All language subtitles for Mythbusters S01 E20

On this episode of Mythbusters.

It's like a lovely ballet, isn't it?
Jamie and Adam whip it good. Ow, ow, ow,

ow, ow, ow. To test the myth that if a
cable at high tension suddenly snaps.

Straight through his body. Through it.
It can slice a person clean in two.

I love hearing big sounds in the next
room.

And meanwhile, Grant, Carrie, and Tori
make beautiful music.

To find out if sound can be recorded
onto pottery.

Tori! Tori! Tori!

I know what it would be like to be
married to you.

And played back just like a record.

That's crazy sounding.

Who are the Mythbusters?

Adam Savage.

And Jamie Heinemann. Aren't Tracer
rounds illegal?

Between them, more than 30 years of
special effects experience.

That's what I'm talking about!

Joining them, Tori Bellacci.

What could go wrong?

Carrie Byron. We're going for total
annihilation. And Grant Imahara.

I'm pooping as fast as I can!

They don't just tell the myth.

They put them to the test.

All right, I'm going to perform the next
myth in pantomime.

What do you think?

Okay. We're talking about killer cable
slice, I believe. And this is when a

cable under tension snaps and it cuts
you in half.

Allegedly. Allegedly.

Allegedly, the theory is that if a cable
is stretched taut, the tension can

become so great that if it were to snap,
it could cut a person in two.

Not a pretty picture.

Not pretty at all, as this footage
filmed on the USS George Washington

A cable that was supposed to stop a jet
broke and whipped across the deck.

Luckily, one crew member had lightning
-fast reflexes, but five others had no

time to run.

Dramatic proof of this real -life peril.

You know, I'm a little worried about
this one.

I'm not sure how easy it will be to get
the cable to behave in a predictable

fashion, like where it's going to go
when you snap it.

Well, that sounds like a perfect
opportunity for a bench test. We should

scale model and see how we can make the
cable snap predictably.

Well, also, actually, with that, we can
figure out where the most dangerous

place to be in there, like the kill
zone.

Sure.

To set up the bench test, Jamie screws
on clamps at either end of a table. Then

he secures parachute cord from one end
to the other and tightens it until it's

straight taut.

Adam measures and marks out a scale
model floor plan.

It's about 50 by 30.

It's gridded out in one -foot marks so
that I should be able to see where the

cable's going for each of these tests.

Grazer at the ready.

Yeah, that's sharp enough.

High -speed ready?

Ready. Okay, here we go. Test number
one, no obstructions.

The cord soars straight down the center
line.

It makes all the sense in the world.
You're tensioning it, and you release

tension on one side. All the force in
that cable wants to head towards the

anchor point.

He sounds like an expert now, but in a
previous myth, they almost got a moving

violation trying to bring a police car
to a screeching halt by tying an

cable to its rear axle.

Driving the car in a straight line broke
the cable with ease, but this myth

needs a little more direction.

So we need to deflect it. We absolutely
need to deflect it. Otherwise, there is

no whip at all. There's no reason. All
the energy has gone that way. Why would

it? Precisely.

What I'm looking for is a consistent arc
of maybe 6 to 10 feet that I can count

on the cable going through.

Then I can set up the big cable. I can
put my test subject there. I can slice

and know that that cable under that
tension is going to go.

Tension move closer to the cut point.

Here we go. 3, 2, 1.

So fast.

That's just beautiful.

Block you in the face kind of thing.

I mean, that cable's just moving right
towards this area, just like you'd

imagine your worst -case scenario would
be.

Yeah. So if they can get the cable to
move like the cord is doing, what would

happen to a person who was unlucky
enough to get in the way?

They place a bolt on the grid that will
play the unfortunate human.

Okay, here we go.

The cord completely lassoes the bolt.

Dude. It went all the way around.

That's beautiful.

That's like Indiana Jones with a whip.

Forget wimpy little string.

The boys are ready to lash out with the
might of a deal.

When this myth first came to our
attention on the Internet,

scientists were playing back sounds.

inadvertently recorded onto ancient
pottery.

So somehow in the mists of time, there
was the perfect scenario in which a pot

was turning on a wheel and something
like straw or anything brushing up

that pot acted as a stylus. And their
voice, their laughter, the vibrations

sound actually recorded inadvertently
into the clay. Sounds pretty crazy,

doesn't it?

Sure does.

The theory is in ancient times, a potter
was working away when there was a noise

close by.

The force of the sound waves made an
imprint like record grooves in the fresh

clay. Fast forward to today, and we can
play back these sounds from the past

using modern technology.

