1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,639 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting 5 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:40,000 Speaker 1: Flashback to twenty twenty COVID nineteen lockdowns had a stuck 7 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:43,080 Speaker 1: at home scrolling the Internet for hours on end, baking 8 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:45,680 Speaker 1: sour dough bread and looking up the newest recipes to 9 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 1: try in the instant pot. Now, if you're anything like 10 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: a lot of folks, I know, the pressure cooker fad 11 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: didn't end when the vaccines came out. Instant pot meals 12 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:55,880 Speaker 1: are still a pretty common occurrence. And it turns out 13 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:58,920 Speaker 1: the technology behind this twenty first century cookwear can be 14 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: traced back almost four hundred years. It all started in 15 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:05,399 Speaker 1: the sixteen seventies and what is arguably still the culinary 16 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:08,919 Speaker 1: capital of the world, Paris, France. A recent medical school 17 00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:11,840 Speaker 1: graduate named Dennis Poppine had just moved to the city 18 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 1: in search of work, but before he could land a 19 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:16,520 Speaker 1: job at a hospital, he met a Dutch man named 20 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:20,480 Speaker 1: Christian Huygens. Christian was doing some research that caught Dennis's attention. 21 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,319 Speaker 1: You say Christian was experimenting with air pumps, which I 22 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: know it doesn't sound particularly exciting, but in the seventeenth 23 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:30,319 Speaker 1: century it certainly was. In fact, it was so exciting 24 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: that Dennis gave up a promising career as a doctor 25 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,039 Speaker 1: to work with Christian. Together, they created a new type 26 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:39,679 Speaker 1: of air powered pump called a gunpowder engine. Essentially, they 27 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:43,080 Speaker 1: lit gunpowder inside of a metal cylinder and the contained 28 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:46,839 Speaker 1: explosion created a high powered vacuum. A few years later, 29 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:50,000 Speaker 1: in sixteen seventy four, Dennis moved to England to work 30 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: with the famous Irish inventor named Robert Boyle. And that's 31 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:56,520 Speaker 1: when Dennis's medical background came in handy. He and Robert 32 00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:00,080 Speaker 1: studied blood chemistry and respiration, and Dennis looked for a 33 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 1: way to combine his knowledge of biology with his interest 34 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 1: in engineering. Thus the steam digester was born. And I 35 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:10,560 Speaker 1: regret to inform you it is as gross as it sounds. 36 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:14,920 Speaker 1: Simply put, the steam digester was the world's first pressure cooker. 37 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:17,760 Speaker 1: It was made of two chambers, an inner chamber where 38 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:20,840 Speaker 1: you put food and an outer chamber where steam collected, 39 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:24,320 Speaker 1: so that it could pressure cook whatever you put inside. Importantly, 40 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: the machine also featured a safety valve that could let 41 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:29,280 Speaker 1: steam out when the pressure got too high, which was 42 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: great for preventing deadly explosions. So what made it gross? Well, 43 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: the steam Digester's primary person was to soften bones, and 44 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 1: this had a dual benefit. The softened bones could either 45 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:42,920 Speaker 1: be used for certain medical studies, or they could just 46 00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:45,480 Speaker 1: be eaten. To give you an image of what that 47 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: might look like, I'm going to read you a quote 48 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: from the diary of John Evelyn, a member of the 49 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:52,839 Speaker 1: Royal Society of London and a die hard steam digester fan. 50 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:56,360 Speaker 1: He wrote, and I quote, the hardest bones of beef 51 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:59,840 Speaker 1: itself and mutton were made as soft as cheese, producing 52 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,120 Speaker 1: an incredible quantity of gravy. And for close of all, 53 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:05,799 Speaker 1: a jelly made of the bones of beef the best 54 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: for clearness and good relish, and the most delicious that 55 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 1: I had ever seen or tasted. And that's pretty high praise. Right. Clearly, 56 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:17,120 Speaker 1: Dennis was onto something here. Over time, other engineers tinkered 57 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:19,959 Speaker 1: with the design for the steam digester, and it gradually 58 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:22,520 Speaker 1: became the pressure cookers that we know today. It was 59 