WEBVTT - Elastics: Where God and Science Smooch 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:14.200 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:18.800 There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, There's Jerry. This is Stuff 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:23.040 you Should Know, the Sick Edition, the annual sick Edition. 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.360 You aren't well, my friend. No. And it really stinks 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.200 to Chuck because, like I like to think that I 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:31.560 take pretty good care of myself, so to be able 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.479 to be felled not once, but twice in just a 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:38.479 few months by some stupid bug, it's irritating to me. 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.000 I know, you get mad every time he gets sick, though, 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.960 just so you know I do. I hadn't noticed that. Actually, 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.880 uh my wife is the same way. Well it's not fun, 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:51.720 I know, but she gets like kind of yeah. You 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.040 both get a little angry, like why did this happen 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:59.280 to me? I get more pitiful, like, oh, somebody helped me. 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:06.640 Oh I've got going on too. So does that mean 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.840 people have the next like eight episodes to look forward to? 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.480 This or no? No, man, no way, this is it. 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.840 This is it right here. I think actually yesterday might 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:20.280 have been the worst day. Oh well good, yeah, I 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.200 mean today was a close second. But we'll find out. Yeah, 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:25.440 it is spad. I gotta be a pro man, I 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.520 gotta I gotta get well, the show must go on 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:37.360 as so today, Chuck Charles, we're talking elastic. Yeah, did 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.160 you know much about this? No? I thought this is 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:44.480 actually super interesting and it also contained to uh, what 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:49.440 we like to call um dinner party factoids that people 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:52.120 can bust out. We need a jingle that says that 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.320 so we can play it when when it comes up. Yeah, 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:57.120 I mean there's lots of cool stuff in here, and 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.440 please don't correct us on factoid because oh yeah, man, 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:05.640 that's so two thousand, nine eleven. Maybe, but yeah, two 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.040 really cool facts in here that I think people can 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.000 just keep in their hip pocket. Okay, are you good? 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:13.440 So until we get a jingle made, I'll bet NOL 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:15.440 will make one for us. But until we do, maybe 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:19.639 you should you want to practice one? Um, jeez, what's 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.840 a good dinner party jingle? It should It should be 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.359 like wine glasses and plates and forks and things clinking right, 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:32.080 and then maybe like this Orwellian voice going dinner party 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:38.320 fact toward. Yeah. Here we are eight years in, still evolving. Yeah, 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:42.320 it's a work in progress. Okay, So we're talking elastic Chuck. 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:45.720 I didn't know that much about it either. In this 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.800 article written by one William Harris, yeah it is. It 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.639 makes a pretty good point um that it's just one 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.200 of those things, and specifically say, like a rubber band, 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.880 you just kind of think it's always been around, and 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.800 you know you've always you just think, like you know, 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.800 elastic waistbands have been around for eons. It's basically the 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.640 second thing discovered after fire, is what I've always thought 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:14.200 until today, since Adam first popped Eve's bra strap, it's 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.640 been around. Yeah, you'd think that's actually not the case 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.359 at all. It's a elastic itself. And elastic, we should say, 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:26.760 is basically any rubber, natural or synthetic, uh thread woven 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.480 with another kind of fabric usually like say cotton or 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:35.360 nylon or whatever that produces a stretchy fabric that's elastic. Right. Yeah, 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:37.400 Like I think a lot of people don't even realize 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.000 if they took their underwear waistband, don't do this because 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:43.440 then you ruined it. But maybe if you have an 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.480 old pair, if you just kind of cut it, you 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.960 would see these these little elastic threads. It's all it is, Yes, 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.680 you little rubber bands or or you could go to 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:55.480 like a thrift store or something by a pair and 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:58.720 then cut those If you're buying a thrift store underwear, 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.960 then I don't know, I wouldn't recommend that. Yeah, I 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.960 don't think they even sell it. Actually they do. We're 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:15.240 really ye used underwear. Yes, wow, so skid free, that's probably. 