Futility Closet - 234-The Dig Tree

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 10,000 quirky curiosities from an article's bootstraps to a house's ghost. This is episode 234. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. In 1860, a party of explorers set out to traverse the Australian continent, but bad management and a series of misfortunes sent it spiraling toward tragedy. In today's show, we'll tell the story of the

Starting point is 00:00:38 Victorian Exploring Expedition and its dramatic climax at Cooper's Creek. We'll also try to validate Archimedes and puzzle over an unlucky thief. Australia's first European settlers arrived in 1788, and by 1860, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide were thriving. Melbourne, in particular, had grown into a proper city of 140,000 people, in part because a recent gold rush had drawn a thousand ships a year to its shores. Flush with wealth and confidence, the citizens of Victoria turned their attention to the hot, dry interior of the continent, which was still a huge blank on the map, 1,600 miles long by 800 wide. Half a dozen expeditions had set out to explore it and had

Starting point is 00:01:25 come back defeated. One explorer, Charles Sturt, had got as far north as the 25th latitude but had run into a forbidding desert. He reported that an explorer would face unbearable heat there in the summer months, thirst, hunger, and the danger of scurvy. He wrote, depend upon it, I would not have retreated from such a position for a trifle, but you can form no idea of that region. But there was mounting pressure to find a way through it. Ships still took two months to carry messages by sea from southeastern Australia to Britain. If someone managed to cross the continent from south to north, then it might be possible to build a telegraph line that linked Adelaide to a cable in Java. That would enable the settlers to communicate with London in a few hours rather than waiting four months. Finding such a route could also open up trade with Southeast Asia, and of course European

Starting point is 00:02:08 settlers had a perpetual hunger for land itself. With all that in mind, the Philosophical Institute of Victoria set out in 1857 to organize a new attempt, which they called the Victorian Exploring Expedition. To lead it, they chose a man named Robert O'Hara Burke. He might have seemed an odd choice at first, a police superintendent from Ireland who knew nothing about exploration and had no scientific qualifications. But he was charming and brave, and they felt his scientific deficiencies could be made up by other members of the expedition. He'd be leading the most elaborate and best-equipped expedition ever set up in Australia, crossing the continent from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a journey of about 2,000 miles that they hoped to make in 12 to 18 months.

Starting point is 00:02:50 They set out, ambitiously, on August 19, 1860, with 19 men, 23 horses, 26 camels, and 21 tons of gear, including 8 tons of food, 6 tons of firewood, rockets, flags, dinner tables, a bathtub, 10 dozen looking glasses, a Chinese g tables, a bathtub, ten dozen looking glasses, a Chinese gong, and twelve sets of dandruff brushes. A Chinese gong. Yeah, I don't, you're not the first person to ask that question. I don't know what the gong is for. It was pretty quickly clear they were overloaded, so as they struggled north, Burke dumped some

Starting point is 00:03:19 stores and released some troublesome men. But they couldn't make up the lost ground, and by the time they reached Menindee on the Darling River, they were short on money and short on time, with summer coming on and the wagons far in the rear. Settlers were already advising them against traveling toward the center of the continent in the summer heat, but Burke needed to make progress, so he decided to split the party in two.

Starting point is 00:03:40 He would take a group of seven men and hurry ahead to the next objective, Cooper's Creek. The rest of the expedition would set up camp at Menindee to rest some of the animals that had fallen ill and then make their way north to rejoin the advance party. When Burke's party reached Cooper's Creek, it was nearly the height of summer and the temperatures were reaching 109 degrees Fahrenheit. The plan had been to wait there until autumn to avoid the worst of the heat and allow the rest of the expedition, led by William Wright, to catch up. But they had plenty of provisions and Burke was still eager to press

Starting point is 00:04:08 ahead. So he split the party again, leaving four men to establish a depot on the creek while he pressed north with three companions, hoping to break through to the Gulf of Carpentaria and return within three months. This was almost begging for trouble. Burke's foursome would be traveling through midsummer with no maps of the land ahead of them and no communication with the men behind. They had no doctor to attend them if they fell ill and no scientist to take note of their discoveries. It was no longer an expedition but an endurance test. Burke's companions in his dash for the sea were William John Wills, Charles Gray, and John King. On December 16th, they started north with six camels, a horse, and three months' provisions.

