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On Patrol · 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 right there on display, just waiting
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  Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: On May fifth of nineteen forty five, Archie Mitchell and
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  Speaker 1: his family went for a picnic outside of Bly, Oregon.
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  Speaker 1: After lunch, Archie's wife took their children for a walk
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  Speaker 1: along the creek. Archie was cleaning up the picnic area
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  Speaker 1: when he heard an explosion. He later found out that
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  Speaker 1: his wife and kids had stumbled upon a Japanese balloon bomb,
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  Speaker 1: and when they touched it, the bomb had detonated. Between
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  Speaker 1: November of nineteen forty four and April of nineteen forty five,
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  Speaker 1: Japan launched over nine thousand balloon bombs, each about seventy
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  Speaker 1: feet tall. They sent them sailing over the Pacific, hoping
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  Speaker 1: to hit the United States and cause mass hysteria. Thankfully,
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  Speaker 1: most of them sank into the ocean. But it just
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  Speaker 1: goes to show that when it comes to warfare, not
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  Speaker 1: every battle is fought on the front lines. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the smallest battles can be the ones that turn
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  Speaker 1: the tides of war. At the beginning of World War II,
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  Speaker 1: the Allied forces knew that disease and rough weather could
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  Speaker 1: be as deadly to soldiers as enemy guns. It might
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  Speaker 1: seem simple, but accurate weather data can save lives. The
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  Speaker 1: country of Greenland was the perfect spot to predict the
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  Speaker 1: weather in Europe. The German Army even joked that Greenland
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  Speaker 1: was the weather kitchen. Weather it was made there and
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  Speaker 1: then served to Europe over the next day. Greenland was
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  Speaker 1: part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and at the time,
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  Speaker 1: Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, so there was a
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  Speaker 1: real fear that Germans would build weather stations on Greenland,
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  Speaker 1: which would give them a huge leg up in the war.
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  Speaker 1: The Allied forces needed to find those weather stations and
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  Speaker 1: destroy them, but this was easier said than done. You see,
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  Speaker 1: Greenland's terrain is rugged and the weather is rough. The
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  Speaker 1: US Coast Guard struggled to navigate the ice filled waters
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  Speaker 1: off the coast, and the Air Force found it difficult
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  Speaker 1: to spot structures from the air, especially in the winter.
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  Speaker 1: The northeastern part of Greenland was dark for months at
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  Speaker 1: a time. What they needed was boots on the ground,
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  Speaker 1: a way of traversing Greenland's ice hewn tundra. And that's
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  Speaker 1: when the US Coast Guard commander pitched an idea that
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  Speaker 1: was very unusual. He suggested that they follow the example
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  Speaker 1: of native Greenlanders and travel by sled dog. The Governor
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  Speaker 1: of Greenland loved the idea, and so the Northeast Greenland
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  Speaker 1: Sledge Patrol was born. The original patrol was made up
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  Speaker 1: of ten danish Men, one Norwegian, and four Inuit Greenlanders.
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  Speaker 1: Having Inuit men on the team was essential. They had
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  Speaker 1: been traversing the territory on sleds their entire lives. They
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  Speaker 1: were intimately acquainted with the rough, sometimes treacherous terrain. The
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  Speaker 1: patrol began traveling up and down the northeast coast, sleeping
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  Speaker 1: in hunting shacks along the way. They hunted for their
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  Speaker 1: food and relied on their team of Greenland husky dogs
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  Speaker 1: to keep them safe. And the huskies were an essential
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  Speaker 1: part of this mission. You see, Greenland huskies are known
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  Speaker 1: for their stamina and their resilience, but they also have
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  Speaker 1: a keen sense of smell. They can detect strangers from
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  Speaker 1: far away, so if the Nazis were hiding along the ice,
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  Speaker 1: the huskies would sniff them out. And within a few months,
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  Speaker 1: the huskies proved just how good they were at sensing danger.
