99% Invisible - 473- Mini-Stories : Volume 14

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

At the end of the calendar year and into the new year the 99pi staff collects a bunch of short, joyful little stories that are fun to produce and make us happy. We call them mini-stories. This is the third and final episode of this batch and the 14th volume overall and it’s a good one- we have surprisingly architectural sport commentary, Ben Franklin’s role in Daylight Saving Time, and the origin story of the fire pole.Mini-Stories : Volume 14

This is 99% invisible. I am Roman Mars. At the end of the calendar year and into the new year, the 99PI staff collects a bunch of short, joyful little stories that are fun to produce and make us happy. We call them mini stories. This is the third and final episode of this batch and the 14th volume overall, and it's a good one. We have stories about surprisingly architectural sports commentary, Ben Franklin's role in daylight saving time, and the origin of the fireball. Wake the kids, stay with us. So I'm with producer Emma Fitzgerald, Emmett, if past his president, you either have

a sports story for us or an environmental story for us. Yeah. So which is it? This week it's sports Roman. Fantastic. Okay. I am ready. All right.

So as I imagine you might have noticed, I got pretty into biking during the pandemic. I did notice you would put a little note on Slack that would say, like, I'm going to be gone for the next hour. And it would be like, and it was because you were biking. Yeah, I mean, I had ridden bikes before COVID hit, but I kind of levelled up during the pandemic. I took that canceled gym membership money in Butter Road bike and some of the proper outfits and started riding up and

down the East Bay Hills, torturing myself. And then a few months in, you know, to this new hobby, the Tour de France happened. And I had never really watched the Tour de France before, but I figured, you know, I'm into this now, give this a try. And what was immediately clear was that it's just like a very different spectacle from the other kinds of sports that I was used to watching, you know, things like basketball or soccer. Yeah. And then the biggest difference is really just one of time.

Like the tour stretches on for several weeks, and there's a stage nearly every day that lasts like four to six hours. And within each stage, you know, there are moments of really intense, exciting action, but there's also long stretches where there isn't a whole lot happening. At least, at least to my eyes, as like an unsophisticated newbie. And so, you know, I wasn't giving it my undivided attention all the time. It kind of became this sort of pleasant morning ritual that I would have on in the background as I, you know, drank my coffee and wrote my morning emails. Yeah. It sounds kind of like slow TV, like watching a train over the course of 12 hours. That's why yeah, yeah, exactly. That was at least, at least I was having, I was pretty and maybe that's disrespectful

and serious cycling fans, but, um, but, you know, as I was doing this, I started to notice something kind of strange, which was that the cycling announcers they don't just talk about cycling. And one of the things that they really talk about a lot is architecture. Looking down here at the Church of Saint-Jean, built in 1862 in the shape of a Greek cross. On the debris of the old parish church of Saint- San and the old it's got a porch a tight belt Hour the roof flanked with four pinnacles a mountain by a spire burning a huge cockle. Can't see it from this angle Oh, yes again. No, it is right on the front

Well spotted Cockadoo the Lou Whoa, I could get into this. Yeah I'm called the Doodaloo. Whoa, I could get into this. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, it's like this extremely detailed architectural description of, you know, church or something. And if you watch a lot of this, you notice this all the time.

Like, the announcers will be talking about, you know, team, Yombo Vismas tactics and whether Primoz Roblich has what it takes to recover from that crash he suffered earlier in the stage and then suddenly they're talking about like an Abbey. This is an Abbey by the books of it, the old Abbey del Oktu. And it was at this Abbey in 1940 that the Mona Lisa was moved to, along with more than a thousand other paintings from the Louvre to be put in storage for safety at the outbreak of the war. So quite a significant role in protecting some of the great artwork of not just the France, but of the world.

Well, I'm really into this. This is like, I had no idea that the announcements had so much history and context. That is really so. Yeah, yeah, I love it too. And you know, it's just, I just find it so charming because it's like, you know, these serious sports announcers have like a sort of nearly encyclopedic knowledge of random buildings and little towns like throughout the French countryside.

