1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:08,000 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,480 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right 3 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:16,640 Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Listen, pay attention, tune your 5 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:34,840 Speaker 1: ear to the world around you, and you'll hear music everywhere. 6 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:37,760 Speaker 1: In the rhythm of a footstep on its hile floor, 7 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:40,360 Speaker 1: or in the chime of an elevator in the lobby, 8 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:44,760 Speaker 1: a baby's cry, a squeaky break, anything can become a 9 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:50,600 Speaker 1: song with a keen ear and a little imagination. A 10 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,120 Speaker 1: stonemason from Keswick, England, possessed such an ear, and it 11 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:58,160 Speaker 1: took him quite far. In eighteen forty, Joseph Richardson had 12 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: been wandering around near a mountain five miles from his 13 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:03,920 Speaker 1: home when he struck one of the rocks along the 14 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:08,600 Speaker 1: mountain side. Surprisingly, it rang out with a clear, crisp tone, 15 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:12,560 Speaker 1: and it gave Joseph an idea. He took the rock 16 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:15,160 Speaker 1: home and stored it away. It had been the first 17 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:17,600 Speaker 1: step in a journey that would take him thirteen years 18 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,400 Speaker 1: to complete. He returned to the mountain over the course 19 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 1: of those thirteen years, over and over again. In search 20 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:26,839 Speaker 1: of more rocks, known as horn fells. Just like the first, 21 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 1: he hit each one to hear its tone, and he 22 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:33,800 Speaker 1: did this until he had amassed over sixty of them. 23 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:36,760 Speaker 1: His goal was to compile them into a musical instrument 24 00:01:36,959 --> 00:01:40,959 Speaker 1: known as a lithophone. Now, the lithophone wasn't too different 25 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 1: from a xylophone. It consisted of carefully assembled tiers of 26 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:49,080 Speaker 1: rocks arranged like piano keys. When struck, each rock elicited 27 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 1: a specific tone on the musical scale. His first lithophone 28 00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:56,840 Speaker 1: had too small, arranged to play most songs of the time, 29 00:01:57,120 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 1: but a second version was so large it could reach 30 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:03,360 Speaker 1: eight octaves, and Joseph was obsessed with building the instrument, 31 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:06,280 Speaker 1: spending most of his time and money on its construction. 32 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:10,440 Speaker 1: The effort nearly bankrupted his family, but don't worry, he 33 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,000 Speaker 1: had a plan to earn it all back. With a 34 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:16,840 Speaker 1: special set of mallets and his children by his side, 35 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:20,720 Speaker 1: Joseph took his lithophone on a European tour. He and 36 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:25,520 Speaker 1: his sons toured Germany, France, Italy and other European countries, 37 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 1: playing for all kinds of crowds. Audiences were in awe 38 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:32,160 Speaker 1: of the unique sound of his lithophone. The concerts proved 39 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:35,079 Speaker 1: so successful, in fact, that the Richardson's didn't return home 40 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:38,200 Speaker 1: for three years. He even performed for the Queen at 41 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:42,920 Speaker 1: Buckingham Palace. The papers reported that his Stones sounded like 42 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,920 Speaker 1: the warble of a lark at its upper register, and 43 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:48,560 Speaker 1: like the bellowing toll of a funeral bell at the 44 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:52,600 Speaker 1: lower end. Others described the music as haunting. It sounded 45 00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:55,520 Speaker 1: like a relic from an ancient era, not a modern 46 00:02:55,639 --> 00:03:00,160 Speaker 1: musical instrument. As Joseph traveled and put war into are 47 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:04,000 Speaker 1: on his creation, he modified it with steel bars for reinforcements. 48 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 1: He also added bells and other pieces to produce additional 49 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 1: sounds during performances. However, all that travel had exacted a 50 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: heavy toll on his children too. They'd grown tired, and 51 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:18,520 Speaker 1: his youngest son had caught pneumonia. On the night before 52 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:22,400 Speaker 1: a plan trip to America. The boy passed away. Grief 53 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 1: was too much for Joseph and his two other children, 54 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:27,640 Speaker 1: and so they ended the tour, and that was the 55 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:31,960 Speaker 1: end of the Richardson family band. It's not known whether 56 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,920 Speaker 1: Joseph ever performed with the Stones again after that, but 57 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:37,840 Speaker 1: we do know that they stayed in the family. In 58 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen, more than sixty years after Joseph's death, his 59 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: great grandson donated the lithophone to the Keswick Museum and 60 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 1: Art Gallery in his hometown, where it still resides today. 61 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:52,840 Speaker 1: Its sound has been recorded and converted digitally too, so 62 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:57,720 Speaker 1: today's musicians can incorporate its ethereal notes into their modern compositions. 63 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: Joseph Richardson can tributed to the world of music in 64 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:04,640 Speaker 1: a powerful way over the course of thirteen years. He 65 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: built his influence one stone at a time, with blood, 66 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:10,800 Speaker 1: sweat and a lot of tears, and even though the 67 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:13,840 Speaker 1: record books might not agree, one might say he also 68 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 1: had a pretty big claim to fame. After all, he 69 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:34,680 Speaker 1: did create the world's first rock band. Plane crash survivors 70 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 1: have told incredible stories of the fear they overcame when 71 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 1: facing what they thought was certain death. A man who 72 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:43,400 Speaker 1: had been on a US Airways flight that crashed in 73 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:47,800 Speaker 1: two thousand nine discussed reading the emergency instructions while his 74 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:51,240 Speaker 1: plane was nose diving over water. A woman on a 75 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: small chartered flight in found herself lost in the