Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] They cut, drill, and literally build America.

‐ The coolest thing about power tools

is that they democratized creation.

Anybody can build anything.

‐ [Narrator] It's an industry that generates

over $50 billion

every

single

year.

(dramatic music)

‐ Since the beginning of time

when we figured out we could dig a hole with a stick,

we've always been in creating tools to make our life easier.

‐ [Narrator] But more than a century ago,

it was all done by hand

until tools were electrified.

‐ This was going to truly change

how the tool industry worked forever.

‐ [Narrator] The future is built by a few visionaries.

‐ Holy moly.

‐ [Narrator] Some power tool makers

will become household names.

‐ Duncan Black, meet Alonzo Decker.

‐ [Narrator] Others forgotten by history.

‐ It's all yours, Al.

‐ [Man] Here it is, Mr. Ford.

‐ [Narrator] As a group of visionaries

battle it out to revolutionize

the way we construct and create.

‐ You can essentially mold the world in a way

that humans had only dreamed of before.

‐ [Narrator] This is power tool showdown.

(dramatic music)

(tense music)

‐ [Narrator] At the turn of the 20th century,

American industrialization is entering a new phase.

Factories that were once powered by coal

and lit by candles or kerosene are now becoming electrified.

‐ Electricity facilitates greater productivity

for business owners.

It allows for shops to stay open later,

for workers to work longer into the evening.

‐ [Narrator] But one part of industry still lags behind,

the hardware market hasn't changed much

since two brothers founded the Stanley Toolworks

in the 1840s.

‐ If somebody could come up with a way of taking the idea

behind the industrial revolution,

that is applying artificial power to a job,

and if you could take the power to the job site,

if you could make power portable,

then all sorts of things would become possible

that hadn't been possible before.

‐ [Narrator] America is ripe for a revolution

in the tool industry,

and two strangers are about to join forces to lead it.

(tense music)

‐ Duncan Black, meet Alonzo Decker.

‐ Hi, Duncan.

‐ Hi, how are you?

‐ Black, show Decker how the octaplex system works.

‐ Yes sir, of course.

Hey so, yeah.

‐ [Narrator] In 1906, Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker

meet working at the Roland Telegraph company.

They are from Baltimore,

but they had very different upbringings.

‐ Alonzo Decker had a really tough childhood.

He dropped out by the time he was 14

to get a job and then take care of the family.

He was always very creative and a tinkerer,

but he also was at some point a teenager

and didn't wanna have to get up early to feed the horses.

And so he rigged the horse feeder onto an alarm clock.

And every time the alarm would ring,

it would open up the feeder and feed the horses.

‐ Duncan Black came from a much more comfortable home.

He didn't have to work,

so his upbringing was a whole lot easier.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] One day, these very different men

will completely upend the tool business,

create the DIY industry from scratch,

and forge a company now worth over $30 billion.

(dramatic music)

But in 1910, they are both still at their telegraph company.

And after four years,

the ambitious Decker is getting restless.

‐ Duncan, you're still here.

‐ Alonzo?

You okay, what's the matter?

‐ Oh no, I'm fine, I'm fine.

I just wanted to catch you before you left.

‐ What is it?

What's the matter?

‐ I'm leaving Roland.

‐ What do you mean you're leaving Roland?

‐ And I want you to come with me.

‐ You mean to go where?

‐ You and I start our own business.

We do our own designs.

‐ Decker was a natural born risk taker

and Black was a little bit more conservative.

But with that, he had a great business mind

where Decker was always inventing

and tinkering and creating things.

Those brains put together made for a brilliant partnership.

‐ [Narrator] Decker loves to tinker

and wants to go into manufacturing.

He's designed electric machines in the past

and thinks he can make a business out of it,

but they have one concern.

Neither of them has any money.

And Black has a family to support.

(dramatic music)

900 miles away,

a future competitor, 21 year old Arno Peterson,

is on the mound blowing away batters.

