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Dusty · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Mankey'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. Humanity has done quite a bit of damage
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  Speaker 1: to this planet. According to scientists, the climate change we
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  Speaker 1: are experiencing now is due to the greenhouse effect caused
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  Speaker 1: by human expansion and innovation. Industries such as farming and
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  Speaker 1: fossil fuels are responsible for the release of gases like
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  Speaker 1: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide into our atmosphere, and
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  Speaker 1: the results of these gases have been devastating. Hot summers,
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  Speaker 1: colder winters, and stronger storms can all be linked back
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  Speaker 1: to climate change. But one of the first modern phenomena
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  Speaker 1: caused at least in part by human involvement, was the
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  Speaker 1: dust Bowl. The dust Bowl wasn't one single event. It
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  Speaker 1: was actually a series of dust storms that swept across
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  Speaker 1: much of Middle America and parts of Canada during the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen thirties. The rampant farming in the Great Plains during
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  Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties had removed the native grasslands, turning the
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  Speaker 1: land into soil for growing crops. Unfortunately, the tractors and
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  Speaker 1: combines that were churning up the grass were displacing the
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  Speaker 1: very thing that was keeping the land moist even during
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  Speaker 1: periods of severe drought. So when a drought hit several
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  Speaker 1: years later, all that fresh top soil turned to dust,
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  Speaker 1: and the ensuing winds carried it all over the country.
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  Speaker 1: Big black clouds would fly over hills and trees and
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  Speaker 1: course through the canyons of the cities like a foreign
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  Speaker 1: body in the bloodstream. And one of the worst of
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  Speaker 1: these dust storms happened on Sunday, April fourt of nineteen
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  Speaker 1: thirty five. It was the middle of the Great Depression
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  Speaker 1: and America's West was about to become ground zero for
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  Speaker 1: a major weather event. The temperatures had plummeted and the
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  Speaker 1: winds had become so strong they were able to carry
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  Speaker 1: the dusty soil from the Oklahoma Panhandle all the way
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  Speaker 1: to parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas. Lucian Doll,
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  Speaker 1: witnessed from Kansas, was only fourteen when he saw the
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  Speaker 1: black cloud coming toward him. It was over five hundred
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  Speaker 1: feet tall and traveling at nearly sixty miles per hour.
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  Speaker 1: He'd been toiling away on a farm as it made
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  Speaker 1: its way across the plains. Thinking quickly, he unhitched the
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  Speaker 1: horses and hurried them into the barn with him as
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  Speaker 1: he waited out the storm. They made it through the
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  Speaker 1: doors just in time. The massive plume swallowed the barn,
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  Speaker 1: churning and blowing the dust all around it. The cloud
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  Speaker 1: was so thick dal couldn't even see the farmhouse that
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  Speaker 1: was only fifty yards away. When he finally emerged, the
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  Speaker 1: devastation was unfathomable. The cows in the field were dead
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  Speaker 1: but still standing, and the crops had been cut down
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  Speaker 1: by the dust. Everywhere else, things were just as bad,
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  Speaker 1: if not worse. A reporter from the Associated Press, Robert Geiger,
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  Speaker 1: was in his car in Oklahoma when the disaster struck.
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  Speaker 1: He saw the cloud of black coming after him and
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  Speaker 1: put the pedal to the metal, driving as fast as
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  Speaker 1: he could to outrun it, but soon found himself lost
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  Speaker 1: in its haze of death and destruction. Geiger wrote a
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  Speaker 1: story the next day about his harrowing ordeal, calling it
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  Speaker 1: a dust bowl, and giving birth to the name that
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  Speaker 1: would become the description for the entire time period. Elsewhere,
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  Speaker 1: homes were subjected to the same experience as the dust
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  Speaker 1: found its way inside by any means necessary, as though
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  Speaker 1: it were on a mission, and even when protected by
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  Speaker 1: walls and closed windows, people still succumbed to the clouds effects.
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  Speaker 1: Many of those who had breathed in fell ill with pneumonia.
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  Speaker 1: Hundreds died. By some counts, the death count reached into
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  Speaker 1: the thousands. April fo enth of ninety five came to
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  Speaker 1: be known as Black Sunday. The storm, which had hit
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  Speaker 1: Oklahoma around four pm, ended up in Texas around seven
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  Speaker 1: o'clock that night. But it didn't just cover everything in
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  Speaker 1: a thick layer of dirt. It also caused a strange
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  Speaker 1: side effect. You see, the storm was full of electricity,
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  Speaker 1: but not lightning. It wasn't that kind of storm. Built
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  Speaker 1: up within the dust were static electric charges, which continued
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  Speaker 1: to grow as more and more particles came in contact
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  Speaker 1: with each other. Eventually, all that static electricity had to
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  Speaker 1: be released, and so like a kid rubbing his socks
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  Speaker 1: across the floor and touching a door knob, people would
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  Speaker 1: find themselves jolted by a bolt of static electricity. Just
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  Speaker 1: on a much larger scale, Kids and mothers embracing after
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  Speaker 1: the dust storm would wake up sometime later, having been
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  Speaker 1: knocked unconscious by the shock. The same thing would happen
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  Speaker 1: to two people wrapping up a business deal with a
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  Speaker 1: firm handshake. Dust Storms didn't just destroy the land. They
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  Speaker 1: also killed or electrocuted people and animals, and they were
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  Speaker 1: just the start of the kind of weather events that
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  Speaker 1: would come to illustrate the follies of man's obsession with
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  Speaker 1: greed and progress. The dust bowl was a curious warning.
