Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff
Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbam here. In many houses, creaking floors may be
Speaker 1: part of the home's charm or a source of annoyance
Speaker 1: for the residents, but in some seventeenth century Japanese residences,
Speaker 1: creaking floors were installed intentionally in hopes of making it
Speaker 1: more difficult for intruders to sneak in on herd. These
Speaker 1: floors are called uguisubari or nightingale floors, and they use
Speaker 1: clever construction to generate a distinct chirping sound whenever anyone
Speaker 1: sets foot on the boards. The floors ultimately served as
Speaker 1: a sort of alarm system in some famous Japanese homes,
Speaker 1: and seem rather at odds with the otherwise elegant artistry
Speaker 1: that surrounds the occupants. In Kyoto, for instance, visitors can
Speaker 1: try their best to slide silently across the floors in
Speaker 1: Nijo Castle and in Toji in Temple, but they may
Speaker 1: find that it's nearly impossible because the floor's design actually
Speaker 1: makes a louder sound as steps become lighter, singing like
Speaker 1: the winged nightingales for which they're named. The floors are
Speaker 1: built much like any other, with wooden planks laid one
Speaker 1: by one along a common joist, but instead of nailing
Speaker 1: those planks firmly to the joist, the planks are left
Speaker 1: just a little bit loose so that they can move
Speaker 1: up and down a fraction of an inch as footsteps
Speaker 1: apply and release pressure. A metal clamp is affixed to
Speaker 1: the bottom of each plank, oriented so that when the
Speaker 1: plank moves, it rubs the clamp against a nail, creating
Speaker 1: the distinctive squeaking sound. The first nightingale floors probably weren't
Speaker 1: purposefully made to squeak. They were probably just a result
Speaker 1: of the homes natural settling and aging. But as people
Speaker 1: realized the value of audible alerts, they began building floors
Speaker 1: to make the sounds intentionally. It's a quirky feature that
Speaker 1: may have saved a few fortunes and lives throughout Japanese history.
Speaker 1: Installing the clamps was pricey and far more complicated than
Speaker 1: a typical, mostly silent wooden floor, so only royalty and
Speaker 1: the truly wealthy, or perhaps truly paranoid, could afford to
Speaker 1: have squeaky floors built in their homes. No one wanted
Speaker 1: to be mistaken for a potential assassin or robber. So
Speaker 1: in royal palaces, armed guards would walk in specific rhythms
Speaker 1: that would indicate to others that they belonged there and
Speaker 1: weren't a potential danger to the inhabitants. Intruders, on the
Speaker 1: other hand, were left guessing as to a floor's construction
Speaker 1: because from the top, Nightingale floors look the same as
Speaker 1: any other. Today's episode was written by Nathan Chandler and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how Stuff works dot com. Brain
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