1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,159 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:39,519 Speaker 1: Inventors have come to occupy a comical place in our 7 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:43,199 Speaker 1: cultural imagination. We picture wacky people trying to get rich 8 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:46,479 Speaker 1: quick off of a niche device that barely works. The 9 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:48,800 Speaker 1: movie Gremlins probably had a lot to do with this. 10 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:51,479 Speaker 1: Who could forget the scene where the mom uses her 11 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:56,320 Speaker 1: husband's inventions to dispatch the monsters in increasingly grotesque ways. 12 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 1: Pop culture touchstones like this might cause us to forget 13 00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:03,640 Speaker 1: that its originally occupied a very noble place in society, 14 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,520 Speaker 1: and without one inventor in particular, the modern world might 15 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:10,960 Speaker 1: have never come to be. Henry was the epitome of 16 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:14,880 Speaker 1: the wacky inventor archetype. Born in eighteen thirteen in England, 17 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:17,839 Speaker 1: he eventually grew into a man who was endlessly curious 18 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:22,240 Speaker 1: and self assured. Anytime he encountered some modern invention or tool, 19 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:25,640 Speaker 1: he immediately wanted to take it apart and figure out 20 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:28,320 Speaker 1: how he could make it better. Case in points, when 21 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: he purchased an expensive gold picture frame for his sister, 22 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:34,600 Speaker 1: he immediately wondered how he could make it cheaper. He 23 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:37,840 Speaker 1: invented a bronze paint that made wooden frames look just 24 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:40,680 Speaker 1: as good at a fraction of the price. The invention 25 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:44,639 Speaker 1: was a huge success, but by eighteen fifty four, Henry 26 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:47,560 Speaker 1: had set his mind on more life and death inventions. 27 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:50,560 Speaker 1: The Crimean War had broken out, and Henry wondered if 28 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:52,640 Speaker 1: he could find a way to make cannons that fired 29 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:56,360 Speaker 1: more accurately. The iron ones of the time used round 30 00:01:56,440 --> 00:02:00,520 Speaker 1: cannonballs that had a tendency to drift off target. At first, 31 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:03,520 Speaker 1: no one took him seriously. A guy who designed better 32 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:06,480 Speaker 1: home decor didn't seem like the person to trust with 33 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 1: military equipment. But one chance evening, while traveling in Paris, 34 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,920 Speaker 1: Henry met with an unlikely dinner guest. The guest was 35 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:18,359 Speaker 1: none other than Emperor Napoleon, the third nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. 36 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:21,760 Speaker 1: He could see the wisdom in Henry's idea and encouraged 37 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:24,959 Speaker 1: his passion for the topic. Anyone who cared this much 38 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:28,840 Speaker 1: about the minutia of technology, would surely accomplish whatever he 39 00:02:28,919 --> 00:02:32,119 Speaker 1: set his mind to and nas. It turns out, Henry's 40 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: interest in cannons led him to some incredible discoveries. He 41 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: began with the shells, making them heavier and cutting grooves 42 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:42,560 Speaker 1: into them so that they spun in the air, keeping 43 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: their trajectory. The only problem with this was that they 44 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:48,680 Speaker 1: were too heavy for most iron cannons to fire, and 45 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:52,279 Speaker 1: so he needed a better cannon. A cannon made of steel. 46 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,760 Speaker 1: At the time, Steele had an almost mythical quality to it. 47 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:58,440 Speaker 1: The inventors of the day were just as stumped as 48 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:01,280 Speaker 1: to what made good steel as the blacksmiths of the 49 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:04,079 Speaker 1: Middle Ages. All they knew was that good steel came 50 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,320 Speaker 1: about when you mixed molten iron with carbon and tried 51 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:10,520 Speaker 1: to remove the impurities of other elements. It took a 52 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:13,920 Speaker 1: lot of heat and specifically designed apparatusus to do this. 53 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:18,320 Speaker 1: Henry set up his own special device. Imagine a large 54 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:22,440 Speaker 1: metal capsule suspended on an axle between two legs. It 55 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:24,320 Speaker 1: had an opening to the top and it could be 56 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:28,160 Speaker 1: tilted forward to add to or empty. At first, Henry 57 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:30,360 Speaker 1: just tried to get the iron hotter and hotter to 58 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:33,079 Speaker 1: see if he could burn away the impurities. But when 59 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:36,120 Speaker 1: Henry happened to notice some molten iron in his workshop 60 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,480 Speaker 1: turned into steel when it came in contact with the air, 61 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,640 Speaker 1: he completely changed his approach. Henry fed a tube into 62 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,880 Speaker 1: the bottom of this bucket like device. He still dumped 63 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:49,840 Speaker 1: molten iron into the top, but then after that was done, 64 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:52,120 Speaker 1: he would blow cold air up through this tube in 65 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:54,880 Speaker 1: the bottom of the bucket. A few moments past and 66 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 1: the device suddenly erupted with a volcano like stream of 67 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:02,080 Speaker 1: smoke and molten iron shooting from the top. It almost 68 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:04,920 Speaker 1: caught the workshop on fire, but when Henry tested the 69 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 1: end result, he found that it was carbon free, malleable iron. 70 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:11,640 Speaker 1: He had removed the impurities. Now he just needed to 71 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: add back in the right amount of carbon to make steel. 72 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,720 Speaker 1: Henry made his device just a little bigger so the 73 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:21,560 Speaker 1: chemical reaction of oxygen and carbon could be safely contained. 