1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:16,640 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 1: a show for those interested in the big and small 4 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:25,480 Speaker 1: moments of history. I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode, 5 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:30,800 Speaker 1: we're exploring the origins of Lego, a childhood institution built 6 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: on a humble foundation of tiny plastic brands. The day 7 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:52,199 Speaker 1: was January at precisely one pm, the Lego Group filed 8 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:56,200 Speaker 1: the patent application for a new kind of building system 9 00:00:56,240 --> 00:01:00,240 Speaker 1: that would forever change the way the children played. The 10 00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:03,880 Speaker 1: language of the patent refers to the product as quote 11 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:08,920 Speaker 1: a system in which two or several interlocking plastic building 12 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:12,240 Speaker 1: elements can be put together in a great number of 13 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 1: mutually different positions. Or, to put it more simply, it 14 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:19,959 Speaker 1: was the patent for the Lego brick as we know 15 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:24,240 Speaker 1: it today. The family business that would eventually become the 16 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:28,520 Speaker 1: Lego Group was actually established under a different name way 17 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:32,800 Speaker 1: back in August of nineteen thirty two. Located in the 18 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 1: rural village of bill And, Denmark. The business was started 19 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 1: by a master carpenter and woodworker named Ole Kirk Christiansen. 20 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:46,520 Speaker 1: In those early years, Ola made a living selling things 21 00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: like step ladders, stools and ironing boards, but business was slow, 22 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:55,160 Speaker 1: thanks largely to the Great Depression brought on by America 23 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 1: stock market crash just a few years earlier. Few people 24 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:03,360 Speaker 1: had the money to buy expensive handmade furniture, and ol 25 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 1: A struggled to turn a profit with his woodwork. The 26 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:11,440 Speaker 1: depression motivated him to seek out new product ideas, which 27 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:14,800 Speaker 1: is what ultimately led him into the toy business. He 28 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: reasoned that despite the financial strains of the era, people 29 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: were still willing to indulge their children with an occasional gift, provided, 30 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:27,360 Speaker 1: of course, that the price was low enough. This bird 31 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:30,840 Speaker 1: Ola to whip up his own batch of brightly colored 32 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:35,120 Speaker 1: wooden cars and animals using the wood scraps in his workshop. 33 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 1: He quickly became convinced that toys were the future of 34 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:43,040 Speaker 1: his company. All he needed was a catchier name, something 35 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:45,680 Speaker 1: a bit more fun than the name he'd been using, 36 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:51,440 Speaker 1: which was the Billund Machine, Joinery and carpentry business. Thankfully, 37 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:55,960 Speaker 1: Ola came up with something much more evocative by truncating 38 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:01,240 Speaker 1: the Danish expression legout, which means play well. He landed 39 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,760 Speaker 1: on the word lego. It's worth noting that the word 40 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 1: lego also means I put together in Latin, but that 41 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:13,119 Speaker 1: was actually a happy accident, because Ola only found out 42 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:17,200 Speaker 1: about the Latin meaning years later. In any case, the 43 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 1: renaming effort paid off for the company, which quickly grew 44 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:24,600 Speaker 1: from a six person operation in four to more than 45 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 1: forty employees by the early nineteen forties. Much of that 46 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:33,120 Speaker 1: growth was due to the national popularity of OLA's adorable 47 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:36,960 Speaker 1: line of pull toys. The most popular of these was 48 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:41,240 Speaker 1: a hand painted wooden duck on wheels whose beak opened 49 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: and closed when pulled along by a strain. By now, 50 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:49,400 Speaker 1: you may be wondering how the company's signature product changed 51 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: from wooden ducks to plastic bricks. It was a gradual 52 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:58,360 Speaker 1: change that was once again brought on by economic necessity. 