Latest / Ridiculous History / Accidental Inventions of the 20th Century, Part Two: The Slinky and the Post-it Note

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Accidental Inventions of the 20th Century, Part Two: The Slinky and the Post-it Note · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show,
0:28
Speaker 1: fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much for
0:32
Speaker 1: tuning in. Let's hear a shout out for the man
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Speaker 1: the myth legend, super producer, mister Max Williams.
0:40
Speaker 2: I get weirder and weirder on the way.
0:42
Speaker 1: We say Williams. At the end, we'll accidentally invent a
0:46
Speaker 1: new name for Max. At some point, you're Noel Brown.
0:49
Speaker 1: I've been bowling. We are continuing our series on accidental
0:55
Speaker 1: inventions throughout history with the help of our research associate
0:59
Speaker 1: Jeff And before we really start, as our pal Dylan
1:04
Speaker 1: would say, dig it up the rudabagas he does he
1:08
Speaker 1: does at the weirdest times. No, You and I decided
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Speaker 1: off air that we were we weren't just uh spinning
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Speaker 1: spinning tails and blowing smoke when we called ourselves an
1:21
Speaker 1: accidental invention. Before we get into proper accidental inventions in
1:26
Speaker 1: today's episode, we thought we would share with you, guys,
1:31
Speaker 1: uh an origin story of Ridiculous History, which is itself
1:36
Speaker 1: an accidental invention.
1:45
Speaker 2: And it is itself, in a way, a very regular
1:49
Speaker 2: source that we use to this day. For this show.
1:53
Speaker 2: You'll recall in the last episode we cited our alma
1:55
Speaker 2: mater How Stuff Works a couple of times, and we're
1:57
Speaker 2: going to do that again in this one. Originally, when
2:00
Speaker 2: Ben and I were working under the House Stuff Works
2:03
Speaker 2: website slash kind of podcast thing, we were asked by
2:07
Speaker 2: our boss to make a quick and dirty podcast that
2:11
Speaker 2: would help satisfy like a momentary ad deal six weeks.
2:16
Speaker 2: Six weeks, you guys, six weeks. Just kill it and
2:19
Speaker 2: use the articles on the house Stuff Works website that
2:22
Speaker 2: were published under the Moniker Ridiculous History. We can't claim
2:25
Speaker 2: credit for that one as your research material, and we're like, cool,
2:29
Speaker 2: we'll take one for the team. We'll do this. Boss
2:31
Speaker 2: talking about our beloved at Major DOMO Admiral Connell Byrne,
2:37
Speaker 2: who has just continued to rise in the world and
2:41
Speaker 2: he's actually it's weird.
2:42
Speaker 1: I used to be so pissed at him, uh, because
2:46
Speaker 1: I thought that a boss at a Jack donnagey level
2:49
Speaker 1: had no right to be as cool as he is.
2:52
Speaker 2: He is cool. He's yeah and super cool. Like Gate he.
2:56
Speaker 1: Gave you a s or something, gave me a with
3:00
Speaker 1: Juno one oh six from his band that he used
3:03
Speaker 1: to be because of course called Adam.
3:05
Speaker 2: And here's the kicker. He said, this doesn't it doesn't work,
3:08
Speaker 2: but I bet you could like fix it. And I
3:09
Speaker 2: had another one and I was going to use it
3:11
Speaker 2: to scavenge for parts. Turns out I took I took
3:14
Speaker 2: it to my synth guy because I have one, and
3:16
Speaker 2: he was like, oh, it's just wired for a UK
3:18
Speaker 2: power exactly. All he had to do was like do
3:21
Speaker 2: some very quick fix and it was a pristine. It
3:24
Speaker 2: even came in the original case emblazoned with the stencil
3:28
Speaker 2: for his band Atam.
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Speaker 1: Where Science meets Magic. Uh yes, so also, uh, the
3:36
Speaker 1: I can share one story with Kennel. We have we
3:40
Speaker 1: He and I have long had an ongoing discourse because
3:44
Speaker 1: he's a fantastic writer as well. We've had a long
3:47
Speaker 1: discourse about books, so we will we will chat with
3:51
Speaker 1: each other, non related to work about just different different.
3:55
Speaker 2: Books we like.
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Speaker 1: And anyway, the final chapter of the Accidental Invention of
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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is we, as Noel said, took one for
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Speaker 1: the team and then on maybe week five ran out
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Speaker 1: of articles. So we read out of articles and on
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Speaker 1: the say like the same, we recognize we're running low
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Speaker 1: on research material that morning, and that afternoon we get
4:21
Speaker 1: the We get the marching orders to continue the show forever.
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Speaker 1: And the only reason we're able to do that accidental
4:28
Speaker 1: invention is thanks to.
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Speaker 2: You ridiculous historians. You said it, Ben, no question. Thanks
4:33
Speaker 2: for hanging with us for low these many years, and
4:36
Speaker 2: for any new folks out there, welcome, and I don't know.
4:39
Speaker 2: We love doing the show and it is a great
4:42
Speaker 2: example of an accidental invention that ended up working out.
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Speaker 2: It's something that you and I do every single week
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Speaker 2: and we will until the wheels fall off metaphorically to
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Speaker 2: use a car car stuff reference there and Hughes. Thanks
4:55
Speaker 2: to Max and for being such a great producer, super
4:58
Speaker 2: producer and partner and star trek nerd and Skyrim aficionado.
5:04
Speaker 2: We couldn't do it without you, buddy, correspond that's right,
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Speaker 2: that's true. Ccn't mind.
