Episode
Modern Marvels: Camping Technology
Overview
As camping technology develops, it provides greater access to diverse outdoor environments. The earliest camping technology was developed out of necessity. Prehistoric man fashioned rudimentary backpacks and clothing out of bark and animal hide. The explorers and pioneers pushed the boundaries of the West in covered wagons, cooking over open fires, and living off the land. When men headed off to war, they returned with new camping gear and lightweight materials, which enabled further exploration. Today’s Himalayan mountaineers depend on carefully engineered clothing, tents, and boots to reach the highest peaks in the world.
Details
- Series
- Modern Marvels
- Season
- Season 7
- Episode
- Episode 13
- Air date
- 2000-05-25
- Runtime
- 44 min
Episode context
Camping Technology is Episode 13 in Season 7 of Modern Marvels. It aired on 2000-05-25. The runtime is 44 min.
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Episode 12: Concrete
Modern Marvels explores how the basic formula of cement, aggregate and water has changed the world. Concrete has enabled us to create everything from roads and runways to buildings and bridges. The program will explore the history as well as the future of this humble material?from the ancient Romans, who pioneered its use in their vast system of aqueducts, to modern engineers developing a bendable concrete more resistant to the destructive power of earthquakes.
Episode 14: Private Planes
The plane’s on the runway and revving up for our flight of power and whimsy. The panorama reveals some amazing machines–from vintage aircraft to homemade winged wonders to posh private jets. It’s a tale that merges technological progress and the fantasies of an unique type of person, who refuses to be grounded by earth’s surly bonds.
More episodes from this season
Episode 11: Disaster Technology
An examination of the historical development of technological tools that help science mitigate nature’s fury. It’s a survival story that begins with comprehending the force of disaster. As environmental calamities unfold, viewers witness the urgency for change that each crisis compelled and innovations designed to lower death tolls.
Episode 15: Race Cars
Today, race cars tear up the tracks at 300 m.p.h. Computers and space-age composite materials are as much as part of racing as the drivers. They’re fast, they’re thrilling, and they’ve gone high-tech. We’ll review the history of the innovations that led to today’s technological wonders.
Episode 10: Police Technology
When police forces were born in the 1800s, British “bobbies” made due with a billy club. Public wariness and institutional resistance to change held back technological advances for much of the 20th century. But in the last decades, police have been swept up in a technological revolution that has transformed nearly all aspects of crime fighting.
Episode 16: Traffic
In less than a century, the world went from dirt tracks to highways, from propeller planes to space travel, from sailboats to supertankers. And in the process, we have created a glut of traffic on roadways, railways, airways, and seaways–traffic that must be controlled, managed, and regulated. We’ll see how it’s done.
Episode 9: Office Wonders
Don’t look now, but your office is a technological marvel. From the humble paper clip to the revolutionary personal computer, your desk is a museum of miracles designed to make you more productive and efficient. Then why are you still at work? Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about your workplace, but were afraid to ask!
Episode 17: Buses
The most opulent are wheeled luxury liners with satellite TV and hot tubs–a far cry from the first bus, an 8-passenger carriage! Watch a bus being built from the ground up, and learn the differences in the standard types (transit, school, inter-city, and specialty). Pack your bags or lunch and travel down the road of bus history.
Episode 8: Great Inventions
Join us for a survey of the world’s greatest inventions in which we examine the wheel, steam engine, railroad, automobile, airplane, printing press, electric light, wireless telegraph, telephone, TV, and computer. Then, travel back in time to the labs, candle-lit offices, and garages to see how these marvels were created.
Episode 18: Gold Mines.
Around the world and across the eons, gold stands as a symbol of power, wealth, and love. The quest for the yellow metal took men across oceans, into the depths of the Alaskan winter, and miles beneath South African earth. This is the story of the hunters of the precious metal and their methods for extracting it.
Episode 7: Prisons
“All hope abandon, ye who enter here!” This sentiment has permeated the masonry and clanging bars of prisons built throughout the ages. We’ll see how the philosophy and architecture of today’s American prisons emerged from the sewer cells and castles and dungeons of ancient Rome, medieval Europe, and 18th-century England.
Episode 19: Banks.
Backbones of worldwide economics, for centuries banks enabled the creation of wealth, and industry leaders became icons. But modern technology revolutionized the way banks do business, and the Internet insures they must adapt or disappear. From banking's early European origins to "e-banking", this is an hour you can't afford to miss!