All language subtitles for Ancient.Engineering.S02E03.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-chr00t_track3_[eng]

- [Narrator] The world's
greatest structures,

pushed the boundaries
of engineering,

all fueled by a constant
desire to innovate.

- Without engineering,

there would be no modern world.

- [Narrator] Gigantic buildings,

complex infrastructure,
and ingenious inventions,

- Engineering is the key

that turns dreams into reality.

- [Narrator] Many of today's
incredible achievements

rely on breakthrough
technologies

first devised by
ancient engineers.

- It's astounding how
they achieved this.

- [Narrator] Early civilizations

built on an unimaginable scale

and with incredible precision.

- They raised a
bar for engineering

in a way that no one
thought possible.

- These are some of the
finest engineers in history.

- [Narrator] Redefining
the known laws of physics

and dreaming up the impossible,

they constructed
engineering wonders

from colossal stadiums
to mighty waterways

and complex machines,

all with the simplest of tools.

- You cannot imagine the skills

people would've needed
to build like this.

- [Narrator] By
unearthing the mysteries

left by these ancient engineers,

we can now decode their secrets.

- That so many of their
creations still survive

is testament to their
engineering prowess.

- [Narrator] And ultimately
reveal how they're genius

laid the foundations for
everything we build today.

(grand, triumphant
music playing)

(army screaming into attack)

From the earliest times,

human history has
been driven by the use

of a ranged weapons,

brilliant yet brutal
engineering achievements

behind the rise and fall of some

of the world's greatest
ancient civilizations.

- Human beings are

wonderful and
inventive and curious,

but they're also a violent
and nasty and greedy.

And there's a streak of human
nature that wants to compete

and competing leads to conflict

and conflict leads to weaponry.

- We're humans and it's
part of who we are.

It's embedded in our DNA.
We're pretty violent creatures.

And we always find new
ways of harming those

and taking the things that
we love; terrible, but true.

- [Narrator] Times of war

have witnessed
violence and suffering

on an unimaginable scale,

but also steered major advances

in science, technology,
and engineering.

- Weapons also act as an in
initiator for innovation.

They tend to advance
what is possible

in terms of technology,

which can then seep into
other areas of industry

and benefit mankind in
plenty of other ways.

- [Narrator] While the
very first ranged weapons

were used op close,

usually within a stone's throw,

the battle distance
has continued to grow,

as ancient engineers

developed more efficient
and destructive weaponry.

- Over the millennia,

humans have used engineering
and material science

to improve precision, power,

and mobility of
projectile weapons.

- It's an inescapable truth

that whoever has
the best weapon,

the most advanced weapon, has
a greater chance of winning.

- [Narrator] Today,

wars continue to be fought
on huge battlefields.

Across the sea, and in the air,

and despite the inescapable
death and destruction caused,

the need for new
and improved weapons

shows no sign of stopping.

- We're always improving weapons

and whichever way you look at
it, weapons is a big business.

There's a huge amount of
money pumped into defense.

- [Narrator] In 2020, the
global military expenditure

rose to almost $2 trillion,

with the USA recognized

as the world's largest
military spender,

investing more than $775 billion

in that year alone.

But none of this military
technology would've existed

without the very first tools,

more than two and a
half million years ago.

Long before Neanderthals or
modern humans roamed the earth,

an ancient species of human

began to pick up
items around them.

- Life would've been
astonishingly difficult

in the Stone Age, and
humans learned very quickly

that they wouldn't survive
with just their bare hands.

- [Narrator] By
splitting pebbles,

they created
primitive stone tools

marking the beginning
of the Stone Age,

that covered the greatest
portion of human history,

until around 3,300 BC.

- Tools are amazing inventions

because they give the population
an evolutionary advantage.

So it means that they can
outperform their rivals,

they can control more territory,

they can get access to
more resources, et cetera.

So the invention of
tools, when it happened,

was an absolutely
seminal moment,

as seminal as the
invention of fire.

- [Narrator] These early humans

gradually developed meat-rich
diets as scavengers,

before embracing the
hunter-gatherer lifestyle

2 million years ago,

relying on large
branches and heavy rocks

to bring down prey.