Starting point is 00:04:45 The animals were burdened with the water and stores, so the men would have to walk the thousand miles to the Gulf and back. On December 22nd, they reached the stony desert that had stopped Charles Sturt, and through unbelievable hardship, struggled through it. In January, the country began to improve as they entered the tropics, and on February 11th, 1861, they reached the Gulf of Carpentaria. A mangrove swamp prevented them from actually seeing the water, but they had accomplished their goal. The challenge now would be to get back to Cooper's Creek before their rations ran out. At Cooper's Creek, their friends were doing well. They'd built a stockade and settled into a routine waiting for Burke to return from the north and for William Wright to bring up the rest of the

Starting point is 00:05:21 expedition from the south. But as March began to pass away, the leader at the depot, William Brahe, was increasingly concerned. Burke had told him that his dash to the sea would take three months. That time had elapsed in mid-March, and there was no sign of the returning explorers. There was also no sign of Wright, who had been ordered to lead the rest of the expedition to Cooper's Creek as soon as possible. That was four months ago, and he hadn't even sent a messenger. With no sign of either party, Brahe's camp was facing troubles of its own. The men were showing signs of scurvy, and one of them had injured his leg after being thrown from a horse. When Burke had been gone nearly four months, Brahe rode out hoping to find some trace of either party. He found none. Maybe Burke had

Starting point is 00:05:58 perished in the desert. Maybe he'd reached the Gulf and been picked up by a boat. Or maybe he'd made his way into the settled districts of Queensland. Brahe's own men were increasingly ailing, and the longer he waited, the worse they would grow. But he had told Burke he would wait until his rations ran out before he gave up and headed south. He rode back to the depot, still wondering what to do. In the north, Burke had faced some difficult decisions of his own. His group had brought only three months' rations, and their trip to the sea had taken 57 days, so they had only half what they needed to get back to the creek.

Starting point is 00:06:27 They set out on the return journey on February 13th. We know relatively little about the trip because they were too weary to keep records, but we know it rained constantly. By the end of the first week of March, they'd covered barely 100 miles. Low on food and growing weaker by the day, they began to eat the animals and to drop items that were not absolutely essential. By March 20th, they jettisoned 60 pounds of equipment and began to take turns riding the two remaining camels. On March 25th, after 40 days of walking, Wills discovered that Gray had been stealing food, and Burke, in a towering rage, struck him and took him off food

Starting point is 00:06:59 duty. They were only about halfway back to the depot. On April 10th, they reached the Stony Desert again, and on April 15th, after two months walking, they were trudging southward through driving rain when Charles Gray said he couldn't continue. Two days later, he was dead of dysentery. They were so feeble that it took them all day to dig a grave three feet deep. After that, they abandoned the rest of their equipment and set out desperately on April 18th to cover the last 70 miles to the depot. By April 20th, they had closed the distance to 30 miles.

Starting point is 00:07:28 Burke rode one camel and Wills and King took turns on the other. With salvation so close at hand, they ate all the remaining provisions except for a pound and a half of dried meat. The next day, they made a superhuman effort and marched on into the evening, hoping to finish the trip at last. The moon came up. Burke kept saying, I think I see their tents ahead. I think I see them. As they neared the site, he called Cooee, called out the names of

