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unknown and very deadly weapon is stored in London's Royal Arsenal. What we see before us is a 19th century weapon of mass destruction Now it has been brought out of the shadows and carefully recreated. This is a 170- year-old steam-powered machine gun. Who would have thought that steam could defy gunpowder? Almost a meter and a half long, it is made of iron with a wooden handle and a strange brass spout. It may look strange, but it is one of the most devastating weapons of its time. This gun was designed to fire hundreds of rounds per minute. Some say even up to a thousand. And that was something unheard of. But did it actually work? How did it work? And why would anyone need a steam machine gun?
This was an era when everything was converted to steam power. panacea that would make any task easier. It was the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution. Factories and mills that had previously been powered by water or horse power now The possibilities seemed endless. The pair had such potential that everyone turned to it as a new source of energy. From pragmatic things like steam tractors to truly absurd inventions the idea of a steam engine that looks like a giant metal soldier pulling a cart full of people. The couple powered everything except the weapons. Until they created this crazy device. But who invented such a strange device?
This bizarre invention of the 19th century is the steam cannon. The man who invented it was the prolific American engineer Jacob Perkins. By the time Jacob Perkins arrived on British shores, he already had an impressive track record. He invented a variety of things, from devices for measuring the speed of ships to techniques for coating buckles. This was his first invention at the age of 15. He was truly a born inventor. While in England, Perkins becomes fascinated by the couple and comes up with an extraordinary idea. As part of his work, Perkins designs high-pressure boilers, pushing the technology to the limit.
One of the things he notices is that with a slight decrease in pressure, he can watch small particles fly out at high speed. And this makes him think. Perkins begins designing a revolutionary steam cannon, hoping to sell it to the British military. Over the years, his son Andrew developed and improved it, which led to the appearance of this specimen in 1851. But selling this extraordinary device will not be easy. The problem with selling his invention is that they already know how to shoot a gun. I mean, the gunpowder and fuel already exist.
Since their invention over a thousand years ago, almost all firearms have been powered by gunpowder. It was invented in China and consists simply of saltpeter, coal, and sulfur, ground very finely. And the point is, when you light it, it burns incredibly fast and releases a huge amount of gas. So you get a gas momentum that can actually push a bullet or a core. Gunpowder is a winning formula. So why does Perkins want to replace him with a pair? By the time Perkins arrived on British shores in 1819, recent conflicts had shown that even gunpowder had its problems. Decades before Perkins invented the steam cannon, Britain was deeply involved in the Napoleonic Wars, trying to prevent
Napoleon from expanding his empire across the continent. Napoleon's tactics proved brutally effective against British firepower. Napoleon's strategy was based on speed, momentum, and mobility. While the British preferred a large number of soldiers spread out in a relatively thin line, all firing in the same direction, Napoleon chose a column formation, narrower but deeper, which facilitated forward movement. If you are fighting on the British side, you most likely have a musket, and that musket would probably be known as a "Brown Bess."
These muskets use a bullet and a paper cartridge filled with gunpowder. Reloading one of these muskets is a rather laborious process, because each stage of your work is separate. You have gunpowder. You have a wad between the gunpowder and the bullet. You have the bullet itself, which needs to be charged separately. You have to be careful because it's a bullet and it can fall back if you handle it carelessly. And to fire a musket, it must be cocked. And then we have to start the whole process over again Reloading and firing a single shot can take 20 seconds. And even when you shoot, you're likely to miss.
Muskets aren't just slow, they're hopelessly inaccurate. Since the musket was front-loaded, the bullets were intentionally made slightly smaller than the barrel so they could easily pass inside. But that means they can hang around inside the barrel and fly out at all sorts of different angles. Perkins is convinced that his steam-powered invention is not only faster, but also more accurate. His problem is that history is already littered with strange weapons that have attempted to solve the same problems. And mostly failed. Some people add more barrels to their weapons to fire them simultaneously. You can concentrate the fire in one shot, but that doesn't solve the problem.
