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1/13RadioTimes50 Great British Inventions 00

A special 24-page(magazine inspired

by the BBC2 seasongenius of invention


2/13

MICHAEL MOSLEY

RadioTimes50 Great British Inventions

Sir James Dyson once

told me that he belieed

part of the reason the

British are so good at

inenting things is

because we are an island race. Im not so

sure I can point to any one particular British

characteristic that has encouraged such a

great inenting tradition, but our geography

certainly has helped. It created its own

pressures, separated us intellectually as well

as physically from the rest of Europe. It madeour relatiely afuent, well-educated nation

turn to science at a time when the rest of the

world did not. It gae us a head start.

The result is that we hae an enormous

amount of history that we can draw on for

inspiration. We led the Industrial Reolution,

and I can look back with huge respect at all

those steps in our engineering and inentie

past that make my life today so easy.

That past which BBC2 is celebrating this

year with a season of programmes called

Genius of Invention can also fuel the next

generation of scientists and inentors. Our

uniersities are world class, with a great

history of technology behind them. We turn

out a phenomenal number of Nobel Prize

winners, and our heritage has made us a ery

open place, ready to embrace talent from

around the world.

But there is a downside. Perhaps because

we are used to getting there rst, we constantly

fail to commercialise British inention. Tim

Berners-Lee, the father of the worldwide web,

is rightly applauded for giing his inention to

the world yet on another leel it would hae

been nice if he could hae beneted from his

work in the way Googles founders hae done.

Richard Treithick the inentor of my choice

in this supplement (see page 7) is a great

example of a man who doesnt get the

recognition he deseres because he failed

to commercialise his inention.

Attitudes are changing, and I hae

absolutely no doubt that our economic

future lies in tapping into British

inentieness. Programmes such

as Dragons Denand gures like Stee Jobs

and James Dyson hae certainly inspiredmy children. They want to make things, but

they also want to sell things. They want to

be entrepreneurs.

We need inention now to help pull us out

of our current morass, and Im ery hopeful

our next generation of inentors is going

to do it. To achiee this, we must reconnect

with a culture of inn oation that sered these

islands so well in the past: where scientists

and inentors are appreciated, and where

people see things that inspire them and

want to make them een better.

3 LawnmowerINvENTED1827

INvENTOREdwIn BEArd BuddIng

What could be more quintessentially British thana perfectly mown lawn in summer? Until inventor

Edwin Beard Budding came up with the lawnmowein 1827, this was the preserve only of the very rich,who could afford an army of people to cut their

lawns with scythes. Budding already had a

reputation for inventiveness: he devised a repeatinpistol that predated Samuel Colts, a cotton cardinmachine of a design that is still used today, and

the rst screw-adjusted spanner.His rst mower was 19in wide, had a box tha

collected the clippings as they were thrownforward by the blades and allowed the user

to adjust the height of the cut. It was, atrst, still a fairly exclusive item: Oxfordcolleges and the Royal Zoological Societywere among his rst customers. But its

popularity spread as more British homecame to have gardens. And because

it made lawns more affordable,it gave an important boost

to sports that wereplayed on grass, such

as cricket, rugby

and football.

A nation foundedon invention

Mc My ,The Geniusof Invention, c

BBC2 x

1Thermosask

INvENTED1892INvENTOR

SIr JAMES dEwAr

This humble invention was thebrainchild of Sir James Dewar, aneminent professor of chemistry at

Cambridge and leading light of theRoyal Institution. Dewar didntinvent it to keep tea hot on picnics,but to help his experiments on

cooling gases, like air and oxygen,

to such low temperatures thatthey would liquefy.

The ask was actually two asks,one inside the other, touching onlywhere they joined at the top, andwith a vacuum in between. Its

purpose was to keep its contentseither warmer or cooler than theambient temperature outside.

Sadly for Dewar he never

patented his invention. When theGerman Thermos Company did,he sued them and lost.

2 Worldwide webINvENTED1989INvENTORTIM BErnErS-LEE

Not to be confused with the internet, which is a system oflinked computer networks, the worldwide web was inventedby British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. It was whileworking at Cern, the European particle physics lab, that he

wrote a proposal showing how hypertext a way of sharinginformation via links could be married with the internet tocreate a system for fellow scientists to share data.

He created the rst server in late 1990 and, on 6 August,1991, the web went live, with the rst page explaining howto search and how to set up a site. One critical innovationwas that web users could link their page to another without

the need for the other users approval. And Berners-Leegave his invention to the world for free.

Berners-leesparents wereBoth involved

in thedevelopMentof one of the

earliestCoMputers, theferranti Mark 1,unveiled in 1951.

DID YOU KNOW?

4Float glassInvEnTEd1959InvEnTOr AlAstAir Pilkington

When we think of inventions, its machines and gadgets that

usually come to mind. But what about all the processes neededto create and manufacture the materials the modern world ismade of? Take glass: almost all the glass we use today is made

using the oat process, devised by Alastair Pilkington in 1959.Molten glass is poured from a furnace onto a shallow bath of

molten tin: the glass oats on the tin, and under its own weightit spreads out to form a level surface. As it gradually cools on

the tin, the glass is drawn off in a continuous ribbon. Thisprocess made it far easier and cheaper to make high-qualityglass, without the need for grinding and polishing.


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5 Chocolate barinventeD 1847inventorJS FRy & SoNS

The rst chocolate bar was created by JS Fry &

Sons of Bristol in 1847. It was sold to the publicas chocolate delicieux manger delicious toeat because, until this point, chocolate hadbeen exclusively consumed as a drink.

Frys company, originally an apothecary, hadbeen selling drinking chocolate since the 1750s,but the breakthrough came about when thecompany decided to combine cocoa powder

with sugar and cocoa butter to make a productthat could be moulded into a solid bar. It wasthe cocoa butter the oil extracted from cocoabeans that was the key: its melting point

matches the temperature of the human body,

so it stays solid at room temperature butmelts in the mouth.

When other chocolate-makers copied thebar, Frys upped the ante by introducing therst cream-lled bar in 1866. Moreinnovations followed and by the First World

War, Frys was one of the largest employersin Bristol.

frys mergedwith cadburyin 1919, their

assetscombined in anew holding

firm, the britishcocoa and

chocolatecompany.

DID YOU KNOW?

