Oh What A Time... - #50 US Presidential Inventions (Part 2)
Episode Date: June 10, 2024This is Part 2! For Part 1, check the feed from yesterday! This week on the show we’re discussing the magnificent inventions invented by early US Presidents! For you we have George Washington’s t...hreshing barn (not a pub), Thomas Jefferson’s wheelie chair (as exciting as it sounds) and Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rod (not as rude as it sounds). When exactly was the golden age of parking? We can’t decide if it was the coin-based or app-based eras. If you have anything on parking, inventions or anything else, you know what to do: hello@ohwhatatime.com If you're impatient and want both parts in one lovely go next time plus a whole lot more(!), why not treat yourself and become an Oh What A Time: FULL TIMER? In exchange for your £4.99 per month to support the show, you'll get: - two bonus episodes every month! - ad-free listening - episodes a week ahead of everyone else - And first dibs on any live show tickets Subscriptions are available via AnotherSlice, Apple and Spotify. For all the links head to: ohwhatatime.com You can also follow us on: X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepod And Instagram at @ohwhatatimepod Aaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice? Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk). Chris, Elis and Tom x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
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Hello and welcome to part two of Inventions by US Presidents.
Let's get on with the show. I'm going to tell you about Thomas Jefferson now and his invention.
I'm going to do something now that arguably I would not be able to do without Thomas Jefferson.
You ready? Watch this?
Yeah.
Do you want to explain to listen?
I should probably explain, yeah, it's quite a visual thing.
Chris is spinning in his chair.
Yes.
Like a bond villain.
Like a bond villain.
But it looks a lot of fun, it looks very cool.
I can't do that.
I've just got to stop static kitchens.
Yeah, that works.
You are in a chair that is of a pre-Jefferson age. Yeah, yeah, I'm in a pre-Jefferson.
Well, well, I'm living in the post-Jefferson age.
Well, if you stepped into Thomas Jefferson's house
in Monticello in Virginia, it's now a museum,
you'll find innovations everywhere,
as befits an enlightened man and a francophile
who was to be the third president of the United States.
Like Benjamin Franklin, as to to loved the design and invent things.
And he was a voracious acquir of gadgets, which included the polygraph, a multi-drawal tripod table,
a multi-drawal table, complete with a complex locking mechanism.
A table, is that a table with a complex locking mechanism?
Yes, a multi-drawal tripoday. I'd be thinking, what's he got in those drawers? Yeah. Yeah. thua thua. Yeah. thau. thau. thah. I's thau. I's th. th. th. th. thiiiah. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi, thr- thrtle. thrtle. thrass. thrass. thrass. thrass. thrasse, tha. thae, tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. thage, thi, thi. thi. thi. th. thi. thi. thi. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thea, thea'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a, the. those drawers. Yeah exactly. That's what I'd be thinking, you dirty bucker. You dirty bucker, Jefferson. You dirty old sod. The thing about Jefferson is
there's a bit of a blurred line as it is with this wheelie chair which I will get on to.
He seems to have improved inventions rather than invented them himself, but he does have a
claim to inventing a rotating book stand. I can't figure out what this is for, but basically it has like five books on it on a rotating
book stand, presumably so you can go, oh I'll read that book that book theat, now I'll read
this next book, it doesn't really make any sense to me.
Like you get in some bookshops. Yeah, maybe it's for bookshops.
So he's an improver, he's an improver.
Yeah, that's what some people play. It's not as impressive that is it.
What do you do? I'm an improver.
Yeah.
There are some things that he did invent by his own hand, included a new plow, a cipher wheel
for sending and receiving coded messages, a zigzag roof that was designed to capture rainwater,
and as he wrote in 1810, he said, I'm not afraid of new inventions.
He's an inventor. I'm not afraid of new inventions. He's an inventor. I take, I think, once you've described there,
I think he's not an improver, he's an inventor.
I'm happy with that.
I'm willing to give him that title back.
Utilizing rainwater, that would have been genuinely useful.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I can't believe anyone.
