The WORST episodes of Modern Marvels
Every episode of Modern Marvels ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Modern Marvels!
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 - Coin Operated II
Season 16 - Episode 27 - Aired 11/12/2010
Tens of millions of them all over the world--soda and snack machines, parking meters and payphones, video games and vending machines... and they all use coins--but for how long? Examine the historic one-armed bandits and the 21st century, cutting edge, computerized slot machines that occupy Vegas casinos and get an exclusive look at their inner workings in a never-before-seen factory in Reno, Nevada. Search out some of the wackiest, strangest vending machines on the planet that sell everything from bottles of wine to dog washes. Get a close-up look at the famous binoculars located at popular tourist sites around the world, as well as a unique company that collects and cleans the coins thrown into fountains for good luck. But it all starts and ends in the historic halls of the U.S. Mint, where coins are made and destroyed. Will coins one day become obsolete?
#2 - Built to Last
Season 16 - Episode 30 - Aired 12/3/2010
Enter the amazing and ingenious ultra-sturdy shelters, machines, containers, materials and packaging designed to deny the ruination of society. The drive to create the indestructible has inspired some of the most prolific and awe inspiring results: The Cold War spawned personal bomb shelters in the 1950s. They weren't truly safe and secure, but today's 21st century version will last a millennium. And so will the special food you can get, along with all the comforts of home--like running water, plumbing and electricity. Caskets serve as our final resting place, but how long do they really last? Investigate how valuable data from a plane crash survives in a "black box" (that's not really black), to explain what might have caused the accident. And get an intimate look at the new "home" that protects and preserves one of the world's most valuable documents--the case that houses the original Declaration of Independence.
#3 - Top Ten Tech Innovations
Season 16 - Episode 24 - Aired 6/17/2010
We can't live without them and yet they didn't even exist a couple of decades ago. We'll count down our list of the top ten technological innovations of the last generation. Have they made human existence exponentially better, or more fragmented and precarious? Tune in to find out what they are, and how they've impacted our lives.
#4 - The Real National Treasure: The Library of Congress
Season 16 - Episode 23 - Aired 6/10/2010
Where in Washington D.C. is the nation's most incredible treasure chest? It's a library unlike any other in the world--the U.S. Library of Congress. Explode the myth that this 200-year-old institution is simply "where members of Congress borrow books." Viewers are taken beyond the magnificent Jefferson Building Great Hall into the secret vaults where more than 600 miles of shelves hold 130 million items, many of them priceless treasures--from George Washington's hand-written diaries to Galileo's first images of the moon to the original camera film of the movie Frankenstein. See how a staff of 4,000 catalogues protects and preserves these treasures and distributes them globally via a new World Digital Library.
#5 - Steam Power
Season 16 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/27/2010
It's full steam ahead when we drop in at Jay Leno's garage as Jay fires up two of his classic steam cars and takes viewers for a couple of rides. Jay also shows off his 11-ton steam engine built in 1860, back when pigs had to be slaughtered to keep it lubricated. In northern Nevada, fire up a coal burning boiler and get a 100-year-old steam locomotive chugging across the rugged landscape. In New Orleans, board an authentic paddlewheel steamboat. Trek to the Southern California desert where geothermal steam rushes up from the ground and drives electricity producing turbines, powering over 300,000 homes. In New York City, find out why manmade steam surges into some of the world's most famous skyscrapers. Steam clean some very dirty machines, and do a little laundry, too. And ride a steam-driven carousel and play with some strange, steam-powered robots that are part of a movement called--what else--"steampunk."
#6 - Keep Out
Season 16 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/20/2010
Either someone has something to protect, or it's dangerous in there. Challenge the world's best safecracker to defeat a bank vault, and see the methods a bank uses to protect its money and tellers. Travel to New Mexico to find out how the government plans to keep people away from a nuclear waste site for the next 10,000 years. Tour Master Lock to see how padlocks and combination locks are made, as well as how facial recognition, irises, and even vein structure can "unlock" biometric locks. With Customs and Border Protection, watch how officers stop illegals and contraband from entering the U.S. Tour a company that specializes in making products like steel nets to keep out people and vehicles. Visit a command center that monitors all airspace in and around the U.S. Finally, see how cages and other deterrents tell sharks to KEEP OUT!
