1 00:00:01,210 --> 00:00:04,780 [narrator] A freakish skull, half human and half ape. 2 00:00:05,615 --> 00:00:08,016 Could it be Darwin's missing link? 3 00:00:08,051 --> 00:00:13,155 This was a, kind of, physical, anthropological Holy Grail. 4 00:00:13,189 --> 00:00:14,890 [narrator] Did this tiny piece of metal 5 00:00:15,758 --> 00:00:18,493 change the course of the Cold War? 6 00:00:18,528 --> 00:00:21,396 The Americans had no idea what they were looking at. 7 00:00:21,431 --> 00:00:22,998 They had no idea how it worked. 8 00:00:23,032 --> 00:00:27,602 [narrator] And could a steam powered maths engine actually work? 9 00:00:27,637 --> 00:00:32,641 He thinks, "Maybe I can make steam do the job the brains do." 10 00:00:32,675 --> 00:00:35,377 Nobody else had come even close to that thought. 11 00:00:38,681 --> 00:00:40,549 [narrator] These are the most remarkable 12 00:00:40,583 --> 00:00:42,417 and mysterious objects on Earth, 13 00:00:44,020 --> 00:00:49,024 hidden away in museums, laboratories and storage rooms. 14 00:00:50,626 --> 00:00:52,694 Now, new research and technology 15 00:00:52,728 --> 00:00:56,064 can get under their skin like never before. 16 00:00:57,900 --> 00:01:01,403 We can rebuild them, pull them apart 17 00:01:02,738 --> 00:01:07,442 and zoom in to reveal the unbelievable, 18 00:01:08,644 --> 00:01:12,414 the ancient and the truly bizarre. 19 00:01:14,650 --> 00:01:17,452 These are the world's strangest things. 20 00:01:26,863 --> 00:01:28,930 At the beginning of the 20th century, 21 00:01:29,565 --> 00:01:30,899 this strange-looking skull 22 00:01:30,933 --> 00:01:33,401 is the most sensational discovery 23 00:01:33,436 --> 00:01:34,736 in the archaeological world, 24 00:01:35,805 --> 00:01:39,741 but it falls victim to a shocking controversy. 25 00:01:39,775 --> 00:01:42,544 For 100 years, it's been locked away 26 00:01:42,578 --> 00:01:45,747 at the Natural History Museum in London. 27 00:01:45,781 --> 00:01:49,417 Now, using cutting edge digital technology, 28 00:01:53,890 --> 00:01:57,225 we can examine it in forensic detail. 29 00:01:58,528 --> 00:02:01,563 This is Piltdown man, 30 00:02:01,597 --> 00:02:05,433 a human ancestor unlike anything ever discovered. 31 00:02:06,569 --> 00:02:08,537 With a skull like ours, 32 00:02:08,571 --> 00:02:11,973 but with a huge jaw and teeth of an ape. 33 00:02:12,642 --> 00:02:14,643 When it's revealed in 1912, 34 00:02:14,677 --> 00:02:17,812 it is exactly what scientists are searching for, 35 00:02:17,847 --> 00:02:22,951 solid evidence for Darwin's controversial theory on human evolution. 36 00:02:24,287 --> 00:02:28,323 This was concrete proof of a connection between apes and humans. 37 00:02:30,393 --> 00:02:31,860 A perfect missing link. 38 00:02:32,662 --> 00:02:34,429 [narrator] But look much closer, 39 00:02:35,798 --> 00:02:39,100 and there's something not quite right about this find. 40 00:02:39,969 --> 00:02:42,537 The molar teeth in the ape-like jaw 41 00:02:42,572 --> 00:02:44,539 have microscopic abrasion marks 42 00:02:44,574 --> 00:02:46,908 not seen on any other fossil. 43 00:02:47,910 --> 00:02:50,579 And hidden in the cavities around the skull 44 00:02:50,613 --> 00:02:53,982 is some kind of artificial material. 45 00:02:54,016 --> 00:02:58,420 All this evidence points to one scandalous conclusion. 46 00:02:58,454 --> 00:03:00,855 Piltdown man was not the missing link, 47 00:03:01,290 --> 00:03:02,457 it was a forgery. 48 00:03:04,060 --> 00:03:09,264 [narrator] Since the fake was uncovered, there have been many suspects, 49 00:03:09,298 --> 00:03:12,467 but the true identity of the forger has eluded experts. 50 00:03:14,704 --> 00:03:19,040 Now, new research can definitively name him. 51 00:03:20,610 --> 00:03:21,876 Who is he? 52 00:03:21,911 --> 00:03:24,846 What is the truth behind this strange hybrid skull? 53 00:03:26,015 --> 00:03:30,252 And how does it fool the world for almost half a century? 54 00:03:33,256 --> 00:03:37,692 This story of scientific fraud begins in the English county of Sussex, 55 00:03:38,561 --> 00:03:42,163 in a quiet village called Piltdown. 56 00:03:42,198 --> 00:03:44,933 The discoverer of Piltdown man was Charles Dawson, 57 00:03:44,967 --> 00:03:50,338 a solicitor from around Hastings, in the south of England. 58 00:03:50,373 --> 00:03:53,908 [narrator] Dawson is an amateur archaeologist with a stellar track record 59 00:03:53,943 --> 00:03:56,945 for unearthing unusual artefacts. 60 00:03:56,979 --> 00:04:01,049 It's earned him the nickname the Wizard of Sussex. 61 00:04:04,053 --> 00:04:09,190 In a gravel pit in Piltdown, he uncovers his greatest find. 62 00:04:10,826 --> 00:04:14,796 In 1912, Dawson writes to Arthur Smith Woodward, 63 00:04:14,830 --> 00:04:17,565 at the Natural History Museum in London, 64 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:20,802 explaining that he had found a series of interesting flints 65 00:04:20,836 --> 00:04:23,438 and a fragment of a human skull. 66 00:04:25,141 --> 00:04:29,778 [narrator] Smith Woodward is a big wheel in the world of paleontology. 67 00:04:29,812 --> 00:04:32,781 He knows the discovery of a genuine human skull 68 00:04:32,815 --> 00:04:36,017 in this context would be big news. 69 00:04:36,052 --> 00:04:40,555 [MacDonald] The gravel was thought to be half a million years old. 70 00:04:40,589 --> 00:04:44,693 If this was true, then these bones, if human, 71 00:04:44,727 --> 00:04:46,628 would be the oldest yet known 72 00:04:46,662 --> 00:04:49,664 not only in England but in the world. 73 00:04:49,699 --> 00:04:52,534 [narrator] Smith Woodward heads to Piltdown, 74 00:04:52,568 --> 00:04:53,902 and over the following months, 75 00:04:53,936 --> 00:04:57,238 he and Dawson appear to hit the jackpot. 76 00:04:58,808 --> 00:05:03,144 They find more skull fragments, a fragment of jaw bone 77 00:05:03,579 --> 00:05:06,581 and a canine. 78 00:05:06,615 --> 00:05:08,750 [narrator] The dark brown staining of all the finds 79 00:05:08,784 --> 00:05:10,785 seems to confirm that they've been buried 80 00:05:10,820 --> 00:05:13,788 in the ground together for a very long time. 81 00:05:14,957 --> 00:05:18,593 Smith Woodward hurries back to London with the finds. 82 00:05:18,627 --> 00:05:22,063 [Elliot] He's got this collection of fragments of skull and jaw. 83 00:05:22,098 --> 00:05:26,101 And he embarks on putting these pieces back together to completing this puzzle 84 00:05:26,135 --> 00:05:30,772 and reconstructing what this skull and jaw might have looked like. 85 00:05:30,806 --> 00:05:33,808 [narrator] He fills in the gaps between the fossil fragments 86 00:05:33,843 --> 00:05:38,012 using imagination and plaster molds. 87 00:05:38,047 --> 00:05:44,018 What he ends up with is unlike any ancient human remains ever discovered. 