August 11, 2020 • 10 mins
One of the most curious objects in the world is...our world. Hopefully, these tales about our planet will entertain you during your tour of the Cabinet today.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. When a child breaks a window, there's usually
a complicated story behind what happened, like how the wind
blew the ball away, and then a bird caught it
and dropped it as it was flying over the house,
which sent it crashing through the window. Never mind the
(00:50):
bat in the kid's hand. Richard sharp Shaver also had
some wild stories in his back pockets. Born in Virginia
in seven, Richard of actually grew up to work in
a factory where one day in nineteen thirty two, he
experienced a bizarre event. It was around that time that
he realized that his welding gun had become calibrated in
such a way that it gave him the ability to
(01:12):
hear other men's thoughts. Not only that, apparently the signal
was so strong that he was able to hear demonic
beans deep below the surface of the Earth as they
tortured other people. Now, the story behind how he came
to possess these powers changed almost every time he told it,
but he always swore that it was true. Richard eventually
(01:32):
had to quit his job, but the factory. He also
gave up his home. As he put it, he became
a hobo for several years before writing a letter to
the popular science fiction magazine called Amazing Stories back in
nineteen forty three. In the letter, Richard told the editors
that he had discovered Man tongue, an ancient proto human
language that predated all other known languages on Earth. Every
(01:55):
syllable and sound in Man tongue had a double meaning,
and Richard could translate those sounds using a special formula
he developed. He provided editor Ray Palmer with that formulas
so that he could see for himself. Palmer used his
technique to reveal the hidden meanings to a handful of words,
and then replied to Richard asking him how he had
discovered this language. Richard had been prepared for that question
(02:19):
with a ten thousand word explanation. He told Palmer that
mantongue had originated among a prehistoric alien race that were
technologically advanced beyond anything they had ever seen. They had
carved out massive cities under the Earth, but fled the
planet due to the Sun's harmful rays. Not all of
them had left, though, and those who remained behind were
(02:40):
split into two different groups. The Terrots were a minority
who had retained their humanity. The other group devolved into
beast like creatures known as Darros or detrimental robots. The Darros,
he claimed, still occupied those cities underground, occasionally snatching a
person from the service to take them down below. Those
humans were then tortured and fed to the Darros. Those
(03:03):
awful creatures had been known to communicate with aliens in
space and use rocket ships to get around. How did
Richard know all of this well. He claimed to have
been captured by the Darros and held against his will
for years. Palmer was entertained by the story, and he
fleshed it out into a novella, which he then published
in Amazing Stories in March of The magazine had gotten
(03:27):
its fair share of letters to the editor before, but
Richard's stories seemed to have sparked a movement. Thousands of
letters poured into Palmer's office from readers who said that
they had also encountered the Darros and heard voices inside
their heads, just as Richard had. Back in nineteen thirty two,
one woman told Palmer that she had been taken captive
(03:47):
in Paris and was kidnapped after writing a secret elevator
into the building's sub basement. She was held in the
underground caverns until a terrorists found her and let her go.
It seems that Richard's story hadn't just connected with readers,
it had spawned an entire organization known as the Richard
Mystery Club, and local chapters started popping up all over America.
(04:11):
Richard continued to supply Amazing Stories with his well Amazing Stories.
The magazine published his tales for years until a massive
letter writing campaign forced them to stop. Authors like Harlan
Ellison called Richard a publicity hound just looking for attention,
while other readers believed his stories were symptoms of mental illness.
