Calling all trivia nerds, Brittany here, and I host the Family Road Trip Trivia Podcast with my best friend Meredith. Is your next car ride looking like a snooze fest? We've got The Cure. Three rounds of awesome trivia every week. Harry Potter, Disney, science, sports, you name it. No more silent car troubles. The Family Road Trip Trivia Podcast. Connect, laugh, and learn with your kids. Big and small.
New episodes every week wherever you get your podcasts. Search for the Family Road Trip Trivia Podcast. You ever wonder why flamingos are pink? Or how much taller the Eiffel Tower gets when the iron swells in the summer heat? things most of us never learned about in school. Like, did you know the Apollo 5 That's but a skull.
on the moon? Satisfy your curiosity every weekday with Fun Facts Daily. You'll get fun facts award of the day, practical tips, and brain teasers that'll challenge you to tell fact from fiction. So start every day smarter with Fun Facts Daily wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. there everyone welcome to the past and the curious it's your old pal mick sullivan this is episode 103 of the podcast
And we're going to talk about moving stuff from place to place. And one of the stories has to do with camels. And there's a couple colorful figures in this story about camels in... the american desert which were there before people but then for you know lots and lots and lots of time They weren't. But we brought him back. And for a while, it was kind of, uh... kind of spooked some people um the other story is about
Elijah Otis and the elevator. But it's not just about elevators. It's also about skyscrapers and smelly things outside your hotel room door and all that fun stuff. You know what this show is like. And one last shout out to everyone that I saw in Boston. It was great to see you. Thank you so much for making it. I'll be in Chicago later this spring and working on some dates for Pittsburgh. So look for more of that. I'm going to try to do more in 2025. Anyway, let's get going. Let's rock.
Arizona is America's 48th state. The last state added besides Hawaii and Alaska which are non-contiguous. That means they're not connected. But Arizona is. It's right there between California and New Mexico. When Arizona Star was added to the American flag in 1914, the land had long been occupied by people, and perhaps a few other more mysterious things. Where there are people, mystery seems to follow.
In the late 1800s, residents in the dry open country began seeing a few frightening figures moving mysteriously in the night. Tall, smelly. skittish. These strange creatures didn't stick around long to figure out. But they whipped dogs and horses into a frenzy. They scared people with their sighs in the darkness and they even trampled a few creatures, humans included, along the way. Citizens grew so alarmed that they sent out hunting parties to track down the monster, which they called the Red.
Ghost. For years, it seemed like the red ghost would pop up in towns and on farms miles and miles apart. It was otherworldly. began to think maybe there wasn't just one red ghost maybe there were several They were right about one thing. It's true there were many of these mysterious creatures. But they were wrong about another thing. These weren't ghosts. Don't be silly. They were camels. Wild camels in America, you ask? Well, not exactly wild, but yeah, camels running wild in America.
I mean, if you hadn't ever seen a camel before and one sneaks up on you in the middle of the night, you can imagine it might be a bit scary, right? like they were very smelly too so that might add to the fright for these surprised people i don't blame them camels were not an expected nor familiar sight in america This particular story of camels in the U.S. begins with Jefferson Davis.
And if that name sounds familiar, that's because he was one of the American politicians who turned their back on the American Constitution and tried to secede when many southern states tried to start a separate country in order to preserve slavery. During the American Civil War, he was elected as President of the Confederacy, in direct opposition to Abraham Lincoln. But before all of that...
Davis was a U.S. politician. In fact, he was the Secretary of War for the United States. And while he was in that role, he decided that the American army needed camp. Why? Well, the US Army and many others were making their way across the Southwest. which was dry and relatively inhospitable. When it came to hauling goods and people across the American desert, mules and donkeys and horses just weren't cutting.
Camels, on the other hand, are really good at this exact specific thing. It's their superpower. That and spitting. Camels are really strong, stronger than those other animals, and they can carry more, and more importantly, they can survive on the plants that mules and donkeys can't survive. which was a problem in the American desert. There's not a lot of great food options out there, you know.