6 Electric telegraphinventeD1837inventorSCHaRLeS WHeaTSToNe

aNd WILLIaM CooKe

The electric telegraph was a world-shrinking technologylike no other. The rst working system was demonstrated in

1837 by the British physicist Charles Wheatstone andhis young engineer partner, William Cooke. The rstfully operational telegraph ran from 1839 between

Paddington and West Drayton railway stations in

London, but at rst it was slow to catch on. That isuntil New Years Day, 1845. John Tawell, who had just

murdered a lady of his acquaintance, jumped on a train

at Slough and made his getaway. But when the policearrived, the station clerk was able to telegraph Paddington,

where Tawell was arrested when his train pulled in.It was a sensation, and from here on the technology

exploded. Morse Code made it efcient; telegraph cableswere soon everywhere in 1858 the rst transatlantic cable

was laid and by the end of the century there were morethan 150,000 miles of cable connecting the globe.

8Light bulbINVeNTed1880INVeNToR Joseph swan

Cheap and reliable electric lighting was a holygrail for 19th-century inventors. But didntThomas Edison get there rst? No! He was

beaten to it by Britains very own JosephSwan, working out of his private lab at hishouse in Gateshead. Swan got his patent and started manufacturing and selling his

bulbs in 1880. He developed a tiny lamentthat used specially treated cotton, and set

it inside an oxygen-free vacuum so that itwouldnt catch re when it glowed white-hot.

Swans rst bulbs lasted little more than12 hours but, unlike gas lamps, there was noame or dirty smoke and they soon caught

on. The impresario Richard dOyly Carteseized the opportunity to make his newSavoy Theatre in London stand out andwhen it opened the following year it was the

rst public building in the world to be litelectrically throughout. DOyly Carte eventook to the stage himself holding a glowingbulb aloft, he ceremoniously broke it in front

of the audience to prove it was safe.

7 Modern freextinguisherinventeD1818inventor

GeoRGe WILLIaM MaNBy

The rst recorded re extinguisherwas invented and patented by aLondon chemist called Ambrose

Godfrey in 1723. Godfreys inventionwas perhaps motivated by his lineof business he was a successful

manufacturer of the highly ammablechemical phosphorus. His gadget rathersurprisingly used gunpowder to scatterthe re-extinguishing liquid, but theres

at least one contemporaneous newspaperreport of its success in putting out a blaze.

The rst modern extinguisher, theExtincteur, was invented by naval captain

George William Manby in 1818. Its said hewas inspired by the sight ofremen struggling to ght

the ames on the top oorsof a house re in Edinburgh.His solution was a portablecopper cask containing three

to four gallons of potassiumcarbonate, which wasdispersed by compressedair via a stopcock.

george williammanby is mostfamous for hismanby mortar,

which fireda line to

strugglingships off shore,enabling people

to be rescued.

DID YOU KNOW?

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4/13

11 Carbon fbreInvented 1963

InventorsRoyal aiRcRaft EstablishmEnt EnginEERs

This marvellous material is one of many inventions developed by themilitary that are incredibly useful for us all. In 1963, engineers at the

Royal Aircraft Establishments research station at Farnborough workedout how to reinforce plastics with carbon laments to produce a materialthat was strong, lightweight and could be mass-produced.

Early on, there were setbacks carbon bre was used for the turbine

blades for the Rolls-Royce RB-211 jet engine, but the lightweight bladesjust werent strong enough. They failed the bird-strike test theyshattered when a frozen chicken was red into them at high

speed and the engine had to be scrapped at huge cost.But the inventors at Farnborough found otheruses for the material and today the materialhas thousands of applications in

boats, cars, motorbikes,sports equipment, andeven in the fuselagesof jumbo jets.

9PneumatictyreInvented1887InventorJohn boyd dunlop

In 1845, railway engineer Robert William

Thomson patented the worlds rst pneumatictyres at the age of just 23. He demonstrated his

aerial wheels a belt of air-lled rubber tted insidea leather casing on horse-drawn carriages in LondonsRegents Park. Unfortunately there was no real market forthem the automobile and bicycle hadnt been invented yet.

Forty years later, Belfast vet John Boyd Dunlop, unaware of

Thomsons earlier invention, came up with pneumatic tyres tostop his son getting headaches riding his bumpy tricycle. Thistime around, the invention coincided with the new bicyclecraze. Dunlop persuaded the captain of the Belfast Cruisers

Cycling Club to try his tyres: when he chalked up a string ofracing victories, the success of the invention was assured.

10 CatseyeInvented 1933InventorpERcy shaw

Percy Shaw was a Yorkshire road contractor who devised the Catseyereector in 1933. He liked to claim that inspiration struck when hewas driving home from the pub on a foggy night and saw thereection of his headlights in the eyes of a cat, sitting by the road.

The lens that reects light back at its source had in fact been createdby another British inventor, Richard Hollins Murray, a few yearsearlier. Shaws masterstroke was to wrap this lens in a exible rubbercasing and set it into the centre of the road. (In the Second World

War, the Ministry of Transport realised that Catseyes were the

perfect way to keep roads safely lit at night duringblackouts.) Shaws Catseye was voted the greatest

design of the 20th century.

12Discbrakes

Invented1902InventorfREdERick william

lanchEstER

Frederick William Lanchesterwas one of Britains rstmotorcar designers and

manufacturers. Disc brakes

employ brake pads that squeezeeach side of the rotor turning a

wheel, and they were tted to the carsmade by his Lanchester Engine

Company in Birmingham. They werequicker to cool down and to dry out than

the drum brakes used in most cars at the time.Sadly, Lanchester lacked the money and

business acumen to develop them properly.He made his brakes using copper, which woredown too quickly, and they didnt catch on.

It was only in the 1950s, after Lanchester haddied, that car makers decided to use strongerand more durable materials, like cast iron.Today, almost all cars use his invention.

the rae team

improved upon

experiments

with carbon

fibre

previously

conducted by

american and

japanese

researchers.

DID YOU KNOW?

13 Steam engineInvented 1801

InventorRichaRd tREvithick

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wa pw a y limi x, bu i wa

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Michael Mosleys four-part series, The Genius

of Invention, begins next week on BBC2

michaEl moslEy



5/13

RadioTimes50 Great British Inventions RadioTimes50 Great British Inventions

14 Soda waterInvented 1772InventorJoseph priestley

Joseph Priestley was an 18th-centuryclergyman and scientist fascinatedby chemistry, electricity, optics and

many other subjects. As well as beingpossibly the rst person to isolateoxygen, he invented carbonated water(later known as soda water) when he

suspended a bowl of water above a beer vat ata brewery near his home in Leeds. The carbon dioxide gasgiven off by the fermenting vat was known as xed air. Beingheavier than air, it stayed above the vat rather than dispersing.

Priestley found he could dissolve the gas in the water and thatit made a refreshing drink of a kind that met the approval ofhis clean-living, religious-minded friends.