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Speaker 3: Can I jump real quick to illustrate how cool Conne
5:13
Speaker 3: is because a couple of years ago at our Christmas party,
5:16
Speaker 3: which we had our Holidays party we had at the
5:19
Speaker 3: Claremont rooftop, I remember Kna and I were just talking
5:22
Speaker 3: about he.
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Speaker 4: Had met me.
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Speaker 3: I met him in person for the first time, just
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Speaker 3: like a little bit before that, and he was just
5:27
Speaker 3: like saw me watching the Hawks game. He's like, oh
5:28
Speaker 3: your Hawks fand he'd given me like three tickets three
5:31
Speaker 3: of the I heard tickets, like hundred me down, found me,
5:33
Speaker 3: sent me the email.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, he'll do it. Yes, he's a good dude. Everyone's
5:38
Speaker 2: got a good Connell story.
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Speaker 3: So after this was done, So after this this, a
5:43
Speaker 3: few months later, we're up there and I'm breaking down
5:46
Speaker 3: the difference between a pick and roll and ISO and
5:48
Speaker 3: basketball with him and Sean Titne, who you know, doesn't
5:51
Speaker 3: who's in charge of the sports play So I don't
5:53
Speaker 3: explain this stuff to him. But Connle's like super engaging.
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Speaker 3: He's like really loved the conversation. Like, man, this is
5:58
Speaker 3: actually like to your point, I'm like, I'm supposed to
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Speaker 3: hate I thought I was supposed to.
6:02
Speaker 4: Hate corporate overlords.
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Speaker 2: Well, Ben, you quote you've quote him all the time
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Speaker 2: with is uh what is it?
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Speaker 1: The world is both understandable and worth understanding.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and Connell is both interesting and interested, and we.
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Speaker 1: Know he probably doesn't listen to the show.
6:17
Speaker 2: So now going on, been on. I think he's like
6:19
Speaker 2: the head of the entire IR digital universe. At this point,
6:22
Speaker 2: the guys, we should just text him later, but you should.
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Speaker 1: But look at us. We are at accidental invention. We
6:30
Speaker 1: are a little podcast train that could uh post being
6:33
Speaker 1: bitten by radioactive microphones, a jokeer not letting go.
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Speaker 2: Uh.
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Speaker 1: We wanted to, with the help of our pal Jeff,
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Speaker 1: explore some other uh accidental inventions. We we talked about
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Speaker 1: some world changing ones. Maybe we uh dip our toes
6:50
Speaker 1: or start walking up and down the stairs with a
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Speaker 1: favorite toy of yesteryear, the slinky.
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Speaker 2: Ah, yes, the slinky spring a spring, a marvelous thing.
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Speaker 2: Everyone knows it's slinky. Uh. It defined an era, you know,
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Speaker 2: it was like the thing I'm a jig that everyone
7:10
Speaker 2: had to have. I did you have? Honest, I'd certainly
7:12
Speaker 2: have had multiples. You know. Now they're still around and
7:15
Speaker 2: they'll be like plastic ones made with different color gradients.
7:18
Speaker 2: And you know, the original one was literally this kind
7:21
Speaker 2: of industrial metal.
7:23
Speaker 1: Coil fingers smell weird after yeah, like I knowell you
7:28
Speaker 1: know about your your feelings about handling metal.
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Speaker 2: The slinky would not have been a toy for young men.
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Speaker 1: And it's originally what's that old line from Egon spangler. Uh,
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Speaker 1: I had a slinky once as a child, but I
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Speaker 1: straightened it.
7:42
Speaker 2: That's that sounds like a far side panel, doesn't It's like,
7:46
Speaker 2: oh my god, it's about linear thinking. Uh. Well, that's
7:49
Speaker 2: interesting that you say that, Ben, because you know you
7:51
Speaker 2: while you might think that the slinky came from the
7:53
Speaker 2: mind of some sort of like Willy Wonka esque figure,
7:57
Speaker 2: you know not not. The truth came from somebody much
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Speaker 2: more square in the best way spring like. Even during
8:05
Speaker 2: World War Two, an engineer by the name of Richard James,
8:07
Speaker 2: which makes some only my second favorite Richard James. Uh
8:10
Speaker 2: one up only by Richard D. James of Aphex twin.
8:14
Speaker 2: That's incredible. Musician technologists out there, weirdos alive.
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Speaker 1: He's always do Yeah, he's always like. He's always like please, Ben,
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Speaker 1: Richard was my father's name. Call me Penis.
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Speaker 2: That's also a good joke about Richard versus Dick. Doesn't
8:32
Speaker 2: make sense. It doesn't make sense as a nickname is
8:34
Speaker 2: a shortening of Richard. Never understood it. But this Richard
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Speaker 2: James wanted to help the troops by inventing stable springs
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Speaker 2: that could be used to bolster the technology and within
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Speaker 2: naval ships. It would help stabilize I think the you know,
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Speaker 2: the ride on rough waters.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, because these are very sensitive instruments, right then as
8:58
Speaker 1: now and all right, the story is our non aphex
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Speaker 1: Richard is he's he's working on these springs, and he's saying, okay, look,
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Speaker 1: I need to make sure that if the seas do
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Speaker 1: not favor our boys at war, the royal, right, then
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Speaker 1: we can still save the instruments via the miracle of coils.
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Speaker 2: And while he is.
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Speaker 1: Working on these springs figuring out you know, uh, correct materials,
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Speaker 1: tensile strength and so on, he knocks one of the
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Speaker 1: springs off the table. This is the accident. And when
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Speaker 1: it is knocked off the table, it doesn't just a
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Speaker 1: plump low and behold this mysterious spring. This coil walks
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Speaker 1: down the floor le boop.
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Speaker 2: I was trying to make a real version of it.
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Speaker 1: That's that's what I don't know why my version was
9:57
Speaker 1: French la boop le boo boom.
