APM Studios
Joy has a top secret message to deliver. There’s just one problem– she’s locked outside without her computer or phone! How will she send her VERY important message?
Join Joy and co-host Cassandra as they explore the different ways people sent messages in the past, from smoke signals to trained pigeons. Plus, how the U.S. Postal Service started as a secret way to smack talk the British during the American Revolution. Signed, sealed, delivered, with a fresh round of First Things First!
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[BIRDS CHIRPING] CASSANDRA: Well, thanks so much for taking me on that tour of the Forever Ago topiary garden, Joy.
JOY DOLO: Of course, Cassandra, it's a beautiful day to be outside looking at all the different ways hedges can be trimmed into shapes.
CASSANDRA: I thought that rosebush did really look like a wedge of Parmesan cheese.
JOY DOLO: Hah, I thought it looked like a wedge of cheddar cheese, or maybe Gouda. No, definitely Manchego. All right, let's head back inside--
[RATTLING DOOR KNOB]
--and-- oh no.
[RATTLING DOOR KNOB]
The door is locked.
CASSANDRA: Do you have the key?
JOY DOLO: I left it inside.
CASSANDRA: What about your phone?
JOY DOLO: Inside.
CASSANDRA: Laptop?
JOY DOLO: Inside.
[BANGING DOOR]
CASSANDRA: Let us in. Hello. Please, we're stuck out here.
[BANGING DOOR]
JOY DOLO: Oh, there's no one else here. They all went to the grocery store to buy cheese. You can't sculpt the perfect Manchego-shaped topiary without inspiration, Cassandra.
CASSANDRA: Makes sense. Well, at least it's beautiful outside and we can just hang out and enjoy each other's company until they get back.
JOY DOLO: I do enjoy your company, but I have a very important and urgent message that I need to send right away. And if I can't text or email or call, I don't know what I'm going to do.
CASSANDRA: Don't worry, Joy. We'll figure something out.
[THEME MUSIC]
JOY DOLO: You're listening to Forever Ago from APM Studios. I'm your host, Joy Dolo, and I'm here today with Cassandra from Wellington, New Zealand.
CASSANDRA: Hi, Joy.
JOY DOLO: Today, we're talking all about messages. Cassandra, you sent a great question to us about this.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, I want to know how sending messages has changed throughout history.
JOY DOLO: Well, what made you think of this question?
CASSANDRA: Well, my dad told me that my great granddad, he was in the war in Egypt. And he was a postman. And I was wondering, how that changed like before that and after that through history.
JOY DOLO: So how do you usually send messages?
CASSANDRA: I normally text or email-- prefer not to call because it gets kind of confusing.
JOY DOLO: Do you ever write letters?
CASSANDRA: I write letters to my overseas friends. They occasionally reply. Sometimes we like trail off and don't write letters anymore, but occasionally, yeah, on their birthdays and stuff.
JOY DOLO: I used to do that too. Like my family's in Liberia in Africa, we used to write letters when I was younger to them. And it was like dear grandma, dear grandpa. And it always started off with how are you? I am fine.
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Always started off that way.
CASSANDRA: Like, I don't know what else I'm supposed to write.
[LAUGHTER]
JOY DOLO: Is there any old way of sending messages that you'd like to bring back?
CASSANDRA: I would like to know Morse code. That sounds very interesting.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, the beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat.
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Well, there are so many ways that people send messages today.
CASSANDRA: Text messages.
[BEEP]
JOY DOLO: Letters through the mail.
[PAPER CRINKLING]
CASSANDRA: Emails.
[SQUEAK]
JOY DOLO: And there are so many apps and websites that send messages too, like social media.
CASSANDRA: But unfortunately, being stuck out here without a phone or computer means that we can't send your urgent message.
JOY DOLO: The message needs to get there today. And the mail would take way too long. Think, Joy, think.
CASSANDRA: What is this message you need to send anyway?
JOY DOLO: [GASP] Oh, I know. I bet history has a solution to this problem. Quick, how did people send messages before computers and phones?
CASSANDRA: Well, I know about smoke signals.
JOY DOLO: Oh, right. I've heard of those. Tell me everything.
CASSANDRA: Well, think about it. Before we had modern technology, what's something from the natural world you could use to get a message to someone far away really quickly?
JOY DOLO: Yelling as loud as you can.
CASSANDRA: No, that's not what I was thinking of. I was thinking of smoke signals.
JOY DOLO: Oh, yeah, that's good, too. Yeah.
CASSANDRA: People would build a fire and then the smoke from the fire would rise up.
JOY DOLO: And then others could see that smoke from far away.
CASSANDRA: Exactly. People all over the world used to have different ways of using smoke to communicate.
[ADVENTUROUS TUNE]
I live in New Zealand and the Maori people there use smoke signals to send messages. If the smoke killed one way, it meant one thing. And if the smoke killed the opposite direction, it meant another.
JOY DOLO: Controlling the way the smoke moves sounds tricky. Impressive.
CASSANDRA: Indigenous people in North America and Australia also use smoke signals. But like language, different groups of people had different ways of doing it. So smoke signals meant different things depending on where you were in the world.
JOY DOLO: And they could control the way the smoke looked too. They could burn different things to make colored smoke or make the smoke plumes narrower or wider.
CASSANDRA: They could even cover and uncover the fire to release the smoke in different patterns.
JOY DOLO: And there were lots of different messages these signals could communicate like news, sightings of animals or people, requests for help or warnings.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, in ancient China, soldiers would send smoke signals from their towers along the Great Wall to warn of approaching enemies.
JOY DOLO: So awesome. OK, Cassandra, let's do it. Let's send our message through smoke signals.
CASSANDRA: Well, in order to send smoke signals, we need to find a spot that can be seen from far away.
JOY DOLO: Like a hill or a tower or a cliff? I love cliffs.
CASSANDRA: And then come up with a system for what the signals mean.
JOY DOLO: No problem. I once spoke in my own made up language for a week. Or should I say [SPEAKS MADE-UP LANGUAGE].
CASSANDRA: And then we would make sure the person receiving the message also understood what we meant.
JOY DOLO: Great. I'll just text them to let them know the code.
CASSANDRA: Joy--
JOY DOLO: Oh, right. I don't have a way to send text messages right now because my phone is locked inside, which is why we started talking about this in the first place.
CASSANDRA: Right.
JOY DOLO: Well, maybe we should try smoke signals anyway. Except I don't have anything to make a fire. All I have in my pockets is string cheese, a pen, the world's tiniest violin,
[VIOLIN MUSIC]
--a gum wrapper,
[CRINKLING PAPER]
--and-- ooh, all these breadcrumbs.
