Good Job, Brain! - 4: Thomas Butt-Headison and Other Invention Tales

Episode Date: March 26, 2012

That Tommy Edison sure was a class-A jerkface! We also gab about the invention of cornflakes, air-conditioning, tampons, Ouija board, Viagra, and more. ALSO: pop quiz, etymology factoids, highest-rated movies, and top film quotes of all time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an airwave media podcast. Hello, fanciful and far out friends. Welcome to Good Job Brain, your weekly quiz show and off-beet trivia podcast. This is episode four, and of course I am your humble host, Karen. And along with me are our crafty. and captivating camp of co-host contestants. Yeah. Woo!

Here we have. I'm Collin. Dana. And today we have a special guest. Hi. I'm Courtney. Yay. Courtney is also a trivia master, but especially she's a serious film buff and movie expert.

Which brings us to our quick starter question to start off the show. What movie do you personally think is the best film and why? in terms of in terms of and you know dude where's my car might be my favorite movie to watch

but in terms of what you think is like the kind of the cinematic gem something you would feel comfortable defending to people pretty much

is what you wanted to get right down to and say yeah dude sweet it's so many levels what does mine say because he can't see it

do you understand it's a tattoo on his bat sweet you wouldn't feel comfortable defending that I would I would feel comfortable defending it as a fun party movie, but, like, as a work of serious cinema,

I, you know, maybe I'm being judgmental, but no, I wouldn't. All right, so those kinds of films. Yeah. Right, right. I think a lot of people would say this for me, say the Godfather. It's, and I know, not very original.

And if I could, if I could cheat a little bit and say one and two as a combination, I would. But I'll stick with one. I mean, it's just. If you were to choose between one and two, which you think is better movie? I mean, I've probably seen two more than I've seen one. But I, it's hard for. me to separate. I'm, too, in a lot of ways, I really like the parallel of telling the two

stories, you know, of seeing, you know, Robert De Niro, obviously, sort of paralleling the rise of Don Corleone. But, but, I mean, the first one, I think, just in terms of just everything about it, the cinematography, just the acting. I mean, there is definitely some overacting in the movie, and, you know, some of the dialogue is not necessarily finely crafted because it comes from a, you know, a rather pulpy book. I mean, to be perfectly honest. But it's just a great, great movie making, great everything, the colors, the tones. I mean, just the fact that, you know, the fact that Coppola was willing to insist on it being

such a dark movie. I mean, visually, as well as... Yeah, it does seem very framed and cramped. It is, and it's a lot of shadows and sepias and browns. And then, I don't know. I mean, but I would say it has probably my single favorite scene out of the whole saga, which is the scene... Sunny getting shot and, like, just...

No, when Michael is coming out of the back. bathroom in the Italian restaurant to perform the hit. And, you know, it's just so well-crafted. He comes out and you hear the train in the background and it's sort of, it's really ambiguous whether we're hearing the train rising or are we hearing the blood rushing in Michael's head and

it just, it reaches this crescendo as he's standing there before he pulls the trigger and, you know, I won't give anybody too many spoilers here if someone hasn't seen the movie, but just that scene of particular. Spoiling a movie. Romo from well over 30 years ago. 40 years ago. Oh my God, 40 years.

Yeah, it's 40. I think it just had its 40. And it still holds up. 1972, that's right. Yeah. And so, yeah, I think for me, that's what I would have to go with. Well, piggybacking on your note about, you know, the colors and use of colors, I really, really think, oh, brother, we're out, though, by the Coen Brothers was fantastic.

And it has, personally, for me, it has all the elements that I love. A good movie for me has to have a killer soundtrack or a score. Okay. And that the O' Brother soundtrack is just phenomenal, like really. capturing that dust bowl, that southern sound. And the movie also captured the kind of the pastoral scenes of the South and sort of that climate. And the acting definitely. George Clooney as you're kind of like cunning, gentleman, charming, kind of oily. And I personally love Greek mythology. And I love especially the stories about, you know, different heroes going

to going through different levels or labors, that kind of thing. It's kind of like a video game. oh, we're in this world, and then we're going to this world. Yeah, exactly. And I totally love that. And O Brother World that was, came out in 2000. About the colors, it was the first major Hollywood movie that was completely digitized in terms of color correction. Oh, is that true? I would say full metal jacket, Kubrick, 1987.

I love. Wow, that was 1987? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I love books about war and movies about war to a certain extent. What I really liked about, Full Metal Jacket, is it felt very literary and really go on a journey with this character. And you see them over the course of different stages and over the course of the whole war, not just, like, focused on one specific battle or one specific fight. Like, the boot camp was fascinating.

It was a sociology major, so I like the group dynamics aspect of that movie. Yeah, right, right. Yeah, it was super powerful. And there's some, so messed up, but there's things that came from that movie that were in popular culture. Like the whole Me So Horny thing. Yeah. Oh, what? Yeah.