In 1772, he published a description of how to make carbonated

water, using sulphuric acid and chalk, and just a few years laterthe Swiss zzy drinks pioneer Johann Schweppe set up hisSchweppes drinks company in London to manufacture

carbonated mineral water using Priestleys method.

16Refectingtelescopeinvented1668inventor isaac newton

The rst known successful reectingtelescope was built in 1668 by a man who isremembered by most people for identifying

the effects of gravity. Sir Isaac Newton, thena fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, tookthe idea of a reecting telescope, which had

been around for decades, and turned it intoreality. It gives as much credence to hisengineering skills as to his scientic mind.

He built it to prove his theory that whitelight, the visible part of the electromagnetic

spectrum, is made up of many differentcolours. Newtons design consisted of aspherical-shaped mirror, made of a copper-

tin alloy, above which he placed a second atmirror at a 45 degree angle, which reectedthe light into an eyepiece mounted on the sideof the telescope. This huge leap forward in

telescope technology made astronomicalobservation much more accurate.

17Collapsiblebaby buggyInvented 1965Inventorowen Maclaren

In 1965, engineer Owen Maclaren was delighted tobe visited by his daughter and his rst grandchild,but watched with frustration as his daughter strugglewith an unwieldy pushchair. Fortunately for her an

for new parents ever since Maclaren had been theman in the Second World War who helped design the

folding undercarriage for the Spitre

Now he decided to apply hisknowledge to the pram problem.Within two years he had designed,

manufactured and launched the

rst collapsible buggy, the classicB-01, made using lightweight

aluminium tubing. It foldedup into something no

bigger than a largeumbrella. Today,

the most modernversion is sold in

more than 50countries.15 Hypodermic syringeInvented 1853Inventoralexander woodAlexander Wood was an eminent Edinburgh doctor whoco-invented the rst true hypodermic syringe. The syringe itselfhad been known since ancient times; and the hollow needle had

been invented a few years before, but Woods innovation was tocombine them into a means of penetrating the skin of his patientsto deliver drugs intravenously without having to cut the skin rst.It is said he found inspiration in the sting of the honeybee.

He initially used the syringe for morphia and other opiates and he used a glass syringe so he could see how much medicinehad been used. He also later came up with the idea of adding a

scale. This was a great breakthrough in anaesthetics, and helpedadvance the procedure of giving blood transfusions.

the 36in yapptelescope,

pictured here,was one of thelargest in theworld when itopened at the

greenwichobservatory

in 1934.

DID YOU KNOW?


6/13

0

it was said thatthe Grand Union

Canal woUldChanGe ColoUrdependinG onwhat perkin

was workinG onin his nearbywest london

dyeworks.

DID YOU KNOW?

18 Steam turbineInvented1884Inventor Charles Parsons

19Marine chronometerInvented1761InventorJohn harrIson 21Hip replacement

Invented 1962InventorJohn Charnley

20 SyntheticdyeInvented 1856

InventorWIllIam PerkIn

In 1856, William Perkin was a precocious18-year-old studying at the Royal College ofChemistry when he discovered how to make

the worlds rst synthetic dye mauveine.The search for how to make synthetics was

at the cutting edge of chemistry at the time,and Perkin was assisting his professors hunt

for an articial way to make the anti-malarial drugquinine. Working in his makeshift lab at home oneday during the university holidays, he was using

alcohol to clean out some chemical residuefrom a ask when he suddenly saw an

intense purple colourappear. At the time, dyes

were made from naturalextracts, and wereexpensive and faded easily.Purple came only from the

glands of particular species ofmolluscs and was among the

priciest. Perkin worked out how

to reproduce his new colour,then, keeping it secret fromhis professor, he patentedthe method and set up

a company to produce it.Mauve, as it came to be

known, and other synthetic dyes thatfollowed it transformed the fashion and

the textile industry. And the chemistryof dyes would have many uses inmedicine, too.

Accurate navigation at sea has always

been critically important but, until theinvention of the marine chronometer, itwas extremely difcult, if not impossible.Latitude was straightforward to measure;

the problem was longitude. In 1714,some 200 years after sailing ships

had rst circumnavigated theworld, the British government

announced a 20,000 prize worth almost 3m today

for anyone who could

solve the problem.The key to it was

making a clock thatcould somehow keep

accurate time despite being pitched

around by wind and waves and exposedto great variations in temperature andhumidity. John Harrison, a self-taughtclockmaker, devoted his life to the task.

He began building his rst attempt in1730, but 30 years went by before hecracked it. The H4 timepiece lost just veseconds between England and Jamaica

and contained numerous horologicalinnovations. After lengthy disputes withthe Board of Longitude, Harrison nallygot his reward in 1773. His clocks were

carried by the likes of James Cook andWilliam Bligh, and safe long-distancetravel was now possible.

theturbinia(1894), the firstship powered bya steam tUrbine,was the fastestin the world atthe time. see itat newCastles

disCoverymUseUm.

DID YOU KNOW?

British surgeon Sir John Charnleypioneered the idea that a human hipjoint could be replaced. He designed the

joint and, in 1962, performed the rstsuccessful hip-replacement operation,at Wrightington Hospital in Lancashire.Charnleys design used a femoral stem

and ball made of steel and a hip socketmade of Teon later replaced withharder-wearing polyethylene. Both

parts were glued to the bone usingan acrylic bone cement.

Charnley also introduced importantnew improvements to surgical

procedure to reduce the chances ofinfection: clean air enclosures, suitsfor the surgical team that covered their

entire bodies, and a system of sterileinstrument trays. He also taughtsurgeons from all over the world.

Although many improvements have

been made since to the design of thejoint, the surgical method and the waysof xing the replacement joint to thebone Charnley set the standard.

Today, 80,000 hip replacements areperformed in Britain each year, andalmost a million a year worldwide.

After the invention of the electrical motor which transforms rotation into electrical

power the next step was to nd a deviceto drive it. Piston engines vibrated tooviolently, so the steam turbine, inventedby Newcastle-based engineer Charles

Parsons in 1884, was the answer.The turbine is like a windmill steam

blasts the turbine blades and turns themround. What Parsons came up with was

a means of extracting every last ounce of

power from the steam. He made thegaps between the blades very small sothat the steam would accelerate through

the turbine. He also realised you couldchannel the steam through multiple setsof blades in sequence, each one capturing

the steam from the one before. Threequarters of the worlds power stationsstill use steam. Whether steam-poweredor not, every station uses the theory

behind Parsonss innovation.