Yeah, I can't believe it. It's.
you could capture rainwater. Oh he says. Here we go. Oh yeah. Send Chris goes up to the 1700s. Whatever the invention, when we do our tin
Berners-Lee episode, you're going to go, it just seems pretty obvious it you can.
Penicillin, it's pretty obvious. Yeah, it's all human knowledge and our
fingertips just seemed really obvious to me. Surely penicillin just feels like, of course that's the way you deal with the small parks. Do you think because the inventions or these founding fathers are coming up with do you
think they just got a bit competitive with each other and they're like oh
you see what Benjamin Franklin's got the old lightning rod oh yeah
I've got the zigzag roof you know what I mean? I think that is actually an interesting perspective I think theyrerifice the theyreys a to their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their. their. I I's their. I'm their. I'm their their their. I'm their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their. their their their. their their. their. their. I I I's their. I's their. I'm their. I'm their. I'm their. I'm their. I'm their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. I's. I'm their. I'm the most ubiquitous pieces of office furniture in the world.
And in fact, I'm sat on one right now is the swivel chair, the wheelie chair, or as he sometimes
called it, the whirligig chair.
If you'd ask me, when do I think the swibble chair was invented, I would say, 1984?
Yeah, yeah, the 60s guess. One of the first presidents came up with it. It's amazing.
So whilst he was in Philadelphia serving as a representative at the Continental Congress in 1775 or 1776,
very briefly, is this why they've got an oval office? Because he can spin round a
face any corner, it's the perfect chair for an oval-shaped room.
That's why I'm in a square room so I've got a
flat square chair that can't turn because I'm in a square room. He was working
in an oval office. It's obvious what we need. So yeah it needs to it needs a
360 view of the oval office. So yeah in 17756 he Jefferson bought a new Windsor
chair. Now a Windsor chair I would describe it was like we used to have him in our kitchen when I was growing up, like an old kitchen chair with like armrests and like a fan of wooden like pillars at the back of it
and a lot, you know, it's like an old-fashioned kitchen chair as I would say. They look, they don't look
dissimilar to a captain's chair. So he bought that to use alongside his lap desk and it was on this chair with this portable desk, purportedly at least, that he eventually wrote the Declaration of Independence. But at some point, Jefferson adapted this Windsor
chair so that it could rotate. Wow. And like modern office chairs, which have like, which is the
one I'm on now, has like wheels and a central rotating rotating column. Jefferson's
whirligig used an elaborate system. So basically what it is is like, you've got the bottom of
this winter chair and the the the the the the the the the the chair and then the top of, they're like two circles, one on top of the other,
and there's like a central iron spindle which connects them both, and then rollers across these two
bits of wood, the top and the bottom of the't exist already, if you walked into the office, if you walked
into Jefferson's office, and he said, excuse me, Mr Jefferson, and then he turned around
in a spinny chair, it would blow your mind.
Like, how the fuck did you do that?
If you look like his secretary or something?
Jesus Christ, how is he doing it?
In 1791 he did something else which is really interesting. He included a writing paddle,
you know like onto one of the arms, the kind of ones that you see in University seminar
rooms and lecture theater, you know the thing that comes out from the arm. So then he's got a
spinning chair with the kind of writing paddle on it so he can be 360 and right so he can be talking to people he can
have people all around him and actually I was thinking that's actually quite good
like if I was at this desk the desk is fixed but if my laptop was attached to
the chair I could be just spinning. That would look incredible I the chair I wanted him to invent there was a lazy boy that's that's that's that's the that's the the that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that would that would would that would would the that would would would the the that would would would the that would that would that would that would that would the that's that would the the that would that's that's that's the that would would would would would would would would would would the the the that would would would would would would that would that would that would that would that would the that would that would the the the the the the the the the the the the th. the th. th. the th. th. the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. the the. the the. the the. the. the. the. the. the. that's. that's that's that's the. the. the. him to invent though was the lazy boy. That's the one you want with the early presidency to event.
When you pull back and the footrest flips out. They still amaze me those.