CASSANDRA: Breadcrumbs?
JOY DOLO: You never know when you might need some Italian seasoned crunch. Am I right?
[LAUGHS]
[WATER SPLASH] Gah, my crumbs!
[WAVES CRASHING]
[PIGEON COOING]
No, back off, pigeons. Those are my crumbs.
CASSANDRA: Oh, my.
JOY DOLO: Wait a second. Pigeons! They're the answer. That's it. [COOS] Here, pigey, pigey. Here, pigey, pigey. Come here, pigeon. Come here, pigey, pigey. Pii-gey.
CASSANDRA: Uh, Joy, what do you mean by pigeons are the answer?
JOY DOLO: Pigeons could be the answer to our message problem. Did you know that for thousands of years, people trained pigeons to send messages?
CASSANDRA: Oh, yeah, I've heard of that. They're called carrier pigeons.
JOY DOLO: Yes. Also known as homing pigeons. In ancient Greece, people used these pigeons to declare the winners of Olympic champions from town to town.
CASSANDRA: How did it work?
[ADVENTUROUS TUNE]
JOY DOLO: Pigeons have a great sense of direction, so people would train them to always fly back to their home location.
CASSANDRA: Homing pigeons fly home. Makes sense.
JOY DOLO: Exactly. Once the pigeons were trained, people transported the birds to different towns or areas and waited until they needed to deliver a message.
CASSANDRA: Wow, I didn't realize using homing pigeons took so much planning.
JOY DOLO: Right? When you had a message to deliver, you would write your message on a piece of paper, roll it up, and attach it to a pigeon's leg. Then you'd release the pigeon and it would fly back to its home location to deliver the message.
CASSANDRA: That's impressive.
JOY DOLO: Homing pigeons were used well into the 20th century, including during wars like World War II.
CASSANDRA: Right. World War II was a huge war that happened 80 years ago, starting in Europe. There was no internet, but phones and radio had already been invented then. So why didn't the soldiers just use those to talk to each other?
JOY DOLO: Well, during the war, phone lines or radio weren't always reliable. Sometimes, they'd go down during battle or messages could be heard by the enemy, so soldiers turned to pigeons.
[MARCHING TUNE]
Homing pigeons were a speedy way to deliver messages to military bases. Some pigeons could fly hundreds of miles in a single day, zipping through the air as fast as 60 miles per hour.
CASSANDRA: That's so fast for such a tiny bird.
JOY DOLO: These pigeons delivered life-saving messages throughout the war. And some of them were even awarded medals for their service.
[PIGEON COOING]
Oh, hey, pigey. I bet you're just as honorable and speedy. I know, I'll write my very important, urgent message on the back of this gum wrapper.
[PEN SCRIBBLING]
Roll it up.
[PAPER CRINKLING]
And hmm-- how can I attach it?
CASSANDRA: The string cheese.
JOY DOLO: Ah, Cassandra, genius. Here, pigey, pigey.
[WARBLES]
[PIGEON COOING]
Good pigey. And ta da! Now fly, my fast friend. The fate of the world rests on your wings. Fly, fly!
[WINGS FLAPPING]
CASSANDRA: Joy, what on Earth did you write on that gum wrapper?
JOY DOLO: Oh, you mean my extremely important, urgent message? Well, it says--
[WINGS FLAPPING]
[PIGEON COOING]
Hey, pigey, why are you landing in that tree? You've got a message to send.
[PIGEON COOING]
Whatever you do, don't you dare eat that string cheese.
CASSANDRA: Oh, he's definitely eating the string cheese on his leg.
JOY DOLO: Nooo-- my extremely important, urgent message-- thwarted again.
CASSANDRA: At least the pigeon was very well fed.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, I guess that's true.
[PIGEON COOING]
You're welcome.
[ADVENTUROUS TUNE]
Let's take a moment to rest, reset, and play a game of--
KIDS: First Things First.
[THEME MUSIC]
JOY DOLO: This is the game where we take three things from history and try to put them in order of which came first, second, and most recent in time. We're sticking with the message memo and talking about three forms of messaging.
We've got semaphore, a system that uses flags to send messages. Pagers, which are little devices that beep, and pneumatic tubes. Those are tubes that carry canisters containing messages through buildings using the power of air and suction. Cassandra, which do you think came first? Which came second? And which came most recently in history?
CASSANDRA: The first one, I think is it semaphore?
JOY DOLO: Semaphore? Yeah, the system of flags.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, I feel like that would be first because it seems the most simple.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
CASSANDRA: The next one I might think-- is it pagers?
JOY DOLO: Yeah, yeah, pagers.
CASSANDRA: They just beep, right. So I think that's pretty easy too.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, they used to be called beepers.
CASSANDRA: Yeah. And then the last one, I'm pretty sure the latest in history would probably be pneumatic tubes. They sound the most complicated, so I'm pretty sure they will come latest, I think.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, because it's got the air going in and out and bringing the tubes from one thing to another. Yeah.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, it sounds really complicated.
[LAUGHS]
JOY DOLO: All right, so we have semaphore, beepers, and then pneumatic tubes?
CASSANDRA: Mm-hm, yeah.
JOY DOLO: That's great. OK, so if you had to choose one of these to send a message, which one would you use?
CASSANDRA: I think the beeping ones, I think, because pagers-- because lots of people can understand it, I'm pretty sure.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, yeah. I don't think this will give anything away, but I was around when beepers were around.
CASSANDRA: Oh--
JOY DOLO: Yeah, and they are cool. They're like these little bricks that you put on your body and they're all heavy. You can always see people checking their beepers. And then you got to check the beeper and then you go find a payphone and then you call someone because like, oh, you beeped me?
CASSANDRA: It's like a phone, but like they beep instead?
JOY DOLO: Yeah, yeah. So you couldn't get any-- it's just like it beeps and then you get a number. You don't get any messages or anything. It's like it beeps and it means that you got to call this number.
[LAUGHTER]
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Well, I don't think that'll ruin the game. I don't know when they were invented or when they were around, but I know what they are. And that makes me as old as time. So, we'll hear the answers at the end of the episode right after the credits.
CASSANDRA: So stick around.
[ADVENTUROUS TUNE]
JOY DOLO: We've been talking all about different ways we've sent messages in the past, but we asked you, our Forever Ago listeners to send in ideas for how we might send messages in the future. Here's what you had to say.
ROSALIE: Hi, my name is Rosalie, and I think how messages will be sent in the future is you can have tubes built between you and another person's house. And then instead of having to have your mail or like your pictures or whatever you want to send, go through the whole mail system. You can just put it in a tube, press a button, and it'll go straight to their house.