‐ [Coach] Come on Arno, let's see that fastball.

‐ He was a baseball player,

but professional baseball at the time,

wasn't considered a full time job.

It was really just a side hustle.

Arno's main job was as a handyman.

(dramatic music)

‐ Whoever designed his damn thing

never had to use it eight hours a day.

(tense music)

‐ [Narrator] One day Peterson's company

will create a drill and other devices

that will transform construction,

launch and empire making $5 billion a year,

and be among the biggest power tool manufacturers

in the world.

But right now, he's frustrated.

‐ Using these tools, he saw the flaws in them

and where they could be improved.

He was constantly realizing that

if he could make a better tool,

it would make his job a whole lot easier.

‐ He is the epitome of an entrepreneur in America.

He's young, he's creative, he's got drive.

He sees an opportunity, he sees a need,

and he goes after to try to make it better.

‐ Just pull it up a little on the right.

Yeah, that's it.

‐ [Narrator] By 1914, Peterson's baseball days are over

and he turns his attention to a new passion.

‐ How's that?

‐ It's perfect.

‐ [Narrator] Designing tools that will make the job

of handyman, like he was, easier.

(tense music)

By this time,

Decker had already convinced Black to leave the safety

of his telegraph job and risk it all

to open a machine shop together.

‐ This is what really blows my mind about this.

Black sells his car

to Alonzo Decker's father‐in‐law for $600,

Alonzo Decker than mortgages his house for $600 as well.

So the stakes were insanely high.

‐ It takes a lot of guts, it takes a lot of confidence,

maybe a little dose of lunacy as well,

but I guess the spoils go to those that risk at all.

(tense music)

‐ I followed the plans to the letter,

so why won't it turn on?

Oh, wait a minute.

Yeah, got it.

Okay.

So go ahead and add the sugar.

‐ Okay.

‐ [Narrator] To get their operation

up and running quickly,

they initially focus on manufacturing

existing designs,

a candy dipping machine and one that adds pockets to vests.

‐ How often have I been standing in my vest

wishing that I had a machine to put a pocket in it.

‐ [Narrator] By 1916, business is slow and profits are slim.

If Black and Decker are going to survive,

they'll have to develop a machine for a bigger market.

And they see a need with hand tools.

‐ Most of the tools that are used in industry

are still very much dependent on manpower, elbow grease.

‐ Guys worked day and night to build a house.

With electric drill these days,

you can drill a hundred holes by the time

somebody would drill one.

‐ [Narrator] Black and Decker think they can improve

the power drill, which was invented in Germany in 1895.

But at 17 pounds, it's hard to use,

and not much more powerful than a hand cranked model.

‐ You had to grab two handles,

press your chest against the chest plate to operate it.

And then the on and off switch was separate,

and you had to do that so you had

to take your hand off the tool.

‐ Which is really dangerous because if it gets bound

on something and it wants to keep turning

and you have to let go to find the off switch,

that's where injuries can happen very easily.

‐ [Narrator] They set out to create the next generation

of power drills, but it's not easy.

‐ The hard part was figuring out how to have the worker

hold that tool and turn it on and off without dropping it

or having to take a hand off it.

‐ [Narrator] In the meantime to make ends meet,

they take on a project redesigning the Colt 45 pistol

to help make manufacturing it easier.

(soft music)

(dramatic music)

‐ A drill with a trigger.

How good would that be?

(dramatic music)

‐ I'd want one now.

(tense music)

‐ [Narrator] To create a trigger,

they have to reinvent how the on off switch works.

They need something that can be pressed

with just one finger.

The partners work the problem,

imagining all sorts of configurations.

If they can't figure it out,

they're struggling business could go under.

It takes several months of tinkering, but they pull it off.

(upbeat music)

‐ This was such a big invention.

It's going to make it more consistent.

You can control the power on and off the trigger

like a gun does.

It's going to have more accuracy.

‐ [Narrator] But the drill does have a major issue.

