Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. After a long day, it's nice to pour
Speaker 1: oneself a stiff drink and kick back, each sip, peeling
Speaker 1: away the layers of stress and trouble brought on by
Speaker 1: the daily grind. Some people opt for a cold beer,
Speaker 1: while others pop the cork on a fresh bottle of wine.
Speaker 1: Me I'm a Scotch guy, but for those really tough days,
Speaker 1: the kinds that leave us drained and burned out, we
Speaker 1: might want something a little stronger, like a sling. A
Speaker 1: sling is a standard drink, usually made with an ounce
Speaker 1: of water, a teaspoon of sugar, nutmeg, and two ounces
Speaker 1: of a spirit of your choice. Slings can be made
Speaker 1: with whiskey, or gin or rum, and they got their
Speaker 1: start hundreds of years ago. But why are they called
Speaker 1: that because you sling them back? Of course, early on,
Speaker 1: drinks in America used to be served hot, which was
Speaker 1: a holdover from the British way of serving them. It
Speaker 1: was believed that even in the summer months, a hot
Speaker 1: drink would make a person sweat, thus cooling them off,
Speaker 1: but over time traditions changed. Frederick Tutor, also known as
Speaker 1: the Ice King, started shipping ice from Massachusetts to the
Speaker 1: Caribbean in eighteen o six. By the eighteen thirties, his
Speaker 1: ice was being used to refrigerate food and medicines in
Speaker 1: places as far away as India. But bars and wealthy
Speaker 1: homes saw another use for Tutors frozen product keeping their
Speaker 1: drinks cold, and among the kinds of beverages served with
Speaker 1: ice in them were slings. Bar patrons couldn't get enough
Speaker 1: of these concoctions, which only fueled the growing alcohol epidemic
Speaker 1: that eventually led to the prohibition in the nineteen twenties.
Speaker 1: Those who did overdo it at the local pub often
Speaker 1: felt terrible the next day. They suffered from upset stomachs,
Speaker 1: which required a bit of medicine to help ease their pain.
Speaker 1: So they would take their bottle of bidders and add
Speaker 1: a few dashes to a spoon or dribble them over
Speaker 1: a sugar cube, which they would then swallow to settle
Speaker 1: their stomachs. That's right, before bidders became a way to
Speaker 1: enhance an alcoholic beverage. They were advertised as medicinal cure alls.
Speaker 1: In fact, one of the hangover cures that developed out
Speaker 1: of all of this was to have a bit of
Speaker 1: the hair of the dog that bit you, meaning hangover
Speaker 1: sufferers would drink a little more. People started adding their
Speaker 1: bidders directly to their drinks, turning them into what they
Speaker 1: called bittered slings. But over time that name changed. Bittered
Speaker 1: sling wasn't a particularly attractive name for a beverage, so
Speaker 1: bartenders and patrons just started calling them something else, and
Speaker 1: for that they turned to horses asses. No, they didn't
Speaker 1: turn into horses asses, well not unless they'd had a
Speaker 1: little bit too much to drink at the bar. Now
Speaker 1: they looked to the race tracks for inspiration. You see,
Speaker 1: at the time, if someone wanted to purchase a horse,
Speaker 1: its owner would have the animal parade around so that
Speaker 1: the buyer could examine it. Aside from the color of
Speaker 1: the coats and the pep and its stepped though, one
Speaker 1: thing they looked for was how it carried its tail.
Speaker 1: If a horse's tail was cocked upward, that meant that
Speaker 1: it was healthy and in good spirits. But if it
Speaker 1: was hanging down, that would be a sign of ill health,
Speaker 1: old age, and maybe even poor breeding. So to trick
Speaker 1: potential buyers that a horse was in better shape and
Speaker 1: it actually might have been, owners would stick a piece
Speaker 1: of ginger up the horses well, you get the idea.
Speaker 1: This would irritate the horse and cause its tail to
Speaker 1: be cocked upright. The practice was atrocious and abusive, but
Speaker 1: bartenders started using it to help their patrons. And no,
Speaker 1: they didn't stick ginger up their butts. They would mix
Speaker 1: a few dashes of bitters in a glass with whiskey,
Speaker 1: ice and water and hand it to the patron, telling
Speaker 1: them that it would cock their tail or rejuvenate them.
Speaker 1: And so the phrase eventually became the name by which
Speaker 1: we call all mixed drinks today cocktails. All because somebody
Speaker 1: thought it was a good idea to put ginger in
Speaker 1: a horse's but no wonder they have such long faces.
