May 26, 2022 • 10 mins
More human ingenuity is on display on today's tour of the Cabinet.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcomed Aaron Manky'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. There's an ancient proverb that says, the enemy
of my enemy is my friend. When two factions oppose
a mutual threats, they can join forces to defeat them.
Just before the start of World War Two, Finland had
(00:48):
two enemies, Germany and the Soviet Union, and because of
one side's aggressive tactics, it had to make a very
unfortunate friend of the other. You see, Germany and the
Russians had divvied up Finland in Latvia, Estonia and several
other Baltic states as part of the Molotov Ribbon trot.
Packed The Soviets invaded Poland in mid September, then tried
(01:09):
to negotiate a portion of Finnish territory for their own uses.
For one, they wanted to install a military base on
Finnish soil, just as they had done with several other
Baltic States, but Finland wouldn't have it, so a second conflict,
known as the Winter War kicked off between the two parties.
It resulted in many casualties and the eventual signing of
the Moscow Peace Treaty, which gave the Soviet Union one
(01:32):
tenth of Finland for themselves. We look back at the
Soviets as allies who helped us defeat the Nazis, but
after the Moscow Peace Treaty was signed, many countries saw
them as a bully, and Finland had no interest in
aligning themselves with Germany as they were still seen as
being associated with the Soviet Union. After reaching out to
the United Kingdom for help but getting a refusal, they
(01:53):
realized that they had to solve the problem on their own.
The Soviets continued to push into Finland and so did Hitler.
With nowhere else to turn and Hitler's rejection of the
Molotov ribbon trot packed the Finnish were forced to partner
with them against the Russians in Nte. Finland, now backed
by Germany, was able to reclaim the land that had
(02:14):
lost to the Soviets, including the city of Weiberg. It
was a great story. But even though the Soviets no
longer occupied the territory, they weren't completely gone. You see,
on their way out, the Red Army had left behind
one thousand land mines, and those mines started exploding all
over the city. It was believed that they were on
(02:34):
a time delay, but towards the end of August of
nineteen forty one, Finnished forces soon discovered the truth. Under
one of the town's bridges, a mine had been deposited,
packed with six ms of an explosive charge. Attached to
the charge was a small device which was taken to
an engineer at the communications departments, and that engineer took
(02:55):
it apart and found something amazing. A small radio received
her inside the mines had been designed to go off
when their internal radios received a remote signal at the
right frequency. When that signal was received, boom and worse yet,
similar receivers were found on all the minds around Weiberg.
(03:16):
After some more digging, Finish engineers found out that the
signal was close to the A M frequency used by
public radio broadcasts, so they came up with a bizarre
scheme to block that signal. A polka specifically the Sacki
arv Polka, which was looped for twenty four hours a
day by the Finnish public radio. As long as the
song was playing, the Soviets couldn't set off their minds.
(03:40):
Of course, it didn't take long for the Soviets to
figure out their plan, so they changed the signal to
match one of the other two radio frequencies used by
the receivers. Well, the Fins figured that out too, and
jammed every possible frequency with their polka all day and
all night. The fast paced tune played out over the
radio waves. Three months later, only a dozen minds had
(04:02):
gone off out of the thousands the Russians had planted,
a long enough delay for their batteries to have run
out and the threat of remote detonation to no longer
be a concern. The Soviets would eventually return and take
back their territory from the Germans who occupied it, helping
the Allies win the war in the process, but the
Saki r v Polka became a major hit in Finland
(04:25):
and an unofficial anthem at the end of the war.
