The Secret Life Of Machines
Ever wondered how everyday home appliances such as a
fridge, fax machine, or central heating operated? Even if
you hadn't, the
Secret Life of Machines series set
out to explain simply and clearly how these (and more)
items perform their functions. Three series of programmes
were produced for Channel 4 in 1988, 1991 and 1993 (the
third series was entitled
The Secret Life of the
Office); all pictures shown here are taken from
The
Secret Life of the Television Set which was the last
programme in the first series. The presenters were Tim
Hunkin (right) and Rex Garrod.
A special feature is the use of (often humourous)
cartoons that are used to illustrate 'moments in history'
which are relevant to the appliance under discussion. This
picture is taken from a cartoon used to show the moment
when it was discovered that selenium can cause an
electrical voltage to change dependent on the amount of
light shining on it.
Tim Hunkin (the main presenter and architect of the
series) may look exactly like the stereotypical image of
"the professor", but contrary to this he presents
technology in a very straightforward and easy to understand
manner and manages to do so in a way that can keep the
interest of both novices and experts alike. His secret is
possibly that if you're not afraid of technology and you
understand how an item works you can "deconstruct" an item
into its various simpler components, and also avoiding
unneccesary complexity when explaining how something
operates.
So how did Tim get into television? After gaining a
Cambridge degree, he took on a series of bizarre
commissions ranging from firework displays to mechanical
sculptures. Back in 1972 he had drawn some cartoons for the
Cambridge University newspaper Stop Press (the first one
was about drawing cows!); this lead to a whole series of
witty and factual cartoons for the Sunday Observer magazine
colour supplement from 1973 to 1987 entitled "The Rudiments
of Wisdom", covering everything from acids to zoos (they
were republished later in a book). Afterwards he developed
a proposal for a television series and sent it to Channel
4. The rest, as they say, is history...
Don't try this at home kids! (Or for that matter,
adults as well!) Who else would probably construct their
own plasma lamp using the high voltage line output
transformer from an old television set?
Humour can help make something more memorable, as
many academic lecturers are sometimes keen to point out. A
cartoon showing that the electronic-scanning Marconi-EMI
system cameras (as opposed to the large fixed-position
Baird mechanical scanning cameras) were much more versatile
by showing someone using one to record a flying aircraft,
and then showing the poor camerman being knocked over by
the low-flying aircraft!
So what do Tim and Rex do when they're not making
television programmes? Well they make models and other
mechanical devices for various organisations such as
exhibitions and television programmes, and these were often
featured to illustrate concepts throughout the series. This
wind-powered mechanical clock was developed for the
Liverpool Garden Festival some years ago.
Tim Hunkin also designs and builds a lot of those
'hands-on' museum exhibits that interact in some way with
the visitor; he designed this section for the National
Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford,
Yorkshire. Among other commissions he has also developed
for the Science Museum in London.
Here is an example of a display from the Bradford
museum, showing how an electron beam generates a spot of
light when it hits the phosphor-coated front surface of the
cathode-ray tube.
Tim and Rex are not afraid of using anything unusual
to illustrate something that they are trying to explain -
here they are using string with ink dots on it to
illustrate how a television picture in constructed using
scanning lines and dots of varying brightness.
To conclude the first series they built an amazing
funeral pyre consisting of old television sets which were
faulty in some way but were not worth repairing. The stack
of sets were all switched on when the flames were lit, and
as the end credits rolled the TV screens flickered and died
in turn as the flames rose higher and higher... The
programmes are still occasionally repeated on
satellite/cable channels, and they still have a cult
following both in the UK and abroad.
The programmes were mainly Tim Hunkin's own work,
though he had assistants to help him with various tasks
such as production. Tim feels that although the shows were
popular there was a danger that they were becoming "too
formula-based", so there are no further plans for any more
"Secret Life" programmes - however in 1998 he planned to
develop a TV series about photography. Meanwhile he has his
museum work to keep him occupied: he gave a Science Museum
talk entitled "Illegal Engineering" which was all about
security and safe-cracking. Rex was last seen on the
programme
Robot Wars as part of a team which lost in
the final...
Please note that HTW can't
help in sourcing copies of The Secret Life Of
Machines since they were only made available to
educational establishments, though episodes may turn up
from time to time on the Discovery channel.