I would walk out of that office and I would say I am telling all my mates, I'm voted for him.
This guy has changed chairs. Yeah. Um, so Jefferson loved it and so much so that he went and he got these, he got the designs
done for this, for this swivel chair and he took them to a really famous New York
furniture maker called Thomas Burling.
And he had what, like a more comfortable one made to his own design.
And it was this design that was made by Thomas Burling that George Washington was so impressed by that he bought one as well.
Wow. George Washington placed an order with Burling for the uncommon chair
in the same year. That is like the great sat and abdomino effect that occurred
in the comedy circuit in 2005. Rob Gilbert had one suddenly everyone had one. I can't
I can't remember I can't remember, I can't remember, was it Tim Minchin, I can't remember who Rod saw
have one first, but he was like, I have to buy one.
And then you would get driven to a gig by a comedian with a sat-nav and you were like, okay,
this has changed everything.
I don't drive, I had one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, walking around holding it. Walking around holding it.
Yeah, so George Washington paid for his uncommon chair on the 17th of April 1790 and it went
along with 500 pounds of furniture that he was buying for his new presidential residence in
White House, the uncommon chair was in there. And this uncommon chair was an upgrade of the original Philadelphia Windsor
Swivel Chair and featured up Holstreet and Castors and a sofa attachment which allowed
its user to lie down. Wow, that's that's cool. So there was a lazy boy element to it then.
Yeah, it really does cross, yeah, wow. It it's a Venn diagram of the two.
Thomson Jefferson invented the recliner.
It does suggest he's a slightly, weirdly, it's not in keeping with the idea who is a busy,
busy go getting president. Someone who's invented a chair which means he can lie down midship.
But is he optimizing his time there?
Because he's right, he's signing papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers papers,
optimizing his time there because he's signing papers, writing papers, kind of ideas and he's like, it'll take me five minutes to get into bed and lie down.
I could just flick a switch and lie down here and then get back up and carry on worse.
So was this the first chair that could recline?
I don't think it was the first chair to recline.
Certainly one of the first swivel chairs. One of the first swivel chairs. He's. He's. He's. He's. He's. He's. He's. He's. He's. He's. He's, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, I, I, I, I, I, I, I their, I their, I th, I th, I th, I th, I could, I could, I could thi, I could just, I could just, I could just, I could just, I could just just just, I could just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just, I to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th. I th. I th. I th. I thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I a recliner. It is impossible if you sit my
Nan's got one. If you sit on a sofa and you notice that it has a recliner
option it is impossible not to use that option if only for 30 seconds. Yeah yeah
we had a recliner in the 80s great days. When my first child was born I sat next to Claire's bed the night after he'd be born
on a blue chair and it tried to sleep and it was the worst night of my entire life in the
hospital and that was so uncomfortable.
In the morning when we went to leave, the nurses pointed out, it was a lazy boy and it popped
out and I didn't know and it was the most
I'm delighted to have a new son but I've never been more heartbroken at the same time.
I'd sat up right for for 12 hours in such a discomfort when I could have been having the absolute
could have been like first class on Virgin Atlantic and I'd no idea.
I'm going to wipe muddy the waters though a little bit now. So the chairs bought by Jefferson and Washington from Burling Shop in New York passed more than a resemblance to a swivel chair manufactured in
Europe in the 1780s by David Rotgen, a German cabinet maker. And Roetgen had supplied rotating
chairs to several of the elite families of Europe, including the dukes of Devonshire Potomkin, Russian Empress Catherine the Great, King Louis the 16th, the French
and the Sreish aristocracy too.
And Rokin's work, Catherine the Great was especially taken with Rokin's work, praising
what she called his precisely work mechanics, but she marked him down because she, in her words,
she said he was tainted by commercialism.
So the- gaysome slack.
Yeah, it's only a twirly chair like.
The story goes at Jefferson, so yeah, did Jefferson invent the wheelie chair?
