Connections - Season 1 - Eps 7: The Long Chain
Often, materials discovered by accident alter the course of the world. In the 1600s Dutch commercial freighters controlled Atlantic trade routes. Competing British lines induced America to produce pitch to protect hulls of their royal vessels. This arrangement lasted until 1776, after which a Scottish inventor tried to produce pitch from coal tar. By the time he succeeded the navy was using copper instead. Subsequent experiments with coal tar yielded gaslight lamps, waterproofed garments, a brilliant mauve dye that established the German chemical industry and nylon, the first of the miracle plastics.
About Connections
Title: Connections
First Air Date: 1978-10-17
Last Air Date: 1997-01-01
Status: Ended
Rating: 7.167/10 (from 6 votes)
Language: EN
Seasons: 3
Total Episodes: 40
Network: BBC One TLC
Genres: Documentary
Production Companies: Unknown
Synopsis
Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the history of science and invention, Connections explores an "Alternative View of Change" that rejects the conventional linear and teleological view of historical progress. To demonstrate this view, Burke begins each episode with a particular event or innovation in the past (usually ancient or medieval) and traces a path from that event through a series of connections to a fundamental and essential aspect of the modern world.
Cast
James Burke
Self - Presenter
