1 00:00:04,500 --> 00:00:06,540 June 1897. 2 00:00:08,220 --> 00:00:11,180 Queen Victoria, now near the end of her life, 3 00:00:11,180 --> 00:00:14,220 takes a carriage ride through the streets of London 4 00:00:14,220 --> 00:00:16,540 to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee. 5 00:00:18,180 --> 00:00:21,460 Captured in the brand-new medium of film, 6 00:00:21,460 --> 00:00:24,380 these images suggest order and stability. 7 00:00:26,660 --> 00:00:30,260 But the forces of invention and progress that have powered 8 00:00:30,260 --> 00:00:33,460 Victoria's reign are entering a new phase. 9 00:00:34,980 --> 00:00:37,580 The modern world is erupting. 10 00:00:41,460 --> 00:00:45,900 The 1890s are the decade that electrifies Britain. 11 00:00:45,900 --> 00:00:51,620 This is when science, entertainment, morality and art collide to create 12 00:00:51,620 --> 00:00:57,180 some very 21st-century anxieties about where technology is leading 13 00:00:57,180 --> 00:01:00,060 us, and just who is in control. 14 00:01:02,940 --> 00:01:07,340 Now, in three films, Philippa Perry, Paul McGann 15 00:01:07,340 --> 00:01:13,260 and I are time travelling to an era when anything seems possible. 16 00:01:14,540 --> 00:01:19,260 Electricity flies through the air and X-rays race through our bodies 17 00:01:19,260 --> 00:01:22,620 as science gives the Victorians superpowers. 18 00:01:24,060 --> 00:01:27,980 When culture and convention become a battle ground... 19 00:01:27,980 --> 00:01:31,700 Fear of degeneration, and imperial decline sends shock 20 00:01:31,700 --> 00:01:33,980 waves through art and society. 21 00:01:35,620 --> 00:01:39,980 And when radio waves promise communication between this world 22 00:01:39,980 --> 00:01:41,140 and the next. 23 00:01:41,140 --> 00:01:45,220 An obsession with spirits and psychic phenomena fuels 24 00:01:45,220 --> 00:01:47,140 a new mass media age. 25 00:01:48,620 --> 00:01:52,260 Drawing on newly restored footage from the archives of the British 26 00:01:52,260 --> 00:01:57,500 Film Institute, and the technical wonders of the 1890s, 27 00:01:57,500 --> 00:02:01,220 we'll find out how it felt to be part of this anarchic, 28 00:02:01,220 --> 00:02:03,580 terrifying and thrilling moment. 29 00:02:03,580 --> 00:02:05,820 Very impressive. 30 00:02:05,820 --> 00:02:08,620 Welcome to the decade the future landed. 31 00:02:17,100 --> 00:02:19,980 It's February 3rd, 1892. 32 00:02:21,900 --> 00:02:25,260 In the hallowed lecture hall of the Royal Institution, 33 00:02:25,260 --> 00:02:29,020 the world's finest scientific minds take their seats. 34 00:02:31,220 --> 00:02:36,300 The air is ablaze with excitement at what they are about to witness. 35 00:02:40,100 --> 00:02:43,940 The audience are here to see a demonstration by a maverick 36 00:02:43,940 --> 00:02:47,580 electrical scientist, and it's standing room only. 37 00:02:47,580 --> 00:02:51,740 Anyone who is anyone in British science is in this room 38 00:02:51,740 --> 00:02:54,700 and, at the front, is Nikola Tesla. 39 00:02:55,900 --> 00:02:59,500 He is part visionary, part showman and he is here to prove 40 00:02:59,500 --> 00:03:03,380 that the power of electricity has limitless potential. 41 00:03:04,980 --> 00:03:10,500 Tesla has created the Tesla coil, an electrical device made with wound 42 00:03:10,500 --> 00:03:12,180 copper and iron. 43 00:03:13,380 --> 00:03:18,860 His invention enables him to control and manipulate electricity 44 00:03:18,860 --> 00:03:20,700 in entirely new ways. 45 00:03:22,740 --> 00:03:26,540 He switches on the machine and, as the crowd applauds, 46 00:03:26,540 --> 00:03:29,660 he begins to demonstrate how electrical energy 47 00:03:29,660 --> 00:03:32,700 can be transmitted without wires. 48 00:03:34,020 --> 00:03:37,740 Tesla's display completely wows his audience. 49 00:03:37,740 --> 00:03:41,140 He's really pushing the boundaries here of what his peers thought 50 00:03:41,140 --> 00:03:44,700 was possible, and it's not just electrical sparks 51 00:03:44,700 --> 00:03:46,220 that are flying. 52 00:03:46,220 --> 00:03:48,540 Intellectual sparks are, too. 53 00:03:51,420 --> 00:03:56,140 Tesla channels thousands of volts of electricity through his own body, 54 00:03:56,140 --> 00:04:01,100 illuminates bulbs in his bare hands, and draws sparks through the air. 55 00:04:02,660 --> 00:04:07,820 His lecture is a superhuman display, a theatrical performance designed 56 00:04:07,820 --> 00:04:13,260 to excite and tantalise about the possibilities of electricity. 57 00:04:13,260 --> 00:04:17,340 No-one leaves with a clear idea of how Tesla's ideas 58 00:04:17,340 --> 00:04:20,540 will change the world, but they're quite sure they will. 59 00:04:21,860 --> 00:04:27,820 The 1890s are a decade of such rapid discovery that the innovations 60 00:04:27,820 --> 00:04:31,020 are constantly outpacing understanding. 61 00:04:31,020 --> 00:04:34,140 The Victorians are playing catch up, trying to get to grips 62 00:04:34,140 --> 00:04:37,700 with what these discoveries mean, and the impact that they are going 63 00:04:37,700 --> 00:04:39,300 to have on society. 64 00:04:40,860 --> 00:04:45,380 Tesla's ecstatic crowd know that a new stage in human history, 65 00:04:45,380 --> 00:04:48,460 the electric age, has dawned. 66 00:04:48,460 --> 00:04:51,220 Unlike steam and gas which have driven the 19th century 67 00:04:51,220 --> 00:04:57,180 up until now, electricity promises clean power for all and progress 68 00:04:57,180 --> 00:04:59,180 on an unprecedented scale. 69 00:05:03,980 --> 00:05:07,940 Electricity courses through the collective imagination. 70 00:05:11,100 --> 00:05:13,340 Already, cities are being physically transformed, 71 00:05:13,340 --> 00:05:16,460 ready for the nation to plug in. 72 00:05:18,580 --> 00:05:22,580 And when the first horseless taxis hit London in the 1890s, 73 00:05:22,580 --> 00:05:25,940 they aren't petrol but electric motorcars. 74 00:05:27,260 --> 00:05:31,940 The new energy is connecting all areas of life - from the streets 75 00:05:31,940 --> 00:05:34,660 to the home. 76 00:05:34,660 --> 00:05:39,220 This is the decade when the modern house is born. 77 00:05:39,220 --> 00:05:43,540 Electric power is the ultimate mod con, if you can afford it. 78 00:05:52,500 --> 00:05:57,460 In 1892, the Beale family begin work on one of the very first homes 79 00:05:57,460 --> 00:06:01,700 in Britain designed specifically around electricity. 80 00:06:02,940 --> 00:06:06,420 Their architect is darling of the Arts and Crafts movement 81 00:06:06,420 --> 00:06:07,460 Philip Webb. 82 00:06:08,740 --> 00:06:14,220 Planning the interior with Webb is family matriarch Margaret Beale. 83 00:06:14,220 --> 00:06:18,700 It's women like her that are driving the take-up of electric power. 84 00:06:20,260 --> 00:06:22,860 Is this one of the original lights that Mrs Beale had installed? 85 00:06:22,860 --> 00:06:23,980 Absolutely. 86 00:06:23,980 --> 00:06:28,020 It shows us, one, how it was worked into a whole room setting, 87 00:06:28,020 --> 00:06:29,780 so we've got a sunflower theme in here. 88 00:06:29,780 --> 00:06:33,380 We've got the Morris wallpaper, all brought into a scheme 89 00:06:33,380 --> 00:06:35,660 that is about nature. 90 00:06:35,660 --> 00:06:37,300 But then when we look at the light itself, 91 00:06:37,300 --> 00:06:39,180 what we see here the way that Webb 92 00:06:39,180 --> 00:06:44,220 has designed it, it is using the materials and the design 93 00:06:44,220 --> 00:06:48,660 to celebrate the new energy, the new lighting form. 94 00:06:48,660 --> 00:06:52,500 For example, the metals chosen is a brilliant metal for reflecting 95 00:06:52,500 --> 00:06:53,740 light into the room. 96 00:06:53,740 --> 00:06:58,100 Oh. Not only does this hang down, it celebrates the process 97 00:06:58,100 --> 00:07:00,340 of hanging down, so even down to the way 98 00:07:00,340 --> 00:07:02,700 that the design emphasises wires. 99 00:07:04,300 --> 00:07:07,460 I quite like the way that the sort of petals around the light 100 00:07:07,460 --> 00:07:10,220 there reflect it back to you. It is very pretty. 101 00:07:10,220 --> 00:07:12,740 It is a type of glass called Vaseline glass and actually, 102 00:07:12,740 --> 00:07:15,860 the effect on the light is, in the dark, it sort of almost 103 00:07:15,860 --> 00:07:19,620 flickers, and so it almost replicates the light of a candle. 104 00:07:24,780 --> 00:07:27,060 Very beautiful in here. 105 00:07:27,060 --> 00:07:29,220 And very good taste. 106 00:07:29,220 --> 00:07:32,180 What we're seeing in the period is women much more involved 107 00:07:32,180 --> 00:07:36,060 in formal decision-making about how you decorate the home, 108 00:07:36,060 --> 00:07:40,500 and really controlling this domestic sphere and being encouraged 109 00:07:40,500 --> 00:07:44,940 that it is their moral duty to provide the best possible home 110 00:07:44,940 --> 00:07:48,380 for their husband, who's out working. 111 00:07:48,380 --> 00:07:53,540 But not everyone is as excited about electricity as Mrs Beale. 112 00:07:53,540 --> 00:07:57,100 For many, many years women and men have been lit by candlelight, 113 00:07:57,100 --> 00:07:59,540 and you put a candle next to your face, we all look lovely. 114 00:07:59,540 --> 00:08:01,820 That is why we have romantic meals in front of a candle. 