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Downpour · 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. They say flying is the safest way to travel.
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  Speaker 1: The odds of dying in a plane crash is one
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  Speaker 1: in eleven million, and of accidents involving aircraft are non fatal. Still,
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  Speaker 1: when a crash occurs, it's harrowing and oftentimes tragic. Lives
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  Speaker 1: are lost and families are broken. We often wonder what
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  Speaker 1: we might do when faced with such a hopeless situation.
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  Speaker 1: Julianne Copca didn't have to wonder, though she lived it
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  Speaker 1: and then some. Julienne's parents were German but worked for
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  Speaker 1: the Museum of Natural History in Peru during the nineteen fifties.
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  Speaker 1: Her daughter was born in Lima in nineteen fifty four
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  Speaker 1: and raised there until the late sixties, at which point
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  Speaker 1: she and her parents left Lima to live in the
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  Speaker 1: Amazon Rainforest. Her parents were ornithologists and had moved to
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  Speaker 1: the rainforest to start a biological research station called Panguana.
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  Speaker 1: They spent the next several years there, studying the various
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  Speaker 1: native plants and animals. However, even though she was living
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  Speaker 1: in the jungle, Julienne still had to worry about her studies.
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  Speaker 1: If she hoped to graduate with a high school diploma,
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  Speaker 1: she would have to return to Lima to take her
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  Speaker 1: final exams. The family flew out in late December of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, and Julienne successfully completed her education, graduating
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  Speaker 1: on December. Her parents had hoped to leave once the
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  Speaker 1: exams were over, but Julianne insisted on staying a little
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  Speaker 1: longer so she could attend her graduation ceremony. Her mother
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  Speaker 1: a read, but unfortunately that meant flying home on one
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  Speaker 1: of the busiest travel days of the year, Christmas Eve.
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  Speaker 1: All flights back to Panguana were sold out, all except one.
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  Speaker 1: It was with Lansa Airlines, which her father was skeptical
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  Speaker 1: of due to two previous crashes, one in nineteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: six and another that had occurred only the year before.
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  Speaker 1: With no other choices available, the Copca's bought three tickets
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  Speaker 1: on LANTA Flight five. Oh wait, the plane took off
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  Speaker 1: that night, despite a series of storms plaguing the area,
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  Speaker 1: with a total of eighty six passengers and six crew
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  Speaker 1: members on board, but after half an hour at an
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  Speaker 1: altitude of twenty one ft, lightning struck the aircraft broke apart,
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  Speaker 1: sending debris and pieces of the fuselage plummeting back toward Earth.
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  Speaker 1: When Julianne woke up on the ground, she was still
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  Speaker 1: strapped to her seat. She had suffered a broken collar bone,
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  Speaker 1: some cuts on her legs and arms, and she couldn't
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  Speaker 1: open her right eye. But despite her injuries, she had
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  Speaker 1: just become the sole survivor of Lansa's third crash in
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  Speaker 1: less than a decade. To say Julianne had a unique
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  Speaker 1: upbringing would be an understatement. Her extracurricular activities didn't involve marching,
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  Speaker 1: band or lacrosse. Instead, her parents had taught her how
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  Speaker 1: to survive in the wilderness on her own. Upon finding
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  Speaker 1: herself in the middle of a jungle with no help,
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  Speaker 1: her instincts kicked in Immediately. She scoured the wreckage for
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  Speaker 1: her mother, but couldn't find her. Instead, Julianne discovered a
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  Speaker 1: bag of candy she'd brought on the plane and kept
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  Speaker 1: it for sustenance as she ventured deeper into the rainforest.
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  Speaker 1: Panguana was thirty miles away, and she couldn't signal for
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  Speaker 1: help due to the canopy of trees blocking her from view.
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  Speaker 1: Soon she came to a creek, which provided her with
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  Speaker 1: hydration and protection. Snakes and bugs made traveling overground dangerous,
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  Speaker 1: but she'd be safe walking in the knee high water.
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  Speaker 1: She also remembered something else her father had taught her.
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  Speaker 1: If she followed the creek far enough downstream, she would
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  Speaker 1: eventually find a village, so Julianne got moving. The periodic
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  Speaker 1: rain and intense heat wore her down. Days passed as
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  Speaker 1: she kept walking, hoping for any sign of civilization. Overhead
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  Speaker 1: a king vulture circle, hoping she would give up and
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  Speaker 1: relinquish herself to the hungry ecosystem. Instead, Julianne pressed forward.
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  Speaker 1: Things got worse when maggots infested the gash in her arm.
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  Speaker 1: When she came to a boat tethered along the creek,
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  Speaker 1: she sucked the gas out of its tank to kill them.
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  Speaker 1: The next day, she was found in the boat by
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  Speaker 1: local fishermen, who helped her to the village, where she
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  Speaker 1: was able to recover. The day after that, a pilot
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  Speaker 1: from the village flew her to the city of Pukapa,
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  Speaker 1: where her father's body had been taken. She eventually found
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  Speaker 1: her mother, who had also miraculously survived the crash, but
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  Speaker 1: her injuries proved too severe and she had died before
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  Speaker 1: help was able to reach her. In total, souls were
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  Speaker 1: lost in the accident. Kopka's story inspired several films, including
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  Speaker 1: a nineteen seventy four documentary titled Wings of Hope, directed
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  Speaker 1: I renowned filmmaker Werner Hertzog. Interestingly enough, Hertzog almost wasn't
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  Speaker 1: around to make the film you See. A few years earlier,
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  Speaker 1: he was out scouting for filming locations for an upcoming project.
