Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcomed Aaron Mankey'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
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of Curiosities. Humanity has done quite a bit of damage
to this planet. According to scientists, the climate change we
are experiencing now is due to the greenhouse effect caused
by human expansion and innovation. Industries such as farming and
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fossil fuels are responsible for the release of gases like
carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide into our atmosphere, and
the results of these gases have been devastating. Hot summers,
colder winters, and stronger storms can all be linked back
to climate change. But one of the first modern phenomena
caused at least in part by human involvement, was the
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dust Bowl. The dust Bowl wasn't one single event. It
was actually a series of dust storms that swept across
much of Middle America and parts of Canada during the
nineteen thirties. The rampant farming in the Great Plains during
the nineteen twenties had removed the native grasslands, turning the
land into soil for growing crops. Unfortunately, the tractors and
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combines that were churning up the grass were displacing the
very thing that was keeping the land moist even during
periods of severe drought. So when a drought hit several
years later, all that fresh top soil turned to dust,
and the ensuing winds carried it all over the country.
Big black clouds would fly over hills and trees and
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course through the canyons of the cities like a foreign
body in the bloodstream. And one of the worst of
these dust storms happened on Sunday, April fourt of nineteen
thirty five. It was the middle of the Great Depression
and America's West was about to become ground zero for
a major weather event. The temperatures had plummeted and the
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winds had become so strong they were able to carry
the dusty soil from the Oklahoma Panhandle all the way
to parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas. Lucian Doll,
witnessed from Kansas, was only fourteen when he saw the
black cloud coming toward him. It was over five hundred
feet tall and traveling at nearly sixty miles per hour.
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He'd been toiling away on a farm as it made
its way across the plains. Thinking quickly, he unhitched the
horses and hurried them into the barn with him as
he waited out the storm. They made it through the
doors just in time. The massive plume swallowed the barn,
churning and blowing the dust all around it. The cloud
was so thick dal couldn't even see the farmhouse that
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was only fifty yards away. When he finally emerged, the
devastation was unfathomable. The cows in the field were dead
but still standing, and the crops had been cut down
by the dust. Everywhere else, things were just as bad,
if not worse. A reporter from the Associated Press, Robert Geiger,
was in his car in Oklahoma when the disaster struck.
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He saw the cloud of black coming after him and
put the pedal to the metal, driving as fast as
he could to outrun it, but soon found himself lost
in its haze of death and destruction. Geiger wrote a
story the next day about his harrowing ordeal, calling it
a dust bowl, and giving birth to the name that
would become the description for the entire time period. Elsewhere,
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homes were subjected to the same experience as the dust
found its way inside by any means necessary, as though
it were on a mission, and even when protected by
walls and closed windows, people still succumbed to the clouds effects.
Many of those who had breathed in fell ill with pneumonia.
Hundreds died. By some counts, the death count reached into
the thousands. April fo enth of ninety five came to
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be known as Black Sunday. The storm, which had hit
Oklahoma around four pm, ended up in Texas around seven
o'clock that night. But it didn't just cover everything in
a thick layer of dirt. It also caused a strange
side effect. You see, the storm was full of electricity,
but not lightning. It wasn't that kind of storm. Built
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up within the dust were static electric charges, which continued
to grow as more and more particles came in contact
with each other. Eventually, all that static electricity had to
be released, and so like a kid rubbing his socks
across the floor and touching a door knob, people would
find themselves jolted by a bolt of static electricity. Just
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on a much larger scale, Kids and mothers embracing after
the dust storm would wake up sometime later, having been
knocked unconscious by the shock. The same thing would happen
to two people wrapping up a business deal with a
firm handshake. Dust Storms didn't just destroy the land. They
also killed or electrocuted people and animals, and they were
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just the start of the kind of weather events that
would come to illustrate the follies of man's obsession with
greed and progress. The dust bowl was a curious warning.
Then if we're all not careful, we might find ourselves
repeating it or worse. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were
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a breeding ground for new religions. Individuals who had grown
tired or disenfranchised with the spiritual offerings of the time
often broke off to start their own sex. For example,
the Episcopal Church first built its roots in American colonies
around sixteen o seven, but shed its Church of England
baggage after the Revolution more than a hundred years later. Meanwhile,
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back across the pond, another group was finding its legs.
The United Society of Believers in Christ's second appearing, otherwise
known as the Shakers, decided that those legs had to
move away from mainstream Protestantism, and they moved all the
way back to the colonies. The Shakers borrowed many of
their beliefs from the Quakers, but we're more progressive in
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their viewpoints. Shakers avoided violence and allowed women to lead
along with the men. In fact, they believe men and
women were equal in the eyes of God. They also
shunned procreation, choosing to adopt instead and recruit others to
their religion. But one of their most well known and
lasting contributions, especially in America, has been their furniture. Shaker
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furniture avoids flashy ornamentation like ornate carvings or delicate inlays. Instead,
it relies on a minimal and functional aesthetic that stands
the test of time. Shakers were resourceful perfectionists, and that's
evident in their craft. Then, because of their more forward
thinking notions on gender and equality, that constant need to
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do one's best work found its way into both men
and women within the community. Women like Tabitha Babbitt born
Sarah babbitts in Hardwick, Massachusetts. In seventeen seventy nine. The
details of her childhood aren't really well known, although she
did become a member of the Harvard Shaker community, where
she developed some interesting skills. For one, Babbitt was observant.
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She was a weaver by trade, but often watched the
men work at the local sawmill. She noted how they
would maneuver their unwieldy whip saw across massive lengths of timber,
and she believed that there was a better way possible.
A whip saw or a pit saw, was one long
saw blade with teeth on one side. The top man
would stand on the log, which was elevated on a
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giant stand. Sometimes the pit would be dug below, and
he would slice down towards the second person, the pitman,
who would guide the blade back up ready for another push.
Lifting the saw blade became a two person job, with
the weight of the saw shared between them. But Babbitt
noticed something of out the saw and how it worked,
mainly that it could be a lot more efficient. The
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men were wasting fifty percent of their energy and time
in lifting the blade back up into position since it
only cut on the down stroke, so she suggested an
alternative solution, A circular blade around saw blade was created,
which she tested by connecting it to her spinning wheel
and powering it with her foot puddle, and she was right.
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This new method would save the workers from bad backs
and allow them to cut more wood in a fraction
of the time. The blade was eventually transferred to a
water powered apparatus to test its industrial capabilities before a
larger one was created and installed in the mill. Sadly,
Babbitt's Shaker beliefs prevented her from patenting her invention, as
the Shakers believes in communal living, meaning whatever someone created
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was to be shared with everyone, and that included intellectual property. Instead,
her design was copied by many and even patented later
by two Frenchmen. But that didn't stop bab from looking
for ways to improve the world around her. Among her
many accomplishments, she either invented or contributed to the creation
of several innovations in her lifetime. She came up with
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an upgrade to her spinning wheel that allowed it to
spend twice the yard in half the time. She also
helped with the invention of cut nails, which used to
be made by hand one by one After Babbitt was done.
They were being cut from a single sheet of iron,
many at a time. Babbitt lived to be seventy four
years old, finally passing away on December tenth, eighteen fifty three,
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one day after her birthday. At the time of her death,
she happened to be working on a new method for
making false teeth. Even in her old age, Tabitha Babbitt
couldn't abide by that old adage because we've always done
it that way. She often saw a better way, a
more efficient way, because in her community she was a
mover and a shaker. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
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tour of the Cabinet of Curiosity. These 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, and you can learn all
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about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,