1
00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:11,840
Speaker 1: Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from dot Com.

2
00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:14,280
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host,

3
00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,160
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer here at how Stuff Works,

4
00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:20,560
Speaker 1: and I like to talk about all things tech. You guys,

5
00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:24,160
Speaker 1: listen to the last episode, the Xerox Story, Part one,

6
00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:26,440
Speaker 1: then you know what this episode is going to be.

7
00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:29,520
Speaker 1: It's done to be part two of that series, and

8
00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:32,640
Speaker 1: spoiler alert, there will be a part part three because

9
00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:37,560
Speaker 1: it's a bigger story than I anticipated. The Xerox story

10
00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:40,160
Speaker 1: is really fascinating to me. You're talking about a company

11
00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:43,440
Speaker 1: that was founded in nineteen o six and did not

12
00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:46,800
Speaker 1: come out with the flagship product that everyone associates with

13
00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:50,120
Speaker 1: it for more than four decades. It was really almost

14
00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,920
Speaker 1: like essentially five decades before Xerox came out with a

15
00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:58,320
Speaker 1: photocetic or electro setic copier and that was the point

16
00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,600
Speaker 1: where they you is the term zerography and started to

17
00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:06,840
Speaker 1: switch their company name from Halloid Corporation to Xerox. And

18
00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:09,400
Speaker 1: that story alone was really interesting. That's what took up

19
00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:11,800
Speaker 1: part one. So I guess the too long, didn't read

20
00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:14,360
Speaker 1: version is right there, but you should go back and

21
00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:17,400
Speaker 1: listen to part one. If you haven't already Part two.

22
00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:20,640
Speaker 1: We're going to explore what happened in the wake of

23
00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:24,240
Speaker 1: Xerox kind of finding its corporate identity as far as

24
00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:27,160
Speaker 1: what its new product lines were going to be, and

25
00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:31,880
Speaker 1: how it ended up having an interesting era of innovation

26
00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:37,880
Speaker 1: while simultaneously not really capitalizing on it very well. And

27
00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:40,080
Speaker 1: as it turns out, the story is big enough to

28
00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:42,880
Speaker 1: require a part three. I really thought it was going

29
00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:45,119
Speaker 1: to be a two parter. I set out to make

30
00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:49,200
Speaker 1: a two parter, I swear to you, guys, But once

31
00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:52,000
Speaker 1: I hit the late nineties, I realized there's just way

32
00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:55,360
Speaker 1: too much stuff. I had started to summarize items, and

33
00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:59,320
Speaker 1: I realized that the summaries, while they were accurate, didn't

34
00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:01,840
Speaker 1: really give you a satisfying story. I mean, it just

35
00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:04,240
Speaker 1: sounds like someone rattling off bullet points, and you guys

36
00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:06,960
Speaker 1: deserve better than that. So instead of doing that, I'm

37
00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:10,040
Speaker 1: gonna do even more research and do a Part three,

38
00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:13,800
Speaker 1: because there's some really crazy stuff that went on at

39
00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:17,560
Speaker 1: Xerox at the upper levels of management. I'm talking like

40
00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:22,960
Speaker 1: cloak and dagger betrayals at the most senior levels of

41
00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:26,960
Speaker 1: leadership at Xerox Company in the late nineties, So we're

42
00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:30,040
Speaker 1: gonna explore that in part three. But now this is

43
00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:32,760
Speaker 1: gonna be um. This is gonna be the calm before

44
00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:34,800
Speaker 1: the storm. So it's not exactly like the Star Wars

45
00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:37,360
Speaker 1: trilogy where you hit Empire strikes back and then everyone's

46
00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:39,920
Speaker 1: at their lowest point. Now the lowest point is gonna

47
00:02:39,919 --> 00:02:42,359
Speaker 1: happen sometime in part three. But don't worry. There will

48
00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:45,520
Speaker 1: also be some form of resolution, but there won't be

49
00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:47,680
Speaker 1: an ending because Xerox is still existing, and so we

50
00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:50,640
Speaker 1: won't actually have a the end. We'll just have a

51
00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:56,360
Speaker 1: the end question mark. When we last left our hero

52
00:02:57,240 --> 00:02:59,799
Speaker 1: known as Xerox, the company had just started to experience

53
00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:04,200
Speaker 1: serious revenue growth in the early nineteen sixties. The company

54
00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:07,400
Speaker 1: had made its money on photographic paper products up to

55
00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:10,680
Speaker 1: that point, but now had branched out by creating electro

56
00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:14,880
Speaker 1: static copiers, which used the electro static charge to imprint

57
00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:20,840
Speaker 1: paper with toner It used photo conductive materials selenium specifically,

58
00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:23,240
Speaker 1: in order to do this. We will touch back on

59
00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:25,720
Speaker 1: that in a little bit. And this was a much

60
00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:29,280
Speaker 1: faster method than earlier technologies that would allow you to

61
00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:34,960
Speaker 1: make copies, and the orders were pouring in from enterprises

62
00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,520
Speaker 1: around the world. Enterprises as in big companies. That's what

63
00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:42,640
Speaker 1: Xerox was targeting. They were looking at selling products to

64
00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:46,960
Speaker 1: major companies, not to your individual consumers that was not

65
00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:52,200
Speaker 1: really on their radar, and pretty much that was fueling

66
00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:57,120
Speaker 1: Xerox's success. It was practically doubling their revenue every year

67
00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:00,440
Speaker 1: for a few years, they started seeing those number go

68
00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:04,360
Speaker 1: up dramatically year over year. That led to Fortune magazine

69
00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:10,000
Speaker 1: to declare Xerox the most successful product ever marketed in America. Specifically,

70
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,400
Speaker 1: they were talking about the nine fourteen copier, so called

71
00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:16,760
Speaker 1: because that was the dimensions of paper you could use

72
00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:21,760
Speaker 1: in the machine, nine inches by fourteen inches. So yeah,

73
00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:25,560
Speaker 1: they had gone from a modest, little photographic paper company

74
00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:28,159
Speaker 1: to one of the biggest companies in America due to

75
00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:33,960
Speaker 1: this incredibly popular and very profitable product. In nineteen sixty two,

76
00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:37,600
Speaker 1: Xerox formed a joint venture with the Japanese photography company

77
00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:40,840
Speaker 1: Fuji Photo Film Company, and this venture was called the

78
00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:45,480
Speaker 1: Fuji Xerox Company Limited, and essentially it was formed so

79
00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:49,120
Speaker 1: that they could distribute Xerox products in Japan and later

80
00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:53,279
Speaker 1: it also served as a research and development platform. So

81
00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:55,919
Speaker 1: Fuji and Xerox would work together doing R and D

82
00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:02,760
Speaker 1: on various technologies. That same year, Xerox acquired University Microfilms.

83
00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:06,240
Speaker 1: This was a small company founded by Eugene Power. It

84
00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,599
Speaker 1: got its start preserving works from the British Museum and

85
00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:12,760
Speaker 1: it was preserving them obviously on microfilm. As you would

86
00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:16,000
Speaker 1: imagine based on the name. The company changed names a

87
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:19,800
Speaker 1: few times while it was under Xerox's ownership, but ultimately

88
00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:24,120
Speaker 1: the company would sell off University Microfilms to another company

89
00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:27,039
Speaker 1: called Bell and Howell in the nineteen eighties, and today

90
00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:31,160
Speaker 1: University Microfilms is better known as pro Quest, so if

91
00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:33,400
Speaker 1: you ever heard a pro Quest, it started off as

92
00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:36,719
Speaker 1: University Microfilms and for a while it was owned by Xerox.

93
00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:41,719
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty three, Xerox acquired Electro Optical Systems, and

94
00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:45,240
Speaker 1: that same year Xerox released the first desktop cop year

95
00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:48,680
Speaker 1: called the Xerox eight thirteen, and like the nine fourteen,

96
00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,039
Speaker 1: this was named by the dimensions of paper you could

97
00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:55,280
Speaker 1: use in it. Unlike that larger nine fourteen, this one

98
00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:59,080
Speaker 1: didn't sell nearly as well, and eventually the company would

99
00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:02,159
Speaker 1: discontinue it decide that it would really just focus on

100
00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:06,960
Speaker 1: developing those larger, high capacity copiers and leave the desktop

101
00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,600
Speaker 1: market to other companies. For the most part, this would

102
00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:14,479
Speaker 1: eventually come back to haunt them. Xerox also formed a

103
00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:18,160
Speaker 1: joint venture with the Rank Organization, which was not a

104
00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:22,120
Speaker 1: group of smelly people, but instead, the Rank Organization was

105
00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:25,080
Speaker 1: a company out of the United Kingdom, was a film company.

