1
00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,480
Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of

2
00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:13,840
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is

3
00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,960
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,

4
00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:21,640
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

5
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,600
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

6
00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:39,320
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Humans have become very good at a lot

7
00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:42,320
Speaker 1: of things over the years. Our use of language, both

8
00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:45,160
Speaker 1: spoken and written, has allowed us to pass knowledge from

9
00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:48,199
Speaker 1: one generation to the next, helping us become masters of

10
00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:53,120
Speaker 1: many useful skills over time, cooking, hunting, building devices that

11
00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:57,240
Speaker 1: help improve our lives and overcome challenges. In fact, our

12
00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:01,320
Speaker 1: inventiveness is possibly the most defining qity we have. We

13
00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:05,040
Speaker 1: as a species are incapable of flights or spending long

14
00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:08,679
Speaker 1: periods of time underwater, and yet we've built contraptions that

15
00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:11,640
Speaker 1: allow us to do both. We've improved the quality of

16
00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:15,440
Speaker 1: our food, our medicine, and our response to natural disasters

17
00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:20,000
Speaker 1: and epidemics. We really are quite inventive, But right at

18
00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:22,480
Speaker 1: the top of our list of skills is something deserving

19
00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:26,679
Speaker 1: of less praise. We are tragically good at war. In fact,

20
00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:29,039
Speaker 1: humans have been battling each other for so long that

21
00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:32,200
Speaker 1: some of the most ancient mythologies on the planet include

22
00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:35,040
Speaker 1: a god of war. It seems that there has always

23
00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:38,200
Speaker 1: been warfare, but rather than invent our way out of it,

24
00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:41,360
Speaker 1: we've become really good at finding new ways to do

25
00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:45,679
Speaker 1: it better or worse. The Romans understood this very well,

26
00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:48,559
Speaker 1: and while they might not have invented one particular weapon,

27
00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:51,320
Speaker 1: they spread its use far and wide. It was a

28
00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:54,720
Speaker 1: small object, easily lifted that could be thrown into hordes

29
00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:59,120
Speaker 1: of enemy troops, causing widespread damage when they exploded, sending

30
00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:01,560
Speaker 1: out shrapnel that could turn the tide of battle in

31
00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:05,640
Speaker 1: their favor. In the eleventh century, German forces serving under

32
00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:08,840
Speaker 1: Emperor Henry the First found themselves defending a fortress against

33
00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:11,639
Speaker 1: French troops from the rain. In a desperate attempt to

34
00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:14,840
Speaker 1: send their attackers running, the Germans picked up the same

35
00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:17,880
Speaker 1: weapon and tossed it over their walls, and it worked.

36
00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:22,080
Speaker 1: Its usefulness spread over the years, reaching most of Europe.

37
00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:25,720
Speaker 1: King Richard actually employed the use of catapults to launch

38
00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:29,720
Speaker 1: the weapon deep into enemy encampments. In the hundreds, during

39
00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:32,640
Speaker 1: a battle between Portugal and the Moors, the weapon was

40
00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:35,720
Speaker 1: used with great success, and towards the end of the

41
00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:39,119
Speaker 1: Thirty Years War, defenders of a walled city in Bavaria

42
00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:42,200
Speaker 1: used their own version of these weapons to toss them

43
00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:46,000
Speaker 1: over the walls, inflicting massive damage on the Swedish army

44
00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:50,120
Speaker 1: trying to attack them. Covered in wounds, the Swedes retreated.

45
00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:54,160
Speaker 1: There are even stories of sailors using this weapon during

46
00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:57,760
Speaker 1: naval battles. One or two brave souls would climb up

47
00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,680
Speaker 1: to the highest point on their ships, rigging and then

48
00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:03,920
Speaker 1: tossed the weapon down onto the enemy vessel, and the

49
00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,919
Speaker 1: destruction it caused would often give the smaller ships an

50
00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:11,760
Speaker 1: advantage over much more threatening attackers. Now, I do need

51
00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:13,880
Speaker 1: to stop and point out that this is a weapon

52
00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:18,280
Speaker 1: that saw very little advancement over the centuries. While firearms

53
00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,120
Speaker 1: have seemingly evolved from the Stone Age to the Space

54
00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:24,919
Speaker 1: Age in terms of usability and effectiveness, this ancient weapon

55
00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:28,120
Speaker 1: has stayed pretty much the same. But there have been

56
00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:31,840
Speaker 1: some creative uses of it throughout history. Although typically thrown

57
00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:35,400
Speaker 1: by soldiers or defenders, some people have actually tried using

