>> NARRATOR: He introduced the
lowly peanut to big business and changed the course of southern
agriculture. He turned soybeans into plastic,
and carved his place in history. An orphaned slave set free
with a microscope and a vision. Now "George Washington Carver
Tech" on<i> Modern Marvels.</i> <font color="#FFFF00">Captioning sponsored by
A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS</font> >> NARRATOR: What do biodiesel
fuel and peanut butter have in common?
How are crayons and space travel connected?
What are soybeans doing in our automobiles?
These marvels can all be traced back to the inventive mind of a
man who was born a slave but emerged a master of scientific
discovery. >> DR. WALTER HILL: He was able
to just look around him and see the raw materials and then see
the human need that was out there, and bring the two
together. And so my own personal view of
Carver is that he was a master integrator.
>> DAVID ROBINSON: Carver had the most remarkable heart.
And that's the thing I think I love the most about his life.
I mean, as tremendous of a scientist as he was, uh, he...
coming out with so many useful products that even today I don't
even know what we would do without, his heart was the best.
>> NARRATOR: Dr. George Washington Carver is well known
throughout the world for his revolutionary research,
particularly with the peanut. In the early 1900s, he
discovered and developed more than 300 new uses for the
legume, in food products and industrial applications.
From face cream to a cure for dandruff, from linoleum flooring
to motor oil, Carver saw infinite possibilities in the
peanut plant. >> J. FRANK McGILL: He literally
inspired other researchers all across this country to take a
deeper look at this plant. And of course, I believe that...
that the end of the line has not been reached on what he
uncovered. >> NARRATOR: But Carver's legacy
goes far beyond his accomplishments with what was
called at the time the "lowly goober."
He toiled for more than 40 years in his laboratory at Tuskegee
Institute in Alabama and is credited with countless
breakthroughs in agricultural research.
>> DR. BENJAMIN PAYTON: The impact of that was just
astonishing. Carver, through the kind of
research he did, was able to really lead the revitalization,
really of a whole region, the southern region.
>> ROBINSON: He really is one of the great American heroes.
You know, if there's anyone you're going to learn about, you
should learn about, you know, Carver would be one of those
people. >> NARRATOR: George Carver was
born into slavery in 1864, in Diamond Grove, Missouri.
He was the property of Moses Carver.
Towards the end of the Civil War, southern bushwhackers
raided the Carver's farm and kidnapped baby George and his
mother. >> LANA HENRY: Moses Carver
hired a Union scout named John Bentley to trace after them and
try to recover his property. Bentley was able to find baby
George. And the mother Mary was never
seen again. We do not know what happened.
>> NARRATOR: George was near death when he was found.
Moses and his wife took care of him like he was their own child.
Too frail to work in the fields, he helped out with the household
chores. >> HENRY: It was on this farm
that he had spare time to go out and wander in the woods and
enjoy nature and become very close to nature.
He would look at a briar, he would look at the soil, he would
look at the different leaf patterns and question and
question and wonder and ask "Why-- why are things like
this?" >> NARRATOR: George was inspired
to paint after visiting a neighbor's home and seeing works
of art for the first time. >> HENRY: So he came back,
created his own brushes with twigs and he would take nature's
berries and grasses and create colors, an array of colors, and
begin to paint. >> NARRATOR: Young George
Carver's inventiveness and hunger for learning compelled
him to seek what was impossible for many African-Americans of
his day-- a formal education.
Around the age of 11, he left the Carver farm and walked ten
miles to Neosho, Missouri, determined to attend classes at
the Lincoln School for Negro children.
(<i> bell ringing</i> ) He worked for his room and board
at the home of Mariah and Andrew Watkins, who lived next door to
the school. >> KAY HIVELY: And the story is
that at lunch hour he would jump the fence between the school and
Aunt Mariah's house and go over and help her with her laundry.
>> NARRATOR: Many years later, George was inspired to draw this
picture of the school, and the Watkins' house.
George studied hard, and got his high school diploma.
