Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Time never stops. It's like a wheel, ever
Speaker 1: turning as we grow older. And time was a big
Speaker 1: fascination to John Joseph. He studied how it moved, how
Speaker 1: it never slowed down or sped up. It was constant
Speaker 1: and always in motion, and his passion for that motion
Speaker 1: eventually led him to a career as a horologist a
Speaker 1: watchmaker during the eighteenth century, and John Joseph hailed from
Speaker 1: Belgium but moved to England in seventeen sixty when he
Speaker 1: was twenty five years old. He was skilled with his hands,
Speaker 1: building all sorts of intricate and ornate objects for English royalty,
Speaker 1: including a barrel organ for the Princess of Wales. He
Speaker 1: moved on six years later, embracing his passion for time
Speaker 1: by working alongside British jeweler James Cox. But James Cox
Speaker 1: made a lot more than just necklaces and elaborate rings. Together,
Speaker 1: the two men designed watches, clocks, and elaborate automatons, such
Speaker 1: as the Silver Swan. What was the Silver Swan, you
Speaker 1: might ask, Well, it was a three foot tall machine
Speaker 1: made to look like a majestic swan gliding across the water.
Speaker 1: The operator would wind up the gears inside, which would
Speaker 1: power the swan to do things like turn its head,
Speaker 1: dip down to eat silver fish, and even preen itself.
Speaker 1: The water effect was achieved by glass rods that spun underneath.
Speaker 1: The whole effect lasted about thirty two seconds but never
Speaker 1: failed to inspire awe in the minds of spectat ars,
Speaker 1: and it was all thanks to the automaton's precise inner
Speaker 1: workings built by John Joseph. His expertise could be seen
Speaker 1: in another creation as well, a barometric clock known as
Speaker 1: Cox's Timepiece that would wind itself whenever the air pressure changed.
Speaker 1: When he wasn't constructing complicated clockwork, John Joseph also spent
Speaker 1: his time expanding his skills, but eventually he moved on
Speaker 1: from the world of time pieces and clock based robots
Speaker 1: to making musical instruments. It was work that made him
Speaker 1: popular among the English elite, often building pianos and harpsichords
Speaker 1: on commission for friends and popular composers of the time.
Speaker 1: He soon found himself invited to parties where he entertained
Speaker 1: guests with his inventions and peculiarities. Peculiarities he used to
Speaker 1: market his talents. For example, that one mass grade ball
Speaker 1: he showed up in a wheelchair of his own design.
Speaker 1: At another event, he demonstrated the first version of an
Speaker 1: invention that wouldn't catch on for few decades, probably because
Speaker 1: he hadn't quite worked out the kinks. His device allowed
Speaker 1: him to zip around the room on wheels, much like
Speaker 1: a wheelchair. There was just one problem with it. He
Speaker 1: didn't know how to stop. With his violin in hand,
Speaker 1: John Joseph glided from group to group, chatting with those
Speaker 1: who could stop him or at least break his fall.
Speaker 1: After a jovial exchange with one group of guests, the
Speaker 1: eccentric inventor took off on his latest creation. However, he
Speaker 1: had no way of breaking heck, he couldn't even turn. Instead,
Speaker 1: he careened into an expensive mirror, breaking it and destroying
Speaker 1: his violin. In fact, John Joseph was seriously injured by
Speaker 1: the stunt, so his gadget was tucked away until it
Speaker 1: could be improved upon. Instead, he devoted his attention to
Speaker 1: a museum of his own inventions, of which there were many.
Speaker 1: Over the course of his life, John Joseph developed prosthetics
Speaker 1: for people born without limbs, away to summon servants from
Speaker 1: various rooms in his house, and a rotate in tea table,
Speaker 1: and so much more. But there was one idea of
Speaker 1: his that deserved to see the light of day again,
Speaker 1: and eventually it did. In the eighteen forties, his retired
Speaker 1: invention was revived for the production of an opera where
Speaker 1: actors had to simulate ice skating on stage. Twenty years later,
Speaker 1: an American inventor named James Plimpton changed John Joseph's original
Speaker 1: design to allow for more control. It started a craze
Speaker 1: called rink Omania, and it soon took off all over
Speaker 1: the world. Today, his creation is used in professional sports
Speaker 1: and was even featured at the Olympics. It has become
Speaker 1: a fun way for folks to travel on foot or
Speaker 1: take out the competition. John Joseph, the Belgian horologist and tinkerer,
Speaker 1: had invented inline roller skates. My own grandfather owned a
Speaker 1: roller rink, and my mother grew up on wheels, zipping
Speaker 1: around just like John Joseph had long ago. Even today,
Speaker 1: people who put them on love the sensation of speed
Speaker 1: as they glide down the street. The feeling of wind
Speaker 1: through their hair adds something to the magical experience of skating,
Speaker 1: which is quite fitting really, because John Joseph's last name
Speaker 1: was Merlin. The jobs we perform have an effect on
Speaker 1: those around us, even when we don't realize it. The
Speaker 1: mechanic who fails to fix a doctor's car might contribute
Speaker 1: to a patient's health because the doctor couldn't get to
Speaker 1: work on time. The subway worker who forgets to tighten
Speaker 1: a bolt could cause a derailment, putting hundreds of lives
Speaker 1: in jeopardy. We don't realize that every day, the lives
Speaker 1: of people we've never met are in our hands because
Speaker 1: of one decision we either do or do not make.
