WEBVTT - The Founding of Panasonic 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to text Tuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.120 Hey there, and welcome to Tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.800 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.040 and I love all things tech. And you know, guys, 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:24.439 it has been a while since I have done a 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:27.720 deep dive on the history of a tech company. And 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:30.880 that's partly because I've covered, you know, a lot of 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.000 tech companies on this show. And when I think I 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:37.360 should do a series about such and such a company, 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.400 I'll then go and do a quick search and discover that, 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:46.199 you know, I already did that. And that's the challenge 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:48.960 of having a tech podcast that has more than twelve 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:53.440 hundred episodes in the archives is that often I have 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.040 already covered things that I thought I should cover. But 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.200 one company I have never done a full rundown on 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.640 is Panasonic. Now I've talked about Panasonic and other shows, 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:07.959 particularly ones about stuff like televisions, but I've never really 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.480 sat down to research the company's history. So we're fixing 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:16.200 that today now. For me, when I think Pana Sonic, 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.000 I often think about c e S, you know, the 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:24.200 Consumer Electronics Showcase. And that's because whenever I attended C. E. S. 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.520 Panasonic was one of the companies that always had a 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:33.679 very large, impressive presence there. Panasonic traditionally has a long 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:39.480 and comparatively narrow space in the central Hall at C. E. S. 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:41.800 That would be the central Hall of the Las Vegas 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:46.880 Convention Center, which has three massive exhibition halls North, Central, 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.240 and South. Now when I say it had a narrow space, 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.200 I just mean that really the space was longer than 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.520 it was wide right. It wasn't a square, It was 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.720 more of a rectangle. Now, the central Hall typically has 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.000 a few other heavy hitters in that space as well. 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.080 In that general exhibition space, Sony has a booth in 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:09.480 the central hall, Samsung and l G among others. Panasonic 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.520 often has a spectacular stage area. It's just it's one 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.760 of those booths that really grabs your attention as soon 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.480 as it comes into your view. But I had no 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.480 idea how old the company was or what sort of 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:24.680 things led to it becoming a major player in the 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:29.359 electronics space. The company's story actually stretches back more than 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.919 a century, though the company has only officially gone by 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:37.080 the name Pana Sonic since two thousand eight. Before that, 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:41.040 it was known as the Matsushita Electric Industrial Company. And 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:45.360 it all begins with a guy named Kotosuke Matsushita and 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.760 his business of producing attachment blugs. You know, we all 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:53.639 have humble beginnings, I suppose, or most of us. Kanasuke 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:58.040 was born in eight in Japan, back when Japan was 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.840 still an empire, and his family was fairly well off, 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.200 at least initially it was. Konosuke was the youngest of 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:10.240 eight siblings. His father was a landowner and one of 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.440 the more influential members of the small community where the 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:18.160 family lived. But his father invested poorly and he lost 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.160 much of the family's wealth due to speculation gone wrong, 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:24.519 a theme we find quite often in the world of technology, 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:28.560 but that's another story. The family moved into a nearby 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.680 city in a small house, and when Konosuke was about 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:37.000 to graduate elementary school or or the equivalent to elementary school, 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:42.280 his family apprenticed him to a habachi store in Osaka, 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:44.840 which required him to leave his family behind. He actually 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.000 had to get on a train and traveled to Osaka 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:50.000 to work there. He cleaned the shop and he would 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:52.480 clean the habachi and he was also in charge of 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.840 looking after the shop owners children. But the Habachi shop 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:58.920 wasn't long for this world and it went out of business. 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:04.760 Konosuke was able to find new apprenticeships with a store 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:11.400 that sold an exotic new import from the UK bicycles. Now. 