The BEST episodes of Modern Marvels season 9
Every episode of Modern Marvels season 9, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Modern Marvels season 9!
Celebrating ingenuity, invention and imagination brought to life on a grand scale, MODERN MARVELS tells the fascinating stories of the doers, dreamers and sometime-schemers who created everyday items, technological breakthroughs and man-made wonders.
#1 - Hangars
Season 9 - Episode 25 - Aired 6/25/2002
Come in for a smooth landing as we explore the history of hangars--stark, massive structures that house and protect flight vehicles.
#2 - Big Rigs of Combat: Tanks
Season 9 - Episode 18 - Aired 6/2/2002
The rousing story of the tank, from its primitive appearance in WWI to the high-tech world of modern tank warfare, with emphasis on the tank's Golden Age during WWII.
#3 - Motors
Season 9 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/19/2002
The electric motor.
#4 - Gasoline
Season 9 - Episode 30 - Aired 7/23/2002
Traces the history and evolution of the world's most important fossil fuel. Without gasoline, modern life would grind to a halt. What it really is, how it is made, what all those different octane numbers really mean, and how researchers developed cleaner-burning gasoline.
#5 - Private Jets 1
Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/28/2002
From today's ultra chic, state-of-the-art private jets to Lockheed's 1957 Jetstar, this 2-part special investigates the history, the luxury, and technology of America's corporate jets. We meet a few of the men and women who pioneered them--Bill Lear, Clyde Cessna and his nephews, Walter and Olive Beech.
#6 - Bulletproof
Season 9 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/19/2002
From body armor to armored cars and trucks, we review the history of the race between the bullet and a successful way to stop it. We'll look at little-known advances like bulletproof layering hidden in walls, futuristic smart materials that "remember" how to stop a bullet, and a system that deploys a shield within milliseconds when it detects an oncoming round.
#7 - Train Wrecks
Season 9 - Episode 46 - Aired 10/28/2002
Throughout railroad history, disasters lay at the heart of progress, since expansion and profit proved the main goals of management. In 1875 alone, an average of 22 train accidents happened daily; in 1890, over 6,000 people were killed. We'll examine how safety, once a secondary consideration, became a primary goal.
#8 - The Manhattan Project
Season 9 - Episode 20 - Aired 6/4/2002
At 5:30 a.m., July 16, 1945, scientists and dignitaries awaited the detonation of the first atomic bomb in a desolate area of the New Mexico desert aptly known as "Jornada del Muerto" (Journey of Death). Los Alamos scientists and engineers relate their trials, triumphs, and dark doubts about building the ultimate weapon of war in the interest of peace.
#9 - The Tackle Box
Season 9 - Episode 21 - Aired 6/11/2002
Explore the wonderful world of rods, reels and optimism that is the fisherman's stock and trade. Visit the facilities that turn out carbon-fiber rods and the plugs, flies, leaders, floats and other accessories that anglers swear by.
#10 - Engines
Season 9 - Episode 31 - Aired 7/24/2002
The history of engines beginning with the steam engine through modern rotary and rocket engines are profiled.
#11 - Nordhausen
Season 9 - Episode 34 - Aired 8/13/2002
It was the world's largest underground factory--seven miles of tunnels built to manufacture Hitler's secret weapons, primarily the V-2 rocket. But Nordhausen kept more than one secret. Some of those associated with Nordhausen later helped take America to the moon.
#12 - The Internet: Behind The Web
Season 9 - Episode 41 - Aired 9/10/2002
Digging into how data packets move across a network. Compelling recollections and explanations from Internet pioneers going back to the '50s, when computers were the size of rooms and interconnecting them was only an interesting theory. The straight historical history on the birth and rise of the Internet.
#13 - The Strategic Air Command
Season 9 - Episode 29 - Aired 7/16/2002
With the ironic motto "Peace is our Profession", the Strategic Air Command was in charge of US nuclear forces from 1946 to 1992.
#14 - Drag Racing
Season 9 - Episode 17 - Aired 5/21/2002
Head to the drag strip and back in time for the complete story of these amazing machines.
#15 - Axes, Swords And Knives
Season 9 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/7/2002
Blade implements have been a part of civilized man's arsenal since the Paleolithic Age, when sharp tools were chipped off of flint or obsidian. But with the discovery of metallurgy, people were able to forge stronger, more versatile blade implements.
#16 - The Autobahn
Season 9 - Episode 42 - Aired 9/17/2002
Buckle up for safety as we take you for the ride of your life when we explore the fascinating history and current reality of the world's fastest freeway. The number-one works project of the Third Reich, the Autobahn was known as Adolf Hitler's Road until Germany's defeat in WWII.
#17 - War Trains
Season 9 - Episode 35 - Aired 8/14/2002
A look at how the use of trains affected warfare in the 20th century.
#18 - Siege Machines
Season 9 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/26/2002
A look at siege machines that convert energy into mechanical force to go over, under, or through fortified or fixed defenses too strong for conventional force. These engines range from man's first long-range missile weapon, the slingshot, to the laser cannons and satellite-destroying robots of the 21st century.
#19 - Junkyards
Season 9 - Episode 8 - Aired 3/5/2002
It's the place where one man's trash is truly another man's treasure. Enter the strange and mysterious world of the junkyard, where many pieces actually do add up to a whole. Uncover how junkyard operators create order out of seemingly random piles of junk.
#20 - The World's Biggest Machines
Season 9 - Episode 33 - Aired 8/7/2002
Join us for a look at the biggest, heaviest, tallest, longest, meanest machines on the planet! We'll see what these monsters do, how they operate and how they're designed and assembled.
#21 - Runways
Season 9 - Episode 56 - Aired 12/17/2002
What do you think about when you gaze out the window as your plane takes off? Probably not about the least heralded part of our infrastructure--airport runways. But runways play a vital role as the backbone of aviation. They're where rubber meets road and land gives way to sky. Did you know that airports like JFK train falcons to keep little birds from becoming a hazard to the big, shiny birds? Join us for an engrossing look at the brawny concrete and asphalt runways that make aviation possible.
#22 - Pickup Trucks
Season 9 - Episode 43 - Aired 9/18/2002
They have made the leap from humble farm vehicles to mainstays of the American road. PICKUP TRUCKS tells the complete story of these rolling icons of individuality and freedom.
#23 - Towing
Season 9 - Episode 32 - Aired 8/6/2002
Climb mountains, head to the highways and guide vessels to dock in this examination of the many aspects of towing. See how these sophisticated machines evolved from the earliest examples of their breed, which were cobbled together from spare parts.
#24 - Cranes
Season 9 - Episode 44 - Aired 10/8/2002
One of the most useful machines ever created, the crane is a simple but important combination of the pulley and the lever. Though cranes have been helping us build civilization from at least the time of the Egyptian pyramids, the modern steel-framed construction cranes are a relatively recent development. Put on your work boots as we ride through the history of cranes from ancient days to skyscraper construction sites, ocean-freighter docks, and the International Space Station.
#25 - Digi-Tech
Season 9 - Episode 54 - Aired 12/5/2002
DVD, CD, PDA, HDTV, PVR--they are the ultimate in "gotta have it" gadgets and gizmos and "to die for" technology that populate a digital world of acronyms. We trace digital technology back to the early 1940s and the first high-speed electronic computer used to calculate cannon trajectory charts for new artillery in WWII, and look at the rapidly approaching future in places such as MIT's Media Lab, where tomorrow's technologies are being developed today.