1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to Text Up, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:15,120 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:18,920 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:22,960 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech, and today we are 5 00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:27,640 Speaker 1: continuing our journey through the history of Pana Sonic. Now, 6 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:31,800 Speaker 1: if you haven't listened to the previous episode, I recommend 7 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 1: you do that first. You'll learn a lot about Konosuke 8 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:40,320 Speaker 1: Matt Sushida. He is the founder of Pana Sonic, and 9 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: in fact, the company was originally called the Matt Sushida 10 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:48,720 Speaker 1: Electric Industrial Company, Limited, and we're still in that era 11 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:52,200 Speaker 1: as I pick up this episode. In fact, the company 12 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: at the end of the last episode had not even 13 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:59,880 Speaker 1: introduced the Pana Sonic brand name yet. We also learned 14 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:04,760 Speaker 1: how the company produced military vehicles wooden ones for Japan 15 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:08,319 Speaker 1: during World War Two, and how the company didn't really 16 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:12,720 Speaker 1: necessarily have a choice in that. Again, I don't really 17 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:18,680 Speaker 1: know what the sentiments were for Matt Sushida and his employees, 18 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:20,919 Speaker 1: but I know that they really didn't have any option 19 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 1: but to make those military vehicles, and that would end 20 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: up putting the company in danger when the US government 21 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:31,800 Speaker 1: began to kind of dismantle older Japanese businesses that were 22 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:36,640 Speaker 1: very um familial. They were all kind of locked into 23 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:40,040 Speaker 1: these families that had deep relationships with one another and 24 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:43,399 Speaker 1: with the Japanese government. So this was sort of a 25 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:49,240 Speaker 1: systemic approach to dismantling all of that. And uh, Matt Sushida, 26 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: despite the fact that it wasn't this ancient family business, 27 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: was one of the companies that was under the microscope 28 00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:59,560 Speaker 1: when that was going on. We're now up to nineteen 29 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:03,080 Speaker 1: five d four when the company was just starting to 30 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:07,520 Speaker 1: try and market radios to the United States, and for 31 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:11,720 Speaker 1: Matt Sushida, this was still the pre transistor radio era. 32 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:15,959 Speaker 1: There were transistor radios around this time, but Matt Sushida 33 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:18,519 Speaker 1: was not making them yet, so we're still talking about 34 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:21,919 Speaker 1: radios that use vacuum tubes for amplifiers. So let's get 35 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:26,960 Speaker 1: back into this story now. During the nineteen fifties, Japan's 36 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:32,639 Speaker 1: economy saw some fluctuations. Early it saw on overall improvement, 37 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 1: but there were some ups and downs along the way. 38 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:38,040 Speaker 1: The country was still in a post World War Two 39 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:43,160 Speaker 1: era of reconstruction officially until nineteen fifty two. The economy 40 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 1: boomed in the early days of the Korean War because 41 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:50,679 Speaker 1: the forces, like the United Nations, the United States in particular, 42 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: were dependent upon Japan to supply materials that they needed. 43 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: But by nineteen fifty three the economy was starting to 44 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: slow down a little, it picked up again, and despite 45 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: some drops here and there, was on a fairly steady 46 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:08,640 Speaker 1: climb through most of the nineteen fifties. One consequence of 47 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:11,720 Speaker 1: this is that a lot of Japanese households were making 48 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:14,880 Speaker 1: more money, and thus they had more money to spend 49 00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: on what had previously been a luxury item like an 50 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:24,360 Speaker 1: electric appliance. So Matt Ssshida the company saw sales grow, 51 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: at least in Japan. I honestly don't know how their 52 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 1: sales numbers fared in the United States, because while the 53 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:36,839 Speaker 1: histories I read talked about the company marketing radios over here, 54 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: I didn't find much information about how the sales were going. 55 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: If the sales were good, the company had managed to 56 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 1: overcome the odds because Japanese electronics were not yet common 57 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:51,960 Speaker 1: in the US and most Americans didn't associate japan with 58 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:56,720 Speaker 1: technology at that point, and for years the general rep 59 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:00,640 Speaker 1: for Japanese technology was associated with really cheap goods that 60 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:03,360 Speaker 1: didn't perform as well as stuff that was produced in 61 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:06,360 Speaker 1: the United States or in Europe. It would take some 62 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: time for that perception to change. It was not helped 63 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: by the fact, and we'll get into it that Japanese 64 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:16,200 Speaker 1: companies did some fairly shady things in order to really 65 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:21,240 Speaker 1: get a foothold in the markets of Europe and North America. Now, 66 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 1: one thing that Matsushida had to do in the American 67 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,159 Speaker 1: market was come up with a new brand name for 68 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:30,800 Speaker 1: some audio speakers that the company wanted to sell to 69 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:34,040 Speaker 1: customers in the United States. They had been using the 70 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:38,560 Speaker 1: National brand in Japan, but that was sort of a 71 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:42,560 Speaker 1: prestige consumer products that the company was selling in Japan, 72 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: and it had a real issue, which was that there 73 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: were a lot of companies in America that had some 74 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: variation of National as their branding, so it really wasn't 75 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: a possible brand for them to go with. So they 76 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:58,159 Speaker 1: had to create something new, and they went with something 77 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:02,240 Speaker 1: that felt related to speak, kers and sound. They came 78 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:06,400 Speaker 1: up with the name Pana Sonic, and so in nineteen 79 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:10,080 Speaker 1: fifty five, remember this company was founded in nineteen eighteen. 80 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:13,480 Speaker 1: Nineteen fifty five, we finally get the brand name that 81 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:17,000 Speaker 1: would ultimately become the name for the entire company again 82 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:20,440 Speaker 1: more than fifty years later. Spoiler alert, and that's not 83 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:23,240 Speaker 1: even going to come in this episode. Another spoiler alert, 84 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,440 Speaker 1: and dangan we we nearly got to that brand name 85 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:28,960 Speaker 1: at the end of the last episode, but just missed it. 86 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:33,279 Speaker 1: Over in Japan, things were going pretty well in nineteen 87 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:36,159 Speaker 1: fifty five. The company was one of several in Japan 88 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:39,880 Speaker 1: to enjoy the rebound of the economy as Japanese households 89 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:43,520 Speaker 1: began to invest in home appliances. The three major ones 90 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:48,080 Speaker 1: at that time we're all really big ticket items. Television 91 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:50,920 Speaker 1: was one of them, a refrigerator was another, and a 92 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: washing machine was the third. Those were the three must 93 00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:58,359 Speaker 1: haves if you wanted to have a modern household in Japan. 94 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:02,800 Speaker 1: Matt Sushida invest did in the manufacturing process, which made 95 00:06:02,839 --> 00:06:06,880 Speaker 1: production more efficient and helped bring down the cost of manufacturing, 96 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:09,600 Speaker 1: which also meant the company could sell their products at 97 00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:12,640 Speaker 1: a lower price tag sort of, we'll get to it. 98 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,360 Speaker 1: By nineteen fifty five, factories were producing more than five 99 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:19,480 Speaker 1: thousand units per month, which is a small number compared 100 00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:23,120 Speaker 1: to manufacturing facilities today, but at the time in Japan, 101 00:06:23,279 --> 00:06:27,440 Speaker 1: it was an impressive accomplishment. The Japanese government announced in 102 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty six that the nation had successfully navigated the 103 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:35,200 Speaker 1: process of economic reconstruction. Now, I believe in the previous 104 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:37,800 Speaker 1: episode I mentioned that Japan used to be an empire, 105 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:40,320 Speaker 1: and I really should take this opportunity to say that 106 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:44,719 Speaker 1: technically it still is. There still is an emperor of Japan. 