106
00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:28,920
Speaker 1: It's an entertainment conglomerate. And in the late nineteen forties

107
00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:32,440
Speaker 1: the Rank Organization had hit on hard times. The leadership

108
00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:36,000
Speaker 1: of the Rank Organization looked for ways to diversify their businesses.

109
00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,159
Speaker 1: A purchased a radio station in nineteen forty nine, and

110
00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:43,880
Speaker 1: they entered into this venture with the Halloid Slash Xerox

111
00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:47,719
Speaker 1: Company in nineteen fifty six. Nine years later, in nineteen

112
00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:52,040
Speaker 1: sixty five, Rank Slash Xerox opening manufacturing plant in ven Ree,

113
00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:56,040
Speaker 1: the Netherlands. And business is so weird, you guys. There's

114
00:06:56,040 --> 00:07:00,720
Speaker 1: a lot of interesting and odd joint ventures in Xerox's past. Now,

115
00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:04,240
Speaker 1: Joe Wilson, you may remember Joe Wilson as the son

116
00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:07,880
Speaker 1: of the founder of the Halloyd Corporation. He was also

117
00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:11,560
Speaker 1: the man who instilled a lot of his own personal

118
00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,240
Speaker 1: values into the company that became kind of its mission statement.

119
00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:19,280
Speaker 1: He stepped down as president of Xerox in nineteen sixty six.

120
00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:23,200
Speaker 1: He kind of thought that once you started hitting sixty

121
00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:28,080
Speaker 1: years old, you should really withdraw from leadership positions in

122
00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:31,040
Speaker 1: the company, and that became a tradition at Xerox. As

123
00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:34,360
Speaker 1: c e O s or presidents would start to hit sixty,

124
00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:38,160
Speaker 1: they would typically resign and they would train up somebody

125
00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:42,320
Speaker 1: to be their replacement. Uh. Kind of a scythe apprentice

126
00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:46,800
Speaker 1: thing going on there, but you know less, sinister. Now.

127
00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:49,840
Speaker 1: Wilson would remain the CEO of the company for another

128
00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,280
Speaker 1: year until nineteen sixty seven, and he was chairman of

129
00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:56,520
Speaker 1: the board until he passed away in nineteen seventy one

130
00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:59,600
Speaker 1: at the age of sixty one years old. Wilson had

131
00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:02,040
Speaker 1: imbued the company with a focus on innovation, as he

132
00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:04,720
Speaker 1: had felt since he first started at the Halloy Company

133
00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:07,560
Speaker 1: that sitting back and relying on an established business was

134
00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:11,400
Speaker 1: a guaranteed path to failure in the long run. His

135
00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:15,280
Speaker 1: successor in all three of his roles of President, CEO,

136
00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:19,880
Speaker 1: and chairman was C. Peter McCullough. Now, a little bit

137
00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:23,000
Speaker 1: more on Wilson is warranted, However, before we move on

138
00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:25,840
Speaker 1: with the rest of the Xerox story. So Wilson had

139
00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:30,320
Speaker 1: involved himself in numerous social causes. In his will, he

140
00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:33,920
Speaker 1: willed more than twenty million dollars in cash and even

141
00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:37,520
Speaker 1: more in stock options to the University of Rochester. Upon

142
00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:41,600
Speaker 1: his death, the university actually closed down campus except for

143
00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:45,160
Speaker 1: emergency services in the hospital, for two days of mourning

144
00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:49,360
Speaker 1: in memory of Joe Wilson. He had spoken at a

145
00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:52,360
Speaker 1: conference for a Council for Financial Aid to Education and

146
00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:55,800
Speaker 1: the Academy of Political Science, and at that speech he

147
00:08:55,840 --> 00:08:59,960
Speaker 1: said that quote businessmen and scientists have a moral imperi

148
00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:04,120
Speaker 1: div to extend their technology to society end quote, and

149
00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:07,880
Speaker 1: went on to say, quote, our technology has not lived

150
00:09:07,960 --> 00:09:11,960
Speaker 1: up to its obligations to society. Technological companies are at

151
00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:15,960
Speaker 1: the center of social change and therefore have a responsibility.

152
00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:19,600
Speaker 1: Those in the inner city have derived little benefit from

153
00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:23,440
Speaker 1: technology and no profit from it end quote. And I

154
00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:26,959
Speaker 1: really think it's kind of remarkable that a successful businessman,

155
00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:31,520
Speaker 1: he's a multi millionaire who came from a family of conservatives.

156
00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:35,240
Speaker 1: He himself was a registered Republican, though he was certainly

157
00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:39,560
Speaker 1: less of a conservative Republican than some of his family were,

158
00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:42,120
Speaker 1: but he saw that there was this social responsibility on

159
00:09:42,160 --> 00:09:46,320
Speaker 1: the part of successful business owners to contribute back to society.

160
00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:48,600
Speaker 1: And I should also say that during this time the

161
00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:52,840
Speaker 1: Republican Party was a little different than the modern Republican Party,

162
00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:59,000
Speaker 1: but even so he had several more like Democratic Party

163
00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:05,160
Speaker 1: leanings although he identified as Republican. His successor McCulla, whom

164
00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:09,600
Speaker 1: Wilson chose, was in fact a registered Democrats. So Wilson

165
00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,120
Speaker 1: also was able to rise above his own political beliefs

166
00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:16,640
Speaker 1: and look at a person's contributions and say this is

167
00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:19,200
Speaker 1: the right person for the job, even if they did

168
00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:22,679
Speaker 1: not agree on everything politically, which I think is also

169
00:10:22,840 --> 00:10:27,280
Speaker 1: very telling of Joe Wilson's character. Uh McCulloch was born

170
00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:29,959
Speaker 1: in Canada. He was the son of the Director of

171
00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:34,319
Speaker 1: Public Works for Canadian Parliament, and he attended the Harvard

172
00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:37,800
Speaker 1: Harvard Business School and graduated with a degree. After serving

173
00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:40,520
Speaker 1: in World War Two, he served in the British Navy

174
00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:44,160
Speaker 1: briefly in the last year of World War Two. He

175
00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:47,720
Speaker 1: had started back at nineteen fifty four at Halloyd as

176
00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:51,120
Speaker 1: the general manager of the company's first reproduction service center

177
00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:54,040
Speaker 1: in Chicago, and by nineteen fifty nine he had been

178
00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:57,720
Speaker 1: named a general sales manager. In nineteen sixty he became

179
00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:01,000
Speaker 1: the vice president for sales, and nineteen sixty one he

180
00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:03,720
Speaker 1: was elected to the board of directors and he assumed

181
00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:05,959
Speaker 1: the role of president in nineteen sixty six. So it

182
00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:09,400
Speaker 1: was a pretty meteoric rise in the ranks, and like

183
00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:12,640
Speaker 1: Joe Wilson, McCullough had a strong sense of social justice.

184
00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:16,240
Speaker 1: He and Wilson had created an affirmative action program at

185
00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:19,280
Speaker 1: the company, which continued under McCullough's leadership when he became

186
00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:22,800
Speaker 1: president and CEO. This was really remarkable. Remember this is

187
00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:25,360
Speaker 1: during the era of civil rights, when there was a

188
00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:28,360
Speaker 1: lot of turmoil going on in the United States on

189
00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:31,959
Speaker 1: these issues, and meanwhile the leadership of Xerox came out

190
00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:37,240
Speaker 1: and said, we fully support trying to balance the scales

191
00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:41,200
Speaker 1: to create a system that will promote equality at our company,

192
00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:44,040
Speaker 1: which I think says a lot again about the leadership

193
00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:47,000
Speaker 1: of the company at the time. Mccull and Wilson shared

194
00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:50,160
Speaker 1: many of the same beliefs, including a strong reliance upon innovation,

195
00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:52,720
Speaker 1: but many would say McCullough would take Xerox into a

196
00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:56,160
Speaker 1: new direction and lead the company to unprecedented profit as

197
00:11:56,160 --> 00:12:00,000
Speaker 1: well as steered into some stormy waters. In nineteen six

198
00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:03,200
Speaker 1: s seven, in an effort to reduce waste and costs,

199
00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:06,800
Speaker 1: Xerox began a new policy of recovering metals from used

200
00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:10,360
Speaker 1: photo receptor drums. Remember this is the big drum inside

201
00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:15,440
Speaker 1: of a photocopier that carries that electrostatic charge. Use light

202
00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:19,199
Speaker 1: to negate that charge, and then you put toner. The

203
00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:22,600
Speaker 1: towner adheres to any place where the light has not touched,

204
00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:26,800
Speaker 1: and then a similarly charged piece of paper that actually

205
00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:29,920
Speaker 1: carries a stronger charge than the drum does will pick

206
00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:33,400
Speaker 1: up the toner, move through a pair of fusers. These

207
00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:36,960
Speaker 1: are high temperature rollers, and then the ink or toner

208
00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:41,800
Speaker 1: is fused onto the paper. Well, those those photo receptor

209
00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:47,120
Speaker 1: drums had some hazardous materials two as part of them.

