WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Techs Top Rivalries 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.840 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.960 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.319 and how the tech are you? It's time for a 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:27.520 tech Stuff classic episode. This episode originally published on June two, 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:33.240 two thousand fifteen. It is titled text Top Rivalries. I'm 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:36.519 sure we could add to this list in the years 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:41.519 since it originally published, but let's take a listen. Today, 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.199 I'm going to talk about something that I think is 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:49.760 pretty interesting. Technology is often intertwined with business, and that 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:53.960 means rivalries are bound to occur. Now, there's been some 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:56.760 big rivalries in tech, and I wanted to take some 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.440 time to talk about a few of the most notable ones. 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.960 And this is by no means a complete list. It's 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.680 more of a sampling and include some rivalries that happened 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:10.760 more than a century ago. So let's get started with 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:17.040 the oldest rivalry in my list, that is a railroad rivalry. 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.800 This started way back in eighteen sixty two and President 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:25.679 Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Pacific Railroad Act. Now, 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.600 this was an act that was meant to create a 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:32.679 railroad that would unify the rails, so you get a 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.920 complete transcontinental rail line where you can travel from the 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.480 east coast to the west coast. And it meant that 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.399 you had to bridge this huge gap that was started 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:47.760 in the West. I created these two entities, Union Pacific 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:52.640 and Central Pacific. Now Union Pacific started in Omaha, Nebraska, 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:57.320 and it was to build railroads westward. Central Pacific started 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:01.840 in Sacramento, California, and it was to build to the east. Now, 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:07.400 the two companies were fierce competitors because the amount of 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.280 money and land they received from the government. It didn't 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.200 depend on how efficient the systems were. It depended upon 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.320 the number of miles of track they laid. So speed 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:22.480 was valued higher than safety or efficiency, and the two 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:26.239 companies began to feverishly lay down track at the expense 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:30.440 of human lives. So the heads of the two companies 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.839 were collectively referred to as robber barons. If you've ever 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:39.320 heard that term, it's talking specifically about the railroad tycoons 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:44.560 back in the uh mid nineteenth century. They were fighting 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:47.280 to get the most wealth and power. They were engaging 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:50.760 in all sorts of questionable activities to gain an advantage. 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:55.040 As the two lines of railroads converged, so, as an example, 0:02:55.200 --> 0:03:00.400 Union Pacific would build winding paths instead of a straight line. 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.520 Why because it meant that they actually increased the amount 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.519 of mileage of track they were laying down. They were 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.040 maximizing the amount of money and land they were getting 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:12.480 from the government by making the path longer than it 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:16.360 needed to be. It was much more lengthy than a 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:21.840 straight pathway. They also used cheaper materials than they may 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.800 have well then they should have. Really they were using 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.679 wrought iron for the rails, which was fairly brittle, so 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:31.919 that was a problem. It would need to be replaced 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:38.320 before too long. And they were also using very cheap wood, 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:43.400 particularly because you know, they were starting uh in Nebraska, 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.680 so they didn't have access to a lot of wood. 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:49.760 Nebraska has a lot of planes, so they were using 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.560 stuff like cotton wood, which was fairly brittle, and they 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:54.840 were using that for their railroad ties. Those were the 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:58.480 planks that connect the two sets of rails together and 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:02.480 keep some space the right way. Uh. They also outsourced 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.520 a lot of the work for getting those railroad ties 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:10.520 to others in the Nebraska area, and those enterprising individuals 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:15.280 would take axes in hand they have dollar signs in 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.880 their eyes, and they started hacking down all the trees, 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.520 even if those trees were on private property. In fact, 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.000 it got to a point where they were making claims 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.479 that farmers living in Nebraska didn't have a right to 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.160 claim private property because it had not been fully ratified 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.920 by the government. Yet the folks who are living on 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:40.280 that property begged to disagree, sometimes for the use of force. 