unfortunately, we are just about out of time. but thank you to everybody in the panel and in the audience for a really helpful discussion. [applause] >> watching --you are watching american history tv on cspan3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook. >> each week, american history tv's "reel america" brings you archival films that help tell the story of the 20th century. next "energy: the american experience" is a 1978 film that traces the history of energy sources in the united states from human and animal power to

steam, coal, electricity, oil, gasoline, and nuclear. this energy department production ends with a look at conservation and renewable sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal.

>> the miller's house in the maryland countryside. for 200 years, people have dwelt in this house. farmed the fields, ground of the grain, lived and died. how did they live? even in america where nature is generous, life is hard. the energy of back and aching muscles plows the land, splits the rails, does the work. for more than a century, working energy is human and animal labor twiddling -- otoiling from dawn til dusk. from the beginning when even windmills and water mills were

few and far between, people have had to manage for themselves. life is good, but even until the very end, hands are never idle. it is still as god spoke to adam, by the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread. during the first century of settlement, towns and villages growth. philadelphia is the largest city in the british empire, the center of trade and learning, quaker restraint, and georgian elegance.

when resentment against british rule breaks out america becomes independent. the war is long and bitterly fought. still in april 1775, readers of the pennsylvania magazine are learning of an ingenious new horse powered judge -- dredge. short of working hands, americans are interested in any inventions that promise to save labor. ships moved by wind power are the only form of communication the new states have with your -- with europe, their main link with each other. with favoring winds, ships often take more than a month to cross the atlantic.

the fashionable event among intellectuals is the electrical party where you can receive a real electric shock while touching or even kissing someone else. philadelphia's own dr. franklin believed electricity to be in the lightning bolt itself. however, he sees little promise in the new steam engines people are talking about. a new homestead in the unsettled west country of pennsylvania. family is trying to clear the land and bring in a crop before winter comes. time is short. everybody works. the fire is only serving to rid

the land of brush. he wonders, what is this force? how could it be captured? how could it be used? there is work to be done. he leaves it for wiser heads to puzzle out why in the world brimming with energy mankind is sentenced to a lifetime at hard labor. the scientists of his day are beginning to grasp the great interplay of forces in nature from the sun to the power sleeping in wood and coal. inventors are busy. a native genius, oliver evans designs a new mill in which the great wooden wheel hours a completely automatic operation. green going in one hand, flour

coming out the other. inventors of the 19th century are ingenious at finding new ways to use the energy of falling water. but their great achievement is using fire to make steam generating undreamed of mechanical energy. early steam engines give way to higher pressure models. strong steam they call it. fired by wind or cold -- wood or coal the engines quickly prove the power to run machines. when steam is needed to turn wheels, the conquest of energy becomes the conquest of distance.

the steam engine, the steam powered engines offered more dependable power than sails. at first they are slower than the new season clippers, but by 1840, have crossed the atlantic in 18 days. labor hungry farmers are cheering new machines. the reaper, the binder, the cultivator, in the 100 variations. the spreading network of rails starts some 49ers west as far as the tracks go. just over the western horizon is a greater treasure. harvest of grs of gra increasedi

1000n fold and brought closer to market by the railroad. by the 1870's, america's a new nation of big cities and growing industries. a country that has been torn apart, then reunited. in 1876, a special train takes passengers from new york to san francisco in just 83 hours. and america has a birthday to celebrate. 100 years of independence. the centennial exhibition at philadelphia is the biggest the nation has ever seen. out of 40 million americans, 5 million would come to see it. there is much to see. if the festival has one theme it is power the conquest of

energy made possible by iron steam, and coal. the main attraction is a giant corliss engine. president grant and the emperor of brazil join to set the big machine in motion. at last, inventors are making use of america's fast -- vast store of natural resources. visitors remember the unfailing good humor of the crowds that centennial summer. times are hard in 1876. but on this occasion, the humblest or the newest american can take right in his country. -- can take ride in his country. memorial hall still stands where grant opened the centennial 100 years ago.