22PassengerrailwayInvented1825

InventorGeorGe stePhenson

o f my faui Biish

iais is Gg Sphss

passg ailway. Sphss

pas w illia, his mh

yig f tB wh h was a chil

a his fah la bli i a

iusial acci. I was a

makabl backgu f a ma wh wul

fg a cmmuicais lui.

Whil wkig as a mi, Sphs ll

i igh schl wh h la a a wi,

a ag 18. H sablish a apiu as a mchaic

a was allw buil machis a his clliy.

A h im, cas acks, pull by hss, wus ak cal fm h may clliis au

nwcasl h ty, fm wh i cul b

xp by ship. Sphs sa ia.

H imp h sig f cas-i ails

sgh hm, bu ab all h u s sam

gis plac hs pw.

Machis ha hass h pw f sam

push, lif pull ha b au f a whil;

Sphs imp hm a lp

wkabl sluis su ha ah ha

maiig saic, hs sam gis cul

acually u acks. th sul was a api

succssi f wl ss: h s ag-whl

ahsi lcmi. th s ackway ailway

usig ly lcmis hss a all. th s

pups-buil passg ca, which a h

wls s gula passg-cayig ailway, h

Sck a dalig. th wls s iciy

ailway, bw Lipl a Machs.

Sphss sysm f ai cuplig bcam

h eupa saa a his chs gaug,

isac bw h w ails, f 4f 8 1/2i

(1.435m) has bcm h wls saa gaug,

ap aly uisally. W a sill cai

alg by h lui ha h bga.

Locomotion: Dan Snows History of Railways

starts on Tuesday at 9.00pm on BBC2

dan snoW

1RadioTimes50 Great British Inventions0


7/13

RadioTimes50 Great British Inventions 12

Bellsindustrious

mind was alsoresponsiBle

for theloudspeaker(1876) and the

forerunner ofthe metal

detector (1881)

DID YOU KNOW?

27Automatic kettleInvented 1955InventorPeter Hobbs

The automatic kettle one that switches itself off when the

water reaches boiling point was the brainchild of PeterHobbs, one of the two founding members of appliancecompany Russell Hobbs. (He had previously invented theworlds rst coffee percolator.)

Hobbss 1955 K1 kettle had at its heart a simple pieceof technology the bimetallic strip. This acted like an internaswitch. It was made from two strips of different metals usually steel and copper joined together along their length;

the two metals were chosen because of the difference in theirrate of expansion when heated. As the water boiled, thesteam was funnelled past the bimetallic strip and, as the two

metals expanded at different rates, the combined strip wouldbend, breaking a circuit and switching off the kettle.

25 LinoleumInvented 1860InventorFrederi ck Walton

The idea for Frederick Waltons wipe-clean oor covering cameto him around 1855, when he noticed that a rubbery, exible skin

of solidied linseed oil had formed on a can of oil-based paint.He was fascinated by the thought that linseed oil might be madeinto a waterproof material to rival expensive India rubber.

After trying to produce and sell a varnish product, he realisedthat if he could apply the varnish to a backing himself, he couldsell ooring directly cue linoleum.

For almost a century, until cheaper vinyl ooring became

popular in the 1960s, linoleum was the ideal material forhallways, passages and kitchens: natural, hygienic and, in itsmore expensive inlaid versions, even beautiful.

24 ToothbrushInventedc. 1770InventorWilliam addis

William Addis was a rag trader who got caught up in

a riot in 1770 and was sent to Newgate Prison. Whilethere, and with time on his hands, he felt that the way

most people were cleaning their teeth, which was to rubsoot and salt over them with a rag, could be improvedon. Possibly inspired by the design of a broom, he saveda small animal bone left over from a meal and drilled

small holes in it. Then he obtained some bristles, tiedthem in small tufts and poked them through the holes.He glued it all together and hey presto a toothbrush.

After his release, Addis set up a business in 1780 to

make what became the worlds rst mass-producedtoothbrushes. They made him very rich. Cheap brushesused pig bristle; more expensive ones badger hair. Hiscompany, Wisdom Toothbrushes, is still going strong

today, though it now uses plastic and nylon.

23Telephonepatented 1876

Inventoralexander GraHam bell

The telephone is a classic example of howinventions are often the culmination of work

done by many individuals, sharing and borrowingeach others ideas. Whats for sure is thatEdinburgh-born Alexander Graham Bellpatented his telephone model in 1876, ling

his patent just hours before a rival inventor.The telephone came about thanks to the

discovery that a thin metal sheet vibrating in

an electromagnetic eld produces an electricalwaveform that corresponds to the vibrationand can be acoustically reproduced.

Its also pretty likely that Bell made the rst

telephone call: Mr Watson, come here I wantto see you, he barked down the phone to hisassistant in the next room. They rst publiclydemonstrated their invention at the Centennial

Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, and madetheir rst long-distance call over ten miles,between their respective homes in Canada a month later. In 1877, Bell set up the Bell

Telephone Company, and 150,000 householdsin the US had telephones within a decade.

26 TelevisionInvented 1925InventorJoHn loGie baird

Its hard to credit just one person with the invention oftelevision, but its indisputable that John Logie Baird wasthe rst to transmit moving pictures. In October 1925, he

transmitted a greyscale image of ventriloquists dummy StookyBill. He publicly demonstrated his system the following Januaryand, in 1928, broadcast the rst transatlantic television signal,between London and New York.

But his system ultimately failed. It was mechanical, using arotating disc embedded with lenses, one per line, to scan theimage. A rival system scanning purely electronically, with no

moving parts was being developed at the same time and wasdeemed more reliable and, with far more lines per picture, visiblsuperior. Baird, it was said at the time, was doomed to be theman who sows the seed but does not reap the harvest.


8/13

RadioTimes50 Great British Inventions0 RadioTimes50 Great British Inventions4 1

29Military tankInvented1914Inventor ernest swInton

28 GliderInvented 1804Inventorgeorge cayley

One of the greatest inventors in the eld of aviationwas Yorkshireman George Cayley. The rst-eversustained manned glider ight was made in a craft

of his design at Brompton Dale in 1853. (Cayley alsoinvented the tension-spoked wheel see page 17.)

Cayley rst designed an unmanned glider in 1804,and he was the rst to move away from the idea that

a man-made ying machine must have wings thatapped like a birds. Instead, he laid down the conceptof a xed-wing aircraft, subject to the forces of weight,

lift, drag and thrust, for which he became known as thefather of aeronautics. His rst pilot is unknown, but itmay have been his 12-year-old grandson, also George.

31 Jet engineInvented1937InventorFrank whIttle

Frank Whittle was a 24-year-oldRAF ghter pilot in 1930 when hepatented a new kind of aircraftengine the turbojet.

