► HOW IT WORKS - Episode 17 - Batteries, Ham, Pencil Sharpeners, Maple Syrup

the show that reveals how extraordinary items in our world are designed constructed and produced see the engineering that technology and big ideas that make the world go round find out how it works [Music] coming up it's been hanging around a drafty Italian cellar for almost a year but that's what makes one of the world's most expensive hams so tasty to shop on the minds of British students first you need sharp pencils we'll show you how a blood bar of magnesium can be turned into a handy pencil sharpener and whilst most of its Brits put sugar and lemon on our pancakes the Americans love a splash of maple syrup we'll find out where it comes from but first the humbled battery last year the UK used more than six hundred and eighty million of these little tubes of power but how do they actually work these cases of a standard double-a battery but what else do you need to make one a battery consists of a case a positive pole a negative pole a base plate and a pin to allow the electricity to flow around the circuit it's hard to believe that a small tube with a sticker on it powers so many household devices they're used in everything from remote controls to mp3 players but have you ever wondered how they work we've established batteries have a positive and negative pole the negative pole is full of electrons which are all trying to escape electricity is the force used when they move from a negative pole to the positive one through an electrical circuit the materials used to make the positive pole a manganese dioxide and graphite you might be familiar with graphite as it's used to make the pencil the positively charged mixture works by absorbing electrons that pass into it it gets pressed into rings which are then inserted into each battery case the more that can be put into each battery the longer that battery will last the mixture is loaded into the top of the machine here and once it's compressed the rings are then loaded into each battery as it passes below for the battery to work the positive and negative poles must be kept apart a rubber-like material is rolled up and used to create the internal barrier that does this this high-speed machine that inserts each individual role into the batteries which are already lined with graphite to show you how it works we've had to have the machine stopped the lining is highlighted here in red as the batteries come out of the machine they've slowed just enough so you can see the white lining in each case like yin and yang a battery is made up of two opposites they have both a positive pole and a negative one we've got the positive now we need to make its opposite by combining zinc powder and a gelling agent the mix is very toxic though so a machine is used to minimize human contact the combination creates this gloopy substance which is a negatively charged gel once it's fully combined this is added into the lining in the battery cases we've now got the two sides to the battery but to make them work the electricity needs to get from one side to the other if the electrons can't travel between the poles the battery won't power your remote so to get around this problem the clever guides at the battery factory have come up with a solution that's where these base plates come in although it's normally used for the road surface each plate is loaded with a squirt of bitumen it makes an excellent glue brass pins are then introduced and this is the secret to how the electrons can get out they travel down through this pin and into your remote or any of the hundreds of devices that are powered by batteries today you can now use them to help you switch channels light up your torch or power your mp3 player when that job is done they'll head back through the wires into the positive pole in the battery once they've been assembled the plates and pins are fed into this machine and a hydraulic press squeezes them into the waiting case they're now complete although at this stage they don't look like the batteries you would recognize before they receive their trademark stickers they're all tested if the batteries lining is damaged then it's short-circuits and won't give out any power this machine tests each one and removes any of the faulty ones so you're not left frustrated and powerless rolls of stickers are loaded up and attached to the batteries and now they're complete so next time you crashed out on the couch with the remote control spare a thought for the electrons that are saving you from getting up meet the black pig this special porker is too good to be turned into bacon and sausages instead he'll become one of the finest delicacies money can buy the culatello dry cured ham this expensive delicacy begins life in the Po River Valley in northern Italy an area famous for its farming and agriculture the black pig leads a very pampered lifestyle by normal Pig standards it could be called luxurious if he was going to become sausages he'd be stuck in a pen eating processed feed but these guys get to roam around fields of sweet corn eating as much as they can find unfortunately for the pigs though as soon as they get heavier than 150 kilos it's time to the shop [Music] once the animal has been butchered the process of dry curing can begin unlike wafer-thin ham the culatello is considered a delicacy so the butcher selects only the best cuts of meat the first stage is to prepare the meat the butcher performs some quick liposuction and trims away a layer of excess lard he won't remove all of it though as some is needed to help the drying process the particular cut of meat he uses is very fragile so we have to tie it up to help it survive the long drying process next comes salt and plenty of