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Steamy Beginnings · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. James was born in London, but as an
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  Speaker 1: adult he lived just outside of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia,
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  Speaker 1: although it wasn't called that back then. In fact, the
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  Speaker 1: whole region was just part of the Virginia Colony, the
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  Speaker 1: first successful and lasting British foothold in North America. So
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  Speaker 1: when you think of him as growing up near the
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  Speaker 1: Potomac River, just be sure to imagine him in colonial attire.
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  Speaker 1: And the river was a major part of his life too,
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  Speaker 1: although not in the way anyone could have guessed. They
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  Speaker 1: might have assumed he would be a fisherman, or maybe
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  Speaker 1: run a ferry to the other side for travelers passing through,
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  Speaker 1: but James was more mechanically minded than that. It was
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  Speaker 1: a family interest really. Earlier in life he had lived
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  Speaker 1: in Maryland, where he helped a cousin named Benjamin to
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  Speaker 1: run a water powered mill. And while that might seem
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  Speaker 1: primitive by the technological standards of our day and age,
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  Speaker 1: these were complex machines back then, and they required specific
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  Speaker 1: skills to design and build, and James had those skills.
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  Speaker 1: In the Virginia Colony, he began to acquire a reputation
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  Speaker 1: as a builder, even while running an in for travelers.
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  Speaker 1: One of those people who passed through was a man
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  Speaker 1: named George, who took a liking to James and contracted
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  Speaker 1: him to build a house on some land that he
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  Speaker 1: owned in the area. While they were talking, though, James
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  Speaker 1: showed George a model of a new kind of boat
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  Speaker 1: that he dreamed up, one that could navigate the shallow,
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  Speaker 1: rocky Potomac with the help of a unique technology. Goals,
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  Speaker 1: and because of George's unique reputation, James was soon put
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  Speaker 1: in a position that would allow him to actually build
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  Speaker 1: that boat. Oh and this George, for those of you
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  Speaker 1: keeping track of things, was George Washington. That was four.
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  Speaker 1: Soon enough, James found himself serving as the superintendent of
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  Speaker 1: a brand new endeavor, the Potomac Company, which was charged
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  Speaker 1: with improving the navigational qualities of the river, you know,
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  Speaker 1: making it easier for boats to travel, which in turn
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  Speaker 1: made it easier for goods to be imported and exported.
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  Speaker 1: It was good for the whole economy, and James made
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  Speaker 1: his mark too. The company built at least five canals
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  Speaker 1: to work around major rough spots in the river. They
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  Speaker 1: also worked to remove rocks and silt from other parts,
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  Speaker 1: making it much safer for river boats, and in the
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  Speaker 1: process it ended up linking commerce and trade on the
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  Speaker 1: East Coast with communities farther west like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: But there was always that boat that he had dreamed of. Now.
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  Speaker 1: Originally it had included a large paddle wheel to ur
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  Speaker 1: it forward and a pair of enormous polls that could
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  Speaker 1: be used to push the ship around as it traveled
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  Speaker 1: the trickier spots on the Potomac. And remember, his entire
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  Speaker 1: career happened because Washington loved the promise of that model boat.
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  Speaker 1: But after initial testing, James realized that the vessel would
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  Speaker 1: need a stronger way of propelling itself forward, So he
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  Speaker 1: turned to a power source that was known in other
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  Speaker 1: fields but untried on ships. Steam. Then, after two years
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  Speaker 1: of building the body of the ship and also designing
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  Speaker 1: and building a small steam engine out of iron coils,
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  Speaker 1: James had what he needed. On a cold wintry day
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  Speaker 1: in early December of seventy seven, James and his steamship
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  Speaker 1: chugged out into the Potomac near Shepherdstown, just north of
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  Speaker 1: Harper's Ferry, and the demonstration was a success. Those who
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  Speaker 1: showed up to watch were wowed by the sight of
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  Speaker 1: a riverboats being pushed along not by paddles, but by
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  Speaker 1: a forceful jet of hot steam. But alas, in a
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  Speaker 1: turn of events that seemed all too common for early inventors,
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  Speaker 1: James found himself facing another man, John Finch, who had
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  Speaker 1: dreamed up a similar mechanism, and for a year the
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  Speaker 1: pair of men had a very public war of words
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  Speaker 1: over the matter. In the end, it was Finch who
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  Speaker 1: won in America, and it was only by moving to
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  Speaker 1: England and filing patents there that James was able to
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  Speaker 1: get his name on official documents tying him to the creation.
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  Speaker 1: The most amazing thing to me about James Rumsey's story
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  Speaker 1: just might be the fact that he did all of
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  Speaker 1: this in seventeen seven, a mere generation after the American
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  Speaker 1: Revolutionary War. Pretty cool if you ask me. But what
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  Speaker 1: I find most intriguing of all is that despite clearly
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  Speaker 1: inventing the steamboat first, history has pretty much forgotten him,
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  Speaker 1: putting all the praise on Robert Fulton and his eighteen
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  Speaker 1: oh seven creation of the North River steamboats, a big
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  Speaker 1: accomplishment for sure, but one that stood on the shoulders
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  Speaker 1: of James Rumsey and his own design two decades earlier.