Whittles new design hadno propeller and no pistons,using a gas turbine instead.With a rotating turbine and

air compressor andpowered by thrust alonefrom the back his new

design was so radical thatthe military wouldntfund it, nor would anymanufacturers.

However, in 1937Whittle found a fewprivate backers. Aftertwo more years of

development, it wasreliable enough for theAir Ministry, and on5 May 1941 at RAF

Cranwell in Lincolnshire,a 17-minute test ight wentahead. It was a revolution.

In November 1914, the British Army was

using crawler tractors to pull artillery on theWestern Front, when Britains ofcial warcorrespondent, Ernest Swinton, saw them inaction and realised that they could perhaps be

adapted into bullet-proof and power-drivenoffensive weapons that could storm the enemylines and take out their guns.

The idea was taken up and landships weredeveloped: the tank description was meantto shield their true purpose from enemy spies.Because it was the Royal Navy rather than the

Army that rst developed them, naval terms

were used for some of its parts, hence terms

such as the hatch and turret.The rst proper tank battle took place at

Cambrai, France, in November 1917, whensome 400 tanks penetrated almost seven miles

behind the front lines, but they werentsupported by infantry and soon had to retreat.These tanks had the capability to climb ave-foot obstacle, span a ve-foot trench, were

resistant to small arms re and could travelat 4mph. Although the tank helped end t hestalemate of trench warfare, it came too late to

have much impact on the First World War.

30Modern torpedoInvented1866Inventorrobert whItehead

It was Giovanni Luppis, an ofcer in the army of theAustrian empire, who rst came up with the idea ofa self-propelled anti-ship weapon, but it was the British

engineer Robert Whitehead who really made Luppissconcept work.

Whitehead was working for the Austrian navywhen Luppis met him and suggested his idea for a

prototype coast saver that used a clockwork motor totraverse the surface of the water and that was steered byropes from the land. Whitehead was captivated by the idea

though didnt think much of Luppiss designs.Over the next two years he came up with his own design

for a mineship a torpedo launched from a ship in anunderwater tube, powered by compressed air and with an

internal mechanism of his own invention that adjusted itseto stay at a constant depth. He presented it to the Austriannavy in 1866, improved the range, speed and accuracy andhad a factory making and selling them worldwide.

The rst ship to be sunk by Whiteheads invention wasthe Turkish steamerIntibahin 1878, after being hit by atorpedo launched from a Russian warship.

george cayley

applied his

genius to many

fields. his ideas

included

an internal

combustion

engine that was

powered by

gunpowder.

DID YOU KNOW?


9/13

RadioTimes50 Great British Inventions6 1

36Seed drillInvented 1701InventorJethro tull

Oxfordshire farmer Jethro Tulls seed drill, which he perfected in 1701

was a landmark in a new scientic approach to agriculture. Pulled bya horse, the drill dug a straight groove into the soil at the right depthand dropped into it seeds that were regularly spaced. It made plantincrops far more efcient: previously, seeds had been scattered by hand,

which meant that lots were wasted when they didnt fall into thefurrow, and that they were planted too sparsely or too close together.

Tulls invention had three drills side by side and is estimated to have

increased productivity eightfold. It was a milestone in what becamean agricultural revolution in Britain that, hand in hand with theIndustrial Revolution, helped both population and life expectancyinto a steady upward climb for the rst time in history.

32 Safety bicycleInvented 1885InventorJohn Kemp Starley

The bicycle as we know it today was originally developedas the safety bicycle, because other bikes at the time wereextremely dangerous. Riders of the penny-farthing perched

above a huge front wheel, steered indirectly using the tinyback wheel, and couldnt touch the ground with theirfeet; only a few daring young men would go nearthem. The key to the new bicycle was the chain

drive, which meant you could still go fast eventhough both wheels were the same size.

Together with front-wheel steering andback-wheel drive, this made it much more

stable and easier to control. The safetybicycle was perfected by Coventryengineer John Kemp Starley, who in1885 exhibited the Rover (right): the rst

recognisably modern bicycle. Light andcheap, it caught on quickly and brought

cycling to the masses. For most people,and women in particular, it was arguablythe most liberating invention of all time.

35Tension-spoked wheelInvented 1808InventorGeorGe Cayle

As well as inventing the glider see page 14 George Cayley also reinvented the modernwheel. He wanted wheeled landing gear forhis gliders, but wheels with solid or wooden

spokes were just too heavy. His innovationwas to shift the balance of forces in the wheefrom compression to tension. No more woul

the wooden spokes hold the rim up: now therim itself would bear all the weight, and itsshape would stay true thanks to spokes madeof tight cord, which pulled from the sides

when weight was placed on the top.It was an extraordinary breakthrough,

which was rst described by Cayley in 1808,

although it really took off much later whentension-spoked wheels using wire spokeswere adopted for bicycle wheels. The elegandesign has been used ever since.

jethro tullintroduced

other farminginnovations,

including theinvention of ahorsedrawn

hoe and amuch-improved

plough.

DID YOU KNOW?

33Wind-up radionvented1991

nventor Trevor Baylis

n 1991, Trevor Baylis saw a television

programme about Aids in Africa thataid one way to stop its spread was for

people to hear educational informationon the radio. So Baylis designed onehat needed no batteries, running off

an internal generator powered by a

mainspring wound by a hand crank.t really took off when he displayedt on Tomorrows Worldin 1994. In996, his Freeplay radio was awarded

he BBC Design Award, and Bayliswas able to demonstrate it to NelsonMandela. Since then, the radio hasbeen distributed all over Africa.

34 CementInvented 1824InventorJoSeph aSpdIn

In 1824, Leeds bricklayer Joseph Aspdin invented and patenteda method of making what he called Portland Cement the typethats most widely used today. The process involved burninglimestone, mixing it with clay and burning it again; the burningproduced a much stronger cement than just mixing limestone

and clay. Aspdin called it Portland as he claimed the set mortarresembled the best limestone quarried from Portland in Dorset.

However, to make it he needed a ready supply of limestone,and to acquire it he even took to levering up entire paving

blocks at night which twice landed him in court. His son,William, moved the business to north-east Kent, where therewere limitless supplies of limestone. William also tweaked theformula, using more limestone and a higher burning temperature

to produce cement that set more slowly, but developed strengthmore quickly, meaning it could be used in concrete.


10/13

18

37Spinning frameInvented1768InventorRichaRd aRkwRight

Richard Arkwrights spinning frame more than JamesHargreavess better-known spinning jenny was the cornerstoneinvention of the industrial revolution in textiles that transformednorthern England and lay behind Britain being named the

workshop of the world. The spinning jenny made the spinningof yarn more efcient, but the spinning frame spun thread thathad a tighter weave and was considerably stronger.

