I should not have liked the world’s first smart home.

I went as far north as I could go on my road trip, at least not without crossing the border to Scotland. Northumberland is rural and coastal, and I was there to see the home of the Magician of the North, a place far ahead of its time: the world’s first smart home. It doesn’t look like a lot of the other country houses I’ve seen. Like, there’s some detail that feels English in here. But also, some of this feels like a German castle or a Swiss castle, something like that. Inside, I met the house’s curator, Clara. So, welcome to Cragside. We’re in the entrance hall here, so this is where Lord and Lady Armstrong would have greeted their guests. When you come in here, one of the things that is most noticeable is our huge Dent clock. So it’s incredibly accurate. It’s the master clock for the whole estate. Okay. And one of the things that the first Lord Armstrong, who created Cragside with his wife, Margaret, was absolutely obsessed with was keeping time. To the point that when guests came to Cragside, they complained about how structured their days were. Oh, wow, okay. So, everything at Cragside was scheduled, and this clock is the same as that used at Greenwich. So it’s really extraordinary in terms of how well it keeps time. To explain why I’m impressed there, by Greenwich, Clara means the Royal Observatory. The Dent company made clocks for the people who kept time for the country, as well as the clock that still rings Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament. They were the watchmaker to the Royal Family. If you wanted the best clock possible in the late 19th century, and you had a staggering amount of money, you talked to the Dent company. There was also a very fancy, elaborate recording barometer for weather records and perhaps even short-term forecasting. Why does somebody need that? He’s created this estate that relies on rainfall to fill up the lake. So if you think about kind of control of when you need to raise and lower dams to let water into different parts to run the hydraulics and the hydroelectricity elements, so it’s really important that he knows. -Yeah. -I think he’s also just interested. (laughing) Right. I’m recognising this guy in my head! He’s just curious. You know, he just wants to kind of... understand the world around him and understand its potential and that Victorian interest in, kind of, taking the natural world, understanding it, recording it, controlling it. Yep. How do you bend it to your will? The first step is understanding it, and that’s what he’s doing here in his home. The man in question is William George Armstrong. We’ll talk more about him later. Now, in the videos I used to make, years ago, I’d do huge amounts of research before visiting a place, and I’d turn up with a script ready to go, but for this road trip, I tried to learn things as I went along, knowing I could always clean it up here in the studio later. So at that point, all I knew was that Armstrong was a wealthy and famous Victorian industrialist who had commissioned Not that they called it that at the time. So on that note, let’s go look at the kitchen, because a wealthy Victorian industrialist and his family would not be cooking for themselves. Or doing any chores for themselves. -Oh, this is colossal! -Magnificent space, isn’t it? This is enormous. I have so many questions. I’m going to start with the rotating spits. Yeah. That’s a complicated set of gears and things. What’s going on there? So it’s using technology, again, that existed, so off-the-shelf parts. But it’s being powered, instead of by something like a clockwork jack that would have been more conventional, it’s being powered by a water turbine. (laughs) So it’s all about efficiency. So everything Armstrong does is about making everything run better. To make what is essentially... I mean, I imagine the word kebab had not made it to... It’s essentially a kebab, yeah. Not made it to Cragside in Victorian times. That is essentially a kebab rotator. The word I was looking for there was “rotisserie”, but sure, let’s go with “kebab rotator”. Also, technically, the word “kebab” had reached England by Victorian times, but it wouldn’t have been in common use. So there’s like a take-off from the river that’s running through? So it’s pumped. It’s pumped! Our hydraulic engine that is down in the pump house that was built at Armstrong’s works, that is pumping spring water that’s collected in a tank at the pump house up to a basin tank behind the house, and that gravity-fed system is what’s feeding this, the central heating, the plumbing. -(laughs) -The cascades in the rock garden. -It’s all coming from one spot? We went downstairs to see the water turbine. It’s tiny and doesn’t show up well on camera, but it’s basically like this simple garden sprinkler, water jets out of the side of the turbine, that spins the whole thing, and that’s what powers the... kebab rotators. You can follow the chain of gears from the meat hooks, all the way across, down, under the floor and down again to the turbine. I’m just standing here, slightly gobsmacked, because I thought about filming Cragside for a long time, -I was like, “It’s just an old house...” What the?! Yeah! Hydraulic lift? The house had a domestic passenger lift in the 19th century in rural England! It’s no longer working, and it’s also not particularly well documented, because why would you keep precise details about changes to a private home? Very few people keep a formal record and plans when they remodel their bathroom. This was just his house. Most of what we know comes from visitors, so from people recording how amazing this house was. But one of the things he makes is hydraulic machinery. So he makes hydraulic cranes, he makes accumulators, so the mechanism that