Thomas Edison registered over 1,000 patents, but his favorite invention was one of his first. Rare photographs and early recordings show how the young inventor and his team outfoxed Alexander Graham Bell.

Though now considered a country cousin when compared to the sophisticated television, merely a century ago, the radio galvanized communications as it linked the world without wires. The program examines the long life of the radio.

An exploration of the intense competition, the romance, the success, and disappointment that led to the miracle of long distance communication.        

The complete story of the feuds, the mistakes, ingenuity, and successes that made movies possible--and kept Edison at the front of the inventor pack. Includes rare early films from the Edison Studios.

An exploration of the world's most popular entertainment, from the boy genius who invented it to the RCA "General" who made it a reality.              

From colossal devices designed to save the world to mind-expanding, world-shrinking machines, we trace the evolution of mice and menus. Learn about the world's most powerful computer, IBM's ASCI White, that operates at 12-trillion calculations a second. See how the first room-sized computers, such as ENIAC, changed the world. Bite into Apple's history and rediscover the machine that made computers a household appliance. And peer through a microscope to see the molecular computers of the future.

Mixtures of metals and caustic chemicals that make our tech, tools, and toys surge with energy. Visit the world's most powerful battery in Fairbanks, Alaska ready to help the city survive power outages. Then it's off to Energizer's mammoth North Carolina production facility to see how machines churn out one million D-cells every day. 6,831 batteries are packed in the sleek Tesla Roadster, a new electric sports car. Let's take a ride. And your own car battery? We'll show you the ingredients that manufacturers pour into it--from sulfuric acid to a substance aptly called "mud." And we don't forget nanobatteries--those microscopic marvels that may some day power nanorobots. That Fantastic Voyage of a submarine in the human blood stream is suddenly a plausible reality.

Nikola Tesla's bizarre vision of the future brought him failure, but his genius electrified the world. Travel to Niagara Falls, where in 1893, Tesla installed his new system of Alternating Electrical Current known as AC--the same power we use today. Uncover the forgotten ruins of Tesla's dream experiment---a huge tower on Long Island Sound he hoped would wirelessly power the world. Radar, death rays, invisibility devices, and earthquake machines: Tesla claimed to have created them all. More than 100 years ago Tesla foresaw the need for alternative energies like geothermal and solar.

Thomas Edison registered over 1,000 patents, but his favorite invention was one of his first. Rare photographs and early recordings show how the young inventor and his team outfoxed Alexander Graham Bell.

Though now considered a country cousin when compared to the sophisticated television, merely a century ago, the radio galvanized communications as it linked the world without wires. The program examines the long life of the radio.

An exploration of the intense competition, the romance, the success, and disappointment that led to the miracle of long distance communication.        

The complete story of the feuds, the mistakes, ingenuity, and successes that made movies possible--and kept Edison at the front of the inventor pack. Includes rare early films from the Edison Studios.

An exploration of the world's most popular entertainment, from the boy genius who invented it to the RCA "General" who made it a reality.              

From colossal devices designed to save the world to mind-expanding, world-shrinking machines, we trace the evolution of mice and menus. Learn about the world's most powerful computer, IBM's ASCI White, that operates at 12-trillion calculations a second. See how the first room-sized computers, such as ENIAC, changed the world. Bite into Apple's history and rediscover the machine that made computers a household appliance. And peer through a microscope to see the molecular computers of the future.

Mixtures of metals and caustic chemicals that make our tech, tools, and toys surge with energy. Visit the world's most powerful battery in Fairbanks, Alaska ready to help the city survive power outages. Then it's off to Energizer's mammoth North Carolina production facility to see how machines churn out one million D-cells every day. 6,831 batteries are packed in the sleek Tesla Roadster, a new electric sports car. Let's take a ride. And your own car battery? We'll show you the ingredients that manufacturers pour into it--from sulfuric acid to a substance aptly called "mud." And we don't forget nanobatteries--those microscopic marvels that may some day power nanorobots. That Fantastic Voyage of a submarine in the human blood stream is suddenly a plausible reality.

Nikola Tesla's bizarre vision of the future brought him failure, but his genius electrified the world. Travel to Niagara Falls, where in 1893, Tesla installed his new system of Alternating Electrical Current known as AC--the same power we use today. Uncover the forgotten ruins of Tesla's dream experiment---a huge tower on Long Island Sound he hoped would wirelessly power the world. Radar, death rays, invisibility devices, and earthquake machines: Tesla claimed to have created them all. More than 100 years ago Tesla foresaw the need for alternative energies like geothermal and solar.

On May 17, 1968, the nuclear submarine USS Scorpion was making her way through the Mediterranean returning to base at Norfolk, Virginia, when she received top-secret orders to report on a mysterious group of Soviet warships and submarines lurking around the Azores. On May 21, the Scorpion completed her mission and signaled her return. But she never arrived back to base. Though the wreckage of the 3,000-ton submarine was later found, it revealed few clues to its demise.

In January 1974, the Gaul, a deep-sea trawler, slipped out of harbor in northeast England. By February 7, the Gaul had caught and packed nearly 20 tons of fish in the Barents Sea. When bad weather closed in and the Gaul was battered by gale-force winds and high seas, the skipper sent two radio messages--the last heard from the Gaul. The trawler and 36 men had vanished! Built to withstand inclement conditions, why did she disappear? Why was there still a mystery 20 years after her disappearance?