115 00:08:01,820 --> 00:08:03,900 Suddenly, when you turn on the electricity light, 116 00:08:03,900 --> 00:08:06,020 it is shining down upon you, and women 117 00:08:06,020 --> 00:08:08,860 were the first who were horrified by the fact that suddenly, 118 00:08:08,860 --> 00:08:11,300 everybody could see all their lines and wrinkles. 119 00:08:11,300 --> 00:08:14,100 You know, there was no hiding. 120 00:08:14,100 --> 00:08:18,660 And we have a lot of wonderful cartoons from magazines like Punch, 121 00:08:18,660 --> 00:08:21,620 of women literally using umbrellas and parasols, you know, 122 00:08:21,620 --> 00:08:23,140 they were protecting themselves. 123 00:08:23,140 --> 00:08:26,140 And we have these wonderful letters where women are talking 124 00:08:26,140 --> 00:08:28,820 about the horror of these... 125 00:08:28,820 --> 00:08:32,220 They describe as bull's-eyes of light shining upon them. 126 00:08:32,220 --> 00:08:35,220 As I say, if you go into a bathroom in the morning and you shine light 127 00:08:35,220 --> 00:08:37,140 on your face you go... Ugh! 128 00:08:37,140 --> 00:08:39,820 And it was the first time they'd seen themselves like that. 129 00:08:39,820 --> 00:08:42,260 I think we've all experienced that at some point or another, 130 00:08:42,260 --> 00:08:45,060 being slightly disappointed at what we look like in electric light. 131 00:08:45,060 --> 00:08:48,060 Absolutely. And what's really interesting in these spaces 132 00:08:48,060 --> 00:08:51,380 is you start to see designers and house owners start to reflect the 133 00:08:51,380 --> 00:08:54,940 way that they designed interiors, because of this new lighting form. 134 00:08:54,940 --> 00:08:57,460 Because, of course, electricity literally shined a light 135 00:08:57,460 --> 00:08:58,540 in the corners. 136 00:08:58,540 --> 00:09:00,940 So where there was dust, suddenly you could see it all. 137 00:09:00,940 --> 00:09:03,180 Everyone's house is dirty. Everyone's house is dirty, 138 00:09:03,180 --> 00:09:05,860 and however much your housemaid cleans up, you could start to see 139 00:09:05,860 --> 00:09:09,060 it. So we started to see a much more open design to the space. 140 00:09:10,220 --> 00:09:13,860 And in the Beales selecting this new technology into the house, 141 00:09:13,860 --> 00:09:17,100 we see a whole set of ideas around progression, 142 00:09:17,100 --> 00:09:21,900 about modernism, about new roles for women in the home. 143 00:09:21,900 --> 00:09:24,500 And about a new idea about what design does 144 00:09:24,500 --> 00:09:25,860 and why it matters. 145 00:09:28,340 --> 00:09:31,980 In the future, homes will be brighter and cleaner. 146 00:09:31,980 --> 00:09:35,860 At Standen, electricity is transforming daily life 147 00:09:35,860 --> 00:09:39,660 through careful design and planning, but in other 148 00:09:39,660 --> 00:09:45,140 respects, this new electric age is an unregulated free-for-all. 149 00:09:45,140 --> 00:09:48,980 Where enthusiasm still exceeds understanding. 150 00:09:50,540 --> 00:09:56,260 Many imagine that this same energy that lights a lamp or powers a tram 151 00:09:56,260 --> 00:10:00,180 naturally courses through their own body, 152 00:10:00,180 --> 00:10:03,820 and this presents the canny 1890s entrepreneur 153 00:10:03,820 --> 00:10:06,380 with a great opportunity to cash 154 00:10:06,380 --> 00:10:10,780 in on the Victorian obsession with health. 155 00:10:10,780 --> 00:10:15,620 The theory is that you have a limited amount of nervous energy, 156 00:10:15,620 --> 00:10:19,140 which you can recharge like a battery. 157 00:10:19,140 --> 00:10:21,620 Which means that, with the right treatment, 158 00:10:21,620 --> 00:10:26,620 electricity should be a wonder cure where you can walk off the street 159 00:10:26,620 --> 00:10:28,380 and plug yourself in. 160 00:10:30,820 --> 00:10:34,620 The king of the electric health market is a man called 161 00:10:34,620 --> 00:10:40,740 Cornelius B Harness, the founder of the Medical Battery Company. 162 00:10:40,740 --> 00:10:45,180 Harness is a bit less doctor and a bit more Del Boy, 163 00:10:45,180 --> 00:10:48,300 but he has got a flair for sales, and a keen eye 164 00:10:48,300 --> 00:10:50,380 for a business opportunity. 165 00:10:50,380 --> 00:10:52,780 And in the entrepreneurial spirit of the day, 166 00:10:52,780 --> 00:10:56,700 he calls himself a consulting medical electrician, 167 00:10:56,700 --> 00:11:01,980 and his range of electropathic remedies are flying off the shelves. 168 00:11:05,940 --> 00:11:11,540 Harness' HQ is the Electropathic Institute on Oxford Street. 169 00:11:11,540 --> 00:11:14,380 It is part surgery, part theatre. 170 00:11:17,020 --> 00:11:19,620 What kind of an impression was a place like this designed to give 171 00:11:19,620 --> 00:11:22,020 the customers that walked through the door? 172 00:11:22,020 --> 00:11:25,020 They are not walking into a doctor's surgery, 173 00:11:25,020 --> 00:11:27,980 they are not walking into a hospital, they are walking 174 00:11:27,980 --> 00:11:31,820 into a place that looks like a plush, comfortable, 175 00:11:31,820 --> 00:11:35,340 luxurious middle class drawing room. 176 00:11:35,340 --> 00:11:38,380 It is a way of telling them, "You deserve the very best. 177 00:11:38,380 --> 00:11:42,100 "So you deserve Harness' electropathic belt." 178 00:11:42,100 --> 00:11:45,660 Comfortingly expensive. Yes, I think that is the basic idea. 179 00:11:45,660 --> 00:11:48,580 What kind of things were people coming here complaining about, 180 00:11:48,580 --> 00:11:50,460 what sort of things did they want to be cured 181 00:11:50,460 --> 00:11:51,780 with electricity? 182 00:11:51,780 --> 00:11:55,460 They claimed be able to cure a range of diseases, 183 00:11:55,460 --> 00:12:00,900 ailments, conditions around and about nervousness. 184 00:12:00,900 --> 00:12:03,140 There is a culture of nervousness, if you like. 185 00:12:03,140 --> 00:12:07,380 And it is a culture that is associated with the busy, 186 00:12:07,380 --> 00:12:10,660 industrial, overworked middle classes. 187 00:12:10,660 --> 00:12:12,460 And being nervous, in a certain sense, 188 00:12:12,460 --> 00:12:14,900 is a sign of class. 189 00:12:14,900 --> 00:12:17,780 Well, Ewan, actually, I don't like to talk about this very often, 190 00:12:17,780 --> 00:12:21,060 but I have got a terrible case of debility, so I'd 191 00:12:21,060 --> 00:12:23,900 like to enquire about one of those treatments. 192 00:12:23,900 --> 00:12:25,780 Could you show me how they work? 193 00:12:25,780 --> 00:12:28,900 If you'd care to step over to the consulting area. 194 00:12:28,900 --> 00:12:30,380 OK. 195 00:12:30,380 --> 00:12:34,060 Let me introduce you to Harness' electropathic belt. 196 00:12:34,060 --> 00:12:36,980 It is a very simple piece of technology. 197 00:12:36,980 --> 00:12:40,500 On the inside of the belt here you can see a number of zinc 198 00:12:40,500 --> 00:12:41,940 and copper discs. 199 00:12:41,940 --> 00:12:45,980 Your sweat, not to put too fine a point on it, 200 00:12:45,980 --> 00:12:49,340 when it's in contact with these discs, is meant 201 00:12:49,340 --> 00:12:53,180 to produce a small current of electricity that will then course 202 00:12:53,180 --> 00:12:56,340 through your body and revitalise you, it will kind of hit 203 00:12:56,340 --> 00:12:57,460 all those parts that... 204 00:12:59,060 --> 00:13:01,060 ..that other treatments can't quite reach. 205 00:13:01,060 --> 00:13:04,020 So if this belt is meant to just generally restore 206 00:13:04,020 --> 00:13:07,180 your vitality, are people coming here with ailments 207 00:13:07,180 --> 00:13:10,140 that they wouldn't normally go to their doctors about? 208 00:13:10,140 --> 00:13:14,940 Electropathic belts are meant, for example, to be a cure for impotence 209 00:13:14,940 --> 00:13:18,740 and that's certainly something that the middle class gent 210 00:13:18,740 --> 00:13:23,300 wouldn't necessarily want to discuss with their usual practitioner. 211 00:13:23,300 --> 00:13:24,940 Really, why not? 212 00:13:24,940 --> 00:13:30,460 Because impotence is associated with practises that you might not 213 00:13:30,460 --> 00:13:32,820 necessarily want to admit to in public, 214 00:13:32,820 --> 00:13:35,260 excessive masturbation, for example. 215 00:13:35,260 --> 00:13:37,780 Imagine the impropriety! 216 00:13:37,780 --> 00:13:40,220 You've lost your energy because you have been overdoing 217 00:13:40,220 --> 00:13:42,940 it and overdoing it in improper ways. 218 00:13:42,940 --> 00:13:45,380 I'm quite keen to have my own electropathic belt. 219 00:13:45,380 --> 00:13:46,940 Is there one that I can try on? 220 00:13:46,940 --> 00:13:48,940 Yes, in fact, there is an electropathic corset 221 00:13:48,940 --> 00:13:51,340 that you can try on for size. Even better. 222 00:13:53,540 --> 00:13:56,500 Well, Ewan, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling extremely 223 00:13:56,500 --> 00:13:59,100 electropathically charged right now. 224 00:13:59,100 --> 00:14:02,380 It looks good on you. They are quite dashing, aren't they? 225 00:14:02,380 --> 00:14:04,620 Apart from looking quite good, though, do they actually 226 00:14:04,620 --> 00:14:06,500 work, these things? No. 227 00:14:06,500 --> 00:14:08,180 Harness is a charlatan. 228 00:14:08,180 --> 00:14:10,380 He is a quack, he's a fraud. 