Local Heroes – Season 4
Episodes
Episode 1
Adam Hart-Davis gets on his bike for another six-part series searching for tales of scientific discovery. This week he reveals the heroes of Bath, Stroud, Dorset and the New Forest, from the inventor of concrete to a pioneer of static electricity. He also demonstrates a way to measure the speed of a bullet.
East of Scotland
Adam Hart-Davis's cycling tour of Britain takes him to Scotland, where he visits St Andrews to see how backspin helps a golf ball defy gravity and Stonehaven, home of the inventor of pneumatic tyres. Plus he builds his own radar, and uncovers the origins of fibre optics in Edinburgh.
North of England
Adam Hart-Davis's cycling tour of Britain takes him this week to Yorkshire, where he visits Leeds Bridge, site of the first motion picture by Louis Le Prince. He also uncovers the inventor of a lock that would deter all but the most persistent criminal and travels to York to pay homage to the inventor of Stephenson's Rocket.
London
Adam Hart-Davis visits London as he salutes more pioneers of science. He sees how Brunei tunnelled under the Thames, discovers the inventor of the vacuum cleaner, and follows the trail of a cholera outbreak in Soho. Plus the rector who found how sap gets up trees, and the revolutionary motor that worked without revolving.
North of England
Adam Hart-Davis celebrates more pioneers of science, this week in Yorkshire and Lancashire, where he uncovers the steelmaking process that put Sheffield on the map, re-creates the first pollen count, and discovers a working 19th-century aeroplane.
Royal Institution Special
In the last programme of the series, Adam Hart-Davis celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Royal Institution - made famous by pioneering scientists Michael Faraday and Humphry Davy. Hart-Davis makes an electric motor from a meat-pie tin and shows how it was proven that when horses gallop there is a point when all four feet are airborne. A new series is planned. Website: [web address remove