The Re-Inventors

The Re-Inventors is a Canadian TV show based around exploring historic inventions and testing them. The show follows the hosts, Matt Hunter and Jeremy MacPherson, as they discover and reconstruct inventions to see how ideas from the past hold up in the present world. In each episode, the hosts choose a historic invention and attempt to rebuild it. The hosts would examine the original patent information, including blueprints, then, along with additional tradesmen as needed, build the prototypes, and test each of these, often strange, inventions to see if any could actually succeed. Often, a few related inventions would be tested in the same episode. Each invention was given a set of evaluation criteria before being tested. At the end of the episode, the invention was graded and if the invention was considered to have met the evaluation criteria, it was granted the title of 'Patent Approved'. If the invention proved to be less than effective, it was granted the title 'Patent Denied'.

The Re-Inventors
Developed by	Chris Triffo
Presented by	Matt Hunter Jeremy MacPerson
Country of origin	Canada
Production
Running time	22 minutes
Original release
Network	History Television
Release	2008 (2008) – 2011 (2011)

The TV series was developed by Christopher Triffo, CSC; he directed all 35 episodes.

The show was hosted by Matt Hunter and Jeremy MacPherson. Matt Hunter is an artist and craftsman, and played the on-screen contractor on the Canadian lifestyle program Colour Confidenetial for 65 episodes prior to co-hosting The Re-Inventors.^[1] Jeremy MacPherson is a special effects artist and carpenter who has worked on hundreds of film and television productions, most notably X-Men, Chicago, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and K-19: The Widowmaker.^[2]

On History Television, two half-hour episodes were typically broadcast back-to-back in a one-hour time slot. It aired on the Canadian French TV channel Historia as Absurde et breveté and was dubbed into French. The series is airing in over 60 countries in 30 languages^{[citation needed]} and is currently running on Smithsonian Channel, Charge!, and H&I in the USA.^[3] The first season was also released on Netflix USA on February 1, 2014.^[4]

List of episodes

Note: Episode listing is based on the two seasons that aired on the Smithsonian Channel. The episodes from 2008-2009 were not shown on the Smithsonian Channel, and the show is no longer associated with or listed on the History Channel website, where the 2008-2009 episodes were aired.

Season 1 (2010)

Episode Number[5]	Name	Original Air Date [6]	Synopsis	Inventor	Invention	Outcome
1	Fire Fighting	Oct. 6, 2010	The team builds and tests two non-water using extinguisher designs from the past, one using chemicals combining to create an extinguishing foam and the other seeking to blow out the flames with gunpowder.	Clarence Macomber	Foaming Fire Pail (1896)	Patent Denied
				Ambrose Godfrey	Exploding Water Bomb (1723)	Patent Denied
2	Double-Barreled Cannon	Oct. 6, 2010	The Re-Inventors see what happens when you chain two cannonballs together and try to fire them at the same time.	Cyrus Thayer	Improved Chain Shot Battery (1860)	Patent Denied
3	Life at Sea	Oct. 13, 2010	The boys build and test the Davis Life Pod, a device designed to save people trapped at sea.	Judson Davis	Davis Life Pod (1912)	Patent Denied
4	Syrian Torpedo	Oct. 13, 2010	The egg which moves itself and burns![7] The team attempts to build an early Syrian torpedo.	Hassan Al-Rammah	Syrian Torpedo (1275)	Patent Approved
5	Bourne Submarine	Oct. 20, 2010	The team attempts to build an early submarine.	William Bourne	Submarine	Patent Denied
6	Hydraulic Saw	Oct. 20, 2010	Designed in 15th century Renaissance Italy, this saw was meant to harness the power of swift flowing streams and rivers and use this power to cut wood.	Francesco di Giorgio	Hydraulic Saw	Patent Approved
7	Wind Wagon	Oct. 27, 2010	A machine, a cross between a windmill and a wagon, that had never been built and tested, until now.	Guido da Vigevano	Windwagon (1335)	Patent Approved
8	Ned Kelly	Oct. 27, 2010	The Re-Inventors put homemade armour up to a ballistics test.	Ned Kelly	Body Armour	Patent Approved
9	Earthquake Detector	Nov. 3, 2010	The Didong Yi was intended to provide information to the Imperial Court that an earthquake had occurred so relief aid could be dispatched.	Zhang Heng	Zhang Heng's Seismometer	Patent Approved
10	Battering Ram	Nov. 3, 2010	Matt and Jeremy get medieval and recreate a full-scale battering ram to see how well they work.	Various		Patent Approved
11	War Kite	Nov. 10, 2010	13th-century Chinese fire arrow technology and a 17th-century Japanese kite design are tested to see if they can help command the battlefield.		War kite with fire arrows	Patent Approved
12	Pedestrian Protector	Nov. 10, 2010	The "Automatic Device for the Protection of Pedestrian and the Vehicle Itself" patented by Heinrich Karl in 1932 is tested.	Heinrick Karl	Pedestrian and Vehicle Protector	Patent Denied
13	Aerosledge	Nov. 17, 2010	The team builds and tests an Aerosledge.	Andrei Tupolev	NKL 26 Aerosani	Patent Approved
14	Ice Boat	Nov. 17, 2010	The team builds and tests J. L. Finch's early 1940s ice boat against a modern design.	J. L. Finch	Ice boat	Patent Denied

