1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracey V. 3 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:16,080 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Freight. 4 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:19,480 Speaker 2: Before we start our episode today, a couple of folks 5 00:00:19,480 --> 00:00:22,520 Speaker 2: have asked us where they can buy shirts and things 6 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:24,760 Speaker 2: because we used to have a T shirt store. 7 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:26,520 Speaker 1: Yeah, and then it went away. 8 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:31,520 Speaker 2: Uh and the reason for that is just that iHeartRadio 9 00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 2: moved that they didn't. They were already with a different 10 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:38,120 Speaker 2: T shirt vendor than we had been with when iHeart 11 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:40,920 Speaker 2: acquired us, and so eventually we needed to all be 12 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:45,240 Speaker 2: on the same thing. Uh. So our T shirt store 13 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 2: now is at Cottonbureau dot com. You can either go 14 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:52,240 Speaker 2: to cottonbureau dot com and search for stuff you missed 15 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:55,680 Speaker 2: in history class, or you can go to Cottonbureau dot 16 00:00:55,680 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 2: com slash people slash stuff you miss in history class, 17 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 2: with each of those words separated by a dash. Personally, 18 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:07,959 Speaker 2: it seems easier to me to just go to Cottonbureau 19 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 2: dot com and use the search function, but you do 20 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:16,039 Speaker 2: you Right now, we have coffee mugs, tope bags, cell 21 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 2: phone cases, stickers, and T shirts. Our prior T shirt 22 00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:22,840 Speaker 2: vendor was the creator of a lot of our previous 23 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:25,040 Speaker 2: T shirt designs. So right now what we've got is 24 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:27,880 Speaker 2: stuff with our logo on it, but in the future 25 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:31,800 Speaker 2: we may have some other designs also kind of working 26 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:34,319 Speaker 2: on that behind the scenes. Just wanted to let everybody 27 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 2: know in case you either have looked for a shirt 28 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,479 Speaker 2: recently or have just wondered, do they have T shirts 29 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:45,320 Speaker 2: and stuff? Now we do again Cottonbureau dot com, and 30 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:48,680 Speaker 2: now we can start the episode. A couple of weeks ago, 31 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:51,720 Speaker 2: I was listening to an episode of the podcast ninety 32 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 2: nine Percent Invisible, and this episode was called Airborne. It 33 00:01:56,160 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 2: was an interview with Carl Zimmer, who wrote Airborne, The 34 00:02:00,520 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 2: Hidden History of the Life We Breathe. I have not 35 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 2: read this book. I did use it to confirm some 36 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:11,920 Speaker 2: details biographically about the people that we were talking about today, 37 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:14,200 Speaker 2: but I cannot comment on the book as a whole. 38 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 2: What I can comment on is that over the course 39 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:21,919 Speaker 2: of this episode I got progressively more frustrated because they 40 00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 2: were talking about some research that sounded like that least 41 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:28,920 Speaker 2: in theory that could have really lessened the impact of 42 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:32,640 Speaker 2: the COVID nineteen pandemic. But this was not like new 43 00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:37,000 Speaker 2: research from after the pandemic started. It was from the 44 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:41,639 Speaker 2: nineteen thirties and forties, So as I was listening to this, 45 00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:45,799 Speaker 2: I jotted down a couple of potential podcast topics for 46 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:49,320 Speaker 2: our show as I was listening and getting mad about it. 47 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:54,639 Speaker 2: One was nineteenth century chemist Max von pet and Kulfer, 48 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 2: who I knew sounded familiar but had forgotten that we 49 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:02,400 Speaker 2: already did an episode on We will have that episode 50 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:05,520 Speaker 2: as our next Saturday Classic. And the other thing I 51 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:09,040 Speaker 2: wrote down was today's topic, which is husband and wife 52 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:14,359 Speaker 2: team William Firth Wells and Mildred Weeks Wells. Their research 53 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 2: had the potential to make a really big difference in 54 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:21,840 Speaker 2: the safety of the indoor air, but that research did 55 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:24,480 Speaker 2: not really have that kind of impact on public health. 56 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 2: And just to note, this research did involve some experiments 57 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:29,360 Speaker 2: on animals. 58 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: Mildred Weeks was born in eighteen ninety one to William F. 59 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 1: Weeks and Mary Alice Denton Weeks. She was born in 60 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:41,120 Speaker 1: what's now Oklahoma, then it was called Indian Territory, and 61 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 1: she had an older sister named Marian. We don't really 62 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 1: know a whole lot about Mildred's early life, but it 63 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: seems like things may have been difficult for her and 64 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 1: her sister, even though they were from a prominent family, so. 65 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:58,800 Speaker 2: That explanation goes back to before her parents, William and 66 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 2: Mary Alice, were mayor married. The girl's great grandfather, John B. Denton, 67 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 2: was the namesake of the city and County of Denton, Texas, 68 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:11,680 Speaker 2: and then his son, Their grandfather, Ashley Newton Denton, was 69 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:15,560 Speaker 2: an actor who was appointed superintendent of the Texas State 70 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:20,440 Speaker 2: Lunatic Asylum. The asylum bookkeeper was the girl's future father, 71 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 2: William Weeks. Denton and Weeks were both accused of mismanaging 72 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:31,360 Speaker 2: the asylum's funds, and Weeks was eventually charged with embezzling 73 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:34,760 Speaker 2: somewhere between one thousand and fifteen hundred dollars. 74 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:38,679 Speaker 1: Both men maintained that they had not done anything wrong. 75 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:43,000 Speaker 1: One newspaper write up of Weeks's arrest said that quote 76 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:46,440 Speaker 1: his numerous friends here assert that while he was careless 77 00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:50,479 Speaker 1: in business matters, he will explain out of it. These 78 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:54,360 Speaker 1: allegations don't seem to have affected Denton's opinion of Weeks, though, 79 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:57,839 Speaker 1: since he presumably gave his permission for his daughter Mary 80 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,160 Speaker 1: Alice to marry him in eighteen eighty, which was right 81 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:02,240 Speaker 1: In the middle of all of this. 82 00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 2: William was exonerated in eighteen ninety and the family went 83 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 2: to Indian Territory, which, as we said, is where Mildred 84 00:05:10,839 --> 00:05:15,520 Speaker 2: was born. But rumors continued to follow William, and eventually 85 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:19,479 Speaker 2: he seems to have kind of disappeared. Mary Alice died 86 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:22,559 Speaker 2: when Mildred was only ten, and Mildred and her sister 87 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:27,120 Speaker 2: Marian were raised primarily by their grandmother, who lived in Austin, Texas. 88 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:31,400 Speaker 2: Mildred earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas 89 00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:35,520 Speaker 2: Medical Branch in nineteen eleven. She earned her MD from 90 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:39,200 Speaker 2: the University of Texas at Austin in nineteen fifteen, where 91 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:41,600 Speaker 2: she was one of only three women in a class 92 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:44,720 Speaker 2: of thirty four. She moved to Washington, d C. 93 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:47,800 Speaker 1: And got a job studying bacteria at the Public Health 94 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:52,200 Speaker 1: Service Hygienic Laboratory. While working at the lab, she met 95 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: William Firth Wells. 