Yeah. We would be remiss not to mention that in a trivia show. Me So Horny. Me Love You a Long time. Oh. Really well crafted that movie. I recommend it to people, even if they don't think they like war movies, that it's a great movie. Right, right.

Well, another war movie that is on. my, the top of my list is the English patient, which came out in 96. Does that really count as a war movie? Well, I mean, it is a wartime movie. Are you an eight-year-old boy? It's not kissing. Maybe mostly just because, you know, it takes place in war times where the bulk of the story does. I think it's a very well-crafted movie in terms of like the cinematography, the editing, the acting is really good as well. I just remember just the,

beauty of the cinematography, most of all. As far as a romance goes, I'm not a romance movie person, but... No chick flicks for you? No chick flicks for me. I have a confession to make is I've never seen the English nation. Me neither. Oh, I'm glad you guys. I'm going to out myself first.

I've tried a few times. I always fall asleep in that first half hour. We're just undermining Courtney. We're like, you know what? It is a very quiet movie. I believe the score is very subtle, but it's just, Just a solid film, in my opinion. Got to add that to my list.

Okay, so what I'm asking this is because I actually have the top-rated movies from different official lists. And it's a bit shocking for some of them. So we have the AFI American Film Institute top three movies. This one seems a little bit more predictable, let's say. A little more populist. Number three is Casablanca. Okay. Number two is The Godfather.

Okay. And number one is Susan Kane. Oh, yeah. That is a good movie. And on IMDB, the top three movies rated. Number three is The Godfather Part 2. Oh, wow. Number two is the Godfather.

Oh. And number one is the Shawshank Redemption. That's funny, yeah. For me, if I didn't read this, you know, I would think it's Susan Kane or Casblanca. But, you know, now that IMD mentioned, I was like, that was a very good movie. It was very good. I mean, this is in no way a slight to Shawshank Redemption, but it's, I do kind of feel like, I don't know, I wouldn't have pegged it over those other movies. Maybe I just, I think it.

I'm curious what other movies were on the list that people were voting for and like, why they voted for. You should email us if that's your favorite movie. I want to know more. I really like it. I think it hangs together well, but, like, as your favorite movie, that's, yeah. Wasn't it written by Stephen King? Yeah, I wonder if that is based on, like, did I enjoy this as a movie, or do I think this is a well-crafted movie? Well, so that kind of ties into the next list, which is Rotten Tomatoes.

And the top three, number three, is Taxi to the Dark Side. What? What is that? Which is a documentary. It's about a critical look at the Bush administration policy on torture. Okay. And especially investigating the death of this one particular Afghan taxi driver. Number two is Toy Story 2.

Also at 100%. And then number one is also a documentary, Man on Wire. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, another 100%, right? That was a really good one. That is a good documentary. I do recommend that one. Philippe Petit, who's a tightrope walker.

He walked across a World Trade Center. Yeah, the towers, yes. And so, yeah, the thing is with IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, they are kind of populace. They are community rated. So it's a little bit hard to tell, especially with Rotten Tomatoes, because there are several movies who have 100%. But they're rated by how many people have voted. Okay, so the more people get it's higher. Yeah.

That is interesting. All right. Here we go. Let's start off with our Pop Quiz Hot Shot segments. And we have our buzzers today. Yeah. Got this random trivia pursuit card. And let's start off with Geography Blue Wedge.

What tiny country lies between Austria and Switzerland? Colin? Uh, uh, Luxembourg or, uh, um, I already guessed, I already guessed. You can only have one answer. Yeah, you're right, you're right. Incorrect. Between Switzerland and. Oh, I say it again.

Austria. Give up. Yeah. The correct answer is Leichenstein. Yeah, that's what I, I fixated on the L, and I had the wrong thing came out my mouth. Pink Wedge, culture. Which TV show is not a remake of a British hit? The Biggest Loser?

The Office or Wife Swap. Oh, that was hard to call. That was Courtney. Biggest loser? Correct. The losing weight thing is a very American thing. Oh, it's true. That's true.

Yellow Wedge. What did the Dutch ambassador to the United States name after Hillary Clinton in 1994? Hmm. You can figure this out. Colin. A dam? I don't know. That symbolism is very strange.

Incorrect. Dutch Windmill Oh sorry Corny Windmill? Windmill? Incorrect

Some cheese The correct The correct answer is A tulip Oh Okay You know what I almost said his dog

But after like Like a damn It was like The worst symbolism Oh, like, dogs worse. Okay, Purple Wedge. Who dropped out of a 2008 Broadway run of Speed the Plow due to mercury poisoning?

Oh, Colin. That was Jeremy Piven. Yep. Set to be caused by eating too much sushi. Right, right. What kind of animal does Caprene milk come from? Oh, oh. Colin?

