WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Smoke Signals 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.080 Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. Everybody pipe down. 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:10.160 We've got to get started. There's Chuck, I'm Josh, Cherry, etcetera. 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:14.200 Let's go, let's go stop laughing. Boy, that that's never 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:18.200 gonna get old, is it? Not? To me? Probably to 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:20.680 other people, but not me. We're going to start getting 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:22.800 emails where people are like, I like short stuff, but 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:28.720 I always feel so anxious. Right, yeah, well join the club. Pal. So. 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.800 I wrote this article on smoke signals many many years ago. 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.760 I know it's a good one, you think, sure, al right, 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:39.479 it's a I mean, it's a fairly short topic. Like 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.400 even when you go research elsewhere outside of your brilliant article, 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:45.639 there's not that much more to it. You know, it's 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.519 like pretty straightforward stuff. But I think the thing the 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:50.640 first thing to kind of cover with smoke signals is 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.239 that they actually were real. It's not something that like 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.440 Hollywood invented from like Cowboy and Indian movies or something 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:58.480 like yeah, which that seems like it could have been 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:02.240 the case. The one thing that got me in reviewing 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:04.160 this again and then originally when I was doing it 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:07.520 years ago as an article, was just like, how brilliant 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.400 this is? It really is. It is also, Chuck. The 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:13.920 one thing that struck me when researching, it's just how 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.840 stressful it would be because if you screw it up, 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.240 it's not like there's a signal for wait, let me 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.120 start over. Well, maybe there was. I hope there was 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:26.160 for for people like me, for neurotic Native Americans. Yeah, 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:31.000 I guess so. All right, so we're talking about smoke signals, which, um, 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.760 like you said, they were real, and they are still real. 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:37.759 It's not like, you know, they're still smoke and they're 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:42.520 still wet blankets, right exactly. But Native Americans and not 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.160 just Native Americans, as we learn we'll learn here in 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.800 a second, but Chinese soldiers along the Great Wall of China. 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.480 You know, they couldn't communicate long distances. But if you 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.600 have a big fire with white smoke, you can see 0:01:55.600 --> 0:02:01.360 that for you know, a thousand miles maybe let's just 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.600 say a million miles Chuck, Yeah, a million miles. And 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:06.720 and they were so smart they figured out, hey, this 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:10.480 is a great way to send a kind of rudimentary 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.600 message right over a long distance. Yeah. And that's a 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:16.520 really important point too, is you're not sending like, hey, 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.880 how's it going, what's up with Alexander, how's his foot 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.160 doing right now? I'll wait for your reply Alexander the 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:30.000 Apache yeah exactly, or the Chinese soldier what are the two? Yeah? Um, 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:35.399 this is just strictly like like everything's okay, um, or 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.760 I am here, or please please God send help. Something 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.480 really horrible is going down, like really broad stroke communications 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:47.080 that you would need to send over long distances. Yeah, 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.840 but it could be, I mean, depending on the tribe 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:52.720 and what they are arranged. Because kind of the beauty 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:56.800 of smoke signals is it's just puffs of smoke, so 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.119 you can have it mean whatever you want to mean 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.079 as long as you I'll talk about it beforehand. Get 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:04.920 everyone on the same page. Although they didn't have pages, 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.520 they had smoke so that that you couldn't use that. 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.919 Turn back. Then get on the same puff. Get everyone 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:16.720 in the same puff. I'm gonna start using that. Um. 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.120 As long as you had everyone together, you could send 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:23.600 more complex messages. It's not just like hey, someone's invading. 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:26.880 It could be like, hey, we're really uh sick over 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.959 here and could use some help, right or hungry or whatever. Yeah, 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.000 And because everyone could see it, you had to kind 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:39.840 of have like an previously agreed upon um message or 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.320 meaning to each of the messages between you and who 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:44.960 you're sending it to, so that you it was encoded 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.240 in a way, I guess you could say, yeah, and 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:49.720 as far as China on the Great Wall of China, 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:53.080 and that's kind of a perfect scenario, best case scenario 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.800 for sending a smoke signal, because it's sort of wide 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.280 open um, and you know, you can see it for many, 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.480 many miles, and they had watch towers so you could 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.600 convey from you know, you could string along from one 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.360 watch tower to the next, and all of a sudden 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:13.560 you're sending messages over a few hours, you know. Three. Yeah, 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:17.760 I saw that the earliest accounts of smoke signals being 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:21.320 used is with the Chinese along the Great Wall of China. Well, 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.320 I think interesting about the whole idea of smoke signals 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.880 is that it's just such a such a great idea 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:32.720 that it evolved independently in different parts of the world, 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.000 like with Native Americans. As far as we know, they 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.200 never had any contact with the Chinese the book fourteen 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:44.479 twenty one notwithstanding. But the Native Americans in the Southwest 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.719 and in the plains, we're using smoke signals at the 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:49.880 same time that the Chinese were, you know, half a 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.839 world away, just because it's just such a basically good idea, 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:58.680 but they were using virtually the same the same yeah 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:03.039 and and technique, you know, yeah, the depending on you know, 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:05.040 we're going to talk about the best stuff to burn. 