Is the pencil an example of perfect design? What is the greatest pencil of all time? What does a fallen down tree in the Lake District have to do with its invention? 
Dallas talks to Caroline Weaver, pencil expert and author of “Pencils You Should Know: A History of the Ultimate Writing Utensil in 75 Anecdotes” about the origins of the pencil.
Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long
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Pencils: A Surprising History

This podcast investigates the curious history of invention and innovation. Did Thomas Edison take credit for things he didn’t actually invent? What everyday items have surprising origins? And would man have ever got to the moon without… the bra?&nbsp;
Each episode host Dallas Campbell dives into stories of flukey discoveries, erased individuals and merky marketing ploys with the help of experts, scientists and historians.&nbsp;
Expect new episodes every Wednesday and Sunday. 

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If you can never connect to a printer, if furniture jumps out to stub your toe, if when you do the dishes the water jumps out the sink to soak you - then you are victim of the inanimate malice of things.
The belief that all things are essentially out to get us us has a name - Resistentialism. This is a theory created by columnist Paul Jennings. On one level it's clearly a joke, on another level though he was convinced of its truth. Dallas, a man who has spent a lifetime celebrating tech, agrees.
Paul's daughter joined Dallas to help explain her father's theory about the spiteful behaviour of inanimate objects. Les choses sont contre nous.
Produced by Charlotte Long and Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long
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Things vs. Humans: the spiteful behaviour of inanimate objects

400 years ago on the River Thames a mad genius showed off the world's first submarine. A crowd of thousands including King James watched as Cornelis Drebbel disappeared beneath the murky water, only reemerging after three whole hours had passed.
The same genius also came up with perpetual motion machines, self-regulating ovens, chemical air conditioning for Westminster Cathedral, and a project to provide central heating for all of London by building a perpetual fire on a hill outside the city, transporting the flames in pipes to people's houses.
Elon Musk eat your heart out.
Dallas's guest today is the amazing Vera Keller, historian of technology and author of a new book "The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge"
Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long
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First Ever Submarine

Fire is the unsung hero of human evolution. We could not have turned into the big-brained, deep-thinking animals we are on raw food alone. The moment two million years ago that our forebears first started using fire to cook, was the spark that started everything off.
That's according to today's guest - Richard Wrangham one of the world's leading anthropologists and author of Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Alex Carlon & Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long
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Inventing Fire: the First Spark of Humanity

For most of their history, High Heels were resolutely masculine. The most manly of manly footwear. How did they turn into burning icons of femininity? And now that the heyday of women's high heels is over, what lies ahead for them?
Dallas's guest today is Elizabeth Semmelhack, Director and Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum.
Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Alex Carlon, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long

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Rise and Fall of High Heels

What do all incredibly cool people have in common? They wear Sunglasses. Whether you're Miles Davis or Audrey Hepburn, James Dean or Bob Dylan, your sunglasses are never far away.
Who invented sunglasses and who made them so cool? Was there a moment when sunglasses went from being just an instrument for protecting your eyes to becoming an iconic symbol of high fashion?
Vanessa Brown, author of Cool Shades: The History and Meaning of Sunglasses knows everything about sunglasses and she joins Dallas to answer all your burning questions about sunglasses.
Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Alex Carlon, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long

 Get 50% off your first 3 months with code PATENTED. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribe
You can take part in our listener survey here.

Pencils: A Surprising History

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