Transcript - Izzit.org
Transcript - Izzit.org
Transcript - Izzit.org
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put together with one purpose in mind. And that purpose is: To reduce the amount of human muscle<br />
needed to do any particular job. The next step was to eliminate it altogether by using animal muscle.<br />
WOMAN: One horse or one ox has the strength of twenty men. It can do twenty times more work and<br />
create twenty times more surplus. But it’s possible in the end to do away with all muscle power<br />
altogether – animal or human.<br />
MAN: And that’s by harnessing the forces of nature. Water power can grind corn…<br />
WOMAN: …it can also power spindles and looms.<br />
MAN: But there are more powerful and more useful sources of energy in nature…<br />
WOMAN: …the wind…<br />
MAN: …coal…<br />
WOMAN: …oil…<br />
MAN: …uranium.<br />
WOMAN: It isn’t all that long since we were using simple machines combined with animal power to<br />
produce surpluses.<br />
MAN: Even today in some parts of the world animal muscle is still the main source of surplus. There are<br />
places where animals are still used for freight, or carrying passengers…or for machine power.<br />
WOMAN: Until the railways in the 1830s- a horse was still the fastest means of travel on the land, just<br />
as it had been for tens of thousands of years. But in time, the way the machines were applied became<br />
more complicated; but no matter how sophisticated they got, they were still a combination of very simple<br />
machines.<br />
MAN: The wheels and axles on this modern tractor enable it to tackle ground farmers would once never<br />
have dreamed could produce any crops. And the gears that make it possible to go up and down steep<br />
slopes are operated by levers.<br />
WOMAN: Basic machines- combined together make it possible for us to turn nature’s energy into huge<br />
surpluses. But it’s only possible to produce surpluses like these- when you can draw the energy you need<br />
from one of nature’s great resources.<br />
MAN: Until the end of the nineteenth century wind powered the fastest method of travel over water. But<br />
there was something much more effective than either wind or water. That was the power of fire.<br />
WOMAN: Fire transformed the world. First it boiled water for steam engines…then it ignited petrol in<br />
combustion engines and generated power for steam turbines.<br />
MAN: And more recently the controlled energy from nuclear reactors has been converted to electrical<br />
energy. And what does it add up to – all this application of different forms of energy<br />
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