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.280 It was during this apprenticeship that Kinda Suke learned how 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:19.120 to use metalworking tools and stuff like lathes Kinasuke became 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.000 interested in using tools to craft things, and he spent 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:26.640 five years in his apprenticeship. He considered actually leaving the 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:30.360 apprenticeship in order to further his education, but he actually 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.480 got some advice from his father. His father said, Hey, 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.400 you know what, don't worry about education so much. Stick 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.559 to this. You're learning a lot. You're learning about how 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:44.240 to use these tools, you're learning the craft, you're learning 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:48.400 about business. Skip the education. You're getting the education you 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.200 need where you are. What you should do is just 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.120 study this until you can have your own business. Then 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:57.240 you can hire people who have an education. And I 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.279 kind of dig that story. It has a charm to it, 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:02.200 and it also kind of falls in line with so 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:06.120 many other entrepreneurs who either didn't finish or never even 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.960 started further education and instead focused on their businesses. It's 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:13.160 another one of those themes we see in tech now. 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.520 That being said, dropping out of school is not exactly 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.640 a shure fire way to go into, you know, a 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.920 successful business. A lot of other factors have to come 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:25.200 into play as well, but it is something that we've 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.920 seen a lot of in the tech sphere. In nineteen ten, 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:33.440 Konosuke joined the Osaka Electric Light Company. He was fifteen 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:38.000 years old and electricity was just coming to Japan and 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:41.800 Konosuke was fascinated by it. He was kind of thrown 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.960 into the deep end pretty early on. His first really 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:47.720 big job was to work on wiring up a theater 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.400 in Osaka, and this was an enormous undertaking. I mean 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.880 you're installing wires in a very large building that has 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:59.599 never had electricity. The whole project ended up taking half 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.080 a year. Konosuke became a bit of a taskmaster. According 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:07.440 to the official Pana Sonic History, he led his team 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.760 at age fifteen no less, to work very long hours 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.679 in order to get this job done, and that effort 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:18.360 took its toll on him. Konosuke's immune system was weakened, 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.919 probably from all the exhaustion, and he actually contracted pneumonia, 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:26.240 but fortunately he did recover by the time he was 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:29.560 twenty two, Konosuke was married and had risen to the 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:33.120 highest level he could at Osaka Light Company in his 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:37.600 in his division, that was a rank of inspector. That 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:41.039 was the name of the job title. In his spare time, 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.719 he developed an improved electrical socket, and he attempted to 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:48.600 convince his boss that this would be a really great investment. 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:50.640 It would be a great product, people would want it. 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:52.840 He'd they'd be able to make a bunch and sell 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:56.800 a bunch, But his boss wasn't convinced, and so on 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:01.200 June fifteenth, nineteen seventeen, he left to secure job at 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:05.520 the Osaka Light Company to start his own manufacturing company, 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:09.680 and he did this despite having next to nothing in savings. 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:14.040 His workshop, which is being generous, was out of his 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:18.040 own small home that he was renting now. And a 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:20.920 lot of stories about startups I talked about how founders 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.600 got started out of a garage. That's another kind of 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:27.600 common thread, but this is even more humble than that. 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:31.679 Konosuke's home had dirt floors, and he had convinced two 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.480 other Osaka Electric Light Company co workers to join him 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.440 in his business, and then his wife's brother also signed 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.400 on but the odds were stacked against Konosuke, and by 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.960 the end of nineteen seventeen, poor sales convinced his two 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:51.240 former co workers from Osaka Electric Light Company to just 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:55.040 jump ship. That left the business to Konosuke, his wife, 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.640 and his brother in law, and things were pretty grim. 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:03.400 But then the company received a giant order one thousand 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.600 insulator plates for electric fans, and they were kept afloat. 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.680 Konosuke took that money and immediately put it to work. 