229 00:14:10,380 --> 00:14:14,140 There's nothing electrical going on with the electropathic 230 00:14:14,140 --> 00:14:18,940 belts. He is surfing the electrical zeitgeist, if you like, 231 00:14:18,940 --> 00:14:23,020 of the end of the 19th century. He's preying on their desire 232 00:14:23,020 --> 00:14:27,180 to be the sorts of sophisticated, educated, knowledgeable people 233 00:14:27,180 --> 00:14:31,180 who know about electricity and the body and the future. 234 00:14:31,180 --> 00:14:33,820 And he is raking in the cash, and he's making a killing. 235 00:14:39,140 --> 00:14:43,980 But Harness has underestimated the public, and he's heading 236 00:14:43,980 --> 00:14:45,620 for a fall. 237 00:14:45,620 --> 00:14:48,820 In one of the biggest disgraces of the decade. 238 00:14:52,140 --> 00:14:55,980 For all of his showmanship, Harness is not pulling the wool 239 00:14:55,980 --> 00:14:57,820 over everyone's eyes. 240 00:14:57,820 --> 00:15:02,460 His shady practises are earning him enemies as increasing 241 00:15:02,460 --> 00:15:06,260 numbers of people realise that this electropathic belt 242 00:15:06,260 --> 00:15:10,700 they have spent up to hundred shillings on is basically worthless. 243 00:15:10,700 --> 00:15:14,460 And one of his disgruntled customers, Mr Jefferies, 244 00:15:14,460 --> 00:15:19,340 refuses to pay, and so Harness takes him to court. 245 00:15:20,580 --> 00:15:21,660 Big mistake. 246 00:15:25,660 --> 00:15:29,740 Once in court, Harness' methods come under close scrutiny. 247 00:15:32,060 --> 00:15:35,580 The engineering profession has been closely following Harness' 248 00:15:35,580 --> 00:15:41,020 claims for a number of years, but now they have the chance to test 249 00:15:41,020 --> 00:15:44,260 the electropathic belt in front of an open court. 250 00:15:45,220 --> 00:15:48,420 It's proven that Harness' employees aren't medically 251 00:15:48,420 --> 00:15:52,420 qualified, and the belt simply does not work. 252 00:15:52,420 --> 00:15:55,540 The judge rules against him. 253 00:15:55,540 --> 00:15:58,740 Having lost in court, it was open season on 254 00:15:58,740 --> 00:16:01,660 Cornelius B Harness. 255 00:16:01,660 --> 00:16:06,100 Exposing bad science becomes front-page news. 256 00:16:06,100 --> 00:16:08,900 Harness is finished. 257 00:16:08,900 --> 00:16:11,980 What with all the legal costs and the lost business, 258 00:16:11,980 --> 00:16:15,700 the medical electricity empire that he has spent years taking 259 00:16:15,700 --> 00:16:19,580 to the top of the market, goes into liquidation. 260 00:16:19,580 --> 00:16:24,940 The art of quackery is losing out to science, and the British 261 00:16:24,940 --> 00:16:26,980 are becoming tech savvy. 262 00:16:28,980 --> 00:16:33,140 Electrical technology is still in its Wild West phase, 263 00:16:33,140 --> 00:16:36,820 with quacks like Harness who think they are untouchable. 264 00:16:36,820 --> 00:16:40,340 But enlightened forces have begun to rein them in. 265 00:16:43,060 --> 00:16:47,140 There is a nagging anxiety around this invisible energy 266 00:16:47,140 --> 00:16:50,740 being piped into people's homes and bodies. 267 00:16:50,740 --> 00:16:54,020 Rumours swirl amongst the working class of domestic 268 00:16:54,020 --> 00:16:58,100 staff being killed by dodgy Victorian wiring. 269 00:17:00,900 --> 00:17:04,780 In 1890, news arrived from across the Atlantic 270 00:17:04,780 --> 00:17:07,620 that confirms electricity's dark side. 271 00:17:10,580 --> 00:17:14,940 In New York, a murderer called William Kemmler becomes the first 272 00:17:14,940 --> 00:17:18,580 man to be executed by electric chair. 273 00:17:19,980 --> 00:17:23,460 But rather than a quick modern death, it was a botched 274 00:17:23,460 --> 00:17:24,860 and bloody affair. 275 00:17:25,940 --> 00:17:29,540 A few years later, the electric chair arrives in Britain. 276 00:17:31,380 --> 00:17:34,860 Dr Walford Bodie, supervises a young woman 277 00:17:34,860 --> 00:17:37,660 as she's strapped into the device. 278 00:17:37,660 --> 00:17:41,380 At the flick of a switch, thousands of volts of electricity 279 00:17:41,380 --> 00:17:42,980 were passed through her body. 280 00:17:45,020 --> 00:17:48,700 But don't worry, Dr Walford Bodie is a magician 281 00:17:48,700 --> 00:17:52,100 and the electric chair is his latest stage act. 282 00:17:56,700 --> 00:18:00,860 Bodie's shocking routine makes him one of the biggest entertainers 283 00:18:00,860 --> 00:18:04,340 of the age, performing to crowds of thousands. 284 00:18:05,900 --> 00:18:09,380 Bodie is one of the very first people to use electricity 285 00:18:09,380 --> 00:18:11,820 as entertainment, for which he becomes known 286 00:18:11,820 --> 00:18:15,220 as the Electrical Wizard of the North. 287 00:18:15,220 --> 00:18:18,780 To keep particularly easily offended people from complaining, 288 00:18:18,780 --> 00:18:21,740 he says that the reason why he is doing this electrical chair 289 00:18:21,740 --> 00:18:26,420 act is to demonstrate his own distaste for the barbaric method 290 00:18:26,420 --> 00:18:28,060 of American execution. 291 00:18:42,660 --> 00:18:46,460 In the 1890s, science becomes box office, 292 00:18:46,460 --> 00:18:49,380 with star acts like Bodie performing in the music halls 293 00:18:49,380 --> 00:18:52,300 that the Victorians love dearly. 294 00:18:52,300 --> 00:18:55,860 Tim Cockerill has replicated Bodie's stage act. 295 00:18:58,300 --> 00:19:01,740 Bodie is doing something similar to Tesla. 296 00:19:01,740 --> 00:19:03,420 They were both showmen. 297 00:19:03,420 --> 00:19:06,700 They were both demonstrating these brand-new, modern pieces 298 00:19:06,700 --> 00:19:09,820 of technology and they, of course, were using those ingredients 299 00:19:09,820 --> 00:19:12,500 of showmanship - how to whip up an audience into a frenzy, 300 00:19:12,500 --> 00:19:15,100 and how to really sell what they were doing. 301 00:19:15,100 --> 00:19:18,020 This is basically a miniature version of the kind of equipment 302 00:19:18,020 --> 00:19:20,220 that Walford Bodie might've used. 303 00:19:20,220 --> 00:19:22,820 When we turn this machine on, there is actually so much 304 00:19:22,820 --> 00:19:25,740 electricity in that plate, that it is going to jump out. 305 00:19:25,740 --> 00:19:28,580 So we are going to see a spark and it will illuminate this tube. 306 00:19:28,580 --> 00:19:33,700 Is this version slightly more akin to modern health and safety 307 00:19:33,700 --> 00:19:36,300 than Bodie might have had? It is a bit more compatible with that. 308 00:19:36,300 --> 00:19:38,940 It basically is a bit less likely to kill anybody. 309 00:19:38,940 --> 00:19:41,380 OK, right, flick the switch. 310 00:19:41,380 --> 00:19:42,860 Oh, wow! Look at that! 311 00:19:42,860 --> 00:19:44,060 Mini lightning. 312 00:19:44,060 --> 00:19:46,420 That's not something you would like to put your finger in. 313 00:19:46,420 --> 00:19:48,900 Exactly not. This is not static electricity. 314 00:19:48,900 --> 00:19:51,340 This is basically the stuff that's coming out of the mains. 315 00:19:51,340 --> 00:19:54,700 The general rule is that one centimetre of spark roughly equals 316 00:19:54,700 --> 00:19:56,740 about 10,000 volts. 317 00:19:56,740 --> 00:19:59,460 And you have got what? A couple of centimetres there? 318 00:19:59,460 --> 00:20:02,940 So 20,000 volts are running through that plate, then? 319 00:20:02,940 --> 00:20:07,580 Exactly. Walford Bodie, and other electrical performers would, 320 00:20:07,580 --> 00:20:09,620 as long as they were insulated from the air, 321 00:20:09,620 --> 00:20:12,700 they would be able to stand on top of an electrified plate 322 00:20:12,700 --> 00:20:15,500 like this and have all of that electricity coursing 323 00:20:15,500 --> 00:20:16,740 through their body. 324 00:20:16,740 --> 00:20:19,300 It could still be very painful. Do you do this trick, then? 325 00:20:19,300 --> 00:20:20,380 I do, I perform this. 326 00:20:20,380 --> 00:20:22,620 You know what I'm going to ask you now, don't you, right? 327 00:20:22,620 --> 00:20:24,460 Of course, we can try it. OK, cool, let's do it. 328 00:20:26,620 --> 00:20:29,060 What's going to happen is I'll stand on top of this plate, 329 00:20:29,060 --> 00:20:31,700 we'll flick the switch, I will have about 20,000 volts 330 00:20:31,700 --> 00:20:33,380 of electricity going through my body. 331 00:20:33,380 --> 00:20:34,700 I'm holding this thing here, 332 00:20:34,700 --> 00:20:37,060 which is a fire torch with some fuel on the end, 333 00:20:37,060 --> 00:20:38,980 so the electricity is going to go through me, 334 00:20:38,980 --> 00:20:41,500 through my arm, all the way down the fire torch 335 00:20:41,500 --> 00:20:43,940 and then over there we've got a glass of water. 336 00:20:43,940 --> 00:20:46,660 Now, the electricity is looking for a place to go, so I'm hoping 337 00:20:46,660 --> 00:20:49,780 it will jump from the end of the torch to the glass of water. 338 00:20:49,780 --> 00:20:53,100 We'll see a spark, and it should set the fire torch on fire. 339 00:20:53,100 --> 00:20:54,980 Amazing. OK. 340 00:20:54,980 --> 00:20:56,980 I've got my shoes off so that I'm not insulated, 341 00:20:56,980 --> 00:20:59,060 so I am directly in contact with the electricity. 342 00:20:59,060 --> 00:21:01,060 Right, here we go. 20,000 volts in your body. 343 00:21:01,060 --> 00:21:02,780 That's it. Go on, then. 344 00:21:02,780 --> 00:21:04,460 Right, flick the switch. 