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:17.480 That's gotta be one of the more difficult tasks. It's 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:24.160 like getting those things just prepared for resale, you know, yeah, 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:26.840 I don't want to be unprepared for resale duty to 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:31.200 day anyway, when you do, if you cut it open, 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.560 if you look very closely, have you ever done this? 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:36.200 Have you ever seen like an elastic waistband come come 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.320 loose as you've got If you look really closely, you 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.279 can be like going to like the little threads that 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.120 are sticking out, because some just hang limp and loose. 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.120 That's cotton. Nobody cares about that. But the ones that 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.000 are just kind of still sticking out a little bit 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.800 and you can throw them though. That's the that's the 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:57.520 rubber or um natural or synthetic rubber that that gives 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.800 that elastic it's stretchiness. And again it's a fairly recent invention, 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:06.520 especially if you're talking about, um, waste bands for underpants. Yeah, 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.200 and especially if you're talking about elastic that really kind 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:13.920 of worked. There were two sort of dives into making elastic, 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.279 and one quite a long time ago and then one 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.120 more recently that obviously worked much better. And basically the 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.520 reason it worked much more better more recently is better 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.560 techniques to making rubber and then better techniques changing that 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:31.520 rubber into something that you could actually use, like in 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.960 a wasteband right exactly, but we've known about rubber for 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.200 a very long time since well I should say those 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:40.680 of us in the West have known about it for 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.240 a very long time. Those indigenous peoples of the Amazon 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.880 have known about it even longer. But I interrupted. You 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:51.080 were talking about waste bands. Oh okay, so yeah, so 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:55.400 with with underwear waste bands in particular, right, Yes, Um, 0:05:55.440 --> 0:06:00.360 apparently humans have felt shame uh for thousands of years 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:05.080 because the oldest pair of underwear, identifiable underwear are seven 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:09.000 thousand years old and he bought him at Goodwill right 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:13.960 last week. So the these this underwear originally, well, even 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:16.880 before that, I should say, um, there was something called 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.279 breech cloth and that was just basically strips of leather 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.080 that just kind of hung down and coverage junk maybe 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.359 kept the gnats out that kind of thing, right, or 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.640 kept them in. Yeah, that was your things probably catch 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:35.239 the um. And those are even older than the first underwear, 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:37.960 which would be considered a loin cloth, of course, which 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.440 is basically that. And there are loincloths that are at 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:44.000 least five thousand years or seven thousand years old, and um, 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:50.880 they are basically in uh linen diaper that is folded 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.800 in a certain way, worn by grown ups, including very famously, 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.720 most recently Gandhi used to wear a loincloth everywhere. It 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.880 was called the dati um. But it's a loincloth, no 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.280 matter what you call it, that's right. So those stuck 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.120 around for quite a while in the West, and it 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:11.240 wasn't until basically the Middle Ages that someone said we 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.679 can do better than this, Yeah, and they brought around 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.760 these things that are that were much longer than a loincloth. Um, 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.760 most of them kind of for my research, these braids 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:26.520 be r A I E s went below the knee even. Yeah, 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.200 they were like a cross between a loincloth and jams. Yeah, 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:33.160 sort of, Um, it says here that they were laced 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:35.640 to the waist and legs, but um, there may be 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.040 lace under the waist, but they're also generally kind of 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:41.880 rolled over many times at the waist, I think to 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.280 probably tighten it up a bit. Yeah, and everyone said, great, 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:47.680 this is work. Yeah for a while, I'm happy with this, 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.680 and um, you know, then it went a different way 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.320 and we should do an entire episode just on course 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:55.800 it's I know, there's a good article on the site 0:07:55.840 --> 0:08:00.400 on it, but um, after Braise, the the called the 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:05.280 union suit was invented? What dinner party fact? Okay, there 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:08.320 you go. I never knew. I thought it was called 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.440 the union suit because it had something somewhere along the 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.600 line to do with unions, but no, in fact, the 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.480 word union suit. Now we know them as long John's, 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.600 even though long Johns are generally two piece. The one 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.520 piece union suit is called that because it is one piece. 