58
00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,840
Speaker 1: this weapon in new and inventive ways. Some castles in

59
00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:42,040
Speaker 1: England whales in Scotland were known to embed the weapon

60
00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:45,800
Speaker 1: directly inside their walls, knowing that attackers would set it

61
00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,800
Speaker 1: off and harm themselves in the process. Other armies developed

62
00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:53,800
Speaker 1: smaller delivery devices, loading blow pipes with the dangerous contents

63
00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:56,440
Speaker 1: of these bombs and shooting them at their enemies in

64
00:03:56,520 --> 00:04:00,480
Speaker 1: close range combat. And in the fourteenth century, one European

65
00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:04,280
Speaker 1: weapons designer created a sort of gatling gun catapult that

66
00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:09,600
Speaker 1: spun around and fired off a constant barrage of their payload. Thankfully,

67
00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:12,560
Speaker 1: modern armies no longer used this weapon in the battles

68
00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:15,600
Speaker 1: they fight, something I think soldiers on both sides can

69
00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:18,240
Speaker 1: be thankful for. You see, it was the sort of

70
00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:21,720
Speaker 1: weapon that could backfire easily, harming both the people who

71
00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,880
Speaker 1: are targeted as well as those doing the targeting. Plus,

72
00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:28,880
Speaker 1: we've just decided there are more effective ways of defending

73
00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:32,599
Speaker 1: ourselves than throwing a delicious food source at our enemies,

74
00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:36,039
Speaker 1: especially when we run the risk of getting stung in

75
00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:40,159
Speaker 1: the process. That ancient weapon of choice, often thrown over

76
00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:57,039
Speaker 1: walls into crowds of attacking soldiers, the beehive. Can I

77
00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:00,719
Speaker 1: confess something to you. It's something I'm embarrassed about, even

78
00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:03,960
Speaker 1: though it happened almost thirty years ago. You see, despite

79
00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:07,159
Speaker 1: being an above average student in high school, I nearly

80
00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:12,200
Speaker 1: failed in one subject, chemistry. Maybe I shouldn't feel so

81
00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:14,479
Speaker 1: badly about that. I know a ton of people who

82
00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:18,200
Speaker 1: have told me the same thing. Chemistry, even the basic stuff,

83
00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:21,320
Speaker 1: is tricky and it takes a special mind to master

84
00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:24,760
Speaker 1: the rules and systems inside it. As far as I'm concerned,

85
00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:27,240
Speaker 1: those who go on to study it in college, let

86
00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:30,320
Speaker 1: alone grad school, are the closest thing to wizards to

87
00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:34,360
Speaker 1: walk the earth. But there's no denying the power of chemistry.

88
00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:37,880
Speaker 1: Right If it wasn't for smart people trying out new ideas,

89
00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:41,560
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have super glue, or penicillin or the tiny

90
00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,880
Speaker 1: glowing rectangle you're using to listen to this story right now,

91
00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:48,400
Speaker 1: Chemistry has changed the world. So while it's a tough

92
00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:51,560
Speaker 1: subject for most students, let's be grateful for those who

93
00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:56,200
Speaker 1: excel at it, students like Stephanie. Stephanie was born in

94
00:05:56,279 --> 00:05:59,760
Speaker 1: ninety three to parents who had immigrated to Pittsburgh from

95
00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:02,279
Speaker 1: pole Land, and she discovered an early love of the

96
00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:05,719
Speaker 1: natural world. This was thanks in part to her father,

97
00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:08,720
Speaker 1: who worked as a naturalist, and even though he passed

98
00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:12,080
Speaker 1: away when she was just ten, that interest never went away.

99
00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:16,400
Speaker 1: In six she graduated with a degree in chemistry from

100
00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:20,760
Speaker 1: Carnegie Mellon University and then took a pause. Medical school

101
00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:22,919
Speaker 1: was on her list of goals, but she needed to

102
00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:25,320
Speaker 1: earn the money to pay for it first, so she

103
00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:28,320
Speaker 1: took a job as a chemist at DuPont, putting her

104
00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:32,320
Speaker 1: bright mind and her new degree to work. Once settled there,

105
00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:36,560
Speaker 1: she was put onto DuPont's Pioneer Research Laboratory team, their

106
00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:40,279
Speaker 1: mission to find a lightweight fiber that was stronger than steel.

