1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:09,320 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 3 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,280 Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 6 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 7 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,240 Speaker 1: Today we take the stock market as a given. Every 8 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:42,600 Speaker 1: developed nation has one, and anyone with extra cash sees 9 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:45,400 Speaker 1: it as a good idea to invest. It allows startup 10 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 1: companies to grow quickly, and it allows the middle class 11 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:50,800 Speaker 1: to have a retirement fund. But at the end of 12 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: the day, it's all about perceived value. How much the 13 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:58,680 Speaker 1: market aka human beings thinks something is worth. And when 14 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:01,280 Speaker 1: that perceived value it proves to be way off from 15 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,080 Speaker 1: the actual value of a stock, well, then we call 16 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:06,640 Speaker 1: that a bubble. One of the first examples of this 17 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:09,600 Speaker 1: happened over three hundred years ago, and when it burst, 18 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:13,399 Speaker 1: it almost took all of England with it. In the 19 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:17,440 Speaker 1: early seventeen hundreds, England already wasn't doing so great. The 20 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: monarchs of Europe conducted wars like they were a regular 21 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,040 Speaker 1: part of doing business, and England had racked up quite 22 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:25,200 Speaker 1: a bit of debt from all the fighting. On top 23 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:27,160 Speaker 1: of all of this, there was still quite a bit 24 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:31,479 Speaker 1: of fighting over the English monarchy itself. Politician John Aisleby, 25 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:34,839 Speaker 1: along with several of his fellow politicians, formed a committee 26 00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:38,720 Speaker 1: to address the national debt. At first, they conducted several lotteries, 27 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:41,399 Speaker 1: just like the ones we have today, where participants pay 28 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:43,920 Speaker 1: a small amount on the tiny chance that they'll win 29 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:46,679 Speaker 1: a huge sum. The government takes some of the profits 30 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:49,240 Speaker 1: and then uses them how it sees fit, such as 31 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:52,360 Speaker 1: paying off the national debt. But this was too slow 32 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:56,440 Speaker 1: a solution for England's significant financial woes, and so the 33 00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:00,720 Speaker 1: politicians turned to another scheme. You see, large private banks 34 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: were a relatively new development in England. They were sometimes 35 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:06,560 Speaker 1: still called companies back then, and it was around this 36 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: time that members of Parliament decided to create a company 37 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:12,160 Speaker 1: of their own, the South Sea Company, which would take 38 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:15,360 Speaker 1: advantage of a new peace agreement signed with Spain in 39 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:20,280 Speaker 1: seventeen thirteen. And what would their investment be well, human trafficking. 40 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:23,680 Speaker 1: The company purchased an agreement from the English Crown granting 41 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:27,080 Speaker 1: them exclusive rights to the slave trade with Spanish colonies 42 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:30,360 Speaker 1: in Central and South America. They expected this to be 43 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,360 Speaker 1: hugely profitable, and so they would sell shares in the 44 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:37,080 Speaker 1: company in order to consolidate the national debt. In other words, 45 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:40,920 Speaker 1: they paid investors who England was indebted to with shares 46 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,840 Speaker 1: in the south Sea company, promising them shares that would 47 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: grow in value over time. To be even more clear, 48 00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: here Parliament was betting the entire national debt on their 49 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:53,639 Speaker 1: ability to sell human beings to Spain. They were very 50 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:57,359 Speaker 1: literally putting the country's burden on the backs of African slaves. 51 00:02:57,639 --> 00:03:00,120 Speaker 1: It was a new wrinkle in a century's long pat 52 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: of horrific abuse. The members of Parliament were so lacking 53 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:06,880 Speaker 1: in empathy that they didn't see anything wrong with pay 54 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:10,520 Speaker 1: off the debt from endless, pointless wars by transferring it 55 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:13,440 Speaker 1: to the labor of innocent Africans who had nothing to 56 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:16,360 Speaker 1: do with any of it. Over the next few years, 57 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 1: they managed to sell around thirty thousand enslaved people to 58 00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:23,440 Speaker 1: the Spanish, which is already an incomprehensible amount of pain 59 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:26,520 Speaker 1: and suffering. And yet despite all of that, it wasn't 60 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: actually enough to make the company profitable. You see, Spain 61 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: limited England to just one ship, a year, and when 62 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:36,080 Speaker 1: that ship arrived in the New World, the human traffickers 63 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:39,720 Speaker 1: were often met with bureaucracy and logistical difficulties that kept 64 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 1: them from turning a profit. And so the south Sea 65 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:46,440 Speaker 1: Company was a failure, but no one seemed willing to 66 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:50,480 Speaker 1: admit it. The company had practically become a money printing machine. 