All language subtitles for Strangest.Things.S01E03.Secrets.of.the.Star.Disk.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_eng

[narrator] Does this strange
11,000-year-old deer skull

have links
to a British Atlantis?

[Dr. Ben Elliott] All of a
sudden, we have this data

which is giving us an
impression of this lost
landscape.

[narrator] Is this ancient
relic the work of a
prehistoric astronomer?

Is it just a decorative disc
or is there some hidden
meaning?

[narrator] And did this
weird contraption really
shape the modern world?

Honestly, it looks like
something invented by a
steampunk scientist.

These are the most
remarkable and mysterious
objects on Earth,

hidden away in museums,
laboratories, and
storage rooms.

Now, new research and
technology can get
under their skin

like never before.

We can rebuild them,

pull them apart,

and zoom in

to reveal the unbelievable,

the ancient,

and the truly bizarre.

These are the world's
strangest things.

[narrator] In the
Yorkshire Museum is
a truly ancient artifact,

created by humans in the
unimaginably distant past,

the end of the Ice Age,
11,000 years ago.

If you think about going back
to the Pyramids of Giza,

and then going back
another Pyramids of Giza
amount of time,

you still wouldn't be
11,000 years ago.

It's a vast amount of time.

[narrator] Now, using
cutting-edge technology,

we can bring it
into the light.

Close examination reveals
the skull has been
drastically altered.

Strange holes have been
cut into it.

These holes are made
artificially in very selected
points on the skull.

[narrator] The antlers had
been cut down and honed.

The bony protrusions inside
had been removed.

This might have started out as
the skull of a deer,

but people have worked it
into something far stranger.

It's been carefully trimmed
and carefully perforated.

[narrator] The changes might
be dismissed as some
bizarre combination

of natural processes if
this skull were unique.

[Elliott] This isn't
just a one-off.

There are 33 of these
red deer skulls

which show exactly the same
patterns of working
and manufacture.

[narrator] Who made it?

What is it for?

And what secrets does it hold
about humanity's distant past?

Northern England, 1948.

Archeologists unearth a
prehistoric site called
Star Carr in North Yorkshire.

Because of the acidic peat
soil of an ancient lake bed,

a lost world,
11,000 years old,
has been preserved.

[Elliott] We don't just get
the stone tools.

We get the organic
materials, so the bone,
the wood.

It's incredible that we get
so much material, such a
breadth of material preserved,

that just doesn't normally
survive for these
vast amounts of time.

[narrator] And one group
of finds in particular
captivates the experts.

To a lay person, this just
looks like a deer skull.

So why does it shock the
archeological world?

[Prof. Kevin MacDonald]
It's been worked.

It's been reduced in size
around the base of the horns.

It's been manufactured.

[narrator] And when experts
try to reproduce the process

used to create
this eerie skull,

they discovered that it's
far from simple using
only Stone Age technology.

This is a time
before metal tools.

This is a time before drills.

[Elliott] The process
starts off with
the reduction of antlers.

Then it looks as if
the frontal bones
and the lower jaw

and the lower part
of the brain case

are removed quite carefully
in a very specific way.

[narrator] This is done by
wrapping the bone they
want to keep in clay.

The skull is then
heated in a fire.

The exposed bone becomes
brittle and can be
broken off.

And the process
doesn't stop there.

[Elliott] We get these holes
which are made artificially

in very selected points
on the skull.

It's done with
a pointed stone,
or a flint axe, perhaps.

[narrator] Each deer skull
takes hours, even days,
of meticulous work.

It's not a level
of craftsmanship

experts expected to find
on an 11,000-year-old site.

Because back then, just
surviving this far north
is an achievement.

[MacDonald] The temperature
then would have been about

8 degrees Celsius colder
on the average than today.

It would have be difficult
just finding food.

Spending a lot of time
working on a deer skull

might not have been
the most practical thing
to do with your time.

So, this must have been
important to them.

[narrator] What is
this weird skull for?

The answer may lie
in a closer examination.

A natural deer skull has
sharp, bony ridges inside.

This one does not.