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  Speaker 1: After a long time of searching for a German weather station,
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  Speaker 1: a patrol of three men set out for Sabine Island,
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  Speaker 1: just off the coast of Greenland, and after hours of searching,
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  Speaker 1: they found something out of place, a crude hut with
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  Speaker 1: smoke billowing from the chimney. Immediately, the men suspected that
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  Speaker 1: this was the weather station they'd been looking for, but
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  Speaker 1: they wanted to be sure, so instead of reporting the
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  Speaker 1: hut to headquarters, they decided to spy on it for
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  Speaker 1: a while, and in the meantime they would make camp
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  Speaker 1: at a hunting shack nearby. They had just settled down
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  Speaker 1: to dinner when their sled dogs began howling. Moments later,
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  Speaker 1: they looked over the ridge and their hearts stopped. They
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  Speaker 1: spotted a German search party armed with rifles approaching their shack.
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  Speaker 1: They didn't have time to tack up the sleds, and
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  Speaker 1: so they were forced to abandon their equipment and flee
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  Speaker 1: into the woods. Over the next two days, they walked
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  Speaker 1: about one hundred miles back home to base, and the
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  Speaker 1: entire time they were thankful that their loyal huskies had
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  Speaker 1: alerted them in time to make it out with their lives.
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  Speaker 1: When they finally got back to camp, they reported what
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  Speaker 1: they found. The US Army Air Force was sent to investigate,
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  Speaker 1: and soon after they learned that the hut had in
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  Speaker 1: fact been a German weather base. The Sled Patrol had
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  Speaker 1: accomplished their mission, and thanks to their huskies, they had
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  Speaker 1: made it out alive. Over the next few year years,
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  Speaker 1: the Sled Patrol had numerous run ins with German soldiers.
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  Speaker 1: In one skirmish, for example, a patrolman named Eli Knutsen
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  Speaker 1: was killed. He was one of three patrolmen awarded a
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  Speaker 1: Legion of Merit medal for bravery. And of course, thanks
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  Speaker 1: to this very creative way of patrolling Greenland, the German
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  Speaker 1: Army was never able to build a permanent weather station there.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen forty five, Denmark was liberated from Nazi Germany
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  Speaker 1: and the Northeast Greenland Sled Patrol was disbanded, but it
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  Speaker 1: was quickly re established in nineteen fifty, when the Cold
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  Speaker 1: War created concerns around Soviet claims to the Arctic. The
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  Speaker 1: unit was later renamed the Serious Dog Sled Patrol and
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  Speaker 1: is still a reconnaissance unit within the Royal Danish Navy today.
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  Speaker 1: So if you ever wind up on the Greenland tundra,
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  Speaker 1: look around, sooner or later a husky might catch your scent.
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  Speaker 1: For many people, belief in a dream is not enough.
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  Speaker 1: Hoping you will achieve your goals is rarely what keeps
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  Speaker 1: you working toward them. It needs some kind of progress,
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  Speaker 1: some small successes, or encouragement from others to continue your journey.
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  Speaker 1: But in the case of nineteenth century inventor Charles, belief
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  Speaker 1: is all he had. He met with failure after failure,
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  Speaker 1: and it was only his faith that he would eventually
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  Speaker 1: succeed that kept him going. Charles had faith instilled in
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  Speaker 1: him from a young age. Born in December of eighteen eighty,
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  Speaker 1: he was raised in a Christian home, where stories of
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  Speaker 1: the Book of Job had left a lasting impression on him.
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  Speaker 1: Charles saw suffering as noble and it wasn't a person's
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  Speaker 1: lot in life to want for anything anyway. They simply
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  Speaker 1: had to work hard, provide for others, and accept whatever
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  Speaker 1: God sent their way. Now, Charles's early years were spent
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  Speaker 1: working with his father at the family hardware store, where
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  Speaker 1: he learned about farming equipment and saw a major shift
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  Speaker 1: in the American economy. Whereas as previously most manufactured goods
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  Speaker 1: were imported from England, a slow shift began to take
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  Speaker 1: place where Americans started to trust goods manufactured there, and
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  Speaker 1: it was a significant opportunity for American manufacturers to meet
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  Speaker 1: a growing demand. By eighteen thirty three, Charles decided to
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  Speaker 1: set out on his own and become an inventor. He
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  Speaker 1: planned to make new tools that all Americans could benefit from.
