Some Assembly Required (2007–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Cheese/Shoes/Pianos - full transcript
For all the everyday things,
all the stuff in our world,
there's the story of
how it comes to be.
Hello. I'm Brian Unger.
I'm Professor Lou Bloomfield.
UNGER: From the drawing
board to the assembly line,
it's how the ordinary is
actually extraordinary.
Today on "Some
Assembly Required"...
cheese, shoes, and pianos.
Well, it's just after 6:00
in east-central Wisconsin
in Manitowoc County.
And the Jersey cows are
coming into the barn to get milked,
because that is chapter one
in the story of cheddar cheese.
So, what gives cheddar
cheese its unique flavor?
Well, to answer that,
we've got to get to the building
block of cheddar cheese,
which is milk.
And that process starts
early with these ladies.
Question... What's
the secret again?
Well, you can stroke until
you feel it's getting plump.
Think of it as a
tube of toothpaste,
and you're just working
it out the bottom.
To make cheese, any
cheese, you need milk.
Now, these Jersey cows
produce more milk per weight
than any other cow.
But to make good tasting
cheese, it's not the quantity.
It's the quality of the
milk that matters most.
This milk is just seconds
old, and it's an amazing liquid.
The fats... Those are cream.
They're floating
around in little droplets.
And also, most of the proteins,
what are known as caseins,
are little particles.
And it's those particles
that we're gonna knock out
of the solution to make cheese.
Fats and proteins...
They're the main ingredients
of cheddar cheese.
So what goes into
making them is key.
That's why on Colt Farm,
these Jersey girls eat
a diet of mostly grass.
The fat in grass...
Yes, grass has fat...
Adds complexity to
the cheddar flavor.
Which ones are the back,
and which ones are the front?
I'm sorry, sweetheart.
We'll get going here.
Whoa.
Easy, girl.
Can I do this one, Mike?
Would she be okay?
She just came off.
Oh, she just came
off. Okay, right.
I don't want to
milk a cow twice.
That would be awkward.
All this fresh, raw milk
is delivered nearby to
Henning's Cheese Factory.
This is where it begins
its cheddaring journey.
We are in Kiel, Wisconsin.
And Kerry Hennings
is a third-generation
master cheesemaker.
Your family has been
making cheddar since 1914.
- That's right.
- Are you ready to make cheese?
- Let's make some cheese.
- Okay.
We're ready to make
cheese, but this milk isn't.
We need to pasteurize it first.
The milk quickly heats
up to 160 degrees
and then cools back down
through this maze of piping.
Now's the time to turn
our milk into cheddar.
And we start things off
with something aptly
called starter culture.
It's bacteria...
Lactococcus lactis.
Lactococcus cockeye.
Lactis.
During this, the
fermentation process,
the Lactococcus
lactis... Yeah, that...
It breaks down the
milk's sugar, or lactose,
into lactic acid.
And the more acid
that's formed now,
the tangier our cheddar
will be down the road.
How much do you
want me to pour in?
- Add it all if you're ready.
- Oh, I'm ready.
Next, we add some color.
Now, this is the annatto?
- Is that what you call it?
- Yes.
And this is what gives
the cheddar its color.
Natural vegetable
dye, so to speak.
- Yes, it is.
- But it's from a seed.
- Annatto seed.
- Yes.
[Alarm buzzes]
UNGER: Hello!
Making cheese is like being in
a prison... the sounds, at least.
Okay, our milk is fermenting,
but it can't curdle into cheese
without something called rennet.
Rennet is an enzyme,
a biological catalyst that
kicks off chemical reactions.
In this case, the rennet is
attacking those little droplets
of protein known as casein
that suspended in normal milk,
breaking those things open
and allowing them to coagulate,
to form the curd
that will eventually
become cheddar cheese.
Here we go. Rennet.
As the milk churns,
rennet causes the protein
to drop out from the milk,
taking fat along with it.
The protein and fat will
form more and more curds.
The leftover liquid
is called the whey.
It's real easy.
Sure it is, Kerry.
[Kerry laughs]
UNGER: Now, what's
happening here?
All we're doing
now is pumping over
the remaining curd and whey.
UNGER: It looks like Sugar Pops.
At this point, here's
what you're not seeing...
The microscopic mechanics
as the enzymes and bacteria
keep working to break
down the molecules.
And that's the curd right there.
Right.
It's real, like,
soft and spongy.
HENNING: Very soft.
There's lots of whey in it.
Could I eat that if I wanted to?
You certainly could.
I mean, I'm not gonna
now, but if I wanted to... Oh.
Yeah, still not cheddar, so
to go from spongy to hard,
we have to squeeze
out the liquid
so the curds can bond together.
And I'm just basically
raking the bottom of this tank,
pushing the curd
against the side
of these stainless-steel walls.
Yeah, 'cause I see
the curd is on this side
and curd on that
side in a river of whey.
That was in the
Bible, wasn't it?
The reason for separating
the whey from the curds
is because most of
the flavor development
is gonna be in these curds.
The proteins and the
fats will break down,
and voilà... aromas and flavors.
The whey... just a bystander,
so we've got to get the whey out.
This is literally
known as cheddaring.
The process alone takes
these workers 10 hours
to make 12,000 pounds of curds.
12 to 15 seconds
we're gonna hold it.
And then I'm gonna
give it a vigorous little...
It takes a lot of time
and manual pressure.
But little by little,
aha, progress.
Right now these are much
harder than when we started.
Like, these are basically
really starting to clump.
The whey is drained.
But there's still
too much liquid
for the curds and the
flavor to form properly.
To get an idea, look at that...
How much moisture is
still inside these curds.
You can just see
it draining out.
We've got to expel
the rest of this liquid,
so we divide these banks
of curds into smaller sections.
So, we cut these once,
and we stacked them.
Now we roll them over.
30 pounds?
This feels a lot
heavier than 30 pounds.
Bad curd!
Then we stack them again...
Oh, these hold
together much nicer now.
And again...
and again.
Cheddaring is hard work, man.
How many times do you do this?
[Groans]
Now, this is very heavy.
We've gone from two to three.
Now we go to four.
We're still not done.
We're going to five.
So, here's the secret to
the cheddaring process...
Using the pressure of
the curd's own weight.
No real need to
go to the gym, huh?
You guys just...
MAN: Don't need to.
[Unger grunts]
[Grunts]
The raking and stacking
got most of the
liquid out of the curds,
and the curds are pretty firm.
HENNING: You
can eat it right now.
It's fairly bland.
At this point, the enzymes
haven't been reacting
inside the cheese long enough
to create that good
cheddar flavor.
And they're still too moist
to bond together
to form the cheese.
That's where 120
pounds of salt comes in.
Like so?
Put it on a little heavier.
I'm taught to get it out
in a real light coating,
a real light dusting
over the cheese.
Yeah. It's taken you 23
years to learn how to do this.
Now, Kerry, why salt?
Probably one of the most
important things is flavor.
Cheese would not taste
very good without salt.
It's important biologically
because it slows that
bacteria growth down.
Those bacteria are really
working, working, working.
You need to start slowing
that bacteria process down.
Then also expelling more of
that moisture yet out of that curd,
so we're drying that
curd down even further.
Very important... We have
to cover each curd with salt.
Now we have to look
for these lumps, Kurt.
We have to break these apart.
It's Brian.
Did you say "Kurt"...
[Laughs]
UNGER: or "curd"?
I said "Kurt." Brian!
It's okay, Bob.
To make sure we
get an even coat,
we salt the curds three times.
We constantly mix the
batch as we go along.
I can just hear the
American Heart Association
moaning right now, man.
Salted cheddar curd, the
kind they make at Henning's,
are a snack here in Wisconsin.
But to make blocks of cheese,
we need to take our
curds and keep on going.
These curds are
pushed along this chute,
are fed up through this
steel-piping system here
and are put in...
What are they called?
- Daisies?
- Daisy hoops.
Daisy hoops.
Now we're packing about
34 pounds' worth of curds
into this wheel shape.
But there's still some
excess liquid, or whey.
So we do another
round of stacking.
Surprisingly way more
manual than I thought.
I figured there'd be like a
machine that would do this.
