WEBVTT - Oil and Troubled Water, Part 2 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:14.720 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:15.600 name is Robert. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.960 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And after a little bit 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.439 of an interval, we are back with part two in 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:25.120 our series on pouring oil over troubled waters. 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.440 That's right to refresh. In the last episode, which I 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:31.680 guess was over a week ago, at this point, we 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:35.400 discussed several interesting mentions from ancient and medieval writings, in 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:40.199 particular about the interaction between oil and water. We went 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:42.239 over to some of the basics about this, and you 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:44.440 know the old idea that oil and water don't mix, 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.280 and that oil in water or oil mixed around with 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:51.240 water can create kind of this novel appearance that captivates 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.240 our imagination. And we also discuss how it may have 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.600 been added to stormy seas to calm them down, and 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.240 it may have been used in some capacity by free 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:04.640 divers to somehow smooth or clear or illuminate the waters 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.039 they're diving in so as to better see what they're 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:07.640 looking for. 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.280 Now, that was an issue last time that I was 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.760 really confused by because it wasn't even clear to me 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.160 exactly what these ancient authors were claiming. They were saying 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.880 that in some sense a diver might like swim underneath 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.360 the water with some oil in their mouth, and then 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:25.880 when they needed to see better, they would like spit 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.119 the oil out into the water, or I think you said. 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.240 In some other sources people just talked about like putting 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.600 oil over their eyes before they went diving, and I 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.840 couldn't understand from the original sources. We looked at, like, 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:42.319 what even the alleged method of action was there? You 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:44.360 finally have some answers on this, right. 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:45.960 Yeah, I mean I don't know that i'd be able 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:49.120 to bring one hundred percent clarity to the issue. I 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.760 think there's still gonna I think there may still be 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.080 a certain amount of like historical telephone game going on 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:57.280 with some of these. But I did find a great 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.240 deal of clarity on this in a twenty two only 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.480 one book that I picked up titled Neither Letters nor 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:07.400 Swimming The Rebirth of Swimming and Free Diving by John 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:11.640 m mcmanumon. So this is an interesting book where it's 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:13.639 a little harder to get your hands on this one, 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:15.680 but it's worth picking up if you're interested in the 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:19.200 history of diving and swimming in general. Oil comes up 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.560 multiple times in the book, sometimes just in general observances 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:27.560 of waters that were known to contain oil naturally in 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:31.600 the ancient world. Ancient writers mentioned a spring at Carthage, 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:35.320 There's the Laparous River in southern Turkey or what is 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.320 now southern Turkey, and there's also a lake in Ethiopia 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.120 that were singled out, all noted for oil that could 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:43.480 either be extracted for use. In the case of Carthage, 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:47.920 I think they used it with livestock or just waters 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:52.880 that had a quote unquote naturally lubricating effect on the swimmer. Mmm. 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:59.639 Sounds great now, this idea of lubricating yourself for a swim, 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.200 this was this. This was pretty interesting to me because 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:06.240 I swim several days a week, but I never oil 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:10.359 myself up beforehand. And I don't see anybody else doing 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:10.639 it either. 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.480 I mean, I was gonna ask, is that even a 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.640 thing anybody does? I don't think so. 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.120 I mean you see cases, certainly, there are cases of 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:23.960 people lubricating their body with lotions and oils afterwards, or 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:27.280 you know, something to that effect. But I mean it 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:29.440 may bee. I don't know if it's anything that has 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.679 ever explored, and say, competitive swimming. If it is, I'm 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:34.160 not aware of it off the top of my head. 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:40.400 But there are various mentions of oil lubricated swimmers in 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.560 ancient texts. The idea that before you entered the water 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.480 to swim, you'd want to rub your naked body down 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:51.160 with oil, okay, And the reasons for this is, you know, 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:55.520 seems to vary. So one account, during the Corinthian War 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.320 in the three eighty nine BC, the Athenian forces use 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:06.440 swimming in against Spartan forces near this place in Egypt, Habatus. 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.600 Apparently the waters they were quite cold, so they rubbed 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.960 themselves down with olive oil beforehand, and they drink a 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.159 lot of alcohol before they got into the water. Now, 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.520 McManamon points out that, okay, the oil might have provided 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.520 some insulation that actually helped protect them against the cold, 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:26.000 but the drinking would have been counterproductive. 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.680 Drinking doesn't actually make you warmer. It might make you 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.960 feel warmer temporarily, but right, yeah, it doesn't help. 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.599 The general Hannibal is also said to have ordered his 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:38.680 soldiers to oil themselves down to protect against the cold. 