I'm going to guess goat. Isn't that the root? Capri is the goat root? Correct. Capricorn. Capra. Chupacabra. Right. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Wait, really? Is chupacabra? Yeah, it means goat sucker. Goat sucker. It does. It does. Whoa. Chupa.

Cobra. That almost sounds like a, like a curse word. You goat sucker. You goat sucker. Orange Wedge. Last question. What RV makers models include the flying cloud, international, and panammer.

America. Winnebago? Incorrect. Oh, that's what I was going to go. Oh, now I have another good. Courtney? Airstream? Yeah.

Correct. Airstream. That's right. And we also have our backer questions. This one is from Mr. Barrett Conrad from New Orleans, Louisiana. And his question is, which singer performed the most theme songs for James Bond movies? Oh. Colin.

Well, I mean, I know Shirley Bassie is associated with them. I'm going to guess that. Correct. Shirley Bassie. And do you know the songs that she said? Let's see. I know she did Goldfinger, right? The gold finger.

That's my impression. Beautiful. Oh, man, of course, now I'm blanking on any other ones. The man with the golden gun? No. It's in Goldfinger again. It's just filled space. It's goldfinger.

diamonds are forever and moon raker oh okay and that was one of the later ones moonraker yeah and uh mr barrick conrad is a total james bond nut all right good job everybody's brains let's get into our topic of the week which is uh inventions i woke up to a life of every little thing is possible i woke up to a feeling every little thing which is fascinating and I feel like we're all trivia nuts and trivia nuts all want to know and learn more about the world and how things came to be Colin you made us a invention quiz I did I did so I got a little invention quiz to start things off here and so I tried to give it a little bit of a theme so I'll give you guys the theme of this invention quiz is words so you guys you guys know I'm a word nerd and like etymology and things like that

We're buzzing in? Yeah, so you guys get ready to buzz in. And so we'll start off a little bit easy here, warm up. Complete this famous quote for me. This is a quote. I'll even tell you who said it because it's Henry Ford. So complete the quote. Wait till I finish.

I'll pause. Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as what? Any customer can have a car. You say this is easy when I'm blanking. I know. Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as Karen. He buys it? Incorrect.

Dana. It's a Ford? That's a good marketing. Clever. It runs. You guys are all thinking like marketing people. The statement attributed him as any customer can have. have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.

Oh. And, you know, this is a quote I've heard, but I've heard it worded differently, but that's how he has it in his autobiography, is worded that way. And so I had always heard that, too, is, you know, kind of him being cheeky. It's like, yeah, you can have any color you want as long as it's black. And it's true that the model tiers of the time, they were all black. I'm sorry, he kind of sounds like a, a-hole. Well, you know, it's, he, like many captains of industry of his day, I think he was probably

little prickly. Let's leave it at that. Part of his, you know, as you know, he's credited with pushing the assembly line model. So part of switching to the assembly line model meant he went to black just because it dried the fastest. It was the easiest. And, you know, for obvious reasons, it's a lot more efficient if you just have one color. All right, we'll move on here. All right, so the telephone, obviously a huge invention and just, you know, kind of swept the country in the late 1870s. And, you know, a lot of technologies bring new vocabularies with them. So when telephones were first becoming popularized, people weren't really sure how to answer the phone. You know, like, it rings, you pick it up, and then what?

So what did Thomas Edison propose as the standard greeting when you pick up the telephone? Oh, I think I've heard this before. I'm going to guess. Dana. Was it a hooy? Yes, it was. It was a hearty, jaunty, ahoy. And all the Simpsons fans in the audience.

Yeah, so we know that you knew that because that's how Mr. Burns. answers the phone. It's a, what a, ahoy, hoi. He has a little twist on it. But yes, he, Edison actually did push that you answer the phone with, ahoy. And in fact, you know, the first telephone operator, that was how he would answer the call. But he is very hearty. People sometimes say that he invented the word hello for that purpose. But I read that that's really not true, that hello had been in use for a long time before that. It was funny. I just very quickly, a little aside here, I was reading a little bit. And one of my favorite writers, Bill Bryson, he wrote about the And he said that, you know, originally, you know, when we were trying to figure out what to say,

talking about what people would pick up instead of a hoi or hello, others said yes or what? And many merely picked up the receiver and listened hopefully. And I just love that image. It just breathed heavily. Creepy. Yes, so yes, ahoy. Some people still do that today.

Yes, and you usually block those people on your phone. That's beautiful, carrots. Definitely good. A lot of practice. All right. Let's talk about Michael Nesmith from the monkeys. You know, you guys don't have a picture if you're listening. He's the one with the wool cap.

So he is not an inventor, but Michael Nesmith's mother, Michael Nesmith's mother. Mrs. Nesman. Mama Nesmith, yes. Betty Nesmith Graham, actually. Famously invented what well-known product. Dana is on it again. White out. Yes.