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:44.440 They would actually fire shots at folks who were coming 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.960 into the land to cut down trees. And eventually even 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.200 Union Pacific said, all right, this, this might be going 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:54.559 a bit too far. Let's re evaluate how we're doing 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:59.520 business here. So both companies faced dangers exacerbated by their 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.640 willing us to cut corners to make more money, and 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:07.800 both were plagued by attacks from Native American tribes. Union 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:13.280 Pacific often would attempt to fight these attacks off. Their 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.760 trains that they would use to move along as the 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:21.520 track was being built, were loaded with rifles. Meanwhile, Central 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:26.200 Pacific's workforce, UH they were they were often joined by 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:31.279 Native Americans because Central Pacific started paying off tribes and 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:35.880 having them join the workforce. Uh. Speaking of workforces, both 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.520 Union and Central used cheap labor. Central Pacifics workforce was 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:45.560 primarily Chinese augmented by some Native American workers, and Union 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:49.719 Pacific had hired on Irish laborers who were treated awfully 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:54.360 at that time, so both groups were even calling them 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:58.159 second class citizens as being generous, they were treated poorly. 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.000 Central Pacific suffered or losses to their workforce due to 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:06.120 accidents during the construction figures very not a lot of 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:10.240 people were particularly concerned about keeping an accurate count of 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:14.320 the number of deaths from injury, but estimations range from 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:19.280 five hundred to a thousand employees uh died while trying 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:23.360 to construct the railroad. Union Pacific they lost more employees 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:27.480 to disease and murder than they did to accidents. It 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.840 turns out they would stop in a lot of towns. 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.039 Often they would refer to them as the hell on 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:41.560 wheels towns where there various workforce members were encountering problems 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:46.240 with prostitutes or violent criminals, and so a lot of 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.160 them didn't make it. In fact, I think I read 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:52.320 one estimation that said there was a ratio of four 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:58.120 to one Union Pacific employees who died from murder to accidents, 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.000 So for everyone who died from an accident. Four We're 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:05.280 dying from being murdered, so awful awful times. Even when 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:08.960 the two railroads were getting closer together, the two companies 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:11.880 were engaged in shady dealings and didn't worry so much 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.680 about the tracks actually meeting up properly, which was the 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.120 whole point of this enterprise in the first place. So 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:21.160 the two companies were still looking at ways to maximize 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.160 the amount of money and land they could get, rather 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.960 than completing the job as was assigned. It was only 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.320 when the US government really got involved and made it 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:31.640 clear that the railroads were going to have to shape 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.960 up that they reached an agreement that Promontory Point in 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:39.080 Utah was the spot where the two railroads would finally connect. 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:43.680 Now by then both companies had spent huge amounts of 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.800 money and more than a thousand lives had been lost. 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.480 And if you want to look at how much track 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:54.800 was laid, technically Union Pacific one because I had laid 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.560 more track. But the cost of both companies, not to 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:00.680 mention the cost to everyone else in evolved in this, 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.760 whether it was the land that it moved through or 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:06.840 the people working for the companies. It really makes this 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.680 particular rivalry come out as a draw, and not a 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:14.680 pleasant one at that. Now, the next big rivalry I 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.120 want to talk about, as want I mentioned on the 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:23.560 show several times before, and it's Thomas Edison versus George Westinghouse. 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:25.800 Now you might have thought I was going to say 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:30.200 Nicola Tesla there for a second, but honest, honestly, really Tesla. 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.680 He was a brilliant engineer. He was also a brilliant 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.880 self promoter. He was a rock star of his day. 