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00:08300 years ago a group of men found themselves thousands of miles from home fighting for their
00:14lives. They had traveled halfway around the world across unknown lands into hostile territory.
00:29But these were no hardened adventurers, they were bookish academics on one of the most important
00:34scientific expeditions ever. Its outcome would fundamentally change the way we see our world.
00:48But their mission will become an eight-year epic of obsession, betrayal and murder.
01:16History is littered with explorers who are driven by a desire for wealth and glory. But the men
01:23on this expedition were different. They were scientists and this was the first scientific expedition ever.
01:37The ambitious mission was launched in 1735 to discover a fundamental truth about our planet.
01:46The true shape of the earth.
01:53I'm not short of ambition myself. I've climbed on Everest and run countless expeditions in polar regions.
02:03But even by my standards, this French mission was an amazingly ambitious project.
02:13And I've always had modern equipment and modern backup and support.
02:20These scientists didn't know what they were getting into.
02:26Their three-year plan involved sailing 10,000 kilometers from France to the equator,
02:33scaling the Andes and crossing dense rainforest.
02:41It was a bold plan to begin with, but it would turn out to be much more daunting than
02:45they possibly could have imagined. They'd be plagued by disease and death.
02:52Instead of taking three years, it would take them nine.
02:59But for all that, they would make a series of chance discoveries that would have a profound impact.
03:07From maps and medicinal cures, to rubber goods and the metric system.
03:16This is the story of their incredible journey, carefully pieced together from their own journals.
03:43It's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's one of the best places in Paris.
03:46Yes, of course.
03:48If we continue like this, we'll be in a hurry.
03:51Thank you very much.
03:55A team of men loaded their ship, the Portifei, with state-of-the-art scientific instruments.
04:10And leading the expedition were some of France's greatest brains.
04:17Pierre Bouguer, aged 37, a mathematician who had been a child prodigy,
04:23and was made a royal professor at just 16 years of age.
04:32Charles-Marie de la Condamine, aged 34.
04:36A wannabe adventurer, with four years experience in the military.
04:45And Louis Godin, ambitious mathematician and astronomer.
04:51At 31, he was the youngest of the three, but he'd appointed himself leader.
04:57On the grounds, he'd suggested the expedition in the first place.
05:08With their delicate scientific instruments and elegant attire,
05:12these men were the very antithesis of rugged explorers.
05:16You have a beautiful hat, Mr. Bouguer.
05:18Yes, it's full of snow.
05:20I don't touch it.
05:21I think it's alive.
05:23Yes.
05:24That's the best fabricator in Paris.
05:27Of course, the best fabricator in Paris.
05:31Oh, Mr. Sonnière, are you ready?
05:34Yes, yes.
05:35Very well.
05:36Mr, we're ready to go.
05:38The team had barely travelled beyond the boulevards of Paris,
05:42and now they were heading off to the other side of the world.
05:59The mission the French scientists were charged with was a huge one.
06:04Nothing less than to measure the shape of the entire Earth.
06:15For centuries, people thought the Earth was a sphere, a perfect ball floating in space.
06:21One unusual measurement would change that notion.
06:29When Louis XIV, the King of France, wanted a new map of his country,
06:33he got the famous Italian astronomer Cassini to do the job.
06:38And Cassini noticed something really odd.
06:41Up in the north of the country, a degree of latitude was a different length
06:45than a degree of latitude in the south of the country.
06:48So this suggested something really shocking.
06:51That the Earth wasn't a perfect sphere at all.
06:58So, Cassini's measurements led him to believe that the Earth was kind of egg-shaped.
07:04And suddenly, everyone came up with their version of the shape of the Earth.
07:08Amongst them was Isaac Newton, whose theories of gravity suggested to him
07:13that the Earth was much flatter, kind of grapefruit-shaped.
07:24It had become the burning issue of the day.
07:27This was the age of the Enlightenment, an era which was fanatical about knowledge,
07:32and knowing the shape of our planet was critical.
07:36The row between Cassini and Newton had become so fierce
07:40that this group of men was sent out to settle it.
07:46And that would take nothing less than a practical measurement of the curvature of the Earth.
07:54This expedition was completely unprecedented.
07:57It represented the very pinnacle of the Enlightenment, the new age of experimental science.
08:03The scientists themselves called it the greatest expedition the world had ever seen.
08:16Fired by academic fervor, they headed off to the equator in Peru, now Ecuador.
08:25For the three chief scientists, this was their opportunity to shine.
08:31Bouguer might recover some of the faded glory of his youth,
08:36while the condamine and the ambitious Godin might make their reputations.
08:42And for this, they were prepared to give three years of their lives.
08:53But soon after setting sail, they were about to make their first big mistake.
09:06After five weeks at sea, the group stopped off at Santo Domingo in the Caribbean.
09:18This was the perfect place to test their instruments, and wait for the letters of permission to be exchanged back
09:24and forth
09:24between the French diplomats and the Spanish who ruled Peru.