First, they are as inaccurate as the individual barrels from which they are made. And secondly, although you can fire many shots at once, reloading will take much longer-depending on the number of barrels. Other weapons use a quick- loading mechanism. As early as the 2nd century BC. The Chinese created a multi-shot crossbow that had a small magazine that fired 10 bolts in 20 seconds. But the rapid-fire mechanism for firearms is much more complex. One of the problems with using gunpowder, especially if you try to shoot it over and over again, is that it gets very hot. So your weapon will gradually get hotter and hotter. Until eventually the metal softens and the weapon itself Perkins believes that
the answer to all these problems is to abandon gunpowder altogether and replace it with steam. But aren't these just idle dreams? An innocent-looking box is kept at the University of Akron in Ohio. It is covered in bulbs, switches, and dials. It looks like a prop from a 1960s science fiction movie. But that's not true. This seemingly innocent piece of equipment was actually created for one of the most infamous experiments of the 20th century. Now, thanks to the latest technology, we can explore it in unprecedented detail. This is Milgram's shock machine. On its front panel it says: " ZLB type shock generator." Because that's exactly what it's designed for.
This box was part of an experiment where one person was ordered to electrocute another person literally to death. And hundreds of people did indeed deliver that final fatal shock. But what is the real purpose of this test? Who is behind this? And how was such a dangerous experiment even allowed? In 1961, an unusual advertisement appeared in a Connecticut newspaper. These ads were seeking participants for a study at Yale University that seemed completely innocent. Participants were promised $4 for their time, which is equivalent to about $40 today. At first, the experiment seems simple. It involves two people who have
never met before. One of them is randomly chosen to be the student and the other to be the teacher. The teacher sees the student being tied to a chair. The student is handcuffed so he can't get out of his chair, and he's connected to something Electrodes and wires are attached to the student's wrists. Then the teacher leaves the student and he is taken to the next room. He sits down at the control panel of the device he will be working with-a ZLB-type shock generator, the machine at the center of this experiment.
Along the bottom panel are many different switches: from 15 volts all the way up to 450 volts. This allows you to shock someone with electricity, delivering shocks of increasing strength and severity, switching each toggle switch: from light discharge to medium, and then to higher levels and even the dangerous "XXX". The device is connected to the student, but the teacher is told that despite the alarming warnings, the device does not pose a threat to the student's health. But that's hard to believe. Teachers were given a light discharge, just so they could experience what they would be applying themselves. So, they received a 45-volt electric shock. It definitely won't kill you. That's enough to give them an idea of, you know, what's going to happen
when they push those levers and switches. The experiment begins. The student is given a series of tests to test their memory. Teachers are instructed to shock the student with an electric shock every time he gives an incorrect answer, and then increase the voltage by one level. As the tension increases, the teacher begins to hear the student's reaction through the dividing wall. The student becomes increasingly agitated, begging to stop the experiment. Sometimes they would bang against the wall. Sometimes they would completely fall silent and refuse to answer questions.
The teacher was instructed that any refusal to answer was considered incorrect, and therefore the If the student continues to make mistakes, the teacher will eventually reach the maximum, lethal 450- volt switch. What is happening? Will this machine really deliver a fatal electric shock to a student who simply cannot cope with the task? Using state-of-the-art graphics, we can take a look inside this amazing You open the box and it looks a bit suspicious. The entire structure is supported by conventional And the chaotic internal structure seems completely incompatible with the professional appearance from the outside. It's just some kind of tangle of wires.
This is a real mess of wires. It's not entirely clear what's connected to what The switches and bulbs are wired to turn on together, and there are also buzzers that activate when each switch is pressed. But something important is missing. It lacks the most important element-a high-voltage transformer that would create the voltage that the machine supposedly produces. ZLB-type shock generator is technically incapable of creating a lethal discharge. And that's the irony of this device. The student is never actually shocked. This box is a fake. Is this whole experiment some kind of terrible prank? This experiment was conducted by the prominent Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram. But the secret is that all of this is a complete lie.
Everything about Milgram's experiment was rigged from the start. Students were never the subject of this study. The so-called "disciples" were in collusion. The only real volunteers and subjects of the experiment are the teachers. The screams and moans were actually recorded, and they were a key part of what was being tested. Will teachers continue to raise the voltage if asked to do so by someone in authority? to put the participants, the "teachers ", in a situation where they believed they would electrocute a person if they complied and pressed all these little switches. And if the teacher refuses to give a discharge to the student, the scientist observing the experiment reacts in one of four ways.
