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Speaker 1: Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, senior writer Jonathan Strickland. I'm here at

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com headquarters, and I'm raring to

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Speaker 1: go over another episode of tech Stuff. This is actually

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Speaker 1: gonna be a part one of a series because we're

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Speaker 1: looking at another big company, and as you guys know,

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Speaker 1: when I cover these companies, there's usually so much information

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Speaker 1: that I have to break it into a couple of

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Speaker 1: different episodes. So today is part one on the consumer

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Speaker 1: electronics giant Samsung. The company's had a lot of high

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Speaker 1: profile news items come out over the last year and

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Speaker 1: a half or so, and we'll get to those eventually,

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Speaker 1: but today we're gonna focus on how it came about. Now,

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Speaker 1: Samsung is a Korean company. That mean there's going to

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Speaker 1: be a lot of Korean names that I am going

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Speaker 1: to slaughter in this episode, and I sincerely apologize from

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Speaker 1: the beginning at how I am going to butcher the

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Speaker 1: pronunciation of these names. I'm going to do my best,

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Speaker 1: but chalk it up to cultural ignorance, folks. I just

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Speaker 1: don't have the experience with the Korean language. To say

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Speaker 1: all the names properly. I will, I will try my

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Speaker 1: hardest to do it, but I just want to make

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Speaker 1: that clear because I know it's important, and I apologize

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Speaker 1: for not being able to nail it, but it's largely

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Speaker 1: just due to my lack of exposure to the Korean language. Now,

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Speaker 1: Samsung was founded in ninety eight by lie Bjong Chol,

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Speaker 1: and originally it was a very modest company when it

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Speaker 1: first started, but today it's a giant with more than

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Speaker 1: a hundred seventy billion dollars in revenue. So let's talk

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Speaker 1: about it's humble beginnings and how it first got started,

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Speaker 1: because it was entirely different when it first when it

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Speaker 1: was first founded. So here's another tricky thing about this company.

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Speaker 1: To understand it's it's rise, you also need to understand

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Speaker 1: a little bit about the history of Korea. And this

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Speaker 1: is an area of the world that I had not

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Speaker 1: really studied that much. East Asia has not been one

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Speaker 1: of the focuses of my studies, and so for a

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Speaker 1: lot of this it was all new information to me,

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Speaker 1: and it really displayed to me my depth of ignorance

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Speaker 1: of East Asian history. But it is fascinating and it

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Speaker 1: does in fact tie into Samsung. It has a profound

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Speaker 1: effect on the history of the company and even a

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Speaker 1: motivation for the existence of the company in the first place.

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Speaker 1: So we're going to look a little bit at world

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Speaker 1: history before we get into the history of the company itself.

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Speaker 1: Bear with me, because, like I said, it's fascinating and

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Speaker 1: it's important so that you understand why the company is

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Speaker 1: the way it is now. One thing that we have

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Speaker 1: to keep in mind at the beginning is that when

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Speaker 1: the company was founded. When Samsung was first founded, the

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Speaker 1: Korean people were an occupied people. For centuries, Korea had

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Speaker 1: been the center of power struggles between other nations. The

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Speaker 1: Korean Peninsula is incredibly valuable for multiple reasons, and so

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Speaker 1: a lot of different countries had interest in trying to

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Speaker 1: control it, putting the Korean people in the middle as

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Speaker 1: a result. In the nineteenth century, so the eighteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: the two main powers that were struggling over Korea were

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Speaker 1: Japan and China. Uh there was actually a war fought

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Speaker 1: largely on the Korean Peninsula between Japan and China, and

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Speaker 1: the Japanese won the ConFlat and essentially eliminated China's interests

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Speaker 1: in Korea, but Korea's queen formally will not formally casually

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Speaker 1: really known as Queen Men and later known as Empress Myongong,

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Speaker 1: was hopeful that she would be able to entice Russia

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Speaker 1: to support Korea against Japan. So there grew a new rivalry.

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Speaker 1: You know, China was now fading away after losing to

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Speaker 1: Japan in this conflict. There's a new rivalry between Japan

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Speaker 1: and Russia, and Queen Men was hopeful that Russia would

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Speaker 1: end up helping out Korea because she really didn't want

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Speaker 1: Japanese influence infiltrating the country. She was technically the wife

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Speaker 1: of the king, the last of a dynasty of kings

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Speaker 1: in Korea, but had considerable influence. She was effectively a

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Speaker 1: ruler in Korea and had put several of her most

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Speaker 1: trusted advisers and relatives into high positions of power. She

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Speaker 1: was also pretty well liked by a lot of the

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Speaker 1: Korean populace, more so after the events I'm about to

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Speaker 1: describe happened. So the government of Japan viewed Queen Men

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Speaker 1: as an impediment to their plans, and they tried numerous

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Speaker 1: times to instill a rebellion against her to try and

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Speaker 1: encourage aspects of the Korean government to oppose Queen Men

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Speaker 1: and overthrow her, but they didn't really work. So the

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Speaker 1: Japanese government worked with these various political rivals but didn't

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Speaker 1: make a whole lot of progress, and they decided to

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Speaker 1: take more drastic measures. So on October eight, Japanese Ronan

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Speaker 1: in other words, warriors for higher working with some of

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Speaker 1: Queen Men's rivals, were able to infiltrate her palace. The

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Speaker 1: Ronan killed Queen Men. They assassinated her along with two

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Speaker 1: other ladies in waiting, and they positively identified Queen Men

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Speaker 1: as one of the three women. The fallout from this

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Speaker 1: act was considerable. Uh there were international pressures that forced

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Speaker 1: the Japanese government to put the people who were involved

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Speaker 1: in the assassination on trial. So the Japanese government did.

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Speaker 1: They brought the people in, they gave them trials. However,

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Speaker 1: all of the people were eventually acquitted due to lack

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Speaker 1: of evidence according to the Japanese government, which did not

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Speaker 1: go over well in the international community either. Within Korea itself,

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Speaker 1: there was a growing sentiment that was anti Japanese. It

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Speaker 1: would already been present, but now it was really flaring

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Speaker 1: up in the wake of Queen Men's assassination. Things got

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Speaker 1: really complicated from there, so complicated that it's really not

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Speaker 1: my place to dive that deeply into the history, but

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Speaker 1: it is important to know the basics so that you

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Speaker 1: under stand the rise of Samsung Uh, and it also

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Speaker 1: gives you insight into the Korean mindset and philosophy of

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Speaker 1: the time. In King go Jong, who was husband to

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Speaker 1: Queen Men, founded the Empire of Korea, so this was

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Speaker 1: a new imperial line that he was attempting to establish

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Speaker 1: in Korea. Now, he had sought refuge in Russia after

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Speaker 1: his wife had been assassinated, but he had been pressured

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Speaker 1: to return to Korea the various governments around the world.

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Speaker 1: We're saying that he needed to be there to establish

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Speaker 1: this government or else Korea would be plunged into chaos.

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Speaker 1: So he did return to Korea, and Uh ended up

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Speaker 1: giving Queen Men her title of Empress posthumously. Japan continued

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Speaker 1: its efforts to expand into East Asia, and then there

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Speaker 1: was the Russo Japanese warre between Russia and Japan, which

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Speaker 1: way waged from nineteen o five to our nineteen o

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Speaker 1: four to nineteen o five. Sorry, now, the Japanese military

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Speaker 1: won some key victories there and then really started to

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Speaker 1: put pressure on Korea. As a result, they compelled the

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Speaker 1: emperor to sign the Protectorate Treaty of nineteen o five,

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Speaker 1: which made Korea a protectorate of Japan. Now that largely

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Speaker 1: stripped Korea of its nation status. It was technically a nation,

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Speaker 1: but really only in name. It was more of an

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Speaker 1: extended property of Japan at this point, and in nineteen ten,

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Speaker 1: Japan went ahead and formally annexed the Empire of Korea.

