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Dropping the Ball · 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: If you're a history fanatic like I am, then you
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  Speaker 1: know that the past is not gone. It's not even past.
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  Speaker 1: History lives on in the present, influencing the very shape
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  Speaker 1: of our world. The city of Hong Kong is a
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  Speaker 1: perfect example of that idea. Hong Kong is located on
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  Speaker 1: China's southeast coast. Today it's considered a Special Administrative Region
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  Speaker 1: of China, but that wasn't always the case. The story
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  Speaker 1: of Hong Kong involves multiple wars, occupations, and treaties, as
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  Speaker 1: well as one of the strangest lease agreements in world history.
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  Speaker 1: Beginning in prehistory and yes, there is such a thing,
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  Speaker 1: Hong Kong was a territory of Imperial China for many centuries.
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  Speaker 1: The country was sparsely populated. It wasn't until the late
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  Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds, during China's Qing dynasty that more people moved
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  Speaker 1: there and the region grew into an important trading port.
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  Speaker 1: Now fast forward about one hundred years to the late
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  Speaker 1: seventeen hundreds. China was trade partners with Great Britain, but
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  Speaker 1: the British Empire felt like it was getting the short
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  Speaker 1: end of the deal. They bought a lot of Chinese
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  Speaker 1: products like tea, porcelain, and silk, but China didn't buy
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  Speaker 1: many British items in return. That meant that instead of
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  Speaker 1: bartering for goods, British traders had to pay in silver,
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  Speaker 1: and this was threatening to create a silver shortage in
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  Speaker 1: the UK. Britain's solution to this problem was well unethical,
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  Speaker 1: to say the least. You see, at the time the
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  Speaker 1: British Empire exercised colonial rule over India, the climate there
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  Speaker 1: just so happened to be perfect for growing poppies. If
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  Speaker 1: you were big into world history in high school or college,
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  Speaker 1: you probably know where this is headed. Poppies were used
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  Speaker 1: to manufacture opium, a highly addictive and dangerous narcotic. The
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  Speaker 1: British Empire began creating huge quantities of opium and exporting
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  Speaker 1: the drug to China, and because it was so addictive,
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  Speaker 1: people bought it once and then kept buying it very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: The trade imbalance between Britain and China flipped. Beyond the
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  Speaker 1: fact that its own silver stores were now running low,
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  Speaker 1: China was worried about its people opium use spread like
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  Speaker 1: wildfire in the country. In an attempt to counteract this,
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  Speaker 1: the nation banned opium entirely in seventeen ninety six, but
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  Speaker 1: British traders weren't interested in following Chinese law. They continued
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  Speaker 1: shipping opium into the country for decades. Finally, in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine, tensions came to a head. The First Opium
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  Speaker 1: War broke out. The fighting lasted for three whole years
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  Speaker 1: until the British Army claimed victory. They negotiated a treaty
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  Speaker 1: that favored them and not only allowed for British merchants
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  Speaker 1: to trade freely, but it also gave Britain ownership of
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  Speaker 1: Hong Kong Island. Still, though the British Empire wasn't entirely happy,
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  Speaker 1: it wanted opium to be legalized across China. When China refused,
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  Speaker 1: the Second Opium War began. It lasted until eighteen fifty
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  Speaker 1: six and ended in another Chinese loss. This time, Britain
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  Speaker 1: gained a mainland territory called Kowloon, which was directly north
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  Speaker 1: of Hong Kong Island. Over the next few decades, the
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  Speaker 1: British Empire changed the region significantly. It expanded trade and
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  Speaker 1: turned the area into a bustling business center. At the
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  Speaker 1: same time, thousands of migrants were seeking an escape from
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  Speaker 1: political upheaval in mainland China, and many chose to move
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  Speaker 1: to these British owned territories. And then came the strangest part.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen ninety eight, the British Empire approached the Chinese
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  Speaker 1: government with a proposition. Once again, they wanted to expand
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  Speaker 1: their colonial rule. They didn't just want ownership over Hong
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  Speaker 1: Kong Ia and Kowloon. They wanted total control over the
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty five islands that make up modern
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  Speaker 1: day Hong Kong. But they also made a slight concession.
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  Speaker 1: They didn't ask for total control of Hong Kong forever. No,
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  Speaker 1: they just wanted to lease it for ninety nine years.
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  Speaker 1: It had to be one of the strangest power grabs
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  Speaker 1: in history. It seemed pretty obvious that this was an
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  Speaker 1: attempt to expand their landholdings, But who knew if the
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  Speaker 1: UK would actually give Hong Kong back. Nevertheless, China agreed
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  Speaker 1: to these terms, and it doesn't appear that they started
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  Speaker 1: getting antsy about it until around nineteen eighty, when Chinese
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  Speaker 1: and British officials entered into negotiations about the future of
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  Speaker 1: Hong Kong. Perhaps because of how much the world had
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  Speaker 1: changed since the eighteen hundreds, Britain did something kind of shocking.
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  Speaker 1: They agreed to return Hong Kong when their lease was up.
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  Speaker 1: All they asked that China do in return was allow
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  Speaker 1: the city to maintain its capitalist economy and partially democratic
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  Speaker 1: political system. China said, okay, but only for the next
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  Speaker 1: fifty years, and after that they would do whatever they wanted.