First response: " Please continue." The second answer: " The experiment requires you to continue." If they still refuse, the answer is: "It is absolutely necessary that you continue." And the final answer was: "You have no other choice. You must continue Will teachers ultimately do what they are told, despite the fact that the markings on the device clearly indicate a danger to life? Milgram designed this experiment to test the limits of human morality and people's reactions to authority. Essentially, he was supposed to answer the question: "What would it take to make an ordinary person electrocute a stranger to death?" And the answer
, apparently, was-not that much. People were terrified. Teachers are ordinary people. With no threat to themselves, most sacrificed their moral principles for $4. What prompted Stanley Milgram to conduct such a dark experiment? What prompted psychologist Stanley Milgram to create a machine that made people think they were giving someone a fatal electric shock? Milgram was born in New York in 1933 to a family of Jewish immigrants. And for quite obvious reasons, the entire family is deeply affected by the Holocaust.
Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies systematically murdered over 6 million Jews. A painful question that haunted Milgram: why did ordinary Germans, people who had never killed or tortured anyone in their lives, commit these horrific acts? This electric shock box is the result of Milgram's search for an answer to this question. Milgram's study was a study of obedience. Milgram wanted to know: can good people be made to do terrible things by asking them to obey someone in authority ? That was the main question. In a locked display case under the bright lights of the Hollywood Entertainment Museum stands a strange metal cage that looks like a torture device from the Dark Ages.
Despite its appearance, this is not a medieval device at all. It is quite modern, from the 20th century, and has nothing to do with torture at all. Now, using the latest technology, we have brought it out of the shadows and painstakingly reconstructed it. Adjustable metal screws and rotary sensors protrude from the frame. Measuring 17 inches wide and 15 1/4 inches tall, it is designed to wrap around a woman's head and firmly secure it from the skull to the neck and even the eyes. This is truly one of the most bizarre inventions of Hollywood's "golden age." Who came up with such a strange idea?
Can beauty really be quantified? And how exactly is this bizarre device supposed to do that? This strange machine is a beauty calibrator. It was first presented to the public in 1932. At the heart of this device was that it was worn on a woman's head, took micro-measurements, and the operator processed them to obtain a single number that indicated her level of beauty. Flexible metal strips inside the cage match the facial features and can be adjusted with screws so that the device is perfectly centered. The guide at the front supports a series of micrometers with metal feelers at the ends. A micrometer is essentially a very precise screw device capable of measuring things to the thousandths of an inch, which gives it real technical authority. A typical micrometer
uses a screw with markings along its length. Each mark corresponds to a full revolution, and each revolution can only move the screw 1/100 of an inch. The drum body may be marked around the circumference to show thousandths of an inch, so one full revolution would be 1/100. The device is capable of measuring objects with such precision that it is even impossible to see with the naked eye. The micrometer system can be moved up and down the guide, as well as in and out, allowing the machine creator to accurately measure various features. He used his beauty machine to measure certain distances and proportions on the face that he believed corresponded to ideal beauty. For example, he believed that a nose the same height as the forehead was ideal, and the distance
between the eyes should be approximately the same as the width of one eye. Once all these various measurements were taken, an overall score could be given with a maximum of 100 %. But, of course, no one has ever achieved this ideal of absolute beauty. The inventor made sure that everyone had something, even a very small one, that could be improved. A person who believes they have enough knowledge to define beauty is world-famous. What's really interesting about this device is that it was n't just created by an inventor looking for something to invent. It was created by perhaps the main guru of the beauty industry.
Even today he is a household name. Max Factor. Important news from Hollywood: the premiere of the colossal Max Factor makeup studio. And the company he founded is now a multi-billion dollar business. The man behind all this comes from very humble circumstances in Poland. His name is Maximilian Faktorovich. He was one of 10 children in a relatively poor family in Łódź. At the age of 9, he became an apprentice to the city's leading wig and cosmetics master. At the turn of the century, he opens his own shop, and a famous touring theater troupe begins to use his products. This, in turn, gives him an even more prestigious job in the Russian Imperial Ballet. According to legend, the Russian royal family was so impressed with his work
that they invited him for an official presentation. He was summoned to the Imperial Court as the chief cosmetics consultant for the Russian royal family. But for a Jew, it was not the best time to stay in Russia. The imperial family, in cooperation with the army, implemented a program of " de-Judaization" throughout the country. The situation was bad and constantly getting worse. In 1904, Maximilian fled to America with his wife Esther and three children. There he takes a new name-Max Factor. He finds himself in California just as Hollywood is about to make a splash. He was stunned by the standards of makeup at the time.
