1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:40,040 Speaker 1: Parents will do anything for their children, especially if they're 7 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,159 Speaker 1: sick or in danger. A child in need triggers a 8 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:45,839 Speaker 1: fight response in mothers and fathers that is not to 9 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:48,720 Speaker 1: be trifled with. We see it all the time in nature. 10 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 1: When an animal feels its offspringer threatened, it will attack, 11 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:56,200 Speaker 1: whether it's an alligator or an angry goose, and human 12 00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:00,520 Speaker 1: parents are no different. Just ask Liam Neeson what happens 13 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:03,280 Speaker 1: when a parent can't fight the enemy hurting their child? 14 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 1: Where do they turn over? Fifteen thousand children each year 15 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:09,959 Speaker 1: are diagnosed with cancer in the United States. Another eighteen 16 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: hundred die from unknown causes. It's up to doctors and 17 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:17,520 Speaker 1: specialists to help them fight what's killing them. But sometimes 18 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:20,880 Speaker 1: even doctors need a little help. And in nineteen seventy seven, 19 00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:23,600 Speaker 1: one little girl got the treatment she needed from a 20 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 1: very unexpected place someone's attempted murder. The girl was from Qatar, 21 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: only nineteen months old. Her parents had taken her to London. 22 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:36,039 Speaker 1: They were desperate for answers. Their daughter was barely conscious 23 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:39,920 Speaker 1: and suffering from a number of symptoms, including numbness, lethargy, 24 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,840 Speaker 1: random blackouts, and loss of hair. In other words, she 25 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:46,679 Speaker 1: seemed like she was dying, and yet her mother and 26 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 1: father were at a loss for a reason why, as 27 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: were her doctors back home. Her symptoms were indicative of 28 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:56,920 Speaker 1: a number of other ailments, including epilepsy and encephalitis, but 29 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 1: tests revealed none of those to be the culprit. They 30 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:02,160 Speaker 1: had to act fast, or else this poor girl would 31 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:05,720 Speaker 1: perish before their very eyes. The London doctors eventually ran 32 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:10,160 Speaker 1: out of options, and then, almost miraculously, a nurse stepped 33 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: forward with a suggestion perhaps the young patient was suffering 34 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:18,520 Speaker 1: from thallium poisoning. Thallium is a metal that is naturally 35 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:21,400 Speaker 1: a blue white hue until it's exposed to air, at 36 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,040 Speaker 1: which point it turns gray. It was first discovered in 37 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:27,360 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one by British chemist Sir William Crooks, and 38 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:30,600 Speaker 1: was once used as a household pest killer until its 39 00:02:30,639 --> 00:02:34,680 Speaker 1: ban in nineteen seventy two. Thallium also occurs naturally in 40 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:37,639 Speaker 1: the Earth's crust, but when ingested via the stomach or 41 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:40,800 Speaker 1: the lungs, it can cause all kinds of symptoms, including 42 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:44,480 Speaker 1: numbness and hair loss. And as it turns out, the 43 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:47,160 Speaker 1: nurse was right. The little girl had been suffering from 44 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: thallium poisoning. The nurse had remembered a case where an 45 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 1: english woman named Ginger Corrigan had exhibited many of the 46 00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: same symptoms. She'd lost much of her hair and had 47 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,959 Speaker 1: been hospitalized with flu like symptoms. Her doctor had died 48 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,160 Speaker 1: ghosed her with bronchio pneumonia, despite the unusual symptoms she 49 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:07,720 Speaker 1: presented that didn't quite correspond with his assessment. She wasn't 50 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:11,480 Speaker 1: responding to antibiotics either. It wasn't until one of her acquaintances, 51 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:14,760 Speaker 1: a historian named Mark Easterbrook, connected the dots that she 52 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 1: received the care that she needed. Ginger had been poisoned 53 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:22,000 Speaker 1: with thallium. Mark realized it after remembering an article on 54 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:25,240 Speaker 1: thallium poisoning that he had read while traveling abroad in America. 