Over the desert, camels are also faster. They need less water and they don't need to be shooed in order to manage the sandy and rocky terrain. Camels have perfect feet for the environment. So in a lot of ways, it was a no-brainer. So some government officials hopped on a ship to Turkey with a pocket full of money to go on a little camel shopping spree. But they knew that they'd need help locating and negotiating for the pack animals, so they found a few locals to help.
one of whom was a man named Haji Ali. Haji and the others assisted in finding 33 domesticated camels, which were loaded onto the ship and sailed across the ocean to... About a year later, the Americans returned and they had a message for Haji Ali. Yep, camels are cool, but, uh... We don't know what we're doing. Probably should have seen that one coming. No one in the American Army knows two humps about a camel.
So, uh, would you come help us out? And that is how a man named Haji Ali became the most famous figure in what was soon to be called the U.S. Camel Corps. He traveled with a few more camels and a few other camel experts from the Middle East to the American South to make camel history. At least for a while. Haji Aliyah was born Philip Tedrow to a Greek mother and a Syrian father in modern-day Turkey.
We're not totally sure when little baby future Haji was born, but he was definitely a full-blown adult when he arrived in Texas in 1856. Before his time with the U.S. Army, he had worked with camels for the French Army, and at some point in adulthood he converted to the Muslim faith. That was when he changed his name from Philip Tedrow to Haji Ali. Now, the American soldiers in the Southwest had not heard a name like that before.
Haji Ali might have been hard to say to an unfamiliar ear, or maybe the soldiers dismissed the nuance of the syllables and reduced it to something that they were familiar with. Haji Ali became known to the Southwest and the history books as Haji Ali. Hajjali, or Hajjali, as I'd imagine he'd prefer to be called, was a lead camel drover in the army as they blazed new paths across the desert from Texas to California.
Now, camels, of course, are temperamental. They can be very stubborn, and they can be very mean. Plenty of soldiers got a face full of foul phlegm from the four-legged creatures. Oh, you talking camel spit? I've been victimized by that gooey patooey. Watch yourself around a mad camel. You're just minding your own business and then BAM you get hit with the slobber slam! But I never saw a high jolly catch a loogie. You mean Haji Ali?
Yes, Haji was different. He understood camels. Which is more than could be said about the horses and mules who were often around. They didn't understand the transplant creatures at all. The army quickly learned that horses hate camels. They're scared of them. So this created some problems as parties moved west to mark paths for future travelers and hauled cargo from desert points A to desert points B.
But the other thing is that the soldiers grew to resent the smell. Unbathed camels can work up a brutal stink, and there's not a lot of places for bathing in the desert. So while they were very helpful, strong, and fast, No one really wanted to be around them, whether the Lugies were flying or not. It was a real catch-22. Speaking of repetitive digits, there's a famous roadway in America called Route 66.
Created in the 1920s, it was one of the first and most important highways, paved from Chicago to Los Angeles. Cars by this time had replaced horses and camels for the most part, and people could travel the broad continent by wheel. So it was filled with attractions, motor lodges, hotels, restaurants, and tourist traps. Imagine neon and old cars. Sort of like the town of Radiator Springs in the Cars movies, if you're familiar with that. For years, Route 66 defined a slice of American culture.
But that historic roadway was actually once a camel trail. At least, part of it was. Between Texas and California, the Army surveyed and planned a path along the 35th parallel. finding it to be the best place for a transportation route. Haji Ali was the lead camel driver on that expedition. And 70 years later, that path from 1857 would become the southwestern portion of Route 66. Way to go, camels. The CAMEL experiment continued for years.
But when the Civil War began in 1861, the army was focused on other things, so they sold some of the camels, and the ones that went unpurchased were just set loose in the American desert. Raji Ali bought a few of his favorites and kept working. He hauled cargo, he worked as a scout, and he often sold water to thirsty people traveling across the desert on their way to California.
They were happy for the refreshment, but also excited to encounter the one and only High Jolly, who was already a legend in his own time. He married, he had a family, and he lived the end of his life in Quartzite, Arizona. Today there is a monument in his honor, a small pyramid with a camel on top, and the town holds an annual High Jolly Parade in his honor. He died in 1902, but the camels roaming the desert outlived him by years.
People on passing trains would often see their silhouettes in the desert skyline. And of course, there were reports of the Red Ghost for decades after Haji Ali had left the Earth. As time went by, the fear of mysterious ghosts was replaced with the excitement of seeing a legendary camel. There were hundreds of reported sightings. However, you probably won't find any of them if you go looking today. But if you do encounter one, watch out for loogies.
