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All Wrong · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
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  Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
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  Speaker 1: 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. It's been argued that one of the only
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  Speaker 1: jobs a person can get wrong and still keep is
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  Speaker 1: that of a TV news meteorologist. If a weather person
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  Speaker 1: said it was going to be sunny in seventy five,
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  Speaker 1: but you should have brought your parka and a snow shovel,
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  Speaker 1: you might think twice about believing them in the future.
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  Speaker 1: That happens less and less these days, though, as modern
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  Speaker 1: technology allows forecasters to better track weather patterns and storm
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  Speaker 1: paths up to the minute. But back in eighteen thirty
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  Speaker 1: eight that wasn't the case, and yet Irish astrologer and
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  Speaker 1: meteorologist Patrick Murphy still managed to shock London with a
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  Speaker 1: forecast nobody could have predicted, well, nobody except Patrick. He
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  Speaker 1: had come to England from Cork, Ireland in eighteen twenty two.
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  Speaker 1: A few years later he launched his first publication titled
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  Speaker 1: An Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of my Asthma
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen twenty five. My Asthma is defined as a
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  Speaker 1: vapor or fume that causes disease, like those coming off
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  Speaker 1: of a swamp. It's also used to describe an unsavory atmosphere.
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  Speaker 1: Patrick followed up his first book with a new one
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty entitled Rudiments of the Primary Forces in Gravity,
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  Speaker 1: Magnetism and Electricity. These two books were the start of
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  Speaker 1: his foray into pseudo scientific, writing about the various phenomena
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  Speaker 1: around us. Within his latest home, he expounded on a
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  Speaker 1: multitude of topics, including the movement of the Sun and planets,
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  Speaker 1: electrical forces, and the Earth's magnetic polls. These efforts all
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  Speaker 1: led to his magnum opus and the volume for which
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  Speaker 1: he has known to this day, Murphy's Weather Almanac for
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty eight. Now. The word almanac is believed to
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  Speaker 1: have come from the Greek word for calendar. It signifies
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  Speaker 1: books that were published with calendar entries for every day
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  Speaker 1: of the year, along with the various weather and astronomical
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  Speaker 1: phenomena expected on those dates. Almanacs have existed since before
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  Speaker 1: the thirteenth century, but they really picked up steam with
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  Speaker 1: the printing press. Among the most famous ever printed were
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  Speaker 1: the Poor Richard's Almanacs, published by Richard Saunders in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: thirty two. Saunders, of course, was the pen name for
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  Speaker 1: founding father Benjamin Franklin. Murphy's Weather Almanac of eighteen thirty
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  Speaker 1: eight wasn't much different from the compendiums that had come before.
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  Speaker 1: Each page was chock full of vital information designed to
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  Speaker 1: help farmers and readers know what to expect for the
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  Speaker 1: coming year. Now, even though almanacs have claimed to be
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  Speaker 1: as high as eighty percent accurate, a study conducted by
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  Speaker 1: the University of Illinois in nineteen eighty one found that
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  Speaker 1: the popular Farmer's Almanac was only about fifty two accurate
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  Speaker 1: in its forecasts. In other words, readers had just as
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  Speaker 1: much of a chance of successfully guessing the weather by
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  Speaker 1: pulling a prediction out of a hat. But Patrick thought
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  Speaker 1: better of his powers of prognostication, and one date in
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  Speaker 1: particular stuck out among all the others in his almanac, January.
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  Speaker 1: You see, London winters were notoriously cold. In fact, as
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  Speaker 1: we've discussed here before, the Thames was known to freeze
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  Speaker 1: over every now and then, allowing locals to set up
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  Speaker 1: shop on the ice and hold frost fares right on
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  Speaker 1: the river. Patrick, however, didn't just predict that January would
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  Speaker 1: be cold. He claimed that the weather that they would
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  Speaker 1: be fair, with the lowest degree of winter temperature. When
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  Speaker 1: the day finally came, temperatures dropped a whopping fifty six
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  Speaker 1: degrees to a frigid negative fourteen point eight. It was
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  Speaker 1: by far the coldest day in Courted London history, and
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  Speaker 1: would be for some time. Patrick had been shockingly correct
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  Speaker 1: in his forecast, and as a result, there was a
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  Speaker 1: run on his almanac. He printed forty five editions to
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  Speaker 1: keep up with demand. Police were even called to one
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  Speaker 1: shop to help preserve order among the throngs of shoppers
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  Speaker 1: demanding the book. Unfortunately, readers didn't bother to peruse his
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  Speaker 1: publication before buying it. If they had, they would have
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  Speaker 1: realized that he was about as accurate as every other
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  Speaker 1: almanac out there. One hundred and sixty eight days were
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  Speaker 1: half rights in their predictions, while one ninety seven were
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  Speaker 1: all wrong. Demand dropped like a thermometer on January after that,
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  Speaker 1: but Patrick Murphy had already earned his legacy In the
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  Speaker 1: years following, those who had survived the freezing tempts of
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty eight referred to that time as Murphy's Winter.
