Patented: History of Inventions

400 years ago on the River Thames a mad genius showed off the world's first submarine. A crowd of thousands including King James watched as Cornelis Drebbel disappeared beneath the murky water, only reemerging after three whole hours had passed.The same genius also came up with perpetual motion machines, self-regulating ovens, chemical air conditioning for Westminster Cathedral, and a project to provide central heating for all of London by building a perpetual fire on a hill outside the city, transporting the flames in pipes to people's houses.Elon Musk eat your heart out.Dallas's guest today is the amazing Vera Keller, historian of technology and author of a new book "The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge"Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte LongGet 50% off your first 3 months with code PATENTED. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribe

Fire is the unsung hero of human evolution. We could not have turned into the big-brained, deep-thinking animals we are on raw food alone. The moment two million years ago that our forebears first started using fire to cook, was the spark that started everything off.That's according to today's guest - Richard Wrangham one of the world's leading anthropologists and author of Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us HumanEdited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Alex Carlon & Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte LongGet 50% off your first 3 months with code PATENTED. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribe

For most of their history, High Heels were resolutely masculine. The most manly of manly footwear. How did they turn into burning icons of femininity? And now that the heyday of women's high heels is over, what lies ahead for them?Dallas's guest today is Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum.Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Alex Carlon, Senior Producer is Charlotte LongGet 50% off your first 3 months with code PATENTED. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribeYou can take part in our listener survey here.

What do all incredibly cool people have in common? They wear Sunglasses. Whether you're Miles Davis or Audrey Hepburn, James Dean or Bob Dylan, your sunglasses are never far away.Who invented sunglasses and who made them so cool? Was there a moment when sunglasses went from being just an instrument for protecting your eyes to becoming an iconic symbol of high fashion?Vanessa Brown, author of Cool Shades: The History and Meaning of Sunglasses knows everything about sunglasses and she joins Dallas to answer all your burning questions about sunglasses.Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Alex Carlon, Senior Producer is Charlotte LongGet 50% off your first 3 months with code PATENTED. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribeYou can take part in our listener survey here.

The Titan submersible implosion was a tragic example of marine exploration going wrong. Today Dallas speaks to one of the world's leading marine archaeologists about Titan and the history of deep-sea submersibles leading up to it. Why and how did we begin exploring the ocean depths? What drives us on? And what lessons should be learned from Titan?Edited by Tomos Delargy, Produced by Alex Carlon, Senior Producer Charlotte LongGet 50% off your first 3 months with code PATENTED. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribeYou can take part in our listener survey here.

Why are men in charge? Who invented Patriarchy?Was it chest-thumping primate ancestors? Was it spear-wielding hunter gatherers? Was it at dawn of agriculture and the creation of property? Or was it something more subtle?These are the questions that Angela Saini has set out to answer in her new book The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule. She and Dallas talk through the mother of all origin stories.Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte LongGet 50% off your first 3 months with code PATENTED. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribeYou can take part in our listener survey here.