77 Steps
99% Invisible6 Juni 2018

77 Steps

As the U.S. war effort ramped up in the early 1940s, the Navy put out a request for chair design submissions. They needed a chair that was fireproof, waterproof, lightweight and strong enough to survive a torpedo blast. In response, engineer named Wilton C. Dinges designed a chair made out of aluminum, bent and welded to be super strong.

To show off the durability of his creation, Dinges took it up to the eighth floor of a hotel in Chicago, where the Navy was examining submissions, and threw it out of the window. It bounced, but didn't bend or break.

And so the Navy gave its inventor the contract, and he, in turn, opened a factory and called new his business the Electrical Machine and Equipment Company, or: Emeco.

Over the decades the Emeco Navy chair became so popular that companies began to copy it. There are now tons of knockoffs -- fakes. Last month, Benjamen Walker of Theory of Everything walked 99% Invisible Host Roman Mars around New York city, pointing out real and fake Emeco chairs.

77 Steps

Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.

Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Avsnitt(780)

It's Chinatown

It's Chinatown

For Americans, the sight of pagoda roofs and dragon gates means that you are in Chinatown. Whether in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, or Las Vegas, the chinoiserie look is distinctive. But for p...

14 Aug 201835min

Fire and Rain

Fire and Rain

Nestled between the mountains and the ocean, right next to Santa Barbara, sits Montecito, California. The region endures a major fire approximately once every 10 years. For this landscape, fire is pre...

8 Aug 201830min

Built to Burn

Built to Burn

After the massive Panorama Fire in southern California in 1980, a young fire researcher named Jack Cohen went in to investigate the houses that were destroyed. One of the first things that Cohen did w...

1 Aug 201831min

The Shipping Forecast

The Shipping Forecast

Four times every day, on radios all across the British Isles, a BBC announcer begins reading from a seemingly indecipherable script. "And now the Shipping Forecast issued by the Met Office on behalf o...

25 Juli 201827min

Everything is Alive

Everything is Alive

Louis is a can of generic cola. He’s been on the shelf a long while, so he’s had some time to think. Go2 is a store brand. "People call it a knockoff," says Louis. "I've been called the best of the wo...

18 Juli 201832min

Interrobang

Interrobang

In the spring of 1962, an ad man named Martin Speckter was thinking about advertising when he realized something: many ads asked questions, but not just any questions -- excited and exclamatory questi...

10 Juli 201832min

Roman Mars on ZigZag

Roman Mars on ZigZag

This is a special presentation of episode #4 of Radiotopia's newest show ZigZag. Manoush and Jen give themselves 36 hours in San Francisco to come up with a financial backup plan, just in case this wh...

5 Juli 201831min

VIDEO- Why Danger Symbols Can't Last Forever with Vox

VIDEO- Why Danger Symbols Can't Last Forever with Vox

The world is full of icons that warn us to be afraid — to stay away from this or not do that. And many of these are easy to understand because they represent something recognizable, like a fire, or a ...

4 Juli 20187min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

framgangspodden
badfluence
varvet
rss-jossan-nina
rss-svart-marknad
uppgang-och-fall
avanzapodden
rss-dagen-med-di
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
rss-borsens-finest
bathina-en-podcast
rss-den-nya-ekonomin
lastbilspodden
borsmorgon
market-makers
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
fill-or-kill
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
svd-tech-brief