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Speaker 1: And Nate ab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took

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Speaker 1: either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and

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Speaker 1: put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord,

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Speaker 1: which he commanded them not. And there went out fire

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Speaker 1: from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before

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Speaker 1: the Lord. Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the

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Speaker 1: death of the two sons of Aaron, when they had

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Speaker 1: approached the presence of the Lord and died, the Lord

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Speaker 1: said to Moses, tell your brother Aaron that he shall

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Speaker 1: not enter at any time into the holy place inside

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Speaker 1: the Vale before the mercy seat, which is on the Ark,

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Speaker 1: or he will die, for I will appear in the

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Speaker 1: cloud over the mercy Seat. Welcome to Stuff to Blow

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Speaker 1: your Mind from how Stuff Works dot com. Hey, welcome

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Speaker 1: to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Rob

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Speaker 1: Land and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back for Arc two.

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Speaker 1: Electric Boogaloo, our second exploration of a bunch of weird

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Speaker 1: sort of bronze punk takes on the stories of the

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Speaker 1: Ark of the Covenant from the Hebrew Bible. Right. It's

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Speaker 1: it's kind of perfect because this is a kind of

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Speaker 1: this is kind of Hanaka content for stuff to blow

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Speaker 1: your mind. Oh, I didn't think about the timing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we're publishing these episodes the week of Hanaka almost entirely

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Speaker 1: by by by accident, but but a pleasant accident, I

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Speaker 1: would say. So. Last time we talked about the stories about, say,

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Speaker 1: the Philistine captivity of the Ark of the Covenant and

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Speaker 1: the m Roads and what all that meant. But there

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Speaker 1: is another aspect to the Ark of God's story that

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Speaker 1: tends to tempt people into the techno mythology realm. Not

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Speaker 1: only was the Arc said to bring vast destructions and

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Speaker 1: plagues of m rods, there are also these Bible stories

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Speaker 1: that tell of the Arc lashing out with blasts of

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Speaker 1: power that kill offenders in an instant. Uh. And so

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Speaker 1: there are a couple of examples. One is the story

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Speaker 1: we just told about Erin's two sons. We don't get

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of details, but it seems like Erin's

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Speaker 1: two sons entered the presence of the Arc with some

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Speaker 1: kind of strange fire. Essentially that it sounds like they

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Speaker 1: were not doing the rituals of the Tabernacle as they

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Speaker 1: had been commanded. They were doing something incorrect. Fun fact,

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Speaker 1: I actually traveled home and attended a Sunday School class

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Speaker 1: at my mom's church recently, and this was the passage

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Speaker 1: they were discussing really well in the last episode. I

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Speaker 1: thought we were talking about how they almost never bring

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Speaker 1: these stories up in Sunday school, at least when we

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Speaker 1: were kiding. I saw a great example of why, because

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Speaker 1: it's it's kind of difficult for folks to have a

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Speaker 1: like a casual, real life oriented conversation about a passage

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Speaker 1: like this about the strange fire of the Lord, which

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Speaker 1: apparently sometimes translated is alien fire. Yeah, alien fire. They

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Speaker 1: brought alien fire and the sensors before the Lord, and

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Speaker 1: the Lord did not like it, and he lashed out

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Speaker 1: and struck them dead. Can assumed them with fire from

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Speaker 1: the mercy seat. Now, before we get into the bronze

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Speaker 1: punk discussions today, we should tell at least one more

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Speaker 1: story of this kind. How about the story of Uza.

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Speaker 1: So remember how the arc was taken to the land

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Speaker 1: of the Philistines. That's one of the stories in the

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Speaker 1: Bible about it. The Philistines. Uh, there's a battle and

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Speaker 1: Philistines take the arc and they put it in the

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Speaker 1: temple of Dagon until the arc messes them up, and

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Speaker 1: it topples the statue of the god Dagon, and eventually

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Speaker 1: the Philistines repenteth and the Israelites get the arc back.

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Speaker 1: So when the Israelites under King David are they're bringing

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Speaker 1: the arc back to their land, that we get to

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Speaker 1: this passage quote. They placed the Ark of God on

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Speaker 1: a new cart that they might bring it from the

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Speaker 1: house of a Ben a Dab, which was on the hill.

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Speaker 1: And Usa and Ahio, the sons of a Ben a Dab,

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Speaker 1: were leading the new cart. So they brought it with

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Speaker 1: the Ark of God from the house of a Ben

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Speaker 1: a Dab which was on the hill, and Ahio was

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Speaker 1: walking ahead of the arc. Meanwhile, David and all the

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Speaker 1: house of Israel, we're celebrating before the Lord with all

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Speaker 1: kinds of instruments made of fir wood, with liars, harps, tambourines, castanets,

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Speaker 1: and symbols. But when they came to the threshing floor

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Speaker 1: of Nakon, Usa reached out toward the Ark of God

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Speaker 1: and took hold of it. For the oxen nearly upset it,

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Speaker 1: and the anger of the Lord burned against Usa, and

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Speaker 1: God struck him down there. For this irreverence, and he

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Speaker 1: died there by the ark of God. And then there's

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Speaker 1: a story that apparently this place comes to be named

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Speaker 1: h what roughly translates to the breakthrough of USA or

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Speaker 1: the bursting out at Usa, as we discussed at length

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Speaker 1: in the last episode. Uh, if you look at any

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Speaker 1: of these stories of the Ark of the Covenant, or

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Speaker 1: if you look at, of course, in the classic film

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Speaker 1: Raiders of the Lost Arc, you see great depictions of

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Speaker 1: this general fact that the Ark of the Covenant is

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Speaker 1: considered a dangerous item in the stories about it. It

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Speaker 1: is it is a thing that that manifests the presence

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Speaker 1: and the voice of God, and and therefore there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of dangers associated with misuse um even even

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Speaker 1: touching it, well, even even well meaning touching. Like the

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Speaker 1: idea here is that Usa wasn't trying to do, you know,

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Speaker 1: a blasphemy to the ark. He just reached out to

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Speaker 1: keep it from falling over because the oxen we're getting

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Speaker 1: all tipped around and so the arc might have fallen

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Speaker 1: on the ground. He reached out to steady it, and

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Speaker 1: that was enough that got him struck dead. So anyway,

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Speaker 1: I think, as with the Arc stories that we discussed

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Speaker 1: last time. The most fruitful way of understanding these stories

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Speaker 1: is that they are legendary narratives, not based on actual events,

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Speaker 1: but rather to communicate values by telling a story. And

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Speaker 1: in this case, I think one of the values that's

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Speaker 1: primary here is that the commands of the Lord are

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Speaker 1: to be taken very seriously, and that even deviating from

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Speaker 1: God's commands in an accidental or well meaning way can

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Speaker 1: be met with extremely harsh consequences. Like Aaron's sons they

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Speaker 1: screw up the rights of the tabernacle by offering alien fire.

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Speaker 1: They burned some thing in the sensor in a way

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Speaker 1: they weren't supposed to, and they get burned up themselves.

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Speaker 1: USA touches the arc even meaning well, just to prevent

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Speaker 1: it from falling over, and he gets blasted dead. I

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Speaker 1: think the lesson is pretty clear, right, Yeah, It's like

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Speaker 1: it's a basic Dungeons and Dragons lesson as well. If

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Speaker 1: there is a high level magical item in your presence,

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Speaker 1: don't touch it, don't, don't, don't, don't do anything until

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Speaker 1: you've at least cast a few, you know, provisional spells

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Speaker 1: just to see what's happening. Right, is be very careful

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Speaker 1: with the commands of God, do do everything you're told.

