1
00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,480
Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of

2
00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:13,840
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is

3
00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,960
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,

4
00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:21,640
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

5
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,600
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

6
00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:39,640
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Aristotle once said that envy is paying at

7
00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,680
Speaker 1: the good fortune of others. Seeing someone with something we

8
00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:46,400
Speaker 1: want doesn't instill good feelings within us. It breeds resentment

9
00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:48,600
Speaker 1: and anger, and it can make us act out in

10
00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:53,600
Speaker 1: unbecoming ways. Roland Roly Fingers didn't know that he was

11
00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:56,280
Speaker 1: jealous when he caught a glimpse of Reggie Jackson walking

12
00:00:56,320 --> 00:01:00,080
Speaker 1: onto the field in two fingers in. Jackson played for

13
00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:04,000
Speaker 1: the Oakland Athletics baseball team as pitcher and outfielder, respectively.

14
00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:07,560
Speaker 1: Jackson had arrived at spring training that year sporting a

15
00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:10,800
Speaker 1: brand new mustache, a blatant act of rebellion against the

16
00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:14,840
Speaker 1: unwritten policy that forbade players from growing facial hair. When

17
00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:17,320
Speaker 1: it became clear that Jackson wanted to only stand out

18
00:01:17,319 --> 00:01:19,640
Speaker 1: apart from the rest of the crowd, Fingers and a

19
00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:21,880
Speaker 1: few other players thought that they'd play a little prank

20
00:01:21,959 --> 00:01:25,039
Speaker 1: on him. He and his teammates, like Jim Catfish Hunter,

21
00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:30,080
Speaker 1: grew their own mustaches too. Now, what they expected was

22
00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:32,840
Speaker 1: that the A's manager, Dick Williams would tell everyone to

23
00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:37,200
Speaker 1: shave them off, including Jackson. Williams was a conservative man who,

24
00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,319
Speaker 1: along with other managers, believed that players should be clean

25
00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:44,440
Speaker 1: shaven at all times. Instead, team owner Charlie Finley got

26
00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:47,080
Speaker 1: wind of what Fingers was doing. He thought the small

27
00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:49,360
Speaker 1: rebellion would be a great way to draw crowds out

28
00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:52,760
Speaker 1: to the stadium to see all those mustachioed men playing ball.

29
00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:57,360
Speaker 1: Finley even offered a three incentive for any player sporting

30
00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:00,720
Speaker 1: a mustache or beard by opening day, which happily paid

31
00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:03,000
Speaker 1: after Fingers ran to the mound wearing what would become

32
00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:07,080
Speaker 1: his trademark look, an epic handlebar mustache, and just like that,

33
00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:09,839
Speaker 1: the picture had become a member of the Oakland A's

34
00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:14,880
Speaker 1: infamous mustache Gang. What Finley hadn't counted on was Fingers

35
00:02:14,919 --> 00:02:18,800
Speaker 1: actually liking his facial hair. Raleigh, like many athletes, was

36
00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:22,120
Speaker 1: a superstitious fellow. From the first pitch that season, the

37
00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:24,840
Speaker 1: A's started winning games, so there was no way the

38
00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:27,799
Speaker 1: mustache was coming off, and as long as they were winning,

39
00:02:27,919 --> 00:02:30,640
Speaker 1: Williams and Finley didn't care whether their players wore a

40
00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:33,960
Speaker 1: pencil mustache, a goatee, or a big white beard like

41
00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:39,040
Speaker 1: Santa Claus Heck. Finley even grew one himself. Fingers played

42
00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:41,720
Speaker 1: for the A's for another four years, winning three World

43
00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:44,959
Speaker 1: Series championships and earning an m v P Award. Then

44
00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:47,640
Speaker 1: he signed with the San Diego Padres, playing from nineteen

45
00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:52,480
Speaker 1: seventy seven to nineteen eighty before moving to the Milwaukee Brewers. Sadly,

46
00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:55,359
Speaker 1: a series of injuries and health setbacks kept Fingers out

47
00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:58,000
Speaker 1: of his nineteen eighty three season with the Brewers, and

48
00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,520
Speaker 1: he needed back surgery to remove a hernie aided disc

49
00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:03,200
Speaker 1: the year after that, but he did eventually return to

50
00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:07,079
Speaker 1: the pitcher's mound almost as good as new. The Brewers

51
00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:09,240
Speaker 1: released him in nineteen eighty five, when he was thirty

52
00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:11,840
Speaker 1: nine years old. Now, for most players, that would have

53
00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:15,000
Speaker 1: been the end of their professional careers, but Fingers still

54
00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:18,320
Speaker 1: had some fight left in him. Cincinnati Red's manager Pete

55
00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:20,519
Speaker 1: Rose saw that fight and tried to get him to

56
00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:23,600
Speaker 1: sign on with him. There was just one catch, a

57
00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:26,160
Speaker 1: rule that had come from the team's owner, Marge Shot,

58
00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:30,520
Speaker 1: which every player was forced to obey. Shots beloved St.

59
00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,640
Speaker 1: Bernard SHOTSI was the only living thing allowed on the

60
00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:36,200
Speaker 1: field to have hair anywhere but the top of its head.