smiling colombians still extend a welcome to all of north and south. at dusk, the great plaza still echoes to the band, the voices the excitement of the century past. their buildings tell us of these people, that they were confident. they built massively, boldly and well. some of them reached the future in which man's new mastery of energy might lead to an era of plenty for all mankind. the centennial harold's -- h eralds the future in another way. on the fourth of july, as american celebrate, independence hall is eliminated -- ppie

illuminated by a new form of energy. electric arcs like of the sky. scientists are searching elsewhere in nature. he has looked to solar energy. he has made fundamental studies and constructed what he calls solar engines. sunlight followings on the rooftops of philadelphia, he says, with power 5000 steam engines. other engineers are exploring different paths. some are trying to find a way to generate power from new fuels available such as petroleum and gas. the internal combustion engine is being tinkered and hammered into existence. the great-grandfather of all the

automobile engines airplane motors, and power mowers is getting a trial run. to his practiced ear, it sounds good. and it looks good. engineers are still confronting basic questions with every practical advance. what happens when energy changes from one form to another? what laws govern the transformation of heat into power? what is energy? questions the scientists of his day are working to answer.

the electrical age is dawning. a new kind of like, the incandescent lamp is one of many inventions thomas edison would give to the world trade from generators electricity can be sent as if by magic through slender wires over long distances. within a few years and cities across the land, electricity transforms the dark knight -- dark night. for many americans on the western frontier, life is as images as it was a century before. new settlements they stop for a moment to have their picture taken. sometimes they show us more than they know. life is hard in a new country. others see more hopeful. the nation is growing and

changing. many new immigrants come, hands ready to work. one million a year. the camera documents them and americans of this time who pause to look at us from the midst of their lives. times are changing. the age of animal power is soon to pass. engines are moving themselves into the fields. the first tractors, some steam powered, some moved by new internal combustion gas doing -- gasoline engines. growing demand for fuel, petroleum production expands. by 1903, offshore drilling has been started. not that there is any shortage.

america's supply of oil seems endless. and soon, every man's dream is to own a shining new automobile. the great american joy right has begun. with lightweight engine and powerful gasoline fuel, another long cherished dream is beginning to come true. a new edison invention is well underway by 1900. farsighted producers have discovered the formula for success. a sophisticated combination of sex and violence. motion pictures are also documenting an incredible era of industrial growth.

the factory workforce totals many millions. men, women, and children. coal has long since replaced wood as the primary energy source for industry. making and using energy is big is this -- big business. giant generators are being built. electric motors of all sizes and descriptions for industry and home use street lighting subways, and trolley lines. the new century is picking up speed, and with it, the pace of life quickens. the energy revolution has launched the country on a voyage destination unknown.

and people are rushing to get on. for many, the new jobs mean liberation from the drudgery and loneliness of farm life. for many others, it means only repetitious, routine work. for better or for worse, the machine has arrived. and americans struggle to master it. some succeed. and for some, well, the internal combustion engine will always remain a mystery. the fourth of july in a small western town. time, the early 1920's. this year and every year, the firemen compete to prove human speed and agility have no equal.

but pressure comes direct from a hard-working, pumping engine. americans are learning to live with the machine trying to gain the benefits of progress in health, comfort, a better life while observing the shock of many -- absorbing the shock of many changes. the cameras of small-town photographers mirror these decades. the 20's, the 30's, and the 40's. in the faces of ordinary people. while change continues to sweep across their lives. today, the world they have built surrounds us. based on 200 years of invention, science, and human labor. energy powers a nation geared to using it freely to live and

move, make and produce. the hopes of the past for overflowing abundance scene realized -- scene realized. and yet the very control over nature of our forefathers worked so hard to achieve has led to a crisis in our time different from any they encountered. the fuels they thought inexhaustible are being used up rapidly. america is running out of gas. and it is our turn to seek new ways to generate power. each time we have shifted to new sources of power, history tells us it has taken 60 years. america cannot afford to wait.

