1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:07,840 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 --> 00:00:29,560 Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. It was just a simple advertisement, 5 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:33,240 Speaker 1: and for a game, no less. There was absolutely nothing 6 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:36,800 Speaker 1: illegal or dangerous about it, and yet here they were 7 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: sitting across the table from a pair of FBI agents. 8 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:44,720 Speaker 1: The product in question was a pretty simple dice game, 9 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:47,839 Speaker 1: and with the Christmas season approaching, the company had decided 10 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:50,360 Speaker 1: to run a few ads in the biggest city in America, 11 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:53,519 Speaker 1: all of them scattered throughout one single issue of The 12 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:56,960 Speaker 1: New Yorker. All of them were small and square, sort 13 00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,920 Speaker 1: of like an Instagram post, and each one told interest 14 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,640 Speaker 1: admirers to refer to the main advertisement on page eight six. 15 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:07,720 Speaker 1: The game had been created by a company called Monarch Publishing, 16 00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: and the ad had been written by one of their executives, 17 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:13,839 Speaker 1: a man named Roger Paul Craig. He and his wife 18 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:16,280 Speaker 1: had spent hours trying to craft the text of the 19 00:01:16,319 --> 00:01:19,760 Speaker 1: main ad, which touched on the approaching holiday season and 20 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: all of the things people might have to do to 21 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:24,959 Speaker 1: be ready. The trouble wasn't in the text, though it 22 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:28,400 Speaker 1: was in the artwork. At the bottom of the large 23 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:31,440 Speaker 1: ad on page eighty six was the big, bold title 24 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:35,120 Speaker 1: of the game, the Deadly Double. Beneath it was an 25 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:38,679 Speaker 1: emblem of a bird with outstretched wings, four talents, and 26 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:42,240 Speaker 1: two heads. It's what's known as an armorial device, a 27 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: sort of coat of arms used for identifying individuals and groups. 28 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 1: This particular symbol was the spitting image of the double 29 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: eagle used by the Byzantine Empire, Ivan the Terrible and 30 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:59,120 Speaker 1: more recently Nazi Germany. Add in the fact that the 31 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:01,680 Speaker 1: title of the ad in included the German word oktung, 32 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:05,000 Speaker 1: which means danger, and it was a curious pairing for sure, 33 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,600 Speaker 1: and that's probably what drew the attention of the investigators. 34 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:11,520 Speaker 1: But it certainly wasn't the only thing they were worried about. 35 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:15,240 Speaker 1: The bigger problem, it seems, was inside each of the 36 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:19,640 Speaker 1: smaller ads. Each of those were identical, and they showed 37 00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 1: a pair of dice in action. It's hand drawn and 38 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:24,960 Speaker 1: has a classy tone, but the items in the ad 39 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:28,080 Speaker 1: are a bit more mysterious. One of the die showed 40 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:33,880 Speaker 1: three sides, revealing three distinct numbers twelve and the Roman numeral. 41 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: The other die showed the reader five zero and seven. 42 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:43,120 Speaker 1: So as Roger Paul Craig and his wife sat across 43 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 1: the table from the FBI agents, they were starting to 44 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:50,680 Speaker 1: get nervous. The numbers, according to the investigators, were significant, 45 00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:55,520 Speaker 1: and that wasn't a good thing, they said, was awfully 46 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:58,840 Speaker 1: close to the latitude line where Pearl Harbor sat. The 47 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:02,200 Speaker 1: twelve and seven looked a lot like December seven, the 48 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:05,560 Speaker 1: date of that infamous attack, and the O five could 49 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:09,240 Speaker 1: very well have been oh five hours the original planned 50 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 1: start time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. But so 51 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:17,959 Speaker 1: what It wasn't illegal to place historical details in an advertisement. Yes, 52 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,680 Speaker 1: it would be in poor taste. Sure, over lives were 53 00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:24,360 Speaker 1: lost in the Battle of Pearl Harbor, so it's probably 54 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:27,359 Speaker 1: not the best subject matter for a dice game looking 55 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:31,720 Speaker 1: for gangbuster Christmas sales. But the trouble wasn't the subject matter. 