1 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,887 My guess is, the contents of this program 2 00:00:31,024 --> 00:00:34,289 will add up to a message you already know too well. 3 00:00:34,427 --> 00:00:35,826 Here's the contents. 4 00:01:04,390 --> 00:01:06,688 And here's the message: 5 00:01:11,564 --> 00:01:13,054 It's true, isn't it? 6 00:01:13,199 --> 00:01:16,657 Years ago, a picnic was a really grand occasion. 7 00:01:16,803 --> 00:01:20,170 You and the table would get all dressed up, 8 00:01:20,306 --> 00:01:23,275 and then you'd have a full four- Or five-course meal. 9 00:01:23,409 --> 00:01:24,899 You'd just have it in the open air. 10 00:01:25,044 --> 00:01:27,410 Ah, well, no time anymore for that kind of stuff, 11 00:01:27,547 --> 00:01:28,514 is there? 12 00:01:28,648 --> 00:01:29,808 We're all too busy. 13 00:01:29,949 --> 00:01:31,507 Grab a bite, keep moving. 14 00:01:31,651 --> 00:01:33,050 That's the way it goes. 15 00:01:33,186 --> 00:01:35,518 Fast food for a fast world. 16 00:01:35,655 --> 00:01:38,146 Instant everything. 17 00:01:38,291 --> 00:01:40,191 And you know what you have to thank for that? 18 00:01:40,326 --> 00:01:41,623 World War II. 19 00:01:41,761 --> 00:01:44,457 That's when the instant idea really took off, 20 00:01:44,597 --> 00:01:46,224 and all because of this: 21 00:01:48,234 --> 00:01:49,394 Coffee. 22 00:01:49,536 --> 00:01:52,334 Now, powdered coffee's been around since the '30s, 23 00:01:52,472 --> 00:01:55,930 when Brazil has a series of fantastic coffee bean harvests 24 00:01:56,075 --> 00:01:58,703 and ends up with an excess of bean, 25 00:01:58,845 --> 00:02:02,076 and no way are they going to sell it all. 26 00:02:02,215 --> 00:02:05,241 Then the Nestle company comes up with the answer. 27 00:02:05,385 --> 00:02:07,751 Easy enough: You run a lot of hot water 28 00:02:07,887 --> 00:02:09,787 through ground coffee beans. 29 00:02:09,923 --> 00:02:12,357 Then you spray the water through very hot air. 30 00:02:12,492 --> 00:02:14,016 That evaporates the water. 31 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:16,492 What falls to the bottom of your equipment 32 00:02:16,629 --> 00:02:17,926 is a fine powder. 33 00:02:18,064 --> 00:02:21,192 Later on, add water and stir. 34 00:02:21,334 --> 00:02:22,801 Coffee. 35 00:02:22,936 --> 00:02:27,396 And the reason the whole idea really takes off 36 00:02:27,540 --> 00:02:29,838 is because instant coffee weighs nothing, 37 00:02:29,976 --> 00:02:33,377 which is just what you need, but not in a balloon, 38 00:02:33,513 --> 00:02:36,346 when you're a World War II American infantry grunt 39 00:02:36,482 --> 00:02:38,814 up to your knees in mud and cross fire 40 00:02:38,952 --> 00:02:40,647 on some European battlefield 41 00:02:40,787 --> 00:02:44,120 and the last thing you need is extra weight to carry. 42 00:02:44,257 --> 00:02:47,158 That's why something called K-rations 43 00:02:47,293 --> 00:02:49,523 are invented back then: To give the troops 44 00:02:49,662 --> 00:02:51,994 maximum calories with minimum ounces. 45 00:02:52,131 --> 00:02:56,397 So the new, lightweight coffee really fits in there. 46 00:02:56,536 --> 00:02:59,505 World War II makes instant coffee a real flyer, 47 00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:01,266 so the instant the war is over, 48 00:03:01,407 --> 00:03:04,240 instant coffee is going to be an instant industry, 49 00:03:04,377 --> 00:03:06,607 which leaves only one small problem. 50 00:03:06,746 --> 00:03:08,475 The K-rations are going to be great 51 00:03:08,615 --> 00:03:12,711 for the troops down there... if you can find them. 52 00:03:12,852 --> 00:03:15,218 Not the rations, the troops! 53 00:03:21,427 --> 00:03:23,520 By the last year of the war, the U.S. army 54 00:03:23,663 --> 00:03:26,655 has 8 million people to get K-rations to, 55 00:03:26,799 --> 00:03:30,758 and they're all over the place, and they all need everything... 56 00:03:30,903 --> 00:03:35,465 from coffee to food, mail, spare parts, toilet paper, 57 00:03:35,608 --> 00:03:38,202 ammunition, clothing, you name it. 58 00:03:38,344 --> 00:03:41,507 That's why for every soldier in the field, 59 00:03:41,648 --> 00:03:44,048 there are three people back at supply 60 00:03:44,183 --> 00:03:46,344 tearing their hair out 61 00:03:46,486 --> 00:03:48,954 because nobody's where they were last time you looked, 62 00:03:49,088 --> 00:03:52,854 because the army's mechanized in tanks and trucks. 63 00:03:52,992 --> 00:03:55,620 And the reason I'm showing you this particular bit of film... 64 00:03:55,762 --> 00:03:58,458 notice every other shot is of a Jeep? 65 00:03:58,598 --> 00:04:01,465 An amazing bit of vehicular pizzazz 66 00:04:01,601 --> 00:04:03,831 that'll go anywhere and do anything. 67 00:04:03,970 --> 00:04:08,771 And there is no terrain it can't go into or get out of. 68 00:04:08,908 --> 00:04:11,274 And it'll do that pulling a trailer, 69 00:04:11,411 --> 00:04:12,708 carrying up to four people, 70 00:04:12,845 --> 00:04:14,745 mounted with a heavy machine gun. 71 00:04:14,881 --> 00:04:17,281 It'll even carry stretcher cases. 72 00:04:17,417 --> 00:04:19,078 So at the end of every day, 73 00:04:19,218 --> 00:04:21,686 the last thing that moves is a Jeep, 74 00:04:21,821 --> 00:04:25,416 carrying supplies out to the front line. 75 00:04:30,363 --> 00:04:32,831 And this is where the rock meets the hard place, 76 00:04:32,965 --> 00:04:35,559 because as this little wonder machine races along, 77 00:04:35,702 --> 00:04:39,502 it's creating the problem it's suppose to solve. 78 00:04:39,639 --> 00:04:40,799 Know why? 79 00:04:40,940 --> 00:04:42,271 It uses gasoline. 80 00:04:42,408 --> 00:04:45,673 Of the 27 pounds of supplies every American soldier needs 81 00:04:45,812 --> 00:04:47,609 every day just to go on fighting, 82 00:04:47,747 --> 00:04:49,681 over half is gasoline. 83 00:04:49,816 --> 00:04:51,306 If the Allies are to win the war, 84 00:04:51,451 --> 00:04:54,545 this is a problem that has to be cracked. 85 00:04:58,191 --> 00:04:59,783 So it is, 86 00:04:59,926 --> 00:05:01,188 with cracking. 87 00:05:01,327 --> 00:05:04,785 That's what happens in refineries like these. 88 00:05:04,931 --> 00:05:07,866 Cracking is the petroleum industry equivalent 89 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:09,524 of getting blood out of a stone: 90 00:05:09,669 --> 00:05:12,001 Getting refined product from oil 91 00:05:12,138 --> 00:05:14,402 and then doing it again with the same oil 92 00:05:14,540 --> 00:05:19,102 and then doing it again and again and again and again. 93 00:05:19,245 --> 00:05:21,679 All you need is a chimney stack. 94 00:05:21,814 --> 00:05:24,715 Okay, down at the bottom of the stack, 95 00:05:24,851 --> 00:05:26,113 you heat up crude oil. 96 00:05:26,252 --> 00:05:27,446 It vaporizes. 97 00:05:27,587 --> 00:05:31,148 You condense the vapors and get gas oil. 98 00:05:31,290 --> 00:05:34,885 Heat what oil's left hotter, and condense out kerosine. 99 00:05:35,027 --> 00:05:39,259 Heat what's left hotter, and condense out naphtha. 100 00:05:39,399 --> 00:05:43,529 Heat what's left hotter, and condense out gasoline. 101 00:05:43,669 --> 00:05:46,069 Then pressurize the whole shebang, 102 00:05:46,205 --> 00:05:48,435 and squeeze out more of everything. 103 00:05:48,574 --> 00:05:50,735 And you still get one last product coming out 104 00:05:50,877 --> 00:05:53,038 at the very top: Methane. 105 00:05:54,947 --> 00:05:57,108 Okay, another quick bit of chemistry. 106 00:05:57,250 --> 00:05:58,979 Turns out that you can use methane 107 00:05:59,118 --> 00:06:01,552 to get acetylene, believe it or not 108 00:06:01,687 --> 00:06:04,155 the obsession of an American Jesuit priest 109 00:06:04,290 --> 00:06:06,349 and chemistry professor called Nieuwland. 110 00:06:06,492 --> 00:06:09,950 Well, in 1918, he's played around with acetylene 111 00:06:10,096 --> 00:06:12,189 and discovered that you can turn it into something 112 00:06:12,331 --> 00:06:14,356 that will put a bit of bounce into life... 113 00:06:17,437 --> 00:06:20,929 and, as you will see, changes the private life 114 00:06:21,073 --> 00:06:22,802 of every woman in the world. 115 00:06:22,942 --> 00:06:27,208 Nieuwland calls his bouncy stuff neoprene. 116 00:06:29,015 --> 00:06:31,813 It solves another problem for the World War II Jeep, 117 00:06:31,951 --> 00:06:35,216 because neoprene is synthetic rubber, 118 00:06:35,354 --> 00:06:37,049 and you make tires with it. 119 00:06:38,891 --> 00:06:41,689 Not surprisingly, the reverend father's invention 120 00:06:41,828 --> 00:06:44,422 is taken up by a company for whom you might say 121 00:06:44,564 --> 00:06:46,623 chemistry is a bit of a religion: 122 00:06:46,766 --> 00:06:48,028 DuPont. 