Or liquid people. Yes, liquid paper. What? Nice. Michael Nesmith's mother. Yes, she was working as an executive secretary in Dallas, and in their early 50s. She basically came up with this formula of her own. It sounds like mostly white tempera paint base, basically paint over her typing errors

and retype it, and she started distributing it to the other secretaries. So it's just repackaged paint? Essentially, but so she, it became popular enough that she started selling it. It took a while, it sounds like, but after a few years, she was making millions and millions of dollars. And she, yes, she founded liquid paper. And so good for her. Betty knows with Graham. You go, girl.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. So we're getting a little bit trickier here. So just kind of bear with me. So we all know Velcro. Yes. We're all familiar with Velcro.

We've all used it. And, you know, you probably even know that the word itself is trademarked. You know, that's why, like, if it's not Velcro brand, they have to say, you know, fabric connector or, you know, some generic, yeah, hook and loop fastener or some generic term. Velcro. Velcro. So Velcro is a trademark term. Where does the name Velcro come from? Oh, God. I read this. Oh. Dana. Dana just on fire. It's like, it's Frenchy words combined. It's like velour and crochet, like a hook.

Fantastic. Yes, right on the nose. Absolutely correct. So it's a portmanteau. It is a portmanteau word. That's right. Yeah. So it was invented in 1941 by George de estral. And yeah, it is, it's a portmanteau word, exactly, for French, for velour, velvet, and hook, crochet, velcro. And I thought that was fantastic. It sounds so, I mean, mass-produced stuff. It just sounds so like American marketer. It really does. One of those automated names that a computer would have come up with, right. I almost thought that maybe it was the dog's name. So the story behind Velcro is that the inventor found Burr's in his dog's fur. That's what gave him the idea for Velcro. Yeah. They'd credit that as a great example of

a biomimetic invention, you know, just... Oh, inspired by nature. Right. Yeah. Inspired by a copying nature. Very cool. Before today, I thought it was astronauts. I thought NASA invented it, but I think they just did tang. No, but yeah, yeah. Also a very important invention of our time. It was NASA that really first popularized the use of it. I mean, so Georges de Mestral, he really envisioned it as like replacing zippers and clothing, and it just didn't really catch on. Really, until NASA started using it. It didn't catch on until NASA started using it for spacesuits, was really. So a lot of people do credit NASA with inventing it.

Okay, moving on, last one here. So this one's maybe a little tricky, but we'll work. Well, Dana's probably going to go. Yeah, I know. The way Dana's rocking through these. All right. So the escalator, as we know it, dates to around 1900. Whoa.

It's older, actually, than I thought, as well. And, you know, the meaning seems pretty clear. An elevator elevates, and escalator escalates. What is special? What is special about the word escalate? Yes. Karen. Shakespeare?

That is a good guess. That is a good guess. But it's wrong. I love this one. This is an example of where the word escalate didn't exist until there were escalators. Oh. And it is, in fact, the earliest recorded use of it as a verb, escalate to escalate, didn't come until 40 years after. Escalator had been issued as a trademark.

So it was a trademark term, kind of the way we were just talking about how Velcro can become generic. Escalator was the Otis Elevator Company's brand name for that device. And they, based on word roots, but there was no verb escalate in that sense. And it's a back formation, as the linguistic term. They recombing. Yes. Yeah, it's great. They retconned it.

Wow. That is very cool. That's great. All right, we're going to go round robin style. Each of us, we're going to share an interesting invention story. And I'll go first because I'll get the gross stuff out of the way, because that's why is it always gross stuff? It's always gross stuff. So I'm going to be talking about the invention of the mass-produced lady products or menstruation, including pads and tampons.

And I mean, obviously, the practice of using an object to soak up blood in your hoo-ha. that's a medical that's a medical dates back to like ancient Egypt the ancient Egyptians it was recorded that they used some form of a disposable tampon using papyrus and even the Greek physician hippocrates no hypocrite

Hippocrates so Mr. Hippocrates in the 5th century BC they talked about another type of kind of tampon which is this sounds so uncomfortable which is a piece of wood and without with lint wrapped around it. At least the cushion it. And so, but really the whole mass production and disposable pads and tampons, like many

other inventions came out from war. During World War, one, Kimberly Clark, as we know, the Kleenex and paper company, Kimberly Clark provided bandages for soldiers, and the bandages actually weren't made from cotton. their cellulose from trees. And so they're cheaper and they're more disposable. So they use these wrappings to wrap up wounded soldiers and stuff. But the American nurses are pretty smart.