Starting point is 00:07:49 their friends, Brahe, McDonough, Patton. Finally, at 7.30 p.m., four months after their departure, they filed wearily back into the depot. It was strangely silent. They saw the stockade Brahe had built, the ashes of burnt-out fires, pieces of discarded equipment, and fresh traces of horse and camel dung. But there were no men or animals. At length, Burke said, I suppose they have shifted to some other part of the creek. Will said, if they had shifted to another part of the creek, they would not have left that. He was looking at a cul-de-bas tree. Someone had carved these words into the wood with a knife. Dig, three feet northwest, April 21st, 1861. Three feet northwest of the tree, the earth had been freshly turned over. Wills and King dug down two feet and found a box full of rations and a bottle with a penciled message inside. King handed

Starting point is 00:08:37 the message to Burke, who held it up to the moon and read, Depot, Cooper's Creek, 21 April, 1861. The depot party of the Victorian Exploring Expedition leaves this camp today to return to the Darling. I intend to go southeast from Camp 60 to get into our old track near Ballou. Two of my companions and myself are quite well. The third, Patton, has been unable to walk for the last 18 days as his leg has been severely hurt when thrown by one of the horses. No person has been up here from the Darling. We have six camels and twelve horses in good working condition. William Brahe. April 21st was that morning. Burke's party had spent four months walking 2,000 miles through uncharted desert in the middle of summer

Starting point is 00:09:16 and had missed their salvation by nine hours. Nine hours was less time than they'd spent in burying Charles Gray. If they'd hurried that task or any of a hundred other tasks, they might have arrived in time. Just that morning, King had gone shooting at hawks and crows. His rifle might have been audible to Brahe's men as they packed up the depot, but none of them had noticed it. The visions they'd had of rest and safety were gone. What should they do now? Everyone agreed they were too exhausted to march after Brahe tonight. Wills and King voted to pursue him in the morning and hope to catch him up.

Starting point is 00:09:46 But Burke pointed out that he'd said explicitly that his horses were in good condition, and they had only two exhausted camels. And there was no water on the way to Menindee, which was over 400 miles away. He argued for traveling down Cooper's Creek to Mount Hopeless, 150 miles away, where they knew there was a cattle station. From there, they could make their way through settled districts to Adelaide. In the end, the others agreed. They wrote a letter explaining their plan and reburied it in a bottle under the Kulaba tree in case a rescue party came through. Then they set out down the south bank of the Cooper. Unfortunately, they didn't bother to

Starting point is 00:10:17 change the date marked on the tree. On the night of Burke's return, the two parties were camped only 14 miles apart, and by walking all night, the exhausted men might just have closed the distance, though of course neither party could have known that. After Brahe started moving the next day, he quickly passed out of reach. Brahe was still not sure he'd done the right thing in leaving the depot, but that was in part because he had so little information. After a few days of travel, he met William Wright, finally coming up from the south. He explained that the party he was leading had been badly disorganized, with only five men and a handful of the weakest animals, and somehow he'd let three months go by before applying to the committee for more resources. When the party finally set out on January 26, 1861, things had hardly improved. The author Alan Moorhead says,

Starting point is 00:10:58 one would have to search far through the history of Australian exploration for anything to match the futile wanderings and the bungling ineptitude of this journey. The bottom line is that Wright and the supply party never reached Cooper's Creek. After hearing this story, Brahe asked Wright if they should go back and check on the depot on the creek, which was only 80 miles away. They reached it on May 8th. Burke had arrived, despaired, and departed 15 days before, but he'd left no sign of his passing. The camp was silent and deserted. They saw camel tracks, but Brahe assumed those had been made by his own animals. There were ashes of three fresh campfires, but the aboriginal people were always making such fires.

