July 22, 2025 • 10 mins
Invention is at the heart of so many curios tales from history. Even when they seem to happen right beside each other.
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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. 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):
On July second of eighteen eighty one, the world famous
inventor Alexander Grahambell was working at his lab in Washington,
DC when he received some shocking news. President James A.
Garfield had just been shot in the back at the
Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station while waiting for a train.
The assassin was a man named Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled
office seeker furious that Garfield hadn't rewarded him with a
(00:59):
cushy govern job. Guiteau was immediately arrested and Garfield was
rushed to the White House for treatment. Alexander Graham Bell,
who lived just a stone's throw from the White House
and had personally installed a telephone there a few years earlier,
followed the story with rabid interest. He was disturbed by
reports that the President's doctors couldn't find the bullet lodged
(01:20):
in his body. Days after the shooting, they were still
probing around in his wounds with their fingers, and if
they didn't get the bullet out soon, the president would
die of lead poisoning. Lying awake one night, Bell had
a realization this wasn't just a medical problem. It was
an engineering problem, and in a way, he had already
solved it. Flashback a few years to eighteen seventy seven.
(01:44):
Bell had just patented the world's first practical telephone, but
as his team rolled out that technology to the world,
they ran into a frustrating issue. When telephone conductors were
installed next to telegram wires, the signal became garbled with static.
It seems that the metal in the telegram wires was
interfering with the electromagnetic fields that Bell's telephone system relied on,
(02:07):
rendering them far less useful. As a clever workaround, Bell
and his team installed something called an induction balance device.
It equalized any interference from metal, cutting down on the static. Now,
as President Garfield lay dying in the White House, Bell
realized that the same principle could actually work in reverse.
Rather than canceling out the interference from metal, he could
(02:29):
amplify it, and so he got to work cobbling together
parts from his telephone and the induction balance device. Early
tests were promising too. When the machine passed over metal,
it emitted a distinct buzzing sound. When no metal was present,
there was silence. Bell tested the machine by firing bullets
into planks of wood and hiding them inside slabs of
(02:49):
raw meat. Each time the machine found the metal with ease.
Once he was satisfied, Bell contacted the White House and
offered his help. Doctor Willard Bliss, the President's head physician,
was skeptical, but Bell's reputation gave him enough credibility to
warrant a try. When he got to the White House,
he found Garfield lying on his left side. Bliss had
already determined that the bullet was somewhere on the President's
(03:11):
right and didn't want to move him, so Bell was
instructed to restrict his search area to that spot. As
he ran his machine over Garfield's body, it emitted a
faint buzz, indicating the presence of metal, but the signal
was weak and Bell couldn't pinpoint the exact location of
the bullet. Before he had the chance to troubleshoot, though
(03:31):
doctor Bliss hurried in telling him to come back when
the machine actually worked, Bell understandably was frustrated, but he
didn't give up. Back at his lab, he made adjustment
to reduce the machine's sensitivity to interference, and he ran
more tests. A Civil War veteran volunteered to be examined,
and when Bell's machine pinpointed a bullet lodged inside him,
(03:52):
Bell was convinced that it worked. On August second, he
returned to the White House and examined the President for
the second time. Only now there was no buzz, just
agonizing silence. For Bell, this could only mean one thing.