But this is what Wisconsin
handmade cheddar is.
- Yeah.
- We're doing it.
I'll never take another
cheeseburger for granted again.
We're using 2,000
pounds of force
to squeeze the remaining
whey out of the curd
so that they can bond together
and start forming
inside the cheddar wheel.
And after just 15
minutes of pressing,
the curds are already
becoming a single solid mass.
This cloth right here
is just cheesecloth.
Yes.
UNGER: It also extracts
moisture from the curd.
Now we place
cotton over the top.
This does the same thing...
Pulling moisture, right?
However, you throw these
away when you're done?
No, we reuse these.
- You put them in the laundry?
- Yep.
So, you're like the Al
Gore of the cheese world.
And after 24 hours, our cheddar,
all 4,000 pounds of it, is
as dry as it's going to get.
Can we flip it out
and take a look at it?
Okay.
Wow. Already that
looks like cheddar to me.
It still needs a little more
time to finish fusing together.
Can we taste some of this?
All right. We can do that.
- So you lead the way.
- All right.
At this, the day-old mark,
the curds are extremely soft,
and there's not much flavor.
This is just a day old. Cheers.
Cheers.
Very squeaky.
Yeah, squeaky.
Because it's, like,
kind of rubbery.
And it still tends to
fall apart quite easily.
It's technically cheddar,
but it doesn't taste like it,
especially compared to a piece
that's been aging for a month.
Oh, see, right away you can
just tell how it holds together.
Yeah.
That's good cheese.
That's good cheddar.
Yeah.
That's real good. Oh,
I'm sorry. You want some?
Being the master
cheesemaker that he is,
Kerry can tell very early on
how his cheddar's gonna
come out simply by tasting it.
Once it's been aged for about
30 days, I can start to say,
"Well, nope, it's
not good enough.
We're gonna move it out
as a mild- or a
medium-flavor cheese."
Then we'll look at it at 3
months old, 6 months old,
and again at a year old.
Now, can you tell just
from tasting a cheese,
say, at 3 months,
that it's just not gonna
make the 18-month haul?
A good percentage
of the time I can.
The enzymes in bacteria
continue to ferment inside.
This is the aging process.
And that creates the
distinct sharp flavor.
The longer the cheddar
ages, the sharper it gets.
And this has been aged how long?
- WOMAN: 18 months.
- This is 18 months.
- 18 months?
- 18 months.
Wow.
This is sharp cheddar.
Yep.
Cheddar is aged anywhere
from 3 months to 9 years.
Once Kerry approves it,
the cheddar gets packaged.
At Henning's, they wrap
smaller pieces of cheddar,
but giant blocks
are their specialty.
These blocks can weigh
as much as 1,000 pounds,
which makes waxing
them a pretty tough job.
So, why dip the cheddar in wax?
Well, it allows gases
inside to escape
and the cheese to breathe.
It's like a layer of skin.
It prevents the cheese from
getting moldy or drying out.
It's gonna be tricky
because you're gonna feel
the wax kind of move on you.
Yeah, a little bit.
Did I wreck the wax?
A little bit. Notice how
there's none on mine.
- It's something I'm used to.
- That's right.
I know how to work with it.
Why you got to be so hurtful?
The cheddar will
continue to age.
MAN: You're gonna
need a little more wax.
And the flavor will continue
to grow sharper and
sharper every day.
It gets kind of... Hug it.
Hug it. Hug it.
Hug the cheese. Hug the cheddar.
- All right.
- To the box.
If you do this correctly, you'll
have no wax on your hands.
Right. You're right.
I did this incorrectly.
They seem basic enough
when you lace them up.
But my running shoes are
really size-12 feats of engineering.
They've got to be strong enough
to absorb the impact of running
yet comfortable enough to
give the foot flexibility and speed.
Well, we're in Lawrence,
Massachusetts,
at the research and development
part of New Balance shoes.
How are you? [Laughs]
Here we're gonna get
really inside the shoe,
get into the science.
We want to find out...
How do you build a running shoe
that cushions and
stabilizes your foot?
With every stride, feet,
ankles, knees, hips, and torso
must absorb an enormous shock.
New Balance has
designed running shoes
that can handle all of that.
And it started with
founder William Riley,
who created a three-pronged
approach to the insole.
What inspired him, Shawn?
Well, why don't we
bring in our visual aid?
A visual aid?
Oh, my goodness.
SHAWN: Yeah, he took
inspiration from the chicken.
It's a shoe factory
and a chicken farm.
Who... Who knew?
SHAWN: Chickens
have incredible stability
despite their mass...
That it's above their foot.
And basically he took
inspiration from the fact
that that four-pronged foot,
similar to a triangular,
pyramidal shape,
provided a great deal
of stability to the chicken.
You know, we are theoretically
less stable than chickens.
That's right.
You know this
chicken has an agent?
Well, the New Balance
sole has come a long way.
And so has the R and D.
Yeah, pretty stable.
Today, it's all about figuring
out which part of the foot
absorbs the most impact.
Okay, Brian, let's get started.
Let's get this into your shoe.
Okay. Is this gonna hurt?
Shawn's gonna analyze
the dynamics of my foot
using a digital insole.
I have a feeling
that this is going to be
hooked up to a computer.
960 sensors on this insole
send signals to a computer,
which then pools
all of that data.
What exactly are we
trying to measure here?
SHAWN: We're trying
to measure the pressure
that's basically
being distributed
from your foot
contacting the ground.
You're hitting on the
outside of your heels
and sweeping across and
leaving on the ball of your foot.
And because you're in
the air a lot of the time,
you're not putting any
pressure on your feet.
And then when you do land,
you put tremendous
pressure on your feet.
So your weight, in effect,
is surging up and down.
SHAWN: Right. Well, what
I'm clearly seeing right now,
you're clearly a
heel-forefoot striker.
I'm not alone.
Most runners push
off from their forefeet
and land on their heels.
That's why New Balance
designs many of its soles
with extra cushioning
in these areas.
But cushioning must be balanced
with another important
function of the sole... stability.
If you put too
much cushioning in,
he won't be able to keep his
foot from rolling over, right?
Exactly. It's a balancing act.
If there's too much cushioning,
too much deformation...
If the material's actually
deforming too much,
your foot's gonna start
to become very wobbly.
I think we should
move this forward,
because I'm starting
to sweat a little...
and starting to smell.
BLOOMFIELD: [Laughing] Oh, okay.
[Laughter]
It's tricky to
find the right mix
between cushioning
and stability.
And that's where computer-aided
design, or CAD, comes in.
Matt Dunbar is a senior CAD
designer here at New Balance.
- Matt, how are you, sir?
- Hi, Brian.
In that design, you were getting
feedback from some runners
who were testing it or from
somewhere else in R and D here.
How would you change it here?
Let's say the feedback
from the wear testers
was that maybe
these holes are too big.
And I would come
into the model here,
and I could access
these hole features
and actually change the
diameter of those holes.
Let's make them smaller.
So, once you've made
a change like this,
how do you realize it?
We take them over
to the 3-D printer.
3-D?
Come on. This is
exciting, you guys.
BLOOMFIELD: All right.
There's no paper
in this printer.
Instead, there's powder.
As the sole gets
scanned onto the powder,
a binding agent act like ink
and hardens the powder
into the thin layers of the sole.
DUNBAR: We are
raising the build right now.
UNGER: So, in there
is the 3-D representation
of what we designed
on the computer.
But how is that hard in the
surrounding surface all like...
- It's a plaster material.
- Okay.
It lays down a binder.
So it's like putting
water in kitty litter.
And it just hardens
in thin layers.
Once the sole hardens, we'll
dust off the excess powder.
UNGER: It's like
a blizzard in there.
It's like Studio 54 in 1982.
And a sole is born.
This prototype will be used
to make thousands more.
That's pretty cool.
So, we've given our shoe a sole,
and clearly our job
is only half done.
It's time to connect with
the oh-so-critical upper.
The upper is highly designed.
It's painstakingly engineered
and almost entirely
assembled by hand.
We're in the cutting room
in Skowhegan, Maine.
This is just one of
five plants they have
for making New
Balance running shoes.
- Right, five?