it to cure the ham it's wrapped in a thick layer which draws moisture out of the meat and adds to the final taste the butcher also uses peppercorns to enhance the flavor and in the tradition of all good recipes he also splashes plenty of wine over the meat the first stage is complete and he will now leave it on the side to rest for about a week the meat will slowly turn red as it sits in a cool room out of the Sun [Music] Italian cooking and red wines seem to go hand in hand and during this week the butcher will massage the meat once a day with more wine and garlic to give it extra flavor the next stage is a protective covering the meat will be wrapped in the pig's own bladder which may sound nasty but this is a traditional recipe and it does do the job well the bladder is sewn up tightly but then he fills it full of holes if he left it airtight none of the moisture could escape and the ham wouldn't be dry curing finally the meat is tied up this isn't a stop it escaping but it gives the culet elohim its traditional pear shape and that is all the butcher has to do for the time being now it's time for the humid Italian air to take over the job this luxury home takes a few months to dry out but it doesn't go off because of all the salt it's been wrapped in however it's a different story during the ripening process in the whole of Italy there are only eight villages where culatello hams can be made but because these are the only villages which have the right climate to grow the right mould that the process needs that's right mold once the ham has been hung in the ripening room it's exposed to the particular mold spores that grow undamped walls in these villages the warm humid air is just right for this particular mold to grow it attaches itself to the external bladder and releases enzymes into the meat inside these enzymes then break down proteins and fats within the ham to help give it its unique and delicious flavor [Music] the combination of the humid air the mold and the long curing process give culatello a unique taste which has never been properly reproduced artificially the mass production of Parma ham works in a similar way but it still on a huge scale and much faster because of demand this is why Parma ham is far cheaper and more readily available in supermarkets than the culatello once the ham has reached the end of its curing process the farmer can remove it from the ripening room and clean it up moldy ham doesn't sound particularly well with all the spores cleaned off the butcher can test the meats firmness by flicking it with his forefinger his expert ear can tell it good ham from an unripe one if it passes the test the butcher will remove the string bag and open up the bladder to see how well the meat has matured sometimes the mold has penetrated inside the bladder so the butcher will use a splash of whatever wine he has handy to clean off any unwanted spores at last he can sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labor and if you fancy trying one of the most expensive hams in the world they'll eat about 400 pounds and a very upmarket delicatessen because you won't find this in the local supermarket [Music] still to come they may start out blunt but these little gizmos will be sharpening your pencils by the end of the day and what takes 14 trees and a year to produce but could be ruined in ten seconds if staff are keeping a close eye on production find out after the break [Music] [Music] HB pencils are unreliable the lettuce always blunts or breaking just when you need to write a shopping list or an entry in the diary but the solution is the pencil sharpener to make one you'll need a long bar of preformed magnesium it's fed into this industrial cutter which then slices it into the white sized blocks magnesium is a cheap light metal ideal for the job the freshly cut blocks are collected below they're then loaded into the next machine which is where the real work of making pencil sharpeners takes place anyone who has ever bored in maths or history will certainly recognize the shape that's beginning to emerge as each blank passes around the Machine it creates the main hole for the pencil the screw hole to attach the sharpeners blade it threads the hole so the screw will hold tight carves the space where the blade will sit on the sharpener and files it down to remove any sharp edges that may injure the user the blocks look like sharpness but all the work has made them rather dirty and they wouldn't go well with a shiny new pencil case they're loaded into special baskets which will help them survive the next stage of the process a highly corrosive bath in nitric acid too long and the sharpeners will dissolve but a short bath will shine them up nicely the blanks are then rinsed and spun to dry them at this point you could put your pencil in but it would come out just as blunt as it was before the next stage is the blade this gets cut from a long roll of sheet steel an industrial press stamps out blades by the thousand ready to be attached to the sharpener bodies however in order to punch them out the press uses oil to lubricate the process so now the fresh blades are all stuck together ba need a good bath to rinse away the excess oil there now heading for the ovens here there will be superheated to 850 degrees Celsius for three minutes when they emerge they're cooled with another oil bath and the rapid cooling is what hardens the metal but yet again the blades are coated with oil so another bath is necessary however this time they're not washed instead the blades are immersed in sand which absorbs the oil [Music] this is a rather messy process and the workers end up with a giant drum full of oil sand and blades to clean this off that pass through sets of brush heads