The bullet wasn't where they were looking. He suggested moving
the president for a more comprehensive search, but Bliss was
(04:12):
fed up. He dismissed the inventor, indicating that his help
was no longer needed. A few weeks later, on September nineteenth,
President Garfield died from the infection. The autopsy revealed what
Bell already suspected. The bullet was launched in his left side,
exactly where Bell had been told not to look. The
buzzing in his first examination was probably triggered by the
(04:33):
metal springs in Garfield's mattress. If Bliss had just been
willing to move the president, Bell would have been able
to find the bullet. Even if he had, though it
might not have changed anything because the bullet isn't what
killed Garfield. The real culprit was infection, introduced by doctors
poking around in his wounds with unwashed hands, years after
(04:54):
antiseptic methods had become standard practice in Europe. So while
he was shot by Charles Guittoux, many historians argue that
he was actually killed by his doctors, chief among them
doctor Bliss. Alexander grahmb Bell was heartbroken, but he took
solace in the fact that his invention worked. It just
needed a new name. You see, induction balance phone didn't
(05:16):
exactly roll off the tongue, so it's remembered today instead
as a metal detector. Stories often have multiple entry points,
(05:37):
like a big room with many entrances. So for our
second tale today, I want to revisit our first, only
from a different angle. But to do it, I'm going
to need you to use your imagination. Picture this. It's
July of eighteen eighty one, and you're a naval engineer
stationed in Washington, DC. One typical sticky afternoon, You're huddled
(05:57):
over some blueprints when an urgent message arrives. You're wanted
at the White House immediately for a top secret project
involving matters of national security and indoor cooling. That makes
you raise an eyebrow, but hey, it's July in Washington
and the city is infamous for its brutal humidity. Swampy
(06:18):
doesn't even begin to cover it. The Capitol becomes a
human oven every summer, which is why so many presidents
have historically fled town to escape the heat. So maybe
the current commander in chief is choosing a different tactic
by bringing in the big guns, meaning you. You press
for more details, but all they tell you is that
the request came straight from the top, and the top
(06:39):
is uncomfortably warm. So you grab your team and your
tools and you head over to sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue,
brainstorming ways to cool the President's quarters while he works. Now,
electric fans haven't been invented yet, but steam powered ones
do exist. They're just annoyingly cumbersome and noisy, probably not
something that president wants to hear. During his meetings. But
(07:02):
the moment you entered the White House, it's clear that
this is no comfort project. A grim mood hangs over
the building as stone faced staffers rush about, barely even speaking.
You're escorted down a hall and into a room that
smells faintly of alcohol and blood, and there he is,
President James A. Garfield is lying on a mattress in
the middle of the room, surrounded by a small army
(07:25):
of doctors. Briefly, they fill you in on the critical details.
The President was waiting for a train when he was
shot from behind at point blank range. The bullet was
still inside him, but the doctors haven't been able to
find it yet. They have, however, called for a specialist
whose unique skills might be able to help. But that's
not your concern. You just have to cool down the
(07:45):
room enough to keep him comfortable and conscious. Easier said
than done. But the President is burning up from the
heat and probably fever from an infection, so you get
to work. Over the next few days, your team assembles
a contraption the likes of which the world has never seen.
The main component is a bulky iron chest holding dozens
(08:06):
of screens with terry cloth stretched over them. Above this,
you rig a large tank holding a half ton of
shaved ice, water and salt. As the slush melts, it
drips down onto those screens, freezing them within seconds. And
the final piece is a steam powered fan which blows
air from the open window, through the screens and out
(08:27):
into the room. When it's all up and running, you
watch the temperature drop first by five degrees, then ten,
and then twenty. Soon the room is comfortably cool and
a heck of a lot less humid. On his sticky mattress,
President Garfield breathes a sigh of relief, while his doctors
silently applaud you. It's a small victory, but everyone in
(08:47):
the room can use a win at the moment. And
as you stand in the corner listening to your machine
hum away, you can't help but think about its potential
beyond the White House. Imagine if hospitals, factories, or even
ordinary homes could stay this cool in the summer. But unfortunately,
that's not happening anytime soon. The system you just created
is wildly inefficient, devouring four tons of ice each day
(09:11):
just to cool a single room. No expense is too
great to save the life of a president, but ordinary
citizens now, it'll never happen. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to
save the president. Garfield dies in September after months of
expensive cooling and prodding from the doctors. After he passes,
you return to the White House and quietly disassemble your machine,
(09:32):
recalling the delightful sensation of chilled air sweeping through the room,
and you can't help but feel that, for the briefest moment,
you touched the future. Today, historians look back on that
crude contraption as an early precursor to modern air conditioning.
Almost half a century would pass before mechanical cooling began
appearing in commercial buildings, and decades more before it reached
(09:54):
everyday homes. But the seed had been planted. So the
next time you're lying back in an air conditioned room
on a hot summer day, sipping a cold drink and
appreciating the breeze from that vent, take a moment to
toast President James A. Garfield, not just for his service,
but for sweating through one of the toughest moments in
the history of indoor cooling. It just goes to show
(10:15):
that when history turns up the heat necessity really is
the mother of invention. 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
(10:38):
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):
On July second of eighteen eighty one, the world famous
inventor Alexander Grahambell was working at his lab in Washington,
DC when he received some shocking news. President James A.