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  Speaker 1: History can sure be picky, often choosing the wrong hero
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  Speaker 1: or inventor or whatever, But above all, I can sure
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  Speaker 1: be curious. Of all the questions of the universe. One
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  Speaker 1: sits at the forefront of many people's minds what happens
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  Speaker 1: when we die. In some cultures, it's believed that our
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  Speaker 1: ancestors are waiting to ussure us to the afterlife and peace,
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  Speaker 1: and others we come back as another person or creature
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  Speaker 1: in order to relive our lives once more. And of
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  Speaker 1: course there is the persistent concept that our behaviors on
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  Speaker 1: Earth influence whether we get to spend eternity in the
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  Speaker 1: good place or that other one. But one man believed
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  Speaker 1: that there was one final step before humans shuffled off
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  Speaker 1: this mortal coil, and he was going to try anything
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  Speaker 1: to prove it true. His name was Duncan McDougall and
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  Speaker 1: a doctor and a scientist from Massachusetts, and in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: o one he set out to show that the human
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  Speaker 1: body possessed a soul, one with mass that could be
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  Speaker 1: measured at the time of death. To prove his claim,
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  Speaker 1: he started by selecting six nursing home patients who were
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  Speaker 1: close to death. One had been suffering from diabetes, four
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  Speaker 1: had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and one possessed an unknown ailment.
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  Speaker 1: He chose them because he knew that when they died,
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  Speaker 1: they would be too weak to move. He required absolute
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  Speaker 1: stillness in order to measure the soul's weight as it
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  Speaker 1: left the body when a patient's symptoms got worse. Their
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  Speaker 1: bed with the patients on top of it, was placed
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  Speaker 1: on a giant beam scale, not unlike the kinds found
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  Speaker 1: in most school nurses offices today. It had been calibrated
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  Speaker 1: to detect weight within two tenths of an ounce. McDougal
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  Speaker 1: was meticulous in recording his findings. He noted exactly when
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  Speaker 1: each patient died, how long they had spent in their beds,
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  Speaker 1: and whether their weights had fluctuated at all at the
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  Speaker 1: exact time of death. McDougal also took into consideration all
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  Speaker 1: the fluids and gases coursing through their bodies. By the
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  Speaker 1: time he had completed his calculations, he determined that the
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  Speaker 1: human soul weighed no more than twenty one grahams less
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  Speaker 1: than one ounce. His first patient passed away with a bang. Literally,
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  Speaker 1: the scale tipped audibly as the end of the beam
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  Speaker 1: knocked against the bottom bar and stayed there. The weight
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  Speaker 1: that had been lost was measured at three quarters of
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  Speaker 1: an ounce. The same thing happened with the second patients
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  Speaker 1: as well, a visible shift as a weight was lifted
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  Speaker 1: from the bed. McDougald put his calculations to use, accounting
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  Speaker 1: for the setting of fluids like blood and urine, and
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  Speaker 1: the reduction in gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
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  Speaker 1: Once those numbers were tabulated, he found that the second
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  Speaker 1: patient had lost another full ounce of weight. Four more
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  Speaker 1: doctors were brought in during each patient's final moments to
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  Speaker 1: witness the changes with McDougal, and all of them recorded
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  Speaker 1: a change. The amounts for each patient were different, but
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  Speaker 1: nearly everyone did lose something when they although one added
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  Speaker 1: weights while two others only shed fractions of announce. Only
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  Speaker 1: four of McDougal's six patients were able to be measured,
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  Speaker 1: as there was one instance when a patient had died
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  Speaker 1: before the equipment could be set up, and another where
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  Speaker 1: the tools malfunctioned. Unfortunately, McDougall still needed to test his
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  Speaker 1: hypothesis against a control group his patients of choice dogs.
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  Speaker 1: He measured the depths of fifteen canines, none of which
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  Speaker 1: exhibited the same changes in weight as the human test subjects.
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  Speaker 1: McDougald took that as a sign that dogs didn't have souls,
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  Speaker 1: a ludicrous notion to any pet owner who knows that
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  Speaker 1: it isn't true. After he completed his experiments, McDougall went
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  Speaker 1: from measuring the human soul to photographing it. He took
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  Speaker 1: numerous pictures of the newly deceased as they crossed over.
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  Speaker 1: Many of his photos depicted a light floating around their
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  Speaker 1: heads as they drew their final breadths. Sadly, Duncan McDougald
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  Speaker 1: was mostly alone in his beliefs about the human soul.
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  Speaker 1: Other scientists thought his methods were sloppy and unsound. Some
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  Speaker 1: even tried to improve upon them, but to no avail.
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  Speaker 1: It's not clear whether the human soul actually has weight.
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  Speaker 1: Or that it can even be measured. It's one more
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  Speaker 1: conundrum to be answered, and unfortunately, those who know for
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  Speaker 1: sure can't tell us until it's too late. I hope
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  Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.