WEBVTT - REM Pods and Ghost Hunting 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.400 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.959 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, your ghost 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:21.599 host Jonathan Strickland, an executive producer at iHeart Podcasts, And 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.840 how the tech are you? And as we creep ever 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:30.920 closer to that creepiest of days, Halloween, it's time for 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.400 another spooky episode of tech Stuff. Now. On Monday's episode, 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:41.000 I talked about how photography gave certain Charlatans a tool 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:45.840 to purposefully fool the grief stricken and the gullible into 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.960 believing they were sitting for photos with ghostly companions, when 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:54.360 in fact, those grieving people were really just victims of 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:59.240 photographic tricks like double exposures and superimposed negatives. Today, I 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:02.160 want to talk about a device that has no purpose 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:06.319 other than to supposedly detect the presence of ghosts. These 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:10.279 are called RM pods. Now. I made this joke on Monday, 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:12.039 but I'm gonna go ahead and make it again because 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:15.240 I was very sad to hear that RM pods are not, 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:19.640 in fact little relaxation capsules that you can just crawl 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.760 into and then listen to the band Ram sing about 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:27.400 shiny happy people and Andy Kaufman and such. Instead, rim 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.720 pods are devices that are meant to detect electromagnetic fluctuations, 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:37.240 which many in the paranormal biz believe indicates the presence 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:41.680 of other worldly spirits. Now I mentioned this in Monday's 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.320 episode as well, but once again, for the folks in 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.640 the back, that's not how science works. You don't go 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:52.440 hunting for effects and then invent causes for those effects. 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.760 That's the stuff of myth. It's like thinking back to 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:59.720 prehistoric days when humans wondered what the heck was causing thunder, 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:01.400 and the best they could come up with is that 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:05.120 some extremely powerful gods we're having a hissy fit of 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:09.000 one sort or another. It's akin to writing here, there 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:13.080 be dragons on a map, because you don't actually know 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.280 what is beyond a certain part of the map, and 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:18.240 so just to be on the safe side, you imagine 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:20.880 something really awful and maybe that way you don't actually 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.359 have to go out there and find out for sure. Now, 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.639 the proper way to go about this whole thing would 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.480 be to first find evidence of the existence of ghosts, 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.800 like something that shows that ghosts do in fact exist. 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:40.079 Then you observe these ghosts to figure out what the 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:44.240 heck they do, what are they capable of doing? You 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.240 don't look for weird phenomena and then say, well, I 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.840 don't know what caused this, so it must be ghosts. 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:53.359 I suppose paranormal investigators would argue that there's a long 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:58.960 history of associating ghosts with EMF fluctuations, But since ghosts 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.359 have never been proven to exist, let alone that they 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:07.399 can affect or manipulate electromagnetic fields, that doesn't really work 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.640 for me. You know, some people say, well, the living 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:14.160 can affect electromagnetic fields, so it stands to reason that 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:18.280 the spirits can as well, but that doesn't really track. 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:24.280 It doesn't matter how long we've associated ghosts with EMF fluctuations, 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.120 it's never actually been proven to be a thing. So 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.760 if I just associate I don't know, the sensation of 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.280 an upset stomach with the color blue, it doesn't mean 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:38.240 the color blue is causing my upset stomach, even if 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.960 I've associated it, like, until we've proven that the color 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:46.360 blue is doing it to me, it's just coincidence, And 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.200 in this case, it's coincidence between something that's real, that 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.119 is the fluctuations of electromagnetic fields, and something that has 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:57.080 not been established to be real, that is ghosts. But 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:58.560 now that we've got all that out of the way, 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:03.120 let's talk about ariods. And there hesitate to use this 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:09.160 word inventor Gary Galka. Now, first, Galka was highly motivated 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:13.440 to make devices that could potentially detect ghosts for a 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:18.320 real and tragic reason. And I don't want to downplay this. 