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Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production

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

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

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Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there

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Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to

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Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. For children, a darkened bedroom can

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Speaker 1: be one of the scariest places on earth. There's a

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Speaker 1: reason popular culture is rife with stories about inanimate playthings

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Speaker 1: coming to life. The Twilight Zones, Talking Tina bart Simpson's

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Speaker 1: sentient Krusty, the clown doll on a Halloween episode of

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Speaker 1: The Simpsons, and perhaps the most famous of all, the

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Speaker 1: Murderous Chucky from the popular child's play film franchise, all

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Speaker 1: of which have haunted the nightmares of children and adults alike.

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Speaker 1: But where did our fear of evil dolls come from?

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Speaker 1: Is it the cold black void of their unblinking eyes,

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Speaker 1: the rigid movements of their arms and legs, or could

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Speaker 1: it be the tinny robotic voices emanating from deep inside

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Speaker 1: their chests? Thanks to Thomas Edison, it was all three.

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Speaker 1: Back in nine, Edison saw how technology was changing In fact,

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Speaker 1: he was responsible for a lot of those changes, and

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Speaker 1: he believed that there was no better place to explore

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Speaker 1: its benefits than within the home. He had already made

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Speaker 1: history with the phonograph twelve years earlier, but its lack

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Speaker 1: of success in the market had led him to abandon

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Speaker 1: the project. Other inventors stepped into advance what Edison had begun,

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Speaker 1: specifically by replacing his tinfoil wrap cylinder with one made

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Speaker 1: entirely of wax. The breakthrough was achieved by Alexander Graham Bell,

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Speaker 1: his cousin Chichester Bell, and frequent collaborator Charles Tainter. Edison

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Speaker 1: recognized the benefits of using wax instead of foil and

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Speaker 1: debuted his up aided phonograph, produced by his Edison Phonograph Company.

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Speaker 1: That company was eventually bought by a man named Jeff Slippingcott,

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Speaker 1: who saw phonographs as perfect for the business world, specifically

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Speaker 1: for dictation purposes. Edison, however, believed the device's future was

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Speaker 1: within the average American home, and he wanted to demonstrate

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Speaker 1: that belief in a profoundly bold way. He got to

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Speaker 1: work in his New Jersey lab on a new product,

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Speaker 1: one that would be made for children, not adults. It

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Speaker 1: was a doll measuring twenty two inches tall and fitted

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Speaker 1: with four wooden limbs. It's porcelain head boasted a long

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Speaker 1: mane of hair, and its metal torso held a tiny

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Speaker 1: phonograph inside, the sound cone of which pointed out toward

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Speaker 1: the holes in the doll's chest, so kids could hear

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Speaker 1: twenty second long nursery rhymes and songs. All they had

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Speaker 1: to do is turn the crank on the back of

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Speaker 1: the doll a few times, and suddenly they'd hear Jack

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Speaker 1: and Jill or Mary had a little lamb pumping out

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Speaker 1: from the minuscule wax disc inside. At least that's what

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Speaker 1: they expected to hear. Unfortunately, the dolls were often returned

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Speaker 1: due to the wax records being broken or the sound

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Speaker 1: quality being dismal. It was believed that a few of

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Speaker 1: the women working in Edison's factory had recorded the sound bites,

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Speaker 1: which came out distorted and incomprehensible when replayed via the

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Speaker 1: miniscule phonograph, especially after repeated use. Although Edison had expected

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Speaker 1: these dolls to wind up in the arms of all

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Speaker 1: kinds of children, their price tags made them affordable only

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Speaker 1: to the wealthiest ones whose parents could actually afford them.

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Speaker 1: A doll without clothes sold for ten dollars back then,

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Speaker 1: while a fully clothed version sold for twenty. If they

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Speaker 1: were on store shelves today, those prices would be two

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars and five dollars, respectively. Worse yet, the dolls

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Speaker 1: were heavy, weighing four pounds apiece, and customers often demanded

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Speaker 1: better quality in terms of sound and manufacturing, especially given

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Speaker 1: their cost. Edison, when asked about them, often referred to

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Speaker 1: them as his little monsters. They were more trouble than

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Speaker 1: they were word, and after only one month in production,

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Speaker 1: he shut the whole operation down. Edison was believed to

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Speaker 1: have made over dollars, only selling five hundred or so

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Speaker 1: during those turbulent weeks on the market. He had also

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Speaker 1: planned on building a second version with better internals and

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Speaker 1: clearer sound, but there was no way to get the

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Speaker 1: cost down. Combined with the mountain of debt crushing the company,

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Speaker 1: any chances for a talking doll two points Oh, we're

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Speaker 1: dashed pretty quickly. Today, Edison's talking to toys are considered

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Speaker 1: one forgotten loss among many of the famous inventor, and

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Speaker 1: by today's standards they're charming glimpses into how technology has

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Speaker 1: advanced at the turn of the century. Just make sure

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Speaker 1: you admire them with the lights on. Famous people aren't

