1: Spark | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Duration: 59'21''

Synopsis

Jim Al-Khalili tells how the first 'natural philosophers' began to unlock electricity's mysteries, studying its curious link to life and building instruments to create it.

Further Information

More clips from 01: Spark

Insulators and Conductors | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Insulators and Conductors | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 4'22''

Stephen Gray, a silk dyer, was used to seeing sparks leap from the silk so he began experiments conductin...

Leyden Jar | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Leyden Jar | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 4'44''

A Leyden jar is a device for storing static electricity, discovered accidentally in Leiden, Netherlands.

Positive and negative charges | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Positive and negative charges | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 3'18''

Benjamin Franklin discovered that electricity could be like money in a bank, it could be in credit (p...

The science behind Frankenstein | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

The science behind Frankenstein | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 2'01''

The Victorian science that became an influence for Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'.

Voltaic Pile | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Voltaic Pile | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'06''

Invented by Italian chemist Alessandro Volta in 1799, the voltaic pile was the first electrical battery that could con...

What is electricity | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

What is electricity | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 1'49''

An electric current is essentially the flow of electrons (which are electrically charged) from one atom to anot...

More resources about Electricity

03/12/2009 | Bang Goes the Theory

03/12/2009 | Bang Goes the Theory

BBC One | 2009 | 58'12''

A Bang Goes the Theory special event showing how much electricity we use without even thinking about it. The gang attempts to power a house...

2: The Age of Invention | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

2: The Age of Invention | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 59'23''

Jim Al-Khalili shows how harnessing the link between magnetism and electricity transformed the world, allow...

3: Revelations and Revolutions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

3: Revelations and Revolutions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 59'04''

Jim Al-Khalili concludes by looking at how, if we could understand the secret of electrical supercon...

Alternating and direct current | Additional Science 2

Alternating and direct current | Additional Science 2

BBC Two | 2010 | 35'''

Spec references J249: P8.2h J250: P6.2g. Alternating and direct current. Description and animation.

Alternating current | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Alternating current | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'14''

Nikola Tesla invented alternating current (AC) which allowed no electrical power to be lost when passing throug...

Circuit symbols | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Circuit symbols | GCSE Bitesize Revision

BBC Two | 2010 | 13''

Spec references J249: P3.2b J250: P3.2b. Circuit symbols - narrated slides.

Circuits | Curriculum Bites

Circuits | Curriculum Bites

CBBC | 2003 | 5'42''

Schools science programme where topics in the double science curriculum are broken down into small chunks.

Crystal Junctions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Crystal Junctions | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'46''

Jim Al-Khalili explores the race between scientists to create a reliable way to amplify electrical signals, and i...

Current in series and parallel circuits | Curriculum Bites

Current in series and parallel circuits | Curriculum Bites

CBBC | 2003 | 55''

Spec references J249: P3.2a, P3.1f J250: P3.2a, P3.1e . Animated explanation of a current in series and parallel c...

Dangers and nuisance of electrostatics | Additional Science 2

Dangers and nuisance of electrostatics | Additional Science 2

BBC Two | 2010 | 45''

Spec references J249: P3.1c J250: P3.1c. Discharging charged objects and dangers nuisance of static electricity...

Electric charge | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Electric charge | GCSE Bitesize Revision

BBC Two | 2010 | 1'27''

A revision programme covering electricity.

Electrical Power | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Electrical Power | GCSE Bitesize Revision

BBC Two | 2010 | 49''

Spec references J249: P3.2l, P3.2m J250: P3.2l, P3.2m . Description of electrical power, P = I V, watts and kilowatts. Narrated sl...

Electricity and the Atomic scale | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Electricity and the Atomic scale | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 3'09''

Jim Al-Khalili explores how Ernest Rutherford's work on the atom revealed what electricity was on ...

Electromagnetic waves | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Electromagnetic waves | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 3'28''

Jim Al-Khalili explains Michael Faraday's theory that any electrical charge can create a forcefield surroundi...

Electromagnets and telegraphs | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Electromagnets and telegraphs | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 4'03''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how an electromagnet works and how it paved the way for the birth of the tele...

Electrostatics | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Electrostatics | GCSE Bitesize Revision

BBC Two | 2010 | 3'40''

Animated shorts to support students preparing for assessments in GCSE Additional Science.

Energy transfer in circuits | GCSE Bitesize Revision

Energy transfer in circuits | GCSE Bitesize Revision

BBC Two | 2010 | 4'33''

A revision programme covering electricity.

Faraday cage | Dangerous Earth

Faraday cage | Dangerous Earth

BBC Four | 2016 | 2'20''

Dr Helen Czerski explains how planes are protected from lightning.

How Nikola Tesla electrified his Victorian peers | Victorian Sensations

How Nikola Tesla electrified his Victorian peers | Victorian Sensations

BBC Four | 2019 | 2'09''

Hannah Fry describes the first moment Nikola Tesla demonstrated the power of electricity.

Insulators and Conductors | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

Insulators and Conductors | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 4'22''

Stephen Gray, a silk dyer, was used to seeing sparks leap from the silk so he began experiments conductin...

More from Jim Al-Khalili

1: Discovering the Elements | Chemistry: A Volatile History

1: Discovering the Elements | Chemistry: A Volatile History

BBC Four | 2010 | 58'53''

The story of how the elements were discovered and mapped begins with the alchemists who questioned that the world...

Einstein and the beetle | Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes our Lives

Einstein and the beetle | Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes our Lives

BBC Four | 2017 | 1'20''

Professor Jim Al-Khalili explains Einstein's analogy of gravity that he told his son to explain his...

Prof Jim Al Khalili goes inside Calder Hall for his first look inside the core of a nuclear reactor | Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield

Prof Jim Al Khalili goes inside Calder Hall for his first look inside the core of a nuclear reactor | Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield

BBC Four | 2015 | 3'20''

Nuclear physicist Professo...

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on teenage brains | The Life Scientific

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on teenage brains | The Life Scientific

BBC Radio 4 | 2015 | 26'54''

Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore talks to Jim Al-Khalili about her research on the developing teenage brain.

The race to prove Maxwell's theory | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

The race to prove Maxwell's theory | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity

BBC Four | 2011 | 5'11''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how physics professor Oliver Lodge proved Maxwell's theory that electrom...

Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe? | Horizon

Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe? | Horizon

BBC Two | 2011 | 57'29''

Six months after the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to discover whether nu...

Al-Khwarizmi's digit and numerical system | Science and Islam

Al-Khwarizmi's digit and numerical system | Science and Islam

BBC Four | 2009 | 3'40''

Jim Al-Khalili explains how our numerical system spread to Europe through the work of the Arabic mathematician ...

The big bang and the creation of hydrogen and helium | Atom

The big bang and the creation of hydrogen and helium | Atom

BBC Four | 2007 | 3'01''

George Gamow believed that helium existed in the universe before the sun and the stars were formed.

Electrolysis - Discovery of Potassium | Curriculum Bites

Electrolysis - Discovery of Potassium | Curriculum Bites

CBBC | 2003 | 3'06''

Spec references J248: C3.4b J250: C3.4b. Professor Jim Al-Khalili recreates the electrolysis experiment that lead to...