WEBVTT - The Origins of Nokia 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:13.840 stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.720 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer here 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:21.360 at How Stuff Works not Love Things Tech, and today 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:25.280 we're going to do a listener request. Listener Marcus wrote 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:27.479 in and asked that I do an episode about Nokia. 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:30.480 I thought it was high time I tackled the subject, 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:34.680 and here we go, because it's pretty cool. And by 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:36.280 the way, there are a lot of different ways of 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.760 pronouncing this company. I've definitely heard Nokia a lot more 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.480 frequently than Nokia, and I've heard Nokia. I've heard lots 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.120 of different variations. It seems that no matter which one 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:50.159 I pick, I'm wrong. I'm just accepting that. So I'm 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.880 gonna go with Nakia, knowing that I'm wrong. So I've 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.000 saved you the trouble of writing in You're welcome. Now, 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.760 before I jump into the story of Nakia, I want 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:01.600 to get you guys a little bit of an anecdote. 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.400 My memory is not the best. Anyone who knows me 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.520 knows that's an understatement, but as best I can tell, 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:13.000 my first cell phone was a Knockia twenty one. That 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.400 model came out in two thousand three. Now it's possible 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.000 that I had a Knackia eighty two ten. That one 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:22.920 came out in nine That was the really colorful one. 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.679 You could actually pop the covers off and replace it 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.279 with other covers. They had I think six different colors 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:29.880 when it first came out, and then there were a 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.680 bunch of third party ones that other ones with crazy designs, 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.440 But I honestly cannot remember. So it's possible that I 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:40.039 just saw the Nakia eighty two tens everywhere, but I 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.720 didn't actually own one. Cell Phones had been around in 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.240 the general consumer population for a few years before I 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.240 ever got ahold of one. I remember there were classmates 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.840 of mine in college who had cell phones, and I 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.600 kept on thinking, why the heck would I want people 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:56.920 to be able to reach me whenever and wherever I was. 0:01:57.400 --> 0:01:59.720 And it took me a few years to break down 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:01.960 and get one. And of course now I have separation 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:07.040 anxiety if I am not constantly in close proximity to 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:10.760 my cell phone. But I never once thought to look 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:14.440 into the company that made my first cell phone. I 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.480 just assumed it was a Japanese company out of Sheer ignorance. 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.960 I thought, oh, it's no Kia. That sounds like it 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.880 could be a company from Japan, I suppose, And I 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.799 never really thought anything more of it, which was ridiculous, 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:30.880 of course, and again it was due to my own ignorance. 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.880 So I did find out eventually that it was a 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.680 company in Finland many years later. In fact, it might 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:40.400 have been after I had started working here and how 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:42.760 stuff works, which was back in two thousand and eight, 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.400 so quite late in the game as it were. I 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:49.640 just wasn't really paying attention to mobile handset news, and 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:52.240 until I did the research for the show, I had 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.640 just assumed that Nakia was a relatively young company, perhaps 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.640 with a background that stretched back maybe to the late 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.960 eighties maybe mid eight knees and started in electronics, then 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.840 work their way to cellular phones. But I was so 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:09.680 incredibly wrong. And this, my friends, is the biggest reason 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:12.480 that I love my job. I get to learn stuff 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:17.480 and push back my own ignorance, which is exciting to me, 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.520 to actually learn new things, and then to share what 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:23.639 I've learned. Though I'm sure a lot of you will 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.079 be familiar with elements of this story that I'm going 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:28.400 to tell today, but maybe some of it will come 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:30.359 as a surprise to you as well, and I hope 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.240 you also take delight in that. So our story begins 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:40.120 in eighteen thirty eight Finland with an engineer named Newt 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:45.200 Frederick Edmund, later known as Frederick Idistan. And I know 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:48.600 also I'm going to butcher the pronunciation of these Finnish names, 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:54.040 and I apologize profusely for that. Uh Is Stem actually 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.640 took his the last name of his uncle who adopted him. Now, 0:03:57.800 --> 0:03:59.720 I'm not about to tell you that a Finish in 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.200 ter created the cell phone in the mid nineteenth century 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.440 in Finland. That would be ridiculous because who would he call. