1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,520 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 --> 00:00:30,040 Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Anna Kingsford was an iconoclass 5 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 1: in eighteen eighties England, an activist, an independent spirit even, 6 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: one of the first women in the country to obtain 7 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:43,200 Speaker 1: her medical degree, and she was also a spiritualist of sorts. Once, 8 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:45,760 Speaker 1: while on a fox hunt, Anna had a vision that 9 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:48,360 Speaker 1: allowed her to see the world through the eyes of 10 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:51,960 Speaker 1: the fox. Soon after, she became a fierce advocate for 11 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:56,440 Speaker 1: animal rights as well as a vegetarian. Her experience also 12 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:00,680 Speaker 1: influenced her opinion of the popular medical practice known as vivisection. 13 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 1: Teachers and medical researchers would often cut open living animals 14 00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:09,919 Speaker 1: for research purposes. They believed it was a necessary evil 15 00:01:09,959 --> 00:01:14,119 Speaker 1: to advance medical progress, and Anna hated it. In fact, 16 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:18,319 Speaker 1: she didn't just hate it, she fought against it. She 17 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:22,200 Speaker 1: first encountered it in Paris, where physiologist Claude Bernard would 18 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:25,560 Speaker 1: operate on live dogs in front of his students. He 19 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:28,679 Speaker 1: wanted to better understand the inner workings of the body 20 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:31,120 Speaker 1: and what better way to do it than to look 21 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: at it up close. Despite the growing backlash against it 22 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:38,560 Speaker 1: from the public, vivisection was seen within the medical community 23 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:42,040 Speaker 1: as the only way to truly understand how the body functioned, 24 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:45,520 Speaker 1: and though Bernard's own wife divorced him after using the 25 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:49,280 Speaker 1: family pet as a test subject, the school supported his 26 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:54,560 Speaker 1: work without question. Anna, however, knew that something had to 27 00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:57,800 Speaker 1: be done and decided to tackle the practice head on. 28 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 1: She enrolled as a student in Bernard's class, something that 29 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,400 Speaker 1: once again set her apart from the crowd. She was 30 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: derided and humiliated daily to the male students as well 31 00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:13,640 Speaker 1: as Bernard. Women didn't belong in medicine. Sometimes he wouldn't 32 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:18,440 Speaker 1: even acknowledge her presence as a student, But she continued 33 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:22,000 Speaker 1: to attend classes and wrote articles about the horrors being 34 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:26,640 Speaker 1: perpetrated for newspapers back home. The screams and cries coming 35 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:29,519 Speaker 1: from the labs would haunt her at night. She'd recall 36 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:32,840 Speaker 1: her memory of the fox, how she'd felt so helpless 37 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:36,800 Speaker 1: and scared, and that empathy would turn to anger, Anger 38 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:40,240 Speaker 1: for the animals savaged in the name of science, Anger 39 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:43,600 Speaker 1: toward the doctors who had sworn to do no harm. 40 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: Anger toward Claude Bernard and his relentless pursuit of the 41 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:54,040 Speaker 1: truth by any means necessary. During one particularly brutal session, 42 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:58,520 Speaker 1: Dr Bernard was performing painful experiments on live animals as 43 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:01,760 Speaker 1: a way to study body heat. Anna leapt from her 44 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:06,080 Speaker 1: chair and screamed at him, calling him a murderer. That night, 45 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:08,920 Speaker 1: she prayed for his death to spare all the innocent 46 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:12,640 Speaker 1: animals at the university. When the time came for her 47 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:15,720 Speaker 1: to attend her next class, she arrived at the medical 48 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:18,560 Speaker 1: building to find a note fastened to the locked gate. 49 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:24,000 Speaker 1: Claude Bernard had passed away. Anna felt an odd combination 50 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:27,480 Speaker 1: of shock and joy at the man's demise. His reign 51 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:32,160 Speaker 1: of terror was finally over. But more importantly, her prayers 52 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: had been answered. Although prayer might be the wrong word here, 53 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:41,400 Speaker 1: Anna didn't ask God to smite her professor for his misdeeds. 