Speaker 1: And no one knew that better than James Edwin Wide,
Speaker 1: whose decision affected passengers along his section of railway in
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy seven in ways they would never understand. Wide
Speaker 1: was a signal man who worked for the Cape Town
Speaker 1: Port Elizabeth Railway surface in South Africa. When moving between
Speaker 1: the train cars, he liked to jump from one to
Speaker 1: the next, a habit that had earned him the nickname Jumper. However,
Speaker 1: on one fateful day in eighteen seventy seven, Wide underestimated
Speaker 1: his distance and fell between the cars of a moving train.
Speaker 1: They rolled over him, cutting off both of his legs
Speaker 1: at the knees. He survived the ordeal and lost his legs,
Speaker 1: but he managed to keep his job. Things got a
Speaker 1: lot harder for him after that. For one, the distance
Speaker 1: from his home to the station was half a mile.
Speaker 1: He also had problems doing simple tasks like sweeping the
Speaker 1: floors of the station and taking out the trash. To
Speaker 1: help him with his daily chores, Wide hired and assistant
Speaker 1: named Jack. Jack took care of sweeping and the trash,
Speaker 1: which allowed his boss to recover and indulge in his
Speaker 1: on the job hobby. Taxidermy Jack also brought stra Wide
Speaker 1: to work by pushing him to and from his home
Speaker 1: in a wooden cart. But there was still one big
Speaker 1: problem to contend with switching the signals. Without legs, it
Speaker 1: was difficult for Why to get around the station if
Speaker 1: he had to hand off keys to a conductor or
Speaker 1: change the signals he had to maneuver about on two
Speaker 1: wooden legs that he had made for himself. It was
Speaker 1: painful and exhausting, but his assistant, Jack was a quick study.
Speaker 1: He watched and listened for the cues from both his
Speaker 1: supervisor and the approaching trains. Once a train reached a
Speaker 1: certain point on the track, it's whistle would blow a
Speaker 1: number of times to signal what it needed. For blows
Speaker 1: meant the conductor required keys a different number told Wide
Speaker 1: to trigger a track change, and his newly hired assistant,
Speaker 1: Jack picked up on the nuances of the job pretty quickly,
Speaker 1: and before long he was running the station by himself,
Speaker 1: handing off keys and switching the tracks on his own.
Speaker 1: One day, though, Jack's employments with the railroad was put
Speaker 1: in danger. As he was pulling the lever to switch
Speaker 1: the tracks. A passenger caught a glimpse of him at
Speaker 1: work and was shocked. She reported him to the railway authorities,
Speaker 1: who stepped in to assess the situation. Apparently they had
Speaker 1: known about Mr Wide's hiring of an assistant, they just
Speaker 1: didn't know who he had hired. Jack, you see, was
Speaker 1: a baboon. Wide had spotted him at a local market
Speaker 1: leading an ox pulled wagon. He was shocked by the
Speaker 1: animal's ability to perform that sort of work without any supervision,
Speaker 1: so he bought Jack and took him back to the station,
Speaker 1: where he taught him how to sweep floors and remove trash. Eventually,
Speaker 1: he also showed Jack how to push him from his
Speaker 1: home to the station and back in a wooden cart.
Speaker 1: But this productive primate was a lot smarter than Wide
Speaker 1: gave him credit for. Jack paid attention to the sequence
Speaker 1: of sounds from the train whistles and learned how and
Speaker 1: when to switch the tracks. When Wide's boss got wind
Speaker 1: of the baboon in the station, they came down to
Speaker 1: see Jack for themselves. They tested his skills by having
Speaker 1: an engineer blow a train whistle several times in succession.
Speaker 1: Jack got to work and pulled the corresponding lover without question.
Speaker 1: The railway authorities were in awe of his prowess. In
Speaker 1: the end, rather than fire Wide and have Jack removed,
Speaker 1: they did something completely unexpected. They hired him. Jack the
Speaker 1: baboon made twenty cents a day, plus half a bottle
Speaker 1: of beer a week, all working for the Railroad. He
Speaker 1: spent nine years Pauline Switches before passing away from tuberculosis,
Speaker 1: but throughout his time at the station, he never made
Speaker 1: a single mistake, giving new meaning to the term monkey business.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,