Im ellee pai hong. And im kerry sayers. And im your host, bill kurtis. This is through the decades. Author joseph kurtch wrote Technology Made large populations possible. Large populations now make technology indispensable. It is true that we have become incred d on technology. Not only does it make our lives easier and more efficient but it allows us to push on many of the boundaries that contains us as human beings. Today on through the decades, we look at some the most life changing advancements in Technology Man had devised. From the first mass produced automobile, to the development of the laser and perhaps the most influential tool of the last decade, the computer. Over a very short span, may have contributed more than any other in american history. Thomas edisons list of inventions is nearly endless but he remained most proud of one of his first the phonograph. His is one of the Great American sagas. Some say the greatest. Thomas edisons amazing career ended with more than a thousand patents collected. From his Invention Lab in menlo churned out the first versions of items that provide light and record moving pictures and he initailly tested that invention known as the phonograph in 1877. Edison had spent most of his early years learning to master the telegraph. That inspired him to create his first invention, the stock ticker. He sold it to Western Union for 40,000dollars because he had every month and a major one every six months. Edison used the money to start his Invention Lab in menlo park. A place where he turned tinfoil into a way to play back his own voice. Edison had already come up with a way to repeat morse code messages over the telegraph but he thought the same concept could be used with sound. Starting with paraffin paper before moving on to tinfoil, edison handcranked his new before moving on to tinfoil, edison handcranked his New Invention to record his through a vibrating needle. By late 1877, he had built the first working phonograph model ready to tweak in the months and years to come. He named it the phonograph. It became a sensation of the day and age. His first recording into his new phonograph was never saved but he relived that moment 50 years later with a newer version of the device. The first words i spoke in the original phonograph. A little mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that mary went, the lamb was sure to go. by 1878, edison had been issued the patent for the device, number 200,521. He had showcased it and had the phonograph featured prominently in the journal scientific american. But for the device to catch on to the mainstream, he had to develop a way for to the mainstream, he had to develop a way for recordings to last longer break apart after just a few plays. It took ten years but edison finally developed a replacement in the form of wax cylinders. The vibrating needle would make indents on the outside of the cylinder then play it right back. Now, i want to say a few words on another cylinder so my young man can bring it over to the laboratory. Uh, goodbye, edison. The phonograph proved the recording method could work and after foil turned to wax as the preferred method for sustainable playback. Edison never stopped tinkering with the phonograph through his death in 1931. But 54 years earlier, he had created the precursor to the record players that would launch the world into the age of music. From the needle that scratched the tinfoil, a milliondollar industry was born. The phonograph was born the floor of edisons invention factory and eventually adopted in all corners of the globe. And eventually adopted in all corners of the globe. Despite creating some of the most worldtransforming inventions, edison always called the phonograph his favorite. As we look back on the notable milestones of our technological evolution, we see the debuts of many facets that we now cannot imagine living without from the invention that put america on wheels fiction became reality. We also look back on the invention that changed the classroom and put calculations in our pocket. Plus, the very first commercially produced electronic computer. Then, well look back at the start of a company that would become synonymous with search and when the public was given access to a revolutionary system of satellites. Stay with us, its all still ahead right here on through the automobile is one of those things the world of today couldnt do withoutand it owes just about everything to henry ford. In our look back at the best and the brightest, we recall the first modelt to roll off the Assembly Line. When henry ford, was 28 years old, he joined the edison illuminationpa an engineer. Within two years, he was chief engineer but he had a restless mind. On the side, he started experimenting with automobiles. It was 1896 when ford unveiled the quadricycle, a horseless carriage. The first car he ever designed. Cars in the late 1890s were alien. Horse and buggys still ruled the roads but ford was bent on changing that. Throughout the rest of the decade, he continued to build on his quadricycle concept the Ford Motor Company was incorporated in 1903 and set up shop in detroit. The companys first car was the modela. It would run through several variations some just prototypes others saw moderate success like the modeln. But it was the nineteenthmodel that would revolutionalize life as we know it. That would revolutionalize life as we know it. In 1908, the Ford Motor Company unveiled the modelt. Motorized transportation for the common man was born. Combination of low cost and high durability. Its production was intensely systematic. Engineered by a highly Efficient Assembly line turning auto manufacturing into a fast and inexpensive operation. The initial selling