All language subtitles for Ancient.Engineering.S02E05.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-chr00t_track3_[eng]

(dynamic orchestral music)

- [Narrator] The world's
greatest structures

push 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 it's reality.

- [Narrator] Many of today's
incredible achievements

rely on breakthrough
technologies

first devised by
ancient engineers.

- It's astounding how
they achieve this.

- [Narrator] Early civilizations

built on an unimaginable scale

and with incredible precision.

- They raised the
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.

(dynamic orchestral music)

(gentle orchestral music)
(birds chirping)

Sophisticated engineering...

lies at the heart of technology

that drives the modern world.

- Technology is ubiquitous.

Wherever we go today, there
are gadgets and devices

that have all been designed
to make our lives easier.

- [Narrator] Data
has now become one

of the most valuable
resources on the planet.

- Amazon, Google,
Facebook, and now Meta

are managing petabytes
of this data.

The amount that we
produce is unimaginable.

- [Narrator] This
digital revolution

has led to an era of almost
instantaneous communication

and hyperconnectivity.

(typing)

Integral to this revolution

has been one of the most
transformative tools

humankind has ever produced:

the smartphone.

(device beeps)

- Today, we hold immense
technological power

literally in the
palm of our hands.

- The modern smartphone
is more powerful

than even the guidance computers

that landed Apollo
11 on the moon.

That's one powerful
phone. (laughs)

(thrilling orchestral music)

- I genuinely find it
difficult to imagine

how anything got done
without computers,

GPS, and smart phones.

- [Narrator] But even the most
technologically sophisticated

device traces its lineage
back to the simplest implement

our Stone Age ancestors
could hold in their hands.

(paper rustling)

(intriguing instrumental music)

- The first handheld device two
and a half million years ago

was just a simple rock,

but it was actually
incredibly important

to all of human development.

- Stone tools were
indispensable to early humans.

They were functional
and practical.

But they were also
objects of prestige, too.

- Today we have the Swiss
army knife, the phone,

but back then, all those
millions of years ago,

they still needed one thing
that had multiple uses,

and that was the stone tool.

- [Narrator] In the 1930s,

British archeologist
Dr. Lewis Leakey

discovered primitive
stone implements

in the Olduvai
Gorge in Tanzania.

Olduvai tools are
thought to represent

the earliest human technology;

not merely a rock, but a
tool fashioned from a rock,

using a process called
alternate flaking.

- Alternate flaking is
where I take the core,

I hold it in my hand, and
I have a hammer stone,

and with the hammer stone,
I would strike the core.

A flake would come off.

- [Narrator] The stone
would then be worked

with great dexterity
on alternate faces

to form a sharp edge.

(rocks scraping)

- What we see in the Olduvai
tools is clear evidence

that the stones themselves
are being worked

in order to create that face

and to create a meaningful tool,

so this is a purposeful act.

- Without it, all
the technological
evolution that we see

later on simply would not occur.

This is the beginning
of engineering.

These are the first engineers.

- [Narrator] Archeologists
believe these first engineers

were an early human species
called homo habilis.

Humans have evolved
over seven million years

from quadrupedal
arboreal primates

via homo habilis
and homo erectus

to the upright, bipedal
homo sapiens of today.

- We have to be careful

about creating a sort of
direct linear ancestry

between ourselves
and homo habilis,

but homo habilis
is almost certainly

part of the human story.

These are bipeds,
shorter in stature

than modern human beings,

and maybe even
partially arboreal.

But this is a
species that we see

developing the
cognitive processes,

and we definitely see that in
the size of brain increasing.

- Many people have argued
that stone tool use itself

has driven brain expansion,

because the need to
be more dextrous,

the need to be more
flexible in lifestyles.

So, which comes first,
cognitive evolution

or brain size allowing it?

It's a big question.

- So, as human
beings have evolved,

so have tools and tech evolved.

It's that symbiotic relationship
with humans and technology

that have allowed
the advancement of
both over millennia.

- [Narrator] Human
development was underway,

and as societies gradually
became more sophisticated,

so a need for organization
and counting was growing.

- Think about it like this.

So, millions of years ago,
a primate picks up a rock,

and then it's half
a millennial later

homo habilis takes a
few chips off the rock.

Another half a millennial
later, it's homo erectors

who make something that we
would recognize as a tool.

And every single
one of those leaps

is tens of thousands of years.

- [Narrator] But as humans
evolved, progress gained pace.

In the 1970s, a discovery
in a remote cave

in the mountains of then
Swaziland, in southern Africa,

would completely rewrite
our understanding

of what early humans
were capable of.

(light percussion music)

What they discovered was a bone

with incisions along its length.