54 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:45,040 Speaker 1: She took up the task herself. According to a biography 55 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:48,640 Speaker 1: written by a close friend, Edward Maitland, Anna Kingsford had 56 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:53,040 Speaker 1: tapped into her supernatural powers from childhood. She had summoned 57 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:56,720 Speaker 1: what she called a spiritual thunderbolt to strike the man down. 58 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:00,200 Speaker 1: In fact, one year later she would do it again 59 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: when Paul Burt, another staunch vivisectionist, would drop dead at 60 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: her psychic insistence. This happened to occur at a time 61 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: when interest in the occult and mysticism were at their 62 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:15,280 Speaker 1: highest levels. Mediums had regular seances at the homes of 63 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:19,560 Speaker 1: wealthy elites looking to speak to dead loved ones. Books 64 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:23,960 Speaker 1: on spiritualism in life after death flew off of bookstore shelves, 65 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:28,080 Speaker 1: not literally, mind you, but Anna's own titles managed to 66 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:31,080 Speaker 1: find their way into the hands of influential figures such 67 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:34,440 Speaker 1: as Mahatma Gandhi, who had also followed her work as 68 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:39,560 Speaker 1: a vegetarian. Years later, her superability to kill men with 69 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:41,599 Speaker 1: her mind would lead her to the lab of a 70 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 1: scientist revered today for his work in extending the shelf 71 00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:49,599 Speaker 1: life of our favorite foods, Louis Pasteur. He was known 72 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:53,840 Speaker 1: throughout Paris as a prominent supporter of vivisection and someone 73 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:57,400 Speaker 1: that Anna had come to loathe. She never got a 74 00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:00,640 Speaker 1: chance to avenge her furry friends, though. On her way 75 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:03,800 Speaker 1: to his laboratory, she was caught in a rainstorm and 76 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:07,479 Speaker 1: soon developed pneumonia. She passed away a short time later 77 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:10,679 Speaker 1: from complications from the illness, and at the same time, 78 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:17,360 Speaker 1: her legacy to medicine, animal rights, and women's rights were lost. Today, 79 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:21,680 Speaker 1: modern history, using her biography as the primary source, has 80 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 1: stripped her of all the good she's done, and that's 81 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,400 Speaker 1: because of her friend, Edward Maitland, who resented her for 82 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:31,320 Speaker 1: rejecting his advances during the time that he knew her. 83 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:35,920 Speaker 1: As such. He used the letters, books, articles, and research 84 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:39,200 Speaker 1: that she'd written to paint a wholly different picture of 85 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:43,760 Speaker 1: a woman who revolutionized medical education, and once the damage 86 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:48,960 Speaker 1: was done, he burned all the evidence to the contrary. Yeah, 87 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:54,800 Speaker 1: what a gem. As for her powerful mind, experts believe 88 00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:57,440 Speaker 1: it was only used to heal the sick and advance 89 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:01,760 Speaker 1: the medical profession. Paul Birds had apparently died of dysentery 90 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:05,480 Speaker 1: he had contracted while visiting Vietnam, and Claude Bernard had 91 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:08,239 Speaker 1: never been known to be a well man. His poor 92 00:06:08,279 --> 00:06:11,320 Speaker 1: health had finally caught up with him. Anna's vision of 93 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:16,880 Speaker 1: a spiritual thunderbolt being an unfortunate coincidence. Although there's much 94 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:20,560 Speaker 1: we don't know about the spiritual world, is it possible 95 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:23,360 Speaker 1: to communicate with the dead? Can a human be so 96 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:26,440 Speaker 1: empathetic that they can see the world from an animal's 97 00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: point of view, can one person kill another simply by 98 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:35,760 