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Speaker 2: It does seem like a bit of a French invention,
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Speaker 2: that's right. It's almost like you know the thing that
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Speaker 2: the clown that you knock down and then it just
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Speaker 2: sort of pops right back up. It's a booy, right,
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Speaker 2: But then it's also a toy. This was a spring.
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Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I totally said it wrong. Initially I was saying, like,
10:14
Speaker 2: these were designed to help stabilize a ship. That's not
10:17
Speaker 2: nothing's gonna do that. If you're on rough water. You're
10:19
Speaker 2: on rough water. But you can help safeguard the delicate instruments, right,
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Speaker 2: that are so crucial to your ability to navigate and
10:27
Speaker 2: to like you know, shoot missiles and whatnot.
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Speaker 1: Super super tough, especially the surveillance instrumentation.
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Speaker 2: Shock absorption would would be what this is going for, right,
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Speaker 2: And it was real good at that, But it was
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Speaker 2: also I think, if I'm remembering the physics of it,
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Speaker 2: it transfers energy like from you know, it basically stores
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Speaker 2: potential energy and sort of moves it from one stage
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Speaker 2: to the next down like a stairstep or whatever.
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Speaker 1: And then that's yeah, yeah, you nailed it. That's what
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Speaker 1: stands out to Richie James because not only does this
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Speaker 1: thing walk its way down to the floor after he
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Speaker 1: knocks it off the table, but then it recoils itself
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Speaker 1: and assumes its original shape. It stands upright, and look,
11:14
Speaker 1: this is another sort of fleming spencer thing.
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Speaker 2: This guy.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Just so this guy could have said, my
11:23
Speaker 1: job is too tough.
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Speaker 2: I keep springs walking away from me like a dick.
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Speaker 1: But instead, with his optimism which he must have had,
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Speaker 1: or perhaps with simply his feverish curiosity coming to all
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Speaker 1: inventors to he said, hang on, this might be funny.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, a what if we could make this little
11:46
Speaker 2: hoppy boy? Uh?
11:48
Speaker 1: What if we can to make something of him? So
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Speaker 1: he goes back home and he's married. He has a
11:54
Speaker 1: wife named Betty. And you know how it is when
11:58
Speaker 1: you're in a long term relationship and someone is super
12:01
Speaker 1: into their job and they this happened.
12:04
Speaker 2: You're about tired of hearing about it, right, But this happens.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, let's be honest, this happens to you and me
12:09
Speaker 1: all the time when we're dating folks, and you know,
12:13
Speaker 1: we'll especially.
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Speaker 2: Strangers on the street, are tired of hearing about it.
12:17
Speaker 1: Right. And so he goes and he tells his wife
12:21
Speaker 1: about the idea, and she's probably doing that internet meme
12:24
Speaker 1: of going uh huh, oh wow.
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Speaker 2: That's crazy. Okay, all right, that's really oh wow wow. Okay, yep,
12:30
Speaker 2: So but you know what, No, she's into it. She's
12:33
Speaker 2: She's supportive of old Dick James, and in nineteen forty four,
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Speaker 2: she decides to help him out by lending a clever
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Speaker 2: name to this accidental invention.
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Speaker 1: This is the weirdest thing I did not No, you know,
12:46
Speaker 1: we're etymology nerds. I had always assumed that slinky was
12:51
Speaker 1: created specifically for this brand of toy. But slinky is
12:55
Speaker 1: a real word, meaning sneak and sinuous movement.
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Speaker 2: All out line people talk about a slinky dress, you know,
13:10
Speaker 2: or like slinking around like an old tomcat. Right. I
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Speaker 2: love the sinulous sleek movement. Okay, how can we make
13:18
Speaker 2: this thing a little less sexualized? Okay, we'll just keep
13:22
Speaker 2: it stark silver and we'll call it the slink. Just
13:25
Speaker 2: don't look it up right, right, wildly inappropriate. No one
13:28
Speaker 2: tell the kids.
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Speaker 1: So it comes to pass that they take out a
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Speaker 1: loan to get a five hundred dollars loan in nineteen
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Speaker 1: forty four. If we could inflation calculate, boop, dude, well, boom,
13:47
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars in nineteen forty four was only nine
13:52
Speaker 1: eighty five dollars in twenty cents, which is still you know,
13:57
Speaker 1: in the world of big corporations.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, toy type to me, come on, you know, look
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Speaker 2: out the door for less than ten grand.
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Speaker 1: So they co found, in a burst of humility, something
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Speaker 1: they call James Industries in nineteen forty five. At that
14:14
Speaker 1: very same year, the slinky hit store shelves. At first,
14:18
Speaker 1: you know, there's what we call a learning curve for
14:25
Speaker 1: the market, like, how is this a value proposition in
14:28
Speaker 1: the world of dolls and you know, little action figures
14:32
Speaker 1: and toy cars. How can we convince people that this
14:36
Speaker 1: extremely nerdy, literal bundle of wire is a toy they
14:41
Speaker 1: should spend money.
14:42
Speaker 2: On, oh Man exactly. You know, Ben, I actually had
14:45
Speaker 2: a pretty interesting encounter recently where there's some toy stores,
14:50
Speaker 2: specialty toy stores, as toy stores in general are less
14:53
Speaker 2: and less free, you know common, like you don't have
14:55
Speaker 2: KB toys, and I think Toys are Us is completely
14:57
Speaker 2: out of business. They are Fao Schwartz. I think that's
15:00
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about, Ben, Thank you, That's exactly what
15:02
Speaker 2: I'm talking about. In New York City there's still Fao Schwartz.
