How Tech Works (2012–…): Season 1, Episode 13 - Episode #1.13 - full transcript

On this episode of
How Tech Works,

we take a tour

of a maze of man-made caves

in Nottingham.

Beneath our feet we've
got about 500 man-made caves.

And...

This unique abode

proves that recycling
on a grand scale

can work

if you don't mind
living in a former dumpster.

Hi there, my name is
Basil Singer



and you lucky viewers

are in for a tech-filled treat.

For the next half an hour

we're going to train

with the
super elite team of athletes.

Cyclists to be exact.

Thanks to the latest in
high-tech training gear.

Plus,

we'll hop on an incredibly
fast motorcycle

with three wheels.

Talk about a mighty trike.

But first,

England's Nottingham

is most often associated with



that legendary outlaw.

Twang.
Robin Hood.

Today it's a city of
350,000 people.

But many locals are not aware

that beneath the urban center,

lies a vast maze of
man-made caves.

Let's take a sneak peek.

David Walker can
tell you

Nottingham has been around for a
long time.

There's been a town on
this site

since Anglo-Saxon times

so probably the
7-8th century AD,

or like that.

And then,

the town expanded after
the Norman conquest

in 1066 when
William the Conqueror

put a castle on the hill.

He also knows
something few others do.

There is no obvious signs of
caves in most of the city,

but beneath our feet we've got
about 500

man-made sandstone caves.

So this is High Pavement,

the oldest part
of the city,

the Anglo-Saxon part
of the city,

fifty six has got a cave,
54 has got a cave.

Fifty two and 50 have got caves.

Forty eight has got a cave,
not sure about these two.

That one's got a cave but we
haven't been down it yet.

The cafe's got a cave.

The three buildings next to it

have got caves which all
interlink and inter-mingle.

And that's the
Gallery of Justice,

the Old Shire Hall,
the County Hall,

that's got caves dating back to
certainly medieval.

It's wonderful.
There's cave, dungeons,

passages, all sorts under there.

David is an
archeologist.

He's surveying and mapping
the caves

and their locations with
reference to the city surface.

Today,

he's checking out
The Old Angel Inn,

one of the oldest and reportedly
haunted pubs in town.

We're surveying with a
laser scanner

which fires out a beam of

laser light and measures
distances and angles,

from that we can build
up a cloud

of millions and millions of
survey points.

He works his way
outside in,

scanning the streets
and the building.

Then exploring and mapping the
caves below.

Cave by cave,

he's creating a digital detailed
history of this city.

There's pub cellars,

there's meat cellars,

a butcher's cave.

We've got tanneries with many,
many pits cut into the ground.

Malt kilns which are a bit of a
Nottingham specialty.

They were brewing beer

nearby and malting the grain
for that

underground where the
temperature is constant

so you could malt in the summer
as well as the winter.

The caves begin just
two or three meters down.

Nottingham Castle
sandstone,

it's very soft.

You can carve it with your thumb
pretty much,

you can cut your own cave with a
hammer and chisel.

It's really strong as well.

The castle sandstone is
sedimentary rock

so it's layers of sand that have
been laid down

at the bottom or rivers
and seas.

And those layers are
very thick ,

so as long as you cut within
the layers

or within only a few layers,

and cut yourself and nice arch
or dome shape,

you've got an
incredibly strong structure.

Some caves
stand alone,

others form elaborate networks
under several buildings.

There's some evidence of
man-made changes.

We've got different
tool markings,

we've got this much rougher
bigger tool marking here

which leads me to
believe this is

World War II for
air raid shelters,

expanded for an
air raid shelter.

And rather than the neat
tool marking

you get in the rest
of the cave,

it seems more
of thicker lines

which is certainly done
with a mechanical drill

or a rock drill

coming down rather than

hammer and chisel.

Many caves have
ghostly reminders

of their more recent use.

Some speak to happier times.

Sixteenth, 17th, 18th,
19th centuries

we see people starting to use
them for leisure purposes

like wine cellars

and lounge caves

and then follies and summer
houses as well.

This cave under
The Old Angel was at one time

good old fashioned storage.

So up there,
that's the level of the

pub floor and the street.

And your beer from a barrel is
just dropped from the top

and goes down there and
drops to the bottom.

And you stick it one side,

leave it to settle for
three weeks before

you can drink it.