price was 825dollars not cheap by 1908 standards but that price wou o down, thanks to fords mastery of mass production. Sales of the modelt would skyrocket in the ensuing decade and pretty soon, the streets of america were heavily adorned by its familiar design. Tin lizzy, as many would call it, would be thecar for the first True Generation of drivers. Production would last until 1927 and by that time, the Ford Motor Company had sold and more importantly, laid the groundwork for every car to follow heralding a mobility that forever changed the world. From the Assembly Line forward, henry ford was reimagining our world. Thirtythree years after the modelt, ford was looking to thirtythree years after the modelt, ford was looking to again streamline technology. It was a unique offshoot of an ongoing search and obsession to reimagine the efficiency of our cars. After hed built the first affordable car, turned the country into a nation of drivers, henry ford wasnt done trying to reinvent the Auto Industry and this time, he wanted to do the farm. Ford grew up on a farm in michigan and later in life, became interested in combining industry with agriculture. In the 1930s, he turned his attention to the soybean, started experimenting and by january 13, 1941, those experimentations had turned into a patent for the first plastic car. The soybean car offered advantages over the traditional metal cars of the time. They were lighter which made them more fuel efficient and in the event of a crash, the cars body panels could be easily replaced. A protoype was introduced in august of 1941 but the ting could not have been worse. A few months later, America Production in the u. S. Was stopped and by the time the war ended, the soybean project was abandoned and along with it, efforts to build lighter, more fuel efficient cars. Edsel. Designed for elegance. Engineered for action. 1958s one really new car, the edsel. Engineered for action. 1958s one really new car, the edsel. In the postwar years, cars only seemed to get bigger and heavier, built for luxury and the comfort of the traveling american. A revolutionary new ride. A new highlevel ventilation system for greater comfort and new fourfender visibility and power. Throughout the 50s and 60s, there was little incentive to make any changes. Gas was cheap and the countrys infancy. It would take a crisis in 1973 to finally force the Auto Industry to rethink the car the way henry ford did several decades earlier. Arab oil fields like this one in kuwait will now produce five percent less oil per month and five percent less each following month until, as the arabs put it, israel withdraws from arab land conquered in 1967 and the rights of the Palestinian People restored. The 1973 oil crisis was a wake up call. Congress passed new fuel efficiency standards and what emerged in the ensueing decade was a significant trend awayfrom the large, muscle cars that once ruled the roads of america. Well the kcar is regarded as chryslers answer to General Motors xcar and they are both automobiles. Fuel efficiency increased throughout the early 80s but the government still desired cleanersources. Twenty years ago, we started on the job and if congress will act on the clean air reforms that im offering today, 20 years from now, every american in every city in america will breathe clean air. The American Public up to now has done nothing to convince me that it is willing to reach deep into its pocketbook to protect expectation is always let somebody else pay for cleaning up my environment. The push to get drivers andthe manufacturers to switch to alternative fuels, continues to be a tough sell but that hasnt stopped the search. From the soybean car to the hydrogen car, the Auto Industry has been presented with a long list of new ideas. Some have failed others major breakthroughs but both have shaped the an evolution that is far from over. We turn from the beginning of the conversation of Renewable Energy to the ability to harness the power of light when we return, the story of a single invention that would lay the foundation for a new era of technology and land its creators in a bitter 30year long patent war. Before, the Auto Industry was dealt an innovation ahead of its time, Albert Einstein early in his career developed a new theory for harnessing the power of light. It wasnt until 40years later, five years after einsteins death, that this idea, the laser, would be patented. The technology that drives our world would have been the stuff of pure fanatasy generations ago. The ability to flip a switch, and light a home to circle the globe in a metal bird or speak instantly with someone anywhere on the planet. They have all become ingrained parts of our life. The same can be said for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation or laser. At Bell Telephone laboratories, day by Day Development a new device which could revolutionize mans use of light. It is called a laser. Charles townes was a physicist at Columbia University. His brotherinlaw, arthur schawlow, a researcher at Bell Telephone labs. Together they worked on the technology that was patented for bell on march 22, 1960. The invention had its roots in work townes had done years before. During world war ii Bell Telephone laboratories working on microwaves and radar and i recognized from that work that molecules interact with microwaves. They absorb microwaves. In the early 1950s in an attempt to produce very strong microwaves, townes invented a micro wave amplifier or maser. Excited moleclues in a resonator box were stimulated to give up their excess energy in interactions with passing waves, amplifying the microwaves in the process. Townes and schawlow wanted to take that concept even further and