15:05
Speaker 2: And you might have seen some viral videos of this
15:07
Speaker 2: cute little kind of plush cafe where they're cooking with
15:11
Speaker 2: like plush toys and like like like plushy bacon and
15:15
Speaker 2: cats and it's very Japanese, but they have just a
15:18
Speaker 2: regular part of the toy store and in that I
15:20
Speaker 2: once walked in and they were doing these demonstrations of
15:23
Speaker 2: these like they had this one thing where it could
15:25
Speaker 2: make a coin like levitate and it was probably using
15:29
Speaker 2: some sort of gyroscopic technology. But the thing about it
15:31
Speaker 2: is the guy didn't tell you how it worked. You
15:33
Speaker 2: had to buy it and like see, but it was
15:35
Speaker 2: really cool and I almost bought it. I was really
15:38
Speaker 2: taken by this. So this is exactly what they do.
15:42
Speaker 2: They decide, Okay, people aren't quite wrapping their heads around
15:45
Speaker 2: this spring thing. We need to take this to the
15:48
Speaker 2: people and show them how it works. And what a
15:51
Speaker 2: what a absolute WoT it is.
15:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, this is where you know, you're like Jesus
15:59
Speaker 1: doing demonstrytion in the street.
16:01
Speaker 2: Right.
16:01
Speaker 1: There are four hundred slinky stocked during the Christmas shopping
16:06
Speaker 1: season at Gemble's department store in Philly. It's nineteen forty
16:10
Speaker 1: five and in less than two hours after them essentially
16:15
Speaker 1: saying look at this league, after two hours, all of
16:19
Speaker 1: the slinkies are sold. That's about they were sold for
16:24
Speaker 1: a dollar apiece, and that's about fourteen bucks each in
16:28
Speaker 1: today's value. We want to thank our friends over at
16:32
Speaker 1: the Smithsonian, specifically Rachel Alalensack for writing an excellent article
16:39
Speaker 1: the Accidental Invention of the Slinky.
16:42
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, no, it's true. And Ben, we can't talk
16:46
Speaker 2: about the slinky and it's sort of impact on popular
16:50
Speaker 2: culture without talking about log. Ah. Yeah, it's big, it's heavy.
16:55
Speaker 2: It's wood. It's big, it's heavy, it's wood. What rolls
16:58
Speaker 2: downstairs alone or in rolls over your neighbor's Dog's great
17:03
Speaker 2: for a snack and it fits on your back, it's
17:06
Speaker 2: log log log. Now, Brend and Stimpy was created by
17:11
Speaker 2: a dude who's not good. He did some bad things,
17:14
Speaker 2: but that was part of our childhood. And that was
17:16
Speaker 2: a pretty damn good parody of Slinky because the theme
17:20
Speaker 2: song that it had the spring spring of Marvel's thing.
17:22
Speaker 2: They basically you know Nailer but yeah, John k had
17:27
Speaker 2: some real issues with you know, courting young young women
17:31
Speaker 2: and not good. But sorry, I had to mention it
17:33
Speaker 2: didn't mean to make it out everybody's mind.
17:36
Speaker 1: The log story, the log parody. We also know that
17:42
Speaker 1: when they were writing the log parody, they may well
17:45
Speaker 1: have had a list of the original slinky lyrics.
17:49
Speaker 2: That's what I mean. It's like super super Spot on
17:52
Speaker 2: the money down to the cadence.
17:54
Speaker 1: And they may have written those lyrics as reference points
17:57
Speaker 1: in their parody composition. They may have written those on
18:02
Speaker 1: post it notes. Oh bad, another another class monster stuff
18:10
Speaker 1: a genius like man, do you ever use post it notes?
18:13
Speaker 2: You know, I've said this, but I haven't said on
18:16
Speaker 2: the show, but it does come up from time to time.
18:17
Speaker 2: I so rarely write with my hand anymore, I realize,
18:21
Speaker 2: And I know that's sort of like a statement about
18:24
Speaker 2: technology and whatever, but like everything I do is digital,
18:28
Speaker 2: and so I just but I would, I maybe should,
18:31
Speaker 2: because I think there's something to be said, and scientifically speaking,
18:34
Speaker 2: there's definitely something to be said about writing things down
18:36
Speaker 2: and the connections that it makes with your brain and
18:38
Speaker 2: all of that. So I have there. I will say this.
18:41
Speaker 2: They are cool for there are little ones you can
18:43
Speaker 2: get as dividers for chapter markers or like doing research
18:47
Speaker 2: and like books and books. Can you imagine? Those are
18:49
Speaker 2: super cool? But I couldn't say I've used a proper
18:51
Speaker 2: post it in ages, but people use them to beat
18:54
Speaker 2: out stories and writers rooms all the time, you know,
18:58
Speaker 2: big important thing, very very cool. Then the story's need
19:01
Speaker 2: and the colors. It's just another one of these things
19:03
Speaker 2: like tupperware that starts off as one thing and then
19:06
Speaker 2: becomes this like cultural phenomenon. And we see the digital
19:09
Speaker 2: legacy of post its as well in the notes app
19:12
Speaker 2: right on mac yeah, yeah, yeah, and different collaborative sort
19:17
Speaker 2: of visual representation stickies and sticky mac. Yeah.
19:22
Speaker 1: So look, this is another accidental invention. It's nineteen sixty eight.
19:27
Speaker 1: There's a guy working for a giant company named three M.
19:31
Speaker 1: This guy's name is super cool Spencer Silver. It's his
19:35
Speaker 1: real name, not like his LA band name.
19:37
Speaker 2: It's very very cool. It's almost as good as like polystyrene.
19:41
Speaker 2: That's right. We're talking about Spencer Silver working in the
19:44
Speaker 2: lab slaving away, I believe, as part of the department
19:49
Speaker 2: responsible for creating super strong adhesives, which is you know,
19:54
Speaker 2: kind of three one of three m's Stocks and Trade.