They're like, wow, this stuff soaks up a lot of blood. It's that time of the month again. I'm having my lady troubles. And so they had lots of bandages. So they would take some bandage, roll it up, line their underwear with it. And yeah, very, very comfortable and very absorbent. Kimberly Clark saw this,

Because after the war, they're like, well, you know, we don't really need that many bandages anymore. Because the war's over. There's not a lot of wounded soldiers. But ladies still get their monthly present. Let's do some remarketing and rebranding. They spun off a whole different company called Kotex, as we know, is one of the big brands. And they made the first mass-produced disposable menstrual products. And Kotex is actually also a kind of a portmantech.

tow word. It stands for a cotton-like texture. Oh. So, co-text. Because they didn't want you to be focusing on the fact that it came from paper, I guess? Well, I think it's having a name like that is better than calling this like menstrual pads. And so all the females who go to the store to buy a pack of menstrual pads, I'd rather have it called like some fake word like co-text than. It sounds very scientific and accurate too. It's kind of related to Kleenex too.

Yeah, yeah. There's like Kotex Kleenex. And so the thing is when they were, at first when they were marketing Kotex pads is really interesting because they wanted to focus on the fact that it was, came from war. So a lot of their old ads are pictures of, you know, old vets and nurses taking care of men. Really? Yeah, so it's really strange. It wasn't like, you know, like toaster ads where you're like, oh, make your home beautiful and you can entertain your guests.

This was, had a really interesting angle. This was part of war and you should have pride. Right. Wow. American ingenuity. Some of those ads, though, that were aimed at women, kind of aimed at women before, though, were really aimed at men or women trying to please men. So, like, maybe that's why they were like, oh, you want to take care of soldiers when you're on your period. Because that's how the good old nurses did, you know, that's what they use.

Do it for your country. Do it for this guy. Maybe he'll marry you. And, yeah, and tampons, actually, the modern tampon came from 1929, and it was invented by a specific doctor. His name was Earl Haas. He basically had the patent for the device. I don't know what you even call. I believe they call it an applicator.

It's like the pusher-upper, like a push-ponger. The patent description was called the catamenial device derived from the Greek word for monthly. And he trademarked Tampax and started mass-producing Tampax for Tampons. Got the gross stuff out of the way. Go cellulis. Yeah. Yeah, it's not gross, but it's weird, maybe. This is a weird one.

I looked up Ouija boards. Like, where did a Ouija board? Ouija board was first patented in 1890 by these two American inventors. What? I thought it was like a old, you know, ritual stem from, like, Gaelic, whatever. You know, like, it has like some sort of occult root. Authentic roots, I thought. Well, like, the Ouija board itself has, like, the board with an alphabet on it.

And then there's also, it comes with a planchet, which is a little indicator thing. And so planchet writing has existed for a long time. But they kind of came up with that layout. Yeah, they were like, oh, we can package this and sell a board and stuff. And so the first Ouija board came out in the States in 1901. It had a huge impact on American culture around that time. By the time you get to 1920, there's actually a Ouija editor at the Baltimore Sun working on it. You know, I'm not going to assume everybody knows what a Ouija board is, but basically you put your hands on this little device, the planchet on the board, and your hands are on the planchet, and you're supposed to let your mind drift, and then the thing moves around.

Well, really, it's your moving it. So believers would say, like, demons or spirits, and there's people who think it has to do with the cult. And they're acting through you. Yeah. And then other people... Really, it's a bunch of 12-year-old girls who are like, well, Billy, ask me to the dance tomorrow.

And it's like, oh, yes. Oh, you feel your friend, like, moving it, like, strongly. I swear I didn't move it. Oh, and the name Ouija. It's funny. There are two stories for where the name Ouija came from. My favorite story is that the inventor was told this name by the board and that it means that it's ancient Egyptian.

It named itself. For good luck. And so... Is it ancient Egyptian for good luck? I tried to find it. I could not find any ancient Egyptian documents to back that up. I don't know where he got that either. That's a good little marketing story.

Yeah. But then the other story, the one that's more widely accepted, is that it's combining the French and German words for yes. So we... Yeah. Yeah. That seems more likely to me. I have to say that.

Why they call Ouija then? Weya. American pronunciation. It's ancient Egyptian. Don't you know? So my little tidbit has to do with the stethoscope. The way the stethoscope was invented was by a French doctor in 1816 who had an overweight patient, who was a young woman that apparently had a heart condition, and he needed to listen to her heart.

Back then, the way to listen to the heart was to use the percussion method, which was to tap. You put your ear to their back and you tap. scientific very precise but he could not hear through her well her fat and he also was very uncomfortable putting his head to her bosom oh instead of the back that was the other way yeah that's the other way you could listen or you could put your your ears like a sweet game for some male doctors man so he was too modest too embarrassed to do that so he decided to roll up a tube of paper and put one end to her chest and the other end to his ear. And it worked.