This is the valley where in 218 BC, Hannibal came through here with 90,000 men and 10,000 horsemen and 37 elephants on his way back home. And imagine what the row conditions were like in those days, Paul. It was pretty tough for the elephants, I have to say once they got over the top because fortunately with their large pads they didn't slip too much on the snow. Would there be Indian elephants? No, actually there were African elephants. Very unusual, I'm surprised they could train them. Four minutes and 18 seconds, 92 kilometers to go now.

Here is our poor man, left on the way. I don't even know how to react to that. That's just like, that's just stunning digression. This is totally new to me. Is this the way it's always been? Have they always been this Wikipedia of architecture and world history at their fingertips and presented it when they're announcing the race? Yeah, I wanted to answer that question.

And there's really one person who I think is best equipped to explain how we got here. And he's actually one of the announcers who you just heard there talking about African elephants. His name is Phil Liggett. And, you know, he's kind of like the most famous voice in professional cycling. In fact, there's a documentary about him that came out last year called Phil Liggett, the voice of cycling. And I talked to Phil on Zoom and he basically told me that he's been doing the Tour de France for decades. And in the very beginning, he was really one of the only English-speaking cycling commentators in the world. I work for the BBC, for ITV, for CBS, to channel 70 in Australia, CBCC in Canada, Television, New Zealand, Star Television in China.

I work for everyone. Phil said, you know, it's a little hard to pinpoint exactly when the whole Chateau Church Abbey commentary got started. But he, he does remember one moment in particular. He was working with his long-term partner. They were a famous duo, the late great Paul Sherwin. And the cameras panned over this dilapidated old Abby. A real wreck, it was a ruin. And I just jokingly said to Paul Sherwin, so hey, Paul, this old Abby here,

it needs a bit of innovation, isn't it? As a joke, I thought, Ruvia was probably 14th century. And Paul looked at, he said, oh yeah, he said, they're really the 14th century. And Paul looked at, he said, oh yeah, he said, there are literally 14 lives there. And Phil looked at Paul, just like, how did you know that? Like, how did you know that we have 14 to live there? Like you're a cycling journalist.

And so how did he know it? Well, Paul had lived in France before when he was a pro cyclist. And I think that in that specific instance, it was just kind of like a fun fact that he had learned along the way. But they started to do more of that, just like offering these like little bits of commentary about the landscape that the bikers were passing through

the buildings and the flora and the fauna. And I think part of it at the time was that they were really trying to sell cycling to an American audience who was not as familiar with the sport as people in Europe. But really, people from all over the world started writing in to say that they loved it. And pretty soon, the Tour de France itself sort of realized what was happening. The Tour de France brought up when they heard what we're doing, and they started to sell a country more.

The Tour basically realized that they could use this to their advantage. What Phil and Paul were doing. It filled told me that this was all happening at a time when the race wasn't doing very well financially. And people in France were actually getting kind of annoyed because it would lead to all of these road closures. There was a sense that it was like bad for business. And so when the tour organizers picked up on what Phil and Paul were doing, they were

like, oh, we could make this work for us and almost reframe the tour as like a three-week long advertisement for the country of France. So it's competitive cycling like wrapped in this advertisement for the French Tourism Board. Yeah, exactly. And so they started telling the camera operators to try and get pretty shots of the beautiful old churches and the bridges and waterfalls, and they encouraged Phil and Paul to talk about that stuff.

And for a while, they had to do all the research themselves, but eventually the tour actually started producing this incredible book for them. Which they call the speaker's guide to the Tour de France. Tourists are an historical information. And in the book, because every stage and every monument or old house or garden or bird, in that region that we passed through is picked it in here. So it's basically a guide book to the French countryside, except it's designed exclusively for Phil and like a handful of other people who are cycling commentators for the tour. Like exclusively for them, like meaning that they printed it just for them.