The actors still used the rather harsh, thick, greasy makeup popular on stage at the time, and when filmed in close-up, it did n't look very appealing. Max Factor sees this as an opportunity. And by 1914, he had perfected a new style of cosmetics, specifically adapted to the demands of cinema. Some of Hollywood's early pioneers used its products. I mean Chaplin, Arbuckle, Keaton. But the real success came in 1925 with a huge order for 600 gallons of body paint for the extras in the film Ben-Hur.
Women everywhere want to look as glamorous as the stars of the screen. And everyone knows that the person who can provide this is Max Factor. At that time, he was the main hair and makeup specialist for all the stars of Hollywood. In particular, for people like Rita Hayworth and Judy Garland. Max Factor cosmetics are becoming popular. He even coined the term "makeup." So why would someone so successful need a beauty calibrator? In the closet of an antiques collector in Virginia lies a strange 19th-century metal device. It was literally one of the most shocking medical devices ever created. Now, using the latest technology, we are bringing this bizarre invention to light.
It was called a revolution in medical science. It consists of 120 perforated metal links connected in a chain. Each link consists of a copper body, inside of which is a zinc rod wrapped in cloth soaked in vinegar. Metal and wooden handles are attached to both sides. It looks well-made and gives the impression of a professional instrument. People just went crazy over them. Thousands of people wrapped these strange things around their bodies. Which is surprising, considering its sole function was to deliver 132 volts of electricity directly into the body. Almost the same as
plugging yourself into an American outlet This is essentially a self- shock device. Why would anyone do something so strange? Does it really produce electricity? And did people really electrocute themselves for the sake of their health? In the mid- 19th century, the British Empire was expanding rapidly. The country is willing to embrace the changes brought about by an explosion of innovation and revolutionary inventions. And there's also the Pulvermacher belt.
Its inventor, Isaac Pulvermacher, is a mysterious figure. We don't have any photos of him, but we know that he was a Prussian inventor and traveler. In the 1850s, Pulvermacher travels across Europe, gathering support and testimonials that will help him sell what he calls portable cures for almost every known disease. Self-applied electrogalvanic chain belt for the treatment of nervous and chronic diseases without medication. This is a panacea. It can treat rheumatism, liver problems, fatigue, headaches, dizziness, exhaustion, and even sexual disorders. So, whatever you call it, the belt can fix it with the magic of electricity. At least that's what the mysterious
Pulvermacher says. Disassembling the belt shows that it can definitely shock you with an unpleasant current. So, the belt consists of a series of interconnected links. Each one has a copper body, and inside is a zinc rod wrapped in a cloth soaked in vinegar. Two dissimilar metals with a conductive liquid between them, such as vinegar, produce electricity. This is a school physics program. Thanks to this, each link of the belt becomes a separate galvanic element. The beauty of these devices is that the more you connect them together, the higher the voltage will be.
Pulvermacher had a number of models, but the 120- cell version could output as much as 132 volts. There are several recommended ways to use this device. Among them is the simple electric shock method, where you hold metal tubes with wet hands and connect the circuits. Every time you connect, you get a discharge. There is also a conductive brush, specifically for applying current to the mouth and ears. And there is also an intermittent clock system that, when connected to an electrical circuit and started, sends impulses to the part of the body that needs regular stimulation. But where did Pulvermacher get the idea that electricity could really be some kind of miracle cure? And why did the Victorians believe it so much? The idea of medical electricity
really took off in the 18th century in the search for the so-called "life force." And thanks to an accidental experiment with a frog. that dates back to ancient Egypt. What exactly animates living beings? What is this mysterious force that makes creatures alive rather than dead? The man who believed he had found it was Italian scientist Luigi Galvani. His experiment was unusual. He played with static electricity machines and dissected frogs at the same time. We assume that one of his assistants touched a nerve on the frog's leg with a scalpel.
