WEBVTT - Taking a Ride in an Ambulance 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:11.920 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from dot Com. Eathan, 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:15.800 and welcome to Text Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland and today 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:20.480 joining me in the studio once again my colleague, my buddy, 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.639 my fellow improviser, Ben Boland. Welcome back to the show. 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:28.120 Hey Jonathan, thank you again for having me on, and listeners, 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:31.760 thank you also for allowing me onto one of your 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:37.240 favorite shows today. I'm here under the auspice of car Stuff. Yeah. 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.080 In fact, this was because a request, a specific request 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.080 from one of my listeners. I shall just read out 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.319 the email. Hi, Jonathan, I was catching up on some 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.800 Tech Stuff episodes and had a crazy topic that I've 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.640 not heard anyone outside the industry really talk about. Have 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.520 you ever considered teaming up with Ben or Scott to 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.320 talk about the tech of ambulances? Firefighting equipment is talked 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.320 about adding zeum in public forums, and fancy new medical 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.920 equipment sometimes gets the spotlight. But what about the ambulance. 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:09.080 I'll admit that until recently they hadn't changed significantly since 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:11.720 the nineteen seventies when they were modified from being inspired 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.679 from hers is the only vehicle designed for a passenger 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:18.920 lying down at the time. However, now, ambulances range from 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.640 the massive bariatric trucks to the new Mercedes Sprinter that 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:25.040 have mixed reviews to work in to the Volvo car 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:30.240 based ambulances Europe is experimenting with. It has taken nearly 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:33.720 half a century, but the humble ambulance is beginning to 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.320 see some innovations, including the introduction of safety features. Watch 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:41.319 ambulance crash tests on YouTube, Efficiency and tech to save lives. 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.640 I'm certainly biased, being a volunteer medic and having many 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.120 paramedic friends, but maybe you, Scott or Ben and the 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.120 Tech Stuff audience could find it an interesting topic to 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:55.080 dive into. Take Care Lee, Yeah, no, you know I 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:59.000 recognize Lee's name, and I think this is such a 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.000 fantastic se gestion. Uh. Scott and I have been doing 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.600 car stuff for quite a while, um, not quite as 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:06.880 long as Tech Stuff, which is one of the original 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:11.120 three podcast we ever started making. But we have this 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.280 moment which I'm sure you've encountered to, Jonathan, where you're 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:16.399 looking back over a list of all the stuff you've 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.880 done and you go, wait, we haven't done this when 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.480 really heck I went to how stuff works dot com 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.920 typed an ambulance. Can't believe we don't have how ambulances work, right, Yeah, 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:31.080 and uh, now we are verging on the very first 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:35.760 official explanation of how ambulances work every ever, not not 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:38.000 just for how stuff works. I'm saying like no one 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:41.280 has taken the time to actually explain this until this moment, right, 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:46.079 which might be hyperbolie, scoot to the edge of your seats, 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.959 um or you know, if you're driving, I guess, uh, 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:54.400 stay focused on the road, right because number one, that's 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:58.000 rule number one. Of course. Now we looked into, um, 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:01.639 we looked into some surprise twist and turns about the 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.839 story of the ambulance. And one of the things that 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.560 a lot of people don't really think about is that 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:13.200 the ambulance itself predates the automobile. Yeah. In fact, ambulance 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.720 can apply to lots of different types of vehicles. And 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:21.519 to really understand the importance and the place of the ambulance, 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:23.919 you kind of got to look back into history. And 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.240 the word itself, ambulance comes from the Latin word ambulaire 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:32.040 or ambulare if you prefer don't, I don't speak with Latin, so, 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.640 but that means to move about and the earliest ambulances 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.600 weren't really about necessarily getting sick or injured people to 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.440 medical treatment. Uh. They were more about moving them away 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:43.760 from the healthy people by force, so kind of like 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.200 a prison bus for sick people. Now that there were 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.080 different kinds, right, you had you had the military type, 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:52.760 which was all about retrieving injured soldiers and moving them 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.240 out of the field of battle. But then you also 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:59.680 had the type that were in more populated like urban areas, 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:01.600 some of the growing cities, and that was more about 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.480 this person over here doesn't seem to be acting properly. 