Unlike the jenny, the frame was too big to be operated by hand,

so Arkwright had to build whats often said to be the worlds rstfactory in Cromford, Derbyshire, to house the machines. Nowthe workers had to come to his premises where, under one roof,

a water mill and, later, steam engines, powered the machines.It was the cotton threads produced by the spinning frames

that were turned into the cheap calicoes that were exportedin huge quantities all over the world.

39 Electric motorInvented 1821InventorMichael FaRaday

Michael Faraday was employed by the Royal Institution, where heinvestigated the connections between electricity, magnetism and

motion. In 1821, he demonstrated electromagnetic rotation for therst time. A free-hanging wire was dipped into a pool of mercurythat had a xed magnet in it. When an electric current was passedthrough the wire, it rotated around the magnet the electricity

produced a magnetic eld around the wire, which interacted withthe magnet in the mercury. This was the worlds rst electric motor.

Ten years later, Faraday made an incredible intellectual leap: ifelectricity and magnetism could create motion, could the reverse

be true could motion and magnetism create electricity? Faradayproved it could with the worlds rst electric generator, a copper diskthat rotated between the poles of a magnet and generated a currentin a wire attached to it by a spring.

38 BessemerprocessInvented 1856InventorhenRy BesseMeR

Shefeld steelmaker Henry Bessemer didnt inventsteel production. But his method for simplifying itand greatly reducing the cost makes the Bessemer

process rank as one of the most important

breakthroughs of the industrial era.Steel is a combination of iron and a small amount

of carbon. But the process of adding carbon to ironwas extremely time-consuming and used up a hugeamount of fuel. Steelmakers wanted to use pig iron,a cheap and plentiful product that had too much

carbon in it, but they couldnt work out how to getthe carbon out. Bessemer managed to do that bypumping high-pressure air through the molten pigiron. It was assumed the air would cool the iron,

but the oxygen in the air actually burnt offcarbon in the iron and, in doing so, it raisedthe temperature. This accelerated the processand the result was hotter, purer iron that could

be converted to steel much more easily.

40 Hydraulic pressInvented 1795InventorJoseph BRaMah

Josephbramahs other

inventionsinclude

fountain pens,paper-making

machines, handpumps for beer

and theflushing toilet.

DID YOU KNOW?

41 SewagesystemInvented 1865

InventorJoseph Bazalgette

th a cai

iis a

cais ha ppl

a awa f y ay.

th a y fw

cais ha w us

u whl lis wihu

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thi ca, Jsph Bazalg, may

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s chag lif i h ciy cmplly.

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bfha, bu all i i was asf was

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massi p sw pip. By all

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Bazalg was h ma i.

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was sysm ha wul i h swag

aswas away fm h i a pump

i u sa. By 1865 ms f h sysm

was wkig, h mai icpig sws

us 318 milli bicks a masu

80 mils i lgh. t all ha wk

ab gu wul ha b hig,

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sw pips m ha 100 yas l was

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sig h uls, h sima hw

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u hw lag h uls wul

b m h s f h fuu a

kp h sysm wig. Which is why h

sws a sill i wkig ay, a

why i u ys i shul b s as a hug

iig achim.

Watch Absolute Genius with Dick and Dom

on CBBC later this month

dick and doM

Locksmith Joseph Bramah made famouslyunpickable locks and was also a keen

inventor. Of all his developments, the onethat has had the most impact was thehydraulic press, which he patented in 1795.

In a hydraulic press, two piston cyclinders,with different cross-sectional areas, areconnected with a tube and lled with uid oil, for example so that moving one

piston will cause the other one to move, too.According to Pascals principle (originated

by French mathematician Blaise Pascal), thepressure inside a closed system is constant,

so a small force applied to move the smallpiston a large distance translates to a largeforce pushing the large piston a smalldistance. Bramah used the press to make

parts for his locks: by pushing the smallpiston, he could slowly atten metal withthe large piston. The hydraulic press is

today one of the most useful and widespreadmachine tools.

visit the royalinstitutions

michaelfaraday museumin london to see

faradaysmagnetic

laboratoryas it was inthe 1850.

LEARN MORE



11/13


the firstprogrammablenon-electroniccomputer was

the z3, designedin 1941 bygerman

engineer andinventor

konrad zuse.

DID YOU KNOW?

Alan Turing and his Bletchley Park computers becamefamous for cracking the supposedly unbreakable Enigmacipher in 1941. But Turings Bombe machines wereelectromechanical, and in 1943 they were surpassedby the arrival of the Colossus at Bletchley.

Built and designed by brilliant Post Ofce engineerTommy Flowers, the machine was conceived to crack theGerman Lorenz cipher, which was even more complexthan Enigma. Constructed using 1,500 vacuum tubes,

the Colossus was the rst truly electronic, digital andprogrammable computer. Initially, however, bosses at thePost Ofce didnt believe it could be done, and Flowershad to build it in his spare time using his own money.

Ten Colossi were built, all extraordinarily successful.Sadly for Flowers, the technology that could easily haveformed the basis for a computer industry was reservedfor military intelligence and remained top secret. EveryColossus machine was dismantled after the war.

the sr.n1 madeits firstchannel

crossing in twohours, three

minutes. laterhovercraft cut

the journeyto under

30 minutes.

DID YOU KNOW?

42Electronic programmable computerInvented 1943Inventortommy flowers

44 PhotographyInvented 1835

Inventorwilliam Henry fox talbot

Who was the inventor of photography? Its hardto say. The rst xed image was made by aFrenchman, Joseph Nipce, in 1826, using acoating of light-sensitive bitumen on a pewterplate, which took about eight hours to exposean image. His collaborator, Louis Daguerre,continued working with silver iodide, anddiscovered that if it was exposed to light forjust a few minutes, the image could bedeveloped later with mercury vapour.

In 1835, British inventor William HenryFox Talbot made another breakthrough. Heused silver iodide on paper, and found a wayto produce a translucent negative that unlikeDaguerres images could be used to make anynumber of positives by contact printing. Fox Talbotpatented his system and forced any photographer

who used his system which was most of them topay him a royalty. But his positive/negative systemhas been the basis of all photography since at leastuntil the advent of digital cameras.

45Hovercraftinvented1953inventorCHristopHer CoCkerell

Christopher Cockerell was an esteemed radio and

electronics engineer who bought a small boat business

in 1950. He wanted to work out how to make the boatsgo faster, and was captivated by the idea of liftingthem out of the water altogether. Just blasting air

downwards underneath a craft didnt work as toomuch air leaked out from the sides.

