The Heavenly Machine - the fouth programme of 'The Day the World Took Off'

Abstract

Covering five hundred years, the film moves across the whole of Europe and Asia. It takes as examples of the growth of technologies and their influence two in particular which have shaped our world. These are the tools of time (clocks) and of space (glass). Both developed rapidly in western Europe but not in East Asia. Why? A coda at the end looks at the life and work of the great nineteenth century founder of modern Japan, Yukichi Fukuzawa.