345 00:21:09,260 --> 00:21:10,980 SHE LAUGHS 346 00:21:10,980 --> 00:21:12,780 Very impressive. 347 00:21:12,780 --> 00:21:14,300 And of course, the grand finale... 348 00:21:18,620 --> 00:21:20,060 Very good. I mean, why not? 349 00:21:20,060 --> 00:21:22,260 Why not finish it in that way? Amazing. 350 00:21:26,380 --> 00:21:30,220 In his own way, Bodie is just as influential as Tesla 351 00:21:30,220 --> 00:21:32,900 in spreading the gospel of electricity. 352 00:21:32,900 --> 00:21:36,580 Through stage acts like his, even if you can't afford a light 353 00:21:36,580 --> 00:21:40,820 bulb, you can still be part of the new electric age. 354 00:21:42,860 --> 00:21:46,260 But just as the Victorians are starting to wrap their heads 355 00:21:46,260 --> 00:21:49,340 around electricity, through lighting, quackery 356 00:21:49,340 --> 00:21:50,660 and showmanship, 357 00:21:50,660 --> 00:21:55,660 a miraculous discovery arrives that takes everyone by surprise. 358 00:21:55,660 --> 00:21:58,740 And gives us a real superhuman power. 359 00:22:02,140 --> 00:22:06,580 At his laboratory in Germany, physicist Wilhelm Rontgen 360 00:22:06,580 --> 00:22:10,380 is obsessed with a mysterious type of light ray. 361 00:22:15,380 --> 00:22:18,820 There's something strange about his work. 362 00:22:18,820 --> 00:22:22,260 He's been locking himself away inside his laboratory for weeks, 363 00:22:22,260 --> 00:22:27,340 and behind those closed doors, Rontgen realises that his rays 364 00:22:27,340 --> 00:22:31,940 will pass through all but the densest of materials. 365 00:22:32,900 --> 00:22:37,300 He doesn't realise it yet, but he's about to change the world. 366 00:22:40,300 --> 00:22:45,100 Rontgen places his wife Anna's hand on a photographic plate 367 00:22:45,100 --> 00:22:48,620 positioned under his electrical device. 368 00:22:48,620 --> 00:22:52,540 When he develops the glass plate his wife gets a shock. 369 00:22:56,380 --> 00:23:00,580 What Anna sees no-one has ever seen before, 370 00:23:00,580 --> 00:23:05,860 because captured on that glass plate is an image of her skeletal hand 371 00:23:05,860 --> 00:23:08,580 complete with a wedding ring. 372 00:23:08,580 --> 00:23:11,140 Anna is quite disturbed by this image, she is heard 373 00:23:11,140 --> 00:23:15,020 to exclaim, "I have seen my own death." 374 00:23:15,020 --> 00:23:18,620 Wilhelm Rontgen has discovered the X-ray. 375 00:23:22,300 --> 00:23:25,420 Within days, word spreads across the globe of the 376 00:23:25,420 --> 00:23:27,460 revelatory development. 377 00:23:28,900 --> 00:23:34,020 The image of Anna's hand lodges firmly in the popular imagination. 378 00:23:35,180 --> 00:23:38,220 This is a technological breakthrough that came from nowhere. 379 00:23:38,220 --> 00:23:41,700 It's making the invisible visible, it's revealing the inner 380 00:23:41,700 --> 00:23:45,140 workings of things through these ghostly echoes. 381 00:23:52,660 --> 00:23:57,540 X-rays are a Victorian sensation, 382 00:23:57,540 --> 00:24:02,980 popular with everyone from amateur enthusiasts to stage performers. 383 00:24:02,980 --> 00:24:07,940 Typically, their entertainment value was spotted as quickly 384 00:24:07,940 --> 00:24:09,460 as their medical one. 385 00:24:12,140 --> 00:24:15,420 It's the whole theatre of the equipment, the X-ray 386 00:24:15,420 --> 00:24:18,580 apparatus and the act of having an X-ray taken, 387 00:24:18,580 --> 00:24:22,940 so the machines would have sparked and smelt of ozone. 388 00:24:22,940 --> 00:24:26,420 So it would have been a really sort of dramatic event. 389 00:24:26,420 --> 00:24:28,740 It was an absolute culture shock and, you know, 390 00:24:28,740 --> 00:24:31,980 a break in the way that people could sort of see the world 391 00:24:31,980 --> 00:24:34,260 and understand themselves. 392 00:24:34,260 --> 00:24:38,820 This is in an age where the Victorian world is very demure, 393 00:24:38,820 --> 00:24:41,220 lots of people are sort of covering their bodies 394 00:24:41,220 --> 00:24:45,420 in really sort of ornate fabrics, and then this photography that comes 395 00:24:45,420 --> 00:24:50,140 out of nowhere can show your most, sort of, inner private areas. 396 00:24:50,140 --> 00:24:53,740 It really sort of echoed those ideas of death and the body as well. 397 00:24:53,740 --> 00:24:56,860 There was a young woman who wanted to check how healthy the innards 398 00:24:56,860 --> 00:25:00,300 of her new fiance were before she married him, 399 00:25:00,300 --> 00:25:03,620 so she wanted to find out if he could have an X-ray without him 400 00:25:03,620 --> 00:25:06,380 knowing just so she could check him out. Quite a difficult thing 401 00:25:06,380 --> 00:25:08,820 to do, presumably. Absolutely, very difficult. 402 00:25:08,820 --> 00:25:12,180 But it's interesting to see how people are sort of trying to use 403 00:25:12,180 --> 00:25:14,380 X-rays for these new purposes. 404 00:25:14,380 --> 00:25:16,580 And tell me about this X-ray kit that we have here. 405 00:25:16,580 --> 00:25:20,260 This is one of the word's oldest X-ray kits, and it was built 406 00:25:20,260 --> 00:25:23,060 just a few months after those first images were published, 407 00:25:23,060 --> 00:25:26,300 by Russell Reynolds, who was 15 years old at the time. 408 00:25:26,300 --> 00:25:27,780 And his father John. 409 00:25:27,780 --> 00:25:29,620 A 15-year-old? 410 00:25:29,620 --> 00:25:30,820 Did it actually work, then? 411 00:25:30,820 --> 00:25:33,140 A home built kit by a 15-year-old? 412 00:25:33,140 --> 00:25:35,780 Yes, and they put it together with an acid battery, 413 00:25:35,780 --> 00:25:38,900 the transformer and glass vacuum tube, and hey, 414 00:25:38,900 --> 00:25:42,220 presto, producing X-rays, imaging peoples bodies and hands. 415 00:25:42,220 --> 00:25:44,380 Well, I can tell you for sure that I wasn't doing stuff 416 00:25:44,380 --> 00:25:46,780 like this when I was 15. 417 00:25:46,780 --> 00:25:49,140 What became of this man? What became of Russell? 418 00:25:49,140 --> 00:25:50,340 What did he go on to be? 419 00:25:50,340 --> 00:25:51,700 I think he was just so inspired 420 00:25:51,700 --> 00:25:54,540 by this new way of seeing, he became one of the first 421 00:25:54,540 --> 00:25:58,300 radiologists who sort of grew up with X-rays, and became 422 00:25:58,300 --> 00:26:02,460 a professional X-ray user, you know, a job that hadn't existed 423 00:26:02,460 --> 00:26:04,220 a few years prior to him. 424 00:26:07,540 --> 00:26:11,180 The invisible light causes a medical revolution. 425 00:26:12,460 --> 00:26:16,020 Just a few weeks after Rontgen's discovery is publicised, 426 00:26:16,020 --> 00:26:21,540 Birmingham GP Dr John Hall-Edwards makes the world's first clinical 427 00:26:21,540 --> 00:26:26,020 X-ray, producing an image of a sterilised needle placed 428 00:26:26,020 --> 00:26:27,860 under a colleague's skin. 429 00:26:30,140 --> 00:26:34,540 The very next day he has a real patient sent to him by a local 430 00:26:34,540 --> 00:26:39,820 hospital, a woman has had a needle break off in her hand, 431 00:26:39,820 --> 00:26:42,660 and it's causing her incredible pain. 432 00:26:42,660 --> 00:26:44,940 And although she knows where the needle went in, 433 00:26:44,940 --> 00:26:46,860 it now can't be found. 434 00:26:46,860 --> 00:26:51,380 So Hall-Edwards uses his X-ray to locate the needle, 435 00:26:51,380 --> 00:26:54,220 so that a surgeon can remove it, and it is thought 436 00:26:54,220 --> 00:26:57,620 to be the very first time in history that an X-ray 437 00:26:57,620 --> 00:26:59,420 has guided an operation. 438 00:27:03,340 --> 00:27:07,060 But an opportunity soon comes for X-rays to be tested 439 00:27:07,060 --> 00:27:09,500 on an altogether bigger scale. 440 00:27:10,460 --> 00:27:14,100 In 1899, war breaks out in South Africa. 441 00:27:14,100 --> 00:27:18,340 The Boer War sees hundreds of thousands of troops mobilised. 442 00:27:23,420 --> 00:27:27,420 Now, if you want to try and find a bullet in a gunshot wound, 443 00:27:27,420 --> 00:27:31,660 you have to poke around inside the hole with a probe, 444 00:27:31,660 --> 00:27:36,500 thus massively increasing the risk of an untreatable infection. 445 00:27:36,500 --> 00:27:39,220 But with X-rays, all that changes. 446 00:27:40,420 --> 00:27:45,420 Hall-Edwards sees his calling and volunteers for the war. 447 00:27:45,420 --> 00:27:48,700 He's got his work cut out to keep delicate equipment 448 00:27:48,700 --> 00:27:50,980 going in a war zone. 449 00:27:50,980 --> 00:27:53,860 And there are more human difficulties. 450 00:27:53,860 --> 00:27:57,340 His colleagues report that patients, quite understandably, 451 00:27:57,340 --> 00:28:01,620 jump when shells land near hospitals, ruining the picture. 452 00:28:03,540 --> 00:28:07,020 But the X-ray is an unqualified success. 453 00:28:08,100 --> 00:28:13,780 In one case, a major had been shot in the spine and left paralysed. 454 00:28:13,780 --> 00:28:16,820 But Hall-Edwards managed to locate the bullet and a little piece 455 00:28:16,820 --> 00:28:19,620 of bone that had been pressing against the spinal-cord, 456 00:28:19,620 --> 00:28:23,020 and the soldier was able to walk again. 