Season 1

1996 · 6 episodes

Episodes

1South WestTonight, he travels to Bristol and the south west of England where he pays tribute to the woman who invented a bed with built-in exerciser and a breakfast maker. He also discovers how lead shot was first produced, tries laughing gas in memory of Humphry Davy and, in Gloucestershire, wields the knife Edward Jenner used to perform the first smallpox vaccination.
2SouthTonight, Adam's journey takes him south, and in Chard, Somerset he recreates the world's first powered flight - which was made 50 years before the Wright brothers by John Stringfellow, an engineer in the lace trade. He also investigates the "perpetual mouse trap", which was a great success for its inventor Colin Pullinger, from Selsey in Sussex.
3ScotlandTonight, Adam's journey takes him to Scotland, and includes the story of Neville Maskelyne, the man who weighed all the planets of the solar system from a bothy on a Perthshire mountain. Plus, John Napier, inventor of the calculator, the explanation of why ice takes so long to melt in whisky, and David Brewster, the croquet player who invented the kaleidoscope.
4MidlandsTonight's stories of pioneering scientists and inventors come from the Midlands. Host Adam Hart-Davis investigates the Lunar Society of Birmingham, known as "lunaticks". Its members included James Watt and William Murdock, responsible for a copying machine, revolutionising the steam engine, and gas lighting. Plus the stories behind the gas turbine, the first British car and holography.
5Northern IrelandTonight's stories of pioneering scientists and inventors come from Northern Ireland. Host Adam Hart-Davis discovers that the pneumatic tyre, invented by Belfast vet John Boyd Dunlop, began life as a remedy for his son's sore bottom. He also finds out how the name Harry Ferguson became synonymous with the development of the tractor. Taking his bike underwater, Hart-Davis goes in search of the origins of the submarine and wet suit. And, in Armagh, he learns how a child poet and astronomer rocketed to fame.
6North WestThe last in the series about pioneering scientists and inventors comes from the north west of England. Host Adam Hart-Davis discovers the connection between botany and Wordsworth the poet when he learns about his friend, John Gough, a local botanist who identified many rare plants despite being blind. A bicycle pump and a disgusting jelly help unearth the history of Lake Windermere. Adam climbs to the snowy summit of Helvellyn to try to reproduce John Dalton's weather forecasts. Finally, in Manchester, he learns about Joseph Whitworth, whose move to standardise the nuts and bolts of the engineering industry has endured to the present day.