The scanner records
an astonishing amount of data

resulting in incredible
3D portraits

of this underground world.

You can see the bits of modern
brick work,

we can see individual tool marks
and so forth.

And if we zoom into it,

we can see it's going to,

here it looks like a solid mass
of wall.

But if we zoom in, we can see
what we're actually looking at

which is just points,
individual survey points.

To make the images
more life-like,

he takes digital photos from the
same scanner positions

and overlays them.

The result is like a Davinci,

in a fraction of the time

it would have taken the old
master to paint it.

We can link a lot of
those together

so we can work from
surface levels

down through a cave or building
right down to the cave below.

But there's a lot
more work to do.

We've got a tiny little hole
up here

which connects it,

which connects this cave

to The Old Angel second set
of caves

which are above

and running off that way
somewhere.

There's a shaft there,
probably another beer drop

and another set of caves
over there.

David's recording
history

that's already vanishing.

We know for certain that about
80 or maybe 100 of them

are lost
one way or another.

So either fully destroyed
by either

by buildings being built on top
of them or through them

or filled with concrete

or bricked and blocked up
such that

there wasn't any access.

But the real dangers are
the caves

we don't know about.

There must be caves under
some buildings

that we have no record of.

If they do exist,

he's determined to find them.

This is one just fairly

normal building in Nottingham,

so if you multiply that by

one hundred or maybe by 500

every one of these caves has
a story to tell

and it's always
a different story

or a slightly different story,
but a different story.

Now, if you think
walking through

a labyrinth of dark caves is
cramped and crowded,

just wait until you see how
the fellow

in our next story makes
his home.

What's that saying about one
man's rubbish

is being another mans... castle?

No, that's not it.

Have a look at this.

This is not your
ordinary rubbish bin.

And Greg Kloehn is not your
ordinary artist.

You're probably looking
at the nicest

garbage can in the world.

Don't call him a
"bin man"

or a "trash collector".

One man's trash is another
man's treasure.

Although that just
happens to be his passion.

A couple windows, perfect.

My fascination with garbage is

we throw so much of this away in
this society

and it's wasteful

and a little shameful.

He was tired of
seeing people discard

valuable pieces of trash

outside their homes.

So Greg decided

to show that a rubbish bin
can actually

be a home.

I am playing with an object that

is seen as just a receptacle
for garbage.

And I've transformed it into
an object

as a vessel of life.

Greg's an artist

with one goal.

It is part of the craft
to take something

and transform it.

To have someone's eye read it as
a different shape.

As a different function.

And he's applying
that notion to the home.

What's a home?
That's a good question.

I think for everyone it's a
different thing.

It's a location,
it's a smell,

it's a kitchen,
it's a toilet,

it's a shower.

And yes, it's trashy
creation has it all.

It was a challenge to me,

how could I turn this one object
into a home?

I knew I had little space
to do it,

the square footage,

but to really make it work.

Welcome to my luxury
dumpster home.

Come on in, let's take a look.

No stone

or rubbish pile left unturned,

Greg recreates all the
creature-comforts of home.

We'll start with the kitchen,
the most important place

in any house, everyone spends
the most time there.

So let's scoot over and go to
the kitchen.

It comes complete
with a toaster oven,

a sink,
a single burner stove

and of course, a refrigerator.

It just runs off ice,
not electric.

There's also a
propane tank underneath

and it's stored under the
granite counter top.

But no rubbish disposal.

After a nice dinner,

everyone needs a good
night's sleep.

So the seat backs transform into
the bedroom.

At night time,

on here and the door when
is closed.

You have two of these and that
makes up your bed.

Now, I know what
you're wondering about.

And no, he hasn't forgotten
about that either.

One thing that is important to
everybody in a home,

is the rest-room.

This also has one.

Here we have the toilet.

It can hook up to a
septic tank or compost system.

And for the rest of the
plumbing,

a pipe system on the ceiling can
hold about six gallons of water.

We spare no expense in the
dumpster home,

only the best.

But enough of the
necessities,

this is a luxury rubbish bin.

Greg has got all of the extras.

A shower,

a flower bed,

a sun deck.

Setting up a rubbish bin home

sure works up a hunger.

So the barbeque is the final
tasty touch.

Luxury living in a
dumpster,

here's how we do it.

It's safe to say that
Greg's not a starving artist.

