1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,680 Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, were rerunning two episodes today, which means that 2 00:00:02,759 --> 00:00:06,320 Speaker 1: you'll hear two hosts me and Tracy V. Wilson. Enjoy 3 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:10,160 Speaker 1: the show. Welcome to this Day in History Class from 4 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:12,520 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot Com and from the desk of 5 00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:14,840 Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History Class. It's the show where 6 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:17,119 Speaker 1: we explore the past, one day at a time with 7 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: a quick look at what happened today in history. Welcome 8 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,040 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and its August twelve. 9 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,680 Speaker 1: Isaac Singer received a patent for his sewing machine on 10 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:33,479 Speaker 1: this day in eighteen fifty one. Now, I learned to 11 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:36,600 Speaker 1: sew on a Singer sewing machine. So did my mother. 12 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:39,400 Speaker 1: Probably so did her mother. I know for sure that 13 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:41,839 Speaker 1: her mother had a Singer sewing machine, so did my 14 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 1: other grandmother. And there are several of those treadle style 15 00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 1: Singer sewing machines floating around our family that have been 16 00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:53,920 Speaker 1: passed down. But Isaac Singer didn't invent that sewing machine, 17 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:57,000 Speaker 1: and the Singer sewing machine definitely was not the first one. 18 00:00:57,240 --> 00:00:59,520 Speaker 1: There's a lot of debate about who really should get 19 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:02,920 Speaker 1: the credit for inventing the sewing machine. That song from 20 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:06,800 Speaker 1: schoolhouse Rock names Elias Howe, and he was one of 21 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,240 Speaker 1: several men who patented various machines that were capable of 22 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:15,560 Speaker 1: sewing chains of stitches in one way or another. What 23 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:19,039 Speaker 1: Singer did there was to make a practical machine and 24 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,399 Speaker 1: then to introduce it into the home market. So this 25 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:26,080 Speaker 1: machine that he developed, using technology that a lot of 26 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:29,640 Speaker 1: people had already been working on, made lines of stitches. 27 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: It could sew in curves. It used a pressor foot 28 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:35,319 Speaker 1: to keep the fabric study, and it had a thread 29 00:01:35,319 --> 00:01:39,640 Speaker 1: control mechanism, and it could so nine hundred stitches a minute. 30 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:42,840 Speaker 1: He worked on this at a machine shop owned by 31 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:45,480 Speaker 1: Orson C. Phelps, and the men in the machine shop 32 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:48,240 Speaker 1: also helped on the actual works. This was a group 33 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:51,280 Speaker 1: effort with a lot of influences. And like I said, 34 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:53,320 Speaker 1: there were a lot of other people who had patented 35 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:58,000 Speaker 1: various sewing machines and various technologies related to sewing machines, 36 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:00,760 Speaker 1: and various devices that are the right context you could 37 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 1: think of was sort of like sewing machine. One of them, 38 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:06,960 Speaker 1: like I said, was a lie, as how and he 39 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:11,120 Speaker 1: sued Isaac Singer for patent infringement. This led to a 40 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:15,120 Speaker 1: long and contentious legal back and forth that finally ended 41 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: when several inventors established the Sewing Machine Trust in eighteen 42 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:22,079 Speaker 1: fifty six. This was basically a patent pool that gave 43 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:24,680 Speaker 1: a lot of different inventors the rights to work with 44 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,720 Speaker 1: this patented technology. And it was after that that Isaac 45 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: Singer really got into making the sewing machine into a 46 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:34,840 Speaker 1: home appliance instead of an industrial appliance that would be 47 00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:37,600 Speaker 1: used to you know, mass producing clothing or something similar. 48 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 1: This machine was revolutionary. It was expected at the time 49 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:43,480 Speaker 1: that women wouldn't know how to sew, and that women 50 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,080 Speaker 1: would make a lot of clothing do a lot of 51 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:50,200 Speaker 1: repairers make a lot of household goods. But hand sewing 52 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:55,960 Speaker 1: was incredibly time consuming, so Singer's machine, which was made 53 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: for the home, made the whole process exponentially faster. By 54 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty, I Am. Singer and Company was the largest 55 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: sewing machine manufacturer in the world. And even though the 56 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: sewing machine itself was really the invention of a lot 57 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:14,840 Speaker 1: of different people who worked on a lot of various 58 00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:19,680 Speaker 1: aspects of sewing machines, the name Singer still dominates thanks 59 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:22,919 Speaker 1: to Tari Harrison for her audio skills. On this day 60 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:26,360 Speaker 1: in History Class. You can learn more about Isaac Merritt's singer, 61 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:29,919 Speaker 1: including the much seedier side of his personal life, which 62 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:32,040 Speaker 1: I did not get into you today at all in 63 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:35,880 Speaker 1: the July episode of Stuff You Miss and History Class, 64 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,360 Speaker 1: and you can learn some more about overall sewing machine 65 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 1: history and that contentious battle that played out between so 66 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: many different inventors in the March episode of Stuff You 67 