Great Inventions Season 1 Episodes

Episode 1

Crash Test Dummies

Episode 2

Jeans

Episode 3

Coffee

Episode 4

Rollercoasters

Episode 5

Industrial Robots

Episode 6

Concrete

Episode 7

Elevators

Episode 8

Condoms

Episode 9

Bicycles

Episode 10

Retaining Dams

Episode 11

Hook and Loop Fastener

Episode 12

Harvesters

Episode 13

Glass

Episode 14

The Fridge

Episode 15

Harbours

Episode 16

Agriculture

Episode 17

Cruise Ships

Episode 18

Prosthetics

Episode 19

Bread

Episode 20

Criminalistics

Episode 21

Batteries

Episode 22

Wine

Episode 23

Genetic Engineering

Episode 24

Tins

Episode 25

Beer

Episode 26

Flushing toilets and sewers

We can now enjoy music, a heated seat and even a perfectly targeted spray jet while spending a penny. The history of the toilet goes back a long way and even the ancient Romans built latrines. But a special place to answer the call of nature is not enough. The result also has to be transported away. Great Inventions follows the path of this bodily waste through the sewage system to the treatment plant and beyond - and explains why the concentration of drugs in our rivers is increasing.

Episode 27

Suspension Bridges

Bridges are symbolic of all sorts of interpersonal and other connections. But they are also the physical connection between land masses, connecting different parts of a city, people and continents. Sometimes delicate in appearance, sometimes mighty, they are structures that have to meet the most stringent requirements. Great Inventions takes a journey through their history, from the simple plank over a stream to the suspension bridge that is over a kilometer long, and explains what aircraft have to do with bridges and how the tensile forces are kept under control.

Episode 28

Computer Games

They stare at the screen spellbound, move their fingers around the keyboard at lightning speed, communicate worldwide via a headset, and move around and fire with unerring accuracy using a joystick. They are game-rs. It is a world where teenage programmers are as rich as rock stars, professional game-rs become icons and fill huge stadiums around the world, and people play for nights on end to advance to the next level. Great Inventions takes viewers into the world of Marios and monitors, conventions and consoles.

Episode 29

Cars

No roof, only three wheels and rather uncomfortable - that's how you could describe the first petrol-driven car. Developed in 1885-86 by the German Karl Benz, it was far too expensive for most people. The American Henry Ford changed all that a few decades later. He revolutionised the production process and made cars affordable for almost anyone, with his Model T. Few inventions have had such a profound effect on the world as the car. Great Inventions celebrates this unique invention and looks into the future of mobility.

Episode 30

Subways

Initially ridiculed, underground railways are now a success around the world. The era of underground passenger transport began more than 150 years ago in London with steam locomotives. The smoke was even "sold" as a cure by the operators. The tunnel network was gradually expanded using the shield tunnelling method and electric trains replaced the steam locomotives. Great Inventions ventures underground around the world, watches giant drills cut their way through the earth and takes a look into the future of the subway.

Episode 31

Supermarkets

Meat from the butcher, bread from the bakery, vegetables from the greengrocer - fresh food, personal service, but very time-consuming. This is what shopping looked like until the birth of the supermarket. After some initial difficulties, the new shopping experience got an unexpected boost due to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Today, supermarkets are an indispensable part of our daily lives. Great Inventions explores the link between the history of the supermarket and that of the car and highlights other inventions that have made large shops big business.

Episode 32

Television

TV is a medium that stimulates the imagination, arouses curiosity, promotes education and allows millions of people to participate in major events. Three men were involved in the invention, a farm boy who produced an electronic image, Charles Jenkins from San Francisco who used moving silhouette images and the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird, known by historians as the father of modern television. Great Inventions brings the story of television to life with spectacular images such as the moon landing in people's living rooms.

Episode 33

Jet Engines

How do you manage to generate the thrust necessary to keep a plane in the air without one of the engines exploding due to the amount of heat generated? The solution was to use ten combustion chambers instead of just one big one. This was the idea of Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine. Initially used by the military in jet fighters, after World War II jet aircraft enabled millions of people to travel the world. Great Inventions takes a very special flight through the history of aviation.

Episode 34

Satellites

Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, was launched into space on a rocket by the Soviet Union in 1957. A year later, the USA followed suit with Explorer. Today there are more than 2,000 satellites in orbit around the Earth, used mainly for telephony, television, radio and digital data transmission. A large number are also used for scientific research and meteorology. Great Inventions explains the technology without which modern communication and many of the amenities we now take for granted would not be possible.

Episode 35

The X-Ray

"I have seen my death." These were the words of a woman when she saw an image of her hand. The woman was Anna Rontgen and the image was the first X-ray of a part of the human body. It was made by her husband, the German physics professor Wilhelm Rontgen. He had previously invented the X-ray while experimenting with so-called Crookes tubes. Great Inventions charts this revolutionary technology, including bizarre images of X-ray equipment in shoe shops, the importance of electron beams in medicine and their connection with space.