88 00:05:45,855 --> 00:05:50,692 The rear of the skull looked very much like a modern human skull, 89 00:05:50,726 --> 00:05:54,462 whereas the jaw looked like it belonged to an ape. 90 00:05:55,931 --> 00:06:01,436 [narrator] This find sends shockwaves through the scientific world. 91 00:06:02,738 --> 00:06:05,640 And it's all because of this man, Charles Darwin. 92 00:06:07,176 --> 00:06:11,780 He claims humans and apes are close relatives with a common ancestor. 93 00:06:12,882 --> 00:06:16,418 But 50 years after Darwin publishes his theory, 94 00:06:16,452 --> 00:06:18,420 there's very little evidence to back it up. 95 00:06:19,655 --> 00:06:22,524 That's when Charles Dawson and Piltdown man 96 00:06:22,558 --> 00:06:24,926 ride to the rescue of science. 97 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:29,764 Half man, half ape was exactly what scholars were looking for 98 00:06:29,799 --> 00:06:30,698 to substantiate Darwin's theory. 99 00:06:32,201 --> 00:06:37,405 [narrator] Piltdown man is the smoking gun that proves Darwin right. 100 00:06:38,808 --> 00:06:42,744 Unfortunately, there's one very big problem with this. 101 00:06:42,778 --> 00:06:46,247 The Piltdown man could not be the missing link. 102 00:06:47,616 --> 00:06:49,250 It was a forgery. 103 00:06:50,853 --> 00:06:55,056 [narrator] What gives this audaciously fake skull away? 104 00:06:57,593 --> 00:06:59,527 While Piltdown man is locked away 105 00:06:59,562 --> 00:07:02,197 in the Natural History Museum, 106 00:07:02,231 --> 00:07:06,835 archeologists begin turning up ancient humans that looked nothing like it. 107 00:07:07,937 --> 00:07:11,406 It was becoming apparent that the ancestors of humanity 108 00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:14,709 had started out small brained and upright 109 00:07:14,743 --> 00:07:16,444 rather than large brained. 110 00:07:16,479 --> 00:07:19,147 This is the complete opposite of Piltdown man. 111 00:07:22,051 --> 00:07:25,653 [narrator] So, behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum, 112 00:07:25,688 --> 00:07:27,722 alarm bells are ringing. 113 00:07:28,491 --> 00:07:31,359 In 1949, they date Piltdown man 114 00:07:31,393 --> 00:07:33,795 using the best available techniques. 115 00:07:33,829 --> 00:07:36,431 The first results are alarming. 116 00:07:37,566 --> 00:07:39,834 This seemed to show that these remains 117 00:07:39,869 --> 00:07:43,137 were certainly no older than 50,000 years. 118 00:07:44,406 --> 00:07:45,874 [narrator] Fifty thousand years ago, 119 00:07:45,908 --> 00:07:49,744 modern humans have already been around for a very long time. 120 00:07:50,713 --> 00:07:54,115 Piltdown man cannot be the missing link. 121 00:07:55,985 --> 00:07:58,253 Maybe it was all just a simple mistake. 122 00:07:59,855 --> 00:08:04,893 In 1953, the skull is retested using a new technology. 123 00:08:04,927 --> 00:08:08,630 Further dating, as radiocarbon dating became possible, 124 00:08:08,664 --> 00:08:12,600 showed that we were looking at a medieval human skull 125 00:08:13,736 --> 00:08:18,006 coupled with a 500-year-old orangutan jaw fragment. 126 00:08:18,874 --> 00:08:20,708 [narrator] There is no time in history 127 00:08:20,743 --> 00:08:23,912 when orangutans have been native to Britain. 128 00:08:23,946 --> 00:08:28,182 This isn't simply an error, it's a deliberate fake. 129 00:08:28,217 --> 00:08:32,453 How has the forger got away with it for four decades? 130 00:08:38,994 --> 00:08:42,530 How is this skull of an ancient human faked so well 131 00:08:42,565 --> 00:08:44,966 that it fools the expert world? 132 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:50,471 This was a carefully planned, if somewhat clumsy, forgery. 133 00:08:50,506 --> 00:08:52,540 [narrator] One thing that convinces experts 134 00:08:52,575 --> 00:08:56,344 is the brown coloring of the buried finds. 135 00:08:56,378 --> 00:08:57,712 In real fossils, color this dark 136 00:08:57,746 --> 00:08:59,814 results from very long term exposure 137 00:08:59,848 --> 00:09:02,717 to minerals in the ground water. 138 00:09:02,751 --> 00:09:06,854 But under chemical analysis, Piltdown man's coloring falls apart. 139 00:09:06,889 --> 00:09:11,426 The forger had stained all of the bone remains 140 00:09:11,460 --> 00:09:13,728 as well as associated stone tools 141 00:09:13,762 --> 00:09:17,732 and bone implements with sodium dichromate, 142 00:09:17,766 --> 00:09:20,468 a solution which produced a brown stain, 143 00:09:20,502 --> 00:09:23,304 making them look associated with one another. 144 00:09:24,707 --> 00:09:27,375 [narrator] And there are other devious tricks. 145 00:09:28,444 --> 00:09:29,811 When bones fossilize, 146 00:09:29,845 --> 00:09:33,681 they mineralize and they become heavier, stone like. 147 00:09:33,716 --> 00:09:36,618 This was a problem which confronted the forger, 148 00:09:36,652 --> 00:09:38,920 how to make the bones heavier? 149 00:09:39,655 --> 00:09:41,155 [narrator] The Piltdown bones 150 00:09:41,190 --> 00:09:45,226 are too young to be fossilized, yet they are heavy. 151 00:09:45,260 --> 00:09:49,631 Detailed examination reveals something extraordinary. 152 00:09:49,665 --> 00:09:53,568 [MacDonald] The forger used natural crevices in the bones 153 00:09:53,602 --> 00:09:57,438 to hide away bits of stone, to give them greater weight. 154 00:09:58,607 --> 00:10:01,476 [narrator] The deeper they dig, the worse it gets. 155 00:10:01,510 --> 00:10:04,679 The canine tooth is definitely from an orangutan, 156 00:10:04,713 --> 00:10:07,348 yet the molars appear remarkably human. 157 00:10:08,317 --> 00:10:09,584 But extreme magnification 158 00:10:09,618 --> 00:10:12,754 reveals rows of tiny linear abrasions. 159 00:10:14,323 --> 00:10:19,794 Under microscopic examination, it was clear that the molars had been filed down 160 00:10:19,828 --> 00:10:21,863 in order to make them look more human. 161 00:10:22,865 --> 00:10:26,401 [narrator] And there are some glaring mistakes. 162 00:10:27,469 --> 00:10:30,438 [Elliot] When the forger makes the fake, 163 00:10:30,472 --> 00:10:32,974 he uses putty to seal in stones 164 00:10:33,008 --> 00:10:35,910 into the jaw in teeth cavities to give it this weight. 165 00:10:35,944 --> 00:10:39,480 But it would have been quite obvious to people looking at those... 166 00:10:39,515 --> 00:10:42,817 Those cavities had been sealed in that way. 167 00:10:42,851 --> 00:10:46,521 [narrator] Why isn't this obvious evidence of fraud spotted by experts? 168 00:10:48,090 --> 00:10:53,895 It's all because Piltdown man is considered too important to be handled. 169 00:10:53,929 --> 00:10:56,631 What happens is a series of casts are produced. 170 00:10:56,665 --> 00:11:00,535 And this is really crucial because the casting process 171 00:11:00,569 --> 00:11:02,870 masks all the differences in materials, 172 00:11:02,905 --> 00:11:05,540 but also many of the differences in textures 173 00:11:05,574 --> 00:11:08,376 that would have given some of those signs of forgery 174 00:11:08,410 --> 00:11:11,446 away to researchers looking at them. 175 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:14,382 [narrator] And the forger has one more vital tool in his arsenal... 