Speaker 1: Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, senior writer Jonathan Strickland. I'm here at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com headquarters, and I'm raring to
Speaker 1: go over another episode of tech Stuff. This is actually
Speaker 1: gonna be a part one of a series because we're
Speaker 1: looking at another big company, and as you guys know,
Speaker 1: when I cover these companies, there's usually so much information
Speaker 1: that I have to break it into a couple of
Speaker 1: different episodes. So today is part one on the consumer
Speaker 1: electronics giant Samsung. The company's had a lot of high
Speaker 1: profile news items come out over the last year and
Speaker 1: a half or so, and we'll get to those eventually,
Speaker 1: but today we're gonna focus on how it came about. Now,
Speaker 1: Samsung is a Korean company. That mean there's going to
Speaker 1: be a lot of Korean names that I am going
Speaker 1: to slaughter in this episode, and I sincerely apologize from
Speaker 1: the beginning at how I am going to butcher the
Speaker 1: pronunciation of these names. I'm going to do my best,
Speaker 1: but chalk it up to cultural ignorance, folks. I just
Speaker 1: don't have the experience with the Korean language. To say
Speaker 1: all the names properly. I will, I will try my
Speaker 1: hardest to do it, but I just want to make
Speaker 1: that clear because I know it's important, and I apologize
Speaker 1: for not being able to nail it, but it's largely
Speaker 1: just due to my lack of exposure to the Korean language. Now,
Speaker 1: Samsung was founded in ninety eight by lie Bjong Chol,
Speaker 1: and originally it was a very modest company when it
Speaker 1: first started, but today it's a giant with more than
Speaker 1: a hundred seventy billion dollars in revenue. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about it's humble beginnings and how it first got started,
Speaker 1: because it was entirely different when it first when it
Speaker 1: was first founded. So here's another tricky thing about this company.
Speaker 1: To understand it's it's rise, you also need to understand
Speaker 1: a little bit about the history of Korea. And this
Speaker 1: is an area of the world that I had not
Speaker 1: really studied that much. East Asia has not been one
Speaker 1: of the focuses of my studies, and so for a
Speaker 1: lot of this it was all new information to me,
Speaker 1: and it really displayed to me my depth of ignorance
Speaker 1: of East Asian history. But it is fascinating and it
Speaker 1: does in fact tie into Samsung. It has a profound
Speaker 1: effect on the history of the company and even a
Speaker 1: motivation for the existence of the company in the first place.
Speaker 1: So we're going to look a little bit at world
Speaker 1: history before we get into the history of the company itself.
Speaker 1: Bear with me, because, like I said, it's fascinating and
Speaker 1: it's important so that you understand why the company is
Speaker 1: the way it is now. One thing that we have
Speaker 1: to keep in mind at the beginning is that when
Speaker 1: the company was founded. When Samsung was first founded, the
Speaker 1: Korean people were an occupied people. For centuries, Korea had
Speaker 1: been the center of power struggles between other nations. The
Speaker 1: Korean Peninsula is incredibly valuable for multiple reasons, and so
Speaker 1: a lot of different countries had interest in trying to
Speaker 1: control it, putting the Korean people in the middle as
Speaker 1: a result. In the nineteenth century, so the eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: the two main powers that were struggling over Korea were
Speaker 1: Japan and China. Uh there was actually a war fought
Speaker 1: largely on the Korean Peninsula between Japan and China, and
Speaker 1: the Japanese won the ConFlat and essentially eliminated China's interests
Speaker 1: in Korea, but Korea's queen formally will not formally casually
Speaker 1: really known as Queen Men and later known as Empress Myongong,
Speaker 1: was hopeful that she would be able to entice Russia
Speaker 1: to support Korea against Japan. So there grew a new rivalry.
Speaker 1: You know, China was now fading away after losing to
Speaker 1: Japan in this conflict. There's a new rivalry between Japan
Speaker 1: and Russia, and Queen Men was hopeful that Russia would
Speaker 1: end up helping out Korea because she really didn't want
Speaker 1: Japanese influence infiltrating the country. She was technically the wife
Speaker 1: of the king, the last of a dynasty of kings
Speaker 1: in Korea, but had considerable influence. She was effectively a
Speaker 1: ruler in Korea and had put several of her most
Speaker 1: trusted advisers and relatives into high positions of power. She
Speaker 1: was also pretty well liked by a lot of the
Speaker 1: Korean populace, more so after the events I'm about to
Speaker 1: describe happened. So the government of Japan viewed Queen Men
Speaker 1: as an impediment to their plans, and they tried numerous
Speaker 1: times to instill a rebellion against her to try and
Speaker 1: encourage aspects of the Korean government to oppose Queen Men
Speaker 1: and overthrow her, but they didn't really work. So the
Speaker 1: Japanese government worked with these various political rivals but didn't
Speaker 1: make a whole lot of progress, and they decided to
Speaker 1: take more drastic measures. So on October eight, Japanese Ronan
Speaker 1: in other words, warriors for higher working with some of
Speaker 1: Queen Men's rivals, were able to infiltrate her palace. The
Speaker 1: Ronan killed Queen Men. They assassinated her along with two
Speaker 1: other ladies in waiting, and they positively identified Queen Men
Speaker 1: as one of the three women. The fallout from this
Speaker 1: act was considerable. Uh there were international pressures that forced
Speaker 1: the Japanese government to put the people who were involved
Speaker 1: in the assassination on trial. So the Japanese government did.
Speaker 1: They brought the people in, they gave them trials. However,
Speaker 1: all of the people were eventually acquitted due to lack
Speaker 1: of evidence according to the Japanese government, which did not
Speaker 1: go over well in the international community either. Within Korea itself,
Speaker 1: there was a growing sentiment that was anti Japanese. It
Speaker 1: would already been present, but now it was really flaring
Speaker 1: up in the wake of Queen Men's assassination. Things got
Speaker 1: really complicated from there, so complicated that it's really not
Speaker 1: my place to dive that deeply into the history, but
Speaker 1: it is important to know the basics so that you
Speaker 1: under stand the rise of Samsung Uh, and it also
Speaker 1: gives you insight into the Korean mindset and philosophy of
Speaker 1: the time. In King go Jong, who was husband to
Speaker 1: Queen Men, founded the Empire of Korea, so this was
Speaker 1: a new imperial line that he was attempting to establish
Speaker 1: in Korea. Now, he had sought refuge in Russia after
Speaker 1: his wife had been assassinated, but he had been pressured
Speaker 1: to return to Korea the various governments around the world.