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:08.760 But in China they burned apparently saltpeter, sulfur, and wolf 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:13.280 dung to create really dense smoke. And I can't imagine 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.760 what that must have smelled like. I'll bet it smell 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:20.240 a lot like poop and saltpeter and salt would Yeah, sulfur, dude, 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.560 that's that's the that's the icing on the case that 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:25.599 the kicker, Yeah, just throwing a little eggy smell on 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.279 top exactly. It's like, did you now it's the fire? 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.279 That guy's always saying it's the fire, not the fire. 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:40.480 He's always blaming it on his dog or the fire. Oh, Alexander, Uh, well, 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:42.520 should we take a break and then talk about how 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:44.880 to do this? I guess so all right, let's do it. 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:15.239 K Okay, Chuck, we're back. And before we we really 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:16.960 get to the nuts and bolt of ale as, I 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:19.840 want to say I also saw a lot of mention 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:25.400 of how tribes in North America used mirrors too to 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:27.719 sick and I was like, did they have mirrors? And 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:32.039 though it's like polished mica, but they they used those 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.960 over long distances as well. And body positions too, like 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.520 you could see how somebody was like standing or sitting 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:43.400 or crouching, and that, um indicated something to other other 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:45.840 people in their tribe who were say like also going 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:48.200 through the woods with them, that they had seen something 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.599 or who they had seen, or that there was a 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.880 bear or whatever, um, which is pretty ingenious. Yeah. I 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.280 wonder if they got respect from And by the way, 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:59.320 I'm going to stop using the word settlers. Did you 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.320 see that email? Did I don't recall us using the 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:04.160 word settlers, did we Well, I mean I've said the 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:08.760 word settlers a lot of the years, I'm sure, um yeah, 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:10.720 But I mean have we said it recently, I don't know. 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:12.560 But it was just a very nice email, one of those. 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:14.040 It was like, oh, you know, I never really thought 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.160 about it. It was already settled. They weren't settlers. They 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:23.240 were you know, conquerors, invaders, invaders, interlopers. Yeah, So I 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:27.880 just wondered if the invaders from Europe. Uh, if they 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.000 saw these things, I know they were always like, you know, 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.440 these rudimentary savages. I wonder if they ever saw the 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:37.080 genius and some of these things, hopefully, you know, I 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.840 mean surely, yeah, I'm sure that there were people who 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:42.240 adopted smoke signals after they learned how to do it, 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.440 like white Europeans who figured it out from from watching them, 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.160 maybe even from being taught. They're like smoke signals, we 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:53.560 use pigeons far more advanced. Get with the times, all right, 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.720 So this is still relevant today. The Boy Scouts of 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.240 America still teaches smoke signaling, and it sounds still to 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:02.400 think about. But if you are ever in the woods 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.920 and you were hurt or injured or lost and alone 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:10.160 or you know, can't get help, this is just lonely 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.280 need a friend. This is still away that you can 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.080 send a message. Uh. And wilderness people understand if they 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:22.680 see three, like clear wilderness people, if they see three 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.400 distinct puffs of smoke, then that's a signal that says, hey, 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:30.239 somebody needs help, get me out of here. Pretty much. Yeah, 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:32.640 that's that's the that's a universal one. You can also 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:36.200 do that with your gun if you're lost to the woods, 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:37.920 you can shoot three times in the air. It's the 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:41.079 same in car horn, car horn YEP. The one thing 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.240 you don't want to use like that old joke is, um, 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:44.960 you don't want to shoot your bow and arrow three 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.840 times in the year. It doesn't really do anything. When 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:50.080 I'm sitting at a traffic light behind someone on their 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:54.760 cell phone and it turns green, I go huh huh huh, 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:56.440 and they always go, what do you need? What do 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:59.520 you need? All right? Are you lost in the woods? 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:03.480 That's how that is down. Yeah, So, um to to 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.400 do this for first, you have to start with the fire, obviously, 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:08.400 but you have to start with a pretty good fire. 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.880 You have to let your fire get going to start 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:14.959 sending smoke signals because you're going to do your best 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:19.680 to smother that fire from time to time repeatedly. Um. 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:21.840 So you want to get a really good raging fire 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:25.720 going that won't easily go out right, that's step one. Yeah, 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.160 and part of the being able to see if you 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:31.679 want that good thick, dense white smoke. If you've ever 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.440 been camping, you know, if you throw greenery on a 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:37.000 fire or something that's even a little bit wet it's 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.199 gonna turn really really white and thick, and that is 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.679 sort of theft. After you get your fire going really good, 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.320 that's when you put on um, the more green timber 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:49.000 and leaves and stuff like that, or if you're glamping 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.120 you have someone do that for you exactly. So that's 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.240 another reason you want a really good fire going, because 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:55.959 you don't want it to be so weak that the 0:09:56.440 --> 0:10:00.880 grass or the green um sticks or whatever, don't you know, 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.120 put the fire out. So you're creating this nice, white, 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.120 dense smoke and you get the thing going pretty well, 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.680 maybe you've got somebody's attention. They're like, you don't see 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.280 that kind of smoke every day? What's going on over there? 