1 00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:11,000 At the beginning of the 19th century, 2 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:12,720 in a cellar in Mayfair, 3 00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:17,040 the most famous scientist of the moment, Humphry Davy, 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:21,000 built a piece of equipment electricity out of the ordinary. 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,600 Measuring 4 meters wide and 8 meters long 6 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:27,120 and containing smelly stacks of acid and metal, 7 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:30,560 was designed to generate more electricity 8 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:33,200 than was possible before. 9 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:36,040 In fact, it was the biggest one battery 10 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:38,080 from all over the world. 11 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:41,560 With her help, Davy was about to launch us 12 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:43,040 in a new era. 13 00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:00,800 That moment would be at o conference in the Royal Institute, 14 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,800 in front of hundreds of London's elite. 15 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:07,560 Impatient, they got busy the places 16 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:12,160 hoping to attend a the new miracle of electricity 17 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:17,080 But what they were going to see in that the evening will be something truly unique 18 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:20,280 Something that will retain all the rest lives. 19 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:23,640 Using only two rods simple carbon, 20 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:29,080 Humphry Davy followed unlock the true potential of electricity 21 00:01:35,960 --> 00:01:39,480 Electricity is one of those more spectacular natural phenomena, 22 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:43,800 and the strongest manifestation which we see 23 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:45,000 it's the lightning. 24 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:52,360 This is the story of how I dreamed of controlling 25 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:54,440 this force of nature 26 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,800 and how, in the end, we became her masters. 27 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:02,120 It's a story that stretches for 300 years 28 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:05,840 and contains leaps of imagination and extraordinary experiments. 29 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:11,280 Tens of thousands of volts they pierced his body 30 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:13,760 and they passed through the end of a lamp he was holding. 31 00:02:14,920 --> 00:02:17,920 It's a story of geniuses nonconformists 32 00:02:17,920 --> 00:02:21,240 who used electricity to light up our cities, 33 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:24,680 to communicate across the seas and through the air 34 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:28,800 to create a modern industry and offer us a digital revolution. 35 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:37,200 But in this film we will present the story of the first scientists 36 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:41,760 which began to unravel the mysteries of electricity. 37 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:44,080 It's as if it were something alive inside. 38 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:47,920 They studied the connection mysterious with life, 39 00:02:47,920 --> 00:02:51,160 they created bizarre instruments and strong to generate it 40 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:54,160 and they tamed even the lightning. 41 00:02:55,960 --> 00:03:01,120 These were the people who they laid the foundations of the modern world. 42 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:04,440 It all started with a spark. 43 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:24,120 Imaginative our world without electricity. 44 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:27,400 It would be dark 45 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:29,760 cold and silent. 46 00:03:30,920 --> 00:03:35,160 In many ways they would be similar with the beginning of the 18th century, 47 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:38,160 where our story begins. 48 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:46,040 This is the Royal Society of London. 49 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:51,280 In the early 1700s, after years spent in the wild, 50 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:54,240 Isaac Newton succeeded finally to control it 51 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:57,920 after the death of his rival Robert Hooke. 52 00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:03,560 Newton brought his own people in key positions 53 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:06,160 to support his new position. 54 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:11,440 The new leader of the demonstrations was Francis Hauksbee, 35 years old. 55 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:16,720 Notes from the Royal Society of 1705 56 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:19,080 shows us how hard Hauksbee is trying 57 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:22,240 to impose his personality in the weekly meetings, 58 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:26,680 producing experiments more and more more spectacular, to impress their bosses. 59 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:35,000 In November, he did this experiment: 60 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,640 a rotating glass sphere. 61 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:42,280 He managed to get all the air out of the interior using a new machine - 62 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:44,280 air pump. 63 00:04:44,280 --> 00:04:49,120 On the machine, a handle allowed it to spin the sphere. 64 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:56,160 Row by row the candles in the room were extinguished 65 00:04:56,160 --> 00:05:00,080 and Francis put his hand on the sphere. 66 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:05,160 The audience was going to see something spectacular. 67 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:15,080 'Inside the glass sphere, 68 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:18,280 a strange light began to form 69 00:05:18,280 --> 00:05:21,080 'dancing around the hand. 70 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:23,320 'A light on which no one had seen her before.' 71 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:27,760 It's fantastic. 72 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:30,400 You see a blue glow, which outline 73 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:34,200 the shape of my hands but then it arches around the globe. 74 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:36,520 It's like how there would be something alive inside. 75 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:43,960 It is difficult to understand 76 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:47,960 why this blue light it means so much 77 00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:50,440 but we must remember as at that time 78 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:55,080 such natural phenomena they could only be the work of a deity. 79 00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:59,680 There was still a time when, even in Isaac Newton's theory, 80 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:05,160 God was constantly intervening in the things of the world. 81 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:07,360 It made sense to many people 82 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:11,640 to interpret natural phenomena as divine acts. 83 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:16,680 So, when a mere mortal interfere with God's work, 84 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:20,000 was beyond the power of rational understanding. 85 00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:25,400 Hauksbee never realized the meaning of the experiment. 86 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:27,440 Lost interest in shining sphere 87 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:29,960 and spent the last years of his life 88 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:32,960 building more spectacular experiments 89 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:35,760 for Isaac Newton to can test theories. 90 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:39,240 He didn't realize that he started without wanting to 91 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:41,120 an electrical revolution. 92 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:51,680 Before Hauksbee, electricity it was just a curiosity. 93 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:55,920 The ancient Greeks rubbed amber, which they called electron, 94 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:57,800 to get small shocks. 95 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:00,960 Even Queen Elizabeth I was amazed 96 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:05,240 to the capacity of static electricity to raise feathers. 97 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:09,840 But now, Hauksbee's car 98 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:13,680 could generate electricity when turning a crank, 99 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:15,880 and it was visible. 