Cockerells breakthrough was to blast air down anarrow channel around the outside of the craft that

could trap high-pressure air underneath and stop itescaping, forming what he called a momentumcurtain. This would produce as much as four times

the lift for the same amount of power. After a few yearsof demonstrating a balsa-wood prototype on Whitehallcarpets, he eventually got government and militarybacking and, on 1 June 1959, the rst hovercraft,

the SR.N1, crossed the Channel.

43Stainless steelInvented 1913InventorHarry brearley

Harry Brearley, the son of a Shefeld steelsmelter, left school at 12 to go to work in oneof the citys steelworks. He was an ambitiouschap and started to study metallurgy at homeand in evening classes. He gradually built areputation for expertise, and still in his 30swas chosen to run a new research facility fundedby two of Shefelds largest steel companies.

In 1912, he was tasked by a small-armsmanufacturer to nd a material that couldprolong the life of their gun barrels. He setout to nd erosion-resistant steel, but foundcorrosion-resistant steel instead.

The story goes that in 1913 he threw outsome experimental steel made of 12.8 per centchromium and 0.24 per cent carbon. A fewweeks later, he found it in the yard still shiny

as new. This apparently serendipitousdiscovery led to the transformation of thealready established cutlery industry inShefeld. Stainless steel is now used in

everything from surgical instruments andturbine blades to architectural cladding.

0 2RadioTimes50 Great British Inventions


12/13

picture caption

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liquam acc ummyumsa

DeBoraH MeaDen

wHats My pin?

TV sitcom starg Vary maks thrst cash withrawal

50Seri-spryInVenTedc. 2008InVenTORian HelMore

Th British ar vry goo at workig

out how to ovrcom obstacls. I o

thik its withi our dnA. As log aswv got popl comig up with

ias a tryig to gt thm off th

grou, wll surviv as a atio.

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has to b a markt, but as a ivstor o Dragons

DenIm ot just lookig for ias; Im lookig for

busiss propositios. I ot a 100-pag

busiss pla; I just to kow what th problm

is, how may popl it affcts, a how th ivtio

solvs th problm. It ca b as simpl as that.

My favourit ivtio urlis just that poit.

Plumbr Ia Hlmor strilis watr taks to

prvt lgiolla brig i thm, a bliv

thr ha to b a wir applicatio of th tchology.

Bcaus th bactria ca liv i th last two ichs

of pipwork, h ci that puttig a UV lamp

ito a tap or showrha woul al with th

problm. A it works, at a vry high lvl. It has

tak us thr yars to gt it from prototyp to

actual physical prouct, but ow it is out thr

i nHS hospitals, hopfully savig livs.

Wh wr ask to ivst i ivtios, thr

has to b a big ough markt a thy hav to b

capabl of big prouc at a pric popl ar

prpar to pay. W all hav a valu systm. W

might ot kow how much w will pay for somthig,

but w itly kow how much w wot pay.

Prsoally, th ivtio thats chag my lif is

th iatabl riig jackt. As I gt olr Im much

mor awar of th agrs of riig, a ow thrs

a jackt thats lik a airbag. You attach yourslf to

th sal a, if you bcom uattach at grat

forc, th jackt iats so that wh you hit th

grou, youv got your ck a back protct.

Its ma m mor cot a has hac th

valu of my lisur riig.

Dragons Den will return in late summer. If youre

seeking investment for a business idea or invention,

visit bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/apply or [email protected]

46atmInVenTed1967

InVenTORJoHn sHepHerD-Barron

John Shepherd-Barron was lying in thebath one night in 1965. Earlier he hadfailed to get to a bank and was wondering

how to get money outside bank hours.He hit on the idea of a cash dispenserand, as he worked for banknotemanufacturer De La Rue, he secured

a meeting with Barclays. It signed up,and the rst ATM was installed outsideits branch in Eneld, north London, in1967. The rst cash was taken out by

TV star Reg Varney (below).As plastic bank cards hadnt been

invented, customers inserted special

cheques that the machine could recognise.It gave out a maximum of 10 at thetime, enough for a wild weekend.

Users also had to enter a PIN number

Shepherd-Barron claimed that it wasthanks to his wife, who said she could onlyremember a maximum of four digits, thatwe all use four-digit PINs today.

48ElecricvcuuclenerInVenTed1901InVenTORHuBert cecil BootH

In 1901, a young engineer called HubertCecil Booth was watching a railwaycarriage being cleaned at St Pancras

Station by a machine that simply blewdust off the ttings. Booth thought itwould be better to suck the dust up. Totest his theory, he placed a handkerchief

on a restaurant chair, sucked through itand found an impressive amount of dustcollected on the other side.

Booths rst vacuum cleaner, whichcame to be known as the Pufng Billy,used a piston engine driven by anelectric motor to suck air through a lter

that was mounted on a horse-drawn cart.He set up a company that sold cleaningservices. His operators would haul longhoses from his bright red vans through

the windows of buildings. It was a hugesuccess; he was even hired to cleanWestminster Abbey for Edward VIIscoronation. But when it came to small,

household vacuum cleaners, the HooverCompany became the market leader.47tin cn

InVenTed 1810InVenTORpeter DuranD

Frenchman Nicolas Appert working for Napoleons army gured out in 1810 how to preserve food by packing it intosealed containers and then cooking it for hours to sterilise

it. But Appert used glass jars; it was British merchant PeterDurand who, in the same year, adapted Apperts method toa new container the tin can.

Once the rst cannery

was set up in Bermondsey,a couple of years later, theBritish Army found itself as

well equipped better, in fact than the French. There werea few problems at the start:many early cans were sealed

with lead solder, which couldbe dangerous. In Sir JohnFranklins Arctic expeditionin the 1840s, some of the

crew suffered from severelead poisoning after threeyears of eating canned food.

Initially, a hammer and

chisel were required to openthe cans: the tin openerwasnt patented until 1855.

49WerprooferilinventeD1823inventor Charles MaCintosh

Charles Macintosh, an amateurchemist, was experimenting with

coal-tar naphtha, a chemical wasteproduct, and realised that it was a

powerful solvent that could make asolution from rubber. He coated a thinfabric with this solution but, because itwas so sticky, he sandwiched it between

two layers of the fabric to make apractical waterproof material.

His family company started selling

the coats as the Mackintosh. But theyhad a tendency to melt in hot weather.Another British inventor, ThomasHancock, later improved the product

and was made a partner in the rm.

2 2RadioTimes50 Great British Inventions

among boothsother clients

were wilhelm iiof germany,

nicholas ii ofrussia and the

house ofcommons. he

also designedferris wheels.