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:14.600 You want to you want to have a blanket with you. 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.000 It's actually it's vital that you do have some sort 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:22.280 of blanket or some sleeping roll or something like that. 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.959 Um that you can wet. That's another thing too, because 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.600 I was thinking, like in the American Southwest, like that was, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.480 you know, kind of an investment of your water to 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:35.680 wet a whole blanket enough to send a smoke signal. 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:37.960 But you want to take a wet blanket and you 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:40.640 throw it over your fire and hold it there until 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.480 there's no smoke coming out. Right, And we don't mean 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.400 Alexander who was a total wet blanket. We mean a 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.800 real wet blanket, right, like the the literal wet blanket, 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.000 as the hipsters would say. Yeah, So, I mean, I 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:54.600 imagine you could do it with it's something dry, as 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.800 long as it's you're sending like one quick signal. Um, 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.640 but obviously something dry you run the escope catching it 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:02.800 on fire. So if if you have no access to 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:05.160 any water, you could probably still get by, but you 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.320 definitely want a wet something. It's gonna make it a 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:13.280 stressful form of communication even more stressful. So um, you 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:16.720 hold it on there long enough to for smoke to cease, uh, 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.440 and then you pull the blanket off, or I guess 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:22.080 you kind of flap it off is probably the better 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.040 way to do it. And while you have that wet 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:27.960 blanket over the fire, smoke was still building up. So 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.680 when you pull the blanket off, a big puff of 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.679 smoke comes up, and there's your first signal. And if 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.120 you if you just stop right there, what you've just 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:42.840 told the world is, Hey, how's it going, I'm here. Well, 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:47.559 it could these that our research were specifically Apache UM, 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.720 and a single plume basically is yeah, sort of an 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:54.880 attention getter. Um, maybe something's going on, but like you 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.360 don't need to send in reinforcements or anything, but maybe 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.079 just keep an eye on the sky as things play out. 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.440 It could also mean something like I've arrived. Like somebody's 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.720 watching for your signal and you're saying like I made 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.600 it across the valley or over the mountain or across 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:13.880 the desert. Whatever. It's just basically a generic signal, just saying, 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.439 so this person is still alive. Um. If you are 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:21.880 really good, you can do too in a row. And 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:25.920 that's saying what chuck. If you're an Apache, well, uh, 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:29.360 if you wren Apache, that meant everything's fine. Um. You 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:31.599 may have seen my one puff signal that meant to 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.520 you know, we're not so sure about things, but now 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:38.679 my two puff signal means everything's good. We've established our camp. 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.679 We're all safe. Um. You just stay where you are 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.600 unless you hear something else or see something else rather uh. 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:48.000 And this was important because they would, you know, they 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:50.040 would travel around that you know, they had some more 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.360 permanent encampments, but they also went where the food was 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:55.880 depending on the season and where you could hunt better 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.240 and get you know, more resources, right exactly, And yeah, 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.840 you're right. I'm sorry I confused the boy Scout technique 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:05.400 with the Apache technique. There the boy Scouts, one puff 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:09.200 is just here, I am, whereas with the Apache it 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:14.040 was like something weird was going on. Yeah exactly. And then, 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.520 like you said, already, three puffs in any language, a 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:22.000 boy Scout or Apache means there's something bad going on. Yeah, 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.000 like come and help us. We need you know, whether 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.320 or not we have all been befallen with an illness, 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:31.800 or there's an invader, or we have no food. We 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.679 definitely need some help. And I saw also, I mean 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:38.959 almost across the board it was just puffs. Basically was 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.760 was the way that um smoke signals are communicated. But 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.080 I did see reference to one tribe from Texas called 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.920 the Carrakawa, I believe, and they could get super fancy. 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.120 They could do spirals and zigzags and stuff like that, 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.640 which is pretty pretty impressive. I'd be stressed out with 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.080 just the puff system, let alone having to make a 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.080 spiral or a z zag. It would be kind of 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:03.800 cool to know how to do that, though, and then 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:06.520 of course the Snoop Dog tribe used the puff Puff 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:11.680 pass exactly. That meant come on over exactly, the doors open. 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:15.400 Well that's it for this episode of short Stuff on 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:19.560 Smoke Signals. Hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, So 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:25.200 long Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeart 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:28.360 Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.320 visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:32.560 listen to your favorite shows.