September 10, 2024 • 10 mins
People can get confused about a lot of things, whether they are brand new ideas or old traditions. Today's tour through the cabinet features a pair of such stories.
Pre-order the official Cabinet of Curiosities book by clicking here today, and get ready to enjoy some curious reading this November!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Menke'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 right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Most restaurants pride themselves on the freshness of the food
they serve. They'll stand at your table and discuss how
the chickens led happy, satisfied lives before they ended up
on your plate, or how the greens were harvested from
local farms only a mile away. Nothing tastes quite as
crisp as a let us leaf straight from the dirt.
But in nineteen eleven, one place didn't care about farm
(01:00):
to table. In fact, it refused to serve anything freshly
made for a very good reason. It all happened in
Chicago at the Hotel Sherman. Four hundred guests had gathered
in the hotel's Louis the fourteenth room for a special
five course meal lasting two hours. Among the elite clientele
was the city's mayor, the health commissioner, and a number
(01:22):
of politicians from Washington, DC, and New York, all who
had arrived with hefty appetites. On their plates were things
like April egg salad and roast February CAPAN. The menu
didn't hide anything either. It explained where every ingredient had
come from in detail, including how long ago it had
been prepared. For example, the chicken had been kept in
(01:44):
Chicago cold storage for almost a year. Mayor iich And Green,
the VP of the National Poultry, Butter and Egg Association,
told everyone that your CAPAN received its summons to the
Great Unknown along about last Saint Valentine's Day. Now it
was late October, None of the ingredients had come from
local farms or suppliers, and everything being served was months old.
(02:07):
So why were these high ranking officials willing to test
their taste bunds and their stomachs with old food? Because
the times had changed and the new age was upon them.
This luncheon was called the Cold Storage Banquet, and it
was designed to showcase the benefits of a brand new
technology refrigeration. You see, in the days before this banquet
(02:28):
was held, food was stored in a number of different ways.
It was often smoked, salted, pickled, or kept in root
sellers underground. People of means might have stored their ingredients
in ice houses during the spring and summer months, while
others had individual ice boxes in their homes and apartments.
In fact, ice became a major part of daily life.
(02:49):
What used to be cut from frozen lakes and shipped
to the cities was soon made in factories and delivered
right to homes and businesses. Many houses had ice boxes
to store their milk and other perishable items. It was
a rough time in America, where people often died from
food based illnesses, but by nineteen eleven, refrigeration was being
introduced to the masses, and it promised to end food
(03:12):
poisoning and other food born problems. Now, ingredients and leftovers
could be stored for longer at lower temperatures, without worrying
about bacteria or needing to replace a large block of
ice every few days. But of course, not everyone was
quick to embrace this new fangled technology. In fact, the
US government had considered passing laws that would impose strict
(03:34):
time limits on how long things like meat and dairy
could be held in cold storage, so to assuage the
fears and demonstrate the value of refrigeration. The industry sponsored
a special luncheon comprised only of foods that had been
in long term cold storage, and the plan worked. The
head chef of the hotel there said that it was
(03:55):
the best luncheon he had ever served, and one congressman
argued that the chicken was even more flavor than a bird,
and I quote advertised as freshly killed. Overall, people were
quite pleased with the meal they had eaten, and soon
enough the idea of cold storage was everywhere, although not
everyone was thrilled. Critics believe refrigeration would alter the taste
(04:17):
of food, and not for the better. In some ways,
that is true, but the benefits of keeping things fresher
for longer far outweigh the changes in flavor. General Electrics
started producing home refrigerators that very same year, although they
were prohibitively expensive. A new fridge cost about one thousand dollars,
twice the amount of a new car. But eventually those
(04:37):
costs came down and refrigerators found their way into every
home in America. And of course you know how this
story ends. Today, we store almost all of our fresh
food in the chilling embrace of our refrigerators. Preserving it
for weeks at a time, and to think we might
not have had them today if not for four hundred
brave politicians willing to risk their lives a slice of
(05:00):
one year old apple pie. What's your favorite dinosaur? That's
a question that you might not have heard since elementary school.