He's like, that's amazing. I can hear the heart. So that was the birth of the stethoscope. So like a few years later, he created a wooden cylinder that was the original stethoscope. I have another little bit of medical base on mine as well. So I was just looking into air conditioning. Modern air conditioning that we have today not only cools the air, but it also sucks humidity out of the air, which is the main reason that it can feel so cool.

But the first air conditioning, modern air conditioning device, I kind of find a record of, trait goes back to when President James Garfield was shot in an assassination attempt in 1881. So this was, you know, this is back before there was a Secret Service. There wasn't, you know, there wasn't like the manic attention to presidential security that, I mean, obviously we have now, but even 50 years ago. You know, even 1881, it was, you know, a lot more of a public figure. And so he was, essentially, he was in Washington Central Rail Station,

and he was shot in an assassination attempt. He was a deranged man, it seems, by all accounts. But, you know, he was shot and fell very, very ill with infections. He was drifting in and out of consciousness for days. Doctors were at his bedside in the White House, you know, obviously very concerned as he was laying there dying. The other thing to keep in mind is this is 1881. This is the middle of summer. This was July when he was shot in Washington, D.C.

Which is basically swamp weather. It is swamp weather, extremely humid, extremely hot. Even by Washington, D.C. summer standards, that particular summer was just swelteringly unbearable. Can't catch a break. They were desperate to bring his temperature down. I mean, because obviously he's laying there dying and ill, and they dispatched the task to a Corps of Naval Engineers, who basically had experience with ventilation systems. And they brought them in and basically tasked them with, we need you to figure out how to cool off this room.

It's like, he is going to die if we don't get something going on. And so what they did is they made a giant bucket, a huge iron box. really of ice and water and salt. The salt allows you to keep the water at a temperature below freezing without turning solid. So you can get the water super, super, super cold and still keep it liquid. This giant box and they would lay some terrycloth over it that soaked the water up into it, sort of like panels almost. They constructed a series of ducks with a fan. And so the fan would draw air in from the outside and force it through the terrycloth filters soaked with the below freezing water. Then the air cooled was forced down into the air. the president's bedroom and sounds so elaborate it does sound very elaborate and you know it's certainly they could bring to bear any resource they wanted it was not an efficient system they said it went through a quarter of a million pounds of ice in in just under two months not an efficient system by any means so if you have the means to deliver a quarter million pounds of ice it can work but it brought the temperature of the room down to to in 81 degrees which for the middle of summer

in 1881, in that particular summer was actually pretty respectable. Wow, that still sounds so hot. It does. And again, I mean, keep in mind, they weren't dehumidifying the air either, which we would, they were cooling it. So they were conditioning it. But, but it was cold, colder. That's pretty much regarded as sort of the first, the birth of modern air conditioning.

Well, you know, as those of you who have studied history, no, unfortunately it didn't end well for President Garfield. He did, he did die. He held on for about two and a half months, but he did die. He did die, unfortunately, of the injuries sustained by the shooting. So if there's any silver lining, it's... At least he was comfortable.

That's true, as comfortable as it could be. That's right. That's right. And so here we have a quick list of things that are invented by accident. And I don't know why I always choose vaguely sexual or gross things. I know why you choose this. So, mine is about Viagra. So vaguely sexually.

Overtly. So Viagra didn't start out as an erection enhancing drug. It was actually for chest pains or discomfort. Right, because that's what it does, right? Just increases blood flow pretty much. Exactly. And so, so. What is the prize for the first people you do that?

So there was a Welsh village. where they were testing this already they were testing this drug you know for the hardworking workers in this welch village and they all came back reporting like whoa whoa you guys sure my chest pain is gone but something else is going on that cool about work and they all reported that they had really I don't know, I don't know, corrections, erections,

that last a long time. Unexpectedly. Exactly. And so. So I want to know, I mean, they always have in the commercials. I mean,

I watch more like guy-oriented programming. Like, I mean, I probably see more Viagra commercials than you guys do because they had them during sports and, you know, die-hard reruns. I'm serious.

I'm serious. They do. It's like we just watch guy programming. You'll see Viagra commercials. But, you know, they always have the note at the end, like for an erection lasting longer than four hours, contact your doctor. I want to know, like, in that test study, like the first guy who had to have that, he's like, Doc, listen,

I mean, at first I thought this was cool, but this was seven hours now. I got to get some work done. Productivity wasn't very high in that village for a while. So the invention I found that somebody made by mistake was bubble wrap. And actually, bubble wrap was invented by two dudes who wanted to make plastic textured wallpaper. What? Yeah, and apparently they did, but nobody wanted it, which, surprise, surprise. Except stoners. Stoners were like, I will buy every inch you have it at.