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.560 At the Battle of Trevia River, the first major battle 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:46.479 of the Second Punic War in two eighteen BCE. So 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.400 in general, there seems to be this idea that like, okay, 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.000 you could protect yourself against the cold by covering yourself 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.919 with oil, and then perhaps that would work in the 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:54.640 water as well. 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:55.440 Okay. 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:00.880 Now, on the subject of ancient free diving divers, in 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.200 particular in the Persian Gulf and in the waters between 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.400 India and Sri Lanka, McManamon writes that there's a lot 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:10.240 we don't know about their practices in the ancient world, 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:13.000 and then they were often working with kind of sketchy 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.640 ideas concerning the nature of oysters. So he mentioned this 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.159 idea that you see written in some of these old 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.320 texts about how oysters have leaders and you have to 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:23.240 take out the first oyster first. You have to find 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:25.560 the leader, take it out first, and then the rest 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:26.160 will follow. 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:31.200 Okay, decapitation strike against the oyster brigade. 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.120 Yeah, there's also talk about you need to watch your 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:38.360 fingers because the oysters may sever the fingers, and mcmamon 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:40.760 casts a lot of doubt on this. I mean, I 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.520 know that there are concerns with certain types of free diving, 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:49.480 and you know, foraging for various shells and creatures. There 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.279 are particular creatures where you do have to potentially worry 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:54.680 about a you know, finger getting caught or snagged or whatever. 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.480 But in this case McManamon seems to write that it 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.520 was not really But basically it all drives home just 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:07.160 how alien the environment was into which these people were venturing. 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.400 Just think about just how limited you were as you 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:13.760 gazed down into the water, as you dived into the 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.600 water and tried to find whatever you were looking for. 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.520 So in this particular case they would have likely used grafts, 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:24.320 which makes sense. And in the case of India and 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.240 Sri Lanka in particular, there's apparently evidence that they made 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.920 condemned criminals do the work. And I think in general 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:33.160 it was considered dangerous work and some writings reflect this. 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.760 Whatever the case, the clearer the diving conditions, the better 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.839 to see what you're doing as you go down there 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:45.080 and to and try and venture into the oyster kingdom. 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.719 So mcmamon writes, quote, if the sea was choppy, the 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:51.600 crew would spread oil on its surface to settle it down. 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:56.360 Modern fishermen use a similar method to improve surface visibility, 0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:00.600 pouring shark oil at times mixed with sand to settle waters. 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.360 So this is the idea that we've discussed already. We're 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.880 going to continue to discuss. The idea here, I believe 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.840 is that friction of the oil on the water surface 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.120 keeps the surface from ruffling or breaking, at least for 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:15.480 a short period of time. 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:21.520 The question of the mechanism of how oil colmbs the water, 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:23.680 if it does, is something I'm going to get into 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:25.760 in a paper that I'll discuss in a minute here. 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:28.560 Yeah, but in general, it sounds like the idea that 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:30.680 is being expressed here is like if you can make 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:32.080 the more you can make the surface of the water 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:35.640 like glass, supposedly through the application of some oil, the 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:37.880 better you can see down into where you're about to 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.720 send your divers, who again are free diving without masks, etc. 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:44.560 Okay, So in this case it would be a question 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:48.440 of being able to look down into the water from 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:50.440 the surface and see through it better. 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:54.280 That's my understanding, Yes, Okay. Now the author also discusses 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:58.920 a legendary free diver from Italian traditions by the name 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:05.560 of Cola Pasha Cola the fish in Italian, a Mediterranean 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:11.200 hero whose exploits holding his breath were apparently comparable to Coculon, 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.600 to BeO Wolf, to King Oloffe and others. I often 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.080 don't think about this, but yeah, you have a lot 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:19.560 of heroes who can really hold their breath for a 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:21.760 long time, and you can take that into the modern area. 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.560 I mean, look at Indiana Jones right then he holds 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:26.480 his breath on that submarine or does he get in 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:27.080 the submarine? 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.240 Oh wait, I know what you're talking about now. Yeah. 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:34.480 Anyway, in this particular case, this is an oral tradition 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:38.360 that was written down by medieval chroniclers during the twelfth century. 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.680 He said to have had various adventures and was said 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:43.560 to spend so much time in the water that he 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:45.760 would die if he stayed on land for too long. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.760 So more fish than man in some ways. It's certainly 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.520 a tall tale, to be sure, but writings about him 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.520 do contain some insight into the use of oil in 0:08:55.600 --> 0:09:00.160 free diving. Quote. While diving, Cola followed the ancient and 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.880 releasing oil into the water column in order to see better. 