176 00:11:16,385 --> 00:11:18,119 national pride. 177 00:11:19,021 --> 00:11:20,822 [MacDonald] If we go back to 1912, 178 00:11:20,856 --> 00:11:27,562 there had not yet been any human fossil finds of importance in Britain. 179 00:11:27,596 --> 00:11:31,165 [narrator] Meanwhile, the French have found Cro-Magnon man, 180 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:36,337 and the Germans have Neanderthals and Homo heidelbergensis. 181 00:11:36,939 --> 00:11:37,972 One French archaeologist 182 00:11:38,006 --> 00:11:42,744 apparently describes the British as pebble hunters. 183 00:11:42,778 --> 00:11:46,981 Piltdown man puts those continentals right in their place. 184 00:11:47,015 --> 00:11:51,919 This is exactly what people want to find, in exactly the right place, 185 00:11:51,954 --> 00:11:53,688 being made by exactly the right kinds of people 186 00:11:53,722 --> 00:11:56,023 for the British academic establishment. 187 00:11:56,058 --> 00:11:58,559 I think that plays a big role into how readily 188 00:11:58,594 --> 00:12:01,362 the fake is accepted by British academics. 189 00:12:02,664 --> 00:12:07,535 [narrator] Which leaves just one question, "Who did it?" 190 00:12:07,569 --> 00:12:08,970 Now, after 100 years, 191 00:12:09,004 --> 00:12:13,241 new research can finally uncover the forger's identity. 192 00:12:16,845 --> 00:12:21,115 Suspicion has fallen on several individuals, 193 00:12:21,150 --> 00:12:27,088 the celebrated academic, the charismatic lawyer and the famous author. 194 00:12:27,122 --> 00:12:31,225 It's straight out of the pages of an Agatha Christie whodunnit, 195 00:12:32,828 --> 00:12:35,830 or perhaps a Sherlock Holmes novel, 196 00:12:35,864 --> 00:12:39,834 which leads rather neatly to the first possibility. 197 00:12:39,868 --> 00:12:45,173 One of the suspects for the forger was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 198 00:12:45,207 --> 00:12:47,441 the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. 199 00:12:48,610 --> 00:12:50,845 He was a man who had an interest in science, 200 00:12:50,879 --> 00:12:57,518 and, in fact, he belonged to the same archaeological society as Dawson himself. 201 00:12:57,553 --> 00:13:00,755 And he sometimes played golf in Piltdown. 202 00:13:01,557 --> 00:13:03,891 [narrator] But what is his motive? 203 00:13:03,926 --> 00:13:06,828 He had become increasingly involved in spiritualism, 204 00:13:06,862 --> 00:13:10,264 and was an object of mockery by the scientific community. 205 00:13:11,700 --> 00:13:15,636 [narrator] Spiritualists claim they can communicate with the dead. 206 00:13:15,671 --> 00:13:17,805 But by 1912, 207 00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:20,474 spiritualism has been widely debunked 208 00:13:20,509 --> 00:13:22,977 and ridiculed by scientists. 209 00:13:23,812 --> 00:13:26,180 [Ball] So he developed something 210 00:13:26,215 --> 00:13:29,517 of a, kind of, defensive attitude against science. 211 00:13:29,551 --> 00:13:30,852 And the theory was 212 00:13:30,886 --> 00:13:33,888 that this might have been his way of getting his own back. 213 00:13:35,023 --> 00:13:37,992 [narrator] But there's one big hole in the theory. 214 00:13:38,527 --> 00:13:40,628 He never tells anyone. 215 00:13:40,662 --> 00:13:42,830 If Conan Doyle had done this 216 00:13:42,865 --> 00:13:47,034 to embarrass the paleo anthropological community, 217 00:13:47,069 --> 00:13:51,672 he would have sprung the trap in his lifetime, and he didn't. 218 00:13:51,707 --> 00:13:56,344 So I think this alone allows us to eliminate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 219 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:01,682 [narrator] Another obvious suspect is Arthur Smith Woodward, 220 00:14:01,717 --> 00:14:05,653 the paleontologist who pieces the skull together. 221 00:14:05,687 --> 00:14:09,423 He had the expertise to create a hoax of this sort, 222 00:14:09,458 --> 00:14:11,959 he had access to the materials. 223 00:14:11,994 --> 00:14:14,028 [MacDonald] Someone who stood to gain a great deal, 224 00:14:14,062 --> 00:14:18,799 in terms of their own career, from such a famous discovery. 225 00:14:18,834 --> 00:14:20,568 [narrator] But if the forgery is discovered, 226 00:14:20,602 --> 00:14:24,538 it would destroy his hard won international reputation. 227 00:14:24,573 --> 00:14:26,540 He had everything to lose. 228 00:14:26,575 --> 00:14:29,644 I, personally, I just can't see it. 229 00:14:29,678 --> 00:14:33,814 [narrator] Last but most definitely not least, Charles Dawson. 230 00:14:35,217 --> 00:14:41,489 He was the only one who ever claimed to make these particular finds. 231 00:14:41,523 --> 00:14:44,725 Um, he clearly had ambitions. 232 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:49,363 And after he died, these finds just stopped. 233 00:14:50,933 --> 00:14:56,370 [narrator] For a century, suspicion has shifted from one suspect to another. 234 00:14:56,405 --> 00:15:00,308 Now, the latest research has finally cracked the case. 235 00:15:02,010 --> 00:15:08,149 The key is another artefact hidden away in a back room at the Natural History Museum. 236 00:15:08,650 --> 00:15:10,651 Piltdown man two. 237 00:15:10,686 --> 00:15:12,887 Dawson has this other site, Piltdown two, 238 00:15:12,921 --> 00:15:15,723 which is about a mile away from the original Piltdown site. 239 00:15:15,757 --> 00:15:18,459 And at that site, he makes a discovery, 240 00:15:18,493 --> 00:15:20,795 another Homininae cranium 241 00:15:20,829 --> 00:15:23,597 with exactly the same kinds of staining 242 00:15:23,632 --> 00:15:26,067 observed at Piltdown one. 243 00:15:29,004 --> 00:15:31,639 [narrator] In 2016, a new study throws 244 00:15:31,673 --> 00:15:34,442 every modern scientific technique available 245 00:15:34,476 --> 00:15:36,978 at both Piltdown specimens. 246 00:15:37,646 --> 00:15:39,613 The results are conclusive. 247 00:15:40,682 --> 00:15:43,551 The teeth from Piltdown two had come from exactly 248 00:15:43,585 --> 00:15:45,486 the same orangutan as Piltdown one. 249 00:15:46,788 --> 00:15:49,790 Also, there's a similar technique in terms of sealing stones 250 00:15:49,825 --> 00:15:53,060 into the jaw using putty, and that is, chemically, 251 00:15:53,095 --> 00:15:56,664 the same kind of putty that was used at Piltdown one. 252 00:15:56,698 --> 00:15:58,933 [narrator] So whoever created Piltdown man 253 00:15:58,967 --> 00:16:03,037 must have created Piltdown man two as well. 254 00:16:03,071 --> 00:16:07,108 Of all the suspects, only one of them knew about Piltdown two, 255 00:16:07,743 --> 00:16:09,310 and that's Charles Dawson. 