Our Podcast
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[Music]
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[Music]
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welcome to this edition of when the
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biomass it’s the wind turbine a
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discussion of sustainable living and
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what that means to you and me I’m Jay
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Warmke I’m Annie Warmke
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and today we’ve got a special little
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edition here which we’re sort of calling
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dead white guy history we are I thought
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they were scientists Oh dead white
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scientists oh that’s better
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I like that dead why scientists okay and
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and I’ve saved the best for first which
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is William Murdoch
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now I’m gonna let my geek flag fly I am
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so into all that because I haven’t seen
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it it is it is rainbow color but today
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it is the colours of Scotland blue and
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you know I’m part Scottish that must be
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why every person ok so so I want to talk
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about William William Murdoch and I’m
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not talking about the William Murdoch
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that the Canadian Broadcasting Company
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made into a famous detective in the
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William Murdoch mysteries this is the
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real William Murdoch alright but why did
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you pick him because there are lots of
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guys I know and they’re all dead so why
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did you guys so um I I don’t know
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William Murdoch to me is the best he’s
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them he’s the absolute best engineer
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inventor that you have never heard of
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he’s like the Forrest Gump of inventors
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ok but here’s the deal before you knew
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that you’re like I’m gonna write a book
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about him and you didn’t even know it’s
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something about him that drew you what
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do you think that is I think it’s
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because he’s like well we’ll get into
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exactly what he did but to me I’m marvel
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at the fact that William Murdoch
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probably invented but certainly had a
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hand in inventing almost every major
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invention that has changed the world in
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the last 200 years and nobody’s ever
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heard of him and the other thing that I
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marvel about is he didn’t seem to care
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that nobody ever liked a fantasy I like
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that I just wanted to invest
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he was he he’s amazing re he’s a geek
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coid let’s be easy
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he’s the geek please he is the Messiah
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of geeks so let me go back let’s go back
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1754 whoa I thought it was I didn’t
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think he was that old well he’s dead
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continued age but he’s born in 1754 in
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in lugar Scotland Wow where where’s that
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south west part of Scotland which turns
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out to be about 20 miles away from where
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Robert Burns was going to Bobby Robbie
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Burns going to be born about five years
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later in 1759 all right but who’s Robbie
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Burns I thought you were Scottish so who
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Robbie Burns is every good Scotsman
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knows knows Robbie Burns and we know we
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know
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old Lang’s I you know let old
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acquaintances that but but he’s mostly
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right
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and he wrote a lot of poems most of
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which I mean his probably his most
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famous is Scott’s way he write which was
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like the unofficial national anthem of
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Scotland which is basically I’m Scottish
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and I’m gonna kick your butt which is
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like pretty much everything here I never
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know I know everything here is new and
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so and puffy birds so but he’s not in
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the picture yet right all right so why
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did you bring him up then he was five
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years he’s if I so lots of famous people
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being born in this area well this was
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kind of a network we’ll get there
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his mother and Bruce and Bruce descended
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from Robert the Bruce the first real
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kind of King of Scotland and if you ever
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saw Braveheart you know you can’t take
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away our freedom well that’s William
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Wallace but he was working with Robert
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the Bruce and and his father John
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Murdoch so they gave birth to a little
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boy they called William and so they grew
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up
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his father was what’s referred to as a
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wheelwright which is somebody who would
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have made and repaired wheels for
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characters yeah and his father was a bit
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of an inventor I think and and this of
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course was a time and a location where
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this was all beginning to happen I mean
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for some reason I keep thinking like
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haight-ashbury district in the 60s right
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you get this concentration of activity
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that later proves to be quite