210
00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:50,080
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just it required using some stuff

211
00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:54,840
Speaker 1: that's pretty dangerous, including some heavy metals, which is not

212
00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,720
Speaker 1: the kind of music nor the Ralph Boxhi film. It

213
00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:03,120
Speaker 1: is instead, in fact actual heavy metals. Uh So the

214
00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:06,560
Speaker 1: company had to purchase those regularly in order to make

215
00:13:06,559 --> 00:13:08,920
Speaker 1: the photo receptor drums. Those are expensive and they're dangerous

216
00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:11,920
Speaker 1: to ships. So by reclaiming some of those materials from

217
00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:16,400
Speaker 1: older drums. The Xerox was able to reduce their reliance

218
00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:21,239
Speaker 1: on new material, and they viewed that as both economical

219
00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:25,880
Speaker 1: and environmentally friendly. In ninety eight, at the age of

220
00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:30,240
Speaker 1: sixty two, Chester Carlson passed away. Now, if that name

221
00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:32,640
Speaker 1: does not sound familiar, you haven't listened to part one,

222
00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:35,160
Speaker 1: but if you did, you may remember he was the

223
00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:40,280
Speaker 1: inventor of the electrostatic copier. His success was emblematic of

224
00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:43,280
Speaker 1: the American dream. He worked for a printer when he

225
00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:45,800
Speaker 1: was in high school. He received from his employer an

226
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,640
Speaker 1: old printing press that otherwise was going to be destroyed,

227
00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:52,120
Speaker 1: and he used it to print a magazine for amateur chemists.

228
00:13:52,559 --> 00:13:55,319
Speaker 1: He attended junior college and majored in chemistry before he

229
00:13:55,360 --> 00:13:58,920
Speaker 1: transferred to the California Institute of Technology Caltech, in other words,

230
00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:01,320
Speaker 1: and earned a degree in physics while he was there.

231
00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:04,040
Speaker 1: When he graduated college, he did so just as the

232
00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:06,760
Speaker 1: Great Depression was really taking its toll, and so his

233
00:14:06,880 --> 00:14:10,120
Speaker 1: prospects were pretty grim. He worked in patent law, as

234
00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:12,439
Speaker 1: I mentioned in the last episode, and he found himself

235
00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:15,120
Speaker 1: frequently in need of making copies of material, and that's

236
00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:17,840
Speaker 1: not an easy thing to do in the era before

237
00:14:18,120 --> 00:14:21,240
Speaker 1: photo copiers. So Carlson, wishing to put his knowledge of

238
00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:24,200
Speaker 1: physics and chemistry to use, wanted to solve that problem.

239
00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:26,320
Speaker 1: I talked about how he did that in the last episode,

240
00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:28,120
Speaker 1: so I'm not going to retread it here, but let's

241
00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:31,680
Speaker 1: just say he ended up falling in with Halloyd, which later,

242
00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:34,960
Speaker 1: of course became Xerox. This was after he had been

243
00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:38,640
Speaker 1: turned away by twenty different companies that were uninterested in

244
00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:44,720
Speaker 1: his ideas. Now, he earned millions of dollars from his invention,

245
00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:48,560
Speaker 1: like a hundred fifty million dollars, which is already a

246
00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:52,720
Speaker 1: huge amount of money before you adjusted for inflation. But

247
00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:55,400
Speaker 1: he was also a philanthropist, and he gave away more

248
00:14:55,440 --> 00:14:58,840
Speaker 1: than a hundred million dollars in his lifetime to charities

249
00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:02,920
Speaker 1: and foundations. He was awarded numerous times for his contributions

250
00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:05,600
Speaker 1: to business and science as well as for his philanthropy,

251
00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:10,480
Speaker 1: and his passing was also marked with reverence and sorrow. Also,

252
00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:14,800
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty eight, Xerox opened the Xerox Tower in Rochester,

253
00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:17,760
Speaker 1: New York. Remember that was their headquarters. It's where the

254
00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:22,800
Speaker 1: Wilsons were living when they founded Halloyd Corporation, which would

255
00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:26,360
Speaker 1: later become Xerox, But just one year later, in nineteen

256
00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:30,520
Speaker 1: sixty nine, the new president and CEO McCullough, would lead

257
00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:34,560
Speaker 1: the company in a new direction, literally by relocating the

258
00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:38,440
Speaker 1: corporate headquarters to Stanford, Connecticut. By this time, the company

259
00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:42,320
Speaker 1: was making one billion dollars in revenue and had been

260
00:15:42,360 --> 00:15:44,800
Speaker 1: listed as one of the one largest corporations in the

261
00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:48,160
Speaker 1: United States. McCullough was looking into the future and was

262
00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:51,360
Speaker 1: imagining a world in which the offices of tomorrow wouldn't

263
00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:54,240
Speaker 1: need paper at all. Everything would be stored in some

264
00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:57,800
Speaker 1: other medium. And this probably sounds familiar to anyone who

265
00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:00,800
Speaker 1: has gone through one of those big technological rollouts at

266
00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:04,440
Speaker 1: a company where people are talking a big game early on, saying, Oh,

267
00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:07,040
Speaker 1: it's gonna eliminate the need of ever having a print

268
00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:09,320
Speaker 1: out or a piece of paper. You'll never have to

269
00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:12,320
Speaker 1: touch it. I'm still waiting for that day. I'm still

270
00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:15,240
Speaker 1: waiting for the paperless office. But Xerox's approach to this,

271
00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:19,440
Speaker 1: initially at least, was to invest in existing companies. So

272
00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:24,840
Speaker 1: to that end, Xerox made an enormous deal, some would

273
00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,160
Speaker 1: say a truly disastrous one, with a computer company called

274
00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:32,280
Speaker 1: Scientific Data Systems in nineteen sixty nine, and that acquisition

275
00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:37,240
Speaker 1: deal costs Xerox nearly a billion dollars in stocks. Unfortunately

276
00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:40,520
Speaker 1: for Xerox, that particular deal would not work out for

277
00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:43,240
Speaker 1: the company. The computers, which were not meant for the

278
00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:45,840
Speaker 1: general public, were difficult to sell. They were meant for

279
00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:51,400
Speaker 1: scientific research and government organizations. By nineteen seventy five, Xerox

280
00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:55,200
Speaker 1: executives realized that this division wasn't going anywhere, and they

281
00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:58,000
Speaker 1: shut it all down. But that wouldn't be the only

282
00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:01,360
Speaker 1: contribution Xerox would make to the world of computing. When

283
00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:03,360
Speaker 1: we come back, we'll look at the R and D

284
00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:06,800
Speaker 1: branch Xerox form that is responsible for how we interact

285
00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:10,600
Speaker 1: with technology today. But first let's take a quick break

286
00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:20,919
Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. So we're up to nineteen seventy,

287
00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:23,240
Speaker 1: which is when Xerox made a few other moves that

288
00:17:23,280 --> 00:17:26,479
Speaker 1: would expand its influence, and one was the formation of

289
00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:30,320
Speaker 1: the Xerox Computer Services Division as the company acquired other

290
00:17:30,320 --> 00:17:33,840
Speaker 1: computer companies. The other big one was the formation of

291
00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:38,680
Speaker 1: the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center or Park Facility p

292
00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:44,000
Speaker 1: A r C in California. Park became an incredibly important

293
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:46,520
Speaker 1: R and D facility. The work going on there in

294
00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:49,919
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies would later transform personal computers in the

295
00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:55,560
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. Xerox Park opened on July one, nineteen seventy,

296
00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:57,560
Speaker 1: and the whole purpose of this part of the company

297
00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:01,680
Speaker 1: was to innovate new technologies. The focus at that time

298
00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:06,840
Speaker 1: was on computing, which was the realm of scientific research centers, universities,

299
00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:10,600
Speaker 1: big business, and the military. There were no such things

300
00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:14,639
Speaker 1: as personal computers that early on. In fact, many computers

301
00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:17,440
Speaker 1: had no digital or analog display. You had to rely

302
00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:20,359
Speaker 1: on a lighted panel or read results that were printed

303
00:18:20,359 --> 00:18:24,639
Speaker 1: out on long strings of paper tape. Because Park played

304
00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:27,639
Speaker 1: such an important role in Xerox, I'm going to peel

305
00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:31,160
Speaker 1: off from the main company for a bit and talk

306
00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:34,399
Speaker 1: about what was going on over at Park before jumping

307
00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:37,720
Speaker 1: back into the main company's timeline. So let's park it

308
00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:42,560
Speaker 1: in Park for a bit. I don't feel good about that.