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  Speaker 1: When a change in his production schedule popped up. He
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  Speaker 1: was forced to cancel his flight home. And what flight
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  Speaker 1: was it? Oh? I think you know the answer to
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  Speaker 1: that question, the same one Julienne Copca was on Lansa
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  Speaker 1: flight five o eight. Being a trend setter isn't easy.
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  Speaker 1: The challenge is in getting people to rethink their own ways.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody likes change, after all, but sometimes it's hard to
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  Speaker 1: argue with the results. Embracing the new might be hard,
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  Speaker 1: but not doing so could leave you all wet. Take
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  Speaker 1: Jonas Hanway born in Portsmouth, England in sevent wealth and
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  Speaker 1: raised in London. His father made his living at sea,
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  Speaker 1: providing sailors with food and drink, so it stood to
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  Speaker 1: reason that his son might follow suit, and although Hanway
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  Speaker 1: didn't go into the food service, he did end up
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  Speaker 1: on the water as a merchant, traveling all over Europe
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  Speaker 1: and the Middle East. After decades of dealing with illness
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  Speaker 1: and piracy, though, Hanway returned to London around seventeen fifty
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  Speaker 1: with a lot of experience and quite the reputation. He
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  Speaker 1: was known as a bore and apparently hated tea so
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  Speaker 1: much that he wrote an essay in which he argued
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  Speaker 1: how its introduction to Britain would ruin the country. But
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  Speaker 1: despite his strong and sometimes misguided views, he also wanted
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  Speaker 1: to make his city a better place. For example, he
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  Speaker 1: fought to have its streets paved. Hanway had also become
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  Speaker 1: a philanthropist while away. Upon his return he founded the
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  Speaker 1: first charity for British seafarirs, known as the Marine Society.
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  Speaker 1: The organization recruited and trained young men for a life
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  Speaker 1: at sea, which would be sorely needed some years later
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  Speaker 1: at the start of the Seven Years War. England's main
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  Speaker 1: enemy during the conflict was France, which Hanway had been
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  Speaker 1: too many times over the years. During his visits there,
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  Speaker 1: he'd picked up a habit he'd seen carried out daily
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  Speaker 1: on the streets of Paris. Everyone was carrying a new
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  Speaker 1: fangled contraption with them wherever they went, the folding umbrella.
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  Speaker 1: In the pantheon of great inventions, few stand out quite
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  Speaker 1: like the simple umbrella. But the canopies of hundreds or
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  Speaker 1: even thousands of years ago did not collapse the way
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  Speaker 1: ours do today. The wooden ribs that gave them their
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  Speaker 1: shape were often stationary. It wasn't until seventeen ten when
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  Speaker 1: a Paris shopkeeper named Jean Marius introduced Europe to the
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  Speaker 1: first umbrella that could be opened and closed at will.
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  Speaker 1: Adoption of the folding umbrella was quick, especially after a
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  Speaker 1: prominent French aristocrat purchased one and then encouraged her inner
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  Speaker 1: circle to buy them as well. From their umbrellas became
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  Speaker 1: a common sight in Paris, shielding men and women from
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  Speaker 1: intense sunlight as well as the occasional downpour. Jonas Hanway
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  Speaker 1: loved the idea of an easy to use, portable method
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  Speaker 1: for keeping himself cool and dry, and so upon his
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  Speaker 1: return to London, he began carrying one with him whenever
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  Speaker 1: he left his home, and he was laughed at. You see,
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  Speaker 1: at the time, umbrellas were mainly used by women, and
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  Speaker 1: Handway's use of one did not endear him to any
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  Speaker 1: of his more masculine friends. They called him names and
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  Speaker 1: cast pointed whispers in his direction. Cabbies also hated him,
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  Speaker 1: but not because he looked foolish or effeminate. Handsome cabs,
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  Speaker 1: or horse drawn carriages on two wheels, featured coverings that
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  Speaker 1: shielded writers from the rain, a handy thing to have
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  Speaker 1: if you needed to get somewhere fast and you didn't
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  Speaker 1: want to ruin your nice clothes. Cabbies often saw a
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  Speaker 1: boom in business on rainier days. The umbrella, however, made
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  Speaker 1: handsome cabs unnecessary. Drivers got worried after seeing Handway out
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  Speaker 1: and about with his own personal canopy. If the trend
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  Speaker 1: caught on, it would only be a matter of time
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  Speaker 1: before the cabs were rendered obsolete. Two In sure their
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  Speaker 1: job security, cabbies made a point to insult Handway whenever
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  Speaker 1: they saw him going so far as to hurl garbage
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  Speaker 1: or rotten fruit in his direction, anything to make him
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  Speaker 1: look and feel self conscious about walking around with an umbrella.
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  Speaker 1: When that didn't work, one cab driver attempted to run
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  Speaker 1: him down in the street with his carriage. Unafraid, Jonas
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  Speaker 1: Hanway turned around and beat the cabby instead with his umbrella.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, eventually the whispers and the insults stopped. People
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  Speaker 1: began to notice how dry his clothes stayed beneath the
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  Speaker 1: domed cover. As more Londoners bought their own umbrellas to
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  Speaker 1: shield themselves from the rain, the stigma surrounding their use dissipated.
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  Speaker 1: Cab drivers saw the writing on the wall too. There
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  Speaker 1: just wasn't enough rotten fruits in England to get their
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  Speaker 1: former customers to stop using umbrellas. A new umbrella factory
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  Speaker 1: opened in sevent six, several months after Handway's death. It
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  Speaker 1: advertised a spring loaded model for easy opening and closing,
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  Speaker 1: and it became a hit. Not only had Jonas Hanway
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  Speaker 1: changed his city for the better, you might say he'd
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  Speaker 1: done it without letting anyone else rain on his parade.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.