Speaker 1: We're saying that he needed to be there to establish
Speaker 1: this government or else Korea would be plunged into chaos.
Speaker 1: So he did return to Korea, and Uh ended up
Speaker 1: giving Queen Men her title of Empress posthumously. Japan continued
Speaker 1: its efforts to expand into East Asia, and then there
Speaker 1: was the Russo Japanese warre between Russia and Japan, which
Speaker 1: way waged from nineteen o five to our nineteen o
Speaker 1: four to nineteen o five. Sorry, now, the Japanese military
Speaker 1: won some key victories there and then really started to
Speaker 1: put pressure on Korea. As a result, they compelled the
Speaker 1: emperor to sign the Protectorate Treaty of nineteen o five,
Speaker 1: which made Korea a protectorate of Japan. Now that largely
Speaker 1: stripped Korea of its nation status. It was technically a nation,
Speaker 1: but really only in name. It was more of an
Speaker 1: extended property of Japan at this point, and in nineteen ten,
Speaker 1: Japan went ahead and formally annexed the Empire of Korea.
Speaker 1: So over the next decade, from about nineteen ten to
Speaker 1: about nineteen nineteen, Japan forces subjugated Korea using force and
Speaker 1: severely restricting the rights of Koreans as a result. That
Speaker 1: particular era ended in nineteen twenty because the Japanese in
Speaker 1: her was shocked when Koreans were able to organize mass
Speaker 1: coordinated protests across the entirety of Korea, and the emperor
Speaker 1: realized if things didn't change soon, he was going to
Speaker 1: have a full scale rebellion in Korea and did not
Speaker 1: want that to happen. So at that point, Japan started
Speaker 1: to ease back on some of these restrictions and things
Speaker 1: got a little less uh tense in Korea. The reason
Speaker 1: why I tell you all this about this era between
Speaker 1: nineteen ten and nineteen twenty is that on February twelfth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ten, Lieb Young chull, the founder of Samsung, was born.
Speaker 1: So he was born shortly well, right around the time
Speaker 1: that Japan was was formally occupying Korea. So this is
Speaker 1: a very tumultuous time in Korea's history. Now, his family
Speaker 1: were well off and so he was in a better
Speaker 1: position than a lot of his fellow Koreans. He was
Speaker 1: from a wealthy family. They were landowners and they made
Speaker 1: their money through being landlords. They were rent out their
Speaker 1: property to other people. Now Leave Young Chal would study
Speaker 1: in local Korean schools before he would go off to
Speaker 1: Tokyo U to attend Waseda University. But his father passed
Speaker 1: away while he was in school, and so he ended
Speaker 1: up dropping out of college to return home to Korea
Speaker 1: and take over the family business, so he never earned
Speaker 1: his degree. That family business at the time was running
Speaker 1: a rice mill as well as being the overseer of
Speaker 1: these landlord properties, and the rice mill saw a lot
Speaker 1: of success. But at that time Leave Young Chill began
Speaker 1: to feel a greater ambition something more important than running
Speaker 1: a successful business. He wanted to do more than that.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna skip ahead now to night. So in
Speaker 1: this time he's running the business everything successful. He feels
Speaker 1: like Korea really needs something to help inspire the people
Speaker 1: and to jump start the economy of Korea itself because
Speaker 1: it was so dependent upon Japan, and that was something
Speaker 1: that was of great concern to Korean's So the country
Speaker 1: had been under Japanese occupation for nearly three decades at
Speaker 1: this point in nineteen thirty eight, and since nineteen thirty one,
Speaker 1: the Japanese rule had become more restrictive. So y one,
Speaker 1: things had eased up a bit, but from nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: one up to nineteen thirty eight they had gotten worse again. Uh.
Speaker 1: This was called the Assimilation period, in which Japan was
Speaker 1: effectively trying to wipe out Korean culture and make Korea
Speaker 1: essentially just part of Japan, officially part of Japan, and
Speaker 1: really exploiting Korea's resources as well. Now, lie Byong Chol
Speaker 1: wanted to make a difference. He wanted to create a
Speaker 1: successful business that Korea could call its own and create
Speaker 1: an industry where one had not existed before the Japanese
Speaker 1: occupation had brought a couple of positive things to Korea,
Speaker 1: including industrialization and modernization, two things the country was far
Speaker 1: behind in compared to the rest of the world in
Speaker 1: general and in East Asia in particular. But as a
Speaker 1: result of the Koreans were paying an incredibly high price.
Speaker 1: They were under restrictive rule, and the Japanese government and
Speaker 1: Japanese occupying forces were taking great liberties and and exploiting
Speaker 1: people in horrible ways that I'm not gonna go into here,
Speaker 1: but it was it was not great. Lieb Young chul
Speaker 1: was hoping that he could leverage the advances that the
Speaker 1: Japanese had brought with them and turned them to Korea's
Speaker 1: advantage and to truly have Korea emerge into the twentieth
Speaker 1: century as a power player. There was a long long
Speaker 1: way to go, so to pursue this, he decided to
Speaker 1: sell off the rice mill and to invest in a
Speaker 1: new company, and on March first night, he founded the
Speaker 1: Samsung Trading Company UH. The initial investment, according to multiple sources,
Speaker 1: was about twenty seven dollars at the time. That's how
Speaker 1: much the founding Samsung Trading Company costs. Twenty seven bucks
Speaker 1: that was thirty thousand one, which is the Korean currency
Speaker 1: w o N the one. If we throw twenty seven
Speaker 1: dollars into an inflation calculator and adjust for inflation from
Speaker 1: eight to modern day, you would get somewhere in the
Speaker 1: neighborhood of four hundred sixty dollars. But we have to
Speaker 1: keep in mind that this is not a apples to
Speaker 1: apples thing. Whenever we're doing currency conversions and inflation comparisons,
Speaker 1: we have to make a lot of assumption. So let's
Speaker 1: just say founded Samsung with an initial investment that was
Speaker 1: somewhere in the neighborhood of five hundred bucks. So imagine
Speaker 1: saving up five hundred dollars and then founding a company.
Speaker 1: That's essentially what he managed to do back in ninety eight.
