July 18, 2023 • 9 mins
Two strange individuals, two curious accomplishments. Both are on tour today in the Cabinet.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm 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.
(00:36):
When times get tough, you can't just drop everything and
abandon your responsibilities. Right. No one is so free that
they can leave their lives behind and start over in
a new place with nothing to hold them back, Not
unless their name is William Goodall, at least William Arthur Bates.
Goodall was born in Manchester, England, in eighteen eighty. After
a brief school career in Bedford, he enlisted with the
(00:57):
Manchester Regiment of the British Army at the age of sixteen.
He earned two medals for fighting in the Second Boer
War in South Africa until he was shipped out to
Singapore in nineteen oh three, But the twenty three year
old soldier had already grown pretty tired of fighting, so
he withdrew from the army and became a civilian instead.
He took on a few odd jobs here and there,
(01:18):
like planting tea and mining for tin in Sumatra, but
eventually found his way to the Singapore Municipal Commissioner's Water Department.
He worked on some large projects too, including the construction
of some major reservoirs. Sometime in the early nineteen twenties,
Goodall and a few friends took a small boat out
to explore the waters around Singapore, and in their excursion
they stumbled upon a small island in the Straits of
(01:40):
Jehor called Pulau Surimbun. The whole island measured about three
and a half acres, with a large sixty foot tall
hill in its center. Goodall found it and I quote
exceedingly attractive and believed it to be the ideal place
for bathing and picnic parties. He and his friends would visit,
often climbing the hill to the ty to admire the
(02:00):
scenic views of the water. To the south in the
distance was Singapore and to the north was Jehor Baru,
a city perched on the opposite shore. Pretty soon Goodall
found himself rowing out to Polou Surrimbun all the time.
He even built a shack toward the top of the
hill where he would hold parties for himself and his buddies. Then,
in nineteen thirty two, the contracts on the Singapore Reservoirs
(02:21):
ended and Goodall made a life changing decision. He volunteered
to live on that small island permanently. He considered himself
a Robinson Crusoe, named after Daniel Dafoe's famous literary castaway.
That was the life that William wanted for himself, one
that he referred to as a delightfully peaceful existence, and
it was for a while. His day consisted mainly of
(02:44):
maintaining the land and the various equipment on the island.
This included two dinghys, a mooring buoy, and his home,
which he was constantly repairing. Goodall also tended to the
fruit trees that grew on the island and disposed of
his trash each day by either dumping it into the
sea or by burning it. But it didn't take long
for that delightfully peaceful existence to take its toll on him.
(03:06):
Between the endless stream of work to be done and
the crippling loneliness, Goodall soon found himself in need of
help and companionship. He hired two Chinese workers to handle
the maintenance work on Pulau Sarimbun, one worker to take
care of the clerical work, and a Javanese boatman. The
four of them lived in peace until a British journalist
(03:26):
named H. Harvey Day arrived on the island in nineteen
thirty seven. He wanted to learn about Goodall's life there.
Thus far Harvey Day referred to it as a private kingdom,
and pretty soon William was fielding letters from all over
the world, including Germany, New Zealand, and the United States,
asking him about his self imposed solitude. Now it must
(03:47):
be said that the article took some artistic license in
how it portrayed his existence on the island, painting him
as living inside some kind of fortification and holding back
throngs of native people who were meant to harm him.
All didn't pay too much attention to the rumors, and
despite his solitary existence on the island, he still made
frequent trips to the mainland to do radio interviews and
(04:09):
speak about his life as an amateur Robinson Crusoe. William
Goodall passed away in nineteen forty one at the age
of sixty one, but he will always be remembered for
his role as the world's first voluntary castaway and the
so called King of Pulau Surrembon. Progress takes time. Innovation
(04:41):
does not happen overnights. It requires a whole lot of
trial and error to go from an idea to a
fully formed concept. For example, did you know that canned
foods were invented in the late seventeen hundreds, but the
can opener itself didn't come around until the eighteen fifties,
And Alexander Bain's fax machine predates Alexander Bell's telephone by
(05:01):
thirty three years. But perhaps no one knew the slog
of innovation better than Thomas Edison. Among his best known
inventions are the movie camera, the phonograph, and of course,
the incandescent light bulb. It took a long time for
Edison to complete what is widely considered his greatest accomplishment.
As he once famously put it, I didn't fail a
thousand times. The light bulb was an invention with a
(05:23):
thousand steps. But the problem was that with each failed
step he was that much further away from a viable solution.