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.600 He decided to rent out a two story home and 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:20.560 move everything in there with the workshop downstairs. He was 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.360 quite the upgrade from the small place he had rented 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.840 with his wife, and he also created a new company 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:32.800 called Mattsushida Electric Devices Manufacturing Works. This was in nineteen eighteen, 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:37.360 and it was this company that would eventually, over the 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:41.520 course of a hundred years, essentially evolve into Panasonic, and 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.240 so the company traces its history officially to nineteen eighteen. 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.720 Nineteen eighteen is also the year that the First World 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.000 War would come to an end. Japan had played an 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.840 important part in World War One. The Empire of Japan 0:08:55.960 --> 0:09:00.280 supported the Allied forces, and the young Japanese manufact tring 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:04.160 industry had found an eager customer in European countries, which 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.840 had a need for more material to support war efforts. 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.319 Japan was undergoing a bit of an economic boom as 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.800 a result, though this would have other consequences, but all 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.640 that is outside the realm of this episode. My point 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:21.800 here is that Japan's economic, social, and entrepreneurial situations we're 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:28.119 all evolving quickly. The rapid expansion created a challenge for Konsuke. 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:34.280 Entrepreneurs were establishing new factories every single day, and those 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.680 factories needed employees. And so while he was trying to 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:42.640 grow his business and higher on new workers to fulfill 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.840 bigger and bigger orders, it was also becoming difficult to 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:49.839 hold onto those employees. Because new businesses would open up, 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.679 they would offer more competitive wages to fill out their 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:56.520 own workforces, and so employees would often shift from one 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:59.079 job to the next. It reminds me a lot of 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.520 the early days of the dot com boom, where people 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.480 were jumping ship left and right from one company to 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.319 the next, getting more stock options and all that kind 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:12.959 of mess. Konosuke took some unusual steps to build employee 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:18.199 loyalty and trust. He including forming an internal work organization 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:22.520 called hoichi Kai, which means one step society. He and 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:27.480 his twenty seven employees were all members of this society, 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.120 and they would engage in different recreational activities such as sports. 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.480 He would also teach anyone in his company who was 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.160 interested that the trade secrets of how they made stuff 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.720 like insulating material that was a trade secret of his company, 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:45.079 and typically companies at the time would keep that secret 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:49.760 to maybe one or two special employees, but Konosuke wanted 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:52.200 to build trust, so he shared it with anyone who 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.960 was willing to learn. Kona Suke also designed a two 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.439 way socket as well as an attachment plug and began 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.480 to manufact acture and sell them out of his shop. 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.600 Electricity was becoming a more common utility in Japan, and 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:07.360 Kona Sukes products were in great demand. He had a 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:11.000 reputation for selling reliable components at a reasonable price. By 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.760 nineteen twenty two, business had grown enough for Konosuke to 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.640 commission a new factory and office, and he moved operations 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:20.880 out of his own home for the first time, so 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.560 now he was in an actual space. He was running 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.400 specifically for it to be a manufacturing center, and he 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.480 kept on hiring people. This whole time too, and he 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:33.800 also expanded operations. He established a sales team in Tokyo 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:39.679 so that he could get his products into more wholesalers. Unfortunately, 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:44.560 in September nineteen three, Tokyo and the surrounding area, including 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:49.319 the port of Yokohama, were devastated by a massive earthquake, 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:54.080 and there's the destruction was almost total in certain parts 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:59.840 of Tokyo. It was unprecedented. Kona Suke's two sales representatives 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.560 were are unharmed, but they had nowhere to work anymore, 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.400 so they returned to Osaka. It would take another year 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:11.160 for the company to re establish its sales presence in Tokyo. Meanwhile, 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.680 back in Osaka, Konasuke designed a new product that took 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:18.600 some effort to sell. Like many in Japan, Konasuke used 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.720 a bicycle to get around, and he also worked really 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:24.400 long hours. But he had a heck of a time 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.440 riding his bicycle at night. The bike lamps at the 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:31.959 time were mostly either oil lamps or they were candle lamps. 