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  Speaker 1: Then if we're all not careful, we might find ourselves
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  Speaker 1: repeating it or worse. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were
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  Speaker 1: a breeding ground for new religions. Individuals who had grown
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  Speaker 1: tired or disenfranchised with the spiritual offerings of the time
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  Speaker 1: often broke off to start their own sex. For example,
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  Speaker 1: the Episcopal Church first built its roots in American colonies
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  Speaker 1: around sixteen o seven, but shed its Church of England
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  Speaker 1: baggage after the Revolution more than a hundred years later. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: back across the pond, another group was finding its legs.
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  Speaker 1: The United Society of Believers in Christ's second appearing, otherwise
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  Speaker 1: known as the Shakers, decided that those legs had to
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  Speaker 1: move away from mainstream Protestantism, and they moved all the
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  Speaker 1: way back to the colonies. The Shakers borrowed many of
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  Speaker 1: their beliefs from the Quakers, but we're more progressive in
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  Speaker 1: their viewpoints. Shakers avoided violence and allowed women to lead
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  Speaker 1: along with the men. In fact, they believe men and
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  Speaker 1: women were equal in the eyes of God. They also
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  Speaker 1: shunned procreation, choosing to adopt instead and recruit others to
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  Speaker 1: their religion. But one of their most well known and
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  Speaker 1: lasting contributions, especially in America, has been their furniture. Shaker
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  Speaker 1: furniture avoids flashy ornamentation like ornate carvings or delicate inlays. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: it relies on a minimal and functional aesthetic that stands
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  Speaker 1: the test of time. Shakers were resourceful perfectionists, and that's
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  Speaker 1: evident in their craft. Then, because of their more forward
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  Speaker 1: thinking notions on gender and equality, that constant need to
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  Speaker 1: do one's best work found its way into both men
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  Speaker 1: and women within the community. Women like Tabitha Babbitt born
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  Speaker 1: Sarah babbitts in Hardwick, Massachusetts. In seventeen seventy nine. The
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  Speaker 1: details of her childhood aren't really well known, although she
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  Speaker 1: did become a member of the Harvard Shaker community, where
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  Speaker 1: she developed some interesting skills. For one, Babbitt was observant.
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  Speaker 1: She was a weaver by trade, but often watched the
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  Speaker 1: men work at the local sawmill. She noted how they
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  Speaker 1: would maneuver their unwieldy whip saw across massive lengths of timber,
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  Speaker 1: and she believed that there was a better way possible.
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  Speaker 1: A whip saw or a pit saw, was one long
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  Speaker 1: saw blade with teeth on one side. The top man
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  Speaker 1: would stand on the log, which was elevated on a
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  Speaker 1: giant stand. Sometimes the pit would be dug below, and
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  Speaker 1: he would slice down towards the second person, the pitman,
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  Speaker 1: who would guide the blade back up ready for another push.
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  Speaker 1: Lifting the saw blade became a two person job, with
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  Speaker 1: the weight of the saw shared between them. But Babbitt
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  Speaker 1: noticed something of out the saw and how it worked,
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  Speaker 1: mainly that it could be a lot more efficient. The
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  Speaker 1: men were wasting fifty percent of their energy and time
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  Speaker 1: in lifting the blade back up into position since it
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  Speaker 1: only cut on the down stroke, so she suggested an
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  Speaker 1: alternative solution, A circular blade around saw blade was created,
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  Speaker 1: which she tested by connecting it to her spinning wheel
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  Speaker 1: and powering it with her foot puddle, and she was right.
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  Speaker 1: This new method would save the workers from bad backs
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  Speaker 1: and allow them to cut more wood in a fraction
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  Speaker 1: of the time. The blade was eventually transferred to a
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  Speaker 1: water powered apparatus to test its industrial capabilities before a
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  Speaker 1: larger one was created and installed in the mill. Sadly,
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  Speaker 1: Babbitt's Shaker beliefs prevented her from patenting her invention, as
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  Speaker 1: the Shakers believes in communal living, meaning whatever someone created
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  Speaker 1: was to be shared with everyone, and that included intellectual property. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: her design was copied by many and even patented later
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  Speaker 1: by two Frenchmen. But that didn't stop bab from looking
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  Speaker 1: for ways to improve the world around her. Among her
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  Speaker 1: many accomplishments, she either invented or contributed to the creation
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  Speaker 1: of several innovations in her lifetime. She came up with
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  Speaker 1: an upgrade to her spinning wheel that allowed it to
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  Speaker 1: spend twice the yard in half the time. She also
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  Speaker 1: helped with the invention of cut nails, which used to
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  Speaker 1: be made by hand one by one After Babbitt was done.
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  Speaker 1: They were being cut from a single sheet of iron,
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  Speaker 1: many at a time. Babbitt lived to be seventy four
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  Speaker 1: years old, finally passing away on December tenth, eighteen fifty three,
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  Speaker 1: one day after her birthday. At the time of her death,
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  Speaker 1: she happened to be working on a new method for
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  Speaker 1: making false teeth. Even in her old age, Tabitha Babbitt
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  Speaker 1: couldn't abide by that old adage because we've always done
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  Speaker 1: it that way. She often saw a better way, a
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  Speaker 1: more efficient way, because in her community she was a
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  Speaker 1: mover and a shaker. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
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  Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosity. These subscribe for free
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  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
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  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
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  Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
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  Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,