WEBVTT - Inventions for Pets 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:14.040 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:18.919 Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Tracy, you're a pet person. 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:21.680 Uh huh. Many of our listeners are pet people. We 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:24.880 know because they set us pictures of their adorable animals. 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.120 So if you step into any pet store today, you're 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.680 kind of inundated with so many clever products to make 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:36.120 caring for your animals easier or to improve their well being. 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.360 But this is actually a pretty new industry. The idea 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.840 of a pet store didn't really exist until the late 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.400 nineteenth century, and that was when Victorian England started to 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.479 be more and more interested in keeping animals in the 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:54.480 home instead of as livestock were like an outdoor collection. 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:59.720 And then from there this idea of companionship pets as 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.080 sort of something to be acquired spread to the US 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:05.160 and the rest of the world. But even so, those 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.840 early shops were really about selling the pets themselves, with 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:11.600 a few care products like that you would need to 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:15.200 support that thing to live. So the idea of a 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:19.000 store filled to the brim with merchandise that's engineered expressly 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.720 for use with pets did not really happen until the 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:26.039 mid twentieth century, and perhaps the most well known story 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.360 of an invention intended to help pet lovers and make 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:33.960 their lives easier is kitty litter. This one has some 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.360 problems in modern thinking that we will talk about, but 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.200 kitty litter, it could be argued, was what kicked off 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.640 an entire new industry. So today we are going to 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:47.160 talk about the origin of cat litter, as well as 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.680 other products that many of us probably have in our 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:52.640 homes right now. And we're going to start by talking 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:54.920 about the man who is credited with the invention of 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:59.480 kitty litter, and that is Ed low So Henry Edward Lowe, 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:02.760 who who went by ED, was born on July tenth, 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:07.240 nineteen twenty in Saint Paul, Minnesota. When he was still young, 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.800 his family moved to Marcellus, Michigan. Ed was not a 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.040 good student. He'd had to repeat the fourth grade. He 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:18.320 later attributed this to not being interested in his coursework. 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:24.400 Ed's father was a serial entrepreneur. That's seer ial. In 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:26.720 case you think we're about to talk about breakfast food. 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.280 ED learned to value the idea of figuring out ways 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:34.000 to make money for yourself rather than working for someone else. 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.480 This was something that Ed embraced early on as a 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:40.120 way to have money for his own purchases, and so 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.000 he found all kinds of ways to generate an income, 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:48.920 including newspaper delivery, scrap, metal sales, and pest control. And 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.799 then as he got older, he worked in his father's businesses. 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.080 As a young man, Ed served in the Navy during 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.920 World War II, and when the war ended, he returned 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:01.040 to Michigan and started working at his father's company in 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.600 the town of Cassopolis. This was a business that sold 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:09.360 sawdust and wood shavings for a variety of industrial absorbency uses, 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.880 so things like absorbing oils, spills, and machine shops, et cetera. 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.840 There are multiple versions of the story of how he 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:22.360 invented kitty litter. According to the most common one, cold 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:26.399 January day in nineteen forty seven, twenty seven year old 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.360 Lowe was working at his father's shop and a woman 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:33.280 named Kay Draper came in. She had an indoor cat, 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.280 but according to this story, the sand filled litter box 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.760 she used for this cat had frozen. She hoped to 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:44.440 purchase some sawdust from low to use as a litter 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:48.200 box substrate. Okay, if you're like me, the frozen sand 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:52.120 story immediately brings up questions, But there may be an 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:54.360 answer if we look at the state of litter boxes 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:56.800 at the time. One a lot of people were not 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:59.280 yet keeping their cats indoors with the litter box, so 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.760 it was kind of a new thing. Using plain sand 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.800 and sawdust was pretty standard at this point for those 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:09.480 rare houses where people did keep their cats