September 2, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, did you know “radar” is actually an acronym? It stands for Radio Detection and Ranging — a term coined in 1940 by the U.S. Navy. Tim Harford, author of the bestselling book 50 Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy, shares the stories of three inventions that changed the way we live today.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Our next storyteller is Tim Harford, an economist
and best selling author of Fifty Things That Shape the
(00:32):
Modern Economy. Here he is to tell the story about
a few of those.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The iPhone has a very interesting lesson for us. I think,
I mean, I don't need to tell you how it
changed the economy, but I think where they came from
is a very interesting lesson. So this argument is made
by an economist called Marianna Mattzakato, and she says, look
what is in an iPhone. You've got a touchscreen. You've
got the solid state hard drive, you've got the computer chips.
(00:59):
You've got algorithms, particularly algorithms that convert digital to analog
and analog to digital. You've got GPS, you've got access
to the Internet. You've got the cell phone structure. You've
got all of that going on. Okay, these are the
building blocks that Steve Jobs put together to make this
amazing invention. So who invented the building blocks, And when
(01:21):
you look at the history of it, very often they
came from governmance, very often the American military, although not always.
For example, the touch green is a British government invention.
It was invented at the Royal Radar Establishment. So you
look at all these different inventions and they all have
these government or military origins, which is very striking because
(01:43):
a lot of people, myself included, like to sing the
praises of private sector innovation, the power of the entrepreneur,
the creativity of the free market. I'm all for that,
I believe in that, but we also have to look
at the fact, and in this particular fact, a lot
of these building blocks came from governments. They were put
(02:05):
together by brilliant entrepreneurs Steve Jobs, but he would not
have had the raw material to work with. He would
just have been making a clever toy if he hadn't
had these different inventions. Even Siri was designed originally for
fighter pilots and eventually became repurposed for smartphones. So it's
a lesson about how sometimes the origins of these amazing
(02:27):
inventions that shape the world around us, and not always
the origins we expect they weren't always produced by the
people who get most of the credit radar. Originally, the
idea was a couple of British scientists during the Second
World War. We're going to create a death ray. We're
going to use electromagnetic radiation to create this beam that
(02:49):
will heat eight pints of liquid ee blood above whatever
one hundred and five degrees fahrenheit, enough to make a
pilot of a plane pass out as a knock planes
out of the sky using our death rate. And the
two scientists discussing this idea very quickly realized there's no way.
We don't have the power, we don't have the range.
It can't be done. But we could use electromagnetic waves
(03:13):
to bounce off planes, and we could interrogate the signals
that come back, and we could use that to track
incoming planes. And this is a hugely important development in
the Second World War because it meant for Britain. As
these German bombers came over high and fast, attacking British cities,
we could see them coming and we could scramble a
(03:36):
response and we could actually intercept them. Change the course
of the Second World War. And then various developments that
made radars more powerful and more compact. You could put
them in submarines, you could put them in airplanes, you
could use them all over the battlefield. But on top
of that, once you've got that military technology, you've got
a technology that makes civilian airspace a lot safer. And initially,
(04:00):
those early civilian flights, it was just a case of well,
you plot your course on the map, and you fly
from one airport to another and keep away from clouds,
and hopefully you one crash into another plane. And there
was a tragic crash over the Grand Canyon. Two planes,
both trying to give their passengers a view over the
Grand Canyon. They hit each other, terrible loss of life.
And at that point people started saying, you know what,
(04:22):
we've got this technology. We could use it to track
where all the planes are, to run a kind of
air traffic control system, and to keep everyone safe. And
ever since then, air traveler has been getting safer and
safer and safer and famously safe, no matter how dangerous
it may seem when you're up there in one of
those thin tubes. And it is partly because of radar.
(04:45):
Lots of people said you have to do the washing machine,
because the washing machine liberated housewives, women who could be
going out to work for money, getting economic independence, getting
experienced the workplace, fully contributing to society, and there they are,
they're stuck at home doing the laundry. I wanted to
(05:06):
write that story. I thought was a great story, but
when I looked at the actual data, I found washing
machines did not save women any time. What happened was,
instead of doing one wash a month, you'd do one
wash a day, and we all looked a lot cleaner
and smelled a lot cleaner, but it didn't actually save
the housewives. The ones having to take responsibility for this
(05:29):
didn't save them any time. The TV dinner, on the
other hand, did, and by TV dinner, I mean not
just the thing in a tray that you would warm
up and sit there with it in your lap, but
all of the other technologies by which food was industrialized.