- From the moment at which
we are hunter-gatherers,

we're using sticks and stones
both to capture animals,

but also to gather crops.

- [Narrator] But
humans eventually

turned their attention to larger
and more dangerous animals

and that called for a new
piece in their arsenal.

By sharpening a
wooden pole at one end

with a rock or piece of bone,

they produced one of
the earliest weapons

devised by humans,
500,000 years ago:

the spear.

- Well, an early spear
is a straight stick,

full staff, a utilitarian tool,

which you can use for
a variety of things

for a stick with a sharp end,

that can be a weapon
for use for anything.

- [Narrator] Originally
used as a thrusting weapon

to keep the hunters
out of harm's way,

but it wasn't fool-proof.

- You tend to find on
the bones and skeletons

of very early humans,
huge physical injuries

because of the fact that
they put themselves at risk

by being so close to their
prey or their opponents,

'cause they would've
used the spear

to stick into something;
to stab something.

- [Narrator] Early humans
then began to throw the spear

to hunt at a greater distance.

- The spear is really genius

in its simplicity
of how it works.

So before ancient humans
will have understood

anything around aerodynamics,

they built these
incredible weapons

that were so sleek and slender

that they would
travel through the air

with very little air resistance

and hit a target very precisely.

- [Narrator] An effective weapon
for killing large animals,

such as mammoths and bison,

which were an essential
part of their diet.

- For really big game,
it's absolutely ideal

where multiple projectiles
can hit the animal

and bring down something
as big as a mammoth,

which we've actually seen
in the archeological record.

- [Narrator] And with
the help of fire,

charring was used to harden
and sharpen the spear tip.

- Charring actually changes

the chemical composition
of the wood at the point,

making it stronger,
also more brittle,

but the strength
of it is important

for being able to
go into the target.

- [Narrator] The flames fuse
the grains of the timber,

even tighter together,
resulting in a stronger,

more durable, piece of wood.

And that wasn't the only way
the spear was improved further.

Humans also realized
that a pointed stone

could be attached to
the end of a spear

increasing its sharpness,

and thus increasing
the damage done

when it reached the target.

- There's a real
lesson to learn here,

when we're talking about

all these various stages of
the evolution of weaponry,

and that is that we
should never, ever,

underestimate
peoples of the past.

- [Narrator] A simple but
successful hunting weapon:

light, lethal, and
relatively easy to construct.

But the distance
reached by a spear

was limited by the
strength of the thrower.

- How to extend the
range accurately

of the human beings using
their wits and their ingenuity

to give themselves
this advantage

over the other apex predators.

- [Narrator] Paleolithic
humans found a way

to throw further and with
more force than ever before

with an ingenious device
known as an atlatl.

- An atlatl is one of the
earliest ancient weapons

that is more than
just human power.

It was a curved piece of wood.

And at one end you would be
able to slot a spear into it

and you could essentially
stretch your arm up

and fling the spear forward

with much greater
force and acceleration

than just using your own arm.

- The atlatl a very
clever invention.

It creates another hinge,
almost like another elbow

and that extends the
length of your throwing arm

and that means you can throw
the spear much, much further.

- [Narrator] As the hunter
swings the atlatl forward,

similar to an
overhand tennis serve,

the force is concentrated

at the point where the
hooks connects to the spear.

Reaching speeds of
around 78 miles per hour,

spears can now be
projected up to 330 feet

with enough force to
kill a woolly mammoth.

- It took the human input
and basically magnified it.

By designing weapons
and using engineering,

you could start to
minimize the human energy,

the human endeavor part of it.

- What we are seeing
here, effectively,

is the very earliest
evidence of engineering.

Somebody invented the lever.

- [Narrator] The proper
use of the atlatl

made spear-assisted hunting

an efficient and
deadly operation.

- There's far more to an atlatl

than some people may
initially realize.

If it's too long,
it's inefficient.

If it's too short,
then you're not getting

all the power out of
it that you should do.

It's a case of making something,

many times fine-tuning it,

seeing what works and
trying to replicate that.

- [Narrator] One of humankind's
first mechanical inventions,

but over the millennia,

the species continued to
spread across the planet.

