Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / The Family Business

Transcript

The Family Business · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Truly, great ideas don't come around very often,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the kind of once in a lifetime ideas that not
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: only change a person's life, but change the lives of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: people all over the world. Alexander Norris had such an idea.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Norris was born in Ireland in sevente and emigrated to
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: America later in life. He made his home in the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: growing city of Cincinnati, Ohio, along with his two daughters,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Olivia and Elizabeth. Around eighteen thirty three, Olivia met a
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: widower named William who would come over from England several
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: years earlier. William had worked in an English general store
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: as a child. The shop's owner took the boy under
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: his wing and taught him how to dip candles. Williams
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: spent years learning the ropes of running a business, and
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: when he met his first wife, Martha, he knew it
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: was time to strike out on his own. William opened
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: a shop in London, which lasted all of twenty four hours.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: He was robbed the day after his grand opening and
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: could no longer afford to pay back the eight thousand
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: dollar debt he owed. Rather than try his luck again
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: and risk another loss, William and his wife's journey to
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: New York City to start a new He opened a
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: brand new business doing what he knew best, making candles.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: His new endeavor lasted quite a bit longer than his first,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: but it didn't take long for William to grow restless.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: New opportunities were exploding out west, so William and Martha
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: packed up their things and left New York in eighteen
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: thirty two. Sadly, as they were passing through Cincinnati, Martha
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: became bravely ill and passed away. So William put the
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: rest of his trip on hold and decided to settle
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: down in Ohio permanently. He found temporary work at a
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: local bank before restarting his candle making business once again.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: It was during this time when he met Olivia Norris.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: The two fell in love and were quickly married. Meanwhile,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Olivia's sister Elizabeth had also found someone new. His name
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: was James. Like William, James was an immigrant as well,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: this time from Ireland. Just like her father. He'd come
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: over with many others in eighteen nineteen during a time
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: of unrest. His family's intention had been to start a
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: new chapter of their lives in Illinois, but James had
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: gotten very sick as they were traveling through Cincinnati. It
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: took time for him to recover, and his family used
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: that time to come to a decision they were just
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: going to stay. James started apprenticing under a soap maker
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: in the city at the age of eighteen. He gained
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the skills and knowledge he needed to one day open
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: his own soap shop, which he did with a friend
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: who incidentally made candles. After marrying into the Norris family,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: William and James became brothers in law and competitors. Not
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: for business, though, but for resources. That was the thing
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: about candles and soap. They both used the same raw materials,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: bat and oil. Both men had been supplying their individual
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: ventures using the byproducts from Cincinnati's meatpacking industry. That was
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: when their new father in law had this brilliant idea.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: What if they just joined forces and started a new company. Together,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: they could funnel all the fat and oil they ever
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: needed into one business, rather than having to compete. It
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: took them a few years to finally come around to
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: the idea, but in eighteen thirty seven, William and James
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: entered into a partnership. If only they had timed it better.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: That same year, in economic depression known as the Panic
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: of eighteen thirty seven sent the country into a downward spiral.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Businesses shuttered and banks were wiped out. It was estimated
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: that some areas saw unemployment numbers as high as twenty However,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: despite the financial hardships they faced, William and James stuck
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: it out. Even in a depression, people still needed to
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: be clean and see in the dark. Once the panic subsided,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: their business grew and they branched out into other products. Today,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: the Little Soap and Candle Making Companies started by James
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and William now produces laundry detergent, paper towels, toilet paper, batteries,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and shaving razors, amongst so many other things. Little did
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: they know that one day their last names would become
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: practically synonymous with all our everyday needs, and those names,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Procter and Gamble imagine the most famous inventions we used today,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the light bulb, the automobile, even the iPhone. We not
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: only know them, but we know the people behind them
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: as well. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Steve John brilliant
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: minds of their time who ascended to legendary status. But
