1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:08,000 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,520 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right 3 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:16,640 Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Most of us grew up 5 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:33,000 Speaker 1: with the story of Benjamin Franklin and his kite. It's 6 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:37,760 Speaker 1: that stereotypical Eureka moment, practically an American legend. At this point, 7 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:40,720 Speaker 1: Franklin tied a key to the kite and let the 8 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:44,560 Speaker 1: whole contraption fly up into the stormy sky. The string 9 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:47,400 Speaker 1: was wet with rain, the key was made of metal, 10 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,040 Speaker 1: and the lightning well it sent some sparks and a 11 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:56,280 Speaker 1: tingle down to Franklin's hand. It's a lovely story. It 12 00:00:56,360 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 1: might very well be true. If the modern world has 13 00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 1: a beating heart, we might be able to point to 14 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:06,320 Speaker 1: electricity as the force that powers it. After Benjamin Franklin's experiment, 15 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:12,319 Speaker 1: the wheels of science spun quickly. Luigi Galvani experimented with 16 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:15,480 Speaker 1: the power of electricity to cause dead bodies to twitch. 17 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:20,520 Speaker 1: Alessandro Volta, one of Galvani's competitors, invented the voltaic pile 18 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:24,920 Speaker 1: in eighteen hundred, which was essentially a battery. Twenty years later, 19 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:28,800 Speaker 1: Michael Faraday invented the electric motor, and in the decades 20 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:32,640 Speaker 1: that followed, those same forces powered the invention of the telephone, 21 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:38,480 Speaker 1: the light bulb, and eventually the modern personal computer. It's shocking, 22 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:43,080 Speaker 1: I know, but we owe a lot of thanks to electricity. Still. 23 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:46,479 Speaker 1: It isn't a complex or challenging technology when you boil 24 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:51,160 Speaker 1: it down to its basic elements. Back in a German name, 25 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: Arnie Eggbrecht managed to prove just that. He built a 26 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: battery out of nothing more than a small jar, a 27 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: copper tube, and an iron rod. When filled with an 28 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:05,080 Speaker 1: acidic liquid like vinegar or lemon juice, the copper and 29 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:08,680 Speaker 1: iron react to produce an electric current. Like I said, 30 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:14,560 Speaker 1: it's pretty simple with very few ingredients. It wasn't his idea, though, 31 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:18,960 Speaker 1: egg Brecht had an earlier example to follow. Not something 32 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:22,800 Speaker 1: built by Galvani or even Volta, not something drawn up 33 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:27,839 Speaker 1: by Franklin or Thomas Edison. No, his template was much 34 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:31,280 Speaker 1: older and came from a land far far away from 35 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:36,640 Speaker 1: Europe and America. It was a battery discovered in Iraq 36 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:42,720 Speaker 1: from a time well outside our modern expectations over two 37 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 1: thousand years ago. He was a philosopher by trade, which 38 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:01,960 Speaker 1: gave him the tools he needed to be an extraordinary 39 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:05,959 Speaker 1: social reformer. Jeremy Bentham was born in London in seventeen 40 00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:09,640 Speaker 1: forty eight and graduated with his Masters from the Queen's College, 41 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:12,600 Speaker 1: Oxford at the young age of just eighteen, and he 42 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: seems like a progressive personality born well ahead of his time. 43 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:20,600 Speaker 1: Bentham was an advocate for the separation of church and state, 44 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 1: for equal rights for women, and for the abolition of slavery. 45 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:27,160 Speaker 1: He fought to put an end to corporal punishment and 46 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 1: the death penalty, and called for the fair treatment of animals. 47 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:33,520 Speaker 1: And on top of all of that, he's considered one 48 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:37,160 Speaker 1: of the spiritual founders of University College London and is 49 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:41,120 Speaker 1: still remembered fondly there today. He also lived in an 50 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:43,640 Speaker 1: age when it was difficult to find enough corpses for 51 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:48,400 Speaker 1: medical study. Back then, only executed criminals were acceptable subjects 52 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:52,480 Speaker 1: for dissection by medical students, unless, of course, a generous 53 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:55,840 Speaker 1: individual chose to donate their body willingly, which at the 54 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:59,240 Speaker 1: age of twenty one is exactly what Bentham promised to do. 55 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:03,280 Speaker 1: He lived a long and fruitful life after that. Don't worry. 