Great Inventions

screenable online: 35 episodes

Humankind’s extraordinary gift for invention has transformed our world to make it unrecognizable to our ancestors. Some inventions seem mundane but had wide-ranging effects on society, such as the first sewers or supermarkets. Others are more spectacular, like the invention of the jet engine or industrial robots.

All these inventions have one thing in common. They have changed the way we live. In this series, we investigate the successes – and the failures – of inventive people throughout the ages.

Initially ridiculed, underground railways are now a success around the world. The era of underground passenger transport began more than 150 years ago in London with steam locomotives. The smoke was…

Bridges are symbolic of all sorts of interpersonal and other connections. But they are also the physical connection between land masses, connecting different parts of a city, people and continents…

Meat from the butcher, bread from the bakery, vegetables from the greengrocer - fresh food, personal service, but very time-consuming. This is what shopping looked like until the birth of the…

We can now enjoy music, a heated seat and even a perfectly targeted spray jet while spending a penny. The history of the toilet goes back a long way and even the ancient Romans built latrines. But a…

No roof, only three wheels and rather uncomfortable - that‘s how you could describe the first petrol-driven car. Developed in 1885-86 by the German Karl Benz, it was far too expensive for most people…

TV is a medium that stimulates the imagination, arouses curiosity, promotes education and allows millions of people to participate in major events. Three men were involved in the invention, a farm…

“I have seen my death.” These were the words of a woman when she saw an image of her hand. The woman was Anna Röntgen and the image was the first X-ray of a part of the human body. It was made by her…

Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, was launched into space on a rocket by the Soviet Union in 1957. A year later, the USA followed suit with Explorer. Today there are more than 2,000 satellites…

How do you manage to generate the thrust necessary to keep a plane in the air without one of the engines exploding due to the amount of heat generated? The solution was to use ten combustion chambers…

They stare at the screen spellbound, move their fingers around the keyboard at lightning speed, communicate worldwide via a headset, and move around and fire with unerring accuracy using a joystick…

It is one of humanity‘s oldest cultural assets. With the help of special wine-growing methods, a series of biochemical maturation processes occur during storage. Sometimes it takes decades before it…

Larger, deeper, automated and green. To compete in the world of global trade, it is necessary to constantly adapt. Every year, container ships are getting bigger, requiring ports with greater channel…

The first condoms were made from the air bladders of fish by Greeks on the island of Crete some 2000 years BC. Later, during the Middle Ages, for a long time the ends of sheep‘s appendices were used…

Two inventions have changed bread-making significantly: ovens and the action of yeasts. If you leave unbaked bread dough to stand, yeasts in the air cause fermentation: from thin doughs comes a kind…

In the grain field, the vineyard, in salad cultivation and in animal stalls, agriculture is increasingly making use of robots, drones and other automated processes. The digitisation of agriculture is…

How did the crime happen? Who was the perpetrator? Who is the victim? Investigators collect evidence at the scene. Every little detail can be important. Modern investigation techniques such as DNA…

The first battery was the “voltaic pile”, invented by Alessandro Volta in 1800. In subsequent years, the technology was constantly developed and improved. Since then, chemists have tested every…

During a period of about 150 years, the discoveries of pea experimenter Mendel led to a completely deciphered genetic code, gene shears made it possible to rewrite our genome and the first designer…

Non-perishable foods have significantly changed the way we eat. The canning processes means that we now have access to almost every type of food at all times. The development of the food industry and…

The first beer was brewed around 13,000 years ago - in Israel, not in England. Or maybe by German monks? What makes a good beer? What role does the choice of hop variety and yeast play? How do modern…

The first moments of success in early childhood, the first feeling of independence, the first rush of speed - what gives us these things? The bicycle. We have been propelling ourselves on two wheels…

Crash test dummies have just one purpose - to save countless lives every year. Thanks to them, we have safety belts, air bags and crumple zones. Crash tests were initially carried out on real people,…

What does the legendary gold rush in California have to do with studs on denim trousers? The first target market for jeans manufacturers were the gold prospectors. As they always put their finds…

Coffee was born in Ethiopia when a shepherd noticed his goats jumping around wildly after eating coffee berries. Or so the story goes. What is certain is that the word coffee comes from Kaffa, a…

Rapid descents and spectacular loops are what make rollercoaster rides so thrilling and give you that queasy feeling in your stomach. Their origins can be traced back to 16th century Russia. Today,…

Universally applicable, with several axes and equipped with grippers or tools - automated machines that can be programmed to move according to any sequence, path or angle. These are excerpts from the…

A man gets into the bathtub, the water overflows and he shouts “Eureka”. The man‘s name was Archimedes and he had discovered that he could measure the density of a body indirectly based on the amount…

Tunnels, breakwaters, house building - we come across concrete almost everywhere. The basic concept is simple - cement made from limestone and clay and sand, gravel and finally water. But how these…

In 1743, the French King Louis XV had a manually operated “flying chair” installed on the outside of his palace. This allowed him discreet access to the chambers of his mistresses. A moving chair of…

An estimated 60 million are produced annually and about 500 million are in use worldwide. Fridges. Even in ancient times, ice was taken from the mountains and used in cellars to store food. The first…

The blueprint is provided by nature or, to be more precise, beavers with their stream fortresses. Dams. They allow the controlled irrigation of agricultural land and produce drinking water - but,…

A new era of prosthesis development has begun. In bionics, man merges with machine. For patients who have lost limbs due to accidents, wars or illness, a prosthesis is a tool that helps them return…

Whether on shoes, caps, jackets or cable ties, in industry, medicine, or in cars, the hook and loop fastener is used everywhere and it is now difficult to imagine our lives without it. A Swiss…

Combine harvesters are often described as the smallest factories in the world. Invented in the USA in the 1920s, these work horses are real all-rounders that can cut, separate, chop and thresh - all…

Glass is probably as old as the earth. It is found in nature, where it is created by volcanoes and lightning strikes. Today, glass is an extremely versatile high-tech material. Gorilla Glass is…