March 2, 2023 • 10 mins
If you get one message from today's tour of the Cabinet, it should be that people—and the things they make—are often curious.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio
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 of Curiosities. Not
(00:36):
everyone likes receiving mail, at least not when it has
things like preapproved or final notice printed on the front
of the envelope. About receiving a handwritten letter or a postcard.
In an age of email and text messages, a few
things feel that special unless you lived in Coleford in Gloucestershire, England,
during the Christmas of nineteen twenty three. While the residents
were opening holiday cards from loved ones, there was something
(00:59):
else to into their mailboxes. Postcards. But these weren't quickly
dashed off scribblings from friends in exotic locations. They had
come from one anonymous source, a person living rights under
their noses. On these postcards, the sender had written offensive messages.
Some even included obscene images. According to an article in
(01:19):
the Daily British Wig printed at the time, these postcards
were described as an I quote full of the most
horrible vulgar coarseness. They'd been arriving since July of that
year and were so grotesque in nature no paper would
print what was actually written on any of them. So
how was the culprit found if the postcards had been
sent anonymously? Well, the halfpenny stamps that were used to
(01:43):
mail them had been marked by a post office official
in invisible ink. They were then handed to another employee
with the instruction to only sell them to one person,
a middle aged, unmarried woman from Coulford named Diana Langham.
Was it her marital status that had tipped off the authority,
or perhaps her behavior toward her neighbors, We're not sure,
(02:03):
but on December third, Miss Langham purchased twelve of the
marked stamps, followed by four more a few days later.
The trap was set. Around the tenth of December, a
bank cashier named Charles Saunders received a postcard in the
mail bearing a halfpenny stamp. The message was laden with vulgarities,
and the card was given to the police for analysis.
Low and behold the postage board these secrets invisible mark.
(02:28):
It was enough to have a detective, Sergeant Giles from
Scotland Yard follow Miss Langham around town. He tailed her
throughout Colford, observing her movements, and after some time he
finally saw what he'd been looking for. It was poking
out of her pocket a postcard. On December thirteenth, Langham
traveled to the local market place, presumably to do some
(02:48):
holiday shopping, when the police closed in on her. She
was taken into custody in front of many of her
friends and neighbors, no doubt sending them into a frenzy
of whispers and gossip. One witness heard Langham tell the
police I know nothing about the postcards. She may not have,
but her victims sure did. Charles Saunders had received thirty
(03:08):
two of them, and almost all of them had been
sent directly to the bank where he worked. Two postcards
had been addressed to his wife, while another man, Stanley Roberts,
got four of seeing postcards as well as one letter.
Langham was charged with sending indecent postal communications and was
brought to the Coulford Police Court the next day. Predictably,
(03:29):
she pled not guilty to the charges. She said as
much to the sergeant the day before. It seems that
no matter how much evidence they had, Miss Langham refused
to confess to her crimes. The police even conducted a
search of her home and found more postcards like the
one sent to mister Saunders and his wife. There was
also a blotting paper bearing some of the words that
had appeared on the other finished products. And with that
(03:51):
Miss Langham was remanded into custody and taken off the
card of prison, a holding facility for women some distance away.
On December twenty first, she stood before a special court
held back in Coleford. If she was found guilty by
the magistrates, she would be ordered to pay a fine
of ten pounds, but if she was ordered to stand trial,
she faced up to a year in prison. What nobody
(04:13):
could figure out, though, including Langham's own lawyer, was why
why had she sent these vile missives at all? Well,
it should come as no shock that her actions were
blamed by the men of the court on a strange
mental and nervous condition, the aka menopause. She eventually changed
her plea to guilty and apologized for her actions, swearing
(04:34):
never to repeat them in the future, and by swearing,
I mean promising, not actually swearing. The judge, appreciative of
her change of heart and for not putting everyone through
the hassle of a trial, only sentenced her to six
months incarceration. After her release, Miss Langa moved in with
her sister and brother in law in Somerset. She lived
to be eighty two, finally passing away in the mid
(04:56):
nineteen fifties, and although she had left behind a will
detailing how her assets were to be divided, she never
told anyone what they really wanted to know. In total,
Diane Langham had sent forty two communications, thirty two of
them had gone to mister Saunders, and nobody ever found out. Why.