(05:21):
But I like to think that whether you're nine or
ninety nine, your answer still says something about you. As
for me, my favorite dinosaur is the triceratops, because of
good things come in threes. Right now, you might be
a velociraptor enthusiast, or a t rex fan, or a
lover of pterodactyls. You might even prefer the more peaceful brontosaurus,
you know, those long necked, tiny head tree lovers. That's
(05:44):
the one. Except for one little detail, your favorite dinosaur,
the Brontosaurus, may have never actually existed. The whole mix
up dates back over one hundred and forty years, when
two American paleontologists were duking it out in a conflict
known as the Bone Wars. You see, in the late
eighteen hundreds, you couldn't talk about paleontology without talking about O. C.
(06:06):
Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope. These two men were pioneers
in the field. They began their career as friends and colleagues,
but that didn't last for long. In eighteen sixty eight,
Cope showed Marsh a quarry that he was digging in,
and shortly after Marsh struck a deal with the quarry's
owner giving him exclusive rights to fossils found in it. Essentially,
he planned to steal Cope's specimens right out from under him.
(06:29):
After that, it was all war. A few years later,
in eighteen seventy seven, a wealth of dinosaur fossils were
discovered at a dig site near Morrison, Colorado. Marsh and Cope,
each desperate to one up each other, used every dirty
trick they knew to protect their fines and to sabotage
their rivals. There are stories of the two bribing each
(06:51):
other's workers, spying on their dig sites, and even straight
up stealing fossils from each other. There are even reports
of the two paleontologists ordering their work to smash fossils
left behind so the other men couldn't collect them. The
entire time too, both Marsh and Cope were in a
competition to make more discoveries, publish more papers and have
(07:11):
more articles in the news. But in the rush to
make new discoveries sometimes things got a bit confusing, Like
how in eighteen seventy seven, Marsh's team uncovered a brand
new skeleton in Morrison, Colorado. Of course, Marsh was a
static to find that, hiding under tons of rocks and
debris was a nearly perfect specimen of an unknown dinosaur.
(07:34):
The creature had four limbs, a whiplike tail, and an
incredibly long neck. The only thing missing was the new
dinosaur's head. When a museum asked for a reconstruction of
the skeleton to show in its collection a few years later,
Marsh put a skull he found near the skeleton on
top to complete it. He named the animal the Apotosaurus,
which comes from the Greek deceptive lizard. By eighteen eighty five,
(07:57):
Marsh had made dozens of discoveries the Apotosaurus, still trying
to outpublish cope. He was excited when his team shipped
him the bones of a new dinosaur. This was another
species of a long necked leaf eating dinosaur, this time
complete with a skull. Not wanting to waste any time,
Marsh gave it a cursory examination then declared it a
(08:19):
brand new species, the Brontosaurus, meaning thunder lizard. The only problem,
the Brontosaurus and the Apotosaurus were one and the same.
The brontosaurus skeleton was just more complete than the apotosaurus fossil,
including the correct skull. Marsh was so desperate to defeat
Cope that he didn't even realize the dinosaur he had
(08:39):
just named had already been discovered by him. For nearly
one hundred years, Cope's two long necked dinosaurs became fixtures
in the public's imagination. The Brontosaurus especially, became a star
of movies, books, and classrooms around the world. It wasn't
until nineteen seventy nine that the confusion was finally clear up.
(09:00):
That year, two paleontologists who had heard rumors about the
two long neck similarities, dug into the data. The more
they researched, the more they realized the two dinos were
actually one. Finally, nearly one hundred years after it was
first assembled, the two paleontologists put the right skulls on
Marsh's original Apotosaurus. Then they made an announcement to the world.
(09:22):
There was no such thing as a brontosaurus. The long
neck dinosaur that Marsh found was the one and only
a Potosaurus. They'd finally uncovered the truth. Well that's what
they thought they'd done. But thirty six years later, in
twenty fifteen, science threw a wrench into their conclusions. That year,
a study was conducted that compared every long necked dinosaur
(09:44):
fossil that had ever been discovered, and the results were surprising.
