1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:14,760 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 4 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:22,759 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech and standards. Who needs them? Well? 5 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:28,000 Speaker 1: So it it turns out if you want stuff to 6 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:32,920 Speaker 1: work with other stuff, you you need them because without standards, 7 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:37,800 Speaker 1: compatibility would be the exception, not the rule, especially between 8 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:42,920 Speaker 1: products from different manufacturers. Because of standards, you can use 9 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:46,400 Speaker 1: a USB cable from one company to connect to a 10 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: computer built by a totally different company, and then connect 11 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:53,000 Speaker 1: that to a device built by a third company and 12 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:57,400 Speaker 1: it can all work. But standards don't just magically pop 13 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 1: into being. It's not like people just start building new 14 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:07,559 Speaker 1: technologies and then they all magically morph into a universal standard. Nope. 15 00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:11,840 Speaker 1: We humans have to figure out what final form stuff 16 00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:14,679 Speaker 1: should take, and then we have to cooperate to make 17 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:18,640 Speaker 1: sure everyone conforms to that decision. Sometimes a group of 18 00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:23,920 Speaker 1: people from multiple disciplines will form a hopefully impartial committee 19 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:28,840 Speaker 1: whose job is to determine these things. Other times things 20 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 1: are a little more messy, with a lot of give 21 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:34,039 Speaker 1: and take. I'm going to talk about a few of 22 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:38,920 Speaker 1: those other times. We can think of these as format wars. 23 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:43,160 Speaker 1: I've covered some format wars in the past. On May one, 24 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:47,200 Speaker 1: two thousand nineteen, I published the episode Blu Ray Versus 25 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:51,880 Speaker 1: h D DVD about how two different groups of manufacturers 26 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:55,160 Speaker 1: faced off in a fight to determine which format would 27 00:01:55,160 --> 00:02:00,160 Speaker 1: succeed the DVD home media format, and spoiler alert for 28 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:02,840 Speaker 1: those who have been oblivious for more than a decade, 29 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:05,920 Speaker 1: it was Blu Ray that won. That story is pretty 30 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,720 Speaker 1: darn good and it involves stuff like companies quickly switching 31 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:14,240 Speaker 1: alliances and a rapid descent into obsolescence for the poor 32 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: h D DVD. Way back on June six, two thousand 33 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:22,880 Speaker 1: and eleven, we published an episode called The Current Wars, 34 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:27,639 Speaker 1: describing the battle between George Westinghouse and the alternating current 35 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:32,320 Speaker 1: that he favored versus Thomas Edison and his direct current. 36 00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:37,400 Speaker 1: This is another format war that achieved legendary status, complete 37 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:41,400 Speaker 1: with public demonstrations of the dangers of alternating current and 38 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:44,640 Speaker 1: a fierce competition to be the provider of electricity for 39 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:49,200 Speaker 1: the Chicago World's Fair, and in that case, alternating current 40 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:53,000 Speaker 1: would win out as the standard being used for long 41 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 1: distance transmission of electricity, so I'm not really going to 42 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: go into those two stories in this episode, because I 43 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: do have other episodes dedicated to those. We'll look at 44 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:06,600 Speaker 1: a few other instances of format wars, some of which 45 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,640 Speaker 1: I have touched on in the past. In fact, it 46 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 1: would be good to start off with one of those, 47 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 1: and it's a format war that was going on just 48 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:17,880 Speaker 1: as I was growing up as a kid in the seventies, 49 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: the home video format war, which had several contenders. Now, 50 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:26,880 Speaker 1: the two big ones that most people have heard about 51 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:32,240 Speaker 1: are the two primary video cassette recorder formats, VHS and 52 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:35,720 Speaker 1: Beta Max, and we will get to those, but first 53 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:38,680 Speaker 1: I thought I would chat about a few other formats 54 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 1: that made a go of it but ultimately fell short 55 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:45,560 Speaker 1: of becoming the standard format for home video. So it's 56 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: good to remember that before the nineteen seventies, there really 57 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:52,600 Speaker 1: wasn't such a thing as home theater in the sense 58 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 1: of being able to watch recorded media at home on 59 00:03:56,200 --> 00:04:00,640 Speaker 1: any real scale. You could watch television broadcasts, but once 60 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:03,520 Speaker 1: the show was over, that was it. You would only 61 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:06,600 Speaker 1: see that show or that movie or whatever again if 62 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:09,240 Speaker 1: someone were to rerun it. Otherwise it was just gone. 63 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:12,920 Speaker 1: The film experience was still largely one where you would 64 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:15,840 Speaker 1: go to a cinema and you would sit there and 65 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:18,919 Speaker 1: you would watch a film. The emergence of technology that 66 00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:23,000 Speaker 1: would allow people to view recorded media on demand at 67 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:26,919 Speaker 1: home was a truly revolutionary one and also one that 68 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:30,400 Speaker 1: caused more than a little hubbub in Hollywood as various 69 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:35,839 Speaker 1: studios grappled with the implications anyway. One of the technologies 70 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:41,880 Speaker 1: to emerge in this era gradually, anyway, was the laser disc. Now, 71 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:45,520 Speaker 1: this started out more than a decade earlier with a 72 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:48,599 Speaker 1: fellow named David Paul greg who came up with a 73 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:53,440 Speaker 1: means to record video and audio information onto a essentially 74 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: a plastic disc. This case, the disc was transparent and 75 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: in the original pattern which you can read if you 76 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:03,200 Speaker 1: want to, and the idea was really cool. You take 77 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:07,120 Speaker 1: a transparent disk and you encode video information onto it 78 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:12,800 Speaker 1: using a quote unquote metallic deposit, essentially creating opaque areas 79 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:17,479 Speaker 1: on the disc that light cannot pass through. So in 80 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:20,920 Speaker 1: a player, you would have a transducer like a light 81 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:23,599 Speaker 1: sensor on one side of the disk, and on the 82 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:25,240 Speaker 1: other side of the disc you would have a light 83 00:05:25,320 --> 00:05:28,960 Speaker 1: shining up through the disc. So as the disc spins, 84 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:32,480 Speaker 1: the light and the transducer keep pace with a spiral 85 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:35,120 Speaker 1: of data that has been encoded on the disc itself. 86 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 1: With these metallic deposits, the transducer ends up generating electricity 87 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:43,080 Speaker 1: depending on how much light is hitting it, so it 88 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:48,599 Speaker 1: varies as the metallic deposits pass in between the transducer 89 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:51,840 Speaker 1: and the light, and that gets converted into the electrical 90 00:05:51,839 --> 00:05:56,880 Speaker 1: signals that go to be interpreted as a video signal. 91 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 1: It's decoded that way. So Greg invented this technology in 92 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:04,159 Speaker 1: the early nineteen sixties. He filed for a patent for 93 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:07,360 Speaker 1: it in nineteen sixty seven, received it in nineteen sixty nine. 94 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:11,000 Speaker 1: Other inventors made related advancements in technology that would go 95 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 1: toward the foundations for what would become laser disc. M 96 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:18,920 Speaker 1: c A would purchase the rights to the patent from 97 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:23,320 Speaker 1: Greg in the late nineteen sixties. Meanwhile, the Dutch company 98 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:27,320 Speaker 1: Phillips was hard at work on a similar technology, except 99 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 1: this one used reflective discs rather than transparent ones. So 100 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:36,000 Speaker 1: a laser would shine a light onto a reflective surface 101 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:40,440 Speaker 1: of the disk, detecting sequences of little pits and lands. 