256 00:16:10,479 --> 00:16:14,015 [narrator] Charles Dawson faked Piltdown man. 257 00:16:15,751 --> 00:16:18,886 And a new examination of his other astonishing finds, 258 00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:22,390 the ones that earned him the title Wizard of Sussex, 259 00:16:22,424 --> 00:16:24,425 is the final nail in his coffin. 260 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:28,462 Almost every single one is a fake. 261 00:16:30,599 --> 00:16:33,801 It turns out Dawson is already an old hand at forgery 262 00:16:33,835 --> 00:16:37,104 long before Piltdown man turns up. 263 00:16:38,407 --> 00:16:39,840 After more than a century, 264 00:16:39,875 --> 00:16:44,278 the case of the Piltdown man finally closed. 265 00:16:52,654 --> 00:16:57,224 The United Nations Security Council, May 1960. 266 00:16:58,994 --> 00:17:00,461 The world gets its first sight 267 00:17:00,495 --> 00:17:02,897 of an object that has sent shockwaves 268 00:17:02,931 --> 00:17:05,466 through the shady world of American espionage. 269 00:17:07,536 --> 00:17:12,039 A Soviet bug unlike anything ever seen before. 270 00:17:15,043 --> 00:17:20,047 It's been listening in to the US Ambassador's office in Moscow. 271 00:17:23,685 --> 00:17:27,421 Imagine if during the most dangerous period 272 00:17:27,456 --> 00:17:29,290 of your country's history, 273 00:17:29,324 --> 00:17:30,724 your most dangerous enemy 274 00:17:30,759 --> 00:17:33,794 was listening to your every word. 275 00:17:33,829 --> 00:17:38,299 [narrator] What terrifies American spies is that it's evaded detection 276 00:17:38,333 --> 00:17:40,301 for seven years. 277 00:17:40,335 --> 00:17:44,238 [Auerbach] The Americans knew what to expect from the Soviets. 278 00:17:44,272 --> 00:17:45,773 The issue was they were dealing with a device 279 00:17:45,807 --> 00:17:50,277 that they never expected and had no means of detecting. 280 00:17:51,947 --> 00:17:54,548 [narrator] And they just can't figure it out. 281 00:17:54,583 --> 00:17:57,485 The Americans had no idea what they were looking at, 282 00:17:57,519 --> 00:17:59,820 they had no idea how it worked. 283 00:17:59,855 --> 00:18:05,159 It was so bizarre to them that they simply called it The Thing. 284 00:18:05,193 --> 00:18:08,729 [narrator] If they can't make sense of it, the Russians can just do 285 00:18:08,763 --> 00:18:10,931 do the same thing over and over again. 286 00:18:12,033 --> 00:18:16,370 Now, to unlock its secrets, we've brought it back. 287 00:18:18,874 --> 00:18:22,810 A carved wooden plaque of the Great American Seal. 288 00:18:23,912 --> 00:18:27,248 Inside, nothing but a few pieces of metal work. 289 00:18:29,217 --> 00:18:32,820 It was just a metal cylinder with a little bit of metal attached to it. 290 00:18:32,854 --> 00:18:34,321 It looks completely innocuous. 291 00:18:34,356 --> 00:18:36,023 That was all there was to it. 292 00:18:36,057 --> 00:18:41,028 [narrator] An electronic listening bug with no electronics. 293 00:18:42,631 --> 00:18:44,598 It hasn't got batteries, it hasn't got wires, 294 00:18:44,633 --> 00:18:47,535 it doesn't have a huge radio antenna dangling at the back. 295 00:18:47,569 --> 00:18:50,070 It's, basically, completely undetectable. 296 00:18:50,805 --> 00:18:52,473 [narrator] How does it work? 297 00:18:53,875 --> 00:18:56,410 Who is the Soviet genius who dreams it up? 298 00:18:58,146 --> 00:19:02,383 Why did it baffle American experts for so long? 299 00:19:09,257 --> 00:19:10,691 The Thing, 300 00:19:10,725 --> 00:19:15,062 a Soviet listening device made from a few pieces of bent metal. 301 00:19:16,598 --> 00:19:18,866 It eavesdrops on top secret conversations 302 00:19:18,900 --> 00:19:23,304 of the US Ambassador to Moscow for seven years. 303 00:19:24,673 --> 00:19:28,108 How does it escape detection for so long? 304 00:19:31,813 --> 00:19:33,881 After the end of World War II, 305 00:19:33,915 --> 00:19:36,350 spying becomes an essential tool 306 00:19:36,384 --> 00:19:37,818 in the new Cold War battle 307 00:19:37,852 --> 00:19:40,487 between Russia and its former ally, America. 308 00:19:41,756 --> 00:19:45,626 Spaso House, the US Ambassador's residence in Moscow, 309 00:19:45,660 --> 00:19:47,962 is an obvious Soviet target. 310 00:19:48,563 --> 00:19:52,333 So 1945, the US Ambassador 311 00:19:52,367 --> 00:19:55,169 is given a ceremonial presentation 312 00:19:55,203 --> 00:19:57,805 of a wooden version of the Great Seal of the United States, 313 00:19:57,839 --> 00:20:01,609 and it's delivered to him by the Young Pioneers, 314 00:20:01,643 --> 00:20:04,678 this is the Soviet equivalent of the Boy Scouts. 315 00:20:04,713 --> 00:20:06,647 What the ambassador didn't realize 316 00:20:06,681 --> 00:20:09,216 is that the bug was already in it. 317 00:20:10,585 --> 00:20:12,386 [narrator] It's hung proudly on the wall 318 00:20:12,420 --> 00:20:14,622 in the ambassador's private office. 319 00:20:15,724 --> 00:20:19,727 The US has been duped, and it doesn't even know it. 320 00:20:19,761 --> 00:20:21,695 [Auerbach] This is not cloak and dagger. 321 00:20:21,730 --> 00:20:25,466 This is not a man in a fedora and a trench coat. 322 00:20:25,500 --> 00:20:27,868 The most powerful country in the world 323 00:20:27,902 --> 00:20:32,239 was hoodwinked by the equivalent of a bunch of Boy Scouts. 324 00:20:33,475 --> 00:20:34,975 [narrator] How did the Americans miss it? 325 00:20:36,411 --> 00:20:40,814 Everything entering the residence gets a detailed security check, 326 00:20:40,849 --> 00:20:44,285 but The Thing is not spotted. 327 00:20:44,319 --> 00:20:45,953 It passed all the security screening in the American Embassy 328 00:20:45,987 --> 00:20:49,356 because they X-rayed it, and there was just nothing there. 329 00:20:49,391 --> 00:20:52,359 It really is beautifully innocuous. 330 00:20:52,394 --> 00:20:54,962 [narrator] After years eavesdropping US secrets, 331 00:20:54,996 --> 00:20:59,466 radio transmissions from The Thing are detected purely by chance. 332 00:21:00,535 --> 00:21:02,803 The way that this was discovered... 333 00:21:02,837 --> 00:21:04,638 Some of that information is still classified. 334 00:21:04,673 --> 00:21:07,608 It was either an American or a British radio operator 335 00:21:07,642 --> 00:21:08,876 heard something that was coming out 336 00:21:08,910 --> 00:21:11,645 of the ambassador's office in Spaso House. 337 00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:15,182 [narrator] These radio transmissions can only mean one thing, 338 00:21:16,251 --> 00:21:17,685 a bug. 339 00:21:17,719 --> 00:21:21,655 Once they know it's there, it doesn't take long to find. 340 00:21:21,690 --> 00:21:25,392 But at this point, it's already been in there for seven years. 341 00:21:25,427 --> 00:21:26,960 [narrator] How has The Thing evaded 342 00:21:26,995 --> 00:21:31,332 the most technologically sophisticated country on Earth? 343 00:21:34,769 --> 00:21:37,905 When this carved Seal was inspected, 344 00:21:37,939 --> 00:21:42,776 within it was found a very innocuous little object. 