Speaker 1: As the company started to form, he hired on people,
Speaker 1: and initially the company had about forty employees. Now the
Speaker 1: company's name Samsung means literally in Korean three stars. The
Speaker 1: number three has significance in Korean culture. It often is
Speaker 1: associated with something that is really momentous or really strong
Speaker 1: and powerful, and the motto of the company is be great, strong,
Speaker 1: and everlasting. Seems like a pretty tall order, but the
Speaker 1: company has done pretty well since then. It's initial business
Speaker 1: was selling common goods and transporting products across Korea and
Speaker 1: into China, So it was essentially a gross restore and
Speaker 1: a trucking company when it first started. That's what Samsung's
Speaker 1: business was, was groceries and transportation. Uh. A lot of
Speaker 1: company origin stories when they talk about Samsung say that
Speaker 1: it was essentially dealing in dried fish, which in fact
Speaker 1: was one of the main products that they carried was
Speaker 1: dried fish Korea. That's a that was a major product there.
Speaker 1: But I think it oversimplifies the position that Samsung was in.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people like to use that
Speaker 1: as a descriptor because they juxtaposed that humble origin of
Speaker 1: Samsung being a company that sold dried fish and transport
Speaker 1: it into China to Samsung the multinational global electronics company,
Speaker 1: the giant that it is today. And I think that
Speaker 1: undersells what actually was happening. If I'm being honest, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's more of a story about a businessman who was
Speaker 1: trying to push against opposition in order to establish a
Speaker 1: new sense of identity within Korea. This was a country
Speaker 1: that had been the subject of interference from multiple countries
Speaker 1: for much of its history, and in fact, for the
Speaker 1: next several decades, would still be the subject of a
Speaker 1: lot of foreign meddling. And so here was an attempt
Speaker 1: by a Korean citizen to say, let's make our own
Speaker 1: name and not have Korea be this extension of some
Speaker 1: other countries identity. And this is a big deal. But
Speaker 1: it is true that Samsung's early history had little to
Speaker 1: do with technology, apart from leveraging modern transportation conveniences like
Speaker 1: motorized trucks, which were pretty new to Korea at that time.
Speaker 1: The company saw success in its early years, so they
Speaker 1: did pretty well. The Japanese occupation of Korea ended in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty five when Japan's surrendered at the end of
Speaker 1: World War Two, and at this point Korea was again
Speaker 1: in a time of turmoil. Japan's withdrawal from Korea didn't
Speaker 1: mean everything was hunky dory. In fact, things got really complicated.
Speaker 1: In theory, Korea was a single independent country, but in
Speaker 1: practice that really wasn't the case. The United States and
Speaker 1: the r and Russia both or the Soviet Union, both
Speaker 1: had interests in Korea, and uh decided to essentially divide
Speaker 1: up the country. So everything above they parallel. That's what
Speaker 1: Russia was looking at, and everything below that that's what
Speaker 1: the United States was looking at. And a new leader
Speaker 1: named Li Sung Man rose to take control of what
Speaker 1: would eventually become South Korea. And he wasn't the leader
Speaker 1: that all Koreans are, even most Koreans necessarily preferred, but
Speaker 1: he had the support of the United States, largely because
Speaker 1: he was a staunch anti communist. So it wasn't a
Speaker 1: true republic. The people of Korea didn't get to vote
Speaker 1: on Li Sung Man establishing control. He was essentially instilled
Speaker 1: as leader by the United States. Now, meanwhile, again the
Speaker 1: Soviet Union was looking at the northern part of Korea,
Speaker 1: and the Soviet Union established its own UH leadership that
Speaker 1: was totally separate from this leadership in South Korea, which,
Speaker 1: as you would imagine, caused a little bit of friction.
Speaker 1: Both governments, both the one in the northern section of
Speaker 1: the country and the one in the southern section of
Speaker 1: the country, claimed leadership across the entire nation. So you
Speaker 1: have two different governments both claiming to be the leader
Speaker 1: of Korea overall. UH. Now, technically the United States and
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union had joint trusteeship overall of Korea, and
Speaker 1: technically they were supposed to come to an agreement as
Speaker 1: to what the government of Korea would be following its
Speaker 1: release from Japan, and then from that point forward, theoretically
Speaker 1: the people of Korea would have a say in how
Speaker 1: their government was formed. But that never happened because the
Speaker 1: Soviet Union in the United States didn't see eye to eye.
Speaker 1: They completely disagreed with each other's choices, and so this
Speaker 1: leadership question became a stalemate. Now, at the same time,
Speaker 1: Lieb Young chul wanted his company to reinvest in Korea
Speaker 1: and that was continuing to struggle in the wake of
Speaker 1: World War Two and the interests of the United States
Speaker 1: and the Soviet Union, so in he founded the Samsung
Speaker 1: Construction and Trading Corporation or Samsung CNT. Now, this would
Speaker 1: eventually become the parent company of all the other Samsung companies,
Speaker 1: at least for a while. And uh so Samsung CNT
Speaker 1: became kind of like the the top notch company under
Speaker 1: which all the others would fall. And often you'll see
Speaker 1: that the founding date for Samsung CNT is nineteen thirty eight,
Speaker 1: although really that was the Samsung Trading Company the Samsung
Speaker 1: CNT was sort of the transformation of that company. Uh So,
Speaker 1: I guess it really just depends on your perspective as
Speaker 1: to whether or not you would call the founding of
Speaker 1: it being ninety eight when the initial company started, or
Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight when they formally created the the organization
Speaker 1: known as Samsung CNT. This gets way more complicated the
Speaker 1: longer I go. So if you think that part is
Speaker 1: a little confusing, I apologize. It's not gonna get any
Speaker 1: easier to understand. In fact, it gets really messy when
Speaker 1: we get up into the eighties, nineties and the two
Speaker 1: thousands for Samsung's history. Now, another big thing happened in
Speaker 1: that's the same year that Korea officially split into two nations.
Speaker 1: Remember I mentioned you had these two different governments that
Speaker 1: were in opposition to each other, both laying claim to
Speaker 1: the entire Korean country, and that could not sustain itself.