Today it stands as a fun reminder that for a
short time at least Finland bested one of the biggest
powers in the world with nothing more than a little
ingenuity and a whole lot of polka. Few industries have
(04:54):
seen as much innovation over the years as that of
the auto industry. From steam engines and the electric starter
to to cruise control and intermittent wipers, cars have never
been strangers to leaps and technological advancement. Aside from alternative
fuel sources, one area of immense change has been in
the materials used to make car bodies. The earliest models
(05:14):
were unsurprisingly comprised of wood. After all, wood had been
used to make chariots, carts, wagons, and carriages for centuries,
it only made sense to build the first automobiles out
of wood as well. The Model T added aluminum panels
to the equation, which improved strength and rigidity, While the
nineteen fifties saw the advent of fiber reinforced plastic or
(05:36):
f RP. This new material was made from a polyester
resin by companies like Chevrolet for their Corvette. But back
in the nineteen forties, one automaker tried to revolutionize the
fabrication of his car's body panels, and he didn't turn
to metal or fiberglass. He looked to the farm. That's
where Henry Ford grew up, on a farm in Michigan,
(05:58):
and he hated it. But no matter how far away
he got from that farm, he never forgot about his
experiences there. They stayed with him even as he developed
his first automobile, his factory, and his eventual empire. Perhaps
inspired by his time in the fields, he developed a
fascination with pushing the limits of agriculture, so much so
(06:19):
that he cultivated a friendship with the inventor who came
up with over three uses for the common peanuts, George
Washington Carver. Carver was heading the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama
at the time, but traveled to Michigan to assist Ford
with his next big breakthrough, an automotive technology, soybeans. Ford
saw the soybean as an alternative to other materials being
(06:41):
used to make car parts. To demonstrate his seriousness at
the prospect, he built a factory dedicated to his next
big thing, the soybean car. Of course, the car itself
wouldn't be made from pure soybeans. The beans would be
used as the basis for a new kind of plastic.
Ford believed a plastic car was safer than those made
(07:01):
of steel. If it rolled over in an accident, it
wouldn't get crushed, and using plastic would free up metal
for tanks and planes. During wartime, Henry Ford had planted
the seeds for the next automobile, and he put designer
Eugene Gregory in charge of nurturing the soil so to speak.
The Soybeans car frame was made of tubular steel, upon
which sat fourteen plastic body panels that were easily assembled.
(07:25):
The windows were made of acrylic, and even with a
V eight engine inside, the vehicle was surprisingly light less
than two thousand pounds. Ford allegedly tested the Soybeans plastic
resilience by whacking it with an axe. According to a
video of the demonstration, he couldn't make a dent. The
prototype made its debut with the nineteen forty one Dearborn
(07:45):
Days Festival, followed by an exhibition at the Michigan State
Fair the next year. Unfortunately, Ford's grand plan for the
future of the car was ill timed. World War Two
put a stop to all car manufacturing in the US,
and Ford himself was already in poor health. He handed
control of a company to his grandson. After the war,
(08:06):
no one had any interest in making the plastic car anymore.
Ford had poured millions into the projects and the result
had been mixed. In fact, his engineer, who hadn't been
a fan of the soybean car in the first place,
was responsible for destroying the only prototype. No formula for
the plastic exists today. However, Ford wasn't the only car
(08:28):
maker with the bright idea to make one out of plastic.
General Motors had tried their luck with a plastic automobile
just a few years earlier. At the New York World's
Fair of nineteen thirty nine, GM debut two models of
their own, but rather than use plastic made from soybeans,
they turned to a clear, acrylic plexiglass. What they unveiled
was a four door touring sedan with sea through panels,
(08:50):
allowing pedestrians and other drivers to gaze at the inner
workings of the car as it drove by. The steel frame,
the brackets and rivets, even the spare higher We're all
clearly visible, giving outsiders the sense that they had X
ray vision like Superman, and just like Ford's soybean car,
GMS ghost cars were never put into production. They were
(09:12):
primarily designed as display pieces to show off the benefits
of plexiglass. Plastic cars have popped up every now and
then over the years, but Steele continues to be the
material of choice for today's automobiles. It's a fantastic idea, though,
but one that seems to have never succeeded in taking root.
