First Principles Daily

A typical bottle of laundry detergent costs roughly ten times the petrochemicals and enzymes inside it. Segment 1 — The Cold Open A finished bottle of laundry detergent sells for several dollars while the surfactants...

A handset priced at nearly four thousand dollars in 1984 reached wholesale prices below thirty dollars by early 2006. Segment 1 — The Cold Open In 1984 a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X sold for $3,995. Twenty-two years later...

Peter Houldcroft's oxygen-assisted laser cut one-millimeter steel where conventional dies once dominated. Segment 1 — The Cold Open In May 1967 at the Welding Institute near Cambridge, Peter Houldcroft directed a...

Asphalt shingles that sell for roughly thirty dollars a bundle contain only a couple dollars of fiberglass mat, asphalt and granules. Segment 1 — The Cold Open A finished bundle of asphalt shingles reaches the job site...

The 1977 Apple II sold for twelve hundred ninety eight dollars when its processor and memory came from standard catalogs. Segment 1 — The Cold Open Steve Wozniak designed the Apple II around parts anyone could buy from...

Vinyl plank flooring reaches eight dollars per square foot against roughly two dollars in raw materials. Segment 1 — The Cold Open Retail vinyl and laminate packages routinely sell for six to nine dollars per square...

Countertops installed at sixty dollars per square foot often contain only about ten dollars of raw material. Segment 1 — The Cold Open A finished kitchen countertop reaches the homeowner at roughly sixty dollars per...

Three hundred fifty two dollars bought an RCA television set in nineteen forty-six. Segment 1 — The Cold Open RCA introduced its Model 630TS black-and-white television in October 1946 at a list price of three hundred...

Atwater Kent built nearly one million radios in 1929 using stamped chassis and assembly lines. Segment 1 — The Cold Open A. Atwater Kent opened a 35-acre plant on Wissahickon Avenue in Philadelphia in the mid-1920s and...

Kitchen cabinets that sell for several thousand dollars contain only a few hundred in sheet goods and hardware. Segment 1 — The Cold Open A finished kitchen runs twenty to thirty cabinets, each assembled from panels...

Twenty dollars bought only three minutes from New York to San Francisco before loading coils arrived. Segment 1 — The Cold Open Before inductive loading, a long telephone circuit lost so much signal to capacitance that...

The pneumatic tire cut raw material costs to under two dollars, but early versions sold for over twenty because of manual assembly and patents. Segment 1 — The Cold Open Before John Dunlop’s 1888 patent, bicycle tires...

Office chairs that sell for several hundred dollars contain only tens of dollars worth of steel, foam and fabric. Segment 1 — The Cold Open A standard adjustable office chair reaches the buyer at a price several times...

Gillette sold blades stamped from a few cents of steel for five cents each by replacing hand-forged razors with high-volume progressive dies. Segment 1 — The Cold Open Before Gillette, a man shaved with a straight razor...

Luxury handbags sell for thousands while the leather and hardware inside cost only a small fraction of that price. Segment 1 — The Cold Open A high-end handbag often leaves the store for several thousand dollars, yet...