09:29They had some time on their hands.
09:32Time to enjoy the relaxed surroundings.
09:38This French colony would have seemed to them a paradise, filled with exotic and beautiful people.
09:47As soon as Godin, the expedition's self-appointed leader, set foot on land,
09:52he set his heart on a local woman, named Guzan.
10:02As one of the crew wrote in a letter at the time,
10:06Love is taking up all his time.
10:09I hope that his wife doesn't hear of her Adonis' infidelity.
10:13She would perhaps take revenge.
10:15It is very annoying that honest people are at the mercy of a young beard without experience.
10:24Even back in the 18th century, Godin knew exactly who, or rather what, were a girl's best friend.
10:37But this gift was to bring nothing but trouble.
10:44Unfortunately, Godin hadn't used his own money to buy the diamond.
10:48As the leader of the group, he had total control of the expedition coffers.
10:54And it was this, the expedition's money, that Godin had squandered.
11:01He'd spent a whopping 1,000 ecus, which is about 23,000 pounds today.
11:08So this extravagance had just put the whole expedition under threat.
11:16To lose so much money at this early stage was a disaster.
11:20The remainder was barely enough to get to Peru.
11:25Failure at this stage would mean returning home to face humiliation and the end of their careers.
11:50The other scientists, Lacondamine and Bouguer, were furious about Godin's extravagance with their money.
12:20The expedition's surgeon described the escalating tension in a letter home.
12:26The expedition's surgeon described the escalating tension in a letter home.
12:28Mr. Godin has not been speaking to Mr. de Lacondamine and Mr. Bouguer for some time now.
12:35They fight like cats and dogs and attack each other's observations.
12:41Merci.
12:43It is not possible that they will remain together for the rest of this trip.
12:51What should have been a close-knit team gearing up for a challenging expedition became a bickering band of rivals.
13:06And they hadn't even reached Peru yet.
13:16Now they had to go right through to the heart of Peru to reach the equator.
13:20And that whole area, particularly around the Amazon, was completely uncharted and few Europeans had been there.
13:27This was a monumental task for any group.
13:30But for men, who were not only desperately short of money, but not even speaking to each other, it seemed
13:36impossible.
13:46Finally, on March the 10th, 1736, they reached Peru.
13:54But they couldn't proceed without more money.
13:57And so they headed to the area's capital, Quito, hoping they might borrow funds from the Spanish authorities there.
14:08To reach Quito, the expedition had to go inland, across hundreds of kilometres of uncharted land, and handle some very
14:17unfamiliar terrain.
14:21One ticket, please, or une billette, overboard.
14:40People use these every day for work.
14:45It's a normal form of transport across these whopping great gorges.
14:58They wouldn't have seen anything like this in the comfortable boulevards of Paris.
15:04I mean, this would have been totally unfamiliar terrain for them.
15:08250 foot deep gorges, huge waterfalls.
15:12And they actually believed, and quite rightly, because they had no other knowledge,
15:16that all this unfamiliar terrain and hidden in these trees were monsters.
15:20Headless monsters, one-eyed cannibals, all kinds of terrible things.
15:28Whatever creatures they imagined, real dangers lurked in these forests.
15:34From bears and snakes, to more insidious killers.
15:39Insects carrying deadly diseases.
15:45On top of these threats, now the French scientists unwittingly made their journey even more difficult.
15:59They hadn't been speaking to each other for ages.
16:02And now they decided they'd just had enough, and they were just going to travel separately.
16:07All the way to Quito, it seems a crazy thing to do.
16:11It's certainly breaking one of the golden rules of travel.
16:18Godin commandeered the equipment and the guides, with Bouguer following shortly behind.
16:25Leaving Lacondamine to cross through one of the world's most hostile environments alone.
16:33And I'm following in his footsteps.
16:48Lacondamine canoed up the coast, and then up here, the Esmeraldus River, so he could get inland.
16:55And he had a real genuine interest for exploring.
16:58And this would have been a complete treasure trove for him.
17:02Around every bend in this river, that had been something new,
17:05he'd been bursting to understand it.
17:14It wasn't long before his curiosity led him to the first significant discovery of the expedition.
17:27As Lacondamine made his way through the jungle, he came across a group of local Kishore Indians.
17:33And they were collecting sack from the trees.
17:41It was a strange, pliable substance, the like of which Lacondamine had never seen before.
17:51When fresh, by means of moulds, it takes any shape given to it at pleasure.
17:57It is impervious to rain, but its most remarkable property is its elasticity.
18:05Of it are made in frangible bottles, boots and hollow balls which can be flattened at will,
18:11but which, when the pressure that flattens them is removed, assume again their pristine form.
18:27Lacondamine had chanced across rubber.
18:37Monserrat Rios is an ethnobotanist, studying how the local Kishore people use rubber.