345 00:21:42,811 --> 00:21:45,646 So it was basically just a metal cylinder 346 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:48,682 with a little bit of metal attached to it. 347 00:21:49,851 --> 00:21:52,797 There was almost literally... There was nothing to it. 348 00:21:52,821 --> 00:21:55,823 [narrator] No one can make sense of it. 349 00:21:55,857 --> 00:21:58,359 For the life of them, they can't figure out how it works. 350 00:21:58,393 --> 00:22:05,332 It doesn't conform to any conventional specifications for a listening device. 351 00:22:06,601 --> 00:22:08,635 [narrator] The inexplicable bug finally ends up 352 00:22:08,670 --> 00:22:11,638 on the desk of a technical expert at British Intelligence. 353 00:22:12,741 --> 00:22:16,877 [Auerbach] So they send it to Peter Wright at MI5, 354 00:22:16,911 --> 00:22:21,949 and his job is to figure out how this bug actually works. 355 00:22:21,983 --> 00:22:26,453 [narrator] It takes Wright ten weeks to crack The Thing's secret. 356 00:22:26,488 --> 00:22:29,556 What he finds is a work of genius. 357 00:22:29,591 --> 00:22:31,492 The principle behind The Thing 358 00:22:31,526 --> 00:22:33,827 is a phenomenon called resonance. 359 00:22:35,096 --> 00:22:37,765 [narrator] One of the best known examples of resonance 360 00:22:37,799 --> 00:22:40,934 is a wine glass partially filled with water. 361 00:22:41,669 --> 00:22:42,970 [Steele] If you wet your finger, 362 00:22:43,004 --> 00:22:44,805 then move it slowly around the rim of a wine glass, 363 00:22:44,839 --> 00:22:47,775 you're causing it to vibrate very slightly, 364 00:22:47,809 --> 00:22:50,144 and you can play a musical note. 365 00:22:51,012 --> 00:22:52,813 [narrator] This resonance effect happens 366 00:22:52,847 --> 00:22:55,749 because the length of that particular sound wave 367 00:22:55,784 --> 00:22:58,218 fits into the space above the liquid. 368 00:23:00,655 --> 00:23:04,525 A metal container has exactly the same effect on radio waves 369 00:23:04,559 --> 00:23:07,428 that a wine glass does on sound waves, 370 00:23:07,462 --> 00:23:10,798 and that is the secret of The Thing. 371 00:23:10,832 --> 00:23:13,400 [Steele] The Thing is a tiny cylinder of metal, 372 00:23:13,435 --> 00:23:14,535 and that cylinder has a particular 373 00:23:14,569 --> 00:23:16,537 resonant frequency for radio waves. 374 00:23:16,571 --> 00:23:17,771 So, if you shine waves at it 375 00:23:17,806 --> 00:23:18,906 at exactly that frequency, 376 00:23:18,940 --> 00:23:21,175 it will send that same frequency back at you. 377 00:23:24,212 --> 00:23:27,915 [narrator] Turning the bug on is child's play for the Soviets. 378 00:23:27,949 --> 00:23:30,684 [Ball] Outside the ambassador's residence, 379 00:23:30,718 --> 00:23:32,886 there was a van that was broadcasting 380 00:23:32,921 --> 00:23:37,758 an intense radio frequency beam into the room, 381 00:23:37,792 --> 00:23:40,027 and that radio frequency signal 382 00:23:40,061 --> 00:23:42,996 would set the cavity vibrating. 383 00:23:43,031 --> 00:23:47,334 [Steele] The genius was then to put a tiny, thin layer of silver foil 384 00:23:47,368 --> 00:23:49,503 on one end of the cylinder. 385 00:23:49,537 --> 00:23:50,804 [narrator] Sound from speech in the room 386 00:23:50,839 --> 00:23:52,906 makes the foil move in and out, 387 00:23:52,941 --> 00:23:57,611 very slightly changing the size of the space inside the cylinder, 388 00:23:57,645 --> 00:24:01,648 and that changes the radio waves re-transmitted by it. 389 00:24:01,683 --> 00:24:03,584 [Ball] So, really, the people in the van 390 00:24:03,618 --> 00:24:06,353 just had to put on a pair of headphones 391 00:24:06,387 --> 00:24:07,855 and listen with a radio receiver, 392 00:24:07,889 --> 00:24:10,958 and they could hear what was going on inside the room. 393 00:24:10,992 --> 00:24:15,562 [narrator] No wonder it takes so many years to spot the bug. 394 00:24:15,597 --> 00:24:17,598 If you're not transmitting radio waves to it, 395 00:24:17,632 --> 00:24:21,101 it does absolutely nothing. It is completely undetectable. 396 00:24:21,135 --> 00:24:22,503 Unless you happen to catch them in the act, 397 00:24:22,537 --> 00:24:25,205 when they're outside in their van, transmitting radio waves. 398 00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:27,307 Then you're just not going to find anything. 399 00:24:29,444 --> 00:24:32,012 [narrator] The Thing is a work of genius. 400 00:24:32,046 --> 00:24:35,749 But the mastermind behind it is not some shadowy spy. 401 00:24:35,783 --> 00:24:38,652 In fact, he's world famous. 402 00:24:38,686 --> 00:24:41,488 Not for espionage, but, incredibly, 403 00:24:41,523 --> 00:24:44,358 for pop music and horror movies. 404 00:24:45,527 --> 00:24:47,394 Who on earth is he? 405 00:24:54,769 --> 00:24:58,038 The Thing is the ultimate undetectable bug. 406 00:24:58,072 --> 00:25:03,310 Who had the genius to come up with such a perfect device? 407 00:25:05,780 --> 00:25:09,383 [Auerbach] He was a kind of scientific superstar. 408 00:25:09,417 --> 00:25:10,751 Hey was a physicist by training, 409 00:25:10,785 --> 00:25:12,786 he was from a family of musicians, 410 00:25:12,820 --> 00:25:16,089 but his real genius was electronics. 411 00:25:16,124 --> 00:25:20,160 [narrator] His name is Lev Sergeyevich Termen, 412 00:25:20,194 --> 00:25:24,097 better known in the West as Leon Theremin. 413 00:25:24,132 --> 00:25:25,699 And his claim to fame up to that point 414 00:25:25,733 --> 00:25:29,036 was he'd invented something called the ether phone. 415 00:25:29,070 --> 00:25:33,373 [narrator] The ether phone is the world's first electronic musical instrument. 416 00:25:34,509 --> 00:25:37,644 It's now better known simply as the Theremin. 417 00:25:37,679 --> 00:25:40,180 And it's an incredibly beautiful thing. 418 00:25:40,214 --> 00:25:43,817 A sort of wailing, plaintive, wonderful sound. 419 00:25:45,153 --> 00:25:48,989 [narrator] It's played by two hands waved in the air above it. 420 00:25:50,858 --> 00:25:54,695 This was such a marvelous device that the Soviet government 421 00:25:54,729 --> 00:25:59,433 actually had him going on tour to show off Soviet technology. 422 00:26:01,069 --> 00:26:05,439 Theremin goes to Paris, London, New York 423 00:26:05,473 --> 00:26:09,643 to show off this marvelous new object. 424 00:26:09,677 --> 00:26:13,480 [narrator] By the time Theremin returns to Russia in 1938, 425 00:26:13,514 --> 00:26:15,649 it's a very different place. 426 00:26:15,683 --> 00:26:20,454 [Auerbach] Stalin is the dictator in charge of the Soviet Union. 427 00:26:20,488 --> 00:26:23,924 His secret police are everywhere. 428 00:26:23,958 --> 00:26:26,059 [narrator] Because of his time in the West, 429 00:26:26,094 --> 00:26:29,896 Theremin is falsely accused of being a counter revolutionary 430 00:26:29,931 --> 00:26:33,266 and sentenced to eight years hard labor in a gulag. 