I should not have liked the world’s first smart home.
In Northumberland, I learn a shocking fact about some lamps, and utter the phrase “it gets worse”. | 🌍 AD: Get the best deal NordVPN’s offering right now: https://nordvpn.com/tomscott | 🗺️ England series map: https://www.tomscott.com/england/
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Written and presented by
Tom Scott
Producers
for Penny4 https://penny4.co.uk/
Cambria Bailey-Jones
Guy Larsen
Studio Associate Producer
Heloise Lowenthal
Studio Director of Photography
Jamie MacLeod
Studio Gaffer
Frank Hammond
Head of Post
for Breadbox Studios https://www.breadboxstudios.co.uk/
Mandy Celine
Associate Post Producer
Isla McTear
Senior Editor
Jamie MacLeod
Assistant Editor
Alex “J’Rassic” Bate
Sound Supervisor
Dan Pugsley
Sound Assistant
Maggy Apodaca
Subtitles by So Speedy https://www.sospeedy.co.uk/
With thanks to the Historic County Borders Project https://www.county-borders.co.uk/
Executive Producer
Tom Scott
© Pad 26 Limited MMXXVI
@TomScottGo
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Twice in this video, there's an "it gets worse", and both are justified. | 🌍 AD: Also, I talked to NordVPN's CTO in the ad read! Go get the best deal they're offering: https://nordvpn.com/tomscott | And there's a map linked in the description.
@Rama_Guru
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
If he was alive today he would be best friends with the orange blob in the US
@TheBOB235
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
If your a country its fine, but private your a shady arms dealer
@marpleka
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
what a small kitchen you have
@killer_0f_fish
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Tom: "I am currently in the Spencer mansion!"
@cr-yi7ep
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Aw c'mon, in Armstrong's day arms manufacturing was a perfectly legit and respectable profession. We should stop applying current morals to people of two centuries ago.
Didn't Tom Scott know that many large guns bore the label "W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co." For example on North Head in Auckland there is an 8" Armstrong 'disappearing gun', mounted in a circular concrete pit, with a steel cover, once loaded it was raised on hydraulically powered swinging arms to fire then the recoil lowered it out of sight.
@monkeycage2961
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
i went to cragside a few years back and it was great, didn't get to see much of the grounds in the video but they are incredible and i would highly recommend setting some time to walk them if you ever go
@micky2be
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
So, that's Howard Stark's grandfather or something!?
@Alienturnedhuman
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
World's most dangerous drinking game, taking a shot every time Tom says: "Of course he/they did/didn't"
@jamesrichardson476
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
I've been to Cragside – I think it's the most fascinating NT property I've ever been to and I heartily recommend anybody who is in that part of the world to visit it. There's also a carriage drive of about 6 (?) miles going round the estate which you can do in a car if you don't fancy the walk.
Amazing place.
@AliceB0
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
These create mod addons are getting crazy
@granitegrizz
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
6:14 – I think that's one of the most surprised faces I've seen Tom make
@Simon-ts9fu
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
23:56 Not selling to both sides would mean he is taking a political stance, independent of and possibly in opposition to Britain. In other words, that would make him a terrorist. So, selling to every reasonable side is actually the best option. Also, I would assume the sale of his guns was subject to British supervision, so he was hardly a mafia style gunrunner.
@kaleem9652
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
"He hid for 30 years"
@shezario
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
As far as ethics go even judging by today's standards this dude was still cleaner than zuck, musk or bezos…
@Dbz54216
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
As soon as I heard Northumberland, all I could think of was the show "The Last Kingdom."
@transvestosaurus878
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
game stay the game yo
@kpo1389
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
this is Steampunk ASF
@Poweritem99
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Didn't you like quit youtube wtf?
@Thinker2-truth
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
If oil is not a fossil fuel (it's not, do your research), what makes you think Coal is a fossil fuel?
The Rockefellers deceived the world into believing oil was finite, Supply and Demand makes the price go up.
Rockfeller is the definition of GREED!
@condorb7756
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Personally, I don't see a single problem with him making guns, but that's just me.
@CR0SSJ
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
24:34 I mean… If Daniel Ek's house ever become that in that future that'll be the place just be what Tom described for future generations.
@mistakay9019
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Ah Cragside is great, anyone who has the chance should at least go once. I have been many times – that fireplace and the logistics of getting it there are baffling!!
@si2foo
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
You say times and standards change. he made a gun and sold it. there are many companies that still do that to this day. Gun's don't kill people. stupid people kill people.
@Thinker2-truth
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
If you want to know what a Smart City looks like, watch the movie; Logan''s Run (1976).
@tessiepinkman
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
I can't even begin to describe the happiness I feel over the fact that you are posting videos again! This was so interesting! I'll be down a rabbit hole on that guy and his amazing home for a while, it's exactly my kind of 'weird' 🙂
@TastyBusiness
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
That's twice now since his return that Tom went somewhere that made me say "I need to see this place for myself".
@Jilinhall
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Such a fantastic video, great topic! 10/10 stuff Tom.
@dermaniac5205
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
13:52 Now I get that "light switches" weren't a thing yet, but I am a little surprised they hadn't thought of a simple socket design before coming up with the liquid mercury idea. Obviously there must have been some technical problem there that I don't see, but it seems more intuitive to me.
@toreriksson3863
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
super interesting video! I love topics such as these
@fraac
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Saying you shouldn't have liked it due to anachronistic morality feels like an overcorrection towards the Lindsay Ellises of the world
@VioletStilettos
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
It's weird, I hate ads but am so intrigued by Tom's ads. I already use NorrdVPN though and have done for a couple of years on at least 4 different devices
@Eyex97
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Wow this ending
@ElizabethJones-pv3sj
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Arms dealer was not what I was expecting from that lead up. Like quite a lot of others I initially thought slavery but it's too late for that in Britain so I assumed something to do with Britain as a colonial power, exploiting brown people for money.
@Runclimblift
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
I love that your back Mr Scott, love the new format too
@blonkasnootch7850
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Thanks for this nice piece of history.
@jamesburke2759
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Does your fireplace have its own freaking window?
@shadowxthevampiressofficial
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
That is absolutely stunning. It looks like a city from a videogame & it's surrounded by trees.
@s4sausage135
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
PULL THE POWER LEVER KRONK
@OpinionatedSkink
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
OH ARMSTRONG GUNS – total war fans everywhere
@ernestvanophuizen461
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Clara looks just enough like Eleanor Morton that I half expected her to say "Welcome tae Cragside, ma name's Craig, and I'll be yer tour guide today."
@iamspleen
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Ohh the armstrong guns in fall of the samuarai
@whoeveriam0iam14222
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
not a fan of the new format but the locations are still amazing
@Buntabunta937
May 19, 2026 at 10:11 am
Global warming is a myth