We’re getting close to the end of this, folks…
(6 August 2015)
“The plot now shifts from glass to iron, for one of the oldest reasons in the world.” ”“ James Burke, Connections
This one fought me, and I’m not sure I got the breaks precisely where I should have, but there’s no way I was going to do a gifset from “Thunder in the Skies” without using this bit. Because let’s be honest: This is really why a lot of history happened, even (perhaps especially) the history of science and technology.
There’ll be one more from this episode, once I nail down exactly which segment to use. This one is chock full of goodness stay tuned, won’t you?
(16 August 2015)
“Now, if you can do that to a cannon, you can do it to a cylinder. And by this time, that was just what James Watt had been waiting 12 long years for. In 1775 Wilkinson delivered the first cylinders to Birmingham, to Watt’s works. And the Age of Steam Power had arrived.” ”“ James Burke, Connections
Part of me was tempted to leave as my entire commentary for this set: “That’s it, that’s the show.”
So it’s in the tags, instead.
If there’s a core statement to be made in all of Connections, and by that I mean the entire run of this series and its sequels and The Day The Universe Changed, here it is. “In spite of the myth,” indeed. Between this and his take-down of Thomas Edison in another episode, if you can internalize this departure from the rote facts learned in school then you will begin to understand how the history of everything really works.
But I’m going to finish off the series anyway, because why stop here?
This gets “Thunder in the Skies” out of the way. Up next is the 7th episode, “The Long Chain.”
