Seasons & Episodes
The Secret Life of the Vacuum Cleaner
Before the invention of the vacuum cleaner, carpets and upholstery were taken outside and beaten once a year to get the
The Secret Life of the Washing Machine
The earliest form of automatic washing was the nautical practice of towing clothes behind the ship. The combination of a
The Secret Life of the Sewing Machine
The first patent for a sewing machine was taken out by an English cabinetmaker called Thomas Saint in 1790. It's doubtfu
The Secret Life of the Refrigerator
Commercial refrigeration equipment was first developed in Australia, where the winters weren't cold enough to produce mu
The Secret Life of the Central Heating System
At first Roman houses simply had a fire in the middle of the room (the Latin for hearth is focus). But they probably had
The Secret Life of the Television Set
John Logie Baird, the Scottish inventor, developed an electromechanical TV system in the 1920s and gave frequent public
The Secret Life of the Car
Cars started to become popular in the 1890s. Their success was partly due to the bicycle, which had given people a taste
The Secret Life of the Internal Combustion Engine
The first internal combustion engine was made by a Frenchman called Etienne Lenoir in 1859. He simply modified a steam e
The Secret Life of the Quartz Watch
All clocks and watches work by 'counting' some event which takes a fixed period of time, like the swings of a pendulum.
The Secret Life of the Telephone
The forerunner of the telephone was the telegraph. By 1870 all major towns in Europe and America had telegraphs, sending
The Secret Life of the Radio Set
Any electrical spark creates radio waves and acts as a transmitter. You hear sparks on a radio as interference. That's w
The Secret Life of the Video Recorder
The principle of magnetic recording was invented by a Danish telephone engineer called Valdemar Poulsen in 1899. He used
The Secret Life of the Fax Machine
The world's first fax machine was patented in 1843 by Alexander Bain. He came from a remote croft in Caithness in Scotla
The Secret Life of the Lift
The Colosseum in Rome is thought to have had a lift to carry the Emperor Nero to his balcony. By the 18th century, Mr Vi
The Secret Life of the Word Processor
The name 'Word Processor' was invented by IBM. Their first machines were very difficult to use because they had no scree
The Secret Life of the Electric Light
A Scottish chemist called Joseph Swann tried passing electricity through fine wires (filaments) to make them glow white
The Secret Life of the Photocopier
James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, patented the first copying machine, because of the disastrous inaccuracies
The Secret Life of the Office
Today, over 50% of jobs are in offices, but 160 years ago the figure was only 1%, and the only office workers were 'Dick
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