He applied to Highland College in Kansas and was accepted.
>> PETER DUNCAN BURCHARD: It was a big moment.
Then he went to Highland, and he showed up, and they said, "We
didn't know you were black." And they turned him away.
It was a huge disappointment. >> NARRATOR: George didn't give
up. In his mid-20s, he applied to
Simpson College in Iowa where blacks were allowed.
He was accepted and began taking classes in painting.
>> BURCHARD: His first love was art, and he had a teacher whose
name was Etta Budd. She was very dubious about
whether a black could make it in art, it was a near
impossibility, and she was a little concerned about him
being... he was not the first black at Simpson, but he was the
only one at the time. >> NARRATOR: Carver's complex
understanding of nature came through in his paintings and
drawings at Simpson. Etta Budd noticed this talent,
and encouraged him to change his course of study to horticulture.
Carver took her advice and transferred to the Iowa State
College of Agriculture in Ames, where he became the first black
student. >> BURCHARD: And he had some
trouble with dining room privileges and other things, but
he overcame them by his knowledge, which was so
conspicuously immense that you didn't have to be in his
presence very long to realize that this man knew things.
>> NARRATOR: When Carver completed his bachelor's degree,
Iowa State officials offered him a teaching position.
The first black student in the college's history was now its
first African-American professor.
Though Carver was content at Iowa State, in April, 1896, he
was offered an opportunity that would change his life forever.
Booker T. Washington, a leader among the newly-freed slave
population in the south, invited him to come to Tuskegee
Institute, an all-black college in Alabama.
>> BURCHARD: When Booker T. became aware of Carver, that
there was an agricultural expert in the country-- anywhere-- who
was black, that was huge. He was really the only one in
the whole country. Booker T. badly wanted someone
like that. >> NARRATOR: At the age of 31,
George Washington Carver had found his true calling.
He went to Alabama with a mission: to help a once enslaved
population find its way to self-sufficiency.
Little did he know what landmark discoveries lay ahead.
"George Washington Carver Tech" will return on<i> Modern Marvels.</i>
>> NARRATOR: We now return to "George Washington Carver Tech"
on<i> Modern Marvels.</i> Today, 50,000 peanut farms
thrive in the United States, most of them in the south.
Virtually all of them have taken root in the past century, thanks
to the horticulture professor who ventured to Tuskegee with a
sense of mission in 1896. (<i> whistle blowing</i> )
When George Washington Carver arrived by rail in Alabama, he
saw no peanut fields. Instead, he was dismayed to see
only one crop growing in the dry, sandy soil.
>> McGILL: In 1794, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin,
and from that date on into 1900, cotton was king.
>> NARRATOR: Carver knew that a single crop system was not good
for the soil. >> McGILL: Anytime in
agriculture you base your economy on one single crop,
you're vulnerable. From a fertility standpoint,
you're depleting the soil, and maybe not returning all the
nutrients there that is taken. >> NARRATOR: Carver also
recognized that the only thing more vulnerable than the
nutrient-deficient soil was the multitude of poor black
sharecroppers working in the cotton fields from sunrise to
sunset. >> BURCHARD: They were tied into
the industrial system in the northeast where
they had the mills, cotton mills, and it was a big system,
and they were all captive in it. >> NARRATOR: Carver was anxious
to get to work to solve the south's agricultural dilemma.
But when he arrived at Tuskegee Institute, he discovered that he
didn't even have a laboratory in which to work.
And Tuskegee had no money to properly establish one.
>> DR. WALTER HILL: So, he went out into a local junkyard and
found old pots and pans and spoons, and took his students
and said, "We are now collecting the implements for our
laboratory." He was the absolute first person
to bring science to Tuskegee University.
>> DAVID ROBINSON: He was one of those great visionaries that,
you know, when Booker T. Washington shows him this campus
and there is no agricultural college, there's nothing, he had
the ability to take nothing and make it into something, and I
think that his life was a great example of that.