So the idea that rather than plucking your own chicken,
the chickens pre plucked, and maybe it's pre seasoned and
(05:53):
pre stuffed, and actually, if you go to a deli,
maybe it's also pre cooked. The other whole thing's ready
to eat potato chips to prepare fresh potato chips, to
finally slice all the potatoes and to heat up the
hot oil and all the mess and the risk of
that involves, and to fry them huge amount of time
and effort. But you can buy potato chips in a bag,
(06:15):
take seconds, you can eat them anywhere. Pre Chopped salads
you don't need to chop your own side, you don't
need to wash your own lettuce, The salads there in
a bag. All of these different technologies, frozen meals, take
away pizza, the whole lot. All of this save women
an enormous amount of time. So with all of these inventions,
we should be asking ourselves what can we do to
(06:37):
enjoy the benefits without the costs. Technologist never just solve problems,
They always create some problems as well, and so there's
always an opportunity for us to do better.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Tim Harford. He's the author of Fifty Things That Shape
the Modern Economy and the stories today are on the iPhone,
radar and TV dinners and reminded, of course of that
nineteen fifty six Grand Canyon mid air collision which I'd
(07:11):
seen pictures of as a kid and just did not
know that this was This was the beginning, the catalyst
that prompted modern radar, the story of the iPhone radar
and TV dinners. Tim Harford here on our American Stories,
Leehabib here, and I'm inviting you to help our American
(07:32):
Stories celebrate this country's two hundred and fiftieth birthday only
a short time away. If you want to help inspire
countless others to love America like we do, and want
to help us bring the inspiring and important stories told
here to millions for years to come, please consider making
a tax deductible donation to our American Stories. Go to
Alamericanstories dot com and click the donate button. Give a little,
(07:54):
give a lot, any amount helps. Go to Alamericanstories dot
com and give
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Our next storyteller is Tim Harford, an economist
and best selling author of Fifty Things That Shape the
(00:32):
Modern Economy. Here he is to tell the story about
a few of those.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The iPhone has a very interesting lesson for us. I think,
I mean, I don't need to tell you how it
changed the economy, but I think where they came from
is a very interesting lesson. So this argument is made
by an economist called Marianna Mattzakato, and she says, look
what is in an iPhone. You've got a touchscreen. You've
got the solid state hard drive, you've got the computer chips.
(00:59):
You've got algorithms, particularly algorithms that convert digital to analog
and analog to digital. You've got GPS, you've got access
to the Internet. You've got the cell phone structure. You've
got all of that going on. Okay, these are the
building blocks that Steve Jobs put together to make this
amazing invention. So who invented the building blocks, And when
(01:21):
you look at the history of it, very often they
came from governmance, very often the American military, although not always.
For example, the touch green is a British government invention.
It was invented at the Royal Radar Establishment. So you
look at all these different inventions and they all have
these government or military origins, which is very striking because
(01:43):
a lot of people, myself included, like to sing the
praises of private sector innovation, the power of the entrepreneur,
the creativity of the free market. I'm all for that,
I believe in that, but we also have to look
at the fact, and in this particular fact, a lot
of these building blocks came from governments. They were put
(02:05):
together by brilliant entrepreneurs Steve Jobs, but he would not
have had the raw material to work with. He would
just have been making a clever toy if he hadn't
had these different inventions. Even Siri was designed originally for
fighter pilots and eventually became repurposed for smartphones. So it's
a lesson about how sometimes the origins of these amazing
(02:27):
inventions that shape the world around us, and not always
the origins we expect they weren't always produced by the
people who get most of the credit radar. Originally, the
idea was a couple of British scientists during the Second
World War. We're going to create a death ray. We're
going to use electromagnetic radiation to create this beam that
(02:49):
will heat eight pints of liquid ee blood above whatever
one hundred and five degrees fahrenheit, enough to make a
pilot of a plane pass out as a knock planes
out of the sky using our death rate. And the
two scientists discussing this idea very quickly realized there's no way.
