May 29, 2025 • 10 mins
Standing out in the world can take a lot of forms. These two stories are curious examples of just how great a mark we can make on the world.
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
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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):
Growing up, everyone got bored in school from time to time.
One of the things that can make for an especially
uninteresting class is learning seemingly useless information. When in life
will we ever use long division, or understand tectonic plate subduction,
or need to recall all fifty state capitals. Well, there
was one young girl in two thousand and four who
(00:57):
paid attention to seemingly useless information in her school, and
it ended up saving dozens of lives. Tilly Smith's parents
saved all they could to take her and her sister
away on a Crispmas holiday to Thailand. They thought that
it would be a nice break from the cold winter
in England and they had never been able to take
the girls on a holiday before. Little did they know
(01:18):
they picked an extremely fateful time to go to Southeast Asia.
The family enjoyed their time in Thailand. At first, the
jungle was beautiful, the hotels were very accommodating, and the
weather was warm. That was until the morning of December
twenty sixth, when they were walking along the beach near
their hotel. The sky was gray and the water seemed strange.
(01:39):
Tilly looked around and was surprised how far the water
had receded. The waves weren't gently coming and going as usual,
but had instead retreated all the way back to the horizon.
There were swimmers and whole boats left in the sand,
wondering where the water had gone. It confused everyone around Tilly,
but the phenomenon intrigued her. It seemed familiar somehow, and
(02:01):
that's when she remembered back to just a few weeks earlier,
when she was bored in class. Her science teacher had
been talking about something called a tsunami and showed a
video of one in Hawaii, where beforehand all the water
was sucked away from the beach. Tilly's heart started to pound,
and she knew what she needed to do. She told
her parents that this was a sign of a tsunami
(02:23):
and they needed to get off the beach. Her parents
had never heard the word before they barely knew what
she was saying. She kept screaming at them that they
had to go back. Her younger sisters started to cry,
but her parents were just annoyed. Her father took her
sister back to the hotel to try and calm her down,
but her mother insisted on continuing their walk. She thought
Tilly was just acting out. It was agonizing. Tilly wanted
(02:46):
to save herself, but she didn't want to leave her
mom behind. Ultimately, she felt she had no choice. If
her mom wouldn't listen, she would have to leave her.
She ran back to the hotel, where she found her
father and her sister in the lobby. They were talking
with a security guard who happened to be Japanese, and
when Tilly's father repeated the word that she had used, tsunami,
(03:07):
he knew exactly what it meant. He ran to the
beach and saw the water receding. By then, the giant
wave could already be seen on the edge of the horizon.
Hotel staff were quickly to evacuate the entire beach, including
Tilly's mom. The wave was hot on their heels and
it crashed down onto the beach just as they made
it to the lobby, They screamed and ran farther inside
(03:28):
as the wave blew through the doors and windows and
flooded the building. It was terrifying, but the walls were
enough to protect them from the worst of it. They
had survived. In the hours that followed, they learned that
this had been just one of many deadly waves that
had emanated from an underwater earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.
Two hundred and thirty thousand people died throughout Southeast Asia,
(03:50):
locals and tourists alike. Tilly and her family had to
witness as hotel staff and fellow tourists cope with the
loss of loved ones Over the next few days. It
wasn't uncommon to see people sobbing on the plane ride
back home. Today, the word tsunami is one that many
people know in part because of this disaster, which was
one of the deadliest in modern history. Curiously, it's believed
(04:13):
that about one hundred more people would have died that
day if Tilly hadn't remembered a seemingly useless bit of
trivia that she learned in school and worn the security guard.
It's a reminder that no knowledge is useless, okay, except
maybe for long division. All Gustav ever wanted was to
(04:44):
work in the family business, but his family wanted no
business with him. It hadn't started out that way. When
Gustav was born in eighteen thirty two near Dijon, France.