>> NARRATOR: Carver started reaching out to the farmers in
the area, showing them how the cotton they grew year after year
was sapping the nitrogen and other nutrients from the soil.
He encouraged them to plant crops that would restore these
important elements back into the land-- crops like sweet
potatoes, cowpeas, soybeans and peanuts.
>> HILL: He was another one who came here because he cared about
the man furthest down, he cared about the poor, he cared about
African American people who were poor in the rural areas.
And as such, he took his science to the people.
>> NARRATOR: Carver designed and implemented what he called a
"moveable school" to educate the farmers about crop rotation.
Many took his message to heart, but few acted on his advice.
>> McGILL: The farmers agreed, but they did not immediately
heed, because they could not get loans at the bank for any crop
except cotton. >> ROBINSON: It was the cash
crop of the time, and a lot of people, that was their source of
income, and it would have been very difficult for those
farmers, especially the poorer farmers, to change over from
cotton to peanuts, and there was no market at the time for
peanuts. >> NARRATOR: Carver's concern
for southern agriculture wasn't restricted to how cotton was
bankrupting the soil. Another threat was lurking
menacingly on the horizon. The boll weevil, the dreaded
insect that had already decimated the cotton crops in
Texas, was making its way across the south.
>> McGILL: And it was moving through Mississippi, Louisiana,
and headed to Alabama and Georgia at the rate of about
100 miles per year, and he warned them.
>> NARRATOR: There was no stopping this devastating force
of nature. The weevil actually lays its
eggs inside the unripe cotton boll, and the newborns eat their
way out, destroying the crop in the process.
Carver believed the south's best defense against the boll weevil
was the peanut. But he had to convince southern
farmers that peanuts could become the cash crop that King
Cotton had been for so long. >> McGILL: George Washington
Carver really became an evangelist for peanut growing in
the southeast part of the United States.
>> NARRATOR: In 1902, Carver entered his lab at Tuskegee to
begin intense research into the peanut.
He explored its properties and looked for ways to put the
protein and vitamin-rich crop to use.
Peanuts are made up of oils, resins, fats, sugars and
starches, and Carver came up with more than 300 new uses for
them-- in recipes and in a variety of synthetic
applications. >> BURCHARD: He made paper and
ink and shoe polish and floor wax and axle grease, and he did
have some kind of a peanut plastic that he'd made.
>> McGILL: In all of these uses, 300 of them-- all the way
from various soups to soap and shaving cream-- he built the
foundation block upon which peanuts were ushered in.
>> NARRATOR: As Carver predicted, in 1915, the boll
weevil hit the southeastern farms and completely destroyed
the cotton fields. None of the farmers from Georgia
or Alabama could pay off the loans on their land.
But thanks to Carver's zealous advocacy, peanuts were poised to
become a viable commercial alternative to cotton.
>> McGILL: By 1917, cotton was dethroned and peanuts was lifted
up, and the acreage increased in the southeast 400 percent in
just two years. >> NARRATOR: As peanut power
spread across the south, Carver continued to experiment with the
now lucrative crop. While analyzing the properties
of peanut oil, he discovered that it was very easily absorbed
when rubbed onto the skin. Carver promoted peanut oil as an
effective lubricant to be used in vigorous massage treatments
for those suffering from muscular disorders.
Thousands of patients, including those crippled by polio, came to
Tuskegee to receive peanut oil massages.
Even more wrote to Carver to purchase the oil.
While it was never considered a cure for any disease, those who
underwent the treatment reported encouraging results.
Word of Carver's promising work made it all the way to the White
House. >> DR. RALPHENIA PACE: One of
the extractions that he did with the peanut, one of our
presidents-- Roosevelt-- used it for his infantile paralysis.
>> NARRATOR: In 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt paid
an official visit to Tuskegee. He greeted Carver in person, and
applauded the research being done on the Alabama campus.
>> FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT: I'm proud to come to Tuskegee
because I'm proud of what Tuskegee has done.
