Burning Rubber

where others cannot. Steve Jobs knew that the computer was meant to be more like an appliance in a person's home, like a dishwasher or a refrigerator, and not a giant mainframe only meant for laboratories in large companies. And the Internet sprung from the minds of several individuals who developed protocols and systems to connect people all over the world. They understood the information should be free and easily accessible,

no matter where a person lived. Elliott Handler's vision for the future wasn't as grand as a smartphone in everyone's pockets or a global computer network. His dreams were a lot lower to the ground. Born in Chicago in nineteen sixteen, Handler moved with his family to Colorado, where he developed an interest in art. By the time he had reached the Art Center College of Design in California. He had

found his true calling industrial design. Handler married his wife, Ruth several years later when he was in his early twenties, and the two quickly started a family in He and Ruth joined with a third partner, Harold Matson, and the three of them started a new company out of one of their garages. They made all kinds of products, including picture frames and furniture. Ruth ran the business operations, while Handler and Matson headed up design and development. Matson didn't

last long at the company, though. His failing health forced him to sell his airs back to the Handlers one year later, but his name would remain with a company going forward, and I'll get to that in a bit. Over the years, Elliott kept his eyes peeled for the kind of evergreen product that would always be popular. It was after a recent trip to Europe when he finally found it. He brought back a special gift for his grandson, a car. It was nice looking, but it didn't perform well,

and he found it pretty boring. Handler thought that he could do better, so he pivoted his company in a new direction by filling his staff with mechanical engineers and designers from the automotive industry. There was Jack Ryan, who was working for Raytheon at the time and developing missiles, as well as Howard Reese and Larry Wood, both of whom had come over from Ford. Handler offered them the opportunity of a lifetime to develop the kinds of cars

they could only dream of. Handler's executives, though, were wary. After all, what did he know about building cars? He never made one before, but Elliott was confident he had surrounded him self with all the right people. The early prototypes utilize some of the most advanced engineering for the time. For example, the axles were comprised of guitar strings, which

gave them high performance suspension. They also reduced friction in the wheels, allowing them to roll more easily and go faster and so in nineteen Handler released a line of sixteen vehicles, each with a unique yet familiar design. There was Camaro, a Corvette, a Mustang, Volkswagen Beetle with its engine coming through the hood, and a completely custom car

from Dodge known as the Diora. It had started life out as a pickup truck, but the rear bed had been converted to store to surfboards instead the perfect car for a beach lover, and the cars were a smashing success. People love them, especially kids who would race them all day long on floors and carpets or sidewalks and driveways, although adults got a kick out of them too, but mostly for their collectible value. And these weren't just any

old cars. They have been developed by a man whose company name was the combination of both his and his former partners names, the matt and Matson and the E L from Elliott matt l Mattel. As for the cars, their name had come from an off handed comment uttered by someone in the Mattel parking lot. This stranger got to look at one of the designers own vehicles, Chevy el Camino, and he said to the designer, those are

some hot wheels, and the rest was history. Elliott Handler was no stranger to pulling product names from real life. By the way, Mattel's other bestsellers, Barbie and her boyfriend Ken, both named after the Handler kids. I guess if you're going to make your company a roaring success, it's best

to keep it in the family. No two wars are ever fought the same much of the Revolutionary War was fought by rows and rows of soldiers lined up on opposite sides of a field, while the Vietcong utilized guerilla tactics during the Vietnam War two years later. Infantry formations, weapons and strategies changed because armies always look for an edge over their enemies, and one big area for improvement

has been in the vehicles operated during wartime. Surprisingly enough, however, one war was a hotbed of transportation advancement beyond all others. The submarine, for example, made its debut during the American Revolution when it was used to attach time bombs to British ships. Well, that was the idea. It never succeeded, but it did pave the way for the H. L. Hunley Confederate submarine during the Civil War. The Industrial Revolution turned the Civil War into a launch pad for all

sorts of new technologies. But while the South was busy attacking from below, the Union and the North had its eyes towards the sky. In the eighteen hundreds, aeronauts were busy honing a form of air transportation that had made

its debut almost a hundred years earlier, balloons. They believe that their hot air balloons were the future of military combat, putting them through a battery of tests to see how much weight they could carry and how far they were able to travel, one man, Daddeus Low, got to work on his plan for aerial support. Only days after the war first began, Low had landed a massive hot air balloon in Unionville, South Carolina, a tiny village full of

scared and trigger happy individuals. A crowd of rifle wielding locals approached the deflating balloon. Low hopped out of the basket, dressed in a tall hat and a frock coat, and greeted them with a smile. He announced that he had just come from Cincinnati, Ohio, traveling over nine hours and five miles before dropping into their small town. But the crowd did not cheer or welcome him with open arms.