Starting point is 00:11:38 The cache under the cul-de-bas tree looked undisturbed, and they saw no reason to dig it up. The date on the tree was unchanged, and Brahe had nothing to add to the note he'd left earlier. And there seemed to be no point in carving a new date on the tree to note this new visit. After 15 minutes in the camp, he and Wright mounted their horses and rode out to rejoin the main party and return to Menindee. At that moment, Burke, Wills, and King were only 30 miles away, making their way down Cooper's Creek. They'd had to shoot both camels. One had gotten bogged in a mud hole, and the other was too exhausted to continue. That left them unable to carry enough water to cross the desert to Mount Hopeless, so they found themselves stuck on the creek. On May 24th, they thought they heard an explosion. Probably that was just a rock splitting off a cliff, but Wills thought it might be a gunshot

Starting point is 00:12:17 and traveled all the way back to the depot to investigate. He arrived to find it under the same cursed enchantment. Everything looked just as he had left it, and he assumed no one had passed through since his last visit. Brahe and Wright had come and gone 16 days earlier and left no sign of their visit. He dug up the cache, found the letter that Burke had left there, and added his diary, notebook, and journals for safekeeping. On the bottle note, he wrote, We've been unable to leave the creek. Both camels are dead and our provisions are done. Mr. Burke and King are down the lower part of the creek. I am about to return to them when we shall probably come up this way. We are trying to live the best way we can, like the

Starting point is 00:12:53 blacks, but find it hard work. Our clothes are going to pieces fast. Send provisions and clothes as soon as possible. W.J. Wills. It did not occur to him to change the date on the tree. He traveled back down the creek to rejoin Burke and King. They would have to wait on the creek, trying to keep alive with whatever help they could ask of the aboriginal people until help arrived. Back in Melbourne, the organizing committee was growing concerned. Nothing had been heard from Burke since the previous October. They sent out a man named Alfred William Howitt to see what he could learn, and within three days, he met Brahe at an inn and realized the extent of the tragedy. The committee gave him a free hand and he made plans to go to

Starting point is 00:13:28 Cooper's Creek and track Burke from there. Brahe went with him with a party of men. As word spread across Australia, all the other colonies pledged their help as well. Several ships made for the Gulf of Carpentaria in hopes of finding Burke's party there, South Australia sent a party north, and Queensland pledged two parties of its own. Howitt's group departed on June 30th and reached the depot on Cooper's Creek on September 13th. Incredibly, the same strange spell took hold and they did not dig up the cash. Brahe couldn't see any changes to the camp and they didn't need any supplies. So they stayed only a few minutes and then made their way down the creek. As they went, though, the Aboriginal people they met urged them excitedly forward,

Starting point is 00:14:05 and the next day they found an emaciated man in rags at a waterhole who collapsed at the sight of them. He identified himself as John King, the last man of the exploring expedition. Howitt wrote, He presented a melancholy appearance, wasted to his shadow, and hardly to be distinguished as a civilized being but for the remnants of clothes upon him. He seemed exceedingly weak and found it occasionally difficult to follow what we said. The natives were all gathered round, seated on the ground, looking with a most gratified and delighted expression.

Starting point is 00:14:32 The expedition's doctor said King wouldn't have lived more than a few days if they hadn't found him. King said the little party's resources had dwindled on the creek until Wills grew too weak to travel and urged the others to leave him in a hut and seek help from the aboriginal people. Burke and King had made their way up the creek, but Burke was in terrible shape and died before they had got far. King went back downstream and found Wills dead in his hut. Eventually, he managed to connect with the aboriginal people who cared for him generously for two months until Howard arrived. They tended him until September 25th when he seemed well enough to travel. They returned to the depot, dug up the accursed cache with its unread pleas for help, and sent word ahead to Melbourne that the continent had been crossed

Starting point is 00:15:10 and that a single man was returning to tell the story. Moorhead writes, There was a commotion such as we might have in our time at the news that just one survivor was returning from an expedition to the moon. King was met by crowds on his return to the city. The Melbourne Herald wrote, There goes the man who has been in Hades. That describes him well. He never recovered from his ordeal, and he died at the age of 33. Howitt went north again to retrieve the bodies of Burke and

Starting point is 00:15:35 Wills, and the Victorian government gave them a state funeral. Both of them lie today in Melbourne General Cemetery. The Victorian Exploring Expedition has to be regarded as a tragedy. Seven of its members succumbed to starvation, disease, and the desert heat, but it fulfilled its purpose. Its men and the rescue expeditions that went after them succeeded in filling in the great blank on the Australian map, one of the world's last great frontiers. We often say that Futility Closet wouldn't still be here today if it weren't for the support of our listeners, because that really is the case.