- Yes.
At this one manufacturing plant,
New Balance will crank out
more than 300,000 pairs of shoes
in a year.
And it all starts with
a big piece of pigskin,
which will be cut up and sewn
together to build the upper.
We're basically making this
piece here and this piece here.
They have to make thousands
of these pieces every day.
And this one,
called the "I" row,
is just one of 29
individual parts
that forms a single upper.
And this is just a big...
What would you
call this thing exactly?
A high-tech cookie cutter.
High-tech cookie cutter.
I like that. Very technical.
It is, a high-tech
cookie cutter.
All right, clear.
There you go.
We are on our way
to making an upper.
When the cutting is done,
it's time to put the
puzzle pieces together.
Angel is assembling the upper.
How many pieces
are you putting down
on one of these
templates here, Angel?
- Six pieces.
- Six pieces.
Basically you just
lower that lid down,
and the needle just attacks.
And you really don't have
to do any other sewing.
But there's one part
of the sewing process
that requires some
very special attention.
This is the end
department over here.
And on my left are
the ends on the left,
and on my right,
the ends for the right.
They're gonna be
eventually put in like so.
- Shelley Guyd...
- Guydeau.
Shelley Guydeau.
Shelley just married
a Frenchman.
The key here is not to
sew over the end part.
No hands, Shelley.
- What do you think of that one?
- No.
No, let's take this off.
You hit it twice. Keep it going.
- [Groans]
- Hit it again.
- Seriously?
- [Laughs]
There is a tiny, tiny thread
over the reflective there.
Now, that would come
back to Shelley here today
and probably result in
some very stern discipline.
Shelley is obviously a
lot faster at this than I am.
- And voilà.
- Yay.
This upper still looks
more like a kiddie place mat
than a top of a shoe.
So we're gonna have to
give it some more shape.
For that we need... You
guessed it... more sewing.
On this floor at New Balance,
this is like the
sewing room from hell.
Angel graciously attempted
to show me a few things.
I've actually
said I can't do it.
It's so hard, what you do.
You're moving these things
across this needle so fast.
This part, at least,
is done by hand.
ANGEL #2: Right.
Now, the other
Angel downstairs...
'cause we have two Angels...
Is doing it in an automated
process with a computer.
What's the difference here?
No machine can put
these together like we do.
UNGER: Faster. Faster.
Faster. Faster.
You want to try
one? You can try one.
All right, I'll
try one. I'll try.
But what if I screw it up?
I can fix it.
You got to match the notches up.
Match up the notches.
And lift this up.
Lift this up.
And stitch along the bottom.
Stitch along the bottom.
Here we go, folks. Oh, yes!
Now, if you get this pair of
running shoes, I'm very sorry.
- This...
- [Laughter]
That is called some
more assembly required.
Uppers that have
been sewn properly
are almost ready to
marry with their soles.
But before the two
parts merge together,
the upper goes through
a rigorous fitting process.
We have sewn the
snot out of these things.
We've got stitching on the
bottom. We got the tongues in.
We got the backs on.
And now we're gonna
steam them like dinner rolls
because that makes them more
pliable and easier to work with.
It loosens up some
of the glues in here.
Gi is the man who runs
this whole place here.
Can I just grab
that one out of here?
Oh, yeah. Nice and toasty.
Right now this feels like a shoe
that's been worn by a really
sweaty person for like 10 days.
Now, from here we
go to the toe laster,
and that's where the toe
of a New Balance sneaker
really takes shape.
GI: All right.
A toe laster applies glue
to the underside of the shoe
and then pulls the
leather down over the toe,
giving it a smooth, tight fit.
Now, that was all done
with pressure and glue.
Right.
Any excess pigskin
is sanded away.
And finally, it's time to
attach the sole to the upper.
We have the sole of our shoe.
And this is what we designed
at Research and Development
in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
And these are
manufactured in China.
They're shipped up here.
And this is where these
soles meet their uppers.
Like so.
That glow that you're seeing
is an incandescent
radiant heat system
activating hot spray glue.
That glue was applied
about 40 minutes ago
on the other side of the factory
to the sole of the shoe.
Once the glue's activated,
they'll press the
upper into the sole
and then pop it in
this machine over here,
which does what
human hands can't.
Tremendous uniform pressure
will bind the shoes
together forever.
[Grunts]
Before any shoes are
shipped, there's one last step...
a final check
from the inspector.
Well, if you ever wanted to
know who was the last person
to touch a New
Balance running shoe
before they went on
your feet... Wanda.
Wanda the lacer.
- WANDA: Yeah.
- What are you looking for?
I check the sizes
and make sure they're
printed normally, legible.
I make sure all of the
stitching is done well.
- Look good?
- They look great.
But the real test for these
New Balance running shoes
is not in a factory.
It's on the track.
BLOOMFIELD: You ready, Brian?
Lou.
It's a good day to run.
I hope I don't have
the ones you made.
I hope I don't have
the ones you made.
Let's race.
I'll race you, Professor.
12,000 separate parts
assembled to withstand
up to 25 tons of tension.
Wow.
The piano... An
engineering marvel.
How do you get
pitch-perfect sound
from wood, wire,
and tons of tension?
It all starts in a woodshop
in Queens, New York.
At Steinway Piano Factory, the
wood comes in looking like this.
Now, there are five
kinds of wood in all.
This is maple.
And this forms the outer
shell of the piano, or the rim.
To make the horseshoe
shape of a concert rim,
its wood has to be strong
and flexible at the same time.
Maple has that strength
but not the flexibility.
So, the solution?
Use the thin planks of wood
that will bend but not break.
A single plank is too flimsy,
so they stack the planks
using a whole lot of glue
to keep them together.
How important is it, Chris,
that all 21 feet of this
continuous piece of maple
- have glue on every part of it?
- Oh, very important.
UNGER: That's why you
dab sort of here and there...
Just to make sure that every
part of this wood is covered?
Any section that they see
that could be a dry spot,
they try to fill it in.
In the end, it's
a 16-plank stack,
flexible and ready
to be bent into a rim.
Creating the gentle
curve of the rim
requires a combined effort
of carefully choreographed
moves and sheer brute force.
They've got just 14 minutes
to do this before the glue sets,
so there is no room for error.
So, every time he tightens,
you guys push a little.
- [Creaking]
- Wow.
Sounds like an old
ship at sea at this point.
That is a sharp turn there.
I mean, that's
practically 90 degrees.
This is the tricky part.
Now, that is the treble curve,
and that's the most
pronounced curve in a piano rim.
CHRIS: This is where
the tough part comes.
Yeah, I was gonna say.
Is there a danger of the
wood cracking at this point?
Yes.
The rim will stay locked
like this for 24 hours.
And then it'll be placed in
a climate-controlled room
to dry out.
So, once we've
got the rim prepped,
we can finally get to the other
1 1,999 parts to this piano.
Steinway is sprawling...
Over 400,000 square feet,
with 500 people churning
out 5,000 pianos a year.
MAN: Excellent.
It's kind of off the line there.
With me is director
of quality Bob Berger.
Here was the line.
It's okay. It's good,
it's good, it's good.
- That's a nice...
- That's good.
I made sure I
gave a little room.
Yeah, you did.
The outside of the piano
is almost assembled,
but we still have
to make the inside.
Time to focus on the
interior of the piano,
and nothing is more
important or more integral
in producing a rich,
amplified sound of a piano
than a soundboard.
Site here, which
is pretty amazing.
Soundboards are
made from spruce,
and their grains are
carefully matched
to produce a consistent sound.
That doesn't match at all.
You're right.
To create sound, the
soundboard must vibrate.
That's why Steinway uses
such a specific kind of wood.
Why do they use spruce
in this soundboard?
Because it's a very fine-grain,
very straight-grain wood.
And it's also
wonderfully elastic.
So it vibrates up and
down beautifully many times.
Now, that vibration,
is that like...
Is that key to sort of
producing that Steinway sound?
It is, because the soundboard
is the voice of the piano.
Look here. This is a
completed soundboard.
And look how elastic it is.
That's really very elastic.
And as it bounces up and
down, in sync with the strings,
it launches the sound.
