Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Thor had a problem. He had too many fish. In particular,
Speaker 1: he had too many salmon. But it wasn't just Thor,
Speaker 1: it was his whole country, Norway. The thing is that
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies fishermen in Norway had turned from
Speaker 1: traditional fishing methods to something new, the fish farm. The
Speaker 1: newly minted fish farmers had become very good at their jobs,
Speaker 1: and when they started raising fish in net pen in
Speaker 1: the sea itself, it took fish farming to a different level,
Speaker 1: and soon they were harvesting fish like never before. But
Speaker 1: even as Norwegians were farming more fish, the numbers of
Speaker 1: fish they were eating we're going down. Maybe that wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been Thor's problem, except that in nineteen eighty one
Speaker 1: he was appointed to a new job with a title,
Speaker 1: Norwegian Minister of Fisheries. So all of a sudden, all
Speaker 1: the fish that were being put away in freezer storage
Speaker 1: were precisely his problem. The freezers were industrial size, but
Speaker 1: they were getting full. Thor needed to help Norway's fish
Speaker 1: farmers figure out a way to sell all that frozen stock. Fortunately, though,
Speaker 1: Thor remembered an idea that had come to him after
Speaker 1: he had been elected to Norway's parliament in nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 1: As a member of the Government Committee on Shipping and Fisheries.
Speaker 1: Thor had visited another nation to build a relationship with them, Japan,
Speaker 1: and on that visit he had seen a nation where
Speaker 1: people ate a lot of fish. He thought that maybe
Speaker 1: they would be interested in buying fish from Norway. But
Speaker 1: for a while that idea swam in circles. That is,
Speaker 1: until ten years later, with the Norwegian fisheries on the
Speaker 1: brink of collapse, selling Norway's fish became a bit more pressing,
Speaker 1: so as the new Minister of Fisheries, Thor pulled together
Speaker 1: a team and started what they called Project Japan, a
Speaker 1: mission to sell Norway's fish to restaurants, markets and families
Speaker 1: who were serving up fish every day. This might have
Speaker 1: been a tough sell, because, of course, Japan was also
Speaker 1: a fishing nation, but Thora's idea came back at just
Speaker 1: the right time. Japan's population was booming and Japanese fishermen
Speaker 1: were struggling to keep up because in some places the
Speaker 1: waters where they fished were going dead, and the U
Speaker 1: n had just ruled the Japanese fishermen needed to stick
Speaker 1: closer to home. For a people who had been eating
Speaker 1: sushi since the eighth century, this was a disaster. Even
Speaker 1: before refrigeration, salted fish had been wrapped and fermented rice
Speaker 1: and preserved as a delicacy. In fact, that's where the
Speaker 1: name comes from. In English, the Japanese word sushi could
Speaker 1: translate to it's sour, something like the sushi we know today.
Speaker 1: Raw Fish wrapped in rice was being served up in
Speaker 1: the middle of the fift hundreds. With fish getting more scarce, though,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of people ready to look for
Speaker 1: new currents to bring fish to Japanese meals. So when
Speaker 1: Thor arrived back in Japan in the nineteen eighties, he
Speaker 1: saw a match made in heaven. Fish went flying from
Speaker 1: Norway to Japan. Sales doubled and then nearly tripled. It
Speaker 1: all seemed to be going well but there was one
Speaker 1: fish that didn't interest Japanese chefs very much. They said
Speaker 1: it had the wrong color, it had a bad smell.
Speaker 1: They even said its head had the wrong shape. Sure
Speaker 1: they would eat it sometimes, but definitely not in sushi,
Speaker 1: and it definitely wouldn't be eaten uncooked. And there was
Speaker 1: a good reason for that too. When it was cought
Speaker 1: in the waters around Japan, it was usually infected by
Speaker 1: a parasitic nematode and a sakis, So as far as
Speaker 1: the Japanese were concerned, it wasn't safe to eat raw.
Speaker 1: But thor knew that there was one place where they
Speaker 1: had been eating it raw safely, the Norwegian embassy. Plus
Speaker 1: he and his team had lots of this bad fish
Speaker 1: to sell farmed in the waters around Norway and the
Speaker 1: North Sea, so they set out on a marketing campaign
Speaker 1: to convince a whole nation to buy their fish, put
Speaker 1: it on rice, and eat it raw. The story was
Speaker 1: loud and proud. The bad fish wasn't bad if it
Speaker 1: came from Norway. The water of the North Sea was cleaner,
Speaker 1: the fish were fattier, and there were no parasites to
Speaker 1: be found. At first, though Japanese eaters stayed skeptical, and
Speaker 1: no matter how hard Thor and his team pushed, they
Speaker 1: just wouldn't buy it. That is until he offered one
Speaker 1: of Japan's biggest frozen food companies, Nietzsche Ray, five thousand
Speaker 1: metric tons of the bad fish for almost nothing. They
Speaker 1: couldn't pass it up, and that was Thor's step one.
Speaker 1: Step two was to have a celebrity chef start to
Speaker 1: repeat the company line. The color wasn't wrong, just different.
Speaker 1: The texture of the fish was smooth, the fat was tasty,
Speaker 1: and it didn't hurt that Sushi chefs across the Pacific
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles were also experiment with the fish that
Speaker 1: would never be served on a roll at home in Japan.