Starting point is 00:16:15 We appreciate all the different ways that many of our listeners help the show, but the backbone of our support is our Patreon campaign, as that gives us an ongoing source of support so that we can commit to the amount of time that the podcast takes to make. Patreon also gives us a good way to share some extras with our show's supporters, like outtakes, peeks behind the scenes, extra information on some of the stories, and updates on Sasha, our official Futility Closet podcast. You can learn more about our Patreon campaign at patreon.com slash futilitycloset or see the support us section of our website for the link. And thanks so much to everyone who helps make Futility Closet possible. In episode 229, we discussed a building in London with a concave face of windows that produced a so-called death ray that had melted parts of a car parked near it. Tracy Hensley Bumpus wrote,

Starting point is 00:17:15 Hi guys! A further comment on this subject. I used to work with an engineering firm that conducted rehab on low-income housing as part of a federal grant program. firm that conducted rehab on low-income housing as part of a federal grant program. They had rehabbed two houses that were side-by-side, replacing windows and new siding, along with other things needing repair. One of the owners started having a problem in the summer with his siding melting and called the project manager to come inspect it. It looked like he had set his barbecue grill too close to the siding and it had melted, despite the denial of the owner that that had occurred. As a courtesy, the engineering firm had the siding contractor come and replace it. A few weeks later, the owner called again and said the siding was back in the same condition.

Starting point is 00:17:53 The project manager again went to inspect and realized the owner was telling the truth. He had become concerned that there was an electrical wiring problem in the wall behind the siding, so he again had the subcontractor come out. This time, they removed the siding, and an electrician came and inspected all wiring to make sure there wasn't a fire brewing in the wall. They found nothing. The siding subcontractor again put new siding up, and they chalked it up to a mystery. A few weeks later, the owner called again and said the siding was back in the melted condition, but worse this time. Again, the project manager visited, but this time he visited at a different part of the day.

Starting point is 00:18:27 To his astonishment, he observed that the sun was bouncing off the new window of the neighbor house, which they had also rehabbed. They had installed super energy-efficient windows with a special UV coating that reflected sunlight out of the house to keep cooling costs down. During the summer, at a certain time of day, the reflection from that window shone directly on the siding of the neighbor house, creating a death ray and melting the siding. Now they realized the problem, they had to come up with a solution. They couldn't

Starting point is 00:18:55 move the houses and they didn't want to replace that really efficient window because one, it was expensive, and two, it really helped keep that room in the house cooler. Keep in mind, they had already replaced the siding on the neighbor's house three times, so they were way outside their budget already. The solution? They planted an evergreen tree between the window and the house. The tree shaded the window, which kept the sun from reaching it to bounce off. So if you ever buy replacement windows with a really high energy rating, check the surroundings. Love the podcast. So a good tip to keep in mind and a rating, check the surroundings. Love the podcast. So a good tip to keep in mind and a creative solution to the problem. That's kind of funny that energy efficient windows would blast your neighbor's house.

Starting point is 00:19:34 You're sending the heat to them. I'd have to melt them. In episode 229, I had also talked about an urban legend that got started in 2001 about an art installation in England called the Sky Mirror that supposedly had been barbecuing birds that flew through the reflected light. Alex Baumans wrote, as for birds being roasted in mid-flight, that is actually an issue with concentrated solar power stations. That is a method of using solar heat by concentrating the light of the sun by means of an array of mirrors to obtain very high temperatures in a central point, which can then be used to power various processes.

Starting point is 00:20:11 I include the link to the Wikipedia article to save on a long explanation. The concentrated heat can be high enough to burn birds flying through the zone. The Wikipedia page has a picture of such a bird. Sometimes they have modified their operations to protect wildlife. These are big installations, typically in deserts where temperatures are already high, so they develop a lot more energy than a single building facade in an urban area. But yes, you can harness solar energy to roast a bird in flight. Purrs to Sasha.