107
00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:43,680
Speaker 1: You see, at that point, most automobile tires were made

108
00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:47,400
Speaker 1: of rubber and reinforced with steel wire. It was effective,

109
00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:50,600
Speaker 1: but it added a lot of weight, and DuPont understood

110
00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:54,800
Speaker 1: that chemistry might hold the answer. Now Stephanie had no

111
00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:57,960
Speaker 1: plans to stick around. Medical school was where she wanted

112
00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:00,479
Speaker 1: to be, but she was the sort of person who

113
00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:04,159
Speaker 1: found chemistry fun if you can believe that, And soon enough,

114
00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:07,920
Speaker 1: a summer became a year, and then two. In nineteen

115
00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:10,640
Speaker 1: fifty nine, her work won her a publication award from

116
00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:14,600
Speaker 1: the American Chemical Society. She had demonstrated how to produce

117
00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:18,280
Speaker 1: a nylon rope inside a beaker of chemicals, not earth

118
00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:21,720
Speaker 1: shaking on its own, but Stephanie did it at room temperature.

119
00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:25,920
Speaker 1: And maybe you're thinking to yourself, wait, I've seen science

120
00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:29,080
Speaker 1: teachers do this in school, and you'd be right. But

121
00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:31,520
Speaker 1: it was Stephanie who taught them all how to do it.

122
00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:35,480
Speaker 1: Stephanie would end up filing twenty eight patents over her

123
00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:38,920
Speaker 1: four decades at DuPont while building a legendary career as

124
00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:42,680
Speaker 1: a chemist, problem solver, and innovator. Not bad for a job.

125
00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:45,680
Speaker 1: She never intended to keep just a way stop on

126
00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:48,360
Speaker 1: her journey toward a medical degree that could have helped

127
00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:52,200
Speaker 1: her save lives, but thankfully one of her inventions made

128
00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:55,240
Speaker 1: up for all of that. In nineteen sixty four, the

129
00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:58,720
Speaker 1: US was about to face a gasoline shortage, and one

130
00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:01,560
Speaker 1: way to help cars is less gas was to reduce

131
00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,720
Speaker 1: their weight, which brought the tire project back to her desk.

132
00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:07,840
Speaker 1: If they could find a lighter material to replace that

133
00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:12,360
Speaker 1: steel wire inside them, tires would become more efficient. Now

134
00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:15,080
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go into the chemistry of her solution.

135
00:08:15,320 --> 00:08:17,360
Speaker 1: You can listen to the first twenty seconds of this

136
00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:20,960
Speaker 1: story for my reasons why. Plus the terminology is so

137
00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:24,080
Speaker 1: complex that would put my tongue into nuts, but in

138
00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:27,400
Speaker 1: Layman's terms, that get us into the ballpark. What Stephanie

139
00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,480
Speaker 1: did was recognize some potential in something that others would

140
00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:34,520
Speaker 1: have considered a mistake. Most nylon fibers were made by

141
00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:37,640
Speaker 1: heating the polymers and then running the clear solution through

142
00:08:37,679 --> 00:08:41,880
Speaker 1: a spinneret a sort of hypodermic needle for polymer solutions.

143
00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:45,839
Speaker 1: The results were stiff fibers that broke fairly easily, but

144
00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:49,240
Speaker 1: Stephanie created a solution that wasn't clear. In fact, she

145
00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:52,199
Speaker 1: later described it as sort of like buttermilk, and when

146
00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:55,680
Speaker 1: run through the spinnerett, this new recipe, for lack of

147
00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:58,840
Speaker 1: a better term, produced a fiber that was five times

148
00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:03,560
Speaker 1: stronger than steel. After a brief stint inside tires, this

149
00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:07,480
Speaker 1: new polymer found its way into more flexible items, rope,

150
00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:11,520
Speaker 1: fabric for sales, and even bicycle tires. But it was

151
00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:16,679
Speaker 1: one particular item of clothing that changed history. Stephanie Kulec

152
00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:19,840
Speaker 1: might not have made it to medical school, earned her degree,

153
00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:23,880
Speaker 1: and gone into practice, saving lives and hospitals everywhere in America,

154
00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:27,000
Speaker 1: but she invented something that has kept a lot of

155
00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:31,800
Speaker 1: people out of the hospital ever since. The lightweight incredibly strong,

156
00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:36,960
Speaker 1: flexible and adaptable material that we used today in bulletproof

157
00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:44,240
Speaker 1: vests Kevlar. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of

158
00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:48,240
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,

159
00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:51,880
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast

160
00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:56,160
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky

161
00:09:56,200 --> 00:09:59,640
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award

162
00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:03,240
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,

163
00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:05,880
Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it

164
00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:09,520
Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until

165
00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:12,520
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,