457 00:28:23,020 --> 00:28:25,260 And there were lots of cases like this - finding bullets 458 00:28:25,260 --> 00:28:28,820 in the head, in the chest, in the neck. In amongst 459 00:28:28,820 --> 00:28:33,220 all of the carnage that was going on, in those moments of despair, 460 00:28:33,220 --> 00:28:36,020 these invisible rays were bringing hope. 461 00:28:39,060 --> 00:28:42,100 But just as X-rays were transforming the possibilities 462 00:28:42,100 --> 00:28:46,900 of Victorian medicine, a darker side to the invisible light 463 00:28:46,900 --> 00:28:48,180 began to emerge. 464 00:28:50,460 --> 00:28:55,100 More and more pioneers started to develop what they called 465 00:28:55,100 --> 00:28:57,340 X-ray dermatitis. 466 00:28:58,740 --> 00:29:02,860 The first symptoms resemble sunburn, but then progressed to the skin 467 00:29:02,860 --> 00:29:05,460 blistering and falling off. 468 00:29:05,460 --> 00:29:10,580 Warts and open sores form and, to their horror, many X-ray 469 00:29:10,580 --> 00:29:14,540 operators find the symptoms don't go away. 470 00:29:14,540 --> 00:29:17,340 As John Hall-Edwards returns from the war, 471 00:29:17,340 --> 00:29:20,860 he realises that something is very wrong - 472 00:29:20,860 --> 00:29:24,540 that constant exposure to radiation has really taken its toll, 473 00:29:24,540 --> 00:29:29,020 and now his hands are showing signs of cancer. 474 00:29:29,020 --> 00:29:32,380 As the condition gets worse, he starts to describe it 475 00:29:32,380 --> 00:29:36,780 as though there are rats gnawing at his bones. 476 00:29:36,780 --> 00:29:40,020 Now, eventually, he will have to have his entire left arm 477 00:29:40,020 --> 00:29:44,420 amputated as well as all of the fingers on his right hand. 478 00:29:44,420 --> 00:29:50,460 This is the man who has dedicated his life to improving medicine, 479 00:29:50,460 --> 00:29:54,180 and now he is being slowly killed by the very technology 480 00:29:54,180 --> 00:29:56,860 that he has done so much to establish. 481 00:29:58,300 --> 00:30:01,860 Despite his personal sacrifice, Hall-Edwards was right 482 00:30:01,860 --> 00:30:04,180 to put his faith in X-rays. 483 00:30:04,180 --> 00:30:07,460 In the century that followed, they went on to revolutionise not 484 00:30:07,460 --> 00:30:11,820 just medicine, but industry, archaeology and our very 485 00:30:11,820 --> 00:30:13,940 understanding of the universe. 486 00:30:15,340 --> 00:30:19,260 But for the Victorians, the progress promised by X-rays 487 00:30:19,260 --> 00:30:23,460 is accompanied by social anxieties. 488 00:30:23,460 --> 00:30:27,060 For all of their popular appeal, there is also something deeply 489 00:30:27,060 --> 00:30:29,780 unsettling about Rontgen's rays - 490 00:30:29,780 --> 00:30:33,980 a hint of scandal, a feeling of being exposed. 491 00:30:33,980 --> 00:30:36,900 In fact, within a couple of months of the discovery, 492 00:30:36,900 --> 00:30:40,820 a particularly enterprising London company starts manufacturing 493 00:30:40,820 --> 00:30:43,380 X-ray-proof underwear. 494 00:30:43,380 --> 00:30:48,420 Sure, X-rays can reveal your bones, but what else can they reveal? 495 00:30:48,420 --> 00:30:50,340 Can they reveal your soul? 496 00:30:59,860 --> 00:31:02,540 X-ray technology lays the Victorians' most 497 00:31:02,540 --> 00:31:05,220 deeply-held fears bare. 498 00:31:05,220 --> 00:31:09,140 They worry that those cheeky forces of physics are an assault 499 00:31:09,140 --> 00:31:13,620 on privacy - worse still, that they might expose some dirty 500 00:31:13,620 --> 00:31:18,940 little secrets and thoughts - as seen in this 1897 film. 501 00:31:22,900 --> 00:31:26,420 X-rays get underneath the Victorians' skin, 502 00:31:26,420 --> 00:31:30,100 revealing not just their bones and the odd unwanted bullet, 503 00:31:30,100 --> 00:31:33,540 but their fear of losing control over technology. 504 00:31:37,220 --> 00:31:40,460 Despite their impact, X-ray machines are in the hands 505 00:31:40,460 --> 00:31:42,900 of a small number of people. 506 00:31:42,900 --> 00:31:46,900 But just like the smartphone revolution of the 21st century, 507 00:31:46,900 --> 00:31:50,140 new technologies have the greatest impact when they are 508 00:31:50,140 --> 00:31:52,020 adopted en masse. 509 00:31:53,260 --> 00:31:57,300 And in the 1890s, it isn't an electrical device, 510 00:31:57,300 --> 00:32:00,940 but a simple mechanical machine that seems to threaten 511 00:32:00,940 --> 00:32:02,900 the whole social order. 512 00:32:07,380 --> 00:32:11,740 The safety bicycle was a technological bombshell. 513 00:32:11,740 --> 00:32:15,380 It's a relatively simple self-propelled machine, but not 514 00:32:15,380 --> 00:32:20,780 since the horse had transport been so personal and so immediate. 515 00:32:20,780 --> 00:32:23,380 You don't have to wait around any more for taxis 516 00:32:23,380 --> 00:32:26,660 or trams or trains, you had the power to go wherever 517 00:32:26,660 --> 00:32:30,220 you wanted at your fingertips. 518 00:32:30,220 --> 00:32:33,420 And with that power came a whole new level 519 00:32:33,420 --> 00:32:35,940 of mental and physical freedom. 520 00:32:42,300 --> 00:32:46,060 The most popular models of the cycling boom are known as safety 521 00:32:46,060 --> 00:32:48,900 bicycles, because it is safer to fall off one of these 522 00:32:48,900 --> 00:32:51,940 than the old-style penny farthings. 523 00:32:51,940 --> 00:32:56,820 Their lower risk design gives cycling mass appeal for women. 524 00:32:56,820 --> 00:33:00,660 The cycling boom sees thousands hitch up their long skirts, 525 00:33:00,660 --> 00:33:02,300 and give it a go. 526 00:33:11,220 --> 00:33:14,980 Like all new technology, the new machine threatened 527 00:33:14,980 --> 00:33:17,980 to challenge the social order. 528 00:33:17,980 --> 00:33:23,060 Bicycles were an extension of the body and women's bodies, 529 00:33:23,060 --> 00:33:26,140 well, they were particularly troubling. 530 00:33:28,740 --> 00:33:34,980 Some men find the very movement of cycling to be disgracefully sexual. 531 00:33:34,980 --> 00:33:38,900 To be known as a "scorcher" implies that you are a fast rider, 532 00:33:38,900 --> 00:33:41,300 and a fast woman. 533 00:33:41,300 --> 00:33:45,420 And what was all that speed doing to women's brains? 534 00:33:45,420 --> 00:33:48,180 There were a number of health concerns that society was worried 535 00:33:48,180 --> 00:33:50,220 about when it came to cycling. 536 00:33:50,220 --> 00:33:54,300 These range from problems with childbirth and fertility 537 00:33:54,300 --> 00:33:57,420 to the dreaded bicycle face. 538 00:33:57,420 --> 00:34:01,500 Now, bicycle face was diagnosed as an intense stare, 539 00:34:01,500 --> 00:34:05,060 a reddened complexion, a hard-clenched jaw 540 00:34:05,060 --> 00:34:06,900 and bulging eyes. 541 00:34:06,900 --> 00:34:09,860 It could be temporary, or it could be permanent, 542 00:34:09,860 --> 00:34:13,900 but, of course, women were more susceptible than men. 543 00:34:15,340 --> 00:34:19,340 But it isn't concerns about health that are the main objection to women 544 00:34:19,340 --> 00:34:25,020 cycling, it's what they wear that makes the critics' blood boil. 545 00:34:25,020 --> 00:34:28,900 It quite quickly becomes clear that long skirts are not exactly 546 00:34:28,900 --> 00:34:32,580 the ideal attire for riding a bike. 547 00:34:32,580 --> 00:34:37,180 The alternative is to wear bloomers, tightly wrapped at the ankle 548 00:34:37,180 --> 00:34:40,420 and teamed with a nice short jacket. 549 00:34:40,420 --> 00:34:44,660 But those women who choose to dress to make cycling easier 550 00:34:44,660 --> 00:34:48,500 are committing the most transgressive act of all - 551 00:34:48,500 --> 00:34:50,980 daring to dress like a man. 552 00:34:52,460 --> 00:34:56,580 But clever Victorian inventors come up with ways to avoid 553 00:34:56,580 --> 00:34:58,500 causing moral outrage. 554 00:35:02,580 --> 00:35:06,260 It hasn't escaped my notice that you are dressed in full 555 00:35:06,260 --> 00:35:09,740 Victorian regalia but would you actually be able to cycle 556 00:35:09,740 --> 00:35:11,340 while wearing that? 557 00:35:11,340 --> 00:35:16,260 I'm wearing a Victorian convertible cycling garment that was patented 558 00:35:16,260 --> 00:35:19,460 by a woman called Alice Louisa Bygrave. 559 00:35:19,460 --> 00:35:24,100 She was from Brixton, a dressmaker from South London. 560 00:35:24,100 --> 00:35:26,780 So, she clearly thought, you know, here I am wearing an A-line, 561 00:35:26,780 --> 00:35:30,620 you know, long, floor-length skirt, but I really want to cycle 562 00:35:30,620 --> 00:35:32,020 and this is kind of difficult. 563 00:35:32,020 --> 00:35:36,700 So she decided that what her skirt needed was a dual pulley system sewn 564 00:35:36,700 --> 00:35:38,940 into the infrastructure of this. 565 00:35:38,940 --> 00:35:41,100 You wouldn't know about this, that I was a cyclist, 566 00:35:41,100 --> 00:35:43,660 until I got close to my bicycle and then I would reach 567 00:35:43,660 --> 00:35:47,460 to the waistband and I would pull out some chords that are here, 568 00:35:47,460 --> 00:35:50,980 and I would just ruche the front of it up... No way! 569 00:35:50,980 --> 00:35:52,100 Kind of like... 570 00:35:52,100 --> 00:35:55,100 Look at that! ..like a curtain. Oh, my goodness, this is so clever. 571 00:35:55,100 --> 00:35:56,700 And then she very cleverly... 