Connections (1978)
Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the history of science and invention, Connections explores an "Alternative View of Change" that rejects the conventional linear and teleological view of historical progress. To demonstrate this view, Burke begins each episode with a particular event or innovation in the past (usually ancient or medieval) and traces a path from that event through a series of connections to a fundamental and essential aspect of the modern world.
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Episodes
- 1 1. Revolutions1994-01-02 · 22mWhat do all these things have in common—three grandfathers' lifetimes, two revolutions, 1750 Cornish steam engines for Cornwall's tin mines, water in mines, pumps, steam engines, W
- 2 2. Sentimental Journeys1994-01-16 · 22mWhat do these have in common – Freud, lifestyle crisis, electric shock therapy, hypnotherapy, magnetism, phrenology, penology, physiology, synthetic dyes, the Bunsen burner, absorp
- 3 3. Getting it Together1994-02-06 · 22mJames Burke explains the relationship between hot air balloons and laughing gas, and goes on to surgery, hydraulic-water gardens, hydraulic rams, tunneling through the Alps, the Or
- 4 4. Whodunit?1994-02-20 · 22mThis episode starts with a billiard ball and ends with a billiard ball. Along the way, Burke examines Georgius Agricola's De Re Metallica, how mining supported war, the role of mon
- 5 5. Something for Nothing1994-03-06 · 22mHow do space shuttle landings start with the vacuum which was forbidden by the Church? Burke takes us on an adventure with barometers, weather forecasting, muddy and blacktop roads
- 6 6. Echoes of the Past1994-03-20 · 22mThe past in this case starts with the tea in Dutch-ruled India, examines the Japanese tea ceremony, Zen Buddhism, porcelain, the architecture of Florence, Delftware, Wedgwood, Free
- 7 7. Photo Finish1994-04-03 · 22mAnother series of discoveries examined by Burke includes Eastman Kodak's Brownie, the disappearing elephant scare of 1867, billiard balls, celluloid as a substitute for ivory, fals
- 8 8. Separate Ways1994-04-17 · 22mBurke shows how to get from sugar to atomic weapons by two totally independent paths. The first involves African slaves, Abolitionist societies, Sampson Lloyd II, wire, suspension
- 9 9. High Times1994-05-08 · 22mThe connection between polyethylene and Big Ben is a few degrees of separation, so let us recount them: polyethylene, radar, soap, artificial dyes, color perception, tapestries, Fa
- 10 10. Deja Vu1994-05-22 · 22mJames Burke provides evidence that history does repeat itself by examining the likes of black and white movies, conquistadors, Peruvian Incas, small pox, settlements that look like
- 11 11. New Harmony1994-05-22 · 22mA dream of utopia is followed from microchips to Singapore, from the transistor to its most important element, germanium, to Ming vases and cobalt fakes (which contribute to the bl
- 12 12. Hot Pickle1994-06-05 · 22mBurke starts out in a spice market in Istanbul where you can find hot pickle, recounts the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, follows the trail of pepper, tea, and opiu
- 13 13. The Big Spin1994-06-05 · 22mThe Big Spin is what California's lottery TV show is called. And lottery being a game of chance, from here Burke takes us through Alexander Fleming's chance discovery of penicillin
- 14 14. Bright Ideas1994-06-19 · 22mGin and tonic was invented to combat malaria in British colonies like Java, which leads us to Geneva, where cleanliness is an obsession. Here, tonic water was sealed with a disposa
- 15 15. Making Waves1994-07-03 · 22mA permanent wave in ladies' hair is aided by curlers, and this leads us to explore borax, taking us to Switzerland, Johann Sutter's scam, and Sutter's Mill, and that means the disc
- 16 16. Routes1994-07-17 · 22mJethro Tull, a sick English lawyer, recuperates sipping wine and contributes the hoe to help fix farming problems. Farm production is not going so well in France, either. François
- 17 17. One Word1994-07-24 · 22mThe one word that changed everything was "filioque", but we must make a trip to Constantinople, visit the Renaissance, meet Aldus Manutius of Venice, explore abbreviations, learn a
- 18 18. Sign Here1994-07-31 · 22mMurphy's Law says you need insurance from Lloyd's of London, so pack your bags to study international law and protect yourself from piracy by calculating the probability. You bette
- 19 19. Better Than the Real Thing1994-08-07 · 22mThis episode starts in the 1890s with bicycles and bloomers and then takes a look at boots, zippers, sewing machines, and infinitesimal difference. Speaking of small, we look at mi
- 20 20. Flexible Response1994-08-14 · 22mA whimsical look at the myth of the English longbow, Robin Hood, sheep, the need to drain land with windmills, the effect of compound interest, decimal fractions (wrongly pointing
Cast
James BurkeSelf - PresenterImages
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