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Speaker 1: So over the next decade, from about nineteen ten to

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Speaker 1: about nineteen nineteen, Japan forces subjugated Korea using force and

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Speaker 1: severely restricting the rights of Koreans as a result. That

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Speaker 1: particular era ended in nineteen twenty because the Japanese in

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Speaker 1: her was shocked when Koreans were able to organize mass

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Speaker 1: coordinated protests across the entirety of Korea, and the emperor

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Speaker 1: realized if things didn't change soon, he was going to

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Speaker 1: have a full scale rebellion in Korea and did not

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Speaker 1: want that to happen. So at that point, Japan started

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Speaker 1: to ease back on some of these restrictions and things

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Speaker 1: got a little less uh tense in Korea. The reason

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Speaker 1: why I tell you all this about this era between

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Speaker 1: nineteen ten and nineteen twenty is that on February twelfth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen ten, Lieb Young chull, the founder of Samsung, was born.

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Speaker 1: So he was born shortly well, right around the time

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Speaker 1: that Japan was was formally occupying Korea. So this is

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Speaker 1: a very tumultuous time in Korea's history. Now, his family

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Speaker 1: were well off and so he was in a better

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Speaker 1: position than a lot of his fellow Koreans. He was

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Speaker 1: from a wealthy family. They were landowners and they made

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Speaker 1: their money through being landlords. They were rent out their

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Speaker 1: property to other people. Now Leave Young Chal would study

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Speaker 1: in local Korean schools before he would go off to

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Speaker 1: Tokyo U to attend Waseda University. But his father passed

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Speaker 1: away while he was in school, and so he ended

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Speaker 1: up dropping out of college to return home to Korea

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Speaker 1: and take over the family business, so he never earned

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Speaker 1: his degree. That family business at the time was running

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Speaker 1: a rice mill as well as being the overseer of

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Speaker 1: these landlord properties, and the rice mill saw a lot

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Speaker 1: of success. But at that time Leave Young Chill began

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Speaker 1: to feel a greater ambition something more important than running

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Speaker 1: a successful business. He wanted to do more than that.

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Speaker 1: And we're gonna skip ahead now to night. So in

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Speaker 1: this time he's running the business everything successful. He feels

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Speaker 1: like Korea really needs something to help inspire the people

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Speaker 1: and to jump start the economy of Korea itself because

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Speaker 1: it was so dependent upon Japan, and that was something

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Speaker 1: that was of great concern to Korean's So the country

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Speaker 1: had been under Japanese occupation for nearly three decades at

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Speaker 1: this point in nineteen thirty eight, and since nineteen thirty one,

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Speaker 1: the Japanese rule had become more restrictive. So y one,

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Speaker 1: things had eased up a bit, but from nineteen thirty

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Speaker 1: one up to nineteen thirty eight they had gotten worse again. Uh.

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Speaker 1: This was called the Assimilation period, in which Japan was

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Speaker 1: effectively trying to wipe out Korean culture and make Korea

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Speaker 1: essentially just part of Japan, officially part of Japan, and

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Speaker 1: really exploiting Korea's resources as well. Now, lie Byong Chol

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Speaker 1: wanted to make a difference. He wanted to create a

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Speaker 1: successful business that Korea could call its own and create

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Speaker 1: an industry where one had not existed before the Japanese

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Speaker 1: occupation had brought a couple of positive things to Korea,

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Speaker 1: including industrialization and modernization, two things the country was far

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Speaker 1: behind in compared to the rest of the world in

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Speaker 1: general and in East Asia in particular. But as a

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Speaker 1: result of the Koreans were paying an incredibly high price.

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Speaker 1: They were under restrictive rule, and the Japanese government and

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Speaker 1: Japanese occupying forces were taking great liberties and and exploiting

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Speaker 1: people in horrible ways that I'm not gonna go into here,

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Speaker 1: but it was it was not great. Lieb Young chul

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Speaker 1: was hoping that he could leverage the advances that the

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Speaker 1: Japanese had brought with them and turned them to Korea's

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Speaker 1: advantage and to truly have Korea emerge into the twentieth

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Speaker 1: century as a power player. There was a long long

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Speaker 1: way to go, so to pursue this, he decided to

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Speaker 1: sell off the rice mill and to invest in a

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Speaker 1: new company, and on March first night, he founded the

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Speaker 1: Samsung Trading Company UH. The initial investment, according to multiple sources,

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Speaker 1: was about twenty seven dollars at the time. That's how

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Speaker 1: much the founding Samsung Trading Company costs. Twenty seven bucks

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Speaker 1: that was thirty thousand one, which is the Korean currency

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Speaker 1: w o N the one. If we throw twenty seven

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Speaker 1: dollars into an inflation calculator and adjust for inflation from

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Speaker 1: eight to modern day, you would get somewhere in the

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Speaker 1: neighborhood of four hundred sixty dollars. But we have to

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Speaker 1: keep in mind that this is not a apples to

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Speaker 1: apples thing. Whenever we're doing currency conversions and inflation comparisons,

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Speaker 1: we have to make a lot of assumption. So let's

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Speaker 1: just say founded Samsung with an initial investment that was

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Speaker 1: somewhere in the neighborhood of five hundred bucks. So imagine

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Speaker 1: saving up five hundred dollars and then founding a company.

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Speaker 1: That's essentially what he managed to do back in ninety eight.

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Speaker 1: As the company started to form, he hired on people,

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Speaker 1: and initially the company had about forty employees. Now the

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Speaker 1: company's name Samsung means literally in Korean three stars. The

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Speaker 1: number three has significance in Korean culture. It often is

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Speaker 1: associated with something that is really momentous or really strong

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Speaker 1: and powerful, and the motto of the company is be great, strong,

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Speaker 1: and everlasting. Seems like a pretty tall order, but the

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Speaker 1: company has done pretty well since then. It's initial business

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Speaker 1: was selling common goods and transporting products across Korea and

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Speaker 1: into China, So it was essentially a gross restore and

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Speaker 1: a trucking company when it first started. That's what Samsung's

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Speaker 1: business was, was groceries and transportation. Uh. A lot of

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Speaker 1: company origin stories when they talk about Samsung say that

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Speaker 1: it was essentially dealing in dried fish, which in fact

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Speaker 1: was one of the main products that they carried was

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Speaker 1: dried fish Korea. That's a that was a major product there.

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Speaker 1: But I think it oversimplifies the position that Samsung was in.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of people like to use that

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Speaker 1: as a descriptor because they juxtaposed that humble origin of

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Speaker 1: Samsung being a company that sold dried fish and transport

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Speaker 1: it into China to Samsung the multinational global electronics company,

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Speaker 1: the giant that it is today. And I think that

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Speaker 1: undersells what actually was happening. If I'm being honest, Uh,

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Speaker 1: it's more of a story about a businessman who was

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Speaker 1: trying to push against opposition in order to establish a

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Speaker 1: new sense of identity within Korea. This was a country

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Speaker 1: that had been the subject of interference from multiple countries

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Speaker 1: for much of its history, and in fact, for the

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Speaker 1: next several decades, would still be the subject of a

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Speaker 1: lot of foreign meddling. And so here was an attempt

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Speaker 1: by a Korean citizen to say, let's make our own

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Speaker 1: name and not have Korea be this extension of some

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Speaker 1: other countries identity. And this is a big deal. But

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Speaker 1: it is true that Samsung's early history had little to

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Speaker 1: do with technology, apart from leveraging modern transportation conveniences like

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Speaker 1: motorized trucks, which were pretty new to Korea at that time.