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Speaker 1: But in the last episode we discussed the concept of

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Speaker 1: this historical hermoneutic we were calling bronze punk, the desire

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Speaker 1: to UH for of modern interpreters with a little knowledge

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Speaker 1: about science and technology under their belt to look back

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Speaker 1: at legends like this assume that maybe they're based on

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Speaker 1: some kind of actual event, whether directly or in some

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Speaker 1: exaggerated form, and instead of assuming a magical explanation for

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Speaker 1: the event behind, the story, postulates some kind of lost

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Speaker 1: world of advanced technology hidden in the dust storms of history,

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Speaker 1: which again is of course risky because this is the

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Speaker 1: place where history and mythology can converge. So it's difficult

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Speaker 1: to really lean too heavily on anything that is described

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Speaker 1: in these stories. But at the same time we can't

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Speaker 1: help but do it right with the great example from

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Speaker 1: the last episode was was looking at the the plague

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Speaker 1: of mice and UH and tumors or emads and trying

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Speaker 1: to figure out, well, as this bubonic plague is that,

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Speaker 1: what is that? What's being described here? That's one of

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Speaker 1: the ways in which the bronze punk hermeneutic, while not

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Speaker 1: usually a good method of explaining the origins of these

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Speaker 1: legendary tales and myths does open up some interesting things

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Speaker 1: to consider about the ancient world. Like one of the

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Speaker 1: things we talked about in the last episode was, Okay,

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Speaker 1: it probably does not make sense to say that the

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Speaker 1: legends of the arc are caused by it actually being

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Speaker 1: some ancient bioweapon, But could there have been bioweapons in

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Speaker 1: the ancient world? Was the germ warfare before people had

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Speaker 1: a germ theory of disease? And we decided, you know,

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Speaker 1: it does seem like it's possible that that happened, and

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Speaker 1: there's even some evidence of specific cases where it looks

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Speaker 1: like it happened. Maybe not in this case, and for

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Speaker 1: our purposes here on the show, it's also just a

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Speaker 1: great excuse to talk about some of these things at

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Speaker 1: the end of the episode, and at the end of

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Speaker 1: this episode as well, we're probably gonna say, you know,

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Speaker 1: I don't think we should really um put a lot

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Speaker 1: of faith in this particular idea, but it does forces

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Speaker 1: to ask questions about about the inner workings of the

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Speaker 1: world in ancient times, applying what we know about science

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Speaker 1: today and sort of unwrapping it through an analysis of

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Speaker 1: the past. Well, there's an interesting question that's going to

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Speaker 1: come out of today's episode about what what causes major

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Speaker 1: breakthroughs in the progress of science and history. So we'll

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Speaker 1: get back to that towards the end of the episode.

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Speaker 1: So last time, we talked about the idea that it

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Speaker 1: could have been a weapon of germ warfare. That's unlikely,

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Speaker 1: but it's fun to consider. Um, we talked about the

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Speaker 1: pretty much impossible idea that it was a bearer of

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Speaker 1: some sort of radiation hazard. I know this has been

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Speaker 1: popular with people like Eric von Danikin and I don't

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Speaker 1: know about him specifically, but some of those ancient aliens. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: anytime where you're like, oh, there's some sort of of

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Speaker 1: of crazy piece of technology. It's a nuclear reactor or something. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then we of course talked about the psychology of artifacts,

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Speaker 1: like the arc being a focal point for worship and

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Speaker 1: how that affects the altered states of consciousness, the mind

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Speaker 1: and so forth. But today we wanted to explore another

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Speaker 1: very strange bronze punk rabbit trail that many many authors

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Speaker 1: have taken over the years to explain stories like Erin's

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Speaker 1: two sons in the Story of Uza. These people who

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Speaker 1: are struck dead in the presence of the arc, and

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Speaker 1: that is the idea of the electric arc. Yes, this

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Speaker 1: is this is a pretty fabulous notion because it doesn't

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Speaker 1: really it doesn't depend on aliens, It doesn't depend on

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Speaker 1: any um, you know, the alternative view of the evolution

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Speaker 1: of consciousness or anything. It basically just depends. It basically

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Speaker 1: asked questions about like what were the what was the

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Speaker 1: knowledge of electricity at the time, and what were the

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Speaker 1: capabilities and material capabilities in many cases to construct a

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Speaker 1: primitive device. I would like to read with some abridgements,

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Speaker 1: from an article published in the Chicago Daily Tribune March five,

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Speaker 1: ninety three by the Reverend John Evans, called Scientists says

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Speaker 1: Sacred Box was a condenser. Robert, will you help me

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Speaker 1: read some sections from this? Certainly, would you like to

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Speaker 1: take the beginning here? I shall. It was a charge

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Speaker 1: of some ten thousand volts of static electricity, and not

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Speaker 1: the wrath of God that killed Uza when he touched

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Speaker 1: the ark of the Covenant. Such, at least is the

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Speaker 1: scientific conjecture of Dean Frederick Rogers of the Department of

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Speaker 1: Engineering at Lewis Institute of Technology concerning the mysterious powers

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Speaker 1: of the Arc, which was not only an object of

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Speaker 1: reverence to the Israelites but also a troublesome possession. Right.

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Speaker 1: So the article then goes on to tell the story

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Speaker 1: of Usa. As we told before, the arc goes unsteady

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Speaker 1: oxen or out to knock it over, he touches it,

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Speaker 1: he gets struck dead. Uh and evans rights quote. Professor

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Speaker 1: Rodgers made a study of the construction of the Arc

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Speaker 1: and discovered its design called for a perfectly constructed simple

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Speaker 1: electric condenser or lighten jar. And then the article also

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Speaker 1: goes on to tell the story of the construction of

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Speaker 1: the Ark of the Covenant. We talked about that in

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Speaker 1: the last episode. But basically the design specifications are it's

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Speaker 1: a big wooden box with gold on the inside and

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Speaker 1: the outside, not just any wood at shipham would right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's which I believe is supposed to be the Acacia

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Speaker 1: tree Acacia would. Uh. They called it ship him would

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Speaker 1: And it's got gold on the inside, gold on the outside,

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Speaker 1: and then these gold representative figures of Cherubim on the top.

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Speaker 1: So going back to the article, the scientific interest in

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Speaker 1: the construction pointed out by Professor Rogers was that the

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Speaker 1: Acacia would box about forty inches long and slightly less

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Speaker 1: than thirty inches in width and depth, not only was

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Speaker 1: lined with gold leaf on the inside, but over aid

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Speaker 1: with the same metal without. This, according to Professor Rodgers,

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Speaker 1: is the first step that any modern boy with a

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Speaker 1: flare for electrical experimentation will take to create a lid

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Speaker 1: in jar. And girls don't be discouraged there. You can

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Speaker 1: create light in jars too. Also, I don't I never

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Speaker 1: created a light in jar. I did the potato battery,

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Speaker 1: and that's about as far as I went towards creating

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Speaker 1: the arc. I never even made a potato battery. Oh

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Speaker 1: but I should also say, boys and girls alike, if

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Speaker 1: you are actually constructing a light in jar, do some

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Speaker 1: with with proper safety precautions and adult supervision because they

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Speaker 1: can actually be dangerous depending on their capacity. But anyway,

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Speaker 1: moving on, except that in a light in jar a

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Speaker 1: glass receptacle, he's coated on the inside and the outside

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Speaker 1: with tinfoil instead of gold. Then with the aid of

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Speaker 1: a rod and a small knob at the top and

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Speaker 1: a short chain at the bottom which is inserted through

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Speaker 1: the cork so that the chain may make contact with

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Speaker 1: the bottom of the jar, A young experiment er is

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Speaker 1: ready to collect small charges of bottled lightning, Robert, would

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Speaker 1: you like to take over? In the section subtitled a

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Speaker 1: condenser of electricity, but the Ark of the Covenant was

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Speaker 1: a much larger condenser and thought by Professor Rogers to

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Speaker 1: have been capable of collecting death dealing charges. The divine

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Speaker 1: erections called for the creation of two chairubim of pure

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Speaker 1: gold to be placed on a gold slab or mercy

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Speaker 1: seat atop the arc. These chairubim, Professor Rodgers explained what

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Speaker 1: he believes to have been the positive pole of the circuit,

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Speaker 1: similar to the knob on the top of the light

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Speaker 1: in jar. When he was asked how the static charge

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Speaker 1: of electricity got into the arc, Professor Rogers admitted that

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Speaker 1: there was very little accepted authority among scientists concerning the

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Speaker 1: action and control of atmospheric electricity. He explained, however, that

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Speaker 1: it is known among physicists that a difference of potential

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Speaker 1: exists between the Earth and the air, which may be

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Speaker 1: collected in electrical charges under certain favorable conditions. The design

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Speaker 1: of the arc, at least as described in Exodus. Undoubtedly

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Speaker 1: I love this certainty of people where about these kinds

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Speaker 1: of kind of hair brained interpretations. Clearly, there's no room

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Speaker 1: for for discussion here. That's what it was. Yeah. So

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Speaker 1: the article goes on to state that Rogers believes the

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Speaker 1: arc could have been electrically charged by air currents created

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Speaker 1: by smoke from the burning of incense and sacrifices, which

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Speaker 1: the Bible says often happened close to the arc. He

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Speaker 1: also says this could charge the light in arc enough

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Speaker 1: to allow it to deal fatal bolts of electricity, and

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Speaker 1: he cites a Hebrew commentary tradition that states that quote,

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Speaker 1: the wings of the golden Cherubim not only emitted fire,

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Speaker 1: but also an aura known among electricians as brush glow.