Perhaps the scalpel was charged with static electricity and the frog's leg twitched. This demonstrated to us the existence of a fundamental connection between electricity and what makes muscles move Galvani was convinced that he had discovered this life force, and he called it " animal electricity "-a vital energy originating from the tissues themselves. When Galvani published his first report on this experiment, it Galvani believed that his new theory of animal electricity had enormous medical potential. But to convince the world of this, it took more than a twitch of a dead frog's leg. Everything changed in 1798, when Galvani died and passed the baton to his nephew and assistant Giovanni Aldini.
Aldini began to popularize his uncle's theories on tour. The inspiration for Pulvermacher's belt comes partly from his work. One of the most shocking experiments of the entire 19th century. Once classified by the US military, but now forgotten, it is one of the strangest weapons ever created. The destructive power of this device could destroy an entire city. But the way it happens is completely bizarre. Now, thanks to modern digital photography, we can reveal every detail of this amazing device. Codenamed " Project X-Ray," it was literally born in the flames of World War II. There has been no similar weapon before or since, and there is a very
good reason for this. About 5 feet long, it presents itself as a cylindrical body with tiny air holes for its little passengers. The lethal power of this device does not come from radioactive materials or high-powered explosives. It comes from bats. This has to be one of the strangest inventions of World War II. Who came up with this? Why bats? How was this bizarre device supposed to work? And does it really work? By the end of 1941, America was at war with Japan. The bat bomb was designed to help America strike back after Pearl Harbor. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary bomb, but inside there are many tiny trays.
Each of these trays housed up to 40 bats. There were a thousand bats in the entire bomb, and each one had a small deadly device on it. These devices are the secret to the bomb's potential, as they don't use high explosives. A bunch of tiny explosive devices, even thousands carried by a bat, won't really do much damage. The goal was not to blow everything up, but to cause fires. The bat bomb was aimed at a specific weakness in Japanese cities. Most of the houses were wooden and stood very close together. If only a few houses could be set on fire, the entire city could burn to the ground.
The bombs were to be dropped from an airplane high above the target city. It was to be loaded with sleeping bats, each armed with a tiny incendiary device. At an altitude of 1,000 feet, the parachutes open and the outer shell falls away. After the parachute opens, the trays spread apart and hang in a column about 8.5 feet long. Once in the warmer air, the bats begin to wake up. As soon as they took off, they pulled the safety check, which triggered the detonator with a delay. The designer calculated that with a 30- minute delay, the bats could cover an area 40 miles in diameter. At that time, a group of six American M69 incendiary bombs could cause 160 fires, but the same weight of bat bombs could cause almost 4,800.
So the plan was for the bats to burn down Japanese cities, and this would be the decisive blow in the Pacific War Who came up with the crazy idea of using a bat as a war machine? One of the strangest things is that, unlike many other weapons, it was not developed in some special military laboratory. Instead, it was invented by a dentist. His name is Lytle S. Adams. In 1941, he traveled to the Carlsbad Caverns in the US and said he was fascinated by the flocks of bats that flew out of the caves at sunset.