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Speaker 1: The company saw success in its early years, so they

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Speaker 1: did pretty well. The Japanese occupation of Korea ended in

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty five when Japan's surrendered at the end of

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Speaker 1: World War Two, and at this point Korea was again

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Speaker 1: in a time of turmoil. Japan's withdrawal from Korea didn't

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Speaker 1: mean everything was hunky dory. In fact, things got really complicated.

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Speaker 1: In theory, Korea was a single independent country, but in

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Speaker 1: practice that really wasn't the case. The United States and

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Speaker 1: the r and Russia both or the Soviet Union, both

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Speaker 1: had interests in Korea, and uh decided to essentially divide

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Speaker 1: up the country. So everything above they parallel. That's what

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Speaker 1: Russia was looking at, and everything below that that's what

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Speaker 1: the United States was looking at. And a new leader

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Speaker 1: named Li Sung Man rose to take control of what

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Speaker 1: would eventually become South Korea. And he wasn't the leader

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Speaker 1: that all Koreans are, even most Koreans necessarily preferred, but

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Speaker 1: he had the support of the United States, largely because

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Speaker 1: he was a staunch anti communist. So it wasn't a

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Speaker 1: true republic. The people of Korea didn't get to vote

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Speaker 1: on Li Sung Man establishing control. He was essentially instilled

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Speaker 1: as leader by the United States. Now, meanwhile, again the

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Speaker 1: Soviet Union was looking at the northern part of Korea,

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Speaker 1: and the Soviet Union established its own UH leadership that

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Speaker 1: was totally separate from this leadership in South Korea, which,

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Speaker 1: as you would imagine, caused a little bit of friction.

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Speaker 1: Both governments, both the one in the northern section of

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Speaker 1: the country and the one in the southern section of

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Speaker 1: the country, claimed leadership across the entire nation. So you

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Speaker 1: have two different governments both claiming to be the leader

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Speaker 1: of Korea overall. UH. Now, technically the United States and

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Speaker 1: the Soviet Union had joint trusteeship overall of Korea, and

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Speaker 1: technically they were supposed to come to an agreement as

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Speaker 1: to what the government of Korea would be following its

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Speaker 1: release from Japan, and then from that point forward, theoretically

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Speaker 1: the people of Korea would have a say in how

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Speaker 1: their government was formed. But that never happened because the

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Speaker 1: Soviet Union in the United States didn't see eye to eye.

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Speaker 1: They completely disagreed with each other's choices, and so this

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Speaker 1: leadership question became a stalemate. Now, at the same time,

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Speaker 1: Lieb Young chul wanted his company to reinvest in Korea

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Speaker 1: and that was continuing to struggle in the wake of

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Speaker 1: World War Two and the interests of the United States

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Speaker 1: and the Soviet Union, so in he founded the Samsung

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Speaker 1: Construction and Trading Corporation or Samsung CNT. Now, this would

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Speaker 1: eventually become the parent company of all the other Samsung companies,

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Speaker 1: at least for a while. And uh so Samsung CNT

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Speaker 1: became kind of like the the top notch company under

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Speaker 1: which all the others would fall. And often you'll see

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Speaker 1: that the founding date for Samsung CNT is nineteen thirty eight,

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Speaker 1: although really that was the Samsung Trading Company the Samsung

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Speaker 1: CNT was sort of the transformation of that company. Uh So,

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Speaker 1: I guess it really just depends on your perspective as

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Speaker 1: to whether or not you would call the founding of

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Speaker 1: it being ninety eight when the initial company started, or

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight when they formally created the the organization

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Speaker 1: known as Samsung CNT. This gets way more complicated the

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Speaker 1: longer I go. So if you think that part is

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Speaker 1: a little confusing, I apologize. It's not gonna get any

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Speaker 1: easier to understand. In fact, it gets really messy when

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Speaker 1: we get up into the eighties, nineties and the two

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Speaker 1: thousands for Samsung's history. Now, another big thing happened in

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Speaker 1: that's the same year that Korea officially split into two nations.

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Speaker 1: Remember I mentioned you had these two different governments that

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Speaker 1: were in opposition to each other, both laying claim to

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Speaker 1: the entire Korean country, and that could not sustain itself.

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Speaker 1: In the South, uh Sing Manrie established the Republic of Korea,

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Speaker 1: and in the North Kim Il sung became the leader

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Speaker 1: of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The United Nations

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Speaker 1: only recognized the Republic of Korea the South Korean government

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Speaker 1: as being legitimate Meanwhile, the Northern Korean government began seizing

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Speaker 1: companies and properties that were originally owned by Japanese or

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Speaker 1: pro Japanese interests, and then claiming those companies for the state,

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Speaker 1: so they were state owned and operated. At that point

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Speaker 1: they had been seized by force. Tensions between North and

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Speaker 1: South Korea increased, with each planning to use military force

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Speaker 1: against the other in order to reunite the country under

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Speaker 1: one government. Now, at this time, Samsung had established a

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Speaker 1: new headquarters building in Seoul, but in nineteen fifty North

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Speaker 1: Korean forces invaded South Korea and the two nations officially

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Speaker 1: entered the Korean War. At that point, Samsung relocated space

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Speaker 1: of operations to Busan. Soul eventually would fall to North Korea,

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Speaker 1: but it would eventually also be returned back to South

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Speaker 1: Korea once the two countries negotiated peace, and at the

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Speaker 1: conclusion of the war, Samsung would return to Seoul as

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Speaker 1: its base of operations. Now, I've got a lot more

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Speaker 1: to talk about once we've gotten to this point where

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Speaker 1: things are a little more steady for Samsung. But before

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Speaker 1: I do that, let's take a quick break to thank

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Speaker 1: our sponsor. By nineteen fifty one, Korean War is now

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Speaker 1: technically over. Things would continue to fall out until nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty three. But nineteen fifty one, Samsung was pulling in

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Speaker 1: revenues of two billion one By today's exchange rate, that's

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Speaker 1: about one point seven five million dollars. But keep in

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Speaker 1: mind that, you know, like I said earlier, when you

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Speaker 1: talk about currency conversions and just adjusting for inflation and

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Speaker 1: that sort of thing, there are a lot of factors

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Speaker 1: that that are present that you can't necessarily account for easily.

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Speaker 1: So just think of that as like a round number.

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Speaker 1: So we're around two million dollars in revenue, which was

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Speaker 1: a significant amount for a brand new company. I mean

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Speaker 1: brand new in the sense of this. Korea had no

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Speaker 1: real corporations that were of any real significance around this time,

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Speaker 1: and had some industries and had some companies. Don't get

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Speaker 1: me wrong, but Samsung was trying to establish a brand

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Speaker 1: new era in the post industrial world of Korea, which

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Speaker 1: underwent industrialization very rapidly and under Japanese occupation. It's just

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Speaker 1: important to know that the company had been successful even

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Speaker 1: in the wake of the Korean War. Now, during this time,

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Speaker 1: the company expanded its operations by purchasing other businesses and

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Speaker 1: getting into new industries. In other words, they were diversifying.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't just groceries and transportation. So was it consumer electronics.

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Speaker 1: Not yet. It would be a long time before they

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Speaker 1: would actually get into consumer electronics. But this was in

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Speaker 1: part an effort to get Korea independent of imports. Korea

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Speaker 1: was importing tons of stuff, and Samsung leadership said, what

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Speaker 1: if we were able to produce these things within Korea

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Speaker 1: so that we removed that dependence upon other countries and

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Speaker 1: grew the economy of Korea as a result. It was

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Speaker 1: a way of trying to stand on their own. So

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Speaker 1: the new industries included a sugar refinery and a woolen mill.