It pushes on the
air back and forth
and creates the
sound of the piano.
The spruce slats are matched,
aligned, and glued together.
Now the soundboard gets
cut down to its final shape.
This inside curve is
scary because if I go fast,
then I really do cut
into the board itself.
Yeah, you don't want
to cut into the board.
No.
Try not to be distracted, too,
by someone talking in your ear.
I'll do my best.
Well, we have a
finished soundboard.
Nice work, Lou.
Before it can be placed
into the piano case,
the soundboard gets two
important attachments.
On one side, ribs
for structural support,
On the other...
A very important piece,
of course... the bridge.
And the bridge
is installed inside little holes
on the back of the soundboard.
The strings attach
to the bridge.
And when vibrate, so does
the bridge and the soundboard.
At this point, piano making
becomes an art form.
This is a highly, highly
skilled part of the assembly
for this soundboard.
BERGER: This is probably
our most highly skilled
job in the factory...
Certainly one of the
most highly skilled.
The marks here require precision
because they represent
the scale of the piano.
Now Hassan is beginning to
drill the hole that will be required
for each of the bridge
pins that will be inserted.
Hassan, you drill a mean hole.
A 15-degree angle
just by sight and touch...
That's pretty impressive.
It requires a very steady hand.
BERGER: There are variations
sometimes in the grain angle,
which a experienced woodworker
can account for when
he's cutting the notches
or doing this type of work
that a machine can't recognize.
A well-experienced craftsman
can identify small
differences of grain
and account for them
as he's doing his work.
Here at Steinway & Sons
factory in Queens, New York,
our piano case has been built,
and the soundboard
has been crafted.
The soundboard responds
to the strings' vibrations
and produces sound,
but it's this
300-pound iron plate
that keeps the piano from
imploding in the first place.
In the biggest of the grand
pianos, the concert grand,
every string has about
200 pounds of tension.
There are about 230 strings.
That's 23 tons of tension.
Yeah!
So it has to be made of iron.
Otherwise, this whole
cabinet would just collapse.
Right. It'll go from being a
concert grand to a baby grand.
Okay.
With the iron plate bolted down,
we're finally ready
for the strings...
all 230 of them.
Well, I am standing here
with a master piano stringer,
Ben McIntosh.
- Hey, Ben.
- How are you?
Good.
I think I'm holding
in my left hand here
what appear to be the strings
for the notes that
have lower pitch.
And I'm gonna
wrap that one like this
and then bend it
around the second one.
Also, I've been told
by the brass here
not to touch the iron plates,
because when you get
your fingerprints on them,
it actually stains, like
you'd stain a new penny.
Hooking the strings
on this end is easy.
Securing them at the
other end requires a master.
And that's a job
I just can't do.
Uh, no, I don't think
Bob would like that.
With all these sharp
wires to handle,
it's a dangerous process.
If it slips out of your hand,
it can actually rip your skin.
Oh, really? Wow.
So, this is how
you gear up for this?
Yes. Got to protect your hands.
Those wires will eat
right into your hands.
You've already got your
thumbs... nice gash...
Already chewed up.
Now, as Ben is wrapping
these thicker wires around
these tuning pins down here...
These are the, of course,
lower-pitched notes...
You'll notice that these run
over some of the thinner wires.
This is a process that's
patented by Steinway.
It is called overstringing,
and these strings
going over these wires
create a richer sound in tone
and a louder sound
for amplification.
It also centralizes the strings.
It's putting all the strings
in a more confined,
centralized space.
Okay, we've got the rim, the
soundboard, and the iron plate,
the strings, and about
1,000 other parts.
But one thing is missing...
One very obvious thing.
Oh, keys.
Keys. Look.
So, we've ripped the 88s
out of this grand piano.
What's going on here, Lou?
BLOOMFIELD: The
goal of the whole exercise
is to bounce the hammer
once and only once.
And so there are a
bunch of levers in here
that give you
mechanical advantage
to throw the hammer
very fast, launch it.
Second problem, though, is
you don't want the hammer
to come back down and
bounce off the mechanism
up against the
string a second time.
You get a bing-bing sound.
Yeah, you only want
to hit the string once.
Well, watch this
little guy back here.
This is what's
called a back check.
When you press the key once,
it catches the hammer
on the way back.
I let a little
pressure off the key.
Look what happened
to the hammer.
This catcher releases a little.
BLOOMFIELD: It released.
This gives you the fast repeat
that you need for some pieces.
The piano will undergo
four tuning processes
to achieve the perfect sound.
But first, what every
delicate instrument needs...
A good pounding.
[Dissonant notes play]
Sounds great.
It's kind of like 1,000 children
banging on the piano
at the same time.
Okay.
What really does that do,
except make a lot of noise
and everyone in the
place very uncomfortable?
BERGER: It plays
in the instrument.
It is as if you had
a million children
playing this for days and days,
so everything gets worked in.
Things become more comfortable,
like an old pair of shoes.
Okay, or like a
catcher's mitt, basically.
We're basically
working some oil into it.
We're gonna go
out in the backyard,
and we're gonna catch some
balls just to work that glove in.
Our piano looks like a Steinway,
but it doesn't really
sound like one yet.
So, from here on out,
the most important tool
you can have is your ear.
We should say, for the record,
this is a part of the process
that Lou and I are
not allowed to do.
So we just watch.
This is a process
called voicing.
Several skilled artisans here
repeatedly adjust the tune
and the tone of the sound.
BECKAROBIC: You'll
notice that it needs...
The first thing what
I do is just listen to it
and then fit the
strings to the hammer.
Timmy Beckarobic spots the notes
that are too dull or too bright.
See, over here, it's so bright,
and it dulls out a bit here.
So I will mark it.
- [Note plays]
- This is kind of bright.
To change the tone of the sound,
he has to change the
shape of the hammer.
BLOOMFIELD: Here goes the
felt on the high side of the hammer.
UNGER: Oh, so
you're just filing it down
like you would a fingernail.
That's it, very smoothly.
I'd rather take off again
because you can't put on again.
- And I don't to ruin the hammer.
- Okay.
So you do it step
by step, little by little.
Now, you're actually puncturing.
You're putting
holes in the felt.
- Yes.
- That does what?
It simmers the tone down.
- It's not so bright.
- Okay.
BLOOMFIELD: It's
softening the felt,
so when it hits the string, it
doesn't vibrate as roughly.
So, the tools in your arsenal
here are sanding and pinpricks,
and what else?
Don't forget the steroids.
Steroids, right. The juice.
Now, that liquid does
what... Hardens the felt?
Hardens the felt.
It will bring up the tone.
So, you have two
hours to voice this piano.
Yes.
With us here, that's gonna
take, oh, about 17 hours.
We're gonna see if we can
stretch this process a little.
[Notes play]
See, right here we will
need to apply more juice.
In the two hours he
devotes to every piano,
Timmy will make as many
passes over these keys as he can.
[Note plays]
Now, what should it sound like?
[Note plays]
Ah, yeah.
You can really
hear the difference.
It's a different instrument.
After countless
rounds of toning,
the piano's voice
is almost complete.
UNGER: It's really,
really remarkable.
And then there's Wally.
I mean, this is really where
Steinway becomes a Steinway.
For all the tuning and toning
that goes into creating
the Steinway sound,
no piano goes out
these factory doors
without going through
Wally Boot first.
Out of place.
Wait a minute.
That's out of place?
Now, you knew that that
note was off just by listening.
You don't have any
machines hooked up to it.
There's no electronics.
Just using Wally Boot's ear?
Yep.
How do you get to
be man who says...
You got to work here 44 years.
Start from the bottom
and work your way up.
Did you ever
think 44 years later
you would be really the last
guy to touch the keyboard
and to call it a Steinway?
No.
I didn't know where
I was going, but...
That's quite a journey.
And in the last couple years,
I took piano lessons, and...
No. Last couple of years?
What do you mean,
"last couple of years"?
You've been playing a lot
longer than a couple years.
Last three years I
had a piano tuner
give me lessons
15 minutes a week.
Okay.
And I got plenty of
pianos to practice on.
Yeah, you do.
So you basically
get to practice all day.
Don't tell my boss that.
