Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Artifact,
Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
Speaker 2: focusing on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. During
Speaker 2: a recent family trip to Arizona, I found myself strolling
Speaker 2: the halls of the Fantastic Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix
Speaker 2: once more. If you've never been to it, I highly
Speaker 2: recommend a visit. The museum features thousands of musical instruments
Speaker 2: from all around the world to illustrate the rich diversity
Speaker 2: of musical instrument design and innovation, as well as the
Speaker 2: universality of music, and via a headset and video displays
Speaker 2: all over the place, you get to see and hear
Speaker 2: many of these instruments in their traditional use, from Polynesian
Speaker 2: nose flutes to DJ Cubert's custom QFO turntable mixer. There's
Speaker 2: a little something in there for everybody. I snapped numerous
Speaker 2: photos and took several notes for possible artifact episodes here
Speaker 2: on the show, and today I want to talk about
Speaker 2: the spatzerstt Geika, a late nineteenth century walking stick fiddle
Speaker 2: for Machnor Kirkeen in Saxony, Germany. This is a famous
Speaker 2: musical instrument making region, so feel free to look up
Speaker 2: images of the cane, but I'm going to go ahead
Speaker 2: and describe it for you here as well. A short
Speaker 2: wooden walking stick with a small, functional four string fiddle
Speaker 2: built into one side of it. There's also room for
Speaker 2: a fitted bow with which to play it. Now. I
Speaker 2: wondered at the time, as I was looking at this
Speaker 2: in the museum if there was some sort of panel
Speaker 2: that could cover up or even hide the fiddle portion
Speaker 2: of the cane. And while there wasn't such a panel
Speaker 2: on display at the Musical Instrument Museum, subsequent research revealed
Speaker 2: that such panels existed. So yes, you could have a
Speaker 2: completely hidden fiddle in your cane. So what was the
Speaker 2: point of all of this? Was it to sneak fiddles
Speaker 2: into places where music was banned? There some sort of
Speaker 2: secret musical spy war going on. Well, I'll refer you
Speaker 2: back to a previous artifact episode I recorded on gadget canes.
Speaker 2: As Michelle Debchak explored in a twenty seventeen Mental Floss article,
Speaker 2: you can find various antique walking sticks and canes with
Speaker 2: all manner of special gadgety features, ranging from possibly practical
Speaker 2: to somewhat ridiculous. So there's a nineteenth century cane with
Speaker 2: a coin weighing gadget built into the handle. There's a
Speaker 2: magic lantern projector cane, a cider press walking stick, an
Speaker 2: architect's cane with drafting tools hidden inside, a spy camera
Speaker 2: from the nineteen eighties that fits in a cane, a
Speaker 2: nineteenth century cane containing a miniature croquet set, a microscope cane,
Speaker 2: and even a nineteenth century eagle headed crossbow cane. I
Speaker 2: believe there's also a spitting cane that naturally reminds one
Speaker 2: of the gimmick umbrellas favored by the batman villain the Penguin.
Speaker 2: So all of these gadget canes most clear novelties. They
Speaker 2: extended from the popularity of cane swords and swordsticks in
Speaker 2: the eighteenth and nineteenth century in Europe. The basic appeal
Speaker 2: of a hidden blade is of course understandable and to
Speaker 2: our modernized hey, is there anything cooler than a cane sword?
Speaker 2: I mean, I grew up watching Sherlock Holmes, and when
Speaker 2: they busted out the cane swords, I got really excited,
Speaker 2: But the popularity of sword canes at the time actually
Speaker 2: had to do with just how uncool openly carrying a
Speaker 2: sword had become in polite society. So basically the message became, hey,
Speaker 2: by all means, carry a lethal blood letting weapon, but
Speaker 2: be a gentleman about it and hide it away in
Speaker 2: a nice walking stick. Then, as sword canes became fashionable,
Speaker 2: the idea of hiding various other gadgets and curios in
Speaker 2: a cane became the fat It was no longer about
Speaker 2: hiding anything or even remotely being practical. In many case,
Speaker 2: says gadget canes were just a curious luxury, and we
Speaker 2: see that reflected in the musical instrument cane as well.
Speaker 2: According to the Musical Instrument Museum, the walking stick fiddle
Speaker 2: was more visually impressive than musically gratifying, and this was
Speaker 2: largely due to its small sound box. Its maximum volume
Speaker 2: was fittingly low for such a stealthy stringed instrument, but
Speaker 2: again this was more fashion accessory than practical musical instrument.
Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of the Artifact, the Monster
Speaker 2: Fact or Animalia Stupendium each week, and Hey go back
Speaker 2: into the audio archives for Stuff to Blow your Mind
Speaker 2: wherever you get your audio podcasts. If you want to
Speaker 2: hear more about gadget canes and how Benjamin Franklin carried
Speaker 2: one with oil inside of it, and how one factors
Speaker 2: into the death of Edgar Allan Poe, and as always,
Speaker 2: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: your Mind dot com.
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