It turned out that Marsh was right all along. The
Brontosaurus and the Apotosaurus were two different, distinct dinosaur fossils.
No bones about it. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
(10:07):
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
about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until
(10:30):
next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Menke'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 right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Most restaurants pride themselves on the freshness of the food
they serve. They'll stand at your table and discuss how
the chickens led happy, satisfied lives before they ended up
on your plate, or how the greens were harvested from
local farms only a mile away. Nothing tastes quite as
crisp as a let us leaf straight from the dirt.
But in nineteen eleven, one place didn't care about farm
(01:00):
to table. In fact, it refused to serve anything freshly
made for a very good reason. It all happened in
Chicago at the Hotel Sherman. Four hundred guests had gathered
in the hotel's Louis the fourteenth room for a special
five course meal lasting two hours. Among the elite clientele
was the city's mayor, the health commissioner, and a number
(01:22):
of politicians from Washington, DC, and New York, all who
had arrived with hefty appetites. On their plates were things
like April egg salad and roast February CAPAN. The menu
didn't hide anything either. It explained where every ingredient had
come from in detail, including how long ago it had
been prepared. For example, the chicken had been kept in
(01:44):
Chicago cold storage for almost a year. Mayor iich And Green,
the VP of the National Poultry, Butter and Egg Association,
told everyone that your CAPAN received its summons to the
Great Unknown along about last Saint Valentine's Day. Now it
was late October, None of the ingredients had come from
local farms or suppliers, and everything being served was months old.
(02:07):
So why were these high ranking officials willing to test
their taste bunds and their stomachs with old food? Because
the times had changed and the new age was upon them.
This luncheon was called the Cold Storage Banquet, and it
was designed to showcase the benefits of a brand new
technology refrigeration. You see, in the days before this banquet
(02:28):
was held, food was stored in a number of different ways.
It was often smoked, salted, pickled, or kept in root
sellers underground. People of means might have stored their ingredients
in ice houses during the spring and summer months, while
others had individual ice boxes in their homes and apartments.
In fact, ice became a major part of daily life.
(02:49):
What used to be cut from frozen lakes and shipped
to the cities was soon made in factories and delivered
right to homes and businesses. Many houses had ice boxes
to store their milk and other perishable items. It was
a rough time in America, where people often died from
food based illnesses, but by nineteen eleven, refrigeration was being
introduced to the masses, and it promised to end food
(03:12):
poisoning and other food born problems. Now, ingredients and leftovers
could be stored for longer at lower temperatures, without worrying
about bacteria or needing to replace a large block of
ice every few days. But of course, not everyone was
quick to embrace this new fangled technology. In fact, the
US government had considered passing laws that would impose strict
(03:34):
time limits on how long things like meat and dairy
could be held in cold storage, so to assuage the
fears and demonstrate the value of refrigeration. The industry sponsored
a special luncheon comprised only of foods that had been
in long term cold storage, and the plan worked. The
head chef of the hotel there said that it was
(03:55):
the best luncheon he had ever served, and one congressman
argued that the chicken was even more flavor than a bird,
and I quote advertised as freshly killed. Overall, people were
quite pleased with the meal they had eaten, and soon
enough the idea of cold storage was everywhere, although not
everyone was thrilled. Critics believe refrigeration would alter the taste
(04:17):
of food, and not for the better. In some ways,
that is true, but the benefits of keeping things fresher
for longer far outweigh the changes in flavor. General Electrics
started producing home refrigerators that very same year, although they
were prohibitively expensive. A new fridge cost about one thousand dollars,
twice the amount of a new car. But eventually those
(04:37):
costs came down and refrigerators found their way into every
home in America. And of course you know how this
story ends. Today, we store almost all of our fresh
food in the chilling embrace of our refrigerators. Preserving it
for weeks at a time, and to think we might
not have had them today if not for four hundred
brave politicians willing to risk their lives a slice of
(05:00):
one year old apple pie. What's your favorite dinosaur? That's
a question that you might not have heard since elementary school.