inside, So 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.160 none of those substrates were clumping. So a box that 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:18.360 used sand or sawdust could potentially retain liquid and freeze 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:20.760 if it were in a cold enough spot. It is 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.440 very possible if it were kept somewhere like a garage 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.080 or a utility room, that it could easily get cold 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:30.279 enough in Michigan in winter to freeze. In any case, 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.960 Lowe later claimed that he had a bolt of inspiration 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:37.640 in the face of Draper's dilemma. For a long time, 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.040 his father had offered bags of sawdust for soaking up 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:45.279 oil spills in places like mechanics garages, but the company 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.599 had just introduced another material that did the job better, 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:52.200 and that was granulated clay. This was clay that had 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.719 been dried in a kill to the point that it 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:58.480 would crumble, and with all the moisture removed from the 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:02.040 naturally porous clay, it became really absorbent. This was great 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.920 at handling oil, so Ed thought that it might also 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:08.279 work for k Draper's cat. She took a bag of 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:12.159 it and went home. Then, according to this version, a 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.680 week later, Draper was back asking for more of that clay. 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.000 She found that it worked way better than sand or 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.800 wood shavings, and she wanted to switch her cat over 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.520 to it completely, so Low sold her another bag, and 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.040 then he decided to try selling more bags to see 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.440 if other people liked it. He loaded up ten sacks 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:36.000 with the granulated clay labeled them. Sometimes this is written 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.120 as or described as him using like one of those 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.840 oil crayons that get used for marking things in shops 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.600 and labeling it as kitty litter. And then he tried 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.160 to get a local pet store to carry these bags, 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.440 and the store was not interested, so Low asked if 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:54.640 maybe they would be willing to give them away to 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:58.520 customers to try, and those ten customers were the start 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:01.760 of his new business. Uh I didn't find any claims 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:03.640 as to the number of how many of that ten 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.039 returned to the store asking more of the clay litter. 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.560 But according to a story that Low told many times, 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.280 enough of them wanted more that he figured out how 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.080 to launch a division of the family business around it. 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:19.679 Another story came up in a newspaper from nineteen fifty five. 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:24.080 That article, published in the Kalamazoo Gazette, was all about 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:28.039 how low had expanded his business beyond cat litter. But 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.320 that article also includes this excerpt, which makes it sound 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:33.680 like a lot less of a scrabbly spur of the 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:38.960 moment idea quote. Lowe's kitty catering all started because some 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:41.440 friend of his wife's asked him to crawl under the 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.320 front porch in the dead of winter and get sand 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:48.320 for her beloved cat's box. I got it, but I 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:50.680 did a lot of thinking afterward. I knew there must 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:54.760 be a better product than sand for that job. There was. 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.240 It was a clay once used to filter impurities out 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:02.960 of petroleum products. Low and his chief assistance, Tony Friesel 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.520 and Bob Bollett started bagging it by hand. We called 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.440 it kitty litter at the time. We had to almost 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.280 give it away. Now there is a big demand we 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.080 have about ten men strip mining the stuff for us 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:19.680 near Perry, Tennessee, and it's all packaged automatically. I'm not 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.520 sure if that's really supposed to be Paris, Tennessee, where 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:26.240 there is some mining in the area. But Perry is 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.920 what it says in the article. Yes. In a nineteen 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:32.440 eighty five version of the story that appeared in the 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.560 La Times, the details were once again a little different. 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.160 This one stated quote in nineteen forty seven, a neighbor 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:41.960 asked him for a cat box filler. She had been 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.800 piling ashes in her cat box and was tired of 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.200 a house full of sooty paw prints. She asked for sand. 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:52.480 He suggested the absorbent clay quote more to get rid 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:56.160 of her than anything else. So that sounds very different. 