61
00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:39,360
Speaker 1: Any player working for her was required to shave their

62
00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:43,480
Speaker 1: facial hair if they wanted to put on a Red's uniform.

63
00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:47,520
Speaker 1: Raleigh Fingers didn't much care for shots rule. By two

64
00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:50,360
Speaker 1: he'd become the first pitcher to reach three hundred saves,

65
00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:52,480
Speaker 1: and he was just over six years away from being

66
00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:55,440
Speaker 1: inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Yet, despite his

67
00:03:55,440 --> 00:03:58,839
Speaker 1: impressive career, many fans today remember him for just one

68
00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:03,280
Speaker 1: decision that changed his entire life. Fingers was all set

69
00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:06,440
Speaker 1: to join the Reds in six but the blanket policy

70
00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:09,680
Speaker 1: about no facial hair just didn't sit well with him.

71
00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:11,560
Speaker 1: He got on the phone with the general manager to

72
00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:14,960
Speaker 1: work out a deal, but unfortunately Shot wouldn't budge, and

73
00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:17,400
Speaker 1: if Fingers hoped to play ball, he had to follow

74
00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:22,039
Speaker 1: the rule. The mustache had to go. Given no other option,

75
00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:25,880
Speaker 1: Fingers put his foot down for good. He chose his

76
00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:31,080
Speaker 1: mustache over his career, officially retiring from professional baseball in

77
00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:48,400
Speaker 1: just one family was responsible for all nineties. Seven lighthouses

78
00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:52,200
Speaker 1: built along the coast of Scotland between seventeen ninety and ninety.

79
00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:56,240
Speaker 1: Today those Scottish lighthouses are automated. The weather beaten lighthouse

80
00:04:56,279 --> 00:04:59,800
Speaker 1: keepers were replaced with computers, Tungsten bulbs were swapped out

81
00:04:59,839 --> 00:05:02,279
Speaker 1: for l ed's. It was the process of change that

82
00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:05,720
Speaker 1: comes for everything from the past as new minds experiment

83
00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:08,880
Speaker 1: with past achievements. But it's still a story worth telling,

84
00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:12,760
Speaker 1: in part because, like many ambitious and important projects, it

85
00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:16,560
Speaker 1: all started with a tragedy. That's when Robert was just

86
00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:19,320
Speaker 1: a boy and his father and uncle had died. They

87
00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:22,160
Speaker 1: were merchants from Glasgow and they made their living shipping

88
00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:24,880
Speaker 1: goods across the Atlantic on a trip to the island

89
00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,360
Speaker 1: of St Kitts, though the two men got sick when

90
00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:29,640
Speaker 1: they died. They left Robert and his mother at home

91
00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:33,080
Speaker 1: in Scotland to make do. Life was hard, but Robert

92
00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:35,640
Speaker 1: eventually met the man who would marry his mother and

93
00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:38,840
Speaker 1: light his way forward. He was a tinsmith, a skilled

94
00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:42,719
Speaker 1: mechanic and crucially a lampmaker, and he had just been

95
00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:46,080
Speaker 1: selected as the engineer for the new Northern Lighthouse Board.

96
00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:50,080
Speaker 1: So young Robert became engineer's assistant. That meant he had

97
00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:52,159
Speaker 1: a lot of learning to do, but he took to

98
00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:55,240
Speaker 1: the rocky crags of the Scottish coast and the calculations

99
00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:58,400
Speaker 1: of stone and light like no one had expected. He

100
00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:01,240
Speaker 1: was an excellent assistant, and in just a few short

101
00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:03,960
Speaker 1: years he was on the job supervising the construction of

102
00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:08,679
Speaker 1: lighthouses that his stepfather was designing. Engineering became his trade too.

103
00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:12,680
Speaker 1: Maybe Robert thought about the death of his father when

104
00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:14,920
Speaker 1: he stood on a cliff's edge and looked out over

105
00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:18,280
Speaker 1: the ocean. The rocks and reefs off Scotland's coast had

106
00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:21,600
Speaker 1: taken thousands of lives. In one spot east of Dundee,

107
00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:24,839
Speaker 1: about six ships were wrecked every winter on an underwater

108
00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:28,680
Speaker 1: shelf of sandstone. It was known as Bell Rock, probably

109
00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:31,839
Speaker 1: because in the hundreds a warning bell had been built,

110
00:06:32,279 --> 00:06:35,440
Speaker 1: but it didn't last, and Robert knew that nothing protected

111
00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:38,520
Speaker 1: ships in that spot. Now people were losing their lives

112
00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:42,360
Speaker 1: and their livelihoods there every year. Generations of children were

113
00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:45,440
Speaker 1: being orphaned by the sandstone hazards. So he got to

114
00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:49,480
Speaker 1: work building his most ambitious project. In fact, the project

115
00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:52,840
Speaker 1: was so difficult and so expensive that at first the

116
00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:56,000
Speaker 1: Northern Lighthouse Board thought it was impossible, but when the

117
00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:59,440
Speaker 1: sixty four gun warship HMS Yorke went down on that

118
00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,839
Speaker 1: spot and all four members of the crew were lost

119
00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:05,960
Speaker 1: in the raging breakers that put the project into motion.