(<i> applause</i> ) >> NARRATOR: While Carver has
been called "the father of the peanut industry," there is one
product that many mistakenly attribute to him-- peanut
butter. >> MICHELLE MOSELEY: Peanut
butter as we know it in America was basically invented in 1890
by a physician in Missouri. And he was looking for high
protein nutritious foods to feed his patients who had trouble
eating meat because they had poor dental health.
The first real introduction to the masses for peanut butter
happened in 1904 at the Universal Exposition in St.
Louis, and that's when, really, peanut butter was introduced to
the American public. >> McGILL: And then, this
complimented and augmented George Washington Carver's
research at that time. The two are not unconnected,
because he had done laid the foundation-- even though he
didn't invent peanut butter-- he had laid the foundation for
raising up and digging deep into the kernel and chemically
telling the world what a wonderful food product the
peanut was. >> MOSELEY: His love of peanuts
helped to really promote its usage widespread, and I think
that, you know, he would be very happy to see how his legacy has
really taken shape in modern day America.
>> KEN McREE: We basically take a peanut that George Washington
Carver helped develop and build in the field and helped it grow
to what it is today, to the point that we now buy the
peanut, we shell the peanut, and then we offer a service to
customers who then further process it.
>> NARRATOR: Carver would no doubt be pleased with the
assembly line efficiency of modern peanut processing plants
like Golden Peanut in Dawson, Georgia.
>> McREE: We shell about 25 tons an hour of peanuts.
Takes about a truckload an hour to supply this plant.
>> NARRATOR: The peanuts that make the grade are bagged and
sent to manufacturers. Those that don't measure up
undergo a process that's come a long way since Carver's day.
>> MIKE BOYD: Broken kernels, damaged kernels, small sizes are
then sent to the crushing plant. There we process them for peanut
oil, and the balance being peanut meal.
>> NARRATOR: When Carver produced peanut oil in his lab
more than a century ago, he boiled 25 pounds at a time, and
then extracted the oil by straining the mixture through
cheesecloth. Today, the refineries steam-heat
the nuts, and then put them through a mechanical press to
extract most of the oil. At Golden Peanut, they press 350
tons of peanuts each day. George Washington Carver's work
with the peanut in the early 1900s became the foundation for
a new science known as "chemurgy--" the process of
discovering industrial uses for agricultural products.
Using peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans and other crops, he
literally planted the seed for technological innovations that
would change the course of farming in the United States.
"George Washington Carver Tech" will return on<i> Modern Marvels.</i>
>> NARRATOR: We now return to "George Washington Carver Tech"
on<i> Modern Marvels.</i> George Washington Carver's
enduring influence is evident in a diverse array of products that
modern consumers use every day. Carpet backing, crayons, oil
solvents... and even a new vodka are some of the items that can
be traced to his experiments with another soil-enriching and
protein-rich crop: the soybean. >> ERIC NIEMANN: We work in
plastics, adhesives and lubricants, so it's, uh, really
a whole realm of new products from that technology.
>> NARRATOR: Carver learned that the oil from soybeans is
composed of five fatty acids and that the bean itself is
naturally rich in vitamin E. >> R.J. FISHER: You have a bean
that has a lot of oil in it and a lot of protein, and it can be
crushed and separated, and things can happen to that little
bean. >> NARRATOR: When Carver looked
at the soybean under the microscope, he saw that the oil
had chemical properties that would allow it to easily bond
with other substances. >> FISHER: The soybean oil
itself is really long-chained-- just a lot of carbons in a row--
13, 16 carbons-- and so that gives it ability to be a very
flexible type of oil to be used, and it's also relatively
inexpensive as an oil. >> NARRATOR: Carver's early
experiments resulted in food products.
Soy mayonnaise was one of his first successes.
>> BURCHARD: He said he started work with the soybean around
1903, and by the time they had finished that phase of the work,
they had about 30 products. >> DR. WALTER A. HILL: When I go
in a supermarket and go along the shelf of health foods, and
you see bacon and lunch meat and, uh, mock chicken and all
those products that are made out of soy and other vegetable-based
products, you just have to think of Carver.