53 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:02,600 Speaker 1: Denmark had been under German occupation during World War Two, 54 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:05,680 Speaker 1: and by the time the war finally ended in ninety 55 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:10,320 Speaker 1: many of the materials traditionally used for consumer goods, such 56 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:14,119 Speaker 1: as steel, wood, et cetera, were really tough to come by. 57 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:18,159 Speaker 1: This was a problem all over the globe. Really, Ole 58 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:21,919 Speaker 1: had felt that pinch from the lack of raw materials, 59 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:24,520 Speaker 1: so he decided that the Lego Company should take a 60 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:29,200 Speaker 1: chance on plastic toys. In nineteen forty six, he placed 61 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:31,800 Speaker 1: in order with a British company for what ended up 62 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:36,479 Speaker 1: being the very first plastic injection molding machine. Ole and 63 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:40,279 Speaker 1: his son Gottfrid spent the next year experimenting with the 64 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:43,800 Speaker 1: machine and studying the various sample products that had been 65 00:04:43,839 --> 00:04:46,440 Speaker 1: included as a way to show what could be made 66 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:50,800 Speaker 1: with it. One product in particular caught their eye, a 67 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:54,719 Speaker 1: set of self locking building bricks made by a British 68 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:59,000 Speaker 1: company called Kitty Craft. The colorful two by two and 69 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,239 Speaker 1: two by four ricks had a couple of special design 70 00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: features that set them apart from traditional cube shaped building blocks. 71 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,680 Speaker 1: Each one was hollow on the bottom and had four 72 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:15,280 Speaker 1: raised studs on the top. This design added a little 73 00:05:15,279 --> 00:05:19,080 Speaker 1: bit of stability to whatever structures were built with the blocks, 74 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 1: because the studs loosely held each brick in place. By nine, 75 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:29,320 Speaker 1: the Lego Company was producing around two hundred different plastic 76 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:32,839 Speaker 1: and wooden toys. Many of the plastic ones were simply 77 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:37,239 Speaker 1: new versions of earlier designs, a plastic plane or train set, 78 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:41,000 Speaker 1: for example, instead of a wooden one. Among the repeats 79 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:46,320 Speaker 1: was a new but somewhat familiar product called automatic binding bricks. 80 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:49,840 Speaker 1: These were really just a copy of the bricks made 81 00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:55,400 Speaker 1: by Kitty Craft, which weren't protected by a patent in Denmark. Unfortunately, 82 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:59,760 Speaker 1: the Lego version was actually inferior to the original. The 83 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 1: company just wasn't used to making such small parts and 84 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,200 Speaker 1: the technology was still fairly new to them. As a result, 85 00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:11,240 Speaker 1: many of the hollow Lego bricks were prone to cracking 86 00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:14,640 Speaker 1: or shrinking, and sometimes this was so bad that once 87 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: the plastic had cooled, the bricks didn't even fit together. 88 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:22,839 Speaker 1: As you might expect, the shoddy bricks weren't big sellers. 89 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:27,080 Speaker 1: In fact, during the early nineteen fifties, roughly half of 90 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:31,279 Speaker 1: all Lego sales were still from wooden toys, whereas the 91 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:35,600 Speaker 1: Lego binding bricks accounted for only five to seven percent 92 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:39,960 Speaker 1: of sales. To help turn this around, the Christiansen's made 93 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,360 Speaker 1: a few key changes. First, in nineteen fifty three, they 94 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: ditched the austere sounding name and started calling the product 95 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:54,680 Speaker 1: Lego Merston or Lego Bricks. By this time, Godfred was 96 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:57,800 Speaker 1: starting to take on a much larger role in the company, 97 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:01,359 Speaker 1: and he became interested and find a clearer focus for 98 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:05,240 Speaker 1: the company rather than spreading their resources across hundreds of 99 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:11,040 Speaker 1: different products. Eventually, he decided that the adaptability, wide appeal, 100 00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:16,640 Speaker 1: and ease of production made Lego bricks the ideal choice. Still, 101 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: the bricks weren't a hot cellar yet, so there was 102 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:24,280 Speaker 1: obviously room for improvement. Godfried took it upon himself to 103 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:28,120 Speaker 1: tinker with the bricks design, and in early ninety eight 104 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:33,080 Speaker 1: he hit upon a winning solution. Godfred, now the