100 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:21,440 Perhaps more importantly, his invention coincided 101 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:25,320 with the emergence of a new movement in Europe 102 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:28,040 called Enlightenment. 103 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:31,840 Enlightenment intellectuals used reason to question the world 104 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:35,280 and we have left from them radical politics, 105 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:37,680 iconoclastic art 106 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:41,080 and natural philosophy - or science. 107 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:48,600 But ironically, Hauksbee's new car 108 00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:52,760 it was not received positively by most intellectuals. 109 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:56,640 But on the contrary it was embraced by scammers and magicians. 110 00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:00,280 Those who had an interest in electricity 111 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:02,680 they called themselves electricians. 112 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:12,240 A story tells us about a dinner attended by an Austrian count. 113 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:15,360 The electrician put some feathers on the table 114 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:19,960 and electrostatically charged it wand with a silk handkerchief. 115 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:23,720 He surprised his guests by lifting feathers 116 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:25,280 with the wand. 117 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:29,760 Then he loaded himself 118 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:32,840 using one of his cars Hauksbee. 119 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:39,280 That's how he gave electric shocks to the guests, probably to their delight. 120 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:42,640 But for the main trick, 121 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:45,840 he was pouring a glass of brandy in the center of the table 122 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:47,240 it loads again 123 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:50,080 and set it on fire with a spark which started from the tip of the finger. 124 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:57,720 There was also a trick called electric blessing, 125 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:01,280 in which the victim sits on an isolated chair 126 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:05,000 and above the head there is a large metallic crown 127 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:07,800 which does not come into contact with the head. 128 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:11,520 Then, if the crown is electrified, 129 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:15,240 an electric discharge is obtained around the crown 130 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:17,320 that looks like an aura, 131 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:20,960 and hence the name of the electrical blessing. 132 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:27,560 As England and the rest Europeans went crazy for electricity, 133 00:09:27,560 --> 00:09:30,200 presentations were bigger. 134 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:32,560 The more curious electricians 135 00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:35,640 they started asking questions deep, 136 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:39,080 not only as they can make the shows bigger and better, 137 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:42,880 but also how we can control this amazing power? 138 00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:46,800 And for some, can he do it? this electric fire 139 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:49,120 more than being a show? 140 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:03,120 One of the first successes it wouldn't have happened 141 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:05,480 if it hadn't been a terrible accident. 142 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:12,440 This is Charterhouse, from central London. 143 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:16,240 In the last 400 years, it was a charity house 144 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:19,000 for orphans and the elderly. 145 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:24,280 And sometime in the 1720s, a also became the home of a Stephen Gray. 146 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:32,880 Stephen Gray was a bleacher of successful Canterbury silks. 147 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:36,440 He was used to seeing sparks electricity jumping off the silk 148 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:39,360 and they fascinated him. 149 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:43,520 Unfortunately, a terrible accident ended his career 150 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:45,800 and left him poor. 151 00:10:45,800 --> 00:10:49,000 But he was offered a new one life at Charterhouse 152 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:53,920 and so his time has come do your own electrical experiments. 153 00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:04,640 Here, at Charterhouse, maybe in this one room - Great Hall, 154 00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:07,960 Stephen Gray built a wooden frame 155 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:13,520 and tied to the upper beam two pendulums using a silk rope. 156 00:11:14,560 --> 00:11:18,080 He also had a car like this, a Hauksbee car 157 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:20,640 for the generation of static electricity. 158 00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:25,760 Now, having an audience bigger, 159 00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:29,080 asked an orphan who he lived in Charterhouse 160 00:11:29,080 --> 00:11:31,160 to lie on top of them two swings. 161 00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:37,360 Gray put sheets of gold in front of him. 162 00:11:49,680 --> 00:11:52,840 Then it generated electricity 163 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:55,720 and loaded the boy through a rod. 164 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:17,520 Gold leaves, even feathers they jumped on the boy's fingers. 165 00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:20,600 Some members of the audience were saying that they also saw sparks 166 00:12:20,600 --> 00:12:24,000 which came out through the tips of the fingers. A real show. 167 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:32,840 But for the curious mind of Stephen Gray, 168 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:35,480 this translated into something else - 169 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:37,720 electricity could move, 170 00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:42,520 from the car, into the boy's body, through his hands. 171 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:47,160 But the silk rope managed to stop it. 172 00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:51,560 It means that the mysterious electric fluid 173 00:12:51,560 --> 00:12:53,880 could flow through some things... 174 00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:57,160 ... but not through others. 175 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:10,320 This pushed Gray to share the world in two types of substances. 176 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:14,320 He called them insulators and conductors. 177 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:17,080 The insulators held the load electricity inside them 178 00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:21,720 and they wouldn't let her move, like silk or hair, 179 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:23,560 glass or resin. 180 00:13:23,560 --> 00:13:27,440 And the conductors allowed it electricity to flow through them, 181 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,280 like the boy or the metals. 182 00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:35,040 It's a difference that is crucial to this day. 183 00:13:38,560 --> 00:13:41,880 Think about these electric pylons. 184 00:13:43,120 --> 00:13:47,000 It works on the same principle deduced by Gray 185 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:49,280 almost 300 years ago. 186 00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:54,560 Wires are conductors. 187 00:13:54,560 --> 00:13:56,920 Glass and ceramic objects 188 00:13:56,920 --> 00:14:01,040 between the wire and the metal from the pillar are insulators 189 00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:03,920 and stop the passage electricity from the wires 190 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:06,640 in the pillar and after in the ground. 191 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:14,560 They are like silk ropes from Gray's experiments. 192 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:20,280 In 1730, 193 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:24,400 Gray's experiment would have amazed all who saw him, 194 00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:28,120 but it had one frustrating shortcoming. 195 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:35,520 Try as he might, Gray didn't could retain the electricity it generated. 196 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:40,240 Salt from the machine in the boy's body and quickly disappears. 197 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:42,560 The next step in the story is 198 00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:45,960 when I learned how to store electricity. 