congo 76 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:58,640 Speaker 1: when the pilot lost control over a mountain range. She 77 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:01,280 Speaker 1: made it out of the wreckage, but eventually lost her 78 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:05,360 Speaker 1: legs to frostbite. We have their stories to help us 79 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 1: understand what it's like to be part of an experience 80 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:11,200 Speaker 1: that most people do not survive. But what happens when 81 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:14,240 Speaker 1: those stories can't be told. I'm not talking about a 82 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: lack of survivors. I'm talking about a lack of any 83 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:20,560 Speaker 1: evidence at all. What do you do when you know 84 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 1: there's been a crash but there's no proof. It's hard 85 00:05:24,920 --> 00:05:28,280 Speaker 1: to imagine such a thing happening. A large metal aircraft 86 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:32,000 Speaker 1: falling from the sky, the sound of the impact, an explosion, 87 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:35,560 Speaker 1: the smell of burning fuel. There would be pieces of 88 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:38,800 Speaker 1: the plane left over, or a crater, or down trees. 89 00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:42,840 Speaker 1: And yet despite eyewitness reports of airplanes disappearing into wooded 90 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:46,560 Speaker 1: areas or over the ocean, there's no proof they ever happened. 91 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:50,480 Speaker 1: And the planes often seen are vintage models from the 92 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:54,480 Speaker 1: nineteen thirties and forties, usually aircraft used for bombings or 93 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:59,920 Speaker 1: personnel transport. For example, in the spring of nineteen Tony 94 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:03,479 Speaker 1: Ingle from Derbyshire, England, watched as a large airplane with 95 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,680 Speaker 1: enormous propellers silently fell into an open field where sheep 96 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:11,400 Speaker 1: had been grazing Tony hurried to the site, expecting death 97 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:14,880 Speaker 1: and destruction, hoping someone had radioed for help that would 98 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:17,919 Speaker 1: soon be on its way, but no help came. It 99 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:21,640 Speaker 1: wasn't needed. The sheep were still there, safely eating, without 100 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: any trace of a crash. No smoke, no fire, and 101 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:29,400 Speaker 1: no plane. And that wasn't the only phantom crash seen 102 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:33,920 Speaker 1: over Derbyshire. One year earlier, the local police received hundreds 103 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:36,960 Speaker 1: of frantic calls about a World War Two bomber gliding 104 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:40,320 Speaker 1: at a dangerously low altitude. Many observers thought that it 105 00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:43,640 Speaker 1: was moments away from crashing, so the authorities dispatched a 106 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:46,159 Speaker 1: full search team to hunt for the wreck, only to 107 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:51,800 Speaker 1: find nothing. The plane had just disappeared. Even as recently 108 00:06:51,839 --> 00:06:55,400 Speaker 1: as two thousand eighteen, Derbyshire citizens took the social media 109 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:59,440 Speaker 1: with claims of another ghost plane cruising low overhead. Some 110 00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:02,839 Speaker 1: had peg the vessel as a Douglas Dakota, a transport 111 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:05,120 Speaker 1: model that had crashed in the area during the war. 112 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:08,800 Speaker 1: It moved without making a sound, an impossible feat for 113 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 1: something so large being powered by four giant propellers. It 114 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:16,680 Speaker 1: should come as no surprise that Derbyshire, England was an 115 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:20,080 Speaker 1: unfortunate victim of the Second World War. Having been subjected 116 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:23,320 Speaker 1: to countless bombings and attacks, much of the area was 117 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:26,160 Speaker 1: reduced to rubble. In fact, an old oak tree in 118 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:29,640 Speaker 1: the northeast Derbyshire town of Duckmanton is honored every year 119 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:32,200 Speaker 1: for taking a direct hit from a German parachute bomb 120 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:36,000 Speaker 1: in The bomb had been meant for the local railway station, 121 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:39,280 Speaker 1: but instead hit the tree, sparing not only the station 122 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:44,040 Speaker 1: but also hundreds of lives and a nearby school. That 123 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 1: doesn't explain why phantom airplanes continue to plague the townspeople there, though, 124 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: and Derbyshire isn't the only place where they've been seen. 125 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:55,040 Speaker 1: A loud roar startled the people of Berkshire, just west 126 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: of London on the evening of October two thousand eleven. 127 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:01,119 Speaker 1: They ran to their win knows and into the street 128 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: to check on the commotion. When they looked up, there 129 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:07,400 Speaker 1: was a commercial airliner streaking past them, headed for a 130 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:12,720 Speaker 1: nearby wooded area. The Civil Aviation Authority reported no distress 131 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:16,200 Speaker 1: calls that night from any passenger aircraft. The woods were 132 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:19,200 Speaker 1: also a dead end if the plane was real and 133 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:22,160 Speaker 1: hadn't made a hard landing or resulted in a crash, 134 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:27,360 Speaker 1: it's simply vanished in the end. Perhaps we shouldn't be 135 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:30,480 Speaker 1: asking where these planes come from or where they go 136 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:35,120 Speaker 1: when they vanish. Instead, maybe we should be asking ourselves 137 00:08:35,160 --> 00:08:38,720 Speaker 1: a better question. If a plane falls in the woods 138 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:42,280 Speaker 1: and it doesn't leave a trace, was it ever really 139 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:50,560 Speaker 1: there at all? Either way, I'd call that curious. I 140 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:54,120 Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 141 00:08:54,480 --> 00:08:57,560 Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 142 00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:01,800 Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast asked dot com. The 143 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:05,440 Speaker 1: show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with 144 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:09,320 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 145 00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:13,160 Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and 146 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:15,440 Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World 147 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:19,800 Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.