Original subtitles

[futuristic music]

[narrator] On this episode of How Tech Works,

we hit the links at St. Andrews golf course

with gear that's over 100 years old

and still state of the art!

And...

things are about to get small,

very small,

with this micro engraver.

[intro music]

Hello, I'm Dr. Basil Singer,

and you are in for a thrill ride

on this episode of How Tech Works.

[narrator] We've got the solution

for your need for speed.

Horse boarding, speeding along on this skateboard...

pulled by a racehorse!

[Basil] But first,

I'll admit this story is not big on high-speed stunts,

but it will blow your mind.

It's all about engraving.

Yes... engraving.

You see, the engraver you're about to meet

does his work on a miniature level.

So miniature that you have to call it microscopic.

Have a look.

[narrator] Take a close look at this coin.

Can you see anything unusual?

How about now?

Right there on that tiny ridge.

It's an entire phrase.

The letters too small to see with the naked eye,

but carved entirely by hand.

[man] I'm trying to push the limits as far as possible

to try and engrave smaller than anybody else.

[narrator] In Birmingham's historic jewelry quarter,

Graham Short is a living legend.

A master engraver

working in a tiny world that few can comprehend.

[Graham] The job I'm most proud of is engraving the words

'nothing is impossible' along the sharp edge of a razor blade.

Many, many times it went wrong.

[narrator] Every micro-engraving

starts by prepping the micro-tools.

[Graham] I've got some Victorian needles

which I rub down as much as I can

to make them even smaller.

[narrator] Graham uses a candle

to get the needle's steel just right.

[Graham] They're very brittle.

So, I use a candle...

but because the needle is so thin,

the heat shoots right to the end of the needle

and it's too soft then.

So, then I have to harden it.

I can spend probably three days trying to get it right.

That's probably all right.

[narrator] His ultimate test for sharpness

is not for the squeamish.

[Graham] That's quite sharp.

That's good, that doesn't hurt at all.

And it certainly won't bleed.

They're frighteningly sharp on the point.

They've got to be small to engrave

because I'm pushing the limits of engraving so far.

[narrator] The majority of Graham's work

is done on the heads of gold pins.

[Graham] I try to use objects that everybody will recognize.

I want them to know how difficult it is.

[narrator] Famous quotes and sayings are his specialty,

but it all began with a prayer.

[Graham] I started working on The Lord's Prayer

about 40 years ago.

[narrator] Seventy words, 278 letters,

all precisely carved onto a surface

the size of... well, a pin head.

From here, there was no turning back.

[Graham] I've engraved England's World Cup

goal scorers on a football stud.

That's from 1950, when England went into the competition

to the present day. Thirty-eight names on that.

I've also engraved on the end of a silver bullet,

[Graham] where the firing pin strikes.

I've engraved the second amendment.

The American Bill of Rights

which allows Americans to bear arms.

[narrator] On the tiny tip of this paperclip

is a famous quote by Norman Mailer.

[Graham] I want to try, more than anything,

to shock people with my work.

I want them to think, "That's impossible to do."

And I'm happy with that. That's enough for me.

[narrator] Amazingly,

the key to Graham's precision is fitness!

At 65, he still swims six miles a day.

And it's all to keep a steady hand and heart.

[Graham] The fitter I am, the lower my resting pulse rate,

and that's what I'm aiming for.

And at the moment, my resting pulse rate

is about 30 beats a minute.

[narrator] At this micro-scale,

even Graham's pulse could throw him off.

He tapes a stethoscope to his chest

so he can work between heartbeats.

He straps his engraving arm tightly in place, then...

he waits.

Everything...

must be perfect.

[heart beating]

[Graham] Right, I'm just about to engrave

the bar on the top of the letter 'T'.

I'm waiting... until the moment feels right

to put in the slightest amount of pressure.

And I can hear my heart beating.

If I can do it between heartbeats,

it will be okay.

I'm waiting.

I'm in the right position.

[heart beating continues]

That's it.

[Graham] If I can do...

say, seven cuts a night, that's a good night.

And that would give me a letter 'E'

and a letter 'F' completed.

