Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Short Stuff: Liberty Bell

Transcript

Short Stuff: Liberty Bell · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Chucks here too, and so's Jerry sitting in for Dave,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: which makes this short stuff.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I've been singing Ween all day because of this one.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, are we talking about molluscs?
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: No, from the song Freedom of seventy six when they
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: sing about the liberty bell.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know that one liberty bell cracked in half
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: is mine?
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: So it's that's been on a loop in my head. Okay,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: I'll bet bake a bacon steak a perfect match.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: You know, it's been on a loop in my head.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Either the final countdown or that one you were whistling
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: the other day that drove it. Yep in Vega, you
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: can gear worm it with the best of them. Yes,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I was thinking about Ween the other day. I was like,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: I need to find something new to like get into,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, Ween's got a pretty
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: extensive collection, and I never really got into him. Not
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: because I don't like him, I just never got into him.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I'm sure think I'll go see if I can get
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: into Wien a little bit.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Well, I continue the book on how to do that.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: In the order of operation okay, please do yeah, please do.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: I need to send you a canister of nitrius too, though,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: that's fine. I'm not sure if you can do that
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: through the mail.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Please do. So we're talking liberty bell, that's right. And
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the reason why we're talking liberty bell is because well
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: there's no good reason, but let's talk about the liberty
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: bell anyway, because it's actually pretty interesting. The liberty bell,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: we think of today as the liberty Bell, is a fraud.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's let's go back in time a little bit
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: to seventeen fifty one. Let's hop in the old wayback machine.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: This is, oh boy, dusty as can be.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Don't get too close to this fide.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is very dusty, but it still fires up.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Look at that the flex capacitor is flexing. And off
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: we go to seventeen fifty one to the State House
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania State House, where they have just
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: brought in the bell. And even though it's not named
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: the liberty Bell at this point, that would come along well,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: as we see much later, it's a bell and it
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: was used, although it had very a lot of causes
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: and purposes through the years. Sure, at first it was
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: just a bell. We ring it when someone important dies,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: or we need to call the government together, like the
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: reasons you ring a town bell.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Someone won at Bingo.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, ring that bell.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: They called it initially the State House Bell, which is
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: on the nose but appropriate because it was originally commissioned
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: by the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly to be the bell in
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. They didn't even call
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: that Independence Hall. It was the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Everything was very business like, bureaucratically named, and it told
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: you what it did and what it was, and that's
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: how they liked it.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: That's right. The bell itself was cast by Lester and
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Pack Company out of London with the words proclaim liberty,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: throw out all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: which is apparently referenced a reference to Leviticus in the
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Old Bible. Duh. And it was about three feet high,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: a circumference of twelve feet late, about twenty one one
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: hundred pounds twenty one hundred pounds. And like I said,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: it was just a bell. And here's the thing about
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: the Liberty bell on that crack is no one really
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: agrees on exactly how that happened.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: No, but some historians think that it cracked the first
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: time it was used in seventeen fifty two, after it
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: was installed, like the first time.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Lester and Pack were like, I don't know
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: what you're talking about.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: All right, Actually it's pretty cool. They made good on replacement.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: So the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly said Pack, Lester fellaws, we
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: need a replacement bell, and we're not going to pay
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: for it, okay, And they said that's fine, we'll send
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: you another bell. And the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly was like,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: well do you I mean, you want the correct one back?
