September 17, 2019 • 10 mins
Whether you're looking for a dream come true, or just want to set the record straight, today's tour through the cabinet will deliver what you need.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Being first isn't all it's
(00:29):
cracked up to be. Often the honor of breaking the
mold comes at a great cost, either to the person
who has done it or to those who didn't make
it all the way there. For British Prime Minister Spencer Percival,
he wasn't just the first. He was the only member
of a very exclusive club, one he probably had no
interest in joining in the first place. He was born
(00:52):
in Mayfair, Middlesex, in seventeen sixty two, to a very
wealthy family. His father and Earl, was closely involved in
British politics. His mother was a baroness whose family had
also been elected to numerous high positions within Parliament. It
only seemed natural that their son, Spencer would join the
family business and with their influence to help him along
(01:12):
the way. Of course, except he was born during his
father's second marriage and had an older stepbrother, his parents
didn't really support him. He could barely live on his
yearly stipend, and he knew that he couldn't rely on
inheriting anything when they died. Anything that his father owned
would default to his first son, so Perceval focused on
(01:34):
his schooling. He studied hard, choosing a future in the
legal profession. Once he'd graduated and passed the bar. After
the death of his mother, Perceval fell in love with
a young woman whose father didn't approve of her suitor's
lack of money or property, especially compared to his brother
at Lord Arden, a rich member of parliament. Perceval waited
(01:54):
until she was twenty one, and against her father's wishes,
the two eloped. They started their life together, living humbly
above a carpet shop while he worked his way up
in his career. Coming from such a wealthy and influential
family had its benefits, even if Perceval couldn't take advantage
of all of them, but they came through in the
networking department. Thanks to his connections. He went from the
(02:16):
lowly position of Deputy Recorder in Northampton all the way
up to the Board of Admiralty in sevente Then two
years later, opportunity came knocking, and Perceval answered His uncle
who had also been an earl, had passed away, and
his cousin had left his seat in Parliament to take
(02:37):
the man's place. In order to keep the seat in
the family, Perceval took over his cousin's duties. For thirteen years,
he established himself as a formidable politician and a fierce debater,
earning him the title of Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
head of the British Treasury. Through hard work and determination,
he had achieved a status previously bestowed upon his other
(02:59):
family members at birth. Perceval had earned his place, and
his success eventually led him all the way to the top.
In eighteen o nine, he became Prime Minister of England
while also retaining his position as Chancellor. For three years,
he worked to keep the government running smoothly, but no
matter what he did, someone somewhere would be upset that
(03:21):
not enough was being done. Meanwhile, a man named John
Williams was living in a small parish on the coast
of England and was having a nightmare. It was May
eleven and he'd woken up in the middle of the night,
his wife still sleeping soundly beside him. He jarred her
awake and told her what he dreamt. That he'd been
standing in the lobby of the House of Commons when
(03:42):
a man walked up to the Chancellor and shot him.
He tried going back to sleep, but soon was visited
by the same dream. By the time the sun rose
the next morning, he had been startled out of sleep
by that terrifying dream three separate times. As it so
happened earlier that evening, Perceval was on his way to
an inquiry at the House of Commons. He'd entered the
(04:03):
lobby at five pm. A man who had been sitting
by the fireplace stood up and pulled a pistol from
his coat. No one saw him coming, and no one
could stop him in time. He took aim and fired,
shooting the Prime Minister in the chest and killing him.
Word about the assassination wouldn't reach Williams until the next day,
(04:24):
when he would tell his friends about his strange dream.
They had heard the news and informed him that the
Prime Minister also the Chancellor, had indeed been killed the
night of William's dream. Six weeks later, Williams paid a
visit to the House of Commons lobby where Perceval had
been shot. He'd never been there before in his life,
but he recognized it immediately. As he stood there, he
(04:48):
identified both where the shooter had fired from and where
Perceval had been standing at the time. He knew exactly
what the late Prime Minister had been wearing and the
manner in which he'd fallen after being shot, everything down
to the smallest detail, details that only the police and
the people who had been there at the time would
have known. Like I said, Spencer, Percival had joined a
(05:10):
very exclusive club. He became the first and only British
Prime Minister to have ever been assassinated, a nightmare both
he and John Williams had experience together. The only difference
was that Williams had seen it all happen from almost
three hundred miles away. Perfect pitch is quite the gift
(05:43):
for the musically inclined. Not everyone can identify a note
by name simply from hearing the tone, but those who
can are very special. Somewhere between one and five people
per ten thousand can do it. Because of this, perfect
pitch and its sibling relative pitch, have been used to
study how our brains developed. But one man goes beyond
(06:04):
perfect pitch. He can do something arguably more difficult, yet
also not particularly useful these days. Still, his talent is
something to behold, especially in an age when we can't
really hold our music anymore. His name is Arthur Lynchen,
a doctor from Philadelphia who can recognize a song simply
by looking at it. But he doesn't read the notes
(06:27):
on a page the way a musician would. That would
be too easy. No. From behind a pair of thick glasses,
he can pick up a vinyl record and, without looking
at the label or artwork, can identify the songs embedded
within its grooves. He started doing it to impress his
friends at parties when he was younger. They would hand
(06:47):
him an album and he would hold it in front
of his face, turning it over in his hands to
get a look at its grooves from all angles. He'd
note their depth and length along the vinyl, recognizing where
the music got louder and softer, and in some cases
he could even tell who was conducting. And that's the
catch with Arthur's talent. Because of his deep knowledge of
(07:08):
European classical music, he can only discern songs from composers
such as Bach and Beethoven. Give him a copy of
Sergeant Pepper and it's like handing him a blank piece
of paper. It doesn't look like much of anything. Once
he was asked to identify a modern rock record, he
took one look at it and called it disorganized gibberish.
