February 13, 2025 • 10 mins
Two tales that feature curious new ways to look at the world, and their wild consequences.
Order the official Cabinet of Curiosities book by clicking here today, and get ready to enjoy some curious reading!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
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. Have you ever thought
(00:37):
much about the common pigeon? If you spend any time
in a major city, you've likely seen more of them
than any other kind of bird. Many dismissed them as
a nuisance rats with wings that exist to snatch crumbs
from the trash, barely better than a pest. What we
think of today as the common pigeon is more officially
known as the rock dove, a sort of bird that
(00:58):
originally was well suited to rocky coastal areas, and throughout
human history we've realized that they are a versatile bird
suited to all manner of tasks. In eighteen forties Germany,
an apothecary owner named Neubranner realized this very thing. Carrier
pigeons had been employed for centuries by King's army, commanders
and spies, but Neubranner was the rare small businessman who
(01:21):
figured out a way to make them useful in his
small community. He distributed carrier pigeons to doctors in his
city of Kronberg and told the doctors to send the
pigeons back to him when they gave out an urgent prescription,
and this way the apothecary would have the medicine ready
before the patients ever arrived at his door. Neubranner's son,
doctor Jules Neubranner, would continue this practice, expanding it to
(01:43):
a wider variety of tasks. He'd have the pigeons convey
messages to a nearby sanatorium, or even deliver medicines themselves. However,
the younger Neubranner soon encountered an inevitable problem. Sometimes carrier
pigeons would get lost, a message or a delivery would
go awry, and he'd have no way of knowing for
a very long time. Usually the pigeon in question would
(02:05):
eventually return, but there was no guarantee of knowing what
had happened while it was gone. This was a long
time before the invention of GPS, but Jewles had a
tool that his father had not. It was the twentieth
century an era of invention, and one of the inventions
that was taking the world by storm was photography. So
doctor Neubroanner created a small harness of elastic bands that
(02:28):
could fit comfortably on his pigeons, and on this harness
he hung a small camera. As the pigeon flew, the
camera shutter would operate automatically, snapping photos of landmarks on
the pigeons route. That way, if a pigeon went astray
and came back late, jewles could check the developed photographs
to see where it had gone. This ingenious little piece
(02:49):
of technology unwittingly became part of the global arms race
as Europe Korean toward the First World War. German army
officials heard of doctor Neubranner's device and immediately sought to
harness it as a tool for the Fatherland, no pun intended.
Once war broke out in Europe, intelligence became a necessity. Hundreds,
maybe even thousands of pigeons were outfitted with little cameras
(03:12):
and sent flying over the trenches in battlefields. They would
weave their way above the shells and bullets, snapping photos constantly.
Neubranner's device was of great use in the battles of
Verdun and the sum Although the German military seemed to
have turned on him after the German surrender, he made
an inquiry and was told that the pigeons had no
military value. In spite of this seeming dismissal, pigeon photography
(03:35):
continued to develop, not just in Germany, but in France, Russia,
and America as well. In nineteen thirty seven, a Swiss
clockmaker named Christian Adrian Mitchell patented a version of Neuberanner's camera,
adapted for sixteen millimeter film. It was just as lightweight
and the shutter would be run by an internal clockwork.
During the First and Second World Wars, it was noted
(03:57):
that pigeon photographers were a more reliable source of intelligences
than radio communication. American pigeons allegedly are the most decorated
of any animal, earning medals of honor for distinguished service,
and after the end of the Second World War, use
of pigeon photography passed into civilian fields. The CIA also
allegedly developed a battery powered pigeon camera in the nineteen seventies,
(04:19):
but its use is still classified. Apparently nowadays, the carrier
pigeon and the photographer pigeon are curiosities of the past,
eclipsed by instant messaging and drones.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
But in our modern age, perhaps we should revise the
cultural view of the pigeon to be more forgiving. They
may appear to be rats with wings, but maybe they've
earned a place in our cities, a just reward for
an animal that allowed humanity to communicate across thousands of
miles and sea for the first time with a bird's
eye view. It was holloween night nineteen ninety two and
(05:06):
a cast and crew of BBC's ghost Watch was celebrating
their ambitious program was going off without a hitch, giving
the British viewing public a good scare. Before bed, they
pulled off a feat never before seen in public television,
a mockumentary ghost hunting show that every viewer thought was broadcasting. Live.