Some of the knobbly
protuberances on the
inside of the skull,

they've been smoothed away.

[narrator] Along with
the holes cut into it,

archeologists now believe this
can explain what it's for.

They've been modified
specifically with the
intention

of them being
worn on the head.

Perforations are created
in order to allow

strapping or webbing
to be passed over the skull

and under the chin of someone
who wants to wear them.

[narrator] So are we simply
looking at some kind of
Ice Age hat,

or does it have
a deeper purpose?

[Elliott] The original
interpretations focused
on the idea of them being

hunting aids
or hunting disguises,

and that people were
donning the antlers
and skulls of deer

to improve their chances
of success in hunting.

[MacDonald] We know
that this was a practice
of Native Americans.

For example, in California,
in historic times,

the last of the great
Yahi hunters, Ishi,

explained how he used to wear
such a crown of deer antlers

in order to attract the
interest of white-tailed deer.

[narrator] But at Star Carr,
archeologists run into

a problem with
the camouflage theory.

If the skulls recovered
from the ancient lake bed

are simply
utility items for hunting,

you'd expect them to be used
until they wear out, or break.

[MacDonald] These headdresses
were in perfectly
good condition

when they were put
into the lake.

You have to ask,
why throw away
a perfectly good headdress?

[Elliott] It looks as if
they are being placed

deliberately in the open
water areas as part or
some form of ritual.

[narrator] What is
the purpose of this ritual,

and why is the deer skull
so important to it?

One hint might come from
Upper Paleolithic rock art.

Recorded in the cave of
Trois-Frères in the Pyrenees,

what looks to be a man
wearing a deer suit,

perhaps even in the course
of transforming into a deer,

or simply dancing,
wearing such a costume.

[narrator] Similar
horned figures appear
throughout ancient history,

across many cultures,
from Italy to Denmark
and France.

What are these
monstrous figures?

Are they connected to
Star Carr skulls?

Could these be legendary
devil priests?

[narrator] This
11,000-year-old
dear skull headdress

is strikingly similar to
ancient images
found across the world.

What does it all mean?

The answer may lie in a more
recent image of life on the
Russian Steppes.

[MacDonald] Half a world
away, in Siberia,
an engraving from 1692

showing a man wearing a
a similar set of antlers.

[narrator] This image comes
with a caption in Dutch.

"Shaman, or devil-priest."

It leads archeologists to an
extraordinary conclusion.

The current thinking
for the headdresses
is that they represent

one of the earliest examples
we have in the archeological
record for a shaman's costume,

which allows the wearer to
transform their identity,

to become something which
isn't, perhaps, all human,

something which blurs the
characteristics of red deer

and people together
in an unusual way,

and creates this
cosmologically different
kind of being.

[narrator] The presence
of these skulls at
Star Carr 11,000 years ago

suggests it's a center
of shamanic religious worship.

And they appear connected
with other similar images

scattered across
Europe and Siberia.

But Siberia and Yorkshire are
separated by over two and a
half thousand miles

of land and sea.

Is a connection even possible,

or is this just a figment
of overactive archeological
imagination?

In 1931, a crew of
English trawlermen land
an unexpected catch,

a huge lump of
what's known as morlog.

[Elliott] So it's this
big lump of wood

that's been trawled from
the bottom of the North Sea,

and it gets mud and got these
stuff stuck to it.

And one of the things that
comes off

is this artifact.

This... spearpoint

made from red deer antler,

which is remarkably similar to

many of the spearpoint we
found at Star Carr.

But is it just coincidental?

It's over 60 years before the
apparent link

between the morlog,

the strange images scattered
across the world,

and the skull headdress
becomes clear.

[Seagull squawks]

It's only with the discovery
of oil

and the use of sonar mapping

to really generate a high
resolution understanding

of what the bottom of the
North Sea actually looks like,

that we suddenly realize
archeologists that there is

this completely lost landscape
there.

Archeologists discover a lost
world.

A rural Atlantis connecting
Britain to continental Europe,

now submerged beneath the
North Sea.