ALEXANDER: Hi, my name is Alexander. I'm from Olathe, Kansas. But I think we would send messages in the future with sound-moving drones. Because when you talk to one of the drones, you-- the drone moves the voice all the way to the person who you want to talk to.
FIONA: My name is Fiona, and I'm from Bar Harbor, Maine. And I think messages from the future would be robots carrying messages to us.
ARIA: Hi, Forever Ago. My name is Aria. And I'm-- and I'm from Andover, Vermont. In my way, I think, we're going to send messages in the future is to the box and it's metal. And you put your note in the box. And then there's a drone. And then you program and then you press the button to wherever you want the drone to fly and then put it in the number code. And then it flies straight to wherever you want it to fly to, straight to that person's door.
AYLA: My name is Ayla. I'm from Minneapolis, Minnesota. My idea for messages of the future is a bubble that you can choose the color of and write a message to put it in. And you can also choose the shape of it.
JOY DOLO: Thanks, everyone, for sending in those amazing ideas for how we'll send messages in the future. Cassandra, how would you send a message in the future?
CASSANDRA: I was thinking, in the future, we could have these mind caps. And then we could think of what other people are thinking-- not really what they're thinking but what they want to send to you. Like, telepathically send it to you. I thought that would be--
JOY DOLO: Like through your brain?
CASSANDRA: Yeah, so no one else could know. It's only just like you and them kind of.
JOY DOLO: Oh, that'd be so cool. So you put on your phone hat--
[LAUGHS]
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Yep. And then it's like OK, well, I have my very important message. I just sent you a message in my phone cap. Did you get what I-- did you get what I sent you?
CASSANDRA: Yeah, and yeah, I got the message.
[LAUGHTER]
JOY DOLO: Listeners, we love hearing from you. If you have a question about history or ideas for a future episode, send it to us at foreverago.org/contact.
CASSANDRA: And keep listening.
CREW: Brains on Universe is a family of podcasts for kids and their adults. Since you're a fan of Forever Ago, we know you'll love the other shows in our universe. Come on, let's explore.
[JET BOOMING OVERHEAD]
ALIEN: Here we are in Brains on Universe.
[CHIMES]
Home to my favorite podcasts,
[BEEPS]
Brains On!
[BEEPS]
Smash Boom Best.
[BEEPS]
Forever Ago. [GASPS] I found one. Smash Boom Best, the smart, funny debate show.
[BEEPS]
SPEAKER 1: Please give us the skinny on why seashells are superior.
SPEAKER 2: Ultimately, seashells are great because beach.
[LAUGHTER]
[BEEPS]
ALIEN: Ah, what a great show.
[BEEPS]
Need more Smash Boom Best now.
CREW: Listen to Smash Boom Best wherever you get your podcasts.
[THEME MUSIC]
JOY DOLO: You're listening to Forever Ago. I'm Joy.
CASSANDRA: And I'm Cassandra.
JOY DOLO: And we're trying to figure out how to send a very urgent message without phones or computers. Turns out it's not easy.
CASSANDRA: We thought about using smoke signals.
JOY DOLO: But we didn't have a system for what the different kinds of smoke meant or a cliff or anything to build a fire with.
CASSANDRA: And then we tried sending the message by pigeon.
JOY DOLO: But the pigeon was very uncooperative. And now, it thinks it can just hang out on my shoulder waiting for more string cheese. Well, keep waiting because I'm all out.
[PIGEON COOING]
CASSANDRA: Yeah, you kind of skipped the whole train the pigeon to deliver the message as part of the process.
JOY DOLO: Oh, maybe I should just try yelling the message.
CASSANDRA: Joy, we talked about that already. You do have a very loud voice, but even you can't yell that far. Let's think. How do people send messages before the postal system?
[PIGEON COOING]
JOY DOLO: Pigey would like you to explain what the postal system is.
CASSANDRA: It's a network of mail carriers, post offices, trains, planes, and trucks that get letters and packages from one place to another.
JOY DOLO: I'm always amazed that I can put a letter in a mailbox and it will eventually arrive at its destination, like the many, many Christmas cards I send every year. They're heavier than normal Christmas cards because they have a surprise inside.
CASSANDRA: What's the surprise?
JOY DOLO: I can't tell you because it's a surprise. But it rhymes with [SPEAKS MADE-UP LANGUAGE].
CASSANDRA: A signed headshot of Joy Dolo?
JOY DOLO: Huh, how'd you guess? Shoot, now I have to think of something else. Hmm, maybe [SPEAKS MADE-UP LANGUAGE].
CASSANDRA: Mustard packets?
JOY DOLO: Cassandra, stop being so good at guessing what I'm trying to hide from you.
CASSANDRA: May I suggest not saying it out loud?
JOY DOLO: Good point. Good point. Anyway, back to the postal service. Here in the United States, the postal service is about as old as the country itself. Let me set the scene.
[MARCHING TUNE]
It was the 1700s. English colonists had sailed to North America and claimed land on the East Coast for themselves.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, even though Indigenous people have been living there for a really long time already.
JOY DOLO: England set up colonies here and brought a lot of their own British customs and ways of doing things, including the British Postal Service. These mail carriers would deliver letters by foot or horse, since there were no cars or trucks or even trains back then.
CASSANDRA: Eventually, the colonists in North America got really fed up with the British rulers bossing them around.
JOY DOLO: If colonists sent mail through the British Postal Service, the British could open their letters and read them.
CASSANDRA: This made it pretty hard for colonists to complain about the British rulers or make plans against them.
JOY DOLO: So the colonists set up their own postal service where they could talk smack about the British rulers without them knowing.
CASSANDRA: They established their own post offices with their own mail delivery people.
JOY DOLO: They had to promise to keep the mail under lock and key until it arrived at its destination. So the colonists were able to make plans and exchange information without the British rulers reading it.
CASSANDRA: This flow of letters and information was super important for the planning of the American Revolution, where the colonists declared their independence from the British.
JOY DOLO: This led to a war, which the colonists won, and the birth of the United States of America.
CASSANDRA: And one of the first acts of the United States government was to turn this unofficial postal service into an official one.
JOY DOLO: And there are way older postal systems than the US or British ones. Ancient Persia, India, Rome, and China all had postal systems. They relied on horses and oxen to get the letters where they needed to go as fast as possible.
CASSANDRA: Hmm, any horses around here for us to use?
JOY DOLO: Um, no.
CASSANDRA: Oxen?
JOY DOLO: Also, no.
[PIGEON COOING]
No, pigey. We still don't have any more string cheese.
[PIGEON COOING]
I'll never get this super urgent and important message delivered in time.
CASSANDRA: I just realized, you never told me what the message is or where it's going. That might help to know.
