Local Heroes — Season 1, Episode 3: Scotland
Documentary • 30 min • 5 seasons, 42 episodes
Episode synopsis
Tonight, Adam's journey takes him to Scotland, and includes the story of Neville Maskelyne, the man who weighed all the planets of the solar system from a bothy on a Perthshire mountain. Plus, John Napier, inventor of the calculator, the explanation of why ice takes so long to melt in whisky, and David Brewster, the croquet player who invented the kaleidoscope.
About Local Heroes
Local Heroes is an award-winning science and history television programme in the United Kingdom, presented by Adam Hart-Davis. Made by Screenhouse Productions and directed by Paul Bader, it was first aired on the ITV regional network Yorkshire Television in 1991. In the show, Adam Hart-Davis, dressed in the pink and yellow cycling clothes that would became the show's trademark, rode around the YTV region on a matching pink and yellow bicycle, stopping in a particular area to tell the stories of scientists that lived or were born there. These stories were embellished by experiments, performed on the street by Hart-Davis, generally using bits of wood and junk from a trailer on his bike.