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.640 But from there his story was its more or less 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:02.600 the same as the one in which he said he 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.120 labeled the ten bags of clay himself and took them 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.760 to a pet store. Then one more story, which appeared 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:13.080 in the Washington Post in twenty fifteen. That version states, quote, 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.960 one day in nineteen forty seven, his father received a 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.120 sample shipment of a new clay product, but he was 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.679 already loyal to a different brand, He would have nothing 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.240 to do with this order of clay and left it 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:28.320 in their storage garage. It sat around until one of 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.560 Edlow's acquaintances, Kay Draper, asked him if he knew of 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:36.240 any good absorbents for pet waste. So, according to this version, 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:39.040 the problem was not a frozen box of sand or 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.560 ash footprints. It was silica dust because Draper's cat was 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:46.000 tracking the dust all around the house, and Lowe suggested 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.319 that she could use the fuller's earth that his dad 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:52.640 had not been interested in using. So, regardless of which 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:55.840 of these stories is accurate, and it's possible none of 0:08:55.840 --> 0:09:00.640 them is actually how Low's invention happened, Kitty Litters start 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:04.800 did not last long. Ed started driving around with stock, 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.160 taking it to pet stores and attending cat shows as 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:11.040 an exhibitor, and then over the course of several years, 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:13.520 his business grew to the point where he actually needed 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:17.560 a warehouse in a distribution process as a wholesaler. He 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:21.800 acquired that warehouse from his father's company. In a nineteen 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.840 forty nine write up in the Delaware County Daily. There's 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.120 an interesting writeup that cites another man that we mentioned earlier, 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.600 Robert Follett, who I think was called Bob in the 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.480 article that Tracy mentioned just a moment ago, and this 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.120 article mentions him as being Lowe's partner. The men are 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.120 listed together in that nineteen forty nine write up as 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.640 originators of kitty litter. It's a bit unclear what happened 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:48.439 to that relationship, but the two gave a joint statement 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.160 to the paper at that time saying quote, all we 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:55.199 need is good business, science, write, promotion, and the cooperation 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:59.640 of a few million cats. The cats definitely seemed to cooperate. 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.679 Kitty litter was available in supermarkets by nineteen fifty four 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:06.840 by the time that nineteen fifty five article that we 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.480 cited earlier was written, so just a little more than 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.520 eight years after its invention, kitty litter sales were expected 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:17.800 to top one point five million dollars. Even so, it 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.520 was still a new enough product that ads continued to 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:26.120 explain what it was. One in nineteen fifty five stated quote, 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.840 kitty litter is a specially produced material which provides a 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.240 new and better solution to a problem confronted by owners 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:37.559 of cats. In short, it does away with the daily, unpleasant, 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:42.360 messy sandbox routine. Unlike sand, it dries and deodorizes, and 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.600 unlike sand, it is not harmful too or pets, and 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:50.079 it's inexpensive. Lo soon recognized that if people were willing 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.080 to spend money for kitty litter, they were probably willing 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.160 to spend money on other items for their cats. And 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.000 we'll talk about how he expanded his business based on 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:11.440 that idea after we pause for a sponsor break. In 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:15.760 the mid twentieth century, cats were not generally pampered in 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.520 the ways that are very commonplace today. Once cat later 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.880 caught on quote, we made a list of every conceivable 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.840 item a well groomed cat could use and rated them 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:29.079 as to importance. We keep our cats at the local 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:33.520 veterinarians and test each product on them first to determine acceptance. 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:38.920 Lowe also cited one particular cat as the true determiner 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.720 of whether a product moved forward from testing to production. 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:45.880 Though there was a group of cats cared for by 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:49.280 a veterinarian, there was also a cat at the low offices. 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:51.920 Those offices were run out of a home that had 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:55.520 been converted to business use, and that cat, a red 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:59.640 Point Siamese named Impi, got to test and approve a 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.120 lot of the innovations that are probably in your home 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:06.080 if you have a cat. Mp tried out cat toys, catnips, 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:10.160 scratching posts and cardboard scratch pads, and other potential products. 