Aired: 1/10/2005
Comedian Mark Williams explains how 19th-century Britons drank beer as a healthy alternative to water because the fermentation process killed many harmful bacteria
Aired: 1/17/2005
Mark Williams discovers how 19th-century hats were made of rabbit fur that had been shrunk in urine
Aired: 1/24/2005
The use of gas to power the machines and inventions from the Industrial Revolution are explained by Mark Williams
Aired: 1/31/2005
In a look at the history of printing, Mark Williams discovers why early typesetters arranged lower-case letters according to their usage, with the most common being in the middle
Aired: 2/7/2005
Mark Williams visits a pub cellar and bridges across the Tyne, all powered by hydraulics, revealing how the beer pump started a power revolution
Aired: 2/14/2005
Documentary exploring how the massive construction boom triggered by the Industrial Revolution forced the building industry to find new materials to cope with increasing demand.
Aired: 2/21/2005
How the electricity industry was created from scientific experimentation and entrepreneurial enthusiasm - becoming the world's main power source.
Aired: 2/28/2005
The development of the Cornish mining industry, from pebble-picking in streams to the building of a honeycomb of mines below the sea
Aired: 3/7/2005
How silk was instrumental in the invention of the binary code, which went on to inspire the computer revolution.
Aired: 3/14/2005
Mark Williams learns about Joseph Whitworth, the man who standardised the threaded screw. Plus, the total cost of wood required to build HMS Victory