This program celebrates the 150th anniversary of the tin can. To meet military demands for preserved foods during war, Nicholas Appert devised a method of preserving foods by heating them in sealed containers to destroy the bacteria. In 1812 Peter Durand invented the tin can and the first canning factory opened in Great Britain. A dramatization describes a typical 1815 dinner consisting predominantly of pickled, salted, smoked, and dried foods. Thomas Kensett patented Durand's tin cans in the U.S. in 1825. During the Civil War demands for canned foods increased, boosting mass production of the tin cans. Other products began appearing in cans, such as I. W. Lyons' tooth powder for home use; Gerhard Mennen's talcum powder for babies, in a lithographed can with a sprinkle top; and Gilbert Van Camp's pork and beans combination. A selection of 1880s mass produced, decorative tins display a variety of products, many non-perishable. Soldering the tops of cans by hand gave way to open-topped cans that could be seamed shut by machine. The only exception to this were condensed or evaporated milk cans, patented in 1856 by Gail Borden. A film shows a canning factory, producing 30,000 cans per hour, from cutting the tin plate to testing and shipping the final products. The aerosol can, first used in World War II for insecticide, is also discussed.

Host Lynn Poole sets the scene of the late 18th/early 19th century Rocky Mountain fur trappers who crossed the Missouri River (the "Yellow Waters") to trap beavers and sell pelts, blazing the Oregon Trail as they advanced. In 1837 Baltimore, Maryland painter Alfred Jacob Miller joined the American Fur Company caravan, with Scottish Captain William Drummond Stewart, to make a visual record of their trip to the fur traders' rendezvous in the Green River Valley of Wyoming. A map shows their route from Independence, Missouri to Oregon. Miller's sketches, later transformed into over 200 watercolors (now preserved in the Walters Art Gallery and displayed on this program) and oil paintings, chronicle such events as buffalo hunts, prairie fires, and river crossings, as well as such landmarks as Chimney Rock, Scott's Bluff, Fort Laramie, Independence Rock, and The Devil's Gate. Miller's paintings also show encounters with Sioux tribes and Black Feet Indians, various tribal members, and Indian women. The final painting shown portrays trapper Joe Walker with his new Indian wife heading into the wilderness after the rendezvous. Lynn Poole concludes the program by describing how missionaries such as Marcus and Narcissa Whitman took the Oregon Trail to Walla Walla, Washington, followed later by the many settlers moving West.

Johns Hopkins University faculty member Elliott Coleman reads from his poetic works: "Spring on the Estuary," "Joyce's Grave," "Letter to Pierre Emmanuel," "Sonnets on the Roman Light," and "Aubade for Josephine Jacobsen." Poetry consultant to the Library of Congress Josephine Jacobsen reads the following of her poems: "Topic of Advent," "The Animals," "The Danish Mobile," "Painter in Xyochtl," and "The Stranger and Corrigan."

Members of the Baltimore Woodwinds, first chair or principle players with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, open the program playing the finale of "Quintet in E-flat major" by Anton Reicha. Lynn Poole describes the history of woodwind music and introduces the players: Britton Johnson on flute, Wayne Rapier on oboe, Robert Pierce on French horn, Stanley Petrulis on bassoon, and Ignatius Gennusa on clarinet. The quintet plays two movements of Vivaldi's "Sonata in G minor" and continues with "Pastoral," by modern composer Vincent Persichetti. Last in their repertoire are three short pieces for woodwind composed by Jacques Ibert.

Dr. John C. Geyer and Dr. Charles E. Renn, professors of sanitary engineering at the Johns Hopkins University, discuss the municipal and industrial demands on water. Dr. Geyer explains how a city water meter works and shows the resulting graphs that predict the time of greatest water use. Dr. Renn displays examples of common products and tells how much water is required to manufacture each. He also discusses rainwater, wells, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs as sources of water and how river water can be used, treated, and returned. A film clip documents the formation of a river. Using a diagram, Dr. Geyer explains municipal water purification and waste treatment processes. Dr. Renn discusses industrial waste disposal and how it can cause stream pollution unless treated by a waste control plant, such as that of American Cyanamid Co., in New Jersey. Dr. Geyer notes the growing conflict in the American southwest over water use between industry and agriculture. Dr. Renn concludes that increasing water demands require either stopping growth or building more dams and evaluating priorities for use, such as recent multiple use (recreation, power, water control) projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

Denys Peter Myers, Assistant Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, discusses sculpture. He first describes, and displays, sculptures as artistic expressions existing in the round and being representational, semi-representational, or non-representational. He then argues that to understand the purpose of a sculpture, one must consider the culture that produced it and will generally find that it is either humanistic (making a statement about the human condition) or cult (serving as a bridge from this world to the next). As examples of cult objects, Mr. Myers exhibits the bronze head of the dead king of the kingdom of Benin in Nigeria. He also shows an Egyptian rose quartz sculpture of a pharaoh, an 8th century Indian temple corner graced by two dancers, a 14th century French Madonna and child, a second century Gandharan stucco head in the Roman tradition, and a 5th century sculpture similar to a Roman sarcophagus. To contrast humanistic examples of sculpture, Mr. Myers displays the remainder of a Greek Venus sculpture, the ideal of feminine beauty. The neo-humanism of Dante's era led to contemporary individualism as expressed in Maillol's 1898 "Bather Fixing Her Hair," Degas' "Little Dancer," and Matisse's "Serf," "Reclining Nude," and "Serpentine." He compares Renoir's 1916 bronze Venus to the ancient one and Henry Moore's abstract "Reclining Woman" with previous examples. Mr. Myers maintains that modern artists are the prophets and moralists of society and their return to abstract ideas and figures are a balance of otherworldliness and worldliness, with Venus and the dead king coalescing. He concludes the program showing two abstract metal sculptures: Giacometti's "Man Pointing" and Ibram Lassaw's "Planets."