[Birds chirping]

This European Atlantis is
named Doggerland

after a famous seafloor
amount.

We suddenly have this

which is giving us an
impression of this
lost landscape,

so valleys, riverbeds,
estuaries

and miles and miles and miles

of land, which is populated by
hunters and gatherers

during the mesolithic or
Stone Age.

How does this spectacular
landscape

end up at the bottom
of the sea?

During the Ice Age period

when the ice is trapped
in the caps

the level of the sea
is lowered,

and the shallow pieces of land

that are just beneath the sea
today

are actually the exposed
on the surface.

They become vegetative,

they get eroded by rain water
into rivers,

and they become areas for
settlement.

This lost land bridge between
Britain and Europe

finally connects the
deer-people images

across the globe

with the headdress at
Star Carr.

The large expanse of
Doggerland

allowed people to move around
the water European landscape,

and if people are moving
around,

so our ideas.

So there is very little reason

that the concept of
Schamanism,

those kinds of ideas and
those kinds of beliefs

could have traveled with
people across the land

and made their way to
what we know as Britain
today.

Inaudible

The Star Carr skulls

are not only proofs

of the astonishingly

religious practices,

they are also evidence

that this 11,000-year-old

spiritual culture

is far more complex and
widespread

than we could ever have
imagine.

In the German Museum,

sits a priceless and unique
object.

It looks like a modern
emoticon,

but it's actually an
ancient artifact.

Now, using the latest
techology,

we can reveal it in all
its glory,

the Nebra sky disk

It's made out of gold
and bronze.

It's relatively heavy,

and it's very, very
beautiful artifact.

Really beautiful.

Measuring 12 inches in
diameter,

it's believed to be more than
three and a half thousand
years old.

And on it,

is a series of what looks like

astronomical objects.

Possibly the sun, the moon,

cluster of stars,

and it has some gold arcs.

But could it be more than a
piece of elaborate decoration?

Does it mean something?

Do the markings on the disk

actually represent something?

What looked like the sun,
moon, and stars

might make it one of the
most ancient images

of the cosmos ever.

Nobody, not one archeologist

woould have expect it,
such an...

find.

Not in Egypt, not in
Mesopotamia,

and absolutely, not in the
heart of Europe.

Is this the work of an
advanced culture

in the center of Bronze Age
era?

What are these symbols mean?

Are they proof of some kind of
secret knowledge?

Or is this all just in
elaborate hoax

conjured up by Luthers?

Because the discovery of the
disk

is a genuine, true crime
story.

The Nebra sky disk.

How does this strange artifact

wind up at the center of a
major police operation?

[Suspenseful music playing]

May 2001,

archeologist Harold Meller

is shown a photograph of a
bronze age hoard

It includes chisels, swords,

jewelery, and something
he's never seen before.

A strange disk decorated with
gold.

[In foreign language]

The sun, crescent moon,

a series of crescents,

and then a series of stars

all [inaudible] out in
really vibrant gold work.

It's...

completely unique

in terms of the European
Bronze Age.

It almost defies beliefs
as a find.

It's really remarkable,

and it's really, really
striking.

On closer inspection,

it seems to be more than just
a pretty picture of the night
sky.

If you just have a general
look at the disk,

you see all these different
symbols,

but something stood out.

It's a cluster of seven stars.

Comparing the arrangement
of these stars against known
constellations

suggests one strong candidate.

Just thought the seven stars

represent an actual star const
the sky called the planetis.

Nalurv realizes

that if it's genuine,

the disk represents one of the
oldest images of the cosmos
ever discovered,

an ancient star chart.

It was absolutely clear that

this item,

if it's really in the Bronze
Age,

this would be one of the
most important finds of
the world.

But in 2001, when Meller has
shown the photo of this unique
object,

it isn't in a museum,

it's for sale on the black
market.

I was truly shocked.

This crucial find was in the
hand of Luthas.

Shocked and angry

we can't touch it,

we can't to research on it.

If it goes to a private buyer,

it could be lost forever.

Believing it could be genuine,

Meller tracks the store of
artifacts for months.