Yeah, that's a funny thing. Like, now I think it would be fun to be in a bubble wrap room and just like throw yourself at the wall. But if it's going to be in your house for 10 years, it'll get squished in the first week or so, and then what do you do? Why would you need a plastic texture? They were making everything with plastic. It was 1957. Oh, they were just trying everything. You know, because plastic was a big deal. It looks like a spaceman house. It does. It sounds very

space age. Yeah. Easy to clean. They figured out that it would make good packaging material. And then they, they tested it out with people. And eventually they were able to just have that be their company made a ton of money. I like that. Wow. Another accidental invention is corn flakes. corn flakes were They're great Oh no that's Frost flakes Wait does corn flakes have a slogan

They have a rooster Yeah they have the little roost Well they're made by the same company aren't they aren't I mean aren't frosted flakes just corn flakes with sugar on them Kellogg's yeah so cornflakes were discovered by the Kellogg brothers They were making bread For a sanatorium Oh that's right

That's right Oh man that's a whole another episode Kellogg and his crazy pants. Yeah. Yeah, so they were making new diets for all the patients there, and they were vegetarian diets. They had to leave some of the cooked wheat out while they were tending to some of the patients. And I guess they left it out too long, because the texture, when they rolled it out, texture of the dough became very flaky.

And it's like, I don't know what to do with this. Feed it to them anyway. Yeah, exactly. Well, they were short on money, so they're like, let's. just bake it anyway. Let's see what happens. So they bake it anyway and what comes out are these crispy flakes. And they decide to serve it to the patients to see if they like it and everyone loved it. Hence corn flakes. I like that. Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser stage and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs, a $10 one-day

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So earlier we talked about, well, I talked about how Henry Ford sounds kind of like an a-hole. But really, in the world of invention, there is one master a-hole. Oh, we don't need to go that far. And his name is... It's me. His name is Mr. Thomas Edison. No doubt, a brilliant, brilliant man and a brilliant inventor. But that's the thing. He actually didn't invent a lot of the things that he was credited for.

Certainly, I think that he, you know, he has crazy amounts of patents associated to him. And a lot of the things that he had to come up with were, you know, improvements on other designs or, you know, I mean, there is, I think, a gray area of whether you're stealing someone's idea or not. But, you know, what was more interesting to me was reading about his business tactics and the way that he interacted with people who kind of tried to help him or, you know, be his colleagues. So, you know, obviously we all associate Edison with the incandescent light bulb. You know, and again, he didn't necessarily invent it, but he really kind of just made the first practical one, kind of perfected and obviously is associated with it in history. Because Tesla actually. So Tesla was involved, yeah, I mean, and Tesla, you know, Nikola Tesla, who did work with Edison when he first came to America, ended up working with his labs.

And they had a bit of a falling out over. Basically, it comes down to the differences between D.C., direct, current and AC alternating current. Edison built his empire on DC, on direct current, which was great for some of the stuff that he invented, but it could only travel, you know, a couple miles without losing power. You know, sort of the implication that I get from meeting is that there were things that he just didn't feel comfortable figuring out because he didn't have the math background, but he was scared of the high voltage of AC. And Tesla, fair enough. Yeah, hey, you know, I would be too, especially if you're the first guy trying to do it. But, you know, so Tesla working for him kind of offered, you know, he's like, look, I can help you, I can help make AC work for you.

And, you know, the story, this is Tesla's version of the story, widely reported is that Edison, you know, basically said to me, he's like, that's great, you know, if you can get something working like that, you know, that could, that'll be worth $50,000 to you know, so Tesla's like, great, goes away, makes it work, comes back, he's like, hey boss, here's you go, I come up with, and where's my money, you know, and Edison kind of is like, well, it's, you know, this looks pretty good, but this is impractical and basically I'm not going to pay you. And he's like, but you said, you're going to pay me. And Edison, you know, various versions. Where's my money? He basically, Edison dismissed it as, you know, Nicola,

you just don't understand the American sense of humor. What? Oh, no. Oh, snap. What? Worst client ever. Worst boss ever. Yeah. So needless to say, yeah, I mean, he offered him sort of a token reward for it, but Tesla pretty much said piss off and went on his own weight. and among other things to Tesla. Eventually, his knowledge was bought by George Westinghouse, and we still know the name Westinghouse, Westinghouse Electric, who was an industrialist, and he was really a big proponent of AC power and bought some of Tesla's patents

and wanted to build his own system of AC distribution to compete with Edison's little DC giant. And Edison was getting very nervous about this. He was willing to go to any length that he could to kind of fight this. So Edison, Dick move, basically. Edison decided, okay, you know, what I'm going to do is I'm going to promote Westinghouse's version of AC as a means of killing things and people.

And his thinking was, it's smart. It's smart. And it's so disingenuous. His thinking was if I can get the public to associate alternating current and Westinghouse with death, they'll never want to have this piped into their homes and I'll be able to maintain my DC empire. Oh, that's so crafty. It is crafty.