to promote a national effort, a federal agency has been created to plan the best use of our present resources to mobilize science, industry, and government to develop new sources of energy, and to accomplish this without injuring the environment. it is an american tradition confidence in man's powers of inventions. every promising source is being explored from machines that draw power out of the free-flowing tides of air and sunlight to fusion. our message effort in a complex your -- field of nuclear reactions with the promise of power that is truly limitless. science has already harnessed the first new source of power

discovered in a century. nuclear reactors have been generating electricity for more than 25 years. by 1990, they will meet a large part of our need for power. in the nation's oil fields, old wells are being treated to make them give up more oil. enhanced recovery it is called. we are going far to bring in new supplies. producing more energy would be meaningless without conservation. a major study focuses on america's favorite means of transportation, searching for engines that will go much farther on much less fuel. battery-powered cars are being tested, and a variety of other power plants to save energy. the interest feature drivers

show is more than furious -- curious. it is a look into the next 20 years. still another long-range effort studies how to extract will trapped in layers of rock, oil shale. what prospectors of the past. worthless is crushed and processed in a small-scale trial of full production that a 19th-century capitalist would have envied. what comes out is oil along with the data on recovery that will guide further development. much work is concentrating on the fuel that is still america's primary resource, our vast reserves of coal. coal, we are learning, is more than coal.

a complex hydrocarbon whose chemistry is not easily understood. using this knowledge in new plants, our present ability to transform coal into synthetic gas or oil will be greatly expanded. a research project in combustion mixes high sulfur coal with limestone to make it burn cleaner and more efficiently. in a pilot plant, the mixture is consumed under highly controlled conditions with attention that a humble scuttle of coal never enjoyed before. floating on a stream of air, the particles burn to power a one million what gas turbine. it seems a setting for the 19

century fantasy of a voyage to the center of the earth. in a western desert, they are piping high-pressure steam and brian from far below the surface to learn how it might be harnessed to a turbine generator. some geothermal forces are already being used to meet 1/3 of san francisco's power needs. at other sites, we are exploring the use of geothermal reservoirs that have useful temperatures as low as 300 degrees fahrenheit. some studies have a significance far beyond their size. in this miniature experiment the scientist is burning coal inside a glass column to determine if coal might be burned while still in the earth to generate methane gas. in his curiosity, he is part of

a tradition of everyone who ever gazed in wonder at fire. and he too, is asking questions. how best to turn this fuel into useful energy? how can we produce energy without waste? the dreams of ericsson and other visionaries move a step closer to achievement with renewed studies of sun power. the ultimate goal, to turn the sun's energy directly into electricity. ericsson's proposal to cover rooftops with solar collectors has been put into practice. collectors soak up sun to provide buildings below with heat or cooling and they send data to a battery of recorders to help chart the way in the use of solar energy.

in a time of shortages, we are still surrounded by a world that is overflowing with energy. the forces still hidden deep in the nucleus of the atom, or in the flame or the seas can become hours just as those before us harnessed elemental powers of heat and electricity. we who share in their achievements cannot give any less imagination or skill to the problems we face in our own time to find sources of energy that are truly inexhaustible in the sun or in the world around us. the people who crowd to see the

place where long ago 13 united colonies declared themselves free and independent are not so different from the people who waited one july day for the statehouse bell to ring. there are many people in the profession that moves out of the past into the future. the people who built the house at valley mill, who farmed its land and ground its grain. the same people whose capable hands forged the foundations of modern life. the people working today, with

all of those from one generation to the next, who seek to lift out of bondage, man's body and spirit. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> andrew keen, author of the internet is not the answer i on how the public is being used by internet companies for profit. >> in the industrial age, people worked in factories. they were paid for their labor. they worked 9-5, and they went to home and did what they want with the money. today, we are working in factories like google and facebook, but we are working 24 hours per day. we are not rewarded or egg knowledge that we are creating the value for them. worse than that, we are the ones who are being packaged as the product. of course, what these companies do is, they are learning more about us from our behavior and what we publish, from our photographs and ideas, what we buy and say, what we don't say. they are learning about us and creating a panoptic on. then, they are transforming us

repackaging us as the product. we are the ones eating sold. not only are we working for free, but we are being sold. it is the ultimate scam. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern on q&a. coming up next on american history tv, the national archives posts independent researcher john emond as he reads letters from civil war soldiers, placing the letters in the context of the war as well as the soldiers daily lives defined by personal hardship, disease, and death. this is about one hour and 20 minutes. >> i think we are all settled in. welcome. i work in the national archives. i work -- i welcome you to this program. we have an ongoing lecture series to teach you about the