Well, the story goes that Jefferson had seen an example of the Rokan chair whilst he was
in Paris in the 1780s, perhaps at the court on the eve of the French Revolution, and he was taken up with the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea the idea theireckckhueeckhueeckhueeckhueeckiioliolioliolioliolioliolioli, the, the, the, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, theaneaneananeanananananananananananananananananananan, tooeanan, tooeananananededeanan, tooeanede, Revolution and he was taken up with the idea and he copied the design or the mechanical principles but he
did see seemingly improved it is thought but the timeline is pretty muddied
effectively yeah but that's interesting for the first question really
the question really did he wheelie invent the wheel
oh oh did he wheelie did he wheeled
did he wheeled yeah that's just a fantastic ending this section Oh, did you really? Do you know what?
Is the thing on?
Yeah, what? That's just a fantastic ending to this section.
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This will be the day.
This will be the day.
I am going to be talking about one of the big ones, George Washington.
Now, compared with his fellow founding fathers, we've discussed already,
George Washington, he was basically a slightly more sober, more
practical man, so he was concerned more with the military and agricultural
matters than with contemporary philosophy and the mechanics of invention.
His first consideration was always as a farmer. I like what I like. Can I just say,
of all the founding fathers, I would say George Washington is the most grown up? Yeah, I think. Yeah, I know what you mean. He's an adult
in the room. Well, they're all fucking around with electricity, fucking twirly chairs.
He's like, right, you're all idiots. We've got thousands of farmers in this country.
Founding farmers? Founding founding farmers. Yeah very good.
Now very good top. I feel like you're patting me on the head and sort of a kid's party.
Yeah, very good top. He was the first president obviously of a new country.
And so in his role as the first president of a new country, he did encourage innovation.
And he signed a great number of patents during his two-term presidency because Asperfited the job and his championing of the
Patent Act in 1790. And the one thing even though I've said that is his first
issue is always his first consumer is always a farmer he was absolutely
fascinated by the possibilities of flight. Now I think if I had been around in the 70s and I'd seen the the the the the the the the the job job job job job job job job job job job job job job job job. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the their the the they. they. their their their their their their their their their their the job and the job and I'd the job and I'd the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the they I I I I I I I I I I'd they I'd they. they. they. they. they. they. they. the the they. the they. the the they. the they. the they. the the the the the they. the the the the the the possibilities of flight. Now I think if I'd been around in the 1790s and I'd
seen birds flying I would have thought great but that's birds. It's not for me
we can't do that we can do other things. Birds couldn't invent a twirly chair
like my mate Jefferson has.
That's fine but that's for birds.
And also that fascination ends with flight.
No one has ever seen a bird regurgitating worms into another chick's mouth before I want to get
in on that.
I don't feed my kids that way because that's for birds.
We're not living in nests. No, no, no, no.
I haven't
built my house with my mouth. Because you don't have the time. Not that you don't
have the talent but you haven't got the time. Because that's for birds.
That's another tea shirt I do there. Yes I lay an egg every morning, but that's where the similarity ends.
Nothing comes out of it.
Certainly not a child.
And it tastes horrible.
I think it's an egg.
I don't boil it, because that is for birds.
It is a new tea shirt.
Quite right. Yeah, this range is printing itself. So in 1793, January, the 19 a hot air balloon flight by the French pilot
Jean-Pier Blanchard who took off from Philadelphia and traveled 15 miles in his balloon before returning
to the city to dine with Washington and tell him all about the experience.
Wow. It's quite a cool time this, isn't it? Like, you've just got enough knowledge
where you cannot begin to understand stuff
and people are just like a hot air balloon,
imagine seeing that for the first time, you'd be like,
Oh, it would blow your mind.
But it would be so dangerous, you would think.
And again.