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.680 Sicilian fishermen still use that technique, especially when they are 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:12.760 hunting octopi in the profound Abyss of the Straits of Messina. 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.719 Cola reported to the sovereign that he had seen mountains 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:21.640 and valleys, woods and fields and trees with edible fruit. 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:24.559 So like another kingdom, just like we have on land, 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:26.040 but under the waves. 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:30.000 Exactly, which is something we've discussed before in terms of 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:36.560 how previous generations thought about the world underwater. And I 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:38.240 like that there's also kind of a I mean, there's 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.480 a hint of truth to this as well, like he's 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:46.240 reporting that, hey, underneath the water, there's actually a robust ecosystem. Now, 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:49.600 whether it's actually woods and fields and trees with edible fruit, 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:53.600 well obviously not, but there is in a sense this 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:55.800 rich other world down there that you can imagine a 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:57.360 free diver being able to attest to. 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:59.880 So this passage is not just talking about putting oil 0:09:59.880 --> 0:10:03.600 in the surface, but actually releasing oil down underneath the 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.680 water when you are down there, and again that helping 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.880 to see. But this passage doesn't say why that would 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:12.840 work if it did, right. 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:14.520 And I wish again, I wish I could have one 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:18.720 hundred percent clarity on this particular angle. I haven't found anything. 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.160 It's worth noting that there are multiple factors that contribute 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:26.160 to decreased visibility underwater and you have particles in the water, 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:31.240 You have salinity gradients, temperature gradients, organic particles, just you 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:33.720 know issues of light and you know where the sun 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:35.760 is positioned in the sky and how much light you're 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:40.959 getting in a particular volume of water. Interestingly, I was 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.439 reading that you know sometimes there's a visible layer between 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.160 thermoclines that look like the smoothness of an oil schine. 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.200 So I couldn't help but wonder if that might factor 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.600 into some of this, like things that may be encountered 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:58.480 underwater that have the feel or look of oil separation. Now, 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:02.719 another interesting bit here on medieval pearl divers. Mcmanumon has 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.360 some interesting information on oil use from the Arabic world 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.000 of the time, and I'm going to read a longer 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:11.200 quote here and warning that it is a little bit 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:15.000 graphic as it includes mention of alleged body modification for 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:19.240 the purposes of free diving. Quote. Pearl divers attempted to 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.200 eliminate the pain in their ears and block their nostrils. 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.040 They ruptured their own ear drum and knew they had 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:28.480 succeeded when blood flowed out. They soaked cotton in oil 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.440 and inserted it into their ears. The technique had an 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.280 added benefit on the bottom. As the oil leaked out 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.960 and floated up, it clarified the water column by allowing 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.640 greater light to penetrate. For the nostrils, pearl divers had 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.839 various options. They could plug the openings with small balls 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.080 carved from a tortoise shell and use a cloth soaked 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.760 in oil like the ones used in the ears. Alternatively, 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.839 they could wear a clip over the outside of their nostrils, 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:57.559 carved from ivory or horn or tortoise shell. The stated 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.960 purpose of blocking the nostrils was to keep water out, 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:02.800 but it may also have aided in equalizing pressure in 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:06.280 the sinuses. And years professional free divers still use a 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.120 nose clip, and he also mentions this at a later 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:11.280 point in the book as well, attributing the oil soaked 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.920 cotton swabs in one's ears as being protective but also 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:17.480 kind of having this side effect of like, well, and 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.440 as the oil leaks out, you're only going to see 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:20.040 better down there. 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:21.000 HM. 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:24.079 So I think I think all of you, even though 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.360 again not one hundred percent clarity on all this, but 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:28.800 I think some of these examples are telling. On one hand, 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:31.120 they provide a little more insight into what some of 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.720 these accounts we're talking about concerning free divers bringing down 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.960 oil in their mouths or even in the around their eyes. 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.200 We also see plenty of examples where humans would have 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:46.360 had a chance to witness oil interacting with water whilst swimming. 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:47.760 You know, this idea of Okay, if we had some 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:49.680 sort of tradition of oiling your body up before you 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:54.080 go in, then perhaps you're bringing that information with you. 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.240 If there is some practice about, you know, calming the 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.040 water at the surface of the water so as to 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:02.360 better seed down, then that can easily be translated into 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:04.400 this idea of like we'll bring oil down with you 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:08.080 and make that clear as well. So, yeah, I think 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.160 there's still some mysteries remaining here, but I think I 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.120 can maybe sort of glimpse the shape of the thing 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:14.760 a little better. 