His tight knit family was essential to raising him. His
parents spent nearly all their time at their charcoal business,
leaving young Gustav to be raised by his grandmother. As
he grew older, his uncle, Jean Baptiste, took a special
(05:06):
interest in his education. Jean Baptiste had a business distilling
vinegar and owned a chemical plant in Dijon. While Gustav
was an okay student, he gladly spent hours listening to
his uncle talk about chemistry, mining, theology, and philosophy. His
uncle's teaching set Gustave on the path to school, where
he studied chemistry at one of France's most prestigious universities,
(05:29):
and it was during this time that something drew Gustav
to engineering as well as chemistry. It's possible that it
was the eighteen fifty five World's Fair in Paris, which
his mother bought him a ticket to, wandering the chan salize,
and gazing up at the magnificent structures newly built for
the fair, young Gustav found himself inspired. This shift in
interest proved to be lucky for him, because when Gustav
(05:52):
returned home later that year after school, things had irrevocably
changed his whole life. Gustav had had a plan. He
would get an education, then go to work for his
beloved uncle, distilling vinegar and working with chemicals. But this
wasn't to be. We don't entirely know what happened, but
somehow the family began to feud and Gustav's uncle refused
(06:12):
to take him on as an assistant. With his well
laid plans in complete disarray, Gustav had to figure out
what he was going to do with the rest of
his life. He started assisting a brother in law who
ran a foundry, and then worked as a secretary to
a railroad engineer, and when that fell through, a stroke
of good luck finally befell him. The railroad engineer got
(06:33):
Gustav a job designing a bridge for the railway. For
the first time, Gustav was designing and engineering something real,
an elegant bridge made of iron, and he found that
Not only did it suit him, but he was brilliant
at it. He had a special talent for creating graceful
yet sturdy iron structures that revolutionized railway travel in France.
(06:54):
His bridges weren't just functional, they were breathtakingly beautiful, proving
that engineering could be both practical and artistic. This talent
didn't go unnoticed, and soon enough his work was in
demand far beyond France. His innovative designs reached Spain, Portugal,
and even South America. Gustav spent the next few decades
leaving his mark on the architectural world. He built railway
(07:17):
stations in Hungary and churches in Peru, Fulfilling his childhood dreams.
He designed several pavilions for the Paris World's Fairs in
eighteen sixty seven and eighteen seventy eight, and in eighteen
eighty one he was even asked for help by a
sculptor creating a gift from Paris to the United States,
and so Gustav created the solid internal structure for the
(07:37):
one hundred and fifty foot tall Statue of Liberty. But
Gustav's most famous work had not yet been conceived. That
would come in eighteen eighty nine, at the grandest Paris
World's Fair ever. For the fair, a public competition was
announced for the exposition's centerpiece. Gustav and two other engineers
had been working on an idea for a colossal metal
(07:58):
tower one thousand feet tall, meant to evoke strength and grace.
They entered the competition and won. They had convinced the judges.
Now to convince the rest of France. There were critics
who simply believed the tower could not be built. They
claimed the design was too shoddy and the materials wouldn't
hold up. Others simply said that it would be an eyesore.
(08:20):
A tall, modern metal tower against the beautiful neoclassical architecture
of Paris. It was unthinkable. One person even called it
a giant, ugly street lamp. Undeterred, Gustav set to work.
Using more than eighteen thousand iron parts and over two
point five million rivets, his team erected a tower unlike
anything the world had ever seen. It stood as the
(08:42):
tallest man made structure in the world and held that
record for over forty years. At first, many Parisians hated it. Writers, artists,
and intellectuals signed petitions calling it a monstrosity, but as
the years passed by, the tower became not just an
accepted but the city's most beloved landmark. Today, millions of
(09:02):
visitors flocked to it every year, proving that great design
often takes time to be appreciated. And over one hundred
and thirty five years after his masterpiece first grace the
city skyline, Gustav's name is still one of the most
recognized in Paris when it came to making Marvel's Alexandra.
Gustav Eifel is one engineer who towered above the rest.