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.280 These were not always reliable they could snuff out in 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:39.600 mid ride. There were a few battery operated lamps at 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.360 the time, but they were generally thought of as being 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:46.840 of poor quality, like not as good as oil or candles, 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.720 and most of those battery operated lamps could only light 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:53.000 an electric lamp for three hours before you would have 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.080 to replace the batteries, so they were seen as wasteful 0:12:56.120 --> 0:13:00.880 and impractical. Konasuke wanted to create an improved battery powered 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.240 bicycle lamp, so he got to work on it. Ultimately, 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.080 he designed a lamp shaped kind of like a bullet, 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.360 and it would hold three batteries and it lit an 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.760 electric bulb for up to forty hours between thirty and 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.120 forty He took his invention to wholesalers to try and 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.240 convince them to order the lamp, but the reputation of 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.080 battery powered lamps in general was so poor that no 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:24.800 one really gave him the time of day. They said, 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.040 we can't sell these things anyway, no way he wants them, 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.320 So he decided to take a different approach. He went 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:34.480 to bicycle shops and he provided lamps to the owners 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.600 to for free for them to to try out, to test, 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.280 and then to to talk him up if they liked them, 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:45.000 and they started to place orders directly with him through 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:49.200 his company, so if they liked the lamps. They would 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:52.320 just order more from him, and then before long the 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.400 wholesaler said, oh wait a minute, maybe we're a little 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.880 too hasty. So they came back around and started signing deals. 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:03.120 So how does a battery operated lamp work? I mean, 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:05.360 this is tech stuff, after all, so I have to 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.600 explain how a couple of pieces of tech work in 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:11.800 the context of history. Right, And this is a really 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:16.160 simple thing. This is one of the easiest circuits to understand. 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.800 So you've got your source of electricity. In this case, 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.400 it's three batteries that are providing the electricity. And that 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:25.720 also means that the current we're going to talk about 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.800 is direct current, meaning the current is always flowing in 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.880 the same direction. The circuit is essentially a one way street, 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:36.200 and as opposed to something like alternating current. Batteries have 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:40.520 a negative terminal and a positive terminal, and that means 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:44.880 that between the negative and the positive not physically between 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.560 in the battery itself, but rather the difference in that 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.400 negative and positive means there's an electric potential between the two, 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.880 or voltage. So if you were to attach a conductive 0:14:55.960 --> 0:15:00.240 path to those two terminals that would allow current to low, 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.840 then current will flow, and we describe current as moving 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:07.640 from positive to negative. Though you could talk about electricity 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.120 as electrons flowing through a circuit, and in that case 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.960 you're talking about negative to positive. So the flow of 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:19.320 current is opposite the flow of electrons. Thanks Benjamin Franklin. Now, 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:22.840 if there's nothing more than a connective path, you know, 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:25.880 just like copper wire, from one end of the battery 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.160 to the other, the battery is gonna heat up, current's 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.320 gonna flow, and then it'll just keep doing that until 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:36.080 the battery goes dead, when all the electrochemical processes inside 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:39.640 the battery slow down because the active elements have all 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.720 been used up. But that would make no sense, there'd 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.040 be no point in doing that. You're just using up 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.320 a battery. So we use batteries to do work. So 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.000 we connect them to circuits, and those circuits have a 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:53.760 load on them. A load in a circuit is a 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:59.280 component that consumes electric power, typically so that it'll do 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:04.120 something right. It's it's a load that typically corresponds with 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:06.920 some sort of action. Not necessarily, there are components and 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:11.640 circuits that don't, you know, actively do anything. But it's 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:15.280 a good rule of thumb. So a lightbulb is an 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:19.600 electric load. Lightbulbs use electricity to flow through a filament 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.280 that has a fairly high electrical resistance. That means a 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:28.120 resistance to electricity flowing through that substance. And the electricity 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.480 wants to flow through the filament, it has to go 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:32.600 through the filament if it wants to get to the 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.640 other end of the circuit, and it really badly wants 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.840 to do that because of that electric potential that voltage. 