They didn't care about his experiments, or how far his balloon had traveled, or that he planned to attempt a transatlantic flight in one. Later, they figured that he must have been a spy. Luckily, Low was able to talk his way out of being arrested or killed, and he managed to make his way back to Ohio in one piece, despite nearly getting killed by angry Southerners. Though Lowe's balloon test had been a success, it was on his train ride home when he realized he could do more than

just fly over an ocean. He could do some real good for the war effort, and so, with the help of a financier, he reached out to Washington, imploring them to start up a balloon corps with low at the helm. Meanwhile, another aeronaut named John Lemontaigne was in a similar situation. He too dreamed of flying a hot air balloon over the Atlantic, but had failed twice spectacularly. Actually, his first balloon got caught in a storm and crashed into some

trees in upstate New York. His second attempt wound up putting him three hundred miles away from his origin point in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. After he was rescued, he weaved a fast and eating yarn for the papers that helped establish him as more of a daredevil than a washout. Eventually, he also saw the opportunity in using hot air balloons for military reconnaissance, especially over enemy territory.

He wrote to the Secretary of War in May of eighteen sixty one, around the same time as Thaddius Low. Lowe's investor, however, had a direct connection to the Treasury Secretary Sam and Pete Chase, which worked in his favor. He was invited to bring his balloon to discuss his aerial plans for the Union. Low wanted to hook up a telegraph machine in the basket to relay information from the balloon back to contacts on the ground. There was just one problem. They couldn't do it wirelessly. A wire

had to run down along the balloons tether lines. Low tested his mobile telegraph machine on June seventeenth of eighteen sixty one, bringing his balloon to a soaring five hundred feet up. The test was a success. He was able to send a message to both the White House and the War Department from high above the earth. Meanwhile, John le Montaigne also earned himself an invitation to demonstrate what his balloon could do. He hopped a train to Virginia. But this was not going to be a simple test

in an open field away from battle. He was going to show them a real world example of what he was capable of. He took his balloon to three thousand feet into the clouds over Confederate territory in Virginia. He was able to report on the enemy position, which did prove incredibly valuable. But Thaddeus Low had beaten him to the punch. President Lincoln had given Thaddeus the green light to create his Union Balloon Cores, just as he had

wanted to. After that, Low built two more balloons, named the Union and the Constitution, which he put to use by flying at an altitude of one thousand feet up. Time and time again, the men in his balloons spotted Confederate forces only miles away. All of their reports were transmitted vias telegraph and cemented the Balloon corps value to the military. Meanwhile, John le Montaigne wasn't doing too well. His own balloon had seen better days, and he was

growing spiteful of Thaddeus Lowe's success. It didn't help that Low wanted nothing to do with him either. Les Montaigne went to the press to paint his rival in a negative light, hoping to turn public opinion to his side, and amazingly they did. Even Washington thought le Montaigne should have been given a chance, and he was assigned to the Balloon Corps to serve under Low. However, John refused to acknowledge his nemesis as the leader of the outfit

and continued to drag his name in the papers. Low eventually got tired of his antics and had him discharged. Unfortunately, even though the Balloon Corps had managed to help the Union many times during the war, the clashing egos of its two most prominent supporters had taken a toll and it's usefulness couldn't save it from the budget cuts to come.

The war effort had cost the United States government a tremendous amount of money, and in eighteen sixty three, a new military at Thatch was assigned to supervised Lowe's balloon Corps. He started cutting the budget immediately, including Lowe's paycheck, which went from thirty dollars a week down to ten. Low quit soon after and walked away from the core for good. It kept going for a little while longer, but officially

dissolved in August of eighteen sixty three. All these men wanted to prove was that hot air balloons were meant for more than just stunts and gimmicks. They could be valuable tools during the war. Sadly, the Union Balloon Corps was proof that despite their best efforts, Daddy is Low and John Les Montaigne had flown just a little too close to the sun. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided

tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,