18:43Arturo is a Kishore Indian.
18:44Kishore Indian, wow.
18:46Arturo Grafer is an expert rubber tapper.
18:50The way to collect the rubber is that you have to cut a V on the trunk.
18:54So the rubber is right up in between the between the bark and the tree itself.
18:59Yes.
19:00Okay, so the local people were doing this when Lacondamine came through.
19:05Yes, this is a very old practice since pre-Hispanic.
19:08And it's the same practice now to collect the...
19:11It's the same practice now for thousands of years.
19:13Okay, Arturo, can I have a go?
19:15Thanks very much.
19:19Okay, stand back.
19:26Blimey, that's a bit rough.
19:28And another one?
19:30And another one like this.
19:31Come on, yeah.
19:42Blimey, it looks a bit untidy.
19:45Well?
19:45It's not as good as yours.
19:49So Arturo, once you've collected the rubber,
19:52what do you do with it then?
19:54He collects the rubber and then he makes balls, rubber balls.
19:58All right, so hang on.
19:59I've got the idea.
20:00Okay, it picks it up, doesn't it?
20:01It kind of picks it up.
20:03Push it hard enough.
20:06It's a long process though, isn't it?
20:08You just keep doing that.
20:09Yes, it's a very long process.
20:11It takes flipping ages.
20:16Arturo, what do you do with the rubber you collect?
20:29I love it.
20:29The condominium came through here and discovered something that revolutionized
20:34Europe in many ways.
20:35It was a tremendous discovery for us 300 years ago.
20:38And yet Arturo and his people was completely routine.
20:43Le Condominium immediately recognized the potential of this extraordinary new material.
20:49He sent back the first specimens of rubber seeds and wrote a meticulous paper.
20:54That prompted the rubber boom of the Victorian era, creating millionaires and shaping empires.
21:02So thanks to Le Condominium sending back the rubber samples and writing his papers,
21:08he kick-started the rubber industry as we know it today.
21:11So we've got him to thank for rubber tires, windscreen wipers, inflatable rubber boats,
21:18washing up gloves, condoms.
21:22I wonder if they were originally called Le Condominium.
21:31Things seem to be looking up for Le Condominium.
21:33He discovered rubber and he was now on his way to Quito to join the rest of his expedition.
21:40But the reality was a bit different.
21:44He was lost in this rainforest.
21:53Even worse, his two guides had just taken off.
21:57So now he was alone.
22:02Except for the company of jaguars, pumas, tarantulas and poisonous snakes.
22:31And this is what he was up against.
22:35A solid wall of rainforest.
22:38It's really hard work to get through, even with a sharp machete like my one.
22:43But Le Condominium just had an axe and he had no jungle experience whatsoever.
22:49And neither do I.
22:51And everything seems to be so intent on biting or poisoning or scaring the pants off me.
23:02He would have recognised things like bananas, thank heavens, and they were the things that kept him alive.
23:07Everything else, just like me, seems so alien.
23:11Gives me the willies.
23:15I'm not joking.
23:19After a few days, Le Condominium developed a raging fever.
23:23And it could have been any one of countless fatal diseases.
23:29Chances were, he would die here alone.
23:59While Le Condominium was lost in the jungle,
24:03the rest of the expedition had safely arrived in the city of Quito.
24:10And with the expedition virtually penniless, Godin tried to address the money problems that he had created.
24:18He met with the local Spanish governor, Alcedo.
24:22And it asked him for the money the expedition so desperately needed.
24:26But Alcedo flatly refused.
24:33It was a blow, as the most powerful and wealthy man in the area, Dionysio Alcedo, was their only hope.
24:43Now the French scientists were stuck.
24:46They had no choice but to wait for Le Condominium,
24:48and hope that his higher social status would help them persuade Alcedo.
24:58After eight days of terrible sickness, and surviving only on bananas,
25:03Le Condominium's luck finally turned when his fever broke.
25:08He spotted a mountain peak and decided to follow it.
25:20They had no choice but to wait for him.
25:20Having reached the highest point of the edge,
25:22I was seized by a sense of wonder mixed with admiration at the appearance of a large valley.
25:29The city of Quito, far off, was at the end of this beautiful view.
25:38Unbelievably, Le Condominium had survived.
25:40And with Quito in sight, he was saved.
25:48As he entered the city, all hopes of saving the mission rested on him.
25:55But instead of going off to see Alcedo, and making the essential request for the money
26:00on which the whole expedition depended, Le Condominium hid himself away in his rooms.
26:06And wouldn't come out.
26:12Everyone waited for Le Condominium to announce himself.
26:16But day after day, nothing.
26:22Alcedo grew increasingly incensed.
26:25Why did this foreigner not announce himself?
26:29Was he too arrogant? Too superior?
26:33The whole mission, even their ability to get home, was hanging on a thread.