(04:31):
Whatever the reason, Amazing Stories cut ties with Richard in
but he never cut ties with his prehistoric races. He
started writing about the artifacts that he'd found that backed
up his claims, such as books made of rocks with
text and pictures etched inside them. He never again experienced
the kind of success that he'd found while writing for
(04:52):
Amazing Stories, though decades later his photographs and art would
go on display in museums all over the country. But
as hails of prehistoric beings living below the earth were
written off as run of the mills science fiction. Through
it all, Richard sharp Shaver continued to believe that his
stories were true, as did the thousands of witnesses who
(05:12):
wrote into the magazine with their own frightening recollections. Was
Richard telling the truth? It's difficult to know for sure
until we do, though, it's probably best to watch our
step and avoid those secret elevators. Big ideas often start
(05:41):
out small. We solve a tiny problem that we deal
with every day, and then our solution finds its way
to others with similar problems. It grows, and all we
had to do was give it a little light. In
nineteen sixteen, Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad started a small experimental
radio station out of his Pennsylvania garage. During World War Two,
(06:03):
Conrad moved his operation to the top of the westing
House factory in Pittsburgh once the war ended, The westing
House Company, with Conrad's help launched the first commercially licensed
radio station in America called k d k A. Over
the years, radio would go through several transformations, from transmitting
wartime news and information to broadcasting ads, supported entertainment, and
(06:26):
everything in between. Heck, you might have learned about this
podcast by listening to the radio, and as the technology grew,
so did broadcast signals. However, there were certain areas of
the world where radio waves just couldn't reach. During the
nineteen sixties, Millet Morgan, a radio physics professor at Dartmouth,
(06:46):
had one particular place in mind, Antarctica. He had discovered
that lightning and auroras generated natural radio waves and believed
that those waves could be manipulated into carrying broadcasts from
other countries or even submarines. His idea was simple, at
least he thought so. He would generate artificial versions of
(07:07):
these natural waves, which he called whistlers, using an island,
yeah an entire island. He began his search for the
perfect venue in the Pacific Ocean, which possessed numerous islands
of the appropriate size and shape. Unfortunately, these islands were
home to freshwater lenses, thin layers of fresh groundwater that
sat atop heavier salt water. These lenses would have caused
(07:31):
interference with any nearby radio signals. His next potential location
looked a lot more promising. It was called Deception Island,
a volcanic island off the coast of Antarctica. A profitable
ceiling operation had been built on Deception Island in the
early eighteen hundreds until the local seal population was close
to going extinct. Then it became a hot spot for whalers,
(07:53):
who erected crude homes and factories there until the nineteen
thirties when their industry collapsed and Deception Island seemed perfect
on paper. The area was known to produce a large
number of the whistlers needed to carry a signal. It's
ring like lagoon even had a name made for radio
telephon Bay. Morgan drew up plans for his island antenna.
(08:17):
He would bounce radio waves between a web of transmission
lines and the local mountain ranges. As the waves relayed
back and forth, they would concentrate into a signal that
could be transmitted back to military subs in the area
or listeners on the island itself. Now, Morgan's proposal was
never put into action. But he wasn't alone in believing
that the earth itself could be used as an antenna.
(08:40):
As early as nineteen o four, U. S. Army General
George Owen Squire realized that trees could do the talking.
In nineteen Squire climbed up an oak tree near Washington,
d C. And hammered a nail into its trunk. Then
he ran an insulated wire down to an old Army
radio back on the ground. The tree became an ton
of that carried a signal from Germany four thousand miles away,
(09:04):
right to Squire's ears. With some fine tuning, he found
that he could pick up messages from ships and other
locations all over the world. Scientific American wrote about Squire's
fluorophone and refer to the transmissions it picked up as
Flora Graham's. His efforts were tested again in nineteen seventy five,
when a group of scientists traveled to South America and
(09:25):
compared their artificial antenna that they brought with them to
those made of the local trees. After a thorough test
in the Panamanian jungle, they determined that it would be
possible to cultivate a forest designed exclusively for collecting and
broadcasting radio signals over vast distances, all of that power
from something as simple as a tree. Curious to say
(09:47):
the least. In the end, maybe it's a good thing
that the birds outside our windows only have their whistles
and warbles to wake us up with in the morning.
