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- Written and presented by James Burke
- Directed by Mick Jackson
- Episode length: 50 minutes
- First aired in 1978
- Network: BBC
- Shot at over 150 locations in 19 countriesPalmers Guide: Connections DVD Information
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Science historian James Burke’s ten part series Connections traces the progression of technology from ancient to modern times. According to Burke, every invention comes from putting the right pieces of already available technology together to build something new. By tracing the history of technology through a series of "triggers," each one of which sets off the next, Burke demonstrates how technology is an interconnected web and how one seemingly unrelated innovation leads to another.
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Episode Overview
The fourth episode of Connections shows us how Europeans transitioned from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. When the Roman Empire fell, Western civilization was once again splintered; people were not sharing ideas or striving for knowledge as they once had. However, increased commercialism and international markets, which originated shortly before the onset of the plague and later flourished when survivors were made rich with inheritances, fueled international communication. The invention of the printing press eased the spread of knowledge to set off a revolution of innovation and chain of invention.
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Faith in Numbers Part One
@ 2:00: James Burke uses an elaborate calculation of numbers coming from a satellite to find out where he is standing.
@ 3:36: The last dominant empire to fall was the Roman Empire1500 years ago.
@ 4:46: After the fall of Rome and throughout the Dark Ages, the one organization that remained strong was the Church because it maintained a communication network throughout Europe.
@ 5:15: The Medieval Industrial Revolution:
@ 8:00: In 1098, groups of Monks were praying less and working more and running their monasteries through hard labor. The monasteries stayed in touch with each other and kept each other updated on new farming developments and ideas.
@ 9:30: Cistercians were so successful that by the end of the 12th Century, there were over 600 Cistercian monasteries.
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Faith in Numbers Part Two
@ 0:13: One of the Cistercians' greatest skills was in the early 13th Century was keeping sheep and utilizing their wool
@ 1:10: A couple inventions came to Europe from China: The loom and the spinning wheel.
@ 2:43:Bruges was a city that really benefited from the clothing boom.
@ 3:40: Trade is booming and the first International Market is set up in Champagne France as it became the crossroads of Europe.
@ 7:25 The market made everybody rich and times were looking good.
@ 7:40: The beginning of the 14th Century was different: The weather got bad, freezing winters and rainy summers were followed by bad harvests, famine and economic recession followed and even worst in 1347...
@ 8:17: The Bubonic Plague: The Black Death Plague killed 40 million people and reduced the world's population significantly in in a short period of time.
@ 9:43: By 1351, the worst of the plague was over and shell shocked survivors, who now instantly were wealthy after inheriting the finances of the deceased, went near insane trying to forget the tragedy they
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Faith in Numbers Part Three
@ 0:56: After the Black Death Plague, there was a great boom and emphasis on linen - people wore more underwear and thus wore out more underwear, which created abundant resources for paper makers.
@ 3:33: Suddenly post-plague there is an abundance of paper, but the not enough clerks to use paper, as the plague had killed half of them off. What solves this problem? Efficient printing
@ 7:18: Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th Century. The earliest known dated paper using the printing press comes from Gutenberg and is dated August 14, 1457.
@ 7:30: The printing press triggered the mass spread of knowledge. Book shops opened up and anybody who could afford a book could buy a book.
@ 7:53: Books encouraged accuracy because authors could get called out by those who knew more about the subject then they did.
@ 8:08: Books benefited the specialists who would write about what they knew about and thus spread the knowledge.
@ 9:00: Venice became the printing capital of Europe in the 15th Century.
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Faith in Numbers Part Four
@ 1:00: Aldus Manutius was an influential Venetian printer of books in late 15th Century.
@ 1:31: Manutius' goal was to print all the great Greek classics. He also invented the Italic typeface.
@ 2:54: The newly wealthy Europeans learned about hydro-water systems from these newly available Greek books.
@ 3:19: The Princes of Europe wanted more toys to show off their wealth and amuse their friends. One of these Princes armorer began using knowledge acquired from Aldus Manutius' books to build clockwork toys.
@ 4:00: The hydro-engineers started building automatic machines and the people were fascinated.
@ 9:00: The loom borrowed much existing technology to become very elaborate by the 18th Century.
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Names and Events in Part Four
- @1:00: Aldus Manutius was an influential Venetian printer of books in late 15th Century.
- @1:31: Manutius' goal was to print all the great Greek classics. He also invented the Italic typeface.
- @2:54: The newly wealthy Europeans learned about hydro-water systems from these newly available Greek books.
- @3:19: The Princes of Europe wanted more toys to show off their wealth and amuse their friends. One of these Princes armorer began using knowledge acquired from Aldus Manutius' books to build clockwork toys.
- @4:00: The hydro-engineers started building automatic machines and the people were fascinated.
- @9:00: The loom borrowed much existing technology to become very elaborate by the 18th Century.
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Names and Events in Part Five
- @0:29: The same technology that revolutionized the loom was used in ship building. Ships became so reliable that the poor and huddled masses of Europe could be sent to North America at a much greater rate.
- @1:00: By 1870 almost 7,000 immigrants were landing in North America every day.
- @2:02: Most of those immigrants were processed at Ellis Island, New York.
- @3:13: Most new Americans lost their native names because they and the inspector could not spell it.
- @3:26: Between 1850 and 1880, nearly 8 million people were processed at Ellis Island and the population pushed west.
- @3:50: The census became more and more difficult to maintain and so the same punch card technology that was used for the loom was used.
- @6:36: With the new punch card technology the 1890 census took half as much time as the 1880 census.
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James Burke Connections Episode 4 Questions
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Have you watched any of James Burkes documentaries? 2 AnswersAbsolutely! I loved both Connections and The Day the Universe Changed. The episodes that stand out were one where he took a whack at a cow carcass with a claymo... read more -
What is your favourite James Burke clip? 1 AnswerI like The Day the Universe Changed more than the Connections, because I am interested more in the Science field than history. In my point of view, the main hig... read more
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Who is James Burke? 2 AnswersJames Burke (born 22 December 1936) is a Northern Irish science historian, author and television producer best known for his documentary television series calle... read more
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