Dr. Milton S. Eisenhower, president of the Johns Hopkins University, opens the show by explaining the 1701 replica model of the universe, the symbol of this oldest TV series on air. Assisted by costumed reenactors, Sidney Painter, professor of history at Johns Hopkins, describes the history of the Middle Ages, the life of knights, and the development of the feudal system. William the Norman spread the feudal system to Anglo-Saxon England where King John disregarded feudal customs. Dr. Painter tells how the Articles of the Barons, based on feudal law, were drafted by Stephen Langdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, granted under duress by John at Runneymeade in 1215, and ultimately revised into the Magna Carta, guaranteeing liberty to freemen and the Church of England and limiting the king's powers.

This program opens with a brief scene from Shakespeare's "Othello" performed in twentieth century dress and setting. Dr. Lawrence Ross, associate professor of English at the Johns Hopkins University, argues that such modern trappings distort Shakespeare's work and Elizabethan times. He explains that the Shakespeare stage was an open air platform with emphasis on the actors and their speech and symbolized the order of the universe with man in the center. The same scene is then performed on the Folger Shakespeare Library's stage in Washington, DC in period costume. Dr. Ross says that Shakespeare's dramatic poetry spoken on the symbolic stage represented the essence of life and that the meanings of Elizabethan words often differed from current ones. Shakespeare's characters are hybrid: part real, part symbol, such as Shylock exacting a pound of flesh in the dramatized scene from "The Merchant of Venice." Dr. Ross analyzes a portrait of Queen Elizabeth as an introduction to the Elizabethan order of natural authority: the king ruled over the state, God over the universe, the sun over the planets, the husband over the family, and reason over man. Actors from Johns Hopkins Play Shop perform five passages from "Macbeth" as Dr. Ross explains the violation of the social, political, and natural worlds, evident in the words and their rhythms, when Macbeth and his wife contemplate and carry out the death of King Duncan.

The Johns Hopkins University president Milton S. Eisenhower introduces this program about the Fund for Adult Education, an independent philanthropic organization sponsored by the Ford Foundation to extend liberal education to adults. He explains that as a society becomes more complex, its need for good leaders increases. Charles H. Percy, president of the Bell and Howell Co. and chairman of the board for the Fund, describes leadership in the United States and public responsibility of its citizens. He points out that particularly because we now have the power to destroy ourselves, the future of society depends on the effectiveness of key people in organizations' leadership roles. The president of the Fund, C. Scott Fletcher, says that leadership comes from a multiple, fluid society, offering a constant supply of fresh people with new ideas. A short film shows how uneducated leaders in a village are unable to meet the challenge of change and take a long-range view. Harry A. Bullis, director of the Fund, explains that leadership training is available to Armed Forces staff and at most private organizations, but top government employees only receive on the job training via trial and error, often at the public's expense. The Fund intends to prepare such individuals for public responsibilities. President of Vassar College and vice-chair of the Fund's board Sarah Gibson Blanding describes leadership in Thomas Jefferson's days and how it developed as society became more complex. While there are opportunities for many types of training, adult leadership training is lacking. She reiterates that continuing liberal adult education is necessary. Leaders must be educated to be dedicated, courageous, and imaginative. Mr. Percy concludes that the threat of Soviet Russia and its success with communism will exist for a long time, so we must educate our leaders as efficiently as they do theirs. He suggests non-commercial educational television as a possible education vehicle. In closing, Lynn Poole offers a free copy of the Fund's booklet "The Great Awakening" to the viewing audience.

Lynn Poole discusses the history of and variety of calendars, including Edmund Osborne's scenic calendars, Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac", the evolution of calendar girls from 1899 to present, the perpetual calendar, Stonehenge as a calendar, and a deck of cards representing a calendar. He also explains how primitive man reckoned time, the Babylonian astrologers' influence, and the origins of sennight and fortnight. Words for the days of the week in French, Italian, and Anglo-Saxon reflect their origins in the Romans' naming of days for the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, and the sun. Years can be considered as anomalistic, tropical, or sidereal. The tropical year is explained with a globe and photographer's lamp as the earth orbits around the sun from vernal equinox to vernal equinox every 365.2422 days, requiring a leap year day to catch up. Calendars based on the moon are soon out of sync with the seasons as they're based on the 29.5-day lunar month, which is why the dates of Passover and Easter fluctuate. Mr. Poole displays an American Indian lunar calendar drawn on buckskin for the period 1865-1892. Julius Caesar abandoned the lunar calendar and decreed that the year would run from vernal equinox to vernal equinox; however, by 1582 this Julian calendar was off by ten days, and Pope Gregory decreed the Gregorian calendar, still used today.