431 00:26:34,535 --> 00:26:36,837 But he catches a lucky break. 432 00:26:36,871 --> 00:26:41,708 Oddly enough, the man who saves Theremin from his fate in the gulag 433 00:26:41,743 --> 00:26:43,844 is absolutely one of the most dangerous, 434 00:26:43,878 --> 00:26:48,248 frightening people in the Soviet government, Beria. 435 00:26:49,417 --> 00:26:50,684 [narrator] Lavrentiy Beria is head 436 00:26:50,718 --> 00:26:54,254 of the Soviet secret police, the KGB. 437 00:26:55,690 --> 00:26:59,793 He offers Theremin a deal, freedom from the gulag 438 00:26:59,827 --> 00:27:02,796 in exchange for an undetectable bug. 439 00:27:03,564 --> 00:27:06,533 Theremin delivers in spades. 440 00:27:06,567 --> 00:27:08,568 His genius invention, The Thing, 441 00:27:08,603 --> 00:27:11,805 eavesdrops on seven years of US intelligence. 442 00:27:11,839 --> 00:27:15,342 The Soviets knew they were going to get 443 00:27:15,376 --> 00:27:16,777 amazing information out of this bug, 444 00:27:16,811 --> 00:27:21,415 but how could they have predicted how much would be going on 445 00:27:21,449 --> 00:27:25,419 in that seven years, from '45 to '52? 446 00:27:28,423 --> 00:27:29,823 [narrator] In those seven years, 447 00:27:29,857 --> 00:27:33,226 America drops two atom bombs on Japan. 448 00:27:36,898 --> 00:27:41,268 Post-war Europe is carved up between Russia and the West. 449 00:27:43,571 --> 00:27:45,238 NATO is formed. 450 00:27:46,441 --> 00:27:48,809 The Berlin Airlift happens. 451 00:27:49,577 --> 00:27:52,245 The US goes to war in Korea. 452 00:27:54,716 --> 00:27:58,585 And The Thing listens to it all. 453 00:27:58,619 --> 00:28:01,788 A lot of the information that was gained from Theremin's Thing, 454 00:28:01,823 --> 00:28:04,925 it's been worked into Soviet policies and decisions, 455 00:28:04,959 --> 00:28:09,696 but we'll never be able to trace it back to exactly where it came from. 456 00:28:11,232 --> 00:28:15,302 [narrator] But the story of The Thing does not end with its discovery. 457 00:28:18,506 --> 00:28:20,841 Russia may be spying on America, 458 00:28:20,875 --> 00:28:24,311 but America has been busy returning the favor. 459 00:28:26,848 --> 00:28:29,082 They create the U-2 spy plane, 460 00:28:29,117 --> 00:28:33,620 the most technologically sophisticated aircraft in the world. 461 00:28:34,622 --> 00:28:37,724 It photographs Russia whilst flying so high, 462 00:28:37,759 --> 00:28:40,360 Russia can't hit it with their missiles. 463 00:28:42,497 --> 00:28:45,265 But in 1960, it all goes wrong. 464 00:28:50,638 --> 00:28:53,507 It turns out that the Soviets do have a weapon 465 00:28:53,541 --> 00:28:54,775 that can reach the U-2 spy plane, 466 00:28:54,809 --> 00:28:57,577 and they probably shoot one down. 467 00:28:57,612 --> 00:29:00,714 [narrator] Russia accuses the US of illegal spying. 468 00:29:01,716 --> 00:29:04,885 US Ambassador to the UN, Henry Cabot Lodge, 469 00:29:04,919 --> 00:29:05,919 faces humiliation. 470 00:29:06,954 --> 00:29:10,056 He falls back on a classic political defense, 471 00:29:10,558 --> 00:29:12,392 "They started it." 472 00:29:12,426 --> 00:29:13,760 "Okay, yes, we were spying on them. 473 00:29:13,795 --> 00:29:16,963 But you know what? They were spying on us." 474 00:29:16,998 --> 00:29:19,266 And that's when he brings out The Thing. 475 00:29:22,370 --> 00:29:25,105 [Auerbach] I can only imagine that Theremin was incredibly flattered 476 00:29:25,139 --> 00:29:30,143 because on the one hand you have the most sophisticated piece 477 00:29:30,178 --> 00:29:34,314 of aerospace engineering ever developed until this time. 478 00:29:35,716 --> 00:29:39,653 And then, on the other hand, you have a bit of metal. 479 00:29:39,687 --> 00:29:42,155 I mean, that's a great little comparison to have 480 00:29:42,190 --> 00:29:44,324 if you're the guy that invented the second one. 481 00:29:45,626 --> 00:29:46,860 [narrator] Despite The Thing's fame, 482 00:29:46,894 --> 00:29:50,997 its connection to Theremin is obscured by the Soviets. 483 00:29:51,032 --> 00:29:54,701 It is decades before his name is finally connected 484 00:29:54,735 --> 00:29:58,071 to one of the most bizarre spy gadgets in history, 485 00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:00,173 The Thing. 486 00:30:07,315 --> 00:30:09,916 [narrator] Locked away in a store room at London Science Museum 487 00:30:09,951 --> 00:30:13,987 is a genuine 19th century miracle machine, 488 00:30:14,889 --> 00:30:17,557 a 180-year-old mechanical engine 489 00:30:17,592 --> 00:30:20,827 that solves complex mathematical equations. 490 00:30:20,862 --> 00:30:24,698 Built more than 100 years before the first electronic computer, 491 00:30:24,732 --> 00:30:27,434 it was the only one of its kind in the world. 492 00:30:28,436 --> 00:30:29,736 It's hard now with all our modern computers 493 00:30:29,770 --> 00:30:31,738 to think about just how ridiculous an idea 494 00:30:31,772 --> 00:30:33,740 this must have seemed at the time. 495 00:30:33,774 --> 00:30:37,611 [narrator] Now, brought out of the shadows 496 00:30:37,645 --> 00:30:40,247 and painstakingly reconstructed, 497 00:30:42,416 --> 00:30:45,385 this is Difference Engine No. 1. 498 00:30:46,687 --> 00:30:48,421 It's a problem solving machine. 499 00:30:49,690 --> 00:30:52,859 [narrator] Standing 28 inches high and 24 inches wide, 500 00:30:54,061 --> 00:30:58,965 two thousand precision parts of bronze, steel and iron. 501 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,835 Its cogs and levers are designed to solve equations 502 00:31:01,869 --> 00:31:05,805 previously only managed by thinking human minds. 503 00:31:06,841 --> 00:31:09,476 It's meant to transform science and engineering 504 00:31:09,510 --> 00:31:11,912 by eliminating lethal calculation errors. 505 00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,916 Nothing like it has ever been seen before. 506 00:31:16,651 --> 00:31:19,486 It was utterly out of the blue 507 00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:22,322 and seemingly impossible. 508 00:31:23,524 --> 00:31:26,393 [narrator] It is designed to change the world. 509 00:31:26,427 --> 00:31:29,763 Who invents it? How does it work? 510 00:31:29,797 --> 00:31:34,434 And how exactly is this machine going to start a revolution? 511 00:31:43,477 --> 00:31:45,946 Built in 1832, 512 00:31:45,980 --> 00:31:49,149 this bizarre contraption is a calculation engine, 513 00:31:50,318 --> 00:31:53,653 and it's the only one of its kind in the world. 514 00:31:53,688 --> 00:31:56,022 But why is it created? 515 00:31:59,026 --> 00:32:01,594 [Ruth Goodman] The early 19th century is an exceedingly 516 00:32:01,629 --> 00:32:04,497 exciting time within Britain. 517 00:32:04,532 --> 00:32:07,000 Steam power is on the rise. 518 00:32:07,034 --> 00:32:10,136 People are beginning to see how it can be exploited. 