123 00:06:48,167 --> 00:06:52,365 And what they get up to is a very attractive proposition. 124 00:06:55,208 --> 00:06:57,335 The attraction in question is the attraction 125 00:06:57,477 --> 00:06:59,638 that molecules have for each other. 126 00:06:59,779 --> 00:07:01,474 Never mind the chemistry gobbledygook. 127 00:07:01,614 --> 00:07:02,638 What you're looking at 128 00:07:02,782 --> 00:07:05,842 is two molecules and some bits between them, 129 00:07:05,985 --> 00:07:10,922 including these bits: Hydrogen, hydrogen, oxygen. 130 00:07:11,057 --> 00:07:12,888 H2O, water. 131 00:07:13,025 --> 00:07:15,926 Heat it up, and the water boils off. 132 00:07:16,062 --> 00:07:18,326 Now for the molecules that like each other. 133 00:07:18,464 --> 00:07:22,491 These two leftover bits, carbon and oxygen, 134 00:07:22,635 --> 00:07:25,866 really go for these two bits, nitrogen and hydrogen, 135 00:07:26,005 --> 00:07:28,667 so they get together and really bond. 136 00:07:28,808 --> 00:07:31,606 So that links the two big molecule groups together. 137 00:07:31,744 --> 00:07:34,406 And if you have a lot of them, they all do it. 138 00:07:34,547 --> 00:07:37,345 And when that happens, whole strings of them join up. 139 00:07:37,483 --> 00:07:39,713 And if you knit those fine strings together 140 00:07:39,852 --> 00:07:42,548 the way you would with thread, you get something 141 00:07:42,688 --> 00:07:45,521 that will one day give every woman in the world 142 00:07:45,658 --> 00:07:47,387 a real leg up in life. 143 00:07:49,795 --> 00:07:54,732 Because the molecules make what DuPont calls nylon. 144 00:08:02,608 --> 00:08:05,543 There's never been anything like nylons. 145 00:08:05,678 --> 00:08:09,978 In the first four days, DuPont sells 4 million pair. 146 00:08:15,321 --> 00:08:17,414 Nylons make all the difference 147 00:08:17,557 --> 00:08:19,081 when you're on your way to a date, 148 00:08:19,225 --> 00:08:20,715 as we are. 149 00:08:20,860 --> 00:08:23,920 Our date is the year 1811. 150 00:08:25,431 --> 00:08:27,524 Here's the story. 151 00:08:27,667 --> 00:08:30,033 The first nylon stockings get made on machines 152 00:08:30,169 --> 00:08:32,228 that essentially haven't changed 153 00:08:32,371 --> 00:08:35,340 since the first machines for making cotton stockings 154 00:08:35,474 --> 00:08:39,035 are invented here in England by a fellow called Cotton. 155 00:08:39,178 --> 00:08:42,409 Now, this marvel of industrial revolution technology 156 00:08:42,548 --> 00:08:45,176 kicks off a movement back then that will one day 157 00:08:45,318 --> 00:08:46,808 in the modern world give its name 158 00:08:46,953 --> 00:08:50,548 to the kind of people who hate technology with a passion, 159 00:08:50,690 --> 00:08:51,918 the Luddites. 160 00:08:52,058 --> 00:08:55,323 So you just know something bad is going to happen 161 00:08:55,461 --> 00:08:56,985 to this machine. 162 00:09:02,101 --> 00:09:04,831 Here's what I mean by "bad." 163 00:09:11,344 --> 00:09:14,177 Stocking machines may be wonderful bits of technology, 164 00:09:14,313 --> 00:09:16,178 but what they are doing back then, 165 00:09:16,315 --> 00:09:18,476 besides making stockings for lots of rich people, 166 00:09:18,618 --> 00:09:21,416 is putting lots of poor people out of work. 167 00:09:21,554 --> 00:09:24,387 The solution is simple. 168 00:09:31,297 --> 00:09:34,664 The way to keep your job is to smash the machines. 169 00:09:41,941 --> 00:09:44,000 Now, this may look like nothing more 170 00:09:44,143 --> 00:09:47,078 than dirty work at the crossroads to you, 171 00:09:47,213 --> 00:09:50,512 but back then, the punishment for doing something like this 172 00:09:50,650 --> 00:09:51,742 is hanging. 173 00:09:51,884 --> 00:09:53,977 So you know these are desperate men here, 174 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:56,418 men with starving children 175 00:09:56,555 --> 00:09:59,080 and the whole power of the state against them, 176 00:09:59,225 --> 00:10:00,783 including the army. 177 00:10:00,926 --> 00:10:02,359 So there's nothing romantic 178 00:10:02,495 --> 00:10:05,521 about what these Luddites leave behind them. 179 00:10:05,665 --> 00:10:08,327 Well, there's one romantic bit, which I'll get to 180 00:10:08,467 --> 00:10:11,129 after a brief catch-up on where we are so far. 181 00:10:13,005 --> 00:10:15,803 Instant coffee gets off the ground in World War II, 182 00:10:15,941 --> 00:10:19,843 when artificial rubber is invented and so are nylons, 183 00:10:19,979 --> 00:10:22,140 made on machines like these original ones 184 00:10:22,281 --> 00:10:25,717 being smashed by the Luddites, whose actions are defended 185 00:10:25,851 --> 00:10:29,548 by the romantic guy we're about to get to. 186 00:10:34,226 --> 00:10:38,560 He's a young, 24-year-old nobody that nobody's ever heard of, 187 00:10:38,698 --> 00:10:40,791 and his emotional defense of the Luddites 188 00:10:40,933 --> 00:10:43,231 in the British Parliament sounds like something 189 00:10:43,369 --> 00:10:45,599 you could have heard on the hill yesterday. 190 00:10:45,738 --> 00:10:48,673 "Men are convicted of the capital crime of poverty. 191 00:10:48,808 --> 00:10:51,641 "We must not allow mankind to be sacrificed 192 00:10:51,777 --> 00:10:53,768 to improvements in mechanisms." 193 00:10:53,913 --> 00:10:57,076 Good libertarian stuff... unfortunately 194 00:10:57,216 --> 00:11:00,185 before good libertarian stuff becomes fashionable, 195 00:11:00,319 --> 00:11:02,753 so the speech goes over like a lead balloon, 196 00:11:02,888 --> 00:11:04,378 until two weeks later, 197 00:11:04,523 --> 00:11:08,550 when this guy's work turns him from a nobody into a megastar. 198 00:11:09,695 --> 00:11:13,324 And then everybody's heard of Lord Byron. 199 00:11:18,437 --> 00:11:21,099 At the time, Byron is just back 200 00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:23,800 from touring the Mediterranean hot spots, 201 00:11:23,943 --> 00:11:26,343 pressing the flesh and fact finding 202 00:11:26,479 --> 00:11:29,915 about what politics is like in places like Portugal; 203 00:11:30,049 --> 00:11:31,744 the home of democracy, Greece; 204 00:11:31,884 --> 00:11:35,149 and one place he doesn't think much of democracy-wise, 205 00:11:35,287 --> 00:11:38,916 this place, the city of Istanbul. 206 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:42,320 Byron turns up here 207 00:11:42,461 --> 00:11:44,986 with the absolute minimum a gentleman needs: 208 00:11:45,131 --> 00:11:48,396 Seven trunks of clothes, a bed, and a saddle. 209 00:11:48,534 --> 00:11:50,399 Well, he is Byron. 210 00:11:52,004 --> 00:11:56,839 Basically, like all political, serious, fact-finding missions, 211 00:11:56,976 --> 00:11:59,137 Byron makes like a fun-Ioving tourist, 212 00:11:59,278 --> 00:12:01,246 checking out all the sights. 213 00:12:02,715 --> 00:12:07,209 The great church of Hagia Sophia. 214 00:12:07,353 --> 00:12:08,684 Oh, sorry. 215 00:12:08,821 --> 00:12:11,813 On a scale of ten, Byron gives it eight. 216 00:12:11,957 --> 00:12:16,587 The mosque of Sueleyman the Magnificent. 217 00:12:16,729 --> 00:12:17,855 Oh, yeah? 218 00:12:17,997 --> 00:12:19,658 Give it a five. 219 00:12:25,171 --> 00:12:27,867 A spot of light refreshment. 220 00:12:28,007 --> 00:12:29,474 Tastes like dishwater. 221 00:12:29,608 --> 00:12:31,041 One. 222 00:12:31,177 --> 00:12:33,805 The Blue Mosque. 223 00:12:33,946 --> 00:12:35,914 Very posh. 224 00:12:36,048 --> 00:12:37,743 Six. 225 00:12:37,883 --> 00:12:40,477 The city wall. 226 00:12:40,619 --> 00:12:42,109 Boring. 227 00:12:42,254 --> 00:12:43,653 Give 'em a two. 228 00:12:43,789 --> 00:12:45,120 Sorry. 229 00:12:53,532 --> 00:12:56,501 A little bit of the local folk culture. 230 00:12:59,605 --> 00:13:01,903 Now, Byron loves this. 231 00:13:02,041 --> 00:13:03,906 Give it a nine! 232 00:13:11,150 --> 00:13:14,984 Okay, how about a taste of the local delicacies, hmm? 233 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:16,587 Excuse me. 234 00:13:22,628 --> 00:13:24,562 Don't know what this is. 235 00:13:24,697 --> 00:13:26,790 Give it a three. 236 00:13:26,932 --> 00:13:31,164 After the tourist stuff, things start to look up. 237 00:13:31,303 --> 00:13:34,898 At one point, being an English aristocrat, 238 00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:37,440 he gets an invite to meet the sultan himself, 239 00:13:37,576 --> 00:13:39,066 so a bit of local royalty. 240 00:13:39,211 --> 00:13:41,145 So he walks in here to the Topkapi Palace 241 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:44,147 dressed to kill... well, he is Byron... 