A friend of mine recommended an older TV series called Connections. Each show illustrates how one little idea or invention brought forth another invention which caused another and so on.
For the most part, the facts and figures all have stood the test of time and is fairly entertaining (if nothing else, for the simple fact that the first series is 30 years old and you can see old computers which are considered bleeding edge).
And for anyone that enjoys the History or Discovery Channels, you’ll probably like it for the simple fact that each episode gives you a dozen new concepts to look up later on Wikipedia.
Actually, the most disappointing part of the series is that there are no decent Wiki episode summaries like there are for The Office or South Park. For instance, here are a number of terms I jotted down while watching “The Wheel of Fortune” (trust me, it is nothing like the quiz show):
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Planetarium
Celestial navigation
Astrolabe
Arabic astronomy
Al-Mansur
Gerard of Cremona
Navigational stars
Medieval Inquisition (different than the Spanish)
Verge escapement
Pocket watch (Nuremberg Eggs)
Hans Lippershey
Christiaan Huygens
Benjamin Huntsman
Crucible steel
Industrial Sheffield
Jesse Ramsden
Coke fuel (not the soft drink)
Sextant
Henry Maudslay
Nicolas Leblanc (or maybe it was Henry…)
Eli Whitney
Frank Gilbreth
Yea, he managed to connect all of these together. Good stuff.