Hello, fellow grown-up. I have kids. There are probably kids in your life, and we grownies. certainly want to do the best for our children and set them up for success. If your child is struggling with a specific subject or they need help with a subject, or if your child is ahead and not getting challenged enough in class, well, then I'd like you to know about IXL. IXL Learning is an online learning program that enriches your homeschool curriculum.
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So make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now. And the Past and the Curious listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at www.ixl.com forward slash curious. That is www.ixl.com forward slash curious to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price.
Hey, are you ready to dive into what's going on in the world around us with the 10 News Podcast? And I'm Ryan Willard, here with my co-host Pamela Kirkland, and we are your go-to source. all things current events for our awesome 8 to 12 year old listeners and their curious parents and pets too.
We see you, furry friends. Join us as we break down the latest news in a fun and engaging way that keeps you entertained and informed. Plus, we have a ton of cool guests drop by the studio to share their stories. And don't forget our rockstar kid correspondents who keep us up to date on the latest music trends, Minecraft updates, and the latest slang. Although I still don't get it all.
Am I a Sigma? Keep trying, Ryan. You can tune into the 10 News Podcast on all podcast platforms so you never have to miss an episode. Get ready to stay cool, kind, and informed with us on the 10 News Podcast. Let's go! Yes, and now it's time for You Have 30 Seconds. I am excited to hear from you. Hell yeah.
Hi, my name's Elliot and I'm from Calgary, Canada. Today I'm going to tell you about Jumbo the Elephant. Jumbo was born on December 25th when he was four. He was exported to the London Zoo. Then, years later, he was sold to P.T. Barnett.
who drew him as part of his circus. One fateful day in St. Thomas, Ontario, when Jumbo and a smaller elephant, Tom Thun, were being taken to their train car. An unskilled train came racing along. Though Tom survived, sadly, Jumbo was caught. Ever the salesman, Burnham told the public that Jumbo had been hit. trying to save Tom Thumb. Jumbo is remembered as a hero to this day.
Elliot, great work. I am very fascinated with Jumbo and I talk about Jumbo all the time when I'm doing things live and in person. And one of my favorite facts about Jumbo is that... the word jumbo like the jumbotron or a jumbo bucket of popcorn at the movie theater we know the word jumbo because of that elephant's name which i think is awesome what a way to live on right you just give your name to things that are big and awesome I also think that his ashes are in a peanut butter jar at...
Tufts University in Boston. I believe that's correct. You can fact check me on that if you want. And let me know if I'm wrong. Thanks again, Elliot. If anyone else has a you have 30 seconds, all you need to do is send it via attachment. You can record it on your voice memo app and send it to hello at the past and the curious dot com. hello again it is quiz time and um well this is a camel quiz so
Question number one. There are two main types of camels. Dromedary with one hump and Bactrian with two humps. Which type of camel is more common? The single hump dromedary variety of camel makes up over 90% of the camels on earth. So that is by far the most common. The remaining camels are Bactrian, but there is a separate species of wild Bactrian that are different, and they are very much endangered.
It is estimated that there are only about 1,000 of these wild Bactrian camels living anywhere today. Alright, alright, good. Question number two now. On average, how much water is a camel capable of drinking in, oh, let's say about 15 minutes? A camel can really put it down. Several different sources indicate that a camel can drink like 32 gallons of water in that short amount of time. Now contrary to what you may hear, that water is not stored in their homes.
okay well here we go question number three how many eyelids do camels have Well, the funny thing is this is question number three, and camels have three eyelids! Two of them are not too different from yours and mine, but the third camel eyelid is, uh... like a clear membrane that covers their eyes to protect them in sandstorms, which makes sense. Likewise, they can actually close their nostrils for protection from the same thing. Tiny Camel can tell you, you do not want to get sand up your nose.
We always move stuff around pretty well. but it's a very back-and-forth, overland sort of moving that they're good at. If there is a knock against the animals, besides all the camel spit and horse manure, it is that they are mostly earthbound. None of those creatures are going to help you with what those in the biz call vertical transportation, which means moving stuff up and down. For that, you're going to need an elevator. and elevators are nothing new.