102 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,120 Speaker 1: So a land is essentially a bit of the disc 103 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:47,280 Speaker 1: that hasn't been carved into a pit. The pits and 104 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:50,560 Speaker 1: lands would represent the information of the video recording. Now 105 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:53,520 Speaker 1: these days, we would call it just binary information zeros 106 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: and ones. Now, normally this is where I would go 107 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:59,400 Speaker 1: into more detail about how all this works, but I've 108 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:03,680 Speaker 1: actually heard this type of technology fairly extensively in other episodes. 109 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:07,280 Speaker 1: It's the same basis for compact discs, which would come 110 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:10,400 Speaker 1: out a little bit later. Anyway, Phillips and m c 111 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:14,640 Speaker 1: A joined forces to bring the technology to market. They 112 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:18,280 Speaker 1: first gave a public display of the technology in nineteen 113 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:22,480 Speaker 1: seventy two, but it wouldn't be available for purchase until 114 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:26,280 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, when it debuted under the name m 115 00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:30,440 Speaker 1: c A Disco Vision. It was a very different time, 116 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:34,640 Speaker 1: my friends. Interestingly, according to the sources I found, it 117 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:39,520 Speaker 1: originally launched in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, and the 118 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:43,040 Speaker 1: very first film available on the format happens to be 119 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:46,040 Speaker 1: my favorite film of all time. It's also the movie 120 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:48,640 Speaker 1: that was number one at the box office the day 121 00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:52,920 Speaker 1: I was born, Jaws, And yet my family never owned 122 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:55,760 Speaker 1: a laser disc. So that's where my personal connection to 123 00:07:55,840 --> 00:08:00,840 Speaker 1: this particular technology ends. The disks could hold old sixty 124 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:04,400 Speaker 1: minutes of content per side when it was in extended 125 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:08,080 Speaker 1: play mode. With extended play, the motor would rotate the 126 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:12,440 Speaker 1: disc at a slower speed. Standard play speed was faster 127 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:15,920 Speaker 1: and allowed for more features that you could use with 128 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:19,360 Speaker 1: the laser disc player, but you could only fit thirty 129 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:22,520 Speaker 1: minutes of content per side on the disc in standard 130 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:26,200 Speaker 1: play playback speed. And yes, this does mean that for 131 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:29,320 Speaker 1: a two hour film with extended play, you would have 132 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:32,720 Speaker 1: to flip the disc over halfway through the movie. Though 133 00:08:32,840 --> 00:08:36,920 Speaker 1: later on towards the tail end of the laser disc era, 134 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:41,160 Speaker 1: some players could actually automatically switch sides, you wouldn't have 135 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:45,640 Speaker 1: to manually do it. Sometimes films would include a special 136 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: standard play disc with the extended play feature film, and 137 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:54,040 Speaker 1: the extra disc would include stuff like bonus footage and 138 00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:56,480 Speaker 1: interviews and the sort of features that we would later 139 00:08:56,640 --> 00:09:01,120 Speaker 1: come to expect on DVD releases. A laser disc format 140 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:05,800 Speaker 1: could provide superior video and sound compared to the VHS 141 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 1: and Beta Max formats, but it had a couple of 142 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:13,359 Speaker 1: major disadvantages. One is that it was far more expensive 143 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:16,439 Speaker 1: than cassette based technologies, and when I get to those 144 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:19,280 Speaker 1: and tell you how much they cost. That's going to 145 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 1: raise some eyebrows. But another drawback is that you couldn't 146 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:25,920 Speaker 1: record to a laser disc, so you were restricted to 147 00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:29,880 Speaker 1: watching prerecorded stuff from major studios. You would have to 148 00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:34,400 Speaker 1: buy a movie or TV series or whatever on laser disc. 149 00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:39,120 Speaker 1: You couldn't just you know, recorded off the television. That 150 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:43,280 Speaker 1: was a difference between that cassettes. Cassettes you could do that. 151 00:09:43,559 --> 00:09:46,720 Speaker 1: And these drawbacks meant that fewer people would purchase laser 152 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:50,400 Speaker 1: disc players, which meant the technology couldn't really scale to 153 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:54,960 Speaker 1: a level where prices could drop significantly. The very last 154 00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:59,400 Speaker 1: laser disc movie was in two thousand. This was the 155 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:02,720 Speaker 1: last film printed to laser disc. That's interesting to me 156 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:05,800 Speaker 1: because DVDs were already on the market by two thousand 157 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:10,080 Speaker 1: and The last film on laser disc was Bringing Out 158 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:12,960 Speaker 1: the Dead, which is a Nicolas Cage film that I 159 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:16,720 Speaker 1: have never actually watched. But LaserDisc never made a huge 160 00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 1: impact on home video. It was kind of a cult 161 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:24,320 Speaker 1: favorite among a small group of enthusiasts, but it never 162 00:10:24,559 --> 00:10:28,280 Speaker 1: had an enormous impact. It also became a little bit 163 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:31,520 Speaker 1: of a novelty in arcades, however, because it was the 164 00:10:31,559 --> 00:10:35,600 Speaker 1: basis for games like dragons Layer and Space Ace, but 165 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:40,079 Speaker 1: that's another story. Another technology that took a stab at 166 00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:43,760 Speaker 1: becoming a standard home video tech and failed was the 167 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:49,359 Speaker 1: capacitance Electronic disc player or ce D, which was developed 168 00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:52,440 Speaker 1: by our c A. Now, as I record this, I 169 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:55,960 Speaker 1: am actually looking right now at my old c e 170 00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:59,960 Speaker 1: D player, which may or may not be functional. I honest, 171 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,360 Speaker 1: we don't know. I haven't plugged it in in years. 172 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:06,199 Speaker 1: Plus I don't have a television with the proper connectors, 173 00:11:06,360 --> 00:11:08,480 Speaker 1: so even if it works, I wouldn't be able to 174 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:11,920 Speaker 1: verify it anyway. But this is the technology that my 175 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:15,880 Speaker 1: family had obviously while I was growing up, though we 176 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:20,240 Speaker 1: only ever had a relatively small number of films for it, 177 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:24,560 Speaker 1: like Singing in the Rain, uh Raiders, Lost Arc, a 178 00:11:24,559 --> 00:11:27,080 Speaker 1: couple of Woody Allen movies, that sort of thing. And 179 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:30,240 Speaker 1: the c e D is a disc based system, but 180 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:34,440 Speaker 1: unlike the laser disc, it's not an optical system. That 181 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:38,800 Speaker 1: means there's no laser shining on this disc. No. Instead, 182 00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:42,840 Speaker 1: these discs which were housed inside these plastic envelopes that 183 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:45,600 Speaker 1: kind of made them look like a cross between a 184 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:50,920 Speaker 1: giant computer disc and a record album sleeve. Anyway, the 185 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:54,800 Speaker 1: actual discs inside the envelopes had very small grooves in them, 186 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:58,439 Speaker 1: just like a vinyl record album, but much smaller and 187 00:11:58,559 --> 00:12:01,680 Speaker 1: like an old record player. The ce ED player used 188 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:05,920 Speaker 1: a special needle to move through these grooves. However, instead 189 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:09,400 Speaker 1: of the needle vibrating and then transmitting those vibrations to 190 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:13,040 Speaker 1: a transducer that converts the vibrations into an electric signal, 191 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:17,400 Speaker 1: the ceed player's needle and the disk in the player 192 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:22,000 Speaker 1: would complete an electronic circuit. The needle would not actually 193 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:25,920 Speaker 1: make contact with the bottom of the groove on the disc, 194 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:29,599 Speaker 1: but the groove would curve up toward the bottom of 195 00:12:29,640 --> 00:12:32,680 Speaker 1: the needle, or it would curve away from the needle, 196 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:36,480 Speaker 1: and that would affect the capacitance between the stylus and 197 00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:40,680 Speaker 1: the disc itself. The changing capacitance would then affect a 198 00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:45,720 Speaker 1: resonant circuit, which in turn would send the generated fluctuating 199 00:12:45,800 --> 00:12:49,400 Speaker 1: signal to a decoder to transmit as video and audio. 