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Citrus at Sea · 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: A fruit is a delicate thing. Once it becomes ripe,
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  Speaker 1: a ticking clock begins. How long will it last before
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  Speaker 1: an animal devours it? Will it start to rot? Or
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  Speaker 1: will it drop off and vanish into the dirt. This
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  Speaker 1: is a calculation built into the genes of millions of plants.
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  Speaker 1: The sweet exteriors of fruits protect their seeds and incentivize
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  Speaker 1: animals to eat and spread the plant far and wide.
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  Speaker 1: We sometimes forget that the foods we consider ubiquitous have
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  Speaker 1: a very specific natural role, and it required a lot
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  Speaker 1: of careful engineering to get them to where they are today.
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  Speaker 1: Some even had to be invented from whole cloth. Take
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  Speaker 1: the sweet orange.
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  Speaker 2: Its first mention in writing comes from Chinese literature of
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  Speaker 2: the third century BC. It's a hybrid fruit that seems
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  Speaker 2: to have originated in East Asia before spreading to the
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  Speaker 2: Middle East, Europe, and the rest of the globe. Along
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  Speaker 2: the way, it spawned varieties like the blood orange and
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  Speaker 2: the navel orange, and its popularity speaks for itself. However,
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  Speaker 2: as with all fruits, preservation was a significant problem throughout
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  Speaker 2: recorded history. Limes, a sister fruit of the citrus family,
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  Speaker 2: became well known as a treat for sailors at sea,
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  Speaker 2: but oranges proved to be somewhat more difficult to transport
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  Speaker 2: between continents. Even after Christopher Columbus brought lime seeds to
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  Speaker 2: the Caribbean and introduced citrus fruits production in North America,
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  Speaker 2: lag behind California hadn't yet been turned into a powerhouse
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  Speaker 2: of orange production, so the fruit was seen as an
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  Speaker 2: exotic delicacy of sorts, and those who wanted to serve
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  Speaker 2: oranges to their dinner guests had to endure some truly
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  Speaker 2: unhinged efforts to transport the fruit. In January of eighteen
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  Speaker 2: fifty nine, tabloids latched on eagerly to a story out
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  Speaker 2: of Puerto Rico. A ship set sail from the islands
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  Speaker 2: under full sail, bound for New England. The goal was
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  Speaker 2: to deliver a load of three hundred thousand oranges to
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  Speaker 2: the East coast in still edible condition, a race against
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  Speaker 2: time and nature. It was in optimistic attempt. However, by
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  Speaker 2: the time the ship arrived in Boston Harbor, its cargo
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  Speaker 2: was in less than ideal condition. More than two hundred
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  Speaker 2: thousand oranges, two thirds of the cargo had erotted during
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  Speaker 2: the voyage. It might have smelled nice, but that fruit
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  Speaker 2: was no longer edible. Fortunately for the residents of Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 2: almost eight hundred thousand oranges is still quite the supply.
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  Speaker 2: On Janus January twenty fifth of eighteen fifty nine, a
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  Speaker 2: lavish dinner was held in Boston to celebrate the birthday
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  Speaker 2: of poet Robert Burns. On the menu for the shindig,
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  Speaker 2: we can still read about the lavish dishes they ate,
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  Speaker 2: but among the dessert menu is a deceptively simple line
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  Speaker 2: item oranges. It seems that this was the final destination
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  Speaker 2: of those nearly rotten fruits from Puerto Rico, and perhaps
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  Speaker 2: some of the most inedible ones were still used to
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  Speaker 2: help flavor the orange Sherbert listed beside it on the menu.
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  Speaker 2: It wouldn't be until much later that someone would propose
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  Speaker 2: that ice could be used to preserve food products for
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  Speaker 2: transport across the world, and enterprising individuals would bring orange
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  Speaker 2: seeds to different parts of North America, attempting to introduce
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  Speaker 2: the plant to the New World. And today we're not
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  Speaker 2: lacking for options wherever we look. Humans have been eating
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  Speaker 2: oranges for at least twenty three hundred years, but it
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  Speaker 2: wasn't until the past few hundred that we finally made
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  Speaker 2: it a global possibility. It's almost a little microcosm of
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  Speaker 2: what technological advance really means for a species. Not conquest
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  Speaker 2: or efficiency, but triumph over entropy, the natural cycle of
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  Speaker 2: a plant, a fruit, an animal. These were once fixed
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  Speaker 2: things that started the moment it entered the world, and
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  Speaker 2: now we no longer have to race ships in order
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  Speaker 2: to bulk order citrus fruits. An orange has gone from
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  Speaker 2: being a treasure obtained at great risk to being simply
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  Speaker 2: a product. But maybe if we change our mindset just
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  Speaker 2: a little, it can be a treasure again. Louis was
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  Speaker 2: late the young teens. Sped through the cobblestone streets, scattering
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  Speaker 2: pigeons as he wove between the horse drawn carriages. Pedestrians
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  Speaker 2: jumped out of the way, shouting for him to watch
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  Speaker 2: where he was going. Louis ignored them, cutting through parks
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  Speaker 2: and over bridges. On how the hotel loomed into view.