55 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:27,120 Speaker 1: It had been a story about a factory where the 56 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:32,240 Speaker 1: workers started dying of mysterious causes such as paratyphoid, bulber paralysis, 57 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:35,000 Speaker 1: and epilepsy. There was also the presence of numbness in 58 00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 1: the limbs as well as hair loss. Eventually, it was 59 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,000 Speaker 1: discovered that the factory workers had been subjected to high 60 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:44,720 Speaker 1: levels of the metallic substance, eventually succumbing to its effects, 61 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,600 Speaker 1: and Ginger would have met a similar fate had it 62 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:50,920 Speaker 1: not been for Mark's quick thinking. The nurse in London 63 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:53,920 Speaker 1: had a similar Eureka moment as well. She'd read all 64 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 1: about Mark and Ginger, but not in a police file 65 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,280 Speaker 1: or in the news. Mark and Ginger weren't real peace people. 66 00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:04,280 Speaker 1: They were characters in the detective novel The Pale Horse 67 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 1: by Agatha Christie, first published in nineteen sixty one. Christy 68 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:12,080 Speaker 1: went into specific detail on the symptoms of thallium poisoning 69 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: in her novel, as well as the other diseases. It 70 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:17,240 Speaker 1: can appear to be the nurse had been reading The 71 00:04:17,279 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: Pale Horse at the time the young Katari girl came 72 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: into the emergency room and she recognized the same symptoms 73 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:27,239 Speaker 1: as in the book. Doctor Victor Dubowitz, the physician assigned 74 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:30,160 Speaker 1: to the girl's case, consulted Scotland yard, who put him 75 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:33,760 Speaker 1: in touch with a particular thallium expert, a convicted criminal 76 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:37,320 Speaker 1: who had used it to poison his pets, coworkers and family. 77 00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:40,640 Speaker 1: He confirmed their suspicions, and after a few more tests, 78 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:43,960 Speaker 1: the results were clear. The little girl had been poisoned, 79 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:47,599 Speaker 1: but not on purpose. She'd gotten into a stash of 80 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:50,680 Speaker 1: rat poison in the family's home. Although thallium had been 81 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:53,480 Speaker 1: banned for use as a pesticide in several Western countries, 82 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: there were other places around the world where it was 83 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:59,680 Speaker 1: still in use, including Qatar. The girl was quickly treated 84 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: and really at least without further incident. As for the nurse, 85 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:05,160 Speaker 1: they should have added the letters MD to her name, 86 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,000 Speaker 1: not because she was a doctor of medicine, but because 87 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 1: of her impromptu role as medical detective. Firefighters around the 88 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:28,520 Speaker 1: world rely on fire hydrants to provide a source of 89 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:31,440 Speaker 1: water to extinguish fires. It's hard to imagine a world 90 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:33,800 Speaker 1: without them. But did you know that the patent for 91 00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:37,560 Speaker 1: the fire hydrants was actually lost. Our story begins in 92 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,120 Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds in the United States, where there was 93 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:42,680 Speaker 1: a growing need for an efficient way to supply water 94 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:46,320 Speaker 1: to firefighting crews. At the time, water mains were being 95 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,000 Speaker 1: installed beneath the streets of major cities, but there was 96 00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:52,719 Speaker 1: no easy way for firefighters to tap into them. Firefighters 97 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:55,599 Speaker 1: had to rely on water pumped from wells or cisterns, 98 00:05:55,880 --> 00:05:58,240 Speaker 1: and as you might imagine, the process was a slow 99 00:05:58,279 --> 00:06:01,600 Speaker 1: and inefficient one, which was bad news for the owners 100 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:04,760 Speaker 1: of the burning buildings. Then came the invention of the 101 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:08,159 Speaker 1: fire hydrant. But here's where it gets complicated. We're not 102 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: sure who invented it. It could be Birdsill Holly Junior, 103 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:15,680 Speaker 1: an inventor and engineer, or it could be Frederick Graft Senior, 104 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:19,159 Speaker 1: the chief engineer of the Philadelphia Waterworks, who created the 105 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:23,320 Speaker 1: first pillar style fire hydrant in eighteen oh one. Experts 106 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:27,080 Speaker 1: say Graft is the original inventor, but that Holly made improvements. 