believed the same principle behind microwave stimulation could be applied to light waves so they began to form a theory for an optical maser, thats because the atoms instead of radiating independently are forced or stimulated to emit by the way that its stored between the two mirrors. That makes light in an extremely pure form. Something weve just never had before. Extremely pure form. Something weve just never had before. Before filing their patent for the laser, schawlow and townes had published a seminal paper on their findings. While it established their place in history as the inventors of the working on similar concepts including gordon gould, a Columbia University graduate student, who had filed his own laser patent during the time it took for bell labs to work through the system. Goulds was denied by u. S. Patent office in favor of schawlows and townes sparking what would be known as the 30 year patent war the battles would be waged in the Patent Office and later in the courts and would eventually the Patent Office and later in the courts and would eventually win gould 48 patents millions of dollars in royalties. Meanwhile, the publication of schawlows and towness findings triggered furious Competition Among researchers. These days the laser plays a vital role in everything from our cd and dvd players to the scanner at the supermarket. They are key instruments in modern surgery and modern warfare. They explore the depths of dollar Communications Industry using lasers to send signals around the globe. In his 2002 autobiography, how the laser happened adventures of a scientist townes wrote, the development of the maser and laser and their subsequent applications followed no script except to hew to the nature of humans groping to understand, to explore and to create. Humans groping to understand, to explore and to create. In the years since his discovery more than 55thousand laserrelated patents have been granted in the u. S. Generating billions of llars in business and endless innovation in the conquest of light. It was the dice that gave way to pocket protectors and suspenders. Next, we remember the debut of that memorable accessory the pocket calculator. When the power of the web was first unlocked. Hi guys got the birthday girl a drum set. Drum set . Hes kidding [laughs] oh you guys must have Time Warner Cable. This is gonna be some party. Yeah, their free home wifi lets us connect all our devices at the same time. And theres no data cap, so. The kids must love that, huh . hey, theres the birthday girl lets get this Party Started get Time Warner Cable 50 meg internet. Thats more than 8 times faster than dsl and no data cap. Uploading honey, im goin viral call now. Get 15 megs for 39. 99 a month. Hi grandma miss you who is that . Are you gonna finish that . Ok. Switching is easy with Time Warner Cables exclusive onehour arrival window, so you dont have to wait around. Plus, theres no contract all with a moneyback guarantee. He overdid it. [snoring] [giggling] get 15 meg internet with unlimited data for 39. 99 per month. Access to nearly 500,000 wifi hotspots with select plans. Call today. The pocket calculator. A tired equipment of yesteryear today but in 1972, it was the latest in consumer technology. We take a look back at the high concept tech, the hp35, that helped us all translate the masse for the first time. Humans have been calculating for as long weve been walking this earth but only recently have we been able to do so electronically. Up until the late 1960s, slide rules, pen and paper were the arithmetic gotos. Texas instruments introduced the first handheld calculator in 1967. It featured ur basic functions addition multiplication and division. A year later, hewlettpackard introduced the 9100. The heart of the classroom system is the 9100 computing calculator. It can be used as either a very simple to operate calculator or a very powerful desktop computer. The 9100 far outperformed any other calculator at the time. And for students of trigonometry, analytic calculus, biology, chemistry and physics are a group of keys that automatically provide the trigonometric and logorithmic functions so often used in the advanced mathematics and the sciences. It was the first scientificcalculator but not only was it expensive, priced at nearly 5,000 dollars, it was also large u bill hewlett, posed a challenge to his staff build a similar machine but one that could fit in a shirt pocket. The early 1970s saw a number of pocketsized calculators hit the market like the sharp elsi8. The worlds first battery operated portable calculator. Introducing the answer. A really small calculator. A really silent electronic. A really fast thinker. One that works anywhere on battery or plugin. One with all the calculator know how youll probably ever need. But one year later, Hewlett Packard accomplishment what at the time seemed impossible cramming most of the functionally of the 9100 into a tiny handheld device. The hp35 socalled for its 35keys. The hp35 wasnt expected to be a runaway bestseller. In the first year, Hewlett Packard hoped to sell 10,000 units. They ended up selling ten timesthat amount. Before the hp35, slide rules were the most common devices used to perform trigonometric functions but by the end of 1972, they were nearly obsolete. The hp35 was sold until 1975 but would have many descendants. The hp35 was sold until 1975 but would have many descendants. All of which put a whole suiteof knowhow in the palm of our hands. Phones,tablets, laptops are all accessories of our daily routines and deeply ingrained in our lives. But before they could fit into our pockets, we had to learn just what we were missing and that process began back in 1951. And the word tonight is univac. To