199 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,240 But this does not take place in great britain, 200 00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:50,680 but across the English Channel in continental Europe. 201 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:09,000 Across the channel, the electricians they were equally concerned 202 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:13,800 like their British counterparts and an electricity research center 203 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:16,200 it was here, in Leiden, Holland. 204 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:22,120 Here a teacher came with an invention 205 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:26,400 which many consider the most important of the 18th century, 206 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:30,320 an invention, which in one form or another can be found 207 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:33,920 in almost any equipment electric today. 208 00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:38,440 That teacher was Pieter van Musschenbroek. 209 00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:40,640 Unlike Hauksbee and Gray, 210 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:43,840 Musschenbroek was born in academic circles. 211 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:48,760 But ironically, his discovery 212 00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:51,920 it didn't happen like that following a rigorous science, 213 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:54,880 but as a result of a human error. 214 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:03,440 He tries to find a possibility to store electric charge, 215 00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:07,160 to be ready for experiments. You can almost hear them 216 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:10,920 ideas as they go try to understand. 217 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:16,640 If electricity is a fluid flowing, a bit like water, 218 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:22,000 then maybe you can store it in the same way as you store water. 219 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:26,680 So Musschenbroek he returned to the laboratory 220 00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:30,600 to try to do a device to store electricity. 221 00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:35,480 Musschenbroek tried to think literary. 222 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:39,320 He took a glass jar and poured water into it. 223 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:46,760 He put inside a piece of wire... 224 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:52,640 ... which was connected at one end to a Hauksbee car. 225 00:16:54,120 --> 00:17:00,040 'Then he put the jar on an insulator to keep the pregnancy in the jar' 226 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:05,040 Then he tried to pour electricity in a jar 227 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:08,000 produced by the machine, by wire 228 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:10,240 through the water. 229 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:16,560 'But whatever he tries, the pregnancy it didn't stay in the jar' 230 00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:20,520 "Then, one day, by chance" 231 00:17:20,520 --> 00:17:24,520 he forgot to put the jar on insulator, 232 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:28,480 'but he loaded it while holding it in his hand.' 233 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:37,160 Finally, holding the jar with one hand 234 00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:39,320 he touched her tip with the other 235 00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:42,240 and received such a strong electric shock, 236 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:44,880 that he was almost thrown to the ground. 237 00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:48,840 It said, "It's an experiment new and terrible 238 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:53,400 "which I do not advise you to do. Neither did I, who felt it 239 00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:56,440 "and I survived with God willing, I won't repeat it 240 00:17:56,440 --> 00:17:58,960 not even if the kingdom of France asks me to." 241 00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:02,400 So I will take his advice, I won't touch the top, 242 00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:06,040 and instead I will see if I can make it spark. 243 00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:15,720 The power of electricity which came out of the jar 244 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:18,280 it was bigger than what had been seen before. 245 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:22,320 And surprisingly, 246 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:27,320 the jar could store electricity price for whole hours, or even days. 247 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:35,560 So, in honor of the city where Musschenbroek made the discovery, 248 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:38,120 they called it the Leiden jar. 249 00:18:40,120 --> 00:18:44,000 And his fame did around the world. 250 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,320 And very quickly, from 1745 throughout the 1740s, 251 00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:52,720 the news about the Leiden jar criss-cross the world. 252 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:55,800 They spread from Japan to East Asia 253 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:59,240 to Philadelphia in the east of America. 254 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:06,280 He became one of the first scientific articles from the world. 255 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:14,160 But although the Leiden jar became a global electrical phenomenon, 256 00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:17,360 no one had a clue how it works 257 00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:20,440 You have a jar of electrical fluid, 258 00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:24,640 and it seems that you have a bigger shock from the jar 259 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:29,480 if you allow the electric fluid to drain into the ground. 260 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:33,960 Why is the shock bigger? if the jar has leaks? 261 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:38,240 Why isn't the shock bigger if you make sure that all the electric fluid 262 00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:39,720 does it stay in the jar? 263 00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:43,080 That was the way the philosophers 18th century electricians 264 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:45,080 they saw this challenge. 265 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:54,560 Electricity was, without a doubt, a fantastic power. 266 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:56,880 It could cause shocks and sparks. 267 00:19:56,880 --> 00:19:59,560 Now it could be stored and handled. 268 00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:03,240 However, what was electricity, how it works 269 00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:04,800 and why he was doing all these things 270 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:09,440 it was a total mystery. 271 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:25,320 in 10 years a new discovery was about to appear 272 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:28,120 from an unexpected place 273 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:31,840 from a politician who was in the philosophical struggle 274 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:34,760 with the London specialists. 275 00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:38,600 And, even more shocking for british electrical elite, 276 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:42,320 this man came from the colonies. 277 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:43,920 An American. 278 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,360 This painting by Benjamin Franklin 279 00:20:49,360 --> 00:20:51,880 is exhibited here at Royal Society of London. 280 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:57,960 Franklin was an avid supporter of American emancipation 281 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:00,800 and considered the research scientific rational 282 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:03,120 especially electricity 283 00:21:03,120 --> 00:21:06,800 as a way of banishing a of ignorance, of false idols 284 00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:13,080 and finally a his elitist masters. 285 00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:19,000 And this was mixed with an idea democratic equality 286 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,360 which Franklin shared with his allies, 287 00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:25,000 which constituted a phenomenon open to everyone. 288 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:28,600 Look at something elite he doesn't really understand 289 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:31,560 and we could to understand him. 290 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:34,720 Look at something elite can't really control it 291 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:37,280 but we might be able to control it. 292 00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:42,560 And look at something you're holding of the field of supersity, 293 00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:45,160 and no, in a rational and equal way 294 00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:48,680 democratic intellectuals, 295 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:51,960 we will be able to reach a conclusion 296 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:56,000 without pretending that we are slaves of magic and mystery. 