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:25,959 Speaker 1: the blueprint for our beloved instant pot. But the steam 60 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 1: digester was not Dennis Poppin's most important invention, far from it. 61 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: In sixteen ninety he combined his ideas for the steam 62 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 1: digester and the gunpowder engine to create a design for 63 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:39,680 Speaker 1: a new prototype. Dennis theorized that a machine could be 64 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 1: powered by water. Basically, water could be heated into steam, 65 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:47,120 Speaker 1: which would expand and move a piston forward. Then that 66 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: steam could be cooled and condensed, which would allow the 67 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:52,560 Speaker 1: piston to move it back. If this process could happen 68 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,680 Speaker 1: fast enough and repeat over and over, it could create 69 00:03:55,720 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 1: an extremely powerful engine. Dennis had dreamed up the steam engine, 70 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:03,160 Speaker 1: only he didn't actually make it. He just drew the blueprints. 71 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:06,840 Speaker 1: Dennis died some years later, and a different inventor, Englishman 72 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: Thomas Neukoman, brought his idea to life. The steam engine 73 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:12,760 Speaker 1: was first used to pump water out of mines, but 74 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 1: soon it became integral to the functioning of trains, ships 75 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:20,520 Speaker 1: and factories. It ushered in the Industrial Revolution, completely changing 76 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: the course of human history. And who would have thought 77 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:26,240 Speaker 1: that a twenty first century cooking fad would tie back 78 00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:29,480 Speaker 1: to the steam powered locomotives of the industrial era. It 79 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:32,400 Speaker 1: just goes to show you that everything is connected in 80 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:50,000 Speaker 1: the most curious of ways. As technology advances more and 81 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:53,840 Speaker 1: more each day, the fear of a global blackout grows exponentially. 82 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:57,560 Speaker 1: Some believe a complete collapse of our digital infrastructure is 83 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:01,640 Speaker 1: eventually on the horizon, from the Internet to international commerce 84 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:04,640 Speaker 1: to our national defense systems. It's scary to think about 85 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:06,440 Speaker 1: what might happen in the event that were sent back 86 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:08,680 Speaker 1: to the Stone Age. But in the summer of eighteen 87 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:11,960 Speaker 1: fifty nine, the world did experience something like that. Between 88 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:15,359 Speaker 1: September first and second of that year, everything went silent, 89 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,919 Speaker 1: and there wasn't anything anyone could do about it except 90 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:22,799 Speaker 1: look up. Americans along the West coast noticed strange lights 91 00:05:22,839 --> 00:05:25,640 Speaker 1: in the sky around midnight. On that first night. A 92 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:28,560 Speaker 1: group of campers in the Colorado Rockies had settled into 93 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:31,560 Speaker 1: sleep beneath the stars. When they watched those same stars 94 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:35,680 Speaker 1: disappear before their eyes. They'd been obscured by swirling lights 95 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:39,360 Speaker 1: so bright gold miners awoke and started cooking breakfast. They 96 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:42,520 Speaker 1: thought the morning had come early. Meanwhile, a reporter at 97 00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:45,600 Speaker 1: the San Francisco Herald described what he saw as an 98 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:48,840 Speaker 1: aurora that turned the sky into and I quote, something 99 00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: like a field of grain in a high wind. People 100 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:55,080 Speaker 1: came out of their homes to witness the sky illuminated 101 00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:58,359 Speaker 1: by beautiful light, an unusual phenomenon for that part of 102 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:02,200 Speaker 1: the country. Typically, auras were seen at the polls, not here, 103 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:05,880 Speaker 1: and they lit up the streets with perpetual daylight. Sleep 104 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,160 Speaker 1: patterns were thrown off, and songbirds stayed up well past 105 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:12,599 Speaker 1: their bedtime. But the incident was not limited to North America. 106 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:15,240 Speaker 1: It was watched by a number of people all over 107 00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 1: the world. One of them happened to be an amateur 108 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 1: astronomer named Richard Carrington. Now Richard lived just outside of London, England. 