The BEST episodes of Modern Marvels season 5

#1 - The Phonograph

Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 9/1/1997

Thomas Edison registered over 1,000 patents, but his favorite invention was one of his first. Rare photographs and early recordings show how the young inventor and his team outfoxed Alexander Graham Bell.

#2 - Radar

Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 9/21/1997

Examine the history of this landmark technology, from its role in the Allied victory in World War II, to its widespread use in air traffic control, ocean surveillance, astronomy, geology and meteorology.

#3 - Motion Picture

Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/20/1999

Rare film from the Edison Studios marks the beginning of movies.

#4 - Electric Light

Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/1/1997

#5 - Deep Sea Exploration: Challenging the Abyss

Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired 11/3/1997

Chronicling the development of deep-sea exploration and the vessels and devices that make it possible. Also: some of the revolutionary findings that have resulted from marine exploration.

#6 - Statue of Liberty

Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 6/27/1997

It started as an idea at a French dinner party and became the symbol of the free world. The story of France's gift to the U.S. reveals a 20-year struggle to design and build the world's largest monument--using paper-thin copper sheets.

#7 - Radio: Out of Thin Air

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 8/24/1997

Though now considered a country cousin when compared to the sophisticated television, merely a century ago, the radio galvanized communications as it linked the world without wires. The program examines the long life of the radio.

#8 - Forensic Science

Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 9/28/1997

From Sherlock Holmes' examination of the physical evidence at a crime scene to today's DNA technology, we review the history of crime detection through the use of forensic science.

#9 - The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Season 5 - Episode 18 - Aired 11/4/1997

In 1973, a desperate America, starved by an OPEC embargo, began construction on an 800-mile lifeline for its insatiable oil hunger. We'll examine this technological triumph, built over impenetrable mountains and tundra, where temperatures drop to 75 below zero. We also study its impact on a fragile ecological system.

#10 - Great Towers in the Sky

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 9/7/1997

An examination of three of the world's tallest buildings---Seattle's Space Needle, Toronto's CNTower and the Las Vegas Stratosphere. Included: rare construction footage shot by daring photographers.

#11 - The Stock Exchange

Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/12/1997

Welcome to the center of the American economy, where nearly $90-million changes hands each minute. Journey back to the wooden wall, built to hold back Indians, where early traders signed a pact creating the New York Stock Exchange; watch worldwide markets quake with the crash of 1929; and visit today's computer-driven wonder.

#12 - Transcontinental Railroads

Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 10/12/1997

With California finally part of the United States, two rail companies raced to connect the monied East and the promising West. Along the way, fortunes would be made, lives lost, and adversity overcome. Join us for the exciting story of the largest, most expensive challenge of the 19th century.

#13 - American Steel: Built to Last

Season 5 - Episode 20 - Aired 1/18/1998

For over a century, the US steel industry was a powerful symbol of the nation's industrial might. Steel helped explode the stock market into an overnight powerhouse, and transformed a country of farmers and merchants into a nation of visionary builders. But America's domination of the market would meet new challenges in the 1970s.

#14 - The Atlantic Wall

Season 5 - Episode 29 - Aired 9/13/1999

This episode uses captured Nazi documents, expert commentary, combat and archival footage and the recollections of the soldiers who lived through D-Day to tell the story of the most extensive defensive edifice erected since the Great Wall. The video visits the now-quiet coastlines where the remnants of the massive network remain and details the different defenses and weapons that were supposed to make the European coast impregnable. Then, see how the Allied commanders plotted their attack and hear from the soldiers who were charged with making their strategies work.

#15 - Crash Testing

Season 5 - Episode 27 - Aired 8/9/1999

Delve into the secretive, but hugely important, multi-billion-dollar industry of product testing where wrinkles get ironed out and goods are stripped of the marketing and hype to see if they actually work.

#16 - Satellites

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 8/17/1997

Documentary traces the technological race to build satellites. It took the innovation of three men, including a visionary British science fiction writer and a Nazi engineer, and one of the most desperate technological races of all time to create the satellite. Former NASA officials recall the desperate early days of the space race, when America feared that Russian dominance in the heavens would have tragic consequences on the ground. See how satellites evolved into the world's most essential communications tools, and explore the stunning capabilities of modern spy "birds".

#17 - NORAD: The War Game Fortress

Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 10/19/1997

Journey inside the top-secret headquarters of NORAD–the North American Aerospace Defense Command–a binational military command composed of the United States and Canada. Established in 1958 during the height of the Cold War, NORAD’S initial mission was air defense against a bomber attack by the Soviet Union. We see how its primary mission has changed through the years, and go inside the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, one of history’s most ambitious underground building projects.

#18 - The Search for the Polio Vaccine

Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/5/1997

When "poliomyelitis" swept the nation, thousands died or were disabled before American ingenuity, trial and error, and blatant acts of desperation led to one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in history. We'll see how polio shaped the vision of FDR, and catapulted the young unknown doctor Jonas Salk to international celebrity.

#19 - Spy Technology

Season 5 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/15/1999

In the name of national security, the governments of the world have developed devices that could render privacy a quaint anachronism. But could this Orwellian nightmare ever really come to pass? Spy Technology traces the evolution of the tools of espionage over the past century, from drop boxes and rudimentary codes to the tiny, high-tech devices that are already far more prevalent than most people imagine. Get an up-close look at some of the most important spy equipment ever made, and hear James Bond-esque stories of their use in the Cold War and afterwards. And find out why there is no technical reason why the lessons learned spying on other countries might soon be put into use internally. It is no longer a question of feasibility, but of ethics?

#20 - Household Wonders

Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 9/14/1997

Reviews the revolution in home improvement and glimpses the kitchen of tomorrow. Included: the development of the stove, sewing machine, refrigerated air, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, toaster, and mixer.

#21 - Transatlantic Cable

Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 10/26/1997

An examination of how one man's vision and the cooperation between the US and England resulted in an instant, reliable transcontinental mode of communication in the mid-1800s. See how wealthy 33-year-old Cyrus West Field endured many failures and lost millions in his attempt to close the communication gap between the Old and New Worlds.

#22 - Earthmovers: The Power to Move Mountains

Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 10/27/1997

Feel the earth move under your feet and dig into the fascinating history of earthmoving equipment--from invention of the simple spade to today's powerful steam shovels. Meet the legendary giants like John Deere, Jerome Case, and the founders of Caterpillar, who helped forge America's monolithic construction industry.

#23 - International Airports

Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/14/2001

The developments and technology of international airports' construction and operation.

#24 - New York Bridges

Season 5 - Episode 26 - Aired 8/2/1999

This episode visits the Brooklyn and George Washington Bridges, the Tri-Borough and the 59th Street. In the stone and steel of these edifices the history of modern bridge building can be seen. But they are more than just engineering marvels, and there are many more bridges than most people know. All-told, 18 spans link Manhattan to the mainland and Long Island, and each one has its own tale.

#25 - Scuba Diving & Underwater Breathing

Season 5 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/25/1999

In antiquity, a hollow reed served as an underwater link to oxygen. As in days of old, humans still need self-contained breathing equipment for a variety of reasons–food-gathering, commercial, recreational, military, and scientific. Dive with the best as we test scuba diving’s past, and look to a future of mechanical gills.