Episode
Modern Marvels: Gasoline
Overview
Traces the history and evolution of the world’s most important fossil fuel. Without gasoline, modern life would grind to a halt. Americans use about 360-million gallons of gas every day. And though most of us could not function without gas, very few understand what it really is, how it is made, what all those different octane numbers really mean, and how researchers developed cleaner burning gasoline. All these questions will be answered as we look at the history of this “supreme” fuel.
Details
- Series
- Modern Marvels
- Season
- Season 9
- Episode
- Episode 36
- Air date
- 2002-08-14
- Runtime
- 44 min
Episode context
Gasoline is Episode 36 in Season 9 of Modern Marvels. It aired on 2002-08-14. The runtime is 44 min.
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Episode 35: Strategic Air Command.
With the ironic motto "Peace is our Profession", the Strategic Air Command was in charge of US nuclear forces from 1946 to 1992. SAC was the ultimate Cold War military machine, at its height controlling thousands of nuclear weapons, planes, and missiles, and boasting over a quarter-million personnel. We travel to the Strategic Air and Space Museum, located 20 miles from SAC's old headquarters in Nebraska, and walk through the cavernous bomb bay of SAC's workhorse, the B-52 Bomber.
Episode 37: Towing.
Think you know towing? As simple as engaging a tow man when your car is stalled? From mighty tugboats that guide massive ships safely into port, dizzying roller coasters that send cars careening up and down hills, to funicular railroads that climb mountainsides, when it comes to towing, being a "drag" was never so good! We also watch a 125-year-old church as it's towed on the back of a flatbed truck, and rocket towards space as we're hauled 20,000 feet-high behind a Boeing 747!
More episodes from this season
Episode 34: Super Guns
They are the cutting edge in firearm technology. They fight simulated battles on computers, decades before a shot is fired. But will they make the world safer…or more dangerous than ever before? They are Super Guns of Today and Tomorrow.
Episode 38: Jet Engines
This program will tell the story of jet propulsion, which has radically transformed our world since it was first introduced near the end of World War II. We’ll trace the development of jet-powered aircraft from the Nazi’s first operational fighter, the Me 262, to the supersonic Concorde, to the latest U.S. jet fighter, the F-22 — and beyond, to the fighters and passenger planes of the future, which will be powered by new jet engines on the drawing boards (like the “scram-jet” — designed for a new hypersonic transport plane that would switch to rocket power once outside the earth’s atmosphere).
Episode 33: The Big Dig
The Massachusetts Central Artery/Tunnel Project, a.k.a. The Big Dig, is the most amazing municipal construction project in U.S. history. Its objective–to replace Boston’s decaying highway infrastructure with 160 new highway miles, half of which run underground and underwater. After 14 years construction, its cost–$11 billion!
Episode 39: Nordhausen
It was the world’s largest underground factory–seven miles of tunnels built to manufacture Hitler’s secret weapons, primarily the V-2 rocket. But Nordhausen kept more than one secret. Technology and torture went hand-in-hand–25,000 concentration camp workers died there–and some of those associated with Nordhausen later helped take America to the moon.
Episode 32: Beach Technology
Slap on your sun block and head to the ocean for a sizzling hour that explores the beach in a whole new way! We cover everything from Japan’s Seagaia, the world’s largest indoor beach, to boardwalks, dune buggies, surfboards, sunglasses, suntan lotion, wave pools, and more. We examine the development of each product and explain the technological advances that have been made over the years.
Episode 40: War Trains
Examines how the great 19th-century peacetime invention developed into a powerful war machine, forever altering how, when, where, and why battles were fought. Also looks at the brave men and women who kept the military Iron Horses running, often at their own peril.
Episode 31: Hangars
Come in for a smooth landing as we explore the history of hangars–stark, massive structures that house and protect flight vehicles. We visit the first hangar, built on a German lake; Boeing’s Delta 4 rocket hangar; Hangar Number One in Lakehurst, New Jersey, that housed all US airships built in the 1920s and ’30s; and the Space Shuttle’s hangar–as big as four skyscrapers! Back in Germany, Cargolifter’s mammoth hangar, large enough to enclose the Superdome, signals the rebirth of an industry.
Episode 41: Liberty Ships of World War II
Between 1941 and 1945, U.S. shipyards built more shipping tonnage than had been previously produced in the history of the world. American industrialists like Henry Kaiser transformed the nation’s shipyards into mass production facilities in a matter of months. Ships that had once taken years to build now only took weeks to construct. This record pace of producing ships is one of the most remarkable stories in the history of American industry. This episode utilizes rare color film obtained from the National Archives as well as principle photography taken on board World War II Liberty Ships and aircraft carriers that remain afloat today.
Episode 30: Models
Though they duplicate the real world for fun and fantasy, models are not always toys and they’re not always tiny. We explore the magic of these fascinating replicas–from the Rover and Lander models for the Mars Exploration Project to ancient Egyptian ship models found in tombs to English ship models from the Age of Sail. We also look at the rage for hobby modeling, with Lionel trains leading the pack, watch models go to war with scale warplanes in WWII, and invade science fiction films.
Episode 42: Magnets
We played with them as children, but the world of magnets isn’t kid’s stuff! The pervasive magnet serves as the underpinning for much of modern technology. They can be found in computers, cars, phones, VCRs, TVs, vacuum cleaners, the washer and dryer, the ubiquitous refrigerator magnet, and even in an electric guitar! On the cutting-edge of technology, scientists experiment with a variety of magnets. Magnets’ amazing forces of attraction and repulsion may take us to the far reaches of outer space.