[Both laugh]
Will you take us out?
[Slow piano music plays]
all the stuff in our world,
there's the story of
how it comes to be.
Hello. I'm Brian Unger.
I'm Professor Lou Bloomfield.
UNGER: From the drawing
board to the assembly line,
it's how the ordinary is
actually extraordinary.
Today on "Some
Assembly Required"...
cheese, shoes, and pianos.
Well, it's just after 6:00
in east-central Wisconsin
in Manitowoc County.
And the Jersey cows are
coming into the barn to get milked,
because that is chapter one
in the story of cheddar cheese.
So, what gives cheddar
cheese its unique flavor?
Well, to answer that,
we've got to get to the building
block of cheddar cheese,
which is milk.
And that process starts
early with these ladies.
Question... What's
the secret again?
Well, you can stroke until
you feel it's getting plump.
Think of it as a
tube of toothpaste,
and you're just working
it out the bottom.
To make cheese, any
cheese, you need milk.
Now, these Jersey cows
produce more milk per weight
than any other cow.
But to make good tasting
cheese, it's not the quantity.
It's the quality of the
milk that matters most.
This milk is just seconds
old, and it's an amazing liquid.
The fats... Those are cream.
They're floating
around in little droplets.
And also, most of the proteins,
what are known as caseins,
are little particles.
And it's those particles
that we're gonna knock out
of the solution to make cheese.
Fats and proteins...
They're the main ingredients
of cheddar cheese.
So what goes into
making them is key.
That's why on Colt Farm,
these Jersey girls eat
a diet of mostly grass.
The fat in grass...
Yes, grass has fat...
Adds complexity to
the cheddar flavor.
Which ones are the back,
and which ones are the front?
I'm sorry, sweetheart.
We'll get going here.
Whoa.
Easy, girl.
Can I do this one, Mike?
Would she be okay?
She just came off.
Oh, she just came
off. Okay, right.
I don't want to
milk a cow twice.
That would be awkward.
All this fresh, raw milk
is delivered nearby to
Henning's Cheese Factory.
This is where it begins
its cheddaring journey.
We are in Kiel, Wisconsin.
And Kerry Hennings
is a third-generation
master cheesemaker.
Your family has been
making cheddar since 1914.
- That's right.
- Are you ready to make cheese?
- Let's make some cheese.
- Okay.
We're ready to make
cheese, but this milk isn't.
We need to pasteurize it first.
The milk quickly heats
up to 160 degrees
and then cools back down
through this maze of piping.
Now's the time to turn
our milk into cheddar.
And we start things off
with something aptly
called starter culture.
It's bacteria...
Lactococcus lactis.
Lactococcus cockeye.
Lactis.
During this, the
fermentation process,
the Lactococcus
lactis... Yeah, that...
It breaks down the
milk's sugar, or lactose,
into lactic acid.
And the more acid
that's formed now,
the tangier our cheddar
will be down the road.
How much do you
want me to pour in?
- Add it all if you're ready.
- Oh, I'm ready.
Next, we add some color.
Now, this is the annatto?
- Is that what you call it?
- Yes.
And this is what gives
the cheddar its color.
Natural vegetable
dye, so to speak.
- Yes, it is.
- But it's from a seed.
- Annatto seed.
- Yes.
[Alarm buzzes]
UNGER: Hello!
Making cheese is like being in
a prison... the sounds, at least.
Okay, our milk is fermenting,
but it can't curdle into cheese
without something called rennet.
Rennet is an enzyme,
a biological catalyst that
kicks off chemical reactions.
In this case, the rennet is
attacking those little droplets
of protein known as casein
that suspended in normal milk,
breaking those things open
and allowing them to coagulate,
to form the curd
that will eventually
become cheddar cheese.
Here we go. Rennet.
As the milk churns,
rennet causes the protein
to drop out from the milk,
taking fat along with it.
The protein and fat will
form more and more curds.
The leftover liquid
is called the whey.
It's real easy.
Sure it is, Kerry.
[Kerry laughs]
UNGER: Now, what's
happening here?
All we're doing
now is pumping over
the remaining curd and whey.
UNGER: It looks like Sugar Pops.
At this point, here's
what you're not seeing...
The microscopic mechanics
as the enzymes and bacteria
keep working to break
down the molecules.
And that's the curd right there.
Right.
It's real, like,
soft and spongy.
HENNING: Very soft.
There's lots of whey in it.
Could I eat that if I wanted to?
You certainly could.
I mean, I'm not gonna
now, but if I wanted to... Oh.
Yeah, still not cheddar, so
to go from spongy to hard,
we have to squeeze
out the liquid
so the curds can bond together.
And I'm just basically
raking the bottom of this tank,
pushing the curd
against the side
of these stainless-steel walls.
Yeah, 'cause I see
the curd is on this side
and curd on that
side in a river of whey.
That was in the
Bible, wasn't it?
The reason for separating
the whey from the curds
is because most of
the flavor development
is gonna be in these curds.
The proteins and the
fats will break down,
and voilà... aromas and flavors.
The whey... just a bystander,
so we've got to get the whey out.
This is literally
known as cheddaring.
The process alone takes
these workers 10 hours
to make 12,000 pounds of curds.
12 to 15 seconds
we're gonna hold it.
And then I'm gonna
give it a vigorous little...
It takes a lot of time
and manual pressure.
But little by little,
aha, progress.
Right now these are much
harder than when we started.
Like, these are basically
really starting to clump.
The whey is drained.
But there's still
too much liquid
for the curds and the
flavor to form properly.
To get an idea, look at that...
How much moisture is
still inside these curds.
You can just see
it draining out.
We've got to expel
the rest of this liquid,
so we divide these banks
of curds into smaller sections.
So, we cut these once,
and we stacked them.
Now we roll them over.
30 pounds?
This feels a lot
heavier than 30 pounds.
Bad curd!
Then we stack them again...
Oh, these hold
together much nicer now.
And again...
and again.
Cheddaring is hard work, man.
How many times do you do this?
[Groans]
Now, this is very heavy.
We've gone from two to three.
Now we go to four.
We're still not done.
We're going to five.
So, here's the secret to
the cheddaring process...
Using the pressure of
the curd's own weight.
No real need to
go to the gym, huh?
You guys just...
MAN: Don't need to.
[Unger grunts]
[Grunts]
The raking and stacking
got most of the
liquid out of the curds,
and the curds are pretty firm.
HENNING: You
can eat it right now.
It's fairly bland.
At this point, the enzymes
haven't been reacting
inside the cheese long enough
to create that good
cheddar flavor.
And they're still too moist
to bond together
to form the cheese.
That's where 120
pounds of salt comes in.
Like so?
Put it on a little heavier.
I'm taught to get it out
in a real light coating,
a real light dusting
over the cheese.
Yeah. It's taken you 23
years to learn how to do this.
Now, Kerry, why salt?
Probably one of the most
important things is flavor.
Cheese would not taste
very good without salt.
It's important biologically
because it slows that
bacteria growth down.
Those bacteria are really
working, working, working.
You need to start slowing
that bacteria process down.
Then also expelling more of
that moisture yet out of that curd,
so we're drying that
curd down even further.
Very important... We have
to cover each curd with salt.
Now we have to look
for these lumps, Kurt.
We have to break these apart.
It's Brian.
Did you say "Kurt"...
[Laughs]
UNGER: or "curd"?
I said "Kurt." Brian!
It's okay, Bob.
To make sure we
get an even coat,
we salt the curds three times.
We constantly mix the
batch as we go along.
I can just hear the
American Heart Association
moaning right now, man.
Salted cheddar curd, the
kind they make at Henning's,
are a snack here in Wisconsin.
But to make blocks of cheese,
we need to take our
curds and keep on going.
These curds are
pushed along this chute,
are fed up through this
steel-piping system here
and are put in...
What are they called?
- Daisies?
- Daisy hoops.
Daisy hoops.
Now we're packing about
34 pounds' worth of curds
into this wheel shape.
But there's still some
excess liquid, or whey.
So we do another
round of stacking.
Surprisingly way more
manual than I thought.
I figured there'd be like a
machine that would do this.
But this is what Wisconsin
handmade cheddar is.