297 00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:01,200 So Franklin decided to use the power of reason 298 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:03,360 to rationally explain what many 299 00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:05,880 considered a magical phenomenon. 300 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:07,120 The lightning. 301 00:22:07,120 --> 00:22:11,760 THUNDER IS HEARD 302 00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:15,800 This is probably one of the the most famous scientific images 303 00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:17,280 of the 18th century. 304 00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:20,800 It shows Benjamin Franklin, the heroic scientist, 305 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:23,560 flying a kite in a storm, 306 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,160 proving that lightning it is electrical in nature. 307 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:31,200 But although Franklin proposed this experiment 308 00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:33,640 he certainly didn't do it. 309 00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:39,920 It's very likely as his most important experiment 310 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:43,600 was one he proposed, but he did not fulfill it. 311 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:47,400 Actually, not even it happened in America. 312 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:50,320 It happened here, in a small village in the north of Paris 313 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:52,160 called Marly La Ville. 314 00:22:55,320 --> 00:23:00,960 The French adored Franklin, especially for the political attitude anti-british, 315 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,680 and they proposed to do the experiments 316 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:06,640 related to lightning without him. 317 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:12,440 I arrived right at the place where these experiments were done. 318 00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:23,160 In May 1752, George Louis Leclerc, 319 00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:27,000 known in France as Comte de Buffon, 320 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:30,480 and his friend Thomas Francois Dalibard, 321 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:35,240 they raised a metal pole 13 meters, twice as tall as this one, 322 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:38,320 held by 3 blocks of wood, 323 00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:41,880 right next to Dalibard's house, here in Marly La Ville. 324 00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:47,040 The metal pole ends down into an empty wine bottle. 325 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:54,560 Franklin's great idea was like the long pole 326 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:58,120 will attract lightning and will send him along the pole 327 00:23:58,120 --> 00:24:01,160 and will store it in the wine bottle from the base 328 00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:03,320 which functions as a Leiden jar. 329 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:08,200 Then he could confirm what was the actual lightning. 330 00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:12,120 All that his disciples the French had to wait for a storm. 331 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:21,720 On May 23, the heavens opened. 332 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:23,880 THUNDER 333 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:26,560 At 12:20 a loud bang was heard 334 00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:29,120 when lightning struck top of the pole. 335 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:33,480 An assistant ran to the bottle, 336 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,680 a spark flew 337 00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:39,240 between the metal and his finger and 338 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:42,920 it burned his hand with a bang and giving off a smell of sulphur. 339 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:47,600 The spark showed the nature of lightning. 340 00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:51,880 It was the same as man made electricity. 341 00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:58,920 It's hard to overestimate the importance of this moment. 342 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:03,480 Not only was nature domesticated, but also the wrath of God 343 00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:06,920 was brought under control mankind. 344 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,400 It was a kind of heresy. 345 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:14,280 Franklin's experiment was very important because it looks like 346 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:18,920 lightning storms produce or are produced by electricity 347 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,880 and you can discharge the electricity, 348 00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:24,840 that electricity is a force of nature 349 00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:26,920 which is waiting to be used. 350 00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:34,640 After, Franklin straightened himself attention to another question. 351 00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:40,360 Why does the Leiden jar make sparks large when held in the hand? 352 00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:44,520 Why is it not downloading? all electricity? 353 00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:49,320 Drawing inspiration from his experience of successful businessman, 354 00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:52,640 he saw something that others had not noticed. 355 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:55,680 Like money in the bank, 356 00:25:55,680 --> 00:26:00,440 electricity can be on credit, which he called positive, 357 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,720 or debit, negative. 358 00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:09,520 For him, the problem of the Leiden jar it's about accounting. 359 00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:17,600 Franklin's idea was like anything else body has an electric atmosphere around it. 360 00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:22,600 And that there is a natural amount of electric fluid around each body. 361 00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:26,120 If it's too much, then it is called positive. 362 00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:29,440 If it's too little, then it is negative. 363 00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:33,720 And nature is organized so that the positive and negative side 364 00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:35,920 cancel each other out, 365 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:38,760 like an ideal American economy. 366 00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:46,200 Franklin's idea was like electricity it was only a positive charge 367 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:50,120 which flows to cancel it the negative one. 368 00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:52,880 And consider this simple idea 369 00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:56,520 can solve the mystery the Leiden jar. 370 00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:01,480 As the jar charges, 371 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:08,280 the negative electric charge is cast on the wire and enter the water. 372 00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:13,480 If the jar sits on an insulator, a small amount is squeezed into water. 373 00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:23,120 But if the jar is held by someone as it loads, 374 00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:25,080 positive electric charge 375 00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:28,600 it is pulled from the ground through their body 376 00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:30,400 to the outside of the jar, 377 00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:34,120 trying to cancel the negative charge inside. 378 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,520 But the positive charge and the negative one 379 00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:41,640 they cannot be canceled due to 380 00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:45,520 the bottle that has a role of insulator. 381 00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:50,600 Instead, the load grows and grows on both sides of the glass. 382 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,760 Then, when you reach the top of the jar with the other hand, 383 00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:00,640 the enabling circuit is closed the negative charge inside 384 00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:05,520 to pass through the hand towards the positive charge from the outside, 385 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:07,720 managing to cancel it. 386 00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:16,400 This movement of the load produces a massive shock and sparks. 387 00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:27,200 The modern equivalent of the jar Leiden is this - the capacitor. 388 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,920 It's one of those more widespread electronic components. 389 00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:32,720 It can be found anywhere. 390 00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:37,240 There are several smaller pieces scattered on this computer board. 