519 00:32:11,539 --> 00:32:15,619 Now, instead of human labor, you would use some kind of mechanized labor 520 00:32:15,643 --> 00:32:19,346 to do weaving, to do construction, to do mining. 521 00:32:19,380 --> 00:32:20,814 So that was really the notion, 522 00:32:20,848 --> 00:32:24,684 that you were replacing a human with the machine. 523 00:32:26,153 --> 00:32:30,423 [narrator] But this revolution depends increasingly on mathematics. 524 00:32:34,495 --> 00:32:37,664 And in an age before electronic calculators, 525 00:32:37,698 --> 00:32:41,735 these sums rely on printed mathematical tables to assist them. 526 00:32:43,004 --> 00:32:45,772 All of the calculations that went into mathematical tables 527 00:32:45,806 --> 00:32:48,508 in the 19th century were done by computers, 528 00:32:48,542 --> 00:32:50,443 but not computers as we understand them today. 529 00:32:50,478 --> 00:32:52,612 By human computers, people who'd sit down 530 00:32:52,646 --> 00:32:55,281 and do all the mathematics longhand. 531 00:32:56,684 --> 00:32:58,051 [narrator] In 1820, 532 00:32:58,085 --> 00:33:02,055 The Royal Astronomical Society appoints mathematician Charles Babbage 533 00:33:02,089 --> 00:33:07,527 to investigate concerns about errors creeping into these tables. 534 00:33:07,561 --> 00:33:09,662 The consequences could be enormous. 535 00:33:09,697 --> 00:33:11,431 You could have bridges collapsing, 536 00:33:11,465 --> 00:33:13,033 you could have railways that stop short. 537 00:33:13,067 --> 00:33:18,471 All of this engineering, all of this expansion, all of this finance 538 00:33:18,506 --> 00:33:23,743 is reliant upon truly accurate maths. 539 00:33:23,778 --> 00:33:26,713 Small mistake, big consequences. 540 00:33:26,747 --> 00:33:30,450 [narrator] Babbage is horrified by what he finds. 541 00:33:30,484 --> 00:33:32,952 There was huge scope for error. 542 00:33:32,987 --> 00:33:34,054 There'd be the person doing the calculations, 543 00:33:34,088 --> 00:33:35,855 then someone would have to copy it out into a table, 544 00:33:35,890 --> 00:33:38,558 then someone would have to try and typeset it for printing. 545 00:33:38,592 --> 00:33:40,693 So every stage of this process 546 00:33:40,728 --> 00:33:42,362 has scope to introduce mistakes. 547 00:33:44,065 --> 00:33:47,734 Babbage looked at this and, out of frustration, actually stated, 548 00:33:47,768 --> 00:33:50,770 "I wish I could construct these tables out of steam." 549 00:33:51,806 --> 00:33:55,508 And he thinks, "Maybe I can make steam do the job 550 00:33:55,543 --> 00:33:58,778 the brains do." 551 00:33:58,813 --> 00:34:02,782 [narrator] This idea is so far ahead of its time, it seems crazy. 552 00:34:03,818 --> 00:34:06,486 Nobody else had come even close to that thought. 553 00:34:07,755 --> 00:34:10,723 [narrator] But if anyone can pull it off, it's Babbage. 554 00:34:10,758 --> 00:34:14,627 He has a long track record in unorthodox ideas. 555 00:34:14,662 --> 00:34:17,764 [Steele] Babbage was already showing signs of brilliance and a love of invention 556 00:34:17,798 --> 00:34:18,932 even as a child. 557 00:34:18,966 --> 00:34:20,900 He developed a device which he hoped would cause him 558 00:34:20,935 --> 00:34:24,537 to walk on water, and nearly drowned in the process. 559 00:34:24,572 --> 00:34:26,439 So perhaps it's not so surprising 560 00:34:26,474 --> 00:34:30,276 that somebody with this adventurous mind 561 00:34:30,311 --> 00:34:33,379 would be the sort of person to think adventurous thoughts. 562 00:34:35,649 --> 00:34:39,452 [narrator] Babbage imagines a machine unlike any built before. 563 00:34:40,788 --> 00:34:43,990 Eight feet high, weighing four tons 564 00:34:44,024 --> 00:34:47,794 and made of more than twenty-five thousand parts. 565 00:34:47,828 --> 00:34:50,730 This was going to be a true computational machine, 566 00:34:50,764 --> 00:34:52,332 not just an addition, subtraction device. 567 00:34:53,901 --> 00:34:57,637 [narrator] It will solve an equation called a polynomial, 568 00:34:57,671 --> 00:35:03,209 from which key tables, such as logarithms, are calculated. 569 00:35:03,244 --> 00:35:05,512 And it will do this using a mathematical approach 570 00:35:05,546 --> 00:35:07,847 called the method of differences, 571 00:35:08,682 --> 00:35:11,384 so he calls it the difference engine. 572 00:35:16,590 --> 00:35:19,692 In 1823, Babbage persuades the British government 573 00:35:19,727 --> 00:35:24,230 that he can solve all their human computer problems, 574 00:35:24,265 --> 00:35:26,499 and they believe him. 575 00:35:26,534 --> 00:35:28,401 It's important to remember that this experimentation 576 00:35:28,435 --> 00:35:30,003 wasn't just a bit of random tinkering. 577 00:35:30,037 --> 00:35:37,310 This is a bloke who became perhaps the most eminent maths professor of his age. 578 00:35:38,479 --> 00:35:41,581 [narrator] The government advance him £1,500, 579 00:35:41,615 --> 00:35:44,684 the equivalent of $250,000 today. 580 00:35:45,519 --> 00:35:48,922 And in 1832, Babbage produces this, 581 00:35:49,523 --> 00:35:51,858 Difference Engine No. 1, 582 00:35:52,860 --> 00:35:55,728 a prototype for Babbage's ultimate dream. 583 00:35:57,131 --> 00:36:00,800 Babbage's prototype was only about a third of the width and height 584 00:36:00,834 --> 00:36:03,303 of the machine that he eventually had planned. 585 00:36:04,205 --> 00:36:05,838 This was already an impressive machine, 586 00:36:05,873 --> 00:36:08,875 two thousand different brass and steel parts. 587 00:36:09,410 --> 00:36:10,843 [Ball] And it works. 588 00:36:10,878 --> 00:36:17,483 It can reliably calculate the squares of numbers, or the cubes of numbers, 589 00:36:17,518 --> 00:36:20,653 or solve simple quadratic equations. 590 00:36:20,688 --> 00:36:23,823 Babbage's idea not only works, 591 00:36:23,857 --> 00:36:26,926 but can be made to work in reality. 592 00:36:26,961 --> 00:36:31,731 [narrator] It seems Babbage's self-belief is actually justified. 593 00:36:31,765 --> 00:36:37,103 But how does this astonishing machine actually work? 594 00:36:41,342 --> 00:36:42,842 Difference Engine No. 1, 595 00:36:43,711 --> 00:36:46,579 an incredible mechanical contraption 596 00:36:46,614 --> 00:36:48,414 designed to replace the human mind 597 00:36:48,449 --> 00:36:51,217 in solving complex mathematical problems. 598 00:36:51,252 --> 00:36:55,455 [Ball] He'd set it up to carry out what we now call an algorithm. 599 00:36:55,489 --> 00:37:01,327 So a set of steps, um, that will automatically then give you your result. 600 00:37:03,097 --> 00:37:04,998 [narrator] But in an era long before electronics, 601 00:37:05,032 --> 00:37:09,202 all he has to do it with are metal cogs and levers. 602 00:37:11,238 --> 00:37:13,640 Difference Engine No.1 uses a series 603 00:37:13,674 --> 00:37:17,343 of numbered toothed drums arranged one above the other. 