The Invention

**MrBallen** (0:00)
Today's podcast will feature three stories about inventions that you've definitely heard of. But I guarantee you, you've never heard the strange reasons these inventions were actually used, or why they were even created. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called The Spectacle. And while the story is not about how this particular device was invented, it does make it very obvious why France eventually decided it could no longer be used in public. The second story you'll hear is called A New Technology. And it's about a doctor's savage invention that helps save mother's lives during childbirth. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Healing Hands. And it's about a tool that would change the medical industry forever. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark & Mysterious, Delivered-in-Story Format, and you come to the right place, because that's all we do, and we upload four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Fridays. So if that's of interest to you, please offer to House Sit for the follow button. But while you're there, make sure you glue all of their kitchen cabinets shut. Okay, let's get into our first story called The Spectacle.
Just after midnight on June 17, 1939, a crowd of people began to form outside of this unremarkable building in Versailles, which is a city in France. The atmosphere in this crowd was electric. They all knew why they were there. They knew what they were about to see, but even still, there was a lot of nervous anticipation. And so as such, some people were coping with these nerves by drinking alcohol and trying to laugh and have a good time, while others were much more subdued and were trying to be respectful about what they were about to witness.
Between 1 and 2 a.m., the doors of this unremarkable building opened up and a group of men dressed in the same dark uniforms came out and didn't say a word to the crowd, and the crowd immediately went silent and began to back away from them. And this group of men, they walked right out in front of this building and they had lumber and they had tools with them, and they began constructing this kind of strange wooden structure. And so the crowd, they wanted to get up close to see what these guys were doing, but at the same time, they didn't want to get too close. And so as the crowd formed a sort of half moon around these men, these men that were doing the constructing were moving so seamlessly, like all of them had built this structure dozens of times before, and it was just muscle memory. And so by about 3 a.m., this structure was built, and they placed this large basket next to this structure, and then these men packed up their tools and the remaining pieces of lumber, and they turned around and they went right back inside the doors into the building and were gone.
At this point, the crowd had become quite sizable outside of this building, and they were growing kind of restless, because they knew now that this structure was built, that the next time those doors open, the show is really going to start. This spectacle, they are all there for, it's about to happen. And the crowd all knew that this event couldn't happen if the sun was up, because if the sun was up and the area was well lit, the press would be able to take pictures and film it, and that's not what officials wanted. They wanted this to happen in the darkness. But for whatever reason, things seemed to be getting delayed inside of this building, and so the crowd was just getting more and more restless, people are getting more and more drunk, and they're getting louder and more disruptive and boisterous. And then around 4:45 a.m., the sun had come up, and so the press was out in full force with their cameras trained at the doors of this building. And so the crowd really at this point is not actually expecting this event to take place, because at this point, it just seems totally unlikely.
But at 4:50 a.m., those doors swung open, and standing in the threshold was 31-year-old Eugene Weidman, who was a convicted serial killer. His arms were tied behind his back, and the collar of his white shirt had been tucked down inside, because they needed his neck to be free and clear, because he was about to be beheaded. So the two guards on either side of Eugene, they pulled him forward out towards the crowd, so the executioners behind him, who were dressed all in black, could filter out and take up positions alongside the guillotine, which is that wooden structure that had been built earlier in the morning. And so as Eugene is being brought out towards the crowd, and everything is getting set up for his execution, the crowd went wild. They were shrieking and howling and laughing and pointing and booing, and just generally being completely rambunctious and totally bloodthirsty. Eugene kept his head down. He did not want to look at the crowd, and he did not want to look at the guillotine. And so eventually the two guards turned him and walked him directly towards the base of the guillotine, at which point the executioners that had taken up their positions around this device, they grabbed him and slid him forward so he was on his stomach on top of this wooden platform, the guillotine, and they slid him forward until his head poked through this opening at the very far end, at which point his neck was positioned right under this huge blade that was dangling right above him, and his head was positioned over a metal bucket on the ground, which he would be looking directly at. At this point, the crowd was at a fever pitch, and one of the executioners pulled a lever, the blade came soaring down, and it removed his head, his head fell into the bin, and the executioners pushed his torso into the basket that had been placed out there earlier, and then the executioners and the prison guards, they gathered up Eugene's body parts and went right back inside of the building, which was a prison.