It had been, in fact, an album by Alice Cooper
(07:33):
are There. Also has trouble with chamber music and classical
music from before Beethoven's time, as its structure doesn't change
much throughout the record. This makes picking out individual songs
or instruments almost impossible. He also has better luck with
newer pressings, finding it easier to make out the grooves
than with older records, which don't show much variation. Still,
(07:56):
even with those caveats, Arthur seems to be one of
a kind. He had a brief moment of fame in
the nineteen eighties after The New York Times wrote an
article about him, followed by pieces in Time Magazine and
the Los Angeles Times. He was invited on popular television
programs of the day, such as That's Incredible and Paul
Daniels Magic Show. But Arthur would eventually find himself defending
(08:18):
his abilities before the most discerning audience of his life,
James Randy Randy is a noted magician and debunker of
paranormal and pseudo scientific oddities. He spent a good part
of his career challenging extraordinary people to prove the validity
of their talents, going after his supposed fortune tellers and
mind readers, and eventually he crossed paths with Arthur. He
(08:41):
gave the physician a record with an obscured label and
asked him to identify it. Arthur held it up and
examined the grooves, declaring it to be a recording of
a particular Stravinsky piece. But that wasn't all he did.
He also identified which version it was and what German
orchestra had recorded it, and James Andy was confounded. Not
(09:01):
an easy thing to do, believe me. There isn't much
of a demand anymore for someone who can read vinyl records,
not that there ever was before, so it's probably smart
that Arthur kept his day job as a doctor all
these years. Still, that hasn't stopped the occasional fan from
shoving an album in his face and asking him to
identify it. The most common challenge he gets Beethoven's Fifth.
(09:27):
In fact, it's so popular that he once guessed it
without even looking at the record. Now that's what i'd
call curious. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
(09:48):
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and tell division show, and you can learn all about
it over at the World of Lore dot com. And
until next time, stay curious. H
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Being first isn't all it's
(00:29):
cracked up to be. Often the honor of breaking the
mold comes at a great cost, either to the person
who has done it or to those who didn't make
it all the way there. For British Prime Minister Spencer Percival,
he wasn't just the first. He was the only member
of a very exclusive club, one he probably had no
interest in joining in the first place. He was born
(00:52):
in Mayfair, Middlesex, in seventeen sixty two, to a very
wealthy family. His father and Earl, was closely involved in
British politics. His mother was a baroness whose family had
also been elected to numerous high positions within Parliament. It
only seemed natural that their son, Spencer would join the
family business and with their influence to help him along
(01:12):
the way. Of course, except he was born during his
father's second marriage and had an older stepbrother, his parents
didn't really support him. He could barely live on his
yearly stipend, and he knew that he couldn't rely on
inheriting anything when they died. Anything that his father owned
would default to his first son, so Perceval focused on
(01:34):
his schooling. He studied hard, choosing a future in the
legal profession. Once he'd graduated and passed the bar. After
the death of his mother, Perceval fell in love with
a young woman whose father didn't approve of her suitor's
lack of money or property, especially compared to his brother
at Lord Arden, a rich member of parliament. Perceval waited
(01:54):
until she was twenty one, and against her father's wishes,
the two eloped. They started their life together, living humbly
above a carpet shop while he worked his way up
in his career. Coming from such a wealthy and influential
family had its benefits, even if Perceval couldn't take advantage
of all of them, but they came through in the
networking department. Thanks to his connections. He went from the
(02:16):
lowly position of Deputy Recorder in Northampton all the way
up to the Board of Admiralty in sevente Then two
years later, opportunity came knocking, and Perceval answered His uncle
who had also been an earl, had passed away, and
his cousin had left his seat in Parliament to take
(02:37):
the man's place. In order to keep the seat in
the family, Perceval took over his cousin's duties. For thirteen years,
he established himself as a formidable politician and a fierce debater,
earning him the title of Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
head of the British Treasury. Through hard work and determination,
he had achieved a status previously bestowed upon his other
(02:59):
family members at birth. Perceval had earned his place, and
his success eventually led him all the way to the top.
In eighteen o nine, he became Prime Minister of England
while also retaining his position as Chancellor. For three years,
he worked to keep the government running smoothly, but no
matter what he did, someone somewhere would be upset that
(03:21):
not enough was being done. Meanwhile, a man named John
Williams was living in a small parish on the coast
of England and was having a nightmare. It was May
eleven and he'd woken up in the middle of the night,
his wife still sleeping soundly beside him. He jarred her
awake and told her what he dreamt. That he'd been
standing in the lobby of the House of Commons when
(03:42):
a man walked up to the Chancellor and shot him.