107 00:06:45,279 --> 00:06:47,480 Speaker 1: It's just that these days the role of emperor is 108 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:52,280 Speaker 1: almost entirely symbolic, with the actual role of governing falling 109 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:56,560 Speaker 1: to the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Japanese government. 110 00:06:57,279 --> 00:07:00,240 Speaker 1: Something else happened in nineteen fifty six that does not 111 00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:04,640 Speaker 1: pop up in Panasonic official history, and that was the 112 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:09,200 Speaker 1: formation of an organization called the Home Electronic Appliance Market 113 00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:16,400 Speaker 1: Stabilization Council. Now, this council counted the larger consumer electronics 114 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:20,880 Speaker 1: manufacturing companies among its members, the big Japanese electronics companies. 115 00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:25,080 Speaker 1: This group, which The Washington Post would later label as 116 00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:30,160 Speaker 1: an illegal production cartel, worked together to set minimum price 117 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:34,320 Speaker 1: levels for certain products like radios and television. They all said, 118 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: none of us are going to price any of our 119 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 1: models below this certain amount. As price fixing is what 120 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 1: it was and coercion between companies that are supposed to 121 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:49,680 Speaker 1: be competitive, and it also acted against foreign companies. They 122 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:53,440 Speaker 1: worked very hard to lobby the government of Japan to 123 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:57,400 Speaker 1: put as many obstacles in the way of foreign companies 124 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 1: that were trying to get imports into Japan and as possible, 125 00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:04,200 Speaker 1: because they didn't want that competition there, So they were 126 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:08,280 Speaker 1: trying to deny foreign companies access to distribution chains in Japan, 127 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:10,560 Speaker 1: for example. And when we come back to this a 128 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:13,360 Speaker 1: little bit later in this episode, we'll see how these 129 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:16,960 Speaker 1: companies in this council would have a profound impact on 130 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:21,080 Speaker 1: the electronics market in the United States anyway. Also in 131 00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:26,119 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty six, Konosuke held his own meeting within matt Sushida, 132 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:29,400 Speaker 1: and he laid out an ambitious five year plan. So 133 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:32,520 Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty six, the company posted annual sales of 134 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:37,160 Speaker 1: twenty two billion yen. Now, if we adjusted that for inflation, 135 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:42,160 Speaker 1: that would be nearly one thirty five billion yen today. 136 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:45,080 Speaker 1: I would give those figures in dollars, but then you 137 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:48,640 Speaker 1: have to consider stuff like the historic exchange rates, and 138 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:52,320 Speaker 1: it really gets difficult to find resources that include exchange 139 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:55,040 Speaker 1: rates the date back that far so I can't really 140 00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:57,520 Speaker 1: tell you how much that is in US dollars in 141 00:08:57,559 --> 00:09:01,200 Speaker 1: a meaningful way. Anyway. The start point was twenty two 142 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:05,199 Speaker 1: billion yen, but Konosuke wanted to have sales climbed to 143 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:09,760 Speaker 1: eighty billion yon within five years. He also wanted the 144 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:13,360 Speaker 1: assets for the company to increase from three billionion to 145 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:16,840 Speaker 1: ten billion yen, and he wanted to grow the company 146 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:20,040 Speaker 1: by seven thousand employees at the end of those five years. 147 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:23,880 Speaker 1: So this was a pretty ambitious and aggressive plan, but 148 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,640 Speaker 1: Konosuke argued that it really reflected what the people of 149 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:32,560 Speaker 1: Japan wanted, and the company restructured. It had grown to 150 00:09:32,679 --> 00:09:37,040 Speaker 1: eleven divisions up to that point, but now they subdivided that, 151 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:41,640 Speaker 1: so now it was fifteen divisions. Konosuke did this because 152 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:45,520 Speaker 1: he really believed that each division needed enough autonomy to 153 00:09:45,640 --> 00:09:49,800 Speaker 1: make decisions that would benefit that specific division and not 154 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:52,840 Speaker 1: get tied up with the fate of the company at large. 155 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:58,200 Speaker 1: So that way, the consumer electronics division and an industrial 156 00:09:58,559 --> 00:10:03,160 Speaker 1: like business to business vision could each operate independently of 157 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:06,480 Speaker 1: each other and not have to worry about the success 158 00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:10,400 Speaker 1: or failure of one affecting the other. While the plan 159 00:10:10,679 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: was ambitious, it turned out that it was also achievable 160 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:16,679 Speaker 1: because the company would hit all the goals of this 161 00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:20,280 Speaker 1: five year plan in just a little more than four years. 162 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:24,120 Speaker 1: Jumping back to ninety six just for a second, that's 163 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:27,880 Speaker 1: also the year that Matt Sushida introduced an electric automatic 164 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:30,920 Speaker 1: rice cooker. The cooker had a heater inside it that 165 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:33,880 Speaker 1: used the same general process as the heating coils that 166 00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:36,200 Speaker 1: I talked about in the previous episode with irons, so 167 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:38,559 Speaker 1: I won't go into it again, but it also had 168 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 1: a thermostat that could cut off power to the heating 169 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:45,400 Speaker 1: coils after the cooker had reached a target temperature, which 170 00:10:45,440 --> 00:10:48,679 Speaker 1: meant the cooker wouldn't burn the rice. So how the 171 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:51,440 Speaker 1: heck do thermostats work? I mean, this is a tech 172 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:54,000 Speaker 1: stuff episode, right, and you knew I was going to 173 00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:57,640 Speaker 1: have to do this. We'll be looking specifically at electro 174 00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:03,199 Speaker 1: mechanical thermostats. There are more modern thermostats that are purely electronic. 175 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:06,200 Speaker 1: They have sensors that can measure heat in very precise 176 00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:09,400 Speaker 1: ways and thus send a command for a heating or 177 00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:12,880 Speaker 1: cooling element to stop or start, depending on the situation, 178 00:11:13,240 --> 00:11:18,600 Speaker 1: But older thermostats depended on a different approach. These thermostats 179 00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:22,320 Speaker 1: work because of physics and how metal expands in the 180 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:25,360 Speaker 1: presence of heat. So why does metal even do that? 181 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:28,920 Speaker 1: When the metal heats up, the atoms in the metal 182 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:32,880 Speaker 1: gain more energy and they move around more because atoms 183 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:37,160 Speaker 1: are always moving, well, nearly always. If a material were 184 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:40,960 Speaker 1: to cool down to like absolute zero, the atoms would 185 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:44,760 Speaker 1: essentially freeze in place. There'd be no atomic movement. But 186 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:48,000 Speaker 1: if you add energy in the form of heat in 187 00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:51,920 Speaker 1: this case, it will cause the atoms to boogie down 188 00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:55,120 Speaker 1: a bit more. They'll move around more than they did before. 189 00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:57,920 Speaker 1: And as they do that, they take up more space 190 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:01,600 Speaker 1: than they used to, and so the piece of metal 191 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:06,040 Speaker 1: as a whole expands because those individual atoms and molecules 192 00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:09,120 Speaker 1: are pushing each other apart as they get funky with 193 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:15,520 Speaker 1: the heat. I can completely identify with that. However, different 194 00:12:15,679 --> 00:12:19,040 Speaker 1: metals don't all do this at the same rate. They 195 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:23,440 Speaker 1: have different expansion rates. Some metals expand more slowly than others, 196 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:25,920 Speaker 1: and you can think of these metals as having atoms 197 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:29,360 Speaker 1: that have a different tolerance to heat. They just aren't 198 00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:32,800 Speaker 1: as impressed as the temperature goes up. If you take 199 00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:36,480 Speaker 1: two different metals that expand at different rates, and then 200 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:40,040 Speaker 1: you sandwich them together so that you get a strip 201 00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:43,160 Speaker 1: of metal where one side is one metal, the other 202 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:47,880 Speaker 1: side is the other metal. You have created a bimetallic strip. 