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:13.480 By the mid nineteen fifties, thanks to IMPI's hard work 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:17.040 as a tester, Low had introduced his own dry shampoo 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:21.160 for cats, flea powder disposal trays, and something called a 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.760 kitty castle, which was not a multi tiered cat condo 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:27.640 like the name seems like it might be. It was 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.720 a small, cozy, decorated box for a cat to curl 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.320 up in. All of this was apparently in line with 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:38.880 Low's own adoration of cats. A reporter in nineteen fifty 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.000 five claimed to have been riding in a car with 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.520 Low when a stray cat wandered in front of the vehicle, 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.440 and said that quote Low came to a quick halt, 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:50.679 hopped out, and escorted the feline across the road. By 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:54.160 nineteen eighty five, sales of kitty litter and cat accessories 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:58.600 through Low's company hit one hundred million dollars. At that time, 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:02.280 his Low's branded kitting litter had twelve point six percent 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:06.080 of the market share. Tidycat had surged passed it to 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.000 twenty two point five percent, but that still put ed 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:13.559 Low on top. Because he also invented Tidycat, it was 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:17.079 launched as a supermarket brand, while he kept Kitty Litter 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.360 as a brand for specialty pet stores. But he was 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.640 also willing to spend money on research and promotion. He 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:27.240 started spending a reported four million dollars each year in 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.160 research and development alone. That budget was used to both 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.480 develop new products and refine the cat litters that the 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:39.160 company already sold from the time competitors entered the market 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:42.839 with their own versions of kitty Litter, Ed worked diligently 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:47.120 to make sure his outperformed any others. This included building 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:50.760 a research facility that employed a full team to test 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:55.240 litter for oder management, absorbency, and weight. He also built 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:57.880 a cattery with a full time population of one hundred 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.800 and twenty cats to use all of the products while 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.520 they were monitored and cared for by a team of 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:08.520 veterinarians and behavioral researchers. In that La Times article we 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.000 cited already, Ed stated that all of his expenditures and 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.680 the expansion of his product line were parts of a 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:19.160 long term business plan with massive goal stating quote Low's 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:23.360 will not be sold. Low's will go on forever. Low's 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:26.640 will become a billion dollar company. We know that we 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:32.000 can't become a billion dollar company as a cat box filler. Surprisingly, 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:36.200 five years later, he sold the company. On September thirteenth, 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.240 nineteen ninety, the New York Times ran a brief statement 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:43.800 about the company changing hands, which read quote Edward Lowe Industries, 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:47.440 the maker of kitty litter catbox Filler, agreed to sell 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:52.000 its marketing and manufacturing operations to an investment group. Terms 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.640 of the sale were not disclosed. The buyer is a 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.280 group led by the Good Capital Company of New York 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:01.640 and night Spreads Incorporated of Chicago. Philip L. Smith, the 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.600 former chairman and chief executive at Pillsbury and General Foods, 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.600 will become chairman of the new company, which will be 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:12.600 known as the Golden Cat Corporation. Edward Lowe, who invented 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.480 kitty Litter in the nineteen forties, said he would retire 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.960 from day to day operations, but retain an equity interest 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.880 and be a director of Golden Cat. Later on, it 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.680 was revealed that Lowe had sold the company for two 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:29.680 hundred million dollars plus stock in the new company. It 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:34.000 was eventually acquired by Ralston Purina before being purchased again 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:38.560 by Nesley. Preceding the nineteen ninety sale of the company. 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:41.280 It seems as though Edlow's personal life got a little 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.960 bit complicated. The year before his interview in which he 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.560 said he would never sell the company, he and his 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:51.680 children had a massive falling out. He had four kids, 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:54.200 and all of them plus three of their spouses, had 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.240 been working for the company for some time, and in 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.160 the early nineteen eighties they started to claim that his 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:05.040 behavior had become erratic. Low grew up poor, and once 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.400 he was successful, he beat up for lost time by 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:11.520 spending his money as he wished, sometimes on relatively impractical 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.240 things like at one point he bought an entire town. 