Boxed In

This is an iHeart podcast.

This show is sponsored by American Public University.

American Public University is the number one provider of education to our military and veterans in the country.

They offer something truly unique, special rates and grants for the entire family, making education affordable not just for those who serve, but also for their loved ones.

If you have a military or veteran family member and are looking for affordable, high-quality education, APU is the place for you.

Visit apu.apus.edu slash military to learn more.

That's apu.apus.edu slash military.

Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

Radio technology has always been complicated, but we still use it every day.

Wi-Fi operates on radio frequencies, which means that you're probably listening to this podcast right now because of radio.

You probably can't explain how it works, but don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to.

But I am going to tell you to feel grateful because while today we may have our own high-functioning radio transmitters in the form of Wi-Fi routers, 100 years ago, a radio transmitter was a rare, expensive, and dangerous piece of equipment that few people had in their homes.

And it took a boxing match of all things to change that.

In 1921, J.

Andrew White was a 31-year-old Radio Corporation of America employee who had served in the Army Signal Corps in World War I.

This meant that he was a radio expert, which was still a new technology at the time.

And because of this, he was approached by promoters from Madison Square Garden who had the crazy idea to transmit the upcoming fight between world boxing champions Jack Dempsey and George Carpentier.

They wanted to transmit to different radios all over New England and as far away as Ohio and charge people a fee to listen at various local theaters.

And White jumped at the chance to make this happen.

You see, at the time, radio was the domain of hobbyists and the government, and he knew that this would prove that the technology deserved a wider place in society.

Working with the team, he set about creating the infrastructure to make the broadcast possible.

The fight would take place in July at a makeshift arena in New Jersey, and as such, there was no antenna or transmitter available at the actual site of the fight.

To find suitable equipment, White and his team had to search far and wide.

The only suitable transmitter they could find belonged to the United States Navy.

and so they had a meeting with none other than the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The young future president believed in helping civilian projects whenever he could, and so he readily agreed to lend the transmitter as long as the Navy received a small cut of the profits.

The transmitter was transported to New Jersey, but it still needed an antenna.

White had to run a telephone line all the way from the arena to a nearby train station, where he rigged a massive antenna from a local clock tower.

The transmitter was housed at the station, and White had one of the assistants guard it day and night.

And after this, White secured a broadcasting license from the government to broadcast his own unique radio station called WJY.

Amateurs were hired across the country to man their own radio and speaker setups at local theaters.

The promoters did everything they could to drum up interest in the big day.

And then, AT ⁇ T came along and tried to ruin the whole thing.

The company, just a few decades old at the time, came out of nowhere right before the fight and claimed that they wouldn't allow one of their telephone lines to be used in a radio broadcast.

Essentially, they saw the Radio Corporation of America, RCA, as a competitor and didn't want to help them.

White had to think up a new plan on very short notice.

His final workaround proved to be his cleverest idea so far.

He would report on the fight from Ringside, talking on the phone to one of his assistants at the train station.

They would then type up the play-by-play commentary for yet another assistant to read out over the radio.

They even had a gong in the booth to simulate the gong from the ring.

Listeners all over the country would actually be listening to a slightly delayed report of the fight, but they were none the wiser.

With the exciting commentary and the sound of the gong, they were completely drawn in.

Some listeners even later reported that they could hear the sound of the crowd, although this was entirely in their imagination.

Jack Dempsey knocked out George Carpentier in the fourth round.

And as excited as the people were to watch the fight in New Jersey, hundreds of thousands of people around the country were just as thrilled to be listening in their own hometowns.

Of course, they had no way of knowing how much hard work had been done to make it all possible.

In fact, the assistant who read out the fight over the radio, J.O.

Smith, ended the match in worse shape than Carpentier.

It seems that he was temporarily blinded by the bright burning tubes of the radio transmitter and even burned his hands when one of those tubes exploded and had to be switched out out mid-fight.

But it did the trick.

Over the next few years, radio sales skyrocketed, and the rest is history.

Men like J.

Andrew White and J.O.

Smith let their curiosity guide them, and it changed entertainment forever.

Without them, you might not be listening to me right now.

So be thankful for that and for the later developments that made it possible for your phone to do amazing things, like not explode in your hand or blind you.

This show is sponsored by American Public University.

Balancing work, family, and education isn't easy, but American Public University makes it possible.

With online courses, monthly start dates, and flexible schedules, APU is designed for busy professionals who need education that fits their lives.

And affordability matters too.

APU offers the Opportunity Grant, giving students 10% off undergraduate and master's level tuition, helping you reach your goals without breaking the bank.