Imagine the noise complaint if someone plugged them microphone into
a maple tree. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
(10:11):
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and television show, and you can learn all about it
over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
(10:32):
next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. When a child breaks a window, there's usually
a complicated story behind what happened, like how the wind
blew the ball away, and then a bird caught it
and dropped it as it was flying over the house,
which sent it crashing through the window. Never mind the
(00:50):
bat in the kid's hand. Richard sharp Shaver also had
some wild stories in his back pockets. Born in Virginia
in seven, Richard of actually grew up to work in
a factory where one day in nineteen thirty two, he
experienced a bizarre event. It was around that time that
he realized that his welding gun had become calibrated in
such a way that it gave him the ability to
(01:12):
hear other men's thoughts. Not only that, apparently the signal
was so strong that he was able to hear demonic
beans deep below the surface of the Earth as they
tortured other people. Now, the story behind how he came
to possess these powers changed almost every time he told it,
but he always swore that it was true. Richard eventually
(01:32):
had to quit his job, but the factory. He also
gave up his home. As he put it, he became
a hobo for several years before writing a letter to
the popular science fiction magazine called Amazing Stories back in
nineteen forty three. In the letter, Richard told the editors
that he had discovered Man tongue, an ancient proto human
language that predated all other known languages on Earth. Every
(01:55):
syllable and sound in Man tongue had a double meaning,
and Richard could translate those sounds using a special formula
he developed. He provided editor Ray Palmer with that formulas
so that he could see for himself. Palmer used his
technique to reveal the hidden meanings to a handful of words,
and then replied to Richard asking him how he had
discovered this language. Richard had been prepared for that question
(02:19):
with a ten thousand word explanation. He told Palmer that
mantongue had originated among a prehistoric alien race that were
technologically advanced beyond anything they had ever seen. They had
carved out massive cities under the Earth, but fled the
planet due to the Sun's harmful rays. Not all of
them had left, though, and those who remained behind were
(02:40):
split into two different groups. The Terrots were a minority
who had retained their humanity. The other group devolved into
beast like creatures known as Darros or detrimental robots. The Darros,
he claimed, still occupied those cities underground, occasionally snatching a
person from the service to take them down below. Those
humans were then tortured and fed to the Darros. Those
(03:03):
awful creatures had been known to communicate with aliens in
space and use rocket ships to get around. How did
Richard know all of this well. He claimed to have
been captured by the Darros and held against his will
for years. Palmer was entertained by the story, and he
fleshed it out into a novella, which he then published
in Amazing Stories in March of The magazine had gotten
(03:27):
its fair share of letters to the editor before, but
Richard's stories seemed to have sparked a movement. Thousands of
letters poured into Palmer's office from readers who said that
they had also encountered the Darros and heard voices inside
their heads, just as Richard had. Back in nineteen thirty two,
one woman told Palmer that she had been taken captive
(03:47):
in Paris and was kidnapped after writing a secret elevator
into the building's sub basement. She was held in the
underground caverns until a terrorists found her and let her go.
It seems that Richard's story hadn't just connected with readers,
it had spawned an entire organization known as the Richard
Mystery Club, and local chapters started popping up all over America.
(04:11):
Richard continued to supply Amazing Stories with his well Amazing Stories.
The magazine published his tales for years until a massive
letter writing campaign forced them to stop. Authors like Harlan
Ellison called Richard a publicity hound just looking for attention,
while other readers believed his stories were symptoms of mental illness.