- Yeah.
- We're doing it.
I'll never take another
cheeseburger for granted again.
We're using 2,000
pounds of force
to squeeze the remaining
whey out of the curd
so that they can bond together
and start forming
inside the cheddar wheel.
And after just 15
minutes of pressing,
the curds are already
becoming a single solid mass.
This cloth right here
is just cheesecloth.
Yes.
UNGER: It also extracts
moisture from the curd.
Now we place
cotton over the top.
This does the same thing...
Pulling moisture, right?
However, you throw these
away when you're done?
No, we reuse these.
- You put them in the laundry?
- Yep.
So, you're like the Al
Gore of the cheese world.
And after 24 hours, our cheddar,
all 4,000 pounds of it, is
as dry as it's going to get.
Can we flip it out
and take a look at it?
Okay.
Wow. Already that
looks like cheddar to me.
It still needs a little more
time to finish fusing together.
Can we taste some of this?
All right. We can do that.
- So you lead the way.
- All right.
At this, the day-old mark,
the curds are extremely soft,
and there's not much flavor.
This is just a day old. Cheers.
Cheers.
Very squeaky.
Yeah, squeaky.
Because it's, like,
kind of rubbery.
And it still tends to
fall apart quite easily.
It's technically cheddar,
but it doesn't taste like it,
especially compared to a piece
that's been aging for a month.
Oh, see, right away you can
just tell how it holds together.
Yeah.
That's good cheese.
That's good cheddar.
Yeah.
That's real good. Oh,
I'm sorry. You want some?
Being the master
cheesemaker that he is,
Kerry can tell very early on
how his cheddar's gonna
come out simply by tasting it.
Once it's been aged for about
30 days, I can start to say,
"Well, nope, it's
not good enough.
We're gonna move it out
as a mild- or a
medium-flavor cheese."
Then we'll look at it at 3
months old, 6 months old,
and again at a year old.
Now, can you tell just
from tasting a cheese,
say, at 3 months,
that it's just not gonna
make the 18-month haul?
A good percentage
of the time I can.
The enzymes in bacteria
continue to ferment inside.
This is the aging process.
And that creates the
distinct sharp flavor.
The longer the cheddar
ages, the sharper it gets.
And this has been aged how long?
- WOMAN: 18 months.
- This is 18 months.
- 18 months?
- 18 months.
Wow.
This is sharp cheddar.
Yep.
Cheddar is aged anywhere
from 3 months to 9 years.
Once Kerry approves it,
the cheddar gets packaged.
At Henning's, they wrap
smaller pieces of cheddar,
but giant blocks
are their specialty.
These blocks can weigh
as much as 1,000 pounds,
which makes waxing
them a pretty tough job.
So, why dip the cheddar in wax?
Well, it allows gases
inside to escape
and the cheese to breathe.
It's like a layer of skin.
It prevents the cheese from
getting moldy or drying out.
It's gonna be tricky
because you're gonna feel
the wax kind of move on you.
Yeah, a little bit.
Did I wreck the wax?
A little bit. Notice how
there's none on mine.
- It's something I'm used to.
- That's right.
I know how to work with it.
Why you got to be so hurtful?
The cheddar will
continue to age.
MAN: You're gonna
need a little more wax.
And the flavor will continue
to grow sharper and
sharper every day.
It gets kind of... Hug it.
Hug it. Hug it.
Hug the cheese. Hug the cheddar.
- All right.
- To the box.
If you do this correctly, you'll
have no wax on your hands.
Right. You're right.
I did this incorrectly.
They seem basic enough
when you lace them up.
But my running shoes are
really size-12 feats of engineering.
They've got to be strong enough
to absorb the impact of running
yet comfortable enough to
give the foot flexibility and speed.
Well, we're in Lawrence,
Massachusetts,
at the research and development
part of New Balance shoes.
How are you? [Laughs]
Here we're gonna get
really inside the shoe,
get into the science.
We want to find out...
How do you build a running shoe
that cushions and
stabilizes your foot?
With every stride, feet,
ankles, knees, hips, and torso
must absorb an enormous shock.
New Balance has
designed running shoes
that can handle all of that.
And it started with
founder William Riley,
who created a three-pronged
approach to the insole.
What inspired him, Shawn?
Well, why don't we
bring in our visual aid?
A visual aid?
Oh, my goodness.
SHAWN: Yeah, he took
inspiration from the chicken.
It's a shoe factory
and a chicken farm.
Who... Who knew?
SHAWN: Chickens
have incredible stability
despite their mass...
That it's above their foot.
And basically he took
inspiration from the fact
that that four-pronged foot,
similar to a triangular,
pyramidal shape,
provided a great deal
of stability to the chicken.
You know, we are theoretically
less stable than chickens.
That's right.
You know this
chicken has an agent?
Well, the New Balance
sole has come a long way.
And so has the R and D.
Yeah, pretty stable.
Today, it's all about figuring
out which part of the foot
absorbs the most impact.
Okay, Brian, let's get started.
Let's get this into your shoe.
Okay. Is this gonna hurt?
Shawn's gonna analyze
the dynamics of my foot
using a digital insole.
I have a feeling
that this is going to be
hooked up to a computer.
960 sensors on this insole
send signals to a computer,
which then pools
all of that data.
What exactly are we
trying to measure here?
SHAWN: We're trying
to measure the pressure
that's basically
being distributed
from your foot
contacting the ground.
You're hitting on the
outside of your heels
and sweeping across and
leaving on the ball of your foot.
And because you're in
the air a lot of the time,
you're not putting any
pressure on your feet.
And then when you do land,
you put tremendous
pressure on your feet.
So your weight, in effect,
is surging up and down.
SHAWN: Right. Well, what
I'm clearly seeing right now,
you're clearly a
heel-forefoot striker.
I'm not alone.
Most runners push
off from their forefeet
and land on their heels.
That's why New Balance
designs many of its soles
with extra cushioning
in these areas.
But cushioning must be balanced
with another important
function of the sole... stability.
If you put too
much cushioning in,
he won't be able to keep his
foot from rolling over, right?
Exactly. It's a balancing act.
If there's too much cushioning,
too much deformation...
If the material's actually
deforming too much,
your foot's gonna start
to become very wobbly.
I think we should
move this forward,
because I'm starting
to sweat a little...
and starting to smell.
BLOOMFIELD: [Laughing] Oh, okay.
[Laughter]
It's tricky to
find the right mix
between cushioning
and stability.
And that's where computer-aided
design, or CAD, comes in.
Matt Dunbar is a senior CAD
designer here at New Balance.
- Matt, how are you, sir?
- Hi, Brian.
In that design, you were getting
feedback from some runners
who were testing it or from
somewhere else in R and D here.
How would you change it here?
Let's say the feedback
from the wear testers
was that maybe
these holes are too big.
And I would come
into the model here,
and I could access
these hole features
and actually change the
diameter of those holes.
Let's make them smaller.
So, once you've made
a change like this,
how do you realize it?
We take them over
to the 3-D printer.
3-D?
Come on. This is
exciting, you guys.
BLOOMFIELD: All right.
There's no paper
in this printer.
Instead, there's powder.
As the sole gets
scanned onto the powder,
a binding agent act like ink
and hardens the powder
into the thin layers of the sole.
DUNBAR: We are
raising the build right now.
UNGER: So, in there
is the 3-D representation
of what we designed
on the computer.
But how is that hard in the
surrounding surface all like...
- It's a plaster material.
- Okay.
It lays down a binder.
So it's like putting
water in kitty litter.
And it just hardens
in thin layers.
Once the sole hardens, we'll
dust off the excess powder.
UNGER: It's like
a blizzard in there.
It's like Studio 54 in 1982.
And a sole is born.
This prototype will be used
to make thousands more.
That's pretty cool.
So, we've given our shoe a sole,
and clearly our job
is only half done.
It's time to connect with
the oh-so-critical upper.
The upper is highly designed.
It's painstakingly engineered
and almost entirely
assembled by hand.
We're in the cutting room
in Skowhegan, Maine.
This is just one of
five plants they have
for making New
Balance running shoes.
- Right, five?
- Yes.