In February 2002, posting
as a buyer,

he arranges a meet in a
Swiss hotel.

The man who had the disk
had it in a towel

under his shirt.

So he open the shirt,

and showed, and showed me
the disk.

But Meller hasn't come alone.

As soon as the disk exchange
his hand,

the Swiss police passed.

The police do a very, very
good job,

and this was a really, really
exciting

Holistic like
in a TV thriller.

Afterwards, the archeologist
and the police

trace back the disk to
two treasure hunters.

They claimed to found the disk

in the zegal road of forest in
Germany,

near the tiny settlement of
Nebra,

and sold the hoard to a dealer
in Ireland.

For sixteen and a half
thousand dollars.

They have no idea that the
disk alone

could be worth almost
700 times that amount.

Eleven million dollars.

But it's unique appearance

and criminal origins

makes its authenticity
questionable.

Any such object that comes out
of

an elicit operation,

sting operation,

also the art market...

It is something that is very
hard to determine if it is

fake object, if it is a hoax,

or if it's real thing.

This is a fundamental problem

that confronts Meller.

So, is the Nebra sky disk

an ancient artifact

that can revolutionize
our understanding of a
lost culture

or is it a fraud

cooked up by the criminal
underworld?

Now, he's got his hand on the
hoard.

Meller can finally try to get
to the truth

by figuring out how old the
disk really is,

but that's a tough ask.

We can't carbon date it,

because it doesn't have
anything organic

to it, to date from.

So we beed to date it

by association with the other
objects

that it is found with.

It's not so easy to date

the chisel and not so easy
date the arm rings,

but it is really easy for the
archeologist to date the
swords.

The style and how they were
made

points it to a particular
culture

the Unetice culture.

And they were one of the first

people in Europe

to use bronze.

From around 2300 to 1600 BCE,

the Unetice culture occupies
much of the Central Europe.

This gives Meller a 700-year
window for the age of the
swords.

And closer examination narrows
the timeline further.

He finds minute traces
of wood.

In one of them,
we found pieces of birch,

and it was able to take a
radio come date for it.

So we know that
the hoard

was deposited around 1600s.

1600 BCE is a perfect match to
the Unetice culture.

If it really is 3,600 years
old,

the sky disk is one of the
most ancient representations
of the night sky

ever discovered,

even older than any known
Egyptian star chart.

So the archeological stakes
are high.

But the only proof that the
disk and swords belong
together

is the word of criminals.

Can Miller prove it's really
the sword,

or will it turn out to be a
sophisticated fake?

The Nebra sky disk,

an ancient relic that could
send shockwaves

to our understanding of the
Bronze Age world

but only if its real.

Sword said to have been found
with it

are dated to 1600 BCE.

But the only proof that they
belong together is the word of
criminals.

The swords were real,

but the question is,

was the disk really found next
to the swords?

How do we know that it's not
something that just been
added,

something modern to
our date that's been added to

an authentic collection of
swords?

One of the things that make
the sword looks old

is the green corrosion
covering it.

This green corrosion is called
verdigris,

and it's formed from copper,

which is the principle
component of Bronze,

and it is formed when the
copper reacts with

water and the atmosphere
to create

copper-carbonate hues of
beautiful blue-green
crystals on the surface

of bronze.

You see this greening on
statues, like the Statue of
Liberty

is green for the same reason.

A prominent German
archeologist suggests

that this verdigris could
have been faked using
urine.

To find the truth,

scientist examine the disk

electron microscope

to measure the size of the
disk's verdisgris crystals.

In a geniune artifact, what
you see

is smaller number of very
large crystals

of how that time to grow.

Whereas in a fake artifact,

you see much larger number
of very, very small crystals.

The verdigris crystals on the
sky disk

are smaller number and
and large in size.

And over this consistent with
an artifact

that is been lying around for,
around three and a half
thousand years.

So we know from this crystals
that this isn't a fake.

The science suggests that the
disk is so old,

it predates the reign
of Tutankhamun.

But is it just ancient
decoration

or is it meant to do
something more practical?

What is it for?

One clue may lie in the
decorative blue patterns.