203 00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:51,520 Speaker 1: And if you apply heat to this strip, one side 204 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:56,040 Speaker 1: of the strip will expand faster than the other. So 205 00:12:56,240 --> 00:12:59,640 Speaker 1: one side is expanding quickly, the other one is less quickly, 206 00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:03,079 Speaker 1: and so that means that the expanded side's going to 207 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:06,840 Speaker 1: start to curl around. As a result, it deforms the 208 00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:11,880 Speaker 1: bimetallic strip. And your typical electro mechanical thermostat has a 209 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:16,079 Speaker 1: bimetallic strip and that that does this, and as it expands, 210 00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:19,240 Speaker 1: it will displace or tip a component that acts like 211 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:22,600 Speaker 1: a switch. In old air conditioners. This would tend to 212 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:26,280 Speaker 1: be a vial of mercury, and the mercury would have 213 00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:29,600 Speaker 1: some wires attached inside the vial that would come into 214 00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:33,920 Speaker 1: contact with the mercury. Depending on the vial's orientation. Liquid 215 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:37,320 Speaker 1: mercury conducts electricity. That's an important part of this. So 216 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:40,800 Speaker 1: depending upon the vial's orientation, the heater or the air 217 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:45,079 Speaker 1: conditioner and the circulation fans would turn on or off. 218 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:49,680 Speaker 1: So with this rice cooker, the thermostat would trip upon 219 00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 1: reaching a particular temperature and power would stop flowing to 220 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:57,520 Speaker 1: the heating coils. Matt Sushida wasn't the first company to 221 00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:02,640 Speaker 1: offer an automatic electric rice. The competitor Toshiba had one 222 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:07,200 Speaker 1: that came out a year earlier, but Matt Sushida's version 223 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:11,320 Speaker 1: boosted awareness of this technology, and in ninety seven the 224 00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:15,360 Speaker 1: category of automatic rice cookers really began to take off 225 00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:19,360 Speaker 1: in Japan. In nineteen fifty eight, Matt Sushida produced the 226 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:23,640 Speaker 1: company's first home tape recorder audio tape. This was the 227 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:26,800 Speaker 1: r Q two A one. This wasn't a cassette tape 228 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:29,760 Speaker 1: player like the kind that would dominate the nineteen eighties 229 00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:32,440 Speaker 1: when I was a kid. This was a real to 230 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:36,680 Speaker 1: reel tape recorder. So, hey, guess what. We get to 231 00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:39,000 Speaker 1: talk about how these work really quickly. And this is 232 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:41,640 Speaker 1: helpful because it also gives you an understanding of how 233 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:45,920 Speaker 1: magnetic storage works in general, whether it's for audio or 234 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:50,200 Speaker 1: video or computer data storage or whatever. So let's start 235 00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:53,960 Speaker 1: with the actual tape, and this is the stuff that 236 00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:58,560 Speaker 1: stores information. Basically, it's a strip of plastic material that 237 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:03,280 Speaker 1: has a ferric ox eye powder bonded to that plastic 238 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:07,280 Speaker 1: material through some binding agent. Essentially, you can think of 239 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:10,720 Speaker 1: a binding agent is kind of like glue. Ferric Oxide 240 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:13,800 Speaker 1: is an oxide of iron. The one most of us 241 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:18,240 Speaker 1: tend to encounter is iron oxide that's also known as rust, 242 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:21,560 Speaker 1: but ferric oxide is a little different. Iron oxide is 243 00:15:21,600 --> 00:15:25,440 Speaker 1: made up of one iron atom and one oxygen atom, 244 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:31,160 Speaker 1: whereas ferric oxide is too iron atoms and three oxygen atoms, 245 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:35,680 Speaker 1: and that makes all the difference. Really. Ferric Oxide is 246 00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:39,880 Speaker 1: ferro magnetic. That means that if you expose ferric oxide 247 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:44,680 Speaker 1: to a magnetic field, the field will permanently magnetize that 248 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:48,880 Speaker 1: ferric oxide. And this is what lets us record information 249 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: to magnetic tape. Using an electro magnet. You can subject 250 00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:56,640 Speaker 1: parts of that tape to a magnetic field as the 251 00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:59,360 Speaker 1: tape passes by, So as the reels are turning, the 252 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:05,040 Speaker 1: tape is being pulled across underneath an electronic writing head 253 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:08,880 Speaker 1: that has this electro magnet in it, so it creates 254 00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:12,640 Speaker 1: this magnetic flux generated by that electro magnet, and that 255 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:16,560 Speaker 1: affects the particles on the tape. It aligns those particles 256 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:21,840 Speaker 1: in specific ways. So during playback, when the reels are 257 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:27,200 Speaker 1: rewound and played back across this same electro magnet, the 258 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:32,080 Speaker 1: head is no longer active, it's in passive mode. But 259 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:36,480 Speaker 1: the tape's motion creates a magnetic flux that the electro 260 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:39,880 Speaker 1: magnet picks up and creates a signal out of that. 261 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:43,680 Speaker 1: So you get a reversible process here. You have one 262 00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:48,240 Speaker 1: signal that you can encode through magnetism, and then use 263 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:53,160 Speaker 1: that magnetism to regenerate that encoded signal and send it 264 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:56,400 Speaker 1: back through say an amplifier, to speakers, so you can 265 00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:59,160 Speaker 1: listen to the audio you've recorded. So again, if you 266 00:16:59,160 --> 00:17:02,320 Speaker 1: speak into a micro phone, the microphone converts the kinetic 267 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:05,920 Speaker 1: energy of your voice that you impart to a little 268 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:10,840 Speaker 1: diaphragm that's inside the microphone into electrical signals, and those 269 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:14,120 Speaker 1: signals typically passed through an amplifier to boost their strength 270 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,199 Speaker 1: before they feed into a recorder, which then takes that 271 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:21,000 Speaker 1: electric signal and generates a magnetic fluctuation that passes on 272 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:24,160 Speaker 1: to the tape. The tape holds the record of that fluctuation, 273 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:27,159 Speaker 1: and on playback, the whole process is reversed, except in 274 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:30,280 Speaker 1: this case, the signal doesn't go back to the microphone. 275 00:17:30,320 --> 00:17:33,399 Speaker 1: It would go say two set of speakers after passing 276 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:37,320 Speaker 1: through an amplifier. Real to real tape recorders are super cool, 277 00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:42,720 Speaker 1: but they didn't become household systems. They aren't terribly convenient, 278 00:17:43,119 --> 00:17:45,720 Speaker 1: and storing real to real tapes is a pain because 279 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:48,280 Speaker 1: they take up a good amount of space. The development 280 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:50,920 Speaker 1: of the cassette tape, which would come a few years later, 281 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:55,119 Speaker 1: would put the reels inside a little plastic cassette and 282 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:57,320 Speaker 1: those were much easier to use, and that would change 283 00:17:57,320 --> 00:18:00,399 Speaker 1: things dramatically, but we're a little too early for that 284 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:03,280 Speaker 1: with the r Q two oh one. I've looked at 285 00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:05,840 Speaker 1: photos of this particular tape recorder and I gotta admit 286 00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:08,960 Speaker 1: I really dig it. It looks kind of like a briefcase. 287 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:11,199 Speaker 1: It's got a handle on the top of it. You 288 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,320 Speaker 1: did have to plug it into a wall, so it 289 00:18:13,359 --> 00:18:17,040 Speaker 1: was portable, but it wasn't battery operated. The same year 290 00:18:17,119 --> 00:18:19,760 Speaker 1: that Matt sushied To introduced the tape layer, it also 291 00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:23,520 Speaker 1: launched a room air conditioner, one of the earliest small 292 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:26,879 Speaker 1: air conditioners intended for home use in Japan. There's a 293 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:29,520 Speaker 1: small unit that could be mounted in a window. The 294 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:31,960 Speaker 1: company produced eleven hundred of them in the first year 295 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:34,800 Speaker 1: of production, and I am not going to go through 296 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:38,200 Speaker 1: how air conditioners work. That's because I already talked about 297 00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:42,000 Speaker 1: how refrigerators work in our last episode, and an air 298 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:44,720 Speaker 1: conditioner works in pretty much the same way with heat 299 00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: exchange coils and fans and then compressor and expansion valve, 300 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:50,919 Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. So you've been spared that 301 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:55,119 Speaker 1: whole discussion because we already had it. You're welcome. Now. 302 00:18:55,119 --> 00:18:57,879 Speaker 1: I've got a lot more to say about Matt Sushida 303 00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:01,200 Speaker 1: slash Pana Sonic, but first, let's say a quick break. 