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.720 Okay, Well, even if the answer is still a bit elusive, 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:20.120 I think valued effort at digging there. 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:23.480 We may have to come back to this particular book 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:25.520 in the future. He has a lot of great information 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:30.600 about like early ideas and developments in the creation of 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.920 like actual goggles and masks that would enable people to 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.560 eventually see under the water with the kind of clarity 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:39.840 they were clearly reaching for. 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.880 Oh yeah, we could do some invention coverage on old 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.559 school diving helmets, which are beautiful. 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:59.000 Now. I believe in the first episode we warned that 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:01.959 there would be been from that Ben Franklin would pop 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:07.760 up in this topic. So let's let's I see him. 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:10.800 There is Okay, he's here. He does. He frequently pops 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:14.560 up on the show, especially in our invention episodes. Occasionally 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:16.160 you didn't know that you were going to have Ben 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:18.680 Franklin content, but then he appears. 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.440 That's right. So Benjamin Franklin often known as one of 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.880 the so called founding fathers of the United States. Uh, 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.840 he was an early American I don't even know what 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.280 what what are? What's the order that you put the 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:33.280 things he did when you say what he was, he 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:42.080 was an early American uh statesman, author, businessman, uh, scientist, inventor, 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:43.560 he kind of did everything. 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:49.080 Yeah, just kind of a general American polymath and weird guy, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:53.440 you know, an Enlightenment thinker that had a great deal 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:57.600 of curiosity about the world and and entertained those curiosities. 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:02.400 Now specifically in the domain of science. Benjamin Franklin, I 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:06.280 think is best known for his experiments with electricity, and 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:09.440 this would include experiments with the storage and discharge of 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:13.160 electrical potential in what we now call a battery after 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:17.680 Franklin's terminology, like the Franklin battery was made by putting 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:20.720 together a series of a pre existing invention called a 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.680 Leiden jar, and he could He's like, oh wow, you 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.360 can really like stack these things up and really pack 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.320 a punch with the energy you're storing. One of these 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.560 battery experiments I know we've talked about on the show 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:36.600 before because of its weirdness, was the electrocution of a 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.120 turkey for a holiday dinner, which he then said was 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:44.600 to be roasted upon an electric jack after it was electrocuted. 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:48.200 But for some reason, Franklin believed that this would make 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:52.040 the meat especially tender and succulent if he used electricity 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.800 from one of his batteries to kill the thing, but 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:59.480 he ended up badly shocking himself while attempting this. But 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.320 on the broader subject of electricity, Franklin's electrical research also 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:08.240 entailed work in support of the hypothesis that lightning was 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:12.360 in fact a form of electricity, was a type of 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:16.240 electrical discharge and Franklin was not the first person to 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:20.080 make this connection, but did important work investigating it. The 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:23.720 most famous anecdote here, of course, is the one the 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.840 kite and key experiment, which is in a way of 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:33.600 disputed historical status. Franklin apparently never described himself doing this 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:35.920 experiment in any of his letters, though I think he 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:39.440 sort of described the experiment in some writing as a 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:42.560 kind of hypothetical, like this is an experiment one could do, 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.440 though after his death people did say that he himself 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:47.960 had carried it out. If he did do it, it 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.920 would have been probably in June of seventeen fifty two. However, 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:56.600 Franklin was correct about lightning being a form of electrical discharge, 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.320 and this led to his advocacy of the use of 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:04.320 sharpened iron lightning rods to protect buildings during storms. And 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:06.040 this is kind of a tangent, but one I got 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.679 interested in while reading about Franklin's lightning rod research for 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.600 this episode, I wanted to share a paragraph I came 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.240 across from an article from the Franklin Institute, which is 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:20.159 a museum of Benjamin Franklin's life and work in Philadelphia, 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.879 where they write quote Franklin began to advocate lightning rods 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:30.159 that had sharp points. His English colleagues favored blunt tipped 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:34.560 lightning rods, reasoning that sharp ones attracted lightning and increased 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:38.080 the risk of strikes. They thought blunt rods were less 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.159 likely to be struck. King George the Third had his 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.320 palace equipped with a blunt lightning rod. When it came 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.200 time to equip the colony's buildings with lightning rods, the 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.680 decision became a political statement. The favored pointed lightning rod 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.800 expressed support for Franklin's theories of protecting public buildings and 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:59.320 the rejection of theories supported by the king. The English 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.200 thought this was just another way for the flourishing colonies 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.000 to be disobedient to them. And I thought this was 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.280 funny because it's an eighteenth century example of a pure 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:11.359 scientific question, just like what's the ideal shape of a 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.080 lightning rod? Where really all we should care about is 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.000 what is the correct answer of this question? Being politicized? Now, 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:22.399 which answer you favor has political connotations, and there is 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.240 political pressure to think a certain way about it. 