Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Extra Credit

Transcript

Extra Credit · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Transportation has changed drastically over the last several
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: hundred years, from the steam engines transformation of the railroad
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: industry to the widespread adoption of the automobile. The ways
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: in which we travel get more impressive every year. The
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: rail system in particular has seen some incredible advancements in
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: power and speed. For one engineer in the nineteen seventies,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: it seemed that the sky was the limit. Charles Osmond
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Frederick was working for the British rail in nineteen seventy
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: when he had an idea. Frederick had been in charge
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: of wheel performance on the tracks, but thought the rail
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: system as a whole could have been improved. Train tracks
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: were too rigid. The train could only go where the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: tracks had been placed and nowhere else. But what if
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the train didn't need the tracks at all? Frederick saw
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to elevate British rail above the competition, so
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: he designed a new type of rail car that didn't
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: use a track system. It didn't drive on roads or
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: over dirt or through mountains either. It flew, which made
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: it sound like another popular form of transportation. However, Frederick's
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: version came with a twist. It utilized nuclear power. According
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: to his schematics, laser energy would trigger a pulse of
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: thermonuclear fusion inside a generator housed in the vehicles center.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Electrodes underneath the car would carry that energy through a
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: series of electro magnets, which would bounce the particles around
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: to create lift and thrust. Inside the cabin, passengers would
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: be protected from radiation by a thick metal shield between
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: them and the core below. Oh and one more thing,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Frederick's vehicle would be able to fly through space. He
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: designed a flying saucer meant to travel to different planets.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: It hadn't started out that way, though his original plan
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: was for a lifting platform. The idea to use thermonuclear
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: energy came later in the process. From there, his ambition
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: got the better of him, and the scope of his
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: project practically exploded. Frederick's mind worked in a similar fashion
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: to another dreamer of the time, Arthur Paul Pedrick. Pedrick
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: worked at the UK Patent Office for a number of
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: years before he started submitting his own. He wanted to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: help people, and he filed patents for a host of
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: random gadgets he had concocted in his later years. One
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: such invention was a cat flap that would detect the
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: color of a cat at his door and allow only
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: his ginger cat into his home, while refusing entry to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: his neighbor's black cat. He also patented a system of
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: exterior curtains to cover an entire high rise building during
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: a fire. The idea was to smother the fire while
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: driving occupants to safer ground. Pedrick even had a patent
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: for a pipeline network that would carry water and ice
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: from Antarctica to the Australian outback. He wanted to create
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: a storehouse for grains and other foods in a place
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: where they normally didn't grow, and just like Pedrick, Charles
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Frederick's plans didn't get out of the patent stage either.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: The patent for his nuclear powered spacecraft was filed on
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: behalf of British rail in nineteen seventy three years later
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: it was granted. However, nobody knew about it for decades
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: until after the Cold War. Any patents submitted during that
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: time with the word nuclear on it was immediately flagged
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: as top secrets. Mentions of it popped up here and
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: there over the years, but it wasn't until two thousand
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: and six when a team of nuclear scientists decided to
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: test the viability of Frederick's design. They quickly realized that
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: what he had come up with was nothing more than
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a pipe dream. The technology to power a spacecraft in
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: such a manner did not exist in nineteen seventy and
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: it still didn't exist in the twenty one century, but
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: that didn't stop Charles Frederick from dreaming. Big British rail though,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: didn't seem to agree with him. When the time came
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: to renew the patent in nineteen seventy six, they passed.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Apparently that was one train they were happy to miss.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Our adolescence is typically spent dreaming of being someone else,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: anyone else to be cooler or stronger, or in some cases,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: someone to be ignored, especially if we're prone to spending
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: our free time stuffed in our lockers. Unfortunately, for Mr Nobody.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: His anonymity only made him even more interesting. Mr Nobody
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: limped into a Toronto hospital in November of nineteen nine nine.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: He didn't remember what had happened or why he was there,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: but evidence pointed to a mugging. He had trouble walking
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: and his nose had been broken. He had no wallet
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: or i D. Even the tags on his clothes had
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: been cut off. Doctors ransom tests and asked him a
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: series of questions about what he remembered, which was almost nothing.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: He spoke about living in Australia despite his clearly British accent,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: He also muttered the name Philip Stelfen. Soon enough, he
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: was diagnosed with amnesia as a result of a concussion.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Strangely enough, however, Steufen, or Mr Nobody as he had
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: become known in the press, had other skills under his belt.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: The amnesia hadn't taken away his ability to read Latin,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: nor his fluent French and Italian. Once he'd been examined
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: and stitched up, Steufen left the hospital and found lodging
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: in a homeless shelter. News stations eventually picked up his story,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and a kind couple from Ontario offered him a place
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to stay. Having a permanent home to live in allowed
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: him to apply for welfare, but he still had to
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: submit photos and fingerprints to the government. Sadly, fingerprint and
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: photographic analysis didn't yield any results. As far as the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: world was concerned, Philip Stealfen didn't exist. He moved around
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: a lot, as you might imagine, spending time in different
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: parts of Canada before settling in Montreal. That was where
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: he found a human rights lawyer named Manuel Asavedo, who
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: helped him apply for Canadian citizenship and a legal birth certificate.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: With that piece of paper, he could obtain a passport
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: in order to search for his home country. The courts, however,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: would not grant him citizenship, but he was allowed to
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: remain in Canada if he so chose. During this time,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Staufen married Asavedo's daughter, a dual citizen of both Canada
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: and Portugal, and continued to petition for a birth certificate.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: He also changed his name often. Actually, in October of
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: two thousand one, he went by Keith Ryan. Six months
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: later he changed it to ze Wald's Guide, But in
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: February of two thousand four, yet another alias came to light.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: George Luqui of France had reported his passport as stolen
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: after his home had been broken into. The culprit, it seemed,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: was Skyde, who spent ten days in jail as a suspect. Oddly,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: though the quid refused to press charges and without any
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: real evidence tying him to the crime, Skide was released
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: too much fanfare. After that it was time to move
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: on again. Skyde's wife traveled to Lisbon to set up
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a new life for both of them there, far away
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: from the press, Skide stayed back to finalize his affairs,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: but without proper travel documents, he was stuck in Canada. Finally,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: in two thousand six, he managed to escape, wearing another
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: man's name. The couple eventually divorced, but Skide stuck around
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: in Portugal anyway, probably to avoid the legal troubles that
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: awaited him back in Canada. Then, in June of two
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: thousand seven, Mr Nobody gave an interview with GQ magazine
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: where the truth finally came out. He hadn't been from
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: England or even Australia. He had come from a poor
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: fan only in Romania, but had studied at an elite
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: school when he turned eighteen, he was drafted into the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Romanian army for one year. The experience, though, ruined any
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: love he had for his country. At that point, his
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: only goal was to get out to reinvent himself. He
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: underwent operations to change his nose and teeth, and tried
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: everything to obtain citizenship in another country. All he wanted
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: to do was erase Romania from his past. He had
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: been born Cyprian s Guide, a man who tried desperately
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: to reinvent himself by any means necessary. He lied, he cheated,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and he stole, But the only thing he couldn't do
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: was escape who he truly was. I hope you've enjoyed
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,