WEBVTT - Oof! A Lot of Baby Gear was Absolutely Ridiculous 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:18.239 Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:29.880 Welcome back to the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:33.919 as always so much for tuning in. Let's hear it 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:38.600 for the shiny, beautiful baby boy of our podcast. Super 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:40.560 producer mister Max Williams. 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:43.839 I'm not gonna be able to bounce back from that one. 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.440 I can't give you a retort. I'm just baby, you 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:47.720 should be able to bounce back. 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:48.960 He's just blushing. 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:54.840 He's blushing. I think it's cherubic downright. Cherubic is the word. 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:59.400 That's old brown. I'm Ben Bullen. We are super excited, folks, 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:04.760 uh to talk about a category of invention that's going 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:08.360 to be familiar to a lot of our ridiculous historians 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.760 in the crowd. Congratulations to all the new parents tuning in. 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:17.000 Hope you get some sleep here and there. We understand 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:22.160 that's a struggle. But Noel, when when you were a 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:27.720 new parent with your child, you and your partner doubtlessly 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:33.160 had to do this whole rigmarole about getting advice on 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.600 raising a baby. Probably had to keep buying clothing or 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.959 getting hand me downs as the kid just kept kept growing. 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.200 Did you go to baby showers. Did you all have 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:44.919 a baby shower? 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.720 Oh? Yeah, we did, and I've been to maybe one. 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.520 But i'll tell you, Ben, I say this not in 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:57.680 any kind of like derogatory way, but that time in 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:01.440 my life was so stressful that I have largely like 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.760 men in black behind, erased it from my But one 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.600 thing I do remember, Ben distinctly, is the snot sucker. 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:10.760 Ah. 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:13.360 Yes, Edge, I didn't know it was branded. 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.560 But as our wonderful research associate Wren pointed out, she 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:21.640 recently discovered some of these things in attending a baby 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:26.280 shower for her sister who recently had a little one, 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:32.200 and mentioned this idea of nasal congestion for the tykes. Well, 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:34.280 the answer to that is the snot sucker, and she 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.160 spelled it out the capital snot capital sucker capital s 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:40.600 connected right up to snot. And I just always thought 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:42.919 that was a pro pejorative. But it is in fact 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:47.600 a rubber bulb that you stick into the baby's nose 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.560 and you squeeze it and it sucks the snot right 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:51.000 out of it. 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.040 She describes it as a slurpy straw for snot. Not 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.320 quite how I remember it. Yeah, some of them look 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:57.320 like bulbs. 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.400 They look like the top of a turkey baster. 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:00.679 That's the one that I had. 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.280 Maybe things have come a long way since my time 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.240 as a new parent. But she also mentions if your 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.200 baby is sassy and gassy, there's something for that too. 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.960 She should have been in baby product advertising. Colic is 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.600 no match for Windy the gas passer with an eye, 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.200 which may sound like a character from amany python film, 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.120 specifically fully Grail, but it is actually a sort of 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:27.680 an alien looking fart hose that's packaged up to look cutesy. 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:30.480 It's pretty gross. 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.320 And yet, you know, a comfort to new parents because 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:36.720 manacious exactly. 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.160 Yeah, yeah, because it shows us the parents will do 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:45.000 anything to ensure that their newest addition to the family 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:49.480 is safe, healthy, is comfortable. And you know, there's a 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:53.160 lot of misinformation out there. There's a lot of well 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:57.280 intentioned I'll say it, well intentioned hogwashed and it can 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.080 be challenging when you're a parent. You're already, especially in 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.520 the United States, you're already paying a lot of money 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:10.480 for various unexpected expenses. So it can be stressful, as 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:13.120 we said, to have a bunch of people coming out 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.120 of the woodwork and saying, I know this thing is 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.200 fifty to one hundred and fifty or more dollars, but 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.080 you absolutely must have. 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:22.760 It for sure. 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.680 And I mean marketers know that they have parents kind 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.440 of by the jimmies. As you say, Ben, they are 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:31.159 in fact a captive audience in terms of like, they 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.200 gotta have some of this stuff, whether it's their version 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.360 or another version, things like car seats. We're going to 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:38.760 get into the history of that. But it occuraged to 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.800 Ren in going to her sister's baby shower and seeing 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.760 all of these new fangled products targeted parents who want 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.680 nothing but to do right by their new babies, that 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:54.000 this likely has been the case since the dawn of time. 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:56.560 However, parents of yesteryear. 