Futility Closet - 171-The Emperor of the United States

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Futility Closet podcast, forgotten stories from the pages of history. Visit us online to sample more than 9,000 quirky curiosities from milk reviews to a flyswatter pistol. This is episode 171. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. In the 1860s, San Francisco's most popular tourist attraction was not a place, but a person. Joshua Norton, an eccentric resident who had declared himself Emperor of the United States.

Starting point is 00:00:34 Rather than shun him, the city took him to its heart, affectionately indulging his foibles for 21 years. In today's show, we'll consider the reign of Norton I and the meaning of madness. We'll also keep time with theorton I and the meaning of madness. We'll also keep time with the Romans and puzzle over some rising temperatures. Joshua Abraham Norton was born around 1818 in the London district of Deptford and emigrated with his parents to South Africa in 1820 when he was two years old. He grew up there, and when his parents died, he set out for Rio de Janeiro and then San Francisco, where he arrived in December 1849. He was an ambitious businessman and a successful one. He opened a cigar factory,

Starting point is 00:01:15 a boarding house, and a rice mill. One contemporary historian says he was, quote, remembered by the early pioneers as having been a shrewd, safe, and prosperous man, possessing more than ordinary intelligence, fertile of resource, and enterprising. His accent was English and his bearing was dignified. By 1852, America had begun to refer to itself as an empire, which Norton found laughable. He opposed republicanism and admired the English system of government. One acquaintance said he, quote, insisted that that of the United States was infamously crude and should be reconstructed. What it wanted was an emperor, and he would add, if I that that of the United States was infamously crude and should be reconstructed. What it wanted was an emperor, and he would add, if I were emperor of the United States, you would see great changes affected.

Starting point is 00:01:53 Apparently, he wouldn't shut up about this, and his friends started to call him emperor. His fortunes rose steadily through commodities trading and real estate speculation, and he became a well-respected citizen of the city. But in December 1852, everything changed. He tried to corner the market in rice by buying up an incoming shipment, and shortly after he signed the contract, several other shipments arrived unexpectedly. The price plunged and he was ruined. He declared bankruptcy and dropped out of sight. He reappeared on September 17, 1859, in, of all places, the offices of the San Francisco Bulletin. The editor, George K. Fitch, wrote, This forenoon, a well-dressed and serious-looking man entered our office and quietly left the

Starting point is 00:02:27 following document, which he respectfully requested we would examine and insert in the bulletin. Promising him to look at it, he politely retired without saying anything further. Here is the paper. At the peremptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the past nine years and ten months of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States, and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different states of the Union to assemble in the musical hall of this city on the first day of February next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring

Starting point is 00:03:06 and thereby cause confidence to exist both at home and abroad in our stability and integrity. And it signed Norton I, Emperor of the United States. He would later add Protector of Mexico to that title. This was the start of a reign that would last for 21 years, throughout which he regularly published proclamations in the newspapers. On October 12th of that year, he issued a decree formally abolishing Congress, and the following month he ordered General Winfield Scott to proceed with a suitable force and clear the halls of the Capitol. Two weeks later, he abolished the Supreme Court. Congress and the army, and pretty much everyone,

Starting point is 00:03:37 ignored these orders, but Norton kept going. In 1860, he dissolved the Republic and forbade the former members of Congress to assemble. In 1862, he ordered the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches to publicly ordain him emperor, apparently thinking this would help to heal the wounds caused by the Civil War. In 1869, he abolished the Democratic and Republican parties, quote, being desirous of allaying the dissensions of party strife now existing within our realm. I should note that a lot of the proclamations that you see today attributed to him are actually hoaxes that were published by other people as jokes or as satire. One famous one reads, whoever after due and proper warning shall be heard to utter the abominable word frisco, which has no linguistic

Starting point is 00:04:13 or other warrant, shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor and shall pay into the imperial treasury as penalty the sum of $25. There's no strong evidence that Norton wrote that one. But some of his proclamations were prophetic. In 1872, he called for a suspension bridge between San Francisco and Oakland via Yerba Buena Island, which at the time was called Goat Island. 61 years later, in 1933, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was begun. He also called for a tunnel connecting San Francisco and Oakland, and the Transbay Tube was completed in 1969. That's not bad.