Well, just to come back to the birds very briefly, what do you think the birds thor th is th is th is th is th is thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus thus things. What's going on? Do it? I am in the in I was to do gigs in Australia
and I was living the same flat as a comedic called Andrew O'Neill and he described me as
trepid not intrepid like trepid as in line yeah I'm not gonna do that that's fine
I'm alright actually that's for birds right, so Jean Pierre Blanchard was telling
Washington about his stories of flight and Washington wrote, you know, there's marvellous and the
leaders to expect that. In a little time, we'll come flying through the air instead of
plowing the ocean to get to America. Now incidentally, the first transatlantic passenger service was launched in June 1939,
20 years after the first transatlantic fight in May 1919.
So he's well over a hundred years out.
But Washington, though dismissed by Jefferson as having a mind-slowing operation,
being little-aided by invention or imagination, what a slam.
Yeah, that's's incredible isn't it? That is brutal. He's basically called Washington a thick go. Yeah. Was an inventor and he
developed several labor-saving machines for use on his estate. So these included a barrel plow,
which he invented in the 7080s to more precisely seed his crops. A dung repository or a
sterkery to Washington's own design of 1787 where animal pool was preserved in its liquid
form to make it easier to spread as fertilise it and improve soil conservation and a new type.
So it's a kind of you know you put that on your tinder profile don't you? Yeah absolutely.
I you know I'm six foot one I'm establishing a new country and I've invented a dung repository. Wait, wait, no, that's it. It preserves it in its liquid state.
That's the nice, the telephrase it should really draw it.
You're more that we're going to come back to my flat and see it.
Yeah, exactly.
So Washington made his home at the Mount Vernon Plantation to Virginia on the banks of the Potomac River. So this 8,000 acre estate, which comprised of five individual farms
called Manchin House, Doughgrun, Muddy Hole, River and Union. It once been used to grow tobacco
as a cash crop. But somewhere in the early 1790s he got the idea to switch to growing wheat
instead. Now this introduced a new problem. How to separate the wheat into its usable and the berry, the berry-interms, like the berry, toe, their, their, toe, their, toe, their, their, which is their, their, which is their, their, their, which is their, which is their, their, which is their, which is their, which is their, which is the toe, the their, which is to be to be used, which is to be used, which is to be used, which is to bea, which is, is, is to be used, is, is, is to be used, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is. tobe, is. tobe, is, is. tobe, is tobe, is tobe, is toberee, is tobacco, is theirbough, is theirbough, is theirbou. theirbou. theirbree. theirbue. theirbue. theirbue. tobacco, is one one one one, is used, is used, is one one. ttraditional method was either to beat it by hand,
which is very labor intensive,
or to pilot up outside and have a livestock walk all over the grain.
So naturally this introduced all manner of imperfections and still left work to do,
so using the latter method, Washington estimated a loss of somethings.
That must have been such a laborious process,
going you've missed a bit like coaxing a cow across a stamp on a grey. Yeah, can he, no, you're not gonna, not listening to me, okay, forget it.
So you reckoned he was losing about 20% of his harvest, which was very costly. So
we needed a different answer. So he came up with a new tube of threshing barn to be installed at his doggrun farm, one that could be used for wheat and oats. So it the wheat the wheat the wheat the wheat the wheat the the the the to be to be to be used the wheat and wheat to be to be the wheat the the to be to be the the to be to be to be to be to be to be to be used. to be to be to be used. to be used waltral. to be used wobey were to be used. to be used. to be used, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, t, tops, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat, so that livestock could be used in the separation
process but indoors away from dirt and away from the weather. So the first indication
this new method was mentioned in a memo written by Washington in June 1791. Here it's described
in passing as a treading floor. So it took another 18 months or so for the full design
to be realized. So the trick in a design lane the gaps left between the floorboards which allowed the wheatberry to
fall into the lower story while retaining as much as 90% of the straw on the
upper floor which must have been I mean once he got it right that must have
been such a buzz. That's incredible so it's a double story barn yeah
with cattle up on the top floor stamping on the corn or whatever it is and and and and and and and and the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the top floor, stamping on the corn or whatever
it is and then the grain is falling through.
On the wheat, sorry, and the grain is falling through the grain is falling between the gaps
into the lower storey. That is amazing.