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Speaker 1: The fire emitted by the Cherubim could have been well

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Speaker 1: known electrical arc resulting from overcharge. Professor Rogers beliefs that

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Speaker 1: a number of accounts of destruction attributed by the scriptures

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Speaker 1: to the arc might be explained as being results of

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Speaker 1: purely natural phenomena, and he gives some examples that, like

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Speaker 1: we talked about last time, the destruction of the Philistine

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Speaker 1: Idol of day Gone quote, a divinity supposed to be

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Speaker 1: half fish and half man and just a side note, apparently,

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Speaker 1: that association of the Canaanite god Dagon with fish that

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Speaker 1: I think that is supposed to be exonymic in origin,

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Speaker 1: meaning that the the ancient Hebrews related the name of

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Speaker 1: this god to the Hebrew word for fish. The original

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Speaker 1: Philistine Dagon appears to be more likely some kind of

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Speaker 1: grain and fertility god. Sorry Lovecraft fans, Oh, yeah, that

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Speaker 1: is kind of disappointment, because Dagon, of course is a

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Speaker 1: part of the Lovecraft mythos and uh and and then

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Speaker 1: it's one of those cool gods where you read about

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Speaker 1: it there, then you read about it in the Bible.

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Speaker 1: And if you, like I was, if you were a

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Speaker 1: you know, a high schooler who's who suddenly discovered Lovecraft

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Speaker 1: and then found one of these deities in the Bible

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Speaker 1: as well, it was a pretty awesome moment. Oh, I

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Speaker 1: can't help but think of the creatures of the sea

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Speaker 1: as the children of Dagon. I'm always going to go there,

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Speaker 1: even knowing what I know now that he probably wasn't

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Speaker 1: actually a fish god. Right, But at the same time,

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Speaker 1: we do have a lot of We've discussed some tremendous

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Speaker 1: ancient fish gods on the show before, right, But anyway,

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Speaker 1: So they tell the story in the article of this

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Speaker 1: philistine idol repeatedly getting knocked over or off of the arc,

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Speaker 1: and Roger says, quote, if the idol had been constructed

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Speaker 1: out of some poorer metal in combination with wood, an

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Speaker 1: electrical charge far below the capacity of the ARC would

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Speaker 1: have been enough to have accomplished the destruction. So I

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Speaker 1: think they're saying that the arc could have knocked over

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Speaker 1: the the idol just by discharging electricity. I'm I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure about that, but okay, Yeah, I'm gonna try to

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Speaker 1: include some art that I found on the landing page

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Speaker 1: for this episode is stuff to blow your mind dot

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Speaker 1: com because there are a number of wonderful depictions of

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Speaker 1: like the glowing arc and a top old uh statue

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Speaker 1: of the deity Dagon sometimes with a fish tail uh

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Speaker 1: that of course is now broken because it fell over

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Speaker 1: and uh and of course this is uh. This kind

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Speaker 1: of thing was was also referenced in Rages of the

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Speaker 1: Lost Arc. Again, that's scene where the Ark of the

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Speaker 1: Covenant burns through the swastika on the crate that can

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Speaker 1: haines it. Yeah, like like destroying another false idols. Yeah. Uh.

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Speaker 1: So to continue and we're getting close to the end

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Speaker 1: of this article, but there's some other good stuff here.

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Speaker 1: So Evans talks about how all these kinds of miracles

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Speaker 1: could be attributed to electricity, and he talks about the

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Speaker 1: tendency of people to attribute, you know, processes they don't understand,

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Speaker 1: to divine intervention. And then he says, thus, if Moses

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Speaker 1: accidentally stumbled upon the principle of the leidon jar, the

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Speaker 1: device would instantly be accepted as the conveying medium of

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Speaker 1: divine favor or disfavor. Sounds again like a little bit

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Speaker 1: too much certainty in this interpretation here, But the author

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Speaker 1: tells a bunch more stories of the arc and then

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Speaker 1: also points out that the Ark of the Covenant was

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Speaker 1: not the only arc given sacred significance in the ancient world,

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Speaker 1: and he discusses ancient Egyptian arcs, speculating that Moses could

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Speaker 1: have learned about the creation of electrical arcs from the

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Speaker 1: Egyptians when he was growing up in the pharaoh's court. Again,

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Speaker 1: that's that's a nice story, but I think once again

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Speaker 1: the problem is just that it's making the biblical source

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Speaker 1: at face value. And what's more likely is that the

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Speaker 1: biography of Moses is a legend. But but yeah, there

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Speaker 1: there he does point out that there are other arc

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Speaker 1: like things in other cultures around the ancient Near Eastern

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Speaker 1: and and the Egyptian arcs are a great example. Right.

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Speaker 1: But then again we have to come back to perhaps

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Speaker 1: the simpler explanation that an arc like thing is a box. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and and therefore, yes, the technology of box making was

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Speaker 1: very much in effect at the time, right. Uh. And

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Speaker 1: so finally, Robert, do you want to read this very

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Speaker 1: last paragraph here? Certainly, while no historian would engage in

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Speaker 1: such speculation, yet it is the right of any man

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Speaker 1: to fancy that it was in Egypt that the properties

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Speaker 1: of the gold coated box were discovered by some hapless craftsman.

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Speaker 1: He paid for his discovery with his life, but gave

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Speaker 1: his kinsmen a home for a new and powerful god. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so they've got a theory here. Some Egyptian craftsman accidentally

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Speaker 1: discus heard how to build a lidon jar by building

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Speaker 1: boxes and covering them with gold, and then that information

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Speaker 1: was transmitted to Moses, and then Moses carried the secret

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Speaker 1: of how to build alidon jar, and that became the

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Speaker 1: ark of the Covenant, and thus it gives us all

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Speaker 1: these stories of like people touching it and getting struck dead. Now,

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Speaker 1: I think it would be ridiculous to say that if

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Speaker 1: the arc actually existed, we're assuming something like it may

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Speaker 1: have if it existed, that it was best explained in

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Speaker 1: these terms. But well, I don't think we need to

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Speaker 1: resort to this to explain the arc legend. I don't

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Speaker 1: find it implausible at all that someone in the ancient

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Speaker 1: world and someone in the ancient Mediterranean could have at

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Speaker 1: some point accidentally created a capacitor, which is what aliden

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Speaker 1: jar is, and that it could have injured or killed people.

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Speaker 1: And that is a really interesting thing to consider, right

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Speaker 1: because not I mean not only, of course, the the

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Speaker 1: accidental creation of such a thing, but then the recreation

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Speaker 1: such a thing and the utilization of such a thing,

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Speaker 1: either as essentially a tool of of a nation, like

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Speaker 1: what's going to happen when I touch it? Like a

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Speaker 1: fatal shock, as a no, not dying, as yes, you

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Speaker 1: know that that sort of thing, which which a lot

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Speaker 1: of ancient practices of religion and even modern practices of

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Speaker 1: religion really boiled down to. That give me something to

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Speaker 1: provide an answer for some question I have or or

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Speaker 1: provide some sort of a random answer to something that

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Speaker 1: I am incapable of generating my own random answer to. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and again, I think it's not hard to believe that

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Speaker 1: that someone could have accidentally discovered how to build something

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Speaker 1: like this. Again, like the discovery of the actual liden

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Speaker 1: Jar was also accidental somewhat and frightening someone. Maybe we

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Speaker 1: should explore that after a break. Thank thank Alright, we're back. Okay,

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Speaker 1: So we mentioned before the break that, in fact, the

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Speaker 1: discovery of the liden Jar itself, we've got these people

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Speaker 1: saying that the Ark of the Covenant was some kind

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Speaker 1: of ancient liden Jar, some kind of capacitor or condenser

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Speaker 1: that would store up electric charge and then charge it

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Speaker 1: all at once, maybe killing somebody who touched it in

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Speaker 1: the wrong way. Uh So, in seventy there was this

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Speaker 1: German Lutheran bishop named you alled Georg von Klist. I've

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Speaker 1: also seen his name represented as you won Jurgen von Klist.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if those are variations on the same

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Speaker 1: name or if that's discrepancy. I don't know, but either way,

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Speaker 1: whatever his middle name was, von Kleist was performing experiments

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Speaker 1: with an electrostatic generator. At the time, this would have

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Speaker 1: been something like the spinning globe generator of Francis Howkesby

404
00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:36,520
Speaker 1: or of Benjamin Franklin, which was essentially like a glass

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00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:41,679
Speaker 1: sphere that you would rotate rapidly against a wool cloth

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00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:46,000
Speaker 1: by turning a crank, charging the sphere by friction, essentially

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00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:49,520
Speaker 1: gathering up electrons from the cloth. Now, once this principle

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00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:53,040
Speaker 1: had been demonstrated, uh, lots of people were messing around

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Speaker 1: with them. And von Kleist had a glass medicine bottle

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Speaker 1: that was filled with liquid. It was water or alcohol,

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Speaker 1: with a cork top and a nail driven through the

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Speaker 1: cork poking down into the liquid inside. And while he

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Speaker 1: was doing his experiments, von Kleist held the outside of

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Speaker 1: the bottle with his hand and he touched the nail

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Speaker 1: to the generator that was, you know, the friction generator.