Like it's not available to the general public at all. No, no, no, no, like you can't even, it's like pretty hard to find a copy, even if you're like searching on like eBay and stuff. Like they don't even, even if you're like a cycling journalist, you can't get a copy. It's just like people, it's like for the handful of people who are on the mic doing the commentating for the, the various TV stations that are broadcasting the event. Phil show me his just like through the zoom and you know, it's basically just like this giant homemade book with like hundreds of hundreds of pages. And he said that it's really all put together by this one person.

And every year and the two routes is announced the following year in October. It's her job to drive every inch of the route, all two and a half to three and a half thousand miles of it. And basically, document all of the points of interest that the cameras might linger on during the race. Every shadow, every palace, every garden, the mountains, the floor, and the floor, and the building, and this truck. And then on the day before the tour starts, the organization gives every commentator a copy of the book in English and French. And each entry just has like a bunch of interesting tidbits and facts about particular buildings or bridges that, you know, the cameras might pass over.

But there's this moment in the in the broadcast that Phil described him where it's like you have to make sure that you have found the right thing like what you're looking at on the cameras is the thing that you're you don't want to read the facts for the wrong shadow. So, and so he described all these moments to me where he would just be looking over and seeing his partner Paul, like frantically trying to find the right building in the book. And I'm watching Paul savagely rip the book apart to find that picture of this dumb shadow

and I'm just dying to laugh. I'm so low on a good black car because I'm live on that laugh. I'm so low on the black car because I'm live on that. And I can see the sweat on his brow because he's desperate. Then all of a sudden he'll come in. I'll say, what do you think of that, Paul? And then Paul, you know, who in the meantime had, you know, been, been, had found the right page, which is cool. He read off a few interesting facts about the building, as if you knew them, you know, right off the top of his head. What do we know about that, Paul?

The Pontagoe. This is one of those med-even villages I was talking about a little earlier. They were all very much fortified. They've got a lot of very narrow streets in there. It's situated right on the Overseas Valley, and it was extremely important to young years gone by for its military and military control. Just looking at the problem there at the back with a flat tie. As you're waiting for the first time.

You'd never know. He's been tearing through this book, trying to come up with that fact about the military might of the Uwez Valley or whatever. No, I mean, they're amazing broadcasters. That's what you really take away from these clips is just how good they are at their job. Yeah, they're really talented. And Philly, he says he gets emails all the time from people who appreciate this detail and want to know,

like the exact route from the tour from that past year because they saw this particular village that they thought was beautiful. And I think in France too, it also has worked. The tour is thought to be a real showcase for the country now. And towns will actually pay money to have the tour go through their town because it will bring in the tourist revenue and also that people from all around

the world will kind of get a chance to see their town and maybe hear someone like Phil describe, you know, their chat to- You're a 14th century Abby. Yeah, exactly. And they might want to come visit sometime. Well, that's amazing. I am really, really impressed by Phil as a broadcaster

and it's so much fun to listen to him. So this is so great. I'm now into it. I'm now gonna watch the Tour de France. I'm like, I love this idea. Yeah, put it on in the background, at the very least. That sounds great. Emmett, thank you so much for introducing me to feel like it.

I think that's a gem of a human. Thank you, Roman. Okay, so I'm here with Chris Baroubaik. Chris, what do you have for us? Hi, Romans. So over the summer, you might remember we did a story about daylight saving time. Yes, saving no S saving with no S. Yes, the biggest news you can use. I have ever provided on this podcast is that it is daylight saving time. So I have a follow up to that story. And before I get there, just a quick recap of what we talked about with daylight saving time, it was episode 443.

We told the story of William Willett. He's kind of the father of daylight saving time. He was this British architect who campaigned for the idea for years. And then he died in one year after his death, the British parliament finally tried out daylight saving time. And that's why we have it today.

There's a commemorative sun dial to him in Kent, beautiful, wrap it up with a nice bow type of story. Yes, I remember that part of the story, that's great. So after I put out that story, I got quite a few emails from listeners who were saying, love the story, great job, but wait a second, I thought Benjamin Franklin invented daylight saving time.