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.080 Let's get this person away from everybody else before it spreads. Yeah, 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.640 let's put you on the plague cart. Yeah. And it 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.119 could have been the plague, It could have been mental illness, 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.279 medicine wasn't quite where it was, could have been your neighbors, 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.000 or just a bunch of jerks. It will claim that 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:27.560 you are sick. Yeah, yeah, I got that. That werewolf 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.720 is UM. But if you look at the the development 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.480 of emergency response, you'll see that it is in fact 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.479 closely tied to warfare. Again, not a big surprise. UM. 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:39.839 During the Roman era, you would have teams of soldiers 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.280 that would carry away the injured on litters. That would 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.920 be like a device that would be not quite a cart. 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:48.960 It's kind of hooked up, usually to an animal of 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:53.000 some sort, and it carries you at an incline. The 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.039 other end of it drags on the ground. Often it's 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.560 not the most comfortable way to move around, or they 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.920 might use stretchers. They would actually receive compensation for each 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:06.720 wounded soldier returned safely, which is interesting when you think 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:10.200 about working on commission. It's it's probably one of the 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:16.000 most efficient, although soulless, ways to ensure that they maximize 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:18.440 their efficiency, right, Yeah, yeah, it was really and this 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.640 was something that was common throughout the ancient to medieval 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:26.279 era of warfare, was that there would be a reward 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:30.760 given for the return of wounded soldiers because often in 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:33.600 this era you had at the end of the battle 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.160 one side, whichever side was you know, less worse off, 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:39.279 because I don't know that you can call anyone a 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:43.920 winner really, but whichever side quote unquote one the battle 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.200 would end up taking prisoners and then ransoming them off, 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.640 so being able to be removed from the field of 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.279 battle when you're no longer able to fight without being 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:57.159 captured by the enemy was a big deal. So the 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.479 Knights of St John a k a. The Knights of 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:04.560 Malta or the Knights Hospitalitier were charged with the purpose 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:06.960 to care for the poor, the injured and the sick 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:11.159 back in the eleventh century. They were formed about the 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.440 same time as the Knights Templar, because this is all 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.120 during the time of the Crusades. Now, the reason I 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:18.760 bring up the Knights of St John is because they 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:23.240 were very much involved in the retrieval of wounded soldiers 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.520 during Battle uh And when the Knights Templar were officially 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:30.640 dissolved in twelve, much of the wealth that they owned, 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:32.599 and there was a lot of it, went to the 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.920 Knights of St. John and the order itself divided into 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.080 two branches. One of them became a military order similar 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:41.719 to the Knights Templar, and the other one continued to 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:43.760 care for the sick and injured. Now one of those 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:48.120 two branches no longer exists, right I guess which one 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.719 the military order. That's that's an excellent guest, and you 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.200 are correct, sir, Thank you. I am a bit of 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:56.599 an armchair guess. Or one thing that is interesting about 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.000 this before we move on however, with the Knights of St. 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.160 John is that I believe, and it may being correct here, 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.440 but I believe this was one of the first organizations, 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.920 at least in the West, that would care for people 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:14.680 regardless of which side. That's that's correct. They would They 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.720 would retrieve soldiers wounded from any side of a battle 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:21.880 and treat them. Uh, they're the Maltese Cross. Also eventually 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:28.440 evolved into the Red Cross. Uh. Also just random trivia here. 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:31.840 One of my distant relatives used to rule Malta. So 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:38.200 what yeah, wait, when are you serious? I am absolutely serious? Okay? 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:40.720 Is this um? Could you give me some time and 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:46.320 space contacts? Were we talking like nineteen seventies, early twentieth century, nine, 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:51.760 early I think thirty seven maybe? Uh? Yeah, his his um. 