Smoke & Steel - Secrets of the Modern World Season 1, Episode 5: Global Communications Breakthrough

A Leisure Time Game Changer

Examining a cliff in North Yorkshire that offered the public a new ride experience. Plus, the world's oldest operating roller-coaster, an astronomical observatory in California and a mining hoist in Germany.

48 min

War on the Waves

Examining 'The Warrior', an ironclad warship on the south coast of England. Plus, a grand public works facility in Prague and the mint building in San Francisco.

A Subterranean Revolution

The industrial legacy of a tunnel under the Thames, how steam engines reshaped the Netherlands, and a surprising link to our digital world.

56 min

The Birth of the Factory

A mill on the outskirts of Manchester was part of a dawning revolution in the way we work - the factory. A bridge in St. Louis, USA pioneered the use of steel - a construction material that would reshape our world. And a vast hangar in Brazil built to house the airships transformed passenger travel in the 20th century, but those giants of the sky owed a debt to an earlier age.

Scaling New Heights

Examining the legacy of the first iron framed building (a mill in Shrewsbury), how paper production changed the world, and the impact of the Trans-Siberian Railway.