26:40Given that I had only taken with me my instruments, a hunting outfit and a hammock,
26:45I found myself incapable of appearing in public in any decent fashion when I arrived in Quito.
26:52And although our companions had used 70 mules to carry cargo as well as persons,
26:58it had not been possible, in my absence, to find a place for a single one of my trunks.
27:04Not even for my bed.
27:19It was a full week before Le Condominium was able to see Alcedo.
27:24I was with her friends and a half of my friends and a half of them.
27:30So, I had to sleep with the night in Omed day.�
27:46I've
27:46had to sleep. Do you
27:46think I know what was going on today? If someone
27:47wanted to sleep with you, we're all coming into the dark. Is that
27:50your friend? I'm
27:50going to sleep with you, that's your friend and you, and I'm going to sleep. It's
27:53just a little bit.
27:53and Alcedo demanded to know why he hadn't been to see him before.
27:58A condominion answered he couldn't possibly meet a man
28:01of such stature and importance, dressed in rags.
28:05Very cleverly, he turned a moment of gross insult into flattery.
28:11I completely satisfied the president on all counts.
28:15And since this first conversation,
28:17I am able to count on his family's friendship and trust.
28:23Well, up to a point, in fact, Alcedo didn't give him a single penny.
28:29He did allow Lacondamine one concession,
28:32the dubious honour of opening up a shop in Quito
28:35where he could sell his belongings.
28:38It was all a bit humiliating for Lacondamine,
28:40but he did manage to sell enough to get by for a few weeks.
28:54What had seemed to Lacondamine like a victory
28:56left them hardly any better off.
29:0118 months into their expedition,
29:0510,000 kilometres from home and almost completely broke,
29:09and they hadn't even made one scientific measurement yet.
29:13It seemed as if their hopes of scientific glory were in tatters,
29:18and things were about to get much worse.
29:28Having exhausted all options for raising money in Quito,
29:31they were forced to start their measurements
29:33with what meagre funds they had.
29:36So they headed off into the wilderness towards the equator.
29:44Within days, Kouplei, the youngest member of the team, collapsed.
29:53The expedition surgeon, Séniègue, suspected malaria
29:56and administered the most popular treatment of the time,
30:00bleeding and purging.
30:24When this didn't work, the poor lad was treated to a local cure.
30:33A lemon stuffed with gunpowder and guinea pepper
30:37is insinuated into the anus
30:40and changed two or three times a day
30:45until the patient is judged to be out of danger.
31:03Despite, or even because of these treatments,
31:06young Kouplei died two days later.
31:11It was a harsh reminder of the ever-present threat of disease and death
31:15that hung over them all in this alien land.
31:21What's more, Godin, Bouguerre and Le Condamine
31:24were now a man down,
31:26with all their work still ahead of them.
31:35The men were upset by Kouplei's death,
31:38but it didn't knock them off track,
31:40partly because they were such determined men
31:42and partly because early death
31:45was a pretty familiar occurrence in those days.
31:48Life had to go on.
31:50But before the expedition could continue,
31:52they had to sort out their desperate money problems.
31:55So Le Condamine came up with a remarkable plan.
31:59Despite his earlier problems in the rainforest,
32:01he volunteered to go across to Lima to raise some funds.
32:06And that would be a whopping distance of 2,000 kilometres.
32:17Unbelievably, Le Condamine was about to set off alone again.
32:22His determination was either foolhardy or incredibly brave.
32:27Looking around,
32:29I can see it's mostly fields.
32:31It's all cultivated.
32:32And it looks relatively gentle.
32:36In Le Condamine's time,
32:37this was all rainforest.
32:40And it would have been even harder to get around.
32:43It's hard enough now.
32:46On this second trek across country,
32:49he made another significant discovery.
32:51He saw people harvesting a natural chemical, quinine,
32:55from the bark of cinchona trees.
32:57And he was intrigued.
33:03In the 18th century,
33:05malaria was still endemic in Europe.
33:07Quinine was known as a treatment there.
33:09But it was surrounded in mystery
33:11because sometimes it worked
33:13and sometimes it didn't.
33:17Botanist Pablo Lozano
33:19took me to a cinchona tree to explain why.
33:23OK, thank you.
33:25OK, well done.
33:26You have a red bark.
33:28Yeah.
33:28And there is another two kinds of bark.
33:32OK.
33:33A yellow and a white one.
33:36OK, same cinchona tree,
33:38but different bark.
33:40Another species of cinchona.
33:42Different species, right?
33:43All right, OK.
33:44So now, if I was to take a little bit of this,
33:48this would protect me from malaria, right?
33:50Yes.
33:52OK.
33:53It's better.
33:55Yeah.
33:56You are lucky because this is the red bark.
33:59It has the highest contact of quinine.
34:03In the 18th century, there was a confusion of the species.
34:10Here in Peru, the locals knew that of the three distinct species of cinchona,
34:15only this one, with red bark, was effective against malaria.
34:20But in Europe, they didn't know this.