First stop is the lair of mega sound
system creator Alexander Ewell Thornton

but you can call him Thorny for short.
It was given to me in my teens, and I

kind of liked it, so I kept it. Every
conceivable kind of recording device,

spare part, and cool little toy
imaginable is hidden somewhere on

shelves. Barbie steam engine.

No, it's a G .I. Joe steam engine.

So what's this expert audiophile's
opinion about pottery recording?

I think there's no question that you
could do it. So recording an audio

in a piece of pottery. Sure. And playing
it back. Yes. We just have to prove

that it's remotely possible. I don't
think it's going to be that difficult.

Thorny just happens to have a device on
hand that will prove his point. A

phonographic dictation machine from the
1930s that was invented by Thomas

Edison. Warning, warning, dive, dive,
dive.

The way the dictation machine worked
could be very similar to how it might be

possible to record and play back sound
from a clay pot.

Coming up next on MythBusters, can you
get audio off of an old pot?

The vibrations from Grant's voice travel
down the horn and cause a cutting

stylus to make a series of grooves in
the wax.

You can see the little sort of ruffles
in the surface.

That is the information as cut. So back
in the day, this would be like high

-tech. Oh, yeah. To play it back, they
simply run a non -cutting stylus back

over the grooves.

Voice writer. That is great.

With all of Thorny's knowledge at their
disposal, the most burning question

Grant has is... Does my voice really
sound like that? Yeah. Yeah.

Well... You guys suck. He doesn't record
all of the low pitches.

Maybe we should try that recording
again.

The team thanks Thorny for his sound
insight.

I don't know, with a shop like this, I
have a feeling we might be contacting

again for something else buried in here.

Feel free.

Well, if wax can hold sound, maybe clay
can too.

Carrie and Tori go to a pottery store to
get some supplies.

The finer the grade of clay, the better.

We're hoping that if we have a fine
clay, it won't distort the stylus

on our pottery.

All right, let's go make some pots.

I've got to cut my nails first.

I've got a stylus on every finger.

I've got to do it too.

Let's go get a manicure and then we'll
throw some pot.

There's high tension all around them.
Cables are mighty useful, so there's no

escaping them. But if they snap, can
they cut you in two?

Sounds like just the job for the
Mythbusters.

Well, we've got some safety concerns,
first off, before we start actually, you

know, snapping cables. And I figure that
means that we should get some kind of

interior space inside a building so we
can control it. Maybe we can be outside.

Very separated. Yeah, this is going to
be dangerous as hell.

The plan is to rig a series of chains
and pulleys around a support column,

attach a cable to it, and stretch it all
the way over to another support column

and position an obstruction between
them. Then, using a hydraulic pump, pull

cable so tight it snaps and see if it
slices their human stand -in in half.

Jamie goes shopping to get some heaving
hardware.

Hey, Andy. Hi, Jamie.

Welcome. Welcome to C .H. Bull.

Well, thank you. So, I've got a project
that I need your help on. Okay. Have you

ever heard of a situation where a cable
is under tension and it snaps and it,

like, cuts somebody in half?

I've heard it more with nylon rope, but
I've heard it with cable as well.

There's a lot more elasticity in a nylon
rope. There could be a lot more

stretch, which would be a lot more
recoil.

Well, that's what I figured, too. We'll
have to test a variety of thicknesses of

cable as well as some different types of
rope, even. To pull the cable or rope

taut... Andy shows Jamie a hydraulic
cylinder that can pull cables. It's the

kind of gadget that gets Jamie all
animated.

Oh, yeah.

Well, just looking at it, I'd say that's
going to do fine.

30 tons.

30 tons, and I think we're a little over
5 inches of stroke.

As for a device that will actually slice
through the cable, Andy has a safety

-minded suggestion.

What's nice about this is it's easy to
have a remote setting, set this right in

the middle of the cable, and so as you
start to cut from a safe distance away,

as that cable breaks, this would be the
ideal way to go. Well, that's perfect.

Jamie leaves with his slice -and -dice
goodies.

Meanwhile, Adam goes to market to get
their target.

The killer table stab is not at all a
story we can test with Buster. He is

for... The falling, the banging,

the kind of rough damage assessment.

This is a case where we want to find out
if a cable can slice a human being in

half. We need a much better human
analog.

Keith, how are you doing? It's a meet
and greet with Manager Keith.

You got some pigs for us? Oh, yeah. It's
a big one.

Really? Yeah. How much do they weigh?

150 pounds average.

Actually, perfect. So, let's go see it.
You go first.

Oh, great. Good fashion statement.

Excellent.

There we go.

Oh, my God. Even though they're not
alive, seeing the dead pigs hanging from

horror movie -sized hooks makes this
bacon lover almost lose his breakfast.

is going to be hard even for me.