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Speaker 1: And since it's gonna be a while before consumer electronics

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Speaker 1: enters the picture, we're gonna talk about how those work

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Speaker 1: because they involve technology. So we're gonna talk about sugar

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Speaker 1: refineries and woolen mills now, because I thought, why not,

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Speaker 1: it's the perfect opportunity. We'll start with sugar refineries. Now,

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Speaker 1: the purpose of these of buildings, these manufacturing plants, these

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Speaker 1: factories is to purify or refine sugar. So, in other words,

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Speaker 1: this is all about getting rid of impurities to create

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Speaker 1: a pure and consistent product that table sugar type stuff

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Speaker 1: granulated sugar. Now, there are actually two types of facilities

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Speaker 1: you would use with your typical sugar refinery if you're

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Speaker 1: using cane sugar. Uh. The first is a raw sugar mill,

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Speaker 1: which turns plants sugars into a raw form of sugar

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Speaker 1: that you can find in many stores. There if you've

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Speaker 1: ever seen that golden sugar that you can use in

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Speaker 1: different places. A lot of trendy coffee shops use this

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Speaker 1: raw sugar. That's what comes from sugar mills. But you

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Speaker 1: would also take this raw sugar and you could give

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Speaker 1: it to a sugar refinery which will further refine the product.

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Speaker 1: And that's where you get the white sugar that is

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Speaker 1: free of various impurities. So sugar starts off as sucros.

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Speaker 1: It's a carbohydrate that you would find in plants, and

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Speaker 1: it's a byproduct of, or actually a product of photosynthesis.

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Speaker 1: That's the process by which plants take energy from the

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Speaker 1: sun and they produce food that they can use for

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Speaker 1: their own energy later on. Now, I'm not gonna go

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Speaker 1: into the whole plant cycle here, because I assume you've

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Speaker 1: been through elementary biology. But just understand that plants take water, minerals,

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Speaker 1: carbon dioxide, um and sunlight and end up producing, among

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Speaker 1: other things, sucros, which eventually will undergo further transformations to

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Speaker 1: become stuff like plant matter, fibers, complex starches, that kind

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Speaker 1: of thing. Now, all green plants produce sugars, but some

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Speaker 1: do it in higher concentrations than others and thus make

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Speaker 1: a better product, are better crop for you to grow

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Speaker 1: if you want to harvest sugar, and sugarcane is about

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Speaker 1: twelve to four sucros, which is why we grew so

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00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:34,920
Speaker 1: much of the darn stuff a few hundred years ago.

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00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:37,520
Speaker 1: It's a really good crop to raise if you wanted

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Speaker 1: to produce sugar or molasses, that kind of thing. Now,

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00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:43,439
Speaker 1: there are other plants that we use to harvest sugar,

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Speaker 1: such as sugar beats, and the process is similar to

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Speaker 1: getting sugar from cane sugar, but they're not exactly the same.

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Speaker 1: They're close, but not identical. However, I'm gonna focus on

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Speaker 1: cane sugar just for simplicity's sake, since I just want

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Speaker 1: to talk about the technology and process of purifying and

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Speaker 1: refining sugar. So to get sugar from sugarcane. You have

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Speaker 1: to wash the stalks and then you have to shred

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Speaker 1: the stalks turn it into kind of a pulp, and

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Speaker 1: typically raw sugar mills use a contraption with rotating knives

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Speaker 1: to do the trick. So it helps if you imagine

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Speaker 1: that the sugar cane is a little James Bond and

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Speaker 1: they're rotating knives are are the villain's method of torture

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Speaker 1: in order to get information now on James Bond. Except

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Speaker 1: in this case, James Bond does not make a daring

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Speaker 1: escape and then romance some other stalk of sugar. Instead,

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Speaker 1: they get shredded, which I guess would make an exciting

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Speaker 1: but short James Bond movie, and that's why they do

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Speaker 1: don't let me write screenplays. Anyway, You end up with

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Speaker 1: shredded sugarcane, which you then wash thoroughly again and you

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Speaker 1: put it through a pair of very heavy rollers to

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Speaker 1: squeeze all that sugar out. Essentially juices this pulp, so

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Speaker 1: it squishes everything down. You get this cloudy sugary juice

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Speaker 1: as a result, and you need to be able to

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Speaker 1: remove stuff from that cloudy liquid in order to refine

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Speaker 1: the sugar. So your next step is to make clarified solution.

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Speaker 1: And you create the clarified mixture by adding in carbon

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Speaker 1: dioxide and something called milk of lime. Now that's lime,

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Speaker 1: as in the mineral lime, not the fruit. So in

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Speaker 1: other words, you're using a diluted solution of calcium hydroxide

434
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 1: and a source of carbon dioxide. Why well, when you

435
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,640
Speaker 1: mix these components together and you bubble carbon dioxide through it,

436
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 1: so it's essentially a carbonation process, it begins to form

437
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:54,000
Speaker 1: calcium carbonate. And this stuff is kind of like chalk,

438
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:56,640
Speaker 1: and it ends up sucking up a lot of materials

439
00:29:56,680 --> 00:30:01,240
Speaker 1: that you don't want in your sugars, like fat, gum

440
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:04,760
Speaker 1: and wax. That kind of stuff pulls that out of

441
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:08,400
Speaker 1: the solution. Uh. Now, those materials end up being heavier

442
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,000
Speaker 1: than the solution itself, so they all settle at the bottom.

443
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,640
Speaker 1: That way, you can just harvest the liquid from the top.

444
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 1: Then you take the clarified juice and you put in

445
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:21,040
Speaker 1: a vacuum pan, so as a pan that's actually subjected

446
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:25,480
Speaker 1: to vacuum to reduce pressures. Now, by reducing the pressure,

447
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:29,920
Speaker 1: you also reduce the temperature you need to boil off liquid,

448
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 1: which is exactly what you want to do. You want

449
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:34,640
Speaker 1: to start boiling off the water that's inside the solution

450
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 1: to concentrate it. You're making a concentrate. As this happens,

451
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:46,000
Speaker 1: the mixture turns into a thick, brown, rich syrup, and

452
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 1: this is the concentrated form of that sugar juice. Now

453
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 1: you still need to convert the syrup into sugar crystals.

454
00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 1: So typically you put this in another vacuum pan subjected

455
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:01,320
Speaker 1: to another vacuum, and you would so add some pulverized

456
00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,720
Speaker 1: sugar crystals to act as sort of nucleayic sites for

457
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,160
Speaker 1: raw sugar crystals to form around them. Think of it

458
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:12,880
Speaker 1: kind of like a rain cloud. Rain drops form around

459
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:16,320
Speaker 1: tiny particles. It acts as a nucleayic site for the

460
00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 1: moisture to form around the particle, and then it gets

461
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 1: heavy enough to fall from the sky in the form

462
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: of precipitation. Similar concept here, except instead of it being

463
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 1: droplets of water, we're talking about crystals of sugar. It's

464
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: it's just a little bit of lattice for the crystals

465
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:38,520
Speaker 1: to start forming around. So you get these sugar crystals

466
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:42,000
Speaker 1: glomming onto these nuclayic sites. As the water begins to

467
00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 1: boil off, and you're not done yet. You then would

468
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:48,440
Speaker 1: take this mass of crystals and you would put them

469
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 1: into a centrifuge, and this kind of looks like a

470
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:56,360
Speaker 1: clothes dryer. It is a cylindrical container that's got perforated sides,

471
00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:59,600
Speaker 1: and it can spend very very quickly, and it slings

472
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,160
Speaker 1: more and more easter outside of it. While retaining all

473
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 1: the crystals. You end up with raw sugar, which is

474
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,320
Speaker 1: kind of this golden color I was talking about. So

475
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:12,239
Speaker 1: that golden color is because the sugar crystals have a

476
00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:15,960
Speaker 1: thin layer of a substance that we call molasses on them.