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  Speaker 1: He was also married with six children, and he wanted
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  Speaker 1: to provide for them financially. Now, unfortunately, this would prove
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  Speaker 1: to be a lifelong struggle. Just like the biblical character job,
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  Speaker 1: Charles's family was destined to suffer. He spent time in
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  Speaker 1: New York speaking with manufacturers and learning about their needs,
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  Speaker 1: and he came across a purveyor of life preservers who
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  Speaker 1: admitted to Charles that the devices didn't work very well.
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  Speaker 1: The rubber valve that kept the air trapped inside had
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  Speaker 1: a tendency to melt at high temperatures and crack at
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  Speaker 1: cold temperatures. It was pretty useless, considering that a lost
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  Speaker 1: American sailor was likely to find themselves in either cold
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  Speaker 1: waters of the Arctic or the warm waters of the Atlantic.
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  Speaker 1: Rubber was in its infancy at the time and had
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  Speaker 1: only recently been discovered in the form of a white,
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  Speaker 1: sticky latex liquid produced by trees in the Amazon rainforest.
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  Speaker 1: Charles was inspired to take this new wonder substance and
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  Speaker 1: turn it into something truly revolutionary. He spent days and
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  Speaker 1: then weeks and then months, sometimes experimenting in his home,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes in different factories when he was allowed. His experiments
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  Speaker 1: involved boiling the sticky, smelly substance over a stove and
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  Speaker 1: then adding other chemicals to try and improve its durability,
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  Speaker 1: and then he took it loan after loan to pay
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  Speaker 1: for all of this. But all of these experiments led
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  Speaker 1: to Charles racking up massive debt. The harsh laws at
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  Speaker 1: the time meant that his creditors were able to throw
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  Speaker 1: him in jail for failing to pay him back. Ironically,
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  Speaker 1: it was in prison that he had his first breakthrough.
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  Speaker 1: The jailers had allowed him a work bench and materials,
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  Speaker 1: and eventually he discovered that adding the mineral magnesia to
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  Speaker 1: the rubber helped it become less sticky and suitable for
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  Speaker 1: articles of clothing like hats and shoes, and this discovery
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  Speaker 1: helped him to pay off some debts and get out
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  Speaker 1: of prison. By nineteen thirty nine, he was working for
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  Speaker 1: a rubber manufacturer in Massachusetts when he had his greatest
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  Speaker 1: breakthrough of all when he added the chemical element sulfur
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  Speaker 1: to his rubber mixture. It allowed it to harden and
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  Speaker 1: become immune to melting. In fact, if he took it
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  Speaker 1: off the stove at just the right time and then
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  Speaker 1: let it cool, it could then be returned to any
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  Speaker 1: heat source, even a direct flame, and still retain its shape.
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  Speaker 1: And he called it vulcanized rubber, named after the Roman
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  Speaker 1: god of the forge. However, as we mentioned, it was
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  Speaker 1: Charles's destiny to suffer. He was able to secure a
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  Speaker 1: patent for his invention, but spent the next several years
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  Speaker 1: trying to build confidence amongst his buyers and sue the
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  Speaker 1: many competitors who tried to steal his method from making rubber.
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  Speaker 1: Despite having finally achieved his goal, his finances were in
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  Speaker 1: a more dire state than ever. He was forced upon
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  Speaker 1: his wife's jewelry and even his children's textbooks, just to
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  Speaker 1: keep them fed. After years of ups and downs, going
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  Speaker 1: in and out of courts and debtors prison, he finally
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  Speaker 1: passed away in July of eighteen sixty. He never had
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  Speaker 1: a chance to build the manufacturing empire he had dreamed of,
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  Speaker 1: but his vulcanized rubber was soon being used in everything
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  Speaker 1: from shoes and horses to conveyor belts and tires. Curiously enough,
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  Speaker 1: decades after Charles's death, a tire company was founded, one
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  Speaker 1: that used his surname as a tribute to Charles and
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  Speaker 1: his work. He never profited from his own discoveries, but
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  Speaker 1: his faith led to one of the most recognizable names
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  Speaker 1: in the automotive industry, all thanks to Charles Goodyear. I
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  Speaker 1: hope 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. The show was created
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  Speaker 1: by me Aaron Mankey 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 Theworldoflore dot com. And
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  Speaker 1: until next time, stay curious,