WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Blueprints

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and

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<v Speaker 1>there's Chuck and Jerry's here too. Dates here in spirit.

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<v Speaker 1>When you put us all together, you can call us

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<v Speaker 1>the blue Man group. Best they could come up with

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<v Speaker 1>on short notes.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this is the I guess, the conclusion of our

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<v Speaker 2>two part series on colors. Although we have done colors

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<v Speaker 2>in the past. I know we did Indigo, and I

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<v Speaker 2>think we did a short stuff on Haint blue, right.

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<v Speaker 1>Yes, and some other stuff. It's come up in some

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<v Speaker 1>other things, but I think colors is going to be

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<v Speaker 1>a never ending suite. There's a lot of colors to cover.

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<v Speaker 2>That's right. And this is a story of not only

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<v Speaker 2>a color, but a process. And we're talking about the

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<v Speaker 2>color of Prussian blue. And that is the color of

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<v Speaker 2>a blueprint, like in the old days when blueprints were

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<v Speaker 2>really blue, like blueprints for a house or a building,

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<v Speaker 2>or a bridge or a tank or whatever you're going

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<v Speaker 2>to design. That blue is called Prussian blue.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And I mean if you go and look up

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<v Speaker 1>blueprints up to about the fifties, I would say you

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<v Speaker 1>are going to find actual blue blueprints, like you said.

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<v Speaker 1>And there was a guy named John Herschel. He was

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<v Speaker 1>an English astronomer, chemist and photographer. And this is back

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<v Speaker 1>when photographer is really something. This is the eighteen forties.

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<v Speaker 1>In eighteen forty two, he figured out that Prussian blue

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<v Speaker 1>is photo reactive, meaning that when you expose it to

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<v Speaker 1>light you can get Prussian blue. And he figured out

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<v Speaker 1>that you could use that chemical reaction to make copies

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<v Speaker 1>of things. It's extraordinarily clever. And I think John Herschel

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<v Speaker 1>deserves to be in the Inventors Hall of Fame for this.

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<v Speaker 1>Is he not I don't know. If he is, he

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<v Speaker 1>deserves to be there. If not, he deserves to be there.

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<v Speaker 2>I agree. So this is the process. It's called cyanotype,

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<v Speaker 2>and it was what early photographers used. In fact, the

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<v Speaker 2>very first published photography book was made with cyanotype.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that was, by the way, that was by Anna

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<v Speaker 1>Atkins who's eighteen forty three book Photographs of British Algae.

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<v Speaker 1>Get this, Chuck colon Cyana type impressions amazing.

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<v Speaker 2>So all of a sudden, architects and engineers were all

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<v Speaker 2>over this stuff as well, because they realize, hey, if

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<v Speaker 2>you can make a photograph using this syanotype process, you

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<v Speaker 2>can make a copy of something. And we're really tired

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<v Speaker 2>of redrawing everything over and over right exactly.

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<v Speaker 1>So the process involves producing blue ferric ferris cyanide. That's

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<v Speaker 1>the chemical name for Prussian blue. And you'll notice there's

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of feric stuff in there. That means it's

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<v Speaker 1>made from iron salt, but it also is cyanide in it.

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<v Speaker 1>And just from this researching this episode, Chuck, I finally

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<v Speaker 1>understood what cyan as a blue refers to. It's referring

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<v Speaker 1>to cyanide. Yeah, did you know that already? No, Well,

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<v Speaker 1>I thought that was pretty cool.

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<v Speaker 2>That's awesome.

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<v Speaker 1>But if you take a drawing of something and you

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<v Speaker 1>can put it on something that's basically see through these days,

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<v Speaker 1>they use like clear plastic. If you're doing something like

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<v Speaker 1>this and you have a line drawing and you put

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<v Speaker 1>that line drawing on top of a paper that's been

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<v Speaker 1>treated in blue ferric fair cyanide and these iron salts

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<v Speaker 1>that make that, and you expose it to light, then

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<v Speaker 1>that the paper beneath that's treated in the Prussian blue

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<v Speaker 1>turns blue in every place except for where those lines

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<v Speaker 1>were on top of it.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So it's like a photo image in a dark room.