Speaker 1: It took time, but eventually it worked. The reputation of
Speaker 1: the fish with the bad color and the bad smell
Speaker 1: turned around. In fact, if you've ever eaten at a
Speaker 1: sushi restaurant any time in the past twenty years, you
Speaker 1: might be surprised to learn that the fish listed at
Speaker 1: the top of the menu is something of a recent innovation,
Speaker 1: because even in Japan, one of the most popular fish
Speaker 1: to eat with sushi today is the one that Thor
Speaker 1: worked the hardest to sell the fatty and delicious Atlantic salmon.
Speaker 1: Some people are just really good at holding things together.
Speaker 1: The Beatles wouldn't have been the Beatles without Ringo keeping
Speaker 1: steady rhythm on the drums. King Arthur defeated the Saxons
Speaker 1: and ruled over England with the help of his knights
Speaker 1: at the round Table. Abraham Lincoln united a country ravaged
Speaker 1: by war, and it cost him everything. And then there
Speaker 1: was Harry. Harry's full name was Harry Coover. He didn't
Speaker 1: play in a rock supergroup or carry a legendary sword,
Speaker 1: nor did he wear a stovepipe hat. But he did
Speaker 1: change the world, and he did it with chemistry. Coover
Speaker 1: was born in Newark, Delaware, in nineteen seventeen, where he
Speaker 1: lived until he was a teenager. A passing train hit
Speaker 1: his car while he was driving and nearly killed him,
Speaker 1: putting him in a coma for almost two months. After
Speaker 1: he recovered, his family moved to upstate New York and
Speaker 1: he was able to finish high school. Coover had a
Speaker 1: brilliant mind even at a young age, and went on
Speaker 1: a major in chemistry at Hobart College. Then he continued
Speaker 1: on to get his master's degree and then a doctorate
Speaker 1: in organic chemistry at Cornell. All he really wanted to
Speaker 1: do was help people. He had written a dissertation on
Speaker 1: commercial synthesis of vitamin B six research that was commandeered
Speaker 1: by the U. S. Military. From there, he started working
Speaker 1: with plastics. Polymers were a far cry from pharmaceuticals, but
Speaker 1: the American soldiers fighting over season World War Two needed
Speaker 1: inexpensive and accurate sites for their guns. Harry believed the
Speaker 1: plastics were the future for military warfare, and in ninety
Speaker 1: two he began development on a clear plastic gun site
Speaker 1: to be affixed to Allied rifles. Among his trials and errors,
Speaker 1: he tried one formula, which he scrapped. Early on. He'd
Speaker 1: been working with chemicals known as cianoac relates. However, during
Speaker 1: his tests he found that they couldn't be molded or
Speaker 1: shaped easily. The slightest bit of moisture caused them to
Speaker 1: polymerize and become quite sticky. Since there was moisture in everything,
Speaker 1: they could stick to literally anything they touched. Harry didn't
Speaker 1: think much about the substance and continued with his work,
Speaker 1: eventually taking his talents to Eastman Kodak in the early
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, he didn't work on cameras. Though Harry had
Speaker 1: been put in charge of a group of scientists who
Speaker 1: were developing heat resistant polymers to be used in the
Speaker 1: canopies of jet airplanes. He thought back to his work
Speaker 1: on the gun sights and remembered the cianoac relates he'd
Speaker 1: given up on six years earlier. It seemed like they
Speaker 1: might work in this instant. He tested his theory by
Speaker 1: spreading the clear, viscous liquid between two refractometer prisms and
Speaker 1: pressing them together. There was just one problem. He couldn't
Speaker 1: pull him apart, no matter how hard he tried. Harry
Speaker 1: and his fellow researchers then began testing his cyanoac relate
Speaker 1: formula all over the lab, applying it to random objects
Speaker 1: and pushing the limits of its strength. And while they
Speaker 1: didn't think it would work too well on jet planes,
Speaker 1: it seemed to have a great future as a commercial product.
Speaker 1: Harry patented it, while Eastman Kodak boxed and branded it
Speaker 1: as Eastman number nine ten. They put it on store
Speaker 1: shelves shortly after. Over time, it was licensed out to
Speaker 1: various manufacturers who changed its name to everything from quick
Speaker 1: Set number four oh four to super bonder. Harry Coover
Speaker 1: even went on popular game show I've Got a Secret
Speaker 1: to show it off by lifting the host right off
Speaker 1: the floor with only one drop. According to one urban legend,
Speaker 1: it was believed that the World War Two soldiers themselves
Speaker 1: had stumbled upon the sticky stuff and started using it
Speaker 1: to patch themselves up on the battlefield. That story wasn't true,
Speaker 1: but it did find a use during the Vietnam War
Speaker 1: as a makeshift bandage until injured soldiers could get to
Speaker 1: a hospital for stitches. It's also used by hobbyists in
Speaker 1: assembling model miniatures, and thanks to its water repellent ability,
Speaker 1: it's a favorite tool among home aquarium enthusiasts. Today. The
Speaker 1: product is known by two simple words, regardless of who
Speaker 1: makes it or how it's marketed, superglue and adhesive so
Speaker 1: nice it was accidentally invented twice. I hope you've enjoyed
Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore which is
Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show and you can
Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore.
Speaker 1: Do come, and until next time, stay curious. Yeah,