96 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:58,719 Speaker 2: William Firth Wells was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 97 00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 2: twenty fifth of either a teen eighty six or eighteen 98 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:05,120 Speaker 2: eighty seven. I found both those years. His parents were 99 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:08,839 Speaker 2: Obadiah F. Wells and Helen Davis Wells, and he was 100 00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:12,159 Speaker 2: one of their four children. We don't have a lot 101 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 2: of detail about his early life either, but he studied 102 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 2: bacteriology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 103 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:24,360 Speaker 1: He graduated from there in nineteen o nine. After graduating, 104 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:27,159 Speaker 1: he eventually made his way to Washington, d c. To 105 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:31,440 Speaker 1: become a sanitary bacteriologist for the Public Health Service, a 106 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:36,360 Speaker 1: few years before Mildred also started working there. Mildred Weeks 107 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:39,800 Speaker 1: and William Firth Wells got married in nineteen sixteen, and 108 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:42,840 Speaker 1: a year later they had a son, William Junior. They 109 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:45,680 Speaker 1: called him Bud. We also don't have a whole lot 110 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 1: of detail about Bud, but it seems as though he 111 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:52,120 Speaker 1: was disabled or he had some kind of mental illness. 112 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:56,760 Speaker 1: He always lived with family until being institutionalized, which happened 113 00:06:56,800 --> 00:06:59,359 Speaker 1: after Mildred's death, and at that point he was in 114 00:06:59,400 --> 00:06:59,920 Speaker 1: his forty. 115 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:05,440 Speaker 2: During World War One, William Senior was drafted and joined 116 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:09,640 Speaker 2: the Sanitary Corps, serving both stateside and in Europe and 117 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 2: attaining the rank of captain. His work before, during, and 118 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:17,880 Speaker 2: after the war was largely focused on water contamination and 119 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:22,280 Speaker 2: water borne illnesses. He studied how diseases could be spread 120 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:26,680 Speaker 2: through the water and how salmonella typhi, which causes typhoid fever, 121 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:31,920 Speaker 2: could grow in oysters. He developed filtering techniques to purify 122 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:35,680 Speaker 2: river water so that it would be drinkable, and chlorination 123 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:40,400 Speaker 2: methods to clear bacteria out of oyster beds. After the 124 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:43,320 Speaker 2: end of World War One, the Weekses moved to New York, 125 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:46,840 Speaker 2: where william had gotten a job with the state's Conservation commission. 126 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:51,760 Speaker 2: He continued working with oysters, including developing methods to artificially 127 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:57,640 Speaker 2: propagate them and repopulate depleted oyster beds. Inspired by machines 128 00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:01,560 Speaker 2: that separated cream from milk, he developed a centrifuge that 129 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:04,920 Speaker 2: could separate oyster larvae from the water so that they 130 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:07,720 Speaker 2: could be raised in tanks and then returned to the 131 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:12,240 Speaker 2: Long Island Sound. This combined with his earlier sanitation and 132 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:15,760 Speaker 2: water quality work to ensure that these oysters would be 133 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:20,640 Speaker 2: safe to eat once they were harvested. By nineteen twenty five, 134 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:25,240 Speaker 2: Williams's work with oysters was being hailed as almost miraculous. 135 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:30,160 Speaker 2: The Association of Fisheries Commissioners and the National Association of 136 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:34,559 Speaker 2: Oyster Growers and Dealers held a celebratory dinner on October 137 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:39,160 Speaker 2: first of that year with artificially propagated oysters on the menu, 138 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:42,839 Speaker 2: and this whole thing was praised in newspapers. 139 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:47,280 Speaker 1: Two years later, an Associated Press write up on William's 140 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:51,320 Speaker 1: work described the oysters that he was growing as super oysters. 141 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:55,080 Speaker 1: He moved from the New York State Conservation Commission to 142 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:58,720 Speaker 1: a higher paying job with an oyster company, but then 143 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:02,680 Speaker 1: in October of nineteen twenty, the stock market, of course crashed, 144 00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:05,280 Speaker 1: which is marked as the start of the Great Depression. 145 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:09,440 Speaker 1: The oyster company was sold and William lost his job. 146 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:14,439 Speaker 2: William tried to make ends meet by writing and consulting, 147 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 2: and Mildred got a job working with the International Committee 148 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:22,520 Speaker 2: for the Study of Infantile Paralysis, also known as polio. 149 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:25,720 Speaker 2: Polio had been on the rise in parts of the 150 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:29,000 Speaker 2: world since the late nineteenth century, and it was widely 151 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:34,760 Speaker 2: feared and not completely understood. Karl Landsteiner and Irwin Popper 152 00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:39,040 Speaker 2: had confirmed that polio was infectious, and they had concluded 153 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:41,880 Speaker 2: that it was caused by a virus in nineteen oh eight. 154 00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:47,400 Speaker 2: Doctors also had a sense that polio could be spread asymptomatically, 155 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:50,680 Speaker 2: but once they were able to isolate the actual virus, 156 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:54,480 Speaker 2: they didn't usually find evidence of it in people. Who 157 00:09:54,520 --> 00:10:00,240 Speaker 2: were not experiencing symptoms, so they didn't really understand exactly 158 00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:04,960 Speaker 2: how the virus was spreading. Outbreaks often happened in large waves, 159 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:08,880 Speaker 2: usually in the summer, but the patterns of cases within 160 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:13,680 Speaker 2: those outbreaks could seem almost random. Mildred Wells was part 161 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:17,520 Speaker 2: of a project to systematically evaluate all of the research 162 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 2: that had been done on polio and to produce a 163 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:24,600 Speaker 2: comprehensive work on the subject. That work was published in 164 00:10:24,640 --> 00:10:29,040 Speaker 2: October of nineteen thirty two as Poliomyelitis a Survey made 165 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:32,080 Speaker 2: possible by a grant from the International Committee for the 166 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:37,240 Speaker 2: Study of Infantile Paralysis. This was primarily funded by philanthropists 167 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:41,839 Speaker 2: Jeremiah Millbank. Other than Millbank's forward and a preface by 168 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:46,080 Speaker 2: doctor William H. Park, this book was written entirely by women. 169 00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:50,520 Speaker 2: The first chapter, historical summary, was by Elizabeth F. Hutchin, 170 00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:55,319 Speaker 2: and the remaining chapters were all by women. Mds Helen Harrington, 171 00:10:55,720 --> 00:11:00,559 Speaker 2: Josephine B. Neil, and Mildred Weeks Wells. Well wrote the 172 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:05,920 Speaker 2: chapter on epidemiology. Several modes of transmission had been proposed 173 00:11:05,960 --> 00:11:11,959 Speaker 2: for polio, including direct transmission through respiratory droplets, milk water, 174 00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:17,359 Speaker 2: insect bites and fomites. When she started working on this project, 175 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:22,120 Speaker 2: insect transmission had been generally rejected, and the most widely 176 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:27,240 Speaker 2: accepted theory was droplets. Droplets were believed to be able 177 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:30,640 Speaker 2: to travel only a short distance, meaning that people had 178 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:34,120 Speaker 2: to be in close contact to spread droplet born diseases. 