1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,960 Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, 4 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:21,640 Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display, 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,600 Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet 6 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. James was born in London, but as an 7 00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:41,680 Speaker 1: adult he lived just outside of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, 8 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:44,320 Speaker 1: although it wasn't called that back then. In fact, the 9 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:47,159 Speaker 1: whole region was just part of the Virginia Colony, the 10 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:51,320 Speaker 1: first successful and lasting British foothold in North America. So 11 00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 1: when you think of him as growing up near the 12 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:56,720 Speaker 1: Potomac River, just be sure to imagine him in colonial attire. 13 00:00:57,640 --> 00:00:59,920 Speaker 1: And the river was a major part of his life too, 14 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 1: although not in the way anyone could have guessed. They 15 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:05,320 Speaker 1: might have assumed he would be a fisherman, or maybe 16 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:08,399 Speaker 1: run a ferry to the other side for travelers passing through, 17 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:12,760 Speaker 1: but James was more mechanically minded than that. It was 18 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:15,760 Speaker 1: a family interest really. Earlier in life he had lived 19 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:18,440 Speaker 1: in Maryland, where he helped a cousin named Benjamin to 20 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:21,640 Speaker 1: run a water powered mill. And while that might seem 21 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:24,920 Speaker 1: primitive by the technological standards of our day and age, 22 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,759 Speaker 1: these were complex machines back then, and they required specific 23 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:32,640 Speaker 1: skills to design and build, and James had those skills. 24 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: In the Virginia Colony, he began to acquire a reputation 25 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:40,039 Speaker 1: as a builder, even while running an in for travelers. 26 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:42,400 Speaker 1: One of those people who passed through was a man 27 00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:45,720 Speaker 1: named George, who took a liking to James and contracted 28 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:47,720 Speaker 1: him to build a house on some land that he 29 00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: owned in the area. While they were talking, though, James 30 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: showed George a model of a new kind of boat 31 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:56,000 Speaker 1: that he dreamed up, one that could navigate the shallow, 32 00:01:56,120 --> 00:02:00,280 Speaker 1: rocky Potomac with the help of a unique technology. Goals, 33 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:04,560 Speaker 1: and because of George's unique reputation, James was soon put 34 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: in a position that would allow him to actually build 35 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:10,320 Speaker 1: that boat. Oh and this George, for those of you 36 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:15,079 Speaker 1: keeping track of things, was George Washington. That was four. 37 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:18,680 Speaker 1: Soon enough, James found himself serving as the superintendent of 38 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:22,360 Speaker 1: a brand new endeavor, the Potomac Company, which was charged 39 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:25,520 Speaker 1: with improving the navigational qualities of the river, you know, 40 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,440 Speaker 1: making it easier for boats to travel, which in turn 41 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:31,639 Speaker 1: made it easier for goods to be imported and exported. 42 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:34,799 Speaker 1: It was good for the whole economy, and James made 43 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 1: his mark too. The company built at least five canals 44 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:40,400 Speaker 1: to work around major rough spots in the river. They 45 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:43,320 Speaker 1: also worked to remove rocks and silt from other parts, 46 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,040 Speaker 1: making it much safer for river boats, and in the 47 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 1: process it ended up linking commerce and trade on the 48 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:53,320 Speaker 1: East Coast with communities farther west like Pennsylvania and Ohio. 49 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:57,079 Speaker 1: But there was always that boat that he had dreamed of. Now. 50 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:00,160 Speaker 1: Originally it had included a large paddle wheel to ur 51 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: it forward and a pair of enormous polls that could 52 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 1: be used to push the ship around as it traveled 53 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:08,720 Speaker 1: the trickier spots on the Potomac. And remember, his entire 54 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:12,720 Speaker 1: career happened because Washington loved the promise of that model boat. 55 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:16,800 Speaker 1: But after initial testing, James realized that the vessel would 56 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:19,840 Speaker 1: need a stronger way of propelling itself forward, So he 57 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:21,919 Speaker 1: turned to a power source that was known in other 58 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 