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Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is

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Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,

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Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

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Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

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Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Time never stops. It's like a wheel, ever

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Speaker 1: turning as we grow older. And time was a big

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Speaker 1: fascination to John Joseph. He studied how it moved, how

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Speaker 1: it never slowed down or sped up. It was constant

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Speaker 1: and always in motion, and his passion for that motion

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Speaker 1: eventually led him to a career as a horologist a

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Speaker 1: watchmaker during the eighteenth century, and John Joseph hailed from

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Speaker 1: Belgium but moved to England in seventeen sixty when he

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Speaker 1: was twenty five years old. He was skilled with his hands,

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Speaker 1: building all sorts of intricate and ornate objects for English royalty,

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Speaker 1: including a barrel organ for the Princess of Wales. He

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Speaker 1: moved on six years later, embracing his passion for time

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Speaker 1: by working alongside British jeweler James Cox. But James Cox

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Speaker 1: made a lot more than just necklaces and elaborate rings. Together,

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Speaker 1: the two men designed watches, clocks, and elaborate automatons, such

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Speaker 1: as the Silver Swan. What was the Silver Swan, you

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Speaker 1: might ask, Well, it was a three foot tall machine

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Speaker 1: made to look like a majestic swan gliding across the water.

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Speaker 1: The operator would wind up the gears inside, which would

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Speaker 1: power the swan to do things like turn its head,

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Speaker 1: dip down to eat silver fish, and even preen itself.

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Speaker 1: The water effect was achieved by glass rods that spun underneath.

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Speaker 1: The whole effect lasted about thirty two seconds but never

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Speaker 1: failed to inspire awe in the minds of spectat ars,

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Speaker 1: and it was all thanks to the automaton's precise inner

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Speaker 1: workings built by John Joseph. His expertise could be seen

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Speaker 1: in another creation as well, a barometric clock known as

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Speaker 1: Cox's Timepiece that would wind itself whenever the air pressure changed.

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Speaker 1: When he wasn't constructing complicated clockwork, John Joseph also spent

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Speaker 1: his time expanding his skills, but eventually he moved on

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Speaker 1: from the world of time pieces and clock based robots

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Speaker 1: to making musical instruments. It was work that made him

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Speaker 1: popular among the English elite, often building pianos and harpsichords

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Speaker 1: on commission for friends and popular composers of the time.

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Speaker 1: He soon found himself invited to parties where he entertained

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Speaker 1: guests with his inventions and peculiarities. Peculiarities he used to

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Speaker 1: market his talents. For example, that one mass grade ball

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Speaker 1: he showed up in a wheelchair of his own design.

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Speaker 1: At another event, he demonstrated the first version of an

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Speaker 1: invention that wouldn't catch on for few decades, probably because

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Speaker 1: he hadn't quite worked out the kinks. His device allowed

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Speaker 1: him to zip around the room on wheels, much like

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Speaker 1: a wheelchair. There was just one problem with it. He

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Speaker 1: didn't know how to stop. With his violin in hand,

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Speaker 1: John Joseph glided from group to group, chatting with those

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Speaker 1: who could stop him or at least break his fall.

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Speaker 1: After a jovial exchange with one group of guests, the

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Speaker 1: eccentric inventor took off on his latest creation. However, he

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Speaker 1: had no way of breaking heck, he couldn't even turn. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he careened into an expensive mirror, breaking it and destroying

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Speaker 1: his violin. In fact, John Joseph was seriously injured by

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Speaker 1: the stunt, so his gadget was tucked away until it

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Speaker 1: could be improved upon. Instead, he devoted his attention to

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Speaker 1: a museum of his own inventions, of which there were many.

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Speaker 1: Over the course of his life, John Joseph developed prosthetics

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Speaker 1: for people born without limbs, away to summon servants from

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Speaker 1: various rooms in his house, and a rotate in tea table,

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Speaker 1: and so much more. But there was one idea of

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Speaker 1: his that deserved to see the light of day again,

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Speaker 1: and eventually it did. In the eighteen forties, his retired

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Speaker 1: invention was revived for the production of an opera where

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Speaker 1: actors had to simulate ice skating on stage. Twenty years later,

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Speaker 1: an American inventor named James Plimpton changed John Joseph's original

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Speaker 1: design to allow for more control. It started a craze

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Speaker 1: called rink Omania, and it soon took off all over

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Speaker 1: the world. Today, his creation is used in professional sports

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Speaker 1: and was even featured at the Olympics. It has become

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Speaker 1: a fun way for folks to travel on foot or

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Speaker 1: take out the competition. John Joseph, the Belgian horologist and tinkerer,

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Speaker 1: had invented inline roller skates. My own grandfather owned a

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Speaker 1: roller rink, and my mother grew up on wheels, zipping

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Speaker 1: around just like John Joseph had long ago. Even today,

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Speaker 1: people who put them on love the sensation of speed

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Speaker 1: as they glide down the street. The feeling of wind

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Speaker 1: through their hair adds something to the magical experience of skating,

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Speaker 1: which is quite fitting really, because John Joseph's last name

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Speaker 1: was Merlin. The jobs we perform have an effect on

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Speaker 1: those around us, even when we don't realize it. The

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Speaker 1: mechanic who fails to fix a doctor's car might contribute

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Speaker 1: to a patient's health because the doctor couldn't get to

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Speaker 1: work on time. The subway worker who forgets to tighten

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Speaker 1: a bolt could cause a derailment, putting hundreds of lives

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Speaker 1: in jeopardy. We don't realize that every day, the lives

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Speaker 1: of people we've never met are in our hands because

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Speaker 1: of one decision we either do or do not make.