And while he failed, other inventors were gaining steam. Patents
were being filed all across Europe and the US by
people with dreaming of carnising electricity to light their homes
and businesses. For example, English chemist Joseph Swan demonstrated his
(05:45):
own incandescent light bulb around eighteen seventy eight. There were
also a pair of Canadian inventors named Matthew Evans and
Henry Woodward, who had patented a version of an incandescent
bulb using a carbon rod filament four years earlier. Edison
knew that it would be only a matter of time
before his competitors cracked the formula and changed the future
of electric powered light forever. So he and his engineers
(06:08):
got to work at the New Jersey Lab, ceaselessly plugging
away at different types of filaments until they found one
that didn't burn out after a few minutes. To make
matters worse, Edison was on a deadline. After he had
unveiled his phonograph in eighteen seventy seven, he had promised
the press that he would have a new, better invention
one year later. The announcement resulted in scores of readers
(06:29):
who bought issue after issue hoping to get the inside
scoop on Edison's latest and greatest, and so one year later,
as promised, the Wizard of Menlo Park delivered. He reached
out to reporters and invited them for a first hand
look at his brand new invention, the incandescent light bulb.
They were in awe, commenting on the beauty of its
(06:49):
bright white light. One paper remarked you could trace the
veins in your hand and the spots and lines upon
your fingernails by its brightness. Edison even told one journey
that it would burn forever. Well almost. By all accounts,
the bulb was a hit and it was going to
change the world eventually. There was just one little problem.
(07:11):
It was fake. You see. Edison had to show the
press something, not just to keep up his reputation, but
also to get ahead of the competition. It had to
be his name in the papers and no one else's.
So what he came up with was a bulb that
burned just long enough to appease the reporters before he
hurried them off to file their stories. Once the demonstration
(07:32):
was over, he continued searching for a proper filament that
would burn indefinitely, but by showing the reporters his faux
bulb he had bought himself more time. Edison held another
demonstration on New Year's Eve in eighteen seventy nine, just
over a year since he had fooled the press, But
this time he had a light that did stay lit
much longer. They used a carbon filament, which he had
(07:53):
discovered in October of that year. The initial test at
the time lasted just over thirteen hours. The light bulbs
we used today are the product of extensive trial and
error conducted over a century by multiple innovators. Edison was
not the sole inventor of the incandescent light bulb. He
got the glory for the same reason he was able
to fool everyone else the power of the press. Edison
(08:17):
was a master marketer and ran many of his competitors
out of business due to his unscrupulous business practices. The
more he got his name in the papers, the more
successful he became. His stunt with the light bulb was
no different. History books remember Thomas Edison as the genius
behind many of the products we still use today, and
he certainly was smart, but he actually perfected more than
(08:40):
he invented, fine tuning what was already out there and
then commercializing it for the masses. The truth was that
he was just a really good salesman. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
for free on Apple Podcast, or learn more about the
(09:01):
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 Worldoflore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm 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.
(00:36):
When times get tough, you can't just drop everything and
abandon your responsibilities. Right. No one is so free that
they can leave their lives behind and start over in
a new place with nothing to hold them back, Not
unless their name is William Goodall, at least William Arthur Bates.
Goodall was born in Manchester, England, in eighteen eighty. After
a brief school career in Bedford, he enlisted with the
(00:57):
Manchester Regiment of the British Army at the age of sixteen.
He earned two medals for fighting in the Second Boer
War in South Africa until he was shipped out to
Singapore in nineteen oh three, But the twenty three year
old soldier had already grown pretty tired of fighting, so
he withdrew from the army and became a civilian instead.
He took on a few odd jobs here and there,
(01:18):
like planting tea and mining for tin in Sumatra, but
eventually found his way to the Singapore Municipal Commissioner's Water Department.
He worked on some large projects too, including the construction
of some major reservoirs. Sometime in the early nineteen twenties,
Goodall and a few friends took a small boat out
to explore the waters around Singapore, and in their excursion
they stumbled upon a small island in the Straits of
(01:40):
Jehor called Pulau Surimbun. The whole island measured about three
and a half acres, with a large sixty foot tall
hill in its center. Goodall found it and I quote
exceedingly attractive and believed it to be the ideal place
for bathing and picnic parties. He and his friends would visit,
often climbing the hill to the ty to admire the
(02:00):
scenic views of the water. To the south in the
distance was Singapore and to the north was Jehor Baru,
a city perched on the opposite shore. Pretty soon Goodall
found himself rowing out to Polou Surrimbun all the time.
He even built a shack toward the top of the
hill where he would hold parties for himself and his buddies. Then,
in nineteen thirty two, the contracts on the Singapore Reservoirs
(02:21):
ended and Goodall made a life changing decision. He volunteered
to live on that small island permanently. He considered himself
a Robinson Crusoe, named after Daniel Dafoe's famous literary castaway.
That was the life that William wanted for himself, one
that he referred to as a delightfully peaceful existence, and
it was for a while. His day consisted mainly of
(02:44):
maintaining the land and the various equipment on the island.
This included two dinghys, a mooring buoy, and his home,
which he was constantly repairing. Goodall also tended to the
fruit trees that grew on the island and disposed of
his trash each day by either dumping it into the
sea or by burning it. But it didn't take long
for that delightfully peaceful existence to take its toll on him.