Experts suspect this
cluster of stars are depiction

of a real constellation,

the Pleiades.

This might be significant

'cause the Pleiades are one of
the constellations

that we don't see thoughout
the year in the northern
hemisphere.

They appear at around

autumn time, around harvest
time,

and they disappear from here
at around spring.

It might be showing when
to plant crops

showing when to harvest crops.

And the Pleiades might not be
the only astronomical
reference

on the sky disk.

Along one edge is a gold arc

and it's clear that there was
once an identical arc

on the opposite edge.

If you take the location
where the disk is found,

they seem to match up

with the position of the
summer solstice

and the winter solstice,

so a difference of about
82 degrees.

The stone of this arcs is
a kind of measurement
device

with are you to work out what
time of the year was

based on the position that the
sun rises on the horizon.

The angles of the gold arcs
can be coincidence

except for one

rather incredible discovery.

Goseck henge.

In 1991, a huge archeological
find just made 50 miles away

from where the disk has
been found,

and is a giant and
pre-historic earth work.

It is a structure that was
probably used to some kind

of astronomical calendar.

Archeologists uncover the
remains of a wooden circular
structure.

Roughly 240 feet in diameter.

Comprised of four eccentric
circles.

A particularly important
feature of Goseck henge

is two gates

that are same angle apart

as those arcs on the sky disk.

Goseck henge is believed today

back to 4900 BCE

over 3,000 years before the
sky disk is created.

It suggests that this is
genuine astronomical
knowledge,

and it has been passed down
for countless generations.

and of course, it's not the
only henge in existence

Tops the most famous
henge in the world

is stone henge in UK,

and it's most famous function

is summer and winter
solstices.

The sun rises in a very
particular position between
the stones.

Could all these similarities

provide a clue to the sky
disk's true purpose?

Obviously, something like
Stonehenge

is not portable

like you gonna slip it in your
pocket and make a few
calculations about your crops.

So, perhaps the Nebra sky disk

serves as a more portable
functional version of these
giant prehistoric structure.

What we see is a scientist of
these times.

People want to know something
about universe.

The celestial calendar makes
perfect sense,

but it doesn't explain
everything about the disk

because there's a third
golden arc

and it, sometime, after the
disk was made

and this can't be explained by
an astronomical theory

So what is it?

Two gold arcs on either side

suggests the Nebra sky disk
is a portable cosmic calendar,

but the strange third arc
below can't be explained

by astronomy.

One particular theory of this
is possibly a submerge.

The idea of the sun traveling
across the sky are God's
moving the sun

across the sky is one that's
common to a number of
civilizations.

For the ancient Greece,
Helios, the sun God who
travel across the sky

in a horse-drawn chariot.

For the ancient Egyptians,
the Bark of Ra is a vessel,

which sails across the sky

carrying the sun god, Ra.

The similarities with the disk
seem clear.

Experts believe this is
the best explanation we have

for the strange third arc.

But could religious ideas from
such distant cultures

really have reached as far as
the Central European Bronze
Age?

The answer may lie within the
disk itself.

So when they look at the lead
isotopes in the copper,

just the main constituents of
the bronze,

The lead isotopes' fingerprint

match the site on the far east
of the alps.

The decorative metals are even
more surprising

The gold on the arc on the
side of the disk

is traced on the Carpathian
Basin in Romania.

But the gold and the sun,
moon, and stars

proves harder to pin down.

Dr. Gregor Borg samples and
compares deposits from across
Europe.

Of something like 270
locations all over Europe

that we have to exclude as a
source

Komol is the only region until
now that we have found

whether the composition of the
gold matches the composition

of the gold of the sky disk of
Nebra.

It's a remarkable discovery.

The distance between the
Cornwall and the eastern alps

where the copper sourced,

is almost a thousand miles.

The sky disk of Nebra

is showing us that the Bronze
Age people were traveling
across Europe at that time.

They have trade connections.

There was a united Europe
already 1600 years BCE.

Isn't that amazing?

So the idea that religious
beliefs about the sun

could've been exchanged with
Unetice from widely separated
cultures.