Starting point is 00:04:43 The proclamations made him famous throughout the city and became a familiar figure there. In 1923, historian Robert Ernest Cowan described him in the California Historical Society Quarterly. In personal appearance, the emperor was always a picturesque and striking figure. He was of medium height, heavy set, with hair that was inclined to curl, heavy eyebrows under a massive forehead, mustache and beard that became a royal personage, and clear and penetrating eyes. His garb was of naval blue cut and military style and profusely adorned with brass buttons. The shoulders were surmounted with massive gilt epaulets, sometimes tarnished from exposure. Someone also gave him a tall beaver hat that he decorated with feathers, and he carried a

Starting point is 00:05:19 walking stick with a snakehead top that was inscribed Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. His sons carried an umbrella at the same time, and on ceremonial occasions he'd wear a sword. And he carried out the duties of an emperor. Cowan says he was a constant attendant of churches, theaters, musical affairs, civic gatherings, and school commencements, as well as a frequent visit of the university. He was fond of children and always gentle and courteous with them, and he was a member of the Lyceum of Free Culture, where reportedly he participated in debates intelligently and reasonably. In time, he became the city's most popular tourist attraction. His name and face adorned postcards, dolls, cigars, and lithographs sold by merchants throughout the city. Plays and operettas were written about him, cartoonists caricatured him, and tradesmen hung signs in their windows boasting that they enjoyed his patronage.

Starting point is 00:06:03 and tradesmen hung signs in their windows boasting that they enjoyed his patronage. In 1876, Benjamin Lloyd wrote, During the day he passes the time upon the streets, traveling from one part of the city to another, without apparent object, unless it be to see that the policemen are on duty, the sidewalks unobstructed, and the various city ordinances promptly enforced. He occasionally calls at the offices or business houses of acquaintances, stops for a few minutes, talking on general topics, and proceeds on his round,

Starting point is 00:06:26 never calling at one place so often as to render his presence offensive, nor remaining so long as to be considered a bore. He is a good conversationalist, and having free access to all the libraries and reading rooms keeps well-posted on current topics. He will talk readily upon any subject, and his opinions are usually very correct, except when relating to himself. He is more familiar with history than the ordinary citizen, and his scientific knowledge, though sometimes mixed, is considerable. Certainly every big city has its share of delusional citizens. What makes this story unique is that San Francisco embraced him.

Starting point is 00:06:53 In the city directory for 1862, he was listed as Norton, Joshua, Emperor, dwelling in the Metropolitan Hotel. Every morning as he left the lodging house, the local flower seller would say, good morning, your majesty, and pin a leftover carnation to his lapel. In 1933, journalist Herbert Asbury wrote, He ate without paying at whatever restaurant, lunchroom, or saloon took his fancy. After he visited an establishment, the owners were permitted to post a sign, by appointment to the Emperor Norton I. Invariably, these appointments brought great business to the saloon or restaurant so graced.

Starting point is 00:07:23 Theater owners allowed him to attend performances as a guest of management. The manager would personally escort him to his seat, greeted by applause from the audience and a fanfare from the orchestra. He could travel for free on the city's horse-drawn streetcars and ferryboats. No company wanted to be known for kicking the city's mascot off its car. He went to church every Sunday and to synagogue every Saturday. He said, I think it my duty to encourage religion and morality by showing myself at church, and to avoid jealousy, I attend them all in turn. Then, as now, San Francisco prided itself as an enlightened, progressive city that tolerates and even celebrates differences. Robert Louis Stevenson, who got to know Norton's story, wrote, In what other city would a harmless madman have been so fostered and encouraged?

