All language subtitles for Secrets of the Star Disk 2021- סודות כוכב הדיסק - היסטוריה עתיקה

[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 over
active 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.