May 14, 2019 • 9 mins
Some things happen despite being difficult to explain, while others look simple on paper but never materialize. Let's explore one of each on today's tour through the Cabinet.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
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. It only took four months
(00:29):
to build, but by the time it launched from Philadelphia
in April of seventeen eighty, the U S S. Saratoga
was one of the finest sloops to ever sail during
the Revolutionary War. She was sixty eight feet long and
weighed one fifty tons. With a complement of eighty six officers,
Her armament consisted of sixteen nine pounder guns as well
(00:50):
as two four pounder guns, allowing her to protect herself
and the ship she escorted from the Delaware River to
England and everywhere in between. Their first mission had been
to accompany the male ship Mercury from Philadelphia to Europe. However,
the Sarasota's crew had been untrained and the ship proved
unstable on the high seas. As a result, it was
(01:12):
relieved of its duties so it's captain, John Young could
whip his men into shape while awaiting further orders. He
taught them how to run the ship as a team
and operate the guns, turning the Saratoga into a formidable
vessel despite her size. They spent the next year sailing
in pursuit of enemies along the Eastern Seaboard, capturing British
(01:33):
cargo ships and escorting them back home to have their
contents sold, bringing much needed funding to the Continental Army.
After several successful missions, including a recent recapture of a
British brig named Providence, it was time for the U. S. S.
Saratoga to return to Philadelphia for some minor repairs, and
then it would begin the biggest mission of its career.
(01:55):
In December of seventeen eighty, Captain Young and his crew
set out for the Caribbean, their destination the Isle of Hispaniola,
where they'd received word that a cash of French military
supplies were awaiting transportation back to America. Once the ship
reached the tropical waters off the coast of the island,
one of the merchant men aboard spotted a British sale
(02:15):
not far from their position. The Saratoga went to investigate,
and when they got close enough, they fired a four
pound shot across the ship's bow. Now identified as the Resolution,
the enemy ship turned to attack. The return fire didn't
do much damage to the Saratoga, but Captain Young's crew
managed to seriously injure the other vessel, forcing them to surrender.
(02:38):
He sent a small prize crew to take the Resolution
up to Delaware for processing, an auction escorted by the Saratoga.
They reached their destination on New Year's Day of seventy one,
dropped off the Resolution and set sail once again for
the Caribbean. Hours later, as they reached Florida, the Saratoga
caught another enemy ship, the Tonian. After an intense struggle,
(03:00):
towards the end of January, the Saratoga arrived on the
coast of Haiti with a Tonian in tow. The prize
ship was handed over to the French Admiralty Court, while
the Saratoga awaited the French military supplies that it had
originally come for. The governor of a local French colony
asked the Saratoga to accompany the other Continental frigates in
the harbor on their way to Jamaica, which Captain Young
(03:23):
was only too happy to oblige. After all, his job
wasn't just to capture enemy ships, but to escort allies
to safety as well. A full month passed before the
convoy of frigates and merchant ships left the coast of
Haiti one last time, bound for the Cabbean. Three days
into their journey, however, they spotted two sails off to
the west. The Saratoga took off in pursuit of the
(03:47):
rogue ships, one of which surrendered right away. Captain Young
tasked a crew headed by his midships men, a man
named Pinfield, with commandering the latest prize. Young and the
Saratoga planned on going after the other ship. Penfield watched
as the Saratoga pursued the second ship when high winds
nearly capsized his newly acquired vessel. Correcting the ship only
(04:10):
took a few minutes, but by the time he had
studied it and glanced back up at the ocean, the
Saratoga was gone. It hadn't faded off into the horizon
or sailed out of view behind something larger. It had
simply disappeared utterly and completely, and the Saratoga, along with
(04:30):
its crew and Captain Young, we're never seen again. Curious.
When the first commercial electrical telegraph debuted in eighteen thirty seven,
(04:55):
it heralded a new era of long range communication. Everyone
knows about Samuel Morse and his system of dots and dashes,
but it was the device created by William Cook and
Charles Wheatstone that really put the telegraph on the map.
Their telegraph consisted of a series of needles that pointed
to letters on a board with the help of electromagnetic coils.
(05:16):
For early operators who didn't want to bother learning a
whole new language, the Cook and wheat Stone telegraph proved
easy to use, and thus it was widely adopted. In fact,
it's use in catching the murderer John tay well In
probably helped the public and other organizations accept the telegraph
in their daily lives. But no invention, no matter how useful,
(05:40):
stays the same forever it is iterated upon. To increase
efficiency and reduce cost, The Cook and Wheatstone system was
easy to use, but it was expensive to maintain. It
also took longer to send simple messages. The Morse code system,
while appearing more difficult to learn at first, was eventually
adopted and understood by skilled technicians who could distinguish letters
(06:03):
by the length of intervals between clicks. Then they would
write out the messages longhand on a piece of paper.