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.839 Relied on a lot of anecdotal advice from generations past 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.000 than science to care for their little ones, which resulted 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:10.520 in some admittedly creative, possibly ridiculous remedies for you know, 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:12.159 taking care of little ones. 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:16.240 Yeah, yeah, and Wren, we can't thank you enough for 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:20.120 this perspective and this excellent research, and we want to 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:24.880 represent you accurately to our fellow ridiculous historians. You like 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:29.560 some of us in the crowd. Tonight did end up 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:34.000 on the receiving end of some of these inventions, particularly 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:38.440 those human leashes that attached to a child's back. And 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:43.680 this is the beginning of the ridiculous history of baby gear. 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:52.480 We got to get to one real quick. No, this 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.440 reminds me of an episode I did years ago for 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:01.200 my very first official podcast, kar Stuff. Not the most 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:03.279 creative name, but it was a fun show. We hope 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:05.600 you tune in. No'll produced a lot of it. We 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:10.200 all know about car seats for babies. Now they're necessity. 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:15.120 There are tons of variations or brands out there, But 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:21.840 during the early nineteen hundreds, before automobiles were ubiquitous, the 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:25.479 car itself was a luxury item for the rich, the 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:30.880 decayed aristocracy, you know, the one percenters of the Gilded Age. 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:35.240 It wasn't until the Model T came out that the 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:40.480 automobile became increasingly mass produced and democratized. 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.440 Yeah, and in doing so, I mean, we know that 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.880 safety was not exactly the prime selling point for some 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:52.080 of these early automobiles, and in order to make it 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.520 safer for children, they needed a little bit of modification. 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.240 So nineteen thirties did, of course bring it a little 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.080 bit of a hiccup known as the Great Depression to 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.719 your point, but nothing great about it, which means that 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:07.120 a lot of the less fortunate folks in the United 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:11.600 States were more concerned with feeding their families than getting 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:15.480 the latest car. However, after World War Two, much like 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:18.720 the soft served craze that we talked about in the 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:24.320 last episode, the country was rescued from economic peril and 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.600 it gave folks some new options once they settled back 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:31.720 in after returning from the war. Families, mothers, fathers needed 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.440 larger vehicles to transport themselves and of course they're growing 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:39.280 heard of children and their groceries, of course, to and 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:40.680 from their home. 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:45.440 Yeah, because grocery stores were also modernizing at this point, folks, 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:52.520 the days of the counter service are falling, falling into obscurity. 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:57.000 And now we've got the supermarket, which is entirely designed 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:01.080 to make it easier and more tempting to buy more 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:03.800 and more stuff. So you need room in your car. 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:04.560 Well. 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.960 And like we said, Ben, while safety wasn't exactly top 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.520 of mind for the design of the first model TS, 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.200 neither was its top of mind with the design of 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:16.800 the first car seats that were invented during the nineteen 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:17.560 thirties by. 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.840 The Bunny Bear Company. What is he man? Is he 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:22.280 a bunny or is he a bear? He needs to 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:23.080 make up his mind. 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.920 It looked like something you might see in a sanatorium, 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:32.120 some sort of torture device. It was designed, however, for 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:36.320 the fun of the tyke, not for safety. It was 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.320 made from wood and fabric, and it was designed to 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:43.679 quote elevate children so they could see their surroundings during 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:44.440 car rides. 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:49.080 Yeah, and it also did something that we see time 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:53.600 and time again in children's toys. It allows you, the 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:58.360 tyke or the brood of the family, to emulate the 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:03.120 activities of adults, of your parents, of other grown people 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:09.640 you've encountered. That's why children's kitchen toys are so ubiquitous 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:13.760 even now. That's why this car seat would include stuff 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.600 like a dummy steering wheel and maybe some you know, 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:23.880 pretend buttons you could push. It does look like the 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:27.680 first model, which came out in nineteen thirty three from 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.920 Buddy Bear. It looks like one of those bring your 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:34.920 own lawn chairs that you would have at a concert 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:35.720 or a picnic. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:38.720 Yeah, but from hell right right. 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:43.120 But it's canvas. It's got several straps to keep the 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:47.800 tike in and it has an elongated rack at the 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:52.920 bottom ending with a wooden bar that is probably too 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.920 far for the average kid's feet to reach. I hope 0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:59.679 based on this image that Wren gave us, but it 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:05.320 I think it most likely was meant to securate it grace. 