200 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:52,360 Speaker 1: And I know it sounds super technical, but in reality, 201 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:55,040 Speaker 1: it was using a quality of electricity as a sort 202 00:12:55,080 --> 00:12:59,199 Speaker 1: of evolution of the old vinyl record technology. One advantage 203 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:01,880 Speaker 1: of the c e ED is that it wasn't as 204 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:07,400 Speaker 1: expensive to produce as VCRs and definitely less expensive than 205 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:12,040 Speaker 1: laser disc players. The video and audio quality were around 206 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:15,280 Speaker 1: the same level as that for cassettes, maybe a little 207 00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:18,720 Speaker 1: bit better, but they definitely did not measure up to 208 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:22,360 Speaker 1: the superior quality of the laser disc format. But like 209 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:27,040 Speaker 1: laser discs, you could not record programming to c D. 210 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:31,680 Speaker 1: You could only buy existing media and play it at home. Also, 211 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:34,800 Speaker 1: like laser discs, you had to flip a movie halfway 212 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:38,200 Speaker 1: through because each side could only hold about an hour's 213 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:42,240 Speaker 1: worth of video. I seem to recall, although I have 214 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:46,600 Speaker 1: not verified this, that for Raiders of the Lost Arc, 215 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:49,319 Speaker 1: the point where we would have to flip the disc 216 00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:53,200 Speaker 1: was right around the time where Salah would say to Indiana, 217 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:57,640 Speaker 1: they're digging in the wrong place. Our c A had 218 00:13:57,679 --> 00:14:01,280 Speaker 1: this technology in development as far back the nineteen sixties, 219 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:05,880 Speaker 1: but various problems within the company and the project in particular, 220 00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:10,720 Speaker 1: delayed it to market until the early nineteen eighties. By 221 00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:13,880 Speaker 1: that time, the laser disc was already on the market 222 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:17,920 Speaker 1: and VHS and Beta Max were well established too, so 223 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:21,200 Speaker 1: C e D really never stood a chance. Our c 224 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:23,560 Speaker 1: A only would produce them for a couple of years 225 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:27,040 Speaker 1: before throwing in the towel, so in a way, I 226 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:29,320 Speaker 1: own a piece of tech history, or, as I like 227 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:33,880 Speaker 1: to call it, a very large paper weight. There were 228 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:38,320 Speaker 1: other media contenders besides C E D and laser disc, 229 00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:42,120 Speaker 1: but the real battle raged between Beta Max, which was 230 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:46,400 Speaker 1: backed by Sony, and VHS, which was backed by j 231 00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:50,600 Speaker 1: v C. Sony had hoped to create the standard format 232 00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:53,000 Speaker 1: for home video. They tried to get buy in from 233 00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:56,480 Speaker 1: all the other manufacturers in the early nineteen seventies, but 234 00:14:56,800 --> 00:15:00,000 Speaker 1: j v C, which had been developing its own technology, 235 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:03,480 Speaker 1: held out and made the risky decision to back their 236 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:07,760 Speaker 1: competing format. The Beta Max hit the market first in 237 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:12,080 Speaker 1: nineteen VHS would debut about a year or so later, 238 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:16,720 Speaker 1: probably like early nine, I believe, And while both formats 239 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:21,360 Speaker 1: recorded media to tape that was inside of a cassette, 240 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,360 Speaker 1: they were also incompatible with one another. The Beta Max 241 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:28,840 Speaker 1: video cassettes were not as wide as the VHS, but 242 00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:32,080 Speaker 1: they were longer or taller, depending on how you're looking 243 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:34,760 Speaker 1: at them, and at first, the Beta Max is faster 244 00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:38,800 Speaker 1: playback speed resulted in a slightly superior resolution over the 245 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:43,080 Speaker 1: VHS format, so you might think Beta Max thus had 246 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:46,240 Speaker 1: the edge. It was better picture, right, but VHS had 247 00:15:46,280 --> 00:15:49,400 Speaker 1: a couple of advantages of its own. One was that 248 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:52,880 Speaker 1: JVC chose to go with a less expensive set of 249 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:57,400 Speaker 1: components than Sony did, which kept the costs of production down, 250 00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:00,160 Speaker 1: and that meant the company could sell VHS e c 251 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:04,480 Speaker 1: rs at a lower price point than Sony's Beta Max VCRs. Now, 252 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:07,480 Speaker 1: when I say lower price, we have to remember that 253 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:13,360 Speaker 1: the VCR technology was crazy expensive when it first came out. Now, 254 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:17,600 Speaker 1: this is typical for new technologies, particularly in the area 255 00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:21,280 Speaker 1: of media technologies, where the early examples are priced at 256 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:24,360 Speaker 1: a point where most of us can't afford it, and 257 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:28,080 Speaker 1: over time, due to stuff like early adopters and the 258 00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:31,320 Speaker 1: scaling up of production, the price comes down to a 259 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:35,600 Speaker 1: point where we lowly peons can also enjoy the technology. 260 00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 1: When the Beta Max first launched, the models ranged from 261 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:44,040 Speaker 1: just under two thousand dollars for the base model up 262 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 1: to two thousand, two hundred nine five dollars for the 263 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:53,000 Speaker 1: top end model. And this was so if we adjust 264 00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:57,200 Speaker 1: that for inflation, let's see that means that a top 265 00:16:57,360 --> 00:16:59,920 Speaker 1: end model of a Beta Max machine would set you 266 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:05,879 Speaker 1: back more than eleven thousand dollars in today's money. Hatchi 267 00:17:06,359 --> 00:17:10,879 Speaker 1: Machi that's a princely summoned no mistake. But but hey, 268 00:17:11,080 --> 00:17:14,120 Speaker 1: I said that the vhs came in at a lower price, right, 269 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:18,399 Speaker 1: So what did those go for when they first came out? Well, 270 00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:23,600 Speaker 1: the VHS style VCRs retailed for between one thousand dollars 271 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:28,199 Speaker 1: and fourteen hundred dollars, So that's between hundred bucks and 272 00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:33,000 Speaker 1: six thousand dollars today. That is a hefty price to 273 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:37,200 Speaker 1: pay to watch my old night Court tapes. But beyond that, 274 00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:40,959 Speaker 1: a huge differentiator came down to recording time. With the 275 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:45,080 Speaker 1: original Beta Max machines, users could only record one hour 276 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:50,120 Speaker 1: of content per tape. The original JVC VHS machines could 277 00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:53,240 Speaker 1: record up to two hours of material onto a tape, 278 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:56,240 Speaker 1: and to be clear, this was more of a limitation 279 00:17:56,359 --> 00:18:00,440 Speaker 1: on the machines than on the cassette tapes themselves. See, 280 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:04,240 Speaker 1: by running the tape more slowly through the machine, both 281 00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:08,120 Speaker 1: for the recording and playback of media, you could cram 282 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:12,240 Speaker 1: more video content onto the cassettes. But you did this 283 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:15,880 Speaker 1: knowing that you were also compromising the video and audio 284 00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:19,960 Speaker 1: quality at slower speeds, like super slow speeds, where you 285 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:23,400 Speaker 1: can cram like ten hours of material onto one video cassette, 286 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:26,040 Speaker 1: you could end up having a lot of cross interference 287 00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:28,320 Speaker 1: and other issues that would affect the quality of the 288 00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:32,639 Speaker 