- When we get these kind
of marks on long bones,

there's a tendency
to interpret them

as evidence of an attack,

'cause one of the things
you do immediately

to protect yourself
is put your arm up,

and you often get
marks on long bones.

But that wasn't the
case with these marks.

They were too
regular, too ordered.

They suggested something
else was going on.

- [Narrator] The bone was
not an artifact of battle,

but a baboon's leg bone

bearing deliberate
marks along its length.

It's what's known
as a tally stick,

a rudimentary device for
recording information.

- A tally stick is a
way of keeping count.

What you would do is you
would score that tally stick.

You would make a mark on it.

- [Narrator] Found in
the Lebombo Mountains,

the artifact has become
known as the Lebombo Bone.

The tally stick is made
from a baboon's fibula

and has marks incised
into its length.

The 29 carefully defined notches

have been interpreted to
be a lunar phase counter,

used to keep track of
the passage of time.

A break to the end of the bone

could indicate more
marks were once present.

Radio carbon dating has
found the Lebombo Bone

to be over 40,000 years old.

- Over 40,000 years
before the iPhone,

we have this first handheld
data recording device.

- The most important
thing about this find

is not necessarily
that it's evidence

of prehistoric societies
being able to count;

it's the fact that they're
recording that counting

and that that record
has some kind of social

and economic
function in society.

That's exciting.

- [Narrator] Others have
suggested the 29 notches

indicate that the Lebombo Bone

was used by our ancient
female ancestors

to track their monthly cycle.

- Women were the first people
to need to keep records

and maybe our world's
first mathematicians,

because we're always
ahead of the curve;

we just don't always
get the credit for it.

- [Narrator] Though so simple,

even the tally stick
offered potential

for radical improvement.

- There's only been one major
refinement of the tally,

and that's the split tally

that was used in exchanging
of money to keep a record

that you could
then refer back to

to make sure that
everyone was clear

on the transaction
that took place.

(curious instrumental music)

- [Narrator] The split
tally was a stick

marked width-ways with notches,
and then split lengthwise.

This ensured that the
two halves of the stick

both recorded the same
pattern of indentations.

The short part was the foil.
The longer part was the stock.

If they aligned
perfectly when reunited,

it provided physical
proof that the holders

of the two portions were
the parties to the contract.

As societies grew, trade
needed to be documented,

and for centuries throughout
the Holy Roman Empire

and in Medieval England,
tally sticks became a record

of transactions,
debts, and credits.

- So, the notches
on the tally stick

would represent sums of money.

And, essentially,
once you split that,

that created the
invoice and the receipt.

- The thing is when you
split that tally stick

into its stock and its foil,

the grain inside that willow,
it's like a fingerprint,

it simply can't be replicated.

- There's even a
linguistic legacy

that has survived here
from Medieval England.

The debtor received part of
the stick called the foil,

and the creditor kept a part
of the stick called the stock.

And even today, British
bankers use the word stocks

to refer to debts of
the British government.

- [Narrator] It also
remains the common term

for financial shares
held in companies

that are traded on
the stock market.

The ability to create
two identical records

for a transaction
meant that, in Britain,

the split tally became
an indispensable tool

from the 12th
century until 1826,

when the treasury finally
adopted paper ledgers.

- The British
government had decided

to do away with
the tally system.

But what do you do
with two cartloads

of small wooden sticks?

- [Narrator] It was decided
to burn the redundant tallies

in the coal furnaces
under the House of Lords.

But centuries of British
financial history

weren't the only thing
that went up and spoke

on October 16th, 1834.

(moving orchestral music)

With the fires out of control,

Britain's Medieval
parliament did too.

- There is a certain
irony that the tally stick

had been so central to Britain's
financial constitution,

and yet its passing shot was
to bring it all down in flames.

- If the Lebombo Bone was the
first aid to mental arithmetic

and tally sticks the second,

ancient engineers
took the next steps

with another simple,
but ingenious device.

(impressive orchestral music)

The Sumerians flourished

in the fourth and
third millenniums BC,

and their civilization
is responsible

for some of humankind's most
significant innovations.

- Justifiably, the
Sumerians are seen

as the first great civilization.

They invented
writing, codified law.

They invented the wheel.
They even invented beer.

So, I think we owe a
lot to the Sumerians,

the sort of breakthrough
civilization.

- [Narrator] Sumerian
civilization sprung up

in a fertile area
between the great rivers

Tigris and Euphrates in
what is today Southern Iraq.

- The Sumerians were an
incredibly successful

agricultural community.

They produced so much
livestock and so much barley

that they simply couldn't
keep track of it all,

and they needed an accounting
device to help them.

- [Narrator] The
solution to deal

with this information overload?

The Sumerian abacus.

- The Sumerian
abacus is effectively

the first handheld
computing device.

