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:16,510
Burn mercury so that it absorbs oxygen,
410
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:19,751
and measure the exact quantity of oxygen
that is taken up
411
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:22,593
between the beginning of the burning
and the end.
412
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:42,476
Now turn the process into reverse.
413
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:45,313
Take the mercuric oxide that has been made,
414
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:48,437
heat it vigorously
and expel the oxygen from it again.
415
00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:52,557
Mercury is left behind,
oxygen flows into the vessel,
416
00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:55,518
and the crucial question is: How much?
417
00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:00,634
Exactly the amount that was taken up before.
418
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:03,990
Suddenly the process is a material one.
419
00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:07,397
Essences, principles, phlogiston
have disappeared,
420
00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:12,349
two concrete elements
have really been put together and taken apart.
421
00:44:19,240 --> 00:44:22,516
After the fire, the sulphur, the burning mercury,
422
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:25,068
it was inevitable that the climax of the story
423
00:44:25,160 --> 00:44:30,109
should take place in the chill damp
of Manchester.
424
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:35,069
Here, between 1803 and 1808,
425
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:38,311
a Quaker schoolmaster called John Dalton
426
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:42,552
turned the vague knowledge
of chemical combination,
427
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:45,677
brilliantly illuminated
as it had been by Lavoisier,
428
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:50,629
suddenly into the precise
modern conception of atomic theory.
429
00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:54,596
It was a time of marvellous discovery
in chemistry.
430
00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:58,116
In those five years,
ten new elements were found.
431
00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:01,715
And yet,
Dalton was not interested in any of that.
432
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:06,231
He was, to tell the truth,
a somewhat colourless man.
433
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:08,276
He was certainly colour-blind.
434
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:11,316
He was a man of regular habits,
435
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:15,678
who walked out every Thursday afternoon
to play bowls in the countryside.
436
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:19,719
And the things he was interested in
were the things of the countryside,
437
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:24,237
the things in Manchester -
water, marsh gas, carbon dioxide.
438
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:31,753
And he asked himself concrete questions
about the way they combined by weight.
439
00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:38,109
Why, when water is made of
oxygen and hydrogen,
440
00:45:38,200 --> 00:45:43,638
do exactly the same amounts always come
together to make a given amount of water?
441
00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:48,479
Why when carbon dioxide is made,
why when methane is made,
442
00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:51,836
are there these constancies of weight?
443
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:55,593
And he suddenly realised
that the answer must be
444
00:45:55,680 --> 00:46:00,515
that yes, old-fashioned
Greek atomic theory is true,
445
00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:04,676
but the atom is not just an abstraction
in a physical sense,
446
00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:10,118
it has a weight which characterises
that element or that element.
447
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:17,279
In 1805, he published for the first time
his conception of it.
448
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:18,998
And it looked like this.
449
00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:25,875
If a given quantity of carbon...
450
00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:29,516
...an atom...
451
00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:35,311
combines to make carbon dioxide,
it does so with two atoms of oxygen.
452
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:41,190
If water is constructed
from oxygen and hydrogen,
453
00:46:41,280 --> 00:46:46,798
it will be that molecule of water
and that molecule of water.
454
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:48,836
The weights are right.
455
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:50,990
Now are the weights right for methane?
456
00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:55,196
Yes - exactly, if you remove those oxygens.
457
00:46:55,280 --> 00:47:00,229
You have the right quantities of hydrogen
and carbon to make methane.
458
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:08,196
It is the exact arithmetic of the atoms
459
00:47:08,280 --> 00:47:15,038
which makes of chemical theory
the foundations of modern atomic theory.
460
00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:22,915
That's the first profound lesson that comes
out of all this multitude of speculation
461
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:25,355
about gold and copper and alchemy,
462
00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:28,874
until it reaches its climax in Dalton.
463
00:47:30,240 --> 00:47:33,312
The other is a point about scientific method.
464
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:37,913
Dalton was a man of regular habits.
465
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:45,874
Measured the rainfall, the temperature...
466
00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:50,919
a singularly monotonous enterprise
in this climate.
467
00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:55,115
Of all that mass of data, nothing whatever came.
468
00:47:56,000 --> 00:48:00,551
But of the one searching,
almost childlike, question
469
00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:05,475
about the weights that enter the construction
of these simple molecules...
470
00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:08,632
Out of that came modern atomic theory.
471
00:48:11,240 --> 00:48:13,196
That's the essence of science.
472
00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:16,636
Ask an impertinent question,
473
00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:20,752
and you're on the way to the pertinent answer.