American Experience

History Series / 15 Seasons

American Experience, TV's most-watched history series, brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

52m 54s

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE's 25th Anniversary

2m 59s

On October 4, 1988, PBS broadcast The American Experience’s first documentary, "The Great San Francisco Earthquake." Twenty-five years and nearly 300 films later, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE has grown to become the country’s most-watched history series, setting the standard for intelligent, critical, and compelling, and critical view of America's history.

Coming this Fall

3m

Watch a short video about what is coming to American Experience during our 25th anniversary season this October and November, with a message from Executive Producer Mark Samels. The season kicks off with "War of the Worlds" on October 29, followed by "JFK" on November 11 & 12.

Silicon Valley Chapter 1

16m 45s

Led by physicist Robert Noyce, Fairchild Semiconductor began as a start-up company whose radical innovations would help make the United States a leader in both space exploration and the personal computer revolution, changing the way the world works, plays, and communicates. Noyce's invention of the microchip ultimately re-shaped the future. Premiering February 5, 2013 at 9pm ET.

Silicon Valley in the 60s

3m 15s

Throughout the early 1960s thousands of young men and women poured into the Santa Clara valley every month, lured by the booming electronics and defense industries. "There was just too much talent stuffed into one place."

Silicon Valley Preview

30s

Led by physicist Robert Noyce, Fairchild Semiconductor began as a start-up company whose radical innovations would help make the United States a leader in both space exploration and the personal computer revolution, changing the way the world works, plays, and communicates. Noyce's invention of the microchip ultimately re-shaped the future, launching the world into the Information Age.

Robert Noyce Goes to Silicon Valley

3m 3s

As an undergraduate student, Robert Noyce sees the technical reports on the brand new transistor and knew he was looking at the future. "The concept hit me like the atom bomb," he later recalled. But he does not like the structure of the large East Coast tech companies.

The Wild West in Silicon Valley

2m 57s

During the early days of Silicon Valley, physicists and engineers from various companies in the valley would meet at "The Wagon Wheel," a hangout for Fairchild employees and for people who worked at Fairchild spin-off companies. As one Fairchild employee put it, the Wagon Wheel was a hub of networking.

Silicon Valley and the Digital Revolution

1m 23s

Introduced in 1971, the microprocessor is basically the fundamental driving force and brain of all of the digital equipment we use today -- from iPhones and computers to notebooks and tablets.

Henry Ford and Thomas Edison

36s

Thomas Edison was Henry Ford's hero. In 1896, shortly after building his quadricycle, Henry Ford had the chance to meet the famous inventor at a convention in New York. Edison, who was convinced the future lay in electric powered cars, encouraged Ford to "keep at it." In 1907, Ford was on the brink of releasing the Model T. The inventors forged a friendship that lasted their whole lives.

Henry Ford Gives Dance Lessons

1m 21s

In the 1920s, many Americans were listening to Jazz and learning the Charleston. Henry Ford preferred the country dances he learned as a boy - quadrilles, gavottes, the schottische, the polka and the chorus jig were his favorites. Later in life he hosted dance lessons in Dearborn twice a week to teach what he believed was the correct, old way of dancing.

A Titan of American Industry Gives a Piggy Back Ride

1m 42s

Despite being hard on his only son Edsel, Henry Ford doted upon his grandchildren. Edsel's first son, Henry II, who would later become president of Ford Motor Company, is seen here at age two, playing with his grandfather in the garden at Fair Lane estate on June 9, 1920.

Henry Ford Chapter 1

12m 40s

The biography of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century, this documentary of Henry Ford offers an incisive look at the birth of the American auto industry with its long history of struggles between labor and management. Premiering January 29, 2012 at 9/8c on PBS.

Henry Ford Preview

30s

The biography of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century, this documentary of Henry Ford offers an incisive look at the birth of the American auto industry with its long history of struggles between labor and management.

Henry Ford's Experiments with Auto Design

2m 17s

In early 1907, Henry Ford walled off a corner of his Piquette Avenue factory to be used for automotive development. Ford thought nothing of joining his workers on the factory floor to experiment with new engine ignition designs or suspension systems. Every few months, Ford released another automobile in his alphabet line, each improving upon the last.

Henry Ford "Camping" with Edison and Firestone

1m 23s

For many years, Henry Ford took annual camping trips with the "vagabonds" - his close friends Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone and John Burroughs - with an entourage of servants, photographers, friends and family often in tow. On several occasions a president even joined along - President Harding in 1921 and Coolidge in 1923. Here, the group dined around a giant lazy Susan during their 1923 trip.

The Ford Assembly Line

2m 59s

Inspired by the moving lines used at meat-packing plants, Ford’s factory tested an assembly line in the flywheel magneto department. Rather than having one person build a coil at a time, the supervisor broke down the individual tasks into a sequence driven by a conveyor. The new system reduced the time it took to make a magneto from twenty minutes to thirteen minutes, ten seconds.

The Model T

2m 35s

In October of 1908, Henry Ford introduced the newest addition to his alphabet line—the Model T. It had a four-cylinder, 20 horsepower engine, a vastly improved transmission and an ingenious magnetic generator that provided power for an ignition and lights. At a time when the average car cost more than two thousand dollars, the Model T sold for just eight hundred and fifty.

Ford's River Rouge Complex

2m 41s

The River Rouge factory complex took 10 years to build and was compromised of 93 buildings which housed 120 miles of conveyors. There were 15 miles of roadways and 100 miles of railroad within the plant just to move things around. Water pumped from the Detroit River supplied the complex with 700 million gallons a day—as much water as consumed by Detroit, Cincinnati and New Orleans combined.

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