[electronic music]

[narrator] The job Graham just started could take months,

even years, before it looks like these.

To say this work is slow is a massive understatement.

But it's all starting to pay off.

That engraved razor blade was recently appraised

at over £48,000.

To Graham, the best is yet to come.

Today, in London's Mayfair district,

his full collection is on display for the very first time.

Through bespoke microscopes,

these tiny works of art are now becoming larger than life.

I just thought it was incredible.

Phenomenal. I was speechless.

[man] It's kind of disbelief.

You want to go back and back again

to really make sure that your eyes are not deceiving you.

The response has been fantastic.

It's been better than I could have hoped for.

[Graham] I like people's reaction

when they look at the work, they can't believe it!

And I love to see the look on their face,

it's excellent.

[electronic music stops]

When it comes to sports tech,

there's always pressure on athletes

to have the very latest and most advanced equipment,

whether it's lighter, stronger materials such as carbon fiber

and titanium, or computer assisted training techniques.

So, what happens when you play a round of golf

using wooden clubs from over a hundred years ago?

Let's go to St. Andrews in Scotland to find out.

[traditional Scottish music]

[narrator] St. Andrews in Scotland.

This is the home of golf.

[man] We know golf has been played

for about 600 years in St. Andrews.

[narrator] In that time,

golf equipment has seen a lot of change.

But while many brands dabble in materials

like graphite and carbon fiber,

this local club maker...

is sticking with wood. [music stops]

[upbeat music]

Hamish Steedman runs a unique workshop,

St. Andrews Golf Company.

It's the only traditional golf club maker left on Earth.

And surprisingly, the only club maker at all left in Scotland.

We're very conscious that we are the last club maker in Scotland.

And very passionate about keeping that history alive.

[narrator] The company's roots trace back to 1881,

but some of their clubs, like this Long Nose Spoon,

go back even further.

[Hamish] This club would have been used

from the start of golf, effectively.

[narrator] True to tradition,

the clubs around here begin as a block of wood.

[Hamish] With the Long Nose Clubs,

there's really a sort of beechwood that they used,

which was a softer wood.

The putter heads we manufacture, that's a maple wood.

[shaving]

[narrator] With the rough shapes cut out,

the smaller chunks go into a special lathe.

Tracing a stainless steel master copy,

the lathes turn the wooden heads down to exact dimensions.

Every club is made to play.

So, accuracy is everything.

Just as important as shape...

is weight.

Molten lead is used to bring each head up to spec.

[Hamish] Every head is weighed and meets a tolerance level.

[narrator] Soon, the club head is ready to meet the shaft.

For this, the team still uses hickory wood.

[Hamish] One of the reasons they used hickory

was because it was quite a straight grain,

and it's quite a strong club that had a good flex.

[narrator] Even the best materials

rely on skilled craftsmen to put them together.

Around here, that's taken very seriously.

[Hamish] A new club maker, to come into the business,

it'll probably take him a couple of years to be left alone

to actually craft a craft from start to finish.

They are artisans, there's no doubt about that.

[narrator] Although the materials have changed,

when it came to hitting a ball in the olden days,

the same physics still applied.

Modern clubs, with their oversized sweet spots,

are a lot more forgiving.

And golf balls have become far more springy

and aerodynamic over the centuries.

But according to Hamish,

club performance hasn't actually improved that much.

That was a theory we had to see to believe.

[soft vibrant music]

Stepping into the company's golf simulator room,

it's time to do some good ole How Tech Works-style testing.

What we're going to do today, have a bit of fun,

and we're going to compare the three different golf clubs.

From the Modern club,

going right back to your Long Nose from the 1880 period,

just to compare the distances and performance

and see just how similar these clubs really are.

So, I've got Grant here

who's going to be my specialist club hitter.

[Hamish] Let's start with the modern club.

So, this is your Driver with the 460 CC head.

[soft vibrant music continues]

[Hamish] That was a great shot, Grant.

Straight up the middle.

278 yards.

Now we move onto our Brassy, which is a 1920s club.

Another great strike.

269 yards.

Now we move back to our Long Nose club from the 1880s.