179 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:38,720 Speaker 2: This idea grew from the work of German microbiologist Carl Fluga, 180 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:42,400 Speaker 2: who had done research primarily focused on tuberculosis in the 181 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:46,960 Speaker 2: late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was building on 182 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:50,920 Speaker 2: earlier work which had already demonstrated that coughs and sneezes 183 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:56,160 Speaker 2: could carry infectious particles that could settle on things like clothing, bedding, 184 00:11:56,240 --> 00:12:01,280 Speaker 2: and handkerchiefs. Fluga did things like placing microscopes at varying 185 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:05,880 Speaker 2: distances from tuberculosis patients, finding that the slides closest to 186 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:10,480 Speaker 2: the patients collected the largest respiratory droplets with the most basilli, 187 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,920 Speaker 2: while the ones farther away had much smaller droplets with 188 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:19,319 Speaker 2: very few beecsillai. So through this findings were way more 189 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:22,959 Speaker 2: complex than this, and a lot of them were specific 190 00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:27,440 Speaker 2: to tuberculosis. He hadn't test studied other diseases. In whether 191 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:30,600 Speaker 2: they worked the same way at all. But a lot 192 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 2: of doctors took away from this that diseases were spread 193 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:37,840 Speaker 2: through droplets, and droplets didn't travel very far and settled 194 00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:42,440 Speaker 2: out of the air quickly, so close contact was required 195 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:46,360 Speaker 2: for most disease spread, and airborne spread at a much 196 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:50,360 Speaker 2: greater distance was not really a big concern. One such 197 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:54,400 Speaker 2: doctor was Charles Chapin, Health Officer of Providence, Rhode Island, 198 00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:58,120 Speaker 2: and author of the nineteen sixteen public Health manual The 199 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:01,600 Speaker 2: Sources and Modes of Infection that was regarded as a 200 00:13:01,760 --> 00:13:05,840 Speaker 2: landmark text in the field. This work stressed the role 201 00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:09,120 Speaker 2: of droplets while minimizing the idea that there was much 202 00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:14,160 Speaker 2: danger from airborne pathogens that could travel longer distances. Under 203 00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:19,040 Speaker 2: the heading actual Danger of Infection by air, Chapin wrote, quote, 204 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:23,880 Speaker 2: pathogenic bacteria may withstand drying and the pulverization of the 205 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:27,040 Speaker 2: dried material, and they may actually be found floating in 206 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:30,240 Speaker 2: the air. Yet they may not, after all, be dangerous, 207 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:34,359 Speaker 2: either because they have holly or partially lost their virulence, 208 00:13:34,800 --> 00:13:37,920 Speaker 2: or because there are too few in number, or for 209 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:43,880 Speaker 2: some other unknown reason. Mildred weeks Wells's research into the 210 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:48,079 Speaker 2: epidemiology of polio didn't line up with what was known 211 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:53,120 Speaker 2: about droplets. She described polio's seasonal recurrence as difficult to 212 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:58,840 Speaker 2: reconcile with droplet transmission. At one point, she wrote, quote, certainly, 213 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:03,320 Speaker 2: poliomyelitis as we ordinarily encounter it in the United States 214 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:08,200 Speaker 2: does not behave epidemiologically in accordance with the concepts that 215 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:13,439 Speaker 2: have become crystallized as to how a contagious disease should behave. 216 00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:17,040 Speaker 1: She then quoted from a nineteen thirty one paper by M. 217 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:22,240 Speaker 1: Greenwood titled on the Statistical Measure of infectiousness quote, an 218 00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:25,400 Speaker 1: illness is held to be catching when it has usually 219 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:28,160 Speaker 1: been possible to explain the existence of a case of 220 00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:32,160 Speaker 1: it by close association with an immediately pre existing case. 221 00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:36,480 Speaker 1: The notion of more or less infectiousness depends on some 222 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:41,240 Speaker 1: appraisement of the proportion of persons attacked to persons exposed 223 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:42,560 Speaker 1: to the risk of attack. 224 00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:47,520 Speaker 2: So polio was weird. It seemed to be catching, and 225 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:51,640 Speaker 2: yet it did not fit that description of catching because 226 00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:54,320 Speaker 2: people who caught it often didn't have a history of 227 00:14:54,440 --> 00:15:00,160 Speaker 2: close contact with another polio patient. Wells wound up concluding 228 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:05,080 Speaker 2: that polio was similar to other airborne or droplet infections, 229 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:09,000 Speaker 2: but that people seemed to have a higher innate resistance 230 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:13,479 Speaker 2: to it than to diseases like smallpox or measles, possibly 231 00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:18,000 Speaker 2: because people became immune to polio after being infected but 232 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:22,880 Speaker 2: without developing clinical symptoms. Today, polio is known to be 233 00:15:22,960 --> 00:15:28,120 Speaker 2: transmitted through droplets and aerosols and through fecal contamination, which 234 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:31,320 Speaker 2: the research Mildred was working with really did not think 235 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:34,560 Speaker 2: was the case, so she wasn't completely on the right 236 00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:38,520 Speaker 2: track for thoroughly explaining the epidemiology of polio, but this 237 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:41,800 Speaker 2: did lead her to thinking about ways that disease might 238 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:46,360 Speaker 2: travel through the air. Mildred's and William's work came together 239 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:49,720 Speaker 2: after this, which we will get to after a sponsor break. 240 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:03,600 Speaker 2: William birth Wells's work with oysters led him to the 241 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:09,040 Speaker 2: use of centrifuges to separate oyster larvae from fluid. Mildred 242 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,440 Speaker 2: Weeks Wells's work on polio led her to think about 243 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:16,960 Speaker 2: airborne disease spread. Those two things came together in nineteen 244 00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:20,280 Speaker 2: thirty when William found another full time job working at 245 00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:25,440 Speaker 2: Harvard doing research and teaching sanitary science. This job paid 246 00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:28,240 Speaker 2: a lot less than he had been making working for 247 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,560 Speaker 2: the Oyster Company, but the Great Depression was still going 248 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:35,440 Speaker 2: on and the Wellss really needed the money. At Harvard, 249 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:40,160 Speaker 2: William Wells developed a machine, the Wells Air Centrifuge, that 250 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:44,200 Speaker 2: could separate bacteria, dust, and other contaminants from the air 251 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:48,480 Speaker 2: the way that he'd separated oyster larvae from seawater. He 252 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:52,240 Speaker 2: also developed a nutrient medium to use in the centrifugees 253 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:55,840 Speaker 2: collection tubes so that any bacteria from the air would 254 00:16:55,880 --> 00:16:58,560 Speaker 2: be able to grow so that he could then analyze it. 255 00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:02,720 Speaker 2: At a request of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, he used 256 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:05,399 Speaker 2: this centrifuge to study the safety of the air in 257 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:10,160 Speaker 2: textile mills in Townslake Fall River, Lawrence, Lowell, and New Bedford, 258 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:13,320 Speaker 2: where the air was full of textile dust and also 259 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:18,560 Speaker 2: artificially humidified. Wells eventually brought on assistance for this and 260 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:22,199 Speaker 2: other work, and those were brothers Richard and Edward Riley. 261 00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:28,640 Speaker 2: In nineteen thirty four, William Wells intentionally introduced bacteria into 262 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:31,680 Speaker 2: one of the air conditioning systems at Harvard and then 263 00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:35,440 Speaker 2: used his centrifuge to collect air samples and track where 264 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:38,959 Speaker 2: all the bacteria went. That same year, he did an 265 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:43,080 Speaker 2: experiment during one of his lectures. He used the centrifuge 266 00:17:43,119 --> 00:17:46,119 Speaker 2: to sample the air at the beginning of class, and 267 00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:50,080 Speaker 2: then he introduced some sneezing powder into the machine's exhaust. 