34:22So the Peruvians and merchants made a good trade,
34:25sending over any old bark to unsuspecting Europeans.
34:31So the condominium came through and picked up that out of the three types,
34:37one of them was better than the rest.
34:39Yes.
34:40He spent three days talking with the local people,
34:44and he identified the real species, the red bark.
34:49I think it's fantastic that in just three days,
34:52he'd discovered this fantastically important thing.
34:59The condominium wrote up what he'd learnt from the locals
35:02with meticulous drawings and sent it back to France.
35:10For the first time, doctors were able to use quinine reliably,
35:14and for the next 200 years,
35:17it became the only effective treatment for malaria,
35:20saving millions of lives.
35:26Had le condominium made his great discovery just a few weeks earlier,
35:31then young Couplet might have been saved from dying of malaria.
35:41Le Condominium continued on to Lima on his quest to get money
35:45for the impoverished expedition.
35:50Out of the whole French team,
35:52it's Le Condominium I have the most affinity to,
35:54because he really wanted to be an explorer,
35:55and I think that he had a genuine love
35:58of that feeling of adventure in new places that I have.
36:05But he had a real sense of adventure,
36:09a certain flair.
36:10There was a lovely spark within him.
36:18Le Condominium's daring paid off once again when he got to Lima.
36:21He secured a generous loan of 12,000 pesos,
36:26the equivalent of 230,000 pounds today.
36:33He returned triumphant to greet Buger and Godin.
36:37At last, they had sufficient funds
36:39and they could begin their measurements.
36:55Finally, after 18 months,
36:58after illness, a death and the loss of their funds,
37:02they had reached the equator, their destination.
37:09I'm here at the equator.
37:12If I jump here, I'm in the northern hemisphere.
37:14If I jump here, this is the southern hemisphere.
37:18The equator was their reason for travelling to Peru.
37:22It was at the very heart of their plan
37:24to measure the curvature of the Earth.
37:32Their mission was to come here to the equator
37:35and measure the degree of latitude
37:37and compare that to a measurement
37:39that was already known north, up in France.
37:43And by looking at the difference between the two,
37:46they could determine the true shape of the Earth.
37:50It sounds simple on paper.
37:53Beautiful.
37:54But this plan would require climbing
37:56some of the world's largest mountains.
38:19The Andes formed a crucial part of the measurements.
38:23The first stage of measuring a degree of latitude
38:28was to measure a long line,
38:31hundreds of miles long, across the equator.
38:34And then this rugged terrain,
38:36it's not the kind of thing you can do with a tape measure.
38:47Instead, they'll calculate the length of the line mathematically,
38:51using the heights of the Andes for sightings.
38:56So the plan
38:57was to use triangulation,
39:01which is straightforward trigonometry.
39:07Here's the equator,
39:08and they needed to measure a line
39:10right down the length of the Andes,
39:13hundreds of miles long,
39:14and they would
39:16climb
39:17three peaks
39:19and put markers
39:21on top of them
39:23that could be clearly seen
39:25from the other mountains.
39:28Then they would measure
39:30these angles.
39:35And because they knew
39:36all the angles,
39:38they could easily calculate
39:40the distance between the mountains.
39:42So then they would climb
39:43some more mountains,
39:44measure more angles,
39:46and continue this chain of triangles
39:48down the whole length
39:50of the Andes.
39:52And that way,
39:53they could accurately measure
39:54a line
39:55hundreds of miles long.
39:58They would then take star sightings
40:00at each end of the line
40:01to find how many degrees of latitude
40:03this long line corresponded to.
40:06And from this,
40:08they could calculate
40:09the length on the ground
40:10of a single degree of latitude
40:12to reveal
40:14the shape of the Earth.
40:17Honestement,
40:18tu commences a casser mes cuites!
40:20Oh, oh, vraiment!
40:21Alors voilà , c'est...
40:22While utterly committed
40:23to this scientific plan,
40:25their arguments continued.
40:27And so they split up,
40:29again.
40:33Godin went his own way,
40:35while the more diligent
40:36Bouguerre and Lacondamine
40:38went another.
40:43And so these two groups
40:45set about climbing the Andes,
40:47mountain by mountain.
40:49Ah!
40:51Ah!
40:51Ah!
40:51Ah!
40:51Ah!
40:52Ah!
40:52Ah!
40:53Ah!
40:53Ah!
40:54Ah!
40:54Ah!
40:55Ah!
41:00Their first ascent
41:02proved to be a really tough opener.
41:05This is Pachintia,
41:06and it's a massive high volcano.
41:08It's almost 4,800 meters high.
41:11They had no idea
41:12of the scale of this thing.
41:14They didn't know
41:15what they were
41:15letting themselves in for.
41:18Which I think's
41:19probably a good thing.
41:20Maybe if they had known,
41:21they wouldn't have come.