I mean, that was a major focus for him.
>> NARRATOR: In his humble lab at Tuskegee, George Washington
Carver experimented with a handful of beans, a coffee
grinder and some beakers and came up with more than 100 new
uses for soybeans and soybean oil, including a type of soy
plastic. In the 1930s, automotive pioneer
Henry Ford became aware of Carver's pioneering research
with soybeans. In 1937, he invited him to
participate in a scientific conference in Dearborn,
Michigan. Ford shared Carver's passion for
developing new uses for farm products, and he was a major
player in the chemurgy movement. >> HILL: And he was really taken
by the fact that Carver could take soybeans, for example, and
come up with, uh, uh, components of-of car parts.
>> ROBINSON: You look at a guy like Henry Ford, who had
tremendous resources, and he was always looking for the-the
newest and the brightest, and looking for other opportunities,
and he saw this man Carver, and he saw him as just a gold mine--
a wealth of information and a wealth of creativity, and, um,
and-and-and really wanted to bring him into his organization.
And Carver was not drawn by the money, not drawn by the
opportunity. He knew that his job was to be
there at Tuskegee, to teach, to guide.
>> NARRATOR: Despite his devotion to Tuskegee, Carver
continued to personally consult with Ford about his ongoing
research in soy plastics. In 1942, the auto maker unveiled
a car that included a bushel of soy in its construction.
>> NIEMANN: The gearshift knob, the door crank handles, the foot
pedals, things like that. Mr. Ford had nearly 7,000 acres
of soybeans growing right there in that area.
He had the research labs right there that he worked in, and he
tied that with industry in his, uh, plant of-of building
automobiles. >> NARRATOR: In a rare film from
1943, the Ford Motor Company revealed a car that had some
body parts constructed from soy plastic.
Ford researchers wanted to demonstrate just how strong and
ding-proof this material could be.
And Henry Ford himself even took a few whacks.
>> NIEMANN: Henry Ford took a mallet and hit the trunk lid of
a... of a Ford car to show the durability of soy plastic.
We can do that today with soy plastic made from soybeans.
>> NARRATOR: Carver and Ford's creative partnership is echoed
in what the Ford Motor Company calls the "U" car.
Built in 2003, this concept car's interior is made entirely
from an eco-friendly recyclable polyester with soy-based seats
and tailgate. While the Ford Motor Company
carries on Carver's belief in the soybean's potential, so do
scientists at Iowa State University-- Carver's alma
mater. But while Carver worked
primarily with the oil from the soybean, they've focused on soy
flour. They've used the flour to
develop a breakthrough formula for producing a new variety of
durable plastic. Soybean farmers around the
country are well aware of Carver's early research and the
potential of using soybeans in commercial products.
>> AMY SIGG DAVIS: George Washington Carver discovered
years ago that there was this multitude of products that could
come out of our natural bio-products.
Soy has been called the "miracle bean" because it is so usable in
so many different ways, and Carver recognized that.
And the soybean farmers of the United States have carried it
that one step further. >> NARRATOR: The newspaper
industry embraced the soybean in 1987, when soy ink was first
used in the printing process. Today, more than 3,000 papers
across the country use color inks made from soybeans.
From the<i> St. Louis Post-Dispatch</i> to the<i> L.A. Times,</i> publishers
are finding that the soy-based products are just as practical
as their petroleum-based counterparts.
Construction engineers are discovering the soybean's value
as well. A recent example of their work
is the new roof atop the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
>> SONJA TIEGS: It's non-toxic. It's 100% waterproof.
The application of it is very simple, very easy to do, and it
will save us energy by reducing our heating and cooling costs in
the building. >> NARRATOR: In the 1940s, the
soybean's greatest champion had gained world renown as a
scientific pioneer. But George Washington Carver
remained a simple man. Although he was the head of the
agricultural college at Tuskegee, when he went out to
the farms to teach, people often mistook him for a hired hand.