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<v Speaker 2>And in fact, you have to do it in a

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<v Speaker 2>dark room, just like you would a photograph. So that's

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<v Speaker 2>why you know. They would draw it in regular ink

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<v Speaker 2>on paper, and then the reverse negative image of that

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<v Speaker 2>would be white drawing on blue paper and a really

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<v Speaker 2>nice looking blue.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's gorgeous blue. Pressure and blue is fantastic.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Man, I was typing in Prussian blue things and

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<v Speaker 2>I saw some suit jackets, some wool suit jackets. Prussian blue. Gorgeous.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you'd look like a member of the Prussian army

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<v Speaker 1>from the nineteenth century.

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<v Speaker 2>That's right, That's why they named it that, right.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Do you want to take a break and then

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<v Speaker 1>come back and talk about where Prussian blue came from?

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<v Speaker 2>Let's do it.

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<v Speaker 3>Well, now we're on the road, driving in your Chuck,

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<v Speaker 3>I want to learn a thing or two from josh

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<v Speaker 3>Am Chuck. It's stuff you should know, all right, job.

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<v Speaker 1>So, Prussian blue finds its origins in the laboratory of

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<v Speaker 1>an alchemist and a die maker. Of all places, it's

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<v Speaker 1>a pretty cool place for a new thing to be created,

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<v Speaker 1>especially something as beautiful as pressure blue. And the alchemist

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<v Speaker 1>was a guy named Johann Conrad Dipple. How would you

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<v Speaker 1>say Conrad in German Chuck, Mmm, that's probably right. Conrad

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<v Speaker 1>or Conrad, I don't know. Actually, okay, well we'll just

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<v Speaker 1>call him mister Dipple. He was the alchemist hair dip

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<v Speaker 1>Air Dipple. Yeah, he was the alchemist, and the dye

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<v Speaker 1>maker was a guy named Diesbach. We're just going with

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<v Speaker 1>mister Disbach for this guy. And they shared this lab

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<v Speaker 1>in Berlin, and by sharing a lab and sharing one

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<v Speaker 1>another's or using like borrowing I should say, a cup

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<v Speaker 1>of one another's you know ingredients here there, they ended

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<v Speaker 1>up accidentally creating Prussian blue.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, exactly. I think the chemists was working on medicines

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<v Speaker 2>like elixers and things, and Diesbach, as a die maker,

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<v Speaker 2>was great at making these dyes. And as the story goes,

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<v Speaker 2>he was making a deep red dye one day when

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<v Speaker 2>he borrowed some potash from his chemist friend and that

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<v Speaker 2>turned it into this wonderful, wonderful Prussian blue. He went

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<v Speaker 2>back in hair Dipple and said, I got to figure

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<v Speaker 2>out what this stuff is. And he figured out the

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<v Speaker 2>secret was that the potash had ox blood and when

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<v Speaker 2>he mixed that with the iron sulfate that caused this

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<v Speaker 2>amazing blue to what does it do? Does it unveil itself.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, that's a great, great way to put it.

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<v Speaker 1>So Prussian blue has unveiled itself. And at first they

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<v Speaker 1>called it Berlin blue, and it only became known as

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<v Speaker 1>Prussian blue later on because it was used to dye

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<v Speaker 1>the uniforms of the Prussian army in the early nineteenth century,

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<v Speaker 1>and depending on what part of the continent you were on,

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<v Speaker 1>or whether you were on the continent at all, calling

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<v Speaker 1>it Prussian blue was either a term of endearment or

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<v Speaker 1>a term of disparagement because the Prussians helped save the

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<v Speaker 1>British as cookies at Waterloo and defeated Napoleon. So if

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<v Speaker 1>you were French, you didn't think very highly of the

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<v Speaker 1>Prussians or they're blue. If you were English, it was

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<v Speaker 1>a term of endearment because you were really grateful to

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<v Speaker 1>the Prussians for coming in saving the day.

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<v Speaker 3>There, that's right.

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<v Speaker 2>And it became a just a popular color. Like artists

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<v Speaker 2>loved using it, print makers loved using it. Obviously, these

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<v Speaker 2>architects loved the result of using it. I'm not sure

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<v Speaker 2>if they especially loved the color. That was just kind

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<v Speaker 2>of what color blueprints turned out to be, right, But

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<v Speaker 2>I'm sure, they were fine with it, but Herschel died

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<v Speaker 2>before that blue printing process was born. I think five

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<v Speaker 2>years later is when the actual architectural blueprint process that

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<v Speaker 2>is unfortunately gone, because I think it looks really neat

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<v Speaker 2>these days. You're not going to find that because over

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<v Speaker 2>the years a lot of different things happened to either

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<v Speaker 2>make it fall out of fashion or just make it

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<v Speaker 2>cheaper and safer and easier to make copies in different ways.