JOY DOLO: Oh, gosh. So sorry. I was so caught up in the urgency of it all. I need to get this message to the deli across town before they close at 5:00 PM.
CASSANDRA: The deli? Is there a bagel emergency? Do you need to order more cheese as the inspiration for the cheese-themed topiary garden?
JOY DOLO: No, I need to let them know that my recent sandwich order had mayonnaise on it.
[SUSPENSEFUL TUNE]
CASSANDRA: That's the urgent message?
JOY DOLO: I hate mayonnaise. I need to register my complaint before the deli closes today. This can't happen again. It mustn't happen again. It shan't happen again.
CASSANDRA: That deli is like so close. If you start walking there now, you'll definitely make it before 5:00.
JOY DOLO: Oh, that sounds like a lot of work. Pigey, come here.
[PIGEON COOING]
What's in it for you? I'll buy you more string cheese if you fly this message to the deli.
[PIGEON COOING]
OK, fine. Two more string cheeses.
[PIGEON COOING]
10? That's absurd. I can do three more string cheeses.
[PIGEON COOING]
15? That's not how negotiations work. Five string cheeses. And that's my final offer.
[PIGEON COOING]
Thank you. Thank you for taking my message, pigey. Now, fly, pigey. Fly.
[WINGS FLAPPING]
We did it, Cassandra. The message is on its way.
CASSANDRA: Ah, Joy, the deli is in the other direction.
JOY DOLO: Pigey, come back.
[PIGEON COOING]
You're going the wrong way. I meant go north. You're going west. No, that's-- that's south. Pigey, pigey. No, no. Don't eat the string-- pigey, pigey, come back here.
[THEME MUSIC]
CASSANDRA: There have been so many different ways to send messages throughout history, from telephones and texting to the latest and email.
JOY DOLO: Many different Indigenous cultures across the world use smoke signals to communicate.
CASSANDRA: For thousands of years, people used homing pigeons to deliver their messages, including during World War II.
JOY DOLO: Different cultures have had their own versions of the postal service for centuries. In the US, the postal service became a way for colonists to plot against the British.
CASSANDRA: And this eventually led to the American Revolutionary War.
JOY DOLO: This episode was written by--
MOLLY BLOOM: Molly Bloom--
JOY DOLO: --and--
RUBY GUTHRIE: Ruby Guthrie.
JOY DOLO: It was produced by--
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Nico Gonzalez Wisler--
JOY DOLO: --and--
RUBY GUTHRIE: Ruby Guthrie.
JOY DOLO: Our editors are--
SHAHLA FARZAN: Shahla Farzan--
JOY DOLO: --and--
SANDEN TOTTEN: Sanden Totten.
JOY DOLO: Fact checking by--
RUBY GUTHRIE: Ruby Guthrie.
JOY DOLO: Engineering help from Alex Simpson and Peter Moltino, with sound design by--
RACHEL BREES: Rachel Brees.
JOY DOLO: Original theme music by--
MARC SANCHEZ: Marc Sanchez.
JOY DOLO: We had additional production help from the rest of the Brains on Universe team.
ROSIE DUPONT: Rosie DuPont,
ANNA GOLDFIELD: Anna Goldfield,
LAUREN HUMPERT: Lauren Humpert,
JOSHUA RAY: Joshua Ray,
MARC SANCHEZ: Marc Sanchez,
CHARLOTTE TRAVER: Charlotte Traver,
ANNA WEGGEL: Anna Weggel
JOY DOLO: --and--
ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Aron Woldeslassie.
JOY DOLO: Beth Pearlman is our executive producer. And the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks to Tomoyo and Simon Gibson and to Cassandra's great granddad, Don Gibson, for inspiring this question. And if you want access to ad free episodes and special bonus content, subscribe to our Smarty Pass.
OK, Cassandra, are you ready to hear the answers for First Things First?
CASSANDRA: Yeah!
JOY DOLO: Yeah! So as a reminder, we're putting these three messaging systems in order of when they were invented. We've got semaphore, a system that uses flags to send messages, pagers, also known as beepers, and pneumatic tubes. The system of tubes that carry canisters containing messages through buildings using the power of air and suction. And that is actually the same order that you put in, right, Cassandra?
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, I feel good for it, too. OK, here we go. Here we go. The big reveal. The big reveal. Oh, my gosh. OK, you did really well, Cassandra.
CASSANDRA: Did I?
JOY DOLO: So, first up, right out of the gate, you got it right. Semaphore was the oldest in history. Yeah. So that was invented in 1794. And so ancient cultures have used visual signals for centuries like smoke signals, but the official flag system was invented in 1794 in France.
The signer holds flags or paddles in each hand, then moves their arms in different positions and combinations to communicate different things. There's even a specific sign for each letter of the alphabet. Semaphore is still used by the US Navy today.
CASSANDRA: Oh, now that I think about it, my friend told me about some flag language that they used for boating.
JOY DOLO: Oh, really. OK, so maybe something in the ocean world, there's a lot more semaphore happening. So second up was actually pneumatic tubes.
CASSANDRA: Oh.
JOY DOLO: So those-- yeah, those were invented in the 1850s. So the British post office started building a huge network of pneumatic tubes to carry mail throughout London. And by 1886, London's postal tube system was over 30 miles long and carried over 30,000 messages every day.
By the early 1900s, systems like this started popping up in cities across the US like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Saint Louis. And most pneumatic tube systems phased out by the 1950s because they were too expensive to keep up. But some places like mail rooms and banks still use pneumatic tubes today.
CASSANDRA: Oh.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
CASSANDRA: I didn't think that they would still use it because it seems very complicated. So I thought they would make it more simple by now, but--
JOY DOLO: Yeah, you'd think so. [LAUGHS] And then last but certainly not least is pagers or beepers. The first pager-like device was invented in 1921. And the pager really took off decades later, starting in the 1980s. And by 1994, over 60 million people used pagers worldwide. Today, lots of hospital workers still use pagers to communicate.
CASSANDRA: Oh--
JOY DOLO: Well, would you look at that.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, so that means that they use basically all of them still.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, they're all still working. So these are things that are in our world, in our backyard. So we can go look up semaphores and pneumatic tubes and pagers.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, that's so cool.
JOY DOLO: Which one of these was most surprising for you?
CASSANDRA: I think the pneumatic tubes. I thought that was most surprising because I thought they would have moved on by now because it seems the most complicated and-- yeah.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, yeah. It does seem kind of like old school. You'd think there'd be like a new-- a new pneumatic tube.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, yeah, I thought so, too.
JOY DOLO: Maybe we should invent it.