But his trademark rumpled suit was never without some sort of
fresh flower or weed in the lapel-- a symbol of his love for
nature. >> BURCHARD: Carver was a
curious character. He cared nothing for his outer
appearance. When he was going on speaking
tours, if somebody said he ought to dress better, he would say,
"Well, if they want a suit of clothes, I'll send them the
clothes. If they want the information,
I'll go." >> NARRATOR: Carver never
married and professed to be completely fulfilled by his
work. >> BURCHARD: Another thing he
said about a wife was, "What woman would want a husband
forever dropping soil specimens all over her parlor, and how
could I explain that I had to go out every morning at 4:00 a.m.
to talk to flowers?" >> NARRATOR: For nearly half a
century, Carver lived alone in his room at Tuskegee.
In his free time, he enjoyed crocheting-- one of the
handicrafts he learned back in Diamond Grove, Missouri when he
was a child. Continuing another legacy from
his childhood, Carver devised a way to make various pigments and
paint from the soil he found in the Alabama countryside.
He combined the clay soil with equal amounts of sulphuric and
hydrochloric acids and bits of scrap iron.
Carver then boiled the mixture until the iron dissolved.
The result was a dry paste that could be combined with oil to
make paint. >> HILL: At the time, it was
absolutely phenomenal. And to see the pure royal blues
that he could extract from Alabama clay just is
mind-boggling. >> NARRATOR: To achieve his
brilliant blue color, Carver added a compound of potassium
ferricyanide and nitric acid. >> HILL: See, the genius of
Carver was that he wouldn't just do that and then write a paper
and then get an award for doing that.
He would then go out to peoples' farms and take these buckets of
paint and-and stay overnight with the family, helping to
paint and beautify their homes. >> DAVIS: A chemist, a botanist,
a biologist, an agronomist and this consummate researcher.
George Washington Carver was a man way before his time.
Can you imagine what he could've done with a computer?
>> NARRATOR: Carver was a fearless trailblazer, a driving
force in discovering ways to use natural resources to benefit
mankind. Another area of research he
pioneered is just now starting to give the oil industry a run
for its money. "George Washington Carver Tech"
will return on<i> Modern Marvels.</i> >> NARRATOR: We now return to
"George Washington Carver Tech" on<i> Modern Marvels.</i>
Today, American farmers are harvesting approximately three
billion bushels of soybeans per year.
80 percent of the crop George Washington Carver championed is
used for protein in food products for both human and
animal consumption. The other 20 percent is used to
produce soy oil, which, as Carver demonstrated, can be used
for a variety of purposes. One of the fastest-growing
applications for the oil is in biodiesel technology.
>> JOE JOBE: Biodiesel is a diesel fuel replacement that's
made from any vegetable oil or animal fat.
And the way that it's made is you take a vegetable oil and you
react it with an alcohol like ethanol or methanol, and that
reaction causes the glycerin to separate from the oil.
And the resulting chemical compound is biodiesel.
And it acts very chemically similar to diesel fuel in a
diesel engine, except that it is ten times less toxic than table
salt and biodegrades as fast as sugar.
>> NARRATOR: The roots of biodiesel fuel go back to the
1930s, when Carver and Henry Ford recognized the need to find
alternative fuels. With the economy facing a
depression, they tried to turn the tide by applying more
agricultural products to growing industrial markets like plastics
and rubber. >> ERIC NIEMANN: Mr. Carver and
Mr. Ford saw that the depletion of fossil fuels was inevitable.
They looked for the use of plants like soybeans to be that
fuel of the future. >> NARRATOR: Carver and Ford
believed that vegetable oils could be used to fuel internal
combustion engines, and they were not alone in that
conviction. >> JOBE: Dr. Rudolf Diesel was a
German scientist who invented the first diesel engine.