- [Narrator] What the
Sumerians developed

over 4,000 years ago was a
sophisticated calculation tablet

which was the iPad of its day.

But unlike its 21st
century successor,

there were no complex,
high-tech components.

It was made from clay.

- Unlike our decimal
system, based on 10,

the Sumerian system
was based on 60,

which may seem
unhelpfully complicated

until you realize that there
are 60 seconds in a minute,

there are 60 minutes in an hour,

and there are 360
degrees in a circle.

- [Narrator] The Sumerian
Abacus had five columns,

which denoted factors
and multiples of 60

from one, 10, 60, 600, 3,600.

(counters clicking)

Counters were placed
into the columns

to represent
different quantities.

The amount reflected in this
example would total 4,944.

This simple tool allowed the
Sumerians to add and subtract,

making it one of the
earliest known calculators.

- The Abacus plays a
really important role

in speeding up the
number of transactions

and the scale of
those transactions.

- [Narrator] Primitive
technology was already helping

impel the progress and
pace of civilization.

(electronic whirring)

From the creation
of the Lebombo Bone,

humans have been striving to
create devices and technology

that could be used as an adjunct

to the human brain's calculative

and data retention capabilities.

It was long thought
that no device

would ever be able to outperform

the brain's unrivaled cognition.

One of the first contests
to challenge this notion

was when Russian world
chess champion Gary Kasparov

took on IBM's
supercomputer, Deep Blue,

in an intellectual showdown
between man and machine.

- This is really a test
of human intelligence.

It's this incredibly
intellectual
Russian chess player

against the might of American
technological advancement.

- [Narrator] Chess requires
focus, memory, intuition,

and enormous
strategic awareness.

Kasparov off had it all, but
would his intellectual might

be able to compete
against a supercomputer?

- It could process a hundred
million moves a second.

How on earth can
a human beat that?

- [Narrator] In the first
series of six games in 1996,

the final score
was four to two...

but it was Gary Kasparov
who emerged the winner.

- He outwitted Deep Blue by
repeatedly changing his tactics.

- The IBM Deep Blue
was incredibly fast

at crunching numbers,

but the one thing that Gary
did have over this computer

was his human intuition.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- [Narrator] The following year,

IBM sent Deep Blue into
battle against Kasparov again.

This time, with its
computational power
having doubled,

it could now process 200
million chess moves per second.

- This computer made a move

that Kasparov off
couldn't comprehend.

He thought that this
doubly powerful computer

was working at levels that
he could never understand.

- [Narrator] Kasparov off lost
and accused IBM of cheating.

It was the only way
he could explain

the computer's
perplexing gameplay.

But was this really a
humiliation for human intellect

or a seminal moment
in computer science?

(audience applauding)

- What we found out later on

was that this move
from Deep Blue

was actually a glitch
in the algorithm,

and it wasn't a planned tactic.

- Kasparov misinterpreted
that random move,

and that threw him off
for the rest of his game.

- Some may say that machine
won over man in this situation,

but the fact that
it was so close

really shows us that the
human brain is so capable.

This should be considered
a triumph of humanity.

- [Narrator] Processing
power had delivered

a close run victory, but
perhaps it was less a triumph

of a digital brain and more
a failure of human intuition.

(chess piece clatters)

(solemn orchestral music)

Ancient engineers had created
tally sticks and abaci

to facilitate faster and more
efficient mental calculation.

The next step would
be to create devices

that could actually
provide the answers for us.

(waves lapping)

Off the Greek island
of Antikythera,

the highly corroded remains

of a mysterious
device were uncovered.

- It was actually discovered
in a shipwreck in 1901,

but it was more than 100 years

before anyone actually worked
out what it was capable of.

- [Narrator] It
was to become known

as the Antikythera mechanism

and would turn
modern understanding

of early engineering
on its head.

- Divers found bronze
and marble statues

and jewelry and
coins and pottery

and the normal kinds
of things you find

in an ancient shipwreck,

and also some corroded
lumps of bronze.

- [Narrator] The
detective story began.

- It wasn't until 2006
that modern CT scans

carried out at
Cardiff University

began to reveal just how
complex this object was.

- [Narrator] And at that
point, jaws began to drop.

- When the detailed
x-rays came through,

what it exposed was a
series of cogs, wheels,

a drive mechanism,
and inscriptions

that suggested a really
very complex machine.

- Carbon dating
revealed that it was

at least 2,000 years old.

So, what on earth
had they discovered?

- [Narrator] The
intriguing artifact

was deduced to be an
orrery, a mechanical device

for tracking the movement
of celestial bodies.

- What they were looking
at was the earliest

analog calculating
machine ever discovered,

and it wasn't from
Silicon Valley;

it was from ancient Greece.