‐ Black and Decker's original drill started out at $230,

which is around $5,000 in today's money.

‐ [Narrator] And there's another problem.

At least 70% of Americans

are still living without electricity.

(upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] When the US enters World War I in 1917,

there is an urgent need for an American manufacturing.

Exports to Europe skyrocket from $1.5 billion

to four billion as allies look for support.

But keeping up with the increased demands

requires using state‐of‐the‐art power tools.

‐ Working in a great period of innovation,

there's a lot of money and profit to be made from war,

which of course spurs new products.

‐ [Narrator] Despite its high price,

Black and Decker's breakthrough drill

is quickly snapped up by factories

producing munitions for the US war effort.

‐ The clear need during World War I for the hole drilling

that was provided by the Black and Decker drill

was a major success.

‐ [Narrator] It weighs around twice

what a modern drill does,

and it's a hundred times more expensive.

Even so, there's no competition, and it's a huge success.

By 1918, Black and Decker expands.

The company is doing $1 million in annual sales,

around $13 million today,

but they're about to face serious competition.

(tense music)

During the war, Arno Peterson carved out a niche

in Milwaukee creating custom made hand tools,

but Black and Decker's success inspires him

to move into power tools.

He desperately needs cash for research and development,

when he gets a lifeline from one of his clients.

(phone rings)

‐ A. H. Peterson manufacturing.

Mr. Peterson, it's Henry Ford on the line.

He says it's urgent.

(dramatic music)

‐ Yes, Mr. Ford?

‐ [Narrator] In 1918, Henry Ford runs

the largest automaker in the world

thanks to his assembly line.

But both Chrysler and General Motors

are eating into Ford's sales.

Now, even Black and Decker's breakthrough drill

isn't good enough for him.

Ford wants a lighter, smaller, cheaper drill.

‐ This is a make or break moment.

'Cause if he's successful,

then he's gonna be famous for inventing the drill

that Henry Ford uses.

If he's not successful,

he's gonna be the man who failed

to build the drill that Henry Ford wanted.

(tense music)

‐ Okay, so there are two conductors connected

to the switch box.

And the trigger's pulled.

The springs connect with the contact plates

and chuck engages.

‐ [Narrator] Peterson tinkers for weeks,

examining Black and Decker's drill for ways to improve it.

‐ Look how much space the motor takes up.

A quarter inch drill doesn't need a motor that big.

They're grip in the trigger is genius,

but what if we put it behind the motor

instead of underneath?

That way a smaller casing might be easier on the forearm.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] After weeks of trial and error,

the drill is reconfigured and scaled down.

(drill whirring)

‐ Well, would you look at?

Cut clean through in five seconds flat.

I think she's ready.

Here it is, Mr. Ford.

‐ [Narrator] Peterson's drill weighs just about four pounds,

half as much as Black and Decker's

and about the same as a modern drill.

‐ I've taken to calling it the hole shooter.

(drill whirring)

‐ Well, that seems fitting doesn't it?

‐ Henry Ford loves Peterson's design.

In fact, he hires them to create them for his immediately.

This is a complete game changer.

‐ Most small business owners, you know,

in the case of Peterson, as an example,

if you put the whale in front of them,

they'll find the harpoon.

(soft music)

‐ [Narrator] Peterson secures a patent on his design

and starts producing the hole shooter

for the commercial construction market.

The price is much lower than Black and Decker's, just $42.

About $610 today,

but Black and Decker still dominates the market.

‐ Part of the problem with coming up

with the next great new ideas is that it's hard

to communicate how great your new idea is.

(soft music)

‐ [Narrator] To generate buzz, Peterson's head of sales,

Al Siebert, devises an eye catching marketing strategy.

A series of live demonstrations in local hardware stores

with a twist.

‐ Look, boys, it's so simple,

even the ladies can use it.

(applause)

‐ Back then, all labor was done by men.

It was not a woman's way to use a drill.

So the fact that you put a woman in a window

using a drill, ingenious.