41:26They struggled up towards the peak,
41:28where they planned to plant a marker
41:30for their first sight line.
41:39As they got higher,
41:40the conditions just got worse and worse.
41:45As they got near the top,
41:49just couldn't see anything.
41:50just like us now.
41:54But still,
41:55they kept on going.
41:59As they climbed higher,
42:01they started to feel really odd.
42:04They got ill.
42:06They started to get headaches.
42:08They were nauseous.
42:09And generally,
42:11very, very weak indeed.
42:14We found ourselves,
42:16at first,
42:17considerably incommoded
42:18by the rarefactions of the air.
42:22Particularly,
42:22those among us
42:23who had delicate lungs.
42:33What they didn't know
42:35was that they were
42:36suffering from
42:37altitude sickness.
42:39And those effects
42:40are working on me right now.
42:41But I'm an experienced climber,
42:43so I know what to expect.
42:45And because I'm aware of that,
42:47I could make plans.
42:48I could put oxygen in place.
42:50I could have
42:51an altitude acclimatization plan
42:53and climb slowly.
42:55They knew none of these things
42:56and just kept pushing on through
42:58the very dangerous effects
43:00of altitude sickness,
43:01which we now know
43:02can kill you.
43:16they finally made it here
43:18to the summit.
43:20And conditions would have been
43:22pretty much like this.
43:24Cold
43:24and no visibility at all.
43:35as they struggled
43:36to plant the markers
43:37at the peak,
43:38they were blighted
43:39by even worse conditions.
43:52We experienced extreme cold.
43:56There,
43:58looking at each other,
43:59our clothes,
44:00eyebrows and eyelashes
44:01covered in icicles,
44:02we provided each other
44:05with a singular spectacle.
44:11After surviving
44:1223 days
44:14for the most appalling
44:15conditions on the summit,
44:17they gave up
44:18and came down here
44:20about halfway.
44:22It wasn't such a good position,
44:24but they could make
44:25their measurements
44:26and survive.
44:30It had taken them
44:31about four months
44:32to get one measurement.
44:34and they had
44:3525 mountains left.
44:42But,
44:43driven by their
44:44scientific obsession,
44:45turning back
44:46was unthinkable.
45:04Another day,
45:05another volcano.
45:06This is Cotopaxi,
45:08the world's highest
45:09active volcano.
45:11I've climbed this thing
45:12six times
45:13and it's often like this.
45:15You can wait weeks
45:16for a decent weather window
45:18to get up.
45:29As the conditions
45:31became more and more punishing,
45:32it became clear
45:34that their mission
45:35would take far longer
45:36than they'd anticipated
45:37and yet still
45:39they refused to give up.
45:42They spent days
45:44or even months
45:45waiting
45:46for the weather
45:47to improve
45:48so that it could continue
45:49with their measurements
45:50so they had plenty
45:51of time to think.
45:53And during that time,
45:54Lacondamine
45:54came up
45:55with a great idea.
45:57But it was the last idea
45:58you would think of
45:59on top of a mountain.
46:02It was an idea
46:04that would transform
46:05both science
46:05and everyday life
46:07and still impacts
46:09on us today.
46:11It was
46:11the foundation
46:12of the metric system.
46:16Larry Ferreiro,
46:17a historian of science,
46:19considers this
46:20one of Lacondamine's
46:21most important contributions.
46:25All right, thank you.
46:26What a fantastic market.
46:29It was a problem
46:30for many years.
46:32Villages, towns, cities,
46:33countries didn't have
46:34standard measurements
46:35that allowed traders
46:36to go from one area
46:37to another
46:37and sell the same basket
46:39of goods
46:39in different places.
46:41The inch
46:42was based on the thumb.
46:44That's my inch
46:45from this joint
46:46to there.
46:46OK, so mine's bigger.
46:48Yes.
46:49We'd sell yours
46:50but buy mine.
46:51Yes.
46:52The yard was another one.
46:54Now, the yard was
46:54ostensibly from
46:55the nose
46:56to the end of the hand.
46:58This is how you'd
46:58measure cloth.
46:59And this was a yard.
47:00OK, let's have
47:01a little comparison then.
47:02Let's line our
47:03noses up here.
47:05Yours is longer.
47:06Yes.
47:06I can't believe it.
47:07If I was buying from you,
47:08I would want to be
47:08doing the measuring,
47:09not you.
47:09Yeah.
47:11What else was there?
47:12Well, the foot.
47:13Now, the foot was
47:14based on somebody's foot.
47:15Probably a king's foot.
47:16You have larger feet.
47:18I've got big feet
47:19because I'm small
47:19but I'm very stable.
47:20Ah, OK.
47:23Le Condamine,
47:24who worked constantly
47:25with weights and measures,
47:26saw that something
47:27had to be done.
47:29What Le Condamine
47:30had come up with
47:31was an idea
47:32that went beyond
47:34just the borders
47:34of cities and countries
47:35but spanned
47:36the entire globe.
