1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:10,880 Speaker 1: Lauren vocal bomb here. If you have a blueprint for success, 3 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:13,159 Speaker 1: you're not alone, at least when it comes to the 4 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:16,079 Speaker 1: blueprint part. The word blueprint has become part of a 5 00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:19,919 Speaker 1: global lexicon used to symbolize a plan, strategy, or framework. 6 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:23,600 Speaker 1: But what is a blueprint really? At its most basic, 7 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:26,640 Speaker 1: a blueprint is a reproduction of an image that already exists. 8 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:30,640 Speaker 1: Engineers or architects use these large format prints to illustrate 9 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:33,720 Speaker 1: project plans, using white lines and text on a backdrop 10 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 1: of blue. And it's not just because they happen to 11 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,839 Speaker 1: like the color. A blueprint signature hue is tied to 12 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:44,000 Speaker 1: a chemical process. In eighteen forty two, an English photographer, chemist, 13 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,879 Speaker 1: and astronomer named John Herschel discovered the combining ferric ammonium 14 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:51,599 Speaker 1: citrate and potassium fair cyanide created a chemical reaction and 15 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 1: a compound called blue ferric fair sydanide or Prussian blue. 16 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:00,600 Speaker 1: This photosensitive solution could be used to reproduces documents in 17 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:03,680 Speaker 1: a process similar to developing a photograph from a negative. 18 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:08,920 Speaker 1: The process, called cyana type, was adopted by early photographers 19 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:11,920 Speaker 1: and led to the first book illustrated by photography, and 20 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:15,800 Speaker 1: then became the darling of architects and engineers. Here's how 21 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:19,200 Speaker 1: it works. First, you create a drawing, then transfer it 22 00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:22,280 Speaker 1: to vellum paper or tracing cloth, both of which are 23 00:01:22,319 --> 00:01:25,399 Speaker 1: so thin that light can pass through them. Then you 24 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:28,759 Speaker 1: saturate a piece of regular paper with an ammonium potassium 25 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: mixture and let it dry. Place the transparent vellum or 26 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: tracing cloth with the drawing atop the paper coated in 27 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:38,279 Speaker 1: the chemical solution, Shine a bright light down through the drawing, 28 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:41,479 Speaker 1: and wait for the chemical reaction to take place. Within 29 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:43,800 Speaker 1: a matter of minutes, the chemical coated paper will be 30 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:48,480 Speaker 1: transformed into blue ferric fairr cyanide, with one important exception, 31 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:52,560 Speaker 1: wherever the light can't shine through the top paper because 32 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:55,400 Speaker 1: of the lines from the drawing, the blue printing paper 33 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 1: remains white. After rinsing the paper in cold water to 34 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,680 Speaker 1: halt the chemical action and allowing the paper to dry 35 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 1: in the dark, you're left with a nearly identical duplicate 36 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,560 Speaker 1: of the original drawing, just the lines are white and 37 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:10,359 Speaker 1: the background is dark, where the lines were originally dark 38 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:14,600 Speaker 1: and the background was light. Although this process requires several steps, 39 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:16,919 Speaker 1: it became a big hit with the pre computer crowd 40 00:02:16,919 --> 00:02:19,240 Speaker 1: of the nineteen and twenty centuries, as it was still 41 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 1: faster and cheaper than creating large scale drawings by hand. 42 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 1: The story of the creation of Prussian blue has all 43 00:02:25,639 --> 00:02:28,840 Speaker 1: the elements of a dark fairy tale. In seventeen o four, 44 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,600 Speaker 1: an alchemist and a dye maker shared a laboratory in Berlin, Germany. 45 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:36,840 Speaker 1: The former, Johann Konrad Dipple, sought to create a universal remedy, 46 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,519 Speaker 1: one that treated everything from animal mange to human epilepsy 47 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:43,880 Speaker 1: by boiling hoofs, horns, and leather into a smelly elixir. 48 00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:47,160 Speaker 1: The ladder, a fellow named Teese Box made batches of 49 00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:51,520 Speaker 1: vibrant dyes. One day, as these, Box simmered insects, alum, 50 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: iron and sulfate to create a deep red, he borrowed 51 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:56,799 Speaker 1: some potash to the alchemist and added it to his 52 00:02:56,919 --> 00:03:00,960 Speaker 1: viscous mixture. This horrible brew created a blue as deep 53 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:05,399 Speaker 1: as the night sky. After retracing the steps in the process, 54 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:09,400 Speaker 1: Dipple realized the potash contained ox blood that, when mixed 55 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:12,360 Speaker 1: with iron sulfate, caused a chemical reaction and turned a 56 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 1: brilliant shade of blue. Unlike other blue dyes that were 57 00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:19,079 Speaker 1: difficult to make and easily faded. This blue remained vivid, 58 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:22,480 Speaker 1: and it was inexpensive. Other blue dyes of the time 59 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:26,160 Speaker 1: required ingredients like lapis lazili, which at the time cost 60 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:30,880 Speaker 1: more than gold. Initially, Dipple called the color Berlin blue 61 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:33,680 Speaker 1: as a nod to his city of residents. Later it 62 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:35,800 Speaker 1: was called Prussian blue because it was used to dye 63 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:39,360 Speaker 1: uniform fabric for the Prussian Army. The color became both 64 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:42,280 Speaker 1: the symbol of aggression and a term of endearment because 65 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: of the army's fierce battles and serendipitous interventions and conflicts 66 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: like the Battle of Waterloo. By the late eighteen hundreds, 67 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:53,640 Speaker 1: Prussian blue had found favor with impressionist artists and Japanese printmakers. 68 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:56,640 Speaker 1: As the nineteen hundreds wore on, it became the hue 69 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 1: of newspaper inc typewriter ribbon, and eyeshadow. Scientists even discovered 70 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: Prussian blue works as an antidote to heavy metal poisoning 71 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 1: by acting as a magnet to attract and evacuate heavy 72 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:12,000 Speaker 1: metals from the bloodstream. Eventually, Prussian blue became as important 73 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: for its practicality as its novelty. But not While John 74 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:18,360 Speaker 1: Herschel was alive to see it. It wasn't until five 75 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:20,880 Speaker 1: years after his death that blueprints were recognized as an 76 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:26,080 Speaker 1: inexpensive and simple way to reproduce architectural drawings. By the 77 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:28,840 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, the blue printing process was a dying art 78 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:32,240 Speaker 1: in the United States because new technology was becoming more prevalent. 79 00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:35,559 Speaker 1: Zerographic copies could create duplicates with the push of a button, 80 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,440 Speaker 1: and by the nine eighties the architecture, engineering, and construction 81 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,440 Speaker 1: industries were making the move from hand drawing to computer 82 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:46,680 Speaker 1: aided design that could be printed on large scale paper. Today, 83 00:04:46,880 --> 00:04:50,600 Speaker 1: blueprints aren't usually blue. They're most often black or gray 84 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:58,560 Speaker 1: lines on a white background. Today's episode was written by 85 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:01,520 Speaker 1: Laurel Dove and produced by a Playing Brain. Stuff is 86 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:03,880 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For 87 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:06,159 Speaker 1: more on this and mons of other original topics, visit 88 00:05:06,200 --> 00:05:08,760 Speaker 1: our home planet, how stuff Works dot com. And for 89 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit i heart Radio app, 90 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:14,160 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.