, he heard on the radio about Pearl Harbor. As soon as he saw the bats, he thought, "What if each of these bats had a tiny incendiary device?" You could really devastate enemy cities in Japan It sounds crazy, but in the desperate conditions of war, the military is willing to try almost anything that might give them an advantage, no matter how strange it may seem. World War II is full of such bizarre and exotic ideas for weapons. One of the most outrageous appears in 1943. The British way to overcome the concrete coastal fortifications of the Nazi Atlantic Wall. What they came up with was a self-propelled bomb. "
Panjandrum". The " Panjandrum" is a very strange-looking device, but the concept is quite simple. You simply attach the rockets to the edges of the wheels, like a Catherine Wheel firework, light them, and it seems to shoot itself towards the enemy, creating a gap in their lines. Despite the top-secret nature of the project, the beach chosen as the testing site turned out to be a popular vacation spot. So these top-secret tests were ultimately conducted in front of vacationers. They light the rockets on the Panjandrum, and almost from the start, things go wrong. The missiles begin to lift off, flying in different directions. Meanwhile, the device itself is simply racing uncontrollably along the beach. It is the Panjandrum never
made it onto the battlefield. But the military probably thought it was worth a try. The problem is that the military cannot afford to ignore such ideas just because they seem strange at first glance. Sooner or later, one of them will work. One of the most extraordinary is a weapon designed to destroy hydroelectric power plants. It is based on the idea of launching " pancakes" on water. The idea is to guide the bombers at a precise speed and altitude, usually quite low, and drop a bomb that will immediately begin to spin in the direction opposite to the plane's motion. So when
it touches water, instead of sinking, it bounces back. And she jumps quite a distance. And if you drop it in the right place, at the right speed, it will jump, jump, jump, and then crash into the dam. On Lancaster bombers take to the air to attack three German dams. This is an expensive operation, but very successful. Two of the three dams attacked were completely destroyed. In 1942, the idea of the bat bomb was born. Its code name is Project X-ray. Will it prove as successful as the jumping bomb? Or as catastrophic as " Panjandrum"? Why does Adams believe bats can make a difference? Behind glass at the International Espionage Museum in Washington, D.C., lies a
corroded copper plate. This is an object whose value exceeds its weight in gold. Now, using the latest technology, we are bringing it to light. By magnifying an object and zooming in on the image, we see faint markings engraved on its surface. And by removing the corrosion digitally, we can finally see them clearly. This item is covered in tiny symbols and inscriptions. This is an extremely skillfully executed engraving. It's hard to read because everything is mirrored. But if you flip the image, the words " Bank of England" appear. If you look closely, you can see the 10 pound sterling mark and the date-1937. This is a printing plate for producing British 10- pound banknotes.
Such a valuable item should be locked away in the British treasury. But this plate was not found in a London safe. It was found in 1959 in the most unexpected place-at the bottom of an Austrian lake. How did she end up at the bottom of the lake? Where did she come from? Is it even real? By the 1930s, the design of the £10 note was over 150 years old, and it showed. They were printed simply on white paper. Color was not used. They were one-sided. There was no embossing. There was no metal strip.
The banknote is produced using a printing press similar to this one. It is an incredibly carefully engraved object that is painted and then pressed onto paper to create the final product. But a close examination of this plate reveals a flaw. Next to the acronym for the company, there is an extra strip of metal that leaves a speck of paint on the banknote. Does this error mean it is fake? The Bank of England believes it has a few clever tricks to fool counterfeiters. In Britain, there was only one earring instead of two, and there were a few small specks that looked like typos but were actually intentional.
The idea was that these small flaws were extremely difficult to detect and reproduce, and this was supposed to deter counterfeiters. up to 150 marks were hidden on banknotes. The tiny speck on this plate is definitely one of them. Others could have been destroyed on this plate after years of being underwater. They were made of very, very thin pieces of metal. It is these small details that are destroyed first Britain, for example, has almost completely disappeared. But judging from what remains of this plate, there is nothing to indicate that it is anything other than a genuine printing form. So what is a British bank plate doing almost 700 miles from London, at the bottom of Lake Toplitz in Austria? A key clue to the plate's origin is that the divers who
found it were searching for an infamous treasure. At the end of the war, people saw German soldiers bringing carts with boxes and dumping them into the lake. Now no one knows what's in those chests, but of course everyone wants to believe it's Nazi gold. But when they dive to the bottom of the lake in 1959, they find nothing but gold. They discover this copper plate, which raises one very obvious question. Why did the Germans have a printing press for British 10 pound notes? Historians seeking answers have focused on secret Nazi archives.
The plan is codenamed "Operation Andreas." A deadly scheme to bombard Britain with money. The plan was to drop £30 billion worth of counterfeit notes over Britain. The British would find this money and start using it, and, you know, by pouring it into the economic system, it would undermine the very basis of the currency and actually collapse the economic system. Britain would find itself in such deep financial straits that it would be unable to wage war at all. Germany would have won without firing a single shot.