It's a compression-ignition technology that's much more
fuel-efficient. And he ran that first engine on
peanut oil. And he was a scientist-- along
with George Washington Carver and Henry Ford-- all scientists
who had a vision for sustainability and renewable
energy through agriculture. >> NARRATOR: The high cost of
agricultural energy sources compared to petroleum-based fuel
held the technology back. Fossil fuels were abundant and
cheap. But today, that gap is closing.
>> JOBE: In the last three years, for example, the price of
biodiesel has come down dramatically, while the price of
diesel fuel has almost doubled. >> NARRATOR: In just five years,
the biodiesel industry has gone from research and development
to the open road. It has been tested over 50
million miles, in every type of diesel engine.
>> JOBE: Now there are more than 500 commercial fleets using
various blends of biodiesel, including all four major
branches of the military, federal government fleets,
municipal fleets. >> NARRATOR: George Washington
Carver was not only a pioneer in the biodiesel field.
He also took some of the first steps into the area of genetic
engineering. Carver created hybrids with the
flowers and plants in his laboratory by painstakingly
crossing two specimens and waiting patiently for the
results. >> DR. MARCELINE EGNIN: And it
can take years of crossing and back crossing and selecting for
the better quality. >> NARRATOR: Today, a new
generation of research scientists has assembled at
Tuskegee University, to conduct experiments in all facets of
biotechnology. One objective of the research is
to find ways to transplant genes from one organism into another.
>> EGNIN: We kind of carrying on the legacy of Carver's in terms
of crop improvement and nutritional quality, or
biological resistant quality for better human health and
nutrition. >> NARRATOR: Tuskegee's
scientists are currently working on a gene that will increase the
amount of amino acid in sweet potatoes.
More amino acid translates to a higher protein level in the
crop. >> EGNIN: So, we have improved
the quality of sweet potato by fivefold, making sweet potato as
good as soy, soybean protein, so that's a big legacy of Carver
that we're carrying, also. >> NARRATOR: Carver's extensive
experiments with the sweet potato focused on its
nutritional properties. He knew that planting sweet
potatoes would replenish the soil with important nutrients.
He urged farmers to make it a part of their crop rotation
plan, and taught his students how to plant the potato and care
for it on campus. This way, they would be able to
teach others how to cultivate this iron-and-protein-rich food.
In his laboratory experiments, he succeeded in creating more
than 100 products from the sweet potato, including fabric dyes
and flour. During World War I, wheat
shortages in the United States raised demand for Carver's sweet
potato flour. It was used to make bread to
feed American soldiers and their allies.
Carver's innovative work with the sweet potato is among his
many success stories that inspire today's Tuskegee
researchers. Here, the march of science is
measured by his example. >> EGNIN: I think he would be
happy. We work in his building there
now, and sometimes we think like we see him walking around
saying, "Yes, go on, you're doing a good job."
>> NARRATOR: George Washington Carver's vision knew no bounds.
And the long shadow of his legacy is about to go
stratospheric. "George Washington Carver Tech"
will return on<i> Modern Marvels</i> here on the History Channel.
>> NARRATOR: We now return to "George Washington Carver Tech"
on<i> Modern Marvels.</i> The innovative work of George
Washington Carver has had a far- reaching impact on our world
today-- and now his influence can even be felt in outer space.
For the past 18 years, NASA engineers have been working
with Tuskegee University scientists to find efficient
ways to grow food in space. >> HILL: There will be lunar
bases, Mars bases, sometime way out in the future, and even for
long-terms space flights, people have to eat.
>> DESMOND MORTLEY: For humans on long-term space missions,
it's costing approximately about $10,000 per pound, to lift a
pound of payload. And if you're going to space, it
is very expensive to take soil with you since you want to grow
plants. >> NARRATOR: Today, when the
space station food supply is low, a new shipment is sent
via an unmanned spacecraft. If the craft misses its mark,
serious problems can occur. The hungry crew could be forced
to return to Earth, or worse, a multimillion-dollar mission
would have to be aborted. So plans are underway to grow
enough food for the space station to be self-sufficient.