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:58.480 His governing of Malta was not without political issues, political 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.600 and religious issues. That's all I can really say about 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:04.280 that without turning this podcast into something completely Okay, But 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:06.640 for the record, I think people probably want to hear 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.360 that story. I know I do, so we can talk 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.840 about it off the air. Since it doesn't sound like 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:16.360 the controversy was ambulance related, It wasn't. It wasn't. So 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:20.360 the Spanish now moving on from from the eleventh to 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.880 fourteenth centuries, they began to use wagons to transport people 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:27.760 in need of emergency medical care back in fourteen eight seven, 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.440 that's during the whole like we're getting into Ferdinand and 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:36.920 Isabella time. They also introduced field hospitals, which were called ambulancia's, 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:39.600 So that was the that referred to the field hospital, 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:43.079 not the wagon. Now, these field hospitals were tense that 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.480 had medical and surgical supplies in them, but they were 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:49.800 very rarely used. It was hard to actually get soldiers 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:51.680 to where they needed to be. These wagons were not 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:56.160 terribly maneuverable, and it wouldn't really be until the seventeen hundreds, 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.440 three years later that you would actually see wounded soldiers 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.000 receiving treatment and field hospitals will be carried away by 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:05.520 an emergency vehicle on a regular basis. And that still 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.360 wasn't perfect, right, Like a lot of people died on 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:10.760 the way to or from Oh yeah, no, if you 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:14.040 look at if you look at casualty records, Uh, one 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:17.720 of the many reasons why researching this was getting to 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.160 me today. But if you look at casualty records, it's 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:22.840 a pretty grim story. So you see the number of 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.240 people who were outright killed, and then you see the 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:31.920 number of people who were retrieved by the folks manning 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:35.720 the ambulance as the wagons, um, and you hear about 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.040 their casualty rates, and they were extreme. I mean it was. 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:43.679 It was not good news if you were wounded in battle. Uh. 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:47.760 For a very very long time, the prevailing wisdom was 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.800 let them let them die. I mean it really was, 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:55.559 unless you're a higher order officer of some sort, right, Yeah, 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.520 it's it's tricky when we think about, um, when we 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.160 think about those attrition rates, a especially when we consider 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.280 a very sad fact which I'm sure you ran across 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.920 as well. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, the people who were 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:12.680 picked for the medical retrieval teams were not the crack soldiers. 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:15.679 They weren't the smartest, they weren't the fastest. They were 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:17.560 considered to be the ones who were least likely to 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:19.760 actually kill the enemy. Therefore, let's go ahead and put 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:21.600 them in charge of this wagon for all the soldiers 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.200 who have been wounded. Right, they were considered the grade 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:28.920 B fighters. Yeah, yeah, it's it was. They were not 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:32.760 picked for their ability to actually retrieve people. They were 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.880 picked because they were least likely to be useful on 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.840 the front lines. Um and speaking of front lines, that 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.400 was part of the problem. Like these wagons were actually 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.520 usually located the back of the army and they were 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.480 very heavy, they're very cumbersome, so it took so much 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.360 time and effort to maneuver them that offense soldiers were 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.080 dying on the battlefield before they'd ever have a chance 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:58.240 to be rescued, let alone incur any problems along the way. 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:02.400 So this was a big issue until a French surgeon 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:07.000 named Dominique Jean Larry designed a lightweight, two wheeled wagon 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.040 to create a faster response vehicle. And they were called 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:14.640 flying ambulances. And it's not because they could fly through 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:18.000 the air, because they couldn't. Uh sorry, I didn't mean 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:20.840 to cut you off there, Ben, But they were often 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:23.920 stationed with the flying artillery, which also could not fly. 