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:17.560 But his kids claimed that he had become more than 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:21.560 just impulsive, and they attributed the behavior to alcohol misuse. 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:26.400 Low in response denied those accusations and accused his kids 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.080 of trying to steal the company from him, and he 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:33.120 fired them all. So this whole family was estrange for years, 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:37.320 but they did eventually make up. After he sold the company, 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:41.360 ed started the Edward Low Foundation in Big Rock Valley, Michigan. 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:45.320 This is an organization that offers education and seminars for 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.560 entrepreneurs that are past the startup phase and need to 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.600 build their existing business. Ed died in nineteen ninety five, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:56.440 but the foundation continues. In addition to its original mission, 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.640 the Foundation now also leads programs to research the best 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:05.080 ways to manage land stewardship. In the last several decades, 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.960 there has been increasing concern about the long term viability 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:13.040 of clay based cat litter. According to the American Veterinary 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.840 Medical Association, as of twenty twenty four, there were seventy 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.439 three point eight million cats kept as pets in the US, 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:23.480 and while not all of them are indoor only cats 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:26.000 with litter boxes, a lot of them are. And that 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:30.199 has made cat litter a multi billion dollar market. But 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.480 where is all that clay coming from and what happens 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:37.080 to it after it's used. Well, there are eleven states 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.879 that have open pit mines that extract clay for cat litter, 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.639 and that clay is a finite resource. And there's an 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:50.120 additional issue. Seventy five million tons of Fuller's earth, which 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.920 is the clay used for cat litter and other absorbent 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.439 applications was mined in twenty twenty four. According to the 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:01.040 US Geological Survey, that clay gets us once and then 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:05.080 thrown away, which would theoretically mean that it was returning 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:08.440 to the earth. But usually these clays have been treated 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:12.000 with chemicals to help them clump and resist odor, and 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.560 things like fragrance have also been added, so all of 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.000 that is just going into the nation's garbage jumps. Per 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.159 a twenty fifteen Washington Post article about it quote, the 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.600 rise of commercial cat litters may even explain why indoor 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.600 cat populations grew so quickly, to the point that felines 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:33.879 have overtaken canines is America's most popular pet. At the 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.600 same time, cat litters made consumers dependent on a supply 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:42.400 chain that converts a natural resource to waste. Aside from 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:46.120 environmental concerns, one of the lasting legacies of the invention 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:48.840 of cat litter is that it helped expand the number 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.520 of households that were willing to keep cats as pets, 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:56.399 and that opened the door to other inventions. The next 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:58.720 one is brief because there's not a whole lot of 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:03.240 information about the enter readily available. But on January eleventh, 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:07.240 nineteen sixty eight, a man named Frank L. Crow filed 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:11.040 a patent for the first cat tree. His patent, which 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.719 was granted on November twenty fifth, nineteen sixty nine, starts 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:18.199 with the following quote disclosed herein is a cat tree 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:23.000 embodying a plurality of cat landing stations or platforms carried 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.240 by a sectional pole adapted to be mounted in a 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.840 vertical position in a selected room of a dwelling, with 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.400 a base engaged against the floor to hold the tree 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:36.960 against rotation, with a spring loaded plunger engaged against the ceiling, 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:41.120 and with the platforms covered with a rough textile material 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:46.800 which provides a scratching claw sharpening surface. Crow's patent notes 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:50.680 that his invention is designed to solve two primary problems, 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:55.480 cats ruining furniture by clawing it and cats climbing the curtains. 