47:37Can you take a measurement
47:38based on the globe itself
47:40and make a standard
47:41out of it
47:42and use that
47:43across the world?
47:44And he was the person
47:45who came up
47:46and fully developed
47:47an idea
47:48of a universal measurement.
47:51This revolutionary idea
47:53was the basis
47:54for the metric system
47:55and in 1793,
47:57the metre was defined
47:58as one ten millionth
48:00of the distance
48:01from the North Pole
48:02to the equator.
48:07Le Condamine developed
48:09this idea
48:09over the many,
48:10many months
48:11that the group
48:12struggled up and down
48:13the Andes
48:13making their measurements.
48:17After two years
48:18in the mountains,
48:19they'd completed
48:20their triangulation,
48:21measuring a line
48:22hundreds of kilometres long
48:24down through the Andes.
48:26And although they'd never
48:27really pulled together
48:28as a team,
48:29as scientists,
48:30they were second to none.
48:32and even though they'd
48:33learnt the hard way,
48:34they'd finally become
48:36masters of the hostile
48:37environment.
48:39With the ground measurements
48:40in place,
48:41they just had some star sites
48:43left to do.
48:44So it seemed the end
48:45was in sight.
48:47But with this group,
48:49nothing was easy.
48:56At the end of their
48:58triangulated line
48:59through the mountains
48:59was a town called
49:01Cuenca,
49:01and they came here
49:03to carry out
49:03their star sightings.
49:07And it was here
49:09that fate took
49:10a remarkable turn.
49:11I can barely believe
49:13what happened next.
49:28The group were invited
49:29to a bullfight,
49:30which after years
49:31in the mountains,
49:32was a welcome
49:33spot of recreation.
49:40I think I'm going to
49:41barely be able to watch it.
49:44But back then,
49:45it was a fantastic
49:46social occasion.
49:47Everybody came.
49:48The whole village
49:49would have turned out
49:49for this.
50:04I've got Anne,
50:06Macondamine,
50:06and Birgher
50:07take their seats up here.
50:10And as they look down,
50:11they can hardly believe
50:12their eyes.
50:12I mean,
50:12they just do a double take
50:13because here's
50:14Saniyeg,
50:15the expedition surgeon.
50:16And on his arm,
50:17he's got Manuela,
50:19beautiful local girl.
50:20And it makes a big fuss
50:22of bringing her in.
50:33The crowd couldn't
50:34believe their eyes.
50:37And they were angry
50:38because here's a French guy
50:39with a local girl
50:41who they knew
50:42was previously engaged
50:43to a local guy.
50:44So not only were they angry
50:45at Saniyeg,
50:46but the whole French expedition.
50:53Immediately,
50:54Saniyeg just plays
50:55to the crowd.
50:59And these three up here
51:01could just feel
51:02the crowd getting angry.
51:10Because Saniyeg had flaunted
51:12this relationship,
51:13it had just enraged
51:15the crowd.
51:16And the crowd
51:17turned into an angry mob.
51:21They surged forward
51:23around Saniyeg
51:24and began to stone him.
51:29And our three guys,
51:30Lacondamine,
51:32Bouguerre
51:32and Godin,
51:33they almost responded.
51:35They almost went
51:35to help him,
51:36just like a proper team.
51:37But they didn't.
51:38They saved
51:39their own skins instead.
51:42But,
51:43as they fled
51:43the ballroom,
51:44the crowd
51:45followed them.
51:48Soon,
51:49the mob
51:49were hard on their heels,
51:51brandishing knives
51:51and swords.
51:57Now,
51:57on the brink
51:58of completing
51:59their mission,
52:00they were in fear
52:01for their lives.
52:28As Bouguerre
52:30lay bleeding,
52:30it looked as if
52:31the expedition
52:32was over.
52:34Luckily,
52:35Bouguerre's wound
52:36wasn't fatal.
52:38But Saniyeg
52:39had been stoned
52:40and stabbed
52:41many times.
52:42And he endured
52:44a long
52:44and painful death
52:46lasting four days.
52:51It was now
52:52October 1739
52:54and the scientists
52:55had been away
52:56from France
52:56for over four years.
53:00But despite
53:01the hostile atmosphere
53:02in Cuenca,
53:03the team still refused
53:04to abandon
53:05their scientific quest
53:06and they remained here
53:07to take their star sightings.
53:14Larry Ferrero
53:15took me to the very church
53:16where they did
53:17this final stage
53:18of their measurements.
53:20So why would they
53:21have come here
53:22to this church?
53:23They used this church
53:24as an observatory
53:24for some of their sightings.
53:26I mean,
53:26if I was going to make
53:26star sightings,
53:27I would be outside
53:28using me sextant.
53:30And the sextant
53:31is what we would use today
53:32but it really wasn't
53:33perfected at that time.