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.200 It is the union of a top and a bottom undergarment. Yep, 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:29.360 that's right. It's a one piece long John with a 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.839 flap in the bottom. They usually button all the way 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:34.920 up front from the growing up to the neck. Do 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:37.680 you have any of these? I'm wearing a couple of pair, right, 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.400 now obviously you just can't see him because they're under 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:42.800 my clothes. Do you really have some? No? I have 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.800 Long John's. I've got this one called the Silkies that 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.840 work really well. Yeah. Um, but I don't have a 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.440 union suit. No, do you know I don't anymore? My 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:57.200 brothers still Scott swears by the union suit. Um. I 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.480 think he has the classic red and then of course 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.240 they famously have like you said, the it's either called 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.600 an access hatch. I've also seen them called a drop 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.640 seat or a fireman's flap. Yeah, I saw that too. 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:13.720 Where you can see that, Yeah, where you can unbutton 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.880 your you know, because generally you're wearing this out in 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.079 the cold, so you don't want to stripped down to 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.199 the naked if you want to go pp or poopoo, right, 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:25.480 so you just open the old access hatch and there 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:27.679 you have it. Yeah. Now that see that to me 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:31.840 makes sense, um in the nineteenth century when the union 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:35.720 suit was invented. Today, though, it's like, I guess Scott 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:38.080 just likes to add a little panic too when he 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:41.200 has to tinkle, like having to get that flap open. 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:46.559 I think he's just a classicist, not classicist, a who's 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:50.880 someone who's into the classic things. Classicist. Okay, that sounds 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:55.160 like he doesn't like poor people. That's a classist. Okay, 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.520 that extra makes a big difference. Okay, he's a classicist 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.040 then yeah, yeah, okay, so you should tell him this. 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:06.559 Here's another little sub dinner party factoid. Union suits were 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.920 originally invented for women from what I understand, all right, 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.000 and they were invented in response to the corset craze 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.160 because apparently courses were so out of hand. It was 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:20.440 basically like remember our footbinding episode. So but that's basically 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:22.960 what women in Europe and the United States, in the 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.960 western countries were doing with corsets. They were engaging in 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.400 what was amounted to footbinding, but with their waists, they 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:36.080 were they were literally deforming themselves, uh, using corsets. And 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:40.520 and there was a Reformation movement against the corset and 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.760 against that look and what it's fall and ultimately was 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.600 the union suit, which were so great that men were like, 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.360 these are ours, now, yeah, we should do one. Of course, 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.400 it's I assume that they did this because men were like, 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.720 no more of an hour glass. Yeah and yeah, and 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:59.760 I think that's where the Reformation came out of like, 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.400 shut up, man, do you have any like? We're disfigured 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:07.719 now thanks to you idiots. Uh well, I hate to 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.920 pack another dinner party fact right next to the other one, 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:14.280 but that's kind of where we are. So my second 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:16.560 factoid that you should bring up next time you're among 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.080 friends or next time you see an injured friend perhaps 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.719 is if they're using an AS bandage, ask them what 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.840 it stands for and they'll say, uh, what do you mean? 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.960 But it, in fact is an an acronym. Correct, yes 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:33.920 it is, And what does it stand for? All cotton, elastic, ace, 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:36.960 all shot an elastic bandage. I never knew that until 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:41.480 today and it's been around since en apparently that the 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:46.320 three M company introduced it. Amazing um. And so so okay, 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.760 you've got an ACE bandage, which is essentially, uh, an 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:57.040 elastic waste band used to to keep Shack's elbow in place? 