WEBVTT - How Air Conditioning, Barcodes, and Elevators Changed the World

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<v Speaker 1>This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories,

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<v Speaker 1>the show where America is the star and the American people.

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<v Speaker 1>Our next storyteller is an economist and bestselling author of

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<v Speaker 1>50 Things That Shape the Modern Economy. Tim Harford is

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<v Speaker 1>here to tell the story about three of them.

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<v Speaker 2>So air conditioning is a fascinating invention. There's a wonderful writer,

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<v Speaker 2>Stephen Johnson, who argued that air conditioning elected Ronald Reagan.

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<v Speaker 2>How does that work? Well, air conditioning changed the demographics

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<v Speaker 2>of the United States. It enabled many more people to

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<v Speaker 2>live comfortably in Texas, in Florida, all those people retiring

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<v Speaker 2>to Florida and then starting to vote Republican. So it's

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<v Speaker 2>changing the political landscape landscape of the United States. There

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<v Speaker 2>is no way you can build a glass-walled skyscraper in

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<v Speaker 2>Singapore or Dubai without air conditioning. It's completely impossible. There's

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<v Speaker 2>no way that technology will work without air conditioning. So

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<v Speaker 2>it makes possible skyscrapers in warm climates. It makes a

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<v Speaker 2>lot of things possible that we take for granted. Think

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<v Speaker 2>about all those floors. These are roughly 80, 100 storeys.

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<v Speaker 2>Now let's just chop them into single-story or two-story buildings

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<v Speaker 2>and distribute those buildings all over a big out-of-town office park.

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<v Speaker 2>And think of all the car parks you need to

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<v Speaker 2>have around them. Think of the enormous amount of space

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<v Speaker 2>that that office park would take up. Now, because they're

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<v Speaker 2>all stacked on top of each other, you don't need

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<v Speaker 2>the car parking. You don't need people driving their automobiles

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<v Speaker 2>to get to this space. You just go in on

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<v Speaker 2>the ground floor, get in the elevator. And you can

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<v Speaker 2>be taken to any floor in the building. So that's

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<v Speaker 2>why I say it's a mass transit system. I think

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<v Speaker 2>that's an absolutely inaccurate description. How did it shape the world? Well,

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<v Speaker 2>it made the skyscraper possible. There is really no way

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<v Speaker 2>you could realistically have a building more than 10 stories

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<v Speaker 2>unless you have a functioning elevator. Or actually more to

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<v Speaker 2>the point, the real innovation is the elevator break, because

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<v Speaker 2>it We've had elevators for hundreds and hundreds of years,

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<v Speaker 2>but nobody is going to get in an elevator that's

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<v Speaker 2>going to go any serious height unless it's safe. And

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<v Speaker 2>Elijah Otis invented the elevator brake, and he demonstrated it

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<v Speaker 2>at one of these world's fairs. It was a hugely

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<v Speaker 2>theatrical demonstration. He was lifted up, up, up above the crowd.

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<v Speaker 2>And standing behind him on this scaffolding, You imagine the

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<v Speaker 2>drama of it. There's a guy with an executioner's axe.

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<v Speaker 2>And he raises the axe as though he's about to

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<v Speaker 2>strike off Otis's head. And he swings the axe down

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<v Speaker 2>and he chops the elevator rope. And everyone in the

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<v Speaker 2>crowd screams and the elevator falls about a quarter of

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<v Speaker 2>an inch. And then Otis yells out to everybody, all safe, gentlemen,

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<v Speaker 2>all safe. He's demonstrated that he has developed a safe

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<v Speaker 2>way to make the elevator work. And they are, in fact,

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<v Speaker 2>incredibly safe. They make skyscrapers possible. So the people who

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<v Speaker 2>are concerned about energy efficiency and they talk about double glazing,

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<v Speaker 2>they talk about insulation, they talk about all the ways

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<v Speaker 2>that you can reduce the fuel consumption of a building.