1: audio and the video. Sony and JVC initially were loath 289 00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:36,000 Speaker 1: to budge on this. They didn't really want to give 290 00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:39,720 Speaker 1: on quality. But as j VCS approach was gaining more 291 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:43,879 Speaker 1: favor because it could record twice as much content per tape, 292 00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:47,840 Speaker 1: Sony would push out new players and video cassettes that 293 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:52,160 Speaker 1: could hold more content. So JVC then response the same way, 294 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:55,080 Speaker 1: or would allow other manufacturers like our c A to 295 00:18:55,119 --> 00:18:58,719 Speaker 1: build VCRs capable of recording at slower tape speeds and 296 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:03,680 Speaker 1: thus more hours of content per tape. The VHS format 297 00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:06,520 Speaker 1: got the edge and held it long enough that eventually 298 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:11,040 Speaker 1: Sony capitulated. This was a format war that was decided 299 00:19:11,119 --> 00:19:14,680 Speaker 1: in the marketplace rather than by a standards committee, and 300 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:17,520 Speaker 1: it was a long and costly war, both for the 301 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:22,040 Speaker 1: manufacturers and for consumers. For people who backed Beta Max, 302 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:26,160 Speaker 1: they ended up supporting a format that eventually went obsolete, 303 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,399 Speaker 1: and switching over to a different format tends to be 304 00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:32,040 Speaker 1: pretty irritating, both because it means that you've got to 305 00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:35,359 Speaker 1: spend more money on stuff like a new player, but 306 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:36,760 Speaker 1: you also have to figure out what to do with 307 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:39,879 Speaker 1: your library of content. Do you keep a working Beta 308 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:43,160 Speaker 1: max machine around or do you go ahead and replace 309 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:46,000 Speaker 1: all the films and shows that you've either recorded or 310 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:50,600 Speaker 1: bought on Beta Max with new VHS copies. It is 311 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:53,480 Speaker 1: a mess, and it's one of the reasons standard committees 312 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:57,159 Speaker 1: form in the first place to avoid that kind of situation. 313 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:00,200 Speaker 1: When we come back, we'll turn the clock back a 314 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:02,919 Speaker 1: good way to talk about a totally different type of 315 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:13,840 Speaker 1: format war all aboard. Now, I'm sure a lot of 316 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:16,840 Speaker 1: you have already figured out what format I'll be talking 317 00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:20,479 Speaker 1: about based on my lane transition into the ad break earlier. 318 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:25,840 Speaker 1: We're going to talk about train railway gauges. That is 319 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:30,199 Speaker 1: the distance between the inner edge of the two rails 320 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:34,200 Speaker 1: on a train railway. The standard gauge for most of 321 00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:37,879 Speaker 1: the world is known as one thousand, four hundred thirty 322 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:42,480 Speaker 1: five millimeters or four feet and eight and a half inches, 323 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:44,440 Speaker 1: because here in the good old USA, we just don't 324 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:47,280 Speaker 1: cotton to that their metric system, gosh darn't it. And 325 00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:51,719 Speaker 1: to be clear, that's not every single railway around the world, 326 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:54,960 Speaker 1: but more than half of them do conform to this. Now, 327 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,199 Speaker 1: there is a charming story that the whole reason that 328 00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:02,600 Speaker 1: train rails are this distance from each other ultimately depends 329 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:06,280 Speaker 1: upon the rear ends of a pair of horses. And 330 00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:09,920 Speaker 1: as I said, the story is charming, but not necessarily 331 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:12,840 Speaker 1: totally accurate, at least in the grand scheme of things. 332 00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:15,800 Speaker 1: But let's go through the story anyway, so we know 333 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,240 Speaker 1: where we're coming from, all right. So, back in the 334 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:22,840 Speaker 1: days of the Roman Empire, you had Roman soldiers who 335 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:25,600 Speaker 1: would use chariots a lot in war or just to 336 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:28,919 Speaker 1: get around, and chariots would be pulled by a pair 337 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:32,720 Speaker 1: of horses, so by necessity, the chariot would need to 338 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:37,520 Speaker 1: accommodate two horses side by side in the front, which 339 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:40,880 Speaker 1: in turn meant that a chariot could only be so 340 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:45,040 Speaker 1: wide before it would become difficult to maneuver. The wheels 341 00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:48,720 Speaker 1: need to be wide apart enough to provide stability, but 342 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:51,919 Speaker 1: not so wide apart that you couldn't do stuff like 343 00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:56,159 Speaker 1: take a turn easily. And generally the distance between the 344 00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:59,719 Speaker 1: two wheels of the chariot that would provide decent stability 345 00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:05,040 Speaker 1: and maneuverability was about four feet eight inches or so. Now, 346 00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:08,840 Speaker 1: the Roman Empire needed to produce a good number of chariots. 347 00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:12,919 Speaker 1: They were important for military conquests and for maintaining a 348 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:17,400 Speaker 1: presence in the large Roman Empire. The chariots all followed 349 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:21,120 Speaker 1: a fairly close set of standards, and all that chariot 350 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:24,680 Speaker 1: traffic on roads started to create ruts in the road. 351 00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:29,200 Speaker 1: The wheels were wearing down paths in the roadways, and 352 00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:31,879 Speaker 1: these were like little ditches where the wheels of the 353 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:34,280 Speaker 1: old chariots were just hitting the road over and over. 354 00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,879 Speaker 1: Over time, the ruts get fairly deep, and then the 355 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,800 Speaker 1: Roman Empire falls. This has nothing to do with ruts, 356 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:44,080 Speaker 1: although I guess you could argue that the empire was 357 00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:47,520 Speaker 1: in a rut. But I suppose you could also argue 358 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:49,919 Speaker 1: that a few horses rear ends were involved in the 359 00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:54,640 Speaker 1: process as well. Anyway, flash forward to areas that had 360 00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:58,840 Speaker 1: formerly been part of the Roman Empire. As people began 361 00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:02,919 Speaker 1: to build more vehicles like wagons and carts and stuff, 362 00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:06,760 Speaker 1: they tended to gravitate back to that four foot eight 363 00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:10,880 Speaker 1: inch distance between the wheels. Now, you could argue that 364 00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:13,760 Speaker 1: this is because of those ruts, and that a cart 365 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:17,440 Speaker 1: with wheels that are closer together or further apart than 366 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:21,159 Speaker 1: that would have trouble navigating roads because the ruts are 367 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:23,439 Speaker 1: of a certain width, and if you're if you have 368 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:25,280 Speaker 1: one wheel in a rut and one wheel that's out 369 00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:28,600 Speaker 1: of a rut, or you're constantly moving in and out 370 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,959 Speaker 1: of the ruts, it's not very easy going. Your animal 371 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,639 Speaker 1: has to work harder, it's not efficient. That's how the 372 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,879 Speaker 1: story goes, and that probably does play a part. But 373 00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:41,040 Speaker 1: another part is just the practical considerations that the Romans 374 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,640 Speaker 1: had made were still in play centuries later, and that 375 00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:47,800 Speaker 1: really that had more to do with the limitations of 376 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:51,679 Speaker 1: relying on vehicles that are powered by using critters to 377 00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:54,520 Speaker 1: haul them. Anyway, the story goes on to say that 378 00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:58,640 Speaker 1: when inventors in England first started building steam engine locomotives, 379 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:01,680 Speaker 1: the tools they were it upon to build out rails 380 00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:06,479 Speaker 1: were based on the early horse horse drawn tram system 381 00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,919 Speaker 1: where you would have rails and a cart, but