(09:34):
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 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,
(09:57):
and you can learn all about it over at the
World of Loure dot Come and until next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Welcomed Aaron Manky'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. There's an ancient proverb that says, the enemy
of my enemy is my friend. When two factions oppose
a mutual threats, they can join forces to defeat them.
Just before the start of World War Two, Finland had
(00:48):
two enemies, Germany and the Soviet Union, and because of
one side's aggressive tactics, it had to make a very
unfortunate friend of the other. You see, Germany and the
Russians had divvied up Finland in Latvia, Estonia and several
other Baltic states as part of the Molotov Ribbon trot.
Packed The Soviets invaded Poland in mid September, then tried
(01:09):
to negotiate a portion of Finnish territory for their own uses.
For one, they wanted to install a military base on
Finnish soil, just as they had done with several other
Baltic States, but Finland wouldn't have it, so a second conflict,
known as the Winter War kicked off between the two parties.
It resulted in many casualties and the eventual signing of
the Moscow Peace Treaty, which gave the Soviet Union one
(01:32):
tenth of Finland for themselves. We look back at the
Soviets as allies who helped us defeat the Nazis, but
after the Moscow Peace Treaty was signed, many countries saw
them as a bully, and Finland had no interest in
aligning themselves with Germany as they were still seen as
being associated with the Soviet Union. After reaching out to
the United Kingdom for help but getting a refusal, they
(01:53):
realized that they had to solve the problem on their own.
The Soviets continued to push into Finland and so did Hitler.
With nowhere else to turn and Hitler's rejection of the
Molotov ribbon trot packed the Finnish were forced to partner
with them against the Russians in Nte. Finland, now backed
by Germany, was able to reclaim the land that had
(02:14):
lost to the Soviets, including the city of Weiberg. It
was a great story. But even though the Soviets no
longer occupied the territory, they weren't completely gone. You see,
on their way out, the Red Army had left behind
one thousand land mines, and those mines started exploding all
over the city. It was believed that they were on
(02:34):
a time delay, but towards the end of August of
nineteen forty one, Finnished forces soon discovered the truth. Under
one of the town's bridges, a mine had been deposited,
packed with six ms of an explosive charge. Attached to
the charge was a small device which was taken to
an engineer at the communications departments, and that engineer took
(02:55):
it apart and found something amazing. A small radio received
her inside the mines had been designed to go off
when their internal radios received a remote signal at the
right frequency. When that signal was received, boom and worse yet,
similar receivers were found on all the minds around Weiberg.
(03:16):
After some more digging, Finish engineers found out that the
signal was close to the A M frequency used by
public radio broadcasts, so they came up with a bizarre
scheme to block that signal. A polka specifically the Sacki
arv Polka, which was looped for twenty four hours a
day by the Finnish public radio. As long as the
song was playing, the Soviets couldn't set off their minds.
(03:40):
Of course, it didn't take long for the Soviets to
figure out their plan, so they changed the signal to
match one of the other two radio frequencies used by
the receivers. Well, the Fins figured that out too, and
jammed every possible frequency with their polka all day and
all night. The fast paced tune played out over the
radio waves. Three months later, only a dozen minds had
(04:02):
gone off out of the thousands the Russians had planted,
a long enough delay for their batteries to have run
out and the threat of remote detonation to no longer
be a concern. The Soviets would eventually return and take
back their territory from the Germans who occupied it, helping
the Allies win the war in the process, but the
Saki r v Polka became a major hit in Finland
(04:25):
and an unofficial anthem at the end of the war.