Speaker 1: In the South, uh Sing Manrie established the Republic of Korea,
Speaker 1: and in the North Kim Il sung became the leader
Speaker 1: of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The United Nations
Speaker 1: only recognized the Republic of Korea the South Korean government
Speaker 1: as being legitimate Meanwhile, the Northern Korean government began seizing
Speaker 1: companies and properties that were originally owned by Japanese or
Speaker 1: pro Japanese interests, and then claiming those companies for the state,
Speaker 1: so they were state owned and operated. At that point
Speaker 1: they had been seized by force. Tensions between North and
Speaker 1: South Korea increased, with each planning to use military force
Speaker 1: against the other in order to reunite the country under
Speaker 1: one government. Now, at this time, Samsung had established a
Speaker 1: new headquarters building in Seoul, but in nineteen fifty North
Speaker 1: Korean forces invaded South Korea and the two nations officially
Speaker 1: entered the Korean War. At that point, Samsung relocated space
Speaker 1: of operations to Busan. Soul eventually would fall to North Korea,
Speaker 1: but it would eventually also be returned back to South
Speaker 1: Korea once the two countries negotiated peace, and at the
Speaker 1: conclusion of the war, Samsung would return to Seoul as
Speaker 1: its base of operations. Now, I've got a lot more
Speaker 1: to talk about once we've gotten to this point where
Speaker 1: things are a little more steady for Samsung. But before
Speaker 1: I do that, let's take a quick break to thank
Speaker 1: our sponsor. By nineteen fifty one, Korean War is now
Speaker 1: technically over. Things would continue to fall out until nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty three. But nineteen fifty one, Samsung was pulling in
Speaker 1: revenues of two billion one By today's exchange rate, that's
Speaker 1: about one point seven five million dollars. But keep in
Speaker 1: mind that, you know, like I said earlier, when you
Speaker 1: talk about currency conversions and just adjusting for inflation and
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, there are a lot of factors
Speaker 1: that that are present that you can't necessarily account for easily.
Speaker 1: So just think of that as like a round number.
Speaker 1: So we're around two million dollars in revenue, which was
Speaker 1: a significant amount for a brand new company. I mean
Speaker 1: brand new in the sense of this. Korea had no
Speaker 1: real corporations that were of any real significance around this time,
Speaker 1: and had some industries and had some companies. Don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, but Samsung was trying to establish a brand
Speaker 1: new era in the post industrial world of Korea, which
Speaker 1: underwent industrialization very rapidly and under Japanese occupation. It's just
Speaker 1: important to know that the company had been successful even
Speaker 1: in the wake of the Korean War. Now, during this time,
Speaker 1: the company expanded its operations by purchasing other businesses and
Speaker 1: getting into new industries. In other words, they were diversifying.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just groceries and transportation. So was it consumer electronics.
Speaker 1: Not yet. It would be a long time before they
Speaker 1: would actually get into consumer electronics. But this was in
Speaker 1: part an effort to get Korea independent of imports. Korea
Speaker 1: was importing tons of stuff, and Samsung leadership said, what
Speaker 1: if we were able to produce these things within Korea
Speaker 1: so that we removed that dependence upon other countries and
Speaker 1: grew the economy of Korea as a result. It was
Speaker 1: a way of trying to stand on their own. So
Speaker 1: the new industries included a sugar refinery and a woolen mill.
Speaker 1: And since it's gonna be a while before consumer electronics
Speaker 1: enters the picture, we're gonna talk about how those work
Speaker 1: because they involve technology. So we're gonna talk about sugar
Speaker 1: refineries and woolen mills now, because I thought, why not,
Speaker 1: it's the perfect opportunity. We'll start with sugar refineries. Now,
Speaker 1: the purpose of these of buildings, these manufacturing plants, these
Speaker 1: factories is to purify or refine sugar. So, in other words,
Speaker 1: this is all about getting rid of impurities to create
Speaker 1: a pure and consistent product that table sugar type stuff
Speaker 1: granulated sugar. Now, there are actually two types of facilities
Speaker 1: you would use with your typical sugar refinery if you're
Speaker 1: using cane sugar. Uh. The first is a raw sugar mill,
Speaker 1: which turns plants sugars into a raw form of sugar
Speaker 1: that you can find in many stores. There if you've
Speaker 1: ever seen that golden sugar that you can use in
Speaker 1: different places. A lot of trendy coffee shops use this
Speaker 1: raw sugar. That's what comes from sugar mills. But you
Speaker 1: would also take this raw sugar and you could give
Speaker 1: it to a sugar refinery which will further refine the product.
Speaker 1: And that's where you get the white sugar that is
Speaker 1: free of various impurities. So sugar starts off as sucros.
Speaker 1: It's a carbohydrate that you would find in plants, and
Speaker 1: it's a byproduct of, or actually a product of photosynthesis.
Speaker 1: That's the process by which plants take energy from the
Speaker 1: sun and they produce food that they can use for
Speaker 1: their own energy later on. Now, I'm not gonna go
Speaker 1: into the whole plant cycle here, because I assume you've
Speaker 1: been through elementary biology. But just understand that plants take water, minerals,
Speaker 1: carbon dioxide, um and sunlight and end up producing, among
Speaker 1: other things, sucros, which eventually will undergo further transformations to
Speaker 1: become stuff like plant matter, fibers, complex starches, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Now, all green plants produce sugars, but some
Speaker 1: do it in higher concentrations than others and thus make
Speaker 1: a better product, are better crop for you to grow
Speaker 1: if you want to harvest sugar, and sugarcane is about
Speaker 1: twelve to four sucros, which is why we grew so
Speaker 1: much of the darn stuff a few hundred years ago.
Speaker 1: It's a really good crop to raise if you wanted
Speaker 1: to produce sugar or molasses, that kind of thing. Now,
Speaker 1: there are other plants that we use to harvest sugar,
Speaker 1: such as sugar beats, and the process is similar to
Speaker 1: getting sugar from cane sugar, but they're not exactly the same.
Speaker 1: They're close, but not identical. However, I'm gonna focus on
Speaker 1: cane sugar just for simplicity's sake, since I just want
Speaker 1: to talk about the technology and process of purifying and
Speaker 1: refining sugar. So to get sugar from sugarcane. You have
Speaker 1: to wash the stalks and then you have to shred
Speaker 1: the stalks turn it into kind of a pulp, and
Speaker 1: typically raw sugar mills use a contraption with rotating knives
Speaker 1: to do the trick. So it helps if you imagine
Speaker 1: that the sugar cane is a little James Bond and
Speaker 1: they're rotating knives are are the villain's method of torture
Speaker 1: in order to get information now on James Bond. Except
Speaker 1: in this case, James Bond does not make a daring
Speaker 1: escape and then romance some other stalk of sugar. Instead,
Speaker 1: they get shredded, which I guess would make an exciting
Speaker 1: but short James Bond movie, and that's why they do
Speaker 1: don't let me write screenplays. Anyway, You end up with
Speaker 1: shredded sugarcane, which you then wash thoroughly again and you
Speaker 1: put it through a pair of very heavy rollers to
Speaker 1: squeeze all that sugar out. Essentially juices this pulp, so
Speaker 1: it squishes everything down. You get this cloudy sugary juice
Speaker 1: as a result, and you need to be able to
Speaker 1: remove stuff from that cloudy liquid in order to refine
Speaker 1: the sugar. So your next step is to make clarified solution.