(drill whirring)

They were playing off of the sexist mind state of men,

and it worked.

(tense music)

‐ [Narrator] Factories and construction sites

soon adopt Peterson's drill.

Black and Decker now see Peterson as a serious threat.

In response, they invest in a range of new

and improved power tools.

A grinder for cutting and polishing metal,

an electric screwdriver, and a new series of smaller,

less expensive drills to challenge the hole shooter.

‐ When you have two inventors competing

to make the best product,

you're going to push each other.

‐ [Narrator] And they don't know it yet,

but a new rival is about to enter the fray.

‐ Holy moly.

(tense music)

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] As the US enters the roaring 20s,

the economy takes off,

and so does the home building industry.

Department stores like Sears and Montgomery Ward

even sell mail order home kits

that local builders put together

with the help new electric power tools.

By this time,

Black and Decker has factories throughout the Northeast

and customers as far away as Russia, Australia, and Japan.

(upbeat music)

But competition is coming, and from a surprising place.

(tense music)

‐ Keep at it, boys.

Smooth and straight.

If I see a variance of more than an eighth of an inch,

I'm putting you all on mop‐up duty.

(tense music)

‐ I need this load done yesterday.

‐ We're on it, boss.

Moving as fast as we can.

(tense music)

Okay, let's keep it moving, fellas.

There's no more breaks till we get this load out.

‐ [Narrator] In a mill in Oakville, Pennsylvania,

a 37 year old foreman is driving his crew hard.

His name is Raymond DeWalt.

‐ He actually grew up in the wood shop.

His father was a wagon maker.

When he had finished school,

he actually went into that same profession,

and out of the corner of his dad's wood shop

starts his own business

building children's toys, games, wood chests.

‐ [Narrator] In 1922, DeWalt lands a position

as head of a woodworking mill.

He is under constant pressure from the owner

to speed up production.

But sawing wood is a laborious, inexact,

and inefficient process.

(tense music)

‐ Ray DeWalt is realizing that too many man hours

are being spent on preparing the lumber

with the ripping of the boards

and the cross cutting to length.

And there's got to be a better way.

(tense music)

‐ [Narrator] DeWalt has no background

in engineering or design,

but he's a born tinkerer with a knack for finding new ways

to modify his tools to accomplish the task at hand.

And one day in 1922, an idea comes to him.

He is sure that if he can figure out how to invent

a saw powered by electricity,

it would be a game changer.

(dramatic music)

He tinkers with the design for weeks using a circular saw

and mounts it onto an arm that would pivot.

(tense music)

‐ This lets him move the saw blade at almost any angle.

He can go up and down with it,

and that lets him make circular cuts, make cross cuts,

make rip cuts.

He could even bore holes and put in notches.

This tool basically does everything

that a carpenter would do by hand on a job site.

DeWalt calls his saw the wonder worker.

(tense music)

‐ [Narrator] The same year,

a young businessman named Paul Gardner visits the mill

about another matter.

He's amazed to see the wonder worker in action.

‐ So, for a cross cut,

you wanna set the blade depth to just below

the surface of the wood.

‐ Right.

‐ And then, and this is important,

I don't lower the blade to its cutting position

until the saws motor is up to speed.

Otherwise, I'll end up cutting grooves

all over the table. ‐ Got it.

‐ Now, I reckon I can do about 29 different types of cut

with this one machine.

‐ [Narrator] Gardner is just 23.

He's already a successful tool distributor,

and is familiar with Black and Decker's electric drill.

He knows the power tool is the future.

He seizes the opportunity and on the spot

asks the DeWalt if he wants to quit his job at the mill

and go into business together.

‐ DeWalt has the creativity and Paul Gardner

has the business savvy,

and that's how Gardner convinced DeWalt

to go into business with him.

‐ Paul Gardner was very ambitious,

and he could have gone on to college,

but he went on to interview some of the titans of American

business during that time.

