Episode
Modern Marvels: High Voltage
Overview
Look closely at those tall metal towers that span the country and you might see tiny specks climbing up the soaring steel like spiders on an enormous web. Meet the courageous linemen who erect, string, and repair 250-foot high electrical transmission towers, working with energized power lines that can carry up to 765,000 volts!
Details
- Series
- Modern Marvels
- Season
- Season 10
- Episode
- Episode 29
- Air date
- 2003-06-24
- Runtime
- 44 min
Episode context
High Voltage is Episode 29 in Season 10 of Modern Marvels. It aired on 2003-06-24. The runtime is 44 min.
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Episode 28: Million Dollar Guns
They are the treasures of a select few. Each holds a story of human triumph…epic pagentry or desperate tragedy…cast forever in iron, steel, and wood. Some command price tags well over one hundred thousand dollars. A few are so prized and historic that their values have soared to monumental heights. “Million Dollar Guns” will give viewers a rare glimpse into the private gun collections of millionaires across the United States
Episode 30: 4x4
In this full immersion journey through the world of maximum off-roading, learn what it’s like to blow the carbon out of your system as we trace the history of the four-wheel drive vehicle. From the annual Baja 1000-mile race to the Paris-to-Dakar rally, off-roading has become an international sport for motorized thrill seekers. Drive along in your Jeep, dune buggy, Hummer, or SUV for this high-adrenaline, fun-filled romp as we see why 4x4s go where no one has gone before!
More episodes from this season
Episode 27: Exterminator
In a raging war for control of Earth, occupying forces buzz and skitter, with some out to draw blood! Termites, mosquitoes, rats, mice, ants, and cockroaches have spread damage, disease, and death for millions of years. As we trace pest control from humble ancient beginnings to medieval Black Plague, from billion-dollar pesticide business to holistic Integrated Pest Management, we meet the foot soldier in the battle between man and bug–today’s high-tech and ecologically aware exterminator
Episode 31: Dangerous Cargo
Toxic traffic is everywhere! An average of 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials hit our highways and railways daily. From Wild West wooden crates filled with explosives to HAZMAT containers of nuclear waste, we shadow dangerous cargo. We ride shotgun on a hazardous material shipment that's tracked by satellites; hunt down the hush-hush "ghost fleet"–trucks carrying classified government materials; and board a Con-Air flight moving another kind of nasty stuff–dangerous felons!
Episode 26: Cosmodrome
The story of Russia’s “Crown Jewels”, the finest rocket engines in the world, built under conditions of absolute secrecy to land a man on the moon. Learn how, at the height of Cold War rivalry, the engineers of the Soviet Union’s elite Design Bureau developed what have become the most admired rocket engines money can buy, and how in the current climate, driven by commerce not conflict, those engines have found their way into American rockets.
Episode 32: Gunslingers
Episode 25: Torture Devices
For more than 3,000 years, emperors and generals, dictators and police, criminals, clerics, and even medical doctors have created and used a vast array of torture devices–everything from the ancient Greeks' Brazen Bull, which slowly barbecued the victim, to the elaborate mechanical apparatuses of the Spanish Inquisition. A medical doctor who specializes in victims of torture reveals how the human body responds to their use–from the earliest excruciating contrivances to the more modern.
Episode 33: More Engineering Disasters
Episode 24: Harley-Davidson
From humble beginnings in the Davidson family garage to one of the world's most famous companies and a marketing juggernaut, Harley-Davidson is known for one thing American built motorcycles. This program explores the company's history, technological advances, and the culture behind a American original.
Episode 34: Engineering Disasters 4
Engineering disasters can result in personal tragedy, national humiliation, and economic ruin. But buried within their wreckage lie lessons that point the way to a safer future. The fire at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel, the collapse of Seattle’s Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge, the car that spurred creation of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, and the flaw that grounded the first commercial jet are among the engineering disasters that led to improvements in design and safety.
Episode 23: Tank Crews
During WWII, American tank crews duked it out with Nazi Panzers in a high-explosive duel to the death. The German tanks had thicker armor and better guns than the mainstay of the U.S. armored forces, the M-4 Sherman. For many crewmen, the Sherman lived up to its nickname as a steel coffin. But what the tanks lacked in firepower and protection, the crews made up for in guts and good old-fashioned Yankee ingenuity. We’ll meet some of these armored warriors from WWII.
Episode 35: Nature Tech: Tsunamis
Among the most mysterious disasters, tsunamis–Japanese for “harbor waves”–claimed over 50,000 lives in the 20th century! Generated by offshore earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides, these giant water walls result from large-scale displacement of seabed sediment. Rolling rapidly over the ocean floor, a tsunami rises to rapturous heights when it hits land. Scientists in Japan, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and California show the latest technology used to predict these killer waves.