Show creator Stephen Volk was just raising his glass to
(05:29):
toast the crew to a job well done, when a
woman burst into the studio. This woman, producer Ruth Baumgarten,
was ashen faced. She told them that over at the
BBC main offices, the switchboard was completely jammed. More than
twenty thousand people had called in about their show, and
every single caller was scared, confused, or simply furious. The
(05:50):
nineteen ninety two Ghostwatch debacle started, like most things, with
good intentions. Stephen Volk had initially wanted to broadcast a
simple six part drama about all haunting, but was convinced
by Ruth Baumgarten to shorten it to ninety minutes. It
was then that Vulk had a stroke of inspiration. Rather
than filming a cinematic ghost story, what if they framed
it like a BBC investigation, a special broadcast live from
(06:14):
a real, live haunted house. Ruth loved the idea, and
Ghostwatch was born. They put together a program following a
supposedly live investigation team into a haunted house. The feed
would cut back and forth to the studio, where a
BBC host would react in real time to what he
was seeing and hearing during the investigation. Of course, both
(06:35):
of these pieces were pre recorded, but the effect was
to make it seem like a live show. Ruth and
Stephen went a step further too, casting known and trusted
BBC anchors and presenters. Sarah Green, a host who was
normally featured on children's shows, joined the investigative team in
the haunted house. To someone watching at home on Halloween Night,
(06:56):
all of these factors made Ghostwatch appear to be a
live Broadway cast BBC documentary, which made its contents all
the more frightening. Before their eyes, viewers saw things fly
around the room and ghostly apparitions appear. Spirits wrestled for
control of the cameras from the crew, and in the
final minutes of the program, they watched Sarah Green, the
(07:17):
children's TV host, as she was dragged backward through a
door and disappeared into the darkness. To the crew of
Ghostwatch celebrating at the studio, the night was marked as successful.
But to the families watching at home and the children
seeing their favorite TV host kidnapped by a ghost, the
mood was much more horrifying. Thousands of complaints poured into
(07:39):
the BBC, from hysterical children to priests convinced the BBC
had just broadcast Witchcraft. Equal in number were the angry
calls made by viewers who were upset that they had
been duped. Remember that back in nineteen ninety two, reality
TV as we know it was still a thing of
the future. There had been a few shows that had
blurred the line between documentary and scripted drama, for sure,
(08:01):
But nineteen ninety two was the same year as the
first season of the Real World. It would be another
eight years before Survivor and another fourteen before The Hills,
probably the most well known reality show that fully scripted
most of its drama. So put yourself in the nineteen
ninety two viewers' shoes. These people were primed to think
that documentary style investigative shows produced by the BBC were
(08:24):
always going to be one hundred percent real. Ghostwatch had
an immediate and wide ranging fallout. Viewers believe that they
couldn't trust the BBC anymore. Multiple children were allegedly diagnosed
with PTSD, and, perhaps most tragically, one young viewer even
died by suicide. The British Broadcasting Standards Commission ruled that
(08:45):
the BBC had a duty to make it clear that
their program was fictional. It seemed that by featuring hosts
commonly seen on children's programs, the BBC had made it
seem like Ghostwatch was appropriate for children, much like the
Orson Wells nineteen thirty eight broadcast of War of the
World's The unexpected use of documentary style to present a
(09:05):
drama through people into a panic. Ghostwatch was never broadcast again,
and its creators were chastised by the public and the press.