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:42.319 But he was not a very good businessman. So Edison 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:46.679 and Westinghouse were the powerhouses behind the two enormous companies 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:49.920 battling to supply electric power to the United States. So 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.240 it's really George Westinghouse who was the other entity in 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.840 opposition to Thomas Edison. Nicola Tesla played a very important role, 0:08:57.520 --> 0:08:59.160 But if you're looking at the War of the currency, 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:03.600 really should say Edison versus Westinghouse, not Edison versus Tesla. Now, 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:06.360 this War of the currents took place just a couple 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.960 of decades after the railroad shenanigans I just talked about. 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.480 This would be in the eighteen eighties when Thomas Hasen 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:17.400 was looking to land an incredibly lucrative deal with the 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:21.119 United States to build power stations that would supply electricity 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:25.080 to homes and businesses through direct current. Now, essentially Edison 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:26.719 would just have to provide the patents and then he 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.880 could rake in royalties for years. He would become insanely 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.880 wealthy if he could land this deal. But there was 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:37.280 a problem. He was dead set on using that direct 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:41.360 current as a means of transmitting electricity, and that had limitations. Now, 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.160 there are a lot of advantages to using direct current. 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:49.400 Most of our electronics use direct current to operate. Anything 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.560 that uses a battery uses direct current. Most of our 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:55.319 most of the things we rely on use direct current. 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:59.960 There's usually a device that converts alternating current to direct 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.760 current so that we can actually use it. So if 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:05.880 we had direct current going straight into our homes, we 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:11.040 wouldn't need those additional converters and everything would be more efficient. 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.000 It's also a really simple way to generate electricity. But 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.920 they're big drawbacks, and the biggest one is that transmitting 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:22.640 DC power over distance isn't easy. You lose energy the 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.439 further away from the power source you are, so a 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:28.520 direct current you want the load. That is the thing 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.800 that electricity is going to power to be very close 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.560 to the source. The further away from the source it is, 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:36.960 the less energy is actually reaching the load, and the 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.560 less effective it is. So in other words, you would 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:43.520 have to build DC power plants a lot more of 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:47.600 them and a lot closer to the loads as you 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.199 go along, and that was not a great solution for 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.640 some people. Like it might be fined in an urban 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:57.040 environment where people are packed in very dense populations, but 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:01.080 in places like the suburbs or the rural areas, it 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.440 was a lot harder to justify because you couldn't build 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.080 the DC power plants as close to the homes as 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:11.720 needed to be. So Edison started looking into ways of 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.680 perhaps boosting DC power transmission. One of the people he 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:20.320 consulted with was Nicola Tesla, and Tesla had recommended that 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:25.040 Edison abandoned direct current or transmission and switched to alternating 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:29.440 current or a C electricity instead. Now, one thing you've 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.520 got to make clear, and I've said this before, it's 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:34.680 one of those things that I think a lot of 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:38.440 people are mistaken about. Tesla did not invent the idea 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.240 of alternating current. He's often given that credit, but that 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.400 is just not true, alternating current had already been used 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.439 when Tesla was just a kid. He a c had 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:52.520 existed before Tesla was really born, didn't start getting widely 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.760 used in Europe until Tesla was a child. But at 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.720 any rate, there were already pre existing alternating current systems 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:04.600 that Tesla could witness and understand. Now, I don't want 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.200 to take too much away from Tesla, because he did 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.959 have brilliant ideas on how to make alternating current more 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:16.480 efficient and practical. He actually improved the process dramatically so 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.160 it could be an effective means of transmitting power. It's 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:24.080 just the principle itself had already existed before Tesla rose 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:29.880 to prominence. Now, Edison didn't see the benefit of alternating current. 