391 00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:40,800 They have the role of smoothing transient overvoltages, 392 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:43,360 protecting delicate components, 393 00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:46,400 even in the most modern ones electrical circuits. 394 00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,160 Solving the mystery the Leiden jar 395 00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:04,160 and lightning recognition as a type of electricity 396 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:06,840 there were two big successes for Franklin 397 00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:09,440 and for the new movement of lighting. 398 00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:14,400 But the exchange forces and of trade, 399 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:17,080 who helped develop the Enlightenment, 400 00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:19,320 were on their way 401 00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:23,360 brings an even more electric mystery strange 402 00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:26,920 A new kind of electricity. 403 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:33,920 This is the English Channel 404 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,000 In the 17th and 18th centuries, 405 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:40,280 a large part of the world's wealth cross this stretch of water 406 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:43,240 coming from all corners British Empire 407 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:45,680 and going to London. 408 00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:48,640 spices from india, caribbean sugar, 409 00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:51,800 wheat from America, tea from China. 410 00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:54,640 But of course it wasn't just about trade. 411 00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:00,840 New plants and animal specimens 412 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,320 from all over the world they were sailing in London, 413 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:08,680 including a species that it fascinates electricians. 414 00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:16,720 Called the torpedo fish, it was from the land of sailor stories. 415 00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:22,120 His sting, it was said, could to knock a grown man to the ground. 416 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:26,040 But as the electricians began to study the sting, 417 00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:30,160 they found that it was similar much with a shock 418 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:31,680 caused by a Leiden jar. 419 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:38,280 It could be the sting an electric shock? 420 00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:48,160 At first, many people put the shock of the torpedo fish on account of the occult 421 00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:51,760 Some said it probably is the biting fish. 422 00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:55,280 Others argued that it cannot be a shock because, without spark, 423 00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:57,040 it can't be electricity. 424 00:30:57,040 --> 00:30:59,440 But for most, it was a mystery 425 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:01,640 new and inexplicable. 426 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:03,320 One of those was needed 427 00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:06,160 more strange and sparkling characters from British science 428 00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,520 to start unraveling the secrets of the torpedo fish. 429 00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:18,360 This is the only picture which exists 430 00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:23,240 of the exceptional - but also of the shameful - Henry Cavendish. 431 00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:27,960 It exists only because an artist drew her coat 432 00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:32,040 hung on a hanger, and then he drew the girl from memory. 433 00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:38,320 His family was fantastically rich. 434 00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:40,120 It was the Devonshires 435 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:44,640 who still has the Chatsworth house from Derbyshire. 436 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:47,040 Henry Cavendish decided to turn his back 437 00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:49,040 wealth and family status 438 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:53,160 and to live in London, near the Royal Society 439 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:58,960 where he could follow in peace passion for experimental science. 440 00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:04,080 When he heard about the fish the torpedo, he was curious. 441 00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:05,840 A friend wrote to him.. 442 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:10,240 "In my first contact with the effects of the torpedo fish, 443 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:14,640 "I exclaimed that it was definitely the case of electricity. 444 00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:16,760 "But how?" 445 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:21,360 And to understand how a being vine can produce electricity, 446 00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:27,000 he decided to do it own artificial fish. 447 00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:30,200 These are his sketches. 448 00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:35,880 Two Leiden shaped jars the fish were buried in the sand. 449 00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:41,240 When the sand was touched, they they discharged, giving an unpleasant shock. 450 00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:46,960 This model convinced him that the torpedo fish was electric. 451 00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:50,880 But it still leaves him with a problem baggy 452 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:56,160 Although the real fish and that of Cavendish 453 00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:58,400 produced strong electric shocks, 454 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:02,240 the real fish didn't make sparks. 455 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:04,360 Cavendish was perplexed. 456 00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:07,200 How could it be the same guy of electricity 457 00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:10,360 if they didn't the same things? 458 00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:17,200 Cavendish spent the winter in 1773 in the laboratory 459 00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:19,920 trying to get an answer. 460 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,760 In the spring, he had an idea. 461 00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:27,960 Cavendish's ingenious answer he was about to indicate a subtle difference 462 00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:32,640 between the amount of electricity and its intensity. 463 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:36,520 The real fish did the same type of electricity. 464 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:39,720 Only it was less intense. 465 00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:43,320 For a physicist like me, this marks a turning point. 466 00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:49,200 But this is the moment when two innovative ideas appear for the first time. 467 00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:53,280 What Cavendish calls amount of electricity, 468 00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:56,280 it is now called "electric charge". 469 00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:59,000 Its name of intensity 470 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:02,720 today it is called the potential difference or "voltage". 471 00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:09,880 Thus, the elderberry in the Leiden jar it was high voltage but low load 472 00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:15,640 while the shock caused by the fish it was low voltage but high load. 473 00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:18,960 It is possible to we measure this. 474 00:34:21,720 --> 00:34:25,120 At the bottom of the aquarium, under the sand 475 00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,720 a cousin of the Torpila fish is hiding: an electric pattern. 476 00:34:28,720 --> 00:34:33,200 You can barely see his eyes sticking out of the sand. 477 00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:35,520 This is an adult female 478 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:37,880 and I will try to measure 479 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,240 generated electricity with this bait. 480 00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:43,960 I have a fish connected to a rod metallic and connected 481 00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:45,440 to an oscilloscope 482 00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:49,120 let's see if I can measure its voltage when he catches his prey. 483 00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:51,160 Careful! 484 00:35:03,720 --> 00:35:04,960 Look at it once! 485 00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:12,080 And once again! 