- What makes it so fascinating

is that you could input
some kind of date into this,

your input information.

By turning the handle, you
were processing that machine,

and you then had
an output as well,

so this is a very
early form of computer.

- The Antikythera Mechanism
was housed in a wooden case

with bronze dials on both sides.

The front dial displayed
a solar calendar

divided into 365 days.

Turning a handle showed the
positions of the sun and moon

for any given day of the year.

This information was
conveyed mechanically

to the rear dials.

The top dial displayed
a long-range lunar

and solar forecast spanning
a cycle of 19 years.

The bottom dial depicted
eclipses of the sun and moon.

The Antikythera
Mechanism was so advanced

that it enabled the Greeks
to track the solar system

over an almost 500-year period,

by some estimates to within
one degree of accuracy.

- I don't think, until
we found this thing,

we had any idea they
could model it physically

in bronze gear wheels

to anything like this
degree of sophistication.

- This represents a key step
in the history of computing,

because it's a machine
providing the answer

to a complex question,
not the human brain.

- [Narrator] Another
2,000 years would pass

before the concept
of a programmable
computer was conceived,

but these developments would
rely on a future technology

which revolutionized a
completely unrelated industry.

(wheel chugging)

(intriguing instrumental music)

From the birth of humanity,
our ancestors' survival

has depended upon finding
food, water, and shelter.

But almost as important
has been the age-old need

to secure protection for the
human body's largest organ:

the skin.

- Clothing people
has probably been

one of the most basic
requirements there's
been in society,

short of actually
feeding people.

- [Narrator] It's
presumed that early humans

had observed how
birds built nests

and had borrowed the technique

to create simple baskets,
ropes and nets by hand.

The creation of textiles
was a progression

from this early technology

and evolved into manual
weaving on simple looms.

- Like many technologies,

it seems that the
Egyptians got there first,

and we know that they use
simple looms to weave clothing.

- Weaving is the intertwining
of two separate threads,

the warp and the weft, at
right angles to form cloth.

- Ancient pottery from Egypt
dating back 6,400 years

clearly shows that
they were using looms.

These early textiles would've
been made out of wool or flax,

and they disintegrate over time,

so there's very little
physical evidence

of ancient clothing.

- [Narrator] However, in 2015,

solid evidence of Egyptian
weaving was established

when Oxford university
confirmed the date

of an incomplete garment found
nearly 100 years earlier.

- This became known
as the Tarkhan Dress.

It was the top half
of a linen garment

found at a burial
ground in Tarkhan,

30 miles to the south of Cairo.

- It's made with flax,
so it's a form of linen,

and it's incredibly
sophisticated.

- When it was eventually
radio carbonated,

it was found to be
5,000 years old,

the oldest woven garment
known to humanity.

(impressive orchestral music)

- [Narrator] Looms
became essential

to cultures all over the world,

but they had a
significance far beyond

the manufacturer of cloth.

- The important thing to
realize about the loom

is that it changed the
way that we made clothing

and materials,

but it went on to have
much further implications

for the industrial revolution,

and then the digital
revolution beyond.

(exciting orchestral music)

- It should come as no surprise

that one of the first industries

to adopt factory processes
of production is clothing,

it's the weaving industry.

- [Narrator] And in 1804,

that industry was transformed
by a groundbreaking device

introduced by a Frenchman
called Joseph Jacquard.

- So what Jacquard did
is he created a machine

that would sit on top of a loom

and, by means of punch cards,
which he would lace together,

he could program the
pattern within the loom.

- Prior to this, complex
patterns were all made by hand.

It was time-consuming. It
required immense skill.

But this loom
changed everything,

because it could be
done automatically.

- [Narrator] The
Jacquard loom was based

on complicated engineering,

but at its heart were two
very simple binary settings

which controlled the
loom's mechanical action.

The pattern to be
woven is represented
by a series of holes,

or the absence of holes,
in the punch cards

fed into the machine.

The perforated cards are pressed

against a bundle
of horizontal rods,

which move the machine's
vertical rods into a position

where they are
lifted or not lifted.

A hole in the card allowed
rods to lift warp threads,

directing the weft
threads to pass under.

No hole meant the warps
stayed where they were,

and the wefts passed over.

- The mechanization and
automation of weaving

suddenly made patterned cloth
cheaper, more accessible,

and the weaving of it
became a global industry.

- Mass manufacturer means
that we are moving materials

all over the world, and,
to a certain extent,

Britain becomes a heartland,
certainly Northern England,

of fabric production.

- Jacquard looms are
still in use today,

but they're controlled
by computers,

not by binary punched cards.

It might seem that
these Jacquard looms

are being given life support
by modern technology,

but actually it's
the other way around;

modern computers owe
everything to those looms.