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Speaker 1: And after charging the inside of the bottle, he found

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Speaker 1: that when he held the bottle with one hand and

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Speaker 1: touched the nail with his other hand, he received a shock.

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Speaker 1: Why because he just used his body to complete a

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Speaker 1: circuit and thus the spark the shock. Yes, uh. And

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Speaker 1: then there's another guy around the same time Peter van

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Speaker 1: mussen Brook of Leiden, Holland, who discovered the same principle

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Speaker 1: the following year, which is where the Lyden jar gets

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Speaker 1: its name. It's it's spelled like l e y d

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Speaker 1: e N, but I think Leiden Holland is with like

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Speaker 1: an ei. So I'm saying Lyden. I've heard people say Leyden.

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Speaker 1: I think I read it in my mind is laden

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Speaker 1: for years and years. I may have said Laden in

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Speaker 1: the past. Whichever way it is, I'm gonna be saying Lyden.

430
00:22:57,520 --> 00:22:59,960
Speaker 1: If you don't like that, you can email and complain.

431
00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:05,080
Speaker 1: H So von Musson Breck was able to charge up

432
00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:08,680
Speaker 1: a glass jar full of water with a metal rod

433
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,159
Speaker 1: plunging inside it, and he also discovered that when you

434
00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:13,400
Speaker 1: touch the rod while holding the outside of the jar,

435
00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:17,040
Speaker 1: you got this terrific shock. So the principle here is

436
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:20,680
Speaker 1: the one of creating this electrical potential difference. You know,

437
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,159
Speaker 1: by charging it up in this way and having the

438
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:26,760
Speaker 1: insulator of the glass there between the inside and the outside,

439
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:30,600
Speaker 1: you're creating this difference potential where one side is positively charged,

440
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:33,800
Speaker 1: one side is negatively charged, and they desperately want to equalize.

441
00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:37,520
Speaker 1: And whenever you complete that circuit circuit, they will equalize,

442
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:40,040
Speaker 1: and if you are the thing that completes that circuit,

443
00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:42,560
Speaker 1: that equalization can be unpleasant for you. It can be

444
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:44,880
Speaker 1: bad for your body. Now, let's talk about how unpleasant

445
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:47,960
Speaker 1: because uh, we we experienced static shock all the time,

446
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,520
Speaker 1: especially during the winter in our modern world. My son

447
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:52,280
Speaker 1: and I when we go to a playground, we always

448
00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:54,960
Speaker 1: do this thing called electric high five where if there's

449
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:57,359
Speaker 1: if there's you know, static electricity is generated when he

450
00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:01,280
Speaker 1: goes down the slide because because the friction, I wait

451
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:03,040
Speaker 1: at the bottom and he gives me a high five,

452
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,080
Speaker 1: and sometimes there is an alarming shock to it, like

453
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:09,240
Speaker 1: it's it's it's pretty intense, but it's fun, right, It's

454
00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:12,440
Speaker 1: not something that I would attribute to the to the

455
00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:15,600
Speaker 1: wrath of of of an ancient god. When he goes

456
00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:19,720
Speaker 1: down that slide, he's becoming an electrostatic generator. And you,

457
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:23,360
Speaker 1: you are the you are the ground terminal. So yeah,

458
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:26,679
Speaker 1: the question though, is could that high five be dangerous

459
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:30,440
Speaker 1: or fatal? You bet? Actually, well, not on the slide,

460
00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 1: but given given how much charge you could store up

461
00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:38,120
Speaker 1: under various circumstances, yeah, it's entirely possible. Van Musson Brook

462
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,399
Speaker 1: reportedly said I would not take a second shock for

463
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of France. And Benjamin Franklin. We've talked about

464
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:47,800
Speaker 1: this on the show before, but the year old American

465
00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:52,320
Speaker 1: hero Benjamin Franklin, hanging out in Philadelphia loved experimenting with

466
00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:56,600
Speaker 1: Lydon jars. He began to get more power by chaining

467
00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:59,959
Speaker 1: them together in a circuit so that they're combined capacit

468
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:02,120
Speaker 1: that he could be discharged all at the same time,

469
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,640
Speaker 1: giving even more power, And Franklin kind of turned into

470
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:09,240
Speaker 1: a mad scientist in this regard. He became temporarily enthralled

471
00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,480
Speaker 1: with the idea of using the powerful shock from this

472
00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:17,440
Speaker 1: parade of jars to deal lethal shocks to animals. And

473
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 1: he compared this row of Lyden jars all strung together

474
00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:24,199
Speaker 1: to a battery of cannons or military artillery, giving us

475
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:26,800
Speaker 1: the term we still used today for a slightly different

476
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:29,960
Speaker 1: form of storage for electrical potential. The battery is like

477
00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 1: a you know, it's a battery. In the seventeen forties,

478
00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin told a friend of his that he had

479
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 1: figured out that the discharge of two Lden jars was

480
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 1: quote sufficient to kill common hens outright. He even said

481
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,880
Speaker 1: that since the electric shock killed so quickly, it might

482
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 1: become a more humane way of slaughter for butchers, so

483
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:52,639
Speaker 1: that the birds that they butchered suffered less. And he

484
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:56,480
Speaker 1: proposed that a butcher could kill a turkey by stringing

485
00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:59,920
Speaker 1: together six Liden jars into a battery and then tie

486
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:02,879
Speaker 1: the chain, which was one terminal, around the turkey's legs

487
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:05,720
Speaker 1: and then lift the turkey so that its head touched

488
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,520
Speaker 1: the other terminal. Whether or not this was actually more

489
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:11,920
Speaker 1: humane as a method of butchery, it probably wasn't the

490
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,840
Speaker 1: safest method for butchers to use, because when Franklin himself

491
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:18,359
Speaker 1: was trying to perform experiments like this, like there was

492
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:20,760
Speaker 1: a time he wanted to have a turkey barbecue where

493
00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:24,480
Speaker 1: he was trying to kill turkeys with Lidon jars, he

494
00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:27,680
Speaker 1: ended up accidentally shocking himself horribly and he was like

495
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:30,800
Speaker 1: knocked back and he felt bruised for days. Uh he

496
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:33,280
Speaker 1: And he explicitly said that he was afraid that a

497
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:36,239
Speaker 1: blow like that could easily kill a man. Yeah, I mean,

498
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:38,840
Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin here is really sounding like a man who

499
00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:42,960
Speaker 1: has never observed, who has never watched someone who knows

500
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:46,200
Speaker 1: what they're doing kill a chicken or a duck, because

501
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,960
Speaker 1: generally it is just I've seen like food documentaries where

502
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:54,280
Speaker 1: you see like a loving, caring a duck farmer just

503
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:56,679
Speaker 1: you know, one second they're holding the duck and then

504
00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:59,159
Speaker 1: it's like just a quick twist of the wrist and

505
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 1: they've rung its net and it's dead. Yes, far better

506
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,240
Speaker 1: than risking your own death. And it's like burning the

507
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 1: house down in the process. Well, and then it didn't

508
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 1: even always work because he said, so he's trying to

509
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:12,360
Speaker 1: instantly and humanely kill turkeys this way, but he would

510
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:15,200
Speaker 1: like knock them unconscious and sometimes they'd come back, they'd

511
00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:18,639
Speaker 1: be kind of woozy. Uh. It just sounds horrible, what

512
00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:22,639
Speaker 1: are you doing, Ben? But anyway, so eventually people figured

513
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 1: out that there are multiple ways of constructing alidon jar.