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.800 This is horrible. Galka tragically lost his daughter, Melissa in 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:26.080 a car accident in September two thousand and four. She 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:30.039 was just seventeen years old, and I cannot even begin 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:34.440 to imagine the emotional and psychological impact that had both 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:36.920 on him and the rest of his family. He has 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:41.000 a wife and two other daughters, and that's just heartbreaking. 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.680 Just a reminder, like the guiding principles for tech stuff 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:48.680 I've always said are critical thinking and compassion. I do 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.920 suggest we use critical thinking when we examine the work 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:56.760 and claims of Galka, but we also show compassion because 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.200 that's a horrible loss. But according to Galka, he and 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:05.000 his family were experiencing unusual phenomena over the days, weeks, 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:08.960 and months following Melissa's death. Now, Galka owns a business 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:14.000 called DAS Distribution, which designs high tech measurement systems such 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:19.000 as non contact measurement devices, and Galka builds sensors and 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.640 instruments that could be incorporated into other technologies for a 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:25.839 wide array of industries. So think about devices that are 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.600 meant to detect stuff like humidity within a controlled environment, 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.080 like if you've ever been in a museum where they've 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.640 had humidity sensors that kind of thing, or devices that 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.880 are designed to detect defects or malfunctions and equipment and 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:44.320 processes or devices that aid in the precise measurement when 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.520 working in fields that have no wiggle room for ambiguity, 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:51.080 where you absolutely have to get measurements down to the 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.080 most precise unit you can. That's the kind of thing 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:58.080 that Galica worked in and Galka turned this ingenuity toward 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:03.200 developing different gadgets in tended to aid the average ghost hunter. 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:07.120 These include things like spirit boxes, which I've talked about before. 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.560 Your typical spirit box is essentially a radio. It's a 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:15.960 receiver and it's cycling through radio frequencies typically pretty quickly. 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.320 They can go slower, but the more modern ones that 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:24.360 get a little bit more traction these days go fast, 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.599 and the belief is that ghosts, through some means of 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:32.200 manipulating radio frequencies, can communicate through these kinds of devices. 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:34.839 But a gadget that has a lot of ghost hunting 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:39.280 types gravitating towards it over the last couple of decades 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:43.880 has been the mel meter, which is named after Galca's 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:48.719 daughter Melissa, and rim pods. So rim pods are kind 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:50.960 of a stripped down version of the mel meter, or 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.560 the mail meter is like an EMF meter that has 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:55.840 an rim pod built into it, at least the more 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.120 advanced mailmeters are. I'll talk about them later in the episode, 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.160 but let's start with the rm pods first and then 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.960 we'll get into what makes melmeter slightly different. So the 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:10.240 basic idea behind the rim pod is that it detects 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:15.320 disruptions in an electromagnetic field, which the pod itself generates. 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:19.760 So the pod creates an electromagnetic field and then essentially 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.840 keeps a weather eye on if anything interferes with that 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.640 electromagnetic field, which sounds pretty high tech, but it turns 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.280 out the basic electronics inside rim pods, at least inside 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:34.760 the original version anyway, is a hobbykit variation of what 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.440 you would find inside of theremin Now we know that 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.920 because in twenty nineteen, a skeptic and science enthusiast named 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:46.080 Kinney Biddle, who has written articles for The Skeptical Inquirer 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:49.760 over several years, he bought an RM pod and he 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:52.280 took it apart to see what makes it tick, and 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.000 you can read his full explanation at Skeptical Inquirer dot org. 0:07:56.520 --> 0:08:00.520 His piece is titled ghost Hunting Gadgets the rim Pod. 