Plenty of times during the development of human civilization, our fellow humans of the past used ropes and pulleys to lift platforms. with water wheels or animals pulling or good old-fashioned people power, these lifts made getting heavy objects up to a higher point much easier. And of course, it wasn't just stuff. people were lifted along the way too. At the Palace of Versailles, French King Louis XV
had a human-powered elevator called the Flying Chair. Thanks to the hard work of someone pulling a rope to lift his royal hiney higher, the Flying Chair carried the king a staggering distance of one floor. But here's the thing about all of these early lifts and elevators. Sure, they could go up. But thanks to gravity and broken tension ropes, they could easily come crashing down too.
And that was bad. It didn't matter if you were on it, under it, or just nearby. The story was the same. The rope holding you breaks, and you go kablammo. These crashes happened a lot in early American factories. So for the most part, people didn't trust elevators. Or at least, they didn't volunteer to be the person on or underwater. And for the most part, that was okay because until the late 1800s, most buildings were not very tall.
A couple flights of stairs and you're at the top. You take the steps two at a time and you're there even faster. But a lift sure could make getting heavy stuff up to the top floor a whole lot easier. Once the hero of our story, a man named Elijah Otis, ushered in the golden age of vertical transportation, buildings could get taller and taller. And they did. This led us to the first skyscraper.
But here, I have to pause and warn you that architecture nerds will argue about which building was actually the first skyscraper in America until they're out of breath. and it's not because of all of the stares, but because they just like to argue about it so much. Consider yourself warned, and if you want to join the argument, please read up on some of the candidates.
Well, as I've stated, I believe the Equitable Life Building in New York to be the first skyscraper. It was finished in 1870, and it used an elevator to get people to all seven stories. Oh, Poppycock, you wouldn't know a skyscraper from a window scraper, you architecturally challenged sea turtle. You did get the city right, though. Everyone knows the first skyscraper was New York's produce exchange building.
Uh, yeah, someone said there were some architecture experts around here, but I sure don't see any. I just hear two silly geese honking on about something they don't know anything about. New York was not home to the first skyscraper. Chicago has always ruled the skyscraper world, and skyscraper numero uno is the home insurance building thanks to its size and iron skeleton.
Skeleton? Yikes, is it haunted? I mean, I know it haunts the dreams of your two buildings because they'll never know what it's like to be the first to scrape the sky. sorry suckers whatever the case may be none of these buildings are around anymore because ironically we knocked them down to build bigger buildings a long time ago Anyway, let's meet Mr. Elevator himself, Elijah Otis.
But rather than meet him when he was a kid on a farm in Vermont, or a young man making wagons, or a slightly older man working in a bed factory, let's meet him in 1853, while he is suspended on a platform high up in the air at America's first World's Fair. Elijah Otis wasn't a daredevil, exactly. He was an inventor with an invention to sell, and he was willing to thrill people to sell that invention. And what was that invention?
Well, it was an elevator. And yes, I'm fully aware that I've said people had already invented elevators. They had. So everyone watching Elijah knew what it was. There was no surprise there. The surprise for the crowd at New York's Crystal Palace building came when the dangling Mr. Otis gave a signal from high up in the air. The signal told his assistant, or in some sources, his son, to swing an axe, or in some sources, a sword.
Whether it was a boring old axe or a dramatically cool sword, his assistant son cut the rope, holding his elevator platform.
Now, in any other elevator seen by anyone else anywhere in the world at the time, this would have been certain doom. So the crowd... at the sight of the severed safety rope everyone fully expected him to free fall in this open elevator down to the ground floor and suffer the consequences which would have been fatal and gruesome And since the elevator car was open for demonstration purposes, the guests would have to witness all of this gore.
Maybe even head home with some red stains on their fancy clothes. But Mr. Otis did not fall. At least not far. The elevator car dropped a bit and then stopped. The old drop and stop left him completely safe. See, the real magic of the Otis elevator, as seen at America's first World's Fair, was not the elevator itself, but rather the safety brake that it used.
There was no way for his new elevator car to fall. If the tension rope broke, it simply dropped a few inches before the ratcheted brake system stopped it and kept everyone safe. So long, kablammo. Hello, easy vertical transpo. So it was a big deal, and people realized it almost immediately. And over the next two years, Otis, who had gone into business with his two sons, got orders to build 36 platform lifts in just two years.
Most of these were large elevators to lift freight, cargo, and merchandise in factories. They saved workers lots of time and lots of energy. Then in 1857, they got their first order for a passenger elevator. Inside a building housing a glass company on Broadway in New York City. This was the way of the future. More elevators meant taller and taller buildings were possible. Some of the first businesses to take advantage of the new safe and strong elevators were hotels.