(exciting orchestral music)

(gentle piano music)

- [Narrator] Modern
computers may be a world away

from 19th century
Jacquard looms,

but both share the
same DNA, binary code,

and it took a pioneering figure
to tie the threads together.

- Before you have a
technological innovation,

you need someone to have
a leap of imagination,

to imagine what is possible.

With the loom, it was Jacquard.

With the computer, it
was Charles Babbage.

- [Narrator] In an era
of horse-drawn carriages,

Babbage designed what he called
the Difference Engine No. 1.

- The Difference Engine
was a mechanical device

used for the computation
of mathematical tables.

- [Narrator] But what may seem

like an unremarkable
concept today

was astonishing
two centuries ago.

(impressive orchestral music)

- I think the thing that's most
remarkable about all of this

is these ideas were coming
about in the Georgian period.

We were at the beginning
of the 19th century.

I mean, people are still
using candle light.

- [Narrator] And computers
were definitely not machines.

- In the 19th century,
a computer was a person

sitting at a desk
doing calculations.

- [Narrator] And like
any human endeavor,

mistakes inevitably crept in.

- I think Babbage's real project

was that he wanted to
eradicate human error

from the calculation process.

- [Narrator] Babbage
designed multiple iterations

of his Difference Engines,

each specifying
thousands of parts.

The most advanced Difference
Engine was his second design.

- This wasn't something you
could keep in your pocket.

It was the size
of a small truck.

And yet, it was the cutting
edge of modern technology.

- [Narrator] It was
intended to be driven

by precision gearing,

and was designed to
perform calculations

using multiple,
numbered cog wheels.

The Difference Engine No. 2
was a highly complex machine.

A small portion of the mechanism

illustrates a simple calculation
using just two wheels.

To calculate four plus three,

the accumulator wheel
is turned to three,

the addition wheel to the
right is turned to four,

the wheels are meshed,
and the answer, seven,

is presented on the
accumulator wheel.

(moving choral music)

- The irony of this invention

is that it was created
to remove human error,

and yet it failed because
of human weakness.

He overspent, he fell out

with the people he
was working with,

and so Babbage never
finished his invention.

- [Narrator] But what
was perhaps Babbage's

most ambitious
design for a computer

was the Analytical Engine,

a development of his
first Difference Engine

that was built upon
a past invention.

(dramatic string music)

- Where the Analytical
Engine was a development

on from the Difference Engine

is that it was capable
of a much greater range

of mathematical operations.

- What's remarkable
is it basically had

the same workflow as
a modern computer.

- You have an input value
that goes into the machine,

you have a mechanical memory,

it has a sort of
central processor,

and you then have
an output as well.

- [Narrator] Babbage repurposed

Jacquard's punched card system,

which provided a
simple mechanical means

to input instructions to a
machine in a pre-electric age.

His collaborator, the pioneering
mathematician Ada Lovelace,

was quick to sense
how new technology

was synthesizing change
in Georgian society.

- She makes a very interesting
connection, actually,

between the Jacquard loom
and the Analytical Engine

when she writes, "The
Analytical Engine

weaves algebraic patterns,

just as the Jacquard loom
weaves flowers and leaves."

- And that beautifully sums up

how these contemporary
technologies cross-pollinated.

- [Narrator] Punched guards
created the foundation

of all later computer
programming languages,

which, like
Jacquard's mechanism,

would also be based on the
binary counting system.

(cards shuffling)

In the 1830s, few could
possibly have imagined

how computing would
change the world,

and yet perhaps
Ada Lovelace did.

- She was the first person to
recognize that this invention

had applications beyond
pure calculation.

She published the
first algorithm

to be carried out
by the machine.

So she was, in essence, the
very first computer programmer.

- [Narrator] However, as
with the Difference Engine,

neither Babbage nor
Lovelace ever saw

the Analytical Engine
complete in their lifetimes.

- Babbage was a genius.

But with that genius came an
attitude and a disposition

that actually put
off both his engineer

and some of his funders.

- [Narrator] But despite
Babbage's shortcomings,

his contribution to
technological development

can't be underestimated.

Incremental development in
binary computation continued,

including American Herman
Hollerith's breakthrough

in the 1880s with his
tabulating machine.

But it would take over a century

after Babbage's pioneering work

for the first modern computer
to be fully realized.

(dramatic orchestral music)

By that time, however, the world
was a very different place.

- [Radio Announcer] This
country is at war with Germany.

(fire crackling)

- Computing took a great leap
forward during World War II...

(landmine explodes)

when technological superiority
became a matter of survival.

(somber orchestral music)
(soldiers marching)

Part of the battle centered
upon the interception

of the enemy's
encrypted messages.