Speaker 1: imagining it? Sadly we may never know. Of course, if 99 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:38,719 Speaker 1: anyone at the time had been interested in testing her powers, 100 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,840 Speaker 1: there was always one simple way to find out. All 101 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:59,440 Speaker 1: they had to do was pick up a scalpel. One 102 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:03,239 Speaker 1: thing reinventor knows is that the status quo doesn't stay 103 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 1: that way for long. There's always something better, simpler, more 104 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:10,000 Speaker 1: efficient way to accomplish the thing that we've been doing 105 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:13,520 Speaker 1: for a long time. The steam engine was used to 106 00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:17,160 Speaker 1: power machinery and various modes of transportation for hundreds of 107 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:21,280 Speaker 1: years before the internal combustion engine made its debut. The 108 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:24,880 Speaker 1: first functioning submarine appeared during the Civil War, and as 109 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:28,440 Speaker 1: technology progressed, it was able to dive deeper and carry 110 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:33,120 Speaker 1: more passengers. Such innovations further advanced how wars were fought 111 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:37,880 Speaker 1: all over the world. I mentioned these two inventions for 112 00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:41,440 Speaker 1: a very specific reason, because one man also saw a 113 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:44,920 Speaker 1: way to carry the hot technology of his day into 114 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:48,760 Speaker 1: the future. His name was Joseph Papp, and he had 115 00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:52,680 Speaker 1: a vision. Born in Hungary in the nineteen thirties, it's 116 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:55,800 Speaker 1: unclear when he first came to America, but he had 117 00:07:55,840 --> 00:07:58,280 Speaker 1: no problem making a name for himself in the world 118 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:03,840 Speaker 1: of theoretical physics. Joseph had ideas ideas he believed so 119 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:07,200 Speaker 1: much in that he secured several United States patents for 120 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: them in the nineteen sixties, one of which was for 121 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:13,600 Speaker 1: a new type of engine. The internal combustion engine of 122 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:17,120 Speaker 1: the time relied on gasoline to trigger tiny explosions to 123 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:21,800 Speaker 1: power motor vehicles and large machines. Joseph, however, saw a 124 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:27,560 Speaker 1: different way, a less expensive way. Rather than gasoline, Joseph's 125 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:31,800 Speaker 1: engine ran on a mixture of noble gases, including helium, neon, 126 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,960 Speaker 1: and argon. His engine claimed to run at only fifteen 127 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:39,640 Speaker 1: cents per hour and generated no heat, negating the need 128 00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:43,840 Speaker 1: for fuel lines, carburetors, spark plugs, and any other equipment 129 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:47,959 Speaker 1: that the more limited combustion engines still required. They produced 130 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:52,480 Speaker 1: twice as much power at half the size. He spent 131 00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:56,480 Speaker 1: years developing his engine at the California Institute of Technology 132 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,959 Speaker 1: before finally showing it off for his fellow colleagues include 133 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:04,800 Speaker 1: Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman. Feynman and several others looked 134 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:07,200 Speaker 1: on as Joseph fired up his new engine for the 135 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:10,680 Speaker 1: first time. However, what should have been a Eureka moment 136 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:16,000 Speaker 1: for the optimistic engineer quickly turned into tragedy. The engine 137 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:19,640 Speaker 1: didn't work, that much was clear. What's worse is that 138 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 1: it exploded, killing one bystander in the lab Instantly. The 139 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:27,400 Speaker 1: university fired Joseph and settled with him out of court 140 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:30,400 Speaker 1: for the accidental death of his colleague, but that didn't 141 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:34,560 Speaker 1: stop the reckless inventor from pursuing his dreams. He eventually 142 00:09:34,679 --> 00:09:37,640 Speaker 1: ceased work on the Path engine to focus his efforts 143 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:40,680 Speaker 1: on another project, one that would take him deeper than 144 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:45,960 Speaker 1: his noble gas engine ever would. Literally. In the mid 145 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:50,720 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, Joseph pap built a submarine in his garage, 146 00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:55,160 Speaker 1: capable of carrying one passenger across great distances using very 147 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:59,440 Speaker 1: little fuel. It was conical like a torpedo, which allowed 148 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:02,040 Speaker 1: a layer of air to form between the water and 149 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:05,000 Speaker 1: the sub The pilot would lay on his back and 150 00:10:05,080 --> 00:10:07,400 Speaker 1: look up through a periscope to see where he was going. 