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I sampled it again and right off the bat, his claim that freeze drying was invented by the coffee industry in S. America because they had extra beans is easily

I sampled it again and right off the bat, his claim that freeze drying was invented by the coffee industry in S. America because they had extra beans is easily proven false by 2 minutes of research and his further claim that this led to easier supply of troops in WW2 is no connection at all. His show was a bunch of random facts strung together for the flimsiest of reasons. Did the BBC know this and only broadcast it because it was entertaining and the audience didn't have the internet at the time? Or am I missing something about Connections? Burke seems like a smart guy.

eesmith 5y ago
What exactly did Burke say that was easily proven false by 2 minutes of research? I found "Freeze-Drying of Pharmaceutical and Food Products" at https://books.google.com/books?id=WopwAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&ots=8T9Q0UayZN&pg=PA1#v=onepage https://books.google.com/books?id=WopwAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&ots=8... with "Brief history of freeze-drying technology". > There were three events which had the milestone significance in the early development in freeze-drying technology: > (1) Earl W. Flosdorf and Stuart Mudd from University of Pennsylvania successfully preserved the human serum by freeze-drying using glass apparatus in 1933 > (2) During World War II, the freeze-drying process was developed commercially when it was used to preserve blood plasma and penicillin. Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain, the scientists who followed up most successfully on Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin in 1928, devised the method to store the penicillin by freeze-drying in 1938, and made great contribution to clinical application during World War II. The three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945. Several years later, Charles Merieux (French virologist) made the freeze drying as a regular technology for vaccine preservation. > (3) In 1930, Nestlé's chairman was approached by the Brazilian Coffee Institute and asked to develop coffee that was soluble in hot water and retaining its flavor. At the time, Brazil had a huge coffee surplus. After seven years of painstaking research at the Nestlé research centre laboratory in Switzerland, scientist Max Mortgenthaler invented freeze-dried coffee and the powered coffee was first produced in 1938, which led to the development of powdered food products. That last sounds close enough to your summary that I would have to know more exactly what Burke said. It looks like it was from "Life is No Picnic" in Connections 3, available from https://archive.org/details/connections-1-04-faith-in-numbers/Connections+3-05+Life+Is+No+Picnic.mp4 https://archive.org/details/connections-1-04-faith-in-number... . It seems a decent match. https://tomharperkelly.com/breakfastkration/ https://tomharperkelly.com/breakfastkration/ describes how US Army Rations had soluble coffee in the First World War, but it wasn't until "1940 [when] the Army adopted "Nescafe," a product of Nestle's Milk Products, Incorporated, for its C Ration. Nescafe combined soluble coffee with maltose, dextrine, and dextrole to improve the coffee's taste and aroma.", and coffee was later used in the K-rations, as Burke mentioned. I haven't been able to find if "Nescafe" is indeed freeze-dried coffee, or something else. But my two-minute search suggests it is.
Tagbert 5y ago
So is that the extent of it? the point of the program is that inventions are a result of previous inventions and influenced buy the society in which they are developed. If you looks at any given invention you can trace the “ancestral” inventions back to further ancestral inventions and learn a lot about how the conditions around them affect the outcome. The program runs that tracing back from earlier to more recent to see the effects. there is a lot of material in there and I would not be surprised if a few things turn out to either incorrect or incomplete in hind site.

eesmith 5y ago

What exactly did Burke say that was easily proven false by 2 minutes of research? I found "Freeze-Drying of Pharmaceutical and Food Products" at https://books.google.com/books?id=WopwAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&ots=8T9Q0UayZN&pg=PA1#v=onepage https://books.google.com/books?id=WopwAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&ots=8... with "Brief history of freeze-drying technology". > There were three events which had the milestone significance in the early development in freeze-drying technology: > (1) Earl W. Flosdorf and Stuart Mudd from University of Pennsylvania successfully preserved the human serum by freeze-drying using glass apparatus in 1933 > (2) During World War II, the freeze-drying process was developed commercially when it was used to preserve blood plasma and penicillin. Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain, the scientists who followed up most successfully on Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin in 1928, devised the method to store the penicillin by freeze-drying in 1938, and made great contribution to clinical application during World War II. The three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945. Several years later, Charles Merieux (French virologist) made the freeze drying as a regular technology for vaccine preservation. > (3) In 1930, Nestlé's chairman was approached by the Brazilian Coffee Institute and asked to develop coffee that was soluble in hot water and retaining its flavor. At the time, Brazil had a huge coffee surplus. After seven years of painstaking research at the Nestlé research centre laboratory in Switzerland, scientist Max Mortgenthaler invented freeze-dried coffee and the powered coffee was first produced in 1938, which led to the development of powdered food products. That last sounds close enough to your summary that I would have to know more exactly what Burke said. It looks like it was from "Life is No Picnic" in Connections 3, available from https://archive.org/details/connections-1-04-faith-in-numbers/Connections+3-05+Life+Is+No+Picnic.mp4 https://archive.org/details/connections-1-04-faith-in-number... . It seems a decent match. https://tomharperkelly.com/breakfastkration/ https://tomharperkelly.com/breakfastkration/ describes how US Army Rations had soluble coffee in the First World War, but it wasn't until "1940 [when] the Army adopted "Nescafe," a product of Nestle's Milk Products, Incorporated, for its C Ration. Nescafe combined soluble coffee with maltose, dextrine, and dextrole to improve the coffee's taste and aroma.", and coffee was later used in the K-rations, as Burke mentioned. I haven't been able to find if "Nescafe" is indeed freeze-dried coffee, or something else. But my two-minute search suggests it is.

Tagbert 5y ago

So is that the extent of it? the point of the program is that inventions are a result of previous inventions and influenced buy the society in which they are developed. If you looks at any given invention you can trace the “ancestral” inventions back to further ancestral inventions and learn a lot about how the conditions around them affect the outcome. The program runs that tracing back from earlier to more recent to see the effects. there is a lot of material in there and I would not be surprised if a few things turn out to either incorrect or incomplete in hind site.