Speaker 1: And you create the clarified mixture by adding in carbon
Speaker 1: dioxide and something called milk of lime. Now that's lime,
Speaker 1: as in the mineral lime, not the fruit. So in
Speaker 1: other words, you're using a diluted solution of calcium hydroxide
Speaker 1: and a source of carbon dioxide. Why well, when you
Speaker 1: mix these components together and you bubble carbon dioxide through it,
Speaker 1: so it's essentially a carbonation process, it begins to form
Speaker 1: calcium carbonate. And this stuff is kind of like chalk,
Speaker 1: and it ends up sucking up a lot of materials
Speaker 1: that you don't want in your sugars, like fat, gum
Speaker 1: and wax. That kind of stuff pulls that out of
Speaker 1: the solution. Uh. Now, those materials end up being heavier
Speaker 1: than the solution itself, so they all settle at the bottom.
Speaker 1: That way, you can just harvest the liquid from the top.
Speaker 1: Then you take the clarified juice and you put in
Speaker 1: a vacuum pan, so as a pan that's actually subjected
Speaker 1: to vacuum to reduce pressures. Now, by reducing the pressure,
Speaker 1: you also reduce the temperature you need to boil off liquid,
Speaker 1: which is exactly what you want to do. You want
Speaker 1: to start boiling off the water that's inside the solution
Speaker 1: to concentrate it. You're making a concentrate. As this happens,
Speaker 1: the mixture turns into a thick, brown, rich syrup, and
Speaker 1: this is the concentrated form of that sugar juice. Now
Speaker 1: you still need to convert the syrup into sugar crystals.
Speaker 1: So typically you put this in another vacuum pan subjected
Speaker 1: to another vacuum, and you would so add some pulverized
Speaker 1: sugar crystals to act as sort of nucleayic sites for
Speaker 1: raw sugar crystals to form around them. Think of it
Speaker 1: kind of like a rain cloud. Rain drops form around
Speaker 1: tiny particles. It acts as a nucleayic site for the
Speaker 1: moisture to form around the particle, and then it gets
Speaker 1: heavy enough to fall from the sky in the form
Speaker 1: of precipitation. Similar concept here, except instead of it being
Speaker 1: droplets of water, we're talking about crystals of sugar. It's
Speaker 1: it's just a little bit of lattice for the crystals
Speaker 1: to start forming around. So you get these sugar crystals
Speaker 1: glomming onto these nuclayic sites. As the water begins to
Speaker 1: boil off, and you're not done yet. You then would
Speaker 1: take this mass of crystals and you would put them
Speaker 1: into a centrifuge, and this kind of looks like a
Speaker 1: clothes dryer. It is a cylindrical container that's got perforated sides,
Speaker 1: and it can spend very very quickly, and it slings
Speaker 1: more and more easter outside of it. While retaining all
Speaker 1: the crystals. You end up with raw sugar, which is
Speaker 1: kind of this golden color I was talking about. So
Speaker 1: that golden color is because the sugar crystals have a
Speaker 1: thin layer of a substance that we call molasses on them.
Speaker 1: So raw sugar has molasses around those those raw sugar crystals.
Speaker 1: If all you want is raw sugar, this is where
Speaker 1: you stop. Otherwise you then have to move on to
Speaker 1: a sugar refinery. So since Samsung had a sugar refinery,
Speaker 1: I guess I should explain how this works. Let's keep
Speaker 1: this sweet train a rolling. The typical sugar refinery takes
Speaker 1: in raw sugar from the mills, and first thing they
Speaker 1: do is they put the raw sugar in a mixture
Speaker 1: of water and sugar. This actually helps them separate the
Speaker 1: molasses from those raw sugar crystals. So you end up
Speaker 1: with a batter like substance called magma delicious magma, and
Speaker 1: I am not making that up. That is actually the
Speaker 1: term for it. I do urge you to be careful
Speaker 1: if you're ever offered a sample of magma to taste,
Speaker 1: make sure you know which type of magma it is.
Speaker 1: The tasty, sweet kind is fine, but the kind that's
Speaker 1: underneath the Earth's crust is probably bad for you. Next,
Speaker 1: you put this magma into another centrifuge lots of centrifuges
Speaker 1: and water involved in this process, and you give it
Speaker 1: another spin. Now, this separates the molasses film from the crystals,
Speaker 1: so you can collect the molasses and you can sell that,
Speaker 1: which is great. It means that you can make use
Speaker 1: of a byproduct of the process of refining sugar, and
Speaker 1: it means that you have less waste. You're not just
Speaker 1: throwing the molasses away. You can actually sell that as
Speaker 1: another product. It's more efficient and more more effective use
Speaker 1: of the material. I'm in favor of it. Also, I
Speaker 1: like various desserts that are made with molasses because I'm
Speaker 1: from the South and they were very popular. Now, the
Speaker 1: remaining crystals go through a filtering process to remove any
Speaker 1: other impurities. It's still in liquid form in this point,
Speaker 1: so you're still talking about liquid sugar. You pass it
Speaker 1: through various filters. The color is golden until you pass
Speaker 1: it through some carbon filters, which removes that last bit
Speaker 1: of color, and you end up with the water white
Speaker 1: sugar syrup. Then you evaporate some more of the water
Speaker 1: to concentrate the mixture further. You put that mixture in
Speaker 1: another vacuum pan. You seed it with some crushed sugar crystals,
Speaker 1: and you allow the sugar, the granulated sugar to form.
Speaker 1: Then you put that mixture and yet another centrifuge, and
Speaker 1: then the crystals are washed with fresh hot water moved
Speaker 1: to dryers. You actually put this wet sugar in a
Speaker 1: dryer and the dryers will remove almost all the water,
Speaker 1: almost all the liquid and moisture from the sugar granules.