Benjamin Franklin, like, yeah, the American founding father, Benjamin Franklin, that guy. Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin, yeah. Who's responsible for so many things, you know, according to lore? Well, and as soon as I started getting these emails, I was thinking, is he responsible for it? Like, he invented so much other stuff. Like, it seems entirely plausible. So I was thinking, is he responsible for it? Like he invented so much other stuff. Like it seems entirely plausible. So I decided I have to get to the bottom of this. Okay.

So I did a little investigation. All right. Let's hear it. So I called up this guy. Hello, is this Ranger Thomas Daniels? Oh, yes it is. Should I call you Ranger Daniels? What is the right way to refer to you? You just call me Tom.

So park Ranger Tom Daniels works at the Independence National Park in Philadelphia. It includes lots of American landmarks, including the Liberty Bell and also the Benjamin Franklin Museum. And at the park, he is their resident Benjamin Franklin nut. I would say he's always been a fascinating character for me.

And the more you learn about him, the more you're amazed by how much he actually accomplished in one life span. So we talked for a while about Franklin. I explained the whole thing, you know, William Willett, the angry emails, and I finally asked him the question, did Benjamin Franklin invent daylight saving time? So what's fascinating about that is I think this is one of the stories where Benjamin Franklin becomes so famous that he starts getting things attributed to him that are not necessarily attributable to him.

And daylight saving time is one of those. And that's the end of the story. Benjamin Franklin did not invent the... No, there's more. I would expect a little bit more. There's a little bit more. I know this isn't many story, but it's not quite that brief. So there is a funny connection between Benjamin Franklin and daylight saving time.

It comes from 1776 after the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Continental Congress was getting ready to go to war with Britain for the independence of the United States. And they wanted French military support to fight the war. So they decided we need to send somebody over there who will win over French hearts and minds and who better to send then Benjamin Franklin, the world famous inventor and writer. So they sent Benjamin Franklin over to France as a diplomat. And his charge is to essentially try and secure a formal alliance with the French.

There's no guarantees that we were going to be capable of winning independence. So this was going to take a lot of convincing. So Franklin really dived into a, he really ingratiate himself into French society. So what does that mean to ingratiate himself into French design? It basically means he was going to a lot of parties. So every night Ben Franklin was just staying up really late, hanging out with all these important French people. According to some accounts, he was basically living like a college student.

And then one day, Benchman Franklin's in Paris, and there's a loud noise outside his window. And he wakes up, and he looks outside, and he sees that the sun is coming up. And it's 6 or noise outside his window. And he wakes up and he looks outside and he sees that the sun is coming up and it's six or seven a.m. and this is a revelation for Benjamin Franklin. And he writes an essay in the Journal of Paris and it's called an economical project.

And he basically gently ch castizes the citizens of Paris for not getting up with the sun. The gall of that diplomat to go in there and tell them how to do things. Roman, here, actually Tom read me an excerpt from an economical project. He says, your readers who with me have never seen any sign of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the Almanac, will be as much astonished as I was when they hear of his rising so early. And especially when I assure them that he gives light as soon as he rises, I am convinced of this.

I am certain of my fact one cannot be more certain of any fact I saw it with my own eyes. That is Benjamin Franklin's great revelation is that the sun comes up in the morning. Well, you get a little bit from this tone here of like what he's trying to do. He's overdoing it a little bit in a fun way, actually. Yeah, I mean, Tom called this essay satirical. I think that's right. And it includes these recommendations at the end that are pretty outlandish.

One of the regulations says, every morning, as soon as the sun rises, let all the bells and every church be set ringing. And if that is not sufficient, let canon be bells and every church be set ringing and if that is not sufficient let canon be fired in every street to wake the sluggards affectually and make them open their eyes to see their true interest it

it's a fair and it can't be pretty extreme but i i i have to kind of i kind of did it i mean rubin what else is going to awaken the sluggards right you have to affectually awaken the sluggards, right? You have to effectively awaken those sluggards. Okay. So in conclusion, Benjamin Franklin did not event daylight saving time. He did write this funny essay about everyone in Paris waking up to the sounds of cannons being fired, which I guess is why people make that mistake because it's also about waking up earlier with the sun. But there's something bigger going on here, which is that lots of inventions get attributed