67 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:54,000 Speaker 1: People from all over Europe and all social classes invested 68 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:57,400 Speaker 1: their money and used their shares to inflate their own wealth. 69 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,880 Speaker 1: And that's when John Aisleby, the English politician first tasked 70 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: with eliminating the debt, joined with other politicians to make 71 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:07,360 Speaker 1: the problem even worse. They proposed a new scheme to 72 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: Parliament to have the south Sea Company take over even 73 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,520 Speaker 1: more of the national debt. They wanted to inflate their 74 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:16,400 Speaker 1: own wealth by inflating the stock price of the company, 75 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:18,960 Speaker 1: and people went along with it for a few reasons. 76 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:21,440 Speaker 1: For one, many of the members of Parliament were bribed 77 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:24,440 Speaker 1: by aisle B and his cohorts, and for another, aisle 78 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: B had made King George the first honorary governor of 79 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:32,279 Speaker 1: the company, giving everyone false confidence. By spring of seventeen twenty, 80 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:35,159 Speaker 1: the stock price for the south Sea Company had inflated 81 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:39,240 Speaker 1: to an incredibly high number, but by September investors began 82 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:42,680 Speaker 1: to realize how worthless the stock really was. The bubble 83 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:46,040 Speaker 1: burst and the price of the stock plummeted. Many members 84 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:49,360 Speaker 1: of the nobility lost a substantial amount of their wealth, 85 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:53,039 Speaker 1: Some even took their own lives as a result, and 86 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:56,680 Speaker 1: there were other consequences as well. As leb was imprisoned, 87 00:04:56,760 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: but only for five months. Of course, the king was 88 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:01,760 Speaker 1: held blame in all of this. He was the first 89 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:04,960 Speaker 1: monarch of the Hanover dynasty, a stable line that had 90 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,360 Speaker 1: persisted all the way to the modern day. Parliament wasn't 91 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:11,920 Speaker 1: going to risk another civil war by calling him into question. 92 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:14,719 Speaker 1: So what does it all mean for us? Well, it 93 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:17,719 Speaker 1: goes to show how disastrous it can be when politicians 94 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:21,680 Speaker 1: and financiers neglect their responsibility to the public, and it 95 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: showcases the curious tendency of humans to fall victim to 96 00:05:25,279 --> 00:05:28,880 Speaker 1: a herd mentality, continuing to invest in something they know 97 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:32,480 Speaker 1: is worthless. It seems that whether you are a peasant 98 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:35,279 Speaker 1: or a king, no one is immune to the lure 99 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:52,600 Speaker 1: of a get rich quick scheme. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 100 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:55,640 Speaker 1: or MIT, is known for a lot of things. World 101 00:05:55,640 --> 00:05:59,000 Speaker 1: class professors, cutting edge technology, and some of the best 102 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:03,000 Speaker 1: science engineers and mathematics programs in the world. Want to 103 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:05,560 Speaker 1: go to space or the depths of the ocean, or 104 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: get inside an atom, then MIT is the place to be. 105 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:12,919 Speaker 1: But aside from its academics, MIT is also known for 106 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 1: another characteristic. With world class students come world class pranks, 107 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: called hacks by the student body. They range from the 108 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:25,599 Speaker 1: whimsical to the wild. Many hacks include the Great Dome, 109 00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:29,719 Speaker 1: a neoclassical building topped by, of course, a very large dome. 110 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:33,600 Speaker 1: Over the years, a firetruck, a lunar lander, and an 111 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:37,200 Speaker 1: MIT campus police car have all made their way onto 112 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:40,719 Speaker 1: the top of the building. Other hacks are lighthearted, like 113 00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:43,880 Speaker 1: how in two thousand and seven, MIT students dressed the 114 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:47,960 Speaker 1: statue of their rival Harvard University's founder in armour from 115 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:51,560 Speaker 1: the Halo video game series. And sometimes they can get 116 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:55,040 Speaker 1: downright dangerous, like how in the nineteen thirties, five MIT 117 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:59,440 Speaker 1: students set off thermite bombs under a Boston streetcar, welding 118 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:02,680 Speaker 1: the wheels to the rails. Notably, one of those pranksters 119 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:07,000 Speaker 1: later became an MIT dean. Perhaps the most famous hack 120 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:10,920 Speaker 1: at MIT, though, began as a fraternity hazing ritual and 121 00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 1: left a lasting mark on the school. It was a 122 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:17,480 Speaker 1: cool October night in nineteen fifty eight when seven Lambda 123 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:21,720 Speaker 1: Kai Alpha pledges arrived at the Harvard Bridge armed with chalk. 