Does it seem quite so hard
to swallow?

We may never know the full
story of the Nebra sky disk.

Is it a spiritual symbol,

a cosmic calendar,

or, perhaps, both?

What the disk does show us

is that ancient cultures that
could easily be dismissed
as primitive

were, in fact, far more
sophisticated than we have
ever realized.

What's actually incredible
about this tiny object

whatever really represents

is that it actually show us
the people even thousands
of years ago

were practicing astronomy.

They were looking to the
skies.

They were understanding the
movement of the sun and
the stars,

and how will they define the
phenomena that were happening
down here on earth.

It really was one of the
earliest true sciences.

In the depths of
London Science Museum,

is a bizarre contraption

from the late 1800s.

It looks like a school science
project gone wrong,

but nothing could be
further from the truth.

This strange thing everything
around us.

This almost nothing

you see, hear, or touch

that hasn't been affected by
the development of this
device.

Now, we can bring this antique
to life

once again.

This is Fleming's diode.

Standing just 9 inches tall,

it is a spidery gadget of
glass and wire.

I can see a wire filament

and plate embedded within a
glass tube,

and it's a combination of
metals and glass

that actually creates the very
beautiful physical structure.

When you turn it on, it seems
to come to life.

It has a beautiful property
where it glows like an
incandescent lamp.

But it looks more like
Dr. Frankenstein's
idea of a light bulb.

A contact pierces that
glass's bubble

connecting to a thin sheet of
metal close to the glowing
filament.

It's designed simply to
improve primitive radio,

but it accidentally starts a
world-changing technological
revolution

that's still going on today.

Why is it created?

How does it work?

How does it end up
transforming everything?

Fleming's diode.

This strange device is a
worldwide game changer

but that is almost an accident

because it isn't created to
do that.

In the second half of the
nineteenth century,

the first transatlantic
telegraph cables

connect North America and
Europe.

For the first time,

nations can talk to each other
instantaneously

across thousands of miles of
ocean.

But this revolution has a
weakness,

it must be hardwired.

Cables are expensive,
prone to failure,

and messages can only be
sent between fixed points.

Ships at sea, for example,

are completely deaf and dumb.

But in a German laboratory,

a scientific experiment is
about to spark a sea change.

[Electrical buzzing]

In 1887,

physicist Heinrich Hertz uses
a spark to generate

electromagnetic waves

what would come to be called
radiowaves.

This create another spark in a
receiver several feet away.

There's nothing in between
but thin air.

It's like magic.

The thought was an electricity
require a flow through a wire.

So this notion that we could
actually have electricity flow

without the wire

is a concluding concept.

It opens up a seemingly
possible idea

communication without wires

But Hertz's scientific
experiment only works over
distances of a few feet.

On its own, it will never
change the world.

One man more than any
other transforms the dream

of wireless communication
into a reality.

A young Italian engineer
called Guglielmo Marconi

Over the next decade,
he makes huge leaps
in the evolution of radio.

In 1899, Marconi his radio
saves its first lives.

A lightship, in the English
Channel transmits the world's
first distress signal.

alerting Coast Guard's
to a stricken vessel.

But Marcone is thinking big.
He wants radio to cross
the Atlantic and his receiver

cannot detect radio over
that distance. So he devises
a more sensitive detector,

but it has its own issues.

[Dr. Anna] It still
wasn't quite perfec
because it was basically

built on clockwork.

[narrator] Which means
it has to be
wound up by hand.

[Prof. Tim] And if the radio
operator forgot to wind it up,

of course, the system
wouldn't work anymore.

[narrator] Marconi wants
to eliminate the mechanical
element and critically improve

sensitivity even further
because more sensitivity

equals more reliable reception
and a bigger range.

Enter john Ambrose Fleming,
a scientist working
for Marconi

This spider like object
is what he comes up with

But how does this weird little
contraption get
the whole world talking?

Fleming takes an entirely
novel approach
to detecting radio.

His device doesn't just sense
the radio signal,
it manipulates it.