309
00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:49,920
Speaker 1: In Park pioneered a method of printing a bitmapped electronic

310
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:53,720
Speaker 1: image on a zero graphic copyer drum using laser printing.

311
00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:58,840
Speaker 1: Seems simple enough, no, but seriously, how the heck does

312
00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:01,520
Speaker 1: that work? Was it even me? So? If you listen

313
00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:04,040
Speaker 1: to the last episode and I hope you did. Otherwise,

314
00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:06,879
Speaker 1: this show is really confusing to you. You learned about

315
00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:10,439
Speaker 1: how photocopiers use light to create an electrostatic charge on

316
00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:15,640
Speaker 1: a photo conductive drum. Laser printers follow a very similar principle.

317
00:19:16,119 --> 00:19:20,520
Speaker 1: So you have a printer or a copier, inside of

318
00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:24,639
Speaker 1: which is a rotating drum, a cylindrical piece of equipment

319
00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:29,119
Speaker 1: that turns, it rotates around its axis, and near this

320
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:32,120
Speaker 1: rotating drum, which is photo conductive, that means that when

321
00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:35,920
Speaker 1: light hits it, it can actually create conductivity. You can

322
00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:39,920
Speaker 1: have electron movement through the material. Near it, you would

323
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:43,600
Speaker 1: have a wire. It's called a corona wire. It's not

324
00:19:44,359 --> 00:19:47,879
Speaker 1: kind of beer, it's just that's what called a corona wire.

325
00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:51,920
Speaker 1: You run uh an electrical current thread. You actually create

326
00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:56,080
Speaker 1: a voltage through this wire, and this preps the drum

327
00:19:56,320 --> 00:19:59,680
Speaker 1: as the drum rotates. The drum rotates near this high

328
00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:03,679
Speaker 1: volt toge corona wire, and that ends up giving the

329
00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:06,960
Speaker 1: rotating drum a charge. And now, for the purposes of

330
00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:10,600
Speaker 1: this example, let's just say it's a positive charge. You

331
00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:12,840
Speaker 1: could do this with a negative charge to everything would

332
00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:15,800
Speaker 1: be reversed, but we're gonna say positive charge for this one.

333
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:19,360
Speaker 1: So you get a positive charge on the surface of

334
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:24,440
Speaker 1: this rotating drum. The laser beam would shine down onto

335
00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:28,920
Speaker 1: this photo conductive drum as it rotates, drawing out the

336
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,720
Speaker 1: various letters and images that are supposed to be printed

337
00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:34,479
Speaker 1: on the paper. It hits all the points that are

338
00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:37,800
Speaker 1: supposed to be covered in toner. In other words, all

339
00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:41,960
Speaker 1: the points that should show up as a positive image, uh,

340
00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:45,399
Speaker 1: you know, having actual ink on it. The reaction between

341
00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:48,240
Speaker 1: the laser and the photo conductive drum creates a negatively

342
00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:51,719
Speaker 1: charged area on the drums surface. So think of it

343
00:20:51,760 --> 00:20:55,040
Speaker 1: as painting the drums surface with light, and when you

344
00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:58,320
Speaker 1: finish painting with light, there's an electro static charge there,

345
00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:01,520
Speaker 1: and it's a negative charge. The lasers very narrow and

346
00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:03,520
Speaker 1: it's very focused, so we can do this with really

347
00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:08,440
Speaker 1: great precision. The printer then coats the drum and positively

348
00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:12,640
Speaker 1: charged toner. Now we all remember cool Om's law, right,

349
00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:15,639
Speaker 1: We all follow it whether we want to or not.

350
00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:20,719
Speaker 1: Coulomb's law is that like charges oppose each other, and

351
00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:27,040
Speaker 1: opposite charges attract. Just like Paul Abduel said, the positively

352
00:21:27,119 --> 00:21:29,600
Speaker 1: charged areas of the drum, which were the ones that

353
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:34,000
Speaker 1: were not touched by the laser. Those repel the toner

354
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:37,200
Speaker 1: because the toner itself is also positively charged, and light

355
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:42,840
Speaker 1: charge repels like But the negatively charged sections, the ones

356
00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:46,640
Speaker 1: that the laser actually drew upon, those attract toner. Ton

357
00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:50,400
Speaker 1: or sticks to that part of the drum. So then

358
00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:52,840
Speaker 1: the toner adheres to that part of the rotating drum

359
00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:55,760
Speaker 1: as it goes around. Next comes the paper. Now the

360
00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:59,760
Speaker 1: paper first will pass by a negatively charged corona wire.

361
00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:03,800
Speaker 1: This imparts a very strong negative electrostatic charge to the

362
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:08,520
Speaker 1: paper itself, and the charge has to be stronger than

363
00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:11,680
Speaker 1: the one that's on the rotating drum, because then whichever

364
00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:14,600
Speaker 1: charge is strongest is going to pull the hardest at

365
00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,000
Speaker 1: the toner. The toner is going to go which whichever

366
00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:19,080
Speaker 1: one is the strongest. Think of the toner in this

367
00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:21,600
Speaker 1: case as a rope in a in a game of

368
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:25,160
Speaker 1: tug of war, and the paper that's just gone past

369
00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:29,199
Speaker 1: the corona wire is a big beefy dude, and the

370
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:34,080
Speaker 1: photo conductive drum is a not so strong dude. Or hey,

371
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:38,160
Speaker 1: let's say it's a big strong woman is the paper one,

372
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:44,720
Speaker 1: and the photo conductive dramas myself. Well, the strong woman

373
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:47,120
Speaker 1: is totally gonna win that game of tug of war.

374
00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:51,200
Speaker 1: Let's just face it. She will. And the same thing

375
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:55,000
Speaker 1: is true with this particular scenario. The paper comes in,

376
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 1: the electrostatic charge is stronger on the paper than it

377
00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:00,320
Speaker 1: is on the drum. It then attracts all the toner

378
00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:02,719
Speaker 1: onto the paper, and of course the toner is in

379
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:06,320
Speaker 1: the shape that was drawn by that laser, and that

380
00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:09,080
Speaker 1: means all the words, all the images, everything is drawn

381
00:23:09,080 --> 00:23:12,479
Speaker 1: out specifically the way the laser had it had moved

382
00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:15,800
Speaker 1: across the surface of this drum. The paper then passes

383
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:19,720
Speaker 1: through a pair of high temperature rollers called the fusers.

384
00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:23,199
Speaker 1: This melts the toner so that it fuses with the paper.