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.440 So the electricity, assuming that the voltage is high enough 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.120 and the electrical resistance isn't too high, we'll just hike 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:50.400 up its metaphorical breeches and push through that filament despite 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.760 the electrical resistance. But some of the electricity converts over 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:56.960 into another form of energy, that of heat, and the 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.280 filament heats up to the point that it incandesses or 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:02.720 glows with a bright light. And I've talked a lot 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.520 about incandessing in fairly recent episodes, so I won't do 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:10.400 that again here. Now. One thing I did not see 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.680 while I was researching these bicycle lamps was whether Kona 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:18.159 Suke had the batteries mounted in series or in parallel. Now, 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.240 if I had to guess, I would say parallel, because 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.840 the two arrangements have different effects. There are different reasons 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:28.760 why you would do this. Each battery has a particular 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.879 voltage or electric potential between the two terminals. If you 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.040 link batteries in series so that you have one right 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:39.560 after the other, the the positive terminal on battery A 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.800 is against the negative terminal of battery B, and the 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.879 positive terminal battery B is against the negative terminal battery C. 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.439 Then what you have managed to do is increase the 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.520 overall voltage by using these three batteries in series. So 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.240 and that means you could do a job that requires 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:01.520 more voltage, a harder job with three batteries and series 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:04.680 then you would be able to do with a single battery. Now, 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:08.399 if you mountain batteries in parallel so that the terminals 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.000 of the batteries are all connected to a common conductor, 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.720 so all three positive ends are connected to the same conductor, 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.360 all three negative ends are connected to the same conductor, 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.720 you increase the capacity of the batteries how long they 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.679 can work before you need to replace them. You know, 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:29.240 you can't do a harder job than one battery can, 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.600 but you can do the same job a single battery can, 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:37.119 but for longer. Kona Suke had begun to create full 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:41.720 electronic products, branching out from the components he had been producing, 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:45.199 and soon it would be off to the races. But 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.720 before I get into that, let's take a quick break. 0:18:56.040 --> 0:19:00.840 Kona Sukes Company signed an agreement with Yamamoto Trade Company 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:04.440 to sell these bullet shaped lamps under a brand name 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:09.959 called Excel, very much like the Spreadsheet program. Konosuke found 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.560 the arrangement somewhat vexing, as he had ideas on how 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:19.360 they should market the lamp, but Yamamoto's president, taken Nobu Yamamoto, 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.600 felt that the lamps were no more than a passing fad, 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:27.320 and so he shut down those ideas. In when Konosuke 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:31.399 was thirty two, he introduced a new type of bike lamp. 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.560 This one was square in shape, and he called it 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:38.680 the National Lamp, and National would become an important brand 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.359 name within the company, not just for lamps, but for 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:45.960 other products as well. Now, Yamamoto claimed that the marketing 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:49.480 agreement they had put in place for the Excel lamp 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:53.560 also applied to the National lamp, and he said, if 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.240 you want to market this, that's fine, but you gotta 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.320 pay me ten thousand yen to get the marketing rights, 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:03.320 because right now I hold those marketing rights. So Kona 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.199 Suke paid it off and the National brand would be 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.400 under his control and he could market it the way 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:12.000 he wanted to. The same year, he created a new 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:16.560 division within his company to produce thermal products, that is, 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:20.520 electronics that produce a lot of heat, like electric irons 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:24.679 for ironing clothes. Konosuke saw an opportunity in Japan's The 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:28.920 electric appliances at that time in Japan were really a luxury, 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.280 and therefore they were also a very small market. Only 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:35.520 a tiny slice of the overall population of Japan could 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:39.359 even afford to buy them. Konosuke wanted to take aim 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:42.800 at a larger market. He wanted to produce lower cost 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:46.480 appliances for people who weren't ludicrously wealthy, and the first 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:49.919 product his company made with this goal in mind was 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:54.080 the National Super Iron. Remember when I said the filaments 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.520 in a lightbulb generate heat due to electrical resistance, and 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.560 then they luminess or in candath, I should say, well, 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.240 an electric iron does a similar thing with heating coils. 