Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi. My name is Robert Lamb and this is the artifact,
Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
Speaker 2: focusing on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. In
Speaker 2: our recent Stuff to Blow Your Mind series, Oil and
Speaker 2: Troubled Water, we discussed eighteenth century American polymath Benjamin Franklin's
Speaker 2: experiments with oil, experiments which inspired him to carry a
Speaker 2: small quantity of oil on him at all times, hidden
Speaker 2: in a special compartment of his bamboo walking stick. This
Speaker 2: detail can't help but add to the mystique of America's
Speaker 2: weirdest founding father, and it ties directly into the larger
Speaker 2: topic of special items hidden in canes or walking sticks.
Speaker 2: As Michelle Debjek explored in a twenty seventeen Mental Floss article,
Speaker 2: one can find various antique walking sticks and canes with
Speaker 2: all manner of special gadgety features, ranging from the possibly
Speaker 2: practical to these somewhat ridiculous. There's a nineteenth century cane
Speaker 2: with a coin weighing gadget built into the handle. There's
Speaker 2: a magic lantern projector cane, a cider pressed walking stick,
Speaker 2: an architect's cane with drafting tools hidden inside, a spy
Speaker 2: camera cane from the nineteen eighties, a nineteenth century cane
Speaker 2: containing a miniature croquet set, a microscope cane, and a
Speaker 2: nineteenth century eagle headed crossbow cane. There's even a spitting
Speaker 2: cane that naturally reminds one of the gimmicked weapon umbrellas
Speaker 2: favored by Batman villain the Penguin. All of these gadget
Speaker 2: canes clear novelties extend from the popularity of cane swords
Speaker 2: or sword sticks in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe. Now,
Speaker 2: the basic appeal of a hidden blade is understandable. I
Speaker 2: remember when I was a child and I first saw
Speaker 2: Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in the Granada television series.
Speaker 2: I watched him whip out a cane sword and I
Speaker 2: was totally won over by the coolness of the thing.
Speaker 2: But the popularity of this sort of concealed weapon actually
Speaker 2: had to do with how uncool openly carrying a sword
Speaker 2: had become in polite society. Then, as sword canes became fashionable,
Speaker 2: the idea of hiding other various things such as gadgets
Speaker 2: and curios in a cane or walking stick became the
Speaker 2: new fat Now to be clear, sword canes are weapons.
Speaker 2: Murderers have used them in committing their crimes, and they
Speaker 2: are often banned by local or federal laws as they
Speaker 2: are in essence concealed weapons. They also sometimes factor into
Speaker 2: historical mysteries, including the death of nineteenth century American author
Speaker 2: Edgar Allan Poe. Poe's cause of death remains a matter
Speaker 2: of dispute, and the theories range from illness to murder
Speaker 2: and even cooping election fraud. Will likely never know for
Speaker 2: sure what happened, but some theorists have latched onto the
Speaker 2: fact that shortly before his death he managed to borrow
Speaker 2: a sword cane from his friend, doctor John Carter, perhaps
Speaker 2: by accident or perhaps intentionally, and left his own cane
Speaker 2: in its place. If his borrowing of the sword cane
Speaker 2: was intentional, then this could help prop up arguments that
Speaker 2: he anticipated foul play or violence of some sort. However,
Speaker 2: if his death was due to rabies, lead poisoning, or
Speaker 2: any of the other dozen or so maladies that have
Speaker 2: been suggested, then the sword cane doesn't really get us anywhere.
Speaker 2: The hidden blade remains an enigmatic artifact, though for in it,
Speaker 2: we see that old and symbolic human weapon, the sword
Speaker 2: hidden within a walking aid or fashion accessory, hiding murderous
Speaker 2: intent or awareness of some violence in the world when
Speaker 2: we read about it, when we find it among one's possessions,
Speaker 2: we can't help but speculate. Tune in for additional editions
Speaker 2: of the Artifact each week. As always, You can email
Speaker 2: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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