Starting point is 00:20:40 And Paul Mendelson wrote, All this talk of birds lighting up in a puff of smoke isn't just a pipe dream. This happens quite often at solar power farms, such as the one in the Mojave Desert. One article linked below puts the number as 6,000 bird flambés each year. Workers describe the effect of the smoke trail of burning birds falling to the ground as streamers. The birds are attracted to the area by the vast numbers of insects, who, in turn, are drawn to the bright lights. Love the podcast. Keep up the good work.

Starting point is 00:21:11 According to the Wikipedia article that Alex sent, concentrated solar power systems use mirrors or lenses to concentrate large areas of sunlight onto smaller areas. Electricity is usually then generated by converting the concentrated light to heat and using that to drive an engine, such as a steam turbine that's connected to a generator. Concentrated solar power had a global total installed capacity of 354 megawatts in 2005 and 4,815 megawatts in 2016. As of 2017, Spain was the world leader in concentrated solar power, generating 2,300 megawatts, or almost half of the world's total, with the U.S. following in

Starting point is 00:21:53 second place. One of the world's largest concentrated solar power plants is the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the Mojave Desert in California. According to a 2016 article in the Los Angeles Times that Paul sent, 6,000 birds a year are dying at the Ivanpah Solar Plant from either being incinerated when they fly into beams of concentrated sunlight or from collisions with the facility's three 40-story towers. The owners of the plant have been trying a variety of tactics to reduce the avian fatalities ever since the plant opened in 2014, but with only modest success. Plant workers have replaced the original lights with LED bulbs to try to attract fewer insects that might be enticing the birds, repositioned the mirrors, attached machines that emit a non-lethal avian irritant,

Starting point is 00:22:40 and have broadcast recordings of what the article describes as loud, high-pitched shrieking noises. I wonder how that goes over with the workers at the plant. I wasn't able to find an update on this 2016 story to see whether they've been any more successful at not killing birds, but I did find articles from 2014 claiming that one way that the company that owns the Ivanpah plant was planning to mitigate their bird death toll was to set aside $1.8 million to be used for programs such as spaying and neutering cats to sort of offset the loss of birds from the plant. Think how much energy that must be. Because a bird flying through the beam, I would imagine, passes through it relatively quickly. So in that short space of time, it would have to be heated up enough to be incinerated.

Starting point is 00:23:25 I mean, it would just be incredibly hot. It must be, I imagine. Right. I mean, they have the photos of these burned up birds. Yeah, it's not very pleasant. And while researching these death rays, I learned that there are some who claim that in 212 BCE, during the siege of Syracuse, the Greek mathematician Archimedes used mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto the ships of the invading Romans, basically incinerating them. It's long been a matter of dispute whether this story is or even could be correct. In 1973, a Greek engineer, Jonas Sakas, conducted a test of the plausibility of the story by using 70 flat, bronze-coated mirrors positioned by sailors of the Greek Navy to focus sunlight on a tar-covered plywood silhouette of a Roman ship attached to a rowboat.

Starting point is 00:24:16 The silhouette did catch fire after a few minutes. In 2005, David Wallace, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, and some of his students, made their own attempts to burn an oak silhouette of a ship using an array of mirrors. During their first attempt, they learned that even light cloud cover could really hinder the effect, and that it is very difficult for a group of people to precisely aim mirrors. On their second attempt, they had better weather conditions, and they had made some adjustments to make it easier to aim the mirrors,

Starting point is 00:24:49 and this time they were able to get the silhouette to catch fire in under 10 minutes. Now, this was a stationary target rather than a moving ship, which obviously makes the task of aiming the mirrors a lot easier. And they were using modern mirrors, not the bronze reflectors that Archimedes would have more likely used. Prior to the MIT attempt, the Mythbusters TV show team had failed in an attempt of their own to validate the feasibility of the story. After the MIT group's success, some of the group then went to San Francisco to work with the Mythbusters team and researchers from the University of Arizona to try the experiment using polished bronze mirror

