• 6
    collected

Great Experiments

Season 1 1985

  • 1985-11-05T00:00:00Z
  • 25m
  • 2h 30m (6 episodes)
  • Documentary
Great Experiments was a science series shown on BBC2 in the autumn of 1985, presented by highly respected scientist Professor Heinz Wolff who incidentally celebrated his 80th birthday on 29th April 2008.

6 episodes

Series Premiere

1985-11-05T00:00:00Z

1x01 Energy For Sale

Series Premiere

1x01 Energy For Sale

  • 1985-11-05T00:00:00Z25m

This programme looks at fireworks and the discovery of a commercial process for making ammonia easily converted into nitrate providing explosives for the First World War and fertilisers to fuel the agricultural revolution of the 1960s.

1985-11-12T00:00:00Z

1x02 Keepers Of Light

1x02 Keepers Of Light

  • 1985-11-12T00:00:00Z25m

This programme examines the work of Henry Fox-Talbot, the father of modern Photography.

1985-11-19T00:00:00Z

1x03 At The End Of A Rainbow

1x03 At The End Of A Rainbow

  • 1985-11-19T00:00:00Z25m

This programme reveals the connection between William Henry Perkin's accidental discovery of the first synthetic dye and the identification of the cause of tuberculosis and the cure for syphilis.

1x04 Bright Sparks And Long Waves

  • 1985-11-26T00:00:00Z25m

This programme focuses on the work of Heinrich Hertz who discovered that an oscillating spark gave off waves of electromagnetic energy, knowledge that was used by Marconi. initially, to develop Morse code signals.

1985-12-03T00:00:00Z

1x05 Number Crunching

1x05 Number Crunching

  • 1985-12-03T00:00:00Z25m

This programme tells the story of Charles Babbage, a mathematician who, in the 1840s, became impatient with the mathematical tables of the time and built his own 'difference engine' - a precursor of the modern computer.

1x06 Another Time Another Place

  • 1985-12-10T00:00:00Z25m

This programme looks at Yorkshire born John Harrison's invention of the grasshopper escapement, used in marine

timekeepers and how in 1884 the Greenwich Meridian became prime Zero longitude of the world.

Loading...