(telegraph beeping)

- In the Second World War,
military communications

were routinely encoded

to prevent them being
read by the enemy.

- Code breaking was essential

to the outcome of
the Second World War.

- [Narrator] But secrecy
has ensured some stories

are less well-known
than they should be.

- Many people are familiar
with the Enigma code,

but very few people
have heard about

a far more sophisticated cipher

used by the Germans,
called the Lorenz cipher.

(soft orchestral music)

- [Narrator] The
Lorenz code was created

by a device of true genius.

The Lorenz SZ rotor
stream cipher machine.

(machine tapping)

- The German Lorenz
encryption machine

was used for sending the
most sensitive messages

from Hitler to his high command,

and it was considered
completely unbreakable.

- It performed the encryption

using incredibly
complicated maths

that turned the letters in
a message into binary code.

Enigma could create 159
million million million

possible code combinations.

- [Narrator] Unless the code
could be broken every day,

the Nazi's top secret
messages couldn't be read,

and a war-winning
advantage would be lost.

(torpedo explodes)

(dramatic orchestral music)

- With 1.6 quadrillion
possible settings,

all of which changed daily,
it's unsurprising that the Nazis

thought that they really did
have an unbreakable code.

- [Narrator] The Lorenz
machine encoded messages

using a complex process

which passed each individual
letter of the message

through a two-stage encryption

generated by 12 rotary wheels.

- The code breakers'
brains were brilliant,

but the real issue
here is the speed

with which these messages
are being deciphered.

- [Narrator] In war,
time is of the essence,

and codes were still being
decoded with pencils and paper.

- The question was, how do
you speed up the process?

And the answer was Colossus.

- Colossus was the
first electronic

programmable digital computer.

Yes, it was important for
changing the course of the war,

but it was perhaps
even more important

for the history of technology.

- [Narrator] Colossus really
did live up to its name,

being seven feet high, 17
feet wide, and 11 feet deep.

And, critically, it was fast.

- It could process 5,000
characters per second,

providing the speed
needed to take advantage

of that intelligence
in real time.

- [Narrator] It was not
long before Colossus

proved it's worth.

- Imagine the scene.

It's June the 5th,
the day before D-Day,

in Eisenhower's headquarters,

and Colossus
provides information

which proves that
Hitler has fallen

for the Allies'
deception campaign.

Hitler thinks the Allies
are gonna land in Calais.

- [Narrator] He
consequently ordered

that no further German
reinforcements be
sent to Normandy,

where the real invasion
was poised to take place.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- Eisenhower reads
the decrypted message

and then delivers the statement

which changes the course of
World War II: "We go tomorrow."

(planes buzzing)

- [Narrator] On the
6th of June, 1944,

computing came of age, as the
legacy of ancient engineers

helped launch the biggest
seaborne invasion of all time.

(chanting in foreign language)

If engineering endeavors
during World War II

had been devoted to
creating mechanisms

to mathematically
unlock secrets,

ancient engineers had
laid the foundations

by doing the opposite, in
trying to create devices

to lock valuable
information away.

- Innovation is about
pioneering personalities

really pushing the boundaries
of what's possible,

and al-Jazari was exactly
that type of person.

- Ismail al-Jazari was
a intellectual scholar,

an engineer of the late
12th, early 13th century.

Most people know
about the Renaissance

or other great moments
in world history,

but they often don't think
about the achievements

of the classical Islamic world.

- [Narrator] Al-Jazari
created designs

from everything from
clocks and automata

to engineering mechanisms
such as cranks,

cam shafts, and pumps.

- Al-Jazari was a genius,

the pioneer that most of
us have never heard of.

You really could consider
him as the da Vinci

of the ancient Islamic world.

- [Narrator] Yet his place in
engineering history is secure,

thanks to the survival

of his intricately
illustrated compendium,

the Book of Knowledge of
Ingenious Mechanical Devices.

- Amongst his many
ingenious inventions,

he designed a combination lock.

- Al-Jazari's lock
would definitely

have been a prestige object.

It is something particularly
unusual and special.

- Al-Jazari's combination
lock had four composite dials.

Each dial was composed
of three concentric rings

with 16 optional
settings per ring.

The settings were indicated
by Arabic letters.

To unlock the box, you would
need to enter the three letters

correctly on each
of the four dials.

The correct setting would
align a series of notched discs

within the box and
allow the lid to open.

(lively Middle Eastern music)

- Not only is this
an incredible piece

of precision engineering design;

it was also a really
advanced security device

with 281 trillion
possible combinations.

I mean, imagine
trying to crack that.

- [Narrator] Al-Jazari's
lock applied mathematics

and precision engineering to
keep physical objects safe.

But today, in our digital world,

not everything of
value is physical.

- What is Bitcoin?

