00:00Not so long ago, in the 1950s, the average literacy rate in the world was 35%,
00:07meaning that in a group of 10, 6 people didn't know how to read and write.
00:13However, 50 years later, the literacy rate went to 90%,
00:18leaving only one person in a group of 10 without reading and writing skills.
00:23The key to this lightning-speed growth can be found basically in every house.
00:28Nope, it's not the internet.
00:30The internet, on the contrary, can reportedly make us dumber in no time.
00:35The key to worldwide literacy is this BIC pen you've definitely held in your hands at least once in your life.
00:42Fun fact, this trusty pen has been outselling iconic items like the Rubik's Cube and even the iPhone since the 1950s.
00:51Each second, 57 BIC pens are sold,
00:54while it's 590 iPhones a minute, meaning it's just around 10 devices a second.
01:00Every single day, BIC sells 14 million of their nifty pens.
01:04Despite its popularity, it's often overlooked.
01:08It hasn't become a generic term like Xerox or Kleenex.
01:12When you flick a BIC, you're actually using a lighter, not just another writing utensil.
01:17Back in the day, people used feathers and ink to write.
01:21Fountain pens were a game-changer, but they were pricey and prone to leaking.
01:26Thanks to American inventor John Loud, the first ballpoint pen was born in 1888.
01:32However, it wasn't until Hungarian creator Laszlo Biro stepped in with oil-based ink that the ballpoint pen we know and love today really took off.
01:43He came up with a genius design that would smoothly pull ink onto the ball without any fancy moving parts.
01:49That pen could consistently give you a nice, clean line on paper.
01:54But his pens were crazy expensive, like $190 in today's money kind of expensive.
02:01No wonder they weren't flying off the shelves!
02:04See, back then, only about a third of people could even read and write, so pens were more of a luxury item than a necessity.
02:11And even though Biro had a great design, he couldn't crack the mass market.
02:16French businessman Marcel Bic saw the potential in Biro's pen and bought the rights, leading to the birth of the iconic Bic Crystal in 1950.
02:26With precision steel balls and affordable pricing, the Bic Crystal became a must-have for writers everywhere.
02:33But even so, despite Bic pens defeating illiteracy and stuff, there's another simple invention that may have been even more significant.
02:42Surprisingly, it's the shipping container!
02:45You may not have heard of Malcolm McLean, but this guy invented a standardized steel container that could be stacked on ships, trains, and trucks.
02:54In 1937, McLean had this genius idea, but it took until 1966 for international container shipping to really take off.
03:03There were many crucial events, and the need for quick and efficient transportation of supplies skyrocketed.
03:10By the end of the 1960s, McLean had made $160 million from his container empire.
03:17This invention didn't just save money, it saved time and labor, too.
03:22Before containers, everything had to be loaded and unloaded by hand.
03:27Now, thanks to McLean's invention, it's all seamless and automated.
03:32According to specialists, the impact of containers on our lives is huge.
03:37They made the world smaller and economies bigger.
03:40Thanks to them, you pay less for everyday products.
03:43Let's say you're in the US and you need something imported from Italy.
03:47Air shipping is still ridiculously expensive, so we don't even take it into consideration.
03:53Now, imagine a ship can only transport 5 containers, each of them having 20 products inside.
03:59In total, 100 products.
04:02Let's say such shipping would cost $100, which would add at least $1 to the final price of your product, depending on how greedy the distributors are.
04:12But if you can stack the containers, you can add a second and even a third row of them, which will reduce the price.
04:19You still pay for the ship, it's the same $100, but you transport 200 or even 300 products if you can stack.
04:28Now, this is an imaginary and a bit far-fetched example, but you get the drift.
04:33Why are the containers so significant?
04:36Well, those famous Bic pens that defeated illiteracy were supposed to be delivered all over the world somehow, weren't they?
04:43And it's not only about the pens.
04:45Since we live in the era of globalization, we heavily rely on fast and affordable transportation for food, clothing, and even sponges.
04:56Meet Aaron Krauss, the genius behind the smiley-faced wonder that is Scrub Daddy, the kitchen sponge that went viral on TikTok.
05:04Aaron went from polishing cars with a fancy buffing pad to creating a revolutionary cleaning sponge.
05:10His parents, both doctors, weren't too thrilled when he ditched the idea of a car washing business to pursue his sponge dreams.
05:18So, one day, Aaron was cleaning cars, and he ended up damaging the outside.
05:23But instead of crying over spilled milk, he created a line of buffing and polishing pads.
05:293M thought it was so cool that they bought his company in August 2008.
05:34But they didn't want the sponges Aaron had made, so those were just collecting dust in his factory.
05:40Five years later, Aaron was scrubbing his dishes with those leftover sponges.
05:45Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head.
05:48He had a million-dollar idea in his hands.
05:51And just like that, Scrub Daddy Inc. was born in 2012 with some grassroots marketing.
05:58Then, on an episode of Shark Tank in October 2012, not everyone believed in his idea.
06:04But Lori Greiner swooped in and made a deal with Aaron for a 20% stake in his company for $200,000.
06:12The next day, they sold a whopping 42,000 sponges in under 7 minutes on QVC.
06:19By the way, this beats Bic records of 57 pens per second.
06:24That day, Scrub Daddies were sold at a speed of 100 sponges a second.
06:29Aaron definitely sells heaps of sponges, but in terms of quantity, it's hard to compete with humble batteries.
06:36Just in the US alone, people buy around 3 billion of them each year.
06:42By the way, they've been around for longer than you may think.
06:46The very first example of a battery, if you let me say so, was found somewhere around Mesopotamia,
06:52and scientists call it the Baghdad Battery.
06:55It was a terracotta pot, about 6 inches tall with a 1.5-inch opening.
07:00Inside, there was a copper cylinder holding an iron rod, all snug as a bug in a rug.
07:06The top of the rod was separated from the copper with some bitumen and stoppers,
07:10so no accidental mixing could happen there.
07:14No one knows exactly what it was for, but there are numerous ideas about its purpose,
07:19from electroplating, meaning putting a layer of one metal like gold onto the surface of another,
07:24to storing sacred manuscripts, or even pickling veggies.
07:29But the real deal started in 1749, when the legendary Benjamin Franklin started experimenting with electricity
07:36and called his set of capacitors a battery, because they worked together like a military unit.
07:43Half a century later, in 1800, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta came up with the first electrochemical battery
07:50known as the Voltaic Pile.
07:53This stack of copper and zinc plates would produce a steady current,
07:57although Volta thought it was an endless source of energy.
08:00Spoiler alert, it wasn't.
08:02Those batteries couldn't be used to power anything, but thanks to them, we got on the road to portable power.
08:09Alessandro Volta's battery was like the hot new gadget that totally revolutionized the way scientists worked with electricity.
08:17By the mid-1800s, the first rechargeable batteries were born,
08:21and a dry cell with liquid electrolyte was invented to make batteries more practical.
08:26Nowadays, we've got rechargeable lithium-ion batteries powering everything from players and toys to smartwatches.
08:33So, why are they some of the most successful inventions of all time?
08:38Well, they're the reason we have electric motors in e-vehicles and machines.
08:43Thanks to batteries, we have lighting all around us.
08:46And can you imagine not having battery storage for our telecommunication devices?
08:51It would be a whole different world!
08:55That's it for today.
08:56So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
09:01Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
Comments