Andrew Carnegie, John D Rockefeller, and JP Morgan,

and this was really better than any business degree

or college degree he could have gotten.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Someday their tool company

will be an industry leader in the high‐end tool market,

become a household name,

and be worth $3.5 billion.

But in 1923, DeWalt's rivals have a commanding lead.

(soft music)

Meanwhile, Arno Peterson's hole shooter marketing campaign

is working and his company is taking off.

(tense music)

Then on a cold April night in 1924,

his dreams go up in flames.

Arson is suspected, but never proven.

(dramatic music)

His factory and his ambitions lie in smoldering ruins.

‐ Arno Peterson has a really difficult decision.

He can either face bankruptcy and start all over again,

or he can choose to walk away.

(soft music)

‐ It's all yours, Al, if you want it.

‐ Are you sure Arno?

‐ Yeah.

Yeah, I'm sure.

‐ His factory burnt down and that just really

broke his spirit.

He gave up.

‐ [Narrator] Peterson's head of marketing,

Al Siebert, buys the company,

but he's starting from scratch.

And with Peterson gone, Siebert will need a miracle

to bring it back.

(upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] In 1925, one year after fire

destroys the Peterson factory,

new owner Al Siebert is clawing his way back.

He's rebuilt the plant, but he knows he must expand

if he's going to compete with Black and Decker and DeWalt.

(tense music)

Without Peterson to innovate, Siebert's plan is simple.

Keep making the hole shooter while looking

for ways to improve on their rivals designs.

‐ You know fellas,

we have to find a way to not just fix them,

but to make them better.

Take good notes.

‐ [Narrator] With the intel gained from dissecting

Black and Decker's latest drill and DeWalt's electric saw,

the company goes back into production,

but they are no longer called A. H. Peterson manufacturing.

‐ It's the same hole shooter, same great product,

but under a new name.

From now on, it'll be known as Milwaukee.

That's right, Milwaukee Electric Tool Company.

And we've got big plans.

Yes, indeed.

‐ The hole shooter as it was, he improved on that,

he made a better motor, better cord.

He also introduced an electric saw, a grinder, and a sander.

‐ [Narrator] Milwaukee's improved hole shooter

sells well,

but to catch up with Black and Decker,

Siebert desperately needs more.

(knock at the door)

‐ Come in.

‐ Mr. Siebert, your mail is here.

‐ Thank you, Mary.

(tense music)

‐ [Narrator] Then Milwaukee gets a game surprise.

‐ Well, I'll be damned.

‐ [Narrator] The Navy gives them a valuable contract.

And for the first time,

Milwaukee can compete with Black and Decker.

(tense music)

(saw whirring)

(dramatic music)

‐ When you see the blade start to climb the lumber

so that it stops cutting all the way through,

it's time to check the roller bearings in the yolk

and give them a good tightening, okay?

‐ [Narrator] Meanwhile, DeWalt and Gardner

aren't taking it easy.

They set up a plant in Eastern Pennsylvania

to manufacture the breakthrough saw.

It's an immediate hit.

By 1928, monthly sales reach $800,000 in today's money.

DeWalt also comes up with a range of other power tools,

putting them further ahead of Milwaukee

and in striking distance of Black and Decker.

(dramatic music)

Then, just as DeWalt is hitting its stride,

Ray DeWalt makes a fateful decision.

‐ He sells his entire investment in his company

for what his granddaughter would later describe

as a pittance.

And he takes that money and he goes to form a commune,

a religious commune in Pennsylvania.

‐ [Narrator] Gardner now owns the company,

but the timing couldn't be worse.

In 1929, the most catastrophic stock market crash

in American history sends the economy into a tailspin.

And the white hot construction industry is hit hard.

‐ By 1933, the construction industry was off

by almost 87%.

So not only was construction stopped,

but tradesmen were out of work,

tool manufacturers were not making tools

because what would people need tools for,

they weren't building anymore.

‐ [Narrator] Gardner is forced to give pink slips

to much of his staff.