151 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:11,480 Speaker 1: Path had estimated the craft's top speed at three hundred 152 00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:15,360 Speaker 1: miles per hour, achieved using an underwater jet engine that 153 00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:20,640 Speaker 1: he had designed himself. Nobody ever saw the submarine he 154 00:10:20,679 --> 00:10:24,640 Speaker 1: obsessively kept all plans and prototypes under wraps away from 155 00:10:24,679 --> 00:10:29,000 Speaker 1: prying eyes. Many didn't even believe that it existed. After 156 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:33,000 Speaker 1: the debacle with the Path engine, Feynman labeled Joseph of fraud, 157 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:36,920 Speaker 1: claiming the engine was never intended to work. But Joseph 158 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:41,800 Speaker 1: was determined to prove his former colleagues all wrong. Perhaps 159 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:45,040 Speaker 1: it was out of desperation or maybe guilt, but in 160 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:48,840 Speaker 1: August of nineteen sixty six, Joseph took his cone shaped 161 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:52,360 Speaker 1: submarine out for its made in voyage, using himself as 162 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:56,079 Speaker 1: a guinea pig. Thirteen hours after launching from the shores 163 00:10:56,120 --> 00:10:58,800 Speaker 1: of Canada, he was picked up by a fishing boat 164 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:02,120 Speaker 1: off the coast of France. They found Joseph bobbing in 165 00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:05,040 Speaker 1: the water, decked out in a flight suit, complete with 166 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 1: helmet and goggles. Barely able to speak, he told them 167 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:13,079 Speaker 1: his name was Joseph pap and that he just completed 168 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:15,720 Speaker 1: a journey across the Atlantic in a submarine of his 169 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:19,360 Speaker 1: own design. Due to a malfunction, he had been forced 170 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:22,880 Speaker 1: to eject and let the submarine sink into the depths below. 171 00:11:24,360 --> 00:11:28,120 Speaker 1: Joseph's story captivated the media, and he used his newfound 172 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:31,679 Speaker 1: celebrity to write a book about his journey, titled The 173 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:35,160 Speaker 1: Fastest Submarine. It detailed how he built the water craft 174 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:38,280 Speaker 1: and completed his trek from the Canadian coast all the 175 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:41,679 Speaker 1: way to Europe in under a day, and not a 176 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:46,240 Speaker 1: single person believed him. The media weren't captivated as much 177 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:49,360 Speaker 1: as they were skeptical. They ripped him apart in the 178 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:52,720 Speaker 1: newspapers and called him a fraud. It didn't help that 179 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:56,920 Speaker 1: his submarine was never found. Folks just didn't believe his story, 180 00:11:57,920 --> 00:12:01,440 Speaker 1: and rightly so. It turns out that when the fishing 181 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:04,080 Speaker 1: boat had pulled him out of the water, they found 182 00:12:04,160 --> 00:12:07,600 Speaker 1: two plane tickets in his pocket, one for his trip 183 00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:11,720 Speaker 1: to France and one for the return home. It seems 184 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:16,320 Speaker 1: that Richard Feynman had been right all along. In the end, 185 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:20,640 Speaker 1: Joseph's career had been nothing but a load of pap. 186 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:27,040 Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet 187 00:12:27,040 --> 00:12:30,920 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn 188 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:35,520 Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. 189 00:12:35,559 --> 00:12:39,120 Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership 190 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:42,440 Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show 191 00:12:42,559 --> 00:12:46,319 Speaker 1: called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television 192 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:48,600 Speaker 1: show and you can learn all about it over at 193 00:12:48,679 --> 00:12:52,200 Speaker 1: the world of Lore dot com. And until next time, 194 00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:53,679 Speaker 1: stay curious.