Plus, they provide career services and 24-7 mental health support at no extra cost.

Visit apu.apus.edu to learn more.

That's apu.apus.edu.

Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees.

Just ask the Capital One Bank guy.

It's pretty much all he talks about.

In a good way.

He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too.

Aw, really?

Thanks, Capital One Bank Guy.

What's in your wallet?

Terms apply.

See capital one.com slash bank.

Capital One NA member FDIC.

For most people, fear works as evolution intended, keeping them out of dangerous situations.

But for others, fear is more of a challenge, a call to face whatever obstacles might be standing standing in their way.

Cave divers definitely fall into that second category.

They squeeze into narrow spaces that most of us would only visit in our nightmares, trying to prove to themselves that it won't kill them.

Most of the time, they're right, but sometimes the cave wins.

A word of warning, the story is not for those with claustrophobia.

About an hour south of Salt Lake City, Utah is a place called Nutty Putty Cave.

It's not the kind of high-ceilinged, stalactite-filled cave that you might be used to.

It's a series of very tight passages, most of them no bigger than the opening of a washing machine.

It was discovered in 1960 by diver Dale Green, who named it after the clay that forms in its humid tunnels.

Thousands of divers flock to the cave every year to test themselves against its narrow, twisty passages.

But the cave was closed in 2006 after multiple rescue missions.

No one died, but one young man was hospitalized for days.

It was becoming too common for divers to go at night without proper equipment and then become stuck.

Typically, rescue teams had to then enter the cave, tie a rope around the stuck person's foot, pulling them free.

The cave eventually reopened in 2009 after the state instituted an application process for visitors.

Now they had to prove that they had all the necessary training and equipment.

And that very same year, two brothers signed up, Josh and John Jones.

As kids, they'd been on many cave exploration trips with their father.

Although they hadn't been on any trips for a few years, they thought that it would be a fun way to relive old memories.

And so they descended into the cave, headlamps guiding their way.

They crawled through the biggest chamber, first known as the Big Slide, which is big enough for a diver to turn around in.

But after this, they wanted more of a challenge.

Josh and John decided to look for the Birth Canal, a narrow passage that only the most experienced divers could pass through.

They proceeded through the most narrow sections of the cave.

These are such tight spaces that you could stretch out your hand to where it's touching both the top and the bottom of of the cave at once.

John was in the lead, and he thought he was approaching the birth canal.

He thought the cave would open up there where he could turn back around.

But in reality, he and Josh had made a wrong turn.

They were in an even more narrow, uncharted part of the cave.

Suddenly, John fell forward, his body going from fully horizontal to fully vertical.

One arm was trapped underneath him, and the other arm trapped to his side.

He was stuck, upside down.

At first, Josh, still behind him, thought that he could pull him free, but it was no use.

Josh crawled back out of the cave and called 911 before returning to his brother.

But the climb from the spot where John was stuck can take as much as one hour each way.

By the time rescue teams arrived, John was still conscious, but he was frightened.

They tried the traditional pulley system, hammering studs into the cave walls that could then be rigged with ropes and pulleys to try to create leverage to pull John out.

They also considered using vegetable oil to slide him out, but none of these would work.

As rescue diver Brandon Kowala soon realized, John was at such an angle that he couldn't be pulled out without breaking his legs.

There wasn't enough space at the top of the tunnel for his legs to clear.

It would be like trying to move a couch around a tight corner in an apartment with no way to pivot.

The rescue team even brought power tools to try and chisel John out, but the space was too narrow to angle them properly.

Eventually, rescue diver Brandon saw John's legs spasming.

Blood and fluid had started to pool in his brain and lungs after being upside down for hours.

His blood couldn't circulate and had become toxic.

He couldn't breathe.

John Jones passed away just before midnight.

It was a tragic end to what was supposed to be a fun family outing.

Even more tragically, the divers couldn't recover John's body.

The caves were finally sealed with cement, having proven that they were more than humans could handle.

A plaque was left in John's honor.

It's a curious tomb with several winding passageways going in all directions, but only one of those passageways contains a body, one that will forever be trapped upside down.

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 CuriositiesPodcast.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 theworldoflore.com.

And until next time, stay curious.

This show is sponsored by American Public University.

American Public University is the number one provider of education to our military and veterans in the country.

They offer something truly unique, special rates and grants for the entire family, making education affordable not just for those who serve, but also for their loved ones.

If you have a military or veteran family member and are looking for affordable, high-quality education, APU is the place for you.

Visit apu.apus.edu/slash military to learn more.

That's apu.apus.edu slash military.

This is an iHeart Podcast.