CASSANDRA: Yeah. [LAUGHS] Just all the ways of messaging.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, yeah. We'll be back next week with an episode all about Jack o' lanterns.
CASSANDRA: Thanks for listening.
[THEME MUSIC]
JOY DOLO: Of course, Cassandra, it's a beautiful day to be outside looking at all the different ways hedges can be trimmed into shapes.
CASSANDRA: I thought that rosebush did really look like a wedge of Parmesan cheese.
JOY DOLO: Hah, I thought it looked like a wedge of cheddar cheese, or maybe Gouda. No, definitely Manchego. All right, let's head back inside--
[RATTLING DOOR KNOB]
--and-- oh no.
[RATTLING DOOR KNOB]
The door is locked.
CASSANDRA: Do you have the key?
JOY DOLO: I left it inside.
CASSANDRA: What about your phone?
JOY DOLO: Inside.
CASSANDRA: Laptop?
JOY DOLO: Inside.
[BANGING DOOR]
CASSANDRA: Let us in. Hello. Please, we're stuck out here.
[BANGING DOOR]
JOY DOLO: Oh, there's no one else here. They all went to the grocery store to buy cheese. You can't sculpt the perfect Manchego-shaped topiary without inspiration, Cassandra.
CASSANDRA: Makes sense. Well, at least it's beautiful outside and we can just hang out and enjoy each other's company until they get back.
JOY DOLO: I do enjoy your company, but I have a very important and urgent message that I need to send right away. And if I can't text or email or call, I don't know what I'm going to do.
CASSANDRA: Don't worry, Joy. We'll figure something out.
[THEME MUSIC]
JOY DOLO: You're listening to Forever Ago from APM Studios. I'm your host, Joy Dolo, and I'm here today with Cassandra from Wellington, New Zealand.
CASSANDRA: Hi, Joy.
JOY DOLO: Today, we're talking all about messages. Cassandra, you sent a great question to us about this.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, I want to know how sending messages has changed throughout history.
JOY DOLO: Well, what made you think of this question?
CASSANDRA: Well, my dad told me that my great granddad, he was in the war in Egypt. And he was a postman. And I was wondering, how that changed like before that and after that through history.
JOY DOLO: So how do you usually send messages?
CASSANDRA: I normally text or email-- prefer not to call because it gets kind of confusing.
JOY DOLO: Do you ever write letters?
CASSANDRA: I write letters to my overseas friends. They occasionally reply. Sometimes we like trail off and don't write letters anymore, but occasionally, yeah, on their birthdays and stuff.
JOY DOLO: I used to do that too. Like my family's in Liberia in Africa, we used to write letters when I was younger to them. And it was like dear grandma, dear grandpa. And it always started off with how are you? I am fine.
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Always started off that way.
CASSANDRA: Like, I don't know what else I'm supposed to write.
[LAUGHTER]
JOY DOLO: Is there any old way of sending messages that you'd like to bring back?
CASSANDRA: I would like to know Morse code. That sounds very interesting.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, the beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat.
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Well, there are so many ways that people send messages today.
CASSANDRA: Text messages.
[BEEP]
JOY DOLO: Letters through the mail.
[PAPER CRINKLING]
CASSANDRA: Emails.
[SQUEAK]
JOY DOLO: And there are so many apps and websites that send messages too, like social media.
CASSANDRA: But unfortunately, being stuck out here without a phone or computer means that we can't send your urgent message.
JOY DOLO: The message needs to get there today. And the mail would take way too long. Think, Joy, think.
CASSANDRA: What is this message you need to send anyway?
JOY DOLO: [GASP] Oh, I know. I bet history has a solution to this problem. Quick, how did people send messages before computers and phones?
CASSANDRA: Well, I know about smoke signals.
JOY DOLO: Oh, right. I've heard of those. Tell me everything.
CASSANDRA: Well, think about it. Before we had modern technology, what's something from the natural world you could use to get a message to someone far away really quickly?
JOY DOLO: Yelling as loud as you can.
CASSANDRA: No, that's not what I was thinking of. I was thinking of smoke signals.
JOY DOLO: Oh, yeah, that's good, too. Yeah.
CASSANDRA: People would build a fire and then the smoke from the fire would rise up.
JOY DOLO: And then others could see that smoke from far away.
CASSANDRA: Exactly. People all over the world used to have different ways of using smoke to communicate.
[ADVENTUROUS TUNE]
I live in New Zealand and the Maori people there use smoke signals to send messages. If the smoke killed one way, it meant one thing. And if the smoke killed the opposite direction, it meant another.
JOY DOLO: Controlling the way the smoke moves sounds tricky. Impressive.
CASSANDRA: Indigenous people in North America and Australia also use smoke signals. But like language, different groups of people had different ways of doing it. So smoke signals meant different things depending on where you were in the world.
JOY DOLO: And they could control the way the smoke looked too. They could burn different things to make colored smoke or make the smoke plumes narrower or wider.
CASSANDRA: They could even cover and uncover the fire to release the smoke in different patterns.
JOY DOLO: And there were lots of different messages these signals could communicate like news, sightings of animals or people, requests for help or warnings.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, in ancient China, soldiers would send smoke signals from their towers along the Great Wall to warn of approaching enemies.
JOY DOLO: So awesome. OK, Cassandra, let's do it. Let's send our message through smoke signals.
CASSANDRA: Well, in order to send smoke signals, we need to find a spot that can be seen from far away.
JOY DOLO: Like a hill or a tower or a cliff? I love cliffs.
CASSANDRA: And then come up with a system for what the signals mean.
JOY DOLO: No problem. I once spoke in my own made up language for a week. Or should I say [SPEAKS MADE-UP LANGUAGE].
CASSANDRA: And then we would make sure the person receiving the message also understood what we meant.
JOY DOLO: Great. I'll just text them to let them know the code.
CASSANDRA: Joy--
JOY DOLO: Oh, right. I don't have a way to send text messages right now because my phone is locked inside, which is why we started talking about this in the first place.
CASSANDRA: Right.
JOY DOLO: Well, maybe we should try smoke signals anyway. Except I don't have anything to make a fire. All I have in my pockets is string cheese, a pen, the world's tiniest violin,
[VIOLIN MUSIC]
--a gum wrapper,
[CRINKLING PAPER]
--and-- ooh, all these breadcrumbs.
CASSANDRA: Breadcrumbs?
JOY DOLO: You never know when you might need some Italian seasoned crunch. Am I right?
[LAUGHS]
[WATER SPLASH] Gah, my crumbs!
[WAVES CRASHING]
[PIGEON COOING]
No, back off, pigeons. Those are my crumbs.
CASSANDRA: Oh, my.