(05:21):
But I like to think that whether you're nine or
ninety nine, your answer still says something about you. As
for me, my favorite dinosaur is the triceratops, because of
good things come in threes. Right now, you might be
a velociraptor enthusiast, or a t rex fan, or a
lover of pterodactyls. You might even prefer the more peaceful brontosaurus,
you know, those long necked, tiny head tree lovers. That's
(05:44):
the one. Except for one little detail, your favorite dinosaur,
the Brontosaurus, may have never actually existed. The whole mix
up dates back over one hundred and forty years, when
two American paleontologists were duking it out in a conflict
known as the Bone Wars. You see, in the late
eighteen hundreds, you couldn't talk about paleontology without talking about O. C.
(06:06):
Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope. These two men were pioneers
in the field. They began their career as friends and colleagues,
but that didn't last for long. In eighteen sixty eight,
Cope showed Marsh a quarry that he was digging in,
and shortly after Marsh struck a deal with the quarry's
owner giving him exclusive rights to fossils found in it. Essentially,
he planned to steal Cope's specimens right out from under him.
(06:29):
After that, it was all war. A few years later,
in eighteen seventy seven, a wealth of dinosaur fossils were
discovered at a dig site near Morrison, Colorado. Marsh and Cope,
each desperate to one up each other, used every dirty
trick they knew to protect their fines and to sabotage
their rivals. There are stories of the two bribing each
(06:51):
other's workers, spying on their dig sites, and even straight
up stealing fossils from each other. There are even reports
of the two paleontologists ordering their work to smash fossils
left behind so the other men couldn't collect them. The
entire time too, both Marsh and Cope were in a
competition to make more discoveries, publish more papers and have
(07:11):
more articles in the news. But in the rush to
make new discoveries sometimes things got a bit confusing, Like
how in eighteen seventy seven, Marsh's team uncovered a brand
new skeleton in Morrison, Colorado. Of course, Marsh was a
static to find that, hiding under tons of rocks and
debris was a nearly perfect specimen of an unknown dinosaur.
(07:34):
The creature had four limbs, a whiplike tail, and an
incredibly long neck. The only thing missing was the new
dinosaur's head. When a museum asked for a reconstruction of
the skeleton to show in its collection a few years later,
Marsh put a skull he found near the skeleton on
top to complete it. He named the animal the Apotosaurus,
which comes from the Greek deceptive lizard. By eighteen eighty five,
(07:57):
Marsh had made dozens of discoveries the Apotosaurus, still trying
to outpublish cope. He was excited when his team shipped
him the bones of a new dinosaur. This was another
species of a long necked leaf eating dinosaur, this time
complete with a skull. Not wanting to waste any time,
Marsh gave it a cursory examination then declared it a
(08:19):
brand new species, the Brontosaurus, meaning thunder lizard. The only problem,
the Brontosaurus and the Apotosaurus were one and the same.
The brontosaurus skeleton was just more complete than the apotosaurus fossil,
including the correct skull. Marsh was so desperate to defeat
Cope that he didn't even realize the dinosaur he had
(08:39):
just named had already been discovered by him. For nearly
one hundred years, Cope's two long necked dinosaurs became fixtures
in the public's imagination. The Brontosaurus especially, became a star
of movies, books, and classrooms around the world. It wasn't
until nineteen seventy nine that the confusion was finally clear up.
(09:00):
That year, two paleontologists who had heard rumors about the
two long neck similarities, dug into the data. The more
they researched, the more they realized the two dinos were
actually one. Finally, nearly one hundred years after it was
first assembled, the two paleontologists put the right skulls on
Marsh's original Apotosaurus. Then they made an announcement to the world.
(09:22):
There was no such thing as a brontosaurus. The long
neck dinosaur that Marsh found was the one and only
a Potosaurus. They'd finally uncovered the truth. Well that's what
they thought they'd done. But thirty six years later, in
twenty fifteen, science threw a wrench into their conclusions. That year,
a study was conducted that compared every long necked dinosaur
(09:44):
fossil that had ever been discovered, and the results were surprising.
It turned out that Marsh was right all along. The
Brontosaurus and the Apotosaurus were two different, distinct dinosaur fossils.
No bones about it. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
(10:07):
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
about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until
(10:30):
next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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