304 00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:12,320 Speaker 1: By the late nineteen fifties, Matt Sushida the future Pana 305 00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:15,840 Speaker 1: Sonic was starting to see an increase in international sales, 306 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:19,800 Speaker 1: though Kona Suke believed that they hadn't really even scratched 307 00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:22,800 Speaker 1: the surface yet. In the fall of nineteen fifty nine, 308 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:26,000 Speaker 1: the company established its first office in North America, the 309 00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:30,560 Speaker 1: Matt Sushida Electric Corporation of America in New York. By 310 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:34,080 Speaker 1: this time, the company was producing transistor radios, and again 311 00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:36,840 Speaker 1: it was not the first company to do this. Matt 312 00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:41,719 Speaker 1: Sushida was not necessarily an innovator of technology, but it 313 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:46,600 Speaker 1: did adopt them pretty quickly in order to produce consumer 314 00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:51,320 Speaker 1: products for the various markets. Engineers at Bell Labs were 315 00:19:51,359 --> 00:19:53,760 Speaker 1: actually the first to develop the transistor all the way 316 00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:56,840 Speaker 1: back in n seven, though the transistor they made was 317 00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:59,359 Speaker 1: far too large to be used in electronics. It was 318 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:02,400 Speaker 1: more of a of concept. However, it didn't take long 319 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:07,280 Speaker 1: for companies to start manufacturing smaller transistors and other companies 320 00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:10,920 Speaker 1: to then take those transistors and use them in consumer products. 321 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:13,800 Speaker 1: So by the late nineteen fifties, Matte Sushida would join 322 00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:19,159 Speaker 1: lots of other electronic companies that we're already producing transistor radios. 323 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:23,240 Speaker 1: The main purpose of the transistor was to amplify signals, 324 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:26,359 Speaker 1: something that vacuum tubes had done before. And I've talked 325 00:20:26,359 --> 00:20:28,359 Speaker 1: a lot about how this works, so really we just 326 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:30,960 Speaker 1: need to think about the general concept. You start off 327 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:34,960 Speaker 1: with a relatively weak signal that holds the information you want, 328 00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:38,679 Speaker 1: like a radio broadcast, for example. So you've got a 329 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:41,960 Speaker 1: radio and a radio antenna picks up the broadcast signal. 330 00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:47,320 Speaker 1: The antenna converts that signal into a weak electric signal. Technically, 331 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:50,879 Speaker 1: the antenna is not converting anything. It's all about physics. 332 00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:54,199 Speaker 1: But anyway, you get the radio broadcast converted into a 333 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:57,760 Speaker 1: weak electric signal that goes through the antenna to the radio. 334 00:20:57,800 --> 00:21:02,479 Speaker 1: But that signals typically not wrong enough to really drive 335 00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:06,439 Speaker 1: something like speakers effectively, So if you try to listen 336 00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:09,199 Speaker 1: to a radio that didn't have an amplifier in it, 337 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:12,760 Speaker 1: you would get a very quiet result. So the purpose 338 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:17,560 Speaker 1: of the transistor is to boost this signal without otherwise 339 00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:20,560 Speaker 1: altering it. So it's all about giving the signal more oomph, 340 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:23,359 Speaker 1: but not changing it in any other way because that 341 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:28,120 Speaker 1: would just scramble the output. Vacuum tubes served that purpose 342 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:32,119 Speaker 1: for decades, but they are large, they're delicate, they're kind 343 00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:35,520 Speaker 1: of like lightbulbs, and they put out a lot of heat, 344 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:40,520 Speaker 1: so they weren't ideal for portable electronics in general. They 345 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:44,240 Speaker 1: do still serve a purpose in electronics today, particularly with 346 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:51,080 Speaker 1: musicians amplifiers. Guitarists swear by amplifiers that are too be 347 00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:54,720 Speaker 1: amplifiers versus transistor amplifiers, and as soon as I get 348 00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:57,680 Speaker 1: my guitar this week, i'll be able to tell you 349 00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:02,800 Speaker 1: my thoughts on it. Kind of The transistor, though, allowed 350 00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:07,399 Speaker 1: for menturization because the transistors themselves were smaller than vacuum tubes, 351 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:10,080 Speaker 1: and also because they didn't put out as much heat, 352 00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:12,639 Speaker 1: so you could have a small reform factor and not 353 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:16,639 Speaker 1: worried about it overheating and becoming a problem. Panasonics transistor 354 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:19,520 Speaker 1: radios would become a success story in the United States, 355 00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:23,399 Speaker 1: driving much of the overseas sales numbers, and it didn't 356 00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:27,000 Speaker 1: hurt that the name pana Sonic applied equally well to 357 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:30,560 Speaker 1: radios as it did to the speaker systems that came before. 358 00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:35,640 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty, the company developed its first color television set, 359 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:40,560 Speaker 1: the National K twenty one ten. So since this is national, 360 00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:43,159 Speaker 1: we know that this was for the Japanese market. This 361 00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:45,920 Speaker 1: one had a twenty one inch screen on the diagonal 362 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:48,600 Speaker 1: and it was a hefty critter. It was inside a cabinet. 363 00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:52,360 Speaker 1: Um it's kind of hard to cover everything that the 364 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:55,480 Speaker 1: company was doing. And while I'm mostly familiar with the 365 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:59,359 Speaker 1: consumer electronics side of the company, that was really just 366 00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:03,000 Speaker 1: one to vision of many. This is a company that 367 00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:06,480 Speaker 1: did lots and does lots of stuff. It's just that 368 00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:09,520 Speaker 1: the things that are most visible to to me happen 369 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:12,159 Speaker 1: to be the consumer electronics. Mattsshida was also in the 370 00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:16,080 Speaker 1: business of producing heavy grade electrical equipment for industrial purposes, 371 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:20,680 Speaker 1: like stuff like transformers. More than meets the eye, So 372 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:24,080 Speaker 1: you know, I haven't talked about transformers in a while either. 373 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:26,480 Speaker 1: This is why I love doing these history episodes. By 374 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,159 Speaker 1: the way, guys, it lets me fit in tons of 375 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:33,520 Speaker 1: how this tech works, so I sneak in some technical 376 00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:37,879 Speaker 1: education along with historical education. So transformers are a way 377 00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:42,280 Speaker 1: to change the voltage when you're transmitting electricity from one 378 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:46,600 Speaker 1: place to another as long as that electricity is alternating current, 379 00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:49,720 Speaker 1: meaning that the direction that the current flows and switches 380 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:52,480 Speaker 1: many times a second. And it's all because of some 381 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:57,760 Speaker 1: interesting elements of electro magnetism. Now I mentioned electro magnets 382 00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,280 Speaker 1: with tape recorders, so this kind of builds on at 383 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:04,399 Speaker 1: If you run a conductive wire around, say an iron core, 384 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:08,360 Speaker 1: and then you run a current through that coil of wire, 385 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:13,080 Speaker 1: you'll create a magnetic field. With direct current, this ends 386 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:16,200 Speaker 1: up being a steady magnetic field, but if you use 387 00:24:16,359 --> 00:24:21,479 Speaker 1: alternating current, you get a fluctuating magnetic field. The field 388 00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:24,520 Speaker 1: changes as the direction of the current changes. So the 389 00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:27,560 Speaker 1: magnetic field fluctuates as many times a second as the 390 00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:31,800 Speaker 1: current changes direction. Now, one thing that is super cool 391 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:35,600 Speaker 1: about electro magnets is that if you put one next 392 00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:39,399 Speaker 1: to another one and you run alternating current through the 393 00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:42,639 Speaker 1: first of your two electromagnets, and the second one doesn't 394 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:45,960 Speaker 1: have anything going through it at all, that fluctuating magnetic 395 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:51,159 Speaker 1: field from that primary electro magnet will induce current to 396 00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:55,720 Speaker 1: flow through the second electro magnet. So, just as electricity 397 00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:58,840 Speaker 1: flowing through a coil will create a magnetic field, a 398 