486 00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:15,480 The fish produced a shock of almost 240V, 487 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:20,680 same as mains voltage, but about 10 times less 488 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:23,640 like a Leiden jar. 489 00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:26,080 That would have given me a shock very unpleasant 490 00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:29,240 and I can imagine how it would have been 491 00:35:29,240 --> 00:35:32,320 for 18th century scientists to feel this. 492 00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:36,920 An animal, a fish, produces its own electricity. 493 00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:43,480 Cavendish showed that the torpedo fish produces its electricity 494 00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:46,960 but he didn't know if it was the same guy of electricity 495 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:49,840 like the one made by a car electrical. 496 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,880 Is the shock the same? produced by torpedo fish 497 00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:59,200 with that produced by an electric car? 498 00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:00,960 Or are there two types? 499 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:05,000 There is a type of artificial electricity and a type of animal electricity 500 00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:08,360 which exists only in living bodies? 501 00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:12,600 It was a big debate which held divided opinions for several decades. 502 00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:21,600 From that debate a a new discovery appeared. 503 00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:26,720 The discovery that electricity it doesn't have to be just a short shock and a spark. 504 00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:29,080 It can be continuous. 505 00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:32,960 And continuous electricity generation 506 00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:35,760 will bring us to the modern world. 507 00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:52,560 But the next step in the story electricity was going to appear 508 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:56,640 because of a strong rivalry on a professional and personal level 509 00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:59,080 between two Italian academics. 510 00:37:03,720 --> 00:37:08,480 511 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:19,400 This is the University of Bologna, one of the oldest in Europe. 512 00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:21,000 At the end of the 18th century, 513 00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:23,840 The city of Bologna was ruled from papal Rome 514 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:26,160 which meant that the university she was strong 515 00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:27,960 but with a conservative mindset. 516 00:37:30,720 --> 00:37:34,480 It was deep in christian traditionalism, 517 00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:37,120 where the laws came from from the sky 518 00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:39,360 and the way the world works 519 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,520 it was hidden from ordinary mortals 520 00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:46,280 who could not understand him, 521 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:48,200 and they could only serve their god. 522 00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:51,840 One of the stars of the university 523 00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:54,840 he was the anatomist Luigi Aloisio Galvani. 524 00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:57,120 But, in a neighboring town, 525 00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:01,480 a rival electrician he was going to put Galvani to the test. 526 00:38:11,240 --> 00:38:14,680 We are in Pavia, only 240km from Bologna, 527 00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:17,400 but, at the end of the 18th century, 528 00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:19,840 they were polar opposites politically. 529 00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:22,640 It was part of the Austrian empire and so 530 00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:25,680 it was close to the soul European Enlightenment. 531 00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:28,120 liberal in thinking, political radical 532 00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:32,040 and obsessed with the new science of electricity. 533 00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:35,360 He lived here Alessandro Volta. 534 00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:43,960 Alessandro Volta could not be more different from Galvani. 535 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:48,840 Coming from an old family in Lombradia, he was an arrogant, charismatic young man 536 00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:50,200 and to the ladies' liking, 537 00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:52,360 and he liked controversy. 538 00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:56,080 Unlike Galvani, he liked it to expose his experiments 539 00:38:56,080 --> 00:38:59,200 on an international stage for any audience. 540 00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:05,640 Volta's ideas were unfettered of Galvani's religious dogma. 541 00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:09,040 And Benjamin Franklin and the European Enlightenment, 542 00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:11,600 he believed in rational - 543 00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:13,560 as scientific truth, 544 00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:17,800 like a greek god ignorance will lie on the ground. 545 00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:22,240 Supersity was the enemy. Reason was the future. 546 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:28,880 Both men were fascinated of electricity. 547 00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:33,560 Both imposed their different way to see the world on the study of electricity. 548 00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:49,000 Galvani had been drawn to the use of electricity 549 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:50,760 in medical treatments. 550 00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:53,840 For example, in 1759, here in Bologna, 551 00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:58,440 electricity had been used on the muscles of a paralyzed man. 552 00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:01,840 A reporter said, 553 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:07,120 "It was a wonderful thing to see mastoid muscle rotating the head, 554 00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:09,920 "the biceps bending the elbow. 555 00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:14,240 "In short, see the force and the vitality of those movements 556 00:40:14,240 --> 00:40:18,960 "appearing in each parallel muscle which was subject to the stimulus." 557 00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:30,760 Galvani believed like these types of experiments 558 00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:35,080 proved that the organism it works with animal electricity, 559 00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:37,880 a fluid that flows from the brain, 560 00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,480 through nerves in the muscles 561 00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:42,600 and there it is transformed into movement. 562 00:40:43,720 --> 00:40:48,280 He designed a series of macabre experiments to prove it. 563 00:41:03,240 --> 00:41:05,880 Now, he prepared a frog. 564 00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:09,760 He notes: "The frog is skinned and the organs are removed. 565 00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:12,440 "Only the lower limbs stay connected, 566 00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:15,040 "to the crural nerves." 567 00:41:15,040 --> 00:41:17,520 I kept my frog mostly intact, 568 00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:21,120 but I exposed my nerves which are tied to her feet. 569 00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:25,520 Then he used the electric car of Hauksbee 570 00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:28,480 to generate a pregnancy electrostatics, 571 00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:32,040 which will accumulate and go on this arm 572 00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:35,080 and you will come out through this copper wire. 573 00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:39,400 Then he connected the generator wire of frog pregnancy 574 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:42,800 and another on the nerve from above the leg. 575 00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:46,160 Let's see what happens. 576 00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:52,720 Oh! The frog's leg twitches, as soon as he made the connection. 577 00:41:52,720 --> 00:41:53,920 Look! 578 00:41:55,480 --> 00:42:01,080 For Galvani, the explanation was that it is an entity 579 00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:05,640 special in the muscle animal, 580 00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:07,680 which he calls animal electricity. 581 00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:12,720 It's not like other types of electricity. It belongs to living beings. 582 00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:21,640 But for Volta, animal electricity the smell of supersity and magic. 583 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:26,160 It had no place in science the rationale of enlightenment. 584 00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:33,080 Volta saw the experiment completely differently by Galvani. 