385
00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:27,200
Speaker 1: The toner has these little plastic particles inside of it,

386
00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:30,679
Speaker 1: and by melting it, that's what makes it stick to

387
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:33,399
Speaker 1: the paper, and it doesn't just brush off when it

388
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:37,040
Speaker 1: comes out, because otherwise you just have a electrostatically charged

389
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:40,800
Speaker 1: piece of paper and some electrostatically charged bits of toner,

390
00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,120
Speaker 1: and then you know, a good shake would make all

391
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:46,840
Speaker 1: of that fall away. So it has to be melted

392
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 1: to the surface of the paper for it to be

393
00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:54,160
Speaker 1: fused there. And then the drum meanwhile continues its rotation

394
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 1: and that rotation takes it past what is called a

395
00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:01,040
Speaker 1: discharge lamp, and essentially that erases the drum and prepares

396
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:03,919
Speaker 1: it for the next electro static image. So the discharge

397
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:07,520
Speaker 1: lamp kind of sets it at zero. The next time

398
00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:11,359
Speaker 1: the drama rotates past the corona wire, it will be

399
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:14,200
Speaker 1: prepared again with its positive charge, and the whole process

400
00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:17,919
Speaker 1: can start all over. This, by the way, happens incredibly fast,

401
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:20,280
Speaker 1: which is why you can make lots and lots of

402
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:23,760
Speaker 1: copies in a short amount of time, because it's just

403
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:28,120
Speaker 1: constantly happening as the dramas rotating. It's actually pretty remarkable

404
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:30,879
Speaker 1: at how fast this can happen. When you think about

405
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:35,199
Speaker 1: it that it's it's redrawing new images or perhaps the

406
00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:38,440
Speaker 1: same image over and over again. Uh, it's pretty incredible.

407
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,040
Speaker 1: So you can see that this is similar in many

408
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:44,320
Speaker 1: ways to the earlier form of zerography that they had

409
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:48,640
Speaker 1: pioneered in the fifties and sixties. The use of lasers

410
00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:51,760
Speaker 1: allowed for more accurate and finally detailed copies, so you

411
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: had an increase in quality. Back to the timeline. In

412
00:24:55,680 --> 00:25:00,520
Speaker 1: nineteen two, researchers at Park developed the programming language small talk.

413
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:04,879
Speaker 1: This was an early example of an object oriented programming language.

414
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:08,320
Speaker 1: The language pioneered several features that would become standard elements

415
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:11,440
Speaker 1: of future programming languages. But i recently did a couple

416
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,320
Speaker 1: of episodes on the history of programming languages, so I'm

417
00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:16,480
Speaker 1: not going to retread all of that here. You can

418
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:18,679
Speaker 1: go back and listen to it to learn more about

419
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,399
Speaker 1: programming languages, what they do, and how they evolved over time.

420
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:26,879
Speaker 1: Back at Xerox Park, in nineteen seventy three, they created

421
00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: the Alto. Now, the Alto was one of the first

422
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:34,040
Speaker 1: computers that could be said to fall into a personal

423
00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:38,680
Speaker 1: computer category. But there's a big asterisk next to that,

424
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,520
Speaker 1: and that asterisk leads to a footnote, and that footnote

425
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,919
Speaker 1: says it was never really sold to the general public.

426
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,320
Speaker 1: Xerox didn't intend for those to go to the average consumer.

427
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:53,200
Speaker 1: They weren't looking at the average person as a potential customer. Instead,

428
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:56,400
Speaker 1: these computers were made for internal use at Park itself,

429
00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 1: so it became kind of a development platform people who

430
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:02,680
Speaker 1: were working on computer science projects where it would use

431
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:04,840
Speaker 1: the Alto as sort of the platform to build them.

432
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:07,640
Speaker 1: So these would be various user interfaces things like that.

433
00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:11,200
Speaker 1: Alto was the tool that they would use to develop

434
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:14,040
Speaker 1: these things, but they never really thought, hey, we shouldn't

435
00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 1: make a version of this and sell it to people,

436
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:19,879
Speaker 1: because people will totally buy it. So researchers began working

437
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 1: on projects that would one day find elements of those

438
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:26,800
Speaker 1: projects incorporated into consumer products, but most of those consumer

439
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:30,560
Speaker 1: products would be offered by other companies, not Xerox. In fact,

440
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:33,080
Speaker 1: that's one of the big problems Xerox faced later on,

441
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:36,080
Speaker 1: is that they made a lot of really useful stuff,

442
00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 1: but it turned out they didn't really make good leverage

443
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,920
Speaker 1: of it. Right, they invented it, but they didn't really

444
00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 1: bring it to market in a way that was meaningful.

445
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 1: Other companies would just end up incorporating those ideas into

446
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:55,040
Speaker 1: their own designs and then they made all the bank

447
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 1: off of it. For example, one of those early projects

448
00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 1: was a whizzy wig editor. Now, whizziwig stands for what

449
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:05,400
Speaker 1: you see is what you get, meaning you can see

450
00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:07,520
Speaker 1: the thing you are editing and make changes to it

451
00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: with those changes immediately reflected on screen. So the way

452
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:14,199
Speaker 1: I usually described this is if you look at the

453
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,919
Speaker 1: early days of developing web pages, the only way you

454
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:21,480
Speaker 1: could really create a web page was using a text editor.

455
00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 1: And you would build the page out using HTML hypertext

456
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:29,760
Speaker 1: markup language. Typically you'd build out a page in code. Essentially,

457
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 1: it's pretty simple code, but still code, so you'd build

458
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:36,399
Speaker 1: it out. You would save it, so you save a

459
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 1: text file that has all this code in it. You

460
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:43,240
Speaker 1: would open up a browser. You would open up the

461
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:47,600
Speaker 1: language that you had just saved. The browser would interpret

462
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:49,680
Speaker 1: that as a web page and display it in front

463
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:51,040
Speaker 1: of you, and then you would look at it and

464
00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 1: you would say, yes, that's exactly what I want, or

465
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:57,639
Speaker 1: you might say this is terrible. Everything is misaligned. Nothing

466
00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 1: is the right color, the font is the wrong size,

467
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 1: lots of different things could go wrong, at which point

468
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 1: you would close out the browser. You would open up

469
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:09,360
Speaker 1: the text editor. You would go through the ht mL.

470
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:12,159
Speaker 1: You would try and find where you went wrong, and

471
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:13,920
Speaker 1: you would try and fix it, and then you would

472
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:16,640
Speaker 1: do it all over again. Save it, open up a browser,

473
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,359
Speaker 1: open up that code, see if it looks any better.

474
00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 1: It was a real trial and error process. It took

475
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:26,560
Speaker 1: a lot of time, whereas whizzy wig would just allow

476
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:29,120
Speaker 1: you to see what the page is supposed to look

477
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 1: like from the beginning, and you can make those changes

478
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 1: directly and see how it looks immediately and not have

479
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 1: to do this start stop process that you would have

480
00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:41,719
Speaker 1: to do otherwise. It's a pretty big leap. Now they

481
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 1: were looking at whizzy Wig editors for all sorts of stuff,

482
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:47,040
Speaker 1: not web pages. Web Pages were not a thing back

483
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,760
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies. But I just used that as

484
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: an example because it was something I have had personal

485
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: experience with. I used to program web pages in HTML,

486
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 1: and I couldn't do it today, It's been too long

487
00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:02,520
Speaker 1: since i've I've done it, but it was painstaking and

488
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:04,960
Speaker 1: it was easy to make mistakes and hard to figure

489
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 1: out where those mistakes were. So whizzy Wig was a

490
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 1: big step up in making it more user friendly and

491
00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:15,160
Speaker 1: easy to make changes to various types of documents. Meanwhile,

492
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: as other engineers were working on our pannet, which was

493
00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 1: the predecessor to the Internet, or a predecessor to the Internet,

494
00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:26,719
Speaker 1: I should say, Xerox was pioneering ethernet networking, and this

495
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 1: is a way of connecting hardware like printers and computers

496
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 1: together in a local area network or land. It was

497
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:35,239
Speaker 1: a revolutionary idea at the time, and it would make

498
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:39,160
Speaker 1: a big impact as it spread beyond Xerox and something

499
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:41,720
Speaker 1: else that happened at Xerox Park involved an influx of

500
00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:46,640
Speaker 1: new talent from another lab. That lab was the Stanford

501
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:50,000
Speaker 1: Research Institute Lab s r I, and there was a

502
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:53,160
Speaker 1: man there named Douglas ingle Bart who was working at

503
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 1: s r I, and ingle Bart was a visionary and

504
00:29:56,320 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 1: his work created the foundation for modern personal computer interface

505
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:03,880
Speaker 1: his Inglebart himself was not connected to Xerox Park. He

506
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:06,960
Speaker 1: didn't work for them, but several of his team did

507
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:11,440
Speaker 1: defect to Park in the nineteen seventies. Now, the reasons

508
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: for that were multiple multiple in nature. There were some

509
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,560
Speaker 1: people who just found Inglebart's personality a bit much and

510
00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:19,480
Speaker 1: they just found it difficult to work with them, so

511
00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:22,200
Speaker 1: they wanted to work somewhere else. There were others who

512
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 1: were just convinced that he had the wrong idea as

513
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:26,880
Speaker 1: far as where computers should go next. He had this

514
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:31,880
Speaker 1: kind of time sharing idea where multiple users would all

515
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 1: take advantage of a very powerful machine, but no one

516
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 1: would necessarily own it. You would have access to it.