So, let's see how we get on with this one.

[upbeat music]

Again, three great strikes in a row.

262 yards with our Long Nose from the 1880s.

It's interesting to see that there's very little difference

with the three different clubs.

This really does show that it's the golf ball

that's taking the distance. It's not really the golf club.

[traditional Scottish music]

[narrator] As the leather grip winds into place,

one more club is ready for the links.

A beautiful and functional piece of craft work.

After 130 years in the business,

the team at St. Andrews Golf Company

is definitely keeping the ancient history of golf alive.

Coming up on How Tech Works...

[narrator] Inflatable robots?

All in a day's work at Otherlab!

And...

Go!

[narrator] It's called horse boarding

and you saw it here first!

[music stops]

[futuristic music]

Welcome back to How Tech Works.

\N I'm Basil Singer.

Now, as far as cool science jobs go,

it's true, mine is near the top of the list.

But I have to admit,

the research and development company in this next story

makes a day at the office seem more like...

Well, a day at the fun fair.

It's called Otherlab,

and yes, it lives up to its name.

Have a look.

[lo fi beats]

[narrator] Despite appearances,

this team is not actually messing about.

This is business as usual for the staff at Otherlab.

[man 1] What pressure are you operating at?

[man 2] I'm operating at 10 PSA.

[narrator] Part laboratory, part workshop,

Otherlab's goal is pretty ambitious.

[man] We want to solve every problem

in the energy space.

[narrator] Taking on big problems like that

takes big brains.

All kinds of them.

[man] Most of the people that work here have degrees

across varying specialties.

Everything from art and graphic design,

comic book art to mechanical engineering,

controls theory, applied physics,

mathematics, simulation, computer science,

software engineering.

[narrator] Meet Ant Roach.

It's massive!

And it only weighs about 32 kg.

Ant Roach can support almost 15 times that weight, though.

[man] We're trying to see, just...

can we make an inflatable robot?

Basically, that moves and does interesting things.

[narrator] The strength of inflatable robots like this

is pretty amazing, given that it's made of fabric.

Of course, that's super strong fabric!

[man] We have all these options,

and we're not constrained by the mechanical gearing system.

So, we can use hydraulics, we can use pneumatics.

Then, we can basically make very light-weight structures

that move in many, many ways.

[narrator] Because textiles are so flexible,

they can make all kinds of interesting shapes.

Unlike more traditional robots,

inflatable ones are a lot cheaper.

[man] The materials cost for this arm alone

is probably only on the order of $20.

[rock music]

[narrator] Getting Ant Roach to walk

requires a few connections.

[man] This thing has 28 different degrees of freedom.

Which basically means it has 28 different actuators.

And each single actuator has to have its own operated valve.

Every air flow has to have a little valve that operates it,

which has an electrical signal that operates that valve,

which traces back to a little central computer

that controls it.

And then we have the wireless link

to a main computer.

[narrator] Inflating and deflating

the actuators is like contracting a muscle.

The result is an inflatable robot that can walk, turn,

and stick its nose into things.

[man] For a large class of engineering problems,

the solutions have tended to be rigid, heavy structures

when there was really no reason for it other than convention.

[narrator] Otherlab hopes that breathing life

into robotics will make a huge difference.

[man] We're investigating everything from

explosives removal to lightweight locomotion,

to human-safe orthotics

to augment people with physical impairments.

[narrator] In the meantime, they're just enjoying the ride.

Our last story doth harken back to a time

when horses were ridden into war by knights in shining armor.

More recently, there's a group of competitors

who still need to don their armor

when it comes time to go into battle.

The only difference is

these knights are on shining skateboards!

If it sounds weird and a little bit wild...

that's because it is!

So, take a good look at what one day may be an Olympic sport.

It's called horse boarding.

[soft uplifting music]

[narrator] In Malvern, England,

today is the biggest race day of the season.

[battle interlude]

[soft uplifting music continues]

Horse and rider teams

have come from across the country to compete.

[action music]

But this isn't your typical horse race.

[action music continues]

Go!

[narrator] This is horse boarding.

[man] It's adrenaline.

