Adventures in Research 43-02-23 Laboratory Detectives

Summary

Adventures in Research 43-02-23 Laboratory Detectives

Podcast: Harold's Old Time Radio
Host/Author: Harold's Old Time Radio
Release Date: July 15, 2025

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Overview

"Adventures in Research 43-02-23 Laboratory Detectives" delves into the life and legacy of Roger Bacon, one of science's earliest contributors. Hosted by Paul Shannon and featuring dramatic portrayals by Edmund and Friar Roger, the episode offers a dramatized exploration of Bacon's groundbreaking work, his struggles during the 13th century, and his enduring impact on modern science.

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Introduction to Roger Bacon

The episode opens with Paul Shannon setting the stage for the story of Roger Bacon, a philosopher who lived during the 13th century. Despite his significant contributions, Bacon died in obscurity, his passing unnoticed in 1292.

Paul Shannon [01:20]: "What manner of man was Roger Bacon?"

Early Life and Achievements

Paul Shannon narrates the fragmentary records of Bacon's life, highlighting his residence and his dedication to expanding the realm of science through experimental methods.

Paul Shannon [01:49]: "The great philosopher Roger Bacon, born in the year of our Lord 1214, who by experimental method extended the realm of science..."

Friar Roger adds mythical elements to Bacon's accomplishments, depicting him as a near-mythical figure who built a 30-mile-long bridge of air between England and France.

Friar Roger [03:00]: "He built a bridge by the natural condensation of air... a most remarkable bridge."

Scientific Innovations and Legends

The narrative transitions to Bacon's reputed inventions, including two extraordinary mirrors. One mirror could light a candle at any time, while the other allowed Bacon to observe activities anywhere in the world.

Friar Roger [04:24]: "By one of them he could light a candle at any hour, day or night."

These descriptions, while fantastical, underscore Bacon's forward-thinking approach and his ventures into optics, hinting at the eventual invention of the telescope.

Paul Shannon [09:11]: "What it was, of course, was the telescope. Friar Roger hadn't discovered it, but he had come tantalizingly close."

Philosophical and Scientific Pursuits

Bacon's commitment to merging various fields of study is emphasized as he seeks to create a universal system of logic based on the works of Aristotle, yet pushing beyond traditional boundaries.

Paul Shannon [05:53]: "He combined the study of physics, biology and mathematics into a universal system of logic upon which all human knowledge is based."

Edmund engages in a dialogue questioning the limitations of Aristotle's teachings and advocating for progress beyond established doctrines.

Edmund [06:06]: "But Aristotle lacked the necessary instruments to verify his scientific doctrines. Can we not progress beyond what Aristotle knew and thought?"

Challenges and Imprisonment

Despite his visionary ideas, Bacon's advancements were not accepted in his time. His secretive work, including the formula for gunpowder, led to his imprisonment for 14 years.

Paul Shannon [10:03]: "What Bacon had discovered was gunpowder. But the 13th century was not ready for such knowledge... So Roger Bacon was put into prison."

During his confinement, Bacon remained dedicated to his studies, continuing to write and experiment despite harsh conditions.

Edmund [10:41]: "The true man of science neither receives it nor seeks it... The philosopher can remove even the walls of his cell and stretch them to the outermost limits of the world."

Legacy and Final Reflections

The episode concludes by reflecting on Bacon's legacy, highlighting how his ideas were lost to history for centuries before being rediscovered in the 18th century. Paul Shannon emphasizes that, although Bacon did not achieve recognition in his lifetime, his contributions laid the groundwork for future scientific advancements.

Paul Shannon [14:00]: "Such was Roger Bacon, the first modern man of science... His was indeed a monumental adventure in research."

Edmund delivers a poignant final statement on the nature of imprisonment and the pursuit of knowledge.

Edmund [12:31]: "The real prisoners of life are not those like unto me whose bodies are locked behind bars of iron, but those whose minds are chained."

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Notable Quotes

• Paul Shannon [01:20]: "What manner of man was Roger Bacon?"
• Friar Roger [04:24]: "By one of them he could light a candle at any hour, day or night."
• Edmund [06:06]: "But Aristotle lacked the necessary instruments to verify his scientific doctrines. Can we not progress beyond what Aristotle knew and thought?"
• Paul Shannon [09:11]: "What it was, of course, was the telescope."
• Edmund [10:41]: "The true man of science neither receives it nor seeks it... The philosopher can remove even the walls of his cell and stretch them to the outermost limits of the world."
• Edmund [12:31]: "The real prisoners of life are not those like unto me whose bodies are locked behind bars of iron, but those whose minds are chained."

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Conclusion

"Adventures in Research 43-02-23 Laboratory Detectives" offers a rich and engaging portrayal of Roger Bacon, blending historical facts with dramatic storytelling. The episode highlights Bacon's relentless pursuit of knowledge, his innovative contributions to science, and the challenges he faced in a time unprepared for his ideas. Through compelling narration and character dialogues, listeners gain a deeper appreciation for Bacon's role as a foundational figure in the history of science.

