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00:00Terrible Tudors, Gorgeous Georgians, Slimey's Tudors, Bar-Victorian, Woeful Wars, Ferocious Fights, Stingy Castles, Daring Knights, Horrors That Dead by Description, Cutthroat Cults or Bull Ejection, Vicious Vikings, Cruel Crimes, Punishment from Ancient Times, Roman Rotten, Rank and Rude, Cavemen, Savage, Peers and Tubeless, Groovy Greeks, Rainy Sages, Mean and Misery, Middle Ages.
00:18Gory Stories we do that, and your host a talking rat, the past is no longer a mystery, welcome to Horrible Histories.
00:32Horrible Histories presents Brilliant Brain Boxes.
00:38History is filled with brilliant brains who've changed our lives with their amazing ideas, theories and inventions, and my Victorian age was stuffed with them.
00:48Charles Dickens transformed writing, I love his stuff, Florence Nightingale basically created modern nursing, you're welcome, and Charles Darwin revolutionised scientific theory.
00:59Two of them also had great facial hair. Not all of our Victorian Brain Boxes ideas were winners though, Polish eye doctor L.L. Zamenhof for example thought he'd invented a way of bringing about world peace, spoiler alert, he hadn't.
01:15Friends, you represent the great countries of the world, and I believe that I have the answer for creating world peace.
01:24Really Dr. Zamenhof, how is an unknown Polish eye doctor going to come up with a plan for world peace?
01:32We all speak different languages, half of the group can't understand what you're saying.
01:41There's the answer, I believe that the world's problems are down to poor communication.
01:45So I've come up with a new language, it's simple and easy to learn and will become the language of international communication.
01:54Let me tell you a little bit about it.
01:57Any sort of fighting I abhor, we need to find a way to prevent war, and I think that language is the solution.
02:08A peaceful way of resolving things, there's no need for more battling, here's a way to stop this confusion.
02:17Esperanto, it's a language that I created in Poland, a way that we can keep the conversation flowing, a way of talking that will only keep on growing.
02:27Esperanto, it's a simple language to unite the people, it's a way of speaking that will make us equal, we can sort our problems in a way that's peaceful.
02:39It's easy to learn, there's no crazy grammar, it follows simple rules everyone can understand, yeah?
02:44A mixture of languages, but here's the surprise, there are some words you might recognise.
02:49A bird is birdo, cat is catto, a cake is cucco, baby is babo, club is clubbo, river, rivero, music, musico, problem, problemo.
03:00Stop me if I'm wrong, I wouldn't want to offend, you're just taking a word and sticking an O on the end.
03:05I see why you've said that, there's really more to it, don't be put off, everyone here can do it.
03:14Esperanto, it's a language that I created in Poland, a way that we can keep the conversation flowing, a way of talking that will only keep on growing.
03:25Esperanto, it's a simple language to unite the people, it's a way of speaking that will make us equal, we can sort our problems in a way that's peaceful.
03:36Esperanto.
03:41Any questions?
03:42What was all that?
04:12What was the Battle of Hastings?
04:131066.
04:14Oh, you are good.
04:16What's the biggest organ in the human body?
04:18The skin.
04:19Speedy?
04:20Who is the next sketchabout?
04:22What? How am I supposed to know that?
04:25Oh, bad luck, Mark.
04:27No, hang on, how was I supposed to know that? You never told me.
04:31Alright, mate, don't go on about it, no one likes a sore loser.
04:36The answer is John Wilkins.
04:38In the 17th century he was a member of the Royal Society, a place where the brain boxes of the time went to swap ideas.
04:45And it was there that Wilkins presented an amazing idea that we still use today, just not quite in the same way he thought we would.
04:52What's the capital of Ecuador?
04:54I'm not playing anymore, but it's Quito.
04:57Oh, nice.
04:59And so, I am delighted to present to you, fellow members of the Royal Society, my design for a submarine ark.
05:08A boat that travels under the water.
05:12Now this ark, or submarine boat, could change everything.
05:16Imagine a vessel that could travel to any coast in the world completely undetected.
05:21It won't be affected by the tides or threatened by the ice when crossing under the poles.
05:26Cool.
05:27There's just one problem, which may mean this boat can never be built.
05:32I refer, of course, to how you deal with when you need to go.
05:39Go where?
05:40I know, on a voyage.
05:42No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm talking about the toilet, the little dolphin's room.
05:46What do you do with the doo-doo?
05:49Oh, the poop.
05:51I'm not sure we need the diagram.
05:53I disagree.