(04:31):
Whatever the reason, Amazing Stories cut ties with Richard in
but he never cut ties with his prehistoric races. He
started writing about the artifacts that he'd found that backed
up his claims, such as books made of rocks with
text and pictures etched inside them. He never again experienced
the kind of success that he'd found while writing for
(04:52):
Amazing Stories, though decades later his photographs and art would
go on display in museums all over the country. But
as hails of prehistoric beings living below the earth were
written off as run of the mills science fiction. Through
it all, Richard sharp Shaver continued to believe that his
stories were true, as did the thousands of witnesses who
(05:12):
wrote into the magazine with their own frightening recollections. Was
Richard telling the truth? It's difficult to know for sure
until we do, though, it's probably best to watch our
step and avoid those secret elevators. Big ideas often start
(05:41):
out small. We solve a tiny problem that we deal
with every day, and then our solution finds its way
to others with similar problems. It grows, and all we
had to do was give it a little light. In
nineteen sixteen, Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad started a small experimental
radio station out of his Pennsylvania garage. During World War Two,
(06:03):
Conrad moved his operation to the top of the westing
House factory in Pittsburgh once the war ended, The westing
House Company, with Conrad's help launched the first commercially licensed
radio station in America called k d k A. Over
the years, radio would go through several transformations, from transmitting
wartime news and information to broadcasting ads, supported entertainment, and
(06:26):
everything in between. Heck, you might have learned about this
podcast by listening to the radio, and as the technology grew,
so did broadcast signals. However, there were certain areas of
the world where radio waves just couldn't reach. During the
nineteen sixties, Millet Morgan, a radio physics professor at Dartmouth,
(06:46):
had one particular place in mind, Antarctica. He had discovered
that lightning and auroras generated natural radio waves and believed
that those waves could be manipulated into carrying broadcasts from
other countries or even submarines. His idea was simple, at
least he thought so. He would generate artificial versions of
(07:07):
these natural waves, which he called whistlers, using an island,
yeah an entire island. He began his search for the
perfect venue in the Pacific Ocean, which possessed numerous islands
of the appropriate size and shape. Unfortunately, these islands were
home to freshwater lenses, thin layers of fresh groundwater that
sat atop heavier salt water. These lenses would have caused
(07:31):
interference with any nearby radio signals. His next potential location
looked a lot more promising. It was called Deception Island,
a volcanic island off the coast of Antarctica. A profitable
ceiling operation had been built on Deception Island in the
early eighteen hundreds until the local seal population was close
to going extinct. Then it became a hot spot for whalers,
(07:53):
who erected crude homes and factories there until the nineteen
thirties when their industry collapsed and Deception Island seemed perfect
on paper. The area was known to produce a large
number of the whistlers needed to carry a signal. It's
ring like lagoon even had a name made for radio
telephon Bay. Morgan drew up plans for his island antenna.
(08:17):
He would bounce radio waves between a web of transmission
lines and the local mountain ranges. As the waves relayed
back and forth, they would concentrate into a signal that
could be transmitted back to military subs in the area
or listeners on the island itself. Now, Morgan's proposal was
never put into action. But he wasn't alone in believing
that the earth itself could be used as an antenna.
(08:40):
As early as nineteen o four, U. S. Army General
George Owen Squire realized that trees could do the talking.
In nineteen Squire climbed up an oak tree near Washington,
d C. And hammered a nail into its trunk. Then
he ran an insulated wire down to an old Army
radio back on the ground. The tree became an ton
of that carried a signal from Germany four thousand miles away,
(09:04):
right to Squire's ears. With some fine tuning, he found
that he could pick up messages from ships and other
locations all over the world. Scientific American wrote about Squire's
fluorophone and refer to the transmissions it picked up as
Flora Graham's. His efforts were tested again in nineteen seventy five,
when a group of scientists traveled to South America and
(09:25):
compared their artificial antenna that they brought with them to
those made of the local trees. After a thorough test
in the Panamanian jungle, they determined that it would be
possible to cultivate a forest designed exclusively for collecting and
broadcasting radio signals over vast distances, all of that power
from something as simple as a tree. Curious to say
(09:47):
the least. In the end, maybe it's a good thing
that the birds outside our windows only have their whistles
and warbles to wake us up with in the morning.
Imagine the noise complaint if someone plugged them microphone into
a maple tree. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
(10:11):
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and television show, and you can learn all about it
over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
(10:32):
next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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