Starting point is 00:08:01 His stepdaughter wrote that Norton, quote, was a gentle and kindly man, and fortunately found himself in the friendliest and most sentimental city in the world, the idea being let him be emperor if he wants to. San Francisco played the game with him. In fact, in 1867, an overzealous policeman arrested Norton to commit him to involuntary treatment for a mental disorder. This was met with outrage among the citizens and scathing editorials in the newspapers. The police chief, Patrick Crowley, ordered Norton released and issued a formal apology to him, marking that for an emperor he was exceedingly well-behaved. He wrote, quote, It's not clear what diagnosis Norton would get today. People who knew him said that he could

Starting point is 00:08:48 speak knowledgeably and intelligently about almost any subject except whether he was emperor of the United States, where he would tend to get touchy. If you called him Mr. Norton, he'd remind you he was emperor and asked to be addressed as such, or as your majesty. Of course, it's dangerous to try to evaluate someone you haven't examined, but San Diego's psychiatrist Robert Solomon said Norton doesn't appear to qualify for a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression-caused psychosis. He suggested a relatively rare condition called a delusional disorder of the grandiose type. McGill University psychiatrist Eric Liss agrees. He writes, he appears to have experienced one firmly held encapsulated delusion that lasted

Starting point is 00:09:22 for decades while his functioning was otherwise arguably unimpaired. Given that Norton's delusional system was embraced by his city, one might almost call it a folie a vu, which means madness of the city, which is a charming idea that I want to get your thoughts about. Writing in the journal Academic Psychiatry in 2015, Luce writes, importantly, we must ask whether Norton merits a diagnosis at all. It could be argued that Norton and a small number of others with psychiatric symptoms do not merit being given a diagnosis because, with the support of their community, they are not sufficiently functionally impaired to qualify as disordered. The idea is that if I think I'm Henry VIII and everyone agrees with me, I may be delusional, but I'm not suffering. I'm not impaired by that belief. What do you think about that?

Starting point is 00:09:59 Right, yeah. I mean, a lot of times the definition of a mental illness or a mental disorder is that it either causes you significant distress or it impairs your functioning with regards to relationships to others or you being able to carry out your responsibilities or duties. And it doesn't, neither of those applies here. He wasn't distressed and he wasn't impaired in any way right because everybody was going along with it sort of humored him in it right but if the town hadn't gone along with it you know and he ended up getting say belligerent when people wouldn't salute him then you'd have a problem yeah uh of course if if he'd had a family that was impacted or if the community hadn't supported him or i was thinking if anyone had set out to victimize him yeah things would certainly be different of course but as it happens none of those things was the case. Liz writes, he may represent a case that psychiatrists rarely see, an adequately functioning

Starting point is 00:10:50 individual whose disorder harms no one and generally makes the world a more interesting place. Certainly, San Francisco seems to have seen him that way. Politicians courted him because he was popular with the people. Newspaper editors published his proclamations because they sold newspapers. And theater managers gave him free seats because he himself was part of the show, so they were all sort of winking as they did this, but none of it was malicious. Benjamin Lloyd wrote in 1876, Norton, quote, is much better cared for than many who labor hard every day for a livelihood.

Starting point is 00:11:18 Thus does his affliction secure him a comfortable living, happy today, without care for the morrow, and free from all the annoyances that to many render life a burdensome existence. He wasn't even a financial burden on the city. In his early years, he relied on donations from friends and well-wishers, which he sometimes referred to as taxes. And in his later years, he engaged a printing company to print what he called imperial treasury bond certificates that he could sell to people. These were important-looking bonds that bore an etching of his face, and if you bought one, he would sign it for you. Ostensibly, when the bonds matured, they could be redeemed for gold coin, but no one ever redeemed them. Instead, they kept them as souvenirs or pasted them in cafe windows to advertise the imperial patronage.