a 382 00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:12,080 Speaker 1: horse would pull the cart along the rails, and that 383 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:17,160 Speaker 1: those in turn were based on, you know, the the 384 00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:20,000 Speaker 1: old ruts in the roads, you know, based off the 385 00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:22,960 Speaker 1: carts that had to go through those roads, and that 386 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:25,600 Speaker 1: in turn was based off the original roaming chariots and 387 00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:28,320 Speaker 1: hardy Hart horror. That means that train rails are the 388 00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:30,480 Speaker 1: way they are because of the patutis of a pair 389 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:35,439 Speaker 1: of horses, which isn't true. Now, it is true that 390 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:40,560 Speaker 1: some early railway companies would use existing carriage bodies that 391 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:44,600 Speaker 1: had been intended for use on roads, and then they 392 00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:47,720 Speaker 1: swapped out the wheels on these carriages and put them 393 00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:51,080 Speaker 1: with wheels that could ride on top of rails like 394 00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:54,679 Speaker 1: train cars. That was just playing practical. I mean, why 395 00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:57,359 Speaker 1: would you spend all the money to reinvent the wheel 396 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,639 Speaker 1: or at least the wheeled carriage in you can just 397 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:05,680 Speaker 1: repurpose existing vehicles. But that's not the full story. George Stevenson, 398 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,679 Speaker 1: a nineteenth century engineer in England who came from truly 399 00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:14,199 Speaker 1: humble origins, would be an early innovator with locomotives, not 400 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:18,879 Speaker 1: the inventor, but he made a lot of improvements with them, 401 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:22,800 Speaker 1: and he was creating powerful engines capable of transporting tons 402 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:26,560 Speaker 1: of coal long distances at a pretty slow pace. His 403 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,840 Speaker 1: early locomotive had a speed of around four miles per 404 00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:32,639 Speaker 1: hour or about six and a half kilometers per hour. 405 00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:36,480 Speaker 1: Stevenson's machines ran on rails that were four ft eight 406 00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:39,080 Speaker 1: inches apart at least in the early part of his career, 407 00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:42,080 Speaker 1: but by eighteen twenty six, when he and his son 408 00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:46,119 Speaker 1: Robert began working on the Liverpool in Manchester railway, he 409 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:49,600 Speaker 1: made the decision to go with a rail width of 410 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:53,800 Speaker 1: four ft eight and a half inches, and this wasn't 411 00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:56,320 Speaker 1: the first time that anyone had done that, but he 412 00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:00,879 Speaker 1: had adjusted this largely because it helped with turns. It 413 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:05,400 Speaker 1: it prevented more bunching up when you had to take 414 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:09,760 Speaker 1: a turn with a long train. And there wasn't just 415 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:11,959 Speaker 1: one set of train gauges from the get go. There 416 00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:16,000 Speaker 1: were actually several competing train gauges in the UK and 417 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:18,520 Speaker 1: then later in other parts of the world. Some of 418 00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:22,159 Speaker 1: them gravitated towards Stevenson's four ft eight inches, with the 419 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,199 Speaker 1: official standard eventually settling on that four ft eight and 420 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:28,520 Speaker 1: a half inches, but there were some railways that had 421 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:32,719 Speaker 1: narrower tracks and some that had wider tracks. In the 422 00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:35,240 Speaker 1: state of New York there was an entire network of 423 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,600 Speaker 1: train tracks there were six ft wide, and the thinking 424 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:40,720 Speaker 1: at the time was that the trains on this network 425 00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:44,080 Speaker 1: we're going to be carrying even heavier loads, and that 426 00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,320 Speaker 1: a wider track would be best for that, while also 427 00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:51,200 Speaker 1: providing greater stability. Even in the UK, there were tons 428 00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:55,480 Speaker 1: of different train gauges. The Great Western Railway, which linked 429 00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:58,600 Speaker 1: London with regions in the southwest of England and then 430 00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:01,480 Speaker 1: off to Wales in the west, had a much wider 431 00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:05,040 Speaker 1: gauge of rails. Their rails were seven ft one quarter 432 00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:08,960 Speaker 1: inch apart or two thousand, one hundred forty millimeters. Back 433 00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:12,199 Speaker 1: in the United States, just before the Civil War, the 434 00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:14,880 Speaker 1: Confederacy or what would be the Confederacy, had a few 435 00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:18,919 Speaker 1: different train gauges running through the South and that was 436 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:21,800 Speaker 1: one of the big contributing factors to the South being 437 00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,480 Speaker 1: less capable than the North during wartime. Meanwhile, up north, 438 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:28,720 Speaker 1: the States had largely gravitated toward that four ft eight 439 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:32,159 Speaker 1: and a half inches as the standard, and that proved 440 00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:34,520 Speaker 1: to be a huge advantage over the South when it 441 00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:38,240 Speaker 1: came to supply chains and logistics. So what's the big 442 00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:41,240 Speaker 1: deal anyway, Well, it's all about compatibility. Like I said 443 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:44,160 Speaker 1: at the top of the show, These different rail gauges 444 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:48,520 Speaker 1: led to what engineers called break of gauge, Meaning let's 445 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:51,000 Speaker 1: say you've got a route from point A to point C, 446 00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:54,960 Speaker 1: and it passes through point B, and at point B 447 00:27:55,640 --> 00:28:00,199 Speaker 1: you have a change in gauge of railway lines. So 448 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:03,800 Speaker 1: from point A to point B it's a narrower gage, 449 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:06,960 Speaker 1: and from point B to point SEE it's a wider gauge. Well, 450 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:09,600 Speaker 1: you can't take the same train all the way from 451 00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:14,359 Speaker 1: point A to point C because the train can't run 452 00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:17,399 Speaker 1: on a wider gauge. It has wheels that are in 453 00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:21,399 Speaker 1: fixed positions on the bottom of the train. They're mounted 454 00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,159 Speaker 1: on what we call wheel trucks here in the United States. 455 00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:27,639 Speaker 1: In the UK they're called bogies. They're at a fixed 456 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:31,159 Speaker 1: wid you cannot magically go further apart from one another 457 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:35,280 Speaker 1: or closer together. There are special train cars that can 458 00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:39,640 Speaker 1: account for slight differences in rail gauge, but those would 459 00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:42,960 Speaker 1: come later, so you're stuck with a solid frame. So 460 00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:46,680 Speaker 1: one type of rail car can ride on one type 461 00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,239 Speaker 1: of railroad track, but you have to switch if you're 462 00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:52,240 Speaker 1: gonna change gauges. So it doesn't take much imagination to 463 00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:54,840 Speaker 1: see how this leads to a major problem. If you're 464 00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:58,560 Speaker 1: transporting stuff, whether it's people or cargo, and you have 465 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,520 Speaker 1: to pass through one region that relies on one gauge 466 00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:04,680 Speaker 1: width to another that has a different one, you've got 467 00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:08,640 Speaker 1: to change trains. For people, this can be a nuisance, 468 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:11,640 Speaker 1: and it might mean having to travel by carriage from 469 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:15,040 Speaker 1: one train depot to a different one in the same town. 470 00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:19,280 Speaker 1: For cargo, it's a much larger hassle because you've got 471 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:23,520 Speaker 1: to offload the cargo from train number one, probably loaded 472 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:27,200 Speaker 1: into some other form of transportation like wagons, then take 473 00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:31,840 Speaker 1: that wagon or whatever to the other train, offload the 474 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:36,560 Speaker 1: wagon and loaded onto train number