- Initially the weapons
are just used for hunting,

but of course, if you're
successful at hunting,

the population grows.

That will inevitably
lead to conflict

as people are competing
for resources.

- [Narrator] Numbers increased,

space became more limited,
and tensions grew.

The groups of people began
waging war against each other,

making use of the weapons

that had proven so
successful in hunting.

But they discovered
that a throwing spear

carried a decisive
risk in battle.

- Spears are good 'cause
they give you range.

You can throw them without
closing on the enemy

so you are safe as you throw it.

But of course, if you miss,

they can pick it up
and throw it back.

- [Narrator] Although
other ranged weapons

were invented throughout
ancient history,

the throwing spear remained
an important armament

for the Egyptians, Greeks
and other civilizations,

constantly improved
and arguably perfected

by one of history's most
legendary military forces.

The Romans: true masters
of war and weaponry.

- I would argue that
the Roman legionary

of any phase of their existence

was the elite warrior
of the ancient world.

- Rome's prowess through its
heavy infantry, its legion,

is their organized,
disciplined, standing army.

It's the best army
in the ancient world.

It is the foundation
of the Roman empire

and it stood the source
of their power and wealth.

- [Narrator] Hundreds of
thousands of Roman soldiers,

each equipped with carefully
engineered weapons of war,

including one piece that
marked the beginning

of a new chapter in
the history of spears.

- If you were to look at the
classic Roman legionnaire,

the weapon which most people
would physically recognize

is the pilum.

- The Roman pilum
is a throwing spear.

Spear carrying
infantry have a very,

very long history
in the Roman world.

But what the Romans do is
refine, both the equipment

and I think also
crucially the tactics.

- [Narrator] It was
the decisive weapon

for Imperial legions, used
in battles for centuries.

- You have a wooden shaft
and then you have a socket,

and in the socket
goes an iron tang,

and on the end of the tang
there's a barbed head.

Now the tank is quite
thin. That's important.

And also the socket's
got a lead weight.

- [Narrator] An unusual design

that was perfect
against Rome's enemies,

the barbarian hoards,

armed to the teeth and
carrying heavy shields.

And that's where
the pilum comes in.

- The heavy pilum disrupts
the opponents as they come in

because of this amazing
engineering example

from the world of weaponry.

- [Narrator] Ancient records
describe how the pilum

was able to punch through
their adversaries shields.

The broad conical
head was designed

to pierce through the wood

and with virtually no friction
against a narrow foreshaft,

it pushed straight through.

- Once that conical
spear tip punches through

it makes the shield useless
and you have to put it down,

or you can try and
pull the thing out,

but then the shaft bends.

It's designed to be
a single use weapon

that can't be returned

and it's gonna impede
the enemy's ability
to defend himself

at best, and at worst,

it's gonna go straight through
his armor and kill him.

- [Narrator] A
merciless master stroke

by the Roman weapon designers

that helped their empire
conquer the ancient world.

But keeping the entire
Roman army equipped

with a single-use pilum,

would have been a
daunting prospect.

- You take an ingot
of tempered iron

and you heat it and
beat it into shape,

it's quite a complicated
piece of forging.

Each soldier has at
least two of them.

There are 5,000
soldiers in a legion.

So you can imagine there would
be blacksmith and armorers

traveling with the
troops all the time,

making and repairing
these things.

- If you imagine the Roman
empire with all its legions

and all of them need equipping.

Now that's a vast
amount of equipment:

swords, pilums, et cetera.

So it's no known
example of a Roman army

ever going into
battle underequiped.

- [Narrator] Regardless of the
sophisticated manufacturing

of a single pilum,

and the sheer volume required
to keep the legion supplied,

the industrial complex of
the Roman arms industry

was up to the challenge.

Despite its ancient
history, forging remains

one of the most effective
ways to shape metals,

creating structural
components for all variety

of tools, machinery,
and weapons.

But modern engineers have
increased the efficiency

beyond the imagination
of a Roman blacksmith.

Today, giant mechanical
forging hammers are employed,

which use non-muscular power
as their source of energy.

- So essentially
this huge hammer

that under either
electrical or steam power,

is accelerated down, to crush
whatever is underneath it,

under huge pressure.