opens and closes Tower Bridge in London, those are Armstrong accumulators. Oh. Oh! -So he’s an expert in using water power. Hydraulic accumulators are sort of water-based batteries. They can be as simple as a water tower: use energy to pump the water up, store it there, and then use the potential energy in that water when it falls back down. Armstrong’s invention was basically putting a huge heavy weight on top of that water, like a giant plunger. So the water pressure is higher, you can store more potential energy per litre of water, ’cos it’s taken more to lift that weight up, and on its way out it stays a lot closer to constant pressure because you’ve always got that heavy weight on it too. And while the story of any invention is complicated, it is fair to say that Armstrong invented them, kept improving them, and made a lot of money from them. Anyway, we headed back upstairs. The family’s part of the house is all traditional, but behind the scenes for the servants, there’s a lot of industrial iron girders on show. Because of course there are, that’s what Armstrong’s companies were using and building elsewhere. The stone comes from the site. So we have quarries on site that again are using Armstrong’s hydraulic cranes. Of course they are. And his, kind of, massive workforce. So he’s got the ability to bring literally train loads of his staff from the Elswick works in Newcastle to supply enough manpower to create something like this. What do you do if you have effectively unlimited money? And want to build the future? -And it’s 1870-something. Wow! It’s, um, well, you do this, yeah. You can go and look at the quarry if you follow the right trails. And we haven’t even started talking about the electricity yet! Our next stop is the library. And I wouldn’t normally include a detail about the exact construction of a vase, but it will be important shortly. So there are four vases around the edge of the room, and they’re not ceramic, they’re metal. So they’re pieces of copper wire that form the outside of the pattern, and then the lozenges that are created by the copper wire are filled with coloured enamel, and that’s what creates the effect. So his friend Joseph Swan, who lived in Gateshead, they were all part of the same circle of people. He demonstrates his incandescent light bulb, and everyone’s amazed. The incandescent light bulb is the inefficient, slightly orange type of light bulb that was used worldwide until about the end of the 20th century. They were invented by many people, in many different ways, but Swan was one of the most successful. And he was also from up north. Mosley Street in Newcastle was the first street in the world to be lit by incandescent lamps. And that makes sense if you’re in a city, but... Armstrong suggests that they try it at his house. Because of course he does, ’cos he’s got this house with loads of experimental things. And he’s got a source of electricity, which is, of course, incredibly unusual in a private home. By this point, Armstrong already has a hydroelectric system, a turbine provided by the Siemens company. The same company that is now a multi-billion-dollar worldwide conglomerate, but was then just some guy’s company. Wilhelm Siemens, who is a German industrialist and inventor, who is living in Britain and is friends with Armstrong, he uses one of his dynamos to hook it up to water power. And he basically uses an artificial waterfall and the lake to create enough power to generate electricity from this one dynamo. -Wow. That’s used to power arc lamps in the gallery. I’ve filmed with arc lamps before, and there aren’t many places in the world that still use them ’cos you have to replace the carbon rods in there regularly. They also let out a load of UV light. They’re not safe to be around. They’re not safe. They’re messy. They’re noisy. They’re essentially an open current of electricity. They’re not okay for a domestic space. So they kind of work outdoors for street lights. You wouldn’t want them in your home if you can avoid it. I mean, it’s amazing that’s Armstrong’s like, “Well, I’ll give it a go...” (laughing) And then he rapidly decides, “No, we’re going to use these instead.” I mean, I can imagine the reaction that his wife and... -(clock chiming) -Oh, yeah, there you go. Bang on, we’re still efficient. Sorry, it is exactly 10 o’clock on my phone, from... Yeah, we’re efficient! (laughter) I don’t know why you’re surprised, Tom! Okay, Armstrong decided to have a go with his friend’s new invention, so he just plugs it in, right? Except there’s no standard wiring or sockets or anything, so... remember those vases with the metal wire construction? However you’re imagining that might work, the reality was probably even more dangerous. And I will explain that... after this break. Hello from NordVPN’s actual, real-world headquarters! I’ve been using NordVPN for years. They’ll let you pretend that your computer, phone and tablet are in any one of more than 100 countries. 