>> 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 e-mail. in this house, farmed the fields, ground 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 toiling 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 grow. after london 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 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 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 whilst 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. a 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 a 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 powers a completely automatic operation. grain 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 wood or coal, the engines quickly prove their power to run machines. when steam is needed to turn wheels, the conquest of energy becomes the conquest of distance. ♪ ♪ the steam engine. grows paddles. coal burning engines offered more dependable power than sails.

at first, they are slower than the new sailing 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 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. harvests of grain increase 1000-fold and are brought closer to market by the railroad. by the 1870's, america is 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 pride in his country. memorial hall still stands where grant opened the centennial 100 years ago. smiling colombians still extend a welcome to all from 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 heralds the future in another way. on the fourth of july, as americans celebrate, in independence hall is 1876, illuminated by a new form of energy. electric arcs light up the sky. scientists are searching elsewhere in nature. john ericsson has looked to solar energy. he has made fundamental studies and constructed what he calls solar engines. sunlight falling on the rooftops of philadelphia, he says, will 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 light, 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 night.

♪ ♪ for many americans on the western frontier, life is as it was a century before. in 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 gasoline engines. with 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 joyride 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 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 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 seem 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. a massive effort in the 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 needs 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 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. thought 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-watt gas turbine. it seems a setting for the 19th-century fantasy of a voyage to the center of the earth. in a western desert, they are piping high-pressure steam and brine 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 ours 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

procession 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 his spirit. ♪ ♪

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> tonight, we look at how cowboys became a symbol for a newly reunited america during reconstruction. boston college professor cited examples of jesse james and buffalo bill and explains how cowboys individualism was viewed as the counterbalance to the reconstruction era dominance of

the republican party government. that is tonight at 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern. >> coming up next, the national archives at college park maryland as letters from civil war soldiers are already as well as the soldiers daily lives which were defined by personal hardship, disease, and death. this program is about one hour 20 minutes.