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Narrator: manufactured gemstones
are typically designed
To imitate genuine
mined gemstones.
Not these --
they're made from heather,
A hardy flowering plant which
grows wild across scotland.
For centuries,
scots used heather to
Thatch roofs, stuff mattresses,
and even brew ale.
♪♪
This scottish company
turns heather
Into gemstone material
For jewelry
and other gift items.
Heathergems,
as they're called,
Have veinlike patterns created
randomly by the plants' stems.
Therefore, no two gems
can be identical.
When the handpicked heather
arrives at the factory,
Its green foliage still clings
to the upper part of the stems.
After cutting the plants
into lengths of about 10 inches,
Workers load them
into a sandblasting machine.
The drum rotates
for about half an hour
While tiny iron pellets
blast the heather inside.
The pellets chip away the bark
and remove the foliage.
The heather
comes out of the machine
As bare, dried-out,
delicate wood.
Workers form
And place them in
a vacuum-die chamber
For two whole days.
First,
the vacuum draws out
The air in the stems
to clear the way
For the die to penetrate.
Then, again under pressure,
the stems slowly absorb the dye.
♪♪
This vacuum method
is far more effective
Than dipping or soaking
the stems in vats of dye
Because the color
penetrates deeply
Into the heather wood
rather than
Merely sitting on the surface.
They open the bundles and make
new ones of the same weight,
This time combining colors.
It's important
to combine thicker stems
With thinner ones
to create contrasting lines
In the gem pattern.
♪♪
Next,
they soak each bundle
In epoxy resin
for two or three minutes,
Ensuring the stems
are well saturated.
♪♪
Then they place the bundles
on racks
To allow the excess resin to
drain off.
♪♪
They load four bundles
between
The top and bottom halves
of a mold.
A press
then slowly closes the mold,
Applying 88 tons of pressure
for about a minute.
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They clamp the mold closed
and remove it from the press.
Then they put the mold
into an oven for an hour
To cure the resin.
♪♪
They open the mold
and remove what is now
A rock-hard, resin-bonded
block of heather wood.
They put the block on a band saw
and trim off the rough edges.
♪♪
They cut slices between
Depending on what shape gem
they'll be making.
After gluing each slice
onto a plastic backing,
A robotic cutting machine
guided by a computer
Cuts the gem shapes.
Then workers simply pop the gems
off the plastic backing.
This domed oval shape
is called a cabochon.
The finishing team
smoothes and polishes each gem
On a belt sander,
then applies four or five coats
Of clear lacquer.
♪♪
Lacquering
draws out the colors
While sealing
and protecting the wood.
♪♪
Finally, they glue each gem
onto the jewelry or gift item.
Sometimes they dye the heather
just a single color.
This still produces
a striking gem,
Because the dye penetrates the
wood with different intensities,
Creating contrasting shades.
The signature feature
is the unique veining
Produced by the heather
encased within,
Each and every gemstone
truly capturing
The natural beauty
of the scottish highlands.
♪♪
♪♪
Narrator: invented in the middle
of the 20th century,
Instant film
made photographic images
Materialize almost magically.
The picture appeared in minutes.
No more waiting for days
for film to be processed.
Today it's a digital world,
But instant film is still
getting plenty of exposure.
♪♪
With instant film,
you can watch an image develop
Before your very eyes --
No film lab
or digital printer necessary.
Just say, "cheese,"
and wait to see what develops.
Many decades
after its invention,
Instant photo development
still seems like a neat trick.
♪♪
Making the magic happen
is a many-layered process,
One that involves multiple
materials and chemicals.
Production begins
with the film negative.
It takes place in the dark
to prevent pre-exposure.
The technician dons
night-vision goggles,
Allowing him to monitor
plastic film
As it unwinds
into a coating machine.
Inside,
various dyes and chemicals
Will transform the film
into a negative.
They switch the lights back on
briefly for our camera.
The film travels up and down
towards the coating machine.
It's a system that prevents
any slackening in the feed.
The coating is also done
in the dark,
So this worker
demonstrates the process
For our camera
on a small research machine.
Liquid photo chemicals and dyes
Flow onto the surface
of the plastic film.
He spreads the liquids
across the film
For an even application.
This is all done mechanically
inside the real coating machine.
Once coated, the film will head
into the dryer.
The various coatings
will dry in separate layers
Without intermingling.
Here's a test tube lineup
of the liquid components
Of the negative.
The colorful ones are dyes,
And the white ones
are other chemicals.
They apply black backing
to the negative to block light,
Again preventing pre-exposure.