- [Narrator] Hitting hard
and hitting accurately.

- It is heavy engineering
at its most powerful.

You really do feel, the might
coming from these machines.

- [Narrator] Even a small
personal power hammer

can carry out the work

of two stout adults
with sledgehammers,

while the largest hits
with the force equivalent

to the weight of a blue whale,

compressing hot metal with ease.

(armies marching)

The Romans had
engineered the spear

into a formidable
piece of equipment,

but these weapons were thrown

a relatively short distance
of only a few dozen feet.

To extend the range and
impact of a projectile,

early humans had to devise a way

of increasing the force
with which it was propelled

while also being more
accurate than the atlatl

and constructed a weapon
more than 60,000 years ago,

that would change the landscape
of warfare for millennia:

the bow and arrow.

- Initially the bow and arrow

would've been used
as a hunting weapon

to give humans the food
that they needed to survive.

The materials are
apparently simple,

but actually the technology
behind it is quite complicated.

- [Narrator] Consisting
of a wooden stave,

flexible enough to bend
and curve with pressure

and held in tension by a string.

When an arrow is
then drawn back,

enough tension is
produced in the bow

to propel it forward
when released.

- When you stretch
the bow itself,

it puts an enormous amount
of tension into the materials

and that stores
potential energy.

And then when you let that go,

the tension is released,

that potential energy
turns into kinetic energy,

movement energy,

which fires the bow
at enormous speeds

and acceleration
towards the target.

- It's the first time

that we can actually
store kinetic energy

and it's waiting to be released

at a speed far, far faster

than we could actually
achieve with our own muscles.

- [Narrator] The bow and arrow
was the perfect hunting tool,

as the archer could aim with
slow and steady movements,

keeping them hidden from prey.

The invention of this
new stealth weapon

was a massive advance

in projecting a missile
towards the enemy

and eventually began
replacing the atlatl

over the millennia.

But this was only
the initial design.

- The ranged weapon
gives you an advantage,

not only in conflict
with other human beings,

but also in hunting.

But human ingenuity,
being what it is,

over time improvements
were made to the bows.

- [Narrator] By 1200 AD,

a much more efficient form
of bow made its appearance

known from its method
of construction,

as the composite bow,

a smaller and lighter weapon

that provided much
greater power.

- So here we have
another small step

in the evolution of weaponry.

The ranges are getting better.

The penetrating power
is getting better.

It gives a competitive advantage

in terms of warfare to whoever's
got this composite bow.

- [Narrator] The secret
behind its success,

a combination of
specially chosen materials

that form the bow itself.

- The amazing thing here
with the composite bow,

is it gives us a real snapshot

into the engineering ingenuity

of the human beings
who invented it.

So this is an incredible
engineering solution

showing real skill on
the part of the designer.

- Now the middle of the
bow is the neutral plane.

It's not in compression,
like the belly,

and it's not in
tension, like the back.

So it's just subject
to sheer forces,

so you need something
that's gonna withstand that.

- [Narrator] Craftsman
began with a piece of wood

that other materials
would be bound to.

Thin strips of
buffalo or cow horn

were added to the
inside of the bow

as it can store more energy
than wood in compression.

This was the engine of the
bow, which kept its shape

and acted as a powerful
spring while firing.

Animal sinew was then placed
on the back of the bow,

which stretches
farther than wood

and therefore stores more power.

- The sinews must
be pulverized down

to make thin fibers,
that's laid on with a glue,

usually an animal glue.

And the finest glue that
you can use is isinglass,

which is made of the swim
bladders of sturgeons.

It's quite waterproof.

So you can think of that

as a very early
version of fiberglass.

- Buffalo horn stores
far more energy

than timber when
it's compressed,

and animal sinew
stores far more energy

than timber when it's stretched.

So the combination of the two

made that bow so
much more powerful.

- [Narrator] Making
a composite bow

was a highly
developed technology,

but also an incredibly expensive
and time-consuming process.

The new smaller bows
could fire lighter arrows

up to 600 feet, with
the advantage of

reaching only from the head of
the archer down to his waist,

a ranged weapon with
a potential to become

even more lethal
on the battlefield.