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:08.160 Yeah yeah, yeah, but it also seems like in the 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.199 event of a crash, it would just be I don't know. 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:12.040 Rend pointed this out actually in the name of the 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.480 section car Seats aka the Artist formerly known as Little 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:19.280 Baby death Trap. And this big old hunk of chunk 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:23.480 of wood would likely become a deadly projectile in. 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.000 The car, just like those steering wheels that were so 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.080 popular in the forties and fifties that had the torpedo 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:31.880 design pointing at the drivers. 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.040 Oh did yeah? Final destination? Anybody come on? 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:40.360 And in the nineteen forties a bunch of French guys 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:45.040 agreed with me and Noel here a company called ben 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:51.000 Hall fol decided that the current baby car seat models 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:56.360 that they were seeing were probably uncomfortable for kiddos. There 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:00.280 were also a pain in the keyster to install. They 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:03.640 made a new kind of baby car seat. It hooks 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.640 over the front passenger seat, the shotgun seat. Yep, babies 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:09.800 are still sitting in the front at this period of time, 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:14.400 and then you had a single strap across the waist. 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:20.680 Now this is totally in opposition to modern safety standards 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.040 because as we know, you're not supposed to put a 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:26.480 baby car seat in the front of the car because 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.760 airbags could really harm a child. But people liked being 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.760 able to see their kid next to them again, riding 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:34.760 shotgun as they. 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:39.040 Drive, and they like where like a little baby Maggie's 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.000 got their own little hack Hawk with marsh. 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.360 It pops out. Yeah, and they also loved how easy 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.720 it was to install this. But if you look at 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.560 a picture of this French baby seat, what you'll see 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:57.319 is that the kid is strapped in at the top 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:01.440 of the seat, but the seat go down far enough 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:04.680 to put them on the actual car seat. They're just 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:10.120 hanging out, kind of like an extreme mountaineer who straps 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.400 themselves to the side of a rock face to sleep. 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:17.800 Yes, definitely, and it's equally treacherous just so, and we 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:22.160 know if we fast forward again, every company is aware 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:23.880 there's a huge market for this. 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:27.280 Parents will do anything they can for their children, so 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:32.360 car seat technology continues to innovate. Go to nineteen sixty two, 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.160 we see the Jena car seat. I am doing the 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:40.280 forest gumbaccent, but it is spelled jee inay. 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:42.240 I think that's the only way to say it. 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:46.480 Ben Frankly, this one would be the first model on 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.200 the market designed for backseat use, and it did have 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:59.319 safety in mind, so good on them. Moving on, we're 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:04.160 going to get into to the idea of you know, bassinets, cradles. 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.800 They don't really call them cradles as much anymore, play pins. 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.720 All of that is another category of baby gear, maybe 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:18.240 exactly like a crate for your baby. The first automatic cradles, 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:22.080 however colloquial all know as rockers, were created and patented 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:26.600 by a master mechanic and the serial tinkerer named John 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:31.280 Boulcolt in eighteen ninety seven. He used a clockwork mechanism 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:37.080 to automatically kind of swing the basinet to help lull 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:38.880 the baby to sleep. It was born out of a 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.199 request from his wife, who, being exhausted as a new mother, 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.520 dreamt of a machine that could rock her baby to 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:48.240 sleep so that she could focus on her household chores. 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:54.160 I you know, I think really according to Bulkan, Yes, yeah. 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:56.440 According to the official story. But I'm with Ready here. 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:02.560 I think it was probably more realistically. Boo called spouse saying, 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:06.199 why do I have to stay up and rock the 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:08.440 kid to sleep? Like, when is it your turn? 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:12.679 Dude? And so he's busy tinkering, right, He's like. 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:16.120 I'm a serial tinkerer. He got to work and he 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:22.000 was literally investigating this in his garage over in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.520 And this research he was doing while he was not 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:29.040 rocking the baby, by the way, led him to patent 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:33.520 the first automated cradle. You can see pictures of this online. 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:38.480 You would not have considered it automatic by twenty twenty 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:42.880 six standards because you had to if your parent, you 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:46.560 have to hand crank the cradle to start the rocking motion. 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:51.320 You're powering up a spring and then the spring slowly, 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:56.640 you know, expands over time, creating that rocking sensation. Still 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.360 is way better than having to sit there for hours. 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:01.480 Just back for sure. 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.000 Yeah, And like a lot of these types of things. 