(09:29):
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 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,
(09:52):
and you can 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. 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):
Growing up, everyone got bored in school from time to time.
One of the things that can make for an especially
uninteresting class is learning seemingly useless information. When in life
will we ever use long division, or understand tectonic plate subduction,
or need to recall all fifty state capitals. Well, there
was one young girl in two thousand and four who
(00:57):
paid attention to seemingly useless information in her school, and
it ended up saving dozens of lives. Tilly Smith's parents
saved all they could to take her and her sister
away on a Crispmas holiday to Thailand. They thought that
it would be a nice break from the cold winter
in England and they had never been able to take
the girls on a holiday before. Little did they know
(01:18):
they picked an extremely fateful time to go to Southeast Asia.
The family enjoyed their time in Thailand. At first, the
jungle was beautiful, the hotels were very accommodating, and the
weather was warm. That was until the morning of December
twenty sixth, when they were walking along the beach near
their hotel. The sky was gray and the water seemed strange.
(01:39):
Tilly looked around and was surprised how far the water
had receded. The waves weren't gently coming and going as usual,
but had instead retreated all the way back to the horizon.
There were swimmers and whole boats left in the sand,
wondering where the water had gone. It confused everyone around Tilly,
but the phenomenon intrigued her. It seemed familiar somehow, and
(02:01):
that's when she remembered back to just a few weeks earlier,
when she was bored in class. Her science teacher had
been talking about something called a tsunami and showed a
video of one in Hawaii, where beforehand all the water
was sucked away from the beach. Tilly's heart started to pound,
and she knew what she needed to do. She told
her parents that this was a sign of a tsunami
(02:23):
and they needed to get off the beach. Her parents
had never heard the word before they barely knew what
she was saying. She kept screaming at them that they
had to go back. Her younger sisters started to cry,
but her parents were just annoyed. Her father took her
sister back to the hotel to try and calm her down,
but her mother insisted on continuing their walk. She thought
Tilly was just acting out. It was agonizing. Tilly wanted
(02:46):
to save herself, but she didn't want to leave her
mom behind. Ultimately, she felt she had no choice. If
her mom wouldn't listen, she would have to leave her.
She ran back to the hotel, where she found her
father and her sister in the lobby. They were talking
with a security guard who happened to be Japanese, and
when Tilly's father repeated the word that she had used, tsunami,
(03:07):
he knew exactly what it meant. He ran to the
beach and saw the water receding. By then, the giant
wave could already be seen on the edge of the horizon.
Hotel staff were quickly to evacuate the entire beach, including
Tilly's mom. The wave was hot on their heels and
it crashed down onto the beach just as they made
it to the lobby, They screamed and ran farther inside
(03:28):
as the wave blew through the doors and windows and
flooded the building. It was terrifying, but the walls were
enough to protect them from the worst of it. They
had survived. In the hours that followed, they learned that
this had been just one of many deadly waves that
had emanated from an underwater earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.
Two hundred and thirty thousand people died throughout Southeast Asia,
(03:50):
locals and tourists alike. Tilly and her family had to
witness as hotel staff and fellow tourists cope with the
loss of loved ones Over the next few days. It
wasn't uncommon to see people sobbing on the plane ride
back home. Today, the word tsunami is one that many
people know in part because of this disaster, which was
one of the deadliest in modern history. Curiously, it's believed
(04:13):
that about one hundred more people would have died that
day if Tilly hadn't remembered a seemingly useless bit of
trivia that she learned in school and worn the security guard.
It's a reminder that no knowledge is useless, okay, except
maybe for long division. All Gustav ever wanted was to
(04:44):
work in the family business, but his family wanted no
business with him. It hadn't started out that way. When
Gustav was born in eighteen thirty two near Dijon, France.