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Speaker 1: just fascinating while they're alive. They also keep us asking

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Speaker 1: questions long after they're gone. When Albert Einstein died in

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five, pathologist Thomas Harvey conducted an autopsy on

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Speaker 1: his body and removed the physicist's brain. Then he took

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Speaker 1: it to the University of Pennsylvania to be studied. It

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Speaker 1: was dissected and pieces were handed off to other experts

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Speaker 1: for further examination. In the end, a large portion of

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Speaker 1: Einstein's brain was preserved by Harvey, while much of it

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Speaker 1: was cut into small pieces and put on display in

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Speaker 1: museums and laboratories later on. His wasn't the only body

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Speaker 1: part save for posterity, either. Visitors to the National Museum

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Speaker 1: of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland, can see

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Speaker 1: fragments of President Lincoln's skull alongside the bullet that killed him.

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Speaker 1: Truth be told. The preservation of body parts belonging to

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Speaker 1: historical figures is fairly common, and it's been going on

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Speaker 1: for a long time. Way back in sixteen ten, astronomer

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Speaker 1: Galileo Galilei was attacked by the Roman Catholic Church for

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Speaker 1: his belief in helio said trism. By claiming that the

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Speaker 1: Earth revolved around the Sun and not the other way around,

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Speaker 1: Galileo went against the commonly held belief that the Earth

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Speaker 1: was the center of the universe. An inquisition was formed

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Speaker 1: and he was accused of contradicting the Church. The deck

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Speaker 1: was stacked against him as experts of his day, also

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Speaker 1: known as qualifiers, concluded that the astronomer was wrong in

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Speaker 1: his assessment. Holy scripture dictated that the Earth stood still

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Speaker 1: while other planets moved around it. Galileo was ordered to

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Speaker 1: stop discussing heliocentrism going forward, and it was not to

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Speaker 1: be taught or written about unless he wanted to receive

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Speaker 1: further punishment, and he agreed, although he didn't stay silent

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Speaker 1: for long. He published a book soon after which featured

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Speaker 1: a dialogue between a scientist, a philosopher, and a scholar

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Speaker 1: where the concept of heliocentrism came up more than once.

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Speaker 1: Its conclusions were a clear shot across the bow of

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Speaker 1: the Church, and Galileo was brought before the court once

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Speaker 1: more to defend himself. He was found guilty of heresy

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Speaker 1: and sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest, which is

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Speaker 1: how he spent the rest of his days. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: all bad. He welcomed guests to his home, and he

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Speaker 1: continued to write, publishing books that eventually found their way

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Speaker 1: into the hands of great thinkers like Albert Einstein. Then,

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Speaker 1: in sixteen forty two, Galileo died of heart failure, and

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Speaker 1: the world lost one of its stars. Now he was

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Speaker 1: originally meant to be buried alongside his father in the

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Speaker 1: main body of Italy's Basilica of Santa Croce. Instead, the

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Speaker 1: pope had his body placed in a small, unmarked grave,

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Speaker 1: continuing his punishment, and it would reside there in obscurity

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Speaker 1: for almost a hundred years. Attitudes changed in seventeen thirty seven, though,

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Speaker 1: by which time Galileo's actions didn't seem so sacrilegious anymore.

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Speaker 1: So a monumental tomb was erected in the Basilica in

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Speaker 1: his honor. His remains were exhumed and placed within the

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Speaker 1: new tomb, giving the disgrace scientists both the respect and

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Speaker 1: the peace he had deserved all along. However, during the

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Speaker 1: move three of His fingers as well as a tooth,

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Speaker 1: were all taken off his corpse, not theft, but an

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Speaker 1: act of admiration by men who saw Galileo as a

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Speaker 1: saint despite the Church's views. The fingers and tooth found

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Speaker 1: their way to numerous owners over the years. One finger,

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Speaker 1: his middle finger, in fact, was sealed in a glass

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Speaker 1: egg and put on display in museums all over Italy,

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Speaker 1: while the two others wound up in a private collector's

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Speaker 1: vase around nineteen o five, and that was where the

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Speaker 1: trail went cold, with no one knowing exactly what had

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Speaker 1: happened to the missing appendages until two thousand nine. That

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Speaker 1: year the vase was put up for auction. It had

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Speaker 1: been kept inside a wooden box adorned with the bust

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Speaker 1: of Galileo on top, although the label describing its contents

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Speaker 1: had fallen away. The new owner had opened the box

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Speaker 1: with his daughter and did some research of their own,

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Speaker 1: coming across the story of what had happened to the

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Speaker 1: man's remains and how they had been tampered with during

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Speaker 1: their move Tests were run on the finger, confirming that

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Speaker 1: they once belonged to the man who had watched the

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Speaker 1: stars and stood up for what he believed in. Today

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Speaker 1: they are on display in Florence, Italy, pointing up towards

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Speaker 1: the sky, just like their owner had done so many

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Speaker 1: years before. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of

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Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast

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Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky

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Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award

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

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Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it

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Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until

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Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,