But in retrospect, it seems like ghost Watch was simply
ahead of its time. If it had aired just a
few years later, maybe then it would have had the
ghost of a chance at success. I hope you've enjoyed
(09:30):
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, and you can
(09:52):
learn all about it over at the Worldolore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
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. Have you ever thought
(00:37):
much about the common pigeon? If you spend any time
in a major city, you've likely seen more of them
than any other kind of bird. Many dismissed them as
a nuisance rats with wings that exist to snatch crumbs
from the trash, barely better than a pest. What we
think of today as the common pigeon is more officially
known as the rock dove, a sort of bird that
(00:58):
originally was well suited to rocky coastal areas, and throughout
human history we've realized that they are a versatile bird
suited to all manner of tasks. In eighteen forties Germany,
an apothecary owner named Neubranner realized this very thing. Carrier
pigeons had been employed for centuries by King's army, commanders
and spies, but Neubranner was the rare small businessman who
(01:21):
figured out a way to make them useful in his
small community. He distributed carrier pigeons to doctors in his
city of Kronberg and told the doctors to send the
pigeons back to him when they gave out an urgent prescription,
and this way the apothecary would have the medicine ready
before the patients ever arrived at his door. Neubranner's son,
doctor Jules Neubranner, would continue this practice, expanding it to
(01:43):
a wider variety of tasks. He'd have the pigeons convey
messages to a nearby sanatorium, or even deliver medicines themselves. However,
the younger Neubranner soon encountered an inevitable problem. Sometimes carrier
pigeons would get lost, a message or a delivery would
go awry, and he'd have no way of knowing for
a very long time. Usually the pigeon in question would
(02:05):
eventually return, but there was no guarantee of knowing what
had happened while it was gone. This was a long
time before the invention of GPS, but Jewles had a
tool that his father had not. It was the twentieth
century an era of invention, and one of the inventions
that was taking the world by storm was photography. So
doctor Neubroanner created a small harness of elastic bands that
(02:28):
could fit comfortably on his pigeons, and on this harness
he hung a small camera. As the pigeon flew, the
camera shutter would operate automatically, snapping photos of landmarks on
the pigeons route. That way, if a pigeon went astray
and came back late, jewles could check the developed photographs
to see where it had gone. This ingenious little piece
(02:49):
of technology unwittingly became part of the global arms race
as Europe Korean toward the First World War. German army
officials heard of doctor Neubranner's device and immediately sought to
harness it as a tool for the Fatherland, no pun intended.
Once war broke out in Europe, intelligence became a necessity. Hundreds,
maybe even thousands of pigeons were outfitted with little cameras
(03:12):
and sent flying over the trenches in battlefields. They would
weave their way above the shells and bullets, snapping photos constantly.
Neubranner's device was of great use in the battles of
Verdun and the sum Although the German military seemed to
have turned on him after the German surrender, he made
an inquiry and was told that the pigeons had no
military value. In spite of this seeming dismissal, pigeon photography
(03:35):
continued to develop, not just in Germany, but in France, Russia,
and America as well. In nineteen thirty seven, a Swiss
clockmaker named Christian Adrian Mitchell patented a version of Neuberanner's camera,
adapted for sixteen millimeter film. It was just as lightweight
and the shutter would be run by an internal clockwork.
During the First and Second World Wars, it was noted
(03:57):
that pigeon photographers were a more reliable source of intelligences
than radio communication. American pigeons allegedly are the most decorated
of any animal, earning medals of honor for distinguished service,
and after the end of the Second World War, use
of pigeon photography passed into civilian fields. The CIA also
allegedly developed a battery powered pigeon camera in the nineteen seventies,
(04:19):
but its use is still classified. Apparently nowadays, the carrier
pigeon and the photographer pigeon are curiosities of the past,
eclipsed by instant messaging and drones.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
But in our modern age, perhaps we should revise the
cultural view of the pigeon to be more forgiving. They
may appear to be rats with wings, but maybe they've
earned a place in our cities, a just reward for
an animal that allowed humanity to communicate across thousands of
miles and sea for the first time with a bird's
eye view. It was holloween night nineteen ninety two and
(05:06):
a cast and crew of BBC's ghost Watch was celebrating
their ambitious program was going off without a hitch, giving
the British viewing public a good scare. Before bed, they
pulled off a feat never before seen in public television,
a mockumentary ghost hunting show that every viewer thought was broadcasting. Live.
