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Buzzkill · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: On July second of eighteen eighty one, the world famous
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  Speaker 1: inventor Alexander Grahambell was working at his lab in Washington,
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  Speaker 1: DC when he received some shocking news. President James A.
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  Speaker 1: Garfield had just been shot in the back at the
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  Speaker 1: Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station while waiting for a train.
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  Speaker 1: The assassin was a man named Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled
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  Speaker 1: office seeker furious that Garfield hadn't rewarded him with a
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  Speaker 1: cushy govern job. Guiteau was immediately arrested and Garfield was
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  Speaker 1: rushed to the White House for treatment. Alexander Graham Bell,
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  Speaker 1: who lived just a stone's throw from the White House
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  Speaker 1: and had personally installed a telephone there a few years earlier,
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  Speaker 1: followed the story with rabid interest. He was disturbed by
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  Speaker 1: reports that the President's doctors couldn't find the bullet lodged
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  Speaker 1: in his body. Days after the shooting, they were still
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  Speaker 1: probing around in his wounds with their fingers, and if
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  Speaker 1: they didn't get the bullet out soon, the president would
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  Speaker 1: die of lead poisoning. Lying awake one night, Bell had
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  Speaker 1: a realization this wasn't just a medical problem. It was
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  Speaker 1: an engineering problem, and in a way, he had already
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  Speaker 1: solved it. Flashback a few years to eighteen seventy seven.
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  Speaker 1: Bell had just patented the world's first practical telephone, but
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  Speaker 1: as his team rolled out that technology to the world,
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  Speaker 1: they ran into a frustrating issue. When telephone conductors were
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  Speaker 1: installed next to telegram wires, the signal became garbled with static.
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  Speaker 1: It seems that the metal in the telegram wires was
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  Speaker 1: interfering with the electromagnetic fields that Bell's telephone system relied on,
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  Speaker 1: rendering them far less useful. As a clever workaround, Bell
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  Speaker 1: and his team installed something called an induction balance device.
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  Speaker 1: It equalized any interference from metal, cutting down on the static. Now,
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  Speaker 1: as President Garfield lay dying in the White House, Bell
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  Speaker 1: realized that the same principle could actually work in reverse.
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  Speaker 1: Rather than canceling out the interference from metal, he could
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  Speaker 1: amplify it, and so he got to work cobbling together
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  Speaker 1: parts from his telephone and the induction balance device. Early
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  Speaker 1: tests were promising too. When the machine passed over metal,
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  Speaker 1: it emitted a distinct buzzing sound. When no metal was present,
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  Speaker 1: there was silence. Bell tested the machine by firing bullets
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  Speaker 1: into planks of wood and hiding them inside slabs of
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  Speaker 1: raw meat. Each time the machine found the metal with ease.
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  Speaker 1: Once he was satisfied, Bell contacted the White House and
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  Speaker 1: offered his help. Doctor Willard Bliss, the President's head physician,
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  Speaker 1: was skeptical, but Bell's reputation gave him enough credibility to
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  Speaker 1: warrant a try. When he got to the White House,
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  Speaker 1: he found Garfield lying on his left side. Bliss had
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  Speaker 1: already determined that the bullet was somewhere on the President's
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  Speaker 1: right and didn't want to move him, so Bell was
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  Speaker 1: instructed to restrict his search area to that spot. As
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  Speaker 1: he ran his machine over Garfield's body, it emitted a
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  Speaker 1: faint buzz, indicating the presence of metal, but the signal
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  Speaker 1: was weak and Bell couldn't pinpoint the exact location of
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  Speaker 1: the bullet. Before he had the chance to troubleshoot, though
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  Speaker 1: doctor Bliss hurried in telling him to come back when
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  Speaker 1: the machine actually worked, Bell understandably was frustrated, but he
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  Speaker 1: didn't give up. Back at his lab, he made adjustment
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  Speaker 1: to reduce the machine's sensitivity to interference, and he ran
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  Speaker 1: more tests. A Civil War veteran volunteered to be examined,
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  Speaker 1: and when Bell's machine pinpointed a bullet lodged inside him,
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  Speaker 1: Bell was convinced that it worked. On August second, he
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  Speaker 1: returned to the White House and examined the President for
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  Speaker 1: the second time. Only now there was no buzz, just
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  Speaker 1: agonizing silence. For Bell, this could only mean one thing.