517
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:41,120
Speaker 1: So this is similar to the way computer labs were

518
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 1: working in universities at the time. But a lot of

519
00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:46,000
Speaker 1: the people on his team thought that personal computers were

520
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 1: the next big thing, and this was a fundamental disagreement

521
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,960
Speaker 1: in the philosophy of where computers were going, and so

522
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:56,400
Speaker 1: team members began to leave Inglebart's team, and they ended

523
00:30:56,480 --> 00:31:00,880
Speaker 1: up some of them anyway joining Park. Now, all the

524
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 1: ideas that Inglebart was putting forward included some pretty revolutionary

525
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:07,720
Speaker 1: ones for the time being, including things like a graphic

526
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:11,360
Speaker 1: user interface or gooey So Windows is an example of

527
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,600
Speaker 1: a graphic user interface, Windows based applications, meaning that you

528
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 1: could actually have a window on your screen running some

529
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:22,280
Speaker 1: form of application, maybe it's a word processing program or

530
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:26,240
Speaker 1: something along those lines. Ingle Bart also created the computer mouse,

531
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:30,040
Speaker 1: or at least his team did, and he demonstrated those

532
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 1: technologies and more at a big computer conference in the

533
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 1: winter of nineteen sixty eight. Now that was two years

534
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:40,320
Speaker 1: before Xerox Park was founded, So again ingle Bart had

535
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 1: had experience with this and was pioneering in this years

536
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 1: before Xerox Park. The reason I make this point now

537
00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:51,600
Speaker 1: is because some people will simplify the story and say

538
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 1: that Xerox Park invented things like the computer mouse and

539
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:58,200
Speaker 1: the graphic user interface and word processing. That's not really true.

540
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 1: A lot of that was pioneered at Stanford Research Institute.

541
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: It's just that those team members eventually went over to

542
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 1: Xerox Park, and it was Xerox Park that ended up

543
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: becoming sort of ground zero for these ideas in Silicon Valley. Ah,

544
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:16,800
Speaker 1: but you couldn't You can trace it all the way

545
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:21,040
Speaker 1: back to Inglebart. The demonstration he did became known later

546
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:23,680
Speaker 1: on as the Mother of All demos, which tells you

547
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:27,680
Speaker 1: how much stuff he was actually showing off. Got this

548
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:30,560
Speaker 1: moniker due to having so many elements. Included that we're

549
00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 1: a brand new way of computing, and they were ideas

550
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:36,920
Speaker 1: that would end up having a massive impact on personal

551
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 1: computering in general a couple of decades later. Uh. At

552
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:45,480
Speaker 1: the time, that industry didn't even really exist. So ingle

553
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: Bart was showing off concepts like word processing, windowed functions,

554
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:53,120
Speaker 1: video conferencing, real time collaboration tools, which is pretty incredible

555
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: stuff like you know what you might see with Google

556
00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:58,160
Speaker 1: Docs today. Uh. He also showed off the computer mouse

557
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: and navigation strategies used the computer mouse, and included a

558
00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:03,959
Speaker 1: ton of stuff that would become intrinsic to computing over

559
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,640
Speaker 1: the next couple of decades. Well's team when they left

560
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:13,160
Speaker 1: ended up bringing that information over to Xerox Park, and

561
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:16,280
Speaker 1: so Xerox began to incorporate some of those same ideas

562
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 1: into its Alto platform, But the Alto was still very

563
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,120
Speaker 1: much an internal product. It was not something made for

564
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:27,760
Speaker 1: the outside world, so the general public remained ignorant of this.

565
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 1: Xerox was not very They weren't very communicative with what

566
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:34,480
Speaker 1: was going on at Park because the whole purpose of

567
00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:36,960
Speaker 1: that division was to do research and development and to

568
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 1: give Xerox a competitive advantage in the marketplace, so you

569
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:44,000
Speaker 1: wouldn't talk about this. The Alto, as it turns out,

570
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:46,120
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't have been a big hit even if it

571
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:49,840
Speaker 1: had been sold to consumers, largely because its stats were

572
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 1: a little underwhelming for the time being. It was an

573
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:56,280
Speaker 1: interesting development tool, but not much more than that. I

574
00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,280
Speaker 1: got a lot more to say about Xerox Park, but

575
00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:01,880
Speaker 1: before I up into that, let's take another quick break

576
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 1: and thank our sponsor. All Right, we're up to nineteen

577
00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:15,400
Speaker 1: seventy four. The whizzy Wig editors get added functionality like

578
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 1: cutting paste, so cutting paste became a thing in nineteen

579
00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:21,960
Speaker 1: seventy four. Apple on the iPhone would wait quite some

580
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:25,520
Speaker 1: time before incorporating it onto the iOS that's just me

581
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:27,759
Speaker 1: taking a swipe at Apple. It will not be the

582
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:32,399
Speaker 1: last time I do it. Park also created a word

583
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:36,040
Speaker 1: processing program in nineteen seventy four called Bravo, and in

584
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:39,759
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five Park showed off a graphic user interface

585
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:43,759
Speaker 1: or a gooey. Uh. This is a way of an

586
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:48,320
Speaker 1: interfacing with a computer where the graphics are representing different commands.

587
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:51,319
Speaker 1: So we think of just Windows or mac os that's

588
00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 1: essentially a gooey, or any real like smartphone in her

589
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:59,320
Speaker 1: face is a gooey. You would typically click on something

590
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:02,399
Speaker 1: or tap something in order to activate it. That's your

591
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 1: basic graphic user interface navigation. But it really got start

592
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 1: in the late sixties and early seventies. Uh. They also

593
00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:14,279
Speaker 1: included uh, not just the icons that were representing different programs,

594
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:17,799
Speaker 1: but pop up menus and overlapping windows, so you could

595
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:21,400
Speaker 1: have multiple applications open on the same computer and you

596
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:25,000
Speaker 1: could navigate easily by clicking on the different windows. So

597
00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:27,799
Speaker 1: these are basic things that would find their way into

598
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,359
Speaker 1: operating systems in the future, but they were really revolutionary

599
00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:32,520
Speaker 1: back in the nineteen seventies, and you would use a

600
00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:35,799
Speaker 1: mouse to navigate it. These were all refined elements that

601
00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:39,120
Speaker 1: again were earlier found in Inglebart's work back at Stanford

602
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:42,080
Speaker 1: Research Institute. So I don't mean to suggest that the

603
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:47,360
Speaker 1: people at Xerox Park invented this. They took these ideas

604
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:50,239
Speaker 1: that had been initially developed at s r I, and

605
00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:54,080
Speaker 1: they began to evolve them and innovate upon them and

606
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:59,880
Speaker 1: refine them. So uh, they were better implementations. Still not

607
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,239
Speaker 1: great implementations according to some people, but better than the

608
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:07,839
Speaker 1: proof of concept stuff from the nineteen sixties. And think

609
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:11,680
Speaker 1: for a moment about how transformative Inglebart's mouse was. I mean,

610
00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:14,080
Speaker 1: there's a lot of work that Inglebart did that was

611
00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:19,000
Speaker 1: incredibly impactful in the computer world, but the mouse is

612
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:21,360
Speaker 1: just one of those things that is so fundamental to

613
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:24,279
Speaker 1: our experience of computers these days that I wanted to

614
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 1: take a moment to just think about how amazing it

615
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:31,480
Speaker 1: is that it even became a thing. It was just

616
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:35,719
Speaker 1: had such an enormous impact. It's a bit of a

617
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:38,600
Speaker 1: mind bender, really to think about moving a cursor on

618
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 1: a screen. Typically it's a screen that's on our relatively

619
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 1: vertical plane. Like you have a usually have a screen

620
00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:48,279
Speaker 1: in front of you that is vertically aligned, so that

621
00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:52,160
Speaker 1: it's standing up, you're looking straight ahead, you can see

622
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:55,080
Speaker 1: the cursor on there. Meanwhile, you are moving a device

623
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:59,680
Speaker 1: along a horizontal plane, like a desktop. So you're moving

624
00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,640
Speaker 1: a device on the horizontal plane to manipulate a cursor

625
00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 1: that's on the vertical plane, and your brain just handles

626
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:08,960
Speaker 1: this pretty easily. A lot of people might have thought,

627
00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:13,480
Speaker 1: just initially, without having experienced this, that it would be

628
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:16,880
Speaker 1: really difficult to pick up that you are moving something

629
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:22,000
Speaker 1: along one x y axis and meanwhile, ninety degrees removed

630
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:24,759
Speaker 1: from that x y axis, you're moving something else in

631
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:28,160
Speaker 1: order to control that. Uh. It just seems counterintuitive, but

632
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:33,240
Speaker 1: in fact it works really well, and so we're pretty

633
00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:36,280
Speaker 1: lucky that our brains are capable of taking on this challenge.

