Part 1:

BBC's Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (2011) is a documentary hosted by Jim Al-Khalili
and tells the story of our quest to master nature's most mysterious force - electricity. Episode one
tells the story of the first natural philosophers who started to unlock the mysteries of electricity.
They studied its curious link to life, built strange and powerful instruments to create it, and even
tamed lightning itself.

The documentary began with Georg Matthias Bose, who constructed a static electricity generator
using a rotating glass sphere with a friction rubber of fur and a brass conductor. His invention
made way for demonstrations such as the electrical kiss and the electric beatification. His notable
creation was flawed because it couldn't hold or store electricity. Pieter van Musschenbroek, a
Dutch scientist, found a way to stock electricity using a jar of water. He called it the Leyden jar,
and it was the first capacitor. It can accumulate and preserve a high-voltage electric charge.
Benjamin Franklin also used the Leyden jar to prove that a lightning bolt is the same electricity
humans fabricated. He proved it using an iron rod about 8 or 10 feet long connected to the
Leyden jar. His experiment worked and proved that a natural bolt of lightning and electricity
made by men are the same. But lightning wasn't the only naturally made electricity animals can
also produce electricity from their body. Many animals can produce electricity from their body,
but the first to be studied was the torpedo fish. Henry Cavendish proved that the source of shock
from these fish was electricity by creating an artificial torpedo fish that could dispense electric
shocks. Based on such unusual observations, Galvani concluded that a type of electrical fluid
inherent in the body, which he dubbed animal electricity. According to him, the nervous system
delivers animal electricity to muscle tissue. Alessandro Volta contradicted this theory and
proposed that an electrical current is generated by contact between different metals. Volta
created a cell of stacked metals influenced by the pattern on the torpedo fish's body. It was the
first-ever battery, and it was called the Voltaic Cell.

All the events shown and discussed in the documentary were necessary to our present lives, for
these were the foundation of what we have today. It is fascinating how certain people come up
with ideas that connect to other people's thoughts and improve through time. These ideas become
things that help us in our daily lives and continue to grow every day.

In conclusion, I highly recommend watching this documentary if you want to learn more about
the history of electricity and fully understand how things used to be.
Part 2:
BBC's Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity  (2011) is a documentary hosted by Jim Al-
Khalili. Shows how harnessing the link between magnetism and electricity would completely
transform the world, allowing us to generate a seemingly limitless amount of electric power we
could utilize to drive machines, communicate across continents, and light our homes. 
 
The documentary started with Michael Faraday's desire to understand why things were the way
they were. How he got the chance to fulfill his dreams by attending Humphry Davy's lecture, and
how he started to dedicate his life to furthering Science. Faraday was appointed as Davy's
assistant at the Royal Institution and began to study chemistry that focused more on electricity
and magnetism. In 1820, a Danish scientist also learned electricity and magnetism and made an
extraordinary discovery. His name was Hans Christian Orsted. He discovered that there was a
relationship between electricity and magnetism. Faraday recreated Orsted's work and concluded
that there must be a flow of forces between the wire and the compass needle. Faraday created the
first-ever electric motor using copper wire, a magnet, and mercury. But this was not enough for
the Danish scientist. Faraday wanted to generate electricity using his idea of magnetism and
motion. He discovered that moving a magnet in and out of a wire coil induced a current in the
loop. Faraday recreated this work; instead of using a copper coil, he used a copper plate. The
telegraph was an early invention that communicated messages at a distance over a wire using
electricity. The word telegraphy comes from the Greek words tele, meaning far away, and
grapho, which means write. The telegraph completely revolutionized the early world. 
 
The documentary also showed the invention of light. During these times, there were no light
bulbs. The only source of light that they use is candles and gas lamps. Davy introduced the first
electric light, but it was too intense for most people. Thomas Edison invented a solution for this.
He created the first-ever Light Bulb.
 
It is very inspiring to learn about Faraday's journey as a scientist and how he started, from
binding books to inventing the first-ever electric motor. I'm so grateful to study this historical
event and how we are connected and influenced by these experiments and early inventions. 
 
The invention of the telegraph is so profound. I loved how it changed the way of communication
in the world in the early times. It changed people's lives, made the world smaller, and helped
early people to communicate from far away. 
 
In conclusion, this documentary is excellent for people who want to understand how things were
and how they impacted our present lives.
Part 3:
BBC's Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (2011) is a documentary hosted by Jim Al-Khalili
and tells us a story of maverick geniuses who used electricity to light our cities, to communicate
across the seas and through the air, to create modern industry, and to give us the digital
revolution. Electricity is not just something that generates heat and light. It connects the world
through networks and broadcasting. The final episode tells the story of how, after centuries of
man's experiments with electricity, a new era of precise understanding dawned; how we
discovered electric fields and electromagnetic waves. Today, it is difficult to imagine life without
electricity; it defines our age. Our reliance on it has grown in tandem with our understanding of
it. Today, we are on the verge of a breakthrough because understanding the secret of electrical
superconductivity has the potential to transform the world once more.
 
The documentary starts with James Clerk Maxwell. He is best known for developing
electromagnetism theory and establishing the link between light and electromagnetic waves.
Maxwell's work in electromagnetism began with the extension of Michael Faraday's theories of
electricity and magnetic lines of force. He constructed one of the most elegant theories ever
devised. He described and quantified the relationships between electricity, magnetism, and
electromagnetic wave propagation using four equations. Moving on, Heinrich Hertz was a
brilliant German physicist. An experimenter demonstrated the existence of the electromagnetic
waves predicted by James Clerk Maxwell. Hertz is also the man who gave the frequency unit its
name; one hertz equals one cycle per second. In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi used radio waves to
transmit signals over long distances. In subsequent years, he improved the technology to achieve
a farther range. Oliver Lodge demonstrated radio broadcasting at Oxford University two years
before Marconi's first radio broadcast in 1896. Lodge invented the moving-coil loudspeaker and
the variable tuner, a tuning capacitor. Jagadish Chandra Bose, the father of wireless
communication, sent an electromagnetic wave across 75 feet, passing through walls, to remotely
ring a bell and explode some gunpowder. He also invented the Mercury Coherer, a radio wave
receiver that Guglielmo Marconi later used to build the first operational transatlantic two-way
radio capable of communicating over 2,000 miles. 
 
After watching the final episode, I liked how they focused on improving the wireless capability
of communication machines. I had fun learning about the ancestors of the devices we use today.
It's fascinating how people used to thrive by learning how to use electricity. 
 
The whole series is excellent for people who want to discover more about our past. How we
started using electricity, improved our use, the discovery of light, and the use of wireless
communication devices.