(05:28):
If you ever go shopping looking for a particular item,
you might find yourself facing cheap imitations instead. From designer
handbags to consumer electronics, it's easy to fall for a
seller scam. What we want is the actual product, the
genuine article. One man knew the value of the product
that he made, and because of his engineering talent, so
did everyone else. Born in eighteen forty four in Ontario,
(05:51):
it seemed Elijah was destined to work on the railroad.
His parents, George and Mildred had fled Kentucky on the
underground railroad in the mid eighteen thirties. They ended across
the border in Canada, where they gave birth to Elijah.
Along with ten of his eleven siblings, he grew up
during a time when schools and Upper Canada were still segregated.
He received his education from black schools in Colchester Township. Then,
(06:14):
when he was fifteen, Elijah traveled to Scotland. He attended
the University of Edinburgh, where he studied to become a
mechanical engineer. Eventually he returned to his family in eighteen
sixty six, but they were no longer in Ontario. George,
Mildred and his siblings had left Canada for Michigan several
years prior, where they could remain free. By now, the
(06:35):
Civil War had ended and slavery was abolished, but Elijah
still faced an uphill battle. No one would hire him
as an engineer because he was black, so he decided
to put his dreams on the back of burner in
favor of gainful employment with the Michigan Central Railroad. They
hired him as a fireman, and oiler his job was
to keep parts of the train well oiled so that
it could function efficiently. When the train was stopped, Elijah
(06:58):
would apply oil to the axels and bearings. Then he
would shovel coal to keep the fire burning hot for
the next leg of the journey. But the job was
strenuous and wasteful. After all, he used a lot of
oil and energy to keep the trains lubricated. He believed
that a better method was possible, one that would allow
the train to be oiled while still in motion, reducing
the need for extra stops and starts on each trip,
(07:21):
and so Elijah put his engineering mind to work. He
developed a device called an automatic lubricator, designed to be
used on steam locomotives and ships. The automatic lubricator used
gravity to supply oil to the necessary parts from a
central cup or reservoir. It was also called the lubricating
cup or lubricating oil cup, and he had it patented
(07:43):
in eighteen seventy two. It became a hit with engineers
and railroad companies all over. Now they could keep the
trains running for longer periods of time. Several years later,
in eighteen eighty two, Elijah moved to Detroit, Michigan. He
began consulting with various engineering firms, sharing his knowledge and expertise.
He continued to improve the automatic lubricator and file additional
(08:06):
patents through his life, but that one device wasn't his
only contribution to the world. Elijah also invented a portable
ironing board to help his wife when pressing clothes, and
he came up with an automatic lawn sprinkler to make
watering his lawn easier. He eventually started his own manufacturing
company in nineteen twenty, but there was one more thing
Elijah was responsible for, and it happened by accident. After
(08:30):
his automatic lubricator hit the market, other cheaper versions soon followed.
Railroad engineers had been burned by wasting their money on
poorly made knockoffs, and so they started asking for Elijah's
product by name, more specifically by his last name McCoy.
They wanted, as they called it, the real McCoy system,
which is why today when someone says that something is
(08:52):
the real McCoy, they're saying it's a genuine item and
not some cheap knockoff. Elijah McCoy had grown up the
child of enslaved people, to become one of the most
successful and influential businessmen of the nineteenth century. In fact,
in twenty eleven, Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenau authored an amendment
to the Patent Reform Act of twenty eleven in support
(09:12):
of Elijah. The amendment designated the first satellite office of
the US Patent and Trademark Office in his name. The
Elijah Jay McCoy United States Patent and Trademark Office Facility
opened in July of twenty twelve. There's no other office
like it. It is, as you know, the real McCoy.