Transcript

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No purchase necessary VGW Group void. We're prohibited by law 21 plus terms and conditions apply. Adventures in Research A great philosopher died in the year 1292. No one marked the day of his passing. He had lived to a disillusioned old age, seeing none of his dreams come true. And so he passed into oblivion. But later he stood in the minds of man as little less than a God. What manner of man was he who.

[Edmund]

Said, a little groping toward the light and then the night?

[Paul Shannon]

What manner of man was Roger Bacon? This is Paul Shannon bringing you another transcribed story of science, produced as a public service in cooperation with the Westinghouse Research Laboratories and today telling you the story of one of science's earliest contributors. The fragments of the story of a man named Roger Bacon.

[Friar Roger]

Yes, yes.

[Paul Shannon]

Here's the tablet right here. All right. This is the site where he lived, it says. Oh, I can barely make it out. The great philosopher Roger Bacon, born in the year of our Lord 12:14, who by experimental method extended the realm of.

[Friar Roger]

Science, and after a long life of.

[Paul Shannon]

Untiring activity, fell asleep. 1292 in the year of our Lord. The tablet at Oxford gives only a glimpse of what Roger Bacon bequeathed to us. 1292 is a long time back to find the measure of a man. Seven centuries of dust obscure him in his grave prison cell where he died. And his passing was not marked. And the gray dust of time obscured the books he wrote, if indeed they were ever written. Then from out the ashes of forgotten fame sprung a legend. The centuries changed and dissolved. Words were whispered, legends of great books hidden away. And a name began to take form. As the centuries passed, Roger Bacon became a world of legend. Ah, Friar Roger called Bacon. Didst thou knowest? He built a bridge by the natural condensation of air. Aye, he built a bridge 30 miles long over the sea from England to France. Oh. And what happened to it? He passed over it safely, this bridge of air. He and all his retinue. A most remarkable bridge. Hast thou seen it? Alas, no. For Friar Roger destroyed it again by rarefying the air. A most remarkable man. But that is nothing compared to what else he has done. There is nothing in the world the men could not do. A magician of white arts he was. Roger bacon was dead 200 years. It is said that Friar Bacon had two most wonderful mirrors that he built. Two wonderful mirrors. By one of them he could light a candle at any hour, day or night. Ah, a man among men.

[Friar Roger]

To light a candle by a mirror.

[Paul Shannon]

That is not all. The other mirror.

[Friar Roger]

Yes, the other mirror.

[Paul Shannon]

In the other mirror he could see what people were doing in any part.

[Friar Roger]

Of the world, see people in it. Verily, this Friar Bacon was a man among men.

[Paul Shannon]

Roger Bacon was dead 250 years. Had this man Bacon fashioned the head of brass that sat upon his table, and from it he could obtain the answer to any question he asked. And Roger bacon was dead 300 years. Today bacon is dead more than 650 years. Can we now see the man? Not the forgotten old prisoner who died unlamented, nor the near genius with a head of brass, but the real Roger Bacon. Little is known about the external events of his life, but we now can reconstruct the summary of his internal life, his ideas. He attended the University of Oxford, where he heard such things as, yes, scholars, we must do as Aristotle had done. He combined the study of physics, biology and mathematics into a universal system of logic upon which all human knowledge is based. Aristotle dead some 15 centuries. Yet bacon must do as Aristotle had done.

[Edmund]

But Aristotle lacked the necessary instruments to verify his scientific doctrines. Can we not progress beyond what Aristotle knew and thought?

[Paul Shannon]

Rebakan was almost 30 now, and his philosophy had begun to crystallize. So he left his role of teacher of philosophy and turned to his religion for his science. He became a Franciscan friar. But in the 13th century, science was a twilight of mysticism and guesswork. No one had made the experiments to discover what was and what was not. All this Roger Bacon undertook what others.

[Edmund]

Have striven to see, dimly and blindly, like bats at twilight. I investigate in the full light of day.

[Friar Roger]

My lord, constantly. There are visitors to Friar Roger and such visitors. Whence come they? Where does he find them?

[Paul Shannon]

And more.

[Friar Roger]

What business hath he with such today? There were tillers of soil and rag pickers and old women, ploughmen and soldiers. Yesterday there were barbers and courts.

[Paul Shannon]

Bacon had chosen the whole world, his province. There was nothing known to the layman. Old women, soldiers and plowman, of which he was ignorant. He worked with minerals and metals and made weapons of War. He studied agriculture and rainfall. He made notes of remedies and charms employed by old gossips. He studied the books of magicians that he might expose their mystic tricks. Nothing that deserved inquiry escaped him. And the world and his friends might ask, but Friar Roger, of what good is it to cram your head with the gossip of the kitchen? To study the earth in the field, neath the plough, turn your mind to better things.

