2. Class Assignment 001
Key Guidance Notes:
Each group is required to identify 1 item from the list below and prepare a short
presentation highlighting how the selected items had an impact over
International Trade & Logisitcs
Each group will be required to present there respective findings.
3. Group 01 Cellophane
• Plastic food packaging often seems obviously wasteful. But when
Jacques Brandenberger invented cellophane, consumers loved it. It
helped supermarkets go self-service, and it was so popular Cole
Porter put it in a song lyric. Nowadays, people worry that plastic
doesn’t get recycled enough but there are two sides to this story.
Plastic packaging can protect food from being damaged in transit, and
help it stay fresh for longer. Should we care more about plastic waste
or food waste?
4. Group 02 Radar
• How the high-tech ‘death ray’ led to the invention of radar. The story
begins in the 1930s, when British Air Ministry officials were worried
about falling behind Nazi Germany in the technological arms race.
They correctly predicted that the next war would be dominated by air
power. To address the problem, Britain launched a number of projects
in hopes of mitigating the threat — including a prize for developing a
high-tech ‘death ray’ that could zap a sheep at a hundred paces. But
even though the project failed to develop such a weapon, it did result
in something potentially far more useful that was able to detect
planes and submarines – radar. And it was an invention that was
crucial in the development of the commercial aviation industry.
5. Group 03- Compiler
• Installing Windows might take 5,000 years without the compiler, a
remarkable innovation which made modern computing possible. Tim
Harford tells a compelling story which has at its heart a pioneering
woman called Grace Hopper who – along the way – single-handedly
invented the idea of open source software too. The compiler evolved
into COBOL – one of the first computer languages – and led to the
distinction between hardware and software.
6. Group 04- Antibiotics
• In 1928 a young bacteriologist named Alexander Fleming failed to tidy
up his petri dishes before going home to Scotland on holiday. On his
return, he famously noticed that one dish had become mouldy in his
absence, and the mould was killing the bacteria he’d used the dish to
cultivate. It’s hard to overstate the impact of antibiotics on medicine,
farming and the way we live.
7. Group 05- Paper
• The Gutenberg printing press is widely considered to be one of
humanity’s defining inventions. Actually, you can quibble with
Gutenberg’s place in history. He wasn’t the first to invent a movable
type press – it was originally developed in China. Still the Gutenberg
press changed the world. It led to Europe’s reformation, science, the
newspaper, the novel, the school textbook, and much else. But, as
Tim Harford explains, it could not have done so without another
invention, just as essential but often overlooked: paper. Paper was
another Chinese idea, just over 2000 years ago.
8. Group 06 -Razor
• King Camp Gillette came up with an idea which has helped shape the
modern economy. He invented the disposable razor blade. But,
perhaps more significantly, he invented the two-part pricing model
which works by imposing what economists call “switching costs”. If
you’ve ever bought replacement cartridges for an inkjet printer you
experienced both when you discovered that they cost almost as much
as the printer itself. It’s also known as the “razor and blades” model
because that’s where it first drew attention, thanks to King Camp
Gillette. Attract people with a cheap razor, then repeatedly charge
them for expensive replacement blades.
9. Group 07-Gramophone
• “Superstar” economics – how the gramophone led to a winner-take-
all dynamic in the performing industry. Elizabeth Billington was a
British soprano in the 18th century. She was so famous, London’s two
leading opera houses scrambled desperately to secure her
performances. In 1801 she ended up singing at both venues,
alternating between the two, and pulling in at least £10,000. A
remarkable sum, much noted at the time. But in today’s terms, it’s a
mere £687,000, or about a million dollars; one per cent of a similarly
famous solo artist’s annual earnings today.
10. Group 08- Air Conditioning
• Tim Harford tells the surprising story of air conditioning which was
invented in 1902 to counter the effects of humidity on the printing
process. Over the following decades “aircon” found its way into our
homes, cars and offices. But air conditioning is much more than a
mere convenience. It is a transformative technology; one that has had
a profound influence on where and how we live.
11. Group 09- Cuneiform
• The Egyptians thought literacy was divine; a benefaction which came
from the baboon-faced god Thoth. In fact the earliest known script –
“cuneiform” – came from Uruk, a Mesopotamian settlement on the
banks of the Euphrates in what is now Iraq. What did it say? As Tim
Harford describes, cuneiform wasn’t being used for poetry, or to send
messages to far-off lands. It was used to create the world’s first
accounts. And the world’s first written contracts, too.
12. Group 10- Tally Stick
• Tally sticks were made from willow harvested along the banks of the
Thames in London. The stick would contain a record of the debt. It might
say, for example, “9£ 4s 4p from Fulk Basset for the farm of Wycombe”.
Fulk Basset, by the way, might sound like a character from Star Wars but
was in fact a Bishop of London in the 13th century. He owed his debt to
King Henry III. Now comes the elegant part. The stick would be split in half,
down its length from one end to the other. The debtor would retain half,
called the “foil”.
• The creditor would retain the other half, called the “stock”. (Even today
British bankers use the word “stocks” to refer to debts of the British
government.) Because willow has a natural and distinctive grain, the two
halves would match only each other.