05:54Imagine you're in a submarine and you're having a poo.
05:57Are you imagining it?
05:58Yes, I think I've got it.
06:00Good. Now, what do you do with the poo?
06:04Throw it out the window?
06:05Well, you'll be under the sea, so water would flood in and sink the boat.
06:08True, but I have the answer.
06:14What is it?
06:15It's a poo-collecting bag.
06:18It would be attached to a hole in the submarine.
06:20You simply pop your poop inside, close it up at one end, release the other, and hey presto, away goes the poo.
06:26Poo aside, Wilkins, I believe you've actually invented some kind of airlock.
06:30This could be revolutionary.
06:32I know, right? Super pooper.
06:34No, no, no, but you could use the same system to stock up with food and fuel without ever having to come to the surface.
06:39Yes, a boat could lower them in from above and you could take them in through the hole.
06:42This isn't just for poos, this could be used for everything.
06:45No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, right?
06:47It's just a poo bag.
06:49A poo bag for getting rid of poo. Do you want a demonstration? It's really simple.
06:52Look, you hold the bag out, right?
06:54Oh, absolutely not.
06:55Look, Wilkins, this submarine is a triumph, but your poo bags stink.
06:59All right, fine, but in the future, if you're ever in a submarine boat and you feel a poo coming on, don't come crying to me.
07:09I, um, had a big lunch.
07:11Oh, it's just me.
07:14Head teacher Ruth Thomas is looking for a new physics teacher
07:18after Miss Evans' shoelaces got caught in Class 9F's rocket and she suddenly relocated to Norfolk.
07:25Welcome to Historical Educating.
07:28I'm quite excited about our new supply teacher.
07:31He was such an important scientific figure that he has more things named after him than almost anyone else.
07:38Humboldt Mountains.
07:40Humboldt Park.
07:41Humboldt City.
07:42Humboldt City.
07:43And there's even a part of the moon called Mare Humboldtiana.
07:48Class 7F's new teacher is Alexander von Humboldt.
07:52Morning.
07:53Good morning, Mr Alexander von Humboldt.
07:57Now, hands up, who wants to help me with a scientific experiment?
08:02Here, Toby.
08:05Very interesting.
08:06Who else would like to help me?
08:08Me.
08:09OK.
08:10Mr Humboldt experiments with animals and electricity,
08:13which doesn't seem right because that's what Stephen Wilkins in 7P got excluded for.
08:18Here we have a beautiful dead bird, yeah?
08:22But who here wants to see if we can bring this birdy back to life with some electricity?
08:28Yeah.
08:29Let's do this.
08:33Well, that didn't work.
08:34He's such a science legend.
08:36In fact, there's over 100 animals named after him.
08:39Like the Humboldt squid.
08:41Sir, that doesn't look very safe.
08:43Don't worry, I've done this test before.
08:46Sticking wire up your bottom is a perfectly valid scientific test.
08:51Nothing can happen to me unless someone switches on the light.
08:55Mr von Humboldt, what do you think you're doing?
09:02How would you say that went?
09:04Pretty good.
09:06Look, I don't know what the fuss is about.
09:08Thanks to my experiment, we now know that electrocuting yourself through the bottom leads to nausea, cramps,
09:15and it makes you do a little bit of wee.
09:17You're fired, Mr von Humboldt.
09:19You know the way out.
09:21I actually don't know the way out.
09:26Excuse me.
09:27I seem to have retained a little charge in my buttocks.
09:30Fascinating.
09:32Ever been tempted to see what happens if you attach electrodes to your bum mark?
09:37What?
09:38No, of course not.
09:42No, me neither.
09:44I can smell burning fur.
09:46At least you can't feel it.
09:48Anyways, it's no surprise that some of history's biggest brains have tried to tackle history's biggest challenges.
09:54Like how to help win wars and how to save lives.
09:58Marie Curie tried to do both.
10:00What do you know about her, Mark?
10:02She was a brilliant Polish-French physicist who did pioneering work with radioactivity.
10:07Correct.
10:08And during the First World War, she used her knowledge about x-rays to try and help soldiers on the front line.
10:15Whoa.
10:18You need to sit down.
10:19I don't think I'll be sitting down for some time, Mark.
10:23What's up?
10:24Marie Curie here.
10:25Scientist, brain box, and winner of two Nobel Prizes.
10:29Count on!
10:30The science institute where I teach has shut because all the men have been called up into the French army to fight against Germany in this great war.
10:38I really want to help them.
10:41So, I am sending x-ray machines to the battlefields where doctors can use them to check for broken bones and bits of metal in the wounded soldiers.