to Benjamin Franklin that he is not responsible for. And Tom told me this actually happens at his job sometimes. I think the most famous one is people think that he invented, they think he invented the light bulb, which of course was Thomas Edison. I think the confusion comments from Franklin's experiments were the electricity. Some other common ones I found on the internet,

there are people who believe Benjamin Franklin invented the street light. He did not invent the street light. He was involved in improving a certain design of street light. There is actually a page on the Franklin Institute website dedicated to quotes that are falsely attributed to Ben Franklin. So would you like to hear it example? I'd love to. Yeah. OK. Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain.

And most fools do. Oh, OK. That that sounds very Franklin-y. Or yeah, it's kind of Mark Twainy as well, you know what I mean? But yeah. It's a little more modern than that. That was actually said by Dale Carnegie, the guy who wrote,

How to Infrains and Influence People. So someone who's pretty different. Well, this is so fascinating. Well, so Benjamin Franklin did a lot of amazing things and we were not diminished from Benjamin Franklin, but he did not invent daylight saving time. He did not invent daylight saving time, not to diminish his other accomplishments.

Please be careful when you're reading those articles online that say the 10 amazing things created by Ben Franklin. Please approach those with suspicion. That's a good warning. Thanks so much, Chris. Thanks, Roman. Thanks. Coming up, we get to the bottom of the fire poll after this.

So I'm here with producer Lausanne Donne. Hey, Lausanne. Hey, Roman. So what do you have for us? Well, I wanted to talk with you about fire polls. Oh, excellent. I was just thinking about fire poles and that I didn't know what they were all about. But you're talking about the shiny brass poles that firefighters lie down to get from the second floor to the first floor. Exactly.

And sometimes from the third floor to the first floor. So the fire pole as an object is pretty symbolic of the firefighting profession, right? But the actual use of the poll has kind of become a thing of the past. If you learned about firefighters as a kid, maybe from your parents or teachers or even a storybook, you were probably told about the poll because at one time it was in nearly every fire station. And he guesses why? Well, my first guess is the obvious one, which is it gets you from one

four to the other very, very fast. Right. Fast was the way to go. Putting out a fire fast meant getting to the fire fast. And for years, fire poles have helped firefighters do that. But the origin story of the pole is actually pretty interesting. Okay, we'll lay it on me. I called up retired Chicago Battalion Chief DeCalb Walcott Jr. My name is DeCalb Walcott Jr. I moved to the ranks from fireman, engineer, lieutenant captain, and served four years as a battalion chief. So Chief Walcott is fine. Chief Walcott is now a firefighter historian. He's been archiving Black Firefighter History in Chicago where our fire poll origin story takes place. But Roman, before we get to the polls,

let's talk about the firefighters. Okay. The first firefighters were the Bucket Brigade. This was the 1600s before engines and hoses. They would have a long line of they would have a long line of men, women, children, slaves, freedmen, whoever could hold a bucket, probably. And they passed the buckets on until they got to the seat of the fire or the person that was first in line. That was dumped in the water. The bucket brigade was basically a long human chain. Over time, they improved the system of firefighting

with the goal of putting fires out as fast as possible. By the 1800s, there were engines being pulled by horses. But one thing didn't change throughout this whole time period. Each group of firefighters, which were called fire companies, were in furious competition to fight the same fire. Huh, so why were they competing?

Originally, volunteer companies were basically at the whim of the insurance carrier. Whoever got to the fire first put water on the fire first, were the ones who were paid. And no one else was paid, even if they got there a little bit later. No. Essentially insurance companies would pay only one fire company. The one that made it to the scene,

hooked up to the hydrant and put out the fire first. And with so much competition, things got messy. This seems like a really bad system, bad setup. So can you tell me more about how it got more messy? Yeah, I mean, well, so first of all, most firefighters weren't getting paid much at all. Insurance companies would offer incentives to particular fire stations over others, and so those fire stations sometimes did what they could to slow down their rivals.