JOY DOLO: Wait a second. Pigeons! They're the answer. That's it. [COOS] Here, pigey, pigey. Here, pigey, pigey. Come here, pigeon. Come here, pigey, pigey. Pii-gey.
CASSANDRA: Uh, Joy, what do you mean by pigeons are the answer?
JOY DOLO: Pigeons could be the answer to our message problem. Did you know that for thousands of years, people trained pigeons to send messages?
CASSANDRA: Oh, yeah, I've heard of that. They're called carrier pigeons.
JOY DOLO: Yes. Also known as homing pigeons. In ancient Greece, people used these pigeons to declare the winners of Olympic champions from town to town.
CASSANDRA: How did it work?
[ADVENTUROUS TUNE]
JOY DOLO: Pigeons have a great sense of direction, so people would train them to always fly back to their home location.
CASSANDRA: Homing pigeons fly home. Makes sense.
JOY DOLO: Exactly. Once the pigeons were trained, people transported the birds to different towns or areas and waited until they needed to deliver a message.
CASSANDRA: Wow, I didn't realize using homing pigeons took so much planning.
JOY DOLO: Right? When you had a message to deliver, you would write your message on a piece of paper, roll it up, and attach it to a pigeon's leg. Then you'd release the pigeon and it would fly back to its home location to deliver the message.
CASSANDRA: That's impressive.
JOY DOLO: Homing pigeons were used well into the 20th century, including during wars like World War II.
CASSANDRA: Right. World War II was a huge war that happened 80 years ago, starting in Europe. There was no internet, but phones and radio had already been invented then. So why didn't the soldiers just use those to talk to each other?
JOY DOLO: Well, during the war, phone lines or radio weren't always reliable. Sometimes, they'd go down during battle or messages could be heard by the enemy, so soldiers turned to pigeons.
[MARCHING TUNE]
Homing pigeons were a speedy way to deliver messages to military bases. Some pigeons could fly hundreds of miles in a single day, zipping through the air as fast as 60 miles per hour.
CASSANDRA: That's so fast for such a tiny bird.
JOY DOLO: These pigeons delivered life-saving messages throughout the war. And some of them were even awarded medals for their service.
[PIGEON COOING]
Oh, hey, pigey. I bet you're just as honorable and speedy. I know, I'll write my very important, urgent message on the back of this gum wrapper.
[PEN SCRIBBLING]
Roll it up.
[PAPER CRINKLING]
And hmm-- how can I attach it?
CASSANDRA: The string cheese.
JOY DOLO: Ah, Cassandra, genius. Here, pigey, pigey.
[WARBLES]
[PIGEON COOING]
Good pigey. And ta da! Now fly, my fast friend. The fate of the world rests on your wings. Fly, fly!
[WINGS FLAPPING]
CASSANDRA: Joy, what on Earth did you write on that gum wrapper?
JOY DOLO: Oh, you mean my extremely important, urgent message? Well, it says--
[WINGS FLAPPING]
[PIGEON COOING]
Hey, pigey, why are you landing in that tree? You've got a message to send.
[PIGEON COOING]
Whatever you do, don't you dare eat that string cheese.
CASSANDRA: Oh, he's definitely eating the string cheese on his leg.
JOY DOLO: Nooo-- my extremely important, urgent message-- thwarted again.
CASSANDRA: At least the pigeon was very well fed.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, I guess that's true.
[PIGEON COOING]
You're welcome.
[ADVENTUROUS TUNE]
Let's take a moment to rest, reset, and play a game of--
KIDS: First Things First.
[THEME MUSIC]
JOY DOLO: This is the game where we take three things from history and try to put them in order of which came first, second, and most recent in time. We're sticking with the message memo and talking about three forms of messaging.
We've got semaphore, a system that uses flags to send messages. Pagers, which are little devices that beep, and pneumatic tubes. Those are tubes that carry canisters containing messages through buildings using the power of air and suction. Cassandra, which do you think came first? Which came second? And which came most recently in history?
CASSANDRA: The first one, I think is it semaphore?
JOY DOLO: Semaphore? Yeah, the system of flags.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, I feel like that would be first because it seems the most simple.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
CASSANDRA: The next one I might think-- is it pagers?
JOY DOLO: Yeah, yeah, pagers.
CASSANDRA: They just beep, right. So I think that's pretty easy too.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, they used to be called beepers.
CASSANDRA: Yeah. And then the last one, I'm pretty sure the latest in history would probably be pneumatic tubes. They sound the most complicated, so I'm pretty sure they will come latest, I think.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, because it's got the air going in and out and bringing the tubes from one thing to another. Yeah.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, it sounds really complicated.
[LAUGHS]
JOY DOLO: All right, so we have semaphore, beepers, and then pneumatic tubes?
CASSANDRA: Mm-hm, yeah.
JOY DOLO: That's great. OK, so if you had to choose one of these to send a message, which one would you use?
CASSANDRA: I think the beeping ones, I think, because pagers-- because lots of people can understand it, I'm pretty sure.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, yeah. I don't think this will give anything away, but I was around when beepers were around.
CASSANDRA: Oh--
JOY DOLO: Yeah, and they are cool. They're like these little bricks that you put on your body and they're all heavy. You can always see people checking their beepers. And then you got to check the beeper and then you go find a payphone and then you call someone because like, oh, you beeped me?
CASSANDRA: It's like a phone, but like they beep instead?
JOY DOLO: Yeah, yeah. So you couldn't get any-- it's just like it beeps and then you get a number. You don't get any messages or anything. It's like it beeps and it means that you got to call this number.
[LAUGHTER]
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Well, I don't think that'll ruin the game. I don't know when they were invented or when they were around, but I know what they are. And that makes me as old as time. So, we'll hear the answers at the end of the episode right after the credits.
CASSANDRA: So stick around.
[ADVENTUROUS TUNE]
JOY DOLO: We've been talking all about different ways we've sent messages in the past, but we asked you, our Forever Ago listeners to send in ideas for how we might send messages in the future. Here's what you had to say.
ROSALIE: Hi, my name is Rosalie, and I think how messages will be sent in the future is you can have tubes built between you and another person's house. And then instead of having to have your mail or like your pictures or whatever you want to send, go through the whole mail system. You can just put it in a tube, press a button, and it'll go straight to their house.
ALEXANDER: Hi, my name is Alexander. I'm from Olathe, Kansas. But I think we would send messages in the future with sound-moving drones. Because when you talk to one of the drones, you-- the drone moves the voice all the way to the person who you want to talk to.
FIONA: My name is Fiona, and I'm from Bar Harbor, Maine. And I think messages from the future would be robots carrying messages to us.