634
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 1: On most days. Anyway, I'm just speaking for myself here,

635
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:42,880
Speaker 1: there are some days where even operating a mouse is

636
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:49,360
Speaker 1: particularly challenging to me. In n a young entrepreneur negotiated

637
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:53,040
Speaker 1: a special visit to Xerox Park. Now this was highly

638
00:37:53,239 --> 00:37:56,440
Speaker 1: out of the ordinary because the work at park was

639
00:37:56,480 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 1: pretty hush hush. I mean, it was not quite a

640
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:04,120
Speaker 1: skunk works, but it was almost that quiet. So getting

641
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:07,080
Speaker 1: a visit, especially when you are in charge of a

642
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:12,640
Speaker 1: company that could theoretically compete with Xerox was a big deal.

643
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:16,840
Speaker 1: This young businessman offered up a significant share in his

644
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,680
Speaker 1: young company before it was going to have its own

645
00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:23,319
Speaker 1: initial public offering or i p O. That's when you

646
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:26,680
Speaker 1: create a company and you make it publicly traded so

647
00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:31,280
Speaker 1: people can purchase stocks. So essentially, this young entrepreneur comes

648
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:33,120
Speaker 1: to Xerox park and says, I really want to take

649
00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:35,600
Speaker 1: a look at what you're doing in there, and they said,

650
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:39,399
Speaker 1: it's not really what we're comfortable with. And he says, well,

651
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:41,920
Speaker 1: I got this company over here, it's about to go public,

652
00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:45,120
Speaker 1: and I can totally cut you guys a huge deal

653
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,480
Speaker 1: and give you a whole bunch of stock in this

654
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:52,520
Speaker 1: brand new company before it goes public, and then you'll

655
00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:55,040
Speaker 1: just end up being able to see lots of profit

656
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:58,000
Speaker 1: as my company is incredibly successful. Now. For a lot

657
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:00,480
Speaker 1: of companies, they would have said, hey, go pound sand

658
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:04,400
Speaker 1: get out of here, you bother in me. But Xerox

659
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 1: said all right, and they accepted this young entrepreneurs deal.

660
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:13,239
Speaker 1: That young man was Steve Jobs, and his company was,

661
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 1: of course Apple Computer, and Jobs was really impressed by

662
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:21,480
Speaker 1: the demonstration of Xerox's technologies, many of which again originated

663
00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:24,960
Speaker 1: with Inglebart's team way back at Stanford Research Institute. And

664
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:27,799
Speaker 1: while Jobs was convinced that Xerox was never really going

665
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:30,279
Speaker 1: to do anything with that in the consumer space, he

666
00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:33,279
Speaker 1: just didn't think that their version of it was a

667
00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:37,480
Speaker 1: really good version. He did think the ideas were astounding

668
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:40,279
Speaker 1: and important. He was certain he could take those same

669
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:42,960
Speaker 1: ideas and make an incredible machine. So he went back

670
00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:47,160
Speaker 1: to Apple and immediately began to incorporate those features into

671
00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:51,840
Speaker 1: a new design for the upcoming Macintosh computer. If you

672
00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:55,640
Speaker 1: listen to my episodes about the history of the Macintosh,

673
00:39:56,080 --> 00:40:01,360
Speaker 1: you'll remember how much turmoil Jobs decisions caused. It's ultimately

674
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:05,480
Speaker 1: culminated in Jobs as forced exit from his own company.

675
00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:07,799
Speaker 1: But that's a story we've already told, so I'm not

676
00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:10,919
Speaker 1: going to retread it here. Just go back and listen

677
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:12,799
Speaker 1: to the history of the Macintosh and you'll hear how

678
00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:16,200
Speaker 1: Steve Jobs, once he got all these great ideas, totally

679
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:20,399
Speaker 1: took over the Macintosh design process and through the whole

680
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:24,840
Speaker 1: project into disarray, arguably for the better, but certainly in

681
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:29,120
Speaker 1: the short term. It was very tumultuous over at Apple Computers.

682
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:34,319
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty, Park would develop magneto optical storage devices

683
00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:37,239
Speaker 1: which could store data on them, but we're not erasable,

684
00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:40,320
Speaker 1: so once you wrote data to the disc, that was it.

685
00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:42,759
Speaker 1: It was gonna be there forever until the disc was destroyed,

686
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:45,440
Speaker 1: and this would eventually find its way into a commercial

687
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:51,760
Speaker 1: product and would spawn off a spinoff company called optimim.

688
00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:56,680
Speaker 1: In two, Park created the first fiber optics based local

689
00:40:56,719 --> 00:41:00,960
Speaker 1: area network, which is pretty incredible. Fiber optics are super cool,

690
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:02,880
Speaker 1: and we've done a tech stuff episode on those in

691
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:04,439
Speaker 1: the past. I want to say that that was one

692
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:07,120
Speaker 1: that Chris Pallette and I did many years ago. So

693
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:09,000
Speaker 1: if you do the search on the RSS feed for

694
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:12,480
Speaker 1: fiber optics, it should pop up. In nineteen eight six,

695
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:17,080
Speaker 1: Park introduced the world to multi beam lasers, which would

696
00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:19,439
Speaker 1: be used in various printing systems to create an even

697
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:22,719
Speaker 1: faster experience for customers. Again, those customers were, for the

698
00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:27,080
Speaker 1: most part, big corporations. Xerox still wasn't terribly interested in

699
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 1: making products for the average person. Seven saw Part create

700
00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:35,480
Speaker 1: a sixteen bit coding system for characters in order to

701
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:39,759
Speaker 1: allow computers to represent text in any language. So there

702
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:42,120
Speaker 1: are a lot of different languages with different alphabets, right,

703
00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,319
Speaker 1: sort of like alphabet, and you've got the standard of

704
00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:47,839
Speaker 1: English alphabet, You've got lots of different versions. You've got

705
00:41:48,120 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 1: various European alphabets that have characters that are not found

706
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:54,640
Speaker 1: in English. We don't have too many oomblouts over here

707
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:58,480
Speaker 1: in the English language, for example, or various excit grav

708
00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:03,160
Speaker 1: or excit you so uh. This was a way of

709
00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:06,359
Speaker 1: encoding all those different characters and making sure that they

710
00:42:06,360 --> 00:42:09,759
Speaker 1: had representation on computers so that computers could display and

711
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:15,080
Speaker 1: ultimately and interpret this kind of text. This would eventually

712
00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:19,560
Speaker 1: be developed into a standard later called Unicode. In nineteen

713
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:24,879
Speaker 1: Xerox Park sort of predicted the Internet of things. Now.