268 00:17:51,080 --> 00:17:55,040 Speaker 2: As it spread, the student started sneezing, and he collected 269 00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:59,000 Speaker 2: another sample of the air. He collected another sample after 270 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:02,160 Speaker 2: some more time had passed, and then a final sample 271 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:05,680 Speaker 2: after class was over and the students had left the room. 272 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:10,520 Speaker 2: He compared each of these samples, finding the largest number 273 00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:14,040 Speaker 2: of normally occurring respiratory bacteria and the samples that had 274 00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:17,960 Speaker 2: been taken sometime after the students had started sneezing, but 275 00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:21,159 Speaker 2: there were also still bacteria in the sample that he 276 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:25,760 Speaker 2: took after the class was over. Mildred was also part 277 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:29,080 Speaker 2: of this research, although she was not officially hired at 278 00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:33,080 Speaker 2: Harvard until nineteen thirty five, and even then she wasn't 279 00:18:33,119 --> 00:18:36,800 Speaker 2: paid a salary. A lot of their work was collaborative, 280 00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:39,960 Speaker 2: with both of them deeply involved, but Mildred was the 281 00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:40,960 Speaker 2: one who wrote most of. 282 00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:44,720 Speaker 1: The papers and lectures. Much of their published work was 283 00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:47,000 Speaker 1: published under both of their names. 284 00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:52,359 Speaker 2: Their research strongly suggested that some bacteria could travel more 285 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:55,719 Speaker 2: than just a short distance, like in a droplet and 286 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:58,560 Speaker 2: could stay in the air and stay viable for a 287 00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:02,240 Speaker 2: long time, building up in the air of a room 288 00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:05,480 Speaker 2: the longer people were in their breathing it. But when 289 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:08,960 Speaker 2: they took the center views outdoors, their samples yielded few, 290 00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:10,760 Speaker 2: if any viable bacteria. 291 00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:14,840 Speaker 1: These findings were summed up in a patent application a 292 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:18,959 Speaker 1: few years later. Quote Ordinarily, the droplet and nuclei are 293 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:22,199 Speaker 1: so rapidly dispersed in the outside air that there is 294 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:26,520 Speaker 1: but little danger of infection thereby. In crowded or poorly 295 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:31,640 Speaker 1: ventilated spaces, however, they constitute a real menace. Even well 296 00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:35,880 Speaker 1: ventilated buildings are not free from this danger, particularly where 297 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:39,840 Speaker 1: the same air after conditioning is recirculated so as to 298 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: be used over and over again for breathing. For such 299 00:19:43,680 --> 00:19:49,200 Speaker 1: recirculation merely adds to the bacterial concentration of the recirculated air. 300 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:52,439 Speaker 2: While a lot of their colleagues were really skeptical of 301 00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:56,919 Speaker 2: their work, William and Mildred became convinced that diseases could 302 00:19:57,040 --> 00:20:01,439 Speaker 2: be spread through the air beyond just most close contact 303 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:05,760 Speaker 2: from droplets, and they started experimenting with ultraviolet light as 304 00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:06,560 Speaker 2: a way to stop it. 305 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:11,320 Speaker 1: As with William's work with oysters. This got some media attention. 306 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:15,760 Speaker 1: On July thirtieth, nineteen thirty six, the Decatur Daily Review 307 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:19,120 Speaker 1: ran a photo of Wells with his research equipment at 308 00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:22,000 Speaker 1: the Harvard School of Public Health, and it ran under 309 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:27,000 Speaker 1: the headline scientists fight flew germs with violet ray. He 310 00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:31,160 Speaker 1: was working on an experiment that involved funneling influenza infected 311 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:35,200 Speaker 1: air to a ferret enclosure. The vents carrying the air 312 00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:37,920 Speaker 1: to some of the ferrets were treated with UV light 313 00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:41,280 Speaker 1: while the other vents were not, and the ferrets getting 314 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:45,119 Speaker 1: the UV treated air stayed healthy while the others got sick. 315 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:49,879 Speaker 1: In November of nineteen thirty six, Mildred and Richard published 316 00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:53,439 Speaker 1: two articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 317 00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:58,080 Speaker 1: One was titled Airborne Infection and the other was Airborne 318 00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:04,879 Speaker 1: Infection Sanitary Control. Airborne Infection detailed the Wells's conclusion that 319 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:10,040 Speaker 1: there were two types of airborne disease transmission. There were droplets, 320 00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:14,360 Speaker 1: as previously described by Carl Fluge. These were larger than 321 00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:19,440 Speaker 1: zero point one millimeters in diameter. These quickly fell from 322 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:23,879 Speaker 1: the air due to gravity, But droplets smaller than zero 323 00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:28,240 Speaker 1: point one millimeters in diameter could stay aloft, and as 324 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:32,960 Speaker 1: they were aloft, they evaporated, leaving behind only the droplets 325 00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:36,960 Speaker 1: infectious nucleus, which could stay in the air even longer 326 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:41,480 Speaker 1: and travel much farther than droplets could. A graph of 327 00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:47,000 Speaker 1: the relationship among gravity, evaporation and how long infectious material 328 00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:50,439 Speaker 1: can stay in the air is known as the Wells curve. 329 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:54,520 Speaker 1: They also concluded that the number of bacteria in the 330 00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:59,160 Speaker 1: air quote correspond to the degree of contamination by the occupants, 331 00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:03,920 Speaker 1: and they can compaired this to waterborne intestinal illnesses. People 332 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:10,760 Speaker 1: were being exposed to diseases carried through the air, including influenza, pneumonia, bronchitis, colds, 333 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:13,800 Speaker 1: and measles, over and over in a cycle that would 334 00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:18,080 Speaker 1: continue until the whole population was finally immune to whatever 335 00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:22,040 Speaker 1: the illness was. But if people were experiencing the same 336 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:27,600 Speaker 1: number of intestinal infections by repeated exposure to waterborne illnesses, quote, 337 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:31,520 Speaker 1: that would condemn a water supply as being highly dangerous. 338 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:34,879 Speaker 1: They went on to say, quote, it might be concluded 339 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,240 Speaker 1: on epidemiologic grounds that the atmospheres of our common habitations 340 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:46,440 Speaker 1: are even more highly infective airborne infection. Sanitary Control reported 341 00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:50,600 Speaker 1: on experiments conducted in the tunnels under Harvard Business School, 342 00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:55,720 Speaker 1: which tested the susceptibility of airborne pathogens to ultraviolet light. 343 00:22:56,560 --> 00:23:00,160 Speaker 1: The most dramatic reductions of bacteria in the air were 344 00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:03,800 Speaker 1: within five feet of UV light source, but there was 345 00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:07,560 Speaker 1: still a measurable difference as far as fifty five feet away. 346 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:12,439 Speaker 1: They concluded, quote air purification methods that depend on filtration 347 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:17,960 Speaker 1: or sedimentation may be more effective against dust an ultraviolet 348 00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:21,920 Speaker 1: rays may be more effective against nuclei, the two being 349 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:27,719 Speaker 1: complementary and therefore effectively combined. In nineteen thirty seven, the 350 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:32,120 Speaker 1: Washington d c. Evening Star noted the Wells's work, although 351 00:23:32,359 --> 00:23:36,560 Speaker 1: without mentioning Mildred. This write upset in part, quote doctor 352 00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:40,360 Speaker 1: William Firth Wells is the trapshooter of the scientific world. 