1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,520 Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:14,240 Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:17,960 Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, 4 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:21,640 Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display, 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet 6 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. When it comes to transportation, people have always 7 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:41,640 Speaker 1: had their eye on the sky, from Da Vinci's Winged 8 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:44,760 Speaker 1: Wonders to Orville and wilbur Rights flights at Kittie Hawk. 9 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:47,880 Speaker 1: We've dreamed of soaring above the trees, zipping from place 10 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:51,760 Speaker 1: to place swiftly and efficiently. There's no traffic in the sky, 11 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: no flat tires or detours to delay us and getting 12 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:58,760 Speaker 1: to our destinations. And Alexander Vigors saw the benefit of 13 00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: air travel, but he had a much different idea of 14 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:04,280 Speaker 1: achieving it than others. He was born in nineteen o 15 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:07,240 Speaker 1: one in Indonesia to Dutch parents who owned a sugar 16 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:10,959 Speaker 1: plantation as well as a hotel. His mother, Johanna and 17 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 1: his father, Albert, pushed alex toward a life of constant learning. 18 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:19,160 Speaker 1: Johanna spoke numerous languages and taught literature while Albert educated 19 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:23,000 Speaker 1: him on design and botany. In nineteen sixteen, Alex went 20 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:26,560 Speaker 1: off to the Netherlands to study numerous subjects, including blacksmithing, 21 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:30,720 Speaker 1: mechanical engineering, ship building, and art. Upon his return to 22 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: Indonesia in nineteen six he married his fiancee, Jacoba, and 23 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: the two eventually moved to the U S where they 24 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,960 Speaker 1: settled down in Seattle, Washington. Alex took a job as 25 00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:42,360 Speaker 1: a draftsman and the two began to build their life 26 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:46,480 Speaker 1: together in America. Sadly, in n Jacoba died during the 27 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:48,360 Speaker 1: birth of what would have been their first child, who 28 00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:52,360 Speaker 1: was still born. Distraught over the entire experience, Alex left 29 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:56,360 Speaker 1: engineering behind and instead threw himself into art, studying sculpture 30 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 1: at the Art Institute of Seattle before moving to California 31 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:03,040 Speaker 1: in the nineteenth dirties. Come World War Two, Alex enlisted 32 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:05,600 Speaker 1: in the Army, where he served as an intelligence officer, 33 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 1: and it was during the war when he decided to 34 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: make his grand plan to take to the sky's official 35 00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:14,240 Speaker 1: He had gotten the idea in the nineteen twenties, believing 36 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:17,040 Speaker 1: that the helicopters of the time were nothing but death traps. 37 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:19,640 Speaker 1: They go down like a brick, he once said in 38 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:22,960 Speaker 1: an interview. Then, after his family in the Dutch East 39 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: Indies was captured by the Japanese during the war, Alex 40 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:28,799 Speaker 1: saw a need for a new kind of vehicle, one 41 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:30,800 Speaker 1: that could get people in and out of a jam 42 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:35,160 Speaker 1: quickly and safely. He filed his patent for his Disculptor 43 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 1: a flying machine in nineteen four. About the only thing 44 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:41,200 Speaker 1: it had in common with a helicopter, though, was its 45 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:44,840 Speaker 1: use of horizontal rotors for lift. Otherwise the two vehicles 46 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:49,160 Speaker 1: were completely different. Alex's rotors were encased in vertical tubes 47 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:53,360 Speaker 1: or tunnels, not exposed to the elements or enemy fire. 48 00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 1: In fact, all the components were designed to be housed 49 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:59,960 Speaker 1: within a fully enclosed, disc shaped frame like an athlete. 