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:04,320 Speaker 1: coil in countering a magnetic field will have current flow 399 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:08,400 Speaker 1: through it. Now, that's true as long as the magnetic 400 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:11,520 Speaker 1: field is changing in some way. The changing magnetic field 401 00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:14,480 Speaker 1: is necessary if you want the current to keep flowing. Otherwise, 402 00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:18,359 Speaker 1: current will flow as the coil encounters a magnetic field, 403 00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:21,359 Speaker 1: and then it will stop if the magnetic field doesn't 404 00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:23,320 Speaker 1: change at all. So if the coil stops moving if 405 00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:26,320 Speaker 1: the magnetic field is stable, you won't get current to flow. 406 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:32,280 Speaker 1: Transformers work by pairing two coils together, primary coil and 407 00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:36,040 Speaker 1: a secondary coil, and the ratio of the number of 408 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:39,960 Speaker 1: loops of each coil between the two. That ratio determines 409 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:43,399 Speaker 1: how much the voltage will either step up or increase, 410 00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:48,640 Speaker 1: or step down or decrease. If the primary coil has 411 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:53,240 Speaker 1: more loops than the secondary coil, you've got yourself a 412 00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:57,359 Speaker 1: step down transformer. The voltage that's going out of the 413 00:25:57,359 --> 00:25:59,919 Speaker 1: transformer is going to be lower than the voltage was 414 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:04,240 Speaker 1: going in. Now that's important. If you're delivering electricity from 415 00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,840 Speaker 1: a main transmission line to a building like a house, 416 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,320 Speaker 1: you don't want high voltage going into the house. You 417 00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:16,320 Speaker 1: would have to say danger, danger, high voltage. That's an 418 00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:18,919 Speaker 1: Electric six reference. If you don't know who Electric six is, 419 00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:22,639 Speaker 1: you should definitely listen to that music. Anyway, If the 420 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:26,439 Speaker 1: secondary coil actually has more loops than the primary coil, 421 00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:29,720 Speaker 1: then you've got yourself a step up transformer. It means 422 00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:32,959 Speaker 1: the outgoing voltage is going to be higher than the 423 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,240 Speaker 1: incoming voltage. This is what you would use to transmit 424 00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:40,480 Speaker 1: electricity across far distances where you need that high voltage 425 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,439 Speaker 1: to push electricity through with as little loss as you 426 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:49,080 Speaker 1: can manage. This is ultimately why alternating current one out 427 00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:52,960 Speaker 1: over direct current, because transmitting direct current over long distances 428 00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:55,760 Speaker 1: was a challenge in the early days of electricity, and 429 00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:58,720 Speaker 1: typically admit that you really had to build lots more 430 00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:01,439 Speaker 1: power plants to be those to the areas where the 431 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:06,520 Speaker 1: electricity was going. One other neat thing about transformers is 432 00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:11,240 Speaker 1: that there really aren't any moving parts. Transformer doesn't wear 433 00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:14,120 Speaker 1: down the same way that mechanical systems do over time. 434 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:20,080 Speaker 1: That being said, things can and do go wrong with transformers, 435 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:24,879 Speaker 1: and not just Decepticons. If you've ever witnessed this firsthand, 436 00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:27,240 Speaker 1: you know how spectacular it can be to see a 437 00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:31,680 Speaker 1: transformer blow. If the installation around one of the coils 438 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:34,840 Speaker 1: happens to wear down, or it corrodes, or if the 439 00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:39,240 Speaker 1: transformer is really close to a lightning strike, the transformer 440 00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:42,400 Speaker 1: can heat up and give out a spark. Now, typically 441 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:46,520 Speaker 1: transformers use mineral oil as a coolant to keep things 442 00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:51,280 Speaker 1: at operational temperature, but mineral oil can burn, and if 443 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:55,320 Speaker 1: it does, it will create pressure inside the sealed transformer, 444 00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:58,439 Speaker 1: and when that pressure is great enough, it causes the 445 00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,800 Speaker 1: transformer to burst been and typically you get a really 446 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,800 Speaker 1: loud bang and a lot of sparks and maybe even 447 00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,520 Speaker 1: some flames, and those sparks tend to be kind of 448 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:11,119 Speaker 1: bluish green there really spectacular, especially when it happens at 449 00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:14,400 Speaker 1: night or whenever the sky is super dark. And I've 450 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:18,000 Speaker 1: seen this happen a few times, and I'll never forget 451 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:19,760 Speaker 1: the first time I ever saw it. It was when 452 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:22,040 Speaker 1: I was a kid. I was in the back seat 453 00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:25,280 Speaker 1: of my parents car, and we were driving through Atlanta, 454 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:28,199 Speaker 1: and that by itself was outside the norm for us, 455 00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:31,320 Speaker 1: because I grew up in rural Georgia. To us, Atlanta 456 00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:36,080 Speaker 1: was the big, big city. And I remember a transformer 457 00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:38,800 Speaker 1: blew up not too far from our car. It was 458 00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:40,800 Speaker 1: a couple of card links ahead and on the left 459 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:43,440 Speaker 1: hand side, and at first I thought maybe someone had 460 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:46,520 Speaker 1: fired off a shotgun or something. I had no idea 461 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,080 Speaker 1: what had happened, and my dad actually explained to me 462 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,160 Speaker 1: what was going on, and I have never forgotten how 463 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,440 Speaker 1: startling that was. Anyway, let's get back to the history 464 00:28:55,440 --> 00:29:00,000 Speaker 1: of Matsushita slash Panasonic. In nineteen sixty one, matt Sushi, 465 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,959 Speaker 1: you began to expand operations by not just opening up 466 00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:07,400 Speaker 1: sales offices in other countries, but also actual manufacturing plants, 467 00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,960 Speaker 1: putting the manufacturing closer to where you were going to 468 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:14,280 Speaker 1: sell the stuff. The first of those was a battery 469 00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:18,760 Speaker 1: production facility called the National Thai Company or in TC. 470 00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:23,280 Speaker 1: That should not be confused with one of many other 471 00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:27,120 Speaker 1: entities that also go by the name in TC. I 472 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:29,680 Speaker 1: actually got a little confused when I first came across 473 00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:32,840 Speaker 1: this name and had to research it further because it 474 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:35,680 Speaker 1: was like, is this the NTC I'm thinking of? It 475 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:40,360 Speaker 1: was not. Names are hard y'all. The company also established 476 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,680 Speaker 1: or helped establish plants in places like Uruguay and Pakistan, 477 00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:47,800 Speaker 1: and by the end of the decade, it would expand 478 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:52,680 Speaker 1: operations to the Philippines, to Australia, Peru, Mexico, Puerto Rico, 479 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:57,280 Speaker 1: and several other places. The little company that had started 480 00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:00,680 Speaker 1: off as a workspace in a tiny room that had 481 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:06,800 Speaker 1: dirt floors was now a global entity. Kanasuke Matsushida had 482 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:10,520 Speaker 1: accomplished an enormous amount in his run as the founder 483 00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:13,440 Speaker 1: and president of the company, and in nineteen sixty one 484 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:17,560 Speaker 1: he decided to step down as president, although he would 485 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:20,920 Speaker 1: remain the chairman of the company for several more years. 486 00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:27,000 Speaker 1: His replacement was his son in law, Masaharu Matsushita, and 487 00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:31,440 Speaker 1: here we go that familial line of succession in companies again. 