242 00:13:44,283 --> 00:13:46,046 and is promptly ignored. 243 00:13:46,185 --> 00:13:47,311 So being Byron, 244 00:13:47,453 --> 00:13:50,684 he goes all upset and Byronic about it. 245 00:13:50,823 --> 00:13:52,484 Hissy fit, we'd call it. 246 00:13:52,625 --> 00:13:53,990 Flounces off in a total snit. 247 00:13:54,126 --> 00:13:55,923 Ruins the entire trip. 248 00:13:59,198 --> 00:14:01,359 Just before Byron heads for home, 249 00:14:01,500 --> 00:14:03,968 he runs into a traveling Scots businessman. 250 00:14:04,103 --> 00:14:06,094 Well, that's what he calls himself. 251 00:14:06,238 --> 00:14:08,365 "Shady" would be a better description. 252 00:14:08,507 --> 00:14:10,304 He's one of those shifty characters 253 00:14:10,442 --> 00:14:12,307 you see on the Istanbul waterfront 254 00:14:12,444 --> 00:14:15,140 hanging around bars and expense-account restaurants 255 00:14:15,281 --> 00:14:18,114 Iooking for a deal. 256 00:14:18,250 --> 00:14:19,581 You know, the ones talking 257 00:14:19,718 --> 00:14:21,618 out of both sides of their mouths at once 258 00:14:21,754 --> 00:14:25,850 with a spiel that goes generally something like this: 259 00:14:25,991 --> 00:14:28,255 Okay, you want me to get rid of the stuff 260 00:14:28,394 --> 00:14:30,692 at what we might describe as a reasonable profit? 261 00:14:30,829 --> 00:14:31,796 No problem. 262 00:14:31,931 --> 00:14:35,423 Well, there is one minor inconvenience: 263 00:14:35,567 --> 00:14:36,659 Napoleon. 264 00:14:36,802 --> 00:14:38,599 Look, it'd be better if I show you. 265 00:14:38,737 --> 00:14:43,106 Plain fact is, old boy, our friend Napoleon 266 00:14:43,242 --> 00:14:46,040 has Europe pretty well locked up. 267 00:14:46,178 --> 00:14:47,702 I mean, take a look. 268 00:14:47,846 --> 00:14:51,282 Blockades all round the coastline. 269 00:14:51,417 --> 00:14:53,977 You try getting your products in anywhere here, 270 00:14:54,119 --> 00:14:56,383 they'd blow you right out of the water. 271 00:14:56,522 --> 00:14:57,989 No chance. 272 00:14:58,123 --> 00:14:59,954 But I, John Galt... 273 00:15:00,092 --> 00:15:05,223 his name, a blockade runner and would-be profiteer... 274 00:15:05,364 --> 00:15:06,797 have I got a plan. 275 00:15:06,932 --> 00:15:12,632 We get the product into Europe through the back door. 276 00:15:12,771 --> 00:15:16,798 Sneak the stuff across the Mediterranean, hmm? 277 00:15:16,942 --> 00:15:20,309 Up through Istanbul and then up the back here 278 00:15:20,446 --> 00:15:23,313 and across the Hungarian border. 279 00:15:23,449 --> 00:15:25,076 Piece of cake. 280 00:15:25,217 --> 00:15:27,708 You got to hand it to Galt. 281 00:15:27,853 --> 00:15:29,480 His little blockade-breaking scam 282 00:15:29,621 --> 00:15:31,418 very nearly comes off. 283 00:15:31,557 --> 00:15:33,718 I mean, he actually gets his contraband stuff 284 00:15:33,859 --> 00:15:38,626 all the way to the Hungarian border. 285 00:15:38,764 --> 00:15:40,527 And then it all goes down the toilet, 286 00:15:40,666 --> 00:15:43,191 because his frontier contact just doesn't turn up. 287 00:15:43,335 --> 00:15:45,826 I mean, there he is with 45 camel loads 288 00:15:45,971 --> 00:15:48,701 of illegal cotton goods and no client. 289 00:15:48,841 --> 00:15:50,103 Fortunately for him, 290 00:15:50,242 --> 00:15:53,075 a friendly local Turk takes it off him at cost. 291 00:15:53,212 --> 00:15:56,704 Galt chucks the whole thing up, comes back here to Istanbul, 292 00:15:56,849 --> 00:16:00,046 takes the first boat home to fame and fortune 293 00:16:00,185 --> 00:16:02,745 as a novelist I bet you've never heard of. 294 00:16:02,888 --> 00:16:04,685 John Galt? 295 00:16:04,823 --> 00:16:06,290 Nor have I. 296 00:16:06,425 --> 00:16:08,791 Nor has anybody, for that matter. 297 00:16:10,829 --> 00:16:14,959 Meanwhile, in 1810, Napoleon loses that war, 298 00:16:15,100 --> 00:16:17,432 so the blockade is off, so the smuggling business 299 00:16:17,569 --> 00:16:20,197 leaves Istanbul for other markets. 300 00:16:20,339 --> 00:16:22,307 Now, the blockade has previously got the Brits 301 00:16:22,441 --> 00:16:26,468 into other kinds of difficulties at sea. 302 00:16:28,947 --> 00:16:30,915 Another problem for the Brits during that war 303 00:16:31,050 --> 00:16:32,608 is the Americans. 304 00:16:32,751 --> 00:16:34,116 They don't seem to like 305 00:16:34,253 --> 00:16:36,278 being chased around by British ships 306 00:16:36,422 --> 00:16:38,049 claiming that the Yanks are carrying 307 00:16:38,190 --> 00:16:41,057 British deserters on board, which the Brits claim 308 00:16:41,193 --> 00:16:43,957 they need back to help with the war effort, 309 00:16:44,096 --> 00:16:47,327 about which the Americans could care less. 310 00:16:47,466 --> 00:16:50,435 But then things take an unpleasant turn. 311 00:16:50,569 --> 00:16:54,835 One of these American ships is called the "Chesapeake," 312 00:16:54,973 --> 00:16:57,498 ready to cross the Atlantic from Norfolk, Virginia, 313 00:16:57,643 --> 00:17:01,579 with four of these "deserters" on board. 314 00:17:01,713 --> 00:17:03,874 So the British navy boards the ship 315 00:17:04,016 --> 00:17:05,608 with some cock-and-bull story 316 00:17:05,751 --> 00:17:08,720 about wanting to send mail back to their granny in England, 317 00:17:08,854 --> 00:17:10,185 whip out their guns, 318 00:17:10,322 --> 00:17:13,485 and it all gets very nasty, with people killed and stuff. 319 00:17:13,625 --> 00:17:17,117 Starts the war of 1812, surprise, surprise. 320 00:17:20,199 --> 00:17:22,667 And that's why we're here in Baltimore, Maryland, 321 00:17:22,801 --> 00:17:26,134 because in 1814, after burning the White House, 322 00:17:26,271 --> 00:17:29,138 the Brits move down here to do more of the same. 323 00:17:29,274 --> 00:17:31,435 They're feeling good. 324 00:17:33,212 --> 00:17:35,874 Now, this is going to be a piece of cake, old boy. 325 00:17:41,820 --> 00:17:44,846 Here's the reason the Brits are feeling quietly confident: 326 00:17:44,990 --> 00:17:48,619 The low-tech, indisciplined, half-asleep American soldiery 327 00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:50,625 inside Fort McHenry here, 328 00:17:50,762 --> 00:17:54,027 who will fall apart at the first shot. 329 00:17:58,370 --> 00:18:00,861 Now, why the Brits at the time are making jokes 330 00:18:01,006 --> 00:18:02,837 about Americans and mincemeat. 331 00:18:02,975 --> 00:18:04,704 Let me use a modern analogy 332 00:18:04,843 --> 00:18:07,471 to show you why the Brits are so cocksure. 333 00:18:07,613 --> 00:18:11,413 They see their situation, so to speak, as this: 334 00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:15,143 Versus this: 335 00:18:15,287 --> 00:18:16,879 Retreat! 336 00:18:17,022 --> 00:18:20,185 So, you see, it's only a matter of time, old boy. 337 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:23,825 Which is why a young American lawyer, 338 00:18:23,962 --> 00:18:25,486 who happens to be out here on a boat 339 00:18:25,631 --> 00:18:28,293 doing prisoner exchange and gets caught up in events, 340 00:18:28,433 --> 00:18:32,563 stays up all night watching 1,800 British bombs and rockets 341 00:18:32,704 --> 00:18:36,640 reduce American defenders to what will undoubtedly be... 342 00:18:36,775 --> 00:18:39,369 abject surrender, old boy. 343 00:18:43,916 --> 00:18:47,613 Except come the dawn and the time for the white flag, 344 00:18:47,753 --> 00:18:52,622 what the Americans actually run up the flagpole at Fort McHenry 345 00:18:52,758 --> 00:18:56,592 isn't actually white. 346 00:18:56,728 --> 00:18:59,390 Our young American is so blown away by all this, 347 00:18:59,531 --> 00:19:02,796 he dashes off a quick commemorative song. 348 00:19:02,935 --> 00:19:04,994 Back-of-the-envelope kind of thing. 349 00:19:05,137 --> 00:19:07,298 Well, that's the kind of stuff they did back then. 350 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:10,171 And from then on, 351 00:19:10,309 --> 00:19:14,336 everybody's singing it when the flag goes up. 352 00:19:14,479 --> 00:19:17,971 And we Brits are history. 353 00:19:20,118 --> 00:19:23,110 The ironic thing, though, about Francis Scott Key's 354 00:19:23,255 --> 00:19:25,587 star-spangled song for America is, 355 00:19:25,724 --> 00:19:28,022 the poem he writes to commemorate the way 356 00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:30,856 a few low-tech Yanks beat the British 357 00:19:30,996 --> 00:19:35,558 is actually set to a tune that is, in fact, English. 