ARIA: Hi, Forever Ago. My name is Aria. And I'm-- and I'm from Andover, Vermont. In my way, I think, we're going to send messages in the future is to the box and it's metal. And you put your note in the box. And then there's a drone. And then you program and then you press the button to wherever you want the drone to fly and then put it in the number code. And then it flies straight to wherever you want it to fly to, straight to that person's door.
AYLA: My name is Ayla. I'm from Minneapolis, Minnesota. My idea for messages of the future is a bubble that you can choose the color of and write a message to put it in. And you can also choose the shape of it.
JOY DOLO: Thanks, everyone, for sending in those amazing ideas for how we'll send messages in the future. Cassandra, how would you send a message in the future?
CASSANDRA: I was thinking, in the future, we could have these mind caps. And then we could think of what other people are thinking-- not really what they're thinking but what they want to send to you. Like, telepathically send it to you. I thought that would be--
JOY DOLO: Like through your brain?
CASSANDRA: Yeah, so no one else could know. It's only just like you and them kind of.
JOY DOLO: Oh, that'd be so cool. So you put on your phone hat--
[LAUGHS]
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Yep. And then it's like OK, well, I have my very important message. I just sent you a message in my phone cap. Did you get what I-- did you get what I sent you?
CASSANDRA: Yeah, and yeah, I got the message.
[LAUGHTER]
JOY DOLO: Listeners, we love hearing from you. If you have a question about history or ideas for a future episode, send it to us at foreverago.org/contact.
CASSANDRA: And keep listening.
CREW: Brains on Universe is a family of podcasts for kids and their adults. Since you're a fan of Forever Ago, we know you'll love the other shows in our universe. Come on, let's explore.
[JET BOOMING OVERHEAD]
ALIEN: Here we are in Brains on Universe.
[CHIMES]
Home to my favorite podcasts,
[BEEPS]
Brains On!
[BEEPS]
Smash Boom Best.
[BEEPS]
Forever Ago. [GASPS] I found one. Smash Boom Best, the smart, funny debate show.
[BEEPS]
SPEAKER 1: Please give us the skinny on why seashells are superior.
SPEAKER 2: Ultimately, seashells are great because beach.
[LAUGHTER]
[BEEPS]
ALIEN: Ah, what a great show.
[BEEPS]
Need more Smash Boom Best now.
CREW: Listen to Smash Boom Best wherever you get your podcasts.
[THEME MUSIC]
JOY DOLO: You're listening to Forever Ago. I'm Joy.
CASSANDRA: And I'm Cassandra.
JOY DOLO: And we're trying to figure out how to send a very urgent message without phones or computers. Turns out it's not easy.
CASSANDRA: We thought about using smoke signals.
JOY DOLO: But we didn't have a system for what the different kinds of smoke meant or a cliff or anything to build a fire with.
CASSANDRA: And then we tried sending the message by pigeon.
JOY DOLO: But the pigeon was very uncooperative. And now, it thinks it can just hang out on my shoulder waiting for more string cheese. Well, keep waiting because I'm all out.
[PIGEON COOING]
CASSANDRA: Yeah, you kind of skipped the whole train the pigeon to deliver the message as part of the process.
JOY DOLO: Oh, maybe I should just try yelling the message.
CASSANDRA: Joy, we talked about that already. You do have a very loud voice, but even you can't yell that far. Let's think. How do people send messages before the postal system?
[PIGEON COOING]
JOY DOLO: Pigey would like you to explain what the postal system is.
CASSANDRA: It's a network of mail carriers, post offices, trains, planes, and trucks that get letters and packages from one place to another.
JOY DOLO: I'm always amazed that I can put a letter in a mailbox and it will eventually arrive at its destination, like the many, many Christmas cards I send every year. They're heavier than normal Christmas cards because they have a surprise inside.
CASSANDRA: What's the surprise?
JOY DOLO: I can't tell you because it's a surprise. But it rhymes with [SPEAKS MADE-UP LANGUAGE].
CASSANDRA: A signed headshot of Joy Dolo?
JOY DOLO: Huh, how'd you guess? Shoot, now I have to think of something else. Hmm, maybe [SPEAKS MADE-UP LANGUAGE].
CASSANDRA: Mustard packets?
JOY DOLO: Cassandra, stop being so good at guessing what I'm trying to hide from you.
CASSANDRA: May I suggest not saying it out loud?
JOY DOLO: Good point. Good point. Anyway, back to the postal service. Here in the United States, the postal service is about as old as the country itself. Let me set the scene.
[MARCHING TUNE]
It was the 1700s. English colonists had sailed to North America and claimed land on the East Coast for themselves.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, even though Indigenous people have been living there for a really long time already.
JOY DOLO: England set up colonies here and brought a lot of their own British customs and ways of doing things, including the British Postal Service. These mail carriers would deliver letters by foot or horse, since there were no cars or trucks or even trains back then.
CASSANDRA: Eventually, the colonists in North America got really fed up with the British rulers bossing them around.
JOY DOLO: If colonists sent mail through the British Postal Service, the British could open their letters and read them.
CASSANDRA: This made it pretty hard for colonists to complain about the British rulers or make plans against them.
JOY DOLO: So the colonists set up their own postal service where they could talk smack about the British rulers without them knowing.
CASSANDRA: They established their own post offices with their own mail delivery people.
JOY DOLO: They had to promise to keep the mail under lock and key until it arrived at its destination. So the colonists were able to make plans and exchange information without the British rulers reading it.
CASSANDRA: This flow of letters and information was super important for the planning of the American Revolution, where the colonists declared their independence from the British.
JOY DOLO: This led to a war, which the colonists won, and the birth of the United States of America.
CASSANDRA: And one of the first acts of the United States government was to turn this unofficial postal service into an official one.
JOY DOLO: And there are way older postal systems than the US or British ones. Ancient Persia, India, Rome, and China all had postal systems. They relied on horses and oxen to get the letters where they needed to go as fast as possible.
CASSANDRA: Hmm, any horses around here for us to use?
JOY DOLO: Um, no.
CASSANDRA: Oxen?
JOY DOLO: Also, no.
[PIGEON COOING]
No, pigey. We still don't have any more string cheese.
[PIGEON COOING]
I'll never get this super urgent and important message delivered in time.
CASSANDRA: I just realized, you never told me what the message is or where it's going. That might help to know.
JOY DOLO: Oh, gosh. So sorry. I was so caught up in the urgency of it all. I need to get this message to the deli across town before they close at 5:00 PM.
CASSANDRA: The deli? Is there a bagel emergency? Do you need to order more cheese as the inspiration for the cheese-themed topiary garden?