It's the simplest way of describing it.

It's a pure adrenaline rush.

[narrator] It's a brand new extreme sport,

and if you're anything like us here at How Tech Works,

you're probably wondering one thing...

[man laughs] Horse boarding?

Um, what's that?

[narrator] Daniel Fowler-Prime

is one of the best in this sport.

He's also its creator.

Today, he's got the national championship trophy on his mind.

[Daniel] We have some new teams,

we were finding our feet in the last competition,

so, we'll see, there should be some good races.

[narrator] It all started about five years ago

When Daniel decided to mix his day job

as a professional trick rider with his love of board sports.

It was like, "Hmm, can we tie it to the back of a horse?"

[Daniel] Ready!

And then we started experimenting from there

as to what can be done and what the application of it would be.

[narrator] Five years on,

the sport has a country-wide following

and its own national race circuit

where teams go head to head on a 100m drag strip!

So what do you need to play?

If you want to start horse boarding,

the first thing you're going to need is a board.

[Daniel] Now, we use Off-Road mountain boards.

These have got pneumatic tires on them.

And toe straps.

No heel straps.

So that you can get your feet in and out of the board quickly.

If we flip the board over,

[Daniel] we use the skate truck,

and we put hard compound rubbers in here

as opposed to the soft or medium compound rubbers,

so that at high speeds,

it's not as twitchy as it could be.

[narrator] For the tow rope,

a standard wakeboard handle is used.

A special quick-release clip allows the horse rider

to detach it from the saddle in a hurry.

Finally, there's the padding.

To Daniel, that's the most important piece of kit.

[Daniel] When it comes to race day,

you strap yourself in knowing that you're going to crash.

The question is how controlled that crash is going to be,

and hopefully, it's over the finish line.

[narrator] To avoid a crash,

the best skill you can have is balance.

[Daniel] Go, go, go!

You've got to be able to recover the board

when you get bent into awkward positions

as the acceleration is so fast.

[man] Let him go, go on!

[narrator] At speeds close to 14 mph,

communication is also key.

[Daniel] The board rider is the driver,

But the horse rider is the controls.

So, the board rider tells the horse rider

what to do with the horse and where to go.

[man] OK, release!

[narrator] But to win races,

all that means nothing without a good horse.

[Daniel] In a competition sense,

the most important thing that's going to make a team good or bad

is the consistency of the horse.

You've got to have a good horse that's steady in the box.

[man] Go, go! Go on!

[narrator] After years of stunt riding,

Daniel's horse, Rohan, is as steady as it gets.

Together, they go by the name 'I-Horse'.

To stay on top, even they need to practice,

and time is running out.

[announcer] Ladies and gentleman,

welcome to the National Horse Boarding Championships, 2011!

Today has been an interesting competition.

In first place at the moment, we have I-Horse with 89 points.

They're going to get through to the knock-out finals.

And it's anyone games when it gets to there.

What do you think about that, Andy?

I think they're going to win it, Tom.

We've got four points each, haven't we?

You've got... what?

Four points, I've got four points.

It's sudden death!

[narrator] In the final race of the weekend,

It's I-Horse vs. Perfectly Frank,

the biggest and strongest horse in the competition.

[soft piano music]

This isn't going to be easy.

[referee] Go!

[narrator] Right from the starting block,

this race is a dead heat!

As the riders cross the finish...

[crowd groans]

[narrator] It's hard to tell who actually won.

[man cheers]

Then... the judges make their call.

-Yeah! -[cheering and applauding]

[Tom] That is Perfectly Frank in first place

on the 2011 National Horse Boarding Championship!

[narrator] As the season comes to a close,

there is some disappointment for Daniel in his own defeat.

[clapping and cheering]

[narrator] As for the sport he created,

he's certain it's a winner.

[Daniel] The future of the sport,

we're looking for nothing less than world championships.

Next year, there's going to be competitions

in at least France, England, and Scotland.

[Daniel] And this is the very tip of the iceberg.

Yeah, we haven't even started yet.

You've been watching How Tech Works.

I'm Basil Singer, and I'll see you next time.

[ending music]