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.840 But it Is Stem would become the founder of the 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:15.360 company that evolved into Nokia. It Is Stem followed in 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.479 the footsteps of his father, who was a mining engineer, 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.120 and he earned a master's degree in engineering and had 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.920 planned on applying for employment with the Board of Minds 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:29.880 of the Grand Duchy of Finland as a civil servant. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.960 Quick history lesson. At this time, Finland was technically part 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:39.080 of the Russian Empire, but it was semi autonomous and 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:41.760 got to operate as what was called the Grand Duchy 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.839 of Finland before that it had been part of Sweden. 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:51.359 So the geography and political nature will play into this 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:53.560 story quite a bit as well. So it's it's good 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:58.160 to have that that basic understanding. While Frederick was pursuing 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.200 more education in the field of metal or in Germany, 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:05.840 while attending the School of Minds in Friedburg, Saxony, he 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:09.000 went on a little field trip and he visited what 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:13.000 was called a groundwood mill, which took wood and turned 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:16.200 it into the raw materials for paper. So, first of all, cool, 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:18.440 and second of all, yeah, I get to talk about 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.280 paper mills. Now that might sound weird that I'm actually 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:24.920 excited to talk about paper mills, but here's the thing. 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.520 I grew up around paper mills when I was a 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:34.240 little kid, and the smell is memorable because paper mills 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.400 these days typically use a chemical treatment on the wood 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:41.360 pulp to turn it into paper. Uh. I should also 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.680 mention that I grew up also around poultry farms, and 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.720 the mixture of smells when the wind blew just right 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:53.800 of poultry farms and paper mills meant that I had 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.960 a tough childhood. Guys, at least as far as the 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.760 old factory system is concerned. Anyway, the paper mill. It 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.320 is them that did was built to take advantage of 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:10.320 the work of two innovators, Friedrich gottlub Killer and Heinrich Filter. 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.640 Keller had received a pattern in eighteen forty six for 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.000 his method of making paper from wood fiber mash, and 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:21.080 Filter developed this approach to make mass production of paper 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:25.640 a possibility. Until then, paper had been made from rags 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.720 pretty much by hand. And this type of paper, sometimes 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:32.000 called cotton paper, has some nice features to it that 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.599 makes its superior in many ways to wood pulp paper. 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.440 For example, it takes ink really well and it's far 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:42.039 more durable than well woodpulpa based paper. But it was 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.160 a laborious process and it was hard to make a 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:47.760 lot of it in a short amount of time. So 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.200 here's how the old style paper was made, because I 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.839 think this is fascinating, and to be fair, there's still 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:57.080 paper that's made this way. First, you would take some rags, 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.840 perhaps from clothing that had been worn out during usefulness, 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:05.400 usually made from something like linen. Later on cotton became popular, 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.520 but before the the shipments came back from the New 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:13.040 World with cotton, linen was the primary type of textile 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:16.760 material during medieval times, you would actually have a guy 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:20.200 who would go around essentially door to door, collecting old 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.880 linen clothing from people after the clothing had been worn out. 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.360 He was also typically the same guy who would collect bones, 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.640 usually animal bones, to be ground down for fertilizer, and 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.960 that local dude became known as the rag and bone man. 