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:28.040 Oh yeah, sorry, this is just a bummer across the board. Well, 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:32.200 they're called flying artillery because they were very light artillery 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:35.400 that would be towed by horses to their location, so 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.439 they could they could relocate relatively quickly, as opposed to 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.960 field artillery, which was so heavy and cumbersome that you 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.640 planted it and you didn't move it, you know, until 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:47.560 the battle is over. It's staying right there. So uh, 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:50.480 they would be stationed with the flying artillery. So these 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.840 are both horse cavalry type units. They normally be cavalry 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:58.679 support and that changes fundamentally changes somebody's odds of living 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:02.160 or surviving a war. Oh yeah, yeah, there is a 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.200 huge improvement. Some people were suggesting that it was an 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:08.800 improvement as much as that that that you know, you 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.920 had a rate of casualty that was being reduced to 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:16.120 ten because of this. Now that was someone who was 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:20.719 writing in support of funding more of these kind of wagons. 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.520 So I doubt that it was based on any empirical research, 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.560 more on more on the idea of think how many 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:30.880 lives we could save, which still is a noble effort, 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:33.920 you know, if you have to fudge a few numbers. 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.600 But some hospitals at this time, such as the Staffordshire 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.600 General Infirmary, started to employ their own ambulances. So now 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:43.880 we start seeing ambulances in the civilian life, not just 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:48.200 in in warfare. And these were still wagons pulled by horses. 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:52.960 The Staffordshire's wagon was described as quote a carriage hung 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.840 upon strings to be drawn by one or more horses 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:58.640 for the conveyance of the sick or maimed end quote. 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.360 And by the close of eighteenth century, organized ambulance service 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:06.239 was starting to grow in Europe. In Europe, yes, yeah. 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:08.480 The United States was not so quick to adopt this. 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.600 Ambulance service was practically absent during the beginning of the 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:14.600 American Civil War, which if you guys aren't familiar, Uh, 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:16.959 a lot of our listeners are from outside of the US. 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:20.000 The American Civil War began in eighteen sixty in early 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:24.360 eighteen sixty one. And uh, you don't have any mention 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:28.040 of ambulances in those early in those early accounts, right, yeah. 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:33.000 And this was um one of the bloodiest battles, right 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:37.240 that people remember in the United States. And uh, some 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.120 of the casualties in one of the battles, the Battle 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:42.440 of bull Run. We're just saying this for an example. 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:47.600 Instead of having an ambulance anywhere near, they walked twenty 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:51.600 seven miles after they were wounded to get some sort 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.719 of treatment if they survived. That's part of why there 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:57.840 was such a horrific attrition rate in this or casualty 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:01.760 rate rather in this um this conflict. Oh absolutely yeah. 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.360 I mean not only do you have Americans versus Americans, 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:06.560 so I mean, no matter what the casual needs, an 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:11.960 American here's that. But then you also had just these 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.280 the You had no preparedness, you had no ability to 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.839 to help the people, the soldiers who had fallen. And 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.840 so again it was one of those situations where if 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:24.480 you fell in battle, if you were wounded, you know, 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:29.760 people often would just treat you as if you had died. Um. 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.560 It was only after the appointment of doctor Jonathan Letterman 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:34.680 to the post of Surgeon General of the Army of 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.600 the Potomac Medical Department. And this is where we mentioned 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:40.960 the post of surgeon general. The United States had not 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.600 been invented yet. There had there were surgeon generals in 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.560 the armed forces, and this is not the surgeon General 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:52.080 of the Army overall as a different, different post. But 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:56.160 he uh organized soldiers into response teams to carry wounded 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:58.880 to a site where they then could be transported to 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.960 field hospitals or are even further on into general hospitals. 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.200 In fact, they had sort of a a primary response 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:10.240 site where the anything immediate would be attended to the 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.120 soldiers would then be carried off to a field hospital. 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:15.760 At the field hospital, they would then determine whether or 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:19.120 not to treat the soldier there or to transport him 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.760 further to the general hospital. So it was a much 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:27.720 more kind of chain of command organized approach then William A. Hammond, 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.360 who became Surgeon General of the U. S. Army in 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:34.000 the eighteen sixty two so the overall army standardized ambulance 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:38.320 response and also demanded that hospitals be clean establishments, which 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.120 was before back the we knew about bacteria. So his 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:46.040 theory was that the clean establishments would save more lives, 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.760 though he didn't have, you know, like a scientific reason 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.480 to point to, because we hadn't discovered bacteria yet. But 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.320 it turns out he was right and um and so 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.440 his his approach ended up saving a lot of lives. 