And not a scrap of food goes
to waste.

Greg hopes his converted rubbish
bin helps people learn

a little more about themselves.

I've had a lot of inspiration

from the homeless people
on the street.

I look what they take,

almost every night
they're grabbing

items dumped on the street,

configuring them in a way to
make a shelter

just for that evening.

I think if we really made a home
on our own,

we would be different.

We would look at things a
bit different,

what you need and what you want.

Coming up on How Tech Works.

We try not to hit the wall

with the SpiderTech
cycling team's

brand new training system.

And,
we take a different kind of spin

in a unique vehicle called the
Trey-cycle.

Find out what sets it apart.

Welcome back

to How Tech Works,

I'm Basil Singer.

Now when it comes to a
pro-athletes training program,

a lot of sports have adopted
high tech components

to achieve maximum
performance results.

So we wanted to check out
the latest

gear used by a team of
elite cyclists.

But I'm not going into
that spandex!

No, our intrepid reporter,
Dan Riskin,

in on the scene.

Let's see if he can keep up with
team SpiderTech.

Three...two...one...off you go.

Canada's Pro-Continental
cycling team,

team SpiderTech,

and the team hopes to
permanently etch

this country on the world
cycling map.

Key to that,

is developing elite
level athletes

with the help of a brand new
high tech training system.

Today I've come to check it out
for myself.

I am with former Tour de France
leader,

Olympic medalist,

Canadian cycling icon,
Steve Bauer.

Steve, what are we looking at?

This is a SpiderTech power watch
training system,

it's a computerized system that
picks up

the data from the rider's
performance.

It can pick up their power or
speed of the RPMs,

the cadence left and right,

to see if they're in balance.

Which foot is going in
which time?

Yes, to make sure
they're 50% power on both legs.

It's a lot of data that's
really important

in performance cycling.

And of course for team
SpiderTech,

it's a great training facility
for these guys

to test and monitor
performances over time.

Great, it looks like fun.

Do you think there's a chance
I could go?

I think we better put you on the
bike and give it a go.

-For sure.
-I like it.

Elite athlete?

Maybe not, but today

this system is about to get all
the Dan Riskin

it can handle.

Dan, you're looking like
a pro now.

I'm feeling pretty good.

So, this is the magical bike,

can you show me the sensors?

The heart of the SpiderTech

is back here on the plate.

So you pull it off

you can see that's where the
power structure is

is placed,
the horse power of the rider,

and then they have the sensors
down here

which monitor the cadence

or what they call the spin-scan.

Or the balance of the power of
the rider's left and right leg.

So those are the two main
sensors that pick up

and produce data

into the computer where we can
record it.

Okay cool, how about I take it
for a spin?

-Give it a shot.
-Okay, let's see.

I'll give you on a
one, two, three

and I want you to stand up
and give it a kick.

-Just really power into it.
-Okay.

One...two...three...okay give it
a go,

come on give it a sprint,
coming to the line,

you're going to win that jersey

You're going to win,
alright!

Pushed to the limit, the
system measures my every move.

And I can see it all on the
screen in real time.

Well, I could if I wasn't about
to throw up.

Yeah, yeah, you're there
at the finish line.

Good job.

So you want to see how
much wattage?

If we go to the screen,

you can see that your peak watt,

you're maximum watts produced,
858 watts.

Is that good?

I'd say that it's pretty
darn good.

For a first go,

you can improve and
when you come back

to the studio another time,
it's going to be over 1000.

You're going to go home and do
some training.

You see the thing is, I...

I have a knee injury.

Hey there.

-Hey how's it going?
-I'm Dan.'

I'm Lucas,
pleasure to meet you.

-What have you got there?
-This is SpiderTech

SpiderTech is a form of
kinesiology tape

that comes in pre-cut,

easy to apply patterns for just
about

every part of the human body.

Designed with the same weight,

thickness and elasticity
as the skin,

Lucas tells me that it adds
stability to joints and muscles,

without affecting circulation

or range of motion.

Helping to reduce pain

and even improve performance.

So why are you putting it on
your knee?

I'm putting it on my knee
because

back in 2009 I had a near
career-ending accident.

I was hit by a car while
training,

I shattered my knee cap.

And people told me

you might think about
another career.

Alright, so my knee isn't
quite as

injured as yours but I do have a
bum knee

and I feel that's holding
me back from the performance

that I know is inside me.