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  Speaker 1: He was never that accurate in his predictions again, and
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  Speaker 1: became something of a punchline later on. It seems that
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  Speaker 1: being a one hit wonder in the almanac world was
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  Speaker 1: something that Murphy I just couldn't weather Man plans and
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  Speaker 1: God laughs, Expect the unexpected, or the old boy scout motto,
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  Speaker 1: be prepared. We have plenty of sayings that all revolve
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  Speaker 1: around the same idea, stuff happens, and Edward was only
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  Speaker 1: too familiar with that concept. He was born in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: eighteen in the Panama Canal Zone and Unincorporated Territory in
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  Speaker 1: Central America. Edward and his family eventually made their way
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  Speaker 1: north to New Jersey, where he lived for most of
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  Speaker 1: his young life. After high school, Edward attended West Point,
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  Speaker 1: which prepared him for entry into the United States Army
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  Speaker 1: Air Corps just in time for World War Two. It
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  Speaker 1: was in nineteen forty one when he was sent overseas
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  Speaker 1: to serve even parts of China, India, and Burma. Edward
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  Speaker 1: had always had something of a scientific mind, so when
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  Speaker 1: the war was over and it came time for him
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  Speaker 1: to get a job. He found one as a research
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  Speaker 1: and development officer at Ohio's Right Patterson Air Force Base.
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  Speaker 1: He stayed there for a short time until a special
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  Speaker 1: project came a calling for him from the West coast.
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  Speaker 1: Over at Edwards Air Force Base in California, a series
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  Speaker 1: of rocket sled experiments were being managed by Colonel John Stapp.
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  Speaker 1: Rocket sleds were elongated platforms that slid on tracks which
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  Speaker 1: used actual rockets to propel them long distances at high speeds.
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  Speaker 1: It was common belief among aerospace experts that the human
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  Speaker 1: body could not withstand up to eighteen G forces before dying.
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  Speaker 1: Staff didn't agree and set out to prove the theory wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Previous test to disprove it had been performed using crash
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  Speaker 1: test dummies. The goal was to track the effects of
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  Speaker 1: rapid deceleration on a human body, and Staff, dissatisfied with
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  Speaker 1: the results, started using a chimpanz in his experiments, but
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  Speaker 1: even that proved unsatisfactory to the exacting kernel, so he
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  Speaker 1: started testing the G forces of the sleds on himself.
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  Speaker 1: He would strap himself onto the platform and let the
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  Speaker 1: rockets take him for a ride. On his first test,
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  Speaker 1: Staff reached ten g's over time. He was able to
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  Speaker 1: get that up to thirty five gs and still survive.
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  Speaker 1: Edward was tasked with analyzing the effects of these forces
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  Speaker 1: on Staff's body. He'd done it before, having created a
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  Speaker 1: series of sixteen censors and tools meant to gauge how
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  Speaker 1: test pilots were affected during centrifugal training back in Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: He suggested using modified versions of his sensors for the
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  Speaker 1: rocket sled tests. Staff agreed, and a new experiment was planned. Originally,
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  Speaker 1: the idea was to use another chimp as the test subject.
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  Speaker 1: The Air Force didn't want to sacrifice one of its
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  Speaker 1: own men in case something went wrong, but Staff knew
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  Speaker 1: a human being had to be in the driver's seat,
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  Speaker 1: so he switched places with the chimpanzee. Rolling with the change,
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  Speaker 1: Edward told his assistance to rig up the sensors two
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  Speaker 1: stabs safety harness while he tested the rest of the
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  Speaker 1: equipment before takeoff. After several safety checks and clearances with
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  Speaker 1: the sensors in place, Staff was given the green light.
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  Speaker 1: The rockets fired up, and the Colonel flew along the
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  Speaker 1: track like a bat out of hell. When he finally stopped,
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  Speaker 1: Edward checked the readouts. Nothing, not a single piece of
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  Speaker 1: evidence that Staff had ever been buckled in at all.
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  Speaker 1: The experiment had failed. As it had turned out, Edwards
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  Speaker 1: assistants had wired the sensors all wrong. They've been plugged
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  Speaker 1: in upside down, and Edward, angry at one assistant in particular,
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  Speaker 1: tossed off a short summation of his feelings, saying, if
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  Speaker 1: that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will.
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  Speaker 1: Staff took his words to heart and conveyed them to
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  Speaker 1: a shared philosophy among the research team. During a press conference,
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  Speaker 1: he explained the saying as a way of keeping his
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  Speaker 1: men on task and solving problems before they occurred. Although
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  Speaker 1: this being a press conference, the raise was shortened down
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  Speaker 1: a bit. Edward's original wording was condensed to a simpler one.
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  Speaker 1: If it can happen, it will happen. Today, however, we
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  Speaker 1: say it even more different than that, because without Edward
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  Speaker 1: a Murphy, we wouldn't have Murphy's law, which states anything
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  Speaker 1: that can happen will happen, or, perhaps more accurately, anything
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  Speaker 1: that can go wrong will go wrong. I hope you've
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
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  Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
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  Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
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  Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.