Starting point is 00:11:56 One person who bought one said, I should have kept that bond. It would have become a valuable souvenir, but being young and inexperienced, I tore it up and threw it away. Anyway, he supported himself entirely in his later years through the sale of those bonds. After 21 years of this, on the night of January 8, 1880, Norton collapsed at the corner of California and DuPont streets on his way to a lecture at the California Academy of Sciences. A local businessman's association paid for a rosewood casket and arranged a funeral that some accounts say was attended by 30,000 people. His tombstone reads, Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, Joshua A. Norton, 1819-1880. At his death, Ambrose Bierce wrote,

Starting point is 00:12:33 In his own opinion, he had a divine right to be maintained at the expense of others, to lead a useless vagabond life like other imperial mendicants, to get money and be supported like other kings out of a place. And who shall say that the emperor was not right? Who shall presume to question the sanity of a mind that for 23 years enabled its body to live in luxury and idleness without physical and mental toil? But the historian Robert Cowan wrote, Poor, sometimes soiled and shabby, pathetic and philosophic, but always with a noble mind, he bore himself with dignity amid his squalid surroundings with one fixed and unvarying purpose, and that was consistently the welfare of his people. and that was consistently the welfare of his people. The heritage of honor and integrity that he had handed down while in his affluence was never squandered nor dissipated, and so he bore the respect and goodwill of the best of his people to the end.

Starting point is 00:13:12 Since 1974, there's been an annual memorial service at his grave in Colma, just outside San Francisco. Support for today's show comes from Audible. Thank you. you own your books so you can access them anytime, anywhere, from almost any device. Plus, thanks to the Great Listen guarantee, if you don't like your book, you can swap it for a new one. And Audible Channels has a collection of exclusive originals, short stories, and comedy, so you always have something new to listen to. I've been listening to Middlemarch, a book I've started several times but never managed to finish, and I'm finding that the experience of listening is much different from reading. With a good narrator like Juliet Stevenson, it's easier to get caught up in the story,

Starting point is 00:14:11 and of course with an audiobook, you can do other things while you're listening. I'm usually running or driving or washing dishes. Get a free audiobook with a 30-day trial at www.audible.com slash futility. That's www.audible.com slash futility, F-U-T-I-L-I-T-Y, for a free audiobook with your 30-day trial. We've mentioned decimal time a few times on the podcast, most recently in episode 166. Omer Hertz, who sent some very helpful pronunciation tips that I hope I'm living up to, wrote, Hello, hello, futility closet. You've mentioned that keeping decimal time seems easier and more logical than our current timekeeping system, and you're probably right. But I thought I'd cheer you up by telling you that at least we are not forced to keep time the Roman way.

Starting point is 00:15:00 The Romans, you see, divided their days into hours. Only their hours were not structured as fixed lengths of time. In fact, the concept of minutes would have been completely alien to them. Instead, the first hour of day began at dawn, the sixth hour was at noon, and the last hour of the day lasted till sunset, with the hours themselves being of the same length, more or less. In theory, one twelfth of the daylight period per hour, though these were not always completely uniform since they didn't use exact minutes. The same is true for the Roman night. This gives rise to some ridiculous situations. For one, the Romans had elaborate calendars that would tell you exactly when the sun is expected to rise or set based on observations

Starting point is 00:15:38 made on the same day during previous years, and would tell you how long an hour would actually last each day. For another, there was a huge fluctuation in you how long an hour would actually last each day. For another, there was a huge fluctuation in the length of an hour. For example, during the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the sun would rise, in our terms, around 427 and set around 1933, a total of just over 15 hours, whilst during the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the sun would rise around 733 and set around 1627, incidentally the exact opposite of the summer solstice, meaning that the day was slightly less than nine hours long. And yet, in both cases, that period of time was considered to be 12 hours long, according to the Romans. So for the Romans, how long an hour lasted would depend both on what time of year it was and what latitude you were at,

Starting point is 00:16:27 which makes me wonder how often people maybe got it wrong. Like maybe you're supposed to meet someone at the 10th hour and you're there and he's not. And they'd have to use that system to administer a whole giant empire. Right. As my understanding is, right, it was pretty complex, yeah? And they've got this incredibly complicated and detailed... With elastic hours. Timekeeping system.