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.959 Right Seaquille O'Neil? Yeah, all right, um, what you do 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:05.880 you think? This is? What's what's crazy is uh? This 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.520 is eighteen that that three M introduced the ACE, and 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:13.040 it took until the forties before somebody thought, why don't 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:18.800 we just like attach like underpants a lowincloth to that 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:21.080 and as we pull it up, snap it in place 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:25.640 and be like, oh baby, modal. I guess because I 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:27.080 mean the only thing I can think of is because 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.440 they were tying them and they disfigured. Well, that works 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:34.520 pretty well for now, Yeah, I guess, you know. I mean, 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:37.400 that's what That's what William Harris says. He says it 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:41.800 was basically a sort of fashion inertia. That's everything was fine, 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.200 Like you could use buttons or ties or something like 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.200 that and keep it in play, so who cares. But 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:49.400 it's just so much easier to pull up your underpants, 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:53.840 snap them in place, and go, oh baby, that's right. 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:58.800 But regardless of um, what you're talking about here, these fabrics, 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:02.360 including elastic, are made with a loom. And if you've 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:08.439 ever seen a loom at work, uh, or a at work, yeah, 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:10.840 it's amazing to watch into like, what the hell is 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.920 this loom doing here? Well, not at your job, but 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.000 you know, I know what you mean. Sure, have you 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:20.480 ever seen a loom doing its thing? It's pretty impressive. Um, 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:24.199 And what I mean it's really not that complicated either. Basically, 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:28.560 all it's doing is allowing these lengthwise threads to be 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:33.560 interlaced with with with wise threads the warp in the weft. Yeah, 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:35.680 which is not a bad band name, by the way. No, 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:39.920 it's not especially like like um proto folk. Yeah, well, 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.120 that's exactly what it would be. That would be at 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:47.080 least three guys wearing vests in that band. Uh that 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:51.400 may have been woven with a loom, yeah right, you know, 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:56.320 and maybe uh pocket watches with the chains totally, but 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:58.760 that's all loom does. It goes you know, it allows 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.880 this interlacing place, and that's what's happening with elastic. It 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.520 just takes the place of the yarn, and it's it's uh, 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:08.360 well part of the yarn, half of the yarn, or 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:10.720 a portion of the yarn. Well, yeah, because in the 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.120 in the case of a waist band, you're obviously introducing 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.680 other fabrics as well, like cotton probably or something else. Yeah, 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.640 And that's the case with any elastic. Elastic is again 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:24.480 it's it's a it's a type of fiber woven together 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:31.000 with some sort of rubber and to create this new stretchy, 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:36.440 resilient fabric that's elastic. You want to take a nose 0:14:36.480 --> 0:15:10.360 blow break? Thank you, char All right, we're back. You're good. Yeah, 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.320 I should say also, like I keep hammering home what 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:17.000 the definition of elastic is. Then we're talking about elastic waistbands, 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.640 and that's what you think of typically. But again, any 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:24.280 fabric with fiber of one type and rubber woven together 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.440 is elastic, and that has tons and tons of uses. 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:33.520 Like bungee cords are elastic, right, um uh, you know 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.280 everything else that's like that is like elastic. Well, you know, 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.680 in your socks a lot of times they will be 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.040 I mean there's elastic, and you know we'll get to 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.520 spandex later. Um, but that that stuff is in many, many, 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.680 many garments that you wear today. You may realize that 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.560 you have the stuff in your clothing, right, everything from 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.920 the the neck of your shirt perhaps two um, maybe 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:02.000 the tongue of your shoes. Sometimes. Yeah, fancy shoes will 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:04.760 have elastic in them. Those jeans that you wear to 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:09.800 Thanksgiving dinner, they have an elastic waste. Oh I know 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.720 what jeans you're talking about. I don't wear those. They're 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.840 pleaded jeans, which is just weird looking. I just wear 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.760 button flies. Oh yeah, so you just go pop yep, 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:23.200 pop a couple out. You're all set that's right. You 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:27.600 can stuff a lot of extra bits in there. All right, 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:29.800 So let's um, should we get in the way back 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.120 machine a bit and go back to uh the than 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:43.000 uh I guess the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries. Huh, all right, 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:46.720 we're pirates. Oh man, I'm glad you brought that up. 