At this one manufacturing plant,
New Balance will crank out
more than 300,000 pairs of shoes
in a year.
And it all starts with
a big piece of pigskin,
which will be cut up and sewn
together to build the upper.
We're basically making this
piece here and this piece here.
They have to make thousands
of these pieces every day.
And this one,
called the "I" row,
is just one of 29
individual parts
that forms a single upper.
And this is just a big...
What would you
call this thing exactly?
A high-tech cookie cutter.
High-tech cookie cutter.
I like that. Very technical.
It is, a high-tech
cookie cutter.
All right, clear.
There you go.
We are on our way
to making an upper.
When the cutting is done,
it's time to put the
puzzle pieces together.
Angel is assembling the upper.
How many pieces
are you putting down
on one of these
templates here, Angel?
- Six pieces.
- Six pieces.
Basically you just
lower that lid down,
and the needle just attacks.
And you really don't have
to do any other sewing.
But there's one part
of the sewing process
that requires some
very special attention.
This is the end
department over here.
And on my left are
the ends on the left,
and on my right,
the ends for the right.
They're gonna be
eventually put in like so.
- Shelley Guyd...
- Guydeau.
Shelley Guydeau.
Shelley just married
a Frenchman.
The key here is not to
sew over the end part.
No hands, Shelley.
- What do you think of that one?
- No.
No, let's take this off.
You hit it twice. Keep it going.
- [Groans]
- Hit it again.
- Seriously?
- [Laughs]
There is a tiny, tiny thread
over the reflective there.
Now, that would come
back to Shelley here today
and probably result in
some very stern discipline.
Shelley is obviously a
lot faster at this than I am.
- And voilà.
- Yay.
This upper still looks
more like a kiddie place mat
than a top of a shoe.
So we're gonna have to
give it some more shape.
For that we need... You
guessed it... more sewing.
On this floor at New Balance,
this is like the
sewing room from hell.
Angel graciously attempted
to show me a few things.
I've actually
said I can't do it.
It's so hard, what you do.
You're moving these things
across this needle so fast.
This part, at least,
is done by hand.
ANGEL #2: Right.
Now, the other
Angel downstairs...
'cause we have two Angels...
Is doing it in an automated
process with a computer.
What's the difference here?
No machine can put
these together like we do.
UNGER: Faster. Faster.
Faster. Faster.
You want to try
one? You can try one.
All right, I'll
try one. I'll try.
But what if I screw it up?
I can fix it.
You got to match the notches up.
Match up the notches.
And lift this up.
Lift this up.
And stitch along the bottom.
Stitch along the bottom.
Here we go, folks. Oh, yes!
Now, if you get this pair of
running shoes, I'm very sorry.
- This...
- [Laughter]
That is called some
more assembly required.
Uppers that have
been sewn properly
are almost ready to
marry with their soles.
But before the two
parts merge together,
the upper goes through
a rigorous fitting process.
We have sewn the
snot out of these things.
We've got stitching on the
bottom. We got the tongues in.
We got the backs on.
And now we're gonna
steam them like dinner rolls
because that makes them more
pliable and easier to work with.
It loosens up some
of the glues in here.
Gi is the man who runs
this whole place here.
Can I just grab
that one out of here?
Oh, yeah. Nice and toasty.
Right now this feels like a shoe
that's been worn by a really
sweaty person for like 10 days.
Now, from here we
go to the toe laster,
and that's where the toe
of a New Balance sneaker
really takes shape.
GI: All right.
A toe laster applies glue
to the underside of the shoe
and then pulls the
leather down over the toe,
giving it a smooth, tight fit.
Now, that was all done
with pressure and glue.
Right.
Any excess pigskin
is sanded away.
And finally, it's time to
attach the sole to the upper.
We have the sole of our shoe.
And this is what we designed
at Research and Development
in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
And these are
manufactured in China.
They're shipped up here.
And this is where these
soles meet their uppers.
Like so.
That glow that you're seeing
is an incandescent
radiant heat system
activating hot spray glue.
That glue was applied
about 40 minutes ago
on the other side of the factory
to the sole of the shoe.
Once the glue's activated,
they'll press the
upper into the sole
and then pop it in
this machine over here,
which does what
human hands can't.
Tremendous uniform pressure
will bind the shoes
together forever.
[Grunts]
Before any shoes are
shipped, there's one last step...
a final check
from the inspector.
Well, if you ever wanted to
know who was the last person
to touch a New
Balance running shoe
before they went on
your feet... Wanda.
Wanda the lacer.
- WANDA: Yeah.
- What are you looking for?
I check the sizes
and make sure they're
printed normally, legible.
I make sure all of the
stitching is done well.
- Look good?
- They look great.
But the real test for these
New Balance running shoes
is not in a factory.
It's on the track.
BLOOMFIELD: You ready, Brian?
Lou.
It's a good day to run.
I hope I don't have
the ones you made.
I hope I don't have
the ones you made.
Let's race.
I'll race you, Professor.
12,000 separate parts
assembled to withstand
up to 25 tons of tension.
Wow.
The piano... An
engineering marvel.
How do you get
pitch-perfect sound
from wood, wire,
and tons of tension?
It all starts in a woodshop
in Queens, New York.
At Steinway Piano Factory, the
wood comes in looking like this.
Now, there are five
kinds of wood in all.
This is maple.
And this forms the outer
shell of the piano, or the rim.
To make the horseshoe
shape of a concert rim,
its wood has to be strong
and flexible at the same time.
Maple has that strength
but not the flexibility.
So, the solution?
Use the thin planks of wood
that will bend but not break.
A single plank is too flimsy,
so they stack the planks
using a whole lot of glue
to keep them together.
How important is it, Chris,
that all 21 feet of this
continuous piece of maple
- have glue on every part of it?
- Oh, very important.
UNGER: That's why you
dab sort of here and there...
Just to make sure that every
part of this wood is covered?
Any section that they see
that could be a dry spot,
they try to fill it in.
In the end, it's
a 16-plank stack,
flexible and ready
to be bent into a rim.
Creating the gentle
curve of the rim
requires a combined effort
of carefully choreographed
moves and sheer brute force.
They've got just 14 minutes
to do this before the glue sets,
so there is no room for error.
So, every time he tightens,
you guys push a little.
- [Creaking]
- Wow.
Sounds like an old
ship at sea at this point.
That is a sharp turn there.
I mean, that's
practically 90 degrees.
This is the tricky part.
Now, that is the treble curve,
and that's the most
pronounced curve in a piano rim.
CHRIS: This is where
the tough part comes.
Yeah, I was gonna say.
Is there a danger of the
wood cracking at this point?
Yes.
The rim will stay locked
like this for 24 hours.
And then it'll be placed in
a climate-controlled room
to dry out.
So, once we've
got the rim prepped,
we can finally get to the other
1 1,999 parts to this piano.
Steinway is sprawling...
Over 400,000 square feet,
with 500 people churning
out 5,000 pianos a year.
MAN: Excellent.
It's kind of off the line there.
With me is director
of quality Bob Berger.
Here was the line.
It's okay. It's good,
it's good, it's good.
- That's a nice...
- That's good.
I made sure I
gave a little room.
Yeah, you did.
The outside of the piano
is almost assembled,
but we still have
to make the inside.
Time to focus on the
interior of the piano,
and nothing is more
important or more integral
in producing a rich,
amplified sound of a piano
than a soundboard.
Site here, which
is pretty amazing.
Soundboards are
made from spruce,
and their grains are
carefully matched
to produce a consistent sound.
That doesn't match at all.
You're right.
To create sound, the
soundboard must vibrate.
That's why Steinway uses
such a specific kind of wood.
Why do they use spruce
in this soundboard?
Because it's a very fine-grain,
very straight-grain wood.
And it's also
wonderfully elastic.
So it vibrates up and
down beautifully many times.
Now, that vibration,
is that like...
Is that key to sort of
producing that Steinway sound?
It is, because the soundboard
is the voice of the piano.
Look here. This is a
completed soundboard.
And look how elastic it is.
That's really very elastic.
And as it bounces up and
down, in sync with the strings,
it launches the sound.
It pushes on the
air back and forth
and creates the
sound of the piano.