Show creator Stephen Volk was just raising his glass to
(05:29):
toast the crew to a job well done, when a
woman burst into the studio. This woman, producer Ruth Baumgarten,
was ashen faced. She told them that over at the
BBC main offices, the switchboard was completely jammed. More than
twenty thousand people had called in about their show, and
every single caller was scared, confused, or simply furious. The
(05:50):
nineteen ninety two Ghostwatch debacle started, like most things, with
good intentions. Stephen Volk had initially wanted to broadcast a
simple six part drama about all haunting, but was convinced
by Ruth Baumgarten to shorten it to ninety minutes. It
was then that Vulk had a stroke of inspiration. Rather
than filming a cinematic ghost story, what if they framed
it like a BBC investigation, a special broadcast live from
(06:14):
a real, live haunted house. Ruth loved the idea, and
Ghostwatch was born. They put together a program following a
supposedly live investigation team into a haunted house. The feed
would cut back and forth to the studio, where a
BBC host would react in real time to what he
was seeing and hearing during the investigation. Of course, both
(06:35):
of these pieces were pre recorded, but the effect was
to make it seem like a live show. Ruth and
Stephen went a step further too, casting known and trusted
BBC anchors and presenters. Sarah Green, a host who was
normally featured on children's shows, joined the investigative team in
the haunted house. To someone watching at home on Halloween Night,
(06:56):
all of these factors made Ghostwatch appear to be a
live Broadway cast BBC documentary, which made its contents all
the more frightening. Before their eyes, viewers saw things fly
around the room and ghostly apparitions appear. Spirits wrestled for
control of the cameras from the crew, and in the
final minutes of the program, they watched Sarah Green, the
(07:17):
children's TV host, as she was dragged backward through a
door and disappeared into the darkness. To the crew of
Ghostwatch celebrating at the studio, the night was marked as successful.
But to the families watching at home and the children
seeing their favorite TV host kidnapped by a ghost, the
mood was much more horrifying. Thousands of complaints poured into
(07:39):
the BBC, from hysterical children to priests convinced the BBC
had just broadcast Witchcraft. Equal in number were the angry
calls made by viewers who were upset that they had
been duped. Remember that back in nineteen ninety two, reality
TV as we know it was still a thing of
the future. There had been a few shows that had
blurred the line between documentary and scripted drama, for sure,
(08:01):
But nineteen ninety two was the same year as the
first season of the Real World. It would be another
eight years before Survivor and another fourteen before The Hills,
probably the most well known reality show that fully scripted
most of its drama. So put yourself in the nineteen
ninety two viewers' shoes. These people were primed to think
that documentary style investigative shows produced by the BBC were
(08:24):
always going to be one hundred percent real. Ghostwatch had
an immediate and wide ranging fallout. Viewers believe that they
couldn't trust the BBC anymore. Multiple children were allegedly diagnosed
with PTSD, and, perhaps most tragically, one young viewer even
died by suicide. The British Broadcasting Standards Commission ruled that
(08:45):
the BBC had a duty to make it clear that
their program was fictional. It seemed that by featuring hosts
commonly seen on children's programs, the BBC had made it
seem like Ghostwatch was appropriate for children, much like the
Orson Wells nineteen thirty eight broadcast of War of the
World's The unexpected use of documentary style to present a
(09:05):
drama through people into a panic. Ghostwatch was never broadcast again,
and its creators were chastised by the public and the press.
But in retrospect, it seems like ghost Watch was simply
ahead of its time. If it had aired just a
few years later, maybe then it would have had the
ghost of a chance at success. I hope you've enjoyed
(09:30):
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, and you can
(09:52):
learn all about it over at the Worldolore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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