Speaker 1: They'll go from having about a one percent moisture content
Speaker 1: to point zero three moisture content. It's pretty phenomenal. Then
Speaker 1: you pass these crystals over a series of screens to
Speaker 1: separate the different sizes of grains of sugar, and then
Speaker 1: you got it. That's how sugar refineries work. You end
Speaker 1: up with the refined sugar at the end of it,
Speaker 1: at least for cane sugar. Like I said, beat sugar
Speaker 1: is slightly different, but not by a whole lot. But hey,
Speaker 1: I also mentioned woolen mills besides sugar refineries, and how
Speaker 1: do they work. We're gonna talk about that for a
Speaker 1: second now, only briefly, because I also covered mills when
Speaker 1: I talked about them in the Industrial Revolution podcasts. So
Speaker 1: if you've listened to those, you know a little bit
Speaker 1: about how these work already, and if you haven't listened
Speaker 1: to those, I recommend it. It It was a lot of
Speaker 1: fun for me to go and explore the history of
Speaker 1: the Industrial Revolution, which is a fascinating era in world history. Now.
Speaker 1: Broadly speaking, a woolen mill it takes animal fibers, typically wool,
Speaker 1: and turns into the useful stuff like yarn and felt.
Speaker 1: The mills allow for a mass production of these products,
Speaker 1: which is something you couldn't really do before the Industrial Revolution.
Speaker 1: You could only produce stuff by hand, which obviously limited
Speaker 1: how much you could create at any given time. Typically,
Speaker 1: you start by washing the fibers, so you've got wool
Speaker 1: that's been harvested from sheep or so I am told
Speaker 1: give it a good wash and then uh you end
Speaker 1: up taking the the washed wool where you've gotten rid
Speaker 1: of as much dirt and grease and other stuff as
Speaker 1: you possibly can, and you then put it through a
Speaker 1: device called a picker or an opener. This is to
Speaker 1: remove tangles from the fibers. Also helps you open up
Speaker 1: the fibers so you can work with them and ensure
Speaker 1: consistency as you work with the wool. Typically, the way
Speaker 1: these machines work as they have a conveyor belt on them.
Speaker 1: You put the raw wool on the conveyor belt, it
Speaker 1: pulls it towards the rest of the machine. And then
Speaker 1: we get into another kind of James Bond torture device,
Speaker 1: or maybe Indiana Jones if you prefer. Temple of Doom
Speaker 1: had that giant rock crusher. It's kind of similar to that,
Speaker 1: except imagine rollers that have a set of teeth on them.
Speaker 1: There's actually a couple of different sets of rollers. The
Speaker 1: first set has small teeth that are meant to open
Speaker 1: and untangle the fibers. Then there's a that set. By
Speaker 1: the way, it is called liquors. I'm not making that up.
Speaker 1: Liquors are the rollers that fine teeth and start to
Speaker 1: open up the fibers on wool. That leads to a
Speaker 1: drum that has larger teeth on it. This one is
Speaker 1: called a picker. So you go with the liquors and
Speaker 1: then you go to the pickers. By the way, uh,
Speaker 1: if you really want to encounter some fun words, research
Speaker 1: wool mills, because they have a language all unto themselves
Speaker 1: and it's mostly fanciful stuff. In fact, the word fancy
Speaker 1: features heavily in wool mills. So once it passes through
Speaker 1: the liquor and the picker, the fiber is ready to
Speaker 1: have some conditioner added to it to make it a
Speaker 1: little more pliable and workable, and you move it to
Speaker 1: a separate device, the separator. The separator is meant to
Speaker 1: remove impurities like plant matter from the fibers, so stuff
Speaker 1: that didn't get removed from the initial washing. Some fibers
Speaker 1: need more than one pass through a separator in order
Speaker 1: to get the majority of the stuff out, so you
Speaker 1: might put it through a couple of times. The device
Speaker 1: also rolls and picks the fibers, with these impurities falling
Speaker 1: into the base of the machine, so you would just
Speaker 1: empty out the container occasionally when it would start to
Speaker 1: fill up. Now. Following that is another machine called a
Speaker 1: card c A R D E R. Carding is all
Speaker 1: about aligning fiber is properly getting them all to line
Speaker 1: up in the same direction, so you want them parallel
Speaker 1: to one another, and you can do this by hand
Speaker 1: by using a pair of carters, which are sort of
Speaker 1: like specialized brushes. If you've ever used a brush that
Speaker 1: has metal teeth for UH combing and animals for specifically
Speaker 1: to help it when it's shedding, like if you have
Speaker 1: a dog that has an undercoat and you need to
Speaker 1: get at that undercoat. Typically you would use a brush
Speaker 1: that has metal teeth to help grab onto those fibers
Speaker 1: and gently pull them away. UH. The same sort of
Speaker 1: thing is used in carters, so you'd use a pair
Speaker 1: of these by hand. If you want to do it
Speaker 1: by hand, and put some wool on one of the carters,
Speaker 1: use the other carter to gently pull the fibers. Gently
Speaker 1: being the operative term because if you use too much force,
Speaker 1: you're just gonna stick the two things together and you'll
Speaker 1: never move them apart. And as you do this, all
Speaker 1: the fibers start to line up in parallel. That makes
Speaker 1: it much more easy to work with When you want
Speaker 1: to do something like spin that wool into yarn, well,
Speaker 1: the machine do this automatically. You've got another conveyor belt.
Speaker 1: You have a thing called the swift, which is got
Speaker 1: one set of teeth on it, and then you have
Speaker 1: the card, which has the other set of teeth on it,
Speaker 1: and by having one pull the other, or pull the
Speaker 1: wool against the other, you align all the fibers um
Speaker 1: This happens a couple of different ways, depending upon the
Speaker 1: actual machine, but at the end you get a thin
Speaker 1: web of wool where all the fibers are aligned properly,
Speaker 1: and you can then use that for whatever purpose you're planning.