(09:35):
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 Mank in partnership
with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
(09:58):
and you can learn all about it over the world
of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
M
Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio
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 of Curiosities. Not
(00:36):
everyone likes receiving mail, at least not when it has
things like preapproved or final notice printed on the front
of the envelope. About receiving a handwritten letter or a postcard.
In an age of email and text messages, a few
things feel that special unless you lived in Coleford in Gloucestershire, England,
during the Christmas of nineteen twenty three. While the residents
were opening holiday cards from loved ones, there was something
(00:59):
else to into their mailboxes. Postcards. But these weren't quickly
dashed off scribblings from friends in exotic locations. They had
come from one anonymous source, a person living rights under
their noses. On these postcards, the sender had written offensive messages.
Some even included obscene images. According to an article in
(01:19):
the Daily British Wig printed at the time, these postcards
were described as an I quote full of the most
horrible vulgar coarseness. They'd been arriving since July of that
year and were so grotesque in nature no paper would
print what was actually written on any of them. So
how was the culprit found if the postcards had been
sent anonymously? Well, the halfpenny stamps that were used to
(01:43):
mail them had been marked by a post office official
in invisible ink. They were then handed to another employee
with the instruction to only sell them to one person,
a middle aged, unmarried woman from Coulford named Diana Langham.
Was it her marital status that had tipped off the authority,
or perhaps her behavior toward her neighbors, We're not sure,
(02:03):
but on December third, Miss Langham purchased twelve of the
marked stamps, followed by four more a few days later.
The trap was set. Around the tenth of December, a
bank cashier named Charles Saunders received a postcard in the
mail bearing a halfpenny stamp. The message was laden with vulgarities,
and the card was given to the police for analysis.
Low and behold the postage board these secrets invisible mark.
(02:28):
It was enough to have a detective, Sergeant Giles from
Scotland Yard follow Miss Langham around town. He tailed her
throughout Colford, observing her movements, and after some time he
finally saw what he'd been looking for. It was poking
out of her pocket a postcard. On December thirteenth, Langham
traveled to the local market place, presumably to do some
(02:48):
holiday shopping, when the police closed in on her. She
was taken into custody in front of many of her
friends and neighbors, no doubt sending them into a frenzy
of whispers and gossip. One witness heard Langham tell the
police I know nothing about the postcards. She may not have,
but her victims sure did. Charles Saunders had received thirty
(03:08):
two of them, and almost all of them had been
sent directly to the bank where he worked. Two postcards
had been addressed to his wife, while another man, Stanley Roberts,
got four of seeing postcards as well as one letter.
Langham was charged with sending indecent postal communications and was
brought to the Coulford Police Court the next day. Predictably,
(03:29):
she pled not guilty to the charges. She said as
much to the sergeant the day before. It seems that
no matter how much evidence they had, Miss Langham refused
to confess to her crimes. The police even conducted a
search of her home and found more postcards like the
one sent to mister Saunders and his wife. There was
also a blotting paper bearing some of the words that
had appeared on the other finished products. And with that
(03:51):
Miss Langham was remanded into custody and taken off the
card of prison, a holding facility for women some distance away.
On December twenty first, she stood before a special court
held back in Coleford. If she was found guilty by
the magistrates, she would be ordered to pay a fine
of ten pounds, but if she was ordered to stand trial,
she faced up to a year in prison. What nobody
(04:13):
could figure out, though, including Langham's own lawyer, was why
why had she sent these vile missives at all? Well,
it should come as no shock that her actions were
blamed by the men of the court on a strange
mental and nervous condition, the aka menopause. She eventually changed
her plea to guilty and apologized for her actions, swearing
(04:34):
never to repeat them in the future, and by swearing,
I mean promising, not actually swearing. The judge, appreciative of
her change of heart and for not putting everyone through
the hassle of a trial, only sentenced her to six
months incarceration. After her release, Miss Langa moved in with
her sister and brother in law in Somerset. She lived
to be eighty two, finally passing away in the mid
(04:56):
nineteen fifties, and although she had left behind a will
detailing how her assets were to be divided, she never
told anyone what they really wanted to know. In total,
Diane Langham had sent forty two communications, thirty two of
them had gone to mister Saunders, and nobody ever found out. Why.