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<v Speaker 1>I would bet that there's some hipster artisan architectural firm

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<v Speaker 1>that still uses this process now you think has gone

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<v Speaker 1>back to it, Yeah, but the reason that has largely

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<v Speaker 1>been abandon is because it's a very labor intensive, time

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<v Speaker 1>intensive process, even if you're using kind of updated machinery,

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<v Speaker 1>and other processes came along that seem to do a

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<v Speaker 1>better job. And plus also I don't know if everybody's like,

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<v Speaker 1>we're sick of the blue or whatever, because there's another

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<v Speaker 1>process called diazo white press, and it does the same thing,

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<v Speaker 1>but it gives you like black or gray lines on

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<v Speaker 1>a white background, and that's kind of what the what

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<v Speaker 1>the architectural plants look like today. They don't look blue anymore.

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<v Speaker 1>And then shortly After that, they came up with zerographic copiers,

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<v Speaker 1>which you just today call it copier. And I didn't

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<v Speaker 1>realize this either, chuck. They're called zero graphic because this

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<v Speaker 1>is a dry process, like zero like dry, like zero scaping.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a dry process because you don't have to wet

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<v Speaker 1>the paper that is receiving the image like you do

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<v Speaker 1>when you're using the old Prussian blue cyanotype process.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and I think that's how Xerox got their name, right.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, for sure, which is a proprietary eponym.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And I thought I thought the diaso process created

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<v Speaker 2>blue lines. Is that not true?

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<v Speaker 1>I think later on they figured out that if you

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<v Speaker 1>use blue lines on the original, it makes a cleaner

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<v Speaker 1>line on the copy. That's what that was my take

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<v Speaker 1>on it.

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<v Speaker 2>All right, And I think that was sort of like

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<v Speaker 2>in the seventies and then in the early two thousands

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<v Speaker 2>is when the d'azzo process started to kind of fade

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<v Speaker 2>away because you know, ammonia is not something you want

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<v Speaker 2>to be working with a lot, and there are also

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<v Speaker 2>regulations that increased in working with ammonia. And then you know,

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<v Speaker 2>the digital revolution came along print technology things that were

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<v Speaker 2>cheaper basically and smaller. All of a sudden, you didn't

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<v Speaker 2>have to have some huge like plot printer in your

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<v Speaker 2>office to make something like this, and it, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>it did, like everything, it became cheaper and smaller and faster.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and I think the printers that can print out

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<v Speaker 1>you know, like regulation size architectural planes or engineering plans,

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<v Speaker 1>those became more affordable too, And they're basically just xeroxes.

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<v Speaker 1>They're like printers essentially, just bigger size. The one thing

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<v Speaker 1>I did see, Chuck that I didn't realize pen plotters.

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<v Speaker 1>It's like a contraption originally where you have a pen

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<v Speaker 1>and connected to that pen is a bunch of other pens,

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<v Speaker 1>and so when you're drawing on one paper, the other

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<v Speaker 1>pins are drawing on their own paper. So you're making

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<v Speaker 1>copies like that as you're drawing in the first place.

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<v Speaker 1>Those have come back and they're now computerized.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, plotters are super cool. At a frien years ago

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<v Speaker 2>that was a sign maker and he would, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>these plotters would cut out these designs from the computer

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<v Speaker 2>files and it's just really cool to see those things.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, that automation at work, even for like a

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<v Speaker 2>small business. You know, he was like a team of one.

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<v Speaker 2>The other thing I wanted to mention too, is I

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<v Speaker 2>think the d'azza's faded in sunlight. Oh okay, which it

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<v Speaker 2>was fine for a little while because apparently it takes

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<v Speaker 2>you know, like a few months, which was enough if

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<v Speaker 2>you're you know, if it's like a house plan or something,

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<v Speaker 2>you don't need it to last forever. But eventually they

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<v Speaker 2>were like, you know, we should probably make something a

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<v Speaker 2>little more permanent.

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<v Speaker 1>That connects the dots for me, because I saw on

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<v Speaker 1>some archivist website that they do not recommend using the

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<v Speaker 1>d'atzo print because it isn't it's so impermanent. Now I

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<v Speaker 1>have it, knowing's half the battle, as they say, Cyan Cian.

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<v Speaker 1>Chuck said, Cyan, I follow it up with a Scian too,

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<v Speaker 1>and everybody that means short stuff is out.

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