107 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:31,520 Speaker 1: Both men filed patents decades apart. Graft created a type 108 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: of pillar fire hydrant that is referred to as a 109 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:36,800 Speaker 1: wet barrel. It resembles a barrel with a faucet and 110 00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:39,919 Speaker 1: a valve on top. Holly was an inventor and engineer 111 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:42,279 Speaker 1: who had already made a name for himself by developing 112 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:45,920 Speaker 1: a revolutionary steam engine in eighteen sixty nine. He turned 113 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:48,840 Speaker 1: his attention to the problem of supplying water to firefighters, 114 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:50,839 Speaker 1: and it came up with a design for a new 115 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:54,040 Speaker 1: type of fire hydrant. Holly's version of the hydrant was 116 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:57,040 Speaker 1: unlike anything that had ever been seen before. It featured 117 00:06:57,080 --> 00:06:59,400 Speaker 1: a top mounted valve could be turned on and off 118 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:01,760 Speaker 1: with a simple wrench, and it had a system of 119 00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:04,800 Speaker 1: underground pipes that allowed water to flow directly to the 120 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:08,120 Speaker 1: fire hydrant from the water main. Holly knew that his 121 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:11,080 Speaker 1: invention was going to be in high demand. He immediately 122 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:13,880 Speaker 1: set up a company to produce the hydrants, and within 123 00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:17,320 Speaker 1: a few years his invention had become the industry standard. 124 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:21,440 Speaker 1: Over time, Holly's hydrants were installed in cities and towns 125 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:24,680 Speaker 1: across the United States, and they saved countless lives and 126 00:07:24,760 --> 00:07:28,440 Speaker 1: millions of dollars in property damage by providing firefighters with 127 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:31,600 Speaker 1: a reliable source of water. So why is it that 128 00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:34,920 Speaker 1: we don't know who to credit? Because decades before Holly 129 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:38,200 Speaker 1: filed for his patent, something odd happened with Graft's patent. 130 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:42,000 Speaker 1: He lost it. If an inventor couldn't prove that they 131 00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:45,360 Speaker 1: were the inventor, it left them vulnerable to competitors who 132 00:07:45,400 --> 00:07:48,160 Speaker 1: might take the idea as their own. Without a patent, 133 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 1: Graft couldn't prove the fire hydrant was his idea and 134 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:54,080 Speaker 1: had no legal protection, not that he would have taken 135 00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: Holly to court Graft had died in eighteen forty seven. 136 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:00,760 Speaker 1: Holly went on to manufacture his hydrant and sell them 137 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:03,880 Speaker 1: throughout the country. But how to Graft lose his patent? 138 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:08,480 Speaker 1: Oddly enough? By fire. The blaze broke out in the 139 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 1: early morning hours of December fifteenth of eighteen thirty six 140 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:15,600 Speaker 1: in the old Blodget's Hotel building in Washington, DC. The 141 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:18,800 Speaker 1: fire raged for hours, and when the smoke cleared, all 142 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:21,920 Speaker 1: of the nine thousand, nine hundred and fifty seven documents 143 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:25,560 Speaker 1: and seven thousand other items relating to those documents were 144 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:28,680 Speaker 1: destroyed by the fire. Graft's patent for the fire hydrants 145 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:32,360 Speaker 1: was among those documents. You see, the building was the 146 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:36,559 Speaker 1: US Patent Office. Ever since, there have been many articles 147 00:08:36,559 --> 00:08:39,280 Speaker 1: written on the invention of the fire hydrant, causing some 148 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:41,360 Speaker 1: to say that the question of which inventor to give 149 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:49,560 Speaker 1: credit to just might be a hot topic. I hope 150 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 151 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 152 00:08:56,360 --> 00:09:00,920 Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. This show 153 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:04,360 Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how 154 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:08,040 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 155 00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:11,920 Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and 156 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:14,559 Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore 157 00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:21,320 Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.