Of course, the technology still had a room to grow,
and in eighteen fifty one one man had a theory
about how to transmit messages all over the world even faster.
It required no special code or training. His idea let
(06:24):
mother nature do the work. Jacques Toussain Benois was a
French occultist with a fascination for how animals communicated. For example,
he suggested that when snails made it, they secreted a
special fluid that allowed them to talk to one another telepathically.
He called it sympathetic communication, and he believed the connection
(06:46):
worked immediately anywhere in the world, no matter how far
apart the snails were. Benois, however, had no money to
construct his snail telegraph, so he convinced a Paris gym
owner named Monsieur Tree to provide him a place to
stay and a small allowance. After having convinced him how
important it was that he brought his work to fruition.
(07:09):
A year went by and Tria demanded to see what
his hospitality had earned him. Ben Wat showed him what
he had been working on. He'd built a scaffold using
wooden beams about ten ft long. Atop the beams were
twenty four bulls made of zinc which had been lined
with cloth drenched in copper sulfate. Glued to the bottom
of each bowl was a snail linked to a different
(07:31):
letter of the alphabet. It also constructed an identical machine,
except in each of its bowls were the mates of
the snails in the first machine. Whenever he tapped a
snail on one device, the corresponding snail on the other
device would react. At least that was the idea. Benois
demonstrated his contraption to Tria as well as to a
(07:53):
journalist from a popular conservative publication at the time. He
instructed each of the men to stand behind one of
the device is and tap out a word, one snail
at a time, while ben Wah would await the message
at the other device and repeat it back to them
when they finished. The journalist was floored by what he witnessed.
He called it a revelation. Tria, however, wasn't convinced to
(08:16):
him it didn't work as advertised. Tria had spelled out
the word jim nas, which ben Wat transcribed as jim
No eight. The inventor also had a habit of strolling
up and down the aisle formed between the two devices
to monitor how the men were operating it, which didn't
sit well with his skeptical investor. Tria figured the whole
(08:37):
operation to be a sham. He ordered a second demonstration
to be conducted in the coming days, which Ben Wah
happily agreed to. Except the demonstration never happened. You see,
when the big day finally arrived, Ben Wat was nowhere
to be found. He'd slipped away, leaving Tria and the
journalist high and dry with a bunch of snails to
(08:57):
clean up. In hindsight, the whole idea it turned out
to be too good to be true, if only a
Tria had gotten the message. 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
(09:17):
visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
me Aaron Manky 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 World of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious,
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. It only took four months
(00:29):
to build, but by the time it launched from Philadelphia
in April of seventeen eighty, the U S S. Saratoga
was one of the finest sloops to ever sail during
the Revolutionary War. She was sixty eight feet long and
weighed one fifty tons. With a complement of eighty six officers,
Her armament consisted of sixteen nine pounder guns as well
(00:50):
as two four pounder guns, allowing her to protect herself
and the ship she escorted from the Delaware River to
England and everywhere in between. Their first mission had been
to accompany the male ship Mercury from Philadelphia to Europe. However,
the Sarasota's crew had been untrained and the ship proved
unstable on the high seas. As a result, it was
(01:12):
relieved of its duties so it's captain, John Young could
whip his men into shape while awaiting further orders. He
taught them how to run the ship as a team
and operate the guns, turning the Saratoga into a formidable
vessel despite her size. They spent the next year sailing
in pursuit of enemies along the Eastern Seaboard, capturing British
(01:33):
cargo ships and escorting them back home to have their
contents sold, bringing much needed funding to the Continental Army.
After several successful missions, including a recent recapture of a
British brig named Providence, it was time for the U. S. S.
Saratoga to return to Philadelphia for some minor repairs, and
then it would begin the biggest mission of its career.
(01:55):
In December of seventeen eighty, Captain Young and his crew
set out for the Caribbean, their destination the Isle of Hispaniola,
where they'd received word that a cash of French military
supplies were awaiting transportation back to America. Once the ship
reached the tropical waters off the coast of the island,
one of the merchant men aboard spotted a British sale
(02:15):
not far from their position. The Saratoga went to investigate,
and when they got close enough, they fired a four
pound shot across the ship's bow. Now identified as the Resolution,
the enemy ship turned to attack. The return fire didn't
do much damage to the Saratoga, but Captain Young's crew
managed to seriously injure the other vessel, forcing them to surrender.
(02:38):
He sent a small prize crew to take the Resolution
up to Delaware for processing, an auction escorted by the Saratoga.
