Industrial Revelations

Season 4

2006 · 10 episodes · 5h 0m in all

Episodes

1. 1

   1. Bread, Beer and Salt

   1 Jan 2006 · 30 min

   With industrialisation, there were more mouths in towns and cities to feed and fewer men left to work the land. So how did food production keep up?

2. 2

   2. Building Europe

   1 Jan 2006 · 30 min

   How did the building trade keep up with the demand for materials during the expansion of the Industrial Revolution, and what do oranges have to do with it?

3. 3

   3. The City

   1 Jan 2006 · 30 min

   Cities were traditionally developed around water until the railway age expanded their boundaries. As the population grew, how did they cope?

4. 4

   4. Cotton, Linen and Rope

   1 Jan 2006 · 30 min

   For centuries craftsmen and women turned natural fibres into clothes. Ronald Topp explores what happened when machines began to replace manual labour.

5. 5

   5. Eiffel's Tower

   1 Jan 2006 · 30 min

   Eiffel was the world's greatest exponent of the use of iron in construction, creating the his famous Tower in 1889. How did engineering in iron reach such heights?

6. 6

   6. Exploding Engines

   1 Jan 2006 · 30 min

   Ronald Top examines the beginnings of motor cars. Benz and Daimler were early pioneers, but prior to that there were attempts at steam-powered road vehicles.

7. 7

   7. High Fliers

   1 Jan 2006 · 30 min

   Flight has always been humanity's dream. Ronald Top discovers that thanks to some paper thrown onto a fire, a duck, a cock and a sheep, it was made possible.

8. 8

   8. Perfect Porcelain

   1 Jan 2006 · 30 min

   Ronald Topp investigates the new techniques and ways of working that turned local potteries into an international industry.

9. 9

   9. Steaming up the Alps

   1 Jan 2006 · 30 min

   Ronald Top examines how railways conquered the mountains, with a little help from George Stevenson. He's in the Alps to see how funicular railways work.

10. 10

    10. Swedish Waterways

    1 Jan 2006 · 30 min

    Waterways are flourishing in Europe, but how is it that a system designed for 17th-century trade is still viable in the 21st? Ronald Topp finds out.