The Power of an Empty Metal Box
Unsung Science
CBS News
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2023
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’ve been shipping stuff across oceans for centuries. But until 1956, we loaded our ships in the dumbest way possible: one at a time. Then Malcolm McClean came along. He envisioned lifting the big metal box part off a truck and setting it directly down onto a ship. Every one of these boxes would be identical and interchangeable, maximizing space and minimizing waste. The shipping container was born — an idea that was so powerful, it rejiggered the global economy, gutted cities, and turned China into the world’s manufacturer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For 3,000 years, human beings loaded up ships in the dumbest way possible by carrying |
| 0:10.2 | individual boxes, barrels, bales, bundles, and bags on board, one at a time. |
| 0:17.1 | But in 1956, a clever truck driver had a world-changing idea. |
| 0:22.6 | Instead of loading and unloading individual items from his trucks, why not load and unload |
| 0:28.2 | the entire back of the truck? |
| 0:30.8 | Today, we call it the shipping container, and it changed everything. |
| 0:35.9 | Consumerism, the balance of global power, and your life. |
| 0:40.2 | If you eat it, drink it, wear it, furnish your home with it, drive it, you name it. |
| 0:47.2 | 95% of consumer goods are contained inside those containers. |
| 0:52.8 | Is the history of a steel box interesting enough to fill a 40-minute podcast you're about |
| 0:59.0 | to find out? |
| 1:00.0 | I'm David Pogue, and this is Unsung Science. |
| 1:02.8 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to Unsung Science Add Free on Amazon Music. |
| 1:15.9 | Download the app today. |
| 1:17.9 | A few things are more devastating than a loved one that's gone missing. |
| 1:21.6 | From Wondry, the vanished is a podcast where host Marissa Jones tells stories of missing |
| 1:27.0 | persons that have gone overlooked. |
| 1:29.2 | Listen to the vanished podcast wherever you get your podcast, or you can listen Add Free |
| 1:33.6 | by joining Wondry Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondry app. |
| 1:39.4 | Season 2, Episode 11. |
| 1:41.8 | The Global Power of an Empty Metal Box. |
| 1:47.1 | Trends.google.com, there's a very cool tool. |
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