Starting point is 00:16:48 It's amazing that you get anything done. So this whole topic of Roman timekeeping is of interest to scholars now, not just to try to understand that culture, but to also properly interpret texts from that time. For example, there's a text describing the death of Augustus, and it mentions that he died at the ninth hour. If you want to understand what time of day it was when Augustus died, you need to work out what day of the year it was and where exactly he was on the Earth's surface. After you get that far, you can then use a U.S. Navy calculator

Starting point is 00:17:18 to determine the exact length of daylight for that date and location. So for the day of Augustus's death, that would have been 13 hours and 38 minutes, which you would then divide by 12 to find that each hour would have been 68 and one-sixth of our minutes. Working that out and adding it to the time of that day's sunrise, you can then work out roughly what time of day Augustus died. That's a lot of work. That is a lot of work. But as complicated as all that was, what I listed actually simplified one step, that of figuring out the date. The text about Augustus' death lists the date as on the 14th day before the Calends of September. That's because the Romans

Starting point is 00:17:58 gave a special name to three days of the month, and all the other dates were figured out based on their relationship to those three dates. The Calends was the first of the month, the Ides was the day on which the moon was full, and the Nones was nine days before the Ides. So Augustus's death on the 14th day before the Calends of September puts it at August 19. And thankfully, for this timekeeping method, we don't have to figure out what the year was, because the usual method for indicating a year was to give the names of the two consuls elected for that year, which meant that you had to have a mental list of all the pairs of consuls through Roman history in order to date things, though sometimes they might date things from how many years it had been since the city of Rome was

Starting point is 00:18:38 founded. So as awkward to use as I find our timekeeping and calendar system, Omer is right that by comparison to the Romans, I don't feel like I have anything to complain about. Omer also said, Oh, and by the way, before the Emperor Constantine's and the Roman Empire's adoption of Christianity, the Roman week also happened to be eight days long. Thanks, and here's to many more years of interesting tidbits

Starting point is 00:19:03 and stimulating stories. Okay, I didn't like the timekeeping system at all, but I do like the idea of eight days in a week. Prime numbers just make lousy base units for things. And that leads to an email sent by Christopher Gibson, who wrote in about Kristen's email, which I read on episode 166, with regard to people tending to have a bias toward decimal systems, where Christian advocated duodecimal systems since 12 has more factors than 10. Christopher said,

Starting point is 00:19:32 While listening to your correspondence, Christian's email on episode 166 say, Evolution giving us 10 fingers and the rest is history, I suddenly remembered how my wife counts on her fingers, a method by which she is able to count to 12 on just one hand. I'll use the description I found on Wikipedia. The thumb acts as a pointer, touching the three finger bones of each finger in turn, starting with the outermost bone of the little finger. One hand is used to count numbers up to 12. The other hand is used to display the number of completed base 12s. Her family is from the Gujarat region in India, so I guess this system may be common there.

Starting point is 00:20:10 I can see it being useful when you want to be able to count to higher than 5 on your fingers when one hand is busy being used to hold something. So evolution has also given us a way to easily count to 12 too, which may have some reason to do with why that number crops up in some of our measuring systems. Thanks for all the podcasts. And maybe that is an explanation for why 12 does crop up so often. 12 hours in a day and night, 12 months in a year, 12 inches in a foot, 12 does turn

Starting point is 00:20:36 up a fair amount. Because you can count it in that way. Maybe. That's as good a reason as any. After reading Christopher's email, I tried to look a little more into finger counting and came across an interesting post on mathblog.com entitled, Math Teachers Should Encourage Their Students to Count Using Fingers. And that argues that a student's use of his or her fingers when learning math

Starting point is 00:20:59 is a helpful visual aid that assists in faster learning. The Washington Post says of the arguments and evidence laid out in that article, it's always soothing to be told that something that is actually easier to get your kids to do is the right thing to do. The Math Blog post also demonstrates several different finger counting methods, including a method that I had come across and memorized when I was a kid that turns out to apparently be Korean. And it lets you count up to 99 using your fingers. You use your left hand to keep track of the tens and your right hand to keep track of the ones. And maybe my learning this method over, instead of the method that Christopher's wife uses, explains my preference for decimal over duodecimal

Starting point is 00:21:41 systems. I'm now just biased towards base 10. You taught me that system. I use that all the time. It's actually a very good system, but like I said, maybe it... Yeah, I can see that. ...biases us against the duodecimal system. I don't know. Maybe we'll start trying to use the 12 one, right? And we'll get prejudice towards that.