So in effect, George Washington had introduced mechanization and autumization into the process
of wheat harvesting. So this is his great invention. That's incredible. Which is absolutely amazing,
isn't it? So as the Mount Verna Museum observed, the building was conceptually as much a machine as it was
architecture, whereas in the previous separation methods, each element in the process had happened in
turn and so it was very slow. Now Washington's labors, many of whom were enslaved of course, we
mustn't forget that. They could harvest an acres worth of wheat in one go using this machine.
So when the barn was completed in 1794, his losses were immediately cut in half.
So amazingly, Washington's barn was still standing during the American Civil War
and was even photographed in a somewhat disheveled state in 1870 shortly before it was demolished. So the photograph
show the dual layers of Washington's design, the ground floor was made of brick,
the upper floor is made of wood and a roof made of Cyprus singles, then the
windows of the lower story were barred to prevent theft of the wheat because
it was such a valuable commodity. That's incredible. What a shame they knocked it down. That's exactly what I think it probably speaks to that idea, the preservation of history.
Like surely that's something you'd want to restore and keep as a, yeah. You know, if Ronald
Reagan had invented the automisation and mechanization of wheat harvesting, yeah, that would be preserved.
There would be a little section on it at his library, big time.
Yeah, yeah. I read once that cows can't walk downstairs. I think it comes up very much.
But what I mean is, once they were up there, were they then up there? No, do you think there was a
Patronoster lift? That sounds dangerous. I'll tell you what Chris, is your next out?
Oh. It's good stuff!
Come on!
Why don't you mind?
Just constantly punning?
Do you know what?
It's like a patinost list of puns.
It is.
But I haven't been in the writer's room with Tom many, many times.
He runs out of gas at about 3 p.m.
So then the punning stops and then it just becomes... Different jokes sort of emerge then at about, between about 3 and 6.
Yeah, none of it's useful. Oh well. So that is inventions by American presidents.
I love that is inventions by American presidents.
I love that guys. What a fun ride.
I had no idea that they were so prolific.
Yeah, what a crazy crew. Now, if you are not a subscriber and you fancy becoming a subscriber,
then there are huge benefits to doing so. A 499 a month, you get no adverts, you get your episode
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time. Com you can check it out. But there is, there is.
Huge benefits being subscriber, isn't there, Chris? And what is it? Yes, there is. you get to go back in a to to to to the one the one the one the one the one the one the one the one the one the the the the th, tho the the tho the the tho tho tho the tho tho tho tho tho thoes thoes tho tho thoes thoes thoes, thoos, thoos, thoos, thoes thoes, thoes, thoes, tho tho tho tho tho th. There's lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo the the the the the the the the th. There, th. There, th. There, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thoooooooooooooooooooo-s. th. the. thoa. thea. thooooooooooooooo. th. in a one-day time machine adventure with one of us three and it's my turn
this week.
Fire up the one-day-time machine jingle.
It's the one-day-time machine.
It's the one-day time machine.
It's the one-day time machine.
Okay, we're going back to the 14th of October 1066.
Oh! The Battle of Hastings.
Nice.
Okay, now actually what I thought we'd do with this, I know it's one day time machine,
but of course we need to get there early. We need to get there early.
So what I was going to suggest is that we go to Pavensey in Sussex on the 28th September,
get there early to watch Williams fleet land. Like I was their their th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thu, thu, thu, thu, thu, thu, thu, thu, thuillion, thu, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tha, tha, tha, tha, thaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuiiiiiiiiiiiiii, tha, tha, tha were there... Last and Bray, you gotta get there on the Tuesday, get there early.
Get your tent set up.
Exactly.
A good spot, yeah.
You don't want to be getting on the day of the thing.
It'd be knackered.
Anyway, yeah.
But we were a bit too early.
We had time to kill so. or unaware as he fell into the sea exactly like Neil Kinnock did back in the day.
He got his suit soaking wet and out of shame and because he was simply too embarrassed
he asked to go home.
Oh.
Anyway, we need to get over to the site of what is now modern day battle.
So we'd had a little stop.