714
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:27,960
Speaker 1: Back in those days, it was called ubiquitous computing, and

715
00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:30,080
Speaker 1: it really referred to the way that computers could be

716
00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:33,120
Speaker 1: integrated into more elements of our lives, such as our

717
00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:37,200
Speaker 1: vehicles and personal devices. Park also worked with some early

718
00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:40,120
Speaker 1: mobile device designs at the time, although if you were

719
00:42:40,160 --> 00:42:44,360
Speaker 1: to compare them to today's mobile devices, they look super clunky,

720
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:48,360
Speaker 1: but they were really forward thinking. Xerox was saying, you know, eventually,

721
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:52,520
Speaker 1: we're going to have these little computer like devices that

722
00:42:52,719 --> 00:42:55,240
Speaker 1: are going to be very important in how we interact

723
00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:58,520
Speaker 1: with the world. I'm sure that it was even pretty

724
00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:01,080
Speaker 1: modest compared to what we can do today with our

725
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:03,719
Speaker 1: smart devices, but still it was showing that they were

726
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:07,279
Speaker 1: thinking ahead and yet still not really capitalizing on it

727
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:11,040
Speaker 1: in any sort of consumer or commercial way. In ninete

728
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:14,520
Speaker 1: Park researchers helped work on the protocols and standards for

729
00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:17,520
Speaker 1: the implementation of the Internet. Now, the Internet was already

730
00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:20,640
Speaker 1: a thing by It's not like it was brand new,

731
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:24,879
Speaker 1: but it was just starting to become something that the

732
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:28,080
Speaker 1: mainstream public was aware of. Ninety two is still pretty

733
00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:30,440
Speaker 1: early for the mainstream public. A lot of people who

734
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:33,080
Speaker 1: knew about the Internet were folks who were in college

735
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:37,840
Speaker 1: because a lot of universities had Internet labs, and of

736
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:40,800
Speaker 1: course the Worldwide Web was just getting started in ninety two,

737
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:43,760
Speaker 1: so it wasn't like it was widely understood at that point.

738
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:48,040
Speaker 1: In two thousand, Park developed a flexible digital document display

739
00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:51,960
Speaker 1: tech that they called electronic Reusable Paper, and Park would

740
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:55,200
Speaker 1: create a spinoff company called Gyra Coon Media to commercialize

741
00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:59,239
Speaker 1: this e paper product. A decade later, in two thousand two,

742
00:43:59,719 --> 00:44:03,320
Speaker 1: zero X would spin off Park and it would become

743
00:44:03,360 --> 00:44:08,120
Speaker 1: an independent subsidiary. So Park still exists, but it is

744
00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:11,480
Speaker 1: not Xerox Park anymore. It's kind of its own independent

745
00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:14,680
Speaker 1: research and development company. Now, there's still a lot to

746
00:44:14,680 --> 00:44:18,040
Speaker 1: say about Xerox itself. While Park was working on these

747
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:22,080
Speaker 1: new innovations, the company continued to make products, mostly again

748
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:26,080
Speaker 1: for the enterprise consumerteen copier that put Xerox on the

749
00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:31,680
Speaker 1: map boasted a seventy percent profit margin because of the

750
00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:34,400
Speaker 1: amount it costs to make one versus the amount that

751
00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:38,000
Speaker 1: Xerox could charge companies to buy it. So Xerox was

752
00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:41,759
Speaker 1: making a seventy profit on every sale of one of

753
00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:45,520
Speaker 1: these copiers. It was retired in the early nineteen seventies

754
00:44:45,560 --> 00:44:48,279
Speaker 1: because eventually they just had too many other products that

755
00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:52,360
Speaker 1: were faster, more efficient than the nine fourteen. But it

756
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:56,440
Speaker 1: did show that Xerox had a very strong incentive for

757
00:44:56,560 --> 00:45:00,640
Speaker 1: going after those enterprise customers be because that's where the

758
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:03,600
Speaker 1: profit was. You didn't have to produce nearly as much

759
00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:07,560
Speaker 1: product to make a huge amount of money, because if

760
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:12,640
Speaker 1: you're making a profit margin, then it's all right if

761
00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:15,839
Speaker 1: you have fewer sales per year, because you're making more

762
00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:17,919
Speaker 1: money per sale than you would if you were using

763
00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:20,319
Speaker 1: something else. It's one of the reasons why Xerox was

764
00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:25,719
Speaker 1: so reluctant to move into other markets like the consumer marketplace.

765
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:29,239
Speaker 1: It just made more sense financially to continue developing for

766
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:33,400
Speaker 1: the enterprise, so it could have pivoted to aim at consumers.

767
00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:37,680
Speaker 1: But why would you unless you happen to have enough

768
00:45:37,719 --> 00:45:41,080
Speaker 1: foresight to say things are not going to stay the

769
00:45:41,120 --> 00:45:44,759
Speaker 1: same forever. And I thought this was really going to

770
00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:46,520
Speaker 1: be a two partter, like I said the beginning, but

771
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 1: it turns out the story is just too big. So

772
00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:50,840
Speaker 1: in our next episode, I'm going to finish out the

773
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:53,799
Speaker 1: Xerox story. And there's some complicated things that happened in

774
00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:56,400
Speaker 1: that timeline that we're gonna need to look into. For example,

775
00:45:56,680 --> 00:45:59,080
Speaker 1: we'll learn what happened to the company as a result

776
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:01,960
Speaker 1: of it focusing on those high price commercial machines and

777
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:05,279
Speaker 1: the trouble the organization got into when serious competition that

778
00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:08,120
Speaker 1: market popped up. Here's a bit of a spoiler for that.

779
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:11,560
Speaker 1: You had a lot of companies in Japan that we're

780
00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:16,200
Speaker 1: starting to make photo copiers. There were other big competitors

781
00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:22,880
Speaker 1: that that the Xerox company was looking at, including Kodak, IBM, Cannon.

782
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:26,440
Speaker 1: But the real problem where these smaller Japanese companies that

783
00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:29,319
Speaker 1: were able to make photo copiers and sell them at

784
00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:33,280
Speaker 1: much lower prices than Xerox. They were undercutting the Xerox sales.

785
00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:38,160
Speaker 1: Xerox went from having a n share in the market

786
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:41,840
Speaker 1: near a near monopoly, it was practically a monopoly in

787
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:46,279
Speaker 1: photo copiers to going down to below fient in just

788
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:49,840
Speaker 1: a few years. Now, how did that happen? Why the

789
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:53,439
Speaker 1: precipitous fall that's going to be the focus of part

790
00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:57,520
Speaker 1: three of the Xerox Story. What exactly happened to make

791
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 1: the company have such a rough time him? And what

792
00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:05,919
Speaker 1: is the crazy power struggle that happened at the very

793
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:09,960
Speaker 1: top levels of Xerox, And why did it come about?

794
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:15,440
Speaker 1: Why did Xerox hire a CEO and then fire that

795
00:47:15,560 --> 00:47:20,359
Speaker 1: CEO just a year later? What was going on? That's

796
00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:21,880
Speaker 1: gonna be the focus of the next one. That's as

797
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:24,319
Speaker 1: that's as good of a cliffhanger as I can leave

798
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:27,720
Speaker 1: you with with the Xerox Story Part two. We'll tune

799
00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 1: in next time with the Xerox Story Part three, and

800
00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:31,759
Speaker 1: we will conclude this story and then we'll move on

801
00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:35,160
Speaker 1: to other topics. And meanwhile, let's say that you've got

802
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:38,759
Speaker 1: a suggestion for a future episode topic and it's just

803
00:47:38,880 --> 00:47:42,000
Speaker 1: burning a little hole in your brain and you want

804
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:45,560
Speaker 1: to stop it because that hurts and the smells distracting,

805
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:48,840
Speaker 1: then send it to me. I'll deal with the burning

806
00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:52,440
Speaker 1: brain problem. Just write me an email. The email addresses

807
00:47:52,520 --> 00:47:55,440
Speaker 1: tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or you

808
00:47:55,440 --> 00:47:58,200
Speaker 1: can drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter to

809
00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 1: handle it. Both of those is text of h s W.

810
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:05,000
Speaker 1: You can also watch me record this show live on

811
00:48:05,040 --> 00:48:09,120
Speaker 1: Wednesdays and Friday's. That's over at twitch dot tv slash

812
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:11,359
Speaker 1: tech Stuff. You can just go over there. You'll see

813
00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:14,920
Speaker 1: the schedule of when I record. I love chatting with

814
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:18,279
Speaker 1: you guys and hanging out before and after the show

815
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:20,319
Speaker 1: and during the ad breaks as well, so you can

816
00:48:20,840 --> 00:48:24,359
Speaker 1: have a real time discussion more or less with me.

817
00:48:24,440 --> 00:48:27,160
Speaker 1: It's not quite real time, there's like a ten second delay,

818
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:29,720
Speaker 1: but apart from that, as real time as it gets.

819
00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:32,680
Speaker 1: So I hope to see you there and I'll talk

820
00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:42,880
Speaker 1: to you again really soon for more on this and

821
00:48:42,960 --> 00:48:45,520
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Because it has to works dot

822
00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 1: Com