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significant but there are a lot of
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people interested in the same thing and
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they’re all seemed to be concentrated in
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a very specific locale and his father
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used to walk several miles to the Lord
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of the manors place this lord of the
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manor I’ve got his name was Alexander
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Boswell who became Lord and I know it’s
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like Austin or something like that I’m
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sure that’s way wrong but you’ve got
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this bit part that’s all that Scottish
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is is basically phlegm I remember we’re
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in one time and and and we’re listening
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in it and you were asking me he says
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what language are those people speak
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English translation so anyway so so his
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father built what what effectively
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became the first tricycle
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they called it Murdock’s wooden horse
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and he rode this tricycle cuz he’s the
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wheel right right he made this little
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bike like a bike and he wrote it it had
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hand pedals and and so his father was
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this kind of amazing inventor and and of
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course young William young Billy I’m
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sure watch this and and also had the
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same aptitude so now the first thing
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that that William got involved with was
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the steam engine and if you if you’ve
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been to grade school right and we always
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like to say that everything you learned
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in school is wrong and and if we study
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the history of the steam engine if you
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paid attention they’ll tell you that his
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the steam engine that was the heart
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and the basic basis of the Industrial
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Revolution and that James Watt
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miraculously invented the steam engine
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and off we go and that’s what you learn
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in school well of course it’s not true
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the steam engine was really invented
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ancient Greeks had it ancient Egyptians
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but in in the in the dead world of white
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scientists it was Thomas the world of
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dead white scientists you got to get
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your title right here J okay I was being
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a little backwards there but Thomas
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Savery Thomas savory savory yes he and
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in 1698 invented what we would refer to
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as the modern steam engine and he was
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British or he was he was British
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Scottish no I think he was British but
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here well Britain Scotland’s part of
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Britain but he was English okay
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so so we so he invents this thing and it
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it was invented primarily to to lift
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water out of mines that was a big issue
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oh yeah their minds with flood problem
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with his steam engine is it tended to
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explode that’s kind of tough yeah a
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little-little problem so in 1711 a
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fellow named Thomas Newcomen he created
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a way of doing the same thing but not
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under those high pressures so it tended
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not to explode so he modified that but
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it was still very very inefficient so
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1765 comes along James Watt fame and
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glory he tweaks it a little bit he this
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dimension
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yeah the steam engine so he’s a young
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engineer in college and he says you know
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what he can he essentially modified the
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existing inefficient sink thing he
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created a way of recapturing a condenser
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to recapture some of the used steam and
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it didn’t blow up and then well it
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didn’t blow up as much and it was a
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little noisy fault so so he invents this
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thing and
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he finds out that there are people that
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are interested in this but he’s broke
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and in debt this is what what right so
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so a fella named Roebuck Roebuck says he
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ran a mine he actually ran a foundry and
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he needed coal but it was always
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flooding and he hears about this thing
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and he goes to he goes to Watt and he
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goes you know what I’ll retire your
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debts I’ll pay off your debts if you
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give me two-thirds of the company so
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what she did and they invested in it and
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he actually brought wad up to Scotland
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Hey
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coming up to Murdoch he was only not too
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far away from him so he’s working on the
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steam engine
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Roebuck goes broke fella named Bolton
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who runs a factory down in Birmingham in
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England and he says hey Jimmy you want
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to come to work for me now Bolton is
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manufacturing buttons buckles and snuff
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boxes right the big business of buttons
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buckles and Snyder what is it big this
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really big so he’s got some money and