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.560 But at the heart of the operation was a little 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:07.040 circuit called a junior Thereman. We'll talk about that in 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.880 just a moment. Now. I did an episode about Thereman's 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.680 way back in twenty eleven. Could Lord have been doing 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.960 this for a long time anyway? The Thereman is an 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:22.480 interesting musical instrument. It was invented in nineteen twenty eight 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.400 by a guy named Lev Turman, who had been changed 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.600 his name to Leon Thereman, and the device thus bears 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:35.120 his name. Interestingly, he didn't set out to make a 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:38.720 musical instrument to begin with. His actual goal was to 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:43.120 build a censor capable of detecting objects, kind of in 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:48.200 a way similar to how sonar works underwater. His methodology 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.840 didn't quite work out. It never could extend to a 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.360 point where it would be useful, Like if you did 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:59.880 detect an object with electromagnetic fluctuations, it would be when 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:01.640 the the object was close enough for you to kind 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.800 of see it and potentially touch it, so the meter 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.840 would not be of much use. However, he did figure 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.080 out a way to leverage this and create a musical 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.040 instrument that would require no contact. He thought of it 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.199 kind of like you would play this musical instrument as 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.240 if you were a conductor of an orchestra. Your hands 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:23.679 would never have to make contact with the instrument at all. 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:28.000 They would move around it and manipulate an electromagnetic field, 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.080 and then you would generate a sound through this instrument 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:33.559 that way. And it's not lost on me that nearly 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:37.760 a century later, Galica would essentially reverse this process of 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.959 turning a device meant to detect objects into a musical instrument, 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.760 and Galka would take a circuit meant to emulate a 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.679 musical instrument and turn it into a device that detects something, 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.800 not objects, but gigigos. Now, even if you've never seen 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.480 a thereman before, you've likely heard the noise it makes 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.880 this weird, warbly sound. You sometimes hear an old sign 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:05.640 fiction or horror films that whoaoo kind of stuff, very 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:09.400 warbly and unearthly. And your basic theramen is a box 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.240 that has two antenna extending from it. Typically one goes 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.800 vertical and one goes horizontal. And by positioning your hands 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.920 near the two antennas, you can cause the theramen to 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.720 create an electronic sound, and you can manipulate that electronic sound. 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:27.000 If you move your hand closer to or further from 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:31.360 the vertical antenna, you affect the pitch. If you move 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.240 your hand closer to or further from the horizontal antenna, 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:39.120 you affect the volume. To get more technical, a theremin 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:42.080 has a pair of oscillators connected to a circuit to 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:46.199 affect the pitch, so the vertical antenna. Here, one oscillator 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.760 is variable and the other is set to a fixed value. 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.080 The fixed value oscillator produces radio waves at a stable 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:57.200 static frequency. The variable oscillator can, as the name suggests, 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:01.080 generate a variable radio frequency, and the two signals mix 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:04.440 in a process that's called heterodyning, in which one frequency's 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:08.120 value is subtracted from the other. Now, the volume antenna 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:11.560 is simpler. It uses a single oscillator to generate a 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.600 frequency that you disrupt by moving your hand closer to 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.520 or further from the connected antenna, and that signal then 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:21.679 goes to an amplifier and ultimately to speakers to create 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.800 the warbly effect that we hear. And Leon Therreman first 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.440 noticed that the human body could disrupt electromagnetic fields while 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.120 he was working with an oscillating circuit that was just 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:34.880 generating a radio frequency, and he saw that when he 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.920 moved into the electromagnetic field, the frequency that was produced 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.720 by this circuit changed. And as Kenny Biddle found, that 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:45.640 was the basic concept of the arium pod as well, 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.640 except that instead of a device designed to make music, 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.720 it's meant to indicate if some sort of ghost is nearby, 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.400 or at least if something is interfering with the antenna's 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:58.760 electromagnetic field, which is more accurate. So let's describe the 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.640 device as Biddle in countered it. When he took it apart. 