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: there's one man, though, who created some of the most
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: widely used inventions in history, and no one knows about him.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: His name was Walter Hunt, and he was born in Martinsburg,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: New York, in seventeen nineties six. Not much is known
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: about his upbringing, only what he created later in his life.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: You see, Hunt was a man full of ideas. When
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: he saw a problem, he knew exactly how to fix it.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Take the sewing machine. The first sewing machine patent was
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: issued to Charles Frederick Wisenhal in England in seventeen fifty five.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Over the next several decades, different designs using different types
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: of stitches popped up from inventors all over the world.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Almost none were viable for commercial work, though. It wasn't
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: until eighteen twenty nine when a French tailor opened a
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: clothing company that produced clothes using a brand new machine
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: of his own design. Three years later in America, though,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Walter Hunt created the first lock stitch sewing machine. His
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: design used a needle and a shuttle that worked in
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: in him. As the needle penetrated the fabric to create
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: a loop. The shuttle beneath would travel through the loop
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: with a separate thread. The loop would then get pulled up,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: locking the alternate thread in place, creating a lock stitch.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Hunt first suggested his daughter use his machine to start
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: her own business making corsets. After giving it some thought,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: though he rescinded that advice. He couldn't bear the idea
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: of taking money out of the pockets of tailors and seamstresses.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: It didn't help that the device was prone to frequent jamming.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Hunt gave up on his sewing machine shortly after and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: didn't give it any further thought. Another man named Elias
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: how patented his version of the same machine a few
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: years later and made a lot of money from a
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: little company called Singer. That was okay, though Hunt had
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: more ideas to explore. In eighteen forty nine, he came
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: up with a brand new breed of rifle. He called
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: it the Volition Repeater, and what made it special was
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: its new tubular magazine filled with twelve rounds. The repeater
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: had something in common with Hunt's sewing machine, though it
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: was unreliable, and although Hunt had the foresight to patent
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: his invention this time, he didn't use it to get rich. Instead,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: he sold the design to a man named George Aerosmith.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Aerosmith was in charge of a team of weapons engineers
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: who then improved on Hunt's original design. Their names were
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson. Still, Hunt didn't let their
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: success get him down. He just moved on to the
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: next big thing. Over the course of his life, Walter
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Hunt invented a machine that made nails, an ice plow,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: a knife sharpener, and the device that spun flax. He
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: also improved upon the fountain pen, the inkstand, the bicycle,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: and the saw. Hunt even developed shoes that could walk
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: on ceilings using suction cups. He was a brilliant inventor,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: but he didn't have a head for business. The money
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: he brought in went back out almost immediately, either for
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: patents or to fund his next big idea. As a result,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Hunt was almost always in debt. But it was his
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: greatest invention that led to the saddest story of his career.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Hunt often outsourced the work of drawing his patents to
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: local draftsman who would create the numerous diagrams for his
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: inventions and then annotate them so that they could be
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: submitted to the patent office. He owed one of these
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: draftsmen a debt of fifteen dollars to pay him back.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Hunt came up with a new invention, a kind of pin.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Now other pins of the day were made using multiple
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: wires and various materials. Hunts designed though could be achieved
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: through the use of only one wire. It was wound
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: into a loop at one end to create a kind
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: of spring. On the opposite end, the catch or point
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: was contained behind a clasp. Hunt made a prototype using
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: an eight inch piece of brass wire and then submitted
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: it for approval. He was awarded the patent for his
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: new kind of pin on April tenth of eighteen forty nine,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: which he then sold to W. R. Grayson Company for
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: a total of four hundred dollars. He used fifteen of
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: those dollars to pay off his debt and kept the
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: other three hundred and eighty five for himself. What he
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: didn't realize was that W. R. Grayson Company would immediately
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: turn around and mass produce Hunt's dress pins, as he
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: called them, earning the company millions of dollars in the process.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Oh and we still use Hunts dress pins today, we
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: just know them by a different name, safety Pins. I
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.