JOY DOLO: No, I need to let them know that my recent sandwich order had mayonnaise on it.
[SUSPENSEFUL TUNE]
CASSANDRA: That's the urgent message?
JOY DOLO: I hate mayonnaise. I need to register my complaint before the deli closes today. This can't happen again. It mustn't happen again. It shan't happen again.
CASSANDRA: That deli is like so close. If you start walking there now, you'll definitely make it before 5:00.
JOY DOLO: Oh, that sounds like a lot of work. Pigey, come here.
[PIGEON COOING]
What's in it for you? I'll buy you more string cheese if you fly this message to the deli.
[PIGEON COOING]
OK, fine. Two more string cheeses.
[PIGEON COOING]
10? That's absurd. I can do three more string cheeses.
[PIGEON COOING]
15? That's not how negotiations work. Five string cheeses. And that's my final offer.
[PIGEON COOING]
Thank you. Thank you for taking my message, pigey. Now, fly, pigey. Fly.
[WINGS FLAPPING]
We did it, Cassandra. The message is on its way.
CASSANDRA: Ah, Joy, the deli is in the other direction.
JOY DOLO: Pigey, come back.
[PIGEON COOING]
You're going the wrong way. I meant go north. You're going west. No, that's-- that's south. Pigey, pigey. No, no. Don't eat the string-- pigey, pigey, come back here.
[THEME MUSIC]
CASSANDRA: There have been so many different ways to send messages throughout history, from telephones and texting to the latest and email.
JOY DOLO: Many different Indigenous cultures across the world use smoke signals to communicate.
CASSANDRA: For thousands of years, people used homing pigeons to deliver their messages, including during World War II.
JOY DOLO: Different cultures have had their own versions of the postal service for centuries. In the US, the postal service became a way for colonists to plot against the British.
CASSANDRA: And this eventually led to the American Revolutionary War.
JOY DOLO: This episode was written by--
MOLLY BLOOM: Molly Bloom--
JOY DOLO: --and--
RUBY GUTHRIE: Ruby Guthrie.
JOY DOLO: It was produced by--
NICO GONZALEZ WISLER: Nico Gonzalez Wisler--
JOY DOLO: --and--
RUBY GUTHRIE: Ruby Guthrie.
JOY DOLO: Our editors are--
SHAHLA FARZAN: Shahla Farzan--
JOY DOLO: --and--
SANDEN TOTTEN: Sanden Totten.
JOY DOLO: Fact checking by--
RUBY GUTHRIE: Ruby Guthrie.
JOY DOLO: Engineering help from Alex Simpson and Peter Moltino, with sound design by--
RACHEL BREES: Rachel Brees.
JOY DOLO: Original theme music by--
MARC SANCHEZ: Marc Sanchez.
JOY DOLO: We had additional production help from the rest of the Brains on Universe team.
ROSIE DUPONT: Rosie DuPont,
ANNA GOLDFIELD: Anna Goldfield,
LAUREN HUMPERT: Lauren Humpert,
JOSHUA RAY: Joshua Ray,
MARC SANCHEZ: Marc Sanchez,
CHARLOTTE TRAVER: Charlotte Traver,
ANNA WEGGEL: Anna Weggel
JOY DOLO: --and--
ARON WOLDESLASSIE: Aron Woldeslassie.
JOY DOLO: Beth Pearlman is our executive producer. And the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks to Tomoyo and Simon Gibson and to Cassandra's great granddad, Don Gibson, for inspiring this question. And if you want access to ad free episodes and special bonus content, subscribe to our Smarty Pass.
OK, Cassandra, are you ready to hear the answers for First Things First?
CASSANDRA: Yeah!
JOY DOLO: Yeah! So as a reminder, we're putting these three messaging systems in order of when they were invented. We've got semaphore, a system that uses flags to send messages, pagers, also known as beepers, and pneumatic tubes. The system of tubes that carry canisters containing messages through buildings using the power of air and suction. And that is actually the same order that you put in, right, Cassandra?
CASSANDRA: Yeah.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, I feel good for it, too. OK, here we go. Here we go. The big reveal. The big reveal. Oh, my gosh. OK, you did really well, Cassandra.
CASSANDRA: Did I?
JOY DOLO: So, first up, right out of the gate, you got it right. Semaphore was the oldest in history. Yeah. So that was invented in 1794. And so ancient cultures have used visual signals for centuries like smoke signals, but the official flag system was invented in 1794 in France.
The signer holds flags or paddles in each hand, then moves their arms in different positions and combinations to communicate different things. There's even a specific sign for each letter of the alphabet. Semaphore is still used by the US Navy today.
CASSANDRA: Oh, now that I think about it, my friend told me about some flag language that they used for boating.
JOY DOLO: Oh, really. OK, so maybe something in the ocean world, there's a lot more semaphore happening. So second up was actually pneumatic tubes.
CASSANDRA: Oh.
JOY DOLO: So those-- yeah, those were invented in the 1850s. So the British post office started building a huge network of pneumatic tubes to carry mail throughout London. And by 1886, London's postal tube system was over 30 miles long and carried over 30,000 messages every day.
By the early 1900s, systems like this started popping up in cities across the US like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Saint Louis. And most pneumatic tube systems phased out by the 1950s because they were too expensive to keep up. But some places like mail rooms and banks still use pneumatic tubes today.
CASSANDRA: Oh.
JOY DOLO: Yeah.
CASSANDRA: I didn't think that they would still use it because it seems very complicated. So I thought they would make it more simple by now, but--
JOY DOLO: Yeah, you'd think so. [LAUGHS] And then last but certainly not least is pagers or beepers. The first pager-like device was invented in 1921. And the pager really took off decades later, starting in the 1980s. And by 1994, over 60 million people used pagers worldwide. Today, lots of hospital workers still use pagers to communicate.
CASSANDRA: Oh--
JOY DOLO: Well, would you look at that.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, so that means that they use basically all of them still.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, they're all still working. So these are things that are in our world, in our backyard. So we can go look up semaphores and pneumatic tubes and pagers.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, that's so cool.
JOY DOLO: Which one of these was most surprising for you?
CASSANDRA: I think the pneumatic tubes. I thought that was most surprising because I thought they would have moved on by now because it seems the most complicated and-- yeah.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, yeah. It does seem kind of like old school. You'd think there'd be like a new-- a new pneumatic tube.
CASSANDRA: Yeah, yeah, I thought so, too.
JOY DOLO: Maybe we should invent it.
CASSANDRA: Yeah. [LAUGHS] Just all the ways of messaging.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, yeah. We'll be back next week with an episode all about Jack o' lanterns.
CASSANDRA: Thanks for listening.
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