And what a dick move, but it's so genius. It is brilliantly a dick move. And he would over, so, I mean, some incredible things, the lengths that he went to, he basically would fund public displays of electrocution of animals. Many, many, I know Karen has a dog lover, this is hard for you, but many stray dogs were put to death. An elephant was put to death. All of this essentially backed by Edison and his, you know, cronies are a colleagues.

I hate them now. as a way of showing to the public, look how dangerous this AC is, it kills you. He agitated to have the process of being put to death and electric chair Westinghouseed. Oh, my God. He really wanted to promote every association he could with this. There are whole stories of how they wanted to show it was more humane. And you can imagine all the gory ways that the inexact science

of trying to electrocute a human could go wrong. Ultimately, obviously, or maybe not so obviously, but ultimately AC won out. It was too easy to scale and too easy to distribute over long distances compared to D.C. So the irony of it all is that it ended up being used

for killing people and for powering our homes. But not despite Edison's best efforts to foil it. He tried. It is an effective killer, though. He wasn't wrong. Yeah.

It's just shady. It's time for our final segment. We're going to do some movie quiz and, you know, your usual movie quote quiz I would say the quote and you would guess the movie. Let's shake it up a little bit and I'm actually going to name the movie and this is out of

the American Film Institute AFI's top 100 greatest movie quotes and it's rated. So I'm going to say the name of the movie and you're going to tell me what quote made it onto the list. The tricky thing is a lot of these movies have multiple

quotes and I want you guys tell me what the highest rated one is. Okay. Okay. A little different. All right. A buzzer is here? Okay. Well, we're going to buzz and let's start off with easy. But then again, you know, who knows?

Okay. 1972, the godfather. Colin? I'm going to make an offer he can't refuse. Correct. And the silence of the lambs. Dana. I'm like, who?

What's the whole quote? something with father beans i'm going to i can't do that you got to tell me i have to tell you i'm going to suck at this i can tell you the gist oh no go ahead i'm going to assume it's that fava beans one as i i ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice kianti correct you have to make the sound too so it's not it puts the lotion in that the Bastia, that wasn't the number. That's a good quote, too. So, gone with the wind.

Courtney? Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. Correct. A lot of, so that's the number one quote out of this AFI's 100 best quote. That's number one. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. But Gone with the Wind was also, some of the other quotes from that movie were also on the list, including as God is my witness.

I'll never be hungry again. And after all, tomorrow is another day. Oh, right. I forget about that one. And here's another one. Casablanca. Oh. Courtney.

Play it again, Sam. Incorrect. Isn't it just play it, Sam? Incorrect. Oh. Is it out of all the bars in the world? Oh. You're not going to repeat.

I'm not. I only kind of listen to what people say. The point of a quote is to get all the words. I might have stumbled on it. The one you're talking about is out of all the gin joints. Yeah. She walked into mine. That is incorrect. Courtney?

Here's looking at you, kid. Correct. Oh, nice, nice. You know, I was going to say, here's looking at you, Sam. Quote mashups. Uh, let's go a little bit more, uh, modern, more recent. When Harry met Sally. I'll have what she's having.

Oh, right. Oh, yeah. That's good. That's good. This is particularly after Meg Ryan does the, the fake female orgasm at the diner. Right. And a little bit of trivia that I believe that's Rob Reiner's mother who delivers that line. I'm pretty sure they all have what she's having.

I believe that's the one of the tidbits. And Rob Reiner directed. Yes, that's right. That's right. runner and directed and got his mom a quote on the all-time top A-Fi quotes list. Wow. Okay, and this is the last

one, and this is the first movie that's on this quote list that's made in the 2000s. Oh, okay. And it's Lord of the Rings Two Towers. Oh. Um,

they all run together. Yeah. Um, okay. Courtney? You shall not pass? Oh, good guess. Incorrect, because you shall not pass is in the first movie.

That's the thing. I can't place some of these quotes into the, ah. So this is the second one, right? Mm-hmm. I do not know. By the power of grace, call. It is two words. Oh, oh, my precious.

Correct. Oh, okay, all right. Very good. I think all three of you guys are the same time. Yep. Good job, everybody. That was our name the quote from the movie. That's a good one.

And that's the end of our show. So thank you guys for joining me. And thank you listeners for listening in. Hope you guys learned a thing or two about inventions. Actually, lots of things to learn about inventions in this episode. You can find us on Zoom, on iTunes, and also on our website, which is good job brain.com. And we'll see you next week.

Bye. Bye. question you might not even know you had, but once you hear the answer, you'll want to share it with everyone you know. Why do rivers curve? Why did the T-Rex have such tiny arms? And why do so many more kids need glasses now than they used to? Spoiler alert, it isn't screen time. Our team of scientists digs into the research and breaks it down into a short, entertaining explanation, jam-packed with science facts and terrible puns. Subscribe to Minute Earth wherever you like to listen.