Starting point is 00:25:21 tiles and an old wooden fishing boat that was actually floating in water. They found this task much more difficult, possibly due to the wood of the boat having a higher water content than the constructed silhouettes had had, and they were only able to produce smoke and some charring for about two hours. They did finally succeed in producing a small, self-sustaining smoldering fire after a few different passes along the length of the boat and switching to silver and glass mirrors. They also learned that strong winds make the task much more difficult, so weather conditions really did need to be ideal.

Starting point is 00:25:55 Although these various tests do show that maybe it could have been possible for Archimedes to have used mirrors to set fire to the Roman fleet, Peter Rees, executive producer of Mythbusters, thought that the reenactment attempts showed that Archimedes' death ray was probably a myth. He said, we're not saying it can't be done. We're just saying it's extremely impractical as a weapon of war. Others have noted that sailors could put out any small or slow starting fires. So in order to be effective, you really would need to start large sudden blazes. I wonder though, maybe I'm overthinking this.

Starting point is 00:26:30 Like you said, the weather conditions, the local circumstances would really matter a lot. And if this did happen, it happened at a comparatively low latitude with sunny conditions, one would think. Like it seems like some of these reenactments were taking place in the United States and less than optimal or representative conditions. That's true. think. It seems like some of these reenactments were taking place in the United States in less

Starting point is 00:26:45 than optimal or representative conditions. That's true. But I mean, even in Greece, it can't be sunny all the time, right? And the sun needs to be exactly in the right position vis-a-vis the ships that are coming in and where your mirrors are. And so a lot of things would need to line up just right. And I've always thought that it's such a good story, it kind of makes you doubt it. Oh, so you knew the story. I didn't know it. Yeah, it's such a good story it kind of makes you doubt it oh so you knew the story i didn't know it yeah it's famous archimedes is famous for a lot of things but that's one of them ah it's one of those things you really want to be true but you sort of have doubts about and historians also tend to doubt the story of archimedes's burning mirrors in large part because there was no mention of it for hundreds of years despite there being much written about the siege

Starting point is 00:27:23 of syracuse so that makes it a little more more doubtful. If it doesn't show up for about 300 years, you have to kind of wonder. It's a great story. It's a good story. And also some historians have noted that the Romans won the siege in the end and captured all the Greeks' weaponry. So if such a device had been used against them, you would expect there to be accounts of Romans using similar tactics themselves in the following years, and there just aren't those accounts. That's a good point. Whether or not Archimedes used sunlight death rays, he is said to have contributed in other inventive ways to the defense of Syracuse, but the unfortunate ending to his story is

Starting point is 00:27:58 that he was killed by a Roman after the city fell. Thanks so much to everyone who writes to us. We learn about so many interesting topics from our listeners. If you would like to inform us of something, please send that to podcast at futilitycloset.com. It's Greg's turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle. I'm going to give him an interesting sounding situation, and he has to figure out what's going on, asking yes or no questions. A burglar shuts off the power to a cell phone store, disabling the surveillance cameras and alarms, and then breaks into the store to steal several phones.

Starting point is 00:28:37 He carefully cleans all the displays and surrounding areas to remove his fingerprints, but still was easily caught by the police. What did he do that led to his identification? Is it that he stole a phone? I mean, is it somehow the phone itself? No. Oh. No, sorry. I don't know if that's the answer. Yeah, they tracked the phones. That would have been good. Yeah. Is that part of it? If he'd stolen something else, like a baseball bat, could the same method have been used to... Yes. Oh, really?

Starting point is 00:29:05 Yeah. I'm just completely wrong. Sorry. Okay. So it doesn't matter then what he stole. He stole some product from a store. Yes. And they didn't track him down by, you said, fingerprints, or did he leave...