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:37.760 So if you've heard the phrase rag and bone man, 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.960 that's where it comes from. You're only human, after all, 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.080 don't put the blame on me. The linen was prime 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.600 material for paper pulp. You just had to prepare it first, 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.520 so workers at the paper mill would use a knife 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.920 to tear the linen clothing into smaller strips. They would 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.040 dunk those strips into a vat filled with water and 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:00.400 let it soak for a couple of days, and after 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.480 that they would take the soggy mess and lay it 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:06.040 in a trough. Now in Germany, it became common practice 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:10.400 to use huge, heavy wooden hammers that were driven by 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.560 a water wheel device to just lift up and smash 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.760 down over and over again, smashing the soggy mess until 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.480 it becomes pulp. At that point, you would transfer the 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.480 pulp into a vat and workers would dip a frame 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.640 with parallel wires, kind of a sieve strung across this 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.920 uh this frame, and they would gather up pulp and 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:33.280 they would pour out any excess pulp, and they would 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.559 make sure they had a nice, relatively flat layer of pulp. 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:40.360 They'd swished the frames around a bit, and they would 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:44.520 gently lay out a sheet of soggy wet paper against 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.120 a layer of cloth, and then they would cover it 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:49.520 up with another layer of cloth. They would repeat the process, 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.679 having kind of a sandwich of cloth and paper this way. 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:55.640 I watched the video of a man in India who 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.480 uses this old method all by hands, swishing the pulp 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:00.720 in the frame, almost like he was inning for gold. 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.400 It's what it reminded me of. So what's happening on 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:07.520 a microscopic basis, Well, imagine pulp as a huge mass 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:10.679 of tiny strings, and this is true for pulp from 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:16.280 rags or from wood. Processing pulp makes the strings hairy, 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.800 meaning it a braids the edges it created, makes them uneven. 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:23.600 That encourages the various fibers to bind together. And it's 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:27.600 that binding process that creates sheets of paper. Now let's 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:29.920 go back to the medieval paper mill. Now, eventually they 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:33.040 would move a pile of these soggy sheets that were 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:37.320 pressed between layers of cloth over to a press machine. 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.200 So you've got a flat press and a screw top, 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:42.720 and by turning the screw top, it brings the press 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.559 down and squeezes everything underneath it right well, in this case, 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.160 they would use it to squeeze most of the water 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:51.199 out of the sheets of paper, and then they would 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.040 hang up the sheets of paper to dry out the 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.200 rest of the way. The parallel wires of the frames 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.440 would create create a ribbed pattern on the paper, and 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.760 that type of paper became known as laid paper. By 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:06.199 the time Frederick it Istan was visiting a paper mill, 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.200 a new type of paper was beginning to emerge. The 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:13.080 paper makers started using what they called a wove mold, 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.240 meaning the frames they were using actually had a tightly 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.240 woven sieve of wires that criss crossed each other in 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:22.839 a grid rather than just parallel. That created a paper 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.040 that was easier to write on it made it more legible, 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.160 is considered superior to the laid paper approach. In the 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:33.600 seventeenth century, in Holland, engineers created a device casually called 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.000 a hollander that made this process a little easier. It 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.360 had a tub that you would fill with rags and water, 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.080 and you would use a set of rotating blades connected 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:47.280 to some form of gear work that would harness a 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.040 natural source of power. So you might have a windmill 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:52.640 and you're harnessing wind power, or you might have a 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.880 water wheel and you're harnessing water power. This sped things 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:58.040 up a bit, but everyone was still using rags to 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:01.080 create paper at that time. The wood pulp advancements that 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.920 Keller and Filter created change things significantly, and in a 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:08.800 moment will explore how a wood pulp paper mill worked 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:11.719 back in the nineteenth century. But first let's take a 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:21.960 quick break to thank our sponsor. Alright, So how does 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.920 a wood pulp paper mill work. The earliest wood pulp 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:30.080 mills used mechanical force to turn wood into pulp. So 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.600 you would chop down trees. Then you would cut the 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:36.600 trees up into small logs called bolts. The bolts would 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:41.320 go through grinders made out of stone, typically sandstone, and 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:46.040 you would use some form of of power to turn 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.280 these grinders. You would typically have a water wheel, or 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.280 maybe you would use human or animal