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Or, some American sites block all of Europe because they can’t be bothered to comply with the local privacy laws. You can try it, risk-free, with a 30-day money-back guarantee, Also, just as a test, I tried to unsubscribe, and it was easy, and it was done with just a few taps! Scan the QR code, or click the link in the description, to go to nordvpn.com/tomscott and you'll get the best deal that they’re currently offering. That’s nordvpn.com/tomscott . Hey, I think we got that! That’s... that’s great. You were talking so fast! I want to do the same, you know? (crew laughing) You’re like, da-da-da-da-da, and I was like, auuugh! Now, we were talking about the big vases with the metal-wire construction all the way through them. These are really experimental. So how they turned on is that they were sat in a... There’s no light switch. Nobody’s invented the light switch yet. No, of course they haven’t! So they use the fact that these are not ceramic, they’re metal. -Oh, no. -And they put them in a... It gets worse. They put them in a charged bowl of mercury. Oh, no! And the youngest member of the household, who was a ten-year-old boy called Andrew Crozier, was given the task of literally picking them up, and he got given gloves so he wouldn’t get electrocuted and placing them in the charged bowl of mercury. -They just had, like, on here... -Yep. ...a bowl of mercury effectively plugged into the mains. Like it’s not the mains, but it’s just electrified whenever guy-in-the-powerhouse switches it on. And they just pick up the lamp and put it in. Yes. ’Cos no one’s invented the light switch! I’m not certain if any domestic light switch had been invented, but the standardised, mass-produced ones hadn’t. But Cragside’s lighting did have a switch. Armstrong would call down to the powerhouse at the other end of the estate, where there was lots of big electrical generating equipment... ...and the staff member down there, the Caretaker of Electric Light, would pull the big switch and energise the wires. And the astonishing bit that I completely missed in that story first time I heard it... There was a telephone system on the estate! The telephone had only just been invented, and Armstrong had wires not just inside the house and around the grounds, but running all the way to Newcastle, 30 miles away, so he could talk to the folks at his factory. Also, that ten-year-old boy with the insulated gloves putting the lamps in charged-up toxic liquid metal? He went on to be the head butler and retired when he was in his seventies. Anyway, Cragside has incandescent light bulbs. -Is that still incandescent now? -No, it’s an LED. It’s an LED now. -I think that’s reasonable. You know, it’s inside a globe there. But you’ll have matched the colour temperature. Well, yeah, we’re still working on it ’cos these are actually a bit too white. -Oh. -So ideally, they should be more orangey. It’s something that we want to improve is actually getting the right tone of light. But there’s no single correct tone of light. Because that will have changed as the technology changed. In theory, Cragside could have never been sold to the National Trust, and the owners could have kept updating it as anyone does to their own home. The Trust, including Clara as curator, they have to make a decision on what year, or mix of years, visitors should see as they walk around. So, we continue walking around, upstairs, to the drawing room and its enormous marble fireplace. It’s completed in 1884. So it’s the fourth extension to the house. Completed just in time for a visit from the Prince and Princess of Wales. And that’s really significant because Armstrong isn’t even a lord yet. He’s just Sir. -Oh, he’s a commoner. He’s a commoner. And royalty are coming along. Because Cragside is so spectacular. A commoner, someone without any formal title or nobility, has more luxuries than a royal palace. And also, the royal palaces probably didn’t have a marble fireplace on the second floor, because how do you build something strong enough to take that weight? -Is that solid granite? Marble? -It’s marble. -Ten tons of Italian marble. And alabaster. And it’s being held up by giant steel girders... ...that eventually go into the connecting crag. But it gives the effect of it floating on the second floor. That’s not a ghost in the background there, that’s the person from the National Trust’s media department, and in hindsight, I should have given a second camera to them, so my editor had something to cut between. Anyway, while the fireplace is technically on the second floor of the building, Cragside is also built on a steep, rocky hill. Otherwise known as a crag. Which is why it’s called Cragside, and it took me far too long to figure that out. Anyway, we were talking about the fireplace. -So it looks like it’s in pieces? -It is, yeah. -There’s a join there. So it’s in big blocks. So you can get up through the skylight and behind the chimney breast, and all of the pieces are numbered. So it’s a big jigsaw. -They’re numbered? -Mm-hm. -They’re solid blocks. -So it was constructed off-site? So it was carved in London and then shipped up to the coast at Amble, and then a horse and cart to here. Carved off-site and constructed here. Yeah, once you look... -You can see the joins. -You can see the joins! And they didn’t even use the fireplace. So... Of course they didn’t! You didn’t need to, you had heating. -Of course... -So it’s all about showing off. Sure. So it was pretty much for display because all around the room are heating grates. So if you look here, it’s essentially massive pipes filled with water. So it’s a wet system that’s being heated by a boiler. So essentially they’re giant radiators. That’s giant underfloor radiators. -Sure, okay. Oh, yeah! -You need it in winter in Northumberland. You absolutely need it in winter in Northumberland, but I’m just... In 1884, that house had central heating and incandescent light. There are plenty of older people alive in the city of Newcastle today who will remember not having either of those things in their homes. The most recent census showed that there are still hundreds of thousands of homes across the UK without central heating. And in 1884, Cragside had it. Because when you have that amount of money, and you’re looking to the future, why wouldn’t you? We did go and have a look at the central heating system. -So it was coal-fired. So he’s not trying to, you know, Armstrong’s not interested in sustainable energy in the same way that we are. -No. A bit too early for that! -So, they are debating coal in... It’s called the coal question. They