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  Speaker 2: He slammed on his brakes and dismounted the bike at
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  Speaker 2: a run. Jogging to the dorman, he shouted that he
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  Speaker 2: was there to see the American. The dorman blinked in surprise,
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  Speaker 2: then pointed him around the corner of the building. Minutes later,
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  Speaker 2: Louie was flat on his back in the alley, bearing
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  Speaker 2: down hard on a wrench. While he worked, he chatted
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  Speaker 2: eagerly with the mustache businessman, who seemed surprised that his
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  Speaker 2: repairman was little more than a child. Despite his young age,
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  Speaker 2: Louis was one of the best workers at the town's
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  Speaker 2: bicycle and carriage workshop. He inherited his mechanical mindset from
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  Speaker 2: his father, a Swiss watchmaker whose floundering business had forced
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  Speaker 2: his children to enter the workforce early. Louis didn't mind, though,
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  Speaker 2: he liked fixing bikes almost as much as he liked
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  Speaker 2: riding them. But the machine he was repairing now wasn't
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  Speaker 2: like anything he had worked on before. It was a
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  Speaker 2: steam powered tricycle, one of the world's earliest self powered vehicles,
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  Speaker 2: and as Louis familiarized himself with the gears and the
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  Speaker 2: inner workings. He was already falling in love. The problem
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  Speaker 2: wasn't difficult to diagnose, and Louis had the strike working
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  Speaker 2: again in no time. The American was impressed. After paying
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  Speaker 2: and thanking Louis, he gave him some free advice before
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  Speaker 2: speeding away. Come to America, He said, we have work
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  Speaker 2: for you there. Days later Louie would learn that the
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  Speaker 2: American was the millionaire and racing enthusiast William K. Vanderbilt.
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  Speaker 2: He never forgot the interaction or the man's parting words,
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  Speaker 2: although it would take years to see them come to fruition.
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  Speaker 2: As soon as he was old enough, he moved to
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  Speaker 2: Paris and got a job at an early automotive factory.
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  Speaker 2: He spent his wages on passage to Canada, where he
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  Speaker 2: found work as a chauffeur and a mechanic, and finally,
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  Speaker 2: in nineteen oh one, Louis arrived in New York City
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  Speaker 2: at the age of twenty three. It was a far
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  Speaker 2: cry from the world of ready jobs and easy money
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  Speaker 2: that he had imagined. Auto companies were shuddering almost as
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  Speaker 2: fast as they were opening, and Louis struggled to make
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  Speaker 2: ends meet, he hops from one car company to another,
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  Speaker 2: slowly working his way up the runs while gaining experience
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  Speaker 2: tinkering on early race cars. But Louie's love for engines
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  Speaker 2: wasn't confined to the garage. When he wasn't building cars,
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  Speaker 2: he was racing them. In nineteen oh five, he won
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  Speaker 2: New York's three Miles race, setting a track record of
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  Speaker 2: sixty eight miles per hour. The following year, he broke
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  Speaker 2: the world record by reaching speeds of one hundred and
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  Speaker 2: nineteen miles an hour in a race car that he
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  Speaker 2: built himself. His skill, both in the garage and on
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  Speaker 2: the track, caught the eye of another American millionaire, William C. Durant,
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  Speaker 2: the founder of GM. In nineteen eleven, the pair partner
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  Speaker 2: to create a new auto company named after Louis, since
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  Speaker 2: Durant thought that his French sounding surname would appeal to customers.
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  Speaker 2: At first, the team was wildly productive, quickly releasing four
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  Speaker 2: cars designed by Louis, but disagreements about the direction of
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  Speaker 2: the company soon got in the way. Durant wanted to
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  Speaker 2: follow the Ford model of mass producing affordable cars. Louis
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  Speaker 2: was determined to make the kind of automobiles that he
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  Speaker 2: liked to drive, fast, powerful, and expensive. Eventually, the argument
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  Speaker 2: escalated over a personal disagreement. Durant had long been irritated
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  Speaker 2: by Louise's habit of smoking cheap cigarettes, but he always
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  Speaker 2: chewed out of the corner of his mouth. One day,
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  Speaker 2: after a heated business meeting, Durant suggested that Louis should
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  Speaker 2: consider swapping the cigarettes for cigars so that he wouldn't
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  Speaker 2: look so out of place next to the other automobile executives.
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  Speaker 2: And for Louis, that was the last straw. He stormed
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  Speaker 2: out in a fury, shouting I sold you my automobile,
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  Speaker 2: I sold you my name, but I shall not sell
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  Speaker 2: my personality to you. Their partnership ended there. Louis sold
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  Speaker 2: his shares to Durant and walked away. Durant, however, decided
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  Speaker 2: to keep the branding, a decision that ensured that Louis's
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  Speaker 2: name would endure for over a century, stamped onto cars
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  Speaker 2: sold across the world, even if you remembered the mechanic
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  Speaker 2: and speed demon behind it, A man named Louis Chevrolet.
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  Speaker 2: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 2: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 2: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 2: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
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  Speaker 2: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 2: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 2: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 2: Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.