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.120 He dismissed the idea, so Tesla would end up leaving 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:37.160 Edison's company and try to raise money for his own operation, 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:39.720 even going so far as to dig ditches for the 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:45.320 Edison Company to raise money for his own company. We'll 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.679 be back with more of this classic episode of tech 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:57.920 stuff after this quick break. Now we need to talk 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.480 about George Westinghouse. He was the founder of the Westinghouse 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.640 Electric and Manufacturing Company, and he saw the value of 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:07.520 alternating current. He thought that was the future, so he 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:12.480 bought Tesla's patents. Now Edison suddenly took notice because while 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:17.240 Tesla he thought was kind of a wild, crazy idea 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:21.880 man who wasn't a real threat, Westinghouse had influence and 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.959 a lot of money. So now Edison actually had a 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:30.280 legitimate threat a legitimate competitor. Tesla, while brilliant, wasn't really 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:32.559 much of a threat to Edison. He couldn't do much 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:36.320 on his own. Westinghouse was a different story, and Westinghouse 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:38.840 was able to secure rights to supply power to areas 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.640 that Edison's power stations couldn't reach, like those rural and 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:46.880 suburban areas. Westinghouse also started making some headway into urban markets, 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:51.000 mostly by selling electricity at a loss to undercut Edison. 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:56.960 So Westinghouse wasn't above doing some, you know, some potentially 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:02.360 harmful business practices in order to eliminate the competition. Edison 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:06.400 also not shy about competition. He thrived on it. His 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.680 response was to create a pr campaign that claimed a 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:14.960 C power was inherently deadly because it required high voltage 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.880 running through the wires. That's how alternating current is able 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:22.480 to get much better transmission than direct current. With alternating current, 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.560 used transformers to step up the voltage until you get 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.680 to these very high levels to run through cable over 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.240 great distances, and then use other transformers to step down 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.720 the voltage to deliver the electricity to houses. And Edison 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.920 was convinced that this alternating current, this high voltage was 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.400 absolutely deadly and if it were put in widespread use, 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:48.880 it would cause deaths by electrocution across the United States. 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:52.440 I assume he believed that he certainly acted as if 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:56.720 he did uh, and he was inspired to really push 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:02.040 that idea. Now something happened that was a little bit 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:05.720 against more than a little bit, very much against Edison's principles. 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:09.240 But I think it says a lot about his character 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.240 based upon what he did. A dentist actually came up 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:17.000 to him and had proposed the idea of using electricity 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:22.360 as a means of execution, using electrocution to kill criminals. 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.600 He thought that it could be a faster and more 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.200 humane way of putting someone to death than the other 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:35.400 methods of the era. Now, Edison philosophically opposed the death penalty. 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.840 He was not in favor of it, but he also 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:44.680 saw in this request the possibility of associating Westinghouses alternating 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:50.480 current power with electrocution, and that led to Edison really 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:57.200 pushing this idea, ultimately leading to demonstrations public demonstrations in 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:02.520 which Edison would electrocute various animals, starting off with stray dogs. 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.440 He would pay to have stray dogs rounded up and 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:11.040 then electrocute them, and to demonstrate that alternating current was deadly. Ultimately, 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.680 the big one that everyone remembers is that Edison used 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:19.120 the alternating current to put six thousand volts into an elephant, 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:23.720 electrocuting an elephant to death. Um it was an elephant 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:29.440 that had previously killed three different people, although the treatment 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:31.680 of the elephant was a large factor in that I 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:35.120 would imagine at any rate, Edison thought of this as 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.360 being completely justifiable, both for the means of putting his 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.320 competitor out of business and to end what he viewed 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.920 as a dangerous technology. Now. Edison even funded the design 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.120 of an electric share, but he did so behind the scenes, 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:53.760 so he essentially paid off the inventor. Harold Brown was 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:58.800 given the task to design an electric chair, and Edison 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.760 was paying Harold Brown to use alternating current in that design. 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.560 So when the murderer, William Kimmler was scheduled to be 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:09.160 the first criminal to be executed by the electric chair, 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:15.920 Edison tried to popularize the term westinghoused for electrocution, as 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:21.880 in Kimdler was to be westinghoused, not just executed by electricity. 