10:52Let's go save some lives!
10:56Oh, that is very heavy.
10:57Hashtag, might need a plan.
11:03Okay, not a problem. That's French for sorted.
11:06I have simply adapted both the x-ray machines and the ambulance to serve our purpose.
11:22Hashtag, need to learn to drive.
11:25Oops.
11:26Okay, problem solved.
11:28My 17-year-old daughter, Irene, can do the driving while I am learning.
11:35Pedal to the metal, Irene!
11:44Hashtag, Irene can't drive either.
11:47Awkward!
11:48Okay, we have made it to the front line and we are ready to go to work.
11:53Lieutenant, if you can just...
11:58No, okay, if you just...
12:01Okay, so I have only really taught about x-rays. I haven't really used the machines before, as such.
12:10Hashtag, just because I'm brilliant doesn't mean I know everything.
12:13Hashtag, I'm right!
12:17Well, everything has settled down a bit.
12:19And I have organised 200 battlefield x-ray units and 20 of these mobile x-ray ambulances.
12:27They've even called them little curies after me.
12:30So cute!
12:31So I think I can say I have done my bit.
12:34Au revoir!
12:36Come on, little curie away!
12:39Hashtag, still not completely sure about the driving!
12:47Well, Dr. Skinner, we're hoping you've come up with something that will help us to defeat the Nazis.
12:52Gentlemen, I believe I have.
12:54A massive advance in missile accuracy.
12:57Piloted missiles.
12:59Piloted?
13:00But who would be stupid enough to pilot a missile that was going to explode?
13:04Gentlemen, meet your new pilot.
13:13You want a pigeon to fly the bomb?
13:16Of course not!
13:19I want three pigeons to fly the bomb.
13:21Gentlemen, each pigeon harnessed inside the missile has been trained to peck at the target.
13:27Harnessed inside the missile has been trained to peck at the target when they see it.
13:32This pecking transmits a signal via the bird's beak which controls the bomb's tail fins and directs it towards the target.
13:40Oh, nein! You've destroyed my Nazi battleship!
13:44Who'd have suspended a pigeon?
13:47Somebody give Skinner a promotion!
13:49Are we being pranked?
13:51Do you want us to entrust the war to birds?
13:54These are no ordinary birds, sir.
13:56My pigeons are graduates of the Skinner School of Aviation.
14:00You created a flying school for pigeons?
14:02Well, they're not going to train themselves, are they?
14:05Who is this guy?
14:07Let me show you something.
14:10What are you doing?
14:11A demonstration, sir.
14:13Each pigeon has been trained to ignore the distractions of war.
14:18My eyes!
14:20My eyes!
14:21See? It didn't even flinch!
14:23Thank you, Dr. Skinner. We have heard enough.
14:26I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it's a terrible idea.
14:29I'm sure implementing your pigeon plan would have been a real coup.
14:34And I don't want you to get in a flap, but it's time for you and your pigeons to take off.
14:42Hey, where'd that pigeon go?
14:47I told you they were trained to hit enemy targets.
14:51OK, so not all wartime ideas were winners.
14:55You know, Mark, some people say pigeons are like rats with wings.
14:59Talk about a compliment!
15:01I'd make a great pigeon.
15:10Let's move on to a brilliant wartime brain who really did change all our lives.
15:14Alan Turing.
15:15Oh, good call!
15:17He helped crack an unbreakable Nazi code in World War II and turn the tide of the war.
15:22However, not everything this genius did was quite as clever.
15:30You know, I didn't expect Alan Turing, one of the geniuses who cracked the secret Nazi code,
15:37a top computing wizard, to be quite so eccentric.
15:40What do you mean, eccentric?
15:42Well, at work, you keep your mug chained to a radiator.
15:46That's not eccentric. That's clever. It means I know exactly where my mug is at all times.
15:51And you hold your trousers up with string.
15:54Of course I do. They fall down without it.
15:57One time, I saw you cycle to work wearing a gas mask.
16:01That's to stop me getting hay fever.
16:03And it works.
16:05Then there's the fact you've got us pushing an empty baby buggy around the woods.
16:09I've got to put the treasure in something when I find it, haven't I?
16:12Treasure?
16:13Yes. You see, back in 1940, I discovered that silver would be worth more after the war.
16:19OK.
16:20So I took my life savings and converted them into two heavy silver ingots.
16:25Now, that is clever.
16:26I then came into the woods, buried the silver, and now we're going to dig it up again.