His tight knit family was essential to raising him. His
parents spent nearly all their time at their charcoal business,
leaving young Gustav to be raised by his grandmother. As
he grew older, his uncle, Jean Baptiste, took a special
(05:06):
interest in his education. Jean Baptiste had a business distilling
vinegar and owned a chemical plant in Dijon. While Gustav
was an okay student, he gladly spent hours listening to
his uncle talk about chemistry, mining, theology, and philosophy. His
uncle's teaching set Gustave on the path to school, where
he studied chemistry at one of France's most prestigious universities,
(05:29):
and it was during this time that something drew Gustav
to engineering as well as chemistry. It's possible that it
was the eighteen fifty five World's Fair in Paris, which
his mother bought him a ticket to, wandering the chan salize,
and gazing up at the magnificent structures newly built for
the fair, young Gustav found himself inspired. This shift in
interest proved to be lucky for him, because when Gustav
(05:52):
returned home later that year after school, things had irrevocably
changed his whole life. Gustav had had a plan. He
would get an education, then go to work for his
beloved uncle, distilling vinegar and working with chemicals. But this
wasn't to be. We don't entirely know what happened, but
somehow the family began to feud and Gustav's uncle refused
(06:12):
to take him on as an assistant. With his well
laid plans in complete disarray, Gustav had to figure out
what he was going to do with the rest of
his life. He started assisting a brother in law who
ran a foundry, and then worked as a secretary to
a railroad engineer, and when that fell through, a stroke
of good luck finally befell him. The railroad engineer got
(06:33):
Gustav a job designing a bridge for the railway. For
the first time, Gustav was designing and engineering something real,
an elegant bridge made of iron, and he found that
Not only did it suit him, but he was brilliant
at it. He had a special talent for creating graceful
yet sturdy iron structures that revolutionized railway travel in France.
(06:54):
His bridges weren't just functional, they were breathtakingly beautiful, proving
that engineering could be both practical and artistic. This talent
didn't go unnoticed, and soon enough his work was in
demand far beyond France. His innovative designs reached Spain, Portugal,
and even South America. Gustav spent the next few decades
leaving his mark on the architectural world. He built railway
(07:17):
stations in Hungary and churches in Peru, Fulfilling his childhood dreams.
He designed several pavilions for the Paris World's Fairs in
eighteen sixty seven and eighteen seventy eight, and in eighteen
eighty one he was even asked for help by a
sculptor creating a gift from Paris to the United States,
and so Gustav created the solid internal structure for the
(07:37):
one hundred and fifty foot tall Statue of Liberty. But
Gustav's most famous work had not yet been conceived. That
would come in eighteen eighty nine, at the grandest Paris
World's Fair ever. For the fair, a public competition was
announced for the exposition's centerpiece. Gustav and two other engineers
had been working on an idea for a colossal metal
(07:58):
tower one thousand feet tall, meant to evoke strength and grace.
They entered the competition and won. They had convinced the judges.
Now to convince the rest of France. There were critics
who simply believed the tower could not be built. They
claimed the design was too shoddy and the materials wouldn't
hold up. Others simply said that it would be an eyesore.
(08:20):
A tall, modern metal tower against the beautiful neoclassical architecture
of Paris. It was unthinkable. One person even called it
a giant, ugly street lamp. Undeterred, Gustav set to work.
Using more than eighteen thousand iron parts and over two
point five million rivets, his team erected a tower unlike
anything the world had ever seen. It stood as the
(08:42):
tallest man made structure in the world and held that
record for over forty years. At first, many Parisians hated it. Writers, artists,
and intellectuals signed petitions calling it a monstrosity, but as
the years passed by, the tower became not just an
accepted but the city's most beloved landmark. Today, millions of
(09:02):
visitors flocked to it every year, proving that great design
often takes time to be appreciated. And over one hundred
and thirty five years after his masterpiece first grace the
city skyline, Gustav's name is still one of the most
recognized in Paris when it came to making Marvel's Alexandra.
Gustav Eifel is one engineer who towered above the rest.
(09:29):
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 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,
(09:52):
and you can 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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