Starting point is 00:21:59 In the post, there is also a supposedly old Chinese method that allows you to count up to 100,000 on one hand and up to 10 billion using both hands. So it's not fully explained and looks to me like it might require using much more memory than counting on your fingers usually does. Also on the page is supposedly a video that shows kids using their fingers as an abacus, allowing them to do complex computations such as multiplying 10-digit numbers and finding the square root of six-digit numbers, but I couldn't get the video to play, so we'll just have to take their word for that. I tried to find the video on YouTube and did find kids using the Korean finger counting method, and that allowed children as young as five to do addition and subtraction, but no

Starting point is 00:22:45 multiplying 10-digit numbers. So if anyone knows how to do that using your fingers, please do let us know. You can always write to us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. It's my turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle. Greg is going to give me an odd-sounding situation, and I have to try to figure out what's going on, asking only yes or no questions. This is from listener Sofia Hauk de Oliveira. When the Bakerloo line of the London Underground was opened in 1906, it was advertised as a cool escape from the city on hot days.

Starting point is 00:23:24 Today it is known for being unbearably hot in summer. How come? So this is like a subway line that you're talking about? And so it used to be much cooler in 1906 in this subway line than it is today. Would you say that's is today. Yes. Would you say that's all correct? Yes. Does this hinge in any way in it being in London?

Starting point is 00:23:51 Yes. Is that germane? Yeah. Oh, it is germane. Did they used to have some kind of technology operating that is not operating or is operating differently now? I'm sure they did, but that's not the reason. That's not the reason. Does this have anything to do with climate change in London?

Starting point is 00:24:08 No. Does this have anything to do with something else that was built or developed nearby? No. In the same region? But you are saying it is connected to it being in London. And when you say cooler and hotter and all that, you are referring to temperature. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:24:31 The temperature that people would feel, not, hey, this is really cool. How cool is that? That's lateral, right? And this is a really marked effect. Difference, yeah. Tunnels that were 14 degrees Celsius in the 1900s can now have air temperatures as high as 30 degrees on parts of the network. That's 57 versus 86 in Fahrenheit. Does this have to do with the fact that they just built more tunnels and this affected other tunnels?

Starting point is 00:24:56 No. No. So it has nothing to do with... Okay. They built some tunnels in 1906. Mm-hmm. Okay. If no other building or development of any kind had occurred in the whole area between 1906 and now, would this effect still be seen? Yes.

Starting point is 00:25:14 Okay. Does this have anything to do with the trains that are being run through them? Yes. That the trains, because they run on something other than what they used to run on, like they used to run on, I don't know, coal or steam or whatever they used to run on, and now they run on electricity or something. No. I mean, there's a bunch of factors, but there's one in particular that's quite...

Starting point is 00:25:35 Would you say that it's important for me to figure out what's different about the trains? Like that's what I should focus on? No, I won't say that's the solution I'm looking for. Does it have to do with the number of people using the trains? Surprisingly, I won't say that's the solution I'm looking for. Does it have to do with the number of people using the train? Surprisingly, no. Okay. Or the fact that there are more trains being run than there used to be. That's not the main thing. The passengers surprisingly account for only 2% of the heat. Huh. Okay. And I just assume that they probably are running more trains than they used to run in 1906, but that's not it either. And so there is something about the trains, but that's not what I need to focus on.

Starting point is 00:26:08 Is it something that they, would you say that there's been some change to either the train lines or the stations or anything that I need to figure out? Not that it counts for this. Not that it counts for this. this would you say it's a natural change something naturally changed uh about geology or the weather or no no uh did this have to do with any specific event or series of events no like connected to the wars or anything no okay so there's been some change to the tunnels would you say i wouldn't say there's been some change there hasn't been some change okay would you say that the ambient temperature in the tunnels is warmer now than it used to be yes yes but you wouldn't say there's been some change to the tunnels is that what you wouldn't say there's been some change to the tunnels. Is that what you wouldn't say there's been a change to?