19:57
Speaker 2: They're a chemical company and they make things like that
19:59
Speaker 2: clinic cleaners, you know, solvents and answers. Well, that's the
20:04
Speaker 2: thing exactly. And this is also early days where maybe
20:07
Speaker 2: a lot of that stuff was just running on out
20:09
Speaker 2: into the rivers and the water supply, and it took
20:12
Speaker 2: some doing to make them stop. But that's not Spencer's fault. No,
20:16
Speaker 2: that's not.
20:17
Speaker 4: No, it's not it's not he's.
20:19
Speaker 2: He's trying to.
20:20
Speaker 1: He is tasked with developing the world's best adhesive.
20:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, because he makes the world's weakest one. It's too good,
20:28
Speaker 2: it's too good, it's crazy.
20:30
Speaker 1: His bosses are saying, essentially, Spencer, we need you to
20:34
Speaker 1: invent a glue so strong that it can hold planes
20:38
Speaker 1: together in the air. Right, And he says, right on,
20:41
Speaker 1: And then what does he do?
20:43
Speaker 2: No, he makes the weakest he's of all time. But
20:48
Speaker 2: it's just like I was saying, Man, I'm sorry, I
20:49
Speaker 2: got excited. Just weak enough, right, yeah, like to hold
20:54
Speaker 2: up a single tiny piece of paper, just pressure sensitive too.
20:59
Speaker 2: So if I'm not sure, yes, yes, yes.
21:00
Speaker 1: If you use this on a plane, then theoretically you
21:04
Speaker 1: could go up to the plane and push two of
21:06
Speaker 1: your fingers on it and the plane would just fall apart.
21:10
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. However, there were implementations, of course, outside of.
21:15
Speaker 1: This, yes, for acrylate co polymer microspheres. His invention and
21:20
Speaker 1: what he noticed is okay, this is weak sauce, as
21:25
Speaker 1: the Internet would call it, but it is reusable weak sauce,
21:28
Speaker 1: and it doesn't trail. Yeah, don't leave messy residue. It's
21:33
Speaker 1: not strong. It's not permanent. It's like you were saying, Noel,
21:37
Speaker 1: strong enough to hold together paper, but weak enough to
21:41
Speaker 1: allow even the most.
21:45
Speaker 2: Even the most whimpy of people to pool the montage
21:53
Speaker 2: to the Olympics. Yeah, no, it's great, it's true. But
21:59
Speaker 2: once again, if I'm not mistaken, he doesn't immediately land
22:04
Speaker 2: on post it notes.
22:05
Speaker 1: It's another team effort, right, Oh yeah, A lot of
22:08
Speaker 1: he's got the thing.
22:09
Speaker 2: He doesn't know what the hell to do with. This
22:10
Speaker 2: is a weak thing. I gotta be something.
22:12
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, He's like, look, I found these I
22:15
Speaker 1: believe in the weakness of my product. I believe the
22:18
Speaker 1: weakness of a product. I've found these unique traits for
22:21
Speaker 1: this material. And a lot of his colleagues and his
22:24
Speaker 1: bosses in people in other departments at three M are like, Wow,
22:28
Speaker 1: this guy sucks at making adhesive airplace.
22:31
Speaker 2: That's good. It's sort of like talking about like a
22:40
Speaker 2: really bad superpower. And it's like, I you'd be better
22:43
Speaker 2: at thinking of an example, but of like something that
22:45
Speaker 2: like who's isn't squirrel Girl that's like considered one of
22:49
Speaker 2: the weakest sauce superpower superheroes.
22:52
Speaker 1: She can speak with squirrels, She's got a couple of powers.
22:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean. Wonder Twins also,
22:59
Speaker 2: but it's like, what do I do? Was this, you know,
23:01
Speaker 2: like I've got this gift slash curse, what do I
23:03
Speaker 2: do with it?
23:04
Speaker 1: Or in Doctor Horrible's blog that came out during COVID
23:09
Speaker 1: or during the writer's strike. Excuse me, there was a
23:11
Speaker 1: guy whose superpower was that he's moist, Yeah, exactly, Or
23:15
Speaker 1: it's like that character in I Know He's Maybe he
23:19
Speaker 1: was just for the Spider Verse movies, that Jason Schwartzman voice.
23:22
Speaker 2: He's just like a Polka Dot man or whatever, like
23:24
Speaker 2: he like just creates random portals, control over it, you know. Yeah,
23:31
Speaker 2: so what do I do? He spends years spinning his
23:33
Speaker 2: wheels about this, right, and finally he needs someone to
23:36
Speaker 2: take a little bit of an outside perspective. Right, that's
23:39
Speaker 2: really important with collaboration, right, yes, yeah, this is great
23:44
Speaker 2: for the story too.
23:45
Speaker 1: This comes from Silver's own interviews later, Like you were
23:49
Speaker 1: saying Noel for years. He's he's thinking, I've got something here. Okay,
23:54
Speaker 1: it's not going to work to keep planes together.
23:57
Speaker 2: It's not good exactly for what.
24:00
Speaker 1: We were looking for, but it's reusable, it's residue free.
24:05
Speaker 1: He is going around to any literally any of his
24:09
Speaker 1: colleagues will listen to him and saying, hey, guys, help
24:12
Speaker 1: me with this. His own line, and he's quoted in
24:15
Speaker 1: posted dot com saying this. He says, I came to
24:18
Speaker 1: be known as mister Persistent Superpower.
24:21
Speaker 2: It's like a superhero name. That's his superpower and persistence.