(tense music)

Reeling from his partner's departure,

he is now staring at the possibility

of a total collapse of his company,

but his rivals are also in trouble.

(soft music)

After dizzying success,

Black and Decker is forced to lay off hundreds of workers.

And one of them is extremely personal.

‐ He decides to lay off his son.

I think that that's incredibly respectful.

And that's an example of moral leadership.

You know, that he is actually gonna make

the biggest sacrifice by letting go one of his own

to show the company that this is not something

that he wants to do,

but it's something that he has to do.

‐ [Narrator] With his company near bankruptcy,

Decker Sr. has a nervous breakdown while his son

finds a job selling soap flakes to grocery stores

for $8 a week.

But Al Jr. vows to come back.

(tense music)

It's been four years since Alonzo Decker Jr.

was let go from his father's company

in a massive round of layoffs

triggered by the great depression.

With financial losses now bottoming out,

in 1933, Decker rehires Al Jr.

But the young man doesn't get his old executive job back.

‐ Instead of putting it back at a executive position,

he starts him out at the bottom

as a janitor making 25 cents an hour.

(tense music)

‐ A lot of people would think

I have a right to this company.

I'm the son, an educated son, of one of its founders.

He doesn't take that attitude at all.

There's not a sense of entitlement about this company,

and he wants to earn it.

‐ [Narrator] Decker's plan is to work his way

back up to the top,

but the economy has not rebounded

and his father's company is barely hanging on.

‐ Hey, look at this.

What's this casing made from?

‐ That's aluminum.

Die‐cast aluminum.

‐ Oh yeah, dad was telling you about this.

Wow, wasn't kidding.

So much lighter than the cast metal.

How durable is it?

Customer complaints?

‐ No, they love it.

‐ [Narrator] As the country enters the next decade,

power tools will suddenly be in high demand.

America's industrial priorities shift

after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor

pulls the US into World War II.

‐ There's tanks, there was artillery,

there was battleships,

there was planes and they all needed high tech power tools

to create them.

‐ [Narrator] Black and Decker, Milwaukee, and DeWalt

all see a surge in orders.

‐ The DeWalt wonder workers really became popular

during World War II.

In fact, it was standard issue on all military bases

for building barracks and bridges

and whatever else they needed.

‐ Welcome back. ‐ Thank you.

‐ [Paul] Welcome back.

‐ [Narrator] DeWalt, now led by a re‐energized Paul Gardner,

is able to bring on several new employees

that are dedicated entirely to America's war effort.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee's improved hole shooter

is still the Navy's go to grill.

‐ We've got 10,000 ready to ship out

whenever you boys need them.

I want the first destroyer that drops anchor in Tokyo bay

to be made with a Milwaukee.

‐ [Narrator] And black and Decker switches

some of their manufacturing capacity over to munitions,

as well as increasing their output of power tools.

(tense music)

With men fighting overseas,

thousands of women use those tools in factories

across the country.

They are recruited by the US government

with posters portraying a patriotic symbol

that will become an American icon, Rosie the Riveter.

The demand for Black and Decker drills

increases during the war,

but Al Jr., who by now has worked his way

back up to executive, notices something unusual.

‐ Now, how about that?

(tense music)

Hello, George?

Hi, it's Al from Black and Decker.

I just had a quick question for you.

‐ What happened is the factories kept reordering drills

and Decker is concerned that the drills

were breaking down or burning out.

And Decker at some point finally

called the government contractors and said,

what is happening with all these drills?

‐ So I did some looking into these duplicate orders,

and get this, these Rosies like our drills so much

they're smuggling them home for their husbands.

‐ Okay, so we make more, keep the factory stocked.

‐ Yeah, but I think there's something else to this.

People want to have a drill around the house.

You know, if they wanna hang a picture

or fix a staircase or maybe build a new shed.

‐ Eureka, he realizes that the next wave of power tools

is the common man.

He's got to make these tools cheaper, less cumbersome,

so that they can be in every household in America.