124 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:24,440 Speaker 1: They were there for a simple task to put down 125 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:27,920 Speaker 1: markers along the half mile overpass that spanned the Charles 126 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: River from Cambridge to Boston. The whole thing was their 127 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:35,560 Speaker 1: pledge master's idea. He, like many MIT students, lived in 128 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:39,240 Speaker 1: Boston proper nearly every day he had crossed the bridge 129 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:42,239 Speaker 1: to get to the MIT campus in Cambridge. He wanted 130 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:44,840 Speaker 1: the markers so that he could easily see how far 131 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:47,200 Speaker 1: he had left to walk, but he didn't want them 132 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:50,720 Speaker 1: to measure in feet or yards. Instead, they would measure 133 00:07:50,840 --> 00:07:54,880 Speaker 1: in smoots. What exactly is a smoot, Well, a smoot 134 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:58,880 Speaker 1: is a person Oliver Smoot, to be exact. Oliver was 135 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:01,720 Speaker 1: one of the pledges that and as the shortest member 136 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:04,480 Speaker 1: of the group at five foot seven inches tall, the 137 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:07,400 Speaker 1: pledge master chose him to make measuring the bridge more 138 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,960 Speaker 1: labor intensive. On top of that, he reasoned Smoot's name 139 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:16,000 Speaker 1: sounded scientific and ampere measures electrical current, a watt total 140 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:20,160 Speaker 1: power and a smoot distance across the Harvard Bridge, so 141 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:23,480 Speaker 1: that evening these seven pledges set out to measure the bridge. 142 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:26,080 Speaker 1: They had Oliver Smoot lay down, marked the length of 143 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:29,240 Speaker 1: his body, and then moved on. And at first Smoot 144 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:31,520 Speaker 1: was jumping up and moving on to the next spot 145 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:34,080 Speaker 1: on his own, but as the smoot lengths reached into 146 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:37,040 Speaker 1: the hundreds, he grew too tired to do that. His 147 00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:40,000 Speaker 1: brothers started picking him up and carrying him to the 148 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:43,319 Speaker 1: next chalk mark. Part Way through, the brothers were forced 149 00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:45,920 Speaker 1: to run off the bridge and hide when a Boston 150 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,360 Speaker 1: police car rolled by. Once the police lost interest, they 151 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: returned to their task. After over an hour and a half, 152 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:56,600 Speaker 1: the brothers made their final chalk mark at Smoot's feet. Together, 153 00:08:56,760 --> 00:09:00,040 Speaker 1: they found that the Harvard Bridge stretched three hundred and 154 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:05,120 Speaker 1: sixty four point four smoots long, plus or minus one year. Now. 155 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:08,160 Speaker 1: Even though the measurement known as smoots originated as a 156 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:10,960 Speaker 1: fraternity prank, over the years, they became part of the 157 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:15,000 Speaker 1: city Landakai Alpha repaints the Smoot marks every year. When 158 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:17,800 Speaker 1: the bridge was rebuilt in the nineteen eighties, the contractor 159 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:20,880 Speaker 1: added smoot marks to the sidewalk, and today you can 160 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:25,160 Speaker 1: convert any distance on the Google calculator into Smoots. As 161 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:29,000 Speaker 1: for Oliver himself, his foray into measurement marked the beginning 162 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:32,239 Speaker 1: of a career. He became head of the International Organization 163 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 1: of Standardization, which is the group that sets standard measurements 164 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:40,640 Speaker 1: for scientific research. With each new hack MIT, students hope 165 00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:44,080 Speaker 1: to make their mark on history, but after nearly seventy years, 166 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:51,400 Speaker 1: none quite measure up to Oliver Smoot. I hope you've 167 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:55,439 Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe 168 00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:58,040 Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the 169 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:02,880 Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was 170 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:06,800 Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. 171 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:10,360 Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is 172 00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:13,840 Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can 173 00:10:13,920 --> 00:10:17,760 Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. 174 00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:20,679 Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.