572 00:35:56,700 --> 00:35:59,220 So it reveals a bit of your bloomers, but not too much. 573 00:35:59,220 --> 00:36:00,820 It's OK. We can deal with that. 574 00:36:00,820 --> 00:36:03,300 The back, she has threaded through the front, so you're not 575 00:36:03,300 --> 00:36:07,900 flapping around, then you would do the same at the back, 576 00:36:07,900 --> 00:36:11,020 ruching it up very cleverly out of the way of the wheels. 577 00:36:11,020 --> 00:36:13,740 But it created what she called a festooning effect, 578 00:36:13,740 --> 00:36:15,700 which was still quite aesthetic. 579 00:36:15,700 --> 00:36:18,580 So when you're on your bicycle, not too much is revealed, 580 00:36:18,580 --> 00:36:20,620 but it clearly is much safer. 581 00:36:20,620 --> 00:36:23,980 Well, from the side perspective, if you were zooming past me, 582 00:36:23,980 --> 00:36:27,500 I would barely know that you had it all tucked up. 583 00:36:27,500 --> 00:36:29,860 It looks like you've got your skirt kind of folded. 584 00:36:29,860 --> 00:36:34,500 And then you would loosen this off and then drop it, 585 00:36:34,500 --> 00:36:36,980 very cleverly, and then tuck these all back in again 586 00:36:36,980 --> 00:36:38,620 and nobody would know. 587 00:36:39,940 --> 00:36:42,100 So what was the objection to cycling, specifically? 588 00:36:42,100 --> 00:36:47,180 I mean, why did people look down on it as an activity for women? 589 00:36:47,180 --> 00:36:50,940 The fact that women were suddenly kind of looking like they weren't 590 00:36:50,940 --> 00:36:55,540 abiding by the kind of Victorian roles, norms and codes that 591 00:36:55,540 --> 00:36:56,660 were expected of them. 592 00:36:56,660 --> 00:37:01,340 And this was really a kind of fiercely gendered society. 593 00:37:01,340 --> 00:37:04,260 And if you stepped outside that, then there was kind of 594 00:37:04,260 --> 00:37:05,820 fierce repercussions. 595 00:37:05,820 --> 00:37:08,740 And how did this manifest itself? How did people react? 596 00:37:08,740 --> 00:37:14,980 There are so many reports of women who had sticks and stones 597 00:37:14,980 --> 00:37:16,260 thrown at them. 598 00:37:16,260 --> 00:37:20,300 They had incredibly nasty remarks yelled while they were riding 599 00:37:20,300 --> 00:37:22,580 in the street by passers-by. 600 00:37:22,580 --> 00:37:25,180 They were denied entry into places, and they were 601 00:37:25,180 --> 00:37:27,460 terribly gossiped about. 602 00:37:27,460 --> 00:37:30,460 And yet people still did choose to cycle. 603 00:37:30,460 --> 00:37:33,100 What was it that these women were gaining from it? 604 00:37:33,100 --> 00:37:36,300 The bicycle became this kind of emblem of women not only 605 00:37:36,300 --> 00:37:39,740 challenging but potentially rejecting what was considered 606 00:37:39,740 --> 00:37:42,060 their natural role, you know, in Victorian society, 607 00:37:42,060 --> 00:37:44,700 with the home and family and the bearing and carrying 608 00:37:44,700 --> 00:37:45,820 of children. 609 00:37:47,220 --> 00:37:51,300 Cycling provided for women so many vast and exciting freedoms 610 00:37:51,300 --> 00:37:55,020 in the form of social and independent mobility, 611 00:37:55,020 --> 00:37:56,980 and new connections. 612 00:37:56,980 --> 00:37:59,820 So they had new adventures, they had new experiences, 613 00:37:59,820 --> 00:38:02,500 they made new friendships and for some, probably, they had, 614 00:38:02,500 --> 00:38:06,060 for the first time, personal private lives. 615 00:38:10,460 --> 00:38:14,180 By shaking off the social shackles and the chaperone, 616 00:38:14,180 --> 00:38:17,780 cyclists can explore what they can get away with. 617 00:38:17,780 --> 00:38:20,420 Not least when it comes to romance. 618 00:38:23,380 --> 00:38:27,580 Bicycles themselves can provide an excellent opportunity 619 00:38:27,580 --> 00:38:29,820 for a spot of flirting. 620 00:38:29,820 --> 00:38:33,580 This could be chatting to other riders on the road, or something 621 00:38:33,580 --> 00:38:38,500 more serendipitous, because some women draw the line at learning 622 00:38:38,500 --> 00:38:43,420 how to repair a puncture themselves, in the hope that a chivalrous man 623 00:38:43,420 --> 00:38:45,580 will offer to do it for them, 624 00:38:45,580 --> 00:38:48,580 thus providing all kinds of opportunities. 625 00:38:52,500 --> 00:38:56,620 HG Wells, who was a keen cyclist, writes a short story 626 00:38:56,620 --> 00:38:58,180 around this phenomenon. 627 00:38:58,180 --> 00:39:02,580 A chaste tale called A Perfect Gentleman on Wheels. 628 00:39:02,580 --> 00:39:08,100 "She had a charmingly cut costume, and her hair was a pleasant brown, 629 00:39:08,100 --> 00:39:11,620 "and her ear, as one came riding up behind her, 630 00:39:11,620 --> 00:39:13,300 "was noticeably pretty. 631 00:39:13,300 --> 00:39:17,220 "She had punctured the tyre of her hind wheel. 632 00:39:17,220 --> 00:39:19,740 "It ran flat and flaccid. 633 00:39:21,620 --> 00:39:25,620 "Now, this is the secret desire of all lone men who go 634 00:39:25,620 --> 00:39:28,500 "down into the country on wheels. 635 00:39:28,500 --> 00:39:33,060 "The proffered help, the charming talk, the idyllic incident. 636 00:39:33,060 --> 00:39:36,460 "Who knows what delightful developments?" 637 00:39:36,460 --> 00:39:39,460 On the face of it, cycling might seem like an odd 638 00:39:39,460 --> 00:39:43,740 subject for HG Wells, writer of War Of The Worlds. 639 00:39:43,740 --> 00:39:47,460 But Wells is fascinated by how an invention as simple 640 00:39:47,460 --> 00:39:51,700 as the safety bicycle can foster new freedoms, 641 00:39:51,700 --> 00:39:55,300 while simultaneously disrupting the old British order. 642 00:40:00,420 --> 00:40:04,220 If something so benign can make such an impact, 643 00:40:04,220 --> 00:40:06,860 what about more dangerous technology? 644 00:40:10,500 --> 00:40:14,860 In the 1890s, Wells becomes fascinated by the invisible 645 00:40:14,860 --> 00:40:16,340 world of disease. 646 00:40:20,940 --> 00:40:27,180 The spectre of deadly contagious illnesses stalks Victorian cities, 647 00:40:27,180 --> 00:40:30,340 thriving on the cramped and dirty conditions. 648 00:40:32,740 --> 00:40:36,180 The study of the relationship between bacteria and disease, 649 00:40:36,180 --> 00:40:41,180 bacteriology, is a relatively new science, little understood 650 00:40:41,180 --> 00:40:43,060 by the general public. 651 00:40:43,060 --> 00:40:47,700 Yet researchers have already made a cholera vaccine and will shortly 652 00:40:47,700 --> 00:40:49,500 create one for typhoid. 653 00:40:50,860 --> 00:40:57,340 But Britain also has a very vocal anti-vaccination movement who think 654 00:40:57,340 --> 00:41:00,700 that messing with any of this bacteria in the first place 655 00:41:00,700 --> 00:41:04,060 is something that outrages nature. 656 00:41:04,060 --> 00:41:08,180 Bacteriology might be turning the tide against disease, 657 00:41:08,180 --> 00:41:11,740 but they are losing the battle with the public. 658 00:41:11,740 --> 00:41:15,980 For some, this kind of science is going too far and Wells 659 00:41:15,980 --> 00:41:18,140 understands their fears. 660 00:41:18,140 --> 00:41:22,220 Sure, bacteriology might be able to cure us, but is there a price 661 00:41:22,220 --> 00:41:23,460 to be paid? 662 00:41:25,660 --> 00:41:30,900 In 1894, Wells writes a short story that captures people's fears. 663 00:41:37,660 --> 00:41:41,540 In The Stolen Bacillus, Wells rails against the era's 664 00:41:41,540 --> 00:41:43,340 cult of progress - 665 00:41:43,340 --> 00:41:46,460 this assumption that science and technology will inevitably lead 666 00:41:46,460 --> 00:41:49,900 us towards an amazing utopia. 667 00:41:49,900 --> 00:41:53,500 He argues that unless you're careful, the very same 668 00:41:53,500 --> 00:41:57,940 discoveries that could be used to help society can also be used 669 00:41:57,940 --> 00:42:01,380 against it, and this story is about 670 00:42:01,380 --> 00:42:05,180 a new and totally terrifying threat - 671 00:42:05,180 --> 00:42:06,900 bio-terrorism. 672 00:42:10,980 --> 00:42:14,060 It begins in the laboratory of a bacteriologist, 673 00:42:14,060 --> 00:42:16,740 demonstrating his work to a visitor, 674 00:42:16,740 --> 00:42:19,700 a man described as a pale stranger. 675 00:42:20,900 --> 00:42:24,780 The conversation turns to a vial of deadly cholera. 676 00:42:25,900 --> 00:42:29,620 "Only break such a little tube as this into a supply of 677 00:42:29,620 --> 00:42:34,140 "drinking water and death, mysterious, untraceable death, 678 00:42:34,140 --> 00:42:38,020 "death, swift and terrible, death, full of pain and indignity, 679 00:42:38,020 --> 00:42:41,060 "would be released upon this city." 680 00:42:41,060 --> 00:42:45,580 As he leaves the laboratory, the pale stranger slips a vial 681 00:42:45,580 --> 00:42:48,140 of cholera into his pocket. 682 00:42:48,140 --> 00:42:51,020 It turns out he's an anarchist hell-bent 683 00:42:51,020 --> 00:42:53,580 on infecting London's water supply. 684 00:42:55,780 --> 00:43:00,140 Now, this story perfectly plays in to the country's fears 685 00:43:00,140 --> 00:43:01,540 at the time. 686 00:43:01,540 --> 00:43:06,180 Britain had been bombarded by story after story about extremists, 687 00:43:06,180 --> 00:43:09,660 waiting to launch a lone wolf attack. 688 00:43:09,660 --> 00:43:12,500 And bombing campaigns by Irish nationalists had really put 689 00:43:12,500 --> 00:43:14,780 the population on edge. 690 00:43:14,780 --> 00:43:18,420 The pale stranger is the perfect bogeyman. 