This is the economic equivalent of a nuclear bomb. All they need to do is make the perfect fake plate. How are they going to do it? A top-secret Nazi plan is set to destroy Britain without firing a shot. Operation Andreas takes place in a stone mansion west of central Berlin. The building they are using is an SS training center, where false documents and forgeries were already being produced. The Nazis hire mathematician and codebreaker Albert Lange to lead this process. He is a highly qualified scientist, but he also believes that King Arthur really existed. He believes that there are astral magical symbols on the British flag.
Lange comes up with a diabolical plan. Use light-sensitive and acid-resistant ink to create a perfect copy of the original printing form. Lange's plan was to first take as accurate a photograph as possible of a real £10 note, and then transfer this image to a plate using, which would allow the remaining metal to be etched away thus creating the perfect printing form for the £10 note. But even with the best cameras, Lange has difficulties. None of them looked convincing up close, and, in fact, Lange himself said that the image of Britain looked like an old witch.
He is forced to abandon science in favor of old-fashioned craftsmanship. He hires expert engraver Walter Zedrick. Even for him, this is a difficult task. The engraver must reproduce all those small marks, those small intentional defects that are inherent in the original Britain is a particularly difficult target for Nazi counterfeiters. It was incredibly difficult to portray the eyes correctly. It took Zedrik six tries to produce a perfect- looking plate. We don't know for sure if this is one of Zedrik's plates. A counterfeiter cannot sign his work. All we know is that it was important enough to hide. So, this was truly one of the better versions.
But the perfect shape itself is not enough. The Nazis also need the right paper. It should be correct to the touch. Is it smooth? Is it slippery? Does it bend correctly? Does it sound right? Lange was so obsessed with it that he even recruited blind people for testing. They would not be distracted by the sight of the bill, and they would be able to hear the rustle of the bill as it was bent. Lange thinks he has found a solution. Now he just needs to prove it to his customers. The story goes that the Germans sent an officer to the Swiss border with a fake passport and a bunch of these fake pounds. And then they notified the Swiss authorities that
someone would try to cross the border with false documents. They assumed, and they were right, that the Swiss would check both the passport and the money. Well, they notice a fake passport, they know it's fake. But in their view, the money is completely real. They are ready to destroy the entire British economy. But on the verge of victory, Operation Andreas unexpectedly stops. The problem with this plan to "bomb" Britain with money is that it requires planes to be flown over Britain. And after the Battle of Britain, this became simply impossible for the Luftwaffe.
Andreas. Is this the end of the largest counterfeiting operation in history? In July 1942, Hitler's chief spy, Heinrich Himmler, tries to pay off his network of foreign agents. He needs cash, and lots of it. But there are no reserves in Germany. Unless they print them themselves, of course. He doesn't care if the money is fake. The code name for Himmler's new plan was Operation Bernhard. Named after the man who was put in charge-SS Major Bernhard Kruger.
He's a much better choice than Langer because he's a guy who's skilled in the art of forgery. He himself created the fake documents. The 10-pound clichés and all the other equipment were gathering dust in a basement in Berlin. Kruger transports all of this to his new headquarters for counterfeiters, Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp north of Berlin. One of the main problems with Andreas was that they were full of intelligence leaks. This explains why the new operation was launched in the concentration camps. There it could be kept a strict secret.
There is no risk that employees will disclose information from the new database. Sachsenhausen is a labor camp, a brutal concentration camp, where prisoners can be executed at any moment without reason But Operation Kruger treats the predominantly Jewish prisoners very differently. He makes great efforts to make his project employees happy and comfortable. He hands out extra rations, cigarettes, and even sets up ping-pong tables for them to have fun. Bernhard was in full swing. Counterfeiting presses produced high-quality money on an industrial scale. Rows of prisoners passed bills to each other to make them look like used ones.
The best, almost flawless, were good enough to be given to German spies for their activities. Himmler's spies were never told that they were receiving counterfeit money. The second-rate ones were used for money laundering throughout Europe And less convincing banknotes were not put into circulation The lowest quality notes were kept in a room labeled " Abwurf," which means " dropping from the air." The idea that one day they might be dropped from the air was not completely dismissed. But that never happened. Germany loses the war again.