two. It is inefficient 475 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,840 Speaker 1: and wasteful, and it was clear that standardizing rail gauges 476 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:45,280 Speaker 1: would be a practical solution. Having one standard width would 477 00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:48,960 Speaker 1: simplify matters and allow for the faster transportation of passengers 478 00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:52,800 Speaker 1: and goods. The broad gage of the Great Western Railroad 479 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:56,800 Speaker 1: in the UK and the so called narrow gauge favored 480 00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:00,719 Speaker 1: by Stevenson, we're gonna duke it out over there across 481 00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:03,680 Speaker 1: the pond. Here in America, we had a whole different 482 00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:07,560 Speaker 1: host of different railroad get gauges to contend with the 483 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:09,880 Speaker 1: two that I was talking about earlier. That was just 484 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:14,760 Speaker 1: an example. There were like almost a dozen different rail 485 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:17,520 Speaker 1: gauges in the US. It was a mess, so it 486 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:21,080 Speaker 1: wasn't easy. The various parties involved all had a vested 487 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:25,160 Speaker 1: interest that their gauge would become the standard. For one thing, 488 00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:27,360 Speaker 1: I mean, they wouldn't have to spend more money building 489 00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:32,959 Speaker 1: out or buying new materials. And in some places like Erie, Pennsylvania, 490 00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:37,360 Speaker 1: there were other issues. You see, Erie marked the termination 491 00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:42,120 Speaker 1: point for a couple of different railroads that had different gauges, 492 00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,600 Speaker 1: which meant people traveling from say the East Coast to 493 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:49,120 Speaker 1: the Midwest, might have to stop an Erie along the way, 494 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:53,120 Speaker 1: and that meant that there were always reliable jobs related 495 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:58,120 Speaker 1: to transferring passengers from one railway to another, or to 496 00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,520 Speaker 1: accommodate people as they did for the next outbound train, 497 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:05,760 Speaker 1: like restaurants and hotels. That break of gauge of Erie 498 00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:09,440 Speaker 1: Pennsylvania was seen as a source of employment and revenue 499 00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:12,880 Speaker 1: in many ways, so that was a major disincentive to 500 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,479 Speaker 1: move towards a standardized railway gauge. In fact, the people 501 00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:23,640 Speaker 1: of Erie, Pennsylvania took this pretty far. From December eighteen 502 00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:28,960 Speaker 1: fifty three to February eighteen fifty four, citizens and Erie 503 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:34,240 Speaker 1: politicians which I mean Erie Pennsylvania not spooky spooky politicians, 504 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,840 Speaker 1: they tried to stop a move to standardize the tracks 505 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:42,160 Speaker 1: with the narrower of the two gauges. A railway company 506 00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:45,880 Speaker 1: had bought controlling interest in another railway company, and the 507 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,480 Speaker 1: decision was they were going to rip up the wide 508 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:52,320 Speaker 1: gauge tracks and replace them with narrow gauge so that 509 00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:56,440 Speaker 1: you would have a single gauge going through Erie, Pennsylvania. 510 00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:00,800 Speaker 1: And they didn't like that, so things escalated. The mayor 511 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:05,480 Speaker 1: ended up ordering police to remove railroad tracks that violated 512 00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:08,640 Speaker 1: ordinances that said the new tracks would not be allowed 513 00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:12,480 Speaker 1: to cross city streets. Uh then the mayor started to 514 00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:17,400 Speaker 1: bring on one hundred quote unquote special constables or a 515 00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:21,240 Speaker 1: brute squad in Princess Bride terms, to take it upon 516 00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:24,560 Speaker 1: themselves to tear up railroad tracks, usually by the cover 517 00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:26,920 Speaker 1: of darkness in the middle of the night, and things 518 00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:30,600 Speaker 1: eventually would come to a head. The United States sent 519 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:34,200 Speaker 1: lawman out there to calm things down, and eventually they 520 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:38,000 Speaker 1: did calm down. The standardized track was laid down and 521 00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:42,000 Speaker 1: mostly left unmolested, though there would be trouble that would 522 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:44,840 Speaker 1: spring up occasionally over the next couple of years, just 523 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:46,920 Speaker 1: not on the scale of what had been called the 524 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,960 Speaker 1: gauge War. But again, this whole conflict had nothing to 525 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,840 Speaker 1: do with the actual battling standards. It had more to 526 00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:57,880 Speaker 1: do with the consequences of settling on a single standard 527 00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:03,960 Speaker 1: and removing that incompatible without trains stopping an eerie by necessity. 528 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,240 Speaker 1: Many local businesses saw a drop in revenue and some 529 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:10,480 Speaker 1: jobs were eliminated altogether. Kind of reminds me of stories 530 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:14,440 Speaker 1: about how when highways would come in and bypass a 531 00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:18,400 Speaker 1: traditional route, entire towns would kind of dry up and 532 00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:23,400 Speaker 1: die well. The shift to standards of rail gauges was 533 00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:28,000 Speaker 1: gradual around the world. The UK passed a Gauge Act 534 00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:31,280 Speaker 1: back in eight that set the standard at the four 535 00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,760 Speaker 1: ft eight and a half inches. The US moved more 536 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,680 Speaker 1: toward a standard after the Civil War, when much of 537 00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:41,920 Speaker 1: the rail lines needed repairs, so the reunified United States 538 00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:45,160 Speaker 1: took the opportunity to swap out the wider gauges in 539 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:48,920 Speaker 1: parts of the South with one closer to the northern standard. 540 00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:52,800 Speaker 1: A little more than half the world uses that one thousand, 541 00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:55,640 Speaker 1: four hundred thirty five millimeter as the standard gauge for 542 00:33:55,760 --> 00:33:59,360 Speaker 1: railway lines. UH The other forty percent or so of 543 00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,840 Speaker 1: railways make up a mix of different gauges, with not 544 00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:07,320 Speaker 1: a single like dominant one with this format. War it 545 00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:11,080 Speaker 1: was more practicality that guided most of the decisions rather 546 00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:14,279 Speaker 1: than anything else. When we come back, we'll look at 547 00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:18,720 Speaker 1: yet another war of formats. But first let's take another 548 00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:29,440 Speaker 1: quick break. One of the things that format wars often 549 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:33,479 Speaker 1: illustrate is how even something that is seemingly frivolous can 550 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:37,680 Speaker 1: be affected by a battle for standards. In the late 551 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:42,479 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, as railways were slowly conforming for the most part, 552 00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:47,279 Speaker 1: to the Stephenson standard, another format war began. Kind of 553 00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:51,120 Speaker 1: this one was more of a format conflict that was 554 00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:56,120 Speaker 1: resolved fairly quickly and then not that much longer afterward 555 00:34:56,160 --> 00:35:00,400 Speaker 1: became more or less obsolete. And I am talking about 556 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:06,280 Speaker 1: player pianos, yep, pianos that have a mechanism that allows 557 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 1: them to seemingly play themselves. And it's actually really fascinating. 558 00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:17,240 Speaker 1: See player pianos suck. That's not a judgment call, it's 559 00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:21,280 Speaker 1: actually what they are doing. The old player pianos worked 560 00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:24,600 Speaker 1: on a principle of pneumatics. Now we usually think of 561 00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:28,320 Speaker 1: pneumatic systems as using pressurized air to do work to 562 00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:34,960 Speaker 1: push against something, for example, and player pianos do use pneumatics, 563 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:38,520 Speaker 1: only they do it by creating lower pressure inside the 564 00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:42,960 Speaker 1: piano than the atmospheric pressure that's outside the piano. As 565 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:46,040 Speaker 1: opposed to pumping pressurized air through the system, it's the 566 00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:50,680 Speaker 1: outside air rushing in that provides the pneumatic force. I'll 567 00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:53,359 Speaker 1: explain how they work from a really high level. All right, 568 00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:58,080 Speaker 1: So first let's think about the base of a player piano. 