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:27.280 So again pretty negative pr campaign. By the way, that 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:31.359 execution did not go so well. Kidler was strapped into 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:37.160 the chair, the switch was thrown, and Kimdler he tensed up. 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.359 People said that they saw him grip the sides of 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:44.159 the chair so hard that his hands began to bleed um. 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:49.640 He was convulsing when the A C dynamo essentially ran 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.800 off juice when they turned the switch off. Uh, they 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.280 were raided to pronounced Kimler dead when he suddenly started 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:01.040 breathing again, which horrified many of the witnesses. There were 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:05.960 reports of people fainting or being sick because this supposedly 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:11.040 humane means of putting someone to death had just dramatically 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:17.800 had this this reaction of convulsions, and now the prisoner 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:22.119 was breathing again, not conscious, but was breathing. Meanwhile, the 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:26.040 A C dynamo needed to be charged again in order 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.600 for it to deliver another shock. So it took some time, 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.720 and it led some people to fear that Kindler would 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:37.400 regain consciousness, but they were able to deliver a second 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:42.800 fatal shock uh and actually complete the execution by electrocution. 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:48.240 Westinghouse was absolutely horrified by the whole ordeal and said 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:53.720 that the demonstration showed that electrocution is not a humane 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:57.840 method humane method of execution, and proclaimed there would never 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:02.360 again be an execution by electrocution. Now, all of this 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:08.120 grim theater ended up being unnecessary. Edison's efforts were all 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:12.600 for not because Westinghouse secured the right to supply electricity 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:18.320 to the eight Chicago World's Fair. The fair allowed Westinghouse 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.760 an opportunity to generate a huge amount of positive publicity 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.359 for the Westinghouse Company and for alternating current, and the 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:31.000 transmission method was secure, so Westinghouse one out. In the 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:36.000 short run anyway, eventually Edison's company would win out and 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:40.520 Westinghouse would kind of fade into obscurity. But the actual 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:44.239 rivalry during their lifetimes, Westinghouse was the clear winner of 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:47.880 that one. Alright. So those are two classic rivalries from 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.080 ages past. Now we're going to jump forward about a 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:55.360 century to look at the next one, because, uh, I mean, 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.560 there are tons of different rivalries I could focus on, 0:19:57.600 --> 0:19:59.240 but some of these are really fun and some of 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:03.040 them are so are very illustrative of how far people 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:06.400 are willing to go in order to get their ideas across. 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:09.679 So that's next one I want to talk about is 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:13.199 Motorola versus a T and T in the mobile phone wars. 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:15.359 And this was in the late nineteen sixties and early 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.280 nineteen seventies when a T and T S research and 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:22.119 development arm called Bell Labs. We've talked about Bell Labs 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:25.239 in the show many times. Bell Labs was working on 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:28.720 a new way to make and receive phone calls, uh, 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:32.520 and it was a cellular service. It was using a 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:36.639 cell methodology to transfer phones from one cell to the 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.879 next to allow a continuous phone call whenever a phone 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:44.640 was in motion. And a T and T S aim 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:49.119 was to create this technology specifically for car phones. That 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.680 was really the application they were looking at. They weren't 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.960 thinking about mobile phones, but car phones. So I guess 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:56.960 you could argue that car phones are mobile, but you 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.080 couldn't take them out of the car. They would just 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:03.280 be you know, built into the car itself. Another company 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:07.600 thought there could be a different use personal mobile phones, 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:09.720 things that you could actually carry with you they wouldn't 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.720 be stuck in the car, and that company was Motorola. 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:17.119 So Motorola gave the project of developing a truly mobile 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:19.840 phone to Martin Cooper, and Cooper and his team got 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:23.000 to work in nineteen seventy two on developing a phone 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:25.760 that could be carried on a person and one that 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.280 didn't require any sort of wires connected to a base station, 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.359 so it would be another cell phone type of phone. 