50 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,840 Speaker 1: Its discuss, This unique craft was meant to slice through 51 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:06,640 Speaker 1: the air without resistance. Alex proposed his new aircraft to 52 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,200 Speaker 1: the U. S. Military, and they showed interest in building 53 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:11,760 Speaker 1: a prototype, but no one was willing to commit any 54 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:13,720 Speaker 1: kind of funding to the project while the war was 55 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:17,200 Speaker 1: still going on. However, once word got out about his invention, 56 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:19,800 Speaker 1: people all over the country got the bug to build 57 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:23,360 Speaker 1: something similar. Over the next sixty years, the U. S. 58 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:26,360 Speaker 1: Patent Office saw upwards of a hundred and ninety patents 59 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: for vehicles of similar style and designed to Alex's, especially 60 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:34,960 Speaker 1: during the nineteen fifties. These inevitably led to films, books, comics, 61 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,800 Speaker 1: and television shows where disc shaped aircraft were featured. Kids 62 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:41,600 Speaker 1: could even buy their own in toy form, of course, 63 00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: But the strangest variation of Alex's patent came from an 64 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:48,880 Speaker 1: inventor named John Quincy st Clair in two thousand five. 65 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 1: St Clair had previously filed patents for things like a 66 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: walking through Walls training system, which would teach a person 67 00:03:56,120 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: how to acquire sufficient hyperspace energy in order to walk 68 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 1: through doors and walls. He also patented a magnetic vortex 69 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: wormhole generator, so anyone could create a wormhole to another 70 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,200 Speaker 1: dimension with ease. Those patents made his idea for a 71 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:16,400 Speaker 1: photon spacecraft sound as reasonable as sliced bread. St Clair 72 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:19,440 Speaker 1: designed a vehicle that used photon particles to lift itself 73 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:22,680 Speaker 1: off the ground, and, just like Alex's model, was to 74 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:26,560 Speaker 1: be shaped like a disk. Alex Baker's didn't realize it 75 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:29,000 Speaker 1: at the time, but his vehicle was destined to become 76 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:32,039 Speaker 1: the stuff of science fiction for decades it would be 77 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:34,960 Speaker 1: immortalized in movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still 78 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:38,719 Speaker 1: and Mars Attacks, but that had never been his intention. 79 00:04:39,279 --> 00:04:42,360 Speaker 1: Despite their having been reports of alien encounters and strange 80 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:46,400 Speaker 1: sightings before, Alex hadn't been influenced by any of those stories. 81 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 1: He simply wanted to make the helicopter better, and to 82 00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:54,159 Speaker 1: do that he had to invent and patent the Flying Saucer. 83 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:10,960 Speaker 1: Words are important, but not just in and of themselves, 84 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:13,080 Speaker 1: but the order they are put in, as well as 85 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:15,400 Speaker 1: the ones that are left out to take, for instance, 86 00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:18,320 Speaker 1: the famous Shakespearean line to be or not to be? 87 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:20,880 Speaker 1: If you were to say, take out the not, the 88 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: sentence becomes pointless and nonsensical. While that never happened as 89 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:28,839 Speaker 1: far as I know, something very similar, did one forgotten 90 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,720 Speaker 1: not change the course of morality? Well more or less? 91 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:36,680 Speaker 1: It began in sixty one, No scratch that, It began 92 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:39,720 Speaker 1: long before that, with Moses on a mountain coming down 93 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:43,320 Speaker 1: with a set of ten very self explanatory commandments. Do this, 94 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:45,720 Speaker 1: don't do that, You know the drill. It became the 95 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:50,159 Speaker 1: foundation for Judaism and later on Christianity. All right, now, 96 00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: let's get back to the seventeenth century. In sixteen o four, 97 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 1: King James the first commission what would become the most 98 00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:59,279 Speaker 1: widely spread version of the Bible in history. That's the 99 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:01,920 Speaker 1: King j Bible, in case that needs to be put 100 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 1: together for you. It had been centuries since the latest 101 00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:07,600 Speaker 1: version of the Holy Book, and the King felt under 102 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:12,040 Speaker 1: pressure from Puritans and Calvinists alike pushing for a reformation, 103 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:15,880 Speaker 1: and so James commissioned the new Bible, calling for more 104 00:06:15,960 --> 00:06:20,599 Speaker 1: contemporary language as well as common and recognizable terms, the 105 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:23,919 Speaker 1: end goal being a union of the warring religious factions. 