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.400 He also demanded that there be one ambulance for every 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.920 one fifties soldiers serving in the U. S. Army, and 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.800 he got it, which is pretty hardcore if you think 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.480 about it back then, because if we're talking about these 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:15.240 response teams right then we're talking about a cost benefit 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.560 analysis of things that are pretty expensive in war, which 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:23.680 is training time, and cavalry. So yeah, yeah, you're pretty persuasive. 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:27.120 You're talking about not just money, but actual people and 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:32.200 animals resources that could be dedicated to inflicting casualties upon 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:34.800 the animally enemy. You'll notice that I haven't really talked 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.560 about the Confederates. There's a reason for that. They just 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:41.400 they were not nearly as as organized as the as 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:43.840 the Union was during the Civil War when it came 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:47.359 to things like treating soldiers. Uh. Just watched the documentary 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:53.240 film Gone with the Wind. Uh don't. I mean, you 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.040 can watch it. It's not a documentary obviously. So in 0:16:56.120 --> 0:17:00.560 eighteen sixty four, Congress passes the Ambulance Core Act, which 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:04.720 established a standardized system of ambulances in the United States. Now, 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.879 these ambulances had distinct labels to designate them as such, 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.920 and then the Geneva Convention of eighteen sixty four went 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.760 further and adopted the Red Cross as the international symbol 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:18.280 for emergency medical responders, which were to be treated as 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:22.680 neutral parties. One thing that is just fantastic about this 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.639 is that this is um and maybe it's a bit 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.640 of hyperbole on my part, Jonathan, but this is one 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:32.920 of the biggest steps I think for the human species 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.560 at large, we actually took the idea of the Knights 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.560 of St. John, which which wasn't I mean, let's be honest. 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.720 If it is during the Crusades, they weren't always saving everybody. 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:45.760 There's a lot of othering going on, I'm sure, but 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:53.080 the Red Cross as this international, neutral, benevolent force that 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.480 somehow must have been a great day in eighteen sixty 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.520 four when they all agreed to let that slide. That's 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.480 amazing to me. I just wanted to stop and say, 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.200 you know, good for us people. Gosh, yeah, I mean, 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.680 it's it's also a little one of those weird things 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:13.000 to think about the idea of we all agree that 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.480 these people are not okay to shoot at, but these 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.680 other people are totally okay to shoot at. This is 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.760 this is where my pacifism comes in, right where I'm 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:27.440 just like, I don't, I don't get okay whatever, so 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:30.400 um at any rate, it is it is a great 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.320 testament that we were able to come to this agreement 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.159 and by and large people follow it because you know, 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.600 it's it's it applies to everyone. It's not something where 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:44.120 only that side gets to have the benefit of medical treatment. 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:48.800 It's it's this this international UH initiative. So in eighteen 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.800 sixty five, the Commercial Hospital in Cincinnati is the first 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:54.879 one in the United States to have a hospital based 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:59.160 ambulance service. Bellevue Hospital would follow in eighteen sixty nine. 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.280 In fact, this is something car stuff listeners will enjoy. 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:08.720 Usually we do a an inflation calculator that Scott always does. 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.200 But i'll at Lee, you probably recognized this, but I'll 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.159 fill in since uh, Scott is occupied at the moment. 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:18.760 So that UH ambulance driver in eighteen sixty five there 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:22.080 in Cincinnati would make about three hundred and sixty dollars 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.320 a year in uh, you know, eighteen sixty five dollars 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.760 in two thousand fourteen, Jonathan, Uh, this is more than 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.639 you would think, but still not that much. It's about 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:39.120 five thousand, two hundred thirty dollars a year a year. Wow, Yeah, 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:42.840 all year. I got a cut back on my Xbox consumption. 