358 00:19:35,701 --> 00:19:40,604 ...in heav'n, where he sat in full glee, 359 00:19:40,739 --> 00:19:44,038 where he sat in full glee. 360 00:19:44,176 --> 00:19:46,110 Now, I don't want to make a big deal 361 00:19:46,245 --> 00:19:48,839 about the "Star-Spangled Banner" being English, 362 00:19:48,981 --> 00:19:52,610 so let me tell you a bit about the original song. 363 00:19:52,751 --> 00:19:56,118 First of all, here's a few bars of it. 364 00:19:56,255 --> 00:20:01,716 ...that he their inspirer and patron would be. 365 00:20:01,860 --> 00:20:04,886 The song's really called "To Anacreon in Heaven," 366 00:20:05,030 --> 00:20:06,657 Anacreon being the name 367 00:20:06,798 --> 00:20:09,392 of this 18th-century London drinking club 368 00:20:09,534 --> 00:20:12,332 where Anacreon members gather to sing bawdy songs, 369 00:20:12,471 --> 00:20:16,066 pinch the serving wenches, and get a little unfocused. 370 00:20:16,208 --> 00:20:17,368 So does their singing. 371 00:20:17,509 --> 00:20:25,416 Voice, fiddle, and flute, no longer be mute. 372 00:20:25,550 --> 00:20:28,986 Voice, fiddle, and flute, 373 00:20:29,121 --> 00:20:33,785 no longer be mute. 374 00:20:33,925 --> 00:20:35,722 See what I mean? 375 00:20:35,861 --> 00:20:39,456 Okay, now for that strange name these boozers give themselves, 376 00:20:39,598 --> 00:20:41,429 the Anacreon Society. 377 00:20:41,566 --> 00:20:43,193 Anacreon turns out to be the name 378 00:20:43,335 --> 00:20:45,929 of a 6th-century B.C. Ancient Greek poet 379 00:20:46,071 --> 00:20:47,663 who, like these guys, 380 00:20:47,806 --> 00:20:52,106 is into erotica, alcohol, and general misbehavior. 381 00:20:52,244 --> 00:20:54,075 And why have a bunch of London lushes 382 00:20:54,212 --> 00:20:55,873 ever heard of Anacreon? 383 00:20:56,014 --> 00:20:58,642 Well, I'll get to that in a moment. 384 00:20:58,784 --> 00:21:02,015 But first, where are we? 385 00:21:02,154 --> 00:21:05,180 You remember Byron, who meets John Galt, 386 00:21:05,324 --> 00:21:06,757 trying to get 'round the blockade 387 00:21:06,892 --> 00:21:10,259 that leads to the war of 1812 and star-spangled songs 388 00:21:10,395 --> 00:21:12,829 that really start with a drinking club 389 00:21:12,964 --> 00:21:16,297 named after Anacreon, a writer people get to hear about 390 00:21:16,435 --> 00:21:19,268 because of the way literature back in the 16th century 391 00:21:19,404 --> 00:21:22,862 is not exactly easy to get at. 392 00:21:25,711 --> 00:21:27,201 Back then, it's pretty easy 393 00:21:27,346 --> 00:21:28,938 to find your friendly local library. 394 00:21:29,081 --> 00:21:32,175 Just check around for the nearest big church. 395 00:21:33,385 --> 00:21:36,479 And you can hardly miss a place like this, can you? 396 00:21:36,621 --> 00:21:40,557 Then things get difficult, because now you have to find 397 00:21:40,692 --> 00:21:42,751 the particular thing you're looking for, 398 00:21:42,894 --> 00:21:45,454 and they haven't invented a catalog yet. 399 00:21:45,597 --> 00:21:47,724 Okay, check the shelves. 400 00:21:47,866 --> 00:21:49,026 That's no good. 401 00:21:49,167 --> 00:21:51,032 There aren't any shelves for books yet, 402 00:21:51,169 --> 00:21:53,865 just heaps of books. 403 00:21:54,005 --> 00:21:57,270 Okay, check the titles on the spines of the books. 404 00:21:57,409 --> 00:21:59,969 Sorry, no books with titles yet. 405 00:22:00,112 --> 00:22:02,740 Okay, ask the librarian. 406 00:22:02,881 --> 00:22:06,578 You've guessed; most places don't have a librarian. 407 00:22:09,287 --> 00:22:12,279 So rootling around is what you do in libraries. 408 00:22:14,826 --> 00:22:19,058 1551, a French publisher called Henri Estienne 409 00:22:19,197 --> 00:22:21,188 is rootling around in Holland one day, 410 00:22:21,333 --> 00:22:22,960 Iooking for buried treasure. 411 00:22:23,101 --> 00:22:24,090 Well, that's what it is 412 00:22:24,236 --> 00:22:25,965 if you don't know it's there, right? 413 00:22:26,104 --> 00:22:27,867 And in terms of the Greek manuscript 414 00:22:28,006 --> 00:22:29,564 everybody's looking for at the time, 415 00:22:29,708 --> 00:22:31,300 "buried" is the right word. 416 00:22:31,443 --> 00:22:33,934 It's in the course of this littering archeology 417 00:22:34,079 --> 00:22:37,242 that Henri... ah, here he is. 418 00:22:37,382 --> 00:22:42,046 Henri Estienne comes across that Greek poet Anacreon... 419 00:22:42,187 --> 00:22:44,712 remember him?... in the appendix of a manuscript 420 00:22:44,856 --> 00:22:46,448 about something entirely different. 421 00:22:46,591 --> 00:22:49,583 So Henri hightails it back to Geneva with the manuscript 422 00:22:49,728 --> 00:22:51,662 to become the greatest European publisher 423 00:22:51,797 --> 00:22:53,492 of Greek lit ever. 424 00:22:53,632 --> 00:22:55,156 And that's how those London boozers 425 00:22:55,300 --> 00:22:57,666 get to hear about Anacreon. 426 00:22:57,803 --> 00:22:58,770 Excuse me. 427 00:23:00,172 --> 00:23:01,799 Ah. 428 00:23:01,940 --> 00:23:03,635 Of course, Estienne does more 429 00:23:03,775 --> 00:23:06,335 than just print Greek doggerel for drunks. 430 00:23:06,478 --> 00:23:08,537 He also makes sure you can understand it. 431 00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:12,309 Here's his greatest work, a Greek dictionary. 432 00:23:12,451 --> 00:23:16,751 If the Greeks had a word for it, you'd find it here. 433 00:23:16,888 --> 00:23:19,789 Makes his name 434 00:23:19,925 --> 00:23:27,024 and gets him a son-in-law called Isaac Casaubon, 435 00:23:27,165 --> 00:23:29,725 who teaches at the local academy, 436 00:23:29,868 --> 00:23:33,304 falls for Henri's books, and then falls for his daughter. 437 00:23:33,438 --> 00:23:36,839 18 children later... that's 18... 438 00:23:36,975 --> 00:23:39,603 Isaac has taken over Henri's job and is a Greek and Latin teacher 439 00:23:40,579 --> 00:23:42,672 better than whom there are very few. 440 00:23:42,814 --> 00:23:45,078 One of the whom is a guy back in Holland 441 00:23:45,217 --> 00:23:47,685 called Julius Scaliger. 442 00:23:47,819 --> 00:23:50,845 Hang on; I'm getting good at this. 443 00:23:50,989 --> 00:23:52,980 Ah! 444 00:23:53,124 --> 00:23:55,149 Scaliger, who writes to say 445 00:23:55,293 --> 00:23:57,887 how much he's enjoyed one of Isaac's books. 446 00:23:58,029 --> 00:24:00,793 Well, it's the start of a beautiful friendship. 447 00:24:00,932 --> 00:24:03,958 In the end, Isaac writes him 1,200 letters, 448 00:24:04,102 --> 00:24:05,467 about one a month. 449 00:24:05,604 --> 00:24:06,935 I say "about." 450 00:24:07,072 --> 00:24:09,905 Scaliger would have known the exact dates. 451 00:24:19,351 --> 00:24:21,581 Scaliger is a date and time freak, 452 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:23,950 because things like candle-burn time 453 00:24:24,089 --> 00:24:27,024 and how long it takes for a sandglass to run out 454 00:24:27,158 --> 00:24:30,218 is the best people can do about knowing the time. 455 00:24:30,362 --> 00:24:32,557 As for the date, that's anybody's guess. 456 00:24:32,697 --> 00:24:34,665 The second day of some festival? 457 00:24:34,799 --> 00:24:37,529 Or the tenth year of the reign of some king? 458 00:24:37,669 --> 00:24:40,832 The real problem is, it's all local, 459 00:24:40,972 --> 00:24:42,837 when some guy writing the chronicles 460 00:24:42,974 --> 00:24:45,636 of some monastery says things happened. 461 00:24:45,777 --> 00:24:48,837 So Scaliger gets a grip on things 462 00:24:48,980 --> 00:24:53,474 with a giant chronology to pinpoint everything. 463 00:24:53,618 --> 00:24:56,519 He takes the 28-year solar cycle, 464 00:24:56,655 --> 00:24:59,783 multiplies it by the 19-year lunar cycle, 465 00:24:59,925 --> 00:25:01,449 and multiplies that 466 00:25:01,593 --> 00:25:04,391 by the 15-year ancient Roman tax cycle. 467 00:25:04,529 --> 00:25:05,860 Hey, why not? 468 00:25:05,997 --> 00:25:07,157 And gets a period 469 00:25:07,299 --> 00:25:09,893 in which these three cycles start on the same day, 470 00:25:10,035 --> 00:25:12,902 cycle through, and synchronize again. 471 00:25:13,038 --> 00:25:16,269 This takes 7,980 years. 472 00:25:16,408 --> 00:25:19,377 And the last time all three cycles synchronized 473 00:25:19,511 --> 00:25:24,574 was January the first, 4713 B.C. 474 00:25:24,716 --> 00:25:26,411 So that's kind of the year dot, right? 475 00:25:26,551 --> 00:25:28,883 And from that year, everything is fixed 476 00:25:29,020 --> 00:25:31,011 by where it comes on the three cycles. 477 00:25:31,156 --> 00:25:35,422 So, for example, what we call 2000 478 00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:39,360 is 239 solar cycles plus 21 days, 479 00:25:39,497 --> 00:25:46,369 353 lunar cycles plus 6 days, 447 tax cycles plus 8 days. 480 00:25:46,504 --> 00:25:48,165 Now, when this thing gets published 481 00:25:48,306 --> 00:25:53,437 in what we call the year 1582, Europe decides to switch 482 00:25:53,578 --> 00:25:55,842 to a completely new calendar anyway... 