74 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: The resulting gases still burned off through the top, and 75 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:27,599 Speaker 1: any remaining impurities could be skimmed off the top of 76 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:31,240 Speaker 1: the molten metal. A small precise amount of carbon would 77 00:04:31,279 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 1: then be added back in, and when the metal cooled, 78 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:38,719 Speaker 1: it was now pure malleable steel. Henry Bessemer's device became 79 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:41,880 Speaker 1: known as the Bessemer converter, and his process for making 80 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 1: iron is now known as the Bessemer process. He patented 81 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:49,360 Speaker 1: that process and became a millionaire as manufacturers all over 82 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:53,400 Speaker 1: the globe used his steel to make buildings, weapons, cars, 83 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:57,599 Speaker 1: and railroad tracks. One curious mind was all it took 84 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:14,479 Speaker 1: to send the world erupting into the future. A common 85 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: misconception about the Middle Ages is that they were a 86 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:20,720 Speaker 1: time of ignorance, often called the Dark Ages. While it's 87 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:23,440 Speaker 1: certainly true that the state of literature and science had 88 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:25,880 Speaker 1: yet to evolve, that did not mean that there were 89 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:28,800 Speaker 1: not plenty of people around the world who were curious 90 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:33,000 Speaker 1: and eager to study and expand human knowledge. As ever before, 91 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:37,000 Speaker 1: humanity looked the stars for answers to our questions about 92 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 1: our place in the universe. The truth is this Dark 93 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:43,479 Speaker 1: Age in Europe coincided with a period known as the 94 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:47,359 Speaker 1: Islamic Golden Age. From the eighth to the thirteenth centuries. 95 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:52,279 Speaker 1: The Muslim world made great strides in understandings of science, math, medicine, 96 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:56,960 Speaker 1: and philosophy. Astronomy was a particular utility to Islamic nations 97 00:05:57,320 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: for their faith required them to pray five times a day, 98 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:03,160 Speaker 1: a schedule that was strictly determined by the position of 99 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:06,440 Speaker 1: the sun in the sky, and thus tracking the sun 100 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:11,919 Speaker 1: required more precise instruments. Muslim astronomers refined an ancient Greek 101 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:15,040 Speaker 1: device known as an astrolabe, which was used to measure 102 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:17,960 Speaker 1: the positions of the stars in the sky. Appearing like 103 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: a flat circular disc, each astrolabe is engraved with static 104 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:26,000 Speaker 1: star positions and concentric rings that adjust to measure the 105 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:30,039 Speaker 1: visible dome of the sky. By the tenth century, astrolabes 106 00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:33,560 Speaker 1: were a popular tool for divining horoscopes and keeping time. 107 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,000 Speaker 1: The ones that came out of the Islamic world would 108 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:38,880 Speaker 1: often be inscribed with religious verses out of the Quran, 109 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,440 Speaker 1: and the production of these devices would become a profession 110 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:45,920 Speaker 1: all of its own. In the nine hundreds, in Baghdad, 111 00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:50,400 Speaker 1: a man began an apprenticeship under a famed astrolabist named Bitdalus. 112 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: Unlike many other craftsmen of the area, he would share 113 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:56,719 Speaker 1: his knowledge with his daughter, who was showing an interest 114 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: in astronomy from an early age, and soon the of 115 00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:04,480 Speaker 1: them were studying together. The daughter's name was Algelia, and 116 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:07,359 Speaker 1: she would become one of the first women astrologers in 117 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:10,800 Speaker 1: recorded history. We know little of her life after that, 118 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:13,400 Speaker 1: but she became prominent enough that her name shows up 119 00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:17,440 Speaker 1: in a piece of medieval Syrian literature discussing the manufacture 120 00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:21,160 Speaker 1: of astrolabes, and she became so well renowned for her 121 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:24,000 Speaker 1: work that she eventually served at the court of Sayef 122 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:27,640 Speaker 1: al Dullah, the first Emir of Aleppo. Although this mention 123 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 1: of her is brief, containing very few specifics, her presence 124 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:34,840 Speaker 1: in popular culture looms large. She would become known by 125 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:39,640 Speaker 1: the name Meriam Astrolabia or Meriam of the Astrolabes. The 126 00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:43,200 Speaker 1: astrolabe would remain a crucial instrument throughout the medieval period 127 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:47,320 Speaker 1: and into the Age of Discovery, although eventually star charts 128 00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:51,280 Speaker 1: and mechanical clocks would supplant them in practicality. The last 129 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:53,640 Speaker 1: of these devices would be produced in the late fourteenth 130 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:56,720 Speaker 1: and early fifteenth centuries, and some might even say that 131 00:07:56,760 --> 00:08:00,200 Speaker 1: the astrolabe is the precursor to the modern GPS due 132 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:04,040 Speaker 1: to its usefulness in navigation. But the legacy of astrolab 133 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:08,000 Speaker 1: makers like Algaelia does not stop there. Many centuries after 134 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,040 Speaker 1: she lived in the year nineteen ninety, an astronomer would 135 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:14,880 Speaker 1: name an asteroid in her honor. Seven zero six zero 136 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:18,760 Speaker 1: Algaelia still floats far far over our heads in our 137 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:22,560 Speaker 1: galaxies asteroid Belt, reminding us all that if you dedicate 138 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:26,360 Speaker 1: yourself to studying the stars, one day, you may find 139 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:32,880 Speaker 1: your name among them. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided 140 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on 141 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:39,400 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting 142 00:08:39,559 --> 00:08:44,120 Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me 143 00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:47,960 Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make 144 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:51,559 Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 145 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:54,600 Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all 146 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:58,720 Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until 147 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:00,600 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.