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Music It's midday on March 8, 1839 in Paris, France.

Horse-drawn fire wagon clatters to a stop outside a burning theater.

As firefighters jump out, one young and enthusiastic new recruit

heads straight for the blaze. He pushes through the smoke and tries to move the panicking

crowd away from the flames. Locals are hurling buckets of water through the theater's shattered

windows. The fireman orders them back. Everyone retreats except a middle-aged man who grabs a fireman's

heavy jacket and pleads for help. He says he owns the theater and he needs his equipment

from inside. His livelihood depends on it. He thrusts a set of keys into the fireman's hands

imploring him to help. The fireman hesitates firmly, but then nods. He follows the theater owner to a side door and unlocks it.

Then the fireman takes a deep breath and steps inside.

Smoke is filling the room, but he can see enough to realize that he's in a cluttered workshop.

The shelves are crammed with chemicals, microscopes, glass lenses, and wooden tripods lie strewn across the floor.

And strangest of all are the blurry, silver-toned metal plates shimmering in the low light.

The fireman doesn't know what he's risking his life for, but the roof is starting to buckle,

so there's no time to lose. He grabs a leather sack and sweeps everything he can inside. Beakers, boxes,

odd contraptions, all of it crammed in. Then he lifts the sack to his shoulder and bolts for the door.

Outside he drops the bundle at the grateful theater owner's feet, just as the roof caves in behind them in a roar of dust and flame.

Though he didn't know what he collected from the fire, this fireman has just saved a

...