353 00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:43,879 Speaker 1: For five years he has been gunning for the flu bug, 354 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:48,280 Speaker 1: dropping it with an ultraviolet ray. This write up went 355 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:51,520 Speaker 1: on to call the project a quote scientific cleansing of 356 00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:56,000 Speaker 1: workaday breathing air, which will vastly lessen casualties from nose 357 00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:57,360 Speaker 1: and throat diseases. 358 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:02,639 Speaker 2: That same year, William Firth Wells and Mildred Weeks Wells 359 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:07,080 Speaker 2: were fired from Harvard. William had been hired even though 360 00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:09,919 Speaker 2: he didn't have an advanced degree, and on top of that, 361 00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:13,080 Speaker 2: he is not described as a very good teacher, giving 362 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:17,600 Speaker 2: ponderously boring lectures and caring only about his research, not 363 00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:18,520 Speaker 2: his classes. 364 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:20,600 Speaker 1: But a bigger. 365 00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:23,679 Speaker 2: Issue seems to have been that he and Mildred both 366 00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:26,679 Speaker 2: developed a reputation for being really hard to work with, 367 00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:33,600 Speaker 2: including being crabby and argumentative. Some frustration is understandable here, 368 00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:36,600 Speaker 2: given that a lot of their colleagues just seemed really 369 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:40,520 Speaker 2: dismissive of their work, but the Wells is also apparently 370 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:44,240 Speaker 2: argued with people who were on their side and with 371 00:24:44,359 --> 00:24:47,800 Speaker 2: people whose opinion of them really mattered, like their boss, 372 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:53,560 Speaker 2: Gordon Fair, professor of sanitary engineering. Fair apparently thought he 373 00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:57,359 Speaker 2: should be credited on the Wells' publications as well as 374 00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:00,480 Speaker 2: named on the patent application that came from their work. 375 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:03,840 Speaker 2: That was US Patent two one nine eight eight sixty 376 00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:07,920 Speaker 2: seven Method and Apparatus for Preventing Infection, which we read 377 00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:12,159 Speaker 2: from earlier. That patent was awarded in nineteen forty not 378 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,720 Speaker 2: only with Fair's name on it, but with Fair listed first. 379 00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:19,280 Speaker 2: William and Mildred both seemed to have fought with Fair 380 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:23,360 Speaker 2: over this credit issue, and according to some accounts, Mildred 381 00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:26,640 Speaker 2: was more aggressive about it, but it's also really hard 382 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,560 Speaker 2: to take that at face value since people's perceptions of 383 00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:33,560 Speaker 2: her would have been influenced by social expectations for women 384 00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:37,560 Speaker 2: to be polite and unassertive. Yeah, was she really being 385 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:40,960 Speaker 2: aggressive or did people just think she was aggressive because 386 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:45,639 Speaker 2: she wasn't being meek? Also, she was doing work and 387 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:48,720 Speaker 2: not getting paid for it right and handing over the 388 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:53,520 Speaker 2: credit to men. Uh. It took some effort for them 389 00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:55,800 Speaker 2: to find a new employer, which we will get to 390 00:25:55,800 --> 00:26:08,960 Speaker 2: you after a sponsor break. After being fired from Harvard, 391 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:13,240 Speaker 2: the Wells's next move was to Philadelphia, where the University 392 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:19,200 Speaker 2: of Pennsylvania had established an airborne infection laboratory. This included 393 00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:24,080 Speaker 2: paid positions for both William and Mildred. While Mildred was 394 00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:27,600 Speaker 2: being paid about a third of what William made even 395 00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:30,480 Speaker 2: though she had an MD and he had a bachelor's degree, 396 00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:34,800 Speaker 2: their combined salaries were more than William had been making 397 00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:39,080 Speaker 2: at Harvard. In nineteen thirty eight, William and Mildred published 398 00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:43,359 Speaker 2: Measurement of Sanitary Ventilation in the American Journal of Public 399 00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:48,320 Speaker 2: Health that began quote ability to modify man's environment is 400 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:52,760 Speaker 2: not confined to enhancement of comfort, convenience, or even safety, 401 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:56,200 Speaker 2: but extends to the prevention of disease and the promotion 402 00:26:56,440 --> 00:27:00,280 Speaker 2: of health. By supplying pure water and pure food, the 403 00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:06,400 Speaker 2: sanitary engineer has in many communities almost eliminated intestinal infection. 404 00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:11,080 Speaker 2: Is it unreasonable to hope that when airborne infection is 405 00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:15,760 Speaker 2: better understood, diseases conveyed through the respiratory tract may likewise 406 00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:20,520 Speaker 2: be reduced through the provision of pure air supplies. This 407 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:25,679 Speaker 2: paper presented multiple possible configurations for using UV light to 408 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:29,960 Speaker 2: reduce the number of pathogens in the air. One was 409 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:32,879 Speaker 2: using UV light to treat the air within a ventilation 410 00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:37,200 Speaker 2: system before circulating that air back into a room. That 411 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,399 Speaker 2: could be the most useful and small crowded spaces like 412 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:44,480 Speaker 2: train cars. In large rooms, there was a lot more 413 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:47,280 Speaker 2: space and a lot more air, making that kind of 414 00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:52,080 Speaker 2: ventilation treatment inefficient. The UV lights at the time had 415 00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:55,600 Speaker 2: the potential to cause eye damage, so treating the whole 416 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:59,960 Speaker 2: room was most easily done in scenarios like operating rooms 417 00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:03,560 Speaker 2: where there was a high need for infection control, and 418 00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:06,879 Speaker 2: also all the people in the or could reasonably be 419 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:12,000 Speaker 2: expected to wear eye protection. Other possibilities included things like 420 00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:15,440 Speaker 2: light barriers, like a curtain of UV light that would 421 00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:19,760 Speaker 2: separate hospital wards from each other. There were equations for 422 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:22,720 Speaker 2: the bacterial reduction that could be expected with each of 423 00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:26,920 Speaker 2: these different setups. From there, the paper expressed a hope 424 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,760 Speaker 2: that this kind of research could be correlated with epidemiological 425 00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:34,359 Speaker 2: data quote this may lead to a realization of our 426 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,320 Speaker 2: present hope that if the sanitary quality of air is controlled, 427 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:44,440 Speaker 2: reduction of respiratory disease will be accomplished. William had invented 428 00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:48,080 Speaker 2: what he called an infection machine, which could be used 429 00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:51,680 Speaker 2: to expose animals to air that was laden with viruses 430 00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:55,400 Speaker 2: or bacteria. By nineteen forty one, William had used this 431 00:28:55,600 --> 00:29:00,440 Speaker 2: machine to demonstrate that tuberculosis, influenza, and strep could all 432 00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:04,200 Speaker 2: be transmitted to animals through the air, and that treating 433 00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:09,280 Speaker 2: that air with UV light could prevent those infections. Meanwhile, 434 00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:12,800 Speaker 2: Mildred was working on a practical experiment that had started 435 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:17,560 Speaker 2: at Germantown Friends School in nineteen thirty seven. UV lamps 436 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:20,280 Speaker 2: installed in some of the classrooms seemed to reduce the 437 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:23,800 Speaker 2: number of measles cases during an outbreak at the school. 