488 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:37,360 Speaker 1: During Kanasuke's run, the company didn't just grow dramatically. Kanasuke's 489 00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:42,680 Speaker 1: philosophy stressed the importance of harmony, and he had a 490 00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:46,440 Speaker 1: reputation for really listening to his employees, and he led 491 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,360 Speaker 1: the way in attempting to adopt fair business practices at 492 00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:54,600 Speaker 1: least in Japan in public, we'll get more into that. 493 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,600 Speaker 1: His company was the first one in Japan to adopt 494 00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:01,400 Speaker 1: the five day work week. This was announced like by 495 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:05,360 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty, it took until nineteen to actually roll out, 496 00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:08,560 Speaker 1: and that was something that other countries have been adopting 497 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,600 Speaker 1: since the early nineteen hundreds, so Japan was kind of 498 00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:15,440 Speaker 1: trailing behind here. And it's actually a pretty good idea 499 00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:18,720 Speaker 1: to talk a moment about the differences in work culture 500 00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:22,479 Speaker 1: in Japan versus places like the United States. So in Japan, 501 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:26,400 Speaker 1: the major companies are fierce competitors, not just in the 502 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:32,520 Speaker 1: market generally when they're not you know, working secretly together, 503 00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:36,960 Speaker 1: but they're also competitive for employees. Companies seek the highest 504 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:41,240 Speaker 1: performing students to join their ranks. Employment tends to be 505 00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:46,000 Speaker 1: a lifetime gig with those companies, so company loyalty and 506 00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,320 Speaker 1: the company reciprocating that loyalty over time is a big 507 00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:53,240 Speaker 1: part of the culture. Starting wages in Japanese companies are 508 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:58,200 Speaker 1: especially around this time. We're pretty low, and we're often 509 00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:01,360 Speaker 1: tied to seniority, and you would typically stay in the 510 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:05,440 Speaker 1: same job and just get increases in wages working that 511 00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:08,760 Speaker 1: same job through the course of your career. That is, 512 00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:10,680 Speaker 1: of course, all this is only true if you were 513 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,560 Speaker 1: a full time employee. If you were a part time employee, 514 00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:16,600 Speaker 1: which included most of the women who were working in Japan, 515 00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:19,800 Speaker 1: you would not enjoy the same benefits. You wouldn't get 516 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:24,360 Speaker 1: those same considerations. On a related note, these days, there 517 00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:27,120 Speaker 1: are a few Japanese companies that are actually experimenting with 518 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:29,760 Speaker 1: moving to a four day work week in an effort 519 00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:34,080 Speaker 1: to reduce work stress and burnout and to boost productivity. 520 00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:38,000 Speaker 1: The booming economy of the nineteen fifties meant that consumers 521 00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:42,640 Speaker 1: were purchasing more electric appliances than ever before. The Japanese 522 00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:47,760 Speaker 1: household was modernizing, and the company's overseas manufacturing facilities could 523 00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:51,360 Speaker 1: supply Mattsushida goods to other markets as well. But this 524 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,320 Speaker 1: also brought up a new need the development of a 525 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:58,360 Speaker 1: service department, because sometimes even when we do everything correctly, 526 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:03,560 Speaker 1: our technology break and many manufacturing companies, Mattsoshida among them, 527 00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:08,040 Speaker 1: introduced service divisions for the purpose of repairs and to 528 00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:12,520 Speaker 1: establish the correct policies and processes for service centers. If 529 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:15,080 Speaker 1: someone wanted to open up a repair shop for matt 530 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:18,560 Speaker 1: Sushida products, they could have their business certified through Matt 531 00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:23,480 Speaker 1: Soshida and learned the best ways to tackle common repair issues. 532 00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:30,200 Speaker 1: Mattsshida established the service division in nineteen sixty four, but 533 00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:33,680 Speaker 1: that booming economy of the nineteen fifties had gone into 534 00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:37,200 Speaker 1: a bit of the slump. In the nineteen sixties. Several 535 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:41,320 Speaker 1: factors came together and hit Matt Sushida hard. One was 536 00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:45,440 Speaker 1: the general economic slump, which started around nineteen sixty one 537 00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:48,440 Speaker 1: and got worse year over year. Another was the volatile 538 00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:52,160 Speaker 1: market for consumer electronics, which makes sense, right. I mean, 539 00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:55,520 Speaker 1: once you buy a big appliance, you aren't likely to 540 00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:58,080 Speaker 1: need another one for a good long while. I mean, 541 00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:02,200 Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I don't buy refrigerators 542 00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:06,480 Speaker 1: all that often. So a company might experience rapid expansion 543 00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:10,080 Speaker 1: and growth early on when a country is going through 544 00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:13,799 Speaker 1: the process of modernizing, and then see that growth plateau 545 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:17,319 Speaker 1: or even decline as you start to get to market saturation. 546 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:19,839 Speaker 1: You know, more households get up to speed, there are 547 00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:23,000 Speaker 1: fewer households that are in need of those things, and 548 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:26,400 Speaker 1: that was starting to happen in Japan in the nineteen sixties. 549 00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:30,080 Speaker 1: The company had produced more goods than it could sell, 550 00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:34,320 Speaker 1: so supply was outstripping demand, and the company was hurting. 551 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:38,520 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty four, the company posted a decline in profits, 552 00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:42,440 Speaker 1: which was the first decline in profits since nineteen fifty, 553 00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:45,760 Speaker 1: and there was concern across the company, with the sales 554 00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:50,520 Speaker 1: departments blaming production, production was blaming sales. Things were coming 555 00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,520 Speaker 1: to a head. It was time for Konosuke to step 556 00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:56,120 Speaker 1: up again. We'll learn how he did that in just 557 00:34:56,200 --> 00:35:06,840 Speaker 1: a moment, but let's take another quick break. In nineteen 558 00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:10,600 Speaker 1: sixty four, Matt Sushida held a conference in a Tommy, Japan, 559 00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:13,480 Speaker 1: where the presidents of all the sales companies and divisions 560 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,560 Speaker 1: were to gather together to talk through the problems that 561 00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:20,560 Speaker 1: the company faced. Kona Suke ultimately addressed the group and 562 00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:23,839 Speaker 1: said that the economic recession had played a large part 563 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:27,360 Speaker 1: in the current company status, but that the company itself 564 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:31,759 Speaker 1: had also made some bad decisions that exacerbated things, and 565 00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:36,080 Speaker 1: he stressed that all sides had some accountability in this problem, 566 00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:38,440 Speaker 1: and that trying to pen blame on one side or 567 00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:42,400 Speaker 1: the other would just delay any solution. Kanasuke himself came 568 00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:45,920 Speaker 1: out of retirement and temporarily assumed the duties of the 569 00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:50,240 Speaker 1: corporate sales division director in order to overhaul the sales 570 00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:54,960 Speaker 1: and distribution divisions at matt Sushida. Early in nineteen sixty five, 571 00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:58,759 Speaker 1: he presented his plan to reorganize the division and institute 572 00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:03,080 Speaker 1: new policies. The plan did not initially receive universal appeal, 573 00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:06,520 Speaker 1: but over time the division adopted it and the company's 574 00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:10,719 Speaker 1: fortunes began to improve. By nineteen sixty six, the company 575 00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:15,200 Speaker 1: also implemented a new wage structure. Now wages were no 576 00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:19,840 Speaker 1: longer tied to seniority as much, but rather to job classification. 577 00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:24,880 Speaker 1: Konosuke wanted to model Matsushida's operations after what he saw 578 00:36:25,239 --> 00:36:28,000 Speaker 1: when he visited the United States. He wanted them to 579 00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:31,120 Speaker 1: be more like a US company, and his ultimate goal 580 00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:33,879 Speaker 1: was to get wages closer to what people would earn 581 00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:36,480 Speaker 1: in a similar position in the United States, and it 582 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:38,919 Speaker 1: would take several more years before the company would even 583 00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:42,200 Speaker 1: get close to that goal, but it was improving over time. 584 00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:45,560 Speaker 1: One of the shifts the company made was to create 585 00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:49,759 Speaker 1: a stronger communication channel between sales and production, So Konosuke 586 00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:52,240 Speaker 1: thought that it would be valuable to get the sales 587 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:56,560 Speaker 1: team input on stuff that the manufacturing side should really 588 00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:59,720 Speaker 1: focus on, and the development side as well. The sales 589 00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:03,640 Speaker 1: team had experience talking with retailers, and the retailers knew 590 00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:07,759 Speaker 1: what customers were looking for. So now that Sushida was 591 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:11,360 Speaker 1: looking to develop new products not just from their internal 592 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:15,600 Speaker 1: R and D division, but also by responding to customer desires. 