On January 4, 1910, the wooden steamship SS Farallon left port in Alaska, heading south along the coast. While crossing the treacherous Cook Inlet, the ship stuck fast on a reef of jagged rock. In the middle of the winter, the crew and passengers had no choice but to abandon ship and make for the deserted, rocky shoreline. Stranded without radio contact and not expected in port for a month, as far as the world was concerned, the 29 officers and nine passengers had vanished without a trace.

On January 29, 1982, Steven Callahan, sailing alone, slipped out El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands. The 29-year-old American planned to reach Antigua by February 25. Six days after leaving port, Callahan was caught in a raging storm during the night. As his boat was being battered, he cut his life raft free just in time. But he didn't have time to send a distress signal--and he was adrift 450 miles from the nearest land. To the outside world, he had seemingly vanished without a trace.

On October 28, 1991, Hurricane Grace battered the entire eastern Atlantic seaboard with winds reaching 95 mph. But the worst was yet to come when Grace collided with a cold front from Canada and a storm from the Great Lakes. And somewhere, 400 miles offshore, a sword-fishing boat named the Andrea Gail was heading home with a hold full of fish when she found herself at the center of the so-called "Perfect Storm"--and was never seen again.

On July 11, 1980, the British bulk carrier The Derbyshire set sail from Canada for an 11,000-mile voyage to Japan. On September 9th, just days before the ship was due in Japan, it unexpectedly was caught in the full fury of a tropical storm. The skipper sent a position report to Liverpool and contacted a ship about 80 miles astern. It was the last time anyone heard from The Derbyshire. The Derbyshire wasn't the only bulk carrier to vanish. Was a storm the cause of her disappearance or something else?

On September 29, 1918, U.S. Lieutenant Frank Luke took off in his biplane from a field in France and headed for the frontline 11 miles away. His mission--to destroy three German observation balloons. Balloon busting was a highly risky task, and Luke was reckoned to be the best. In just over two weeks, he destroyed 14 enemy balloons. After exploding his last three balloons, Luke vanished. We reveal what happened to the brilliant young flyer and posthumous recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In 1938, Douglas Corrigan climbed into his single-engine monoplane for a nonstop flight from New York to Los Angeles. But puzzled onlookers witnessed his plane make a 180-degree turn and head into a bank of fog--in the wrong direction! When Corrigan reappeared in Ireland the next day, he maintained that he'd "accidentally" achieved his dream of flying across the Atlantic--a flight forbidden him by authorities. Was he unfairly elected an honorary member of the Liar's Club of America?

The story of one of Great Britain's greatest and best-known WWI flying aces, 21-year-old Albert Ball, who vanished without a trace during a dogfight with six German planes. On May 7, 1917, Captain Ball took off in his fighter plane from a base in France headed to the frontline. He and his flight group spotted a British plane under attack by two German planes and joined the fray--along with four more German planes! Finally, Ball and the last German plane disappeared into a cloud--still firing their guns.

On the morning of August 16, 1942, residents of Daly City, near San Francisco, were astonished to see a U.S. Navy airship drifting aimlessly overhead. Within a few minutes, the rapidly deflating dirigible came down at a road intersection and was immediately surrounded by fire crews, police, and curious spectators. Apart from the door, which hung open, inside the cabin everything seemed in order. But the 2-man crew was missing without a trace, and their fate remains a mystery to this day.

In October 1972, a rugby team and friends en route from Uruguay to Chile boarded a plane in Argentina for a 90-minute flight to Santiago. They never arrived. The plane's route over the Andes was searched for weeks, but there was no trace of the aircraft. But 72 days later, two survivors walked out of the Andes. Rescue helicopters found 14 more stranded in the mountains. They had survived by living inside the wrecked fuselage--and eating the flesh of their dead companions! This is their story.

Early on the morning of June 15, 1955, a distinguished state judge, 58-year-old Eugene Chillingworth, and his wife went missing from their home in a Florida beach resort. They were never found. Judge Chillingworth had one enemy--a colleague on the legal circuit, Judge Peel. Chillingworth had been keeping close watch over Peel's business interests and was about to reveal illegal dealings. We see how, when police took notice, Peel's paid henchmen confessed to murdering and disposing of the Chillingworths.

Mixtures of metals and caustic chemicals that make our tech, tools, and toys surge with energy. Visit the world's most powerful battery in Fairbanks, Alaska ready to help the city survive power outages. Then it's off to Energizer's mammoth North Carolina production facility to see how machines churn out one million D-cells every day. 6,831 batteries are packed in the sleek Tesla Roadster, a new electric sports car. Let's take a ride. And your own car battery? We'll show you the ingredients that manufacturers pour into it--from sulfuric acid to a substance aptly called "mud." And we don't forget nanobatteries--those microscopic marvels that may some day power nanorobots. That Fantastic Voyage of a submarine in the human blood stream is suddenly a plausible reality.

Nikola Tesla's bizarre vision of the future brought him failure, but his genius electrified the world. Travel to Niagara Falls, where in 1893, Tesla installed his new system of Alternating Electrical Current known as AC--the same power we use today. Uncover the forgotten ruins of Tesla's dream experiment---a huge tower on Long Island Sound he hoped would wirelessly power the world. Radar, death rays, invisibility devices, and earthquake machines: Tesla claimed to have created them all. More than 100 years ago Tesla foresaw the need for alternative energies like geothermal and solar.