Garfield had just been shot in the back at the
Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station while waiting for a train.
The assassin was a man named Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled
office seeker furious that Garfield hadn't rewarded him with a
(00:59):
cushy govern job. Guiteau was immediately arrested and Garfield was
rushed to the White House for treatment. Alexander Graham Bell,
who lived just a stone's throw from the White House
and had personally installed a telephone there a few years earlier,
followed the story with rabid interest. He was disturbed by
reports that the President's doctors couldn't find the bullet lodged
(01:20):
in his body. Days after the shooting, they were still
probing around in his wounds with their fingers, and if
they didn't get the bullet out soon, the president would
die of lead poisoning. Lying awake one night, Bell had
a realization this wasn't just a medical problem. It was
an engineering problem, and in a way, he had already
solved it. Flashback a few years to eighteen seventy seven.
(01:44):
Bell had just patented the world's first practical telephone, but
as his team rolled out that technology to the world,
they ran into a frustrating issue. When telephone conductors were
installed next to telegram wires, the signal became garbled with static.
It seems that the metal in the telegram wires was
interfering with the electromagnetic fields that Bell's telephone system relied on,
(02:07):
rendering them far less useful. As a clever workaround, Bell
and his team installed something called an induction balance device.
It equalized any interference from metal, cutting down on the static. Now,
as President Garfield lay dying in the White House, Bell
realized that the same principle could actually work in reverse.
Rather than canceling out the interference from metal, he could
(02:29):
amplify it, and so he got to work cobbling together
parts from his telephone and the induction balance device. Early
tests were promising too. When the machine passed over metal,
it emitted a distinct buzzing sound. When no metal was present,
there was silence. Bell tested the machine by firing bullets
into planks of wood and hiding them inside slabs of
(02:49):
raw meat. Each time the machine found the metal with ease.
Once he was satisfied, Bell contacted the White House and
offered his help. Doctor Willard Bliss, the President's head physician,
was skeptical, but Bell's reputation gave him enough credibility to
warrant a try. When he got to the White House,
he found Garfield lying on his left side. Bliss had
already determined that the bullet was somewhere on the President's
(03:11):
right and didn't want to move him, so Bell was
instructed to restrict his search area to that spot. As
he ran his machine over Garfield's body, it emitted a
faint buzz, indicating the presence of metal, but the signal
was weak and Bell couldn't pinpoint the exact location of
the bullet. Before he had the chance to troubleshoot, though
(03:31):
doctor Bliss hurried in telling him to come back when
the machine actually worked, Bell understandably was frustrated, but he
didn't give up. Back at his lab, he made adjustment
to reduce the machine's sensitivity to interference, and he ran
more tests. A Civil War veteran volunteered to be examined,
and when Bell's machine pinpointed a bullet lodged inside him,
(03:52):
Bell was convinced that it worked. On August second, he
returned to the White House and examined the President for
the second time. Only now there was no buzz, just
agonizing silence. For Bell, this could only mean one thing.