and over big sieves leaving clean hard steel after all the bathing and cleaning they're finally ready to be sharpened but first they'll need to be sorted for pencil sharpeners to work the blade must be sharp on the correct side it's far too much hassle for a person to sort each blade by hand so this machine does it for them blades facing the right way can pass through the others are dumped back into the system to go round again once they've passed through they end up here a worker can now collect them and load them into the grinder for sharpening each blade now waits patiently for its turn to receive a razor-sharp edge each slot on the carousel takes one blade only and the highlighted side here is ground down so it will be ready to take on even the most stubborn HB pencil all that remains is for the sharpener bodies to be joined with the blades and the job is done as with the blades earlier only the bodies facing the right way are allowed through to the final stage a tiny screw is used to connect the blades to the bodies and that's it thousands of sharpeners are made every year which help keep the pencils and the young minds of britain sharp for a sweet american breakfast you don't need bacon and eggs you need pancakes but no pancake breakfast would ever be complete without maple syrup so where does this sticky sweet alternative to honey actually come from and how is it produced in big enough quantities to satisfy a hearty appetite maple syrup unsurprisingly comes from maple trees many grow in the state but the world's biggest maple forests are found in Canada huge forests of these trees can be found tied together with plastic tubing this is where the maple syrup begins its journey it starts out is SAP in the trees which the workers collect by drilling holes into them [Music] taps are then hammered into place and the SAP crew start to flow into the network of pipes ready to be collected [Music] maple syrup season is the spring the trees begin to produce fresh SAP to make new leaves for the summer as it rises up through the roots to feed the tree of the workers tabs diverts some of it to be made into syrup up to 119 litres can be taken out of a big tree each year without harming its health to collect the SAP the workers have come up with an ingenious solution the pipe network is carefully laid out to flow downhill this way gravity does all the work the workers do keep an eye on the network looking for leaks or problems but if it all goes well the SAP should end up here in the collection shed thousands of litres of SAP arrived here every day but it's a very slow process because there's a huge demand for syrup the plantation owner has installed a motorized pump to literally suck the SAP out of the trees [Music] at this stage the clear sap is thin and watery and although it would taste slightly sweet it wouldn't have the traditional maple syrup flavor during the spring this quiet shed becomes a hive of activity it gets regular visits from the collection guy whose job it is to take the sap from here to the evaporation plant to turn maple sap into syrup it needs to be heated to a hundred degrees Celsius for the excess water to evaporate SAP is mostly water and it takes 40 liters to get just one liter of syrup which is why it's so expensive compared to other varieties large fires are lit under the big evaporation tanks and the roof is opened so the water vapor can escape once the flames are properly taken hold the ovens are closed the SAP can now be released into the tanks ready to begin it's a long slow process but that's no excuse for the workers to relax to condense the SAP into syrup takes several hours and they have to continually refresh the fire at regular intervals to keep the temperature just right it looks like quite a simple job keep the fires watch the water evaporate but it's more complicated than that the SAP has to be watched closely for the critical moments if they miss it a whole batch can be completely ruined the [Music] evaporation thickens the SAP into syrup but too much cooking would crystallize it this would be disastrous and the whole lot would have to be thrown out the SAP only becomes syrup once a certain density has been reached and the workers measure this using a hydrometer [Music] as soon as it hits the right density the pure syrup is released fired at tap in the bottom of the tank and all that's missing is a big stack of hot pancakes with the open roof and the smell of warm SAP on the breeze insects may have wandered in for a sample to ensure they aren't bottled up with a fresh syrup it's now filtered through cotton what emerges from the tap below is pure finest quality maple syrup although it's all made in the same way there are several grades of maple syrup which are based on its color and quality the first step of the season is clear and has a mild delicate flavor as spring progresses organic acids that the tree produces make later batches darker and richer but it would still taste good on your pancakes the final grade is the darkest and most intense and this is used in industrial cooking and for artificial flavors and coloring some of the finest quality syrup is sent to be packaged up in the traditional maple leaf shaped bottles and once you've tasted some of this golden syrup every day feels like a good excuse for pancake day [Music]

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 795,946

Rating: 4.6357012 out of 5

Keywords: How it works, How its made, How It's Made (TV Program), Battery (Invention), How it Works Battery, Ham, How it works Ham, Pencil Sharpener, Pencil (Product Category), Maple Syrup (Ingredient), Maple Syrup, Syrup (Food)

Id: YORb6nQwT78

Length: 23min 23sec (1403 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 21 2014