1: fields but untried on ships. Steam. Then, after two years 59 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:28,639 Speaker 1: of building the body of the ship and also designing 60 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:31,320 Speaker 1: and building a small steam engine out of iron coils, 61 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: James had what he needed. On a cold wintry day 62 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:39,240 Speaker 1: in early December of seventy seven, James and his steamship 63 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:42,800 Speaker 1: chugged out into the Potomac near Shepherdstown, just north of 64 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:47,040 Speaker 1: Harper's Ferry, and the demonstration was a success. Those who 65 00:03:47,040 --> 00:03:49,280 Speaker 1: showed up to watch were wowed by the sight of 66 00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:53,120 Speaker 1: a riverboats being pushed along not by paddles, but by 67 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:56,800 Speaker 1: a forceful jet of hot steam. But alas, in a 68 00:03:56,880 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: turn of events that seemed all too common for early inventors, 69 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:03,800 Speaker 1: James found himself facing another man, John Finch, who had 70 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:06,600 Speaker 1: dreamed up a similar mechanism, and for a year the 71 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:09,120 Speaker 1: pair of men had a very public war of words 72 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:11,680 Speaker 1: over the matter. In the end, it was Finch who 73 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:14,240 Speaker 1: won in America, and it was only by moving to 74 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:17,440 Speaker 1: England and filing patents there that James was able to 75 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,240 Speaker 1: get his name on official documents tying him to the creation. 76 00:04:22,760 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 1: The most amazing thing to me about James Rumsey's story 77 00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:28,240 Speaker 1: just might be the fact that he did all of 78 00:04:28,279 --> 00:04:32,720 Speaker 1: this in seventeen seven, a mere generation after the American 79 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:37,000 Speaker 1: Revolutionary War. Pretty cool if you ask me. But what 80 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: I find most intriguing of all is that despite clearly 81 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 1: inventing the steamboat first, history has pretty much forgotten him, 82 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:48,039 Speaker 1: putting all the praise on Robert Fulton and his eighteen 83 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,640 Speaker 1: oh seven creation of the North River steamboats, a big 84 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:55,040 Speaker 1: accomplishment for sure, but one that stood on the shoulders 85 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:58,960 Speaker 1: of James Rumsey and his own design two decades earlier. 86 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 1: History can sure be picky, often choosing the wrong hero 87 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:08,760 Speaker 1: or inventor or whatever, But above all, I can sure 88 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:24,599 Speaker 1: be curious. Of all the questions of the universe. One 89 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:28,000 Speaker 1: sits at the forefront of many people's minds what happens 90 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 1: when we die. In some cultures, it's believed that our 91 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:34,360 Speaker 1: ancestors are waiting to ussure us to the afterlife and peace, 92 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:37,560 Speaker 1: and others we come back as another person or creature 93 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,279 Speaker 1: in order to relive our lives once more. And of 94 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:43,240 Speaker 1: course there is the persistent concept that our behaviors on 95 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:46,520 Speaker 1: Earth influence whether we get to spend eternity in the 96 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:50,359 Speaker 1: good place or that other one. But one man believed 97 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:53,600 Speaker 1: that there was one final step before humans shuffled off 98 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:56,600 Speaker 1: this mortal coil, and he was going to try anything 99 00:05:56,640 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: to prove it true. His name was Duncan McDougall and 100 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:03,800 Speaker 1: a doctor and a scientist from Massachusetts, and in nineteen 101 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:05,640 Speaker 1: o one he set out to show that the human 102 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:08,520 Speaker 1: body possessed a soul, one with mass that could be 103 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: measured at the time of death. To prove his claim, 104 00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:14,960 Speaker 1: he started by selecting six nursing home patients who were 105 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,479 Speaker 1: close to death. One had been suffering from diabetes, four 106 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and one possessed an unknown ailment. 