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Windy City · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  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 are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. If there's one thing
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  Speaker 1: we can't change, it's the weather. It does whatever it
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  Speaker 1: wants to, and all we can do is grin and Barrett.
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  Speaker 1: Florida will always face hurricanes in the summer, the Minnesota
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  Speaker 1: can plan on sub zero winters every January. In February,
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  Speaker 1: and Iran, where temperatures can reach up to one degrees fahrenheit,
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  Speaker 1: high winds are a given. These winds, which can gust
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  Speaker 1: as high as seventy miles an hour or more, kick
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  Speaker 1: up sand and dust, resulting in some pretty devastating sandstorms.
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  Speaker 1: When that happens, day turns tonight as the sand sweeps
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  Speaker 1: through towns, knocking over trees, taking out power lines, and
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  Speaker 1: swallowing cars or even people. They're a deadly nuisance, but
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  Speaker 1: also a fact of life, and it's been that way
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  Speaker 1: for thousands of years. But if you look at the
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  Speaker 1: top of an old wall in the small village of
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  Speaker 1: nash Defan, you'll see how the Iranian people have learned
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  Speaker 1: to live with these dust ups and how they've used
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  Speaker 1: them to drive innovation. The town's name is appropriate to
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  Speaker 1: nash de Fan translates roughly as storms sting. The winds
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  Speaker 1: that blow there can be powerful and damaging, but nash
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  Speaker 1: Defan has found a way to harness them into something
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  Speaker 1: more constructive. The people there built sixty five foot tall
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  Speaker 1: vertical windmills that look more like revolving doors than an
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  Speaker 1: energy source, and there's a reason for their unique design.
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  Speaker 1: The windmills were constructed on a vertical access, unlike the
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  Speaker 1: kinds of windmills were used to seeing in America, ones
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  Speaker 1: with a large fan spinning at the head of its hour. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: long planks were arranged side by side and fastened to
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  Speaker 1: the post like boat paddles standing up, and then arranged
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  Speaker 1: around a single tall column. When the wind blows, the
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  Speaker 1: paddles catch the air and turn the central post. This
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  Speaker 1: does two things. First, the array of windmills slows the
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  Speaker 1: wind down, throttling its speed through a bottleneck. The village
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  Speaker 1: on the other side is spared from the worst of
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  Speaker 1: any storms passing through, saving them from the usual devastation.
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  Speaker 1: And second, grindstones beneath the columns turn as well, grinding
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  Speaker 1: grain into flour. And these devices that use power derived
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  Speaker 1: only from the wind are impressive. They possess no extra
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  Speaker 1: motors or turbines, functioning only on what nature provides. But
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't look like Iran's deep dive into alternative energy
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  Speaker 1: will last much longer. No, they won't be switching to
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  Speaker 1: natural gas or fossil fuels. It's just that there's only
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  Speaker 1: one man who maintains the windmills, and no one has
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  Speaker 1: for to follow in his footsteps when he's gone. Because
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  Speaker 1: of that, out of the hundreds that used to stand there,
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  Speaker 1: only a handful are still around today. It's hard for
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  Speaker 1: just one man to keep them all operating after all,
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  Speaker 1: especially since they're made of wood, clay, and straw. Oh
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  Speaker 1: and they're also over a thousand years old. Yes, these
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  Speaker 1: vertical access windmills, a design used in state of the
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  Speaker 1: art wind turbines coming out of research companies today, got
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  Speaker 1: their starts in ancient Persia around five a d. They
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  Speaker 1: still work just as they did back then too. It's
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  Speaker 1: just a shame that they'll probably disappear in a few
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  Speaker 1: years unless someone volunteers to take over their maintenance. It's
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  Speaker 1: not clear what will happen to the village when they
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  Speaker 1: eventually fall apart. Perhaps they'll build new versions in their place,
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  Speaker 1: ones made of metal and plastic that can withstand higher
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  Speaker 1: wind speeds and generate power for the village. But it
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  Speaker 1: won't be the same that any of these artifacts still existed,
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  Speaker 1: all as a testament to their construction and the ingenuity
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  Speaker 1: of the people who built them. After all, the old
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  Speaker 1: cliche has never been more true. They sure don't make
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  Speaker 1: them like they used to. Don't shoot the messenger. It's
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  Speaker 1: a common saying with a simple meaning. Don't blame the
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  Speaker 1: person bearing the bad news for simply doing their job. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: that's exactly what happened to two American scientists working in
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  Speaker 1: Peru back in Eno. No, they weren't shot, don't worry.