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  Speaker 1: The bullet wasn't where they were looking. He suggested moving
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  Speaker 1: the president for a more comprehensive search, but Bliss was
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  Speaker 1: fed up. He dismissed the inventor, indicating that his help
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  Speaker 1: was no longer needed. A few weeks later, on September nineteenth,
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  Speaker 1: President Garfield died from the infection. The autopsy revealed what
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  Speaker 1: Bell already suspected. The bullet was launched in his left side,
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  Speaker 1: exactly where Bell had been told not to look. The
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  Speaker 1: buzzing in his first examination was probably triggered by the
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  Speaker 1: metal springs in Garfield's mattress. If Bliss had just been
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  Speaker 1: willing to move the president, Bell would have been able
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  Speaker 1: to find the bullet. Even if he had, though it
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  Speaker 1: might not have changed anything because the bullet isn't what
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  Speaker 1: killed Garfield. The real culprit was infection, introduced by doctors
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  Speaker 1: poking around in his wounds with unwashed hands, years after
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  Speaker 1: antiseptic methods had become standard practice in Europe. So while
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  Speaker 1: he was shot by Charles Guittoux, many historians argue that
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  Speaker 1: he was actually killed by his doctors, chief among them
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  Speaker 1: doctor Bliss. Alexander grahmb Bell was heartbroken, but he took
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  Speaker 1: solace in the fact that his invention worked. It just
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  Speaker 1: needed a new name. You see, induction balance phone didn't
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  Speaker 1: exactly roll off the tongue, so it's remembered today instead
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  Speaker 1: as a metal detector. Stories often have multiple entry points,
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  Speaker 1: like a big room with many entrances. So for our
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  Speaker 1: second tale today, I want to revisit our first, only
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  Speaker 1: from a different angle. But to do it, I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to need you to use your imagination. Picture this. It's
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  Speaker 1: July of eighteen eighty one, and you're a naval engineer
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  Speaker 1: stationed in Washington, DC. One typical sticky afternoon, You're huddled
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  Speaker 1: over some blueprints when an urgent message arrives. You're wanted
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  Speaker 1: at the White House immediately for a top secret project
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  Speaker 1: involving matters of national security and indoor cooling. That makes
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  Speaker 1: you raise an eyebrow, but hey, it's July in Washington
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  Speaker 1: and the city is infamous for its brutal humidity. Swampy
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  Speaker 1: doesn't even begin to cover it. The Capitol becomes a
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  Speaker 1: human oven every summer, which is why so many presidents
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  Speaker 1: have historically fled town to escape the heat. So maybe
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  Speaker 1: the current commander in chief is choosing a different tactic
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  Speaker 1: by bringing in the big guns, meaning you. You press
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  Speaker 1: for more details, but all they tell you is that
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  Speaker 1: the request came straight from the top, and the top
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  Speaker 1: is uncomfortably warm. So you grab your team and your
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  Speaker 1: tools and you head over to sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue,
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  Speaker 1: brainstorming ways to cool the President's quarters while he works. Now,
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  Speaker 1: electric fans haven't been invented yet, but steam powered ones
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  Speaker 1: do exist. They're just annoyingly cumbersome and noisy, probably not
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  Speaker 1: something that president wants to hear. During his meetings. But
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  Speaker 1: the moment you entered the White House, it's clear that
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  Speaker 1: this is no comfort project. A grim mood hangs over
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  Speaker 1: the building as stone faced staffers rush about, barely even speaking.