(03:06):
Between the endless stream of work to be done and
the crippling loneliness, Goodall soon found himself in need of
help and companionship. He hired two Chinese workers to handle
the maintenance work on Pulau Sarimbun, one worker to take
care of the clerical work, and a Javanese boatman. The
four of them lived in peace until a British journalist
(03:26):
named H. Harvey Day arrived on the island in nineteen
thirty seven. He wanted to learn about Goodall's life there.
Thus far Harvey Day referred to it as a private kingdom,
and pretty soon William was fielding letters from all over
the world, including Germany, New Zealand, and the United States,
asking him about his self imposed solitude. Now it must
(03:47):
be said that the article took some artistic license in
how it portrayed his existence on the island, painting him
as living inside some kind of fortification and holding back
throngs of native people who were meant to harm him.
All didn't pay too much attention to the rumors, and
despite his solitary existence on the island, he still made
frequent trips to the mainland to do radio interviews and
(04:09):
speak about his life as an amateur Robinson Crusoe. William
Goodall passed away in nineteen forty one at the age
of sixty one, but he will always be remembered for
his role as the world's first voluntary castaway and the
so called King of Pulau Surrembon. Progress takes time. Innovation
(04:41):
does not happen overnights. It requires a whole lot of
trial and error to go from an idea to a
fully formed concept. For example, did you know that canned
foods were invented in the late seventeen hundreds, but the
can opener itself didn't come around until the eighteen fifties,
And Alexander Bain's fax machine predates Alexander Bell's telephone by
(05:01):
thirty three years. But perhaps no one knew the slog
of innovation better than Thomas Edison. Among his best known
inventions are the movie camera, the phonograph, and of course,
the incandescent light bulb. It took a long time for
Edison to complete what is widely considered his greatest accomplishment.
As he once famously put it, I didn't fail a
thousand times. The light bulb was an invention with a
(05:23):
thousand steps. But the problem was that with each failed
step he was that much further away from a viable solution.
And while he failed, other inventors were gaining steam. Patents
were being filed all across Europe and the US by
people with dreaming of carnising electricity to light their homes
and businesses. For example, English chemist Joseph Swan demonstrated his
(05:45):
own incandescent light bulb around eighteen seventy eight. There were
also a pair of Canadian inventors named Matthew Evans and
Henry Woodward, who had patented a version of an incandescent
bulb using a carbon rod filament four years earlier. Edison
knew that it would be only a matter of time
before his competitors cracked the formula and changed the future
of electric powered light forever. So he and his engineers
(06:08):
got to work at the New Jersey Lab, ceaselessly plugging
away at different types of filaments until they found one
that didn't burn out after a few minutes. To make
matters worse, Edison was on a deadline. After he had
unveiled his phonograph in eighteen seventy seven, he had promised
the press that he would have a new, better invention
one year later. The announcement resulted in scores of readers
(06:29):
who bought issue after issue hoping to get the inside
scoop on Edison's latest and greatest, and so one year later,
as promised, the Wizard of Menlo Park delivered. He reached
out to reporters and invited them for a first hand
look at his brand new invention, the incandescent light bulb.
They were in awe, commenting on the beauty of its
(06:49):
bright white light. One paper remarked you could trace the
veins in your hand and the spots and lines upon
your fingernails by its brightness. Edison even told one journey
that it would burn forever. Well almost. By all accounts,
the bulb was a hit and it was going to
change the world eventually. There was just one little problem.
(07:11):
It was fake. You see. Edison had to show the
press something, not just to keep up his reputation, but
also to get ahead of the competition. It had to
be his name in the papers and no one else's.
So what he came up with was a bulb that
burned just long enough to appease the reporters before he
hurried them off to file their stories. Once the demonstration
(07:32):
was over, he continued searching for a proper filament that
would burn indefinitely, but by showing the reporters his faux
bulb he had bought himself more time. Edison held another
demonstration on New Year's Eve in eighteen seventy nine, just
over a year since he had fooled the press, But
this time he had a light that did stay lit
much longer. They used a carbon filament, which he had
(07:53):
discovered in October of that year. The initial test at
the time lasted just over thirteen hours. The light bulbs
we used today are the product of extensive trial and
error conducted over a century by multiple innovators. Edison was
not the sole inventor of the incandescent light bulb. He
got the glory for the same reason he was able
to fool everyone else the power of the press. Edison
(08:17):
was a master marketer and ran many of his competitors
out of business due to his unscrupulous business practices. The
more he got his name in the papers, the more
successful he became. His stunt with the light bulb was
no different. History books remember Thomas Edison as the genius
behind many of the products we still use today, and
he certainly was smart, but he actually perfected more than
(08:40):
he invented, fine tuning what was already out there and
then commercializing it for the masses. The truth was that
he was just a really good salesman. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
for free on Apple Podcast, or learn more about the
(09:01):
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 Worldoflore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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