593 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:19,040 Speaker 1: As a result, the company started developing a whole new 594 00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:22,640 Speaker 1: range of consumer electronics, some of which were on a 595 00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:27,600 Speaker 1: more whimsical side. For example, while researching this show, that 596 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:30,680 Speaker 1: came across a radio that Panasonic produced in the nineteen 597 00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:35,200 Speaker 1: seventies called the twot A loop. It's t O O 598 00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:40,960 Speaker 1: T dash a dash l O O P. Often classified 599 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:45,200 Speaker 1: as a novelty radio for good reason. This device kind 600 00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:49,880 Speaker 1: of looks like an oversized bracelet that is slightly offset. 601 00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:53,440 Speaker 1: It has one side that's thicker than the other, and 602 00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:56,239 Speaker 1: that thicker side holds the actual radio and speaker, and 603 00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:59,160 Speaker 1: you aren't supposed to wear it on your wrist. It 604 00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:02,120 Speaker 1: was an a M band radio only, so it only 605 00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:04,480 Speaker 1: had the ability to pick up a M stations, no 606 00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:08,440 Speaker 1: FM signals, and they go for pretty penny these days. 607 00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:10,920 Speaker 1: I just did a casual search and I saw some 608 00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:14,359 Speaker 1: listed online for between a hundred fifty dollars to two 609 00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:17,560 Speaker 1: hundred dollars now. The suggested retail price when they first 610 00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:22,480 Speaker 1: went on the market was a mere fourteen dollars cents. However, 611 00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:24,680 Speaker 1: if we adjust that for inflation, it would be quite 612 00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:28,720 Speaker 1: a bit higher. Based on the inflation calculator that I used, 613 00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:33,000 Speaker 1: fourteen dollars in say n two would be equivalent to 614 00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:36,799 Speaker 1: ninety two dollars twenty cents today. So this radio would 615 00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:39,080 Speaker 1: cost nearly a hundred bucks in today's money. So I 616 00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:42,200 Speaker 1: guess when you take that into consideration, uh, and you 617 00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:44,400 Speaker 1: think of the value they have as collector's items, the 618 00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:49,480 Speaker 1: value has only slightly appreciated when you adjust for inflation. Honestly, 619 00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:53,480 Speaker 1: that am only thing really knocks it in my book. 620 00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:57,600 Speaker 1: Mattsushida began to produce a wide variety of consumer goods 621 00:38:57,600 --> 00:39:00,719 Speaker 1: more in tune with what people wanted, just as the 622 00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:04,279 Speaker 1: Japanese economy also began to recover, which created pretty much 623 00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:07,040 Speaker 1: a perfect situation to pull the company away from the 624 00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:10,000 Speaker 1: chaos that had threatened it just a couple of years earlier. 625 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:15,040 Speaker 1: The company continued marketing new consumer electronics, including its first 626 00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:19,440 Speaker 1: microwave oven, which was actually a very tall cabinet like 627 00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:22,520 Speaker 1: device like mook to me like. It was about four 628 00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:25,360 Speaker 1: or five feet tall, so it was intended more for 629 00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:29,040 Speaker 1: businesses than homes, so I didn't take up that much 630 00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:32,320 Speaker 1: floor space, but did require a good deal of vertical space. 631 00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:36,480 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty seven, Matte Sushida created a new transistor 632 00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:40,160 Speaker 1: radio cassette recorder for the US called the r Q 633 00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:43,440 Speaker 1: two thirty one. I took a look at this, and 634 00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:45,760 Speaker 1: you know, it looks a lot like a radio cassette 635 00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:47,920 Speaker 1: player that I owned when I was a kid. I 636 00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:50,320 Speaker 1: had one very similar to this. One has a little 637 00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:53,840 Speaker 1: handle at the top, has the telescoping antanna and the 638 00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:58,520 Speaker 1: company's old collaborator, Phillips, had actually invented the compact cassette 639 00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:01,799 Speaker 1: format back in nine teen sixty two. Those cassettes that 640 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:04,000 Speaker 1: I talked about being such a big thing in the 641 00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:08,319 Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, So this was the first of Matt Sushida's 642 00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:13,960 Speaker 1: radio cassette players that followed that format. UH and cassettes 643 00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:16,120 Speaker 1: were much easier to use than realtorial tape, and they 644 00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:18,200 Speaker 1: took up a lot less space. Like I said earlier, 645 00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:24,200 Speaker 1: in ninet, Matt Sushida slash Panasonic would celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. 646 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:27,960 Speaker 1: The company created some new initiatives, including investing in sales 647 00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:31,440 Speaker 1: and production offices in towns of Japan that had seen 648 00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:35,719 Speaker 1: issues with depopulation. Young people were moving away from these 649 00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:38,960 Speaker 1: towns because they were seeking out opportunities, and most of 650 00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:43,480 Speaker 1: the big companies had offices and factories in places like 651 00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:48,239 Speaker 1: Osaka and Tokyo. So this was Matt Sushida trying to 652 00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:53,400 Speaker 1: take advantage of that workforce, not by tempting them away, 653 00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:57,160 Speaker 1: but by building centers closer to them. The company also 654 00:40:57,200 --> 00:41:01,600 Speaker 1: introduced a technology called pen assert a in a S 655 00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:04,560 Speaker 1: E R T. And when I first came across the 656 00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:08,840 Speaker 1: description of this technology, I was left with more questions 657 00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:11,760 Speaker 1: than answers. So I'm just going to quote the passage 658 00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:15,879 Speaker 1: directly from Panasonic's history so that you guys can can 659 00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:20,400 Speaker 1: hear what I first encountered. Quote. This machine represented the 660 00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:25,480 Speaker 1: start in nineteen sixty nine of automated electronic mounting devices 661 00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:29,359 Speaker 1: and components in Japan, the foundation for the company's business 662 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:34,279 Speaker 1: in mounting machines. The original random access system was improved 663 00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:37,840 Speaker 1: and became a direct random access system in which taping 664 00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:40,560 Speaker 1: was transferred to the insertion head so that a component 665 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:44,480 Speaker 1: was inserted without being freed This made for rapid progress 666 00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:48,680 Speaker 1: in the mounting tact time and reliability. The system became 667 00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:52,280 Speaker 1: the leader in the field of mounting machines end quote. 668 00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:56,120 Speaker 1: So I had to look into this further because I 669 00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,400 Speaker 1: had no clue what the heck this was talking about 670 00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:03,400 Speaker 1: mounting machines. I mean, that could that could mean so 671 00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:07,160 Speaker 1: many different things. But I'm sure most of you know 672 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:09,879 Speaker 1: what they meant from the beginning. I'm the dumb one. 673 00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:12,799 Speaker 1: I get it. I totally own that. So what they're 674 00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:16,200 Speaker 1: talking about here are devices that you could program to 675 00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:20,279 Speaker 1: mount components onto circuit boards. So the idea here is 676 00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:22,920 Speaker 1: that you design a circuit board for you know, whatever 677 00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:26,960 Speaker 1: thing you're making, and you program a pen Assert automated 678 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,960 Speaker 1: machine to go through the process of inserting components into 679 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:35,200 Speaker 1: that circuit board in the proper arrangement and orientation. So 680 00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:38,200 Speaker 1: you feed a bunch of blank circuit boards into this 681 00:42:38,239 --> 00:42:40,680 Speaker 1: machine in a way it goes. And there have been 682 00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:43,919 Speaker 1: many devices in the pen Assert line, some with very 683 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:47,160 Speaker 1: specific responsibilities. I watched a couple of videos of them 684 00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:50,680 Speaker 1: in action on YouTube, and some of them are pretty alarming. 