24:27
Speaker 2: Is he yeah? Is he great? I don't know? Does
24:30
Speaker 2: he have super strength?
24:31
Speaker 1: No?
24:31
Speaker 2: Can he fly?
24:32
Speaker 4: No?
24:32
Speaker 2: What's not talking about? This?
24:36
Speaker 1: Persist at some point if we let him into the Avengers.
24:40
Speaker 1: But like you're saying, team power.
24:42
Speaker 2: Uh.
24:43
Speaker 1: He hangs out with another three M scientist, a guy
24:48
Speaker 1: named Art Fry again, real name, real name, Yeah, and
24:53
Speaker 1: so Art Fry is in addition to being a scientist,
24:57
Speaker 1: he is a frustrated member of a local church choir.
25:02
Speaker 2: That's right, he is, and he is really struggling, despite
25:06
Speaker 2: his scientific background and prowess, with a really basic problem
25:12
Speaker 2: to mark the pages of the hymnal that they are
25:15
Speaker 2: using to kind of mark what songs are going to
25:18
Speaker 2: sing that day. They're using little scraps of papers. But
25:22
Speaker 2: the problem is, gosh darn it, every time he comes
25:25
Speaker 2: back the next Sunday, they're all over the floor like
25:27
Speaker 2: so much confetti. Because the spirit moved to you clearly.
25:31
Speaker 2: But I mean, what do I do about? I don't
25:32
Speaker 2: know what page to go to? Sa religious hymns.
25:35
Speaker 1: I love the made for TV version of this.
25:39
Speaker 2: There's gotta be a way. Only I had help putting
25:43
Speaker 2: on my shoes exactly. This salad won't spin itself. Now
25:48
Speaker 2: that being said, Man, a salad spinner is helpful because
25:51
Speaker 2: it's the central usual effect that sucks the water out,
25:53
Speaker 2: and it does a better job than just drying it
25:56
Speaker 2: with a towel or directly. It makes it crisper. I'm
26:00
Speaker 2: just saying, I'm I'm I'm on team salad spinner here.
26:03
Speaker 1: I hear you, Man, I'd like it if it were multifunctional.
26:06
Speaker 1: I think we could take the idea of the one is.
26:09
Speaker 2: The one thing. You could use it as a calender
26:11
Speaker 2: if you wanted to. That's a great part.
26:12
Speaker 1: Okay, it does two things. It could also just be
26:15
Speaker 1: a container.
26:17
Speaker 2: It can It does have a lid with a little
26:18
Speaker 2: hand crank on it. You could just use it to
26:20
Speaker 2: store believing in people, believe in, believe in yourself, and
26:23
Speaker 2: then the others and the rest will follow. But what's
26:26
Speaker 2: going on with mister persistent here? All right?
26:29
Speaker 1: And how do he and mister Fry sort of join forces? Okay,
26:33
Speaker 1: so this is how persistent Silver is. This is why
26:37
Speaker 1: they call it. Mister Persistent. He holds seminars where he
26:41
Speaker 1: talks about how cool the opportunity of post it notes
26:47
Speaker 1: could be, even though they don't call it post it notes.
26:50
Speaker 1: And so Art Fry frustrated member.
26:52
Speaker 2: Of the local church choir.
26:53
Speaker 1: Uh, he thinks back and he has a flashback moment
26:57
Speaker 1: where he says, oh, yeah, who's that we call mister
27:01
Speaker 1: p that he loves the microspheres, you know. Uh, And
27:05
Speaker 1: this hits him and he reaches out in Silver and
27:08
Speaker 1: they start working on this and they say, look, we're
27:12
Speaker 1: going to develop something out of this. And they realized
27:16
Speaker 1: all that they're writing messages on these notes that have
27:21
Speaker 1: been laced with this adhesive lace to communicate, you know,
27:25
Speaker 1: around the office. And later you'll see interviews with Art
27:29
Speaker 1: Fry who says, I thought, what we have here isn't
27:33
Speaker 1: just a bookmark. It's a whole new way to communicate,
27:36
Speaker 1: which I way a little ambitious.
27:38
Speaker 2: A whole new way to be passive, aggressive to your
27:40
Speaker 2: coworkers on the on the company fridge right.
27:44
Speaker 1: Right to whoever keeps eating my Philly cheese steak man.
27:51
Speaker 2: That was actually brave of you to bring one of
27:54
Speaker 2: those to work, Ben, I got it. That does mean
27:56
Speaker 2: like people are gonna they're gonna come at your Philly
27:58
Speaker 2: So I think so one it's a popular saying. Well,
28:01
Speaker 2: I mean, I hope that you took care of that
28:03
Speaker 2: a whole new ways. It was Josh Clark, he knows
28:07
Speaker 2: what he did. It's true.
28:08
Speaker 1: So now they have to pitch it the post it
28:11
Speaker 1: note to their bosses, which is that's the next stage.
28:14
Speaker 2: By the way, this is just like the idea. It ain't.
28:16
Speaker 2: It doesn't have this brilliant, you know, zeitgeisty name yet, right,
28:20
Speaker 2: which is half of the product. If I'm being if
28:22
Speaker 2: we're being honest, that's a really good point.
28:24
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it is because if you, I mean,
28:26
Speaker 1: like German companies have struggled with that sometimes if a
28:31
Speaker 1: German company discovered the slinky what they have called it,
28:34
Speaker 1: like kinder metal coil.
28:37
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. They probably would have been. And it's not
28:42
Speaker 2: to say that like sticky paper is something that one
28:46
Speaker 2: could hold holy like own, right, right? You know what
28:51
Speaker 2: I mean? Like it's I think it's too general, Like
28:54
Speaker 2: how how is any different from taking a piece of
28:56
Speaker 2: Did they have Scotch tape? At this point? We should
28:58
Speaker 2: talk about that some time. That was the Scotch company, right,
29:02
Speaker 2: that did like another chemical.