477
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:21,600
Speaker 1: So raw sugar has molasses around those those raw sugar crystals.

478
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:25,560
Speaker 1: If all you want is raw sugar, this is where

479
00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 1: you stop. Otherwise you then have to move on to

480
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 1: a sugar refinery. So since Samsung had a sugar refinery,

481
00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 1: I guess I should explain how this works. Let's keep

482
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 1: this sweet train a rolling. The typical sugar refinery takes

483
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:42,760
Speaker 1: in raw sugar from the mills, and first thing they

484
00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:45,440
Speaker 1: do is they put the raw sugar in a mixture

485
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 1: of water and sugar. This actually helps them separate the

486
00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: molasses from those raw sugar crystals. So you end up

487
00:32:54,160 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 1: with a batter like substance called magma delicious magma, and

488
00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 1: I am not making that up. That is actually the

489
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:04,840
Speaker 1: term for it. I do urge you to be careful

490
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,880
Speaker 1: if you're ever offered a sample of magma to taste,

491
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:10,360
Speaker 1: make sure you know which type of magma it is.

492
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:14,200
Speaker 1: The tasty, sweet kind is fine, but the kind that's

493
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:18,400
Speaker 1: underneath the Earth's crust is probably bad for you. Next,

494
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:23,160
Speaker 1: you put this magma into another centrifuge lots of centrifuges

495
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:26,040
Speaker 1: and water involved in this process, and you give it

496
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 1: another spin. Now, this separates the molasses film from the crystals,

497
00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 1: so you can collect the molasses and you can sell that,

498
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 1: which is great. It means that you can make use

499
00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:40,959
Speaker 1: of a byproduct of the process of refining sugar, and

500
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 1: it means that you have less waste. You're not just

501
00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 1: throwing the molasses away. You can actually sell that as

502
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:50,800
Speaker 1: another product. It's more efficient and more more effective use

503
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: of the material. I'm in favor of it. Also, I

504
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 1: like various desserts that are made with molasses because I'm

505
00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 1: from the South and they were very popular. Now, the

506
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,840
Speaker 1: remaining crystals go through a filtering process to remove any

507
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:08,200
Speaker 1: other impurities. It's still in liquid form in this point,

508
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 1: so you're still talking about liquid sugar. You pass it

509
00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:14,920
Speaker 1: through various filters. The color is golden until you pass

510
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:18,160
Speaker 1: it through some carbon filters, which removes that last bit

511
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:20,600
Speaker 1: of color, and you end up with the water white

512
00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:23,760
Speaker 1: sugar syrup. Then you evaporate some more of the water

513
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 1: to concentrate the mixture further. You put that mixture in

514
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:31,120
Speaker 1: another vacuum pan. You seed it with some crushed sugar crystals,

515
00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:35,400
Speaker 1: and you allow the sugar, the granulated sugar to form.

516
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:38,920
Speaker 1: Then you put that mixture and yet another centrifuge, and

517
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:43,400
Speaker 1: then the crystals are washed with fresh hot water moved

518
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:46,279
Speaker 1: to dryers. You actually put this wet sugar in a

519
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 1: dryer and the dryers will remove almost all the water,

520
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:53,480
Speaker 1: almost all the liquid and moisture from the sugar granules.

521
00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:56,600
Speaker 1: They'll go from having about a one percent moisture content

522
00:34:56,680 --> 00:35:02,680
Speaker 1: to point zero three moisture content. It's pretty phenomenal. Then

523
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:05,000
Speaker 1: you pass these crystals over a series of screens to

524
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:09,319
Speaker 1: separate the different sizes of grains of sugar, and then

525
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 1: you got it. That's how sugar refineries work. You end

526
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:14,120
Speaker 1: up with the refined sugar at the end of it,

527
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:16,840
Speaker 1: at least for cane sugar. Like I said, beat sugar

528
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:21,600
Speaker 1: is slightly different, but not by a whole lot. But hey,

529
00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:26,960
Speaker 1: I also mentioned woolen mills besides sugar refineries, and how

530
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:29,560
Speaker 1: do they work. We're gonna talk about that for a

531
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 1: second now, only briefly, because I also covered mills when

532
00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:37,600
Speaker 1: I talked about them in the Industrial Revolution podcasts. So

533
00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:40,080
Speaker 1: if you've listened to those, you know a little bit

534
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:43,080
Speaker 1: about how these work already, and if you haven't listened

535
00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 1: to those, I recommend it. It It was a lot of

536
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 1: fun for me to go and explore the history of

537
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:53,799
Speaker 1: the Industrial Revolution, which is a fascinating era in world history. Now.

538
00:35:53,840 --> 00:36:00,440
Speaker 1: Broadly speaking, a woolen mill it takes animal fibers, typically wool,

539
00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 1: and turns into the useful stuff like yarn and felt.

540
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:09,560
Speaker 1: The mills allow for a mass production of these products,

541
00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:14,000
Speaker 1: which is something you couldn't really do before the Industrial Revolution.

542
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:17,600
Speaker 1: You could only produce stuff by hand, which obviously limited

543
00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 1: how much you could create at any given time. Typically,

544
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:25,320
Speaker 1: you start by washing the fibers, so you've got wool

545
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:29,240
Speaker 1: that's been harvested from sheep or so I am told

546
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:34,640
Speaker 1: give it a good wash and then uh you end

547
00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:39,520
Speaker 1: up taking the the washed wool where you've gotten rid

548
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:42,000
Speaker 1: of as much dirt and grease and other stuff as

549
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:46,719
Speaker 1: you possibly can, and you then put it through a

550
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:51,000
Speaker 1: device called a picker or an opener. This is to

551
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 1: remove tangles from the fibers. Also helps you open up

552
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:58,200
Speaker 1: the fibers so you can work with them and ensure

553
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:02,640
Speaker 1: consistency as you work with the wool. Typically, the way

554
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:05,279
Speaker 1: these machines work as they have a conveyor belt on them.

555
00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:07,680
Speaker 1: You put the raw wool on the conveyor belt, it

556
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,200
Speaker 1: pulls it towards the rest of the machine. And then

557
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:14,160
Speaker 1: we get into another kind of James Bond torture device,

558
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:17,200
Speaker 1: or maybe Indiana Jones if you prefer. Temple of Doom

559
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:20,239
Speaker 1: had that giant rock crusher. It's kind of similar to that,

560
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:24,840
Speaker 1: except imagine rollers that have a set of teeth on them.

561
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:27,440
Speaker 1: There's actually a couple of different sets of rollers. The

562
00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:30,880
Speaker 1: first set has small teeth that are meant to open

563
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 1: and untangle the fibers. Then there's a that set. By

564
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:38,560
Speaker 1: the way, it is called liquors. I'm not making that up.