The spruce slats are matched,
aligned, and glued together.
Now the soundboard gets
cut down to its final shape.
This inside curve is
scary because if I go fast,
then I really do cut
into the board itself.
Yeah, you don't want
to cut into the board.
No.
Try not to be distracted, too,
by someone talking in your ear.
I'll do my best.
Well, we have a
finished soundboard.
Nice work, Lou.
Before it can be placed
into the piano case,
the soundboard gets two
important attachments.
On one side, ribs
for structural support,
On the other...
A very important piece,
of course... the bridge.
And the bridge
is installed inside little holes
on the back of the soundboard.
The strings attach
to the bridge.
And when vibrate, so does
the bridge and the soundboard.
At this point, piano making
becomes an art form.
This is a highly, highly
skilled part of the assembly
for this soundboard.
BERGER: This is probably
our most highly skilled
job in the factory...
Certainly one of the
most highly skilled.
The marks here require precision
because they represent
the scale of the piano.
Now Hassan is beginning to
drill the hole that will be required
for each of the bridge
pins that will be inserted.
Hassan, you drill a mean hole.
A 15-degree angle
just by sight and touch...
That's pretty impressive.
It requires a very steady hand.
BERGER: There are variations
sometimes in the grain angle,
which a experienced woodworker
can account for when
he's cutting the notches
or doing this type of work
that a machine can't recognize.
A well-experienced craftsman
can identify small
differences of grain
and account for them
as he's doing his work.
Here at Steinway & Sons
factory in Queens, New York,
our piano case has been built,
and the soundboard
has been crafted.
The soundboard responds
to the strings' vibrations
and produces sound,
but it's this
300-pound iron plate
that keeps the piano from
imploding in the first place.
In the biggest of the grand
pianos, the concert grand,
every string has about
200 pounds of tension.
There are about 230 strings.
That's 23 tons of tension.
Yeah!
So it has to be made of iron.
Otherwise, this whole
cabinet would just collapse.
Right. It'll go from being a
concert grand to a baby grand.
Okay.
With the iron plate bolted down,
we're finally ready
for the strings...
all 230 of them.
Well, I am standing here
with a master piano stringer,
Ben McIntosh.
- Hey, Ben.
- How are you?
Good.
I think I'm holding
in my left hand here
what appear to be the strings
for the notes that
have lower pitch.
And I'm gonna
wrap that one like this
and then bend it
around the second one.
Also, I've been told
by the brass here
not to touch the iron plates,
because when you get
your fingerprints on them,
it actually stains, like
you'd stain a new penny.
Hooking the strings
on this end is easy.
Securing them at the
other end requires a master.
And that's a job
I just can't do.
Uh, no, I don't think
Bob would like that.
With all these sharp
wires to handle,
it's a dangerous process.
If it slips out of your hand,
it can actually rip your skin.
Oh, really? Wow.
So, this is how
you gear up for this?
Yes. Got to protect your hands.
Those wires will eat
right into your hands.
You've already got your
thumbs... nice gash...
Already chewed up.
Now, as Ben is wrapping
these thicker wires around
these tuning pins down here...
These are the, of course,
lower-pitched notes...
You'll notice that these run
over some of the thinner wires.
This is a process that's
patented by Steinway.
It is called overstringing,
and these strings
going over these wires
create a richer sound in tone
and a louder sound
for amplification.
It also centralizes the strings.
It's putting all the strings
in a more confined,
centralized space.
Okay, we've got the rim, the
soundboard, and the iron plate,
the strings, and about
1,000 other parts.
But one thing is missing...
One very obvious thing.
Oh, keys.
Keys. Look.
So, we've ripped the 88s
out of this grand piano.
What's going on here, Lou?
BLOOMFIELD: The
goal of the whole exercise
is to bounce the hammer
once and only once.
And so there are a
bunch of levers in here
that give you
mechanical advantage
to throw the hammer
very fast, launch it.
Second problem, though, is
you don't want the hammer
to come back down and
bounce off the mechanism
up against the
string a second time.
You get a bing-bing sound.
Yeah, you only want
to hit the string once.
Well, watch this
little guy back here.
This is what's
called a back check.
When you press the key once,
it catches the hammer
on the way back.
I let a little
pressure off the key.
Look what happened
to the hammer.
This catcher releases a little.
BLOOMFIELD: It released.
This gives you the fast repeat
that you need for some pieces.
The piano will undergo
four tuning processes
to achieve the perfect sound.
But first, what every
delicate instrument needs...
A good pounding.
[Dissonant notes play]
Sounds great.
It's kind of like 1,000 children
banging on the piano
at the same time.
Okay.
What really does that do,
except make a lot of noise
and everyone in the
place very uncomfortable?
BERGER: It plays
in the instrument.
It is as if you had
a million children
playing this for days and days,
so everything gets worked in.
Things become more comfortable,
like an old pair of shoes.
Okay, or like a
catcher's mitt, basically.
We're basically
working some oil into it.
We're gonna go
out in the backyard,
and we're gonna catch some
balls just to work that glove in.
Our piano looks like a Steinway,
but it doesn't really
sound like one yet.
So, from here on out,
the most important tool
you can have is your ear.
We should say, for the record,
this is a part of the process
that Lou and I are
not allowed to do.
So we just watch.
This is a process
called voicing.
Several skilled artisans here
repeatedly adjust the tune
and the tone of the sound.
BECKAROBIC: You'll
notice that it needs...
The first thing what
I do is just listen to it
and then fit the
strings to the hammer.
Timmy Beckarobic spots the notes
that are too dull or too bright.
See, over here, it's so bright,
and it dulls out a bit here.
So I will mark it.
- [Note plays]
- This is kind of bright.
To change the tone of the sound,
he has to change the
shape of the hammer.
BLOOMFIELD: Here goes the
felt on the high side of the hammer.
UNGER: Oh, so
you're just filing it down
like you would a fingernail.
That's it, very smoothly.
I'd rather take off again
because you can't put on again.
- And I don't to ruin the hammer.
- Okay.
So you do it step
by step, little by little.
Now, you're actually puncturing.
You're putting
holes in the felt.
- Yes.
- That does what?
It simmers the tone down.
- It's not so bright.
- Okay.
BLOOMFIELD: It's
softening the felt,
so when it hits the string, it
doesn't vibrate as roughly.
So, the tools in your arsenal
here are sanding and pinpricks,
and what else?
Don't forget the steroids.
Steroids, right. The juice.
Now, that liquid does
what... Hardens the felt?
Hardens the felt.
It will bring up the tone.
So, you have two
hours to voice this piano.
Yes.
With us here, that's gonna
take, oh, about 17 hours.
We're gonna see if we can
stretch this process a little.
[Notes play]
See, right here we will
need to apply more juice.
In the two hours he
devotes to every piano,
Timmy will make as many
passes over these keys as he can.
[Note plays]
Now, what should it sound like?
[Note plays]
Ah, yeah.
You can really
hear the difference.
It's a different instrument.
After countless
rounds of toning,
the piano's voice
is almost complete.
UNGER: It's really,
really remarkable.
And then there's Wally.
I mean, this is really where
Steinway becomes a Steinway.
For all the tuning and toning
that goes into creating
the Steinway sound,
no piano goes out
these factory doors
without going through
Wally Boot first.
Out of place.
Wait a minute.
That's out of place?
Now, you knew that that
note was off just by listening.
You don't have any
machines hooked up to it.
There's no electronics.
Just using Wally Boot's ear?
Yep.
How do you get to
be man who says...
You got to work here 44 years.
Start from the bottom
and work your way up.
Did you ever
think 44 years later
you would be really the last
guy to touch the keyboard
and to call it a Steinway?
No.
I didn't know where
I was going, but...
That's quite a journey.
And in the last couple years,
I took piano lessons, and...
No. Last couple of years?
What do you mean,
"last couple of years"?
You've been playing a lot
longer than a couple years.
Last three years I
had a piano tuner
give me lessons
15 minutes a week.
Okay.
And I got plenty of
pianos to practice on.
Yeah, you do.
So you basically
get to practice all day.
Don't tell my boss that.
[Both laugh]
Will you take us out?
[Slow piano music plays]