53:34Instead,
53:35they used an instrument
53:35known as a zenith sector
53:37which resembled
53:40this drain pipe
53:41that I happened
53:41to have here.
53:43Okay,
53:44let me show you
53:44how it works.
53:45Have a lie down.
53:46All right.
53:49Tell me what you see.
53:51Well,
53:51a small patch of ceiling
53:52but I presume
53:53that they'd be seeing
53:54a small patch of sky.
53:55And that's exactly
53:56what they would be
53:57looking for.
53:57A small patch of sky
53:58vertically above them.
54:00They would wait
54:01for a particular star
54:03to cross through
54:04that patch
54:04and determine
54:06when it was
54:07right above them.
54:08That way,
54:08they could discover
54:09their latitude.
54:10Now,
54:11the next step
54:11was probably the hardest.
54:13They had to do this
54:14at each end
54:15of the baseline.
54:16Bouguer went north
54:17and Le Condamine
54:18stayed here
54:19in the south.
54:20Each one had
54:20to make the same
54:21set of observations
54:22on the same star
54:23on the same night
54:24to get the arc
54:26of latitude
54:26that they required.
54:29This will tell them
54:30how many degrees
54:31of latitude
54:31their line down
54:32through the Andes
54:33corresponded to.
54:36And from that,
54:37they could calculate
54:38the length
54:39of a single degree
54:40of latitude.
54:46How long
54:47did all these
54:47measurements take?
54:49Well,
54:49each set of observations
54:50could take weeks
54:51or even months
54:52to make.
54:53Ultimately,
54:53it took them years.
54:55Three years,
54:56in fact.
54:56So it took them
54:57three years
54:58to do something
54:58that I could,
54:59or you and me
55:00could do right now
55:00with my GPS
55:01in a few days?
55:02That's right,
55:02or even a few seconds.
55:05But after these
55:06three long years,
55:08the sightings
55:09were complete.
55:17The trip,
55:19which was supposed
55:19to take three years,
55:21had now taken eight
55:22and cost the lives
55:24of two men.
55:28They had endured
55:30stifling rainforests
55:31and freezing conditions,
55:33incessant arguing
55:34and murder attempts.
55:39All in the pursuit
55:40of science,
55:41all to find
55:42just one number.
55:48Finally,
55:49they had a result.
55:51It was just one number,
55:53but it was an incredibly
55:54important number,
55:55110.61 kilometres,
55:58which was the length
55:59of one degree
56:00of latitude
56:00at the equator.
56:01and crucially,
56:03compared to one degree
56:04of latitude in France,
56:05it was shorter,
56:07which meant that the earth
56:08was kind of grapefruit-shaped,
56:09fatter in the middle
56:10and flatter on the poles,
56:12which was exactly
56:13as Sir Isaac Newton
56:14has predicted.
56:16All that hard work
56:17and tenacity
56:18and attention to detail
56:20from Godin,
56:21Le Condamine
56:22and Bouguerre
56:23had paid off.
56:29The result was a revelation
56:31that would change navigation
56:33and mapmaking forever.
56:36But perhaps
56:37their greatest legacy
56:38was from the chance discoveries
56:40they made along the way.
56:50They kick-started
56:51the rubber industry,
56:52giving us many things
56:54that we take for granted today,
56:55like waterproofing
56:56and car tyres.
57:01They gave us quinine,
57:03a chemical that saved
57:04millions of people
57:05from malaria.
57:08And they gave us the basis
57:10of the standardised
57:11metric system.
57:12What is a metre?
57:14What does a kilo
57:15of apples weigh?
57:17What's more,
57:18they provided support
57:19for the theories
57:20of Isaac Newton,
57:23whose work
57:24would change
57:25the course of science
57:26entirely.
57:31But most of all,
57:33this seemingly
57:33shambolic group of men
57:35had revealed
57:36one of the most
57:36fundamental
57:37of all things,
57:39the true shape
57:41of our planet.
57:54Yet,
57:55for the French team,
57:56there were no celebrations.
57:58At the end
57:58of their epic mission,
58:00there was only enough money left
58:01to send one of them home.
58:04Good luck.
58:07Bouguerre jumped at the chance
58:09to return
58:09to a hero's welcome.
58:15Good luck.
58:16Au revoir.
58:18Le Condamine headed
58:19into the Amazon
58:20in search
58:21of more adventures.
58:24While Gordain,
58:26bitter and isolated,
58:28never returned
58:28to Europe.
58:32It was a modest
58:33and subdued end
58:34for these most
58:35unlikely heroes
58:36of science.
58:44one of the Clyde-built boats
58:46that came to the aid
58:47of the Titanic
58:47coming up here
58:48on BBC4,
58:49the ships
58:50that made
58:50the Commonwealth next.
58:52The Neth
59:00and the Sh.
59:05the M.
59:10and the M.
59:12of the J.
59:12and the dost
59:12and the Sh.
59:13and the Sh.
59:15You