438 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:27,520 Speaker 2: There were about ten times fewer measles cases in the 439 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:31,880 Speaker 2: classrooms with the lights than the ones without them. Mildred 440 00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:35,480 Speaker 2: published Ventilation in the Spread of Chicken Pox and Measles 441 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:40,440 Speaker 2: within school Rooms in nineteen forty five, which detailed these findings. 442 00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:45,400 Speaker 2: Not all of their experiments were that effective, though. In 443 00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,680 Speaker 2: nineteen forty two, UV lights installed in the town of 444 00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:53,240 Speaker 2: Swarthmore seemed to stop one outbreak of mumps, but it 445 00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:56,080 Speaker 2: didn't have much of an effect on another one. The 446 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:59,360 Speaker 2: weeks As speculated that there might be a seasonal factor 447 00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:02,200 Speaker 2: to this. The lights seemed to work in the winter 448 00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:04,840 Speaker 2: when the air was dry, but not in the summer, 449 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:09,120 Speaker 2: when it was humid. They speculated that this humidity might 450 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:11,800 Speaker 2: affect how well the lights worked, and that that might 451 00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:16,240 Speaker 2: also be connected to the seasonality of some illnesses. During 452 00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:20,040 Speaker 2: World War Two, William advised the War Department on protections 453 00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:24,200 Speaker 2: for soldiers living in crowded camps and barracks. He and 454 00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:27,520 Speaker 2: Mildred were both concerned about something like the nineteen eighteen 455 00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:31,840 Speaker 2: flu pandemic happening again. But while there was some limited 456 00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:36,040 Speaker 2: use of UV lights at military facilities, the military's attention 457 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:40,680 Speaker 2: just seemed to be focused elsewhere, and this really frustrated William, 458 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:44,120 Speaker 2: especially when he later learned that the army had been 459 00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:47,280 Speaker 2: focused on airborne disease transmission when it came to the 460 00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:50,920 Speaker 2: idea of germ warfare, just not when it came to 461 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:56,880 Speaker 2: protecting soldiers from ordinary illnesses. William and Mildred's marriage also 462 00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:00,840 Speaker 2: seems to have fallen apart, at least partially during this period. 463 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,680 Speaker 2: Their maid left her job, and it's likely that the 464 00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,680 Speaker 2: maid had been doing some of the caregiving work for Bud. 465 00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:12,560 Speaker 2: Mildred resigned from the Airborne Diseases Lab in nineteen forty four. 466 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:16,640 Speaker 2: Each of them did projects on their own or with 467 00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:19,360 Speaker 2: other collaborators rather than together. 468 00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:19,840 Speaker 1: After this. 469 00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:24,720 Speaker 2: That includes Mildred's nineteen forty five paper that we mentioned earlier, 470 00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:26,760 Speaker 2: which was published with only her name. 471 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:32,040 Speaker 1: William worked with Herbert Ratcliffe on a tuberculosis study which 472 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:35,560 Speaker 1: concluded that only very small particles could get deep enough 473 00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:39,240 Speaker 1: into the lungs to cause that disease. He also worked 474 00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:42,520 Speaker 1: with his former assistant, Richard Reiley, now a researcher in 475 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:45,800 Speaker 1: his own right, and a new assistant, Kretel C. Mills, 476 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:50,480 Speaker 1: on an experiment at the Baltimore Veterans Administration. This involved 477 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:53,600 Speaker 1: three hundred guinea pigs which were exposed to air from 478 00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:57,760 Speaker 1: the rooms of tuberculosis patients. Half of the guinea pigs 479 00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:00,600 Speaker 1: got air that was treated with UV light, and the 480 00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:03,720 Speaker 1: other half got air that was not. All of the 481 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:07,640 Speaker 1: guinea pigs getting UV treated air stayed healthy, while about 482 00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:10,880 Speaker 1: three a month in the other group developed tuberculosis. 483 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:15,160 Speaker 2: Mildred worked with the New York State Department of Health 484 00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:18,880 Speaker 2: trying to replicate the results of their earlier research with 485 00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:23,720 Speaker 2: UV lights. They started with an experiment in central schools 486 00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:26,840 Speaker 2: that were located in rural areas, based on the idea 487 00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:30,600 Speaker 2: that these students mostly saw each other only at school, 488 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:34,600 Speaker 2: without a lot of crowd exposure from outside of school, 489 00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:37,360 Speaker 2: like a student would probably get if they lived in 490 00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:38,040 Speaker 2: a city. 491 00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:43,160 Speaker 1: This experiment had mixed results. The classrooms that had UV 492 00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:46,080 Speaker 1: lights did seem to have a different pattern of disease 493 00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:49,800 Speaker 1: spread During a measle's outbreak. A few students at a 494 00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:53,800 Speaker 1: time got sick over many weeks in the UV treated classrooms, 495 00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:58,000 Speaker 1: while lots of children all got sick almost simultaneously in 496 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:02,200 Speaker 1: the untreated classrooms, But the total number of students who 497 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:06,680 Speaker 1: got measles was not that different. One possible complicating factor 498 00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:09,960 Speaker 1: in this experiment was that the children rode buses to school, 499 00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:14,800 Speaker 1: and those buses did not have UV lights. Mildred also 500 00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:18,400 Speaker 1: worked with William Halla to install UV lights in as 501 00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:22,520 Speaker 1: many places as possible in Pleasantville, New York, so that 502 00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:26,120 Speaker 1: it could be compared to nearby Mount Kisko, which did 503 00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:29,360 Speaker 1: not have the lights. They published a paper on this 504 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:33,200 Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty titled Ventilation in the Flow of Measles 505 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:37,840 Speaker 1: and Chicken Pox through a Community. Beyond installing these lights 506 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:41,640 Speaker 1: weeks in Halla figured out all of the children's susceptibility 507 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:45,080 Speaker 1: to measles and chicken pox based on their past history 508 00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:47,800 Speaker 1: so that they could factor that in to their disease 509 00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:52,520 Speaker 1: risk calculations, and they did contact tracing for each new 510 00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:56,040 Speaker 1: case in each of the towns. The results of this 511 00:33:56,160 --> 00:34:00,400 Speaker 1: study were also mixed. Pleasantville had a measles out break, 512 00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:03,360 Speaker 1: but it hit during a rainy spring, and the Wellses 513 00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:06,120 Speaker 1: had already published that their UV lights were not as 514 00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,919 Speaker 1: effective in high humidity. And it also seemed like even 515 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,880 Speaker 1: though there were no UV lights installed in Mount Kisco, 516 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:17,920 Speaker 1: its whole population was partially protected by the irradiation program 517 00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:21,319 Speaker 1: that was going on in Pleasantville. It basically cut off 518 00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:23,600 Speaker 1: one of the possible sources for an illness to be 519 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:29,680 Speaker 1: introduced into Mount Kisco. Meanwhile, William was writing a book 520 00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:34,719 Speaker 1: called Airborne Contagion and Air Hygiene, An Ecological Study of 521 00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:39,280 Speaker 1: droplet infections. It was published in nineteen fifty five after 522 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:43,040 Speaker 1: many years of work. It was more than four hundred 523 00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:46,040 Speaker 1: and fifty pages long, and while he had really hoped 524 00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:49,640 Speaker 1: that it would serve as the definitive work on airborne 525 00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:54,719 Speaker 1: infections and air sanitation, this book was really not a success. 