The text is auto generated, so sorry if there are some odd translations…
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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
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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
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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
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little steam engine here and and and it
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was it was going around well what’s
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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
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young Billy you know this thing’s got no
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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
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and more concern
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yeah watt and Bolton they were more
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afraid that he was wasting his
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I’m and might quit so they did
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everything in their power to stop him
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from doing this but he effectively
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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
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in in Cornwall
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so already he’s invented the steam
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engine or made it practical and then at
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the automobile invented the locomotive
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so so he decided that he would mess
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around with some other stuff and ever
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since he was a kid he was used to
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working with with coal that tended to
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give off little sparks they called it
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parrot coal or the actual term was
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kennel kennel or spit coal kennel and it
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had natural gas contained in it so he
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came up with this idea of capturing
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natural gas from the coal and then he
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would capture it in a bag and he would
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rock around town like with a bagpipe
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with a little flame coming out of the
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bagpipe and he would keep that thing
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going and it basically invented the
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first portable gas light and then he lit
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his home the first home lit with natural
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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
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this is great you guys need to patent
21:44
he’s like giving it to his bosses saying
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we need to manufacture this stuff and
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they once again came back to him and and
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said mind your own business
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right this is the case you know that
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people seem to over the course of
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humankind get one thing that they can
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produce one thing that makes money and
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they just stay at it till they totally
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destroy it right kind of looking at how
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it can become something else it’s really
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fascinating well when it got to this
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stage actually they were involved in
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litigation trying to protect the steam
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engine patents and they said we don’t
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have time to mess with this stuff you
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know what just they must go back to work
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oh well they were of course but like
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with everything there’s a time and a
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place for these things and these things
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change but here
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Murdoch almost single-handedly had
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invented the automobile the gas light
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another invention that just changed the
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world being able to have light in your
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steam engine but at that point he got so
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frustrated the mine owner said hey we’ll
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pay you five hundred pounds a year if
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you just come to work for us because by
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then keep the steam engines going yeah
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yeah just just do your thing man and
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he’s finally he’s like I quit and he
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went back home he says I give up on all
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this corn well er Scotland Scotland back
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home to Scotland and it’s it’s a little
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unclear from the history what what what
23:15
he did he was gonna start up a gas
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company he’s mostly known for natural
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gas for creating the gas light I know
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poor where he was from is it yeah kind
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of in the boonies and so about two years
23:29
later he returned back to Birmingham and
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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
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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
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in working for a fella named Robert
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Fulton Wow to create the very first
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steamboat yeah so he was the engineer
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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
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came up with the idea of selling things
24:23
based on horsepower he invented the
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concept the term horsepower for engines
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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
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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]