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Speaker 1: Hey, y'all. We're rerunning two episodes today, which means that

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Speaker 1: you'll hear two hosts, me and Tracy V. Wilson. Enjoy

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Speaker 1: the show. Welcome to this Day in History Class from

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Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com and from the desk of

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Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's the show where

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Speaker 1: we explore the past, one day at a time with

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Speaker 1: a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Christopher haciotis your temporary host,

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Speaker 1: sitting in for Tracy V. Wilson this week. Today is

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Speaker 1: December four, and Roald Amondson reached the South Pole on

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Speaker 1: this day in nine eleven. Born in what's now Norway

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Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy two, Amonson was born into a nautical family,

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Speaker 1: a family of captains and shipbuilders ship owners. His mother

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Speaker 1: wanted him to be a doctor, so Amonson attended university

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Speaker 1: with that intent, but when she passed away when he

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Speaker 1: was in his early twenties, he dropped out and took

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Speaker 1: to the seas as a polar explorer. He explored Antarctica

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Speaker 1: with a Belgian team in the final years of the

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Speaker 1: nineteenth century, and about five years later was the first

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Speaker 1: to make a successful expedition through Canada's Northwest Passage, which

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Speaker 1: connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He was inspired by

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Speaker 1: Robert Peary reaching the North Pole in nineteen o nine.

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Speaker 1: In fact, he wasn't just inspired, he'd had actually been

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Speaker 1: planning his own track to the North Pole, so instead,

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Speaker 1: Amerson decided to head for the South Pole. He set

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Speaker 1: off on June third, and though he was planning to

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Speaker 1: head south, he knew the plan all along, but he

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Speaker 1: allowed people who financed his trip to believe he was

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Speaker 1: going to the North Pole. The same held true for

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Speaker 1: his crew, but when they reached the Portuguese archipelago of Madera,

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Speaker 1: he let them know about the change in plans, and

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Speaker 1: six months later they arrived at the Ross Ice Shelf

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Speaker 1: in Antarctica. The crew set up base and named it Framheim,

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Speaker 1: and spent months preparing for the trek to the Pole.

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Speaker 1: Amonson had learned much from the Inuit people while exploring

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Speaker 1: the North Pole, and adopted some of their sealskin technology

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Speaker 1: rather than relying on wool clothing. For example. The first

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Speaker 1: attempt for the poll took place in September of nineteen eleven,

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Speaker 1: but it didn't work. Out and the team that departed

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Speaker 1: had to turn back. A month later. For the second time,

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Speaker 1: Amonson and four others set out. This was on October nineteenth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen eleven. They took four sledges and fifty two dogs,

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Speaker 1: and the plan was actually to eat some of the

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Speaker 1: dogs along the way, and nearly after crossing ice and

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Speaker 1: snow for two months straight, Amonson and his team arrived

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Speaker 1: at the South Pole on December fourteenth, nineteen eleven. Now

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Speaker 1: it was another month and a half back to their

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Speaker 1: base camp, then a few months onto Australia, where he

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Speaker 1: finally announced his successful expedition. You can read Amonson's own

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Speaker 1: account of the journey in his nineteen twelve book The

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Speaker 1: South Pole, An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition. In

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Speaker 1: the from nineteen twelve, now Amondson was called brave, he

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Speaker 1: was called prepared, he was called smart. But in his

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Speaker 1: own words he attributed the success of the expedition to preparation.

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Speaker 1: In his own words, he wrote, I may say that

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Speaker 1: this is the greatest factor. The way in which the

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Speaker 1: expedition is equipped, the way in which every difficulty is foreseen,

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Speaker 1: and precautions taken for meeting or avoiding it. Victory awaits

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Speaker 1: him who has everything in order. Luck people call it.

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Speaker 1: Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take

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Speaker 1: the necessary precautions in time. This is called bad luck. Now,

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Speaker 1: speaking of defeat, here's the thing I haven't told you yet.

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Speaker 1: Emmonson wasn't the only explorer trying to reach the South Pole.