[Edmund]

To what better things? The world is my subject, good Edmund, and I have learned much. Suppose I should tell you that the calendar is wrong?

[Paul Shannon]

Calendar? Wrong. Nonsense.

[Edmund]

Suppose I tell you that one might construct with glass an aid to the eyes.

[Paul Shannon]

Oh, what fancy is this, pray?

[Edmund]

The laws of optics. It would be practical, I believe, to construct some sort of glasses to be placed before the eyes and the aged. And those with weak eyes would find it helpful.

[Paul Shannon]

And those stones on the table, are they to see with also the stonelets?

[Edmund]

Oh, magnets. I have been studying the characteristics of the magnetic field.

[Paul Shannon]

Pray tell me, Friar Roger, is there nothing you have not learned?

[Edmund]

It is a wide world, Edmund, and.

[Paul Shannon]

There are many laws.

[Edmund]

I believe I have come upon certain of them, but I am not sure. Tis senseless to speak.

[Paul Shannon]

No more senseless than what I have already heard.

[Edmund]

I believe I have come upon certain laws whereby a child might appear to be a giant and a man as a mountain. Thus a small army might appear very large. And thus we could cause the sun and the moon and stars in appearance to descend here below.

[Paul Shannon]

Cease. You speak blasphemy. Or are you bereft of your senses? I will list no more. The moon descending. A man appearing as a mountain. What is this? What is this? What it was, of course, was the telescope. Friar Roger hadn't discovered it, but he had come tantalizingly close. And he came even closer to other discoveries. In his manuscripts there is a strange cipher, a secret message, a discovery he guarded carefully. So carefully he could not trust it in print. A momentous thing to indeed be so protected. The coded message has been deciphered and read at last. And the peculiar note by Bacon read.

[Edmund]

I have produced an explosion that out.

[Paul Shannon]

Roared the thunder and a flash that exceeded the brilliance of lightning. What Bacon had discovered was gunpowder. But the 13th century was not ready for such knowledge, nor prepared for such a man. So Roger Bacon was put into prison, a dark little cell that was to be his home for 14 years. But with his parchment and quill, Bacon continued his study. His spirit would not be quenched. And after his daily diet of bread and water, he would write as for.

[Edmund]

Wealth, the true man of science neither receives it nor seeks it. If he frequented kings and princes, he would easily find those who would bestow on him honors and wealth. But that would hinder him from pursuing the great experiments in which he delights in his pursuit of knowledge. The philosopher can remove even the walls of his cell and stretch them to the outermost limits of the world.

[Paul Shannon]

Yet perhaps all was not lost. Perhaps some men of the 13th century would listen. The Pope wrote to Bacon, I request.

[Edmund]

That you declare through your writing what.

[Paul Shannon]

Remedies seem to you fitting for dealing with these matters. Here, at last, an attentive ear to what Bacon had learned. He wrote his manuscript and entrusted it to a friend. But the road to Rome was long and hard. The Pope died within a year. The manuscript never reached him. There were wars and great battles, and the manuscript fell into oblivion, not to be seen again until 1733, 450 years after it had been written. Yet we cannot say poor Roger Bacon, as did his few friends who visited him in his lowly cell.

[Edmund]

Do not waste pity on me. The real prisoners of life are not those like unto me whose bodies are locked behind bars of iron, but those whose minds are chained. I pity the jailers. May God release them from the shackles of their ignorance.

[Paul Shannon]

He busied himself with his pen, writing his notes in code, ciphers of gunpowder and poison gas. And as the light began to fail, he gathered his friends and pupils around him in the dark gray of the prison room and spoke to them. And his eyes grew luminous and his voice took on dreamlike intensity.

[Edmund]

I believe that humanity shall accept as an axiom for its conduct the principle for which I have laid down my life. The right to investigate. It is the credo of three men. This opportunity to try, the privilege to be wrong, the courage to experiment anew. It is the end of the quest. I am not yet 80. A whole lifetime spent trying to catch a fleeting glimpse of the truth. What have I accomplished in the years allotted? Yea, I have only glanced at the title page of God's manuscript.

[Paul Shannon]

And now.

[Edmund]

Tis almost time to close the book. Life is a little groping toward the light. And then the night.

[Paul Shannon]

Such was Roger Bacon, the first modern man of science. He did not cause a great stir in his own world. His ideas were not accepted. He lived to a disillusioned old age. He failed to see any of his dreams come true. And when he died, no one noted the day of his passing. Yet he left a heritage for you, for me, for all mankind that followed him. His was indeed a monumental adventure in research. And that's today's Adventures in Research. Produced in cooperation with the Westinghouse Research Laboratory, these programs are broadcast to Armed Forces personnel overseas through the facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. Join us again next week for another transcribed story of science on Adventures in Research.

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