‐ About 1946, they introduced a homeowner version

of the electric drill that was being used in the factory.

So now the factory workers

didn't have to take home a drill,

they could afford one to keep it home to use all week long.

‐ Black and Decker releases a host of household tools.

Their drill is the most popular.

They produce about 80,000 and it sells out immediately.

Decker Jr.

realizes his foresight was right on the money.

‐ [Narrator] What happens next changes the game

and drives the power tool industry

to unimaginable profits.

(upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] For more than 20 years,

there have been three power players

in the power tool business,

Black and Decker,

Milwaukee,

and DeWalt.

(upbeat music)

But in 1949, DeWalt's owner makes a surprising move.

He sells DeWalt to the American Machine and Foundry Company

for $23 million in today's money.

‐ He achieved a goal he had set out

to do from the beginning

and by emulating these great titans of business,

it helped him get to that point.

‐ [Narrator] A decade later in 1960,

Black and Decker buys DeWalt for more than double

what Gardner sold it for.

Now there are just two contenders

duking it out in the power tools war,

Black and Decker and their old rival Milwaukee.

The next year, Alonzo Decker Jr.

tries to pull Black and Decker further ahead of Milwaukee

with a bold new idea.

‐ Well, here it is gentlemen,

the world's first cordless drill.

As you can see, no wires.

You can drill anywhere inside, outside.

Everyone is going to want one of these.

‐ For Alonzo Decker, Jr.

to realize and invest in a cutting edge technology

at that time, which were nickel cadmium batteries,

it was a risk.

He had to reconfigure the entire tool.

It's not just the battery and the power source,

it's having the motor and the circuitry

to actually be able to draw power,

enough power off of his battery to make it effective

for somebody to use.

‐ If you were gonna be doing a lot of projects

around the house and you were tethered to an outlet,

you would constantly be having to take it out

and move it and bring it somewhere else.

In the professional setting,

they were also tremendous benefits.

So it was groundbreaking.

‐ [Narrator] Black and Decker introduces

the cordless drill in 1961,

and it's just the beginning.

‐ You use a cordless leaf blower to clean off your sidewalk.

They have a cordless weed eater, a cordless chainsaw.

All of these things came from this development.

(tense music)

‐ [Narrator] But it's the cordless drill

that cements Al Jr.'s standing as the new genius

behind Black and Decker.

In 1964, following the deaths

of his father and Duncan Black,

Alonzo Decker Jr. finally completes his journey

from janitor to CEO.

(upbeat music)

In the late 1960s, at the height of the space race,

NASA comes to Black and Decker

with an even greater challenge,

develop a drill that can take core samples

from the surface of the moon.

(upbeat music)

‐ Could you imagine the astronauts

pulling a power cord around with them?

Could you imagine dragging an extension cord

all the way from a power station on earth up to the moon?

(upbeat music)

‐ [Narrator] It takes years of testing,

including simulating lunar gravity

by taking prototype drills underwater

and onboard a nosediving transport plane,

but incredibly, Black and Decker eventually pulls it off.

‐ [Astronaut] Hey that beauty is going right in.

‐ [Mission Control] Outstanding.

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] 50 years later and back on earth,

the best selling power tool in America

is still the one that started it all,

a Black and Decker drill.

The company that Al Decker Jr.'s father

mortgaged his home to help start

wins the power tools war.

(dramatic music)

But Milwaukee is still going strong.

From 2015 to 2020, annual revenue more than doubled

to $5 billion.

‐ Since the beginning of time

when we figured out that we could dig a hole with a stick,

we've always been creating tools

and ways to make our life easier.

It's basically who we are as human beings.

And let's just be honest,

it's fun to build stuff on the weekends.

It's fun to show your neighbors, hey, I did that.

That's me right there, I did that.

‐ Who knows what the future of power tool is.

It might be that the next generation of power tools

is going to do things that we can't even imagine right now.

(tense music)

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