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Do you want us to send a picture of it
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: or something. They're like, you just keep it. Do whatever
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: you want with it. Make belt buckles out of it, munitions,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: hat buckles, if you're still into the pilgrim thing, shoe buckles,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: shoe buckles, all the any kind of buckle you want
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: to make. You go ahead and use that belt. And
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: they said, you know what, we're going to actually use
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: this bell to make a replacement bell while we wait
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: for the real replacement bell. And this is where it
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: gets confusing, unnecessarily, and I say we take a break.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Just let all that sink in.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: All right, let's do it st ja all right, So
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: if I am understanding this correctly, you now have two bells.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Technically three eventually, but one doesn't exist any longer. But
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: it does because it's now been melted into the second bell.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Okay. But you also have the replacement bell, right.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, and they were both apparently in the Pennsylvania Statehouse.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: They're both used. But who knows what happened to the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: replacement bell that pack and lester scent.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, so that's the one that wasn't officially hung
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: or hanged. I'm not sure what you would say there.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I would say hung, but then you would correct me.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Okay. So it was the one that they melted down
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: and fixed the and redid the original that is the
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: official one.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Then that's what we call liberty bell, yes, okay, all right,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: But they didn't call it the liberty bell back then again,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: they called the Statehouse bell. And then they were like
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: which one. They're like, the original one. They're like, I
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: thought that one was melted down. They're like, yes, this
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: is the one that we melted down from the original. Yeah.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: It went on a lot every time somebody asked about it.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: So they're belling this thing up. They're using it as
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: you would use a bell. In seventeen seventy seven, when
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: the British were encroaching, they removed the bell because they
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: didn't want it captured and melted down into bullets basically
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: or buckles. They hit it again later on in a church.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, they hit it in the church, then in Allentown,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: and then seventeen eighty five they raised it again, and
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: it was really just a bell until eighteen twenty four
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: are when Marquis de Lafayette was the last general of
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: the Revolution that survived, when on a tour of the
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: United States and America, that's when America was like, hey,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: let's rename this place Independence Hall, and let's call this thing. Well, actually,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: it took another eleven years to call it the Liberty Bell.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Even Yeah, it was some abolitionists who were like, oh,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: you got a liberty bell. Huh, you know who? The
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: liberty bell isn't ring for enslaved people, So let's do
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: away with slavery. And they actually used the liberty bell
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: and the new National pride around it and really kind
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: of point out just how slavery is a terrible thing.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: And we need to do away with it.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so here's where it gets really interesting. That first
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: bell is damaged and cracked, so they melt it down
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: make this new one. The new bell cracks as well.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: And they're not exactly sure how this happened either, but
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: they think it was in eighteen thirty five when it
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: was rung to mark the death of John Marshall, chief
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Justice of the United States, to mark his passing, and
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: other people say, you know, now, it was really the
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: eighteen forties during the Fourth of July when things got
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: really rowdy, or other people said, no, it was on
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: February twenty third, when we were getting hammered celebrating George
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Washington's birthday. Like people are just ringing the heck out
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: of this thing, and no one's really sure. The National
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Park Service, for their point of view, just says, you know,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: it just cracked after ninety years of use, like quit asking, just.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Be quiet, just take the templeate and be quiet exactly.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: But apparently there's some researchers who in nineteen seventy five
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: were like, actually, it wasn't just like hard use. This
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: bell was destined to crack. And the reason why is
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: because they're high tink content. It's like a quarter ten
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: almost that you don't want to use that in a
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: bell that peals maybe a decorative bell something you find
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: it like kirk Clans or something that it's not meant
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: to ring. Sure, make that out of tent, but you're
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: using like a functional workhorse bell. Do not put twenty
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: in that thing.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: No, you've been telling me that for years.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: The bell they tried to fix in eighteen forty six
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: because Washington's birthday was rolling around again, and they're like, listen,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: you know what we do here in Philly. We get drunk,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: We ring this bell. We act incredibly inhospitable for our
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: professional sports teams and the teams that play them.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Don't get us started on Santa Claus.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: And they use something called stop drilling, which in which
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: they actually widened the crack. The crack now is twenty
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: one inches long and about an inch a couple of
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: centimeters wide, and they would widen it so basically when
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: it was wrong that the two sides would not touch
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: each other at all and create this awful buzz. Yeah exactly,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: So they widened it so they it wouldn't touch. But
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: another crack developed and they were like, we got to
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: find a better way to celebrate Washington's birthday. We can't
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: ring this thing anymore.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: They forget it. Forget it. I'm done with this stupid bell,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: That's what they said. Yeah, so it became a true
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: symbol after that point. They just stopped ringing it. And
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: apparently over the years people have been like, we got
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: to fix that thing, we got to ring that thing again.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: It's a big deal, and other people are like, don't
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: even bother. It's like better as a symbol, And in fact,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: it proved it's worth pretty quickly on as a symbol.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: During World War One, I guess it went on a
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: whistle stop tour of the United States on the back
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: of a train and drummed up enthusiasm and support for
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: liberty bonds, like they were called liberty bonds because the
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: liberty bell was basically the mascot of this bond drive
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: to raise money for the US to fight World War One,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: and they ended up raising in today's dollars, billions of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: dollars from liberty bonds thanks to that cute little bell
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: with the crack in it.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty good earned it's worth.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they think a quarter of the United States saw
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: the Liberty Bell during that tour. That's how popular it was.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: People just thronged to see it.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, pretty neatre, do you neat? But if
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: anyone is emailing me right now, oh yeah, well the
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Phillies own the braves the past two years. That's exactly
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: what I'm talking about.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, get out of sports radio. It's toxic. You got
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: anything else?
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: I got nothing else?
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, since checks of that short stuff's out.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.