The bullet wasn't where they were looking. He suggested moving
the president for a more comprehensive search, but Bliss was
(04:12):
fed up. He dismissed the inventor, indicating that his help
was no longer needed. A few weeks later, on September nineteenth,
President Garfield died from the infection. The autopsy revealed what
Bell already suspected. The bullet was launched in his left side,
exactly where Bell had been told not to look. The
buzzing in his first examination was probably triggered by the
(04:33):
metal springs in Garfield's mattress. If Bliss had just been
willing to move the president, Bell would have been able
to find the bullet. Even if he had, though it
might not have changed anything because the bullet isn't what
killed Garfield. The real culprit was infection, introduced by doctors
poking around in his wounds with unwashed hands, years after
(04:54):
antiseptic methods had become standard practice in Europe. So while
he was shot by Charles Guittoux, many historians argue that
he was actually killed by his doctors, chief among them
doctor Bliss. Alexander grahmb Bell was heartbroken, but he took
solace in the fact that his invention worked. It just
needed a new name. You see, induction balance phone didn't
(05:16):
exactly roll off the tongue, so it's remembered today instead
as a metal detector. Stories often have multiple entry points,
(05:37):
like a big room with many entrances. So for our
second tale today, I want to revisit our first, only
from a different angle. But to do it, I'm going
to need you to use your imagination. Picture this. It's
July of eighteen eighty one, and you're a naval engineer
stationed in Washington, DC. One typical sticky afternoon, You're huddled
(05:57):
over some blueprints when an urgent message arrives. You're wanted
at the White House immediately for a top secret project
involving matters of national security and indoor cooling. That makes
you raise an eyebrow, but hey, it's July in Washington
and the city is infamous for its brutal humidity. Swampy
(06:18):
doesn't even begin to cover it. The Capitol becomes a
human oven every summer, which is why so many presidents
have historically fled town to escape the heat. So maybe
the current commander in chief is choosing a different tactic
by bringing in the big guns, meaning you. You press
for more details, but all they tell you is that
the request came straight from the top, and the top
(06:39):
is uncomfortably warm. So you grab your team and your
tools and you head over to sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue,
brainstorming ways to cool the President's quarters while he works. Now,
electric fans haven't been invented yet, but steam powered ones
do exist. They're just annoyingly cumbersome and noisy, probably not
something that president wants to hear. During his meetings. But
(07:02):
the moment you entered the White House, it's clear that
this is no comfort project. A grim mood hangs over
the building as stone faced staffers rush about, barely even speaking.
You're escorted down a hall and into a room that
smells faintly of alcohol and blood, and there he is,
President James A. Garfield is lying on a mattress in
the middle of the room, surrounded by a small army
(07:25):
of doctors. Briefly, they fill you in on the critical details.
The President was waiting for a train when he was
shot from behind at point blank range. The bullet was
still inside him, but the doctors haven't been able to
find it yet. They have, however, called for a specialist
whose unique skills might be able to help. But that's
not your concern. You just have to cool down the
(07:45):
room enough to keep him comfortable and conscious. Easier said
than done. But the President is burning up from the
heat and probably fever from an infection, so you get
to work. Over the next few days, your team assembles
a contraption the likes of which the world has never seen.
The main component is a bulky iron chest holding dozens
(08:06):
of screens with terry cloth stretched over them. Above this,
you rig a large tank holding a half ton of
shaved ice, water and salt. As the slush melts, it
drips down onto those screens, freezing them within seconds. And
the final piece is a steam powered fan which blows
air from the open window, through the screens and out
(08:27):
into the room. When it's all up and running, you
watch the temperature drop first by five degrees, then ten,
and then twenty. Soon the room is comfortably cool and
a heck of a lot less humid. On his sticky mattress,
President Garfield breathes a sigh of relief, while his doctors
silently applaud you. It's a small victory, but everyone in
(08:47):
the room can use a win at the moment. And
as you stand in the corner listening to your machine
hum away, you can't help but think about its potential
beyond the White House. Imagine if hospitals, factories, or even
ordinary homes could stay this cool in the summer. But unfortunately,
that's not happening anytime soon. The system you just created
is wildly inefficient, devouring four tons of ice each day
(09:11):
just to cool a single room. No expense is too
great to save the life of a president, but ordinary
citizens now, it'll never happen. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to
save the president. Garfield dies in September after months of
expensive cooling and prodding from the doctors. After he passes,
you return to the White House and quietly disassemble your machine,
(09:32):
recalling the delightful sensation of chilled air sweeping through the room,
and you can't help but feel that, for the briefest moment,
you touched the future. Today, historians look back on that
crude contraption as an early precursor to modern air conditioning.
Almost half a century would pass before mechanical cooling began
appearing in commercial buildings, and decades more before it reached
(09:54):
everyday homes. But the seed had been planted. So the
next time you're lying back in an air conditioned room
on a hot summer day, sipping a cold drink and
appreciating the breeze from that vent, take a moment to
toast President James A. Garfield, not just for his service,
but for sweating through one of the toughest moments in
the history of indoor cooling. It just goes to show
(10:15):
that when history turns up the heat necessity really is
the mother of invention. 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
(10:38):
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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