A travelling scientist has placed a bird in a glass bell jar

and begun to pump out the air.

Deprived of oxygen, the bird begins to suffocate.

The onlookers respond with a mix of fascination and horror.

This is science as the new religion,

with the power over life itself.

But Wright also hints at the great fear of the age -

that science, the machine, and progress all come at a cost.

Would those who dared to stand

in the way of progress be sacrificed,

like the bird in the air pump?

As the 18th century drew to a close,

one momentous event would mark the start of

a new zealous export of Enlightenment ideas to other cultures.

In the summer of 1798,

a French army, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, invaded Egypt.

In military terms, Napoleon's objectives were clear -

to gain strategic advantage over the British

and expand France's imperial ambitions.

But the invasion of this ancient land

was about much more than just military strategy.

Many Europeans regarded Egypt as the birthplace of civilisation.

They believed that ideas

that had first been nurtured here under the pharaohs

had been passed down, through ancient Greece,

through the Roman Empire, through the Renaissance,

all the way down to modern Enlightenment France.

So by invading Egypt,

Napoleon was leading France back to the source of civilisation.

To uncover the secrets of ancient Egypt,

Napoleon brought with him 167 of France's most brilliant

scientists, mathematicians, engineers and artists.

They set about studying

every aspect of the country they'd conquered,

especially the ancient ruins that lay half-buried beneath the sand.