- The amount that you can
strain sinew and cow horn

is far in excess of what
you can strain wood.

So you can shrink
the design right down

to enable you to be able to use
in a lot more circumstances.

- A crucial aspect of the
design of the composite bow

was that it was quite short in
comparison to previous bows.

And that meant that you
could use it on horseback.

- [Narrator] It's been
claimed that horses

were first used to pull
wagons or chariots in battle

as far back as 2,500 BC.

Centuries later,
warriors themselves

then began to
fight on horseback,

armed with any number
of melee weapons,

but the invention of the
composite bow allowed for an

entirely new breed of warrior:

mounted archers.

- It's a different
way of fighting

combining cavalry
and missile troops

so they're attacking you
when they're coming forward,

they're attacking you
when you are retreating.

Infantry would really
struggle against that.

They're not even gonna
get close to them.

- [Narrator] Its greatest
efficiency was seen in Mongolia.

- The mounted archer was the
key to Genghis Kahn's success.

He seized one of the greatest
empires in all of history

by using armies of
mounted archers.

And those archers

could move with great
speed across the plains.

- Genghis Khan, the greatest
warrior of the Mongols,

you can really envisage him,
riding across the Asian step.

Riding across Europe,
fighting his opponents,

using his bow and
arrow from his saddle

as though it was
his second nature.

- [Narrator] A masterful
piece of military engineering,

more compact and more
powerful than previous bows

that helped establish

one of the largest
empires in the world.

While Genghis Kahn
was conquering,

the bow and arrow was being
engineered further in Europe

into one of its most recognized

and arguably most deadly forms:

the longbow.

- The longbow is a very
long, body-sized, self bow.

And because it's so large,

it had incredible penetrative
power in terms of the arrows

and also range.

- [Narrator] And the material
used to construct the longbow

was just as important
as its size.

- The beauty of the
longbow is its simplicity.

It's made from a
single piece of wood

so its incredibly robust

and actually quite
quick to produce.

- The really clever
engineering feat

with the longbow,

is how the wood was
actually removed

from the yew tree it came from,

because you have the
heartwood on the one side,

but also the sapwood as well,

so the harder wood
and the softer wood.

So effectively, this is
a natural composite bow.

- [Narrator] The
different qualities

of the two types of wood
compliment each other,

combining tension
and compression.

- The combination of those

two types of wood meant that
it was far more powerful

than any bow than had
ever been invented before.

- [Narrator] With a
maximum effective range

of over 1000 feet,

a fully trained longbowman
could be devastating,

firing an arrow
every five seconds.

But there was a downside.

- The problem with the longbow

is that they could only be made

out of one particular
type of wood.

And because of that,
it almost wiped out

the entire population
of yew trees in Europe.

- [Narrator] Armed with nothing
more than axes and saws,

the medieval lumberjacks
almost eliminated

one of the world's longest
living tree species.

Today, crude hand tools

have been replaced
by powerful machinery

as engineers continue
to develop new ways

to gather materials

in an effort to meet the
growing global demand.

And the timber industry
is no exception.

- In the days when
people needed to use wood

for things like weapons,

they would've had to have
taken almost a day probably,

to chop down one of
these enormous trees,

to fell it, to de-limb it,

and to chop it to
the size they needed.

- [Narrator] What
used to require

a small army of lumberjacks
with saws and axes

is now achieved with a
single machine and operator:

timber harvesters.

Self-propelled cutting machines

each with an extendable
arm and cutting head

that allow them to fell, strip,

and chop trees to exact
lengths as if they were twigs.

- The speeds at which
these machines can work

is out of this world.

They can chop down
600 trees a day.

That's over 200,000
trees a year.

- [Narrator] Incredibly
efficient machinery

fueled by the needs
of the modern world.

Thanks to the natural resources

the ancients had
at their disposal,

the bow and arrow was engineered

into the dominant ranged weapon

for hundreds of years
of human history.

But there was a downside.

- Like any weapon, a
highly physical activity

will actually sap the
soldier over time.

This is gonna be really draining

over the course of a battle.