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<v Speaker 2>One of the best ways of all is an elevator

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<v Speaker 2>because you shift a lot of people using a counterweight,

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<v Speaker 2>pack them all into a very dense area. And you

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<v Speaker 2>could have a very low environmental impact city like Manhattan

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<v Speaker 2>and yet still generate a tremendous amount of economic output,

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<v Speaker 2>of income. And it's all possible because of the elevator.

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<v Speaker 2>The idea of this book, the 50 inventions that shape

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<v Speaker 2>the modern economy, it's not to pick the 50 most

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<v Speaker 2>important inventions. It's to try to surprise people a little

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<v Speaker 2>bit and to get them to look at everyday objects

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<v Speaker 2>in a different way. And the barcode's one of the

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<v Speaker 2>great examples of that. So the barcode was invented several times, really,

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<v Speaker 2>but the real inventive moment, and I'm drawing a blank

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<v Speaker 2>on the inventor's name for a second, that he was

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<v Speaker 2>sitting at the beach, he was visiting his grandparents, and

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<v Speaker 2>he was thinking of the time he'd spent as a

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<v Speaker 2>Boy Scout communicating in Morse code. And he'd been trying

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<v Speaker 2>to figure out this problem, how do I create an

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<v Speaker 2>automated till? And, um, He dragged his fingers in a

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<v Speaker 2>lazy circle through the sand. And then he looked down

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<v Speaker 2>and he saw he'd created a kind of bullseye with

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<v Speaker 2>his fingers, the ridges and the troughs. And he realized

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<v Speaker 2>he could use those ridges and troughs to convey a code,

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<v Speaker 2>Morse code. And so the original barcodes were in fact bullseyes.

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<v Speaker 2>The idea of the bullseye is where you can scan

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<v Speaker 2>it in any direction. It doesn't make any difference. It's

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<v Speaker 2>always the same. In the end, of course, the modern

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<v Speaker 2>barcode is linear. And it took several decades to get

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<v Speaker 2>the computers cheap enough and the lasers cheap enough to

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<v Speaker 2>make it a practical technology. And of course, the retailers

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<v Speaker 2>didn't want to put the barcode scanners in until the

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<v Speaker 2>food manufacturers had barcodes on their products. And the food

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<v Speaker 2>manufacturers didn't want to bother putting barcodes on their products until...

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<v Speaker 2>The Scanners existed to read them, so there was all

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<v Speaker 2>this kind of you-go-first thing. Miller, I think, had been

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<v Speaker 2>printing their labels on their beer bottles using the same

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<v Speaker 2>technology for about 60 or 70 years. So the idea

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<v Speaker 2>that you're going to retool in order to print these

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<v Speaker 2>crazy barcodes, not very attractive. But in the end, it

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<v Speaker 2>was done, and it empowered Walmart and the real big-box

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<v Speaker 2>retailers because it solved a problem that they had about

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<v Speaker 2>keeping track of stock, about keeping the staff honest. They

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<v Speaker 2>didn't put money in their own pocket. So it really

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<v Speaker 2>tilted the playing field in favor of the big players

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<v Speaker 2>in integrating the American economy with the Chinese economy. They

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<v Speaker 2>made a huge contribution there, whether you like it or not,

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<v Speaker 2>to introducing these very, very cheap goods, and they couldn't

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<v Speaker 2>have done it without the barcode.

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<v Speaker 1>And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling

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<v Speaker 1>by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to

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<v Speaker 1>Tim Harford, author of 50 Things That Shaped the Modern Economy.

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<v Speaker 1>This whole idea of the elevator break, it's an invention

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<v Speaker 1>that changed the world, actually. We don't have the modern

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<v Speaker 1>city without it. And it was Elijah Otis who did

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<v Speaker 1>it and demonstrated it at that World's Fair. I would

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<v Speaker 1>have loved to have seen the video of that. And

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<v Speaker 1>of course, when he did it, there wasn't. The story

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<v Speaker 1>of our modern economy and a few contributors, air conditioning,

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<v Speaker 1>the elevator break, and the barcode here. on Our American Stories.

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<v Speaker 1>This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories. Every day,

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