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  Speaker 1: Hong Kong was passed back to China in nineteen ninety seven,
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  Speaker 1: becoming the Special Administrative Region that it is today. While
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  Speaker 1: the city's future is unclear, one thing is certain. History
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  Speaker 1: is decidedly curious. When we think of New Year's Eve,
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  Speaker 1: we often think of glitz and romance, champagne bubbles, midnight kisses,
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  Speaker 1: and of course that famous ball drop. Whether gathered at
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  Speaker 1: home watching the Times Square festivities on TV or gathering
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  Speaker 1: in Times Square, most Americans have counted down to midnight
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  Speaker 1: alongside the ball. Time Square is the perfect location for
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  Speaker 1: such an event. The lights bade the city goers with
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  Speaker 1: the promise of a brighter future. It's easy to get
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  Speaker 1: lost in the glow for a moment. You might even forget.
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  Speaker 1: All Those promises come in the form of advertisements, nothing
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  Speaker 1: more than what you'd see while scrolling through social media.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, the first ever ball drop was itself one
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  Speaker 1: big advertising scheme, and it drew its inspiration from an
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  Speaker 1: iconic landmark. The first New Year's Eve ball drop occurred
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  Speaker 1: in Times Square in nineteen oh seven, but ball drops
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  Speaker 1: weren't a new concept at the time. The first time ball,
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  Speaker 1: as it became known, was constructed on top of the
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  Speaker 1: Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, in eighteen thirty three, and
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't just for show. The ball drop signaled the
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  Speaker 1: hour of one pm. In a time when people had
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  Speaker 1: to go to a professional to get their wristwatches properly timed,
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  Speaker 1: the ball allowed them to clock it themselves. When the
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  Speaker 1: ball dropped, people on the ground nearby would just stop,
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  Speaker 1: adjust the time on their watches and then keep moving.
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  Speaker 1: But why one pm, Well, the ball didn't just help
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  Speaker 1: those on foot. It was especially useful to nearby sailors.
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  Speaker 1: This was important because if chronometers were even just a
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  Speaker 1: few minutes off, ships could go way off course. This
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  Speaker 1: original time ball functioned a lot like the New Year's
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  Speaker 1: Eve ball that we know today. First, it was hoisted
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  Speaker 1: up a flagpole by rope, and that it was held
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  Speaker 1: in place by an electro magnet until it was released
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  Speaker 1: at one PM. Unlike the New Year's Eve ball, this
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  Speaker 1: one was made of paper light leather. It wasn't glamorous,
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  Speaker 1: but it got the job done. Given the success of
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  Speaker 1: the time ball in Greenwich, others were built around the UK. Then,
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy seven, the US erected its first one,
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  Speaker 1: atop the Western Union Telegraph Building in Lower Manhattan. At
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  Speaker 1: ten stories high, it was the tallest building in the
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  Speaker 1: city at the time. The ball could be spotted from
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  Speaker 1: blocks away. It was more stylish than those before it.
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  Speaker 1: Multiple copper sheets in the shape of crescent moons formed
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  Speaker 1: a sphere, while the slats between them allowed for the
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  Speaker 1: wind to flow. You can imagine the copper gleaming in
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  Speaker 1: the sun while the East and Hudson Rivers glittered not
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  Speaker 1: far away. Perhaps this site inspired the use of a
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  Speaker 1: time ball or celebration, but not without some healthy competition. First.
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  Speaker 1: You see, for centuries Trinity Church, also located there in
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  Speaker 1: Lower Manhattan, hosted a New Year's Eve ringing of the bells.
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  Speaker 1: It was the city's main event by the end of
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  Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. The celebration often drew thousands of people. Then,
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen oh four, The New York Times opened a
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  Speaker 1: new headquarters in what was then known as long Acre Square.
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  Speaker 1: The paper's owner, Adolph Ox, lobbied to change the name
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  Speaker 1: of the square, and thus Times Square was born. But
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  Speaker 1: this was just the beginning of ox publicity campaign. He
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  Speaker 1: didn't just want to stamp the paper's name on the city.
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  Speaker 1: He wanted to steal the show. That year. He sought
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  Speaker 1: to outshine Trinity Church, and that he did. Ox put
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  Speaker 1: on an all day street festival and set off fireworks
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  Speaker 1: when the clock struck midnight. The time celebration repeated for
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  Speaker 1: the next two years until the city banned fireworks due
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  Speaker 1: to the hot ash they created. But Ox wasn't willing
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  Speaker 1: to step aside. Instead, he came up with a new idea.
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  Speaker 1: The Western Union timeball had become a source of both
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  Speaker 1: spectacle and pride, and its whole purpose was to mark
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  Speaker 1: the passage of time. This seems to have inspired Ox.
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  Speaker 1: The newspaper man hired someone to construct a ball made
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  Speaker 1: of wood, iron, and twenty five watt bulbs. The final
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  Speaker 1: product was seven hundred pounds and five feet in diameter.
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  Speaker 1: That might seem small to us now, but at the
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  Speaker 1: time it was quite a feat and just like a
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  Speaker 1: time ball, it gave everyone a reason to pause and
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  Speaker 1: take stock of time together. The original New Year's Eve
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  Speaker 1: ball remained in use until nineteen twenty. Over the next
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  Speaker 1: few decades, the ball grew in size and style. Wood
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  Speaker 1: and iron gave way to stronger metals. Light bulbs were
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  Speaker 1: replaced with crystals and computerized LEDs. Today's ball weighs almost
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  Speaker 1: six tons, measures twelve feet in diameter, and is decorated
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  Speaker 1: with over two thousand crystals and thirty thousand high powered LEDs,
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  Speaker 1: and each year it to send sixty six feet and
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  Speaker 1: usually has some sponsors signage nearby. It is Times square
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  Speaker 1: after all. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time,
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  Speaker 1: stay curious.