56 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:07,120 Speaker 1: He made contributions to the fields of economics, legal reform, 57 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:11,360 Speaker 1: gender studies, and he also published extensively. But I think 58 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:14,000 Speaker 1: you get it. Bentham was a smart guy who did 59 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 1: a lot of great things. A lot of people still 60 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:19,240 Speaker 1: look back with respect and admiration for what he accomplished. 61 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:25,839 Speaker 1: Got it good because then he died. People saw it coming. 62 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:28,360 Speaker 1: Of course. He was eighty four when it happened, which 63 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:31,520 Speaker 1: was impressive for the eighteen thirties. But in the month 64 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:34,440 Speaker 1: prior to his death he set about putting two connected 65 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:38,039 Speaker 1: projects into action. The first was the donation of his 66 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:41,360 Speaker 1: body to science that he had promised over sixty years before, 67 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:45,159 Speaker 1: and sure enough, two days after his death, a group 68 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:48,680 Speaker 1: of friends and students gathered to watch Dr Thomas Southward 69 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: Smith conduct the procedure. Afterwards, bentham skeleton was preserved and 70 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 1: set aside for the next step, except his head, with 71 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:02,680 Speaker 1: flesh and hair and teeth all intact and untouched. Smith 72 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:07,039 Speaker 1: used a procedure to mummify Bentham's head and freeze the decay, 73 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:09,520 Speaker 1: but something went wrong and the dead man's head was 74 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:12,640 Speaker 1: left a bit too dark and taught for most people's tastes. 75 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:16,760 Speaker 1: In the end, they were forced to make a wax replica. 76 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:19,920 Speaker 1: When they were ready, they brought all of Bentham's parts 77 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:24,240 Speaker 1: over to his second project, a cabinet. It had been 78 00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:27,040 Speaker 1: built prior to his death and set aside for this 79 00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:30,920 Speaker 1: very moment. It's a large wooden display case that sort 80 00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:34,200 Speaker 1: of resembles a really nice phone booth, complete with doors 81 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:38,159 Speaker 1: that open and lovely dark paneling inside, and it's big 82 00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:42,240 Speaker 1: enough for a grown man to sit inside comfortably. One 83 00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:45,880 Speaker 1: of Bentham's favorite chairs was placed inside the cabinet, and 84 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:49,160 Speaker 1: then his skeleton was dressed in his own clothing. They 85 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 1: stuffed Hay inside it to flesh it out, so to speak, 86 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: and then sat the whole thing down in the chair 87 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:57,919 Speaker 1: with that wax head on top. They even added his 88 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:02,520 Speaker 1: walking cane for good measure. His real head caused a 89 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:05,359 Speaker 1: lot more trouble than people expected, if you'd care to know. 90 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: Other than the fact that it's just a bit too 91 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:10,200 Speaker 1: gruesome to look at, it's also been stolen a few 92 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:14,080 Speaker 1: times by university students. These days, it's locked away and 93 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:17,000 Speaker 1: safely out of sight and out of reach as well. 94 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,800 Speaker 1: All these years later, you can still visit Jeremy Bentham. 95 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: His wooden cabinet is typically on display in the main 96 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:29,920 Speaker 1: building of the University College London, although on rare occasions 97 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:32,800 Speaker 1: his body has been removed from its cabinet so that 98 00:06:32,839 --> 00:06:35,760 Speaker 1: he can sit in on important gatherings of the College Council. 99 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:40,840 Speaker 1: They even record his presence in the meeting minutes his 100 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:51,160 Speaker 1: status present but not voting. I hope you've enjoyed today's 101 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:54,840 Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free 102 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by 103 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:02,640 Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by 104 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:06,279 Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I 105 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 106 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:13,240 Speaker 1: book series and television show, and you can learn all 107 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:16,800 Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com. 108 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:19,240 Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.