Short Stuff: Blueprints | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too Dave here in spirit when you put us. all together you can call us the Blue. Man. Group terrible best I could come up with. on short notes Che yeah this is the uh I. guess the conclusion of our two-part. series on uh colors although we have. done colors in the past I know we did. Indigo and I think we did a short stuff. on hate blue right.

yes. and some other stuff it's come up and. and some other things but I think colors. is going to be a never-ending Suite. there's a lot of colors to cover that's. right uh and this is a story of not only. a color but a. process uh and we're talking about the. color Prussian Blue and that is the. color of a blueprint like in the old. days when blueprints were really blue. like blueprints for a house or a. building or a bridge right or a tank or. whatever you're going to design mhm that.

blue is called Prussian Blue yeah and I. mean if you go and look up blueprints um. up to about the 50s I would say you are. going to find actual blue blueprints. like you said and there was a guy named. John hersel he was an English astronomer. chemist and photographer and this is. back when photographer is really. something this is the 1840s in 1842 he. figured out that um Prussian Blue is. photoreactive meaning that when you. expose it to light you can get Prussian.

Blue and he figured out that you could. use that chemical reaction to make. copies of things it's extraordinarily. clever and I think John herel deserves. to be in the inventor Hall of Fame for. this is he not I don't know okay if he. is he deserves to be there if not he. deserves to be there uh I agree so there. this is the process it's called. cyanotype and it was what early.

photographers used in fact the very. first um published Photography book was. made with cyanotype yeah that was um by. the way that was by Anna Atkins whose. 1843 book photographs of British algae. get this Chuck colon cyan type. Impressions amazing uh so all of a. sudden Architects and Engineers were all. over this stuff as well because they. realized hey if you can make a. photograph using this cyanotype process. you can make a copy of something and.

we're really tired of redrawing. everything over and over right exactly. so um the process involves producing. blue feric feros cyanide that's the. chemical name for Prussian Blue and. you'll notice there's a lot of feric. stuff in there that means there there. it's made from Iron salts but it also. has cyanide in it and just from this um. researching this episode Chuck I finally. understood what cyan as a blue refers to. it's referring to cyanide yeah did did. you know that already no well I thought.

that was pretty cool that's awesome but. if if you take a a drawing of something. and you can put it on something that's. basically see-through these days they. use like clear plastic if you're doing. something like this and you have a line. drawing and you put that line drawing on. top of a paper that's been treated in. blue feric feros Cyanide and these irons. iron salts that make that and you expose. it to light then that the paper beneath. that's treated in the pressure blue.

turns blue in every place except for. where those lines were on top of it yeah. so it's like a photo image and a dark. room and in fact you have to do it in a. dark room uh just like you would a. photograph so that's why you know they. would draw it in regular ink on paper. and then the reverse negative image of. that would be white drawing on blue. paper and a really nice looking blue. yeah yeah it's a gorgeous blue prean. blue is fantastic yeah man I saw I was. typing in press ran blue things and uh.

saw some suit jackets some wool suit. jackets Prussian Blue gorgeous yeah. you'd look like a member of the Prussian. Army from the 19th century that's right. that's why they named it that right yeah. do you want to take a break and then. come back and talk about where prei and. blue came from let's do it well now when. you're on the road driving in your truck. why not learn a thing or two from Josh. and Chuck it's stuff you should know. stuff you should know all.

[Music]. right. [Music]. with so Prussian Blue Finds Its origins. in the laboratory of an alchemist and a. die maker of all places it's a pretty. cool place for a new thing to be created. especially something as beautiful as was. Prussian Blue and The Alchemist was a.

guy named Johan Conrad Dipple how would. you say Conrad in in German Chuck um. that's probably right Conrad or Conrad I. don't know actually okay well we'll just. call him Mr Dipple he was The Alchemist. hair Dipple air Dipple yeah he was The. Alchemist um and the die maker was a guy. named dpok we're just going with Mr D or. air dpok for this guy and they shared. this lab in in Berlin.

and by sharing a lab and sharing one. another's or using like borrowing I. should say a cup of one another's you. know ingredients here or there they. ended up accidentally creating Prussian. Blue yeah exactly I think uh the chemist. was working on um medicines like elixir. and things and debach as a die maker was. great at making these dieses and as The. Story Goes he was making a uh deep red. dye one day when he borrowed some pot a.