fit commercially produced electronic computer. , j. Presper eckert andohn mauchly created a nearly 500,000dollar machine called eniac that required 15,000 feet to warehouse. Because of eniacs computer power, it could add 5,000 numbers in one second. Scientists working on the First Hydrogen bomb used it in their work. Hydrogen bomb used it in their work. Following that success, eckert and mauchly started their own business and began working on cutting down the size, cost and power usage all while trying to up the performance. When that didnt go as planned, remingtonrand bought their company and provided the resources to make the univac a reality. By june 1951, remingtonrand dedicated its first 16,000 poundunivacone to the u. S. Census bureau. Its the first Electronic Computing system to be proven by widespread use. The very next year the univac became famous when cbs news used the fifth one ever produced to predict the winner of the 1952 president ial election. The univac shocked people when it correctly predicted Dwight Eisenhower would win in a landslide soon after the first polls closed. Landslide soon after the first polls closed. The univac soon gave way to newer technology. Transistor computers that were a lot smaller and used up a lot less power. But in 1951, the idea of a work computer was born. And we have the univac to thank or blame for the screen driven culture that dominates our cubicles and classrooms, not to mention our lives. The worlds first electronic it was just before the univac made its debut in 1950 that we sathe debut of another new fangled idea. In this moment in time from 1950 one of the pioneers of the new helicopter, unveiled his latest invention. At palo alto, california the worlds first jet helicopter is unveiled by its inventor, youthful stanley hiller, jr. The essence of simplicity the helicopter is powered by two small jet engines which weigh only 11 pounds each and have no moving parts. In a matter of minutes, they can be attached to the tips of the rotors. The plane is practically fool proof and fuel proof. It runs on almost anything that burns gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel or even castor oil. The plane flies with only two controls plans an inexpensive two passenger commuter model, which like this will remain stable, even with no hands on the controls. For the present however, production must be exclusively for the armed forces. Before aol, it used to be how we all got mail and traversed the budding new technology that was the internet. When we return, well take you back to 1994 for the rise and introduced many to the world from the first helicopter to the fighter jet, we find Walter Cronkite attempting to control the air forces coolest new toy in 1981 the flight simulator, in this next moment in time. This air force f16 cost american taxpayers over 10 million dollars. It costs a million just to train the pilot. Another two thousand dollars is spent each hour its in the air. Well. Good morning major. Hello sir. How are you doing . Flying the simulator . Very much so. Yes sir. It sure is. Been down to the simulator once with students and i have instructed many students that have been into the simulator and we notice that the difference between the people that have been there and the people that havent. Theres just no doubt in our minds. The Williams Air Force base outside of phoenix, arizona. Pilots battle to the death, refuel in midair, evade surface to air missiles and artillery. Thats those white flashes youre the head of this Research Project is a pilot. Colonel dick needham. All past wars show that you are going to lose most of your pilots in their first 10 to 15 missions and we feel that if we can bring a gut to the tenth to fifteenth level of confidence before he flies, then we are gonna lose a lot less people in the next war and have a lot Better Qualified crews and as one of my guys told me the other day, he said we are gonna make are pilots die a lot harder than the other guys. With the assistant of major bit about dying harder myself. Now pull it back. More back pressure. Pull the stick back. Good. Good. Now roll out. There you go. Pull it around. There you go. Looking good. A little bit more back pressure and a little more to the left. As soon as you get close to that target push the red button. I cant see my ah hell. Off to the left. Watch out oh geez and we died. You get the sensation of the realism of that. Delta 8. You look good now. Realism of that. Delta 8. You look good now. Better than the simulator. Right. Buzz aldrin and Neil Armstrong trained for the moon landing in a box. A simulator designed to duplicate the sensations of landing on the moon. Now this collection of girders and wires and computers is training our astronauts to fly the Space Shuttle. Although each simulator we have explored has been touted as the ultimate, perhaps its the as the shuttle is the most sophisticated space craft ever designed by man, likewise is its simulator. It must simulate launching, reentry, landing, loading and emergency situations. The ultimate spacecraft is flown by the ultimate pilot, astronaut john young. John, i think the number is Something Like 533 and half hours or Something Like that that you have spent in space, a near record. How many hours have you spent in simulators do you think . Have you spent in simulators do you think . Uh. Probably pushing eight or nine thousand hours by now. Not in a shuttle simulations. Weve got about 1400 hours in the Space Shuttle simulators both in standalone situations where just the crew is working on problems and integrated simulations with Mission Control. I think simulators are really important to the development of Something Like allow you to do things that, for example, with the military in peacetime, you couldnt do otherwise and i certainly think they are absolutely vital to the space program. One notable conclusion at the end of this simulator adventure. Theres a new breed commanding our ships and planes out there. Men who are part scientist , part Computer Programmer but the old time excitement is still there. Now pull back on the stick a little, walter. There you go. Now pull back on the stick a little, walter. There you go. 500 feet. 400 feet. Okay now you got to get the nose up just little more. 200 feet. Whoa, not too high. 50 feet. All right. Well, lets get back in the air again here. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. First try. That aint bad at all. Well, i guess we must have hit a little hard here but it wasnt too hard. Oh boy. Nine feet a second. Thats great. A little post script to that story. When i landed the simulator the second time, again successfully i might add, Mission Control, called over the air and said, john young. We have indication of a fire in here. and young said to me, gee here. and young said to me, gee thats kind of odd. Weve safe landing i dont believe. Im really not sure what were supposed to do about that. about that time, Mission Control breaks in again, we have a fire alarm. john answers, i know. Were working on it. Mission Control cuts in. john. Weve got a fire alarm in the building, not the simulator. You and mr. Cronkite better get out of there. well, we did. False alarm it turned out but definitely not a simulation. Technical milestones, through the decades, weve seen the debut of the calcutor, the first computer and the newest toys in the air, the now we move to 1994, the day the door to the World Wide Web was kicked wide open. Thats when netscape navigator onepointoh was released. In 1994, the internet was a foreign landscape and traversing it was complicated, clunky and intimidating. Complicated, clunky and intimidating. Its advantages and potential were hidden. Stuck in a no mans land but working to set all of that free was netscape communications. The newly formed company was cofounded by a Young Software engineer named marc andreesen. He was the brains behind mosaic, an early internet browser created a year earlier that would become the basis for netscape navigator. Existent. With a userfriendly interface, navigator pulled back the curtain on the internet becoming many peoples first introduction to the World Wide Web. Navigator rapidly evolved with updates that made it a technical leader in web browsing throughout the mid 1990s. With innovating features like javascript, cookies and plug ins, all of which wouldo become industry standards but its occupation of a competitivefree zone would be shortlived. In the spring of 1995, microsoft moved in on the internet browser business developing Internet Explorer and for the next several years, in the end, microsoft came out the winner, too overpowering and netscape was later bought out by america online. Aol chairman steve case now is offering all of netscapes workers an extra months pay to stay on and hes promising them netscape will remain a quote cool company. netscape navigator was essentially defunct by the early 2 but the features and characteristics it introduced to internet browsing are clearly visible today guiding our travels through a vast online world. Netscape may have been the beginning, but we move to a company that still stands at the center of the internet google. It has expanded its reach far beyond its initial in 1998. The name was supposed to be googol which is the mathematical term for a one followed by a hundred zeroes. Used to describe unimaginablequantities, though it has no specialsignificance, mathematically it was the inspiration to what would become the worlds most used Search Engine google. A domain that was officially incorporated in menlo park, google began here at Stanford University, it was a research paper. Larry page and sergey brin, the founders of google met at Stanford University in 1995. In march the following year, the two collaborated on a Research Project funded by the National Science foundation. Universal digital library. Myself and my partner larry, we were just doing research in managing large amounts of information and whats called data mining which is finding patterns. Eventually we turn to the World Wide Web which is most of Human Knowledge in kind of a very heterogeneous dispersed form. And it led to backrub, a Search Engine that uses back links to determine a websites relevance. Links to determine a websites relevance. It operated on stanford servers for more than a year until its bandwidth usage cost too much so page and brin moved backrubs algortihm off campus. So, we found a place with some extra space and moved in and worked in the garage like a good Silicon Valley start up should do. So, we decide wed rent some of it out to a student and we thought, well theyll just be there during the day when were at work and we wont notice but they were actually there 24 hours a day all the time but in because we got free highspeed Internet Access at the same time. Page, brin and silverstein built google. They renamed the backrub algorithm to pagerank after its founders. In just a few years, those three guys in a garage grew into this. A company of a 1000 employees worldwide, taking in a billion dollars a year, headquartered at a Silicon Valley campus called the googleplex. Valley campus called the googleplex. Google went public in august, 2004 and shares sold at 84dollars a piece measuring the companys worth at 23billion dollars, six years after it was operating in a garage. Today google has expanded its reach and in 2015, page and brin created an Umbrella Company called alphabet to handle the various projects, all living up to the idea derived from a single search. Russias launch of the worlds first satellite, sputnik, would give rise to one of the most important technologies we use today. The ability to track our very location at any given time. When we come back, well delve into the story of how we went from foldout maps in the glove box to the luxury of gps on your smartphone. This is through the decades. [laughs] welcome hi were your neighbors. We live across the street. Thanks for this. I see youve got Time Warner Cable like the rest of the hood. Genius. Yeah, they offer tons of free hd channels. And you can record six shows at the same time. And with the super fast internet, entertainment nirvana wow. Nirvana. Switch to Time Warner Cable for 89. 