604 00:37:18,445 --> 00:37:21,447 The actual arrangement of the numbers 605 00:37:21,482 --> 00:37:23,750 are going up in columns. 606 00:37:23,784 --> 00:37:25,718 [narrator] So each number drum up a column 607 00:37:25,753 --> 00:37:31,224 represents units, then tens, hundreds, thousands and so on. 608 00:37:32,793 --> 00:37:36,496 If a drum moves beyond nine and back to zero, 609 00:37:36,530 --> 00:37:40,199 a carry mechanism adds one to the drum above. 610 00:37:40,234 --> 00:37:43,803 At the start, all the drums are set to particular numbers, 611 00:37:43,837 --> 00:37:45,638 depending on the planned calculation. 612 00:37:45,673 --> 00:37:48,608 [Denison] You can think about this as an arrangement of columns 613 00:37:48,642 --> 00:37:52,111 all turning in synchrony to do the computation itself. 614 00:37:53,447 --> 00:37:54,647 [narrator] First, the middle column 615 00:37:54,682 --> 00:37:56,716 adds its values to the right column, 616 00:37:57,785 --> 00:38:01,688 then the left column adds to the middle column. 617 00:38:01,722 --> 00:38:05,391 And the final answer is revealed on the rightmost column, 618 00:38:06,293 --> 00:38:08,027 and it really works. 619 00:38:09,596 --> 00:38:13,099 Difference Engine No. 1 is a work of genius. 620 00:38:13,133 --> 00:38:15,735 The perfect solution to one of the most pressing problems 621 00:38:15,769 --> 00:38:18,404 of the new industrial age. 622 00:38:18,439 --> 00:38:20,473 Truly accurate mathematics. 623 00:38:21,709 --> 00:38:23,543 But this prototype difference engine 624 00:38:23,577 --> 00:38:26,346 is as far as Babbage's grand design ever gets. 625 00:38:27,548 --> 00:38:29,982 The full machine is never built. 626 00:38:30,651 --> 00:38:33,019 What goes wrong? 627 00:38:34,688 --> 00:38:38,858 The full size difference engine requires 25,000 parts, 628 00:38:38,892 --> 00:38:41,794 and these must all mesh perfectly with each other. 629 00:38:42,629 --> 00:38:44,630 So every single one must be made 630 00:38:44,664 --> 00:38:46,766 to an astonishing level of precision 631 00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:50,002 or the machine will not work. 632 00:38:50,037 --> 00:38:52,638 So one of the things that Babbage had to deal with was tolerance. 633 00:38:52,673 --> 00:38:55,575 You know, any machine system is not perfect, 634 00:38:55,609 --> 00:38:57,677 so you have to decide how much inaccuracy 635 00:38:57,711 --> 00:38:59,479 is going to be acceptable in the design. 636 00:38:59,513 --> 00:39:01,013 Because if your tolerance was too large, 637 00:39:01,047 --> 00:39:05,118 with 25,000 mechanisms going, the machine could jam. 638 00:39:05,953 --> 00:39:07,653 [narrator] In the early 19th century, 639 00:39:07,688 --> 00:39:11,457 this level of precision is the equivalent of a moon shot. 640 00:39:12,559 --> 00:39:14,026 Babbage promises the government 641 00:39:14,061 --> 00:39:16,162 a finished machine in three years, 642 00:39:16,196 --> 00:39:21,334 but Difference Engine No. 1, which is just the prototype, takes nine. 643 00:39:23,704 --> 00:39:26,706 As well as the challenge of precision engineering, 644 00:39:26,740 --> 00:39:29,776 Babbage faces more personal hurdles 645 00:39:29,810 --> 00:39:33,546 because diplomacy is not his greatest strength. 646 00:39:33,580 --> 00:39:36,516 [Goodman] He could be a bit abrasive at times. 647 00:39:36,550 --> 00:39:38,851 He would complain about the noise of children 648 00:39:38,886 --> 00:39:40,753 playing in the street, the noise of a barrel organ, 649 00:39:40,788 --> 00:39:43,689 and be really quite forceful about it, 650 00:39:43,724 --> 00:39:46,859 which didn't always play very well. 651 00:39:46,894 --> 00:39:48,861 [narrator] By 1832, Babbage's forceful style 652 00:39:48,896 --> 00:39:52,899 becomes too much for his engineer, Joseph Clement. 653 00:39:52,933 --> 00:39:55,601 [Goodman] He and Clement fall out big time. 654 00:39:55,636 --> 00:39:59,338 And after that, of course, the whole project begins to grind to a halt. 655 00:39:59,373 --> 00:40:00,807 Without an engineer on board, 656 00:40:00,841 --> 00:40:03,543 it's not really going anywhere. 657 00:40:03,577 --> 00:40:06,479 [narrator] By 1833, the government has paid Babbage 658 00:40:06,547 --> 00:40:11,484 the equivalent of $2.6 million and got almost nothing. 659 00:40:12,486 --> 00:40:13,686 They pull the plug. 660 00:40:14,521 --> 00:40:15,655 [Ball] Babbage's difference engine 661 00:40:15,689 --> 00:40:17,690 was never actually made during his lifetime. 662 00:40:17,724 --> 00:40:20,626 It never got beyond that small prototype. 663 00:40:20,661 --> 00:40:24,230 [narrator] But Babbage is already thinking bigger. 664 00:40:24,264 --> 00:40:27,567 He conjures up a version of the difference engine's calculator 665 00:40:27,601 --> 00:40:28,968 bent around into a circle, 666 00:40:29,002 --> 00:40:32,538 so that it can feed itself with its own numbers. 667 00:40:32,573 --> 00:40:34,841 He calls it the analytical engine. 668 00:40:34,875 --> 00:40:36,709 [Denison] The analytic engine had a property 669 00:40:36,743 --> 00:40:39,612 that Babbage called eating its own tail. 670 00:40:39,646 --> 00:40:41,614 It would cycle through its calculations, 671 00:40:41,648 --> 00:40:42,915 and then it would make a decision 672 00:40:42,950 --> 00:40:46,853 based on those calculations on what it was going to do next. 673 00:40:46,887 --> 00:40:49,589 [Steele] It was basically a programmable computer. 674 00:40:49,623 --> 00:40:51,324 You could tell it what you wanted to do. 675 00:40:51,358 --> 00:40:52,492 You could change the task. 676 00:40:52,526 --> 00:40:53,626 It could alter its own memory 677 00:40:53,660 --> 00:40:56,195 during the process of the calculations. 678 00:40:56,230 --> 00:40:59,332 It was everything that we imagine a modern computer can do. 679 00:41:00,701 --> 00:41:02,368 [narrator] But no one will stump up the cash 680 00:41:02,402 --> 00:41:05,204 for another grand Babbage project. 681 00:41:06,940 --> 00:41:11,210 Difference Engine No. 1 is as far as he ever gets. 682 00:41:15,883 --> 00:41:20,186 But in 1991, 100 years after Babbage's death, 683 00:41:20,220 --> 00:41:25,658 Difference Engine No. 2, based on an improved design he drew up, is born. 684 00:41:26,793 --> 00:41:30,963 [Ball] So these many thousands of metal components 685 00:41:30,998 --> 00:41:35,601 were put together, assembled into this gigantic block of metal, 686 00:41:35,636 --> 00:41:37,169 and it worked. 687 00:41:37,204 --> 00:41:40,006 It worked perfectly since they switched it on. 688 00:41:41,475 --> 00:41:44,844 [narrator] Babbage's ideas are centuries ahead of their time. 689 00:41:45,779 --> 00:41:47,847 Difference Engine No. 1 helps him conceive 690 00:41:47,881 --> 00:41:50,483 of a thinking machine for the very first time. 691 00:41:51,885 --> 00:41:55,788 So although Babbage doesn't end up inventing the modern world, 692 00:41:55,822 --> 00:41:58,391 he's the first person to imagine it.