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Speaker 1: And no one knew that better than James Edwin Wide,

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Speaker 1: whose decision affected passengers along his section of railway in

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy seven in ways they would never understand. Wide

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Speaker 1: was a signal man who worked for the Cape Town

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Speaker 1: Port Elizabeth Railway surface in South Africa. When moving between

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Speaker 1: the train cars, he liked to jump from one to

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Speaker 1: the next, a habit that had earned him the nickname Jumper. However,

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Speaker 1: on one fateful day in eighteen seventy seven, Wide underestimated

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Speaker 1: his distance and fell between the cars of a moving train.

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Speaker 1: They rolled over him, cutting off both of his legs

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Speaker 1: at the knees. He survived the ordeal and lost his legs,

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Speaker 1: but he managed to keep his job. Things got a

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Speaker 1: lot harder for him after that. For one, the distance

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Speaker 1: from his home to the station was half a mile.

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Speaker 1: He also had problems doing simple tasks like sweeping the

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Speaker 1: floors of the station and taking out the trash. To

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Speaker 1: help him with his daily chores, Wide hired and assistant

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Speaker 1: named Jack. Jack took care of sweeping and the trash,

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Speaker 1: which allowed his boss to recover and indulge in his

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Speaker 1: on the job hobby. Taxidermy Jack also brought stra Wide

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Speaker 1: to work by pushing him to and from his home

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Speaker 1: in a wooden cart. But there was still one big

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Speaker 1: problem to contend with switching the signals. Without legs, it

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Speaker 1: was difficult for Why to get around the station if

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Speaker 1: he had to hand off keys to a conductor or

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Speaker 1: change the signals he had to maneuver about on two

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Speaker 1: wooden legs that he had made for himself. It was

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Speaker 1: painful and exhausting, but his assistant, Jack was a quick study.

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Speaker 1: He watched and listened for the cues from both his

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Speaker 1: supervisor and the approaching trains. Once a train reached a

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Speaker 1: certain point on the track, it's whistle would blow a

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Speaker 1: number of times to signal what it needed. For blows

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Speaker 1: meant the conductor required keys a different number told Wide

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Speaker 1: to trigger a track change, and his newly hired assistant,

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Speaker 1: Jack picked up on the nuances of the job pretty quickly,

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Speaker 1: and before long he was running the station by himself,

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Speaker 1: handing off keys and switching the tracks on his own.

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Speaker 1: One day, though, Jack's employments with the railroad was put

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Speaker 1: in danger. As he was pulling the lever to switch

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Speaker 1: the tracks. A passenger caught a glimpse of him at

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Speaker 1: work and was shocked. She reported him to the railway authorities,

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Speaker 1: who stepped in to assess the situation. Apparently they had

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Speaker 1: known about Mr Wide's hiring of an assistant, they just

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Speaker 1: didn't know who he had hired. Jack, you see, was

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Speaker 1: a baboon. Wide had spotted him at a local market

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Speaker 1: leading an ox pulled wagon. He was shocked by the

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Speaker 1: animal's ability to perform that sort of work without any supervision,

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Speaker 1: so he bought Jack and took him back to the station,

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Speaker 1: where he taught him how to sweep floors and remove trash. Eventually,

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Speaker 1: he also showed Jack how to push him from his

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Speaker 1: home to the station and back in a wooden cart.

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Speaker 1: But this productive primate was a lot smarter than Wide

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Speaker 1: gave him credit for. Jack paid attention to the sequence

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Speaker 1: of sounds from the train whistles and learned how and

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Speaker 1: when to switch the tracks. When Wide's boss got wind

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Speaker 1: of the baboon in the station, they came down to

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Speaker 1: see Jack for themselves. They tested his skills by having

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Speaker 1: an engineer blow a train whistle several times in succession.

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Speaker 1: Jack got to work and pulled the corresponding lover without question.

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Speaker 1: The railway authorities were in awe of his prowess. In

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Speaker 1: the end, rather than fire Wide and have Jack removed,

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Speaker 1: they did something completely unexpected. They hired him. Jack the

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Speaker 1: baboon made twenty cents a day, plus half a bottle

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Speaker 1: of beer a week, all working for the Railroad. He

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Speaker 1: spent nine years Pauline Switches before passing away from tuberculosis,

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Speaker 1: but throughout his time at the station, he never made

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Speaker 1: a single mistake, giving new meaning to the term monkey business.

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Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet

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Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn

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Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.

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Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership

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Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show

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Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,

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Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the

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Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,