They reached their destination on New Year's Day of seventy one,
dropped off the Resolution and set sail once again for
the Caribbean. Hours later, as they reached Florida, the Saratoga
caught another enemy ship, the Tonian. After an intense struggle,
(03:00):
towards the end of January, the Saratoga arrived on the
coast of Haiti with a Tonian in tow. The prize
ship was handed over to the French Admiralty Court, while
the Saratoga awaited the French military supplies that it had
originally come for. The governor of a local French colony
asked the Saratoga to accompany the other Continental frigates in
the harbor on their way to Jamaica, which Captain Young
(03:23):
was only too happy to oblige. After all, his job
wasn't just to capture enemy ships, but to escort allies
to safety as well. A full month passed before the
convoy of frigates and merchant ships left the coast of
Haiti one last time, bound for the Cabbean. Three days
into their journey, however, they spotted two sails off to
the west. The Saratoga took off in pursuit of the
(03:47):
rogue ships, one of which surrendered right away. Captain Young
tasked a crew headed by his midships men, a man
named Pinfield, with commandering the latest prize. Young and the
Saratoga planned on going after the other ship. Penfield watched
as the Saratoga pursued the second ship when high winds
nearly capsized his newly acquired vessel. Correcting the ship only
(04:10):
took a few minutes, but by the time he had
studied it and glanced back up at the ocean, the
Saratoga was gone. It hadn't faded off into the horizon
or sailed out of view behind something larger. It had
simply disappeared utterly and completely, and the Saratoga, along with
(04:30):
its crew and Captain Young, we're never seen again. Curious.
When the first commercial electrical telegraph debuted in eighteen thirty seven,
(04:55):
it heralded a new era of long range communication. Everyone
knows about Samuel Morse and his system of dots and dashes,
but it was the device created by William Cook and
Charles Wheatstone that really put the telegraph on the map.
Their telegraph consisted of a series of needles that pointed
to letters on a board with the help of electromagnetic coils.
(05:16):
For early operators who didn't want to bother learning a
whole new language, the Cook and wheat Stone telegraph proved
easy to use, and thus it was widely adopted. In fact,
it's use in catching the murderer John tay well In
probably helped the public and other organizations accept the telegraph
in their daily lives. But no invention, no matter how useful,
(05:40):
stays the same forever it is iterated upon. To increase
efficiency and reduce cost, The Cook and Wheatstone system was
easy to use, but it was expensive to maintain. It
also took longer to send simple messages. The Morse code system,
while appearing more difficult to learn at first, was eventually
adopted and understood by skilled technicians who could distinguish letters
(06:03):
by the length of intervals between clicks. Then they would
write out the messages longhand on a piece of paper.
Of course, the technology still had a room to grow,
and in eighteen fifty one one man had a theory
about how to transmit messages all over the world even faster.
It required no special code or training. His idea let
(06:24):
mother nature do the work. Jacques Toussain Benois was a
French occultist with a fascination for how animals communicated. For example,
he suggested that when snails made it, they secreted a
special fluid that allowed them to talk to one another telepathically.
He called it sympathetic communication, and he believed the connection
(06:46):
worked immediately anywhere in the world, no matter how far
apart the snails were. Benois, however, had no money to
construct his snail telegraph, so he convinced a Paris gym
owner named Monsieur Tree to provide him a place to
stay and a small allowance. After having convinced him how
important it was that he brought his work to fruition.
(07:09):
A year went by and Tria demanded to see what
his hospitality had earned him. Ben Wat showed him what
he had been working on. He'd built a scaffold using
wooden beams about ten ft long. Atop the beams were
twenty four bulls made of zinc which had been lined
with cloth drenched in copper sulfate. Glued to the bottom
of each bowl was a snail linked to a different
(07:31):
letter of the alphabet. It also constructed an identical machine,
except in each of its bowls were the mates of
the snails in the first machine. Whenever he tapped a
snail on one device, the corresponding snail on the other
device would react. At least that was the idea. Benois
demonstrated his contraption to Tria as well as to a
(07:53):
journalist from a popular conservative publication at the time. He
instructed each of the men to stand behind one of
the device is and tap out a word, one snail
at a time, while ben Wah would await the message
at the other device and repeat it back to them
when they finished. The journalist was floored by what he witnessed.
He called it a revelation. Tria, however, wasn't convinced to
(08:16):
him it didn't work as advertised. Tria had spelled out
the word jim nas, which ben Wat transcribed as jim
No eight. The inventor also had a habit of strolling
up and down the aisle formed between the two devices
to monitor how the men were operating it, which didn't
sit well with his skeptical investor. Tria figured the whole
(08:37):
operation to be a sham. He ordered a second demonstration
to be conducted in the coming days, which Ben Wah
happily agreed to. Except the demonstration never happened. You see,
when the big day finally arrived, Ben Wat was nowhere
to be found. He'd slipped away, leaving Tria and the
journalist high and dry with a bunch of snails to
(08:57):
clean up. In hindsight, the whole idea it turned out
to be too good to be true, if only a
Tria had gotten the message. 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
(09:17):
visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
me Aaron Manky 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 World of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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