Smoke & Steel - Secrets of the Modern World — Season 1
About this season
Documentary series examining the Industrial revolution, the age of smoke and steel, a time when history's great engineers pioneered solutions that would forever change the way people live, think, and build.
Episodes (6)
1. A Leisure Time Game Changer
Aired 14 February 2022 • 48 min
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.
2. War on the Waves
Aired 21 February 2022
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.
3. A Subterranean Revolution
Aired 28 February 2022 • 56 min
The industrial legacy of a tunnel under the Thames, how steam engines reshaped the Netherlands, and a surprising link to our digital world.
4. The Birth of the Factory
Aired 7 March 2022
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.
5. Global Communications Breakthrough
Aired 14 March 2022
Examining the legacy of a cable hut in Cornwall, how a mountain railway in New Hampshire inspired its passengers and a lighthouse in France.
6. Scaling New Heights
Aired 21 March 2022
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.