Decalb told me there was also a huge culture of drinking among volunteer firefighters. Many firehouses were even outfitted with their own bars. And in Chicago, Decalb said that taverns would sometimes give alcohol out to firefighters at the scene of a fire to help them get their bravery up. And sometimes that alcohol helped facilitate full-on brawls on the street. And they were getting to fights not only with the public but also with the other fire companies they were competing against. There were a lot of complaints by the public also because here you have a fire company fighting in the street when they

should be putting water on fire. So there'd be like fire-consuming and building and firefighters from different stations would be having like a brawl in the street right in front of it. Yes, exactly. Terrifying image, okay. And it's in this competitive atmosphere that a new fire station, engine company 21, is formed. Engine 21 was an all black fire company. And actually, engine 21 was the first paid black fire company in the country. Actually, Engine 21 was the first paid black fire company in the country. They had approximately eight black members. Many of those members were ex-civil war veterans and also slaves.

So it was 1872, and for the very first time, the mayor of Chicago, Joseph Medil, allowed black people to join the Chicago Fire Department. As you can imagine, members of the newly formed engine 21 Firehouse felt a particular need to prove themselves. An engine 21 is credited with coming up with the fire pole. Oh, this is so fascinating. Okay, so how did that happen? Well, Roman, it has to do with horses and staircases and a whole lot of hay.

Okay, I have no idea where this is going because I'm pretty sure horses can't use fire ball. But let's let's I can't wait to learn more. Roman, have you ever been inside a fire station? Yeah, I've been to them. Yeah, sure. There's lots of different ones. There's a cool round one and sort of the Albany, a Berkeley junction that I've been

inside. Yeah. So the traditional structure of most firehouses of the 1800s, like Engine 21, were built three stories high. The horses were stable on the first floor, the human sleeping and eating quarters on the second, hay on the third, and a set of stairs connecting them. It worked pretty well, except that the horses would often follow the smell of human food and try to climb up the stairs. And the horses can make it up a set of stairs just fine, but when it comes to going down the stairs, they'd often get stuck.

Okay, that sounds hairline. Now, Roman, we've never had to remove a spookt horse from the stairway at work, have we? No, no, definitely not. They think it's... But if we did, we'd quickly find a way to make sure that doesn't happen again. That's what then happens once. So to solve for this problem, most fire companies

blocked off the old stairs, and they put in one very tight spiral staircase, which was fully horse proof. But this caused a new problem. It took a lot longer for a team of firefighters to get down a tight spiral staircase. And if engine 21's firefighters were too slow out the door, they wouldn't be the first to the fire. And if it happened too often, they couldn't save lives, couldn't make a living, and their

reputation might suffer too to the point where maybe they'd stop getting calls altogether. Mm-hmm. Engine 21's total, brought on competition. In order for engine 21 to survive during that time period, they had to do everything right. They had to be correct. Couldn't get in all the occasions on the street when people would call them out of the name.

I've read many instances where they went in the bars or taverns and were not served, even in uniform. And that's kind of how it went for a couple years. And then one night in 1878, engine 21 firefighter George Reed was in the hay loft on the third floor when the alarm went off. He acted on instinct. And instead of running down two flights of spiral stairs

to catch up to the group, he just slid down a pole from the third floor all the way down to the first. Where did the pole come from? So the pole was a wooden binding pole that was used for securing hay to the wagon during transport. When that pole was in use, it was stored vertically from the loading area all the way up to the hay loft. So anyway, George was able to get saddled in and ready to go way before anyone else who took the winding staircase from the second floor. And people were like, where did you come from?

How'd you get here so fast? And then later, engine 21's captain, captain Kenyon was like, let's install a permanent hole in the floor, run a three inch round wooden pole through the hole, and why don't we just slide that instead of taking the stairs? So they did. So they get down three stories really, really fast.

