Local Heroes S02E05 · Wales

Overview

On a visit to Wales cycling scientist Adam Hart-Davis gets bogged down on the road to Holyhead. Fortunately, one of his heroes is the great road builder Thomas Telford, so Hart-Davis is able to rebuild the road using scientific principles. He also finds out more about the reclusive inventor who claimed his death ray could kill a rat at 64 feet; the bonesetters of Anglesey, whose extraordinary skill was passed down through four generations; and Robert Recorde who invented the equals sign. In Merthyr Tydfil, where the first railway locomotive was run 25 years before George Stephenson's Rocket. Hart-Davis celebrates its inventor, the Cornish wrestler Richard Trevithick.

Torrents

Subtitles

Episodes

1. 1 1. Devon1997-01-06Adam begins his search in Devon where he discusses the work of great British engineering innovators, such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Henry Moule and Thomas Savery. He also looks a
2. 2 2. Scotland1997-01-13Adam Hart-Davis goes in search of pioneers of science and invention in Scotland. He investigates the achievements of Alexander Bain, Charles Macintosh, James Clerk Maxwell, the Rev
3. 3 3. East1997-01-20Hart-Davis's journey around the country takes him to Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk. En route he re-creates a treadmill invented by William Hase for the punishment of prisoners, and ma
4. 4 4. North East1997-01-27In Tyne and Wear Adam Hart-Davis re-creates the device conceived by Whitley Bay's Gladstone Adams. Travelling home from the FA Cup final, Adams had to fold down his windscreen in o
5. 5 5. Wales1997-02-03On a visit to Wales cycling scientist Adam Hart-Davis gets bogged down on the road to Holyhead. Fortunately, one of his heroes is the great road builder Thomas Telford, so Hart-Dav
6. 6 6. South East1997-02-10Cycling scientist Adam Hart-Davis visits London, where he re-creates a device invented by Hertha Ayrton to clear trenches of poison gas during the First World War. On the Thames he
7. 7 7. Science Week Special1997-03-20
8. 8 8. Exploding Heroes1997-10-31