565
00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:42,719
Speaker 1: Liquors are the rollers that fine teeth and start to

566
00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,640
Speaker 1: open up the fibers on wool. That leads to a

567
00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:47,920
Speaker 1: drum that has larger teeth on it. This one is

568
00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:50,360
Speaker 1: called a picker. So you go with the liquors and

569
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:55,040
Speaker 1: then you go to the pickers. By the way, uh,

570
00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:58,920
Speaker 1: if you really want to encounter some fun words, research

571
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:03,080
Speaker 1: wool mills, because they have a language all unto themselves

572
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:07,080
Speaker 1: and it's mostly fanciful stuff. In fact, the word fancy

573
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:11,520
Speaker 1: features heavily in wool mills. So once it passes through

574
00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:15,040
Speaker 1: the liquor and the picker, the fiber is ready to

575
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 1: have some conditioner added to it to make it a

576
00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:21,080
Speaker 1: little more pliable and workable, and you move it to

577
00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:25,239
Speaker 1: a separate device, the separator. The separator is meant to

578
00:38:25,239 --> 00:38:28,480
Speaker 1: remove impurities like plant matter from the fibers, so stuff

579
00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:32,360
Speaker 1: that didn't get removed from the initial washing. Some fibers

580
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:35,640
Speaker 1: need more than one pass through a separator in order

581
00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 1: to get the majority of the stuff out, so you

582
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:42,280
Speaker 1: might put it through a couple of times. The device

583
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:46,320
Speaker 1: also rolls and picks the fibers, with these impurities falling

584
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:47,920
Speaker 1: into the base of the machine, so you would just

585
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:50,799
Speaker 1: empty out the container occasionally when it would start to

586
00:38:50,800 --> 00:38:54,239
Speaker 1: fill up. Now. Following that is another machine called a

587
00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:58,560
Speaker 1: card c A R D E R. Carding is all

588
00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:02,280
Speaker 1: about aligning fiber is properly getting them all to line

589
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:04,680
Speaker 1: up in the same direction, so you want them parallel

590
00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:07,160
Speaker 1: to one another, and you can do this by hand

591
00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:09,520
Speaker 1: by using a pair of carters, which are sort of

592
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:12,840
Speaker 1: like specialized brushes. If you've ever used a brush that

593
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:18,080
Speaker 1: has metal teeth for UH combing and animals for specifically

594
00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:19,960
Speaker 1: to help it when it's shedding, like if you have

595
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:21,759
Speaker 1: a dog that has an undercoat and you need to

596
00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:25,000
Speaker 1: get at that undercoat. Typically you would use a brush

597
00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:28,480
Speaker 1: that has metal teeth to help grab onto those fibers

598
00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:31,799
Speaker 1: and gently pull them away. UH. The same sort of

599
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:34,879
Speaker 1: thing is used in carters, so you'd use a pair

600
00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:36,400
Speaker 1: of these by hand. If you want to do it

601
00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:39,840
Speaker 1: by hand, and put some wool on one of the carters,

602
00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:43,600
Speaker 1: use the other carter to gently pull the fibers. Gently

603
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:45,680
Speaker 1: being the operative term because if you use too much force,

604
00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:47,719
Speaker 1: you're just gonna stick the two things together and you'll

605
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:51,560
Speaker 1: never move them apart. And as you do this, all

606
00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:53,879
Speaker 1: the fibers start to line up in parallel. That makes

607
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:55,680
Speaker 1: it much more easy to work with When you want

608
00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:59,320
Speaker 1: to do something like spin that wool into yarn, well,

609
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:03,400
Speaker 1: the machine do this automatically. You've got another conveyor belt.

610
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:07,600
Speaker 1: You have a thing called the swift, which is got

611
00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:09,440
Speaker 1: one set of teeth on it, and then you have

612
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:11,759
Speaker 1: the card, which has the other set of teeth on it,

613
00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:15,920
Speaker 1: and by having one pull the other, or pull the

614
00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:19,920
Speaker 1: wool against the other, you align all the fibers um

615
00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 1: This happens a couple of different ways, depending upon the

616
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:26,399
Speaker 1: actual machine, but at the end you get a thin

617
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:30,120
Speaker 1: web of wool where all the fibers are aligned properly,

618
00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:34,040
Speaker 1: and you can then use that for whatever purpose you're planning.

619
00:40:34,560 --> 00:40:39,160
Speaker 1: Further down, The description of a typical carter cracks me

620
00:40:39,239 --> 00:40:41,279
Speaker 1: up because this is where we run into some of

621
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,360
Speaker 1: those terms I was talking about. It has stuff on

622
00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:47,000
Speaker 1: it like a swift, a fancy, and a doffer, But

623
00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:49,040
Speaker 1: the important thing to remember is that it's just about

624
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:52,960
Speaker 1: aligning the fibers properly. Now, the next step is dependent

625
00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:55,560
Speaker 1: upon what you want to do with the wool. Once

626
00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:59,160
Speaker 1: you've gotten to this point. If you're turning it into felt,

627
00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:02,400
Speaker 1: you you have to convert the fibers into bats. That's

628
00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: bat with two teas, or you can convert the fibers

629
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:10,680
Speaker 1: into rough yarn or something called roving or bumps. Otherwise

630
00:41:10,680 --> 00:41:12,879
Speaker 1: you would have to draw the fibers, spin them into

631
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 1: a finer yarn, ply that yarn, and then either wind

632
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:21,359
Speaker 1: it onto cones or process it a little bit more

633
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:25,320
Speaker 1: and then eventually turn it into skeins of yarn. And honestly,

634
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:28,759
Speaker 1: I'm left wondering how anyone ever figured out these processes

635
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:30,920
Speaker 1: in the first place, because none of them seem at

636
00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 1: all intuitive to me. Uh, if it were up to me,

637
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:37,040
Speaker 1: we'd all be wearing mud and leaves, because that's as

638
00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:39,400
Speaker 1: advanced as I would be able to get. This stuff

639
00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:43,040
Speaker 1: is like rocket science to me, or maybe magic or

640
00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:46,520
Speaker 1: a combination of the two. All Right, so we've covered

641
00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:52,040
Speaker 1: sugar refineries and woolen mills. What else was Samsung getting into? Well,

642
00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:56,920
Speaker 1: the woolen mills subsidiary name was Child Woolen Fabrics Industries

643
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:01,239
Speaker 1: and later became known as just Child Industries. See H E. I. L.

644
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:04,680
Speaker 1: This will become important later on when it becomes time

645
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:10,040
Speaker 1: to unravel, which is kind of a pun the complicated

646
00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:13,320
Speaker 1: corporate identity of Samsung. So for much of its history,

647
00:42:13,719 --> 00:42:18,000
Speaker 1: this particular part of Samsung was focused almost exclusively on

648
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:24,480
Speaker 1: producing textiles. Eventually, Samsung would actually introduce a men'swear division

649
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:27,440
Speaker 1: that would also fall under this company, but that was

650
00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:31,080
Speaker 1: in the eighties, so we'll get to that later. We've

651
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:33,560
Speaker 1: got a little bit more to talk about before I

652
00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:36,719
Speaker 1: go into that. Let's take another quick break to thank

653
00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:48,720
Speaker 1: our sponsor. In nineteen seven, Samsung became the first company

654
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:52,080
Speaker 1: in Korea to hold open recruitment for new employees with

655
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:56,960
Speaker 1: an aim at recruiting college students graduates of college right

656
00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:00,520
Speaker 1: out of the gate. So this was a new approach

657
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:05,440
Speaker 1: in Korea to to create a a means for college

658
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:09,920
Speaker 1: graduates to go right into the workforce. Recruits actually had

659
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:13,560
Speaker 1: to take a new employee course. It was an extensive

660
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:16,320
Speaker 1: course to become an employee at Samsung, and it served

661
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:21,080
Speaker 1: a couple of purposes. In one sense, administrators over at

662
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:24,480
Speaker 1: Samsung could determine where each person would best be used,

663
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:27,520
Speaker 1: what his or her talents would be best put forward,

664
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:29,760
Speaker 1: you know, whether you should put them in this division

665
00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 1: versus that division, this subsidiary versus that subsidiary. But it

666
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:39,080
Speaker 1: also gave these new employees the chance to learn Samsung's

667
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:42,239
Speaker 1: values the way they do things to get the specific

668
00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:45,680
Speaker 1: skills they would need to excel at whatever job they

669
00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:51,000
Speaker 1: would go to. So both parties were benefiting from this relationship.