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.680 His original company name was Mega Dry if descriptive. It 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:13.560 was the automatic cradle manufacturing company. It did see some 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:15.960 pretty early success, and so you figured that was a 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.120 good que two rebrand. There's something a little more pleasant 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.359 the Lullaby Furniture Corporation. 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:23.000 Yeah. 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:26.120 So, by nineteen thirty, the company sold three additional products. 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.800 They had bassinets, a three and one high share slash rocker, 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.240 and a go kart for children that seems super safe, 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:37.880 as well as something called the Flivver Flyver. 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.920 Uh, let's call it the fliver because of the CVS, 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:44.320 or we could call it the Fliur if we want 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:48.120 to shut out as the shitch. To be clear, that 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.120 go kart folks is not the go kart you're thinking 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:55.040 of from Andretti's or something like that. It's it's just 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:56.320 something they could sit in. 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:57.200 That has wheels. 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.880 Got it so more like a power wheel minus the 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.040 power Yeah, yeah, just so. 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:06.840 And by the end of nineteen thirty, the Lullaby Furniture 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:13.359 Corporation is just mad cap with success. They're gross assets 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.200 in nineteen thirty are two hundred and seventeen thousand, two 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.640 hundred and twelve dollars and fourteen cents, which means it's 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:22.920 time for our inflation calculator. 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:24.720 Oh can we beep? Can we boop? 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:25.000 Oh? 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:27.840 We must we mustop with deep there. 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.400 We are, so a little bit north of two hundred 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:34.160 and seventy thousand dollars in nineteen thirty thanks to inflation, 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:37.920 is now in twenty twenty six four million, two hundred 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.760 and forty two one hundred thousand, ten dollars and sixty 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:42.600 three cents. 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:44.600 Nice one. Heck, yeah it is right. 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:48.400 I mean, still modest by today's standards, but they're on 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.760 the way up. As his success grew, bull Colt had 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.680 his share of competitors, of course, entering the market, including 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.840 an inventor named Luther P. Jones who came up with 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.960 this spended baby hammock situation which could self rock for 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:06.399 up to two hours after being wound. Sorry, I got 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:08.159 to jumped the gun on this one. This was the 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:12.239 clock mechanism. So like a wristwatch that you wind and 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:15.080 it has power reserve, you wind this up and then 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.560 it will it will essentially rock itself for up to 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:21.720 two hours with that stored energy. So, judging from the 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:25.439 illustrations that we have here, that ren provided it was 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.240 pretty high up and the mechanism on top, you probably 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:30.720 would have had to have like some kind of step 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:32.919 ladder at the very least, if not a full a 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.280 frame ladder to get to Yeah. 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:39.320 And also this is clearly for people who are a 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.000 little bit more well to do big time. This thing 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.359 is do you know what I mean? Like there you 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:50.159 can see the design clearly. It is definitely going to 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:53.000 dominate whatever room you put it in, just on an 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:57.080 interior decoration rate. So you probably need to afford your 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:01.080 own specific room in your domicile for this. And then 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:03.399 you know at some point you'd have to have somebody 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:04.960 service the machine, right. 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.080 Oh, clearly it's that level of machine and the ad 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.640 illustration it says at the bottom, don't waste time rocking 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.080 yo baby's cradle. Let theimoto rock it for you. And 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.080 when baby wakes he can watch the wheels go round. 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.840 Absolutely, and we know that bullcult soldiered on despite this 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:27.240 emerging competition. In nineteen thirty six, this guy buys an 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:32.000 island expressly for the purposes of logging hardwood. A few 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:36.000 years later, as to historians, you will remember, World War 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:40.679 Two began because Germany invaded Poland, which meant that the 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:46.040 Lullaby Corporation, like so many other Allied businesses, shifted to 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:50.280 the war effort, and so instead of building baby cradles, 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:56.800 now or flivvers. They ended up providing Allied countries the 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:01.000 raw materials that would later be used to build mosquito 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:02.320 bomber airplanes. 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.360 Yeah, and they were nicknamed wooden wonders. These airplanes, which 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.280 I hadn't heard of before the to Havel the land 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.960 d H ninety eight mosquito bomber airplanes, to be precise, 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.560 could reach a top speed of four hundred miles per 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:19.760 hour while carrying around four thousand pounds worth of explosives. 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:24.800 Absolutely, yet, is this is gonna sound kind of crazy 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:29.920 when we're saying that these are, you know, wooden planes, 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:32.600 But that's that's where the technology was at the time. 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:33.880 For sure. 