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.120 The coils have a high electrical resistance and they heat 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.720 up as current passes through them, and the same thing 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.960 is true for stuff like toasters and electric stovetops, or 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:17.399 at least the type of electric stove types that have 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:21.719 the electric coils on them. With irons, the heat from 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:25.280 the coil typically transfers to something like a base plate, 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.720 and that's the actual surface you use to iron your 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.000 wrinkled clothing. You wouldn't want to use the heating coils themselves, 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:36.320 you'd probably end up scorching your clothes. Kona Suke put 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:40.760 a man named Tetsugio Nacao in charge of the new 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:44.120 electrothermal division, and the goal was to set up a 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:47.320 mass manufacturing process in order to bring the cost of 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.359 production down on a per unit basis, which means they 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:54.000 could market the super iron for less money than competing 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:57.840 irons on the market. The danger was that the company 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:01.479 could end up producing way more irons then the market 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:05.640 would support. But Konosuke felt that if price low enough, 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.800 a lot of people in Japan would buy these. They 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.680 just couldn't afford them as they currently stood. But this 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:15.200 was a big risk. I mean, setting up a mass 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:19.600 manufacturing facility is complicated and it is expensive. If it 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:22.280 didn't pay off, his company would have been in a 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:26.320 really tough position financially. The goal was to sell the 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:31.560 irons for three point to yen. Now that's a tiny amount, right, 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:35.080 except that at the time, the average starting salary for 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:40.439 a teacher in Japan was fifty yen a year, so 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:44.560 three point two was a significant amount. However, it was 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:48.399 still lower than the competing products on the market. To 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:51.600 be able to reach that price, his company was going 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:55.520 to need to produce ten thousand irons per month, and 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:59.800 at the time, Kona Suke's company had kind of estimated 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:02.960 that demand for electric irons was capping out somewhere around 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:06.800 one hundred thousand units in a year, so that would 0:23:06.840 --> 0:23:11.280 mean Konosuke's company would be producing more supply than the 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:14.480 demand called for a hundred twenty thousand a year versus 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:18.440 one hundred thousand, So this was risky, but the gamble 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:22.560 paid off. The product was a market success, easily justifying 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:26.200 the investment in the mass manufacturing process and serving as 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:29.879 a model in Japanese business and manufacturing. By the end 0:23:29.880 --> 0:23:33.800 of nineteen seven, the company was selling an electric foot warmer, 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:37.159 which used some of the same technology as the company 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:42.359 had in their irons, and Also, Nico became the head 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:45.639 of a research and development division, a new R and 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:48.359 D division within the company, with the goal of working 0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:50.880 on new emerging technologies that could find their way into 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:55.520 future products. In the early nineteen thirties, radio was coming 0:23:55.520 --> 0:23:59.520 to Japan, but like other electronics, radio sets were really 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:03.200 expensed of and this wasn't just in Japan. Radios were 0:24:03.200 --> 0:24:07.720 expensive everywhere and often they were enormous pieces of furniture 0:24:07.800 --> 0:24:10.760 because this was before the invention of the transistor, so 0:24:10.800 --> 0:24:14.600 they were using vacuum tubes as amplifiers. Kona Suitcase Company 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:18.399 developed a three tube radio and he entered the radio 0:24:18.440 --> 0:24:21.920 into a competition that was being held by the Tokyo 0:24:22.160 --> 0:24:27.040 Public Broadcasting System, and the radio set he entered took 0:24:27.040 --> 0:24:31.560 home first prize. Kona Suke also did something fairly remarkable. 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:35.160 He purchased the rights to two radio patents. Now that's 0:24:35.160 --> 0:24:38.480 not unusual. Companies do this all the time. So sometimes 0:24:38.560 --> 0:24:42.040 companies will, you know, file a patent and get awarded 0:24:42.040 --> 0:24:47.000 a patent. Sometimes companies will license patents. Sometimes companies will 0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:49.760 sell patents, and the patent can act just like any 0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:51.960