[Dr. Daniel] So the way
it works in a radio,

when you receive
a radio signal,

the radio signals
going backwards
and forwards positive,

negative positive negative
very, very, very, very rapidly

1000s 10s of 1000s hundreds
of 1000s of times a second.

[narrator] This makes
it impossible to directly
measure the electrical signal

from the area.

Because the change
of direction is so rapid
that the needle

of any meter measuring
it doesn't even begin to move
before the current reverses.

The needle appears stationary.

So you cannot tell
that there is a radio signal
at all.

Fleming's device, also known
as a thermionic diode solves
the problem by chopping

the radio signal into,

[Prof. Tim] a thermionic diod
allows current
to flow in one direction,

but not to flow in
the opposite direction.

[narrator] When Fleming's
device is fitted into
the radio receiver,

only the electricity flowing
in one direction gets through,

the needle doesn't get pulled
back to zero by
the reversing current.

So the detector can register
the signal and a message sent
from 1000s of miles away

can be received.

But how does it pull off
this strange trick with
the current

the secret to the thermionic
diode lies within
the glass shell.

Sitting in the vacuum
is a thin filament
that glows red hot.

Close to it
is a thin metal plate.

The magic happens in the space
between them.

And it's all based on one
of Sciences biggest
or rather smallest discoveries

of all time.

1897, Cambridge,
the world of science
is awash with new rays,

not just radio and x rays.
But a mysterious new one
called the cathode ray,

[Dr. Anna] a physicist
called JJ Thompson
was studying cathode rays.

And what he discovered
was that these
weren't actually rays

a tool but they
were tiny, tiny particles.

[narrator] At the time,
scientists believe
there is nothing

in the universe smaller
than a hydrogen atom.

But what Thomson finds
is much, much smaller.

[Dr. Anna] These particles
had a mass about a 1,000th
of a hydrogen atom.

[narrator] It's a scientific
revolution.

Atoms are no longer
the smallest objects
in the universe.

And these newly discovered
and mind bogglingly
small particles

named electrons are the key
to Fleming's device.

It begins with the red
hot filament

[Dr. Anna] when it heats
up the metal,

the electrons effectively
start boiling off the surface.

[narrator] Electrons
are negatively charged.

And Fleming's gadget
relies on the fact
that opposite charges attract.

[Dr. Daniel] If you put
a metal plate near
it that's positively charged,

those electrons are drawn off
to it quite effectively.

So you get current flow
because electrons
carry current,

and they're all rushing
at this metal plate.

[narrator] But the current
cannot flow the other way.

[Dr. Anna] If you swap
the charges round and make
the plate negative,

the electrons wouldn't flow
because they're negatively
charged so they will be

repelled from the plate.

[narrator] And that is how
the Fleming valve works.

[Dr. Anna] What you end up
with is a device that only
allows electricity to flow

in one direction.

[narrator] By the early 20th
century, the radio signal
that 25 years earlier

left just a few feet now
crosses oceans and continents.

That's the problem Flemming
strange looking glass spider
helped solve.

It was never intended to shape
so much of the world
we know today.

Why was its impact
so accidentally profound.

[Dr. Daniel] It's the first
electronic device,
it's the beginning

of the electronic revolution.

Before that, we've got motors,
we've got lights,
got lightbulbs,

you've got switches,
essentially, you can turn
things on and off.

We can't really manipulate
the way the current behaves
in a complicated way.

[narrator] During
the next decade,
diodes grow a third wire.

Now tiny changes
in the voltage of this
third connection can change

a large current flowing inside
the device.

It transforms
these glass spiders.

[Dr. Daniel] And what that is,
is an amplifier.

You think about
what you can do
with an amplifier.

Before everything is dots
and dashes in Morse code.

Now I can send speech,
I can send music,

I can make talking pictures.

It has a profound impact

[narrator] It becomes
the foundation of much
of the modern world around us

[Dr. Daniel] Television,
computers, radios,
mobile phones, the internet.

It's all built on electronics.

None of it could exist
without electronics.

The creation of this diode
starts this electronics

revolution and that's
a revolution
that's still going on today.