Britain’s Greatest Machines Series 1

National Geographic Channel

Madman

R4 DVD

“Take a look at the engineering feats that shaped the 20th century”.

That may be putting it a little strongly, but the influence of British engineers on the technology of the 20th century cannot be denied. This wonderful 4-part 2-DVD set highlights many of those developments from the 1930s, 1950s, 1960s and 1980s.

Presenter Chris Barrie shows us, with a touch of humour, why many of the feats came about. In the 1930s, for instance, steam was drawing its last gasp but petrol engines did not yet have the sheer power of steam. By introducing streamlining into areas like railway locomotives the technology lasted long enough for the newer diesel and electric engines to catch up. Streamlining also made its way into aircraft where it helped to increase the carrying capacity and speed of the early aircraft. There is some great film of the De Havilland Dragon Rapide, an early streamlined airliner. It contrasts with the unstreamlined German Junkers 52 which can be compared unfavourably with a corrugated iron shed.

The 1950s was a boom time for Britain. Almost bankrupt after the war, its engineers were urgently looking for products to earn export dollars. They were up to the task and some of the innovations were startling. Few people remember that one of the first production jet engines was British, but even fewer remember the De Havilland Comet, the first jet airliner. It was a commercial failure due to its habit of exploding under the stresses of metal fatigue but for a time Britain led the U.S. in commercial jet engined aircraft. In a later decade their Vulcan was the world’s first nuclear-capable bomber. A beautiful if deadly aircraft, it survived until replaced by nuclear submarines.

Aircraft were always a strong point of British engineers, but their expertise spread into more mundane areas. Clive Sinclair’s early computer, the ZX80, could have been a world leader until it was nudged out by the sheer numbers of computers being produced in the U.S. Perhaps one of the most famous but least appreciated British products was the LandRover. Designed as a sort of upgraded Willys Jeep it became the firm friend of farmers worldwide and worked its way into many other fields. It saved Rover from bankruptcy and gave Britain many needed export dollars. Another unsung hero of the British motor industry was the humble Ford Transit van. It was designed to make driving a small truck as easy as driving a car and it succeeded beyond Ford’s wildest imagination. Barrie points out that it was faster than most police cars of the time and so became the getaway vehicle of choice in 60% of the bank robberies of the 1960s. It’s the little bits like this that make the documentary so much fun.

Cars have always been another British strong point. Produced as a cheap solution to the world oil crises, the Mini became an icon of the times. First it became cheap transport for the masses, then it became trendy, then under Colin Cooper’s influence it became a sports icon as well. But who knows that the De Lorian (as in Back To The Future) was actually built in Britain? Beset by corruption charges against its maker, crippled by the U.S. laws demanding a catalytic converter that robbed 25% of the engine’s power, it was nevertheless a well-designed car built with a long lifetime in mind.

Barrie ranges far and wide to show us the advances of which he is so justifiably proud. The radio telescope at Jodrell Bank is still in operation today, half a century after it was built. Its construction was dogged by cost overruns due to the Government’s top secret requirement that it should be capable of acting as a long distance radar to detect Russian missile launches. This, of course, could not be revealed to the oversight committees and its designer ran the risk of being jailed on fraud charges.

Even in the 1980s when Britain was slipping back from being a world power the innovations kept on. Christopher Cockerell’s Hovercraft was put into production by Saunders Roe and culminated in the huge cross-Channel car ferries. Although they have now been retired from service his legacy lives on in the military hovercraft used by a number of assault forces like the U.S. Marines. The hovercraft can reach 95% of the world’s coastlines, conventional shipping can only reach 5%.

The series is a huge project but it is well produced and well filmed. Barrie’s presentation style shows his passion for the inventions and he is lucky enough to take us inside many of them. The series is a tribute to British engineers.

Program Copyright © 2008 NGHT, INC.

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