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:28.600 Well, who is right? Is it the American way or 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:29.240 the British way? 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:31.919 It seems in a way they were both wrong, but 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:34.919 it seems like the English had the better. The blunt 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.639 lightning rods were better overall, according to modern research. I 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.399 looked up there has been modern research on this, so 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:45.560 I found a paper by Moore, Awlick and Risin in 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:49.040 the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology in the year 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.879 two thousand and three, where they say, quote, an examination 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:55.840 of the relevant physics shows that very strong electric fields 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.600 are required above the tips of rods in order that 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.320 they function as strike but that the gradients of the 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:05.879 field strength over sharp tipped rods are so great that 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:09.040 at distances of a few millimeters, the local fields are 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:12.880 often too weak for the development of upward going streamers. 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:16.919 In field tests, rods with rounded tips have been found 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:21.560 to be better strike receptors than were nearby sharp tipped rods. 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.320 Though it gets kind of complicated, so they say overall, 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.080 if you're trying to attract your lightning strikes to these rods, 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:32.040 the blunt ones are better. But as they explained in 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.600 the paper, Franklin's idea was that the purpose of a 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:39.600 sharp tipped lightning rod was not to attract lightning, but 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:45.320 to prevent lightning by allowing thunderclouds to sort of silently 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.480 and gently discharge electricity down to the rod without actually 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:54.000 allowing a violent lightning strike to occur at all. Of course, 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:56.720 it was later recognized that a lightning rod could be 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.720 useful by providing just a conductive pathway to the ground, 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.800 rather than simply letting the lightning find its own way 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:05.880 to the ground through the structure of the building, which 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:08.600 would be a lot more destructive. So the authors of 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:12.760 this paper say that lightning rods don't actually discharge thunderclouds gently. 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:15.960 Franklin was wrong in thinking that would happen, they say, 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.760 quote it is now recognized that the sole function of 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:21.640 a lightning rod is to be the receptor or interceptor 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.679 of strikes for a lightning protection system that conducts lightning 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.919 discharges to the earth without damage to the structure on 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.760 which the system is mounted. So I would say Franklin 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.320 was correct about the nature of lightning being electrical. He 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:39.720 was correct that lightning rods were a good idea. He 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.920 was incorrect in part about how they worked. They don't 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:46.960 actually gently discharge lightning without a strike occurring, And he 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:51.800 was probably incorrect about the ideal design parameters because the 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:55.320 blunt rods, it seems are better. But also, if you'll remember, 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:58.600 it seems like the English were also wrong because it 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.880 said that they thought the blunt rods were less likely 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.680 to be struck, and they're actually better because they're more 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:07.320 likely to be struck. So I thought that was interesting. 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.720 But anyway, we should come back to a different scientific question, 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:13.840 the one of today's episode. This was a different question 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:17.399 that captured Franklin's attention, and so I want to cite 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:23.360 a twenty thirteen historical science paper by Wang Stieglitz, Mardin, 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:27.880 and tam in the Biophysical Journal, published in the year 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:31.959 twenty thirteen called Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia's favorite Son was a 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:38.200 membrane biophysicist. So here's the biographical context. In the year 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:43.440 seventeen fifty seven, the American House of Assembly in Philadelphia 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:47.760 sent Benjamin Franklin as an envoy to King George the 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:51.440 Second of Great Britain, and Franklin was traveling on one 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:54.080 of a fleet of ninety six ships that set out 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:57.639 to cross the Atlantic, departing from New York Harbor. Early 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.439 in their journey, the fleet hit some bad ways. There 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.879 were high winds and heavy waves, and the paper doesn't 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:05.760 mention this, but I will say I've read in other 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:09.080 sources that Franklin was very interested in storms and would 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.639 sometimes chase storms on horseback. So I kind of wonder 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.359 if he was out on deck observing the bad weather 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:20.439 with joyful curiosity while everybody else is vomiting. I don't know, 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:22.880 but whatever he was doing, he at some point made 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:25.439 an observation. He looked out at the rest of the fleet, 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:28.439 and he observed that a couple of the ships in 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:32.239 the fleet appeared to be sailing much more smoothly than 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:35.240