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:35.600 We know a lot about what is it, the HH 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:39.359 Huntley or the HS Hunting. The wooden submarines was also 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:39.680 a thing. 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:43.480 Oh yeah, well, wood is a great way to start 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:47.280 building something. It's also real flammable. It's also really it's 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:49.520 not perfect, but it's a great way to start ed 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:55.280 for sure. So yeah, over time, the wars come and go. 0:19:56.000 --> 0:20:01.360 The Lullaby Company has several name changes, ownership back and forth. 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:07.639 Eventually Lullaby ends their business, but they don't do that 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:12.800 until nineteen ninety five. So good on you, lullaby. I 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:15.879 think we've got time for one more we really wanted 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:20.160 to talk about. This is crazy, Nola Max. This reminds 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:24.600 me of an infamous viral photo from years and years 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:31.840 ago where the controversial legendary musician Michael Jackson held his 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:36.600 baby out a lot out of a wimbo style, Simba style, 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:40.439 lion king style to a bunch of reporters. And I 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.640 think he wanted it to be a wholesome moment. Look 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:47.800 at my child, look at what I had wrought. But 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:52.600 the reporters and the paparazzi immediately said, what the heck 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.120 are you doing? Hold it a child out the window? 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:57.360 Well, bet he clearly wanted it to get fresh air 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:00.560 required to renew and purify the baby's blood, because those 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.959 who sleep out of doors are stronger children. Man, he 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:04.919 must have been reading. 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:08.879 He must have been reading Luther Emmett Holtz eighteen ninety 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:12.640 four book The Care and Feeding of Children, which made 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.840 these very claims. That is delightful. That name alone is 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:19.440 worth the price of admission. That is talking about them 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:21.240 like their marmots or something. 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.320 And doctor Holt is a qualified pediatrician. 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.640 Tay, I really loved kids, the care and feeding your children. 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:33.040 Yeah, it's also a it's still a practice in parts 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:36.880 of northern Europe to bundle a baby up and leave 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:38.359 them outdoors in the cold. 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:42.440 Sure, so they will die of exposure because they were 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:45.479 born the wrong sex or something. For their Viking tribe, 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:46.400 that's crazy. 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.520 It's to renew and purify the blood, just like dogholes. 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.679 I see, if you sleep outdoors, you're a stronger child. 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:03.520 It does occur to me, Ben, and it probably occurred 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:07.200 to the inventor Ernest J. Henry Pattent did the first 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.680 window crib in nineteen nineteen. That not only was this 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:14.399 maybe something that parents might glom onto because of the 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:19.640 Holt Book, but parents living in small apartments or tenement 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:23.560 buildings in New York City for example, or Chicago places 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:26.080 like that, you know, they might not have had much room, 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:29.679 so they take advantage of having like a little cage 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:34.600 that hangs out the window exactly. Because again these are practical. 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:37.240 Yeah, these are not the super well to do people 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:41.160 who can dedicate an entire room in a nursery. Often 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:45.600 they can't dedicate an entire room to individual bedroom for 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:49.919 their older kids. So a lot of these folks during 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:54.600 the second wave of the Industrial Revolution, leave their homes 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:58.080 in rural areas of the country to seek a job 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:01.760 opportunity in the big city. And this is compounded by 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:05.760 a lot of immigration at the time, mostly from Europe 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:09.679 at this point in US history, and those folks automatically 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:15.240 go to cities because typically they're going to have a 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:19.080 community that pre exists of people who are from their 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:23.960 home country. This means that real estate goes through the roof. 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:26.560 If you live in a major city at this time, 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:30.120 like your Chicago's or your New York's, you were probably 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:34.320 living in an apartment. You are probably, as you said, 0:23:34.440 --> 0:23:39.520 no super super squeezed for any kind of space. You're 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:42.320 living in a tenement, right, you might share a bathroom 0:23:42.359 --> 0:23:47.000 with an entire floor of people. I gotta say it. 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:52.080 The photo that Red has attached here of an actual 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:58.359 window crib. It looks like chicken wire. But the baby 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:03.399 looks happy, confused. The baby doesn't look angry. 0:24:03.720 --> 0:24:05.720 I don't think it looks angry. It doesn't look looks 0:24:05.720 --> 0:24:07.920 a little bewildered in the mall. It's actually kind of 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:10.760 a creepy photo, Ben, because the mother's facing away and 0:24:10.800 --> 0:24:13.239 the way the lighting is it almost looks like she 0:24:13.320 --> 0:24:16.080 has no face or something like. It's a little bit 0:24:16.080 --> 0:24:18.520 of a It looks like an art piece, like a 0:24:18.600 --> 0:24:22.679 disturbing dystopian art piece, because I keep saying the cage, 0:24:22.720 --> 0:24:25.160 because that's what it looks like. It is essentially a 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:28.760 cage like enclosure hanging out the window god knows how 0:24:28.760 --> 0:24:32.080 many stories up. And they looked at this as not 0:24:32.119 --> 0:24:34.560 only a way of saving space, but potentially in the 0:24:34.600 --> 0:24:38.280 cities of a way of providing their children with fresh air. However, 0:24:38.440 --> 0:24:42.520 during the Industrial Revolution and the Second Wave, the air 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:46.240