Speaker 1: And African American Spiritual was published that quickly took the
Speaker 1: world by storm. It was recorded by countless artists over
Speaker 1: the years and has appeared in a number of movies
Speaker 1: and television shows ever since, especially those set up at
Speaker 1: a summer camp. It's so well known today it's probably
Speaker 1: a cliche, just picture of granola eating camp counselor sitting
Speaker 1: around a fire and acoustic guitar in his lap as
Speaker 1: he leads the campers in a rollicking rendition of He's
Speaker 1: Got the whole World in his hands. It's a song
Speaker 1: about God, and for those who believe it explains how
Speaker 1: he is in control of the lives that live in
Speaker 1: the world he's created. It's meant to convey the comforting
Speaker 1: image of an omnipotent being cradling the earth and the
Speaker 1: creatures that inhabit it. But one man thought that he
Speaker 1: could play God by creating his own world, and little
Speaker 1: did he know that his new invention would shake things
Speaker 1: up in a whole new way. His name was Irwin Persey,
Speaker 1: and he hailed from Austria at the turn of the
Speaker 1: twentieth century. In nineteen hundred, when Persey was just twenty
Speaker 1: four years old, he was in charge of designing and
Speaker 1: repairing medical tools used by doctors and surgeons. Occasionally, when
Speaker 1: a doctor was in need of something specific, they would
Speaker 1: go to Persey and request a new tool to be made. Irwin,
Speaker 1: like I said, was only twenty four years old at
Speaker 1: the time when doctors in town came to him with
Speaker 1: a desperate plea. They're dark operating rooms needed better lighting.
Speaker 1: Lightbulbs had been around for a number of years, but
Speaker 1: they were inefficient and the light that they produced was
Speaker 1: not enough for them to work by. They needed something
Speaker 1: better and brighter, so Perzy got to work. He started
Speaker 1: doing research, which brought him to shoemakers. You see, shoemakers
Speaker 1: often worked long hours in rooms with minimal lights, so
Speaker 1: they relied on a special kind of lamp to keep
Speaker 1: their workspace illuminated. It was comprised of four glass balls
Speaker 1: or flasks filled with liquid. Sometimes they would be filled
Speaker 1: with water, but schnops or absinthe worked as well. The
Speaker 1: flasks were of different sizes, with the master shoemaker seated
Speaker 1: in front of the largest, while his apprentices sat before
Speaker 1: the smaller ones. They hung by leather straps around their
Speaker 1: necks from a wooden stool while a candle burned in
Speaker 1: the center, and the lamps macab appearances what gave it
Speaker 1: its other name, the gallows lamp. A light from the
Speaker 1: flame would be amplified by the liquid in the glass
Speaker 1: balls in front of it, and if they had been
Speaker 1: filled within adult beverage like schnops, the apprentices would take
Speaker 1: SIPs while the master was away. Percy liked the idea
Speaker 1: of the shoemaker's lamp, but he felt that it needed
Speaker 1: something else to make it more suitable for surgeons. He
Speaker 1: had a bright idea pun intended by the way of
Speaker 1: adding metal flakes to the inside that would help the
Speaker 1: light reach farther instead, though it had a different effect.
Speaker 1: Shaking the semelina filled glass balls in his hand, Percy
Speaker 1: watched as the metal flakes drifted all throughout, the liquid,
Speaker 1: settling on the bottom like fresh fallen snow. And so
Speaker 1: he pivoted from making light sources for surgeons and opened
Speaker 1: a factory to produce his brand new product, the snow globe.
Speaker 1: His first snow globe had a tiny model of the
Speaker 1: Austrian Basilica inside. It became so popular as a gift
Speaker 1: that it wasn't until World War Two when his son,
Speaker 1: Irwin Persey the Second expanded the lineup. He had been
Speaker 1: working with the U. S. Military when he was told
Speaker 1: that the troops would buy his family snow globes if
Speaker 1: they were more recognizable figures inside, since the basilica held
Speaker 1: almost no meaning to them. So Persey the second returned
Speaker 1: to the factory with their feedback and designed three new models.
Speaker 1: One had a Christmas tree inside, another had a snowman,
Speaker 1: and the last held Santa Claus. Over the years, the
Speaker 1: product line has grown and different companies have come up
Speaker 1: with their own versions. Go into any souvenir shop today
Speaker 1: in any major tourist destination and you're sure to find
Speaker 1: a snow globe with Disneyland, or the Chicago Skyline or
Speaker 1: the Empire State Building inside. But nothing quite measures up
Speaker 1: to what the Perseys have been making for the last
Speaker 1: one d and twenty years. The snow inside an authentic
Speaker 1: Austrian snow globe is made from a top secret formula
Speaker 1: that blends plastic with other materials to provide a squall
Speaker 1: that can last up to two minutes. It's an experience
Speaker 1: not easily replicated, but perhaps the greatest lasting testament to
Speaker 1: Irwin Persey's original creation. Aren't the snow globes with Christmas
Speaker 1: trees or snowman inside. It was one specific snow globe,
Speaker 1: the only one of its kind, which was made around
Speaker 1: nineteen one. It held a small, long cabin and was
Speaker 1: owned by a tyrannical newspaper magnate. The globe was destroyed
Speaker 1: when it slipped from his fingers upon his untimely death,
Speaker 1: a final reminder of the only time in his life
Speaker 1: when he was truly happy, frolicking in the snow as
Speaker 1: a child and writing his beloved sled Rosebud. Though no
Speaker 1: records exist that Percy had created the snow globe for R.
Speaker 1: K O Pictures, it is widely believed that the object
Speaker 1: owned by Orson Wells character in Citizen Kane was made
Speaker 1: by the famous Viennese company Irwin Persey. Did not set
Speaker 1: out to make sentimental glass balls filled with water, but
Speaker 1: he did, and so much more. He gave every customer
Speaker 1: a chance to hold a small world in the palm
Speaker 1: of their hands. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
Speaker 1: in partner ship with How Stuff Works. I make another
Speaker 1: award winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,