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I've seen a couple more of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ One documentaries that are going out on Monday at 7:30pm and I am still trying to get my head around what I learnt in ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ East Midlands' The Man That Shrunk The Globe.

The programme is about Frank Whittle's invention of the jet engine in a foundry in Lutterworth. Here is a clip of Jem Stansfield looking at some of the objects that have survived as mementos of the first successful test flight.




That was 1941, but the bit that blew my mind is the fact the RAF could have had jet engines before the war even began. As the inventor Trevor Baylis points out, that would have completely altered and probably shortened the war. For instance it would have meant no Battle of Britain and no blitz, as the jets would have swatted the German propeller planes out of the sky.

I always figured that the jet engine must have been a product of the intense technological competition between the nations during the war. But it turns out Whittle had a patent on a jet engine in 1930 but the Air Ministry just ignored his ideas. Incredible!

There is some really interesting stuff later on about how since the 1950s the commercial jet airliner has changed leisure, economics and international relations - and how Frank Whittle never got the credit he deserved for his invention.

The other documentary I've seen is Stuart Maconie's A Tale of Two Rival Cities looking at objects from Manchester and Liverpool. This, of course, means another chance to see some water and steam-powered machines from the industrial revolution running in all their clunking, whirring glory. Here is a clip of Richard Arkwright's revolutionary water frame in action.




I like Maconie's suggestion that Richard Arkwright was a considerate employer because he wouldn't employ anyone under the age of six. I assume that four and five-year-olds at the time had to make do with a paper-round.

But the programme suggests that these two cities have been locked in technological and economic combat for hundreds of years and as a result have became the country's manufacturing heartland. It seems like it's a grudge match that has eventually benefited us all.

• The Man Who Shrank the Globe will be show in the on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ One in the East Midlands at 7:30pm on Monday and A Tale of Two Rival Cities will be show at the same time in the North West. However, you will be able to watch both, and of all the other 12 A History of the World documentaries, for seven days afterwards on the iPlayer.
  
• The documentaries include objects from may museums including Lutterworth Museum, the Midland Air Museum and Manchester Museum of Science & Induustry, which all have objects on this site.
  

** UPDATE - You can now watch all the documentaries on iPlayer until Mon 24 May. **