Speaker 1: Further down, The description of a typical carter cracks me
Speaker 1: up because this is where we run into some of
Speaker 1: those terms I was talking about. It has stuff on
Speaker 1: it like a swift, a fancy, and a doffer, But
Speaker 1: the important thing to remember is that it's just about
Speaker 1: aligning the fibers properly. Now, the next step is dependent
Speaker 1: upon what you want to do with the wool. Once
Speaker 1: you've gotten to this point. If you're turning it into felt,
Speaker 1: you you have to convert the fibers into bats. That's
Speaker 1: bat with two teas, or you can convert the fibers
Speaker 1: into rough yarn or something called roving or bumps. Otherwise
Speaker 1: you would have to draw the fibers, spin them into
Speaker 1: a finer yarn, ply that yarn, and then either wind
Speaker 1: it onto cones or process it a little bit more
Speaker 1: and then eventually turn it into skeins of yarn. And honestly,
Speaker 1: I'm left wondering how anyone ever figured out these processes
Speaker 1: in the first place, because none of them seem at
Speaker 1: all intuitive to me. Uh, if it were up to me,
Speaker 1: we'd all be wearing mud and leaves, because that's as
Speaker 1: advanced as I would be able to get. This stuff
Speaker 1: is like rocket science to me, or maybe magic or
Speaker 1: a combination of the two. All Right, so we've covered
Speaker 1: sugar refineries and woolen mills. What else was Samsung getting into? Well,
Speaker 1: the woolen mills subsidiary name was Child Woolen Fabrics Industries
Speaker 1: and later became known as just Child Industries. See H E. I. L.
Speaker 1: This will become important later on when it becomes time
Speaker 1: to unravel, which is kind of a pun the complicated
Speaker 1: corporate identity of Samsung. So for much of its history,
Speaker 1: this particular part of Samsung was focused almost exclusively on
Speaker 1: producing textiles. Eventually, Samsung would actually introduce a men'swear division
Speaker 1: that would also fall under this company, but that was
Speaker 1: in the eighties, so we'll get to that later. We've
Speaker 1: got a little bit more to talk about before I
Speaker 1: go into that. Let's take another quick break to thank
Speaker 1: our sponsor. In nineteen seven, Samsung became the first company
Speaker 1: in Korea to hold open recruitment for new employees with
Speaker 1: an aim at recruiting college students graduates of college right
Speaker 1: out of the gate. So this was a new approach
Speaker 1: in Korea to to create a a means for college
Speaker 1: graduates to go right into the workforce. Recruits actually had
Speaker 1: to take a new employee course. It was an extensive
Speaker 1: course to become an employee at Samsung, and it served
Speaker 1: a couple of purposes. In one sense, administrators over at
Speaker 1: Samsung could determine where each person would best be used,
Speaker 1: what his or her talents would be best put forward,
Speaker 1: you know, whether you should put them in this division
Speaker 1: versus that division, this subsidiary versus that subsidiary. But it
Speaker 1: also gave these new employees the chance to learn Samsung's
Speaker 1: values the way they do things to get the specific
Speaker 1: skills they would need to excel at whatever job they
Speaker 1: would go to. So both parties were benefiting from this relationship.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just a means for Samsung to fill out
Speaker 1: its employee list, but also to make sure that the
Speaker 1: people they hired were the best it and best trained
Speaker 1: for those jobs. And really they were trying to cultivate
Speaker 1: an efficient and effective workforce and it paid off. Sam
Speaker 1: Samsung was in a position to make some bold moves
Speaker 1: into yet more industries. They had already started diversifying, and
Speaker 1: they continued to do so. It was flush with cash
Speaker 1: from its businesses and began to dive further into other ventures,
Speaker 1: including insurance, so again still not at consumer electronics. In
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty eight, Samsung acquired a company called an Cook
Speaker 1: Fire and Marine Insurance, which later became Samsung Fire and
Speaker 1: Marine Insurance, but by later I mean much later, I'm
Speaker 1: talking nine, so it was still known by its old
Speaker 1: name for quite some time. Samsung also acquired dong Bang
Speaker 1: Life Insurance in nineteen sixty three, which would transform into
Speaker 1: Samsung Life Insurance in nineteen eighty nine. UH The company
Speaker 1: also took over a popular department store in Korea, and
Speaker 1: Samsung had become the largest corporation in Korea and was
Speaker 1: transforming into a conglomerate of subsidiaries. Now we've got to
Speaker 1: take a break from Samsung to talk a little bit
Speaker 1: more about Korean history, because again it's going to play
Speaker 1: an important role in the next era of Samsung's development.
Speaker 1: Had a big impact on how Samsung would progress. Now,
Speaker 1: when I last left off in the history lesson, I
Speaker 1: was talking about the formation of North and South Korea
Speaker 1: and how the split nation found itself the focus of
Speaker 1: the U s s R. In the case of North
Speaker 1: Korea and the USA. In the case of South Korea,
Speaker 1: you still had Lee Sung Man, who was that US
Speaker 1: backed leader who assumed control way back in the nineteen forties.
Speaker 1: He was still in control by nineteen sixteen, and he
Speaker 1: had managed this by essentially changing the rules several times
Speaker 1: whenever he approached a term limit. But by nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: a substantial number of South Korean citizens had had enough.
Speaker 1: Lee Sungman would flee to the United States as the
Speaker 1: people of his country began to resist his rule, and
Speaker 1: then they formed a second Republic of Korea. But this
Speaker 1: didn't last very long. The region was extremely unstable, so eventually,
Speaker 1: a military leader named Bak Jong he seized control in
Speaker 1: the Kudata, forming what was called the Third Republic of Korea.
Speaker 1: Although Bak ruled as a self appointed leader and had
Speaker 1: no structure in place for elections to replace him, so
Speaker 1: essentially he said I'm I'm the leader, now just follow
Speaker 1: what I say. So technically he was a dictator, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't a despot. He led Korea into a new
Speaker 1: age of industrialization with Samsung poised to be a leader
Speaker 1: in that space, and he would rule for eighteen years
Speaker 1: during the Third and Fourth Republics of South Korea, and
Speaker 1: it was a relatively stable time for the country. So
Speaker 1: while the people of Korea didn't have any real saying
Speaker 1: their leadership, at least the leader wasn't exploiting his people.
Speaker 1: He wasn't he wasn't taking advantage of his position, and
Speaker 1: he was making what a lot of people consider wise
Speaker 1: use of money that was coming from other countries like
Speaker 1: the United States, to actually invest back in Korea itself.
Speaker 1: So there's pros and cons to this particular arrangement. However,
Speaker 1: for Samsung, it was a slightly different story. Leeb Young
Speaker 1: chul was in Japan during the Kudatam and he decided
Speaker 1: to stay in Japan for a while. He actually led
Speaker 1: the company from Japan. He only returned to Korea after
Speaker 1: receiving assurances that his company would more or less be
Speaker 1: able to operate the way it had But there was
Speaker 1: one enormous concession. Samsung had to surrender control of several
Speaker 1: financial institutions that acquired essentially banks, and they had to
Speaker 1: turn those over to the Korean government, So that was
Speaker 1: a big change for Samsung. In nineteen sixty one, Samsung's
Speaker 1: founder became the first president of the Federation of Korean Industries.