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  Speaker 1: They just wanted someone to listen to their advice. They
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  Speaker 1: were working in the an Cash region of Peru on
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  Speaker 1: the western edge of the country. Within that area as
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  Speaker 1: a town called Young Guy nestled in among the mountains.
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  Speaker 1: Although small, the town boasts a population of over ten
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  Speaker 1: thousand people and it holds a place in history as
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  Speaker 1: the site of a major battle during the War of
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  Speaker 1: Confederation in eighteen thirty nine. Also, thanks to an American
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  Speaker 1: archaeologist named Thomas Lynch, were aware of evidence from ten
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  Speaker 1: thousand years ago that Young Guy was one of the
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  Speaker 1: original locations where American agriculture began. But the town's history
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  Speaker 1: hides a darkness beneath the surface, one that had gone
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  Speaker 1: unspoken for eight years before the unthinkable happened. David Burnet's
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  Speaker 1: and Charles Sawyer were American geologists studying the nearby mountains there. Specifically,
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  Speaker 1: they were focused on hores Garan, the highest peak in Peru,
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  Speaker 1: which towered over Young Guy from less than ten miles away.
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  Speaker 1: While they were there, they noticed something concerning about the mountain,
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  Speaker 1: specifically one section of it. If the vertical slab on
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  Speaker 1: the north side ever collapsed, it would crush the town
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  Speaker 1: beneath it. So the scientists took their findings to the
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  Speaker 1: local newspaper, which published their report it. Now, you would
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  Speaker 1: think that might have sparked some kind of investigation or
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  Speaker 1: even an evacuation. The number of potential casualties was unthinkable.
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  Speaker 1: Somebody had to listen, except nobody did. They never got
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  Speaker 1: the chance. The Peruvian government got wind of the geologist's
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  Speaker 1: reports and ordered them to print a retraction. What they'd
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  Speaker 1: proposed was impossible. It would cause mass panic and chaotic riots,
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  Speaker 1: and if the two men wouldn't listen, they'd be arrested.
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  Speaker 1: So rather than face jail time, Burns and Sawyer fled
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  Speaker 1: the country, never to speak of their findings to anyone again,
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  Speaker 1: and that was it. For years, the town of Young
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  Speaker 1: Guy went on about its business without fear. Maybe those
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  Speaker 1: scientists had just been wrong. After all, Harress Groan was
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  Speaker 1: an enormous mountain peak that had been there for eons.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. And then, in May
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  Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy, eight, years after publishing their predictions, an
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  Speaker 1: earthquake occurred around three o'clock in the afternoon. It started
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  Speaker 1: off the coast of Peru and devastated the entire and
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  Speaker 1: Cash region, including the town of Young Guy. Roads collapsed,
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  Speaker 1: buildings were reduced to rubble, and all communications were destroyed.
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  Speaker 1: But perhaps worst of all was what happened to the
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  Speaker 1: northern wall of Horrescuran. That vertical slab the geologist had
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  Speaker 1: warned everyone about did fall. The resulting avalanche sent more
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  Speaker 1: than fifty million cubic meters of glacial ice, rock and
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  Speaker 1: snow down the mountain, an unstoppable del uge that buried
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  Speaker 1: young guy. Over twenty thousand souls were lost that day.
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  Speaker 1: Most of the bodies were never recovered. The government declared
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  Speaker 1: the town a national cemetery and prohibited workers from excavating
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  Speaker 1: in the area. We may never know what might have
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  Speaker 1: happened if the government had actually listened, or how many
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  Speaker 1: lives might have been spared if the town had been
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  Speaker 1: evacuated earlier rather than a mass grave. The demise of
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  Speaker 1: the city have just been an interesting footnote to one
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  Speaker 1: of the worst natural disasters to ever strike the region,
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  Speaker 1: but it sadly turned out to be much more than that,
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  Speaker 1: due to the inaction and denial from the people at
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  Speaker 1: the top who could have helped the most. Instead, it
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  Speaker 1: will go down as perhaps the greatest preventable disaster and history,
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  Speaker 1: predicted by two men who just wanted to help. 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 dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the world
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.