16:32And do you remember where you buried it?
16:34That's the cleverest part. I don't need to.
16:38I designed a code to tell me where the treasure is.
16:41And it's so devilishly difficult that only I can crack it.
16:45All I need to do is solve the code and we'll know where the silver's buried.
16:53Well, what does the code say?
16:55Um, just a minute.
16:58You can't crack the code, can you?
17:01Of course I can. I've cracked some of the most fiendish codes ever created.
17:04You really think I can't crack my own code?
17:07Oh, I'm fine! I haven't a clue!
17:10Curse past me for being cleverer than future me!
17:14Let's hire a metal detector.
17:16No. I remember it was by a big tree.
17:27Would you like me to get that metal detector?
17:29Yes, please.
17:32And a belt?
17:34Yes.
17:38Ni hao. Confucius here.
17:40Teacher, philosopher, writer of nifty sayings such as
17:45In the wind blows the grass bends.
17:48But what you may not know is I also turned my mind to the serious subject of food.
17:54Confucius loves nom-noms!
17:56I have some very strong views such as
17:59You should always eat meat with its proper sauce.
18:03No sauce, no meat!
18:05And, of course, I hate peaches!
18:09No!
18:10Seriously, say no to peaches!
18:13Down with peaches!
18:15Oh, no, wait. It's a plum.
18:17It's a peach! Love the plum!
18:19Panic over.
18:22Hi. I'm Buzz Aldrin, and I walked on the moon.
18:27That wouldn't have been possible without brain boxes studying the stars and working out how to get me there.
18:33As far back as the ancient Greek times, people were staring up at the heavens and trying to understand how space might work.
18:41Although the people around them at the time weren't always ready to understand their genius.
18:48I wish they'd also thought of a way of letting those out of a space suit.
18:53Attention, people of Thessaly.
18:55I, Aglaonis, have been studying the moon as I helped develop a science called astronomy.
19:01Astrono-what?
19:02The science of the stars.
19:04And today, I'm able to give you the perfect example of the uses of this science.
19:09Yay!
19:10Can you juggle? There was a juggler last week.
19:13Oh, he was great.
19:14Top class entertainer.
19:15No, no, but this is much more exciting than juggling.
19:18Using astronomy, I can predict when there will be a full moon, and I can predict a lunar eclipse.
19:24What? Like when the moon disappears or changes colour?
19:28Sure you can.
19:29I predict that there will be a lunar eclipse right now.
19:38See? Astronomy is pretty cool, right?
19:41She's changed the moon!
19:44What? No, I just told you when it would change. It's going to be back to normal in a second.
19:50See?
19:52She's a moon witch!
19:54Oh, please, don't use your moon witch powers against us!
19:57I'm not a witch, I just love astronomy. And I'm, like, really clever.
20:01You wouldn't act like this if I was a man.
20:03That's exactly what a moon witch would say!
20:06Please, do not hurt us, oh moon witch!
20:09Look, let me explain.
20:11Her face is gone!
20:13She's gone and vanished it with her moon witchy powers.
20:16What?
20:17Her face is back! It was gone, now it's back! She can make her face go and come at will.
20:22Right, come on, guys. This is silly. Stop worrying about moon powers.
20:28If we worship her, she may use her powers for good.
20:33I'm not a moon witch! I'm just an astronomer who's devoted years to understanding the stars.
20:39We have angered her, beware her!
20:41Tell us about your astronomy, if it will so please you, oh moon witch!
20:45Tell us your boring information!
20:47OK, it's quite simple, really.
20:49The moon, it goes through several of what we call phases.
20:53Starting with the new moon, and then the first quarter, and then, um...
20:59Shall we see if that juggler's on somewhere else?
21:01All of which I control with my moony witchy powers.
21:06She's gonna turn us all into moon frogs!
21:08At least they're listening, I guess.
21:11Historical Megabytes!
21:15Hi, I'm Katherine Johnson, and my marvellous mind helped me graduate from college
21:19with degrees in math and French at just 18 years old.
21:23Big brain!
21:25I believe that mathematics is out of this world,
21:27which is why I joined the American space agency, NASA.
21:31It's literally rocket science!
21:33I worked on the mathematics of space flight and helped NASA to launch a rocket
21:37to orbit the Earth and then land on the moon.
21:39Moon time, baby!
21:41I was so good at math, the astronaut John Glenn said my mom was smarter than a computer.
21:46Before his 1962 mission to orbit the Earth,
21:49he refused to fly until I had personally double-checked the computer's calculations.