29:03
Speaker 4: Company actually did an upside on that one.
29:05
Speaker 2: I thought we did too. I thought we did.
29:07
Speaker 4: Scotch was a.
29:08
Speaker 1: Bizar, it was a dis it was crappy.
29:13
Speaker 4: Tape was considered not very good, like.
29:15
Speaker 2: Post I just gotta wonder, though, what came first, the
29:18
Speaker 2: post it or the Scotch tape.
29:19
Speaker 4: I think Scotch came first.
29:21
Speaker 2: I think you would have to because to me, is.
29:22
Speaker 4: There scot was the early twentieth this is middle one.
29:25
Speaker 2: I think that's true. But I think the thing about
29:27
Speaker 2: Scotch tape too, is it also has sort of a
29:29
Speaker 2: weak residue.
29:32
Speaker 3: Lists it turns out hold that's a good thing, because
29:35
Speaker 3: so many times you don't want to tape something down
29:37
Speaker 3: that's super glue because then you can't That's exactly right.
29:39
Speaker 2: But what I'm saying is like it they sort of
29:41
Speaker 2: already had something going that could have been, you know,
29:44
Speaker 2: co opted into something like this, but it was a
29:46
Speaker 2: lot of that had to do with the name and
29:48
Speaker 2: the brand in nineteen thirties.
29:51
Speaker 4: Yeah to nineteen thirty by Richard Drew.
29:54
Speaker 1: Right, And this is something that three M is aware of.
29:57
Speaker 1: They're aware of Scotch tape. They're not going to change
30:00
Speaker 1: the name, just get because they do think Scott's are
30:03
Speaker 1: cheap people.
30:05
Speaker 2: How'd the pitch meeting go with the three M brass?
30:08
Speaker 2: Oh boy, yeah, that's the setup. Thank you know. Uh.
30:12
Speaker 1: The company execs don't love it until a lab manager
30:16
Speaker 1: named Jeff Nicholson spelled like our dear research associate Jeff.
30:21
Speaker 2: Uh.
30:22
Speaker 1: He gets into it, and he is radicalized. He says,
30:26
Speaker 1: we're going to get this out on the market. We
30:29
Speaker 1: are going to first off, we're gonna do something really clever,
30:33
Speaker 1: says Jeff. We're not going to sell this immediately. We're
30:37
Speaker 1: going to make a bunch of it, and then we're
30:39
Speaker 1: going to give it out to businesses and people around Boise,
30:42
Speaker 1: Idaho for free.
30:44
Speaker 2: So just like a drug dealer. But with post it notes,
30:47
Speaker 2: it was just the tiny post it's to start, yeah,
30:50
Speaker 2: and then they graduate, I need more full sized ones.
30:54
Speaker 1: Now your first post is free, right exactly. And this
30:58
Speaker 1: is actually this is funny. Jeff found this thanks to
31:01
Speaker 1: our alma matter how stuff works. Post its are like
31:05
Speaker 1: orthodox post it notes are yellow. Apparently that's an accident
31:09
Speaker 1: as well, because when they are making these free samples,
31:14
Speaker 1: they just go to the lab literally next door and say, hey,
31:18
Speaker 1: do you guys have any paper, and they say, oh,
31:21
Speaker 1: I get we.
31:23
Speaker 2: Have pea colored stock here.
31:28
Speaker 1: And so after ninety percent of the people in Idaho
31:34
Speaker 1: get the reorder this stuff. They like the taste, right,
31:37
Speaker 1: so now they want more, all fricking cow right, yes,
31:42
Speaker 1: So now they say, okay, well, dang, people are used
31:46
Speaker 1: to the urine colored like the pea papers, so we're
31:50
Speaker 1: just gonna keep with the yellow paper.
31:52
Speaker 2: Let's do it. It seems to be a hit. It was,
31:54
Speaker 2: in fact, an overnight success. As they put it in
31:58
Speaker 2: the History of post it notes on post dot com.
32:01
Speaker 2: It was always a self advertising product because customers would
32:05
Speaker 2: put the notes on documents they sent to others. Built
32:08
Speaker 2: in advertising, arousing the recipient's curiosity a very arousing product.
32:14
Speaker 2: Slinky there, we say. They would look at it, peel
32:18
Speaker 2: it off and play with it, just thick it on
32:22
Speaker 2: different stuff. Oh you know what, I mean, where's this?
32:26
Speaker 2: But yeah it is? And you know what, to this
32:29
Speaker 2: day people still f with posted notes when they're bored
32:31
Speaker 2: at the office. Oh yeah, post the note art is
32:34
Speaker 2: a real thing, It really is. We haven't gotten into
32:37
Speaker 2: the cornucopia of colors that were to follow, you know,
32:40
Speaker 2: that became its own thing right now, we're just with
32:43
Speaker 2: the one, the p yellow. But that in and of
32:46
Speaker 2: itself is an absolute smash. Silver said, like many groundbreaking innovations,
32:50
Speaker 2: theirs was a product nobody thought they needed until they did.
32:54
Speaker 1: And we know what is on your mind? Now this
32:59
Speaker 1: is the story everybody. Everybody right now is uh screening
33:03
Speaker 1: with their post or muttering yeah, they're writing their posting botes. Wiously,
33:08
Speaker 1: why are Furiously? Why aren't the guys talking about Velcrow
33:12
Speaker 1: and George demus Stral.