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:06.360 His RM pod had an exterior made of PVC coupling, 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:08.480 so the kind of stuff that you can buy at 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.840 your average hardware store. It was cylindrical in shape with 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:14.960 an extendable antenna in the top of it, and it 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:19.800 also had four translucent rods extending from the top. These 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.559 he believed were made out of hot glue stick, and 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:26.920 filling the PVC coupling was resin with more hot glue stick, 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.319 apparently mixed in potentially to help cut down on the 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:31.679 amount of resin needed to fill the whole thing, and 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:33.840 the four ends of the glue stick stuck up out 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.040 of the resin, and at the base of those glue 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.920 sticks were LED lights, so the lights would shine up 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.040 through the length of the hot glue stick so that 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:43.880 you could see the light at the top of the 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:48.760 RM pod right, so kind of an inexpensive way of 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:51.600 making sure the LEDs would show through. There was also 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.520 a small speaker at the center of the top of 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.520 the RAM pod that would emit an electronic noise if 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:01.280 the electromagnetic field were disturbed. The antenna, speaker, and the 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:05.520 lights under the glu sticks all connected to a junior 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.360 thereman circuit, and this in turn connected to a battery, 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:11.880 a nine volt battery in this case, and the circuit 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.320 basically recreates the function of a theremin. According to Biddle, 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:18.640 the whole thing or the circuit at least the junior 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.160 Thereman circuit cost around twenty dollars. So the original rim 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:26.000 pod was essentially a junior Thereman with some LED lights 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.520 added to it. And if you get close to the 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.640 junior Thereman's antenna, which is Biddle described as just a 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.080 piece of wire, you interrupt the electromagnetic field that it 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.240 generates and you cause it to go woo woo ooo 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.040 or whatever. You would need to be about six inches 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.840 or closer in order to set it off. Now, presumably 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.240 the wire from the junior Thereman's circuit connected to the 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:50.199 extendable antenna that protruded from the top of the rim pod, 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:52.559 and of course the lights would light up as well 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.640 in case you didn't pick up on the electronic squeal. Okay, 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.480 more about the rim pods in just a second, but 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:13.880 first let's listen to some spook key advertisements. We're back. 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:19.280 So Kinnny Bindle, he takes this rim pod and he 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.160 takes it apart, and he looks at what makes it tick. 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.720 And one of the things that he kind of bulked 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.520 at was that if you took all these components separately, 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.240 they'd probably cost you, I'm going to say less than 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:35.200 thirty dollars. I mean the junior thereman's circuit was twenty bucks. 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.960 I'm guessing that that was probably the most expensive component 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:44.080 in that device, So you're talking around. Let's be generous, 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:46.560 let's say forty dollars or less, but I think it's 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.920 probably less than thirty. Galka's company sold them at a 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:54.160 substantially higher price. So the current model, which is not 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.880 exactly the same thing that Biddle disassembled in twenty nineteen, 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:02.400 goes for about a one hundred and seventy dollars. Now 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:07.520 I should add that the current rim pod also includes 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.880 a temperature sensor in it, which was not in the 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:16.080 one that Biddle disassembled in twenty nineteen, and this temperature 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.480 sensor will alert you if the temperature around the pod 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:23.440 changes by plus or minus five degrees. But as I said, 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:25.640 the original rim pod didn't have a censor in it. 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:27.720 It was essentially a junior therem And kit with some 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:30.760 LED lights. So it was a novelty. In other words, 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.400 it was a novelty that had been repackaged and marketed 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.400 as a ghost hunting tool and then sold for a 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:41.520 heft markup. At least that's what Biddle found a piece 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:45.360 in NBC News back in twenty twelve mentioned that Galka's gadgets, 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.240 including but not limited to rim pods, had a range 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:50.760 of prices that went from seventy nine dollars on the 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.040 low end to a whopping three hundred and fifty bucks 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.640 on the high end. So this makes me very uncomfortable 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:02.800 because again, he didn't invent something new. He took existing 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:07.520 devices and combined them in a way that really, in 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:11.000 my opinion, was not transformative. Like you could have just 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.880 used the junior therem in circuit as is. You didn't 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:17.480 need the LED lights necessarily. I mean, you could connect 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.480 those two a circuit as well and power it and 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.680 get the same sort of result. But you could just 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.680 use the junior therem and circuit and listen for anything 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.200 that sets it off because it interferes with the field 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:33.360 that it