Ancient Impossible - First Season

Is it possible the ancient world had geniuses

greater than ours today?

The greatest scientific

discoveries involve huge leaps

of imagination, but you have

to leap from somewhere.

Who were these

Ancient geniuses and what did they create?

This thing can make water travel uphill.

Were there really

minds so great that they were a

match for Albert Einstein?

Monuments more colossal than

our own, ancient super weapons

as mighty as today's,

technology so precise it defies reinvention.

The ancient world was not primitive.

Their marvels are so advanced,

we still use them now.

Travel to a world closer than

we imagine, an ancient age

where nothing was impossible.

Many consider Albert Einstein to

be the greatest mind of all time.

His discovery of the energy

contained in the atom led to the nuclear age.

His theories still resonate

throughout modern science, and

have influenced devices that are

essential parts of our everyday

lives including televisions,

digital cameras, and GPS.

But could thinkers over 2,000

years ago have had equally revolutionary ideas?

Is it possible that our modern

world was created by ancient minds?

It was Isaac Newton, one of

the greatest scientists of all

time, who famously said that if

he'd seen further than others it

was because he was standing on

the shoulders of giants.

But it was the ancient Greeks

who were the real giants, the

ancient Einstein’s, and what they

achieved was truly staggering.

Our search for

these ancient Einstein’s begins

at the greatest seat of

knowledge and learning in the

ancient world, the Library of

Alexandria in Egypt.

It was here where the most

amazing minds of the time came

to think, to imagine, to invent.

And it was here, 2,300 years

ago, where our first ancient

genius came to work and study.

His name was Ctesibius, an

ingenious inventor who

discovered something that is an

integral part of our modern world...

the power of air.

Today, we use compressed air for all kinds of things.

We take it for granted.

When you fill your tires, you're

using compressed air.

These modern racing cars depend

on it, but have you ever

thought who came up with this idea?

Thank Ctesibius.

These cars go over 200 miles per hour.

But they're not the fastest

machines in the workshop.

Far from it.

The turning speed is between

10,000 and 15,000 rpm, so it's a

seriously powerful bit of kit.

And this power all

comes from compressed air.

There’s nothing more effective.

To watch a pit crew work as

they do, changing the tires as

quickly as possible using this

technology is one of the most incredible sights.

It’s amazing to think that the

technology in this was being

used over 2,000 years ago.

And it was Ctesibius who came up with the

idea in ancient Alexandria.

He discovered that air had mass and pressure.

This was a giant scientific

leap, much like Einstein’s

incredible insights into space and time.

But how did this little-known

ancient genius make this breakthrough?

It all started in a barbershop.

Ctesibius grew up as the son

of a barber, working in a

barber's shop, and one of the

things he seems to have invented

early on is a mirror that could

be raised up and down to help

with the job of shaving people.

And that invention led him on to

discover something else, that

when the mirror on its lead

counterweight moved up and down,

there was this noise, the noise

of air as it escaped and rushed

back into the casing around the lead weight.

And that lead Ctesibius to

realize that air was a substance.

Air was a thing that could be

compressed and which would expand.

Ctesibius was quick

to realize that compressed air

could be used as a source of

power and that it could power water.

It wasn't long before he came up

with this... the water pump.

It was so ahead of its time, it

was a truly remarkable invention.

Today we'd basically call

this a two-cylinder

reciprocating force pump.

To explain it, I’ll probably

turn it round, and we can

actually see the mechanism.

As the piston comes up, the

suction draws in water through

this bottom flap valve.

Then on the down stroke, the

force of the pressure closes

the bottom flap valve so the

only place for the water to go

is through this orifice here

and into the receiving chamber

through another valve.

The other piston is doing exactly the opposite.

As the one on the left is

filling, the one on the right is

pushing the water out.

And with constant pumping, a

continual flow of water is

forced from the receiving

chamber up through a nozzle at the top.

Incredibly, Ctesibius' water

pump was the world's first fire engine.

In Alexandria, it was rushed out

in emergencies all over the city.

It seems very effective.

I think it would be useful in a fire.

It would certainly enable a jet

of water to get where people couldn't.

in the ancient

world, a directed jet of water

like this was something new and amazing.

But after the Romans, the

fire-fighting water pump disappeared.

The idea was lost, and it's not

until the 15th century that it's reinvented.

It’s amazing to think the fire

engine was invented over 2,000

years ago, and, thanks to

Ctesibius, today we still fight

fires in the same way.

But for Ctesibius, this was just the beginning.

Like all geniuses, his thinking knew no limits.

Well, Ctesibius was one of

the paid intellectuals in Alexandria

and he was part of a select

group that were really pushing

the boundaries in all sorts of

areas, in astronomy, in maths,

in geography, in history, and

they were all being paid by

Ptolemy II, who was keen to have

his own reputation imbued with

the amazingness of these peoples' discoveries.

Ctesibius began to

wonder, he had learned how to

manipulate air pressure.

Now could he do the same with water?

2,000 years before Einstein’s

own investigations, he decided

to try to crack one of the most

difficult questions - What’s the time?

This was going to be Ctesibius' greatest achievement.

His goal was to invent for

the first time something that

would accurately tell the time.

Sundials were useless at night or when it was cloudy.

And for the Greeks, it was most

important to measure time

inside, especially in the law courts.

Justice depended on giving

lawyers equal amounts of time.

We know from, say, ancient Athens in the 5th and 4th

centuries BC in the law courts,