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:50,360 Speaker 1: Miss and History Class. You can subscribe to This Day 68 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 1: in History Class on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and wherever 69 00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:58,119 Speaker 1: else you get your podcasts. Tune in tomorrow for a 70 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:10,720 Speaker 1: female first during World War One. Hello, Welcome to This 71 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:14,120 Speaker 1: Day History Class, where we dust off a little piece 72 00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:26,480 Speaker 1: of history every day. The day was August three. The 73 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 1: quagga went extinct when the last one in captivity died 74 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:34,680 Speaker 1: at a zoo in Amsterdam. The quaga was a subspecies 75 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 1: of plains zebra that lived in South Africa, though it 76 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: was initially believed to be its own species. It had 77 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:47,279 Speaker 1: stripes like other zebras, but it's brown and white stripes 78 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:51,120 Speaker 1: were limited mainly to the front of its body. At 79 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:54,360 Speaker 1: the back of the quaga's body, the stripes faded into 80 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:58,640 Speaker 1: a solid brown or tan colored coat. Its legs and 81 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:02,159 Speaker 1: tail were also not striped, and they were light in color. 82 00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 1: The name quagga was based on the sound of the 83 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:11,919 Speaker 1: animals call. Once Europeans began colonizing South Africa, they started 84 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:16,360 Speaker 1: hunting quagas. They shot and killed quagas for sport, for food, 85 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:20,560 Speaker 1: and for their coats. They also captured some to herd 86 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 1: sheep and shipped some out of the country to be 87 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:27,919 Speaker 1: displayed in zoos. Because the animals were so skittish in 88 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:32,280 Speaker 1: high energy, some farmers used them as guards and some 89 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:36,760 Speaker 1: pulled carriages. In the early eighteen hundreds in England, the 90 00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:40,839 Speaker 1: vegetation that quags eight was also food for domesticated livestock, 91 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:45,920 Speaker 1: so quaggas were considered competitors of sheep, goats, and other animals. 92 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:50,480 Speaker 1: The colonists valued the quagas had been sent to zoos. 93 00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:56,200 Speaker 1: Breeding programs were unsuccessful. Quagas were most likely extinct in 94 00:05:56,240 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 1: the wild by the late eighteen seventies, and on August twelve, 95 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:04,599 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty three, the last quagga and captivity a mayor 96 00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:10,200 Speaker 1: held at Amsterdam's the Toda artist Magistro Zoo died. She 97 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:13,240 Speaker 1: had been living there since May of eighteen sixty seven. 98 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:17,600 Speaker 1: The cause of her death is unknown. At the time, 99 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:21,360 Speaker 1: people did not realize that her death signified the extinction 100 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: of the subspecies, perhaps because so many people used the 101 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:30,560 Speaker 1: word quagga to refer to all zebras. Only twenty three 102 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:35,080 Speaker 1: stuffed quagga mounted quagga body parts, seven quagga skeletons, and 103 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:39,839 Speaker 1: samples of quagga tissue remain. The quagga was the first 104 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:43,320 Speaker 1: animal that was declared extinct to have his DNA analyzed, 105 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:46,040 Speaker 1: which is what led to the conclusion that it was 106 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:50,800 Speaker 1: a subspecies of plains zebra. Scientists determined that some of 107 00:06:50,839 --> 00:06:55,520 Speaker 1: the quagga jeans might still be present in plains zebra today. 108 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:59,359 Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty seven, the Quagga Project was launched in 109 00:06:59,400 --> 00:07:02,760 Speaker 1: South Africa CoA. The project is an attempt to bring 110 00:07:02,839 --> 00:07:07,560 Speaker 1: the quagga back from extinction using selective breeding from nineteen 111 00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:11,520 Speaker 1: zebras that had fewer stripes on their hind quarters and 112 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: had other quagga characteristics. Quagga bread from these planes zebras 113 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:22,160 Speaker 1: can have coat patterns that closely resemble those of extinct quagas. 114 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:27,840 Speaker 1: The first rebread quagga was born in nineteen and the 115 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:31,640 Speaker 1: project aims to have hundreds of quagga like zebras, and 116 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:37,440 Speaker 1: multiple free ranging populations. Some researchers have argued that quagga 117 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:43,800 Speaker 1: might have had distinct, non morphological, genetically coded characteristics, so 118 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,440 Speaker 1: a selective breeding program could not create a real quagga, 119 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:52,640 Speaker 1: and there's no guarantee that they'd have the same habits 120 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 1: and behaviors of the estate quagga. But the scientists at 121 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:01,160 Speaker 1: the Quagga Project say that animals with the same appearance, form, 122 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:05,520 Speaker 1: and structure of the extinct quagga can justifiably be called quaggas. 123 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:09,480 Speaker 1: I'm Eve Jeff Code and hopefully you know a little 124 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:14,000 Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. You can 125 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:19,440 Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at t D 126 00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:24,680 Speaker 1: I h C podcast. Thanks for joining me on this 127 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:28,360 Speaker 1: trip through time. See you here in the exact same 128 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:37,880 Speaker 1: spot tomorrow. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit 129 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:40,280 Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 130 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:41,440 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.