106 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:27,520 Speaker 1: After all, the Church's vast array of various offshoots were 107 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:30,600 Speaker 1: well known for their battles, and this project was right 108 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:33,520 Speaker 1: in the thick of it. The King James Bible rose 109 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:36,520 Speaker 1: beyond just a religious text, though, becoming a staple to 110 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:40,280 Speaker 1: the English language and giving us household phrases like an 111 00:06:40,279 --> 00:06:43,599 Speaker 1: eye for an eye, a bottomless pit, and many more. 112 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:49,440 Speaker 1: But not all Bibles are created equally, Apparently, after widespread circulation, 113 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:52,200 Speaker 1: another printing of the King James Bible was ordered in 114 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:56,039 Speaker 1: sixteen thirty one from the Royal Printers in London, and 115 00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:58,960 Speaker 1: while every other printing of that same book had seven 116 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: hundred and eighty three one thirty seven words. This edition 117 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:07,800 Speaker 1: had seven eight three on thirty six words. Yes, one 118 00:07:07,839 --> 00:07:11,440 Speaker 1: word was omitted in the sixty one edition, and it 119 00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:14,880 Speaker 1: made a world of difference. The word omitted was a 120 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:19,440 Speaker 1: simple not in Exodus twenty, verse fourteen, flipping the seventh 121 00:07:19,480 --> 00:07:24,000 Speaker 1: commandment on its head. Instead of thou shalt not commit adultery, 122 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:27,640 Speaker 1: it now read thou shalt commit adultery, meaning that while 123 00:07:27,680 --> 00:07:30,400 Speaker 1: you should not be killing and not stealing, you should 124 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:34,400 Speaker 1: absolutely be committing adultery. The Lord himself had spoken, or 125 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:38,440 Speaker 1: rather the royal printers in London had spoken, And as 126 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:41,400 Speaker 1: if that wasn't bad enough, there was another mistake as well, 127 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:45,320 Speaker 1: this time changing a single word into a hyphenated superlative. 128 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:49,040 Speaker 1: This one appeared in Deuteronomy five, verse twenty four, where 129 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:52,040 Speaker 1: the Lord apparently didn't show his greatness at all, but 130 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:55,840 Speaker 1: his great ass, meaning that he must have one stellar donkey. 131 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 1: Since that was the only meaning of the word at 132 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,840 Speaker 1: the time of printing. Needless to say, there was something 133 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 1: of a public outcry about it all. The archbishop was 134 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:08,600 Speaker 1: mortified by both mistakes and immediately set about rounding up 135 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:11,720 Speaker 1: copies to destroy them. Oh and the printers were fined 136 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:16,800 Speaker 1: as well by today's standards, around sixty fo dollars. While 137 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:19,280 Speaker 1: it may seem like nothing more than an innocent mistake, 138 00:08:19,360 --> 00:08:21,920 Speaker 1: the sheer magnitude of the change has led some to 139 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:25,200 Speaker 1: believe that it was a classic case of Biblical sabotage. 140 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:29,480 Speaker 1: This theory posits that Arrival snuck into the Royal printers 141 00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:32,160 Speaker 1: workshop and made the change in hopes that they would 142 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:35,840 Speaker 1: lose their exclusive right to print the Bible. Thankfully, the 143 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:38,840 Speaker 1: archbishop did not succeed in destroying all of them, though 144 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: various copies can still be found scattered across museums in 145 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:45,319 Speaker 1: both the United States and England, as well as one 146 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:48,360 Speaker 1: in Australia. And in case you're looking to bolster your 147 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:52,280 Speaker 1: own Biblical collection, a handful of these wicked Bibles still 148 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:55,040 Speaker 1: pop up at various auctions from time to time. The 149 00:08:55,120 --> 00:08:58,920 Speaker 1: latest one sold for roughly fifty six thousand dollars. While 150 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: it's unlikely this steak altered the religious foundation of anyone, ever, 151 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:05,960 Speaker 1: it remains a great example of how one small mistake 152 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:09,480 Speaker 1: can make one big difference in meaning. And always remember 153 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,560 Speaker 1: thou shalt proof read before printing, or wait, no, yeah, 154 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:21,520 Speaker 1: that's right. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of 155 00:09:21,559 --> 00:09:25,520 Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 156 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:29,160 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 157 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:33,120 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky 158 00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:36,960 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 159 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:40,560 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 160 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:43,200 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 161 00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:46,840 Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until 162 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:48,839 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.