generates, because that's essentially what the ram pod 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:35.480 is doing. That you could do that for like twenty 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:38.320 bucks plus whatever it costs you to buy a battery 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:40.560 for the darn thing, and then to have to pay 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.400 upwards of one hundred and seventy dollars for that kind 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:48.200 of thing seems a bit excessive in my opinion. Biddle 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.520 describes the way ghost hunters use this gadget. I'm actually 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:55.520 going to quote him directly here. Quote. When it comes 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:59.520 to ghost hunting, enthusiasts typically use the rim pod as 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.120 a spirit communication device. The device is placed in an 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:08.280 allegedly haunted location, room, hallway, staircase, et cetera, and ghost 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:12.840 hunters begin asking various questions. The ghosts are directed to 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.520 touch the device or make it light up. A positive 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.520 response occurs when the device lights up and makes noise, 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:23.600 and the spirits are thanked for their participation. End quote. 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.200 A little bit later on that same article, Biddle also 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:30.639 writes quote. In the event the ghost hunters receive no response, 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:33.960 the questions are often repeated multiple times, or the ghost 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:38.120 hunters move onto different questions until the device eventually lights up. 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.680 This is a similar method that to that used during 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:47.080 EVP Electronic voice phenomenon sessions, where ghost hunters are waiting 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:50.679 for a vocal response rather than hearing a tone played 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.480 along with some lights. If no response comes at all, 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:57.080 I often hear excuses such as the spirits don't want 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:00.200 to talk tonight, or it doesn't always work, but it 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.879 worked great last time. Quote. As Biddle points out, the 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:08.280 problem here is that there are plenty of opportunities for worldly, 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:13.119 mundane stuff to set off a device like an rim pod. 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:17.920 Not only has no one yet established the existence of ghosts, 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.280 let alone that they're capable of interacting with or manipulate 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:26.640 electromagnetic fields. We know for a fact there are plenty 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:30.760 of things that do interact with electromagnetic fields that are 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:34.440 not ghosts, you know, like cell phones or walkie talkies, 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:38.920 or even natural sources of radio waves. Biddle describes tests 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:41.600 in which he found rim pods to react to two 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.719 way radios from as far away as forty feet if 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.200 you were inside like indoors, or as far away as 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.399 twenty feet if you were outdoors. He even observed an 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.240 rim pod reacting when walkie talkies were used on the 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.280 floor above or below where the pod was. So if 0:18:57.320 --> 0:18:59.960 someone's upstairs and they're using the walkie talkie to chat 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.840 with someone, the rim pod could potentially pick that up 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.560 and go off, and you might not hear the person 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.520 upstairs talking, but you'll see the rim pod go off, 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.960 and you'll think, ah, ghosts. Often ghost hunting crews use 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.320 two way radios in order to stay in communication with 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:17.600 each other, or you know, someone could have a cell 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:19.800 phone on them and if they're sitting close enough to 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.960 the pod while the cell phone is connecting to the 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:25.760 closest tower to get updates, it could set off an 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.040 rim pod. So it's easy for an rim pod to 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:31.840 be set off either on purpose. Let's say that there's 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:35.320 someone who has an incentive to have the pod go off. 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.040 Maybe they're the host of a ghost hunting show and 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.439 they want the camera crew to capture some activity on 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:45.639 this rim pod. You know, maybe having a crew member 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.600 nearby just you know, casually have to use the two 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.920 way radio for something and whoa, hey, by coincidence, the 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.479 rim pod has gone off that looks good on camera. 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:56.520 Or it could just be done by accident, right. It 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:00.000 could be that you're sincerely looking for ghosts. You are 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:04.280 not trying to fool anyone. You're really just being as 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:07.440 straightforward as you can be. But because you're using two 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:11.000 way radios, you might accidentally set off the rim pod 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:15.639 and you have what you believe is a positive response, 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:18.600 when in turn, it really is a false positive. Biddle 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.280 laments the fact that ghost hunters rarely introduce controls to 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:26.080 eliminate outside interference with their equipment. This is I've found 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:29.439 to be true pretty much across the board, like some 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:33.400 ghost hunter types actually do try to use controls and 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:38.720 they get very lackluster response, like lackluster results, because as 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:41.320 it turns out, when you start to control for potential 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:47.119 interference that the existence of ghosts seems to just disappear. 