514
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:28,440
Speaker 1: You can make one with a simple conductive foil on

515
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 1: the inside and the outside of a glass jar, or

516
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:34,399
Speaker 1: you can make one with water on the inside. In

517
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 1: the eighteenth century, it became common to cram the inside

518
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 1: of the jar with gold leaf, and they're just a

519
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 1: bunch of ways to do it. But essentially what you

520
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:43,480
Speaker 1: need is a thin layer of what's known as a

521
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 1: dielectric which is an insulating, non conductive material like glass,

522
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:51,399
Speaker 1: with a way of charging up the potential difference between

523
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:55,240
Speaker 1: the conductors on each side of that dielectric layer. You've

524
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,520
Speaker 1: got the negative charge on the inside and the positive

525
00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 1: charge on the outside. And so back to the idea

526
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:04,560
Speaker 1: of of our friend, Professor Frederick Rogers, he was saying, Okay,

527
00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 1: that's how the ARC is working. Right. You've got die electric,

528
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:11,880
Speaker 1: which is the wood, and then you've got the gold layering,

529
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 1: the gold plating on the inside and on the outside,

530
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:17,360
Speaker 1: and those are forming the conductive foils like in aliden Jar.

531
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:19,760
Speaker 1: All you really need is like a way of charging

532
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:23,160
Speaker 1: up the inside and having that potential difference. And it's

533
00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:27,800
Speaker 1: very possible that you have a lethal electro static discharge

534
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:31,240
Speaker 1: machine capable of killing people who touch it the wrong way. Now,

535
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:35,320
Speaker 1: our friend, professor Frederick Rodgers, who oh, I just realized

536
00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 1: he's Fred Rogers, this is Mr Rogers. Well, it's a

537
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:43,040
Speaker 1: beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for electrocution.

538
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 1: Uh So, Mr Rogers wasn't the first person to propose

539
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:50,280
Speaker 1: that the ARC was a capacitor or aliden Jar. Actually

540
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 1: found earlier evidence of different versions of this theory, including

541
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:57,280
Speaker 1: one from one of my favorite discourse communities of all time,

542
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 1: late nineteenth century American spirit ritualism. Remember our old friend

543
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: John Murray Spear, of course, Yes, yeah, the spiritualist agitator

544
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 1: for the spirit land building that tremendous contraption that was

545
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 1: going to was was that a radio for speaking to God? Yes, essentially,

546
00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 1: I mean it was very complicated his theology about that.

547
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:19,920
Speaker 1: But John Murray Spear was a spiritualist who thought he

548
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:23,280
Speaker 1: was getting messages from the spirits of the dead telling

549
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 1: him how to build an electro mechanical messiah called the

550
00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:29,600
Speaker 1: New Motor, which would be a channel for the new

551
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:34,040
Speaker 1: motive power, which was God's energy poured into the universe

552
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,720
Speaker 1: through the lens of the Sun, which would be enlightening

553
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 1: and would cause wisdom and a new human that would

554
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:42,800
Speaker 1: be created by Essentially, what this machine was was like

555
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,200
Speaker 1: a coffee table with like a bunch of metal stuff

556
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 1: on top of it. Yeah. I remember looking at illustrations

557
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:49,920
Speaker 1: of this, and it was no arc that's for certain.

558
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:52,360
Speaker 1: I remember exactly what you said about it, which is

559
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 1: that you said it looked like if a coffee table

560
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:59,040
Speaker 1: mate it with a dalek. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty much

561
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:01,719
Speaker 1: what it looked like. No chair of you. But anyway,

562
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:05,560
Speaker 1: I think we should explore some spiritualist bronze punk. So

563
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to find an original version of this article,

564
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:11,600
Speaker 1: but I want to talk about an article that's reproduced

565
00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:16,400
Speaker 1: in a book by the spiritualist author Moses Hull. Hull

566
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 1: quotes the entirety of this article, which was published sometime

567
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 1: in the eighteen nineties and a spiritualist periodical called The

568
00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 1: Progressive Thinker, which has a great little subtitle it's science

569
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 1: supplemented by an exalted morality, the Bible of the future.

570
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:34,880
Speaker 1: And so you've got all these strange currents in nineteenth

571
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 1: century American spiritualism, which as in this case, often featured

572
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 1: like a combination of belief in the existence of spirits

573
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 1: and our ability to receive communications from them, but then

574
00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: also like progressive politics, often abolition of slavery, women's suffrage,

575
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:53,480
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, a kind of futuristic embrace of

576
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 1: scientific and technological progress, skepticism about some traditional doctrines of

577
00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: religion while still embracing others. Given all this kind of stuff,

578
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:07,040
Speaker 1: it's not surprising to me that spiritualist authors would be

579
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:10,680
Speaker 1: embracing an electrical theory of the arc legend. They sometimes

580
00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 1: had this sort of rationalism supernaturalism hybrid that made them

581
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:17,720
Speaker 1: want to read the Bible as in some ways literally

582
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: true and in other ways like revealing hints of technologies

583
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 1: that we would later discover, maybe through the revelations of spirits.

584
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 1: Like remember John murray spears belief that he was getting

585
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:32,080
Speaker 1: messages from the Association of Electrizers. Who were these people

586
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:34,680
Speaker 1: like Benjamin Franklin and all these dead people who were

587
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:38,480
Speaker 1: giving him technological messages from beyond the grave. But anyway,

588
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 1: let's look at this article from the Progressive Thinker. So

589
00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 1: the the author of this article says, there is nothing

590
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:46,240
Speaker 1: new on the face of the earth, and there is

591
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:49,400
Speaker 1: no doubt that electricity was well known to the Israelites

592
00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:52,480
Speaker 1: and probably to the Phoenicians. Again no doubt. Why why

593
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,840
Speaker 1: is it always no doubt uncertainty? Yeah, well, we'll come

594
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:58,280
Speaker 1: back to that particular question, because on one hand, yes,

595
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:03,000
Speaker 1: there was some no uch of electricity, but was it working.

596
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:04,720
Speaker 1: I don't know if we know that it was known

597
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 1: to the Israelites. Yeah, because I mean, I have to

598
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 1: admit I don't really know what the what the weather,

599
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:15,360
Speaker 1: weather patterns are necessarily like uh in the Middle Middle East,

600
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:19,560
Speaker 1: like to what extent lightning is observed, But the observation

601
00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 1: of lightning would be one slight level of knowledge of

602
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:27,160
Speaker 1: electricity not necessarily, I mean, not a working knowledge. You

603
00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:29,520
Speaker 1: can look at at a lightning storm and you can

604
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 1: be impressed by it and have no idea what it is.

605
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 1: Sure given a broad definition, okay, yeah, uh, And there's

606
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 1: certainly what the Greeks knew, which we'll get to a

607
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:40,480
Speaker 1: little bit. So the author explains the story of the

608
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 1: construction of the arc, points out that the special type

609
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:45,920
Speaker 1: of wood that was that was used to build the arc.

610
00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:49,800
Speaker 1: They say, quote, was this choice accidental on account of

611
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 1: the great value of the resinous would? Or was it

612
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:55,840
Speaker 1: in the choice of the best known nonconductor among the

613
00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 1: great number of various timbers. I don't know if that

614
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:03,200
Speaker 1: is correct. I sort of doubt that premise, but you

615
00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:06,400
Speaker 1: know who knows. Um. I was wondering, is would a

616
00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:09,640
Speaker 1: good insulator? And I looked this up. It basically depends

617
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 1: on factors about the wood itself, such as the type

618
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,960
Speaker 1: of wood and the moisture content. So, of course, the

619
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,800
Speaker 1: author points out correctly that it is said that the

620
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:20,680
Speaker 1: inside and outside of the arc were covered in beaten gold,

621
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 1: and that this is a good conductor of electricity. It

622
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:26,560
Speaker 1: is true that gold is a good conductor of electricity. Quote.

623
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 1: So much is certain that if Edison or Tesla had

624
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 1: lived in those days, they could not have improved upon

625
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:35,720
Speaker 1: the choice of material, and the result was a powerful

626
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 1: lidon jar. I think they actually could have improved on it.

627
00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:42,080
Speaker 1: For instance, silver is an even better conductor than gold. Also,

628
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 1: Sarah the them a higher rank of angel, just saying

629
00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 1: they could go from oh touche. So the author also

630
00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:52,400
Speaker 1: claims that the arc was charged by the smoke of

631
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,640
Speaker 1: burnt offerings, which is the same thing Roger said. Uh.

632
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:59,000
Speaker 1: The author says that after Moses died, others improved upon

633
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:01,440
Speaker 1: the design of the electrical arc by placing it in

634
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:04,560
Speaker 1: a temple surrounded by a hundred and fifty foot poles

635
00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:07,800
Speaker 1: covered in gold to charge the arc with electrical storms.