We don't have the power, we don't have the range.
It can't be done. But we could use electromagnetic waves
(03:13):
to bounce off planes, and we could interrogate the signals
that come back, and we could use that to track
incoming planes. And this is a hugely important development in
the Second World War because it meant for Britain. As
these German bombers came over high and fast, attacking British cities,
we could see them coming and we could scramble a
(03:36):
response and we could actually intercept them. Change the course
of the Second World War. And then various developments that
made radars more powerful and more compact. You could put
them in submarines, you could put them in airplanes, you
could use them all over the battlefield. But on top
of that, once you've got that military technology, you've got
a technology that makes civilian airspace a lot safer. And initially,
(04:00):
those early civilian flights, it was just a case of well,
you plot your course on the map, and you fly
from one airport to another and keep away from clouds,
and hopefully you one crash into another plane. And there
was a tragic crash over the Grand Canyon. Two planes,
both trying to give their passengers a view over the
Grand Canyon. They hit each other, terrible loss of life.
And at that point people started saying, you know what,
(04:22):
we've got this technology. We could use it to track
where all the planes are, to run a kind of
air traffic control system, and to keep everyone safe. And
ever since then, air traveler has been getting safer and
safer and safer and famously safe, no matter how dangerous
it may seem when you're up there in one of
those thin tubes. And it is partly because of radar.
(04:45):
Lots of people said you have to do the washing machine,
because the washing machine liberated housewives, women who could be
going out to work for money, getting economic independence, getting
experienced the workplace, fully contributing to society, and there they are,
they're stuck at home doing the laundry. I wanted to
(05:06):
write that story. I thought was a great story, but
when I looked at the actual data, I found washing
machines did not save women any time. What happened was,
instead of doing one wash a month, you'd do one
wash a day, and we all looked a lot cleaner
and smelled a lot cleaner, but it didn't actually save
the housewives. The ones having to take responsibility for this
(05:29):
didn't save them any time. The TV dinner, on the
other hand, did, and by TV dinner, I mean not
just the thing in a tray that you would warm
up and sit there with it in your lap, but
all of the other technologies by which food was industrialized.
So the idea that rather than plucking your own chicken,
the chickens pre plucked, and maybe it's pre seasoned and
(05:53):
pre stuffed, and actually, if you go to a deli,
maybe it's also pre cooked. The other whole thing's ready
to eat potato chips to prepare fresh potato chips, to
finally slice all the potatoes and to heat up the
hot oil and all the mess and the risk of
that involves, and to fry them huge amount of time
and effort. But you can buy potato chips in a bag,
(06:15):
take seconds, you can eat them anywhere. Pre Chopped salads
you don't need to chop your own side, you don't
need to wash your own lettuce, The salads there in
a bag. All of these different technologies, frozen meals, take
away pizza, the whole lot. All of this save women
an enormous amount of time. So with all of these inventions,
we should be asking ourselves what can we do to
(06:37):
enjoy the benefits without the costs. Technologist never just solve problems,
They always create some problems as well, and so there's
always an opportunity for us to do better.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Tim Harford. He's the author of Fifty Things That Shape
the Modern Economy and the stories today are on the iPhone,
radar and TV dinners and reminded, of course of that
nineteen fifty six Grand Canyon mid air collision which I'd
(07:11):
seen pictures of as a kid and just did not
know that this was This was the beginning, the catalyst
that prompted modern radar, the story of the iPhone radar
and TV dinners. Tim Harford here on our American Stories,
Leehabib here, and I'm inviting you to help our American
(07:32):
Stories celebrate this country's two hundred and fiftieth birthday only
a short time away. If you want to help inspire
countless others to love America like we do, and want
to help us bring the inspiring and important stories told
here to millions for years to come, please consider making
a tax deductible donation to our American Stories. Go to
Alamericanstories dot com and click the donate button. Give a little,
(07:54):
give a lot, any amount helps. Go to Alamericanstories dot
com and give
Host
Lee Habeeb
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