managing 105 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:36,920 Speaker 1: director of the company, had been recently fielding complaints from 106 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:40,600 Speaker 1: his customers in Germany about the fact that models built 107 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:44,800 Speaker 1: with Legos hollow building bricks were lacking in stability, which 108 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:48,600 Speaker 1: made them less fun to play with. On January three, 109 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 1: he discussed the problem at length with others at the company, 110 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: and during the meeting he began sketching different ideas for 111 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:00,880 Speaker 1: a new brick design. Godfred's breakthrough was to add three 112 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:04,960 Speaker 1: tubes to the otherwise hollow interior of the bricks, so 113 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:08,040 Speaker 1: that the studs on top had something to connect to. 114 00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:13,040 Speaker 1: This new interlocking system allowed the bricks to snap together, 115 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:17,520 Speaker 1: hold tight, and yet still separate easily when pulled apart, 116 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:23,000 Speaker 1: a feature which the company later dubbed clutch power. Godfried 117 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:27,280 Speaker 1: asked over a Nielsen, the head of the Lego molding shop, 118 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:30,320 Speaker 1: to create a new brick sample by cutting up and 119 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:35,720 Speaker 1: gluing together existing elements. The new three tubes design was 120 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:39,680 Speaker 1: then sent to the Patents office by express courier. Just 121 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:46,839 Speaker 1: a few days later, on January, at exactly one pm, 122 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:50,440 Speaker 1: the Lego Group filed the application for a patent for 123 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:54,520 Speaker 1: its new type of building system, the interlocking bricks that 124 00:08:54,600 --> 00:09:00,880 Speaker 1: we know and love today. Unfortunately, Godfred's father didn't get 125 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:03,960 Speaker 1: to seem how much of a game changer his son's 126 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:07,760 Speaker 1: design would be. He passed away just two months later 127 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:11,920 Speaker 1: on March eleventh, nineteen fifty eight. That was the end 128 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:15,360 Speaker 1: of an era for the company in multiple ways. Two 129 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:18,959 Speaker 1: years later, in nineteen sixty of fire broke out in 130 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 1: the Lego warehouse and the company lost their entire inventory 131 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:27,319 Speaker 1: of wooden toys. With the newfound success of Lego bricks, 132 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:30,839 Speaker 1: the company decided to close the book on wooden toys 133 00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:35,319 Speaker 1: and bet the future on plastic. Godfrid took over after 134 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:39,120 Speaker 1: OLA's passing, and thanks to his new brick design, his 135 00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:42,680 Speaker 1: father's legacy was in good hands. He had helped the 136 00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:46,439 Speaker 1: company find a core product with that new style of bricks, 137 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:49,000 Speaker 1: and the design was such a sound one that had 138 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:53,640 Speaker 1: stayed exactly the same for over sixty years now. This 139 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:57,559 Speaker 1: connected system of play, as the company calls it, was 140 00:09:57,679 --> 00:10:01,000 Speaker 1: revolutionary at the time, and it's still a driving force 141 00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:05,160 Speaker 1: behind the imaginative appeal of Lego products, not to mention 142 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:11,240 Speaker 1: their retail success. The little plastic pieces afford endless opportunities 143 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:15,680 Speaker 1: for creative play, and that flexibility has captured the imaginations 144 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:19,480 Speaker 1: of kids and adults alike for well over a half 145 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:25,880 Speaker 1: a century and County. I'm Gaye Lousier and hopefully you 146 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:29,160 Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you 147 00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:33,000 Speaker 1: did yesterday. You can learn even more about history by 148 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:36,880 Speaker 1: following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d 149 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 1: I HC Shove, and if you have any suggestions for 150 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:44,560 Speaker 1: what kind of historical topics you'd like to see covered 151 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:47,199 Speaker 1: on the show, you can send us a letter at 152 00:10:47,240 --> 00:10:51,120 Speaker 1: this Day at i heart media dot com. Thanks as 153 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:54,440 Speaker 1: always to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank 154 00:10:54,480 --> 00:10:57,559 Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow 155 00:10:57,880 --> 00:11:07,560 Speaker 1: for another day in History class um HM. 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