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.520 I read this really interesting article. I found it on 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.280 I think on long form, but it's from the National 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:57.080 Endowment for the Humanities like magazine website, and this guy 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:03.600 wrote an article about how just thoroughly we misunderstand pirates 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:08.560 and how our conception of pirates took place basically in 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.120 one decade between seventeen I think twenty six and thirty six, 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.920 and everything we think of as pirates is crammed into 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:20.360 that ten years. Everything before and after it's totally different 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:22.680 from our conception of pirates, and that they were actually 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.240 very frequently they were just sailors who would go attack 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.480 like a vessel in the Indian Ocean for one big 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.680 haul and then flee to the colonies and buy a 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:33.840 bunch of pigs and set up a farm and live 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.840 as like upstanding citizens from that point on. And some 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.840 of them were like lieutenant governors. Um. It was a 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:44.320 really interesting article that I recommend tremendously. Obviously, did we 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:49.040 not cover that in our Pirates episode eighteen years ago? No, 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:51.399 we wouldn't have known that this is a brand new article. 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.840 I'm sure we just totally fell for everything. And apparently 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.720 that's it's not we like, that's not our fault that 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:03.640 the guy's article and idea is is pretty new, which 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:05.960 is one of these things that historically everyone kind of 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:10.399 bought in on. Interesting to me that way, you got it? 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:12.760 All right, So we're talking pirates here, and not just 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.359 pirates but sailors explorers basically anyone who got on a 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.000 ship in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, early eighteen hundreds 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:25.280 and went exploring. Yeah, and uh they you know what 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:27.160 they did was they would go off and find things 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.400 that they didn't have in their home country. Say, oh 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:32.000 my god, what is this? Let me bring it back 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.240 Cinnamon member Cinnamon episode. Yeah, absolutely, that's a great example. 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.440 But one of the things they found in Central and 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:45.240 South America was what the French called uh cowchook and 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.560 uh it's an Indian term meaning weeping wood. And it's 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.840 basically what they're talking about are now, is it an 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:57.200 actual rubber tree, ye behavior brazilansus the rubber tree which 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:03.800 literally oozes milky latex. Yeah naturally. Yeah, and the the 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:08.640 earliest sailors that encountered, um, the indigenous natives of the Amazon. 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:11.520 We're like, what's that stuff you're like putting out on 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:14.680 your outerwear and it's keeping the rain out? Or what's 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:20.040 that weird flexible bottle you're you're using? And they explained 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:22.600 it to him, and those guys said, awesome, you know 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:26.480 who love this, my fellow Europeans. So they took it 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:28.439 back with them and then they said, and what are 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:30.680 those awesome drugs that you give us in liquid for 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.440 him every night after dinner. They said, oh yeah, husky Yeah, 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:35.720 and they went, we'll take some of that hump too. Yeah. 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:37.800 Can we get it to go back of that stuff? 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.000 Uh so yeah, they um, they were already used in 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.159 the stuff because they found out when um, when it 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:46.679 was dried out. Basically you could use it for a 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.359 lot of things, like you said, bottles, shoes. It's just 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:54.040 like this, you know, flexible rubbery material. Yeah right, so 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.119 everything's hunky dory. This is a brand new thing. Europe 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.960 starting to go crazy for it. But what they figured 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:05.399 out pretty quickly was that you you couldn't do a 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:07.920 lot with it, right, As we'll find out later. Um, 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:12.520 rubber has a an unusual natural chemistry, and it just 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:16.359 so happens that in the normal range of temperatures outside 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:19.720 of the tropics, UM, it can tend to fall apart 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.760 pretty easily. Uh. It has a narrow range of temperatures 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:26.480 that that allow its usefulness. Right, So once you take 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:30.440 it up to above the equator to say, like um, 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.840 Europe or the United States or whatever. Uh, And they did. Um. 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:36.880 They thought it was great. They thought it was terrific. 