Today it stands as a fun reminder that for a
short time at least Finland bested one of the biggest
powers in the world with nothing more than a little
ingenuity and a whole lot of polka. Few industries have
(04:54):
seen as much innovation over the years as that of
the auto industry. From steam engines and the electric starter
to to cruise control and intermittent wipers, cars have never
been strangers to leaps and technological advancement. Aside from alternative
fuel sources, one area of immense change has been in
the materials used to make car bodies. The earliest models
(05:14):
were unsurprisingly comprised of wood. After all, wood had been
used to make chariots, carts, wagons, and carriages for centuries,
it only made sense to build the first automobiles out
of wood as well. The Model T added aluminum panels
to the equation, which improved strength and rigidity, While the
nineteen fifties saw the advent of fiber reinforced plastic or
(05:36):
f RP. This new material was made from a polyester
resin by companies like Chevrolet for their Corvette. But back
in the nineteen forties, one automaker tried to revolutionize the
fabrication of his car's body panels, and he didn't turn
to metal or fiberglass. He looked to the farm. That's
where Henry Ford grew up, on a farm in Michigan,
(05:58):
and he hated it. But no matter how far away
he got from that farm, he never forgot about his
experiences there. They stayed with him even as he developed
his first automobile, his factory, and his eventual empire. Perhaps
inspired by his time in the fields, he developed a
fascination with pushing the limits of agriculture, so much so
(06:19):
that he cultivated a friendship with the inventor who came
up with over three uses for the common peanuts, George
Washington Carver. Carver was heading the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama
at the time, but traveled to Michigan to assist Ford
with his next big breakthrough, an automotive technology, soybeans. Ford
saw the soybean as an alternative to other materials being
(06:41):
used to make car parts. To demonstrate his seriousness at
the prospect, he built a factory dedicated to his next
big thing, the soybean car. Of course, the car itself
wouldn't be made from pure soybeans. The beans would be
used as the basis for a new kind of plastic.
Ford believed a plastic car was safer than those made
(07:01):
of steel. If it rolled over in an accident, it
wouldn't get crushed, and using plastic would free up metal
for tanks and planes. During wartime, Henry Ford had planted
the seeds for the next automobile, and he put designer
Eugene Gregory in charge of nurturing the soil so to speak.
The Soybeans car frame was made of tubular steel, upon
which sat fourteen plastic body panels that were easily assembled.
(07:25):
The windows were made of acrylic, and even with a
V eight engine inside, the vehicle was surprisingly light less
than two thousand pounds. Ford allegedly tested the Soybeans plastic
resilience by whacking it with an axe. According to a
video of the demonstration, he couldn't make a dent. The
prototype made its debut with the nineteen forty one Dearborn
(07:45):
Days Festival, followed by an exhibition at the Michigan State
Fair the next year. Unfortunately, Ford's grand plan for the
future of the car was ill timed. World War Two
put a stop to all car manufacturing in the US,
and Ford himself was already in poor health. He handed
control of a company to his grandson. After the war,
(08:06):
no one had any interest in making the plastic car anymore.
Ford had poured millions into the projects and the result
had been mixed. In fact, his engineer, who hadn't been
a fan of the soybean car in the first place,
was responsible for destroying the only prototype. No formula for
the plastic exists today. However, Ford wasn't the only car
(08:28):
maker with the bright idea to make one out of plastic.
General Motors had tried their luck with a plastic automobile
just a few years earlier. At the New York World's
Fair of nineteen thirty nine, GM debut two models of
their own, but rather than use plastic made from soybeans,
they turned to a clear, acrylic plexiglass. What they unveiled
was a four door touring sedan with sea through panels,
(08:50):
allowing pedestrians and other drivers to gaze at the inner
workings of the car as it drove by. The steel frame,
the brackets and rivets, even the spare higher We're all
clearly visible, giving outsiders the sense that they had X
ray vision like Superman, and just like Ford's soybean car,
GMS ghost cars were never put into production. They were
(09:12):
primarily designed as display pieces to show off the benefits
of plexiglass. Plastic cars have popped up every now and
then over the years, but Steele continues to be the
material of choice for today's automobiles. It's a fantastic idea, though,
but one that seems to have never succeeded in taking root.
(09:34):
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 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,
(09:57):
and you can learn all about it over at the
World of Loure dot Come and until next time, stay curious. Yeah,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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