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:46.080 And that's probably what he was thinking right before he said, 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:48.439 what's the next box, right right before they called the 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.920 second ambulance driver to pick him up, because he was 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:53.720 talking about things that made no sense back in eighteen 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:58.760 sixty five and now we're finally getting to automotives. Automotives, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:03.879 The get the first motorized ambulance in Chicago. It was 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:08.680 actually from why I understand, five hundred different business men 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:13.639 over in Chicago, UH donated money so that this ambulance 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:16.440 could become a reality. And so it was a motorized 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.880 ambulance that was donated to Michael Reese Hospital and its 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:24.640 top speed was a blistering sixteen miles per hour, which 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:26.439 still when you think about it, when you have a 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:28.960 reliable sixteen miles per hour and it's a device that 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:31.720 doesn't get tired. It can run out of juice, but 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:36.440 it doesn't get exhausted. Um, that's a big deal. Now, 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:40.040 the next year, New York's St. Vincent Hospital would get 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:46.120 its own motorized ambulance. It's horseless carriage ambulance. And these 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:49.720 were interesting. They were not gasoline powered vehicles. These were 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.000 and and Ben you know this because you've covered car 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:56.119 stuffer so long. They were electric vehicles. The electric vehicle 0:20:56.200 --> 0:21:00.840 predates the internal combustion engine. And that store is actually 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:03.760 so interesting that we're going to have to table it 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:06.320 for another episode because you and I could go off 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:08.960 for twenty minutes about that. But that is something that 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:11.640 people need to know. And I know it sounds hard 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:16.280 to believe, but Jonathan, your spot on the first cars 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:19.880 were electric. Yeah, yeah, you wouldn't think of it now, 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:22.800 because whenever you see any sort of advertisement for an 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.119 electric vehicle, it's treating it like it's a it's it's 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:27.400 a brand new idea. But this is actually older than 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:30.040 the gasoline powered cars where we've been relying on for 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:35.000 a century at any rate. Uh, these electrical engine ambulances 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.760 they had a maximum travel distance of between twenty to 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:40.280 thirty miles, which is pretty good. Yeah, you're talking about 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:43.320 a city, right, You're not talking about driving from one 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:45.359 city to the next. You're talking about an ambulance that 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:48.920 would go out from a hospital to a specific location 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:51.040 within a city, pick up somebody and bring it back. 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:55.080 So bringing him or her back, and the doctor in 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.160 the back of the ambulance, because they actually would allow 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:01.560 a medical practitioner to go along, could communicate with the 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:05.320 driver in the front through a speaking tube. Yeah. I 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:07.520 love the I love that note you have about the 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:10.680 speaking tube. I wish we still had those cars. That 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.480 sounds so much more fun than an intercom. Yeah, yeah, 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:19.720 we're be careful going around the corner. See. Yeah, obviously 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:23.280 that that brain stuff episode about old timey voices is 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:27.480 stuck in my head. Keep falling into it. Um. So 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:31.080 here we are. We're approaching the twenty century. Yeah, we're 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:33.919 in the twentieth century. We're in the twentieth century. That's right, 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:36.639 we're early on in it because because New York's got 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:39.560 there's nineteen hundred. I guess if you want to be technical, 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:43.520 nineteen o one is into the twentieth century. You're not 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:46.560 gonna be that guy. Okay. Well, early in the twentieth century, 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:51.680 Major Palace of the Canadian Army introduced the first gasoline 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:56.359 powered ambulance. Got it first, and everyone went my word 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:00.960 or they went a yeah, one of those. Uh. At 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:04.240 any rate, it makes sense. Canada gets pretty cold. And 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:06.080 we'll talk a little bit about fuel types when we 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.879 get further into the discussion. So using gasolene made some sense. 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:12.560 The first mass produced ambulance came from a company that 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:16.760 sold herses. Just like Lee was mentioning, horses were vehicles 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:19.280 that you know, we're designed to have a person laid 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:22.480 out in the back, and so a patient who's suffering 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:25.200 from some sort of injury or illness may feel more 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:29.040 comfortable laying down than sitting up. And so the this 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:33.440