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:40.080 People went crazy for it. Joseph Priestley actually came up 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:42.600 with a dinner party factoy that I'm sure you'd love 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.200 to share. Uh, which one, Oh you didn't. This wasn't 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.600 one of them, now, I blew mine on the two. 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:56.600 Joseph Priestley, who was very famous chemist, Jason Priestley's triple 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:00.720 great uncle. We made that same joke in the nst episode. 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:03.199 I'll bet we did, because yeah, that's where he popped up. 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:07.520 That's right, Thanks for that. Oh and the nitrous oxide one. Yeah, 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:09.520 so he got his hands on some of this because 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.240 everybody's like he's the only chemist alive, right now, give 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:14.199 it to him and he's like, you know what, this 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:17.440 is amazing. I'm writing a pencil and then I'm rubbing 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:22.960 this this latextkachuk um and it's it's rubbing out the 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.800 pencil marks. And that gave rise to the term rubber. 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:32.399 Oh that's how the name yeah came around. Yea, from rubbing, 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:37.320 from rubbing out pencil marks, erasing ubber. Because remember the 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:40.159 British love to change everything with an error on the end, 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:45.119 like soccer is actually shortened association, uh football, like a 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:51.840 soccer became soccer. There you go, rubber. That's pretty interesting. 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:53.400 I don't know how I screwed it past that one. 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:56.720 I love that one. So it became a big deal, 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:59.960 and everyone, um you know that had a little money 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:01.840 to invest thought, hey, we can make a lot of 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:05.880 dough with this stuff. We can transform that into something useful, 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:09.200 like let's say in a garment. Um. But like you said, 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:11.359 they had this problem that it was a very narrow 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:13.640 range of temperatures where they could find it useful. So 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:18.000 a couple of dudes uh started working on it. We've 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.800 talked about Mr Charles Goodyear before we talked about him 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:25.040 and I don't know, but I mean, definitely the good 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:29.639 Year Blimps episode. But um, it seems like, do we 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.560 not do one in vulcanization. I don't remember. I was 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.120 looking up rubber or something because some of the stuff 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:37.440 in the extra source that I said. She was kind 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:41.680 of like talked about this before. Yeah, we haven't done 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:45.440 this entire episode, have we? No? Definitely not. Okay, If so, 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:48.000 then I really am just totally out of my mind. 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:51.560 So good Year was one. He was working in the US, 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:54.800 and then another guy named Thomas Hancock, an English inventor, 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:59.240 partnered with a dude named Charles McIntosh and they started 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:04.960 making raincoats basically, yeah, the Macintosh, the classic Macintosh. Yeah. 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:10.680 And so Charles Thomas Hancock was already pretty well situated too, 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:14.560 he was already working on it, right, But Charles Goodyear 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:17.879 um had that breakthrough first. And it was actually a 0:23:18.040 --> 0:23:20.840 really big deal that he had this breakthrough because in 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:25.280 the early eighteen thirties, Charles Goodyear basically became obsessed with 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:27.760 cracking the rubber coat. He just knew it could be 0:23:27.880 --> 0:23:33.040 used to be made into something useful, right, And he 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:36.159 became so personally committed to it. He all of his 0:23:36.240 --> 0:23:40.280 investors went away. He went into Debtor's prison so regularly 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:43.399 he referred to it as his hotel. Um. Six of 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:46.360 his twelve children didn't make it to adulthood. They were 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:50.080 just that poor. They they had to sell their dinner wear. 0:23:50.200 --> 0:23:53.040 So he made plates for him out of rubber. Um. 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:55.280 It was really really rough. So the idea that he 0:23:55.359 --> 0:24:00.800 had this breakthrough um was just enormously rewarding for him. Right. Unfortunately, 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:05.040 as he was shopping this stuff around, this vulcanization process 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:07.679 or the vulcanized rubber, some of it fell into the 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:12.040 hands of Tamas Hancock and he reverse engineered it. Yeah, 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:15.080 and what he basically discovered was if you slow cooked 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:19.399 latex with sulfur, it could it could basically transform rubber 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:24.560 into a very durable material that uh, it was hardy 0:24:24.720 --> 0:24:27.440 under all kinds of temperature ranges. It would always snap back. 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:31.520 Um well, not always and forever, which we'll get too 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:35.000 later too. As you know, that waistband will sometimes leave 0:24:35.040 --> 0:24:39.480 you disappointed eventually, that's why you end up buying new underwear. 0:24:40.200 --> 0:24:42.600 Um well, one of a couple of reasons you buy 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:47.920