Futility Closet

In 1912, bookseller Wilfrid Voynich discovered an illustrated manuscript that was written in a mysterious alphabet that had never been seen before. The text bears the hallmarks of natural language, but no one has ever been able to determine its meaning. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll learn about the Voynich manuscript, which has been bewildering scholars for more than a century. We'll also ponder some parliamentary hostages and puzzle over a tormenting acquisition. Intro: In 1851, George Merryweather invented the Tempest Prognosticator, a rack of bottled leeches who would ring a bell when a storm approached. Between 1884 and 1896, visitors to Coney Island could stay in a 31-room hotel shaped like an elephant. Sources for our feature on the Voynich manuscript: Gerry Kennedy and Rob Churchill, The Voynich Manuscript, 2004. "Voynich Manuscript," Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. Klaus Schmeh, "The Voynich Manuscript: The Book Nobody Can Read," Skeptic