Speed Topics (02:14)

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Machines that transformed travel are introduced. The steam locomotive, internal combustion engine, and jet engine will be covered in this program.

Rolls Royce Jet Engine Room (01:39)

Apprentices talk about working on jet engines.

Transportation Engineering and Invention (02:06)

Toyota, Bombardier, and Rolls Royce all have factories in Darby. Rolls and Royce set up a manufacturing plant dedicated to the car, a brand new technology. The plant now produces jet engines.

New Type of Steam Engine (02:22)

Watt and Bolton's atmospheric steam engine transformed mining but supplied limited power. Richard Travithic invented a new engine that did not infringe on the existing patent.

High Pressured Steam Engine (03:09)

Travithic planned to build an engine that worked in a new way. Watt had failed at this potentially dangerous invention. A cylindrical boiler was the first step.

Fire Tube and Cylindrical Boiler (03:29)

Demonstrations show how Travithic's revolutionary new boilers made the steam engine more efficient.

Locomotive Steam Engine (03:29)

Engineer George Stephenson turned Travithic's new steam engine into something practical.

Invention, Social Change and Innovation (03:00)

A historian notes that the locomotive steam engine revolutionized travel and the national culture in Great Britain. After the 1870s, entrepreneurial failure led to stagnation.

Internal Combustion Engine (04:17)

Steam engines were large and inefficient. Nikolaus Otto designed the four stroke engine. More efficient than external combustion, it mixes fuel and air to create an explosion that moves the piston.

World's First Car (02:19)

In 1886, Karl Benz built the first motor car using Otto's four stroke engine design.

Model T (02:28)

Royce revolutionized the car in 1907. The industrial revolution transformed product demand. In 1913, Henry Ford opened the first continuous assembly line.

World War I Inventions (02:46)

In 1919, Rolls Royce made more plane engines than car engines. Food preservation was revolutionized by the tin can.

Jet Engine (04:03)

The Wright brothers added propellers to the combustion engine. Frank Whittle revolutionized aviation by finding a new form of propulsive power.

How a Jet Engine Works (02:14)

A diagram illustrates thrust. An engineer points out the parts on an Rolls Royce engine.

High Pressured Turbine Blade (02:45)

The modern jet engine contains thousands of parts that have been imprived from Whittle's original design. The manufacturing process is explained.

Trent Engine Assembly (03:41)

Jet engine components are made all over the world and assembled at the Rolls Royce plant.

Summary and Preview (01:46)

Reflect on transportation technology and learn what is to come on the next episode of "Ideas That Changed the World."

Credits: Speed: Genius of Inventions—Ideas That Changed the World (00:38)

Credits: Speed: Genius of Inventions—Ideas That Changed the World