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.919 The phone that they designed was officially named the Dina 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:42.840 Tack d y in A T, A C H, and 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.920 inside the Motorola group they referred to it as a 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:50.399 shoe phone because of the shape of the phone. It 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:53.200 was a big brick of a thing that looked kind 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.360 of like the shape of a shoe. In nineteen seventy three, 0:21:56.400 --> 0:21:58.520 the team was ready to unveil the project and perform 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:01.960 a public demonstration, so oh Cooper had the perfect idea 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:06.199 to do this. His team installed a cell transmitter on 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.440 a New York City building. They got permission to attach 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:14.000 a transmitter to a tower, and on April third, Ninete 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:19.160 Martin Cooper grabbed the phone. It's weighed about two pounds, 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.840 and took that out to the streets of New York 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:26.200 City and he used that phone to call a person 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:31.200 named Joel Ingle. So who was Joel Lingle? He was 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:35.960 an engineer who worked at Bell Labs. So essentially Ingle 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:38.960 was a T and T S counterpart to motor role 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:44.480 as Martin Cooper. So Cooper essentially calls his his counterpart 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:48.600 and to his competitor, and he rather cheekily needled Ingle 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:50.679 with the reveal that he was being called on a 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:54.320 mobile phone that wasn't a car phone, and then Cooper 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:56.440 went on his jolly little way to hold a press 0:22:56.440 --> 0:23:01.320 conference about the developing technology. Now, would mobile phones be 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:04.960 limited to cars if it weren't for Motorola and Martin Cooper. 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:09.560 Probably not, And even Motorola's INVENTIONED wouldn't be ready for 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:12.960 consumers for another ten years or so. But the rivalry 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:15.040 was a really fun one, so I decided I had 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:19.000 to include it in this episode. Okay, we've got to 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:22.920 talk about a little company called Apple. Apple has had 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:26.800 some of the most famous rivalries in technology with lots 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:31.159 of different companies, in fact, largely because Apple is involved 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:33.600 with lots of different types of tech, so it's not 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:37.360 as simple as Apple versus Microsoft, or even Apple versus IBM, 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:39.359 but both will play a part. So I'm gonna give 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:42.080 a rundown on some of the biggest rivalries involving Apple, 0:23:42.160 --> 0:23:46.560 including an internal rivalry within the company itself. Just keep 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:49.000 in mind that a lot of these rivalries overlap each other, 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:51.760 so it's not like one began and ended and then 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:54.720 another one began and ended. But the first one we 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:59.120 need to look at is Apple versus IBM. So both 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:02.399 companies were aiming to dominate the personal computer market. Apple 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:05.600 had an early success. They had really hit the ground 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:08.600 running with the Apple too. It was incredibly popular for 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:12.439 its time. But IBM was a huge company with nearly 0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:16.000 a century of history behind it, and IBM had been 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:19.159 building computers for enterprises and felt the PC market was 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:23.399 the next big thing. So as the IBM PC debuted, 0:24:23.840 --> 0:24:29.120 Apple had to strike back. So famous Apple at ran 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:32.720 during the Super Bowl, and it portrayed IBM as the 0:24:32.760 --> 0:24:38.000 evil Empire. It was sort of Orwellian, very faceless, and 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:41.560 everyone is just a number, a cog in a machine. 0:24:42.440 --> 0:24:45.399 And the Macintosh computer was positioned to be the machine 0:24:45.440 --> 0:24:48.560 for people wishing to maintain their individuality rather than to 0:24:48.600 --> 0:24:52.400 become a clone. Jobs himself had said that if for 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:55.600 some reason we make some big mistake and IBM wins, 0:24:56.000 --> 0:24:58.920 my personal feeling is that we are going to enter 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:03.399 a computer dar ages for about twenty years. So shots 0:25:03.400 --> 0:25:07.199 were fired. Um IBM fought back by employing a former 0:25:07.440 --> 0:25:10.280 ally of Apple. And that brings us to the second 0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:14.560 big rivalry in Apple's history. And we're talking about Apple 0:25:14.720 --> 0:25:18.399 and Microsoft, and this one is a doozy. So the 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:22.800 two companies shared a lot of similarities. Microsoft was founded 0:25:22.800 --> 0:25:28.040 on April fourth, nineteen seventy. Apple was founded on April one, 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:34.679 nineteen seventy six, so almost a year later, not quite, 0:25:34.800 --> 0:25:38.000 just barely shy of a year later. So Microsoft is 0:25:39.400 --> 0:25:44.600 just a hair under a year older than Apple. Meanwhile, 0:25:44.880 --> 0:25:47.280 two of the co founders, you know, Bill Gates for 0:25:47.359 --> 0:25:51.120 Microsoft and Steve Jobs for Apple, were very similar. Both 0:25:51.119 --> 0:25:55.439 were college dropouts, both had big ideas. Gates's approach was 0:25:55.520 --> 0:25:58.920 to develop software that would run on personal computers of 0:25:58.960 --> 0:26:03.000 the future. Jobs As idea was to develop both software 0:26:03.040 --> 0:26:06.919 and hardware, so he wanted to create the computers along 0:26:06.960 --> 0:26:10.399 with the operating systems and software that was used on them, 0:26:10.400 --> 0:26:12.720