636
00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:09,960
Speaker 1: And then we get to my favorite part, which is

637
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 1: that the author says that he essentially implies that Aaron

638
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:18,240
Speaker 1: in the Bible stories used the arc as a murder weapon. Robert,

639
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 1: would you like to read this passage? I've got here,

640
00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:22,920
Speaker 1: certainly and and we'll just pretend that we threw in

641
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:25,799
Speaker 1: the law and order sound effect right here. Maybe maybe

642
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:28,960
Speaker 1: we can do that. I don't know. We'll see any

643
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:32,320
Speaker 1: coroner's jury of today if it were to sit on

644
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:36,120
Speaker 1: an inquest over the bodies of Aaron's sons, would it

645
00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:39,719
Speaker 1: once bring a verdict of death by discharge of electricity?

646
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 1: Aaron knew this power, and to make it effective, all

647
00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 1: he had to do to deal death from this apparatus

648
00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:51,040
Speaker 1: was to remove the costly camel's hair carpet, which are

649
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 1: almost perfect non conductors of electricity, and make the culprit

650
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:59,440
Speaker 1: stand on terra FIRMA death would result instantly by fire

651
00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:02,800
Speaker 1: breaking out and leave no wounds or burns to account

652
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 1: for his death. That several members of revolting tribes of

653
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:10,480
Speaker 1: Israelites were thus electrocuted is also a matter of record

654
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:14,279
Speaker 1: in the Bible. I wouldn't call them revolting necessarily. That

655
00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:18,480
Speaker 1: seems a little harsh. Oh he means rebel. Yes, that

656
00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:23,719
Speaker 1: is again matter of record. Is just a certainty. What

657
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:25,960
Speaker 1: what is with this? Well, I mean there's probably a

658
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,319
Speaker 1: lot to unpack their in turn, I mean we haven't

659
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 1: packed this to a certain extent. Uh, For instance, looking

660
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:34,719
Speaker 1: at the uh, the Great flood and the idea of

661
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:37,360
Speaker 1: a biblical great flood and its effect on the study

662
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:39,680
Speaker 1: of geology for so long, you know, I mean, the

663
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:44,520
Speaker 1: the Biblical record as it was, uh, certainly influenced even

664
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:48,080
Speaker 1: scientific understanding of the world for for quite a while. Well,

665
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:50,239
Speaker 1: I just think it's so interesting that you've got this

666
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,560
Speaker 1: weird hybrid approach of looking at the Bible here where

667
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:57,000
Speaker 1: the person is saying, I'm going to question and interrogate

668
00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,879
Speaker 1: the source of this power, but I'm going to absolutely

669
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,520
Speaker 1: take the story at face value except where it sort

670
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:05,319
Speaker 1: of doesn't really match what I'm saying. But also I'm

671
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:07,719
Speaker 1: going to take God completely out of the equation or

672
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:10,239
Speaker 1: replace it with a device. But I'm also going to

673
00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:14,759
Speaker 1: treat the text this uh, this translated text as if

674
00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 1: it is a complete historical record, as if it's just

675
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:21,399
Speaker 1: a security camp footage of the Ark of the Covenant. Yeah,

676
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:24,520
Speaker 1: that is exactly what I was, maybe inarticulately trying to say.

677
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:27,400
Speaker 1: And then they in the article by saying Franklin the

678
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:29,520
Speaker 1: electric chair in the state of New York and the

679
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:31,800
Speaker 1: discovery of the light in jar itself in light in

680
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:35,560
Speaker 1: Germany or all back numbers. History only repeats itself, whether

681
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:38,279
Speaker 1: recorded or not, And then here's a here's an even

682
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:41,920
Speaker 1: crazier one. It seems that none other than Nicola Tesla

683
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 1: toyed with this idea as well. In a nineteen fifteen

684
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 1: essay called the Wonder World to Be Created by Electricity,

685
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:53,800
Speaker 1: Tesla wrote, the superstitious belief of the ancients, if it

686
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:56,800
Speaker 1: existed at all, can therefore not be taken as a

687
00:36:56,880 --> 00:37:00,200
Speaker 1: reliable proof of their ignorance. But just how much they

688
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:04,240
Speaker 1: knew about electricity can only be conjectured. A curious fact

689
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:07,319
Speaker 1: is that the ray or torpedo fish was used by

690
00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 1: them in electrotherapy. Some old coins show twin stars or sparks,

691
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:16,600
Speaker 1: such as might be produced by a galvanic battery. The records,

692
00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:18,880
Speaker 1: though scanty, are of a nature to fill us with

693
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:22,240
Speaker 1: conviction that a few initiated at least had a deeper

694
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:27,120
Speaker 1: knowledge of amber phenomena. To mention one, Moses was undoubtedly

695
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:30,919
Speaker 1: a practical and skillful electrician, far in advance of his time.

696
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:36,719
Speaker 1: Undoubtedly the Bible describes precisely and minutely arrangements constituting a

697
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:40,879
Speaker 1: machine in which electricity was generated by friction of air

698
00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:45,239
Speaker 1: against silk curtains and stored in a box constructed like

699
00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 1: a condenser. It is very plausible to assume that the

700
00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:52,480
Speaker 1: sons of Aaron were killed by a high tension discharge,

701
00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:55,640
Speaker 1: and that the vestal fires of the Romans were electrical.

702
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:58,719
Speaker 1: The belt drive must have been known to engineers of

703
00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:01,200
Speaker 1: that epoch, and it is difficult to see how the

704
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:05,400
Speaker 1: abundant evolution of static electricity could have escaped their notice.

705
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:08,239
Speaker 1: The words of Nicola Tesla impressive, I had no idea

706
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:12,000
Speaker 1: that he ever commented on this again is certainly undoubtedly,

707
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:14,480
Speaker 1: and then more recently, of course, the idea of the

708
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,440
Speaker 1: electric arc as. I think we've mentioned this at the beginning.

709
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:19,640
Speaker 1: If not, you will not be surprised to learn that

710
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:22,680
Speaker 1: it seems popular with people operating in the ancient alien

711
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:26,640
Speaker 1: cinematic universe. Eric von dani Can claimed this, while also

712
00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 1: claiming that it was as part of his whole ancient

713
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:32,800
Speaker 1: alien technology thing. It was. It was alien gift motif.

714
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:35,320
Speaker 1: I think he said that it was like a radio.

715
00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:39,560
Speaker 1: Somebody said that it was a nuclear reactor. I know Rile,

716
00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:42,239
Speaker 1: the founder of the Aliens, had some idea that it

717
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:44,719
Speaker 1: was a nuclear reactor or something like that, but to

718
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:46,640
Speaker 1: what end? What good does it do to have a

719
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:50,640
Speaker 1: nuclear reactor and just trotted about the desert. I'm not

720
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 1: sure that it does, because really the whole point what

721
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,920
Speaker 1: makes this subject actually interesting is that building a form

722
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:02,320
Speaker 1: of a capacitor is technically possible for the ancients without

723
00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:05,960
Speaker 1: supposing any kind of alien nonsense or intervention. That's true,

724
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:09,080
Speaker 1: and then ultimately the use of it as religious technology

725
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:11,720
Speaker 1: is also reasonable as well. I mean, we've discussed religious

726
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:13,400
Speaker 1: technology on the show before, in the way that various

727
00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:17,080
Speaker 1: religions throughout history have used some sort of new technology

728
00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 1: as ritual. All Right, let's take one more quick break,

729
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:25,560
Speaker 1: and then when we come back, we'll finish up our discussion. Alright,

730
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:28,000
Speaker 1: we're back. So there are all these ideas people have had,

731
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:29,840
Speaker 1: as we've been talking about about the Ark of the

732
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:34,440
Speaker 1: Covenant as a capacitor or some form of electrical device.

733
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,040
Speaker 1: And while I think you don't need to go to

734
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:41,000
Speaker 1: these kind of bronze punk explanations to explain the origin

735
00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 1: of these legends, it is really interesting to think about

736
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:48,239
Speaker 1: the idea and the possibilities for electrical technology in the

737
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:52,240
Speaker 1: ancient world. Now, there isn't really much or any evidence

738
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:55,080
Speaker 1: of electrical technology in the ancient world. But there is

739
00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: some indication that there were the beginnings of understanding of

740
00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:04,080
Speaker 1: electricity the ancient world. Yeah, I mean there again. Obviously,

741
00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:08,040
Speaker 1: aspects of our electrical world that are unmistakable. Lightning is

742
00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:11,960
Speaker 1: probably the strongest, clearest overt sign of electricity in our world.