Season 2 (2011)

Episode Number[8]	Name	Original Air Date [9]	Synopsis	Inventor	Invention	Outcome
1	Floating Suit	July 5, 2011	Inventions ranging from shoes to suits that can help you from drowning.	John Edmond	Floating Survival Suit	Patent Approved
					Floating Boat Shoes	Patent Denied
2	Gun Helmet	July 12, 2011	A World War I era helmet gun is built to see who would be in more danger, the user or the target.	Albert Pratt	Gun Helmet	Patent Approved
3	Flying Machine	July 19, 2011	See if some of the ideas that were put forward to figure out how to fly could have beaten the Wright brothers to the sky.		Human-Powered Helicopter	Patent Denied
				W.O. Airs	Multiple-propeller human-powered helicopter	Patent Denied
4	Flying Car	July 26, 2011	With the advent and spread of airplanes and automobiles in the beginning of the 20th century an idea emerged that a marriage of the two would create the ultimate travel miracle.	Moulton Taylor	Taylor Aerocar	Patent Approved
5	Monowheel	August 2, 2011	Matt and Jeremy test out designs for a couple of monowheels.	Vernon Venerable	Human-powered Monowheel	Patent Denied
				Frank Marcovski	Pneumatic bicycle crash suit	Patent Denied
6	Invention War	August 2, 2011	In this episode, Matt and Jeremy modify a number of their previous inventions and pit them against one another in a bizarre battle scenario.	Matt and Jeremy	Chinese Flamethrower - Added pressurized air tank	No decision
					DaVinci's Tank - Added machine gun and flamethrower
					DaVinci's Multibarrel Musket - Converted to breech-loader
					Rotating Catapult - Added an electric motor
7	Panjandrum	August 9, 2011	The team tries to figure out where the World War II Allies went wrong with the Panjandrum project.	British Navy's Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development	Panjandrum	Patent Denied
8	Snow Annihilator	August 9, 2011	The inventor of the Snow Annihilator claims the machine has all the answers to winter road maintenance and is tested against the Canadian winter.	Benjamin Roman	Snow Annihilating Machine (1939)	Patent Denied
9	Solar Crematorium	August 16, 2011	The Re-Inventors test out the idea for the Solar Crematorium, an invention that used sunlight to cremate dead bodies.	Kenneth H. Gardner	Solar Powered Crematorium	Patent Approved
					Coffin Alarm Bell	Patent Denied
10	Body Armor	August 16, 2011	Two designs from World War I in an attempt to aid a soldier from dangerous weapons.	Alfred Bailey	Bullet-Proof Enclosure (1915)	Patent Approved
				L.M. Norwood	Combined Trench Shield & Helmet for Soldiers (1915)	Patent Denied
11	Roman Crane	August 24, 2011	The team attempts to build the Roman crane.	Ancient Romans	Human-Powered Crane	Patent Approved
12	Chinese Rocket	August 31, 2011	The Chinese were the first to design and construct a multi-stage rocket.	Chinese Navy	Chinese Rocket (1300s)

Unlisted Episodes (2008–2009)

Name	Synopsis	Inventor	Invention	Outcome
Chinese Flamethrower	The Re-Inventors try to build one of the world's first flamethrower designs.		Double-action flamethrower	Patent Approved
Da Vinci Chariot	Matt and Jeremy find out if Da Vinci's chariot could have found a place on the 15th-century battlefield.	Leonardo da Vinci	Scythe War Chariot	Patent Approved
Da Vinci Gun	Leonardo da Vinci designed the world's first 12-barrel machine gun. The team tests how effective it could be in offence and defence.	Leonardo da Vinci	Multi-barrel musket	Patent Approved
Da Vinci Tank	The team attempts to build one of Da Vinci's most ambitious projects.	Leonardo da Vinci	Multiple cannon wheeled mobile armoured platform.	Patent Approved
Four-Armed Catapult	A design for a 13th-century four-armed catapult that shoots projectiles, using some elements of traditional catapults and trebuchets.		4-armed gravity-driven catapult	Patent Denied
Head Parachute	Getting people out of a burning high-rise building has been a challenge faced by inventors and designers since people started living in them.		Head Parachute	Patent Denied
			Fire Basket	Patent Denied
			Modified Parachute for use by light passengers only	Patent Approved
Human Propulsion	Matt and Jeremy combine machines with muscle and add some rockets, propellers, and jets into the mix.	Horace Morrow	Propeller-driven skating (1948)	Patent Denied
		Godfried Mayer	Rocket-Propelled Skis (1962)	Patent Denied
		Godfried Mayer	Jet-Propelled Skis (1962)	Patent Denied
Incinerating Toilet	As populations have increased over the years, so have the ideas for disposal, removal, and processing regarding waste.	Hardy Sunberg	Dry Waste Incinerating Toilet (1966)	Patent Denied
		Norman Street	Personal Waste Disposal Garment (1993)	Patent Denied
Windmill	The team digs out plans for an Islamic windmill design.		Islamic Windmill	Patent Approved

See also

• Ancient Discoveries
• Ancient Inventions
• MythBusters
• Patent Bending
• Prototype This!