He tried going back to sleep, but soon was visited
by the same dream. By the time the sun rose
the next morning, he had been startled out of sleep
by that terrifying dream three separate times. As it so
happened earlier that evening, Perceval was on his way to
an inquiry at the House of Commons. He'd entered the
(04:03):
lobby at five pm. A man who had been sitting
by the fireplace stood up and pulled a pistol from
his coat. No one saw him coming, and no one
could stop him in time. He took aim and fired,
shooting the Prime Minister in the chest and killing him.
Word about the assassination wouldn't reach Williams until the next day,
(04:24):
when he would tell his friends about his strange dream.
They had heard the news and informed him that the
Prime Minister also the Chancellor, had indeed been killed the
night of William's dream. Six weeks later, Williams paid a
visit to the House of Commons lobby where Perceval had
been shot. He'd never been there before in his life,
but he recognized it immediately. As he stood there, he
(04:48):
identified both where the shooter had fired from and where
Perceval had been standing at the time. He knew exactly
what the late Prime Minister had been wearing and the
manner in which he'd fallen after being shot, everything down
to the smallest detail, details that only the police and
the people who had been there at the time would
have known. Like I said, Spencer, Percival had joined a
(05:10):
very exclusive club. He became the first and only British
Prime Minister to have ever been assassinated, a nightmare both
he and John Williams had experience together. The only difference
was that Williams had seen it all happen from almost
three hundred miles away. Perfect pitch is quite the gift
(05:43):
for the musically inclined. Not everyone can identify a note
by name simply from hearing the tone, but those who
can are very special. Somewhere between one and five people
per ten thousand can do it. Because of this, perfect
pitch and its sibling relative pitch, have been used to
study how our brains developed. But one man goes beyond
(06:04):
perfect pitch. He can do something arguably more difficult, yet
also not particularly useful these days. Still, his talent is
something to behold, especially in an age when we can't
really hold our music anymore. His name is Arthur Lynchen,
a doctor from Philadelphia who can recognize a song simply
by looking at it. But he doesn't read the notes
(06:27):
on a page the way a musician would. That would
be too easy. No. From behind a pair of thick glasses,
he can pick up a vinyl record and, without looking
at the label or artwork, can identify the songs embedded
within its grooves. He started doing it to impress his
friends at parties when he was younger. They would hand
(06:47):
him an album and he would hold it in front
of his face, turning it over in his hands to
get a look at its grooves from all angles. He'd
note their depth and length along the vinyl, recognizing where
the music got louder and softer, and in some cases
he could even tell who was conducting. And that's the
catch with Arthur's talent. Because of his deep knowledge of
(07:08):
European classical music, he can only discern songs from composers
such as Bach and Beethoven. Give him a copy of
Sergeant Pepper and it's like handing him a blank piece
of paper. It doesn't look like much of anything. Once
he was asked to identify a modern rock record, he
took one look at it and called it disorganized gibberish.
It had been, in fact, an album by Alice Cooper
(07:33):
are There. Also has trouble with chamber music and classical
music from before Beethoven's time, as its structure doesn't change
much throughout the record. This makes picking out individual songs
or instruments almost impossible. He also has better luck with
newer pressings, finding it easier to make out the grooves
than with older records, which don't show much variation. Still,
(07:56):
even with those caveats, Arthur seems to be one of
a kind. He had a brief moment of fame in
the nineteen eighties after The New York Times wrote an
article about him, followed by pieces in Time Magazine and
the Los Angeles Times. He was invited on popular television
programs of the day, such as That's Incredible and Paul
Daniels Magic Show. But Arthur would eventually find himself defending
(08:18):
his abilities before the most discerning audience of his life,
James Randy Randy is a noted magician and debunker of
paranormal and pseudo scientific oddities. He spent a good part
of his career challenging extraordinary people to prove the validity
of their talents, going after his supposed fortune tellers and
mind readers, and eventually he crossed paths with Arthur. He
(08:41):
gave the physician a record with an obscured label and
asked him to identify it. Arthur held it up and
examined the grooves, declaring it to be a recording of
a particular Stravinsky piece. But that wasn't all he did.
He also identified which version it was and what German
orchestra had recorded it, and James Andy was confounded. Not
(09:01):
an easy thing to do, believe me. There isn't much
of a demand anymore for someone who can read vinyl records,
not that there ever was before, so it's probably smart
that Arthur kept his day job as a doctor all
these years. Still, that hasn't stopped the occasional fan from
shoving an album in his face and asking him to
identify it. The most common challenge he gets Beethoven's Fifth.
(09:27):
In fact, it's so popular that he once guessed it
without even looking at the record. Now that's what i'd
call curious. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
(09:48):
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and tell division show, and you can learn all about
it over at the World of Lore dot com. And
until next time, stay curious. H
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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