569 00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:01,719 Speaker 1: The bottom of it, you would have a pair of pedals, 570 00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:04,479 Speaker 1: and they weren't like sustained pedals the way you would 571 00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:08,200 Speaker 1: find with classic pianos. They were actually foot pedals that 572 00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:12,440 Speaker 1: would uh power some bellows. Later on you would have 573 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:14,800 Speaker 1: electric motors that would do this, but the early ones 574 00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:20,400 Speaker 1: used foot power, and so you would generate the suction 575 00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:24,560 Speaker 1: needed for everything else to work by pedaling these pedals. 576 00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:28,560 Speaker 1: You would alternate left right, left, right pumping air out 577 00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:33,920 Speaker 1: of this piano. And you've got a set of bellows 578 00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:37,319 Speaker 1: for each pedal. So the left pedal has a bellows, 579 00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:40,239 Speaker 1: the right pedal has a bellows. Now, as you do 580 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:44,479 Speaker 1: this motion where you're pumping left, right, left, right, there's 581 00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:49,080 Speaker 1: actually a slight gap in suction as you're alternating. It's 582 00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:53,400 Speaker 1: it's not a continuous uh suck. I guess. Is the 583 00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:56,520 Speaker 1: way you could put it so to compensate for that player. 584 00:36:56,560 --> 00:37:00,160 Speaker 1: Pianos typically have what was called a vacuum reservoir are 585 00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:04,080 Speaker 1: essentially a sealed box. So as you pump the bellows 586 00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:06,040 Speaker 1: suck air not just out of the piano, but out 587 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:08,919 Speaker 1: of the reservoir as well. And so as you would 588 00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:12,719 Speaker 1: reach these little breaks where one foot is about to 589 00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:14,560 Speaker 1: go down in any other foot's about to go up, 590 00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:19,640 Speaker 1: that reservoir would allow for the continued air pressure that 591 00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:22,840 Speaker 1: you needed. It would be because there was a vacuum 592 00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:27,040 Speaker 1: pumped into the reservoir. It would create the sucking that 593 00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:31,239 Speaker 1: you would normally have with the bellows. And so you 594 00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:34,400 Speaker 1: keep this up, You keep on pedaling the entire time. 595 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:37,680 Speaker 1: And these bellows in the reservoir connect via hoses to 596 00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:42,520 Speaker 1: two other major components, perhaps more, but two ones for sure. 597 00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:46,680 Speaker 1: One was an air motor, and an air motor is 598 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:50,239 Speaker 1: what it sounds like. It uses air to provide the 599 00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:53,960 Speaker 1: force needed to make the motor turn. In this case, 600 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:57,080 Speaker 1: it was device being powered by a vacuum. The vacuum 601 00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:00,280 Speaker 1: suction causes the motor to rotate in that road. Stational 602 00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:04,720 Speaker 1: motion was transferred to a role of piano paper, technically 603 00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:08,920 Speaker 1: to a spindle that the role of piano player UH 604 00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:14,360 Speaker 1: paper would sit on. It's hard to say piano player paper. Anyway, 605 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,520 Speaker 1: You put the the the roll of paper on the 606 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:23,320 Speaker 1: spindle and the rotating motor would provide the force necessary 607 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:26,800 Speaker 1: to rotate the paper. The second component that the bellows 608 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:30,560 Speaker 1: were pulling air from was what was called a track bar. Now, 609 00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:33,920 Speaker 1: this is a bar. It's above the keyboard UH and 610 00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:37,719 Speaker 1: it's typically made off of something like brass, and the 611 00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:43,399 Speaker 1: role of piano player paper would stretch across this bar, 612 00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:47,719 Speaker 1: making contact with it. So while you're pumping the bellows, 613 00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:52,920 Speaker 1: the holes in this track bar there's a bunch of 614 00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:55,759 Speaker 1: holes in it would be trying to suck in air, 615 00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:59,080 Speaker 1: but the paper blocks the air from going through. However, 616 00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,560 Speaker 1: the role of piano player paper also has some holes 617 00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:05,720 Speaker 1: in it, and occasionally those holes aligned with the holes 618 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:08,600 Speaker 1: in the track bar and air can pass through. And 619 00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:11,880 Speaker 1: it shouldn't surprise you to learn that those holes also 620 00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:16,359 Speaker 1: correspond with specific notes on the piano. So you get 621 00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:20,520 Speaker 1: the player piano started, you're pumping the bellows and the 622 00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:23,200 Speaker 1: section goes to the air motor, which begins to turn. 623 00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:27,640 Speaker 1: It pulls the player piano paper over this tracking bar. 624 00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:31,040 Speaker 1: That has suction, and whenever a hole in the paper 625 00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:34,359 Speaker 1: lines up with a hole in that track bar, air 626 00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:38,200 Speaker 1: passes through into the piano. Otherwise the paper is blocking 627 00:39:38,239 --> 00:39:41,840 Speaker 1: the air. So air rushes into the piano through the 628 00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:44,799 Speaker 1: hole in the paper and the corresponding hole in the 629 00:39:44,800 --> 00:39:48,840 Speaker 1: tracking bar, and each of those holes connects to a hose, 630 00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:52,719 Speaker 1: and that hose goes to a pair of little pneumatic 631 00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:57,600 Speaker 1: valves or bellows that correspond with a specific note, a 632 00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:02,960 Speaker 1: specific piano key, or more are appropriately the hammer connected 633 00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:06,080 Speaker 1: to the piano key, and the standard piano has a 634 00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:09,759 Speaker 1: eight keys total, so a full player piano would have 635 00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:13,600 Speaker 1: eight of these little valves or bellows at least, and 636 00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:17,440 Speaker 1: possibly some extra ones for some cool other effects. So 637 00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:21,400 Speaker 1: the air coming in powers that bellows or valve pairing 638 00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:24,239 Speaker 1: and then turn connects to the striking hammer for the 639 00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:28,080 Speaker 1: corresponding note and causes the hammer to strike the correct 640 00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:32,440 Speaker 1: piano string with the appropriate amount of force. The force 641 00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:36,720 Speaker 1: and old player pianos was just standard. You couldn't play 642 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:40,800 Speaker 1: loudly or softly with just a regular player piano without 643 00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:44,360 Speaker 1: some alterations. So the player piano is constantly trying to 644 00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:46,839 Speaker 1: suck air the holes in the paper where the air 645 00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:50,560 Speaker 1: can pass through, and nearly all the early player pianos 646 00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:54,680 Speaker 1: worked on this basic principle, but lots of companies were 647 00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:57,279 Speaker 1: building them and no one had yet settled on a 648 00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:01,319 Speaker 1: standard size for the player your piano roll. Some of 649 00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:05,480 Speaker 1: them were wider than others, and some player pianos had 650 00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:08,359 Speaker 1: a more limited range of notes, not covering the full 651 00:41:08,520 --> 00:41:13,800 Speaker 1: eight eight keys. Some used paper that was much wider 652 00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:16,160 Speaker 1: than others, and that poses a problem because if you 653 00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:19,239 Speaker 1: went out and you made the extravagant purchase of a 654 00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:23,319 Speaker 1: player piano. Let's say you own a bar and tin 655 00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:25,879 Speaker 1: pan alley and you want this player piano in your bar, 656 00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:28,640 Speaker 1: and then you want to go and buy the latest 657 00:41:28,719 --> 00:41:32,560 Speaker 1: songs to play on this player piano. You want to 658 00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:36,359 Speaker 1: make sure that whatever format you're buying is compatible with 659 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:39,200 Speaker 1: the piano you have, or else you've just wasted money. 