483 00:25:55,981 --> 00:25:58,643 the calendar we still use today, as it happens. 484 00:25:58,783 --> 00:26:03,117 So all Scaliger's work is instantly useless. 485 00:26:03,254 --> 00:26:07,850 He must have felt like taking a gun and pulling the trigger. 486 00:26:10,061 --> 00:26:12,621 Which is something his Dutch boss, Prince Maurice, 487 00:26:12,764 --> 00:26:13,753 is good at... 488 00:26:13,898 --> 00:26:16,731 well, getting troops to. 489 00:26:20,305 --> 00:26:24,241 Around 1600, Maurice is running a large part of Holland, 490 00:26:24,376 --> 00:26:26,776 and he's very keen on new weapons technology. 491 00:26:26,911 --> 00:26:29,402 Aim, fire! 492 00:26:31,483 --> 00:26:33,178 Which has recently gone very high-tech 493 00:26:33,318 --> 00:26:37,448 with this little thing, the rave new wheel-Iock pistol. 494 00:26:37,589 --> 00:26:39,284 Works like so: 495 00:26:41,092 --> 00:26:42,252 Pull the trigger. 496 00:26:42,394 --> 00:26:43,759 That releases a wound-up spring, 497 00:26:43,895 --> 00:26:46,022 pushes a metal striker that hits a flint. 498 00:26:46,164 --> 00:26:49,156 It sparks, ignites the powder, bang. 499 00:26:51,603 --> 00:26:52,968 Being wound up and ready like that 500 00:26:53,104 --> 00:26:56,335 also means you can fire the pistol from horseback. 501 00:26:59,744 --> 00:27:01,268 The other new thing at the time 502 00:27:01,413 --> 00:27:06,043 is muskets with paper cartridges. 503 00:27:06,184 --> 00:27:11,315 You just bite off the end, pour in a measured charge. 504 00:27:11,456 --> 00:27:12,821 Speeds things right up. 505 00:27:12,957 --> 00:27:15,619 It means you get a shot off every two minutes. 506 00:27:17,996 --> 00:27:21,193 Maurice brings it all together into an army ready for anything, 507 00:27:21,332 --> 00:27:25,496 including his final innovation, firing by ranks. 508 00:27:25,637 --> 00:27:27,104 Aim, fire! 509 00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:31,702 Rear rank, march on. 510 00:27:32,677 --> 00:27:33,644 Aye! 511 00:27:33,778 --> 00:27:35,405 Prepare to fire. 512 00:27:35,547 --> 00:27:37,879 Aim, fire! 513 00:27:39,284 --> 00:27:41,775 Poor old Maurice, all dressed up and nowhere to go. 514 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:43,615 In spite of his winning ways, 515 00:27:43,755 --> 00:27:45,780 he never does get the chance to prove 516 00:27:45,924 --> 00:27:48,290 that he's got what it takes for big-league warfare. 517 00:27:50,128 --> 00:27:52,926 The man who does and who wins so many battles 518 00:27:53,064 --> 00:27:55,032 he turns Sweden into a world power 519 00:27:55,166 --> 00:27:56,997 for all of 15 minutes 520 00:27:57,135 --> 00:28:01,162 is the king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus. 521 00:28:01,306 --> 00:28:05,402 In 1631, Gustavus ups the ante with artillery. 522 00:28:05,543 --> 00:28:07,738 You pound a weak spot in the enemy ranks 523 00:28:07,879 --> 00:28:09,471 with heavy cannon fire. 524 00:28:10,415 --> 00:28:13,942 Then you send the cavalry into the confusion to mop up. 525 00:28:14,085 --> 00:28:16,349 Gustavus' armies win all their battles 526 00:28:16,488 --> 00:28:17,580 with this new trick, 527 00:28:17,722 --> 00:28:20,190 because Sweden has tons of iron and copper, 528 00:28:20,325 --> 00:28:22,122 essential raw materials you need 529 00:28:22,260 --> 00:28:24,785 when you want to be good at killing people, 530 00:28:24,929 --> 00:28:30,231 a talent that, as you will see, runs in Gustavus' family. 531 00:28:34,873 --> 00:28:37,307 That's why we are now in sunny Italy 532 00:28:37,442 --> 00:28:39,706 with the next king of Sweden, a woman... 533 00:28:39,844 --> 00:28:42,142 but Swedish monarchs are all called "king"... 534 00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:45,272 named Christina, who's good at killing people. 535 00:28:45,416 --> 00:28:48,146 But first her other talents. 536 00:28:56,027 --> 00:28:58,723 Christina abdicates and runs away to Italy, 537 00:28:58,863 --> 00:29:00,990 where she has an affair with a cardinal 538 00:29:01,132 --> 00:29:03,191 and protects this composer here, Scarlatti, 539 00:29:03,334 --> 00:29:04,528 from Vatican intrigue, 540 00:29:04,669 --> 00:29:07,934 as well as saving Roman Jews from persecution. 541 00:29:14,979 --> 00:29:17,709 Christina also opens a philosophy school, 542 00:29:17,849 --> 00:29:20,545 gets deeply involved with the civil rights movement, 543 00:29:20,685 --> 00:29:23,916 and gives up her royal pension for good causes. 544 00:29:24,055 --> 00:29:27,081 Christina is one special lady. 545 00:29:32,130 --> 00:29:35,531 Which only leaves the bit about killing people. 546 00:29:35,667 --> 00:29:38,227 Well, I don't suppose she actually kills him. 547 00:29:38,369 --> 00:29:41,395 Early on, while she is still queen... sorry, king... 548 00:29:41,539 --> 00:29:44,804 she does royal-command this chap to get up at 5:00 in the morning 549 00:29:44,943 --> 00:29:48,037 in Stockholm in January in blizzards 550 00:29:48,179 --> 00:29:50,238 to give her lessons in how to think, 551 00:29:50,381 --> 00:29:53,976 which gives him pneumonia, and he dies. 552 00:29:54,118 --> 00:29:55,745 Who is this wimp? 553 00:29:55,887 --> 00:29:58,856 Only the man who gives us all lessons in how to think, 554 00:29:58,990 --> 00:30:02,118 French megagenius, engineer, philosopher, 555 00:30:02,260 --> 00:30:05,229 and general whiz Rene Descartes, 556 00:30:05,363 --> 00:30:08,764 whom we'll get to after a few more bars. 557 00:30:16,274 --> 00:30:18,333 Okay, where are we? 558 00:30:18,476 --> 00:30:21,809 That teacher Casaubon, remember, knows Scaliger, 559 00:30:21,946 --> 00:30:23,504 who invents that chronology thing 560 00:30:23,648 --> 00:30:26,742 and whose boss, Prince Maurice, makes military advances 561 00:30:26,885 --> 00:30:29,445 improved on by Swedish king Gustavus, 562 00:30:29,587 --> 00:30:32,215 whose daughter Christina runs away to Italy 563 00:30:32,357 --> 00:30:35,793 after she's caused the death of philosopher Rene Descartes, 564 00:30:35,927 --> 00:30:37,087 speaking of which, 565 00:30:37,228 --> 00:30:40,994 here's what Descartes thinks about the universe. 566 00:30:42,934 --> 00:30:44,902 Descartes thinks the universe works 567 00:30:45,036 --> 00:30:48,005 a bit like this modern water supply control center, 568 00:30:48,139 --> 00:30:51,108 because back then, water power runs everything. 569 00:30:51,242 --> 00:30:53,073 So Descartes thinks of everything... 570 00:30:53,211 --> 00:30:55,145 plants, animals, people... 571 00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:58,977 like machines operating on some kind of fluid power 572 00:30:59,117 --> 00:31:01,847 moving their bodies with valves and pumps and stuff, 573 00:31:01,986 --> 00:31:07,219 sending fluid along tubes to make your muscles work. 574 00:31:10,762 --> 00:31:13,196 He even takes this mechanical approach 575 00:31:13,331 --> 00:31:15,390 to the way the human brain works. 576 00:31:15,533 --> 00:31:17,865 And since your brain controls your body, 577 00:31:18,002 --> 00:31:21,028 he reckons it's a kind of fluid control center, 578 00:31:21,172 --> 00:31:25,370 like this one is, sending fluids down the nerves. 579 00:31:25,510 --> 00:31:27,740 Of course, brain fluid is invisible, 580 00:31:27,879 --> 00:31:31,042 because, well, nobody's ever seen it. 581 00:31:31,182 --> 00:31:34,151 Mind you, one English chap tries. 582 00:31:44,896 --> 00:31:48,957 The brainy type in question is a top medical whiz at Oxford, 583 00:31:49,100 --> 00:31:50,692 and he and other clever pals 584 00:31:50,835 --> 00:31:52,598 often meet and eat at somebody's house 585 00:31:52,737 --> 00:31:55,501 so they can network on the latest stuff 586 00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:58,268 and be nerds together. 587 00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:04,771 This is the guy, Thomas Willis. 588 00:32:07,785 --> 00:32:10,151 The wonderful thing about the past is, 589 00:32:10,288 --> 00:32:13,451 you have to keep remembering the real world around them. 590 00:32:13,591 --> 00:32:16,082 I mean, these guys live at a time 591 00:32:16,227 --> 00:32:20,459 when they punish criminals by cutting them into four pieces. 592 00:32:20,598 --> 00:32:22,930 The sewage in the streets would make you throw up. 593 00:32:23,067 --> 00:32:24,762 And yet here they are, 594 00:32:24,902 --> 00:32:29,339 17th-century propellerheads making like M.I.T. 595 00:32:29,474 --> 00:32:32,568 Surrounded by disease and filth, 596 00:32:32,710 --> 00:32:36,976 with people being taken seriously dead of old age at 40, 597 00:32:37,115 --> 00:32:40,312 these guys are designing incredibly delicate instruments 598 00:32:40,451 --> 00:32:45,514 like this to observe, oh, the vacuum, barometric pressure, 599 00:32:45,656 --> 00:32:49,922 the lunar effect of the tides, the nature of the blood. 