Mysteries at the Museum: Pompeii, who really invented the telephone and how did Hoover save Belgium?

Pompeii amphitheatre — Pompeii spectacularly well preserved amphitheatre is nearly 2000 years old

Mysteries at the Museum’s Don Wildman looks into the mysteries of Pompeii, the invention of the telephone and President Hoover’s efforts to save Belgium during World War I.

Pompeii in Italy is a large Roman town that was the victim of Mount Vesuvius erupting in 79 AD, covering the unfortunate town and many of its inhabitants in volcanic ash.

Plaster casts of the victims of the eruption — Plaster was poured into the people-shaped cavities left as the ash hardened over time, leaving deeply humanising evidence of this tragic event

This action left hollow casts of the people in the positions they died in, a discincerting sight but the town’s burial also gives us an unpresedneted look at Roman life.

Scottish born immigrant Alexander Graham Bell was granted a United States patent for a telephone device in 1876. But with most great inventions the real history is complicated with several inventors and scientists working on similar methods and devices at the same time.

Herbert Clark Hoover was U.S. president from 1929 to 1933, but before he was elected his work as head of the U.S. Food Administration provided massive relief to a starving population in WWI Belgium.

Hoover was instrumental in raising funds and collecting goods to help

Interestingly Hoover is one of only three presidents who was elected without being previously elected to major national political office or having served as a general. The other two are William Howard Taft and Donald Trump.

Catch Mysteries at the Museum – Buried Alive; Who Really Invented the Telephone?; And Hoover Saves Belgium at 9:00 PM on Travel Channel.