56 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:35,360 Speaker 1: It was the timing. You see, the ad that Monarch 57 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,320 Speaker 1: Publishing placed in The New Yorker was published in November 58 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:45,560 Speaker 1: on the two, in fact November of nineteen sixteen, days 59 00:03:45,760 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: before Pearl Harbor was attacked. It's easy to take computers 60 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 1: for granted, these days, they do so much for us. 61 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 1: They allow us to break barriers and create new forms 62 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: of art and expression and take selfies with birds flying 63 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:17,000 Speaker 1: around our heads. Important stuff, clearly, But they haven't always 64 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:21,320 Speaker 1: been so small. Take the Apollo Guidance computer. It was 65 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: built by M I. T and used by NASA in 66 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine for their Apollo eleven mission, and that's 67 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:29,280 Speaker 1: the one that put the first humans on the Moon. 68 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:32,560 Speaker 1: Each one weighed fifty pounds and was the size of 69 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:35,719 Speaker 1: a piece of carry on luggage. But they worked. We 70 00:04:35,839 --> 00:04:40,599 Speaker 1: landed people on the freaking Moon after all. As crazy 71 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: as am I sound, though, the mobile phone in your 72 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:46,400 Speaker 1: pocket is more powerful than that NASA computer thirty two 73 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:49,719 Speaker 1: thousand times faster. In fact, you see, computers have a 74 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:53,000 Speaker 1: tendency to get smaller and more powerful over time. Go 75 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:56,160 Speaker 1: back far enough, and some of the earliest electrical computers 76 00:04:56,200 --> 00:05:00,120 Speaker 1: were massive and slow. Eniac is a great example. It 77 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:04,000 Speaker 1: filled up an entire room, but in ninety six it 78 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 1: was a supercomputer. There's another old computer worth mentioning, though 79 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,320 Speaker 1: it's not electrical. But by definition, computers are nothing more 80 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:18,600 Speaker 1: than machines that can be programmed to carry out specific tasks. Calculators, calendars, 81 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:22,120 Speaker 1: counting devices, that sort of thing. Charles Babbage is the 82 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:24,640 Speaker 1: big name in that field, thanks to the calculator he 83 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:27,920 Speaker 1: built in eighteen twenty two. It was all gears and levers, 84 00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:31,280 Speaker 1: but it did its job nicely, and so did this 85 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 1: other one. Like a lot of old computers, it's not 86 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:37,200 Speaker 1: in the best of shape today, but when it was 87 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:41,039 Speaker 1: brand spanking new, it focused on astronomy. I want to 88 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:43,480 Speaker 1: know when the next eclipse was going to be. This 89 00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: computer would tell you the lunar cycle you're covered. People 90 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:50,720 Speaker 1: could even program it to track the time between special, 91 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:55,480 Speaker 1: regular occurring social events. It was brilliant. But here's where 92 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:59,280 Speaker 1: it gets weird. This computer is older than babbage Is 93 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:03,440 Speaker 1: eighteen two device, and yet it's smaller than NASA's Apollo 94 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:06,520 Speaker 1: guidance computers, which seems to fly in the face of 95 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:09,360 Speaker 1: how useful and advanced it really was for at the time. 96 00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:13,599 Speaker 1: You see, this computer wasn't crafted in the workshop of 97 00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:16,440 Speaker 1: an English mechanic or in an M. I. T. Lab. 98 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: It was built so long ago that we forgot about 99 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:22,880 Speaker 1: it in the first place. But in nineteen hundred some 100 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:25,440 Speaker 1: men found it and handed it over to people who 101 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:27,840 Speaker 1: might know what to do with such a powerful device. 102 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:33,400 Speaker 1: Those men were sponge divers. They found the computer underwater, 103 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:37,200 Speaker 1: just off the coast of the Greek island of Antikathera, 104 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:40,040 Speaker 1: and it hadn't been there since the eighteen hundreds or 105 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:43,880 Speaker 1: even the seventeen hundreds. According to the archaeologists who have 106 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:46,719 Speaker 1: studied it over the course of the past century, this 107 00:06:46,839 --> 00:06:52,080 Speaker 1: computer is much older. It was built over two thousand 108 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:58,440 Speaker 1: years ago. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of 109 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:02,440 Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, 110 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:06,040 Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast 111 00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:10,360 Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey 112 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:13,800 Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award 113 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:17,480 Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, 114 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:20,080 Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it 115 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:23,760 Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until 116 00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:25,640 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.