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  Speaker 1: You're escorted down a hall and into a room that
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  Speaker 1: smells faintly of alcohol and blood, and there he is,
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  Speaker 1: President James A. Garfield is lying on a mattress in
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  Speaker 1: the middle of the room, surrounded by a small army
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  Speaker 1: of doctors. Briefly, they fill you in on the critical details.
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  Speaker 1: The President was waiting for a train when he was
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  Speaker 1: shot from behind at point blank range. The bullet was
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  Speaker 1: still inside him, but the doctors haven't been able to
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  Speaker 1: find it yet. They have, however, called for a specialist
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  Speaker 1: whose unique skills might be able to help. But that's
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  Speaker 1: not your concern. You just have to cool down the
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  Speaker 1: room enough to keep him comfortable and conscious. Easier said
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  Speaker 1: than done. But the President is burning up from the
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  Speaker 1: heat and probably fever from an infection, so you get
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  Speaker 1: to work. Over the next few days, your team assembles
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  Speaker 1: a contraption the likes of which the world has never seen.
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  Speaker 1: The main component is a bulky iron chest holding dozens
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  Speaker 1: of screens with terry cloth stretched over them. Above this,
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  Speaker 1: you rig a large tank holding a half ton of
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  Speaker 1: shaved ice, water and salt. As the slush melts, it
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  Speaker 1: drips down onto those screens, freezing them within seconds. And
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  Speaker 1: the final piece is a steam powered fan which blows
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  Speaker 1: air from the open window, through the screens and out
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  Speaker 1: into the room. When it's all up and running, you
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  Speaker 1: watch the temperature drop first by five degrees, then ten,
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  Speaker 1: and then twenty. Soon the room is comfortably cool and
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  Speaker 1: a heck of a lot less humid. On his sticky mattress,
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  Speaker 1: President Garfield breathes a sigh of relief, while his doctors
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  Speaker 1: silently applaud you. It's a small victory, but everyone in
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  Speaker 1: the room can use a win at the moment. And
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  Speaker 1: as you stand in the corner listening to your machine
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  Speaker 1: hum away, you can't help but think about its potential
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  Speaker 1: beyond the White House. Imagine if hospitals, factories, or even
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  Speaker 1: ordinary homes could stay this cool in the summer. But unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: that's not happening anytime soon. The system you just created
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  Speaker 1: is wildly inefficient, devouring four tons of ice each day
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  Speaker 1: just to cool a single room. No expense is too
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  Speaker 1: great to save the life of a president, but ordinary
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  Speaker 1: citizens now, it'll never happen. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to
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  Speaker 1: save the president. Garfield dies in September after months of
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  Speaker 1: expensive cooling and prodding from the doctors. After he passes,
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  Speaker 1: you return to the White House and quietly disassemble your machine,
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  Speaker 1: recalling the delightful sensation of chilled air sweeping through the room,
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  Speaker 1: and you can't help but feel that, for the briefest moment,
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  Speaker 1: you touched the future. Today, historians look back on that
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  Speaker 1: crude contraption as an early precursor to modern air conditioning.
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  Speaker 1: Almost half a century would pass before mechanical cooling began
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  Speaker 1: appearing in commercial buildings, and decades more before it reached
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  Speaker 1: everyday homes. But the seed had been planted. So the
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  Speaker 1: next time you're lying back in an air conditioned room
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  Speaker 1: on a hot summer day, sipping a cold drink and
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  Speaker 1: appreciating the breeze from that vent, take a moment to
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  Speaker 1: toast President James A. Garfield, not just for his service,
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  Speaker 1: but for sweating through one of the toughest moments in
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  Speaker 1: the history of indoor cooling. It just goes to show
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  Speaker 1: that when history turns up the heat necessity really is
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  Speaker 1: the mother of invention. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
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  Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
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  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
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  Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
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  Speaker 1: 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 Worldoflore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.