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In 1912, a headlight-maker and an auto magnate built the first cross-country road to spur the demand for new cars; 70 years and $125 billion later, the highway system had grown to 42,000 miles. Rare photographs and interviews tell the incredible story of the “paving of America”.
Undeniably essential to modern life, the telephone is the most important, influential, and effective communication tool ever developed. Stay on the line with The History Channel to witness this invention's unbelievably dramatic true story-one of false starts, close calls, and a bitter rivalry.
All his life, Alexander Graham Bell was driven by a desire to create a machine that would make it easier for the deaf to speak and hear. Using an actual human ear from a cadaver to understand the nature of sound, Bell even enlisted a young Thomas Edison to help invent what would become the telephone.
Exploring how one man's speaking device has grown into the technological web that links humankind, this thrilling program also revisits the race between Bell and rival Elisha Gray—who was building a similar design but ultimately filed the history-changing patent just two hours after Bell.
Many rivers quenched the thirst of millions in the American west and around the world. Without these aqueducts, some of the earth’s largest cities would turn into gigantic ghost towns. Their technology has been in use for over two thousand years. But today these engineering marvels cost billions of dollars to build, requiring thousands of men to toil for years on end. Aqueducts have made some men famous and others fabulously wealthy. In Los Angeles one man’s vision took one hundred thousand men to complete and a great city was truly born. In Northern California the most famous conservationist of our time waged the political fight of his life in an attempt to save one of nature’s most spectacular valleys from San Francisco’s demand for more water.
At the 1939 World's Fair, NBC announced the arrival of scheduled, broadcast television, a development the public was initially slow to accept. But in the following years, TV revolutionized entertainment and modern culture. This program charts the history of the small screen, from the early pioneers in the field to today's technological advances. Interviews with media figures offer an insider's insight into the industry that changed the world.
They are the machines at the center of the information age. They have revolutionized our lives and our world, making previously unthinkable tasks automatic and linking people together around the planet.
Join MODERN MARVELS® for a fascinating look at the history of the computer. See Charles Babbage's Victorian "counting machine," a mechanical computer that produced perfect results for any mathematical problem of six figures or less. Discover how IBM was launched with a punch-card counting machine built to speed the 1890 census. Trace the technological advancements that led to the first true modern "computers" and the rapid progress that saw computers shrink from room-sized monsters to the desktop units that are revolutionizing life in the '90s.
The development of the photo camera was one of the most significant invention. The captured image has transformed the way we see our world, preserving moments forever with the push of a button. Modern Marvels; presents the strange saga of the birth of photography.
Until the airplane soared on the scene, the President was mostly Washington-bound; then, in 1910, Teddy Roosevelt took to the sky! From FDR's custom-tailored prop plane to today's technological wonder, the program examines the evolution of the Oval Office in the Sky.
The Pentagon denied its existence until the President blew the cover. One of the most expensive projects in military history, it was attacked as an extravagant waste. But the billions of dollars and long years of development paid off during the Gulf War. Night after night, F-117 Stealth Fighters performed their deadly missions undetected by Iraq's multi-billion dollar radar system.Modern Marvels takes to the skies with the most advanced planes ever built. Learn how the radical design and cutting-edge technology of the F-117 and its larger cousin, the B-2 Bomber, allow these planes to avoid detection by even the most sophisticated radar systems. In exclusive interviews, Air Force officials and company executives recall the long struggle to perfect an "invisible" airplane, and combat pilots reveal what it is like to pilot the most effective strike aircraft ever built.
After more than two millennia, the pyramids continue to inspire architects.
They are the centerpiece of all great amusement parks, heart-stopping rides with names like The Cyclone and the Beast.
The names are designed to inspire terror in the faint of heart: The Beast, Raptor, Steel Phantom, Colossus, Cyclone and Demon Drop. In amusement parks and boardwalks all over the world, the roller coaster is king.
Beginning as far back as the turn of the century, roller coasters' designers have competed to build them faster, taller, steeper. They've flipped riders upside down, made them weightless, and applied more g-forces to their bodies than pilots experience in a fighter jet. As technology advanced through the twentieth century, roller coasters kept pace. Today, they are pushing the outside of the envelope in terms of what the human body is capable of withstanding. And still, eager patrons are demanding bigger and better thrills.
From their origins in Russia to the high-tech wonders of the mega-amusement parks, this is the thrilling story of the development of roller coasters.
The stargazers of mankind build observatories to unravel the secrets of the universe.
A wonder of the ancient world, the Great Wall of China is one of mankind's most massive building achievements. Yet contrary to popular belief, there is no single wall of China, but rather a series of walls built for different reasons at different times. MODERN MARVELS embarks on a journey of discovery, investigating the mysterious history surrounding this cultural marvel. Historians and modern engineers discuss the planning, construction, and function of various segments while extensive location footage illuminates the stunning majesty of its architecture. Legend claims that the wall is a wellspring of warfare, madness, and death--can this be true?
