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Always Present · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Most of us grew up
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: with the story of Benjamin Franklin and his kite. It's
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  Speaker 1: that stereotypical Eureka moment, practically an American legend. At this point,
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  Speaker 1: Franklin tied a key to the kite and let the
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  Speaker 1: whole contraption fly up into the stormy sky. The string
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  Speaker 1: was wet with rain, the key was made of metal,
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  Speaker 1: and the lightning well it sent some sparks and a
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  Speaker 1: tingle down to Franklin's hand. It's a lovely story. It
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  Speaker 1: might very well be true. If the modern world has
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: a beating heart, we might be able to point to
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: electricity as the force that powers it. After Benjamin Franklin's experiment,
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  Speaker 1: the wheels of science spun quickly. Luigi Galvani experimented with
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  Speaker 1: the power of electricity to cause dead bodies to twitch.
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  Speaker 1: Alessandro Volta, one of Galvani's competitors, invented the voltaic pile
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen hundred, which was essentially a battery. Twenty years later,
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  Speaker 1: Michael Faraday invented the electric motor, and in the decades
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  Speaker 1: that followed, those same forces powered the invention of the telephone,
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  Speaker 1: the light bulb, and eventually the modern personal computer. It's shocking,
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  Speaker 1: I know, but we owe a lot of thanks to electricity. Still.
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  Speaker 1: It isn't a complex or challenging technology when you boil
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  Speaker 1: it down to its basic elements. Back in a German name,
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  Speaker 1: Arnie Eggbrecht managed to prove just that. He built a
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  Speaker 1: battery out of nothing more than a small jar, a
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  Speaker 1: copper tube, and an iron rod. When filled with an
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  Speaker 1: acidic liquid like vinegar or lemon juice, the copper and
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  Speaker 1: iron react to produce an electric current. Like I said,
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  Speaker 1: it's pretty simple with very few ingredients. It wasn't his idea, though,
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  Speaker 1: egg Brecht had an earlier example to follow. Not something
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  Speaker 1: built by Galvani or even Volta, not something drawn up
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  Speaker 1: by Franklin or Thomas Edison. No, his template was much
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  Speaker 1: older and came from a land far far away from
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  Speaker 1: Europe and America. It was a battery discovered in Iraq
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  Speaker 1: from a time well outside our modern expectations over two
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  Speaker 1: thousand years ago. He was a philosopher by trade, which
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  Speaker 1: gave him the tools he needed to be an extraordinary
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  Speaker 1: social reformer. Jeremy Bentham was born in London in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: forty eight and graduated with his Masters from the Queen's College,
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  Speaker 1: Oxford at the young age of just eighteen, and he
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  Speaker 1: seems like a progressive personality born well ahead of his time.
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  Speaker 1: Bentham was an advocate for the separation of church and state,
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  Speaker 1: for equal rights for women, and for the abolition of slavery.
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  Speaker 1: He fought to put an end to corporal punishment and
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  Speaker 1: the death penalty, and called for the fair treatment of animals.
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  Speaker 1: And on top of all of that, he's considered one
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  Speaker 1: of the spiritual founders of University College London and is
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  Speaker 1: still remembered fondly there today. He also lived in an
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  Speaker 1: age when it was difficult to find enough corpses for
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  Speaker 1: medical study. Back then, only executed criminals were acceptable subjects
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  Speaker 1: for dissection by medical students, unless, of course, a generous
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  Speaker 1: individual chose to donate their body willingly, which at the
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  Speaker 1: age of twenty one is exactly what Bentham promised to do.
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  Speaker 1: He lived a long and fruitful life after that. Don't worry.
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  Speaker 1: He made contributions to the fields of economics, legal reform,
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  Speaker 1: gender studies, and he also published extensively. But I think
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  Speaker 1: you get it. Bentham was a smart guy who did
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  Speaker 1: a lot of great things. A lot of people still
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  Speaker 1: look back with respect and admiration for what he accomplished.
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  Speaker 1: Got it good because then he died. People saw it coming.
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  Speaker 1: Of course. He was eighty four when it happened, which
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  Speaker 1: was impressive for the eighteen thirties. But in the month
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  Speaker 1: prior to his death he set about putting two connected
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  Speaker 1: projects into action. The first was the donation of his
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  Speaker 1: body to science that he had promised over sixty years before,
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  Speaker 1: and sure enough, two days after his death, a group
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  Speaker 1: of friends and students gathered to watch Dr Thomas Southward
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  Speaker 1: Smith conduct the procedure. Afterwards, bentham skeleton was preserved and
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  Speaker 1: set aside for the next step, except his head, with
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  Speaker 1: flesh and hair and teeth all intact and untouched. Smith
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  Speaker 1: used a procedure to mummify Bentham's head and freeze the decay,
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  Speaker 1: but something went wrong and the dead man's head was
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  Speaker 1: left a bit too dark and taught for most people's tastes.
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  Speaker 1: In the end, they were forced to make a wax replica.
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  Speaker 1: When they were ready, they brought all of Bentham's parts
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  Speaker 1: over to his second project, a cabinet. It had been
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  Speaker 1: built prior to his death and set aside for this
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  Speaker 1: very moment. It's a large wooden display case that sort
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  Speaker 1: of resembles a really nice phone booth, complete with doors
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  Speaker 1: that open and lovely dark paneling inside, and it's big
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  Speaker 1: enough for a grown man to sit inside comfortably. One
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  Speaker 1: of Bentham's favorite chairs was placed inside the cabinet, and
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  Speaker 1: then his skeleton was dressed in his own clothing. They
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  Speaker 1: stuffed Hay inside it to flesh it out, so to speak,
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  Speaker 1: and then sat the whole thing down in the chair
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  Speaker 1: with that wax head on top. They even added his
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  Speaker 1: walking cane for good measure. His real head caused a
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  Speaker 1: lot more trouble than people expected, if you'd care to know.
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  Speaker 1: Other than the fact that it's just a bit too
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  Speaker 1: gruesome to look at, it's also been stolen a few
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  Speaker 1: times by university students. These days, it's locked away and
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  Speaker 1: safely out of sight and out of reach as well.
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  Speaker 1: All these years later, you can still visit Jeremy Bentham.
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  Speaker 1: His wooden cabinet is typically on display in the main
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  Speaker 1: building of the University College London, although on rare occasions
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  Speaker 1: his body has been removed from its cabinet so that
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  Speaker 1: he can sit in on important gatherings of the College Council.
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  Speaker 1: They even record his presence in the meeting minutes his
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  Speaker 1: status present but not voting. I hope you've enjoyed today's
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  Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
• 7:02
  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,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: book series and television show, and you can learn all
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.