Does actually help them get to the virus first? Well, I should say that Decalb told me that at first, engine 21 was the butt of many jokes because of the pole. They were laughed at. You know, it was a joke to everybody else, but it was stopped being a joke when they found out that engine 21 was putting out their fires getting in first. And the city, as a matter of fact, and a report for April of 1878 stated

that sliding poles increase members response time. And as a result, sliding poles were being installed throughout Chicago, throughout all the firehouses in Chicago. Hmm. I mean, I can imagine that sliding down a pole, instead of going down a tight spiral staircase, would shave off a few seconds. But it doesn't sound like a lot of time, but maybe, you know, that's enough of an edge, right? I mean, maybe that's the difference between life and death

and some situations that could mean everything. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And Engine 21 didn't just install a poll. They turned that poll into their skill, one that set them apart from all other fire companies, because it's not as easy as it looks to slide efficiently down. A thin wooden pole, multiple flights of stairs, but they became very good at their craft. They would drill in the daytime. They had their time frame was 12 to 14 seconds getting out of the door. That's astounding. We can't do that today.

They would drill regularly doing that though. They would slide the pole hook the horses up and out the door. They went. Wow. In 12 to 14 seconds. Yeah. The fire pole, it revolutionized the way firefighters responded to emergencies. And eventually they were installed around the world.

Like you said, it saved lives. But the pole also created a new kind of problem for firefighters, a new kind of life or death problem. Because in leaping onto the pole and accelerating, firefighters were sometimes injuring themselves before they even got to the scene. I've heard stories of intoxicated firemen going to reach the slide to pole, missed the pole,

and his head was the first thing that hit the concrete. Spraying ankles, concussions, falls, some inebriated or sleepwalking firefighters have simply wandered over the hole and fallen into it, accidentally falling 20 or 30 feet. And at their most dangerous, the poles have led to deaths. Today, fire poles have been phased out of use

in a lot of cities. Hmm, so if firefighters aren't using fire poles, are they back to using spiral staircases? Well, without horses, there's no need for horse-proof staircases. Oh, right. That makes sense. Yeah, OK.

In multi-story fire houses, some have considered installing slides and other straight staircases, although both options are slower than what engine 21's response time was with the pole. And most newer fire stations now operate from a single story of space permits, both options are slower than what engine 21's response time was with the poll. And most newer fire stations now operate from a single story of space permits, so they're on the ground floor already. But all this doesn't mean that you won't see a fire poll in your local firehouse anymore.

Just that over time, it's really just become a symbol. Yeah, I mean, considering that it went through a phase of non-existing, it existed for a while, and now it's being phased out, it really has stuck in the popular imagination. Like, if you'd asked anyone, but they'd find it in a firehouse, they would talk about an engine, maybe a Dalmatian, and then there would be like a pole.

Like, my kids could tell you about a fire pole, even though they probably weren't inactive use during their lifetimes. Right. Yeah, I even read an article with an architect who specializes in firehouse design. And he said that in his latest designs, fire poles were specifically requested

by city administrators because of what they represented, even though the firefighters these days wouldn't necessarily use them. These days, it's just simultaneously an emblem of innovation and of tradition. Well, it's so cool. I'm so glad I know more about Firefall site. This is great, Lasha. Thanks so much. Thank you. 99% of visible was produced this week by Emmett Fitzgerald, Lasha Madonna and Chris Barube,

mixed in tech production by Amida Kanatra, music by our director of Sound, Swan Rihau. To Linhual, as executive producer, Kurt Colstead is the digital director, the rest of the team is Christopher Johnson, Vivian Le, Joe Rosenberg, Sophia Klatsker, and me Roman Mars. Special thanks to Jacob Moltenado Medina for production help on the mini stories this year. We are part of the Stitcher and Serious XM podcast family now headquartered six blocks north in the Pandora building in beautiful uptown Oakland California. You can find the show and join discussions about the show on Facebook you can tweet me at Roman Mars and the show at 99 PI org on Instagram and read it too. You can find links

to other Stitcher shows I love as well as every past episode of 9-9-PI, including 13 more volumes of many stories if you like that sort of thing at 99PI.org You've been listening to A Stitcher Podcast from SiriusXM.