120
00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:09,440
Speaker 1: They brought on one of the most esteemed engineers of

121
00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:12,160
Speaker 1: the day, John Renny, to help with a design, while

122
00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,360
Speaker 1: Roberts and his building crew tackled the construction work. And

123
00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:18,080
Speaker 1: it was a heroic challenge, not least because they could

124
00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:20,720
Speaker 1: only work for a few hours each day at low

125
00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:23,560
Speaker 1: tide before the waters swept in and reminded them that

126
00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:26,600
Speaker 1: they were building their tower on a watery graveyard. But

127
00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:30,680
Speaker 1: after four years the work was done. It's an incredible

128
00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:33,800
Speaker 1: feat and it still stands today, the oldest sea washed

129
00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:37,920
Speaker 1: tower in existence, built down into the partially submerged reef.

130
00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:40,440
Speaker 1: It was a kind of wonder of the modern world.

131
00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:44,840
Speaker 1: It wasn't just lighthouses that Robert engineered, though over time

132
00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:48,440
Speaker 1: he came to design and build bridges, roads and railways too,

133
00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:51,160
Speaker 1: But it was his inventions of new kinds of lights

134
00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:54,120
Speaker 1: for lighthouses that earned him the most respect. He even

135
00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:56,360
Speaker 1: got a medal from the King of the Netherlands for that,

136
00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:00,000
Speaker 1: and that set the tone for the family. Robert's three

137
00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:03,160
Speaker 1: us followed in his footsteps. They became a whole family

138
00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:06,400
Speaker 1: of engineers, and in the years that followed, from seventeen

139
00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:09,480
Speaker 1: ninety all the way up to nineteen forty eight, members

140
00:08:09,480 --> 00:08:13,600
Speaker 1: of the family became engineers, experimented with new technologies, and

141
00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:16,640
Speaker 1: built the nineties seven lighthouses that still like the North

142
00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:20,520
Speaker 1: Sea and the Northern Atlantic. There are a few interesting

143
00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:23,440
Speaker 1: things about that, though, not least that the family saw

144
00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:26,280
Speaker 1: their work first and foremost as a duty to the nation.

145
00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:29,800
Speaker 1: Rather than taking on patents on their inventions, they offered

146
00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,839
Speaker 1: them to the world, without expecting anything in return, without

147
00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:35,880
Speaker 1: trying to turn their most helpful contributions into a new

148
00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:39,600
Speaker 1: tide of wealth crashing into their personal coffers. But not

149
00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:43,080
Speaker 1: everyone in the family was equally ready for the family business.

150
00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:46,520
Speaker 1: One man who was named after that original Robert, found

151
00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:48,680
Speaker 1: that it was the adventure on the high seas and

152
00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:51,320
Speaker 1: the drama of life and death on the open ocean

153
00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:54,040
Speaker 1: that set him a light. And in fact, in the

154
00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:56,600
Speaker 1: years that his family trained him to be an engineer,

155
00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:01,080
Speaker 1: he learned something altogether different. What I gleaned I am

156
00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:03,640
Speaker 1: sure I do not know, he said, but he had

157
00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:06,679
Speaker 1: already determined to be something else. He loved the art

158
00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:09,800
Speaker 1: of words, and he said that everything he learned from

159
00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:14,760
Speaker 1: hardened sailors and genius technicians interested me only as properties

160
00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:17,640
Speaker 1: for some possible romance, or as words to add to

161
00:09:17,679 --> 00:09:22,120
Speaker 1: my vocabulary. We can be grateful for all of that learning, though,

162
00:09:22,440 --> 00:09:25,240
Speaker 1: the stormy seas and craggy rocks of the Scottish coast

163
00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:29,040
Speaker 1: became the setting for some of Scottish literature's most beloved stories.

164
00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:32,280
Speaker 1: When that Robert put his pen to paper, he set

165
00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:35,880
Speaker 1: tales on scotland stormy coasts and engineered plots that would

166
00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:39,040
Speaker 1: light the way for the coming generations of adventure seekers

167
00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:42,640
Speaker 1: with a monumental achievement that rings down through the years,

168
00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:45,360
Speaker 1: like the lighthouse on Bell Rock. It was the second

169
00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:47,840
Speaker 1: Roberts who put the family name in lights when he

170
00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:50,600
Speaker 1: invented a crew of Wily Brigands in the wake of

171
00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:54,599
Speaker 1: his father's journey to the Caribbean, and Robert Lewis Stevenson

172
00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:57,400
Speaker 1: became known as the author of the most famous story

173
00:09:57,480 --> 00:10:01,760
Speaker 1: of piracy and adventure in the English language, Jem Treasure Island.

174
00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:07,040
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet

175
00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:10,960
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn

176
00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:15,600
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.

177
00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:19,160
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership

178
00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:22,520
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show

179
00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:26,359
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television

180
00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:28,640
Speaker 1: show and you can learn all about it over at

181
00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:32,240
Speaker 1: the World of Lore dot com. And until next time,

182
00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:34,760
Speaker 1: stay curious. Yeah,