691 00:43:20,260 --> 00:43:23,260 When the scientist realises what's happened, 692 00:43:23,260 --> 00:43:27,420 a chase across London ensues in horse-drawn taxis. 693 00:43:29,340 --> 00:43:33,860 In the chase, the stranger realises that the vial has broken, 694 00:43:33,860 --> 00:43:37,460 and the deadly liquid is leaking all over his skin. 695 00:43:37,460 --> 00:43:41,380 So he decides to drink the rest of it, turning his body 696 00:43:41,380 --> 00:43:44,580 into a weapon of mass destruction. 697 00:43:50,060 --> 00:43:52,660 The stranger runs through the streets, 698 00:43:52,660 --> 00:43:55,980 touching as many members of the public as he can 699 00:43:55,980 --> 00:43:58,500 to spread the disease, 700 00:43:58,500 --> 00:44:01,140 before escaping into the night. 701 00:44:05,420 --> 00:44:08,460 At the end of the story, there's a twist. 702 00:44:08,460 --> 00:44:11,500 It turns out that the anarchist hadn't swallowed a vial of cholera 703 00:44:11,500 --> 00:44:15,700 at all, but a disease that turns your skin blue. 704 00:44:15,700 --> 00:44:18,300 And on one level, this is a bit of a copout - 705 00:44:18,300 --> 00:44:20,580 London is spared - 706 00:44:20,580 --> 00:44:23,260 but for Wells, the point was that there is very little 707 00:44:23,260 --> 00:44:28,700 difference between a reckless scientist and a murderous stranger. 708 00:44:28,700 --> 00:44:33,180 Both can pose a very real danger to the public. 709 00:44:33,180 --> 00:44:38,540 Wells is in the vanguard of an 1890s explosion in popular fiction 710 00:44:38,540 --> 00:44:41,700 that asked questions about where science is leading us, 711 00:44:41,700 --> 00:44:45,780 drawing on deep fears in the Victorian psyche. 712 00:44:45,780 --> 00:44:49,900 As with today, it is not just about what the technology does, 713 00:44:49,900 --> 00:44:54,460 but who owns it, who controls it and whether it might be used 714 00:44:54,460 --> 00:44:58,220 against us, and Wells isn't alone in his fears. 715 00:45:02,820 --> 00:45:07,060 One aspect of the technological future particularly haunts 716 00:45:07,060 --> 00:45:09,340 the Victorians' imagination. 717 00:45:09,340 --> 00:45:12,100 Although they have conquered the seas and land, 718 00:45:12,100 --> 00:45:15,700 the skies remained tantalisingly out of reach. 719 00:45:15,700 --> 00:45:19,300 But flying machines are a deeply troubling idea. 720 00:45:21,700 --> 00:45:26,180 To some writers, the implication of powered flight is clear - 721 00:45:26,180 --> 00:45:29,980 whichever country gets there first will have terrifying 722 00:45:29,980 --> 00:45:31,740 military superiority. 723 00:45:33,180 --> 00:45:36,180 The Victorians, used to war being something 724 00:45:36,180 --> 00:45:37,900 which happens abroad, 725 00:45:37,900 --> 00:45:41,300 fear that maybe one day even London, at the very 726 00:45:41,300 --> 00:45:44,060 heart of the Empire, could be attacked. 727 00:45:46,420 --> 00:45:49,900 In 1893, George Griffith writes a story called 728 00:45:49,900 --> 00:45:53,620 The Angel Of The Revolution, that brings the idea of 729 00:45:53,620 --> 00:45:56,340 Pax Aeronautica to the British public. 730 00:45:59,580 --> 00:46:03,780 Griffith paints an apocalyptic vision of flying machines 731 00:46:03,780 --> 00:46:08,020 as military weapons that are so far above everything else that nothing 732 00:46:08,020 --> 00:46:09,860 can stand in their way. 733 00:46:09,860 --> 00:46:14,020 He tells the story of a brilliant but embittered scientist who teams 734 00:46:14,020 --> 00:46:17,380 up with a secret brotherhood of anarchists to create 735 00:46:17,380 --> 00:46:20,540 flying machines that conquer the world. 736 00:46:23,260 --> 00:46:27,620 "A blaze of intense light shone for an instant upon the Earth. 737 00:46:27,620 --> 00:46:31,420 "Then this burst into a thousand fragments which leapt into the air 738 00:46:31,420 --> 00:46:35,220 "and spread themselves far and wide in all directions, 739 00:46:35,220 --> 00:46:39,140 "burning with inextinguishable fury for several minutes, 740 00:46:39,140 --> 00:46:43,300 "driving men and horses mad with agony and terror. 741 00:46:43,300 --> 00:46:45,820 "In the new warfare people will not merely be killed, 742 00:46:45,820 --> 00:46:47,380 "they will be annihilated." 743 00:46:49,780 --> 00:46:52,500 Griffith's follow-up, Outlaws Of The Air, 744 00:46:52,500 --> 00:46:56,140 takes the possibility of air power to its chilling conclusion. 745 00:46:56,140 --> 00:47:00,020 This time, it isn't just military forces facing annihilation 746 00:47:00,020 --> 00:47:03,740 but the civilian population, as aerial warfare is used 747 00:47:03,740 --> 00:47:05,900 to devastate British cities. 748 00:47:06,940 --> 00:47:11,220 Westminster itself is obliterated in a firestorm. 749 00:47:13,540 --> 00:47:18,020 For now, the concept of mass death from the air brought about by 750 00:47:18,020 --> 00:47:21,020 flying machines is just a fantasy. 751 00:47:21,020 --> 00:47:24,700 But it's one that rubs shoulders with reality. 752 00:47:24,700 --> 00:47:27,620 Because inventors are now trying to make the dream 753 00:47:27,620 --> 00:47:29,820 of flight come true. 754 00:47:29,820 --> 00:47:33,940 You can see the strange reality of Victorian flying machines 755 00:47:33,940 --> 00:47:36,660 at the Shuttleworth Collection in Bedfordshire. 756 00:47:39,940 --> 00:47:43,980 This is a flying machine called the Hawk. 757 00:47:43,980 --> 00:47:46,620 It was designed in the 1890s, 758 00:47:46,620 --> 00:47:50,700 and gliders like this one were the first tentative steps towards 759 00:47:50,700 --> 00:47:53,060 the big ambition for the age - 760 00:47:53,060 --> 00:47:55,380 to create powered flight. 761 00:47:57,420 --> 00:48:01,940 It's made of a light but strong and flexible bamboo frame. 762 00:48:01,940 --> 00:48:06,020 The wings are covered in 170 feet of canvas, 763 00:48:06,020 --> 00:48:09,300 supported by delicate-looking wires. 764 00:48:09,300 --> 00:48:10,740 So, Eric, you restored this? 765 00:48:10,740 --> 00:48:13,540 Yes. Have you been in it? Have you flown it? 766 00:48:13,540 --> 00:48:17,620 No, never. No, I just did the reconstruction. 767 00:48:17,620 --> 00:48:19,180 How do you actually get in this? 768 00:48:19,180 --> 00:48:21,460 Perhaps the easiest way might be to walk around the back 769 00:48:21,460 --> 00:48:23,100 and step over the lines. 770 00:48:23,100 --> 00:48:25,140 Duck under these. Mind that cable there. 771 00:48:25,140 --> 00:48:27,020 This one? These two? Yes. 772 00:48:30,980 --> 00:48:33,220 Slide your arms through these leather sockets 773 00:48:33,220 --> 00:48:35,100 and hold the handles. 774 00:48:35,100 --> 00:48:37,060 Like that? Like that, yeah. 775 00:48:37,060 --> 00:48:40,620 OK, so now you have to step forward in front of the shoulder rests. 776 00:48:40,620 --> 00:48:42,660 Shoulder rests? Yes. 777 00:48:42,660 --> 00:48:46,420 If the glider went into a stall, the front of the aircraft comes up 778 00:48:46,420 --> 00:48:48,900 and you need to get your body weight forwards, 779 00:48:48,900 --> 00:48:51,740 and that's why those shoulder stands are there, to stop you sliding 780 00:48:51,740 --> 00:48:53,460 too far back. 781 00:48:53,460 --> 00:48:57,180 And if you could get your head behind these wires... 782 00:48:57,180 --> 00:48:58,660 You need to be a gymnast. 783 00:48:58,660 --> 00:49:00,860 It's like a torture device. It is. 784 00:49:00,860 --> 00:49:03,380 So, how do you get it down the hill, then? 785 00:49:03,380 --> 00:49:07,060 Well, basically, you've got to run with it. 786 00:49:07,060 --> 00:49:09,580 Oh, bloody hell. It's quite heavy. It is heavy. 787 00:49:09,580 --> 00:49:12,580 Once you get some lift, the glider will take your weight, 788 00:49:12,580 --> 00:49:16,540 and then you can rest your whole body weight on your forearm. 789 00:49:16,540 --> 00:49:18,980 You need to be very, very strong to be able to control 790 00:49:18,980 --> 00:49:20,500 it from that position. Yeah. 791 00:49:20,500 --> 00:49:22,580 In fact, you would not be able to fly it for very long 792 00:49:22,580 --> 00:49:24,020 for those reasons. 793 00:49:24,020 --> 00:49:26,460 How do you actually control it when you are in the air? 794 00:49:26,460 --> 00:49:31,740 You basically fling your legs around to try to control the centre 795 00:49:31,740 --> 00:49:34,060 of gravity of the aircraft. 796 00:49:34,060 --> 00:49:35,580 It's not easy. 797 00:49:35,580 --> 00:49:38,380 You haven't got very many safety mechanisms? 798 00:49:38,380 --> 00:49:41,500 Not at all. There is no in-flight entertainment either. 799 00:49:45,780 --> 00:49:48,860 You would have to have nerves of steel to go up in 800 00:49:48,860 --> 00:49:50,540 the air in one of these things. 801 00:49:50,540 --> 00:49:51,940 But one man did. 802 00:49:54,460 --> 00:49:58,780 His name was Percy Pilcher, and with his Hawk he became 803 00:49:58,780 --> 00:50:02,020 one of the world's leading aviators. 804 00:50:02,020 --> 00:50:04,260 Now, today, most people have never heard of him, 805 00:50:04,260 --> 00:50:06,100 but to the Victorians 806 00:50:06,100 --> 00:50:10,700 he was the man that they thought stood the greatest chance of making 807 00:50:10,700 --> 00:50:13,980 a breakthrough in flying technology. 