33:13
Speaker 2: You want to know why because we took a little
33:16
Speaker 2: consultation conciliatory off Mic break and discussed how Velcrow in
33:21
Speaker 2: and of itself is an episode because it is not
33:26
Speaker 2: only an accidental invention, which again we could lump in
33:30
Speaker 2: with tupperware because that was a byproduct. Therefore, one could
33:34
Speaker 2: argue it was like a repurposing of an accidental thing
33:36
Speaker 2: that happened. But it's so incredibly important in manufacturing and
33:41
Speaker 2: military applications. Uh if I'm not mistaken, man, we've talked
33:45
Speaker 2: about Velcrow stuff like on stuff they don't want you
33:47
Speaker 2: to know. Oh yeah, like it's so we decided rather
33:51
Speaker 2: than short change you because we're also running a little
33:53
Speaker 2: uh low on time. We've got some travel coming up,
33:57
Speaker 2: we'd save it and give you a full Velcrow episode
34:00
Speaker 2: coming right up.
34:01
Speaker 1: Yes, and uh with that mind, thank you, as always
34:06
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians for joining us. If you have some ideas
34:09
Speaker 1: for future accidental inventions, picture, we won't steal them, we promise, yeah,
34:14
Speaker 1: picture inventions overly want we mean yeah, we legally can't.
34:19
Speaker 1: On our Facebook page, Ridiculous Historians. Big thanks to our
34:23
Speaker 1: super producer mister Max Williams and our research associate for
34:26
Speaker 1: this week series, Jeff.
34:28
Speaker 2: Jeff the g e O f F Jeff Bartlett g
34:33
Speaker 2: e O F f G. It's a great spelling of Jeff.
34:37
Speaker 2: It is it is? We asked when you get a Jeff,
34:40
Speaker 2: do you say as a J E F F or
34:41
Speaker 2: G E O F?
34:42
Speaker 1: I always ask, I ask for what are Oh that's
34:49
Speaker 1: big for that demographic. They care about it. I remember
34:52
Speaker 1: talking to one of your close friends. The first time
34:54
Speaker 1: I met him.
34:54
Speaker 2: People ask me with or without them loud, and then
34:57
Speaker 2: I punched them.
34:58
Speaker 1: And people ask me, is that you're real name? But
35:00
Speaker 1: by that point I've already ghosted a customs.
35:03
Speaker 2: So you threw down a smoke bomb, and like that threw.
35:05
Speaker 1: It out a smoke bob, we also want to throw
35:07
Speaker 1: it down a smoke bomb of thanks to.
35:09
Speaker 2: I love that idea. Yeah to Alex.
35:11
Speaker 1: Williams uh our brother in arms who composed this slap
35:15
Speaker 1: and bop?
35:16
Speaker 2: Who else who? Just speaking of a smoke bomb of thanks?
35:19
Speaker 2: It just makes me think back to we recorded this morning,
35:22
Speaker 2: uh the Strange news segment of our stuff they Don't
35:25
Speaker 2: Want You to Know podcasts with our buddy Matt. And
35:27
Speaker 2: prior to that, we did a really cool conversation with
35:30
Speaker 2: John Cameron Mitchell of Hedwig and the Angry Inch Fame,
35:33
Speaker 2: who has a great podcast out called Cancelasian Islands, and
35:35
Speaker 2: he introduced us to a concept of like positive conspiracies Yeah,
35:40
Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought that up. I think that's so cool.
35:42
Speaker 1: I can't remember the word research on that a few
35:48
Speaker 1: years back, and I didn't want to I didn't want
35:51
Speaker 1: to slow the rule. But it's it's really interesting because
35:55
Speaker 1: it comes from a guy named doctor Goldner back in
36:00
Speaker 1: the early nineteen eighties and it.
36:02
Speaker 2: Can we say what it is real quick case.
36:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, Prunoia is This is doctor gold Goldener's words. Prunoia
36:07
Speaker 1: is the positive counterpart of paranoia, the delusion that others
36:12
Speaker 1: may think well of one. And I mentioned that on
36:16
Speaker 1: stuff they're watching.
36:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just so we do so many I forget.
36:20
Speaker 2: But the way John put it in the context of
36:21
Speaker 2: our conversations with y'all, y'all should check out really hit
36:25
Speaker 2: me and I just thought it was worth mentioning.
36:27
Speaker 1: And also do check out John's newest podcast, Cancelation Island,
36:32
Speaker 1: available wherever you find your favorite shows. While you're doing that,
36:36
Speaker 1: do check out The Puzzler by our one and only
36:40
Speaker 1: Bahamas aj Bahamas Jacobs.
36:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you missed it, we had a great
36:44
Speaker 2: chat with him recently about ridiculous historical fashion fads, very
36:51
Speaker 2: illiterative episode and a lovely man and if.
36:54
Speaker 1: You're ever like the guys on Ridiculous History are just
36:57
Speaker 1: too nice to each other and everybody else, check out
37:00
Speaker 1: our episodes featuring Jonathan Strickland aka the Twister, who has
37:05
Speaker 1: still yet to be prosecuted for as many war.
37:08
Speaker 2: Crimes, Yes, against humanity and podcasting dumb. Huge thanks to
37:12
Speaker 2: Alex Williams who composed our theme, super producer Max Williams.
37:15
Speaker 2: We haven't thanks to enough. We had a nice little
37:17
Speaker 2: love then at the top, but we do love you Max,
37:20
Speaker 2: and a huge thanks to you too. Our research associated
37:23
Speaker 2: Jeff Bartlett again and Ben Man to you. It's been
37:26
Speaker 2: a fun little series and I think it's going to
37:28
Speaker 2: be an ongoing one.
37:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's make it so again.
37:31
Speaker 2: Accidentally, we'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts
37:42
Speaker 2: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
37:45
Speaker 2: you listen to your favorite shows.