The Tuskegee scientists began their work with two of George
Washington Carver's favorite plants-- the peanut...
and the sweet potato. >> HILL: Our job was to take
Carver's two commodities he was most famous for and figure
out how to grow them, first of all, with no soil.
That was our first job. Now isn't that a set-up for
Carver? I mean, wouldn't that be right
down his alley? >> NARRATOR: The Department of
Agricultural Sciences at Tuskegee pursued a unique
hydroponics-based growing system, called nutrient film
technique. It requires no soil and relies
only on water and a mixture of growing agents.
>> MORTLEY: And the nutrient solution flows continuously over
the roots as the plants grow. >> NARRATOR: The tiny roots form
a fibrous carpet or soilless bed for the plants.
After two or three weeks, the potato starts to change color
and bulk up. As part of the NASA program, the
University also built growth chambers to produce basil and
carrots in the same way. >> MORTLEY: We can control how
much light they get, what time they get it, the temperature.
And not only just one temperature.
We can actually ramp the temperature up just like
"nature" does it. The Tuskegee scientists tested
their growing system for several years.
When they were sure that it would work in a space
environment, they shared their findings with NASA.
>> HILL: And when the NASA folks came from Kennedy Space
Center to see it, they could not believe it.
But, uh, there it was. So that's why I'm saying it
took some really... I'll say "Carverites," our brilliant
young faculty and students, who just stayed at it.
Today, a new crop of Carvers- in-training is sprouting up in
San Antonio, Texas. >> And if it would have had
real shallow roots way up here and that's it, do you think
it would be able to tap way down and get some water?
>> NARRATOR: The Carver Academy is dedicated to keeping the
spirit of George Washington Carver fresh in the minds of
today's youth. The school was founded by former
NBA superstar, David Robinson. >> DAVID ROBINSON: It started
more because I grew up, kind of, with a teacher's heart and
always wanted to teach, always loved teaching, and since I
became a basketball player, teaching was pretty much out of
the question, but I've always loved inspiring and stirring the
heart. >> NARRATOR: The school
emphasizes the same "hands on" learning techniques that Carver
practiced in his career. And the teachers also try to
instill in the children a curiosity about the world
around them. >> You mean it had those
lights... >> ROBINSON: You know, nature
speaks to us every hour if we would just listen.
We're so tech-oriented, we know everybody wants to play with the
latest gadgets, and see what, you know, science is coming up
with, well... the most incredible things we have are
right there in nature, right in front of our faces.
They're the plants that grow right in front of us.
A-and the kids have access to the most remarkable resources
every single day. >> It's overflowing.
>> NARRATOR: The Carver Academy is perhaps the best tribute to
the scientist who was constantly honored during his lifetime.
He accepted every award with his signature humility.
>> CARVER: I am not sure that I am worthy of this splendid
citation, but I wish to say also that I thank you from the depths
of my heart. >> B.D. MAYBERRY: He just
refused to give himself credit. He gave the credit to God.
>> NARRATOR: On January 5, 1943, at the age of 78, Carver died of
natural causes in his room at Tuskegee Institute.
Six months later, President Franklin Roosevelt established
the George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond,
Missouri. It includes the 210-acre farm
Carver explored as an orphaned slave child.
>> HENRY: Yes, he was born into slavery, and yes, he had
great obstacles to overcome. But every obstacle that he
overcame led him one step closer to becoming the
great man that he was. >> HIVELY: He just made
those steps, he just kept walking, and he walked right
into history and right into our lives every day.
>> NARRATOR: George Washington Carver's work has been impacting
and enhancing our culture for more than a century.
For the next generation, determined to further his
legacy, the challenge is daunting.
>> ROBINSON: We are standing on the shoulders of giants.
And Carver is one of those giants before us.
And we don't have to reinvent the wheel.
What we do is we stand on that foundation that's already been
laid and that's a great foundation.
Carver's built some blocks for us, but we have to continue and
take that tradition further. <font color="#FFFF00">Captioning sponsored by
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