♪♪
The trip through the dryer
is 87 yards long.
Hot air dries the chemicals
on the surface of the film.
Once again,
it all happens in the dark
To protect
the light-sensitive film.
Coiled up and packed
into lighttight drums,
The color-negative material is
now on its way
To a second factory
To be assembled
into the instant film pack.
Upon arrival, they thread the
negative onto a machine,
Along with other materials
for the film pack.
They include
a plastic base material
Called the mask
and the positive paper
That receives the photographic
image from the negative.
The various materials are
steered toward assembly stations
By a system of rollers.
Here's a lineup of the various
materials to be assembled.
That's the mask on the far left
and the negative in the middle.
The negative heads towards
a series of hot presses.
One press laminates
a plastic spacer
Called the rail to the negative.
♪♪
Another lamination head
applies the mask
To the positive sheet
that will receive the image.
On a different machine,
equipment folds
A kind of foil pouch and
injects it with film developer.
♪♪
Here's an inside look
at the pouch.
The blue liquid
is the developer.
Encased in
the foil-lined envelope,
It will stay fresh until needed.
Back on
the main assembly machine,
Another hot press
laminates the developer pouch
To the other film materials.
This completes
the film sandwich,
And it heads into
another station
To be sliced
into photo-sized pieces.
The photo frames
ride a wheel with a counter
That divides them
into stacks of eight.
Meanwhile, robot arms deposit a
rectangular spring on a battery.
Then they position
the eight pictures
On the spring-battery assembly,
Followed by
a light-blocking cover.
The stack then moves forward
to be squeezed
Into a plastic cassette.
A suction type of device
now picks up a cardboard box
And transfers it to the end
of the film-pack line.
Another device
captures the film pack
As it comes off the line and
places it in the cardboard box.
Once folded closed,
The box of instant film
rides the carousel to a scale.
A quick weighing confirms
there's enough film in the box,
So it's ready to ship.
The assembly
of this instant film pack
Has taken roughly three minutes.
Now those instant memories
are just a few clicks away.
♪♪
Narrator: a common assumption
is that all white sugar
Is derived from sugar cane,
But 30% of the world's
white-sugar supply
Comes from the sugar beet.
While sugarcane grows
only in tropical climates,
The hardier sugar beet
can be cultivated
In cooler regions
and in poorer soil.
It takes about 7 beets
to produce
A little more than
The by-products of processing,
Molasses and beet pulp,
are used for animal feed.
The processing of sugar beets
yields various grades of sugar.
The lower ones are reprocessed
to become white sugar.
Farmers plant beet seeds
in the spring
And harvest the mature crop
in the fall.
Mechanical harvesters
attack six rows at a time.
They rip the plant
out of the ground,
Chop off the leaves and crown,
leaving just the bulbous root.
♪♪
A beet root typically weighs
about 2 pounds.
Which is sugar.
A loader transfers
the harvested beets into trucks.
The loader's sieve removes
about a third of the soil
Along the way.
♪♪
When the trucks arrive
at the sugar factory,
They unload the beets,
soil and stones included,
Onto a conveyer belt,
Which transports them to
a washing station.
First they head into
a revolving drum,
Where,
under a shower of water,
The beets
rub against each other,
Dislodging the soil.
The water flow floats the beets,
which then exit the drum.
The stones stay behind,
Collected in separator buckets
along the edge.
A screw conveyer moves the beets
to a transfer system,
Which brings them
inside the factory
To be processed into sugar.
♪♪
Inside, slicing machines cut the
incoming beets into cassettes,
Strips about the shape
of french fries but smaller.
♪♪
The cassettes travel
on a conveyer belt
Into a large tank of hot water,
Where they soak
for a few minutes.
This gets their cell membranes
to begin opening,
Clearing the way
for the sucrose to exit
During the next operation,
In which the cassettes
are pumped to the bottom
Of a 22-yard-high
extraction tower.
A rotating shaft
within the tower
Transports them slowly upward
against the downward flow
Of hot water.
This draws out the sucrose,
Producing a sugary water
called raw juice.
The next step is to purify
this raw juice.
In a giant kiln,
they burn limestone with coke
To produce the chemical compound
calcium hydroxide,
Also called lime milk.
They add it, in several stages,
to the raw juice.
Meanwhile, they press the
sucrose-stripped cassettes
Into pulp
to sell as animal feed.
They add carbon dioxide to the
lime milk-and-juice mixture.
This absorbs 1/3
of the juice's impurities,
Enabling a filtration system
to remove them.
The raw juice
exits as a golden sugar solution
Called thin juice.