- Even with the best
training in the world,

you can only use
a bow for so long

before you become
physically tired

and your ability to use
it effectively diminishes.

- [Narrator] However,

several hundred years earlier
in the sixth century BC,

an engineering
innovation was made

in one of the world's
oldest civilizations.

The Chinese had devised a new
and improved ranged weapon.

One that would put far
less strain on the archer:

the crossbow.

- The crossbow was an
absolute game changer

in this period of
ranged weapons designed.

You could fire a bolt
with immense speed

and huge destructive power with
very little training indeed.

- A crossbow gives
you many advantages

over a traditional hand bow.

Once you've cocked the weapon,

it's actually preloaded

and then you can shoot when
that's convenient to you.

You're aiming it more in the
way that you would aim a rifle.

- [Narrator] The bow was fixed

crosswise on a wooden frame

with grooves to
guide the projectile.

The string was pulled
back and held in position

by a latch attached to
a trigger mechanism.

- Now the crossbow
is a huge jump

in weapon design
and engineering.

So suddenly, with
the bolt in place,

we can aim it and take our time

because we are not

physically holding the
string with our own muscles,

it's on the catch.

And when we're ready,

we can then release it
through the trigger.

- [Narrator] This
trigger mechanism

could be conceived as

the ancestor of the trigger
from a modern rifle.

- The trigger
mechanism of a crossbow

was very difficult
to manufacture

and it involved
incredibly detailed

and very accurate casting.

There were several moving parts
and very intricate pieces.

They all had to be
put together perfectly

or that simply wouldn't work.

- [Narrator] Crossbows
could be held ready armed

for long periods without
tiring the archer

and so taking aim became easier.

- You can create that tension

to hold the potential
energy there

while you're
finding your target.

Essentially just use
a trigger to release

when you are ready and you've
got the target in the sight.

It's much easier
for humans to use.

- [Narrator] When
released, the crossbow bolt

could fly over 800
feet towards the enemy,

tearing through armor,
flesh, and bone.

- I have held a loaded crossbow

and you can feel the power
of the weapon in your hands.

Believe me, you would not
want to be in the line of fire

of one of these things.

- This weapon created a more
detached way of killing.

You no longer had to look
your enemy in the eye.

- [Narrator] Huge
destructive power,

unleashed by simply
squeezing a trigger.

There are obvious heirs

of the propulsion
mechanism of the crossbow,

including the modern
rifle or revolver,

but also a surprising one,
on a much grander scale.

Aircraft carriers are one
of the largest examples

of naval force in the world.

- These aircraft
carriers are huge;

think huge floating cities,

and they have the
potential for plane to land

and to take off on them.

Absolutely extraordinary.

- Despite the enormous size
of these aircraft carriers,

it's still only

a fraction of the length
of a runway on land.

When you've got these aircraft

that need to reach
their takeoff speed,

they've got to do that
over a much shorter length.

- [Narrator] Runways
of around 300 feet

in the middle of the ocean,

less than 3% of the
total distance seen

at London Heathrow
airport's Northern runway.

- To get these aircraft
to the takeoff speeds

they need over
such a short space

means they need an additional
device to help them.

And this is the catapult

that's on board the
aircraft carriers.

- [Narrator] A small
shuttle on the flight deck

that connects to the aircraft,

capable of accelerating from
zero to over 170 miles per hour

in less than two
and a half seconds.

- This catapult system doesn't
look like much above deck,

but underneath you've
got the engineering magic

that lets this aircraft take
off at such high speeds.

- [Narrator] A catapult
consists of two pistons

that each sit inside a long
cylinder underneath the deck.

The pistons, attached
to the small shuttle,

which will pull the
aircraft at launch.

High pressure steam is
collected in large tanks

until the desired
pressure is reached

and the catapult is
then ready to fire.

When the steam is released,

the pistons act like bullets,

as the pressure rockets the
shuttle and plane forward.

- That pressure forces
the plane to take off

with this kind of
catapult effect

without actually having the
excessive length of runway

that we use more traditionally.

- [Narrator] The
aircraft catapult

provides the necessary force

to sling a 45,000
pound plane forward

to generate the necessary
lift for takeoff.