743
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:14,839
Speaker 1: But of course, merely observing lightning is a far cry

744
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:18,480
Speaker 1: from having a decent understanding of what it is. Likewise,

745
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:22,239
Speaker 1: certain circumstances can cause us to produce our own electrostatic discharge,

746
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:25,600
Speaker 1: and the ancient Greeks knew about some of this. They

747
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:29,719
Speaker 1: knew about the triboelectric effect. For instance, This occurs when

748
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:34,240
Speaker 1: materials become electrically charged after they come into frictional contact

749
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:37,000
Speaker 1: with a different material. This is the concept behind the

750
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:40,680
Speaker 1: electrostatic generator reflection generator. Yeah again, Rub a balloon on

751
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:44,120
Speaker 1: someone's hair and you can witness this holy power. Uh,

752
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:46,799
Speaker 1: do the electric high five with a six year old,

753
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:50,640
Speaker 1: and you can also feel the divine spark. They may

754
00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:53,719
Speaker 1: not have had our level of advanced playground equipment in

755
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:56,879
Speaker 1: ancient Greece, but they've probably had some stuff you could

756
00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:59,439
Speaker 1: rub your butt on that would give you static discharge. Yeah,

757
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:01,920
Speaker 1: because there's a whole list of materials that can, under

758
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:05,359
Speaker 1: the right circumstances, produced this effect on the positive charge

759
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:09,200
Speaker 1: side of things. The list includes human skin, hair, leather,

760
00:41:09,719 --> 00:41:12,920
Speaker 1: rabbit fur, cat fur, and wool. Uh. You know, think

761
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:16,520
Speaker 1: of all those electric cats in ancient Esic, right. And

762
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:18,719
Speaker 1: then on the other side of the equation you have

763
00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 1: would gold, balloons, and of course amber. We alluded to

764
00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:26,320
Speaker 1: the amber effect earlier in one of the quotes that

765
00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:28,560
Speaker 1: that I believe you were reading, and amber is a big,

766
00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:32,560
Speaker 1: big issue here. Yeah, the ancient Greeks certainly knew about

767
00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:37,520
Speaker 1: the amber wool combination. Bailey's of Melitis reported on this.

768
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:40,640
Speaker 1: Uh He was a mathematician and astronomer from the Greek

769
00:41:40,680 --> 00:41:45,040
Speaker 1: city of Militis in uh Ionia, which is modern day Turkey,

770
00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:48,480
Speaker 1: and he lived from six four through five six b C.

771
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:52,920
Speaker 1: He discovered that static electricity could be generated by rubbing

772
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,800
Speaker 1: fur on a piece of amber, and the Greeks noted

773
00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:59,319
Speaker 1: that the this through a charged amber buttons as well

774
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:02,760
Speaker 1: a special because these could attract you know, light objects

775
00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:04,759
Speaker 1: such as hair. And I think this is this is

776
00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:09,080
Speaker 1: key to thinking about what ancient people's knew about electricity.

777
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:12,320
Speaker 1: Is the materials they used and sort of the everyday

778
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:16,200
Speaker 1: circumstances in which they would, through continual usage, have the

779
00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:20,640
Speaker 1: uh encounter the chance of creating that spark. Yeah, and

780
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 1: it's still there in the language we used to discuss

781
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:27,319
Speaker 1: electricity today, like the word electron and electricity comes from

782
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:31,040
Speaker 1: the Greek word electron, which means amber. Yeah, so you

783
00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:34,719
Speaker 1: know some level of understanding regarding static discharge as a

784
00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:37,560
Speaker 1: property of material interaction in the ancient world, even three

785
00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:41,040
Speaker 1: thousand BC, is certainly not crazy. It would seem just

786
00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:43,960
Speaker 1: a natural result of again, of working with those materials

787
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:48,759
Speaker 1: of human invention and toolmaking exactly. Yeah. So the principles

788
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:52,759
Speaker 1: of friction generators for electricity, much like Franklin's and Hawksby's

789
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:57,560
Speaker 1: friction generators had had basically already been discovered in ancient

790
00:42:57,680 --> 00:43:02,040
Speaker 1: times and didn't require any modern materials or technology to produce.

791
00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:04,840
Speaker 1: And then you've also come you compound that with the

792
00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:07,000
Speaker 1: rest of our discussion, which makes it seem that while

793
00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:10,120
Speaker 1: these stories of the arc probably have nothing to do

794
00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:13,000
Speaker 1: with this, the storage of electricity and some kind of

795
00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:16,080
Speaker 1: crude capacitor could also have been managed in the ancient

796
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 1: world via basic types of liden jars. You've got to

797
00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:22,040
Speaker 1: you know, dielectric insulator, and you've got some kind of

798
00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:24,520
Speaker 1: like gold or something on either side of it. It

799
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:27,279
Speaker 1: might have even been built by accident at some point.

800
00:43:27,680 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 1: This also doesn't require any kind of great crazy bronze

801
00:43:31,239 --> 00:43:34,480
Speaker 1: punk sci fi. So this kind of leads us to

802
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:38,399
Speaker 1: a big question. If the ancients had pretty much all

803
00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 1: they needed to generate and store electricity, at least in

804
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:45,839
Speaker 1: the crudest sense, why didn't they harness these earlier? Why

805
00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:48,600
Speaker 1: didn't this lead them to to perform the step up

806
00:43:48,719 --> 00:43:51,840
Speaker 1: in in the next experiments, in the next experiments like

807
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:55,400
Speaker 1: it did in say, the eighteenth century. Uh that that

808
00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:59,399
Speaker 1: would lead to the subsequent development of electrically based technologies

809
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:02,280
Speaker 1: in the ancient a world. What if by the time

810
00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:06,279
Speaker 1: of the Roman Empire the world had electric power? How

811
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:08,759
Speaker 1: different would the world be? Well? That is at once

812
00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:13,360
Speaker 1: a tantalizing question and a frightening question knowing knowing what

813
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:18,600
Speaker 1: inevitably occurs as humans make new technological breakthroughs. I don't

814
00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:22,560
Speaker 1: know that I would have trusted the Romans with electricity.

815
00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:26,520
Speaker 1: I got I scarcely trust um any modern day cultures

816
00:44:26,640 --> 00:44:29,799
Speaker 1: with electricity. Well as Carl Sagan said, humanity has become

817
00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:33,759
Speaker 1: powerful before humanity has become wise. And you know this

818
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:36,600
Speaker 1: is true even today. I'd say I'd venture a guess

819
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:39,040
Speaker 1: we were even less wise in the times of the Romans,

820
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:41,759
Speaker 1: or at least the Roman Empire was less wise. How

821
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:45,640
Speaker 1: many chickens would have been fried by by by by

822
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:50,680
Speaker 1: Roman Benjamin Franklin's at the time. One can only imagine. Yeah,

823
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:53,200
Speaker 1: so there must be some kind of answer to this question,

824
00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:56,759
Speaker 1: Like it's not like there's some kind of magical ingredient

825
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,360
Speaker 1: they did not possess that would not allow them to

826
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:02,600
Speaker 1: start this chain of research to gain power over the

827
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:06,279
Speaker 1: electrical world. I have to guess that the main impediment.

828
00:45:06,600 --> 00:45:08,520
Speaker 1: Maybe there's something I'm not thinking of here. I have

829
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:11,400
Speaker 1: to think the main impediment is just like they didn't

830
00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:16,520
Speaker 1: have the proper ecosystem of scientific investigation, like all these

831
00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:19,880
Speaker 1: different people in different places doing their independent experiments and

832
00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:22,800
Speaker 1: then all coming together to compare notes. You know, this

833
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:25,799
Speaker 1: reminds me of a discussion that we had for our

834
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:28,840
Speaker 1: new show, our new podcast that is launching I believe

835
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:33,440
Speaker 1: next week, UH Invention podcast all about inventions where they

836
00:45:33,480 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 1: come from, and Uh, we're talking about the x ray,

837
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:39,080
Speaker 1: I believe, and we were talking about, Okay, you have

838
00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:42,959
Speaker 1: the materials and the parts that were necessary to create

839
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:46,359
Speaker 1: the X ray the understanding limited as it was at

840
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 1: the time, uh, to create this machine. And yet there

841
00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:54,279
Speaker 1: were a few decades there before somebody actually really did,

842
00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:57,680
Speaker 1: before they really cracked the mystery of what was going on.