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he’s also got some business acumen so so
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he brings what he pays off Roebuck gets
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two-thirds of the company and the famous
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watt and Bolton manufacturing of steam
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turbines begins this is where history
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kind of thinks and now we get into the
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Industrial Revolution well in the
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meantime little William Murdoch’s up
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there in Scotland and he says this guy
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James Watt it’s a little bit older than
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he is started this company that’s the
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place I want to go work you know he’s 17
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years old so he literally walked from
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Scotland down to Birmingham about 250
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miles and he shows up he’d already met
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some of the people involved his father
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had worked for Roebuck so he knew these
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people and he introduces himself the
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legend goes he was wearing a wooden hat
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Bolton said that’s a pretty cool hat you
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can come work for us you made it
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yourself
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probably nonsense but he’s already an
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engineering marketing yeah well a lot of
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these biographers you gotta understand
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and the biographers are writing in a
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time when the successful person they
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want like this this upper-crust person
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made good the people who work for them
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are the servants
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they’re in consequence well there’s
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quite a hierarchy in the British right
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and so anyway so but I just want to say
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something about that because because I
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think that enters into this maybe later
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in the story but there is this caste
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system sure and it would have been
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really hard to be somebody who was
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coming out of nowhere
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so maybe the Hat story is true because
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it showed he had skill it showed he was
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clever well I think there’s no doubt
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that he made himself a hat but it’s
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pretty unlikely he wore it from Scotland
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all the way down to maybe Kerry but
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anyway so so he goes to work for me 17
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years old what is like his idol at this
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point it would be almost like somebody
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going to work for Steve Jobs and Steve
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Wozniak in the beginning of Apple I’ve
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heard about these guys read about these
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guys these guys are great I want to go
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work for him
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so this guy shows up and by really
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within a year or two he’s their lead
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engineer yeah he’s the one who gets sent
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off now the egos in well they’re selling
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steam engines right to mines and these
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things blow up these things stop working
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problems so they send off young Murdoch
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he said all right you go fix it well he
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gets there and because he’s such a good
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engineer he starts making modifications
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right oh it’s not working so well well I
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got an idea how to fix that so he made
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literally hundreds of modifications well
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the problem is watt who was also a
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pretty good engineer he had the idea
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that anything he didn’t invent was crap
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you know so so he took a lot of
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convincing that these things were
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improvements I think part of now Bolton
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on the other hands he’s like hey we’re
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making money I’m happy about this he’s
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more of the entrepreneur
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why it’s a bit ego fortunately Murdoch
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didn’t seem to have this ego he’s just a
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kid going I’m just loving life I get to
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play with these toys I have resources
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available to me that I didn’t have
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available to me before I’m working for
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my idol
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life is great so I think that’s the only
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reason there wasn’t early on this clash
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of of gigantic egos all right at this
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point we’ll take a little break okay
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Annie so you’re listening to win the
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biomass gets the wind turbine with Jay
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and Annie Warmke reminding you that
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it’s the end of the world as we know it
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and thank God so I’m geeking out all
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about William I know I’m excited about
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it plus there’s a lot to cover and not
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much time to cover it so anyway so so
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William Murdoch he’s down there he’s
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working for this for what and Bolton
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he’s going out and at some point they
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decide you know what
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young Murdoch you are so good at this we
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want you to go over to Cornwall and take
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over our activities over in Cornwall
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that’s in the southwest of England
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that’s right and and you got to
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understand that’s where the mining
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district was well the coal mines coal
