A machine gun puts the power of 20 men into the hands of one. We review the history of the machine gun from the first Gatlings in the Civil War to today’s high-speed automatic rifles.
Archive for April, 2003
Machine Guns
Wednesday, April 30th, 2003John Travolta
Sunday, April 6th, 2003
Actor John Travolta is interviewed about his career.
Coal Mines
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2003
Coal–the fuel responsible for more than half the electricity used daily. We unearth the amazing technological advances that have led to today’s extremely efficient methods–from ancient techniques to the simplistic bell-pit method, from drift mining, surface mining, and strip mining to modern longwall mining, when a massive machine extracts an entire wall of coal in seconds. We go underground with miners in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming, and also address environmental concerns.
Titanic Tech
Tuesday, April 1st, 2003
Welcome aboard the luxury liner Titanic, the world’s largest ship and pride of the White Star Line. Watertight compartments and a steel-plated hull render it all but unsinkable. Nearly every technological breakthrough of the previous 50 years is employed onboard, providing comfort and safety for passengers and crew. But none of this will matter on April 15, 1912, when the ship bears down on an iceberg on her maiden voyage, sinking within hours with more than 1,500 lives lost. Learn the details of her construction and how the achievements of technology may have masked her vulnerabilities.