power, but more 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.120 frequently than not, you would use water wheels, just because 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.920 you needed that that hydro power to really turn these 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:03.600 massive stones, and the grinders would crush the bolts into pulp, 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:06.840 which would be soaked and then poured into the paper 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:10.520 molds to form sheets of paper. Wood pulp paper was 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:14.560 less durable than rag paper, and it didn't take ink 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.880 quite as well, so before paper makers learned how to 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:20.960 treat the wood with various chemicals to improve the quality 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.200 of paper, it was pretty brittle and had a tendency 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.160 to turn yellow after just a couple of days, but 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.080 did lend itself to mass manufacture in a way that 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.720 rag paper didn't, and it was relatively cheap to produce, 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.800 so while it was arguably an inferior paper, it was 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.880 easier to produce in the quantities that were in demand. 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.320 This was also a time in history when literacy was 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:47.320 on the rise. The Industrial Revolution was giving people an 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.880 opportunity to have more time to themselves, which they filled 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:55.479 with various activities such as reading. Frederick took this newfound 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.760 knowledge of paper mills back to his homeland of Finland. 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.400 Finland seemed like the perfect place to establish a wood 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:06.280 pulp paper mill. The country had enormous forests, and no 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:09.679 shortage of fast flowing rivers, so locating a mill along 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:11.720 the river to use the water as a power source 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:14.760 and harvesting the lumber from the vast forests seemed like 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:19.200 a perfect opportunity. Frederick ordered machines from Germany designed by 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.960 Felter himself, to install such a paper mill in his 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:25.240 home country. The applied for a permit to operate such 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.800 a business, and the Finish Senate approved the permit on 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:33.320 May twelfth, eighteen sixty five, and Nokia traces back their 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.280 history to that very day. The mill took time to 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.559 build and bring up to operational status, but it began 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:45.760 producing paper commercially in eighteen sixty six. Frederick located his 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:49.800 first mill in Tampere, near the Tamarkowski Rapids, and his 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:54.720 venture succeeded where other entrepreneurs in Finland had failed. Felters 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.600 technology was proven to be effective. Now Frederick had to 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:01.720 devote as much energy to promoting paper as he did 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:05.680 in bringing the technology to Finland. The general consensus was 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.120 that would pulp paper just wasn't very good, but Frederick 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:11.720 kept at it and experimented with papers made from a 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.760 collection of rag and wood pulp fibers, so he started 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:18.720 combining the two. In eighteen sixty seven, at the Paris Exhibition, 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:23.479 he brought home the bronze medal. After demonstrating his groundwood 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:27.800 pulp Felter's mill received a gold medal, so this was 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.640 seen as an endorsement that helped propel would pulp paper 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.920 into common use. In eighteen sixty eight, Frederick built a 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.960 second paper mill. This time he chose a location called Nakia, 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.960 which was built along a river called Nakia, and that 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.800 river provided a much better source of hydro power. It 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.760 was just a stronger flowing river. So he formed a 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:54.120 partnership with his friend Leo Michelin or sometimes Leo Mechelein 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.000 to create a shared company and they called it Nokia 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:02.280 AB or ab a b is what that stands for anyway, 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:06.040 This was the birth of the Nokia name. Leo Michelin, 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:08.880 by the way, was a remarkable man in his own right. 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:14.200 He earned degrees in literature, esthetics, and jurisprudence, so he 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.120 had the opportunity to become a lawyer, but instead became 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:21.040 a professor and he continued studies in economics at the 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.880 same time. He also later became a member of Parliament 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.680 for the Swedish People's Party and was known as a 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:31.040 liberal reformer who worked hard to create a strong Finnish economy. 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.480 When Russia began to put the screws to the Grand 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.560 Duchy of Finland, which again was technically part of the 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:41.000 Russian Empire at that time, Michelin advocated passive resistance as 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:44.760 a means to protest Russia's policies. Quake historic note here 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.360 Finland again was originally part of Sweden. In the early 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:52.680 eighteen hundreds, during the Finnish War, Russian Russian forces rested 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:57.360 Finland away from Sweden. Incorporated into the Russian Empire, Finland 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.320 was able to maintain a good, good deal of a nomy, 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:06.080 unlike a lot of Russian territories. And now back to Michelin. 