526 00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:58,960 Speaker 1: As we have said, Mildred was the better writer. She 527 00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:02,239 Speaker 1: had written a lot of her stuff before this. She 528 00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,760 Speaker 1: did not work on this book with him. Mildred Weeks 529 00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:09,440 Speaker 1: Wells died on February twenty third, nineteen fifty seven, at 530 00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:13,319 Speaker 1: the age of sixty five. William Firth Wells died on 531 00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:17,360 Speaker 1: September nineteenth, nineteen sixty three, at the age of seventy six. 532 00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:21,560 Speaker 1: Both of them had experienced serious health issues in the 533 00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:26,040 Speaker 1: last years of their lives. Mildred's sister Marian, tried to 534 00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:29,480 Speaker 1: take over Bud's care after Mildred's death, but she was 535 00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:32,440 Speaker 1: also in her late sixties by them, and as we 536 00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:37,120 Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, ultimately Bud was institutionalized. 537 00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:41,360 Speaker 2: William Firth Wells's guinea pig study in Baltimore was still 538 00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:45,360 Speaker 2: going on when he became too sick to work. After 539 00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:49,200 Speaker 2: his death, Mills and Riley finished the work and published it. 540 00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:54,480 Speaker 2: Mills also contracted TB, but she recovered with treatment. This 541 00:35:54,640 --> 00:36:00,319 Speaker 2: research definitively demonstrated that tuberculosis could be airborne and led 542 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:04,080 Speaker 2: to the development of the Wells Riley equation, also called 543 00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:07,719 Speaker 2: the Wells Riley model, which is a way to calculate 544 00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:12,800 Speaker 2: the probability of being infected by an airborne pathogen. William 545 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:16,080 Speaker 2: Wells's name was not included on the final publication of 546 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:20,000 Speaker 2: this work, though Riley later wrote an article about this 547 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:24,200 Speaker 2: in which he described that omission as his eternal shame. 548 00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:29,360 Speaker 2: So Mildred Weeks Wells, and William Firthwells studied airborne disease 549 00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:32,840 Speaker 2: transmission for more than twenty years. They showed that a 550 00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:36,439 Speaker 2: lot of diseases could be spread through aerosolized particles rather 551 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:40,120 Speaker 2: than just large droplets, and that some larger droplets had 552 00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:44,560 Speaker 2: the potential to evaporate into much smaller particles. They also 553 00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:48,279 Speaker 2: demonstrated that UV light could potentially reduce the number of 554 00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:51,799 Speaker 2: pathogens in the air and thus the number of illnesses 555 00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:55,520 Speaker 2: at least in some scenarios. But while there were some 556 00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:58,800 Speaker 2: other researchers who did experiments to replicate their work in 557 00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:02,600 Speaker 2: the nineteen forties and earth nineteen fifties, this didn't lead 558 00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:06,640 Speaker 2: to a huge rethinking of airborne disease transmission and its prevention, 559 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:11,480 Speaker 2: especially in public settings. The Wells's work had more influence 560 00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:14,360 Speaker 2: on studies of the physics of particles spread through the 561 00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:19,920 Speaker 2: air than on public health. To be clear, the widespread 562 00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:23,440 Speaker 2: adoption of the kinds of UV lights that the Wellses 563 00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:29,160 Speaker 2: were using probably would have caused other issues, including skin cancer, 564 00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:33,120 Speaker 2: especially if those lights were shining on people rather than 565 00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:37,560 Speaker 2: being used within air circulation systems. But it seems like 566 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:42,120 Speaker 2: if their work had gotten more favorable attention, we might 567 00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:45,480 Speaker 2: today be living in a world where illnesses that are 568 00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:49,680 Speaker 2: spread through the respiratory system are less frequent and less 569 00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:53,040 Speaker 2: widespread than they are today. Like we might not be 570 00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:55,240 Speaker 2: living in a world where it's just sort of taken 571 00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:58,560 Speaker 2: for granted as inevitable that there is a cold and 572 00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:02,400 Speaker 2: flu season, and this of course also applies to COVID. 573 00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:06,799 Speaker 1: There's some speculation around why their work didn't get that 574 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:11,080 Speaker 1: kind of attention. One possibility is just William and Mildred's 575 00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:14,000 Speaker 1: reputation for being hard to work with, which made people 576 00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:17,440 Speaker 1: just not want to. Another is that when they first 577 00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,320 Speaker 1: started their research, the world of medicine was still trying 578 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:24,280 Speaker 1: to distance itself from the idea of miasmas as agents 579 00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:29,080 Speaker 1: of disease. William and Mildred absolutely were not describing things 580 00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:33,000 Speaker 1: as miasma's. They were talking about actual pathogens being spread 581 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:35,960 Speaker 1: through the air. But it's possible that there was just 582 00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,680 Speaker 1: some innate resistance to the idea of revisiting the air 583 00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:43,800 Speaker 1: as a source of contagion. During and after their lifetime, 584 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:47,360 Speaker 1: some of the diseases they studied became preventable through vaccines 585 00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:50,960 Speaker 1: or treatable with antibiotics, which also may have made large 586 00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:54,640 Speaker 1: scale projects to clear pathogens from indoor air just kind 587 00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:55,680 Speaker 1: of seem less urgent. 588 00:38:56,840 --> 00:39:02,680 Speaker 2: Simultaneously, it seems like a conflation or oversimplification of ideas 589 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:06,200 Speaker 2: in the Wells work may have contributed to standards that 590 00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:10,759 Speaker 2: did eventually emerge in the field of infectious disease and 591 00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:15,920 Speaker 2: public health, but standards that have some real limitations. One 592 00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:19,400 Speaker 2: is an idea that diseases can be spread as droplets 593 00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:23,799 Speaker 2: or as aerosols, and that there's a five micron threshold 594 00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:28,360 Speaker 2: forming a dividing line between these two things, with most 595 00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:33,320 Speaker 2: illnesses on the droplet side of that line. That played 596 00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:37,120 Speaker 2: a huge part in the public health messaging about COVID 597 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:40,840 Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty, when organizations like the 598 00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:44,480 Speaker 2: World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control really 599 00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:49,360 Speaker 2: emphasize the idea that COVID was droplet based, not aerosol 600 00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:50,960 Speaker 2: or airborne. 601 00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:53,840 Speaker 1: That droplet guidance led. 602 00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:57,160 Speaker 2: To things like the social distancing guideline of six feet 603 00:39:57,160 --> 00:40:00,319 Speaker 2: apart or one or two meters depending on where you live, 604 00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:05,200 Speaker 2: and a very big focus on hand washing and surface sanitizing. 