The thin juice then enters a
Which reduces it to
a thick syrup-like juice.
From there, they pump it into a
In phase 1,
they heat and add seed crystals,
Tiny, identical-sized
sugar crystals
Made separately using a complex
cooling and evaporating process.
As the water
in the juice evaporates,
About half
of the sucrose crystallizes,
Growing the seed crystals.
Then a centrifuge machine
separates the crystals,
Called refined sugar,
from the remaining syrup.
The syrup goes through
This crystallization-centrifuge
process three more times,
Producing a lesser grade
of sugar each time.
The factory dissolves
and recrystallizes
The lowest two grades.
The highest grades of sugar
go into dryers,
On the way, passing through
a screening machine
Which separates any crystals
which are too large.
The factory dissolves
these crystals,
Then puts the sugary liquid
Through the
crystallization process again.
So, in the end, there are
two grades of beet sugar
Which go into silos,
where they're stored
Until it's time to
package them for sale
As refined sugar
and white sugar.
♪♪
Narrator:
the electric car ruled the road
early in the 20th century,
And then the technology
was surpassed by gas.
Today the concept
is cruising towards a comeback,
Its resurgence
fueled by concerns
About pollution
from gas-powered vehicles
And by worries about
overdependence on foreign oil.
This sassy-looking sports car is
leading the charge for change.
Just plug it into
any electrical outlet,
And after a few hours,
it has enough juice
For a drive
through the countryside
Or for quite a few jaunts
around town.
With no tailpipe,
there are no direct emissions,
And if the power generated by
the electrical plant is clean,
Everyone breathes
a little easier.
But with a price tag
in the 6-figure range,
This eco-friendly roadster
is a luxury product.
Production begins with
the first half of the gear box.
A worker bolts a brass fitting
to the center
And then attaches
plastic tubing to it.
The tubing
will deliver lubricant to
The transmission's bearings.
He inserts those bearings
into slots in the gearbox
And presses them into place
using a hydraulic tool.
He drips thread-locking compound
into screw holes
And installs a device
for locking the transmission.
It's called the parking pawl.
He applies more adhesive
to screws
And threads them
through the pawl to the gearbox.
Using a calibrated
torque wrench,
He tightens them to
a precise setting.
The transmission is single speed
with four gears,
Which they install in
the other half of the gearbox.
These are helical gears.
Their teeth
are cut at an angle
For gradual engagement
and smooth operation.
They're now ready for
the rotor and the stator.
Both are electromagnets,
And together they'll be the
electric motor's driving force.
They insert the rotor
into the stator,
Where their two
electromagnetic fields
Will interact to create torque,
Transforming electrical energy
into mechanical energy.
They hoist the
rotor-and-stator assembly
Onto the gearbox
and bolt them together.
They attach cables
for wiring the motor to
The power-electronics module
later.
It's a crucial part
that processes and regulates
The flow of battery power
to the motor.
This completes the
electric-motor drivetrain.
♪♪
They lower the drivetrain
into the back
Of the preassembled car body.
They position the motor mounts
Over slots
in the steel subframe.
And once in place, they bolt
the drivetrain to the chassis.
♪♪
Now, under the car,
They pull back
the rear suspension temporarily
To attach the drive axle
to the gearbox.
The axle is equipped
with a rubber-encased joint
That allows a rear wheel to
react to bumps independently,
Without reverberation to
the other.
The battery is next.
Seen here in a display model
of the power train,
The metal pack contains more
than 6,800 lithium-ion cells
And delivers 215 kilowatts
of power,
Enough juice to enable this
electric car to accelerate to
In under 4 seconds.
Machinery now lowers the car
onto the battery,
Positioning it in the front
of the gearbox
And just behind the car seats.
They jack up the battery
for a precision fit.
They connect wiring
for low-voltage systems,
Like the lights and fans.
And now the brains of the
electric car --
The power-electronics module.
They install it
on top of the motor and battery
And wire it to both.
With all the wires connected,
The module is equipped
to convert dc power
From the battery to
the ac power.
It will then supply
that current to the motor
As the driver steps on
the accelerator.
With the vacuum system,
They drain air from the battery
and pump in liquid coolant.
Coolant continuously flows
through the battery
To maintain an even temperature
throughout.
The body panels
are made of durable,
Lightweight carbon fiber.
And with
the computer software updated
And the car
now completely assembled,
It's time for a test run.
As this sports car accelerates,
there's no throaty roar.
Unlike a gas-powered engine,
The electric motor takes off
quietly and quickly.
♪♪
♪♪
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