Well, some people
call it digital gold,

probably when it's
value is quite high,

and then others
will call it a scam,

maybe when the
value is quite low.

(electronic beeping)

- [Narrator] But
behind the debates

which always
accompany innovation

lay some straightforward
concepts.

- Essentially it's
a peer-to-peer,

decentralized way
of transacting.

Whereas before, I'd
need to go to a bank

to send money to someone,

what Bitcoin does is it
takes away the middleman,

takes away the bank.

- [Narrator] Like paper money,

cryptocurrencies have
no intrinsic value,

but rather than being
backed by governments,

it's backed by
ordinary investors.

- Bitcoin is a
purely digital asset.

So where does its
value come from?

Well, just like gold,
there's a finite supply.

In Bitcoin's code,

there's only ever programmed
to be 21 million of them.

- [Narrator] Bitcoin was created

by an anonymous developer

with the pseudonym
Satoshi Nakamoto.

- It's an engineered
solution to a global problem.

You've gotta remember,
at that time, in 2008,

the world banking
system was in turmoil,

so this was an attempt to
revolutionize a broken system.

- [Narrator] The value
of Bitcoin is volatile,

but like any commodity,
ways had to be found

to secure it from
fraud and theft.

Blockchain was the solution.

- And what that is
is essentially a
distributed ledger,

a record of transactions which
is shared across a network,

and no one person or one entity
is in charge of the ledger.

- [Narrator] No one can
dispute a transaction,

because millions of
computers have a copy.

Like the medieval tally stick,

it represents an undeniable
record of an undertaking.

And as the tally once did,
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies

could well facilitate a
revolution in global finance.

- The pace of change
has been mind blowing.

It's exponential growth

in terms of
technological advancement

from the 20th to
the 21st century.

As the saying goes,
the pace of change

has never been this fast,

and it will never
be this slow again.

(solemn orchestral music)

- [Narrator] But none of
the contemporary devices

we're so reliant upon today

could function
without an innovation

first created by ancient
engineers: the battery.

(camels growling)

In 1938, a German archeologist
named Wilhelm Konig

studied a small clay jar found

near the ancient city of
Ctesiphon, southeast of Baghdad.

He determined it to be
over 2,000 years old.

- What was inside
led Konig to believe

that he'd found something
truly remarkable.

- [Narrator] Within the
terracotta jar was an iron rod

surrounded by a copper cylinder.

The iron rod was insulated

from the copper top
and bottom by asphalt.

Within the jar was residue
of an acidic solution

thought to be an electrolyte,

or electrically conducted
liquid, such as vinegar.

All these features
led Konig to believe

he'd found a
2,000-year-old battery.

- In theory, this object
could have produced

a small amount of electricity,

because it had all the elements

that you need to make a battery.

- Debate still surrounds
the purpose of the jar,

but it has been proven
that it could create

a charge of around one volt.

- [Narrator] Although
tiny, such a charge

would be enough to be used

in an ancient type of
electro acupuncture.

But has Konig's 1930s theory
stood the test of time?

- Today, there's some debate
about what it really was.

Was it a battery?

Or, the more common thought now

is that it was used to store
ancient Papyrus scrolls,

so it was actually an
ancient data storage device.

- [Narrator] However, the
greatest mystery today

is not what the Baghdad
battery actually was

but where it is now.

- The really sad thing
about the Baghdad battery

is we're not gonna get
a chance to go back

and really test
it scientifically,

because, in the invasion of
Iraq, 2003, it's unfortunate,

the battery was stolen
from the Baghdad Museum.

- [Narrator] Meaning
the question surrounding

this ancient artifact
may never be answered.

(exciting orchestral music)

Today, Iraq sits on oil reserves

worth tens of
trillions of dollars.

But the value of oil is
mostly due to one invention:

the internal combustion engine.

It completely
revolutionized transport

but had a disastrous
impact on the environment.

- The world is now moving
towards green energy

as quickly as possible

to avoid environmental disaster,

and electric vehicles
are key to that process.

- [Narrator] But could the world
have started on this course

over a century earlier?

- Throughout history,
we've had glimpses

of an understanding
of electricity,

with the Greeks with static
electricity, for example,

but it wasn't until
the 19th century,

with people like Volta,

when we get a real
deeper understanding

of electrical energy and
electrical engineering.

- [Narrator] Before
mains power was available

at the flick of a switch,

the first device
that could provide

continuous electrical
power was the battery.

- It was Benjamin Franklin

who coined the term
battery in 1749,

but actually the
invention of the battery

is credited to Alexandra Volta.

- [Narrator] In
1800, Volta created

what's come to be known
as the voltaic pile.

