Episode
Modern Marvels: Dynamite.
Overview
Join us for a highly charged hour as we see why Alfred Nobel's invention of dynamite took on earthshattering dimensions as his product blasted out the natural resources that built our modern world. We also examine its impact on construction of the roads, tunnels, and dams that provide us with energy and transportation.
Details
- Series
- Modern Marvels
- Season
- Season 6
- Episode
- Episode 29
- Air date
- 1999-07-20
- Runtime
- 44 min
Episode context
Dynamite. is Episode 29 in Season 6 of Modern Marvels. It aired on 1999-07-20. The runtime is 44 min.
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Episode 28: Offshore Oil Drilling
Offshore drilling is one of the greaest technological dances mankind has ever attempted. From the very beginning of oil discovery, the oceans and their vast reserves became the ultimate frontier. For those willing to take the risk, the oceans offer unprecedented success and unimaginable failure.
Episode 30: Hoover Dam.
The task was monumental: Build the world's largest dam in the middle of the desert, and tame the river that carved the Grand Canyon–all in seven years! When the Hoover Dam was completed in 1935, it was the largest dam in the world. We'll reveal how this engineering wonder of the world was conceived and built.
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Episode 27: Scuba And Deep Sea Diving
In antiquity, a hollow reed served as an underwater link to oxygen. As in days of old, humans still need self-contained breathing equipment for a variety of reasons–food-gathering, commercial, recreational, military, and scientific. Dive with the best as we test scuba diving’s past, and look to a future of mechanical gills.
Episode 31: Baseball Parks
Step up to the plate and play ball as we take you on a tour of those amazing edifices of the national pastime–baseball stadiums! From the sandlots and wooden ballparks of the 1800 and 1900s to the monolithic multipurpose stadiums of today, baseball parks have grown into technological wonders that pull in and cost millions.
Episode 26: Rescue Equipment
Avalanches, earthquakes, hurricanes, bombings–all mean human tragedy unless rescuers respond within a moment’s notice of disaster. Here are the latest advances in rescue technology, including: a Searchcam system that locates buried victims, and the Jaws of Life that can extricate a person from a crushed car in seconds.
Episode 32: New York Bridges
Much of New York City’s history can be viewed via its bridges–all 18 that connect Manhattan Island to its neighbors. Join us for a look at these architectural masterpieces from the age of iron and steel; and, see how they have changed destinies, linking some to opportunity, others to ruin.
Episode 25: U.S. Mints: Money Machines
Whether it jingles in our pockets or folds in our wallets, it flows by the billions from government factories that have mastered the art of making it.
Episode 33: Crash Testing
Delves into the little-known, hugely important, multi-billion-dollar industry of product testing–where wrinkles get ironed out and goods are stripped of marketing and hype to see if they work. Meet product testers who serve as truth squads in an eccentric world of machines devised to “sneeze” at tissue paper and “sleep” on mattresses.
Episode 24: Battlefield Medicine
“He who would become a surgeon should join the army and follow it,” Hippocrates counseled nearly 2,500 years ago. In this history of medicine under fire, we see how a small army of medics, nurses, surgeons, stretcher-bearers, and ambulance drivers, races to keep pace with the deadly advances of war.
Episode 34: Parachutes
The idea of floating to earth from great heights dates back centuries, and from the beginning parachutes combined entertainment with life-saving utility. The parachute has also played a vital role in modern warfare since WWI. We’ll see how parachute technology has made the world safer, and more fun!
Episode 23: Spy Technology
Espionage has been used for at least the last 4,000 years. And where there are spies, you find gadgets! We focus on the last 100 years of cloak and dagger technology–from early code-breaking computers to satellite reconnaissance–and take a look at the James Bond-type gadgets of the Cold War.
Episode 35: Newspapers
Tracks the technological innovations that made newspapers what they are today, while exploring the stories of the publishing tycoons who became some of the most powerful men of the 20th century. From the invention of the printing press in the 15th century to computerized newsrooms to the Internet, we examine the history of the news.