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The
Series:
When I was in college (a long while ago) I happened upon a
documentary series on PBS that has stayed with my through the
intervening
decades. It was on the history of
science, and since I was studying chemistry that was right up my
alley. The
thing impressed me about the show was that the host (and writer), James
Burke,
took a wide view of man's progress. He
didn't limit himself to one discipline, nor did he merely catalog what
humans
have discovered. He presented an early
innocuous invention or event and then traced the effects of that
advancement through
history, connecting one discovery to another until, centuries later, we
find that the use of the stirrup at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 set
in
motion a chain of events that eventually produced the telephone. The threads that the show traces are always unexpected,
unusaul, and very engaging. This 10 part series, Connections, is
available on DVD from Ambrose Video, a
company that primarily sells to the academic market.
Though the price is a bit steep, the content
is well worth the cost.
James Burke's series is rather unique in the fact that it
takes a very broad view of science and history.
The show has an interdisciplinary approach that works
surprisingly
well. He doesn't just talk about
advances in physics or astronomy, he discusses an advance in metallurgy
then
jumps to chemistry then engineering then the politics of the day and
how that
created forces that led to a discovery in biology.
The time scale is rather large too. Many
documentaries confine themselves to one
era, the Dark Ages or WWII. Burke doesn't
limit his examination to one time frame, and determining just how much
time has
passed can get a bit confusing in some episodes, but runs the gamut
from
prehistory to the present day. (Well, up
to 1978 when the show was made.)
To give an idea of the way he strings together necessity,
economic forces, and ingenuity to create an episode, take just one
small part
from the episode The Long Chain: An
Englishman, working with coal and tar, discovers the first artificial
dye which
the Britons pretty much ignore. The
Germans
take note however and start to explore the chemistry of color. The Germans also have a radical idea that
most of the rest of Europe thinks is
insane: they admit people to their
universities based on merit rather than family background.
Soon they have a lot of smart people studying
chemistry and they produce dyes of every color imaginable.
This is exported and the money they make
transforms Germany
from an agrarian society to a technological one in a mere 30 years. These advances make the population grow, and
you have to feed all those new Germans.
Meanwhile, an American named McCormick invents the combine
harvester and that makes wheat production skyrocket.
The price falls. In Germany
however the aristocratic
Junkers have a lot of money tied up in another grain, rye.
They don't want the competition from cheap
American wheat so, being a powerful force in the government that they
are, they
ban its importation. The Junkers don't
use their rye to make bread however, they export it since the price is
higher
in other countries. That leaves Germans
with no wheat OR rye.
So they start growing their own wheat, but there's a
problem: they need fertilizer. That has to be imported from Chile
which is expensive. German has the best
chemists in the world
though, and chemist by the name of Fritz Haber (along with Carl Bosch)
developed a way of reacting Nitrogen gas with Hydrogen (both plentiful)
and
creating Ammonia. (It's known as the
Haber Process (or sometimes the Haber-Bosch process) and he won a Noble
Prize
for the work.) Ammonia is the first step
in making fertilizer.
In 1914 war broke out.
The first thing the English fleet did was to set up a blockade
so the Germany
couldn't get anymore materials for munitions.
They only had about a year's supply on hand, and without more
gunpowder
and explosives there's no way they could win the war.
However, Ammonia can also be turned into
potassium nitrate, which when mixed with sulfur and charcoal creates
gunpowder. With the Haber Process Germany
was able to
make munitions and that extended WWI for years.
So, through a series of connections that no one could ever have
imagined, the discovery of artificial dyes led to the First World War
going on
for much, much longer than it would have otherwise.
Of course that's just a small section of the 50-minute
show. It actually starts with a group of
Dutchman building a new cargo ship in the 16th Century and
ends with
Dupont creating Nylon and the revolution of plastics.
(Nylon was originally going to be called "Dparooit"
for "Dupont Pulls A Rabbit Out Of Its Hat" but luckily cooler minds
prevailed.)
The wonder of each program is seeing how interconnected
events lead to unexpected results. Burke
is an excellent host, adding a bit of levity to each show but also
keeping the
viewers engaged with hits about where the trail with lead next. While some of the connections are a bit
tenuous, the show does spark the imagination and presents an intriguing
alternative to traditional discipline-centric views of human
advancement.
The DVD:
Audio:
The two channel mono soundtrack is adequate. The
dialog is always clear and clean though
the fidelity is limited to the technology of the time.
Nothing special but not bad either.
Video:
The full frame image is fine, but not outstanding.
The prints used for the transfer are a bit
old, and there is some dirt and minor damage visible.
The colors are only fair, a bit more muted
than I would have liked but the level of detail is fine.
About an average presentation from something
this old.
Extras:
Unfortunately there are no extras.
Final Thoughts:
Connections is one of the most interesting documentary
series I've ever had the pleasure to view.
It's engaging, intelligent, entertaining (my 13 and 16 year old
sons
loved it) and most of all thought provoking.
While the lack of extras is disappointing and the A/V quality is
only
average, this is an excellent series. It
should be on the top of anyone list who wants to understand not only
the past,
but the current world as well. Highly
Recommended. |
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