99 per month, youll get free hd channels, 30 meg internet with no data cap, and unlimited calling. Call now. Looks like youre all hooked up. Were watching here . Oh yeah. Ohh. How about you and i go watch my favorite show . Switching is easy. Youll get our exclusive onehour arrival window, a moneyback guarantee, and theres no contract to sign. Oh youve got the twc phone. Its unlimited calling to like half the world. Including mexico, canada, india, european union. Yeah. This will work as a coffee table. Dont ah it says. Fragile. Get tv, internet and phone for 89. 99 per month. Plus free installation, tv equipment, and epix included. We began our look at technology with with edison, then moved to ford and jumped to the first computer, with a Quick Venture through google. We now close our show with the debut of a feat of technology, for some of us, may control more than we want to admit. The Global Positioning system better known as gps is a constellation of satellites tracking precise location and time around the world. And in 2000, this network was unlocked for all to use. Five, four, three, two, one. Today orbiting satellites of the navy navigatiosatellite today orbiting satellites of the navy navigatiosatellite system provide round the clock ultra precise position fixes from space to units of the fleet everywhere in any kind of weather. The u. S. Navy developed the first satellite Navigation System in the 1960s. It was initially intended for the polaris Ballistic Missile submarine which required accurate location information. There were parallel developmentsy the u. S. Army and the u. S. Air force but in the early 1970s, the pentagon made a proposal to combine the best technologies from each branch of the military into one Global Positioning satellite system. The navstar global posistioning system will be a World Wide Network of satellites transmitting precise, jamresistant navigational signals. Twenty four satellites will to provide highly accurate and continuous Global Coverage to the army, marines, air force and the navy. Prototype navstar satellites first launched in 1978 and while the department of defense recognized the potential for civilian use, gps remained reserved for the military and then a tragedy in 1983 would begin to change that. Today confirmed the worst that a soviet mig fighter jet had fired a missile and shot down Korean Airlines flight 7 from new york to seoul, south korea with all 269 on board. Korean air lines flight seven was shot down after straying into soviet airspace. A disaster that may have been avoided with better navigational tools. No one will ever ow a mistake was made in giving the computer the course or whether there was a malfunction. Whichever, the 747 was flying a course further to the west than it was supposed to fly. President Ronald Reagan issued a directive making gps freely available for civilian use once the system was completed but that was another decade down the line. The first fullscale operational gps satellites and the constellation of 24 was completed in 1994 much to the delight of the commercial airline industry. Using an existing Defense Department network of satellites called the Global Positioning system, or gps, the faa will be able to track planes with pinpoint accuracy from airport to airport around the globe. It is the single most important advance in the history of navigation. Its really pointed at increasing the safety of the its really pointed at increasing the safety of the air Traffic Control system, increasing the capacity of the system and reducing the cost of operating the system. Gps has provided us a navigation and approach system that allowed us to get our customers to their destination when the weather otherwise wouldve precluded that. Throughout its first several years of operation, the gps signal for civilian use was only selectively available. Accuracy was intentionally unauthorized users. The u. S. Government did so for National Security reasons but as more and more gps services began to manifest, president bill clinton signed an executive order to turn off selective availability and four years later, in may, 2000, precision, gps signals were made available to everyone introducting a whole new realm of possibilitiesot technologically and recreationally. These handheld locators at one time used only by the military have inspired a treasure hunting craze that is sweeping the globe. Found it what shane found is called a cache. Its the Hidden Treasure in the new sport of geocaching. These days gps is everywhere full integrated in our daily life. Its our guide, navigating our thatll do it for us today. Im bill kurtis. As we leave, one last look back at technological milestones, through the decades. Closed captioning provided by cbs sports divisi adam ole misss epic collapse and l. S. U. s cheapshot loss compounded ugly low point. Well see which s. E. C. Shows up this week. Autotrader College Football today is up next. Verne hes got room to run