600 00:32:50,061 --> 00:32:53,690 Willis himself takes on the last great nerds' challenge: 601 00:32:53,831 --> 00:32:55,423 How does the brain work? 602 00:32:55,566 --> 00:32:58,262 And in 1664, he comes out with a book 603 00:32:58,403 --> 00:33:02,464 that will be the last word in brainology for 150 years. 604 00:33:02,607 --> 00:33:03,835 Here we are. 605 00:33:03,975 --> 00:33:06,239 The first time the new Descartes mechanical approach 606 00:33:06,377 --> 00:33:07,401 has been taken in medicine 607 00:33:07,545 --> 00:33:09,911 and a rave best-seller all over Europe. 608 00:33:10,048 --> 00:33:11,845 The reason Willis blows everybody away 609 00:33:11,983 --> 00:33:14,474 with this load of scribble is because his books 610 00:33:14,619 --> 00:33:17,053 have some of the best brain pictures you've ever seen 611 00:33:17,188 --> 00:33:19,122 before or since. 612 00:33:19,257 --> 00:33:20,690 Take a look. 613 00:33:20,825 --> 00:33:22,622 The first modern view of the brain, 614 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:24,318 which bit does what. 615 00:33:24,462 --> 00:33:28,057 And Willis is the first person to finger this bit 616 00:33:28,199 --> 00:33:30,258 as having something to do with running 617 00:33:30,401 --> 00:33:34,132 your autonomic functions: Heart, respiration, that stuff. 618 00:33:34,272 --> 00:33:36,866 And you're a neurologist? 619 00:33:37,008 --> 00:33:39,408 Thank Willis for having invented the word. 620 00:33:39,544 --> 00:33:41,739 Pretty amazing stuff, eh? 621 00:33:41,879 --> 00:33:45,406 Ho hum to Willis' pal who does all the drawings. 622 00:33:45,550 --> 00:33:49,077 Well, take a look at what else he draws. 623 00:33:57,161 --> 00:33:58,788 Willis' draftsman friend 624 00:33:58,930 --> 00:34:01,899 is a superegghead in a century of eggheads. 625 00:34:02,033 --> 00:34:04,467 Apart from this little job, he's also expert 626 00:34:04,602 --> 00:34:07,469 in astronomy, math, optics, weather forecasting, 627 00:34:07,605 --> 00:34:09,004 and submarines. 628 00:34:09,140 --> 00:34:11,165 As you can see, he's also hot stuff 629 00:34:11,309 --> 00:34:14,506 on the drawing board and at the real thing... 630 00:34:14,645 --> 00:34:17,079 in this case, St. Paul's Cathedral, London, 631 00:34:17,215 --> 00:34:19,274 of which he is the architect. 632 00:34:19,417 --> 00:34:23,877 Sir Christopher Wren, who gets the job when he's only 36. 633 00:34:24,021 --> 00:34:26,956 More than his fair share of success, right? 634 00:34:27,091 --> 00:34:29,582 Mind you, he does pretty well there too, 635 00:34:29,727 --> 00:34:31,194 in shares. 636 00:34:35,032 --> 00:34:36,761 Now, back then, all you need 637 00:34:36,901 --> 00:34:38,835 to make money on the new stock market 638 00:34:38,970 --> 00:34:40,062 is money. 639 00:34:40,204 --> 00:34:41,228 No problem. 640 00:34:41,372 --> 00:34:43,067 All you have to do is persuade investors 641 00:34:43,207 --> 00:34:47,234 to buy shares in one of the newly invented banks. 642 00:34:52,049 --> 00:34:54,244 It's the French who try it first, 643 00:34:54,385 --> 00:34:57,115 persuaded by the guy who thinks up this nifty new idea, 644 00:34:57,255 --> 00:34:59,280 a Scotsman called John Law. 645 00:34:59,423 --> 00:35:02,915 Now, the new shareholder bank in Paris is so successful, 646 00:35:03,060 --> 00:35:04,618 the French government takes it over. 647 00:35:04,762 --> 00:35:07,026 And in no time at all, 648 00:35:07,165 --> 00:35:09,656 John Law has persuaded the French, 649 00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,394 whose economy is going down the toilet fast, by the way, 650 00:35:12,537 --> 00:35:16,667 to start using an amazing new thing called paper money. 651 00:35:21,179 --> 00:35:25,343 In 1717, thanks to John Law, on any French street, 652 00:35:25,483 --> 00:35:26,848 you can also buy shares 653 00:35:26,984 --> 00:35:30,044 in his new offshore investment properties. 654 00:35:32,323 --> 00:35:33,551 "Any risk?" 655 00:35:33,691 --> 00:35:34,953 "How dare you!" 656 00:35:35,092 --> 00:35:37,754 Take a look at this evidence of how to get filthy rich. 657 00:35:37,895 --> 00:35:41,194 It's the poster John Law designs to act as a prospectus 658 00:35:41,332 --> 00:35:44,563 for what is touted to be an unequaled opportunity 659 00:35:44,702 --> 00:35:45,760 to make a killing. 660 00:35:45,903 --> 00:35:48,303 But since this is before truth in packaging, 661 00:35:48,439 --> 00:35:51,465 it's all smoke-and-mirrors stuff. 662 00:35:51,609 --> 00:35:55,443 A beautiful city... it hasn't been built yet... 663 00:35:55,580 --> 00:35:59,243 fringed by scenic mountains... there are none... 664 00:35:59,383 --> 00:36:01,613 with obedient and hardworking locals... 665 00:36:01,752 --> 00:36:05,984 that'll be the day... and ships coming and going, 666 00:36:06,123 --> 00:36:08,990 Ioaded to the gunwales with emeralds, gold, and silver. 667 00:36:09,126 --> 00:36:11,993 In your dreams. 668 00:36:14,065 --> 00:36:17,865 Well, French little old ladies put their savings into this scam 669 00:36:18,002 --> 00:36:21,836 like they were going to make 1,000%, which some do. 670 00:36:21,973 --> 00:36:25,204 And Law uses the cash to found a capital city 671 00:36:25,343 --> 00:36:27,004 in his overseas investment paradise, 672 00:36:27,144 --> 00:36:28,441 called Louisiana, 673 00:36:28,579 --> 00:36:33,414 and naturally gives the city a French name, New Orleans. 674 00:36:46,330 --> 00:36:48,798 Well, three years later, Law has introduced 675 00:36:48,933 --> 00:36:51,060 the word "millionaire" into the language, 676 00:36:51,202 --> 00:36:53,500 has taken the title Duke of Arkansas, 677 00:36:53,638 --> 00:36:56,937 and is about as rich as you can get... 678 00:36:57,074 --> 00:37:01,170 when things go, inevitably, right down the toilet. 679 00:37:07,852 --> 00:37:12,516 See, the only legal thing about John Law is his name. 680 00:37:12,657 --> 00:37:15,125 Basically, the whole Louisiana thing 681 00:37:15,259 --> 00:37:18,922 is one gigantic gamble. 682 00:37:24,235 --> 00:37:26,669 Of course, it all goes wrong. 683 00:37:26,804 --> 00:37:28,829 All kinds of shady underworld types 684 00:37:28,973 --> 00:37:31,271 and crooked politicians get in on the game, 685 00:37:31,409 --> 00:37:34,503 there's a national scandal followed by a run on the banks, 686 00:37:34,645 --> 00:37:38,513 followed by the words every investor loves to hear: 687 00:37:38,649 --> 00:37:41,049 "Sorry, you lose." 688 00:37:43,954 --> 00:37:45,683 So what does Law do next? 689 00:37:45,823 --> 00:37:49,418 Jump ship over the border from France into Switzerland, 690 00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:52,757 leaving thousands of ruined investors in his wake 691 00:37:52,897 --> 00:37:54,626 jumping out of the window. 692 00:37:54,765 --> 00:37:58,098 Things in France go from bad to catastrophic. 693 00:37:59,904 --> 00:38:02,873 Now, you'd think the French reaction to this mess 694 00:38:03,007 --> 00:38:05,237 would be to ship their financial advisors off 695 00:38:05,376 --> 00:38:08,243 to prison somewhere and take austerity measures. 696 00:38:08,379 --> 00:38:10,677 Instead, they do something totally insane, 697 00:38:10,815 --> 00:38:15,252 which I'll get to after we stop for a quick catch-up. 698 00:38:15,386 --> 00:38:16,375 You remember Descartes 699 00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:18,420 and his mechanical view of the brain? 700 00:38:18,556 --> 00:38:20,524 And Willis' brain book 701 00:38:20,658 --> 00:38:23,559 with pictures by the guy who builds St. Paul's 702 00:38:23,694 --> 00:38:26,094 and who also makes money in stocks and shares, 703 00:38:26,230 --> 00:38:29,461 as does John Law with his great Louisiana scam 704 00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:31,295 that bankrupts the French economy 705 00:38:31,435 --> 00:38:32,925 when it all goes wrong. 706 00:38:33,070 --> 00:38:35,800 Now for the bit I mentioned about insanity. 707 00:38:35,940 --> 00:38:37,567 This. 708 00:38:37,708 --> 00:38:38,697 The penniless French 709 00:38:38,843 --> 00:38:41,471 actually bankroll the American revolution, 710 00:38:41,612 --> 00:38:43,443 a matter which must have been the subject 711 00:38:43,581 --> 00:38:46,744 of severe embarrassment at the military debriefings held 712 00:38:46,884 --> 00:38:49,682 when it was all over and the impossible had happened: 713 00:38:49,820 --> 00:38:55,122 A few American rebels had beaten the British army. 714 00:38:55,259 --> 00:38:56,487 Right, people. 