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.960 So again, ghost hunters, I think are incentivized to not 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:54.120 use controls because if they do, then they don't get results. 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.480 So Biddle says, well, one way you could control for 0:20:57.560 --> 0:20:59.919 this kind of thing is you could use a Farred 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:04.680 cage in order to isolate an rim pod from environmental interference, 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:09.800 and thus the POD's own electromagnetic field will remain untouched 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:13.960 by anything outside like two way radio traffic or cell 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.280 phones or whatever, and only something inside the cage would 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.680 affect the rim pod. So I figured, that's a great 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:22.959 excuse to talk about what a Faraday cage is and 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:25.480 how it works. And just as a side note, this 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:28.679 was kind of fun while I was researching Faraday cages 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:31.600 because you know, I know general how they work, but 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.679 I wanted to get a refresher. I found an article 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:37.639 on how stuff works, which is my old employer, and 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.760 I was delighted to see that my old co host 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:44.520 and editor had a byline on that article. That's Chris Pollette, 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:47.439 by the way, my original co host for tech Stuff, 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:50.760 And so that was just nice because I miss Chris. 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:54.199 He's great. I loved working with him, both as a 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.680 writer and as a podcaster. Anyway, the Faraday cage is 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:01.119 named after a guy named Michael Faraday Cage. Wait, no, 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:04.280 I'm sorry, just Michael Faraday. But the earliest experiments were 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:10.760 performed by one, let's see, Benjamin Franklin. So old Benji 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:15.480 was experimenting with electricity. You might recall that he did 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:18.879 that a bit. So he took a can that was 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:22.760 made of silver, and he electrified the can, and he 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:27.320 experimented with lowering a piece of uncharged cork that was 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:31.439 on a non conductive thread and lowered it into the 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:34.120 can and had it touched the bottom of the can. 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:37.000 And what he found to be strange is that if 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:39.679 he were to bring the cork near the outside of 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:42.200 the can, like if you were to dangle the cork 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:46.560 so that was next to the exterior surface of the can, 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:50.080 the cork would get attracted to the can. It would 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:53.199 become charged. It would pick up an electrostatic charge and 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:56.159 it would be attracted to the can surface. But when 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:58.160 he was doing this on the inside of the can, 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:01.000 that didn't happen. The cork did not appeared to become 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:06.840 electrostatically charged, and Franklin couldn't figure out why. He was stumped. 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:09.480 He actually wrote to a friend of his that maybe 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:11.760 someone else would figure it out, because he could not 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:15.159 understand why it would work on the outside but not 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:19.600 the inside. Well decades later, Michael Faraday's experiments led him 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:24.359 to observe that if one created a metallic cage or 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:26.719 a container of some sort, like if you made a 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:32.240 mesh of metallic material and you electrified the mesh, it 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.680 actually would electrify the exterior surface. The charge would only 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:37.520 be on the outer surface of the cage, not the 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:40.480 inside of the cage. So essentially you had created a 0:23:40.600 --> 0:23:45.080 hollow conductor. All the conductivity happened on the outside, but 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:48.760 not the inside. And he even created a very large 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:51.919 experiment in which he lined in entire room's walls with 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:55.800 metallic foil. He electrified the foil, and he used a 0:23:55.880 --> 0:23:59.800 very sensitive instrument designed to detect electrical charges on the 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:02.919 side of the room and found no electrical charge on 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:06.560 the inside, just on the exterior surface of this foil. 0:24:06.840 --> 0:24:10.320 Now beyond that, his later observation showed that within a 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:15.840 Faraday cage, electromagnetic radiation also doesn't penetrate. So if you 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:18.920 were to put your cell phone inside of Faraday cage, 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:21.760 your cell phone would not receive any notifications or get 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:24.880 any updates. The cell phone would just be isolated from 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:28.200