are actually debating the fact that coal is a finite resource. Huh. So they obviously don’t understand greenhouse gas emissions. They don’t understand global warming. But they do understand that coal reserves will run out. And the whole of the British Empire and the Industrial Revolution... -Runs on coal. -...is being powered by coal. So part of what Armstrong is doing when he’s experimenting with hydroelectricity is going, “Well, water is free.” He also talks about the possibility of solar power. In the 1860s. Wait, yeah, sorry! -(laughter) -So... But he hasn’t worked out a way of creating heat... Right. ...without anything but burning a fossil fuel. And at this point, I’m kind of empathising a bit with William Armstrong. I’m like, I think I get this guy. If I had a ridiculous amount of money, of course I’d want to try out all sorts of new, experimental technology to make my life easier. I like not being cold, and I like my home not being dark. I’d like to think I’d donate some of that ridiculous amount of money, too, and indeed, Armstrong was something of a philanthropist, but my read on this guy was that he’s a Victorian-era nerd. The word “nerd” had not even been invented at that point. Dr Seuss, who coined the word “nerd”, wasn’t even born. But Armstrong is hanging out with scientists, and he’s inventing stuff himself, he’s got the fancy smart home. His nickname is The Magician of the North, that’s the title of one of his biographies. He’s built up this colossal construction company in Newcastle through his own inventions. And, like... look at me, of course I’m going to feel like I’ve got a bit of a connection to someone like that. And so, congratulations to Clara, who set up the punchline of this video perfectly, and I fell for it. Because the last place we go in Cragside is the dining room. So which one is the man himself? Is he up there? -He’s there! That’s him there. -That’s him just there. And that’s him sitting here. Oh! Sitting... literally just there? So this is a replica of the settle, because we let visitors sit in it and pretend to be Armstrong. So he’s just sort of perched here, one leg up there, yeah, reading the paper. Yeah! In his favourite spot, you know? No, I don’t feel comfortable. That’s, nope. -Nope, not feeling comfortable. ’Cos I have the worry that, like, you know... old Victorian guy in the 1870s, what was he invested in? -(inhales sharply) -Was it? I would like, if I may, to just play that hesitant breath in from Clara one more time. Old Victorian guy in the 1870s, (inhales sharply) Armstrong actually started out as a lawyer. He got interested in engineering. And all was well for a while. His big mentor, Armorer Donkin, which is a great Victorian name, sets him up with funds to create a reservoir and a connecting system that provides clean drinking water to Newcastle and Gateshead. And that’s his first kind of big enterprise. And from that, he starts to set up his hydraulics business. So he supplies cranes to Liverpool docks. He supplies the accumulators that open Tower Bridge or the Swing Bridge in Newcastle. -No wonder he got so rich. Yeah, but that isn’t where he made the big money. Ah. By the time Armstrong could afford to have Cragside constructed, he’d come up with a different invention and entered a very different business. In the Crimean War, a lot of British soldiers were killed when their guns failed. And we’re not talking about handguns here, we’re talking about field guns, the ones that look more like cannons. So he creates a better gun, the first modern, breech-loading gun, where you can open up the gun to put in the shell, instead of shoving it down the barrel. So he creates a field gun that has a better range, it’s safer to fire, it’s more efficient. And he sells that patent to the British government. And they essentially make him the head of their ordnance. On the scale of things that a very rich Victorian guy could have made their money from... -Yeah, it’s pretty bad. It could be worse. It gets worse. Essentially, in 1863, he quits the British ordnance. He’s had enough of the politics involved with working for the government, the pressure from other rivals trying to compete for that patent. And while he still allows the British government to produce his guns, he creates a private enterprise. -Right. And he starts selling to the world. Arguably, he is the first international... -Arms dealer. And he’s selling to competing imperial powers. -Oh, he’s playing both sides. -Oh, yeah. So, for example, he’s selling to both China and Japan. He’s shipping guns to South America. He, potentially, we’re still trying to find concrete evidence, but we suspect that he was also selling to both sides of the Civil War in America. And there are quotes from Armstrong, later in life, that showed he had no regrets about this. -He’s a complicated person. By the standards of the Victorians... ...he’s making his money in a completely legitimate way. In a hundred years’ time, are some tourists going to be walking around, say, Mark Zuckerberg’s former mansion, some high-tech compound that’s been preserved for history, and say, sure, the company he founded had a horrible effect on society, and fuelled international violence, but by the standards of the early 21st century, he was making money in a completely legitimate way? Maybe. Times and standards do change. But if those future tourists are doing that, then I can only hope that they’re also thinking about all the luxuries that those billionaires have, all the equivalents of central heating and electric light that only the very rich have access to right now. And I hope those future tourists are saying: isn’t it wonderful that so many more of us have access to that as well. Next time, or right now on Nebula: I go underneath a river, and get very cold and wet.