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.080 He notes that his cat tree is a decorative accessory 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:01.320 as well as a function, and that it can be 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.560 matched with any decor. I have thoughts on this that 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.000 any cat person that owns a cat tree might be 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.679 having as well. We'll talk about it on Friday. The 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:14.879 application that crofiled touted the ease of assembly and how 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.840 much this tree could be customized to fit the space 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.120 and needs of a cat, including the addition of dangling 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:25.480 toys to the platforms. The platforms, per Crow's design, were 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:28.800 intended to be replaceable, so you could update worn out 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.520 pieces without having to buy a whole new cat tree 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.439 each time it showed wear and tear. Crow also wanted 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.760 the placement of the platforms to be thoughtful to enable 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:42.680 rapid movement by a house cat from one to the other. Quote. 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:46.200 The invention is characterized in that the cat landing stations 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.920 or platforms are of crescent shape or equivalent non circular configuration, 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:56.240 and are arranged and angularly displaced steps succession, such as 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.600 to facilitate ascent and descent from one platform to a 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:04.320 six platform. A preferred shape being a crescent shape developed 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.600 by a scalloped cutaway of one side of a circular 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:11.560 platform so as to attain a maximum aesthetic effect in 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:15.840 the assembly and cass rejoiced. Coming up, we're going to 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:20.080 talk about another invention that became hugely popular very quickly, 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:23.920 in helping people deal with pet messes. Dog people were 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.360 coming for you. But first we're going to hear from 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:38.520 the sponsors that keep the show going so the last 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:41.240 inventor we'll talk about today was like the first, we 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:44.800 talked about, a man of many inventions who did very 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:49.159 well for himself in the pet products industry. In nineteen sixty, 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.160 Alan Simon opened a chain of stores in Brooklyn called 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:55.639 Puppy City, and like most modern pet stores, these sold 0:21:55.680 --> 0:22:00.720 food and pet accessories and also offered grooming services. But 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.320 then in nineteen seventy, Simon decided he didn't just want 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.239 to sell pet products. He wanted to invent them, and 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.000 he invented a lot of them. But one of his 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.800 original set of inventions became hugely popular and really served 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:16.520 as the corner stone for a new business, and that 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.080 was the Wei Wi pad, similar to the way sand 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:23.359 was supplanted by kitty litter. Alan Simon had noticed that 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:27.280 while working in the pet retail business that the newspaper 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:30.520 that people often used to keep accidents off the floor 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:34.080 while house training a puppy was not all that effective. 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:37.960 In an interview he gave in twenty nineteen, he said 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:40.960 the dogs would urinate on the newspaper. So one day 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:44.639 I got the idea of using a hospital pad, and 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:47.639 we chemically treated a hospital pad, and I came up 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:50.040 with a seven pack and we had a TV ad 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:53.720 for ten seconds. It was free house breaking Wi pads 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:56.800 with every purchase. So it went from a seven pack 0:22:56.920 --> 0:23:00.159 to a fourteen, to a twenty five, to a fifty, 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:03.200 to one hundred, and then it went to like twenty 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:07.639 five million dollars in we Wei pads. Simon's invention did 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:11.040 make cleanup from housebreaking puppies a whole lot easier, and 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:13.840 soon it was used for a lot of other things too. 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:18.080 People use these absorbent pads under litter boxes, under food 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:21.240 and water dishes, in carriers, and the list goes on. 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:26.080 Their utility in so many uses helped boost their steady 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:30.639 adoption among people with pets. Simon often gave interviews to 0:23:30.680 --> 0:23:33.960 the press in which he summed up his impressive business 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:37.119 history succinctly, but also making it clear that he had 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:40.280 achieved a lot. And a quote he gave to DuJour 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:43.600 magazine while talking about the launch of the newest business, 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:46.800 he said, simply quote, I manufactured and invented over two 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:50.520 hundred products, including the original and world renowned we Wei 0:23:50.600 --> 0:23:54.560 pads and the Alan Pooper Scooper. Over the years, we 0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:58.240 grew into one of the largest manufacturers in the pet industry. 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:02.159 To manufactur make sure we wee pads, Simon founded a 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:05.560 new company called four Pause, which also made the other 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:10.240 pet products that he invented. He held so many patents 0:24:10.280 --> 0:24:13.919 for various items. One of the interesting things about a 0:24:13.960 --> 0:24:16.520