109 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:25,760 Speaker 1: His father had owned a brewery and intended his child 110 00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:29,320 Speaker 1: to enter the church after graduating from university, but Richard 111 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,400 Speaker 1: had other plans. He attended a number of lectures at 112 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:36,680 Speaker 1: Trinity College by noted astronomer Professor James Challis. These talks 113 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:40,360 Speaker 1: peauked Richard's scientific interests so much so that he abandoned 114 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:43,880 Speaker 1: his plans to join the clergy. He eventually joined England's 115 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:46,600 Speaker 1: University of Durham as an observer, but found that their 116 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:50,039 Speaker 1: facilities and their scope of focus to be lacking. He 117 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:52,320 Speaker 1: decided to pour his efforts into the study of the 118 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:55,520 Speaker 1: stars and star zones instead, a field in which he 119 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:59,360 Speaker 1: hoped to excel beyond his peers. Richard left Durham in 120 00:06:59,400 --> 00:07:02,800 Speaker 1: eighteen fifth and soon built himself a home and observatory 121 00:07:02,839 --> 00:07:05,280 Speaker 1: on Furz Hill in Surrey. He was able to do 122 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,320 Speaker 1: much more substantial work there than he'd performed at Durham, 123 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:12,160 Speaker 1: including identifying solar flares and developing a system to count 124 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:15,600 Speaker 1: the Sun's rotations, a system that is still used today 125 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:18,920 Speaker 1: by scientists. So back to our lights in the sky. 126 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:22,160 Speaker 1: Around noon on September first, he was monitoring a growing 127 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:24,600 Speaker 1: number of sun spots on the Sun's surface when a 128 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:27,840 Speaker 1: burst of light blinded him for several minutes. He later 129 00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:30,840 Speaker 1: said that it looked like a white light flare. What 130 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:35,320 Speaker 1: he witnessed was a coronal mass ejection or CME. This 131 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:38,760 Speaker 1: occurs when plasma mass and magnetic field are discharged from 132 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:42,080 Speaker 1: the Sun's corona into its heliosphere, causing a type of 133 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:45,600 Speaker 1: solar flare. And this flash was also noticed by another 134 00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: English astronomer by got named Richard Hodgson. Both men submitted 135 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:52,880 Speaker 1: reports of their findings independently to a peer reviewed scientific journal, 136 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:55,880 Speaker 1: which published them together that November, giving the public a 137 00:07:55,960 --> 00:07:59,320 Speaker 1: much better understanding of what had happened. But the flare 138 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:02,320 Speaker 1: was only the beginning. It had also caused the auroras 139 00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 1: spotted over much of the globe that night, and it 140 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:07,600 Speaker 1: led to something even bigger. Over the next several hours, 141 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:11,760 Speaker 1: the planet experienced a massive geomagnetic storm, which resulted in 142 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:16,400 Speaker 1: the world's telegraph systems Malfunctioning stations were unable to send 143 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:21,200 Speaker 1: or receive messages as the auroras sparkled overhead. Worldwide communication 144 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:24,480 Speaker 1: had all but stopped, save for a few lucky stations. 145 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:29,720 Speaker 1: Some telegraph operators suffered from electric shocks while pylons sparked 146 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:32,680 Speaker 1: as a result of the current caused by the geomagnetic field. 147 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:35,800 Speaker 1: In fact, two stations, one in Portland, Maine, and the 148 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:38,600 Speaker 1: other in Boston, Massachusetts, were able to carry on a 149 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:42,280 Speaker 1: conversation for two hours after disconnecting the batteries that powered 150 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:45,439 Speaker 1: their telegraphs. The current caused by the aurora had been 151 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:48,800 Speaker 1: strong enough to carry their messages over the lines, and 152 00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:51,960 Speaker 1: there you go. Richard Carrington quickly figured out that the 153 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:55,000 Speaker 1: flare had caused the storm an observation that had not 154 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: been made by scientists before. His work led to the 155 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:01,480 Speaker 1: incident being called the Carrington event and prove that this 156 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:05,840 Speaker 1: amateur astronomer's success was much more than just a flash 157 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:12,439 Speaker 1: in the pan. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour 158 00:09:12,559 --> 00:09:16,640 Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 159 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:20,199 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 160 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:24,240 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey 161 00:09:24,559 --> 00:09:28,040 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 162 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 163 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:34,280 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 164 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, 165 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:41,640 Speaker 1: stay curious.