107 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: He chose them because he knew that when they died, 108 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:28,719 Speaker 1: they would be too weak to move. He required absolute 109 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:31,640 Speaker 1: stillness in order to measure the soul's weight as it 110 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:35,240 Speaker 1: left the body when a patient's symptoms got worse. Their 111 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,000 Speaker 1: bed with the patients on top of it, was placed 112 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:41,119 Speaker 1: on a giant beam scale, not unlike the kinds found 113 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:44,560 Speaker 1: in most school nurses offices today. It had been calibrated 114 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:47,799 Speaker 1: to detect weight within two tenths of an ounce. McDougal 115 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:51,640 Speaker 1: was meticulous in recording his findings. He noted exactly when 116 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:54,680 Speaker 1: each patient died, how long they had spent in their beds, 117 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:57,359 Speaker 1: and whether their weights had fluctuated at all at the 118 00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:01,240 Speaker 1: exact time of death. McDougal also took into consideration all 119 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:04,600 Speaker 1: the fluids and gases coursing through their bodies. By the 120 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:07,440 Speaker 1: time he had completed his calculations, he determined that the 121 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:10,960 Speaker 1: human soul weighed no more than twenty one grahams less 122 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:15,880 Speaker 1: than one ounce. His first patient passed away with a bang. Literally, 123 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:19,040 Speaker 1: the scale tipped audibly as the end of the beam 124 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:22,440 Speaker 1: knocked against the bottom bar and stayed there. The weight 125 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:24,760 Speaker 1: that had been lost was measured at three quarters of 126 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:27,760 Speaker 1: an ounce. The same thing happened with the second patients 127 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:30,880 Speaker 1: as well, a visible shift as a weight was lifted 128 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:34,760 Speaker 1: from the bed. McDougald put his calculations to use, accounting 129 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: for the setting of fluids like blood and urine, and 130 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:40,880 Speaker 1: the reduction in gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen. 131 00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:44,640 Speaker 1: Once those numbers were tabulated, he found that the second 132 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:48,520 Speaker 1: patient had lost another full ounce of weight. Four more 133 00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: doctors were brought in during each patient's final moments to 134 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,960 Speaker 1: witness the changes with McDougal, and all of them recorded 135 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:57,840 Speaker 1: a change. The amounts for each patient were different, but 136 00:07:57,960 --> 00:08:01,560 Speaker 1: nearly everyone did lose something when they although one added 137 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:05,560 Speaker 1: weights while two others only shed fractions of announce. Only 138 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:08,239 Speaker 1: four of McDougal's six patients were able to be measured, 139 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:11,000 Speaker 1: as there was one instance when a patient had died 140 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:13,800 Speaker 1: before the equipment could be set up, and another where 141 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:18,040 Speaker 1: the tools malfunctioned. Unfortunately, McDougall still needed to test his 142 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:22,760 Speaker 1: hypothesis against a control group his patients of choice dogs. 143 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:26,080 Speaker 1: He measured the depths of fifteen canines, none of which 144 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 1: exhibited the same changes in weight as the human test subjects. 145 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:32,679 Speaker 1: McDougald took that as a sign that dogs didn't have souls, 146 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:36,120 Speaker 1: a ludicrous notion to any pet owner who knows that 147 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:40,120 Speaker 1: it isn't true. After he completed his experiments, McDougall went 148 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:43,280 Speaker 1: from measuring the human soul to photographing it. He took 149 00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:46,960 Speaker 1: numerous pictures of the newly deceased as they crossed over. 150 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:50,320 Speaker 1: Many of his photos depicted a light floating around their 151 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,760 Speaker 1: heads as they drew their final breadths. Sadly, Duncan McDougald 152 00:08:54,840 --> 00:08:57,679 Speaker 1: was mostly alone in his beliefs about the human soul. 153 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:02,199 Speaker 1: Other scientists thought his methods were sloppy and unsound. Some 154 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:05,000 Speaker 1: even tried to improve upon them, but to no avail. 155 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:08,320 Speaker 1: It's not clear whether the human soul actually has weight. 156 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:11,839 Speaker 1: Or that it can even be measured. It's one more 157 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:15,280 Speaker 1: conundrum to be answered, and unfortunately, those who know for 158 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:22,800 Speaker 1: sure can't tell us until it's too late. I hope 159 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:26,120 Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 160 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:29,560 Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 161 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:34,120 Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show 162 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,640 Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how 163 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:41,280 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 164 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:45,160 Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and 165 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:47,440 Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World 166 00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:51,920 Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.