Starting point is 00:29:23 I said he carefully cleans all the displays and surrounding areas to remove his fingerprints. Okay, but that's all I know is fingerprints. Right. He also disabled the surveillance cameras and the alarms. These are all the things he did to avoid getting caught, but somehow he still did something that led to his being caught. Okay, so he left behind some evidence, would you say? Yeah. That pointed to his identity?

Starting point is 00:29:41 Yeah. Were they able to pinpoint his identity? Yes. Oh, really? From something he left behind? Yes. In the identity? Yeah. Were they able to pinpoint his identity? Yes. Oh, really? From something left behind? Yes. In the store? Yes.

Starting point is 00:29:51 Is technology involved, just broadly speaking? I don't think so, if I understand what you mean. Something electronic, I guess, is what I mean. Yeah, I don't think so, no. No. Okay. And it's not fingerprints. Footprints?

Starting point is 00:30:03 Some kind of... No. Evidence? Some evidence of his activity there? I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean. Well, you say they could pinpoint his identity. Yes. Does that have to do with DNA? No. His likeness?

Starting point is 00:30:23 No. Is this a person, like a famous person no okay um what can you leave behind at the scene of a crime that will pinpoint your identity that's not genetic and not your yeah be careful about your assumptions because you have said something that isn't quite right. He left something at the scene of the crime. But you didn't ask it as a question, so I didn't answer it. Did he leave something at the scene of the crime? Yes. That was used by the police to identify him? Yes.

Starting point is 00:30:56 Something, one of his, a possession, an item? I'd say an item. An object? Yes. Okay, that helps. Okay. Means of identification, like an actual ID or his wallet or something? No, no, no.

Starting point is 00:31:12 Something written? No. A picture? No. Something that would uniquely correspond to his identity, though. Yes. And that's how they got him. Yes.

Starting point is 00:31:22 And it's not a fingerprint. I never said that. And that's how they got him. Yes. And it's not a fingerprint. I never said that. I said he carefully cleans all the displays in surrounding areas to remove his fingerprints, which is true.

Starting point is 00:31:38 So he left a fingerprint, right? Yes. One or more fingerprints? Related to his activities that I have read to you in the description. You're kidding me. Is this true? Yes, this is actually true. Did he leave his fingerprints on whatever it was that he used to disable the power?

Starting point is 00:31:54 No, but you're on the right track. Or like on the door and breaking in or something? No. Because he did carefully clean all the surrounding area to remove his fingerprints. To do the cleaning? Yes. He left behind a bottle of Windex area to remove his fingerprints. Whatever he used to do the cleaning? Yes, he left behind a bottle of Windex with his fingerprints on it. He had used Windex to wipe everything down, and then he left the bottle.

Starting point is 00:32:13 It's good of them to think to even look there. Yeah, and this happened in August in Delray Beach, Florida. The police weren't able to turn up any fingerprints in the store until they came across the bottle of Windex and checked it and were able to match the prints on the bottle to Jonathan Dorse, who acknowledged his actions to the police when they arrested him. He must have been so mad. Thanks so much to everyone who sends in puzzles for us to try. We can always use more. So please keep sending any you have to podcast at futilitycloset.com. Futility Closet is a full-time commitment for us and is supported entirely by our incredible listeners. If you'd like to become one of the awesome supporters of our celebration of the quirky and the curious, please check out our Patreon page at patreon.com

Starting point is 00:33:00 slash futilitycloset or see the support us section of the website at futilitycloset.com. While you're at the site, you can also browse through Greg's collection of over 10,000 compendious amusements. Check out the Futility Closet store in case you want a penguin-themed mug or apron or dog bandana. Learn about the Futility Closet books and see the show notes for the podcast with links and references for the topics we've covered. If you have any questions or comments for us, you can email us at

Starting point is 00:33:29 podcast at futilitycloset.com. All of the music in our show was written and performed by my very talented brother-in-law, Doug Ross. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

Futility Closet - 234-The Dig Tree

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