715 00:38:56,627 --> 00:38:58,356 I don't know how we let it happen, 716 00:38:58,496 --> 00:39:00,555 but these are the facts. 717 00:39:00,698 --> 00:39:03,030 The John Law disaster sends the French economy 718 00:39:03,167 --> 00:39:04,896 down the tubes, as you know. 719 00:39:05,035 --> 00:39:06,468 Next slide, please. 720 00:39:06,604 --> 00:39:08,629 The key player in what happens then, 721 00:39:08,773 --> 00:39:12,106 a French guy called Caron de Beaumarchais. 722 00:39:12,243 --> 00:39:14,404 At some point, the French secret service 723 00:39:14,545 --> 00:39:17,912 recruits Beaumarchais, and in 1776, 724 00:39:18,048 --> 00:39:20,881 he goes on a mission... next slide, please... 725 00:39:21,018 --> 00:39:22,007 to London. 726 00:39:22,153 --> 00:39:23,552 His impression is, 727 00:39:23,687 --> 00:39:26,747 the British would like an excuse to pull out of North America. 728 00:39:26,891 --> 00:39:31,225 So the French set him up with this fake company 729 00:39:31,362 --> 00:39:34,593 at this secret location in Paris. 730 00:39:34,732 --> 00:39:37,565 Stage one infiltration of French agents 731 00:39:37,701 --> 00:39:41,432 into British America begins with the top-secret purchase 732 00:39:41,572 --> 00:39:45,201 of 25,000 muskets, 200 cannon, and gunpowder 733 00:39:45,342 --> 00:39:46,604 for the American rebels, 734 00:39:46,744 --> 00:39:49,269 and this document, congressional approval 735 00:39:49,413 --> 00:39:52,280 of undercover French military advisors, 736 00:39:52,416 --> 00:39:57,285 then troops, then ships, then a navy blockade. 737 00:39:57,421 --> 00:40:01,050 All this, of course, totally deniable. 738 00:40:01,192 --> 00:40:02,420 Well, you know the result. 739 00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:04,187 Run the tape. 740 00:40:07,031 --> 00:40:10,467 The American revolution, which bankrupts the French economy. 741 00:40:10,601 --> 00:40:12,865 So next slide, please. 742 00:40:13,003 --> 00:40:16,302 This guy, a Swiss banker, Jacques Necker, 743 00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:18,374 is called in to sort out the mess. 744 00:40:18,509 --> 00:40:20,340 Now, he does a smoke-and-mirrors job. 745 00:40:20,478 --> 00:40:24,414 Fake national budget accounts, rampant inflation. 746 00:40:24,548 --> 00:40:27,108 By 1789, he's been fired, 747 00:40:27,251 --> 00:40:30,186 and that triggers the French revolution. 748 00:40:30,321 --> 00:40:33,620 Necker takes the same road as John Law did. 749 00:40:33,757 --> 00:40:34,849 Remember? 750 00:40:34,992 --> 00:40:37,756 Over the border to Switzerland to be forgotten by history. 751 00:40:37,895 --> 00:40:43,731 Unlike... run the tape, please... his daughter, as you will see. 752 00:40:54,845 --> 00:40:58,303 Necker's daughter marries and becomes Madame de Stael, 753 00:40:58,449 --> 00:41:01,441 well-known as the author of a book on German culture 754 00:41:01,585 --> 00:41:03,951 and a general pain in the ass. 755 00:41:04,088 --> 00:41:06,113 Most of her life is spent in bedrooms 756 00:41:06,257 --> 00:41:07,986 with more lovers than she can count 757 00:41:08,125 --> 00:41:09,990 and with crowds of fans who sit around 758 00:41:10,127 --> 00:41:12,391 in the same bedroom while she holds forth 759 00:41:12,530 --> 00:41:14,828 on any subject you'd care to name. 760 00:41:14,965 --> 00:41:17,024 These exercises in vacuous chatter 761 00:41:17,167 --> 00:41:18,794 become known as "salons," 762 00:41:18,936 --> 00:41:22,599 and de Stael's become famous all over Europe. 763 00:41:22,740 --> 00:41:27,200 One thing this lady does not lack is an opinion. 764 00:41:27,344 --> 00:41:30,313 Now, at one point, when she's writing that book on Germany, 765 00:41:30,447 --> 00:41:31,744 she gets deeply into 766 00:41:31,882 --> 00:41:34,043 the back-to-nature romantic movement 767 00:41:34,184 --> 00:41:37,085 and meets a romantic writer and real drip 768 00:41:37,221 --> 00:41:42,557 named August von Schlegel, who falls for her. 769 00:41:42,693 --> 00:41:44,752 Go! 770 00:41:48,065 --> 00:41:50,795 Schlegel becomes de Stael's insignificant other 771 00:41:50,935 --> 00:41:52,459 and learns to live with the fact 772 00:41:52,603 --> 00:41:55,231 that, well, it's never going to happen. 773 00:41:55,372 --> 00:41:59,001 So he settles for the role of lapdog and breakfast maker, 774 00:41:59,143 --> 00:42:03,705 meanwhile writing the rules for the new romantic movement 775 00:42:03,847 --> 00:42:07,078 as he and Madame de Stael rocket around Europe. 776 00:42:08,619 --> 00:42:13,318 And his middle name becomes Laughingstock. 777 00:42:13,457 --> 00:42:17,518 To stir things up even further, Schlegel's wife has run off 778 00:42:17,661 --> 00:42:19,595 with one of his fellow romantic gurus, 779 00:42:19,730 --> 00:42:23,393 that guy up there, the thinking woman's fancy, 780 00:42:23,534 --> 00:42:25,161 Friedrich von Schelling, 781 00:42:25,302 --> 00:42:27,361 who applies the romantic principal to everything 782 00:42:27,504 --> 00:42:31,201 and invents a new buzzword: Nature philosophy. 783 00:42:31,342 --> 00:42:32,639 Now, the ingredients 784 00:42:32,776 --> 00:42:36,075 to the new nature philosophy philosophy are quite simple. 785 00:42:36,213 --> 00:42:40,240 Nature, overall, has oneness and symmetry. 786 00:42:40,384 --> 00:42:43,319 And according to friend Schelling, 787 00:42:43,454 --> 00:42:44,478 if you're one of the new 788 00:42:44,622 --> 00:42:46,715 industrial revolution scientists, 789 00:42:46,857 --> 00:42:50,293 oneness and symmetry should be your major project. 790 00:42:50,427 --> 00:42:52,691 Well, for most of them, that's easy to say. 791 00:42:52,830 --> 00:42:54,559 But where to start first? 792 00:42:54,698 --> 00:42:57,792 It's a chicken and egg problem. 793 00:42:57,935 --> 00:43:01,234 Funnily enough, the guy who makes sense 794 00:43:01,372 --> 00:43:03,567 of Schelling's scrambled thoughts 795 00:43:03,707 --> 00:43:07,871 does just that: He looks at chickens and eggs. 796 00:43:13,517 --> 00:43:15,144 The guy who eggs everybody on 797 00:43:15,285 --> 00:43:17,583 to further study of oneness and symmetry 798 00:43:17,721 --> 00:43:19,450 lives here in Estonia. 799 00:43:25,362 --> 00:43:27,956 By 1828, he knows all there is to know 800 00:43:28,098 --> 00:43:30,123 about what happens to an embryo chicken 801 00:43:30,267 --> 00:43:32,030 from conception to hatch-out. 802 00:43:32,169 --> 00:43:34,899 That's why his face is on Estonian money today. 803 00:43:35,039 --> 00:43:38,099 He's the country's greatest eggs-pert, so to speak. 804 00:43:38,242 --> 00:43:41,837 Here he is, this henpecked type, name of von Baer, 805 00:43:41,979 --> 00:43:44,743 a medical doctor whose research discoveries tend 806 00:43:44,882 --> 00:43:48,181 to make the scientific feathers fly even today. 807 00:43:48,318 --> 00:43:51,378 Here, where he lives, in the city of Tartu, 808 00:43:51,522 --> 00:43:53,820 Von Baer concentrates his attention on that business 809 00:43:53,957 --> 00:43:56,255 of nature being all oneness and symmetry. 810 00:43:56,393 --> 00:44:00,295 As a result... wait for this... he classifies every living thing 811 00:44:00,431 --> 00:44:02,626 into four different symmetrical shapes, 812 00:44:02,766 --> 00:44:04,358 a scientific breakthrough 813 00:44:04,501 --> 00:44:08,528 with which you could say he lays an egg. 814 00:44:14,111 --> 00:44:16,807 Well, things are symmetrical, aren't they? 815 00:44:16,947 --> 00:44:20,075 Underwhelming kind of discovery, wouldn't you say? 816 00:44:22,820 --> 00:44:24,151 It's at this point 817 00:44:24,288 --> 00:44:27,223 that von Baer chickens out of the symmetry business 818 00:44:27,357 --> 00:44:28,619 and starts the work 819 00:44:28,759 --> 00:44:32,126 that I've been making all those bad jokes about. 820 00:44:35,966 --> 00:44:40,232 After years of eyestrain, staring down the microscope 821 00:44:40,370 --> 00:44:43,305 at the most minute detail of bits of chicken... 822 00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:44,407 you're getting the point... 823 00:44:45,008 --> 00:44:48,409 Von Baer is eventually able to make an announcement 824 00:44:48,545 --> 00:44:51,673 that will change only life as we know it. 825 00:44:51,815 --> 00:44:54,579 Take a sneak preview. 826 00:44:54,718 --> 00:44:58,245 See those folds running along the center of the embryo tissue? 827 00:44:58,388 --> 00:45:01,949 Von Baer reckons they roll up into nerves and spinal column. 