The Re-Inventors

History

History

Over more than 500 years, tens of millions of patents for products have been issued, but some are lost to history, and most don't achieve the success of, say, the telephone. Hosts Matt Hunter and Jeremy MacPherson dig up some of those of yore to see how the ideas would fare in the modern world. The guys work with a team to examine original blueprints, build prototypes and test the inventions to see how well they work. Some that the hosts want to tackle are a submarine from the late 1500s, a 14th-century machine using wind power to propel a wagon, and a 1950s design combining a Ford Thunderbird with airplane parts to make a flying car.