670
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:54,759
Speaker 1: It wasn't just a means for Samsung to fill out

671
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:58,120
Speaker 1: its employee list, but also to make sure that the

672
00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:01,560
Speaker 1: people they hired were the best it and best trained

673
00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:05,400
Speaker 1: for those jobs. And really they were trying to cultivate

674
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:10,200
Speaker 1: an efficient and effective workforce and it paid off. Sam

675
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:13,120
Speaker 1: Samsung was in a position to make some bold moves

676
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:17,200
Speaker 1: into yet more industries. They had already started diversifying, and

677
00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:19,800
Speaker 1: they continued to do so. It was flush with cash

678
00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:24,080
Speaker 1: from its businesses and began to dive further into other ventures,

679
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:29,520
Speaker 1: including insurance, so again still not at consumer electronics. In

680
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:32,520
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty eight, Samsung acquired a company called an Cook

681
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:37,000
Speaker 1: Fire and Marine Insurance, which later became Samsung Fire and

682
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:39,960
Speaker 1: Marine Insurance, but by later I mean much later, I'm

683
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:43,560
Speaker 1: talking nine, so it was still known by its old

684
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:48,480
Speaker 1: name for quite some time. Samsung also acquired dong Bang

685
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:53,000
Speaker 1: Life Insurance in nineteen sixty three, which would transform into

686
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:56,720
Speaker 1: Samsung Life Insurance in nineteen eighty nine. UH The company

687
00:44:56,760 --> 00:45:00,239
Speaker 1: also took over a popular department store in Korea, and

688
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:03,040
Speaker 1: Samsung had become the largest corporation in Korea and was

689
00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:08,040
Speaker 1: transforming into a conglomerate of subsidiaries. Now we've got to

690
00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:10,520
Speaker 1: take a break from Samsung to talk a little bit

691
00:45:10,560 --> 00:45:13,239
Speaker 1: more about Korean history, because again it's going to play

692
00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:17,040
Speaker 1: an important role in the next era of Samsung's development.

693
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:21,440
Speaker 1: Had a big impact on how Samsung would progress. Now,

694
00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:24,000
Speaker 1: when I last left off in the history lesson, I

695
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:27,120
Speaker 1: was talking about the formation of North and South Korea

696
00:45:27,239 --> 00:45:29,759
Speaker 1: and how the split nation found itself the focus of

697
00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:31,680
Speaker 1: the U s s R. In the case of North

698
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:34,160
Speaker 1: Korea and the USA. In the case of South Korea,

699
00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:38,720
Speaker 1: you still had Lee Sung Man, who was that US

700
00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:41,800
Speaker 1: backed leader who assumed control way back in the nineteen forties.

701
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:44,480
Speaker 1: He was still in control by nineteen sixteen, and he

702
00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:47,880
Speaker 1: had managed this by essentially changing the rules several times

703
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:51,880
Speaker 1: whenever he approached a term limit. But by nineteen sixty

704
00:45:51,920 --> 00:45:55,400
Speaker 1: a substantial number of South Korean citizens had had enough.

705
00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:01,560
Speaker 1: Lee Sungman would flee to the United States as the

706
00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:05,080
Speaker 1: people of his country began to resist his rule, and

707
00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:08,160
Speaker 1: then they formed a second Republic of Korea. But this

708
00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:12,040
Speaker 1: didn't last very long. The region was extremely unstable, so eventually,

709
00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:16,560
Speaker 1: a military leader named Bak Jong he seized control in

710
00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:21,560
Speaker 1: the Kudata, forming what was called the Third Republic of Korea.

711
00:46:22,160 --> 00:46:25,919
Speaker 1: Although Bak ruled as a self appointed leader and had

712
00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:28,799
Speaker 1: no structure in place for elections to replace him, so

713
00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:31,160
Speaker 1: essentially he said I'm I'm the leader, now just follow

714
00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:34,840
Speaker 1: what I say. So technically he was a dictator, but

715
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:39,040
Speaker 1: he wasn't a despot. He led Korea into a new

716
00:46:39,080 --> 00:46:43,280
Speaker 1: age of industrialization with Samsung poised to be a leader

717
00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:46,920
Speaker 1: in that space, and he would rule for eighteen years

718
00:46:47,239 --> 00:46:50,160
Speaker 1: during the Third and Fourth Republics of South Korea, and

719
00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:53,319
Speaker 1: it was a relatively stable time for the country. So

720
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:55,799
Speaker 1: while the people of Korea didn't have any real saying

721
00:46:55,840 --> 00:46:59,960
Speaker 1: their leadership, at least the leader wasn't exploiting his people.

722
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:04,719
Speaker 1: He wasn't he wasn't taking advantage of his position, and

723
00:47:04,760 --> 00:47:07,840
Speaker 1: he was making what a lot of people consider wise

724
00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:10,759
Speaker 1: use of money that was coming from other countries like

725
00:47:10,800 --> 00:47:16,160
Speaker 1: the United States, to actually invest back in Korea itself.

726
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:23,680
Speaker 1: So there's pros and cons to this particular arrangement. However,

727
00:47:23,719 --> 00:47:26,600
Speaker 1: for Samsung, it was a slightly different story. Leeb Young

728
00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:31,280
Speaker 1: chul was in Japan during the Kudatam and he decided

729
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:33,399
Speaker 1: to stay in Japan for a while. He actually led

730
00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:37,120
Speaker 1: the company from Japan. He only returned to Korea after

731
00:47:37,239 --> 00:47:40,160
Speaker 1: receiving assurances that his company would more or less be

732
00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:44,279
Speaker 1: able to operate the way it had But there was

733
00:47:44,360 --> 00:47:50,240
Speaker 1: one enormous concession. Samsung had to surrender control of several

734
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:55,200
Speaker 1: financial institutions that acquired essentially banks, and they had to

735
00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:59,279
Speaker 1: turn those over to the Korean government, So that was

736
00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:05,360
Speaker 1: a big change for Samsung. In nineteen sixty one, Samsung's

737
00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:08,880
Speaker 1: founder became the first president of the Federation of Korean Industries.

738
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:13,640
Speaker 1: According to its website, this organization quote has championed the

739
00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:17,279
Speaker 1: principles of free enterprise to achieve wholesome development of the

740
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:21,000
Speaker 1: national economy. In the quote, so, it's an organization of

741
00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:24,480
Speaker 1: Korean companies that are dedicated to making Korea a competitive

742
00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:28,880
Speaker 1: player in the global marketplace, while simultaneously attempting to contribute

743
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:34,320
Speaker 1: positively to the socio economic climate of Korea itself. Samsung

744
00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:38,239
Speaker 1: helped establish a couple of other industries within Korea during

745
00:48:38,280 --> 00:48:43,080
Speaker 1: this time, including a paper manufacturing industry and a fertilizer

746
00:48:43,200 --> 00:48:47,799
Speaker 1: processing industry. Samsung also began to explore the possibility of

747
00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:51,120
Speaker 1: exporting more goods out of Korea, so not just producing

748
00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:53,440
Speaker 1: stuff for Koreans themselves, but other parts of the world,

749
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:58,240
Speaker 1: reversing that trend of the country importing stuff. So between

750
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:01,920
Speaker 1: nineteen and nineteen sixty five, Samsung would see its export

751
00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:05,840
Speaker 1: business increased by a factor of eight, reaching four point

752
00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:10,240
Speaker 1: eight million dollars of business by nineteen sixty five. Also

753
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:15,560
Speaker 1: around this time, Samsung invested in broadcasting and newspapers inside Korea,

754
00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:19,359
Speaker 1: creating a media division within the company. Samsung had also

755
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:22,680
Speaker 1: created a foundation to give back to the Korean community

756
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:25,920
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty five, and the company founded the Korea

757
00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:31,520
Speaker 1: Hospital in nineteen sixty eight. In nineteen sixty nine, Leave

758
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:34,960
Speaker 1: Young Choll and Samsung received a Presidential award for the

759
00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:38,840
Speaker 1: company's role in elevating Korean business in the post war era.