from his chemist friend and that turned. it into this wonderful wonderful. Prussian Blue he went back in hair. Dipple and said I got to figure out what. this stuff is and he figured out the. secret was that the pot as had Ox blood. and when he mixed that with the iron. sulfate that caused this amazing blue to. uh what does it do does it unveil itself. yeah yeah that's a great great way to. put. it so Prussian Blue has unveiled itself. and at first they called it Berlin blue.

and it only became known as Prussian. Blue later on because it was used to dye. the uniforms of the Prussian Army in the. early 19th century um and depending on. what part of the continent you were on. or whether you were on the continent at. all uh calling it Prussian Blue is. either a term of endearment or a term of. disparagement because the prussians. helped save the british's cookies at. waterl and defeated Napoleon so if you. were French you didn't think very highly. of the prussians or their blue if you.

were English it was a term of endearment. because you were really grateful to the. prussians for coming in saving the day. there that's right and it became a uh. just a popular color like artists loved. using it um print makers loved using it. obviously these Architects loved the the. result of using it uh I'm not sure if. they especially love the color that was. just kind of what color blueprints. turned out to be right but I'm sure they. were fine with it um but hersel died. before that Blueprinting process uh was.

born I think 5 years later is when the. actual architectural blueprint process. that is unfortunately gone because I I. think it looks really neat uh these days. you're not going to find that because uh. over the years a lot of different things. happened to either make it fall out of. fashion or just make it cheaper and. safer and easier to make copies in. different ways I would bet that there's. some hipster Artisan architect Ural firm.

that that still uses this process now. you think has gone back to it yeah but. the reason that has largely been. abandoned is because it's a very um. labor intensive time intensive. process even if you're using kind of. updated machinery and other processes. came along that seemed to do a better. job and plus also I I don't know if. everybody's like we're sick of the blue. or whatever because there's another. process called Dio white press and it. does the same thing but it gives you. like um black or gray lines on a white.

background and that's kind of what the. what the um architectural plans look. like today they don't look blue anymore. and then shortly after that they came up. with zero graphic copers which you just. today call it copier and I didn't. realize this either Chuck they're called. zero graphic because this is a dry. process like zero like dry like Zer. escaping it's a dry process because you. don't have to wet the paper that is. receiving the image like you do when.

you're using um the old Prussian Blue. cyanotype process yeah and I think. that's how xerx got their name right. yeah for sure which is a proprietary. eponym yeah and I thought uh I thought. the diaso process created blue lines is. that not true I think later on they. figured out that if you use blue lines. on the original it it makes a cleaner. line on the copy that's what that was my. take on it all right and I think that. was sort of like in the 70s and then the. early 2000s is when uh the Dio process.

started to kind of fade away because um. you know ammonia is not something you. want to be working with a lot and there. also regulations that increased is in. working with ammonia and then you know. the digital Revolution came along print. technology things that were um cheaper. basically and smaller all of a sudden. you didn't have to have some huge like. plot printer in your office to make. something like this MH and it just you.

know it it did like everything it became. cheaper and smaller and faster yeah and. I think the printers that can print out. you know like regulation size. architectural ples or engineering plans. those became more affordable too and. they're basically just xeroxes they're. like printers essentially just bigger. size one thing I did see Chuck that I. didn't realize um pen plotters it's like. a Contraption originally where you have. a pen and connected to that pen is a. bunch of other pens and so when you're.

drawing on one paper the other pens are. drawing on their own paper so you're. making copies like that as you're. drawing in the first place those have. come back and they're now computerized. yeah plotters are super cool I had a I. had a friend years ago that was a sign. maker and he would you know these these. plotters would cut out uh these designs. from the computer files and it's just. really cool to see those things you know. that automation at work yeah uh even for. like a a small business you know he was. like a team of one um the other thing I.

wanted to mention too is I think the. dios faded in sunlight oh okay uh which. it was fine for a little while cuz. apparently it takes you know like a few. months which was enough if you're you. know if it's like a house plan or. something uh you don't need it to last. forever but eventually they were like. you know we should probably make. something a little more permanent that. connects some dots for me because I saw. on some archist website that they do not. recommend using the Dio print because it. isn't it's so. impermanent now I know have it knowing's. half the battle as they say cyan cyan.

Chuck said cyan I followed up with the. cyan too and everybody that means short. stuff is. out stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts my heart radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you. listen to your favorite. [Music]. shows.