So, do you think there is anyway

I can throw some of this
on my knee

and thus achieve the
Olympic results

that I think I'm capable of?

You know what,
the Olympic results might take

you more determination
and hard guts,

but the SpiderTech's going
to help.

I think it's a matter of
the tape.

Let's try the tape and see if I
can be an Olympian

and we can try
exercise as the last resort.

Got to start somewhere,
right?

Getting taped up by
a trainer,

it's hard not to feel like
a pro.

So I'm thinking,

why stop at the knee?

-Alright.
-Alright Dan,

we're going to do it again,
ready?

Three, two, one okay give
it a shot.

Come on, come on, come on,
go, go, go, go!

That's good, you're coming to
the line.

One hundred more meters,
yes you're going to get it.

Yeah, alright, alright.

Good sprint.

Okay, so what do you say?

Am I ready for the
Tour de France?

You know what, you improved a
little bit, but...

You're going to need a little
more work Dan.

Well, that's life.
Thanks a lot.

-No problem.
-That's great.

And finally,

we're wrapping up with a story
show casing

a road warrior that is
definitely turning heads.

A test spin along the
Florida coast

puts out next self-taught
engineer on the map

with his one of a kind vehicle

called the Trey-cycle.

It's turning heads
all over Florida.

A motorcycle with a twist.

That's all I can
think about,

I got to make these
things safer.

With this
three-wheeled wonder,

bikers are getting an
alternative.

Number one, safety.
I said it had to have a frame.

That's the number one.

It's got to be stable,
that's number two.

It's got to be comfortable,
that's number three.

And it's got to have the power.

It's called,
the Trey-cycle,

and it does pack a lot of power.

It runs on a V6 engine

and customers are lining up.

Even at the garage.

Mike and Jody Bearle found
the aerodynamic

three-wheeler online.

They're so intrigued,

they've come to Melbourne,
Florida to give it a spin.

-Just go easy.
-I will.

I like that a lot.

That's cool!

That's what Ray's
banking on.

This self-taught engineer

wants to give riders the look

and the feel.

It's all made out of
4130 chromoly

used in all the Formula 1
race cars and NASCAR cars.

When these guys hit a wall
at 100 mile an hour,

they can get up and walk away.

We're just making sure
it fits right.

And right now,
it's not fitting right,

because we still have to make
the cut-outs for the exhaust.

Once we cut those out, it will
come down a bit more.

And then it will be in the
perfect shape.

While they're
fitting one,

they tow another to the
test track.

First, we get a 360 on
the specs.

Starting with LED headlights.

There's one here,
matching on the other side,

and there's one upfront,
so we have three.

We want the traffic to really
see us.

And they will.

We have a racing type formula
fuel tank.

The tank holds 20 gallons.

We figure 800 miles on a tank
with this engine.

The aerodynamics is

designed to push

everything together,
so it doesn't want to do this.

And push down at high speeds.

This bumper does come off.

There's a pin here

and two receivers,
one on this side

and one that side.
You pull this pin,

this will come out

and you put your travel haul
case back in.

Inside the engine compartment,

we kept it very neat.

There's hardly anything in the
way of hoses and wires.

With an automatic
transmission,

this trike can be serviced
anywhere.

Repairs and maintenance are no
more than any car

you can take it any place.

Adam Cherwinski is in
the driving seat today.

As a NASA engineer on
Ray's team,

he'll put the Trey-cycle
to the test.

Just keep your eye on the
oil pressure,

ensure the pressure stays up and
the water temperature stays up,

if it goes over 200,

make sure the fans are
kicking on.

If the fans don't kick on and it
goes to 220,

cut her off and stop the test.

Bike's running great,

suspension's doing wonderful,

oil temp stayed right in,

nice and smooth,
brakes worked great.

I think it's ready to deliver.

Great news
for Mike and Jody

who just couldn't resist another
joy ride.

That is amazing.

It's like...it's effortless.

I want to get as many out
there on the road as possible.

Not just to make the money,

the more people who are
driving them,

the safer motor cyclists are
going to be.

Well I never thought I would see
a NASA engineer

street legal race car.

But that's just one of the
benefits of watching our show.

Alas, that's all the time we've
got for today.

Thank you very much for watching
How Tech Works,

I'm Basil Singer,
see you next time.