First off, more stories means more rooms. More rooms means more money. The math was simple for hotel owners. And when you added that the elevators couldn't go kablammo anymore, the math got even easier. Not sure if you're aware, but these days, the fanciest, most expensive rooms are at the tippy top of most hotels. That's not how it always was. Think about it. If you're rich, do you wanna walk up a bunch of flights of steps to get to your room?
That doesn't sound very luxurious at all. In the days before elevators, if you could afford it, you stayed on the ground floor. But while that may have been easier to get to, the first floor brought some bad things too. Busy city streets can be noisy, and on the ground floor, all of that noise is right outside your window. So are the smells of food carts selling to all of those loud people outside.
The food might smell good, or it might not. But the garbage that people left on the street certainly never brought pleasant odors. So all of the stank and all of the sound might make for a not-so-great stay at an expensive hotel. After Otis made it safe for you to transport yourself easily, vertically speaking, the top floor became the place to be. No street noise, no stinky food, garbage smells.
and incredible city views in many cases. The penthouse has it all, and the Otis made it all possible. Unfortunately, Elijah Otis did not live long after his great successes. He died in April 1861, actually the same week that the American Civil War began. But before he died, he did get back to work on one of his favorite inventions. It was a pet invention that he had set aside when the elevator business took off. Elijah had a thing for fresh bread. And he had created an automatic bread baking.
Of course, today, he's more remembered for the elevators. You can still find the Otis label in elevators all over the world these days. His sons kept the company moving and it grew, no pun intended, to great heights. Today they are the largest manufacturer of elevators, escalators, and moving walkways in the world. There is an Otis elevator in the Eiffel Tower, the CN Tower, and the Empire State Building, to name a few.
Likewise, the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, has Otis elevators, 57 of them in total. They are fast. They can take a passenger from the ground floor to the observation deck on the 125th floor in just about one minute. That's some speedy vertical transportation. And while it's far from the first, there is no argument among skyscraper nerds as to whether the Burj Khalifa is or isn't a skyscraper. It is 2,722 feet tall.
By comparison, all three of those first skyscrapers were under 180 feet tall. Elijah Otis probably never dreamt such a building was possible when he first cut the rope in 1853. But I bet he'd be confident of his elevator, no matter how high it was.
Thanks for listening to another episode of the curious hope you enjoyed it i enjoyed making it for you as i always do so thank you to everyone out there for listening uh you know people ask what they can do to support the show there's all sorts of things there's patreon support that's helpful you can buy i have two books i have a book called i see lincoln's underpants
and a book called The Kentucky Meat Shower. That is also very helpful. And if, you know, you're a book lover, it's nice to have around. But I think the best thing that you can do is just tell somebody that you enjoy the show and maybe they'll listen to it and maybe they'll connect with it and enjoy it as much as you do. So if you feel like spreading the word, boy oh boy, that would mean the world to me. I appreciate it. And I look forward to hopefully seeing more of you out on the road in 2025.
Oh, sorry, this just in. I had some breaking news. I do have a Patreon person to thank. Just came in. From Winchester, Virginia. Kel Rhodes? Kel Rhodes? What's up? Thanks for listening. I appreciate the support. I'm glad you're out there. Kel, howdy do. Thank you. And everybody else, thank you as well. I look forward to, you know, more episodes, more time, more stories, more fun. In the meantime, be nice to people and have fun learning stuff. Thanks again. Meg Sullivan signing off.
Welcome to Those Who Can't Teach Anymore, a narrative podcast series that explores why teachers are leaving education and what can be done to stop the exodus. This season, we're getting a look at the year and the life of teachers from across the country. I am Darcy Oster-Miller. This is Megan Overgoth. This is Sophie V. This is Charlie Blackwood. This is Taylor Barrett. This is Iva Marshall.
David Whisker. Dan Morris. Amanda Smith. Look for those who can't teach anymore. Season 2. A different kind of the same thing. We've all been there. You're standing in a museum staring at a painting and all you can think is, I don't get it. To me, knowing the story behind an artwork is a huge part of knowing how to look at it.
I'm Amanda, the host of the Art of History podcast, where we view history through the lens of some really great works of art. Each episode, we dive deep into the bigger picture behind some familiar and maybe not so familiar pieces. Check out Art of History now wherever you get your podcasts.