843
00:45:58,040 --> 00:46:00,600
Speaker 1: And kind of like the leiden jard the discovery was

844
00:46:00,719 --> 00:46:04,440
Speaker 1: partially an accident. I mean, somebody was, uh, the discoverer

845
00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:07,800
Speaker 1: of the X ray machine was messing around with with

846
00:46:07,880 --> 00:46:09,920
Speaker 1: electrical equipment. So it wasn't like they were just like

847
00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:12,800
Speaker 1: you know, cleaning their garage and they discovered the X

848
00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:15,360
Speaker 1: ray machine, but they weren't setting out to discover a

849
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:17,520
Speaker 1: way to look inside the body, right. And part of

850
00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:20,000
Speaker 1: it too was like was also very literally where were

851
00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:22,279
Speaker 1: they looking and there when they were creating some sort

852
00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:25,759
Speaker 1: of an effect? What how are they trying to understand it?

853
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:28,319
Speaker 1: And so I think there might be an answer there

854
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 1: if and again we're making a few different leaps here,

855
00:46:31,239 --> 00:46:34,239
Speaker 1: but if assuming for a second that the arc of

856
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:37,920
Speaker 1: the Covenant was indeed a light in jar and uh,

857
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:41,080
Speaker 1: and then this was an electrostatic discharge that people were

858
00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:46,440
Speaker 1: observing and experiencing what were they observing, how were they

859
00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:48,719
Speaker 1: trying to observe it, and what were they looking for?

860
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:53,560
Speaker 1: What answers were they looking for in playing with this technology. Well,

861
00:46:53,640 --> 00:46:56,239
Speaker 1: one of the things that the people who were doing

862
00:46:56,320 --> 00:46:58,880
Speaker 1: this kind of like pseudohistory about the ARC do is

863
00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:02,759
Speaker 1: they say, well, okay, a clearly aaron started using the

864
00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:05,080
Speaker 1: ARC as a murder weapon, and they were using it

865
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:07,880
Speaker 1: as a weapon of war or something like that. I

866
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:10,239
Speaker 1: would tend to think if it actually were the case

867
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:13,120
Speaker 1: that there was an ARC and the ARC was actually

868
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:14,960
Speaker 1: a light and joy. Again, I am not at all

869
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:18,320
Speaker 1: saying I think this is likely, but just suppose, I

870
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:20,520
Speaker 1: would think the most likely used for it would be

871
00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:24,160
Speaker 1: a piece of religious technology. The purpose of it is

872
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:28,440
Speaker 1: to demonstrate some sort of supernatural power by letting off

873
00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:32,040
Speaker 1: this discharge or whatever. It is indication that something you

874
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:35,960
Speaker 1: don't understand that is powerful and is unexplained is happening.

875
00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:38,239
Speaker 1: And this gives you a kind of like peek behind

876
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:41,000
Speaker 1: the curtain of reality and you can see the powers

877
00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:43,399
Speaker 1: that lie beyond. And really that would be the most

878
00:47:43,480 --> 00:47:46,560
Speaker 1: powerful application of the technology at the time, because no

879
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:49,160
Speaker 1: matter what the stories are about the arc um, you

880
00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:51,720
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to bring down the walls of Jericho

881
00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:53,960
Speaker 1: with this thing. You wouldn't be able to stop the

882
00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:58,360
Speaker 1: flow of the river Jordan's. Maybe you could murder your nephew. Maybe,

883
00:47:58,719 --> 00:48:01,400
Speaker 1: but that's kind of small, patay, it is compared to

884
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:06,200
Speaker 1: giving yourself some some powerful force that not only was

885
00:48:06,239 --> 00:48:08,840
Speaker 1: able to help like shore up your religion, but also

886
00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:12,520
Speaker 1: convince those that needed convincing that you were privy to

887
00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:15,600
Speaker 1: the divine word of God through this device. Well. In fact,

888
00:48:15,800 --> 00:48:18,640
Speaker 1: think about the primary ways that lad in jars were

889
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:22,680
Speaker 1: used when people first started making them. They became like

890
00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:26,400
Speaker 1: a parlor game, entertainer thing. Yes, it was entertainment. In

891
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:29,480
Speaker 1: in fact, it was almost a form of religious technology.

892
00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:31,680
Speaker 1: There would be these stories of people they get a

893
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:33,560
Speaker 1: bunch of light in jars together, or I don't know

894
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:36,080
Speaker 1: about a bunch, maybe just one. They'd have some kind

895
00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:38,200
Speaker 1: of capacitor and then they would get a bunch of

896
00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:40,799
Speaker 1: monks to hold hands, and then they'd shock them all

897
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:43,040
Speaker 1: at the same time in a chain so that they

898
00:48:43,120 --> 00:48:44,840
Speaker 1: all felt it at once. It was almost like a

899
00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:49,279
Speaker 1: strange ritual. Yeah, you get into the power of the performance, right,

900
00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:50,920
Speaker 1: and it's it's it's a part of religion. It's a

901
00:48:50,960 --> 00:48:53,560
Speaker 1: part of entertainment. It's just a part of the human experience.

902
00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:57,040
Speaker 1: It was primarily useful, not for work it would do

903
00:48:57,320 --> 00:48:59,600
Speaker 1: in the material world, before the work it would do

904
00:48:59,719 --> 00:49:02,360
Speaker 1: on the minds of the people taking part and observing.

905
00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:05,560
Speaker 1: It was performative. Yeah, all right, so there you have it. Um.

906
00:49:05,719 --> 00:49:08,160
Speaker 1: I hope everyone leaves these episodes like maybe a little

907
00:49:08,200 --> 00:49:10,680
Speaker 1: more interested and a little more enthralled by the Arc,

908
00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:15,279
Speaker 1: you know, because ultimately we can't explain what it actually was,

909
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:18,040
Speaker 1: if it was a thing. I mean, it's just again,

910
00:49:18,080 --> 00:49:21,600
Speaker 1: this is a place where history and mythology converge. Yeah,

911
00:49:21,640 --> 00:49:23,640
Speaker 1: but I do love it as a jumping off point.

912
00:49:23,719 --> 00:49:26,480
Speaker 1: It's almost like it's the way station to all these strange,

913
00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:29,839
Speaker 1: uh bronze punk planets you can visit that that are

914
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:32,680
Speaker 1: revealing once you start thinking about them. Indeed, and we

915
00:49:32,719 --> 00:49:36,480
Speaker 1: would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on on the Arc. Yeah,

916
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:38,719
Speaker 1: people who learned about it from Raiders of the Lost

917
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:41,719
Speaker 1: Arc first of all, and and from people who learned

918
00:49:41,719 --> 00:49:44,760
Speaker 1: about it in uh you know, uh their history class

919
00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:47,360
Speaker 1: or their Bible class, or uh, whatever kind of a

920
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:50,880
Speaker 1: religious study they were involved in. Um, perhaps you have

921
00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:53,359
Speaker 1: a particular favorite theory. Perhaps you have your own brand

922
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:56,000
Speaker 1: new theory that we haven't thought of. Maybe it contained

923
00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:58,160
Speaker 1: a giant squid. I don't know. I will leave it

924
00:49:58,239 --> 00:50:01,560
Speaker 1: to you to provide us with those new theories. But

925
00:50:02,160 --> 00:50:03,800
Speaker 1: in the meantime, be sure to check out Stuff to

926
00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:05,839
Speaker 1: Blow your Mind dot com. That is the mothership. That's

927
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:09,000
Speaker 1: where we'll find all the episodes of the podcast. That's

928
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:11,520
Speaker 1: also where you'll find links out to our various accounts.

929
00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:13,520
Speaker 1: It's also where you'll find a little tab at the

930
00:50:13,560 --> 00:50:16,839
Speaker 1: top of the page for our merchandise store t public store,

931
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Speaker 1: where you can buy cool bits of merchandise, shirt stickers,

932
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934
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935
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Speaker 1: way that doesn't cost you any money, just simply rate

936
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Speaker 1: and review us wherever you have the power to do so.

937
00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:35,640
Speaker 1: Big thanks as always to our excellent audio producers Alex

938
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:38,560
Speaker 1: Williams and try Harrison. If you would like to get

939
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:40,320
Speaker 1: in touch with us to let us know feedback on

940
00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:42,600
Speaker 1: this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for

941
00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:44,640
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942
00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:47,480
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943
00:50:47,560 --> 00:50:49,799
Speaker 1: know a little bit about yourself, how you found out

944
00:50:49,800 --> 00:50:51,520
Speaker 1: about the show where you listen from all that kind

945
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:54,120
Speaker 1: of stuff. You can email us at blow the Mind

946
00:50:54,239 --> 00:51:05,360
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com for more on this

947
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:08,040
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works

948
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:20,120
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