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mines tin mines a lot of these mines and
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but the miners were pretty notoriously
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rough and tumble Bunch
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and part of wats reason for sending
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Murdoch down there was he had already
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fled from there because he’s trying to
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enforce his patent Lots was yeah he fled
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from there yeah because people kept
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trying to like beat him up and kill him
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because he’s trying to enforce his
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patents other people are saying ah ah
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now I see how it works yeah I can do
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that
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but he’s then suing them saying you
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can’t do that I got a patent on this and
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the miners are saying you know here’s
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your patent I got your patents pretty
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new what concept no they weren’t new but
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they had to be enforced and so one of
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Murdoch’s roles was fix the stuff but
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also prosecute anybody who violates
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Pattin so there were literally times
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there stories of four hundred miners
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showing up at his house carrying him out
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threatening to throw him down a
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mineshaft you know and at some point he
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got into these fistfights and stuff in
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the meantime why does send him notes
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saying oh and by the way watch out for
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these these Oh what’s the term but there
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was a war going on with France and they
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kept grabbing people and impressing them
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into the military like indentured yeah
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they they it was like press squads or
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something like that but anyway so he’s
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hiding out from the guys who want to
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make him a soldier and send him off to
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France he’s getting beat up by minors
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and again the French are are stopping
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and stealing cargoes from ships that are
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arriving
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so there’s stories of Murdoch having to
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shoot at different pirate ships that are
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trying to steal their supplies so they
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send off this seven he’s 18 19 year old
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kid to go down there to get beat up by
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miners avoid getting drafted and shoot
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pirates all the time
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reinvent the steam engine it’s actually
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conscripted conscription wealth trying
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to think of but in but it wasn’t even
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that formal it was more just walk along
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fine some guy who looks the right age
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and then grab him and throw him into the
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army so so he’s 23 years old now
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down in Birmingham with his wooden hat
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trying to keep from getting killed and
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and then he starts thinking about oh he
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invents what’s referred to as the Sun
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and planet gear which was another big
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thing he takes this what was an
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up-and-down motion of a piston and turns
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it into a rotary motion
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well once again that’s a big deal if you
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think about basically like if you think
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about the locomotives where you see
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those things propels it forward William
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Murdoch
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so he’s he’s down there in Cornwall he’s
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a spy getting a spy he’s a repair guy
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he’s constantly being sent off to London
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to testify and he hits this bug under
17:59
wouldn’t bonnet that says you know what
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these the stationery winter burden
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winter these the stationary steam
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engines if we were to put wheels like my
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dad had with his tricycle we could make
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steam engines that propel people down
18:18
the road first automobile yeah right
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yeah he’s thinking about a steam powered
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automobile now this is like 1780s I mean
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a long time before the automobile got of
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horses of course yeah in fact he
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invented us a working model and the
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story goes once again that he took it on
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the road but he was wasn’t stupid enough
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to get on it he’s walking along next to
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this little steam carriage and it got
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away from him and went running down the
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road and the local preacher thought the
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devil had arrived and went into
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conniptions and he’s trying to figure
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out how to stop all this but but the
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people in his town got to know this
19:03
little steam engine here and and and it
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was it was going around well what’s
19:08
interesting is a young man next moved in
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next door to to William Murdoch in this
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little town in’ in in cornwall and his
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name was and i’ll mispronounce this too
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but Richard Trevithick trevethan
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something like that anyway largely
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credited the inventor of the locomotive
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and he was a kid living next door to
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William Murdoch and Murdoch tried to
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market this locomotive essentially and