#7 - Rice
Season 16 - Episode 34 - Aired 12/29/2010
You can fry it up, eat it for breakfast, or quaff it down on a hot summer day. It's the world's most versatile grain: RICE. At last count, there were over 140,000 types--white, brown, long-grain, wild, short-grain, jasmine, Arborio, Basmati, black Thai, sweet, sticky--enough to satisfy any discerning palette. From the mountaintops of Nepal to the fertile fields of California and Arkansas, we'll find out everything there is to know about growing, harvesting and milling this tiny, life saving fare. We'll travel to restaurants and distilleries to experience the delicious creations talented masters whip up. It comes in all the colors of the rainbow, served up everyday in countless dishes. It even brews into alcoholic drinks--sake and beer. We'll also go inside the factories that make Rice Cakes and Rice Krispie Treats to discover how they use RICE to make their "snackable" delights.
#8 - Driver's Seat
Season 16 - Episode 33 - Aired 12/21/2010
Get behind the wheel and take control of the some of the largest, fastest, most powerful machines on the planet. These aren't your average vehicles--and handling one of these rides is unlike anything else. But you need more than just a learner's permit to take control of these vehicles...you need training, experience, and above all, guts--if you plan to sit in the Driver's Seat.
#9 - Secret Underground
Season 16 - Episode 31 - Aired 12/10/2010
Just below the surface, there's a whole different America hidden from public view. Take a revealing look at the America under our feet, from secret military installations, and experimental farms to tunnel networks and neutron lasers.
#10 - Dogs
Season 16 - Episode 29 - Aired 11/26/2010
Man's best friend--fearless, faithful, determined and swift. They're our sharpest eyes, noses and ears--and among the bravest hunters, soldiers, rescuers, and protectors. From natural instincts to complex training, see what makes dogs a perfectly engineered Modern Marvel.
#11 - Engineering Disasters 22
Season 16 - Episode 28 - Aired 11/19/2010
They are catastrophic failures with deadly consequences. Caused by a single spark or a massive collapse, these disasters reveal one thing--the danger inherent in our most common industries. From a massive oil spill to refinery blaze to a downed plane, find out what went wrong... and how to prevent the next engineering disaster.
#12 - The Camera
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/15/1996
The history of photography and the camera from it's humble beginnings through the digital age.
#13 - Mega Stores
Season 16 - Episode 25 - Aired 10/29/2010
Supersized stores try to meet their greatest challenge -- keeping up with demand on a massive scale.
#15 - Battlefield Engineering
Season 4 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/8/1998
Meet some of the most important, yet least-recognized, warriors--the battlefield engineers who lay the groundwork for oncoming conflicts. We'll cover combat engineering from ancient Rome to modern-day Iraq, and take a look at the "Next Big Thing".
#16 - The Alaskan Oil Pipeline
Season 4 - Episode 20 - 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.
#17 - Deep Sea Exploration: Challenging the Abyss
Season 4 - Episode 19 - 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.
#18 - The Exterminator
Season 10 - Episode 26 - Aired 6/3/2003
They have been here for longer than us, and there are many, many more of them. They buzz, skitter and fly, chew, gnaw and occasionally draw blood. Lumped under the broad category of pests and vermin, they are one of the constant enemies in man's battle to maintain dominion over house and home. And the strongest weapon we have is THE EXTERMINATOR.
#19 - The St. Louis Arch
Season 8 - Episode 47 - Aired 12/11/2001
It is a majestic structure that rises boldly over the Mississippi River--40,000 tons of steel and concrete that create the biggest arch of its kind in the world. We'll see how its simple and elegant form results from remarkable achievements in construction and engineering.
#20 - Drive-Thru
Season 8 - Episode 42 - Aired 11/27/2001
Join us for a ride through the history of car-culture commerce. We chronicle the birth of the first drive-in restaurants that paved the way for a billion-dollar fast-food dynasty, and feature many lesser-known drive-thru venues, such as dry cleaners, flu-shot clinics, liquor stands, and drug stores.
#21 - American Steel: Built to Last
Season 4 - Episode 22 - 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.
#22 - Cruise Ships
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/11/1994
The Industrial Revolution gave birth to great steam ships like the Titanic and the Queen Mary. Mammoth monuments in steel have been adapted to serve a modern world, and remain among the most incredible feats of engineering ever conceived.
Watch Now:Apple TV#23 - Television: Window to the World
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/20/1996
Modern Marvels looks at the history of television from its invention by Philo Farnsworth to its popularization by David Sarnoff.
#24 - Brooklyn Bridge
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/1/1995
First-hand accounts and extensive archival footage bring the struggle to create the world's first suspension bridge to life.
#25 - Oil
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/19/1995
From the first well in Pennsylvania to the gushing Spindletop and modern supertankers, the story of oil is the story of civilization as we know it. We’ll take a look at the ingenious and outrageous men who risked everything for “black gold” and unimaginable wealth.