21:54Although, if I am really smarter than a computer,
21:58how come I can never win this game?
22:01Oh!
22:03Just five more minutes, then I will definitely get back to work.
22:07Probably.
22:09Game over.
22:11Bam!
22:14The man who manned the living toilet
22:16Who ran from the Middle Ages with buckets over
22:19You can have a poo in a private place
22:23Sitting on my bucket with a cape to hide your face
22:26And bum, and vagal dab
22:30And bum, and vagal dab
22:32I won't charge the pending if you did a two-on-one
22:35Loom man!
22:37Please welcome today's historical figure who really needs the loo,
22:41Ada Lovelace!
22:47Greetings, friend.
22:49What is this?
22:50Are you Ada Lovelace, the super brainy 19th century writer and mathematician?
22:55Yes, but...
22:56Then I am Loom man.
23:01I'm sorry, I was under the impression that this was the little mathematician's room.
23:05I really, really need to...
23:06Ada Lovelace, you have, by means we do not need to go into right now,
23:11travelled through time from the 19th century to use my first-rate toilet facility.
23:17Oh, marvellous. Where are they?
23:19Well, that's them.
23:21People are usually quite impressed by them.
23:23Really?
23:24Answer questions one and two, and I'll let you do a...
23:29It's plot quiz time!
23:31What?
23:32Mathematician Ada Lovelace,
23:34you must answer two questions about your life before you may work out
23:38your pressing logarithm.
23:40I can just get on with it.
23:41Question number one.
23:42What is your weirdest secret?
23:44Well, when I was a teenager, I developed an irrational fear of beds,
23:48and so I stepped on the floor.
23:50No, that is pretty weird.
23:52Question number two.
23:53Tell us a little-known fact about you, Ada Lovelace.
23:56Well, I worked with my friend, the inventor Charles Babbage.
24:00I described how he could programme his computational machine
24:03to solve complex calculations.
24:05Charles Babbage is remembered as the inventor of something called a computer.
24:10And you're remembered as one of the first computer programmers.
24:14Yes, that's right. I've done your questions now.
24:16I'm going away.
24:17You may pass.
24:19Join us next time,
24:21when I'll be stopping more historical celebs from doing a poo
24:24to ask questions...
24:26just for you.
24:29Your ones and twos are really adding up there, Ada.
24:34Strange guy, Lulam.
24:36We've got something in common, you know.
24:38Is it the smell?
24:39No, we both look good in a cape.
24:42What do you mean, the smell? Charming.
24:44Well, you do live in the sewer.
24:46That's fair.
24:47Well, we've come to the end,
24:49and I suppose the best advice if you want to be a brilliant brain like that lot
24:53is to try your best.
24:55Be creative. Think outside the box.
24:58And be as unusual as you like.
25:01This lady certainly did that.
25:0312th century German nun Hildegard von Bingen
25:06was a brainy pioneer who did a bit of everything.
25:09She's like none other, Mark.
25:12You know, cos she's a nun.
25:14That's a terrible joke.
25:16Make a habit of it.
25:17Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
25:24Since the age of seven
25:27I've been living in a nunnery
25:30Hildegard von Bingen, that is me
25:32I'm quite brainy
25:35Cos I feel inspired
25:38So many ideas bursting through
25:41My brain hungs with things to do
25:44Every day
25:46I look around and
25:47The sick need meds to cure them
25:50I'll write mine down in book form
25:53Let's spread our knowledge round the world
25:57And I say
25:58Oooh
26:00I'm guided by insights
26:03My mind is firing
26:05I thought you'd note this down
26:08And I say
26:09Oooh
26:12I've got so many books to write
26:15Got to share all of this
26:17Knowledge that I've found
26:20For a bit of fun
26:23I made up a secret language
26:26Tee toster me a teach
26:29Cool a tea
26:31A dog
26:32And music is my thing
26:35I write hymns and chants to sing
26:37Their first musical morality play
26:40I stay
26:42I look around and
26:43The natural world astounds me
26:46Note down all that surrounds me
26:49Wrote nine volumes
26:50Think I covered everything
26:53And I say
26:54Oooh
26:56My mind is feeling bright
26:59Yes, I'm a woman
27:01But I've got knowledge too
27:05I'm writing letters every day
27:08To popes and emperors to say
27:11If you listen I can show you a better way
27:16And I say
27:17Oooh
27:19I'm guided by insights
27:22My mind is firing
27:24Hope I'm inspiring you
27:27And I say
27:28Oooh
27:30The future's looking bright
27:33If we can think it
27:35They could make it true