They hold just about everything--Containers. We follow a day-in-the-life of a steel freight container from port to port and see how standard containers can be transported by ship, train, or truck while looking into new technology and security measures being used today. We visit a Georgia Pacific plant to see how raw materials are processed in a state-of-the-art plant. We also visit the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an underground container used for extraordinary amounts of vital product. The containers that hold the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve are actually underground salt domes. In a visit to Bryan Mound, Texas, one of four locations housing the SPR, we learn how the caverns within the salt domes are created and how the oil contained in these caverns actually benefits from this type of storage. We also check out silos that were necessary for farmers' progress. And finally, we sip from metal cans, which revolutionized the food and beverage industry.

Fire--we have learned to create and control it, but have yet to tame it? It's alive--it breathes, feeds, and grows. Fire is behind essentially every component of the modern world and has spawned entire industries. We'll feature great feats in pyrotechnology, or the intentional use and control of fire by humans--from the massive 8-story fire-breathing boilers that create steam heat for downtown Philadelphia, to the nearly 2,000 degree flames that create electricity at a biomass plant. From the massive coal-fired locomotives that powered us across the continent, to the rocket engines that took us to the moon, we'll cover what fire is, how we have learned to create and harness it, and its behavior with various fuel sources. At a match factory, we see how the seeds of fire are made and explore the significance of this seemingly simple innovation. We also take a look at the important role that fire has played in technological advances as well as warfare.

Cotton's journey from dirt to shirt; cotton's ancient origins.

Debris causes workers to plunge 200 feet; Salton Sea; China's Sunjiawan coal mine.

Boxed chocolates as See's Candy; Schimpff's Confectionery; Jelly Belly; salt-water taffy pullers.

The agri-tech and genetic engineering behind nuts.

45min | Aired on Dec 28, 2013 | TV-PG | CC

The levees and water-pumping system of New Orleans.

The Edmund Fitzgerald; Boeing 737 crashes; nuclear disasters; oil storage facility.

44min | Aired on Mar 22, 2006 | TV-PG | CC

The past, present and future of insulation technology.

California's borax mines; steam shovel; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Tunnel-boring machines; robotic drills; hand-held power drills.

Celebrating technological breakthroughs and man-made wonders.

45min | Aired on May 24, 2006 | TV-PG | CC

The inventions of Ben Franklin.

Copper, uranium, chromium, lead, nickel and zinc.

The improvement of technology and how it has made engines more efficient.

Famous barbecue cook-offs; long-established barbecue restaurants.

Pirates use firearms, swords and navigational equipment.

45min | Aired on Jul 09, 2006 | TV-PG | CC

Wind tunnel; flight simulators; mining machine; IMAX technology.

45min | Aired on Jul 26, 2006 | TV-PG | CC

Egyptian mummies.

The transfer, consumption and search for water.

45min | Aired on Sep 06, 2006 | TV-PG | CC

The history and uses of copper.

The history and development of freight trains.

The industries responsible for the development of the assembly line.

44min | Aired on Sep 23, 2006 | TV-PG | CC

The Christian Brothers distillery; working moonshine still; Jade absinthe distillery.

The Foss Maritime tugboat; Spectra rope; diamond; polycarbonate plastic.

Explore the legacy of the F-14 fighter jet, one of America's greatest aerial weapons ever built. Witness first hand the last F-14 catapult launches and arrested trap landings aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Hear what the aviators and sailors, who have flown and maintained this iconic aircraft over the years, have to say about its long lived active duty career.

1h 8min | Aired on Nov 01, 2006 | TV-PG | CC

From Alexander Graham Bell's crude creation to today's high-speed wireless networks, explore the past, present and future of the telephone.

44min | Aired on Sep 15, 1996 | TV-PG | CC

Safeway's distribution center; supermarket pioneers and the chains they created.

45min | Aired on Nov 15, 2006 | TV-PG | CC

France's Moet vineyards and La Tour d'Argent.

High-tech harvesting.

The benefits and perils of snow.

Tree preparation at Rockefeller Center.

BP's Texas City refinery; airline crash; NASA's Skylab.

The Lipton tea plant; the 127-acre Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina; the history of tea.

44min | Aired on Dec 13, 2006 | TV-PG | CC