Cosmos

Can you see me?

Can you hear me?

How?

I could be thousands of miles away,

and yet, when you turn on whatever device

is bringing my image and voice to you,

I'm there.

Instantaneously.

How is that possible?

To our ancestors,

it would've seemed like sorcery.

For them, speed of communication

was only as fast as the swiftest horse

or sailing ships.

Our messages travel invisibly at the speed of light.

How did we attain such mythic powers?

It all began in the mind of one person.

A child of poverty

of whom nothing was expected.

In fact, if this man had not lived...

the world we know might not exist today.

Sooner or later,

someone would've likely figured out

some of his discoveries.

But if Michael Faraday had never lived,

we might still be living

as our ancestors did in the 17th century.

Unaware

of armies of invisible servants awaiting our commands.

This is the story of how we learned

to make electrons do our bidding.

In a way, it begins

with the greatest genius who ever lived--

Isaac Newton.

This is Woolsthorpe, Newton's ancestral home.

He walked these fields, tormented by mystery.

Newton, the man who figured out the formula

for the motions of the planets around the Sun,

wanted to know

how does the Sun make the planets act that way

without touching them?

How do all the apples know how to fall?

Another genius was puzzled by another aspect

of the same mystery.

You see, son?

No matter how I turn the compass,

the needle always points the same way.

Except...

But how?

They do not touch.

I didn't hear a "Thank you," Albert.

I can still remember this.

The experience made a deep

and lasting impression on me.

Something deeply hidden

had to be behind things.

Between the lifetimes of Einstein and Newton,

there lived another genius,

one of equal stature.

The man who solved the mystery that stumped Newton,

also laid the foundation

for Einstein's revolutionary insights.

And for the way we live now.

In 1791, in a squalid slum

in the suburbs of London,

- (baby crying) - Michael Faraday was born.

He showed little promise at school.

Pray tell us a word that begins

with the letter R.

Well?

Wabbit?

The word is "Rabbit."

Once again, and correctly this time.

Wabbit?

Do you mock me?

Have I not told you how

to pronounce the letter R?

Surely you can at least tell us your name?

Michael "Fawaday," ma'am.

Take this ha'penny,

and buy me a cane,

so that I may give your insolent brother

a proper flogging.

History does not record that Michael Faraday

ever attended school again.

Faraday took his family's fundamentalist Christian faith

to heart.

It would always remain a source of strength,

comfort and humility for him.

He was sent to work at a bookbindery at the age of 13.

By day, he bound the books,

and by night,

he read them.

It was the beginning of a lifelong fascination

with electricity.

After years of working in the bookbindery,

Faraday, now 21,

yearned to escape to a larger world.

His big break came

when a customer gave him a ticket

to a sensational new kind of entertainment--

science for the public.

And it started right here

at London's Royal Institution.

Humphry Davy was not only

one of the leading scientists of his day,

he discovered several the chemical elements,

including calcium and sodium.

He was also a consummate showman.

And primitive demonstrations of electricity

never failed as a crowd pleaser.

May we have

the lights lowered, please?

I am about to unleash the might

of the 2,000 massive chemical batteries

stored in the cellar beneath our feet.

And now, behold the power of the mysterious force

of electrical fluid to illuminate our future.

Faraday was too busy taking notes to applaud.

Faraday created a transcript of Davy's lecture.

Using the skills he had learned as an apprentice,

he bound them into this book.

Perhaps such a gift would bring him to the attention

of the great man.

Maybe this gesture could be his means of escape

to a much larger universe.

Good day, sir.

I wish you to deliver this parcel to Sir Humphry.

It was a long shot, anyway.

But Faraday hoped something would come of it.

And it did.

Uh, the experiment is ready for you now, sir.

Ampere tells me that poor Dulong lost an eye

and three fingers working with this.

My eyes!

My eyes!

When a chemical experiment blew up in the face

of the world-renowned scientist Humphry Davy,

he remembered Michael Faraday,

the lad who had gone through such lengths

to copy down and bind the transcript of his lecture.

You have a first-rate memory, young man.

And I shall have temporary need of a secretary.

Sir, I dream of a life in service to science.

I would advise you to stick to the bookbinding.

Science is a harsh mistress.

Surely, a person of your station and modest means

must have a trade.

Trade is vicious and selfish.

Men of science are amiable and morally superior.

I take it I'm the first man of science

you've ever met.

Faraday made himself indispensable to Davy.

The temporary job became a permanent one,

and the Royal Institution became his lifelong home.

By day, he assisted Davy in the lab,

at day's end, he climbed the stairs

to the little apartment

where his beloved bride Sarah was waiting.

Humphry Davy and the chemist William Wollaston

were experimenting with a mysterious phenomenon,

one with potentially far-reaching implications.

This is the identical setup to Orsted's.

Now close the circuit, Davy, and watch closely.

What could be driving the needle away from the wire?

Damned if I know.

But it's as if the electric current

makes the wire behave like some kind of magnet.

Electricity must have something to do with magnetism.

Now if we could only get it to turn continuously,

imagine what might be accomplished

if we could put these forces to work.

After you've tidied up, Faraday,

you might see what you can make of it.

Davy may have been having a bit of fun

at the expense of his young assistant,

but Faraday was on fire.

Up to now, electricity had been nothing more

than an entertaining novelty toy.

It could make a light flash for an instant

or turn a compass needle briefly,

but it had no practical application.

Faraday immediately set about designing the experiment,

devoting every moment of his spare time to the problem.

If Faraday succeeded,

he would be putting an infinitely large, invisible,

and as-yet-undiscovered army of electrons

at the command of human whim.

How does a revolution begin?

Sometimes it doesn't take much.

A piece of metal, a bowl of mercury,

a bit of cork.

Sarah dear, send your little brother down.

I'm about to try something knew,

and I want him to see it.

Why don't you do the honors, Georgie.

There she goes.

There she goes!