Starting point is 00:27:06 There's been a change. No, yes, that's right. There's been a change in temperature, but not a change. In the tunnels. In the tunnels. Or this would have happened even if there'd been no change. Or the whole air circulation system, change in the air circulation system.

Starting point is 00:27:22 No, again, these things, I'm sure there've been all kinds of changes to all these things, but the main factor is something that stayed the same. Would you say that the main factor is something that stayed the same? Yes. So the fact that something

Starting point is 00:27:34 didn't change. Right. Is it the fact that something didn't change and something else did change, like an interaction between two things, or it's just the fact

Starting point is 00:27:44 that something didn't change? I'm trying to see where I'm trying to go here. I'm going to say it's just, the factor I'm looking for is just one thing. That did not change. That stayed constant since before 1906. But somehow it staying constant has caused the temperature to go up. Yes.

Starting point is 00:28:03 You're actually closer than you think. Has the temperature gone up steadily? I actually don't know, but let's say yes. I mean, does that seem the most plausible, that the temperature was just going up and would have continued to go up? Yeah. Right, so that in 1926,

Starting point is 00:28:18 it was probably a little warmer than in 1906. Yes. Ha, so what? And this doesn't have anything to do with like geothermal something or others? Yes, you're close. It has something to do with geothermal something or others?

Starting point is 00:28:30 You mentioned geology before. Right. You're on that, that's the right track. Something geological and specific to London. Yes. Or specific to this area of England?

Starting point is 00:28:46 It happens in London. I mean, there are other cities with similar status where this doesn't happen. Okay, so it's something specific to London. Okay. Does this have anything to do with water? No. Rock? Molten rock.

Starting point is 00:29:00 Rock is not far. The Earth's crust. I mean, you're almost there. Does that have anything to do with steam? No. I'm further away. Something to do with the earth, the rocks, the mantle. Any of those things.

Starting point is 00:29:20 Any of those things. That's characteristic of London. That's characteristic of London. That's characteristic of London. You won't necessarily know what it is I'm looking for, but basically what might... I see I'm thinking like underground springs, underground geysers. I'm thinking volcanoes and magma. And I'm trying to think hot things to do with the earth. The temperature of the earth's core.

Starting point is 00:29:42 I'll tell you that half of the heat is coming from the brakes on the trains so it's not that the geology is adding heat to the underground oh is it is it is it that the trains have to break more because they're going at an incline no okay like the tracks are you know i don't know no that's a perfect guess. Sinking in some ways and so it's more of an incline. So half of the heat is coming from, are the trains needing to break more than they used to?

Starting point is 00:30:13 No, let's assume that's been totally constant since 1906. But just there's heat in the system. Close enough that I should just give it to you. I'm like looking at you with a total puzzled look on my face it's basically that the composition of the soil under London has a lot of clay in it and that's a strong insulator oh oh so the heat can't dissipate has nowhere to go Sophia writes it is a true change in temperature not just a perception problem it's not because

Starting point is 00:30:42 the trains are different or because the city itself got hotter. When the tunnels were first dug, they were quite cool, as caves tend to be, so the ads were honest. Heat built up in the tunnels over the decades, mostly from the brakes on the trains, increasing the temperature. The tunnels are now much hotter than natural, even when trains aren't running. The soil beneath London is mostly clay, which is great for building strong tunnels, but also a strong insulator trapping the heat in the tunnel. This, combined with how narrow the old London tunnels are, is why other cities haven't encountered Oh, wow. Yeah, I probably wouldn't have guessed that, but it makes perfect sense once you explain it. So it's something that's been a constant. Right, right, right. But all the activity, and particularly the

Starting point is 00:31:27 breaking, is just building up heat that now has nowhere to go. No, like I said, it makes perfect sense once you explain it, but I don't think I would have thought of it. So it's a good thing you probably gave it to me. So thank you. Oh, thank you, Sophia. Thank you, Sophia. Sorry, I forgot your name. I was so busy focusing on the clay. And if anybody else has a puzzle they'd like to send in for us to try, please send it to us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. Futility Closet is supported primarily by our wonderful listeners. We do have some advertising on the show,

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Futility Closet - 171-The Emperor of the United States

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