Name: The Search for the Polio Vaccine
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 25 min

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A while back, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company teetered on the brink of bankruptcy; today, there are Harley restaurants, clothing lines, even a Harley Barbie; examine this American success story that began in 1903 in a Milwaukee shed.

Modern Marvels

Harley-Davidson

Thomas Edison's electric light is his best known invention, but the familiar light bulb is only the most obvious element of Edison's accomplishment; he also created from scratch a delivery system for his light.

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It started as an idea at a French dinner party and became the symbol of the free world; the story of France's gift to the US reveals a 20-year struggle to design and build the world's largest monument using paper-thin copper sheets.

Statue of Liberty

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Perhaps the most important and yet least recognized aspect of warfare is battlefield engineering; battlefield engineers lay the groundwork, quite literally, for the battle to come.

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For over a century, the U.S. steel industry is a powerful symbol of the nation's industrial might; steel transforms a country of farmers and merchants into a nation of builders, then U.S. domination of the market meets new challenges in the 1970s.

American Steel: Built to Last

Many rivers quenched the thirst of millions in the American west and around the world; without these aqueducts, some of the earth's largest cities would turn into gigantic ghost towns.

Aqueducts: Man Made Rivers of Life

In 1973, a desperate America, starved by an OPEC embargo, began construction on an 800 mile lifeline for its oil hunger; study the technological triumph of the Alaskan oil pipeline built over mountains and tundra, where temperatures drop below zero.

The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Every day three million passengers board the 10,000 aircraft flying at any given moment; go behind the scenes at international airports to see ground control towers, cargo holds, high-tech security and customs that make air travel possible.

International Airports

When poliomyelitis swept the nation, thousands died or became disabled before American ingenuity and desperation led to one of history's greatest scientific breakthroughs; witness how polio shaped FDR's vision and made Jonas Salk famous.

The Search for the Polio Vaccine

From Sherlock Holmes' examination of the physical evidence at a crime scene to today's DNA technology, a review of the history of crime detection through the use of forensic science.

Forensic Science: The Crimefighter's Weapon

Examines the history of radar, focusing on its role in the Allies' victory in World War II, from the Chain Home Network, rudimentary radar towers that ringed England's eastern coast, to the role of Boston's MIT in developing an English secret.

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Reviews the revolution in home improvement and glimpses the kitchen of tomorrow, including the development of the stove, sewing machine, refrigerated air, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, toaster, and mixer.

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S3 E7 | The Search for the Polio Vaccine