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:11.720 He was exiled for his actions for recommending this passive resistance, 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:14.880 and he was later allowed back in because he was 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:17.840 actually voted into parliament. So once he was voted in 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:21.200 as a member of parliament, the country said, well, I 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:24.520 guess we can't really keep you banished. You represent the people, 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:28.600 so come on back. In eighteen seventy one, Frederick and 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:34.240 Michelin transformed Nakia ab into Nakia Limited, creating a share company, 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:36.800 and as the name implies, this is a company in 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:41.080 which investors purchase shares or a percentage of the ownership 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:45.520 of the company. Essentially, Nachia was becoming a publicly traded company, 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:47.720 though in those early days it wasn't on a public 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:52.280 stock exchange. Michelin purchased an estate called Nakia Manner, which 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:56.080 included property along the Nakia Rapids, and all of those 0:16:56.120 --> 0:17:00.280 assets became part of Nakia Limited. So while Michelin made 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.640 the purchases, he ended up incorporating that as part of 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.200 the company, and they started having their headquarters in this 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:10.840 manor house, and the waterfalls that were adjacent to the 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.120 manor house were considered part of their property. They actually 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:18.800 owned the waterfall. In eight five, the company built the 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:22.679 first sulfite pulp mill in Finland. This took a different 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:26.000 approach than the mechanical mills that had used physical force 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:28.800 to break down the wood into pulp. Now there was 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.800 a chemical process in the mix. So let me explain 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:37.960 that first you need sulfurus acid, not sulfuric, but sulfur us. 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.560 The mill could produce this by taking sulfur and burning 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.000 it with just the right amount of oxygen, which would 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:47.639 create create sulfur dioxide. They would then use water to 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:52.439 absorb the sulfur dioxide, which creates sulfurus acid. Then you 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.479 add in some carbonates or hydroxides as counter ions, and 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.879 you pour this pulping liquid into a bowl. Boiler. Now, 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.120 double boiler is a device in which you have one 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:08.399 container located inside a second container, and around that that 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.120 first container, the inner one, you have water. So you've 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.240 got second container, you've got water. Then you have the 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.959 first container inside all of that, and you heat up 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.040 the second container so that it boils the water and 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.160 that in turn heats up the first container. And double 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.040 boilers are common for lots of different things, including cooking. 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.560 You may have created a double boiler, especially if you 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.760 were working with something like trying to melt chocolate. Well, 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.320 you would mix in wood pulp and allow the wood 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:44.120 pulp and this mixture, the sulfurous acid mixture to mush together. 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:48.760 The the actual device that this stuff was in. We're 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:53.280 called digesters, so you can think of it as digesting 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:57.320 this wood pulp for several hours at high temperatures, typically 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:00.359 somewhere between a hundred thirty and a hundred six degrees 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.760 celsius or between two sixty six to three twenty degrees fahrenheit. 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:09.720 The pulping liquid extracts a material called lignant from the wood. 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:16.120 This is something that provides structural support in the cells 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.520 inside wood pulp. After its time in the digesters, the 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:23.280 treated pulp would be washed to remove the chemicals and 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:27.720 the degraded lignant that was leached from this stuff, and 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.240 the pulp could then be used to create paper or 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.359 combined with other pulps and then used to create paper. 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:37.000 The paper business was progressing well and Michelin began to 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.200 urge Frederick that the company should diversify and get into 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:45.560 other businesses. He was specifically thinking about creating an electricity 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:48.400 power plant because they were right next to this river, 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:50.280 they said. He said, this is perfect. We can use 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:54.560 the river to help turn a generator and generate electricity. 