760
00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:41,360
Speaker 1: It was also at this time that the company first

761
00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:46,520
Speaker 1: entered the electronics industry, finally, thirty one years after it

762
00:49:46,560 --> 00:49:49,000
Speaker 1: was founded. Now they're getting into electronics. He knew we

763
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:53,239
Speaker 1: would get there eventually, right, Well, we only have time

764
00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:56,880
Speaker 1: to talk about the early days of Samsung Electronics before

765
00:49:56,880 --> 00:49:59,239
Speaker 1: we conclude this episode, but we'll talk a lot more

766
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:02,759
Speaker 1: about it in the second part. Now, Samsung's big goal

767
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:05,239
Speaker 1: was to move Korea off of imported goods in the

768
00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:09,360
Speaker 1: electronics fields. Now, that required setting up entire new industries

769
00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:13,200
Speaker 1: in Korea. I cannot stress what a huge deal this is.

770
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:17,920
Speaker 1: It meant that you couldn't just buy semiconductor chips and

771
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:20,839
Speaker 1: other parts from other countries. They wanted to make those

772
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:24,680
Speaker 1: industries within Korea itself, which meant building the things or

773
00:50:24,719 --> 00:50:27,279
Speaker 1: acquiring companies that were on the way to doing that,

774
00:50:27,719 --> 00:50:32,880
Speaker 1: and then putting them towards this this goal. So Samsung

775
00:50:32,960 --> 00:50:36,080
Speaker 1: Electronics was born as a result of this, and Samsung

776
00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:39,440
Speaker 1: ended up acquiring about fifty ownership of a company called

777
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:44,320
Speaker 1: Korea Semiconductor and began to turn out parts to make electronics.

778
00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:50,239
Speaker 1: Samsung established more subsidiary companies like Samsung electro Mechanics, Samsung

779
00:50:50,320 --> 00:50:58,400
Speaker 1: Semiconductor and Telecommunications, and Samsung Corning. So lots more subsidiaries

780
00:50:58,440 --> 00:51:01,360
Speaker 1: to fall in line and help support this effort of

781
00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:07,560
Speaker 1: bringing Korean electronics to the world, and they bullishly began

782
00:51:07,640 --> 00:51:12,120
Speaker 1: to develop products. The first major Samsung Electronics product was

783
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:16,319
Speaker 1: a black and white television set sporting Korean components. So

784
00:51:16,360 --> 00:51:18,960
Speaker 1: it's all Korean parts inside of it, and it hit

785
00:51:19,040 --> 00:51:22,880
Speaker 1: Korean store shelves in nineteen seventy two. It was a

786
00:51:22,880 --> 00:51:26,320
Speaker 1: black and white set, which meant that Samsung and Korea

787
00:51:26,360 --> 00:51:29,320
Speaker 1: were trailing behind other countries at that point, since color

788
00:51:29,360 --> 00:51:33,759
Speaker 1: television had actually overtaken black and white TV sales in

789
00:51:33,880 --> 00:51:36,640
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy. If you listen to my episodes on the

790
00:51:36,680 --> 00:51:40,560
Speaker 1: history of TV, you remember even though color television had

791
00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:43,480
Speaker 1: debuted in the late fifties and really got started in

792
00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:47,439
Speaker 1: the sixties, it wasn't until the seventies that color televisions

793
00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:51,799
Speaker 1: themselves started to out sell black and white TVs. But

794
00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:53,560
Speaker 1: even so, even though it's a black and white set,

795
00:51:53,600 --> 00:51:55,799
Speaker 1: it was still a huge hit in the Korean marketplace,

796
00:51:55,880 --> 00:51:59,880
Speaker 1: and by ninety six, Samsung had sold it's one million

797
00:52:00,120 --> 00:52:03,120
Speaker 1: black and white TV shut so a pretty big hit.

798
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:08,120
Speaker 1: Samsung also produced washing machines starting in the early nineteen seventies.

799
00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:11,680
Speaker 1: They still do to this day. The company also incorporated

800
00:52:11,719 --> 00:52:14,440
Speaker 1: a few more subsidiaries, because you know that has to

801
00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:17,360
Speaker 1: happen every couple of paragraphs in my notes. At this point,

802
00:52:17,719 --> 00:52:22,360
Speaker 1: Samsung really is a company of companies. They included Samsung

803
00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:26,520
Speaker 1: petro Chemical and sam Sung Heavy Industries in nineteen seventy four,

804
00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:32,440
Speaker 1: and then sam Sung Construction and Samsung Fine Chemicals by

805
00:52:33,040 --> 00:52:37,880
Speaker 1: also by the company began to export color televisions. And

806
00:52:37,920 --> 00:52:40,840
Speaker 1: now we're finally getting into the realm of Samsung becoming

807
00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:45,960
Speaker 1: a player on the international consumer electronics stage, which means

808
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:49,719
Speaker 1: it's time to wrap up this episode. In Part two

809
00:52:49,760 --> 00:52:52,000
Speaker 1: will follow the story of Samsung as it becomes a

810
00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:54,960
Speaker 1: major player in electronics, as well as the various ups

811
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:58,800
Speaker 1: and downs the company has encountered. And if there's enough

812
00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:02,200
Speaker 1: resource is there and I suspect there will be, but

813
00:53:02,239 --> 00:53:03,839
Speaker 1: I don't know for sure yet because I haven't done

814
00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:06,359
Speaker 1: all the research. We might even have a part three

815
00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:09,040
Speaker 1: because a lot of stuff has happened in the last

816
00:53:09,120 --> 00:53:12,160
Speaker 1: five years or so, and that alone might mean that

817
00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:14,640
Speaker 1: I need to do two more episodes, not just one.

818
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:20,280
Speaker 1: But i'll know more by Friday when I record Part two. Anyway,

819
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:22,440
Speaker 1: be sure to join me for the next part of

820
00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:26,000
Speaker 1: Samsung's history, and remember, if you have questions, comments, or

821
00:53:26,080 --> 00:53:30,160
Speaker 1: suggestions for future topics or guests on this show, make

822
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:32,440
Speaker 1: sure you get in touch with me. The show's email

823
00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:36,040
Speaker 1: address is tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com,

824
00:53:36,160 --> 00:53:38,880
Speaker 1: or you can drop me a line on Twitter or Facebook.

825
00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:42,040
Speaker 1: The handle for both of those is tech Stuff hs W,

826
00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:44,759
Speaker 1: and you can watch me do the show live on

827
00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:49,000
Speaker 1: twitch dot tv slash tech stuff on Wednesdays and Friday's.

828
00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:53,440
Speaker 1: People are doing that right now. You can also end

829
00:53:53,520 --> 00:53:57,360
Speaker 1: up watching me make mistakes and talk to Dylan and

830
00:53:57,440 --> 00:54:00,759
Speaker 1: occasionally reference you directly by name if you joined the

831
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:03,839
Speaker 1: twitch chat, so do that. Check it out. You can

832
00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:06,520
Speaker 1: go to twitch dot tv slash tech stuff and see

833
00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:10,319
Speaker 1: the schedule there. I record Wednesday and Friday afternoons Eastern time,

834
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:14,480
Speaker 1: So I guess that wraps up this episode. It's time

835
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:16,560
Speaker 1: for me to conclude, which tells me that it's time

836
00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:19,000
Speaker 1: for me to say I'll talk to you guys again

837
00:54:19,880 --> 00:54:28,040
Speaker 1: really soon. For more on this and thousands of other topics,

838
00:54:28,280 --> 00:54:39,400
Speaker 1: is it how stuff Works dot com