The work of this cliché turned out to be useless. Or not? The scale of what Bernhard and Andreas actually achieved came as a real shock to the Allies. The landing plan may have failed, but this cliché and others like it still caused enormous damage. It seems that this scheme was actually surprisingly effective. counterfeit notes were printed. This is about 10% of all pounds on the market. With a little more effort, this scheme could have been extremely alarmingly effective in undermining the British economy that survived the largest counterfeiting operation in history. If this cliché and others like it had done their job, it could have become one of the most destructive weapons of World War II. In a museum display case in northern Peru
is a strange mask with a distorted and richly decorated human face. But the latest analysis has led experts into the dark world of horrific ancient rituals This new study has added a surprising new dimension to our understanding. Now, using advanced digital technology, we can study this strange relic in microscopic detail. This is a Sikan mask. Made of solid gold, it measures 18 by 11 inches, and in the center of the unusually shaped eyes are beads of polished amber and emeralds. It is adorned with a nose clip and elegant decorative earrings. Just by looking at the craftsmanship, you can understand that it is incredibly valuable.
It is painted a bright red color that remains bright a thousand years after its creation. And there is a terrible reason for this. Who made it? What was it needed for? And what makes this new study so creepy? Northwest coast of Peru. Pomak Forest, 1991. A team led by Professor Izumi Shimada is conducting archaeological excavations. This area is one of four areas in Peru that have special historical interest and are therefore protected. Beneath the tropical dry forest lie 36 artificial mounds spread over an area of 23 square miles. This is all that remains of a vanished civilization that
flourished along the northern coast of Peru. It disappeared over 600 years ago. Shimada's excavations focused on a temple mound known as Huaca Loro. And at the bottom of a 36-foot-deep vertical shaft, they find real treasure. An untouched tomb of Sikan, filled with riches. They find over a ton of grave goods, about a third of which are made of metal. feather ornaments, gold earrings, and a gold ceremonial knife. But they also find the bodies of two women and two children. They are located around the fifth body in the center of the tomb. He lies on the remains of a mantle covered in hundreds of tiny gold squares. He wears elaborate gold knee pads, as well as a large breastplate made of multi-layered beads.
The reconstruction shows how the women and children were placed around this man. It seems like each of them has been placed in very strange poses. But the strangest thing is the man in the center. He was made to sit. His body was painted red. He was placed upside down, and his head was separated from his body. The head was removed and rotated 180 degrees so that it stood upright. And on top of this severed head is a strange red mask. The mask is made of gold. She has very elaborate beaded eyes made of different types of stones, so you can see the pupils looking back at you from the mask. But what's most striking is the bright red paint it's covered in. It really gives the mask a depth of
color that has been incredibly preserved over the centuries. And these details hide a terrible secret that has only recently been revealed. The mask is a thousand years old. It is made from a single sheet of gold alloy only two- hundredths of an inch thick. This is a perfect example of the craftsmanship of the Sicans. real balance had to be found between making it thin enough, yet strong enough to preserve the facial features. The iris and pupil are formed from large drilled amber and emerald beads. The final touch was the application of the characteristic red paint.
This stunning red color actually comes from a mineral called cinnabar. This is mercury sulfide. Cinnabar has been valued as a precious resource by many cultures around the world for at least 12,000 years. It is a great dye, so it was often used to emphasize importance through associations with blood, power, and, in particular, fertility. We know that the Romans used it in triumphal processions. Many statues in ancient times were originally decorated with bright red colors. But this mask is different. Beneath its bright paint lies something very dark. The very idea of paint is that you apply color to a surface. And for this, first of all, you
need pigment. This is the substance that actually gives color. it is a salt of red mercury, cinnabar. Next, you will need some kind of liquid that will allow it to flow so you can smear it. And finally, you will need a binder that will hold it together when you apply it to the surface. But a new study has revealed something completely unexpected. In 2021, a study was conducted to analyze the composition of the red material on the surface. They used a technique called Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. This is an infrared technique that allows you to detect organic molecules on a surface and identify them. Thanks to this, they were able to conclude that there was a protein there. But it was when the scientists conducted further analysis to
identify the proteins that they discovered something truly shocking. There was both serum albumin and immunoglobulin G, both of which are proteins present in human blood. This deep red color comes from blood. Human blood Who wears a mask painted with human blood on his severed head?