605 00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:08,160 Speaker 2: It was not until more than a year into the 606 00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:12,160 Speaker 2: pandemic that both of those organizations acknowledged that COVID could 607 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:16,480 Speaker 2: be airborne, meaning aerosolized particles could travel a lot farther 608 00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:20,560 Speaker 2: and stay in the air longer than droplets could. Washing 609 00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:26,680 Speaker 2: your hands and cleaning things is still very important. It 610 00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:29,560 Speaker 2: leads to reducing the spread of other diseases we've talked 611 00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:33,319 Speaker 2: about on the show, like neurovirus, but with COVID, a 612 00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:38,040 Speaker 2: really big thing is just not breathing in virus laden air. 613 00:40:39,239 --> 00:40:42,319 Speaker 1: A paper titled how did we get here? What are 614 00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:45,320 Speaker 1: droplets and aerosols? And how far do they go? A 615 00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:50,160 Speaker 1: Historical Perspective on the Transmission of Respiratory infectious Diseases was 616 00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:53,560 Speaker 1: published in twenty twenty one. It looked at gaps in 617 00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:57,600 Speaker 1: the understanding of airborne disease transmission and how those gaps 618 00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:01,759 Speaker 1: affected public health policies during the early pandemic in a 619 00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:06,160 Speaker 1: way that was confusing and ineffective. This paper traces the 620 00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:10,120 Speaker 1: idea of the five micron threshold to multiple concepts from 621 00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:13,880 Speaker 1: Wells's work that all got kind of mashed together. The 622 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:17,960 Speaker 1: idea that droplet and airborne transmission both existed depending on 623 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:21,240 Speaker 1: the size of the particle, and that particles measuring between 624 00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:24,480 Speaker 1: one and five nanometers could penetrate deep enough into the 625 00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:29,120 Speaker 1: lungs to cause tuberculosis. Conflating those ideas led to a 626 00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:33,160 Speaker 1: different idea entirely, which has some parallels to what happened 627 00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:38,200 Speaker 1: with the work of Carl Fluga, which we mentioned earlier. Meanwhile, 628 00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:43,480 Speaker 1: in the context of COVID nineteen, specifically, far UVC lights 629 00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:46,800 Speaker 1: started making headlines as a kind of new and novel 630 00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:51,120 Speaker 1: way to possibly fight the pandemic in early twenty twenty one, 631 00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:54,000 Speaker 1: and this has continued to be reported on in more 632 00:41:54,040 --> 00:41:58,359 Speaker 1: recent months. Some articles on this acknowledged that uv light 633 00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:02,200 Speaker 1: has been known to kill mike organisms for roughly a century, 634 00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:06,080 Speaker 1: but far UVC has not really been framed as like 635 00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:10,080 Speaker 1: a refinement of something that the Wells is we're using 636 00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:14,200 Speaker 1: sometimes with really promising results back in the first half 637 00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:20,200 Speaker 1: of the twentieth century, that is William Firth Wells and 638 00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:23,080 Speaker 1: Mildred Weeks Wells. Do you also have a little bit 639 00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:25,560 Speaker 1: of listener mail? I do? 640 00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:31,120 Speaker 2: This is from Aaron and Aaron's email is titled Chronologue 641 00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:36,600 Speaker 2: Yes with four s's and two exclamation points, community science 642 00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:40,600 Speaker 2: advocacy listener mail, which I love the excitement of that title. 643 00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:44,440 Speaker 2: Aaron wrote, are you allowed to write listener mail about 644 00:42:44,480 --> 00:42:47,560 Speaker 2: another listener mail? I squealed when I heard the listener 645 00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:51,000 Speaker 2: mail at the end of the July Unearthed Part two. 646 00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:55,400 Speaker 2: I work for a land conservancy in northern Lower Michigan 647 00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:59,040 Speaker 2: and we use Chronologue to track restoration sites that our 648 00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:02,680 Speaker 2: nature preserves. It's an invaluable tool for us and a 649 00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:06,520 Speaker 2: really easy way to contribute to community science data aggregation. 650 00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:10,160 Speaker 2: We have a relatively small team for the area. We 651 00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:13,200 Speaker 2: serve thirty eight people for a service area the size 652 00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:16,319 Speaker 2: of Delaware, and only ten of them are land stewards. 653 00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:20,720 Speaker 2: I cannot stress enough the importance of community science. Data 654 00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:24,600 Speaker 2: from I Naturalist, E Bird Journey, North Nature's Notebook and 655 00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:29,719 Speaker 2: Chronologue are used in our stewardship plans, restoration, site management, 656 00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:36,160 Speaker 2: invasive species tracking, communications, storytelling, and fundraising. Community science is 657 00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:39,279 Speaker 2: the quickest, easiest, cheapest, and in my opinion, most fun 658 00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:43,279 Speaker 2: way to get involved with your local land trust organization. 659 00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:46,279 Speaker 2: Thanks to you both for the amazing podcast. I love 660 00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:49,399 Speaker 2: your obvious passion for telling everyone's history from a fair 661 00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:52,200 Speaker 2: and neutral stance. The infinite fun facts I use to 662 00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:55,719 Speaker 2: annoy my husband are just a bonus and now some 663 00:43:55,880 --> 00:43:58,880 Speaker 2: pet adjacent tax for your time at work. We employ 664 00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:02,080 Speaker 2: two herds of miss and or retired dairy goats to 665 00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:05,640 Speaker 2: help us battle an ongoing problem with the invasive shrub 666 00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:09,520 Speaker 2: autumn olive. We also own and manage a farm where 667 00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:13,160 Speaker 2: we manage a herd of belted galloway cattle as a 668 00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:17,319 Speaker 2: demonstration tool for regenerative agriculture methods. I have attached a 669 00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:21,480 Speaker 2: few photos of each stay weird erin man Aaron I 670 00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:25,080 Speaker 2: love this email. I love these pictures of these cows 671 00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:30,560 Speaker 2: so cute goats, also cute using goats for invasive plant management. 672 00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:31,520 Speaker 1: Also love that. 673 00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:37,920 Speaker 2: By coincidence, this weekend, I was on a hike in 674 00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:40,879 Speaker 2: one of my local green spaces, and I am not 675 00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:45,760 Speaker 2: sure if they were using Chronologue or another service, because 676 00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:52,520 Speaker 2: I forgot my phone at home, and I was fine 677 00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:56,000 Speaker 2: hiking without my phone because my watch can also make 678 00:44:56,040 --> 00:44:56,839 Speaker 2: a phone. 679 00:44:56,480 --> 00:44:58,560 Speaker 1: Call in the event of an emergency. 680 00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:00,719 Speaker 2: But that meant that when I got to a thing 681 00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:04,319 Speaker 2: I had never seen before, which was about helping them 682 00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:07,480 Speaker 2: track the spread of an invasive plant, which was a 683 00:45:07,520 --> 00:45:10,640 Speaker 2: similar like put your phone on this stand and take 684 00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:13,800 Speaker 2: a picture, I could not see whether they were using 685 00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:17,160 Speaker 2: Chronologue or some other some other service to do that, 686 00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:20,600 Speaker 2: so I will have to go back by there at 687 00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:25,040 Speaker 2: some point and find out. Thank you again, Aaron for 688 00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:30,400 Speaker 2: this great email and these adorable pictures of delicious, delicious 689 00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:35,200 Speaker 2: vegetation being munched up by goats. If you would like 690 00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:37,760 Speaker 2: to send us a note about this or any other podcast, 691 00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:41,640 Speaker 2: we are at History Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com, and 692 00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:46,480 Speaker 2: you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app 693 00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:54,960 Speaker 2: or wherever I like to get your podcasts. Stuff you 694 00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:58,120 Speaker 2: missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For 695 00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:02,640 Speaker 2: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 696 00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:04,800 Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.