Speaker 1: According to its website, this organization quote has championed the
Speaker 1: principles of free enterprise to achieve wholesome development of the
Speaker 1: national economy. In the quote, so, it's an organization of
Speaker 1: Korean companies that are dedicated to making Korea a competitive
Speaker 1: player in the global marketplace, while simultaneously attempting to contribute
Speaker 1: positively to the socio economic climate of Korea itself. Samsung
Speaker 1: helped establish a couple of other industries within Korea during
Speaker 1: this time, including a paper manufacturing industry and a fertilizer
Speaker 1: processing industry. Samsung also began to explore the possibility of
Speaker 1: exporting more goods out of Korea, so not just producing
Speaker 1: stuff for Koreans themselves, but other parts of the world,
Speaker 1: reversing that trend of the country importing stuff. So between
Speaker 1: nineteen and nineteen sixty five, Samsung would see its export
Speaker 1: business increased by a factor of eight, reaching four point
Speaker 1: eight million dollars of business by nineteen sixty five. Also
Speaker 1: around this time, Samsung invested in broadcasting and newspapers inside Korea,
Speaker 1: creating a media division within the company. Samsung had also
Speaker 1: created a foundation to give back to the Korean community
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty five, and the company founded the Korea
Speaker 1: Hospital in nineteen sixty eight. In nineteen sixty nine, Leave
Speaker 1: Young Choll and Samsung received a Presidential award for the
Speaker 1: company's role in elevating Korean business in the post war era.
Speaker 1: It was also at this time that the company first
Speaker 1: entered the electronics industry, finally, thirty one years after it
Speaker 1: was founded. Now they're getting into electronics. He knew we
Speaker 1: would get there eventually, right, Well, we only have time
Speaker 1: to talk about the early days of Samsung Electronics before
Speaker 1: we conclude this episode, but we'll talk a lot more
Speaker 1: about it in the second part. Now, Samsung's big goal
Speaker 1: was to move Korea off of imported goods in the
Speaker 1: electronics fields. Now, that required setting up entire new industries
Speaker 1: in Korea. I cannot stress what a huge deal this is.
Speaker 1: It meant that you couldn't just buy semiconductor chips and
Speaker 1: other parts from other countries. They wanted to make those
Speaker 1: industries within Korea itself, which meant building the things or
Speaker 1: acquiring companies that were on the way to doing that,
Speaker 1: and then putting them towards this this goal. So Samsung
Speaker 1: Electronics was born as a result of this, and Samsung
Speaker 1: ended up acquiring about fifty ownership of a company called
Speaker 1: Korea Semiconductor and began to turn out parts to make electronics.
Speaker 1: Samsung established more subsidiary companies like Samsung electro Mechanics, Samsung
Speaker 1: Semiconductor and Telecommunications, and Samsung Corning. So lots more subsidiaries
Speaker 1: to fall in line and help support this effort of
Speaker 1: bringing Korean electronics to the world, and they bullishly began
Speaker 1: to develop products. The first major Samsung Electronics product was
Speaker 1: a black and white television set sporting Korean components. So
Speaker 1: it's all Korean parts inside of it, and it hit
Speaker 1: Korean store shelves in nineteen seventy two. It was a
Speaker 1: black and white set, which meant that Samsung and Korea
Speaker 1: were trailing behind other countries at that point, since color
Speaker 1: television had actually overtaken black and white TV sales in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy. If you listen to my episodes on the
Speaker 1: history of TV, you remember even though color television had
Speaker 1: debuted in the late fifties and really got started in
Speaker 1: the sixties, it wasn't until the seventies that color televisions
Speaker 1: themselves started to out sell black and white TVs. But
Speaker 1: even so, even though it's a black and white set,
Speaker 1: it was still a huge hit in the Korean marketplace,
Speaker 1: and by ninety six, Samsung had sold it's one million
Speaker 1: black and white TV shut so a pretty big hit.
Speaker 1: Samsung also produced washing machines starting in the early nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: They still do to this day. The company also incorporated
Speaker 1: a few more subsidiaries, because you know that has to
Speaker 1: happen every couple of paragraphs in my notes. At this point,
Speaker 1: Samsung really is a company of companies. They included Samsung
Speaker 1: petro Chemical and sam Sung Heavy Industries in nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: and then sam Sung Construction and Samsung Fine Chemicals by
Speaker 1: also by the company began to export color televisions. And
Speaker 1: now we're finally getting into the realm of Samsung becoming
Speaker 1: a player on the international consumer electronics stage, which means
Speaker 1: it's time to wrap up this episode. In Part two
Speaker 1: will follow the story of Samsung as it becomes a
Speaker 1: major player in electronics, as well as the various ups
Speaker 1: and downs the company has encountered. And if there's enough
Speaker 1: resource is there and I suspect there will be, but
Speaker 1: I don't know for sure yet because I haven't done
Speaker 1: all the research. We might even have a part three
Speaker 1: because a lot of stuff has happened in the last
Speaker 1: five years or so, and that alone might mean that
Speaker 1: I need to do two more episodes, not just one.
Speaker 1: But i'll know more by Friday when I record Part two. Anyway,
Speaker 1: be sure to join me for the next part of
Speaker 1: Samsung's history, and remember, if you have questions, comments, or
Speaker 1: suggestions for future topics or guests on this show, make
Speaker 1: sure you get in touch with me. The show's email
Speaker 1: address is tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com,
Speaker 1: or you can drop me a line on Twitter or Facebook.
Speaker 1: The handle for both of those is tech Stuff hs W,
Speaker 1: and you can watch me do the show live on
Speaker 1: twitch dot tv slash tech stuff on Wednesdays and Friday's.
Speaker 1: People are doing that right now. You can also end
Speaker 1: up watching me make mistakes and talk to Dylan and
Speaker 1: occasionally reference you directly by name if you joined the
Speaker 1: twitch chat, so do that. Check it out. You can
Speaker 1: go to twitch dot tv slash tech stuff and see
Speaker 1: the schedule there. I record Wednesday and Friday afternoons Eastern time,
Speaker 1: So I guess that wraps up this episode. It's time
Speaker 1: for me to conclude, which tells me that it's time
Speaker 1: for me to say I'll talk to you guys again
Speaker 1: really soon. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
Speaker 1: is it how stuff Works dot com