Chinese military innovators

were centuries ahead of
the rest of the world,

bringing inventions
into existence

that redefined engineering.

- Ancient Chinese
military heritage

is often at the root

of many innovations
that we use in the West.

- It's very easy to forget

that what was going on in
China a thousand years ago

was phenomenal.

Some of the innovations we
see coming out of China,

are really quite remarkable.

- [Narrator] By the
ninth century AD,

China's engineers
and blacksmiths

were becoming experts at
creating deadly weapons,

and we're on the verge of
a truly volatile invention.

- The Chinese were actually
after the secret of eternal life

and they were messing around
with potions and ingredients.

Ironically, it led to the
invention of something

which has taken more lives

than perhaps anything else
in the history of the world.

- [Narrator] Gunpowder:
a violent explosive

produced by mixing saltpeter,
sulfur, and charcoal.

- These three items by
themselves, innocuous,

not particularly harmful,

but combined together
create a compound

that is explosive in its nature.

- They've got lots
of gas released

in a very short space of time,

which creates a lot
of explosive power.

- [Narrator] Originally used

to produce fireworks
and rockets,

it didn't take long before

its enormous potential was
recognized by the military.

- Gunpowder is a huge
leap in technology

because you're not storing
kinetic energy anymore

in the way that you
were with a crossbow

or even the earliest
Stone Age bow,

you've now got chemical energy,

and the sky's the limit
with something like that.

- [Narrator] Gunpowder
would eventually become

the most effective ingredient
for weapons of war.

Used to create explosives,
such as bombs and grenades,

eventually leading to the
most deadly weapon of all

in the 20th century:

the nuclear bomb.

Yet almost a thousand
years earlier,

the Chinese engineers
were only just beginning

to realize gunpowder's
potential on the battlefield.

If inserted inside a
narrow tube or cylinder,

gunpowder created
enough explosive force

to shoot a projectile
out at great speed.

- Suddenly you could
project something

towards an enemy much further,
and with far more power

than ever before.

It was terrifying.

No one had ever seen anything
like this ever before.

- [Narrator] While
these early firearms

were a frightening new
weapon on the battlefield,

they were difficult to operate

and nowhere near
effective enough

to replace the already
established ranged weapons

used by their enemies.

To truly harness
gunpowder's extreme power,

China's engineers
had to think bigger.

Over the next centuries,

the Chinese somehow managed

to continue to
monopolize gunpowder,
until the 13th century.

In that time, the same
principle used in the early guns

was applied to a
new form of weaponry

cast metal weapons,

large enough to
batter down buildings

as well as people:

cannons.

- The Chinese were
always very ambitious

with their inventions,

and they were
obsessed with scale,

and they applied
this to gunpowder

and that's how they
invented the cannon.

It was simply enlarged versions
of the small hand cannons.

- What we see being engineered
are huge metal cannons.

These things are pretty
much indestructible

and they can be used
to do much more damage.

- [Narrator] By lighting a fuse,

the flame would be carried
into the breach of the cannon.

Inside, the packed
gunpowder burned rapidly,

producing expanding hot gases

that applied huge amounts of
pressure on the projectile.

Instead of arrows,

enemies now had to dodge

gigantic cannon balls
hurdling towards them.

Eventually, the
Chinese could no longer

keep the science of
gunpowder a secret

as it was passed along the
ancient silk trade route

to Europe and the Islamic world

where it would rain havoc

on many battlefields
of the middle ages.

- When the Europeans
heard about gunpowder,

they decided to apply their
own scientific genius to it.

They wanted to improve it.

- [Narrator] Europeans
refined the mix of gun powder,

maximizing its
explosive potential.

- We see quite advanced
milling technology

being used to grind down all
of those constituent parts,

the saltpeter, the
sulfur, and the charcoal,

into a really fine powder.

You introduce
water into that mix

and what you get is
a really fine paste

and you can take particles,
almost microscopic scale,

and then mix them together.

And it's that
refinement in the mix

makes a powder that is
that much more potent.

- What matters
most with gunpowder

is the uniformity of the
powder that you produced.

And that's what the
Europeans changed.