585 00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:36,720 He thought he was showing something completely new. 586 00:42:36,720 --> 00:42:39,520 For him, the legs did not twitch as a result of 587 00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:42,440 the release of animal electricity from the inside 588 00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:46,080 but because of electricity artificial from outside. 589 00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:49,480 The legs were just an indicator. 590 00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:54,520 They only flinched because of the Hauksbee car's electricity. 591 00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:02,240 In Bologna, Galvani a reacted angrily to Volta's ideas. 592 00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:06,440 He thought that Volta had passed a fundamental limit - 593 00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:10,280 exceeding experimental electricity and entering the domain of God, 594 00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:13,720 which was almost heresy. 595 00:43:13,720 --> 00:43:17,400 To have some kind of spirit like electricity 596 00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:19,760 to produce artificially 597 00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:22,160 and to affirm that spirit, that life force, 598 00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:26,320 that is the same thing as something produced by god 599 00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:30,400 as something God has put in a living human or frog body, 600 00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:32,600 was considered sacrilege, 601 00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:35,200 because it removes the limit 602 00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:37,480 among the divine realm 603 00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:40,600 and the material worldly realm. 604 00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:47,320 Fueled by indignation his religious 605 00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:50,880 Galvani announced a new series of experimental results, 606 00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:53,520 which were to prove that Volta was wrong. 607 00:43:55,080 --> 00:44:00,920 In one of the experiments, he hooked the frog on an iron wire 608 00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:04,400 and saw something completely unexpected. 609 00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:09,960 If you connect the copper wire to the thread on which the frog was hanging, 610 00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:13,120 and if he then ties the other end on my nerves... 611 00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:19,320 ... he seemed to be able to do it to twitch the frog's legs 612 00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:21,560 without any electricity. 613 00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:34,440 Galvani came to the conclusion that there must be something 614 00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:39,000 from inside the frog, which even when she is dead 615 00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:42,120 continue for a while 616 00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:44,760 to produce some kind of electricity. 617 00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:50,080 And the metal wires succeeded somehow to release that electricity. 618 00:44:51,720 --> 00:44:53,600 In the following months, 619 00:44:53,600 --> 00:44:58,240 Galvani's experiments focused on the isolation of animal electricity 620 00:44:58,240 --> 00:45:01,080 using combinations of frogs and metal, 621 00:45:01,080 --> 00:45:03,680 Leiden jars and electric cars. 622 00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:09,320 For Galvani, these experiments proved that electricity 623 00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:12,840 originate from inside the frog. 624 00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:17,640 The muscles of the frog were Leiden jars, which stores electric fluid 625 00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:20,120 and suddenly releases him. 626 00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:25,840 On October 30, 1786 and published the results in a book, 627 00:45:25,840 --> 00:45:31,320 Animals Electricity - About animal electricity. 628 00:45:32,880 --> 00:45:35,800 Galvani was so confident in his ideas 629 00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:38,880 that he sent a copy to Volta as well. 630 00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:46,520 But Volta could not accept Galvani's ideas about animal electricity. 631 00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:50,880 He considered that electricity must to come from the other side. 632 00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:53,040 But from where? 633 00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:07,760 In the 1790s, here, at University of Pavia, 634 00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:12,080 certainly in this laboratory, which today bears his name, 635 00:46:12,080 --> 00:46:16,160 Volta began to search a new source of electricity. 636 00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:21,600 His suspicion focused on metals 637 00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:24,680 used by Galvani sa the frog's legs twitched. 638 00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:30,680 His curiosity was sparked by a strange phenomenon he had encountered - 639 00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:33,920 the taste that the combinations of metals had. 640 00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:40,400 He discovered that if he took two different types of metal coins 641 00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:42,760 and put them on the tip of the tongue, 642 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:46,120 and then put a teaspoon of silver over them... 643 00:46:47,840 --> 00:46:50,600 ... was getting a feeling tickling, 644 00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:54,160 similar to the feeling that you get it from unloading a Leiden jar. 645 00:46:54,160 --> 00:46:57,960 Volta concluded that could taste electricity 646 00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:04,520 and that it must be caused of the contact between the different metals and the spoon. 647 00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:07,280 Now he had a theory that it rivals Galvani's. 648 00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:11,880 The frog's legs twitched, not from the cause of animal electricity, 649 00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:16,440 but because they reacted to the electricity of metals. 650 00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:21,960 But the electricity generated from coins she was very small. 651 00:47:21,960 --> 00:47:24,000 How could he increase it? 652 00:47:28,160 --> 00:47:32,720 Then an idea came to him when he looked over the scientific articles 653 00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:37,040 published by the great British scholar, Henry Cavendish, 654 00:47:37,040 --> 00:47:41,800 especially about the study it on the torpedo fish. 655 00:47:44,720 --> 00:47:49,560 He began to study carefully torpedo fish 656 00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:53,880 and in particular, the structure of rooms which is repeated on his back. 657 00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:56,640 He wondered if this repetitive structure 658 00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:59,760 was the key to the strong shock on which generates the fish. 659 00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:06,080 Maybe every camera works like the coins and the spoon, 660 00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:10,400 each generating a quantity little electricity. 661 00:48:10,400 --> 00:48:13,360 And maybe the strong shock of the fish 662 00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:19,120 results from the model of rooms which it repeats itself. 663 00:48:20,160 --> 00:48:26,080 With a growing confidence in this idea, Volta decided to fight back 664 00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:31,400 building his own version artificial over the torpedo. 665 00:48:31,400 --> 00:48:36,040 So, he copied the fish repeating his pattern, 666 00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:38,400 but using metal. 667 00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:42,800 Look what he did - he took a copper plate 668 00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:47,480 and then put a piece on top of it of paper soaked in dilute acid. 669 00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:51,160 Then he added another on top metal plate. 670 00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:56,120 He got exactly the same thing like Galvani's two-wire model. 671 00:48:56,120 --> 00:49:00,560 But now Volta has repeated the process 672 00:49:00,560 --> 00:49:04,800 Now he was building a metal stack. 673 00:49:04,800 --> 00:49:09,360 In fact, the invention will follow to be called "electric pile". 674 00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:17,720 But what could he do? incredible revelation. 675 00:49:17,720 --> 00:49:22,400 Volta tested his battery on himself, taking two threads 676 00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:24,960 and attaching them to the ends them 677 00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:27,720 and bringing the other ends in contact with his language. 678 00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:33,120 Now he could taste electricity. 679 00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:37,800 This time she was stronger than usually it was constant. 680 00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:45,840 This is how he created the first battery. 