DID YOU KNOW?


13/13

Places to visitExplore your passion for invention from coal mines to code-breakers23

Mum Gary, SfThe Designed to Shine exhibition formspart of a celebration of the centenary of

Harry Brearleys discovery of stainless steel.

24Maga Scc a Avtur,

RtramThe four elements earth,

air, re and water explored through

a range of activities.

MidlAndS25 Tktak, Brmgam Scc

MusumThe citys industrial heritage is ondisplay in the Millennium Point exhibition.

26Cvtry Trasprt Musum

How the city became the birthplace

of the British cycle and motor industry.

27Ma Ar Musum, Baggt, arCvtryThe story of the jet age told at

the Sir Frank Whittle Heritage Centre.28Abby Pumpg StatMusum,lcstr The 200-year history of science

and technology, from the early days of

steam and industry.

WAleS1Tcqust, CarffHands-on science

centre, with over 100 activities from

launching a rocket to driving electric cars.

2T nata Watrfrt Musum,

Swasatells the story of industry and

innovation in Wales over the last 300 years.

3T Bg Pt, nata Ca Musum

Baav, Tfa Take an undergroundtour of the mine, led by a former miner

and nd out all about the history of

coal-mining, once the areas mainstay.

SCoTlAnd4 nata Musum Scta, eburg

The Science and Technology gallery looks

at scientic advances and innovation in

Scotland and beyond.

5Gasgw Scc Ctr Interactive

centre where children are encouraged

to get involved with the magic of science.

6Musum f Trasprt, Gasgw

See the worlds oldest bicycle, and nd

out why Glasgow was once known as the

workshop of the British Empire.

7 Satrspr Scc Ctr, Abr

Get hands on with over 50 scientic activities.8 Musum f Cmmucat,

Burtsa, Ff Explore the history

of radio, radar, television and IT.

9 Musum f la Mg, Wacka,

dumfrs & GawayTake a guided tour

of the 18th-century Lochnell Mine.

noRTheRn iRelAnd10 Ttac dck a Pump hus, Bfast

Set in the heart of the Harland and Wolff

shipyard, where Titanicwas built.

11W5 Scc a dscvry Ctr,

BfastGet to grips with more than

250 interactive exhibits.

12 Ustr Fk a Trasprt Musum,

hyw, C dw Explore a collection

that features horse-drawn carriages to cars.

enGlAnd: noRTh13 Brafr nata Ma Musum

A feast of lm, TV and radio history,

as well as the UKs rst IMAX cinema.14 Macstr Musum f Scc aiustry The Power Hall houses a vastcollection of working steam mill engines as

well as gas, oil, hot-air and diesel engines.

15 dscvry Musum, nwcastFindout more about Tyneside inventions that

had an impact on the world we live in.

16Crags, Mrpt, nrtumbraThe rst house to be lit by hydro-electricity

is crammed full of ingenious Victorian

gadgets, most of which are still working.

17 nata Raway Musum, Yrk

Quite simply, the largest railway museum

in the world.

18 Stps Raway Musum,

nrt Ss See locomotives including

George Stephensons Billy, a forerunnerof the world-famous Rocket.

19 Quarry Bak M a Stya estat,Wmswfeatures a cotton mill thatspowered by Europes most powerful

working waterwheel.

20 nata Watrways Musum,

esmr Prt brings together

a unique eet of historic boats telling the

story of Britains canals and waterways.

21 nata Ca Mg Musum,

WakThe 200-year history of

mining is brought to life.

22Wr f Gass, St hs including

tours of the tunnels under the Cone House,

the 19th-century glass-making furnace.

33Scc Av, harw A fun, interactivecentre that brings science to life, combinedwith the Living History section where you

can nd out more about our world.

SoUTh34 Btcy Park, Mt KysHistoric site of secret British code-breaking

activities during the Second World War, and

birthplace of the modern computer.

35 easty Bam eg hus,SutsaView a pair of magnicent JamesWatt beam engines, housed in their original

high Victorian engine house of 1887.

36 T Farbrug Ar Sccs TrustMusum, hampsrExhibits from theearly years of aviation, including research

models of Concorde.

37Bauu, nata Mtr Musum,BrckurstThe history of the motor car,plus home to the worlds largest collection

of original James Bond vehicles.

38Bvgt Tak Musum, WaramOne of the largest and most comprehensive

collections of armoured ghting vehicles.

WeST39 Crft Pumpg Stat, Marbrughouses the oldest working beam engine in

the world, open from March 2013.

40 T Stam Musum Musum f tGrat Wstr Raway, Sw tells thestory of the men and women who built and

operated the Great Western Railway.

41 lacck Abby, Fx Tabt Musum,lacck, ar Cppam The museum

celebrates William Henry Fox Talbot and hiscontribution to the invention of photography.

42 At Brst is one of the UKs biggestinteractive science centres.

43 SS Grat Brta, BrstBuilt byIsambard Kingdom Brunel, it was the rst

propelled steam ship to cross the Atlantic.

44 Prtcur Tgrap MusumPrtcur vayin the far west ofCornwall was the hub of international

cable communications from 18701970.

45 lvat M a Bam eg,Crwa Enter this copper and tin mineand see the beam engine thats been

restored after 60 years lying idle.

london46 dsg MusumFrom 30 January

there is an exhibition featuring key designsthat have changed the world.

47Mca Faraay Musum RyaisttutExplore the world-changingscience thats happened at the Royal

Institution since 1799.

48 Scc MusumThe Codebreakerexhibition celebrating the centenary of the

birth of Alan Turing, is open until June 2013.

49Bru Musum, Rtrttells thestory of the Thames Tunnel, the rst in the

world to be built under water.

50Rya obsrvatry, Grwcis thehome of Greenwich Mean Time and also

to Londons only planetarium.

Check venue websites for full details. For

more ideas on places to observe British

inventiveness go to bbc.c.uk/tgst

29irbrg Grg Musums,SrpsrTen award-winning museums

along the Severn Gorge explain the areas

importance in the Industrial Revolution.

30 Back Cutry lvg Musum,

duyVisit one of the countrys largest

open-air museums that celebrates the

innovations of the Black Country.

31 hrtag Mtr Musum, Gay,

WarwcksrHome of the worlds biggest

collection of historic British cars.

eAST32Wstrp Mar, ar Gratam

Visit the birthplace of Britains greatest

scientist, Sir Isaac Newton.

17The natioal Railway Museum

28Abbey Pumpig Statio

3The Big Pit

Documents

50_greatest_inventions.pdf