We made our way over there from Sussex, but we did have a little stop on the
tavern and that's where Melanie Melanie Melanie Melanie Melanie Melanie Melanie the mead. She said her hangover was so bad it felt like
she had a bloody arrow in the eye. She asked to go home. Got to battle at 8 a.m. a
a full hour before things kicked off. Very briefly Chris when these people are going to the one-day time machine? I'll pop it in a time machine? I'll pop a the the time in a the time in a the time in a the time in a the time in a the time the time the time the time the time the time the time the time time. the time time time. the time time time time time time time time time time. the time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time machine. I'm the time time machine. the time time time time time machine. the time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. I'll. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the to to the the to. the the the the the the the the. the. the. the. the. the. the. again. Yeah, exactly. You have to come back, return to the owner.
Like a boomerang.
It's like a time traveling boomer.
Time traveling boomer.
Think of it like that.
That makes it feel better.
that makes you feel better.
Um, yes.
Yes, so we got there. said, this is simply too heavy, I'm taking it off. And on account of the health and safety implications,
I suggested it's best he leaves if he doesn't want to wear a chain mail.
We're taking a position on top of the hill for the review of the battle,
which we soon realized, which is where the English has stood.
And then we remembered, the English lose this.
Allison Skoles rightly pointed out that William had also brought with him a load of archers, and she said, Joe, I don't really fancy this, so she went home.
After five hours of fighting, Rachel Jackson remembered that the battle goes on until
dusk and she said, and I quote, I'm getting fucking bored of all these guts being spilled.
So she went back to the medieval tavern, left us behind.
We had a half-decent view of King Harold getting an arrow through thuuuuuuuuuuuu., thoe, thu, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, th. So, th. So, I, I, tho, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm tho, I'ma, tho, tho. tho. tho'a. tho'a. tho'a. tho'a. tho'a. tho. tho. tho. tho. to the medieval tavern, left us behind. We had a half-decent view
of King Harold getting an arrow through the iron into the brain, and on seeing this Richard
Bicknell threw up immediately. His chain mail was just covered in vomit, so he went over to
like a nearby little lake to try and clear it up. But Michael McLaughlin, being a bit of a suck-up, ran straight over to congratulate Will in the conqueror, to conquer, to conquer, th, to conquer, th, the conquer, th, th, the conquer, th, th, the conquer, the conquer, th, th, the th, the th, the th, th, the th, soo, soo, soo, soo, soo, soo, soo, soo, soo, some, somea, some, some, and th. So, and th. So, and th. So, and th. So, and th, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and th, and th, and th, and th. So, and th. So, and th. So, and the the the the the the the the the the the the the the, the the the the, the, the, the, thean, thean, thean, thean, thean, thean, thean, they,, informing him that he'd, and I quote, absolutely battered the English and was,
and I quote once again, a top man. But by now it was getting quite dark and Michael was
angling for a place in William's new cablet, so I left him to it and returned home in the one-day
time machine. Thank you so much to all our oh-what a Time full-timers. Hope you enjoyed that one. If you want to partake in the next history adventure,
go sign up at O What Time.com, you can sign up
by another slice.
All those people I just mentioned,
just recently signed up on another slice,
but you can also sign up by Spotify and Apple.
For all the links, go to O What a Time and and you'll get bonus episodes and all that other good stuff the tho tho tho tho tho tho tho.. tho. to tho. to to to to tho. to to to tho. to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the to the to to down their chain mile and was left by a
late, you didn't collect them, seemingly, so they're just there.
I just thought, it's chain mail such a nightmare to get vomit out.
Yeah, yeah.
It gets in the little sort of...
It's so bloody in the caps, doesn't it? It's fiddly. I used to have a pair of Adidas Samoa trainers
and the grips on the soul were tiny little
adidas tree foils and I stood in dog mess in those shoes
and it was absolutely horrendous getting it.
And that is what being sick on the chairman is like.
If you learn one thing from this podcast, let it be that.
Thanks joining us guys.
We'll see you next week.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye. Oh I the today you