Consisting of cloth discs
soaked in salt water

layered between alternating
zinc and copper disks,

it created a difference
in potential,

which, in a closed circuit,
produced an electric current.

Science acknowledges
this invention

as the first modern battery,
and it quickly made an impact.

- The battery was then used
in experiments by Humphry Davy

and went on to then be
used in other inventions,

like the electric telegraph.

So, really, one invention
led to another invention,

and this is the development
of science and engineering.

- [Narrator] A
century after Volta,

Thomas Edison enters the story.

For around a decade,

he'd been developing
an alkaline battery.

He wanted to make
batteries lighter,

safer, and more powerful

than the cumbersome lead
acid batteries then in use.

That would allow him to
corner an emerging market:

the motor car.

- It might be really
surprising to people today.

When you think of
the earliest cars,

you think of combustion engines.

But actually, between
1900 and 1912,

a third of the motor cars in
America were electric vehicles.

- [Narrator] Steam-powered
cars were also popular,

so the battle for
the road was on,

and Edison felt confident
that electricity

was in pole position.

- Edison eventually
got the patent

for his alkaline
nickel ion battery,

which he claimed was
efficient and rechargeable.

- People flocked to
buy Edison's battery,

but unfortunately it didn't
live up to its claims.

It was unreliable, it leaked,

and it only had a range
of about 25 miles.

- [Narrator] By 1910,
his new, improved battery

was in production.

It could be recharged
almost indefinitely

and had a range of
around 50 to 75 miles.

It was also more efficient,
and Edison felt ready to try

and revolutionize the
electric car market.

- Unfortunately for Edison,

something else revolutionary
had been launched a year before

by another visionary
engineer, Henry Ford.

- [Narrator] Combustion engine
technology roared ahead,

and the electric car was left
behind in a cloud of fuse.

(intense orchestral music)

- 15 Million Model Ts
had been built by 1927.

By this point, the electric
vehicle was history,

and the gas-guzzling
combustion engine

was now king of the road
for the next century.

- [Narrator] But today, a
revolution is gathering pace.

(upbeat electronic music)

- Today, it's back
to the future,

where the climate
emergency is forcing us

back into that starting
point where we were

at the end of the 19th century.

- Car makers all across
the globe, including Ford,

who set the wheels in
motion in the first place,

are phasing out their
combustion engine vehicles.

So it sort of is
the end of an era

but a beginning of a new one.

- [Narrator] Low-emission
electric cars

are now at the cutting
edge of technology.

But like all our
contemporary tech,

they rely on one key asset.

- So think about any piece
of portable technology,

a phone, a tablet, a laptop,

and, to an increasing degree
nowadays, an electric vehicle.

What do they all
need? A battery.

- We're facing exactly the
same issues and challenges

with electric
vehicles as Edison was

at the end of the 19th century.

Fast-charging, reliable
and long-range.

That's what we need to make
these electric vehicles

the solution for the future.

- [Narrator] The challenge
that Edison wrestled with

100 years ago has been
taken up by new hands today.

- There's one person that
really led the charge

in manufacturing electric
vehicles, and that's Elon Musk.

- As the market for electric
vehicles dramatically grows,

we are gonna need a
lot more batteries

to supply these vehicles,
and what Elon Musk sees

is that we need batteries to
be produced on a mega scale.

- [Narrator] But Tesla
and other manufacturers

haven't settled for mega.

They're going giga.

(intense orchestral music)

- Gigafactories.

Massive factories with
open-ended infrastructure,

which means they can
grow exponentially,

just as the demand
probably will.

- Musk's first
Gigafactory, in Nevada,

was a response to
the age-old equation

of supply versus demand.

It's currently over
4.5 million square feet

of manufacturing space, with
a workforce of around 10,000.

- He plans to produce 60%

of the world's supply
of EV batteries,

which is obviously an enormously
ambitious undertaking.

- [Narrator] Tesla
is leading the charge

in developing Gigafactories
all over the world.

And, given Musk is now
operating in space,

who knows where
the next will be?

(dramatic orchestral music)

From the first stone tool used
by our earliest ancestors,

technology has
evolved in concert

with the evolution
of humans themselves.

The hand ax Lebombo Bone began
the millennia-long journey

on the road to the digital age.

To a world of
boundless technology

that our ancestors may
have believed was magic.

Yet none of the modern tools
and devices would exist

without the breakthroughs
made over centuries

by pioneers of mathematics,
calculation, and computing.

Tools and technology
enabled our ancestors

to survive and thrive,

and to hand down a
legacy of innovation

which has been built upon

by successive
generations worldwide.

From the stone chip
to the computer chip,

inventiveness and
ingenuity never ceases.

Extraordinary inventions
and incredible innovation,

it all stems from our
earliest ancient engineers.

(dynamic orchestral music)