As a result, they developed
a version of gunpowder,

which was a far
more powerful mix.

- [Narrator] But a more
volatile gun powder

called for better
engineered cannons.

Many designs involved
long rods of wrought iron

that were heated,

aligned around a wooden
core, and beaten into shape

Before a white hot iron
hoop slotted over the form.

These would hold the
rods firmly in place

as they cooled and
shrank creating the
barrel of the cannon.

- That's what creates your
early medieval cannons, okay?

But these things are
pretty dangerous.

And I can't imagine that
particularly accurate.

- [Narrator] The
fierce heat and force

generated by each explosion

meant that the cannons were
extremely temperamental.

(Canon firing)

They needed a new design.

The Europeans were years behind
the Chinese at this time,

but they were highly
accomplished in one technology:

bell casting.

- Europeans had quite
a lot of experience

working with bronze

and there's actually huge
deposits of tin and copper

here on British Isles.

So the logical conclusion was
to take that method of casting

and to use it to
cast large cannon.

- [Narrator] While early Chinese
hand cannons and bombards

were also made from bronze,

these were a far larger and
destructive form of cannon

and the assembled
breach-loading designs

made of a wrought iron,
were seen as inferior

to the new muzzle-loading
cannons cast of bronze,

an expensive alternative

but far more powerful
and safer to use.

Since it's creation
around 850 AD

gunpowder formed the basis

for almost every
weapon used in war

from that point on,

as bows and catapults
were replaced,

with rifles and cannons

responsible for the
deaths of tens of millions

over the centuries.

Gunpowder helped bring an end
to the medieval ages in Europe

and played one of
its most significant
and destructive roles

during the age of exploration
and colonial expansion.

- Cannons were used
in siege warfare

against towns and
against castles,

but perhaps most importantly,

they were mounted onboard
huge sailing ships,

which could sail right
across the world.

- [Narrator] Bold technology

had been used in
warfare since antiquity,

but by combining sailing
ships with cannons,

the Europeans had
engineered a super weapon

that other cultures
had no defense against.

- It's one thing sailing
around the world with ships

trading and exchanging,

but the moment you arm
those boats with cannons

is the moment at which
you can use force

to get what you want from the
four corners of the planet.

And that's exactly what happens.

- [Narrator] With rows of
cannons on their ships,

the Europeans swept
across the world's oceans,

expanding their trade
networks and empires

while exploiting the
natural resources

and indigenous peoples
that they encountered.

By 1900, the vast
majority of countries

were either Western themselves
or under European control

with gunpowder acting
as a key driving force.

Cannons were the pioneers

of a new class of
heavy ranged weapons

built to launch munitions

far beyond the range and
power of infantry firearms:

(artillery firing)

artillery.

- Artillery is one of
the earliest remote
forms of weaponry.

Instead of being
within throwing range

or striking range
of the opposition,

you're using engineered
solutions to throw

projectiles and all sorts of
things at your opposition.

- [Narrator] Since the
introduction of cannons

centuries ago, artillery
has played a decisive role

in numerous major battles,

responsible for 60% of
the battlefield casualties

in World War I alone.

- From the World Wars, artillery
has always been critical.

It's always been a
way to show our power,

show our might on
the battlefield.

- [Narrator] Military
engineers continue to design

ultra long range
artillery systems with
lethal capabilities,

well beyond the limits of
anything previously achieved in

the history of warfare.

The US Army's standard
155 millimeter Howitzer

has a range of up to 14 miles,

with technological advances
being made to the projectile

expected to quadruple
that distance.

- There's huge amounts of might

behind this engineering that
really takes you a step forward

in the destruction
that you can cause.

- It's always been about

increased precision
and increased power.

It's the ability for
a conflict to be over

as quickly and as
efficiently as possible.

- [Narrator] A world
of weapons and warfare

capable of creating a
level of destruction

unimaginable to our ancestors.

The evolution of a ranged weapon

enabled the ancients to
expand, explore, and conquer.

Engineering innovations
that drove human history

while leaving harm and
suffering in their wake.

Whether for good or for bad,

these inventions are
part of the human journey

traced back to the
earliest ancient engineers.

(triumphant music playing)