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Speaker 1: There's another character crucial to this story, and that's a

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Speaker 1: British man by the name of Robert Falcon Scott. In fact,

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Speaker 1: Scott and Amonson were in a heated competition to make

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Speaker 1: it to the South Pole first, and you know that

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Speaker 1: Emerson was the first person to reach the pole. Scott's

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Speaker 1: tale of failure, though, is fascinating in its own right

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Speaker 1: and includes English pride, ponies devoured by Orca, and tens

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Speaker 1: of thousands of cigars good stuff. In fact, if you'd

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Speaker 1: like to learn more about the Race to the South Pole,

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Speaker 1: give a list to the September two an episode of

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Speaker 1: our Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast, which is

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Speaker 1: aptly titled The Race to the South Pole. Thanks to

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Speaker 1: Casey Pegruman, Chandler Mays for their audio work on this show,

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Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to This Day in History Class

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Speaker 1: on Apple podcasts, the I Heart Radio app, or any

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Speaker 1: place you like to find podcasts. Make sure to listen

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Speaker 1: tomorrow when we delve into the death of an American

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Speaker 1: cultural leader and icon of resistance. Hi. I'm Eves and

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Speaker 1: you're listening to This Day in History Class, a show

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Speaker 1: that makes time travel a little bit easier. The day

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Speaker 1: was December four, nineteen. A patent was issued for the

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Speaker 1: cathode ray tube amusement device, a predecessor to early video games.

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Speaker 1: German scientists Carl Ferdinand Braun invented the first cathode ray

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Speaker 1: tube inning device in even. A cathode ray tube, or

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Speaker 1: a CRT, is a vacuum tube that produces images when

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Speaker 1: an electron beam hits a phosphorescent surface. American engineer Allen B.

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Speaker 1: Dumont made the first long lasting, commercially practical CRT for

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Speaker 1: television in nineteen thirty one. He started his company, Allen B.

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Speaker 1: Dumont Laboratories, and before the end of the decade, the

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Speaker 1: company was manufacturing some of the earliest commercial television receivers

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Speaker 1: with the improved CRT s. He also established the Dumont Network,

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Speaker 1: a TV network used to help promote his TV sales.

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Speaker 1: Physicist Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. Had begun researching the cathode

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Speaker 1: ray tube while he was getting his doctorate in physics

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Speaker 1: at Cornell University, and he was hired as research director

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Speaker 1: at Dumont Laboratories in New Jersey. During World War Two,

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Speaker 1: Dumont Laboratories shifted its focus to wartime technology like radar.

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Speaker 1: Sel ray Man was also an engineer at Dumont, and

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Speaker 1: he and Goldsmith were likely inspired by radar displays when

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Speaker 1: they developed the design for the cathode ray tube amusement device.

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Speaker 1: The device was made up of resistors, a saw tooth generator,

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Speaker 1: and a CRT. The game simulated firing missiles at targets.

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Speaker 1: The player would use a knob to aim the beam

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Speaker 1: generated by the CRT at a target on the screen. Targets,

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Speaker 1: like pictures of airplanes, had to be placed manually on

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Speaker 1: the screen with a piece of paper. They filed the

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Speaker 1: patent for the amusement device in January of ninety seven,

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Speaker 1: and the application was granted on December four nine. The

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Speaker 1: patent said that quote the game can be made more

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Speaker 1: spectacular and the interest theory in both from the players

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Speaker 1: and the observer standpoint can be increased by making a

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Speaker 1: visible explosion of the cathode ray beam take place when

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Speaker 1: the target is hit. That could be done by defocusing

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Speaker 1: the beam. It was the first known time in history

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Speaker 1: when people proposed using a CRT to play a game,

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Speaker 1: but the device was never manufactured and it had no

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Speaker 1: significant influence on the development of the video game industry.

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Speaker 1: It's not clear exactly why the game was never actually built,

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Speaker 1: but it could have been because Dumont lacked the resources

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Speaker 1: to fund the project. The cathode ray tube amusement device

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Speaker 1: was not the first video game, a title that some

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Speaker 1: have awarded it. There was no video signal, no computer,

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Speaker 1: and no software program. It was a simple electro mechanical device.

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Speaker 1: All that said, the invention is notable in its anticipation

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Speaker 1: of early video games, and it's considered the earliest recorded

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Speaker 1: interactive electronic game. I'm Eve Jeff Coo and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: No any fellow history buffs who would enjoy the show,

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Speaker 1: You can share it with them. We're on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at t B I h C Podcast. If

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Speaker 1: emails your thing, send us a note at this day

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Speaker 1: at I Heeart Media dot com Thanks for listening. We'll

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Speaker 1: see you here again tomorrow with another episode. For more

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Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.