(05:28):
If you ever go shopping looking for a particular item,
you might find yourself facing cheap imitations instead. From designer
handbags to consumer electronics, it's easy to fall for a
seller scam. What we want is the actual product, the
genuine article. One man knew the value of the product
that he made, and because of his engineering talent, so
did everyone else. Born in eighteen forty four in Ontario,
(05:51):
it seemed Elijah was destined to work on the railroad.
His parents, George and Mildred had fled Kentucky on the
underground railroad in the mid eighteen thirties. They ended across
the border in Canada, where they gave birth to Elijah.
Along with ten of his eleven siblings, he grew up
during a time when schools and Upper Canada were still segregated.
He received his education from black schools in Colchester Township. Then,
(06:14):
when he was fifteen, Elijah traveled to Scotland. He attended
the University of Edinburgh, where he studied to become a
mechanical engineer. Eventually he returned to his family in eighteen
sixty six, but they were no longer in Ontario. George,
Mildred and his siblings had left Canada for Michigan several
years prior, where they could remain free. By now, the
(06:35):
Civil War had ended and slavery was abolished, but Elijah
still faced an uphill battle. No one would hire him
as an engineer because he was black, so he decided
to put his dreams on the back of burner in
favor of gainful employment with the Michigan Central Railroad. They
hired him as a fireman, and oiler his job was
to keep parts of the train well oiled so that
it could function efficiently. When the train was stopped, Elijah
(06:58):
would apply oil to the axels and bearings. Then he
would shovel coal to keep the fire burning hot for
the next leg of the journey. But the job was
strenuous and wasteful. After all, he used a lot of
oil and energy to keep the trains lubricated. He believed
that a better method was possible, one that would allow
the train to be oiled while still in motion, reducing
the need for extra stops and starts on each trip,
(07:21):
and so Elijah put his engineering mind to work. He
developed a device called an automatic lubricator, designed to be
used on steam locomotives and ships. The automatic lubricator used
gravity to supply oil to the necessary parts from a
central cup or reservoir. It was also called the lubricating
cup or lubricating oil cup, and he had it patented
(07:43):
in eighteen seventy two. It became a hit with engineers
and railroad companies all over. Now they could keep the
trains running for longer periods of time. Several years later,
in eighteen eighty two, Elijah moved to Detroit, Michigan. He
began consulting with various engineering firms, sharing his knowledge and expertise.
He continued to improve the automatic lubricator and file additional
(08:06):
patents through his life, but that one device wasn't his
only contribution to the world. Elijah also invented a portable
ironing board to help his wife when pressing clothes, and
he came up with an automatic lawn sprinkler to make
watering his lawn easier. He eventually started his own manufacturing
company in nineteen twenty, but there was one more thing
Elijah was responsible for, and it happened by accident. After
(08:30):
his automatic lubricator hit the market, other cheaper versions soon followed.
Railroad engineers had been burned by wasting their money on
poorly made knockoffs, and so they started asking for Elijah's
product by name, more specifically by his last name McCoy.
They wanted, as they called it, the real McCoy system,
which is why today when someone says that something is
(08:52):
the real McCoy, they're saying it's a genuine item and
not some cheap knockoff. Elijah McCoy had grown up the
child of enslaved people, to become one of the most
successful and influential businessmen of the nineteenth century. In fact,
in twenty eleven, Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenau authored an amendment
to the Patent Reform Act of twenty eleven in support
(09:12):
of Elijah. The amendment designated the first satellite office of
the US Patent and Trademark Office in his name. The
Elijah Jay McCoy United States Patent and Trademark Office Facility
opened in July of twenty twelve. There's no other office
like it. It is, as you know, the real McCoy.
(09:35):
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 Mank in partnership
with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
(09:58):
and you can learn all about it over the world
of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
M
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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