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.399 But Frederick was not on the same page. That's a 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:02.840 paper putt, and he refused, so he said not as 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.800 long as I'm alive now. He ended up retiring in 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.520 eighteen ninety six and Michelin would assume the role of 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.800 Nakia ABS chairman and he began laying the groundwork for 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.959 building out an electricity plant which was ready to go 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:18.119 in nineteen o two. All right, so we're in the 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.679 home stretch for the origin of Nakia to talk a 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.439 little bit more about what happened in those early days. 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:27.120 But before I jump into this last segment, let's take 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:37.040 a quick break to thank our sponsor. Now we need 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:39.800 to switch gears a bit and talk about another Finnish 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.679 entrepreneur and the business he founded. The businessman's name was 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.359 Edward Polonne. He was the son of a police chief. 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.080 He had earned himself a law degree, and he worked 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:54.000 as a lawyer and a civil servant in Finland's prison administration. 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.879 That's fun. Edward joined several other business owners to create 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:02.120 a new company that was called the Finish Rubber Works Limited. 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:07.280 Actually has a much longer name and Finish that I 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:10.199 cannot possibly pronounce, so I'm not even going to try it, 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.680 but in English Finnish Rubber Works Limited. And someday I'll 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:15.720 have to do a full episode about the role that 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:19.359 rubber played in industrialization and how it's discovery led to 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:24.480 massive trauma in the Amazon, both for indigenous people's in fact, 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.000 mainly for them who called the area of their home 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:29.840 and to the Europeans who were seeking out a way 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:33.000 to make a fortune, thousands of whom died in the process. 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:34.919 But we'll sum it up here to say that in 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:38.480 the late nineteenth century, rubber was in demand and it 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.199 was being used for many different things, including waterproof boots. 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:46.440 Galoshes became the Finnish rubber company's chief product, something that 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:49.919 Nokia still makes to this day. In nineteen four the 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:54.000 company relocated its headquarters from Helsinki to the town of Nokia. 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:58.480 The move was necessary in order to grow as a company. 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:01.920 There just wasn't much room min Helsinki for the expansion, 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:05.000 and Nokia had a ready workforce and the river was 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:08.480 a steady source of hydro power. Also, the electricity generator 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:11.600 from Nokia AB was a great resource. So why do 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:14.880 I bring that up. It's because in nineteen eighteen, this 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:18.720 rubber company acquired Nokia Limited, largely in order to get 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.159 access to that hydro power that Nakia had at its disposal. 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:26.520 Though these two companies would operate independently because at the 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.560 time it was actually against the law for companies in 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:33.560 different industries to merge together in Finland, so they could 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.480 not operate as a single entity. Because it was illegal 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:40.000 to do so. While the Rubber Company was growing and 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:43.280 the Nokia paper and electricity businesses were doing well, another 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:46.280 company was establishing itself in Finland, and that was a 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:50.840 venture that was called the Finnish Cable Company. Again, the 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:53.800 actual Finnish names are really long, and I would just 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:56.160 butcher them if I attempted them. But it's the Finnish 0:22:56.359 --> 0:23:00.280 Cable Company and it was founded by Avid Wickstrom. His 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:05.000 company produced telephone, telegraph and electrical cables. Cologne would lead 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:08.200 an acquisition of that company in nineteen twenty two, bringing 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:11.600 it under this conglomerate. So now you had three companies. 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:14.000 You had the Rubber Company, you had the Finished Cable Company, 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.280 and you had Nokia AB And he still had to 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:20.520 run all three businesses independently of one another, though they 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:24.240 were in this kind of conglomerate. Edward was the majority shareholder. 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:29.760 The main businesses now were electricity generation, cable production, rubber manufacturing, 0:23:29.880 --> 0:23:33.879 and paper slash forestry goods. Pologne became the head of 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:37.920 this new conglomerate and he led the way. Nine two 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:40.520 would end up being a big year for lots of reasons, 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:43.560 not just because this conglomerate formed That was also the 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:48.000 year that Joseph Stalin established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, 0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:51.280 also known as the Soviet Union or U s s R. 0:23:51.760 --> 0:23:55.080