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he went to Boulton and watt and said
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I’ve got this thing I think it’s the
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next big thing it’s huge we need to
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patent it we need to sell it and they
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both told him stick to your knitting
19:57
young Billy you know this thing’s got no
19:59
future you know don’t do it and he even
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tried to go and get it patented and they
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stopped him because there they got more
20:08
and more concern
20:09
yeah watt and Bolton they were more
20:11
afraid that he was wasting his
20:13
I’m and might quit so they did
20:16
everything in their power to stop him
20:18
from doing this but he effectively
20:20
invented the automobile and the
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locomotive both sitting there in his
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little carriage in in his little cottage
20:28
in in Cornwall
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so already he’s invented the steam
20:32
engine or made it practical and then at
20:35
the automobile invented the locomotive
20:38
so so he decided that he would mess
20:45
around with some other stuff and ever
20:48
since he was a kid he was used to
20:50
working with with coal that tended to
20:55
give off little sparks they called it
20:57
parrot coal or the actual term was
21:02
kennel kennel or spit coal kennel and it
21:08
had natural gas contained in it so he
21:11
came up with this idea of capturing
21:12
natural gas from the coal and then he
21:15
would capture it in a bag and he would
21:17
rock around town like with a bagpipe
21:19
with a little flame coming out of the
21:22
bagpipe and he would keep that thing
21:24
going and it basically invented the
21:27
first portable gas light and then he lit
21:31
his home the first home lit with natural
21:35
gas so he had gas lanterns all through
21:37
his home and he went back to Boulton and
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watt and said this is gonna be huge man
21:42
this is great you guys need to patent
21:44
he’s like giving it to his bosses saying
21:46
we need to manufacture this stuff and
21:48
they once again came back to him and and
21:51
said mind your own business
21:55
right this is the case you know that
21:57
people seem to over the course of
22:00
humankind get one thing that they can
22:03
produce one thing that makes money and
22:05
they just stay at it till they totally
22:08
destroy it right kind of looking at how
22:10
it can become something else it’s really
22:12
fascinating well when it got to this
22:14
stage actually they were involved in
22:16
litigation trying to protect the steam
22:18
engine patents and they said we don’t
22:20
have time to mess with this stuff you
22:23
know what just they must go back to work
22:27
oh well they were of course but like
22:29
with everything there’s a time and a
22:31
place for these things and these things
22:33
change but here
22:34
Murdoch almost single-handedly had
22:37
invented the automobile the gas light
22:40
another invention that just changed the
22:43
world being able to have light in your
22:45
steam engine but at that point he got so
22:49
frustrated the mine owner said hey we’ll
22:52
pay you five hundred pounds a year if
22:54
you just come to work for us because by
22:56
then keep the steam engines going yeah
22:58
yeah just just do your thing man and
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he’s finally he’s like I quit and he
23:03
went back home he says I give up on all
23:06
this corn well er Scotland Scotland back
23:08
home to Scotland and it’s it’s a little
23:11
unclear from the history what what what
23:15
he did he was gonna start up a gas
23:16
company he’s mostly known for natural
23:20
gas for creating the gas light I know
23:23
poor where he was from is it yeah kind
23:26
of in the boonies and so about two years
23:29
later he returned back to Birmingham and
23:32
started up this this big gas works and
23:36
essentially led to the gasification of
23:40
lighting all across Europe but he never
23:44
patented it so he never made any money
23:46
from it it was other people who made the
23:49
money and then he was working once again
23:54
for what and Bolton and he was involved
24:00
in working for a fella named Robert
24:05
Fulton Wow to create the very first
24:09
steamboat yeah so he was the engineer
24:13
who developed the engine of the
24:16
steamboat Wow although Fulton gets all
24:18
the credit for it he’s the fella who
24:20
came up with the idea of selling things
24:23
based on horsepower he invented the
24:26
concept the term horsepower for engines
24:29
to say how many horses did it offset in
24:32
the power they used to just show you the
24:35
length and breadth of what this guy did
24:36
this is like I said it’s Forrest Gump of
24:39
inventions
24:42
so anyway he created he created a way to
24:46
purify beer using Cod right he had the
24:52
fish man it we used to be they purified
24:54
at using sturgeon that had to be
24:56
imported from Russia they purified the
24:58
water the beer itself it took sediments
25:01
out of the water so he so he basically
25:04
retains change the beer in us now who
25:07
couldn’t love that or especially if
25:09
you’re Scottish well especially if you
25:11
couldn’t drink water and beer was the
25:12
primary source of drinking
25:15
so what else I mean like I said all the
25:18
major things of the Industrial
25:19
Revolution steam engine automobile
25:23
locomotive steamboat beer but he didn’t
25:30
stop there he invented the pneumatic
25:32
lift using air to lift things he
25:35
invented the steam gun which actually
25:38
then later became used to launch planes
25:41
off aircraft carriers he invented hot
25:45
air gravity central heating using air
25:49
and furnaces to heat homes the the
25:52
system that we use today he invented
25:55
something called iron cement that
25:57
allowed cement to harden in a way that
26:00
was waterproof airtight it was I mean it
26:06
just goes on and on and on and one of my
26:08
personal favorites I can’t wait to hear
26:12
the pneumatic dispatch system every time
26:17
you go to one of the banks and stick
26:19
your check in that thing yeah well you
26:24
Murdoch
26:24
they had checks back then and I don’t
26:26
think they used it they used it for
26:29
other things like what what would you
26:32
use that for Oh like sending something
26:34
up and down the coal shaft a mine shaft
26:36
from – I don’t know what they used it
26:38
for let’s say sending beer from when
26:45
they were in kegs they were closed it
26:46
might have been our I mean and this is a
26:49
guy like I said the forest comes of
26:51
event he was involved in all of these
26:53
things whether he
26:54
invented it or he was instrumental in
26:56
the development he is the guy who is at
27:00
the center
27:01
he’s the Forrest Gump right he’s ever
27:04
you keep saying I don’t even know what
27:05
that means but that’s for another show
27:07
right I don’t know what it means to be
27:09
the Forrest Gump of anything well you I
27:13
did see the movie but well one thing I
27:17
know that way but one thing that’s fun
27:19
and I think I just want to say this at
27:22
the end of the show is that it’s fun to
27:24
be excited about stories it’s fun to
27:27
tell stories it’s really worthwhile to
27:30
understand where we’ve come from and
27:31
it’s fun to watch you because you’re so
27:34
excited I think you’re about 12 years
27:35
old today but I and there’s nothing
27:38
wrong with that but I wish for everybody
27:40
that they have the experiences that we
27:43
get to have together where we think
27:45
about something and we research or we
27:47
just go into it and we just jump in and
27:50
say wow this is something inspiring and
27:52
we want to learn more and and so it’s
27:55
been fun but I know there’s going to be
27:56
a whole series lots more dead-white is
28:00
okay well with that said you’ve been
28:02
listening to when the biomass it’s the
28:04
wind turbine with Jay and Annie Warmke
28:06
along with Emmy Award winning producer
28:10
thanking you for spending just a little
28:13
bit of time with us and William Murdoch
28:14
and as your grandmother probably told
28:17
you secret to a happy and sustainable
28:19
life is play nice with others like it up
28:23
their mess especially if they’re dead
28:24
white scientists and eat your vegetables
28:50
[Music]
29:00
you can find more information on living
29:03
sustainably in our unsustainable world
29:06
at Blue Rock station calm
29:08
[Music]
29:11
you
29:12
[Music]
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The unvarnished past, present and future of energy, from 1492 to today. Learn how early innovations in energy came largely due to man’s pursuit of beer. How Benjamin Franklin nearly killed himself electrocuting turkeys. How an Italian scientist believed he discovered the human soul while making frog leg soup for his girlfriend – which ultimately lead to the invention of the battery. And much, much more.