685 00:42:50,719 --> 00:42:53,560 Speaker 1: They move really fast, and some of them look like 686 00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:55,560 Speaker 1: they could easily take a finger off if you weren't 687 00:42:55,600 --> 00:42:59,520 Speaker 1: being careful around them. In nineteen sixty eight, the Import 688 00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:04,719 Speaker 1: commit of the US Electronics Industries Association filed a complaint 689 00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:08,239 Speaker 1: with the US Treasury Department, and it laid out a 690 00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:12,600 Speaker 1: pretty nasty accusation. It said that there were a collection 691 00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:18,640 Speaker 1: of Japanese companies, Japanese electronics companies that were collectively under 692 00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:22,680 Speaker 1: pricing color televisions for the US market with the intent 693 00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:27,640 Speaker 1: to undermine the US market, specifically to undermine US manufacturers 694 00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:32,040 Speaker 1: of televisions. The Japanese companies were using a complicated process 695 00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:36,200 Speaker 1: that included things like rebates and incentives with retailers in 696 00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:41,440 Speaker 1: the US, essentially turning those retailers into co conspirators. And meanwhile, 697 00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:46,120 Speaker 1: those same manufacturing companies in Japan were selling television's at 698 00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:50,840 Speaker 1: premium prices in Japan, so they were selling the stuff 699 00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:53,440 Speaker 1: for very high prices in Japan and then using that 700 00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:57,440 Speaker 1: money to pay for this effort to under price stuff 701 00:43:57,440 --> 00:44:00,839 Speaker 1: in the US market. And the ensuing and investigation would 702 00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:03,480 Speaker 1: stretch on for years, but it did uncover evidence that 703 00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:09,160 Speaker 1: these allegations were true. Addressing the problem, however, most politically difficult, 704 00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:12,920 Speaker 1: as any move against Japan could mean that Japan and 705 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,280 Speaker 1: maybe some other countries could impose tariffs and other trade 706 00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:21,440 Speaker 1: restrictions against the US. So no real action happened on 707 00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:24,680 Speaker 1: an official level in the United States, but American companies 708 00:44:24,680 --> 00:44:28,920 Speaker 1: that had been making televisions gradually exited the market. They 709 00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:33,080 Speaker 1: could not make a profit because Japanese companies were selling 710 00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:35,840 Speaker 1: TVs at a loss. They were selling them for less 711 00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:39,040 Speaker 1: money than it costs to make them. The story, by 712 00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:42,680 Speaker 1: the way, it gets super interesting, but it's also probably 713 00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:46,400 Speaker 1: better saved for maybe even a different podcast. However, it 714 00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:51,600 Speaker 1: does involve everything from shady trading practices to essentially buying 715 00:44:51,719 --> 00:44:55,640 Speaker 1: former politicians so that they would act as lobbyists and more, 716 00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:59,200 Speaker 1: and all of that stuff typically sticks out as some 717 00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:02,359 Speaker 1: of the really glee side of capitalism, so I think 718 00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:05,439 Speaker 1: that would probably fit on a different show better than mine. 719 00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:11,240 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy, Matsushida sponsored an exhibit at the Expo 720 00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:16,279 Speaker 1: seventy event in Osaka, Japan. The exhibit had a traditional 721 00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:20,680 Speaker 1: Japanese building, a very traditional structure that inside had a 722 00:45:20,760 --> 00:45:24,120 Speaker 1: tea ceremony, which was an interesting nod to the history 723 00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:28,200 Speaker 1: and heritage and traditions of Japan, especially when it was 724 00:45:28,239 --> 00:45:31,600 Speaker 1: coming from a company that was associated with technology. The 725 00:45:31,640 --> 00:45:34,960 Speaker 1: company also created a time capsule, and a group of 726 00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:39,240 Speaker 1: committees selected more than two thousand objects to put into 727 00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:43,120 Speaker 1: that time capsule. Uh it was intended to be buried 728 00:45:43,120 --> 00:45:46,640 Speaker 1: and opened in five thousand years. It's only been fifty 729 00:45:46,719 --> 00:45:50,160 Speaker 1: years since they buried the capsule, so we've got a 730 00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:52,400 Speaker 1: ways to go before we can learn about the objects 731 00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:56,799 Speaker 1: that the committee's decided were quote especially representative of the 732 00:45:56,880 --> 00:46:01,120 Speaker 1: current culture as of nineteen seventy end. Quote that time 733 00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:06,040 Speaker 1: capsule is buried at Osaka Castle Park. So I really 734 00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:08,600 Speaker 1: would love to see it because I remember the seventies 735 00:46:09,239 --> 00:46:12,759 Speaker 1: and I can only imagine how embarrassing some of those 736 00:46:12,800 --> 00:46:15,640 Speaker 1: items will be. Not At the same time, the company 737 00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:19,719 Speaker 1: was dealing with some unhappy customers in Japan. You know, 738 00:46:19,719 --> 00:46:24,200 Speaker 1: there was this growing dissatisfaction among consumers in Japan. They 739 00:46:24,239 --> 00:46:28,160 Speaker 1: were seeing the gap between the list prices versus the 740 00:46:28,200 --> 00:46:33,239 Speaker 1: actual selling prices of electronics. The list price is the 741 00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:36,719 Speaker 1: price of manufacturer attributes to an item as the suggested 742 00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:41,080 Speaker 1: retail price, but retailers aren't necessarily under any obligation to 743 00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:45,680 Speaker 1: follow that, and a retailer can mark up prices in 744 00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:48,279 Speaker 1: an area where there is little competition. This can be 745 00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,399 Speaker 1: really profitable. You limit the number of customers you have 746 00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:55,040 Speaker 1: because you're selling stuff at a premium, but you make 747 00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:58,760 Speaker 1: more on a per sale basis. But customers were getting 748 00:46:58,760 --> 00:47:00,680 Speaker 1: tired of paying for these more cups, and they were 749 00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:03,440 Speaker 1: starting to see how expensive things were being sold for 750 00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:07,480 Speaker 1: versus how much it costs to make them. So at 751 00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:10,560 Speaker 1: one point people in Japan were proposing a boycott of 752 00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:15,120 Speaker 1: color television's, and Panasonic was an industry leader in color 753 00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:19,279 Speaker 1: TV in Japan, they would be adversely affected by this. 754 00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:21,920 Speaker 1: Uh In a way, things were coming home to roost. 755 00:47:21,960 --> 00:47:24,640 Speaker 1: The Japanese public was finally starting to object to those 756 00:47:24,719 --> 00:47:28,320 Speaker 1: high prices they've been paying for goods in Japan. Meanwhile, 757 00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:32,000 Speaker 1: the US markets were reacting to Japanese companies undercutting prices 758 00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:35,160 Speaker 1: in the market. Matt Sushida attempted to address this in 759 00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:39,040 Speaker 1: numerous ways, including setting up a customer service division kind 760 00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:42,160 Speaker 1: of in an effort to get ahead of issues. But 761 00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:45,000 Speaker 1: more or less they were able to kind of weather 762 00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:51,319 Speaker 1: these storms, even though the concerns were legit. In ninety one, 763 00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:55,439 Speaker 1: Matt Sushida would join the New York Stock Exchange while 764 00:47:55,480 --> 00:47:58,840 Speaker 1: investigations were ongoing and charges were being made. The company 765 00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:02,319 Speaker 1: continued to expand and in market more electronics, and two 766 00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:06,760 Speaker 1: years later, in nineteen seventy three, Konosuke Matsushida would retire 767 00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:10,680 Speaker 1: as chairman. He became more of an informal executive advisor. 768 00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:15,359 Speaker 1: The new chairman of the company was Arataro Takahashi, who 769 00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:19,279 Speaker 1: had worked at the company since nineteen thirty six. He 770 00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:22,920 Speaker 1: would only hold the position of chairman for four years, however, 771 00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:26,279 Speaker 1: so in our next episode we'll learn about his replacement, 772 00:48:27,080 --> 00:48:30,120 Speaker 1: and that wraps up part two of this series. So 773 00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:32,239 Speaker 1: in our next episode, we'll catch up with what's been 774 00:48:32,239 --> 00:48:35,600 Speaker 1: going on at the company, including when it officially changed 775 00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:38,160 Speaker 1: its name in two thousand eight to Pana Sonic, and 776 00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:40,719 Speaker 1: we'll learn about a couple of other scandals that the 777 00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:44,400 Speaker 1: company has weathered since the seventies, because there's some pretty 778 00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:47,799 Speaker 1: hefty ones. But that wraps up this episode. If you 779 00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:50,719 Speaker 1: guys have suggestions for future topics, I should tackle, whether 780 00:48:50,760 --> 00:48:54,480 Speaker 1: it's a company, a specific technology, a trend in tech, 781 00:48:55,239 --> 00:48:59,000 Speaker 1: person in tech, anything like that. Let me know. Send 782 00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:02,000 Speaker 1: me a message at Twitter. The handle is text stuff 783 00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:05,959 Speaker 1: hs W and I'll talk to you again really soon. 784 00:49:10,560 --> 00:49:13,600 Speaker 1: Text Stuff is an I heart Radio production. For more 785 00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:17,040 Speaker 1: podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, 786 00:49:17,200 --> 00:49:20,360 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.