Fly By Night

is also an astrophysicist. It makes sense that someone with the drive to succeed at that level would be driven to achieve even more. But sometimes a driven person doesn't find some success but multiple failures. And in one curious case from the Civil War era in America, a man made a historic entire career out of being bad at everything he set out to do. Daniel began his career as a lawyer before getting elected to the House of

Representatives in eighteen fifty six. Pretty good for a guy in his thirties, right, But he was also a notorious womanizer. He brought sex workers into the congressional chambers and even introduced one to Queen Victoria. So he wasn't much of a congressman. But most infamously, he married the fifteen year old daughter of one of his friends after getting her pregnant. Her name was Teresa, and as you'd expect, he didn't remain faithful to Teresa, but she felt no loyalty to

him either. With Daniel often away on business or having affairs, Teresa was regularly escorted to social functions by her friend Philip Barton Key. He was a prominent socialite, being the son of Francis Scott Key, the writer of the Star Spangled Banner. Before long, Teresa and Philip began an affair of their own. The affair was one thing, obviously Daniel was having affairs all the time, but Teresa's infidelity soon

became known throughout Washington. Daniel couldn't be seen as someone who allowed this to go on, so he armed himself and prepared to prove his manhood to the whole town. Confronting Philip on the street, Daniel fired a shot into Philip's groin. As the wounded man crawled away, Daniel fired again, hitting Philip in the chest, killing him. It seems that Daniel hadn't really thought past this point, though he was now a murderer, which surely must have hurt his reputation

as much as his wife cheating on him. He was a terrible congressman and a terrible husband. But Daniel, for all his failures, wouldn't give up. He hired an excellent lawyer who portrayed Daniel as the victim. He told the jury a total sob story about how Daniel was completely thrown by his wife's affair, how in a moment of insanity he set out to kill Philip, not truly in control of his own actions. And so the jury ruled the Daniel wasn't guilty, marking the first successful temporary insanity

plea in US history. It's not an accomplishment to be proud of, I know, but Daniel took it as a win, then prepared to take on a new role, that of a Civil War general. The war broke out in eighteen sixty one and gave Daniel the opportunity to regain his lost honor. By eighteen sixty three, he was a major general leading a brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg. It shows how at the time these positions were as much

about class as merit. Daniel was the only Civil War general without a military education, but because he was from the upper class, his friends were able to pull some strings and put him in a leadership position, and once again his desire for honor and glory outpaced his actual ability. In an infamous moment from the battle, Daniel ordered his men to take the high ground in a part of

the battlefield known as the peach Orchard. This went against his own orders, but it seemed to him that the high ground was always desirable, only in this case it meant that his men were leaving a gap in the line with the rest of the army, leaving them all vulnerable to a charge from the enemy. Daniel's forces were devastated, but for him, that wasn't even the worst of it. He took a cannonball to the leg, shattering his tibia and fibula, but even then this wasn't enough to keep

Daniel down. He had his leg amputated and donated the shattered bones to the Army Medical Museum, and for years afterward he would actually take his friends to see it at the exhibit, bragging about his own bravery. At one point none other than Samuel Clemens. The author Mark Twain, was brought along on one of these tours. This led Twain to remark, the General valued his lost leg away

above the one that is left. I am perfectly sure that if he had to part with either of them, he would part with the one that he has got. Failed congressman, failed husband, and failed general. Instead of being a high achiever, Daniel Sickles was a frequent failure, but he always spun his failure years into personal wins. It would be so inspiring if it weren't for the fact

that people died because of his mishaps. Curiously, Daniel did go on to assist in reconstruction efforts, with mixed results as always, Although his actions at the Battle of Gettysburg were notorious, he was also instrumental in assuring that the battlefield itself became a national park. Doctor Lytel Adams, or Doc as he was known to his friends, was not a mechanical engineer or a weapons manufacturer. He was a dentist, and in December of nineteen forty one, he was on

a long overdue vacation in New Mexico. While exploring the Carlsbad caverns. One evening, Doc Adams was treated to one of the most incredible sights in the southwestern United States. As the sun dipped below the horizon, the air filled with chirps and chattering squeaks, and then the thrum of tiny wings. He watched as millions of bats came pouring out of the caves, taking to the sky in a chaotic,

screaming swarm. And this mesmerizing sight stuck with Doc Adams, and he was still thinking about it a few days later. During his long drive home to Pennsylvania. He had just crossed out of New Mexico when the radio broadcast he was listening to was interrupted by breaking news. Japan had just launched a devastating attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. Thousands of Americans were dead or injured, and rumors were already flying the Congress was going to

declare war. Doc Adams was so overwhelmed by the announcement he had to pull over to process the news. At sixty years old, there was no chance of being drafted himself, but nevertheless, he found himself burning with a desire to contribute. He had just started to wonder about the military's dentistry needs when he was struck by an idea. He suddenly imagined a weapon unlike anything the military had in its arsenal, a bomb that could give his country the edge against

its enemies. Doc Adams sped home and penned a letter to the White House describing his planned invention. While acknowledging that the idea sounded strange, he promised that it would be practical, inexpensive, and effective in his words, and Roosevelt agreed. The President immediately greenlit the project, granting Doc Adams military status and a multi million dollar budget. With no time to waste, the former dentist got to work. His first act was to assemble an eclectic team straight out of

a Hollywood heist film. There was a pilot, a former mobster, a pair of US Marine brothers, a biologist, two teen lab assistance, and a world famous Harvard chemist known for inventing napalm. Most of the members were skeptical when they first learned what Doc Adams had planned, but they all signed on and moved to a high security Air Force base in New Mexico. For the next two whole years, they worked around the clock developing the top secret device,

which had been codenamed Project x RAY. Nothing like this had ever been attempted before, and there were plenty of kinks to work out. From the start, the project was plagued by problems. Gathering the parts for the bomb they wanted to make was especially challenging, and their volatile nature made them difficult to work with. In one catastrophic incident, six of the unfinished devices were triggered by mistake, sparking

a fire that destroyed the base's new airfield. Doc Adams team was determined, though, and soon enough they had a working prototype. The team tested the weapon on a simulated Japanese village, which they had built just for this purpose, and it worked. The village didn't just burn to the ground, it was completely immolated. Based on that test, Doc Adams team estimated that their device was twelve times more destructive

than the incendiary bombs the military was currently using. Despite that success, Project x Ray hit a roadblock in nineteen forty four, just as the team was getting ready to enter mass production. After two years of an expensive war, the military needed to make some cut and Doc learned that they were about to choose between funding his device or another experimental weapons project based out of New Mexico.

In the end, Project x Ray got the axe, the team was disbanded, and the weapon was never used on an enemy target. Because of that, few people know how close the US came to using napalm equipped bats against its enemy. Yeah, that was Doc's big idea. Capture millions of Mexican high tail bats, fit them with tiny incendiary bombs, and load them by the dozen into large canisters that could be dropped from a plane. Once the shell plummeted to four thousand feet, a parachute would trigger and the

shell would open. The bats would spread far and wide, seeking out dark atticts and eaves to roost in, and then a timer would trigger the bombs and the bats would explode all at once. That kind of weapon could have been especially catastrophic in the wooden cities of World War II era Japan. It also would have been uniquely nightmarish. Imagine your neighborhood burning to the ground while winged balls

of flame plung from the sky canceling. Doc adams project prevented that image from becoming a reality and spared the lives of millions of bats. In its place, though the world got another kind of nightmare because Project x ray lost its funding to another project with more promise, a secret military program to develop the world's first atomic bomb, the Manhattan Project. 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 Mankey 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 Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.