681 00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:51,000 Now the car was gone electro-mechanics, 682 00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:54,720 it was simply electric. 683 00:49:54,720 --> 00:49:58,640 That's how it proved to be a machine that imitated fish could work, 684 00:49:58,640 --> 00:50:03,400 as what he called contact electricity 685 00:50:03,400 --> 00:50:05,840 between different metals could work, 686 00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:09,880 and considered this to be the final move, 687 00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:14,880 and winner in the controversy with Galvani. 688 00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:19,680 Volta's electric pile showed that they can develop all phenomena 689 00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:24,560 animal electricity without needing animals. 690 00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:30,280 So, from Volta's point of view, it seemed that Galvani was wrong, 691 00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:34,400 that it's nothing special related to electricity in animals. 692 00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:38,680 It's about electricity which can be completely duplicated 693 00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:40,640 of his artificial file. 694 00:50:43,120 --> 00:50:49,640 But Volta's big surprise was as electricity generated it was continuous. 695 00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:53,000 In fact, it flowed like water from the river. 696 00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:57,160 And, like in a river, where is the measure the amount of water 697 00:50:57,160 --> 00:51:00,720 that flows is called current, so does the flow of electricity 698 00:51:00,720 --> 00:51:06,520 from the file it became named electric current. 699 00:51:10,600 --> 00:51:13,920 200 years after the Volta, 700 00:51:13,920 --> 00:51:17,200 finally we understand what electricity actually is. 701 00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:23,880 Metal atoms, like all atoms have electrons with charge 702 00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:27,080 electricity around the nucleus. 703 00:51:27,080 --> 00:51:30,560 But in metals, atoms divide outer electrons 704 00:51:30,560 --> 00:51:32,760 with each other in a unique way, 705 00:51:32,760 --> 00:51:36,160 which means that these they can move from one atom to another. 706 00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:43,760 If these electrons move in same direction at the same time 707 00:51:43,760 --> 00:51:48,040 the cumulative effect it's a movement of electric charge. 708 00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:55,800 This flow of electrons is what we call electric current. 709 00:52:00,120 --> 00:52:03,920 A few weeks later what Volta published details about his file, 710 00:52:03,920 --> 00:52:08,280 researchers were discovering something incredible he could do. 711 00:52:16,240 --> 00:52:20,240 Its effect on ordinary water it was completely unexpected. 712 00:52:20,240 --> 00:52:23,960 Constant flow of electrons in the water 713 00:52:23,960 --> 00:52:27,280 break it into its basic components - 714 00:52:27,280 --> 00:52:30,640 oxygen and hydrogen gases. 715 00:52:30,640 --> 00:52:34,920 Electricity announces the beginning of a new era. 716 00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:40,120 It was the new where the electricity ceases to be a curiosity 717 00:52:40,120 --> 00:52:44,680 and where it was starting to be useful. 718 00:52:44,680 --> 00:52:47,360 With a constant source of electricity, 719 00:52:47,360 --> 00:52:51,200 new chemical elements they could be isolated easily. 720 00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:56,880 This laid the foundations of chemistry, modern physics and industry. 721 00:52:59,560 --> 00:53:02,880 Volta's Pila changed everything. 722 00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:11,600 Pila made Volta o international celebrity, 723 00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:15,840 celebrated by the rich and influential. 724 00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:17,080 In recognition, 725 00:53:17,080 --> 00:53:21,800 a fundamental unit of measure a of electricity was named in his honor. 726 00:53:21,800 --> 00:53:22,840 Volt. 727 00:53:26,920 --> 00:53:32,040 But his scientific opponent it didn't fare as well. 728 00:53:32,040 --> 00:53:38,800 Luigi Aloisio Galvani died December 4, 1798, 729 00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:41,440 depressed and in poverty. 730 00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:45,160 For me, it wasn't the invention of the battery 731 00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:49,600 the crucial moment in history electricity, 732 00:53:49,600 --> 00:53:52,040 but what happened after. 733 00:54:01,800 --> 00:54:05,200 The event happened at the Royal Institution in London. 734 00:54:05,200 --> 00:54:09,080 It was the moment that marked the end of an era 735 00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:11,120 and the beginning of another. 736 00:54:15,040 --> 00:54:17,720 It was coordinated by Humphry Davy, 737 00:54:17,720 --> 00:54:21,280 the first of a new generation of electricians. 738 00:54:21,280 --> 00:54:27,680 Young, confident and fascinated by the possibilities of the current continuous electricity. 739 00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:34,080 So, in 1808, he built the largest battery in the world. 740 00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:37,680 It occupies an entire hall below Royal Institute. 741 00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:43,960 It had over 800 files inserted voltaics. 742 00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:48,760 Probably whistling and gave off sulphurous fumes. 743 00:54:51,280 --> 00:54:58,320 In a dark room, old technology lighting, candles and oil lamps, 744 00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:02,800 Davy connected his battery to two carbon filaments 745 00:55:02,800 --> 00:55:05,440 and appropriated their tops. 746 00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:08,200 The continuous flow of electricity from the battery 747 00:55:08,200 --> 00:55:11,320 through filaments caused a jump over the hole 748 00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:16,840 giving birth to a blinding spark, but constant. 749 00:55:22,520 --> 00:55:27,040 From the darkness came the light. 750 00:55:38,840 --> 00:55:43,840 Davy's electric arc symbolizes truly the end of an era 751 00:55:43,840 --> 00:55:46,680 and the beginning of our era. 752 00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:48,320 It was the era of electricity. 753 00:55:57,680 --> 00:56:04,280 But our story has more a macabre twist. 754 00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:08,280 In 1803, Galvani's nephew, named Giovanni Aldini, 755 00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:12,920 came to London with a frightening experiment. 756 00:56:12,920 --> 00:56:15,840 A convicted murderer called George Forster 757 00:56:15,840 --> 00:56:18,120 he had just been hanged in Newgate. 758 00:56:18,120 --> 00:56:21,040 When the body was lowered from the scaffold, 759 00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:23,680 was brought directly into amphitheater, 760 00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:27,040 where Aldini had started gruesome work. 761 00:56:30,240 --> 00:56:32,040 Using an electric file, 762 00:56:32,040 --> 00:56:37,520 he started to apply a current electrically to the deceased body. 763 00:56:37,520 --> 00:56:43,160 Then Aldini put a metal conductor in the anus of the deceased 764 00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:45,920 and the other conductor above the spleen. 765 00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:50,160 His dead body and corpse Forster stood straight 766 00:56:50,160 --> 00:56:52,960 and the spleen to arch and twist. 767 00:56:52,960 --> 00:56:55,840 For a moment it seemed as if the dead body 768 00:56:55,840 --> 00:56:58,680 would have been brought back to life. 769 00:57:00,240 --> 00:57:06,240 It felt like electricity could have the power of resurrection. 770 00:57:06,240 --> 00:57:11,560 And this had a profound impact on to a young writer named Mary Shelley. 771 00:57:17,040 --> 00:57:22,400 Mary Shelley wrote one of the the most powerful stories of all time. 772 00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:24,680 Based in part here at Lake Como, 773 00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:27,640 Frankenstein tells the story a scientist, 774 00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:30,120 a Galvanist, probably based on bold, 775 00:57:30,120 --> 00:57:34,160 that resurrects a monster using electricity. 776 00:57:34,160 --> 00:57:40,040 And then, disgusted by her own arrogant, abandons his creation. 777 00:57:40,040 --> 00:57:45,640 Like Davy's electric arc, this book symbolizes the change of times. 778 00:57:45,640 --> 00:57:49,240 The end of the era of miracles and of romance 779 00:57:49,240 --> 00:57:54,440 and the beginning of the rational era, of industry and science. 780 00:58:06,240 --> 00:58:10,400 And this new era is yours be explored in the next episode, 781 00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:12,880 because at the beginning of the 19th century, 782 00:58:12,880 --> 00:58:17,680 scientists realized that electricity is closely related 783 00:58:17,680 --> 00:58:21,320 by another mysterious force of nature... 784 00:58:21,320 --> 00:58:22,440 magnetism. 785 00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:27,600 And this discovery it will completely transform the world. 786 00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:32,920 To find out more about the story of electricity 787 00:58:32,920 --> 00:58:35,840 and you can get to know each other attempt, 788 00:58:35,840 --> 00:58:39,640 try the interactive game of Open University. 789 00:58:39,640 --> 00:58:41,240 Enter the ... 790 00:58:44,640 --> 00:58:47,080 ... and follow the links to Open University 791 00:59:09,320 --> 00:59:12,360 Translation and adaptation mad_ady 792 00:59:12,360 --> 00:59:15,400