808 00:50:16,780 --> 00:50:20,140 Percy Pilcher was part of an international scene 809 00:50:20,140 --> 00:50:22,820 of adventurers reaching for the skies. 810 00:50:26,980 --> 00:50:31,940 Victorian aviation is a hair-raising mix of educated guesses, 811 00:50:31,940 --> 00:50:34,140 trial and error. 812 00:50:34,140 --> 00:50:37,540 And the failures far outweigh the successes. 813 00:50:37,540 --> 00:50:42,060 The ultimate goal of this very small but committed bunch of pioneers 814 00:50:42,060 --> 00:50:45,140 is a motorised flying machine, something capable 815 00:50:45,140 --> 00:50:47,300 of sustained flight. 816 00:50:47,300 --> 00:50:51,380 But the risks involved are clear to everyone. 817 00:50:51,380 --> 00:50:55,020 And many people think of them as a group of madmen. 818 00:50:58,660 --> 00:51:03,180 Pilcher is convinced that heavier than air flight is possible, 819 00:51:03,180 --> 00:51:05,500 and despite being well aware of the dangers, 820 00:51:05,500 --> 00:51:08,300 dedicates himself to finding the answer. 821 00:51:12,540 --> 00:51:16,540 His mentor is the world's leading flying expert, 822 00:51:16,540 --> 00:51:18,380 Otto Lilienthal. 823 00:51:18,380 --> 00:51:24,500 In 1891, he'd been the first person ever to repeatedly fly a glider, 824 00:51:24,500 --> 00:51:26,980 and he is making hundreds of flights a year. 825 00:51:28,380 --> 00:51:32,420 Pilcher visits him and strikes up a close working relationship. 826 00:51:33,700 --> 00:51:36,780 Pilcher studies Lilienthal's ideas closely. 827 00:51:36,780 --> 00:51:40,540 His work shows that shaping a glider's wings like a bird 828 00:51:40,540 --> 00:51:42,460 could create greater lift. 829 00:51:47,460 --> 00:51:51,180 Back home, Pilcher experiments with different designs, 830 00:51:51,180 --> 00:51:54,580 towed by a cable, and eventually gets off the ground. 831 00:51:55,780 --> 00:52:00,220 But just as he gets going, there's an ominous development. 832 00:52:02,580 --> 00:52:06,700 In August, Pilcher receives some bad news. 833 00:52:06,700 --> 00:52:10,220 His mentor, Otto Lilienthal, has been killed 834 00:52:10,220 --> 00:52:12,340 in a glider accident. 835 00:52:12,340 --> 00:52:15,540 During a demonstration, a sudden gust of wind caused 836 00:52:15,540 --> 00:52:19,180 the glider to stall, and Lilienthal broke his back 837 00:52:19,180 --> 00:52:20,900 in the resulting crash. 838 00:52:22,780 --> 00:52:27,380 And in some ways, Lilienthal was the flying world's first martyr, 839 00:52:27,380 --> 00:52:31,580 but his death really brought home just how dangerous 840 00:52:31,580 --> 00:52:33,940 Pilcher's quest was going to be. 841 00:52:35,580 --> 00:52:38,940 Pilcher's work with Lilienthal is fruitful. 842 00:52:38,940 --> 00:52:41,780 He ploughed everything he'd learned from the master and his 843 00:52:41,780 --> 00:52:44,900 own experiments into a new design. 844 00:52:44,900 --> 00:52:49,220 He called it the Hawk, and it was his best flying machine yet. 845 00:52:50,340 --> 00:52:52,980 On the 20th of June in 1897, 846 00:52:52,980 --> 00:52:56,060 Pilcher gave the first public 847 00:52:56,060 --> 00:53:00,740 demonstration of his Hawk in front of a crowd of onlookers 848 00:53:00,740 --> 00:53:04,220 and a journalist from the Pall Mall Gazette. 849 00:53:04,220 --> 00:53:05,980 Here is what they had to say. 850 00:53:07,820 --> 00:53:12,220 "Mr Pilcher started the machine directly towards the wind, 851 00:53:12,220 --> 00:53:14,980 "which was blowing gently up the hill. 852 00:53:14,980 --> 00:53:19,780 "After a preliminary hop, skip and a jump, the man and machine 853 00:53:19,780 --> 00:53:23,700 "rose gracefully into the air from the side of the hill... 854 00:53:26,820 --> 00:53:31,940 "..until a height of full 70 feet in altitude had been reached, 855 00:53:31,940 --> 00:53:36,420 "when they described a gradually descending curve towards the valley. 856 00:53:39,980 --> 00:53:44,740 "Given a few more enthusiasts like Mr Pilcher, we ought to be able 857 00:53:44,740 --> 00:53:48,660 "to fly before the dawn of the 20th century." 858 00:53:50,260 --> 00:53:53,900 But Pilcher's moment of triumph isn't solely his own. 859 00:53:58,260 --> 00:54:00,660 When you have a look through these photos, there's one 860 00:54:00,660 --> 00:54:03,340 face that keeps cropping up. 861 00:54:03,340 --> 00:54:06,820 And this is Ella, Percy's sister. 862 00:54:06,820 --> 00:54:10,220 She's with him every step of the way. 863 00:54:10,220 --> 00:54:12,060 But she is not just there for moral support, 864 00:54:12,060 --> 00:54:14,460 she was helping to build these gliders. 865 00:54:14,460 --> 00:54:18,580 She was cutting and hand-stitching the canvas, 866 00:54:18,580 --> 00:54:23,620 and that means that Percy's successes were also hers. 867 00:54:27,020 --> 00:54:29,740 But Ella didn't just help to build these machines. 868 00:54:31,020 --> 00:54:33,780 She is also known to have flown them. 869 00:54:33,780 --> 00:54:36,460 And we can't be sure for certain, but it is likely 870 00:54:36,460 --> 00:54:42,900 that she was the first ever woman to pilot a heavier than air machine. 871 00:54:42,900 --> 00:54:46,220 With the success of the Hawk, it's time to attempt 872 00:54:46,220 --> 00:54:48,060 a motorised flying machine. 873 00:54:48,060 --> 00:54:52,700 So they build a triplane design complete with engine. 874 00:54:52,700 --> 00:54:54,580 And if this one worked, 875 00:54:54,580 --> 00:54:56,980 they would go down in history. 876 00:55:04,260 --> 00:55:07,820 In September 1899, Pilcher arrives here 877 00:55:07,820 --> 00:55:12,300 at Stamford Hall to show his triplane for the first time in front 878 00:55:12,300 --> 00:55:14,500 of a select audience. 879 00:55:14,500 --> 00:55:19,380 Working with engines is expensive and he needs investors. 880 00:55:20,740 --> 00:55:24,060 But just a few days before the big launch, 881 00:55:24,060 --> 00:55:26,940 and part of the engine has broken. 882 00:55:26,940 --> 00:55:30,140 His moment of triumph is slipping away. 883 00:55:33,100 --> 00:55:36,980 Anxious not to disappoint, Pilcher decides to demonstrate 884 00:55:36,980 --> 00:55:39,180 the Hawk instead. 885 00:55:39,180 --> 00:55:41,860 The weather is stormy and wet, 886 00:55:41,860 --> 00:55:43,900 and his first tries fail. 887 00:55:45,980 --> 00:55:49,940 Pilcher complains the glider is too heavy from the rain, 888 00:55:49,940 --> 00:55:54,860 but then on his third and final attempt he climbs to around 40 feet 889 00:55:54,860 --> 00:55:58,780 in the sky, and just as it looks as though it's going to be another 890 00:55:58,780 --> 00:56:02,860 awe-inspiring flight, disaster strikes. 891 00:56:07,260 --> 00:56:12,540 Witnesses see the tail section break, and the wings snap in half. 892 00:56:12,540 --> 00:56:15,580 There is nothing that Pilcher can do. 893 00:56:15,580 --> 00:56:17,980 The Hawk drops out of the sky 894 00:56:17,980 --> 00:56:21,180 and hits the ground with a sickening thud. 895 00:56:23,500 --> 00:56:25,900 Pilcher is taken back to the house, 896 00:56:25,900 --> 00:56:28,740 but never regains consciousness. 897 00:56:28,740 --> 00:56:34,100 Two days later, Britain's best hope for achieving powered flight dies, 898 00:56:34,100 --> 00:56:35,980 aged just 32. 899 00:56:39,100 --> 00:56:41,860 For the Victorians, the motorised flying machine 900 00:56:41,860 --> 00:56:43,260 isn't to be. 901 00:56:43,260 --> 00:56:46,860 The triplane that carried Pilcher's dreams of being the first to conquer 902 00:56:46,860 --> 00:56:49,260 the skies will never be flown. 903 00:56:50,700 --> 00:56:55,220 Pilcher's triplane remains this tantalising what-if. 904 00:56:55,220 --> 00:56:58,420 We'll never know for sure whether it could have flown that day, 905 00:56:58,420 --> 00:57:02,060 but even if it couldn't, he still would have had years 906 00:57:02,060 --> 00:57:05,340 to develop it before the Wright brothers came along. 907 00:57:07,500 --> 00:57:10,900 For me, the great tragedy is that Pilcher never knew 908 00:57:10,900 --> 00:57:14,220 he was part of a revolution in transport 909 00:57:14,220 --> 00:57:17,340 that would eventually allow people to travel around the world 910 00:57:17,340 --> 00:57:20,260 in a matter of hours. 911 00:57:20,260 --> 00:57:25,460 From X-rays to the humble bicycle, technology transformed Britain 912 00:57:25,460 --> 00:57:29,780 in the 1890s, dragging it into the modern age - 913 00:57:29,780 --> 00:57:33,820 but sometimes at great personal cost. 914 00:57:33,820 --> 00:57:36,660 Pilcher knew the risks that he was taking, 915 00:57:36,660 --> 00:57:39,060 but for him and his fellow pioneers, 916 00:57:39,060 --> 00:57:41,900 progress was worth it. 917 00:57:41,900 --> 00:57:45,260 They believed that the future would be shaped by science 918 00:57:45,260 --> 00:57:49,220 and technology, and that nothing was off-limits, 919 00:57:49,220 --> 00:57:52,700 even the most fantastical of dreams. 920 00:57:59,100 --> 00:58:03,660 Next time, Paul McGann sees how fears of moral degeneration 921 00:58:03,660 --> 00:58:08,460 and imperial decline rock late Victorian art and society. 922 00:58:09,940 --> 00:58:12,340 I mean, if you look across the bottom here you can see 923 00:58:12,340 --> 00:58:16,420 the candlesticks are all quite clearly indecent little penises. 924 00:58:16,420 --> 00:58:17,660 Well, I'm shocked. 925 00:58:17,660 --> 00:58:19,700 Think how shocked they were in the 1890s!