828 00:45:05,129 --> 00:45:08,292 But his really amazing contribution as an embryologist 829 00:45:08,432 --> 00:45:10,593 is something that will knock 830 00:45:10,734 --> 00:45:13,259 everybody's developmental socks off. 831 00:45:13,403 --> 00:45:15,462 Try a time-lapse view. 832 00:45:17,674 --> 00:45:20,666 Von Baer says this is the way chicken embryos develop... 833 00:45:20,811 --> 00:45:24,679 from general blobs of tissue to more and more specialist bits: 834 00:45:24,815 --> 00:45:29,013 Legs, wings, beak, all the things a chicken needs. 835 00:45:31,355 --> 00:45:33,255 And this is a general rule. 836 00:45:33,390 --> 00:45:37,986 Development goes from the general to the specific. 837 00:45:38,128 --> 00:45:40,790 Okay, blindingly obvious to you, 838 00:45:40,931 --> 00:45:43,991 but remember, back then, nobody knows this stuff, 839 00:45:44,134 --> 00:45:47,831 especially the really big news von Baer comes out with 840 00:45:47,971 --> 00:45:49,768 and that if you look very carefully 841 00:45:49,907 --> 00:45:53,536 at the way embryos develop... 842 00:45:53,677 --> 00:45:56,407 In the case of humans, along the way, 843 00:45:56,547 --> 00:45:59,243 we pass through stages that in lower life-forms 844 00:45:59,383 --> 00:46:01,442 would be the fully developed stage... 845 00:46:01,585 --> 00:46:03,075 with gills, for instance, 846 00:46:03,220 --> 00:46:07,088 and a temporary but well-developed tail. 847 00:46:10,294 --> 00:46:11,989 So at one point, 848 00:46:12,129 --> 00:46:14,393 we human embryos go through a stage 849 00:46:14,531 --> 00:46:18,558 as complex as, say, a grown-up oyster. 850 00:46:18,702 --> 00:46:21,569 So not surprisingly, the guy who first floats 851 00:46:21,705 --> 00:46:24,640 Von Baer's ideas to the scientific establishment 852 00:46:24,775 --> 00:46:28,404 does so after he's been at sea for a number of years. 853 00:46:34,985 --> 00:46:38,921 He does his work in places that are holiday destinations today: 854 00:46:39,056 --> 00:46:42,514 New Guinea, east Australia, the Pacific, that stuff. 855 00:46:42,659 --> 00:46:45,219 He's a young naval officer called Huxley, 856 00:46:45,362 --> 00:46:48,229 and his obsession at the time is picking up 857 00:46:48,365 --> 00:46:50,765 on that developmental work of von Baer's, 858 00:46:50,901 --> 00:46:53,961 like does it happen under the water, as well? 859 00:46:54,104 --> 00:46:59,406 So he spends most of four years, between 1846 and 1850, 860 00:46:59,543 --> 00:47:03,639 splashing about in the water every time they park the boat. 861 00:47:03,780 --> 00:47:06,749 Well, Her Majesty's ship "Rattlesnake," actually, 862 00:47:06,884 --> 00:47:09,011 which is doing an absolutely gripping survey 863 00:47:09,152 --> 00:47:11,120 of the south seas. 864 00:47:12,823 --> 00:47:17,385 But what turns Huxley to jelly with excitement is this: 865 00:47:17,527 --> 00:47:19,222 Jellyfish. 866 00:47:19,363 --> 00:47:21,524 I suppose the really convenient thing 867 00:47:21,665 --> 00:47:24,293 about these blobs is that you can see through them, 868 00:47:24,434 --> 00:47:26,664 so you can make all kinds of acute observations 869 00:47:26,803 --> 00:47:30,637 about how to chop them up before you actually do it. 870 00:47:30,774 --> 00:47:35,473 So Huxley does... make acute observations. 871 00:47:39,049 --> 00:47:42,246 Well, more like Earth-shattering discoveries, actually. 872 00:47:46,857 --> 00:47:49,257 Huxley sees that jellyfish seem to consist 873 00:47:49,393 --> 00:47:50,860 of two kinds of tissue, 874 00:47:50,994 --> 00:47:54,657 an outer skin tissue and an inner muscle tissue, 875 00:47:54,798 --> 00:47:56,288 which is just what von Baer says 876 00:47:56,433 --> 00:47:58,958 his chicken embryos seem to be made like. 877 00:48:02,639 --> 00:48:04,971 So Earth-shattering bit coming up now. 878 00:48:05,108 --> 00:48:07,042 Is the humble jellyfish, 879 00:48:07,177 --> 00:48:10,237 lower and simpler than which it is difficult to find, 880 00:48:10,380 --> 00:48:12,610 connected in some way to chickens? 881 00:48:12,749 --> 00:48:17,584 And maybe even cats, dogs, apes, and maybe even... 882 00:48:17,721 --> 00:48:19,484 well, I bet you're there ahead of me 883 00:48:19,623 --> 00:48:22,524 when I say that Huxley takes his ideas back to England, 884 00:48:22,659 --> 00:48:24,593 where he finds himself agreeing with a guy 885 00:48:24,728 --> 00:48:28,459 who's saying that this is all true 886 00:48:28,598 --> 00:48:31,999 but the process includes human beings, as well, 887 00:48:32,135 --> 00:48:34,968 and getting into deep doo-doo with the church, 888 00:48:35,105 --> 00:48:37,232 who don't like at all the idea 889 00:48:37,374 --> 00:48:40,810 of connecting humans with animals. 890 00:48:50,821 --> 00:48:53,483 Ladies and gentlemen, in the blue corner, 891 00:48:53,623 --> 00:48:55,921 theological champeen for the Church of England, 892 00:48:56,059 --> 00:48:59,392 Oxford bishop "Soapy" Sam Wilberforce. 893 00:49:01,832 --> 00:49:03,925 In the red corner, representing science, 894 00:49:04,067 --> 00:49:07,764 the thinking woman's fancy, Dr. T.H. Huxley. 895 00:49:09,539 --> 00:49:11,370 And now, ladies and gentlemen, 896 00:49:11,508 --> 00:49:14,136 some of the highlights of this incredible match. 897 00:49:14,277 --> 00:49:15,437 And the bell goes. 898 00:49:17,180 --> 00:49:19,614 Wilberforce goes straight for the jugular. 899 00:49:19,750 --> 00:49:23,208 Everything the man writes is hypothetical. 900 00:49:23,353 --> 00:49:24,911 There's not a fact in sight. 901 00:49:25,055 --> 00:49:26,079 Huxley parries. 902 00:49:26,223 --> 00:49:28,157 The book is full of facts. 903 00:49:28,291 --> 00:49:30,316 And as for it being hypothetical, 904 00:49:30,460 --> 00:49:32,587 so is the wave theory of light, 905 00:49:32,729 --> 00:49:35,391 and yet you are prepared to accept that. 906 00:49:35,532 --> 00:49:37,830 Another Sunday punch from Wilberforce. 907 00:49:37,968 --> 00:49:41,301 Species simply do not change. 908 00:49:41,438 --> 00:49:43,497 If you look at ancient Egyptian tombs, 909 00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:46,302 there they all are, exactly the same: 910 00:49:46,443 --> 00:49:49,879 Cats, pigeons, people. 911 00:49:50,013 --> 00:49:51,947 Huxley comes back with a right cross. 912 00:49:52,082 --> 00:49:54,016 This is the best explanation 913 00:49:54,151 --> 00:49:56,915 for where species come from so far. 914 00:49:57,054 --> 00:49:59,147 And now the killer exchange. 915 00:49:59,289 --> 00:50:02,224 Tell me, which of your grandparents 916 00:50:02,359 --> 00:50:04,554 was descended from an ape? 917 00:50:04,694 --> 00:50:06,161 Huxley's on the ropes! 918 00:50:06,296 --> 00:50:07,388 And then... 919 00:50:07,531 --> 00:50:09,624 I'd rather be related to an ape 920 00:50:09,766 --> 00:50:11,859 than to a man of ability and position 921 00:50:12,002 --> 00:50:15,904 who used his brains to pervert the truth. 922 00:50:16,039 --> 00:50:18,098 It's a knockout! It's a knockout! 923 00:50:22,012 --> 00:50:25,345 Thanks to Huxley, the new theory survives all attacks 924 00:50:25,482 --> 00:50:28,974 and lives on to this day to explain... 925 00:50:29,119 --> 00:50:31,053 how instant coffee and Jeeps 926 00:50:31,188 --> 00:50:33,452 lead to nylons and stocking machines 927 00:50:33,590 --> 00:50:36,616 smashed by Luddites, who were defended by Byron, 928 00:50:36,760 --> 00:50:39,695 who in Turkey meets John Galt, dodging the same blockade 929 00:50:39,830 --> 00:50:41,695 that inspires the "Star-Spangled Banner," 930 00:50:41,832 --> 00:50:44,494 really an English song all about a Greek poet 931 00:50:44,634 --> 00:50:47,125 discovered by a publisher whose son-in-law is pals 932 00:50:47,270 --> 00:50:49,329 with Scaliger of chronology fame, 933 00:50:49,473 --> 00:50:52,840 whose military boss, Maurice, inspires Gustavus of Sweden, 934 00:50:52,976 --> 00:50:54,739 father of the runaway Christina, 935 00:50:54,878 --> 00:50:56,971 whose teacher Descartes' mechanical universe 936 00:50:57,114 --> 00:50:59,605 inspires the book on brains by Willis, 937 00:50:59,749 --> 00:51:03,310 illustrated by the architect of St. Paul's, Christopher Wren, 938 00:51:03,453 --> 00:51:06,013 who's into investments like the Louisiana scam 939 00:51:06,156 --> 00:51:08,522 that ruins France and the French finance minister, 940 00:51:08,658 --> 00:51:11,320 whose daughter is the opinionated de Stael, 941 00:51:11,461 --> 00:51:14,259 whose romantic pals get Huxley into jellyfish 942 00:51:14,397 --> 00:51:17,662 so he can defend the theory of evolution 943 00:51:17,801 --> 00:51:21,293 that survives to become the evolutionary explanation 944 00:51:21,438 --> 00:51:22,666 for everything 945 00:51:22,806 --> 00:51:25,138 and proving, as I said at the start, 946 00:51:25,275 --> 00:51:27,209 that life is no picnic. 947 00:51:27,344 --> 00:51:28,538 Thank you.