660 00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:43,680 Speaker 1: But with all the different sizes out there, that was complicated, 661 00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:45,839 Speaker 1: and you couldn't be sure unless you were paying really 662 00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:48,480 Speaker 1: close attention that you were buying the right stuff. So 663 00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:50,400 Speaker 1: if the paper was too narrow, it wasn't going to 664 00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:53,480 Speaker 1: cover all the holes in the pianos track bar, and 665 00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:56,880 Speaker 1: you'd have a pretty hard time keeping suction up because 666 00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:00,200 Speaker 1: a lot of air would be going through the uncovered holes. Uh. 667 00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:03,399 Speaker 1: And technically they would be holding down a note, though 668 00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:07,440 Speaker 1: that wouldn't be really noticeable after the beginning. And if 669 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:10,120 Speaker 1: the paper were too wide, it wouldn't fit on the 670 00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:12,919 Speaker 1: spindle in the first place. And if the holes don't 671 00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,439 Speaker 1: line up properly, the music would come out wrong, would 672 00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:17,920 Speaker 1: be the wrong notes being played, kind of like what 673 00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:20,799 Speaker 1: sounds like whenever I tried to play piano. So from 674 00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:24,920 Speaker 1: eighteen nine six, when Edwin Vody invented the first really 675 00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:29,200 Speaker 1: practical player piano using a pneumatic system, all the way 676 00:42:29,239 --> 00:42:32,640 Speaker 1: up to nineteen o eight, various companies were making different 677 00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:36,600 Speaker 1: style player pianos, and there were three major musical scales, 678 00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:39,440 Speaker 1: one that had sixty five notes, one that had seventy 679 00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:41,799 Speaker 1: two notes, and then one with all eighty eight notes 680 00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:44,320 Speaker 1: of your typical piano. And there were a lot of 681 00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:48,240 Speaker 1: different sizes of piano paper rolls all hitting the market, 682 00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:50,920 Speaker 1: and that leads us to the great event known as 683 00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:55,680 Speaker 1: the Buffalo Convention of December tenth eight. It was this 684 00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:59,760 Speaker 1: convention that established the standard width for player piano rolls, 685 00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:03,920 Speaker 1: which was two D eight six millimeters or eleven and 686 00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:09,120 Speaker 1: one quarter inches. In addition, they settled on two musical scales, 687 00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:13,840 Speaker 1: the note scale and then the full eight notes scale. 688 00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:17,360 Speaker 1: Although both of those scales still used paper that was 689 00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:21,760 Speaker 1: eleven and one quarter inches wide, manufacturers fell in line. 690 00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:24,880 Speaker 1: They built out new player pianos designed to hold a 691 00:43:25,080 --> 00:43:28,239 Speaker 1: piano role of that width, and that made it much 692 00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:30,879 Speaker 1: easier to shop for player piano music because he didn't 693 00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:32,520 Speaker 1: have to worry if it would fit the size of 694 00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:36,920 Speaker 1: your player piano, and the world breathed a sigh of relief. 695 00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:40,280 Speaker 1: By the way, if you want to hear an interesting 696 00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:45,800 Speaker 1: example of player piano music, although this has been reinterpreted 697 00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:50,359 Speaker 1: for a modern computerized piano so it's not played on 698 00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:53,520 Speaker 1: an old player piano, I recommend you check out the 699 00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:59,840 Speaker 1: album Gershwin Plays Gershwin the Piano Rolls. Gershwin himself was 700 00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:03,600 Speaker 1: said to have recorded these piano roles over the course 701 00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:07,480 Speaker 1: of like a decade. On some pieces, such as the 702 00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:12,239 Speaker 1: famous Rhapsody in Blue, he over dubbed himself so that 703 00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:16,600 Speaker 1: meant he would play through Rahapsody and Blue on piano 704 00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:22,040 Speaker 1: that would then end up corresponding the playing too punching 705 00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:26,239 Speaker 1: holes in a role of player piano paper. Then he 706 00:44:26,239 --> 00:44:30,960 Speaker 1: would rewind the paper, put it back through, and play 707 00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:36,720 Speaker 1: additional parts in sequence with his original playing, which allows 708 00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:40,279 Speaker 1: a single player piano to play more notes at the 709 00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:43,400 Speaker 1: same time than a human pianist would be able to 710 00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:46,319 Speaker 1: manage on their own. It's like being able to play 711 00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:50,880 Speaker 1: a four handed piece all by yourself. The pieces on 712 00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:53,480 Speaker 1: that album are fantastic, and they offer the chance to 713 00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:58,200 Speaker 1: hear how Gershwin would have played these famous bits of 714 00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:02,120 Speaker 1: music himself, particularly early, if he happened to have four hands, 715 00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:05,480 Speaker 1: and I highly recommend it now. I've covered a lot 716 00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:07,800 Speaker 1: of the other format wars in various episodes like I 717 00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:11,600 Speaker 1: mentioned before that talked about companies like Columbia and our 718 00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:14,480 Speaker 1: Cia and how they battled it out over vinyl records. 719 00:45:14,920 --> 00:45:17,439 Speaker 1: You know, should the standard be thirty three and one 720 00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:20,160 Speaker 1: third rpm that was Columbia standard, or should it be 721 00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:24,239 Speaker 1: forty five rpm with r C as smaller records. That 722 00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:28,120 Speaker 1: format war fizzled out not because one side capitulated, but 723 00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:32,719 Speaker 1: rather because record player manufacturers eventually built turntables that could 724 00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:36,640 Speaker 1: operated either speed, which made both styles compatible with the 725 00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:40,279 Speaker 1: same player machines, which kind of sidestep the thing. And 726 00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:44,120 Speaker 1: then the music industry started to make a shift from 727 00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:49,960 Speaker 1: singles two albums, and that kind of dictated which form 728 00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:53,359 Speaker 1: would end up taking precedence. And of course I've talked 729 00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:56,040 Speaker 1: about the early days of personal computers, when lots of 730 00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:59,320 Speaker 1: companies battled it out with different hardware and operating systems. 731 00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:02,120 Speaker 1: We sure you had Apple computers way back in the day, 732 00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:05,640 Speaker 1: but you also had Commodore and Tandy and Atari and more. 733 00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:08,960 Speaker 1: The format war would eventually shake out with two major 734 00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:12,600 Speaker 1: players in the personal computer space, Apple with its Apple 735 00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:17,040 Speaker 1: computers and later the Macintosh line, and then IBM, or 736 00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:22,040 Speaker 1: rather IBM compatible machines with MS Dawson, then Microsoft Windows, 737 00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:25,720 Speaker 1: and then eventually IBM itself would get out the PC market. 738 00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:29,000 Speaker 1: But those would be the two dominating formats at that point, 739 00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:31,520 Speaker 1: and there are lots of others. But I felt that 740 00:46:31,640 --> 00:46:33,759 Speaker 1: these that I covered today were kind of fun ones. 741 00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:38,280 Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I almost included 742 00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:41,080 Speaker 1: another format war in this, but I realized that that 743 00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:44,000 Speaker 1: would put me way over time. If you enjoyed this 744 00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:46,680 Speaker 1: and you want to hear more about different format wars 745 00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:49,960 Speaker 1: throughout the ages, let me know. Send me a message 746 00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:52,840 Speaker 1: on Twitter. The handle is tech Stuff, H s W 747 00:46:53,600 --> 00:47:01,839 Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again really soon. M tech 748 00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:05,360 Speaker 1: Stuff is an I heart Radio production. For more podcasts 749 00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:08,160 Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, 750 00:47:08,280 --> 00:47:11,440 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.