I'm not going to have a ham sandwich for
lunch today.

I probably won't either, actually.

But Adam manages not to hurt and takes
the pigs back to M5.

Got a pickup truck full of 750 pounds of
ham.

Do some experiments.

Did you stop some traffic with this lot?
No, I got a couple of looks, but I got

looks like this. People driving by, they
saw the pigs, and then they looked in

the cabin, and they're like, oh, it's
the Mythbuster guy.

Along with shop assistant Terry, Adam
makes the pigs a little more like human

targets. On the advice of one of the
experts we talked to, we're going to

back up the cavity where the viscera was
with a ballistics gel, and I'm also

going to put in some lungs.

Take it as far up there as it'll go.

I'd like to spread the pain here on
Mythbusters. Get everyone involved.

While they wait to be whooped, the pigs
kill out.

The theory of archaeoacoustics, that
ancient pottery has sounds trapped

from the exact moment it was being made,
could be out there.

Christ's words, the actual incantation
to raise the dead, were recorded in the

clay grooves of the pottery, just like
the way music is recorded into vinyl.

I'll have Chuck Burks meet you over at
my office, see if this clay has Christ's

greatest hits on it. To recreate a
likely ancient scenario, they'll make a

then rest a stylus on top of it that's
touching a wet clay pot spinning on a

wheel. Next, they'll make some noise and
see if the straw stylus etches the

sound into the clay.

Following in the footsteps of ancient
man, Tori and Carrie are going to get

primal and make some pots from scratch.

Is it that messy that we need to lay
down plastic?

Yeah. The raw smell of the wet earth
combined with the romance of the

process seems to be having a strange
effect on Tori.

That's how that movie goes.

I did.

Remember that scene?

Patrick, Swayze, Damien Moore. Yep.

Good thing.

The one where he was dead?

No, I think they were still both alive.

Luckily, Carrie has met her share of
artistic types with unoriginal designs.

Need some help?

Back off, Felici.

It's off -center, it makes it lopsided.

Carrie soon learned that shaping a
simple pot isn't easy.

Center later, it's supposed to center,
I'm pretty sure.

I'm more off -center now than I was
before.

It's going to be the worst pot ever.

It looks great.

Yeah. But eventually she centers herself
and the clay, molding and shaping it.

She makes a love to the clay with the
heart.

And the result is a shining example of
symmetry.

Nice job, Carrie.

Yeah. Nice. It's pretty fun.

Yeah, it looks fun.

Now it's Tari's turn to take a seat
behind the pottery wheel. He slams it

high gear straight away.

Talk about a lead foot.

Isn't there a faster speed on this
thing?

You might be going a little fast, Tari.
Nah, it's not going fast enough. I think

I need to hook this up to an engine. I'm
pretty sure the key is to go slow.

Really?

It's more fun to go fast.

Tori, it might be a good idea to ease
off on the gas a little.

But you're the boss. The clay's not the
boss.

Well, apparently the clay's making all
the decisions right now. The result of

Tori's passionate artistic expression is
less than impressive.

Oh, it looks good. It's so cute.

Look at the little tiny thing.

Not something a guy ever wants to hear,
but Tori seems proud nevertheless.

It looks great.

My first one ever. Putting their artwork
to one side, Carrie is going to make a

drum by cutting the tops off some
earthenware pot and stretching animal

over the top.

Well, hopefully this will work like a
drum and vibrate with sound, and the

stylist will make sort of a zigzaggy
line into my recording clay.

Sound the drums.

Tori and Carrie are ready to record.

This is a damn fine drum. I'm pretty
excited about that.

Can cables at high tension be trusted?

Jets on aircraft carriers rely on cables
big time to put the brakes on.

But watch your back. This footage, shot
on the USS George Washington, is proof

they can go AWOL at any time. But can a
cable slice you in two?

To test this myth, Jamie and Adam need
to move somewhere nice and quiet where

they can really stretch out.

Go hurry up.

This should do nicely. The perfect
little hideaway in the middle of

A former workshop on an abandoned
military base.

So the metal grid there is what you're
thinking, right?

Yeah. They can't wait to move in and are
full of decorating ideas.

That's a fine hook to hang a pig on
right there.

We've got big steel beams to anchor our
cables and cable pullers to. We've got a

welding grid to put down our bollards
and hang our pigs over and lots of beams

in the ceiling. It is ideal.

To start with, they're going to build
their cable rig.

So you're the ghosting Christmas hat, is
that it?

Our two anchor points are going to be
these big pillars, and we'll put big

chains around these things, shackles,
all this hardware and stuff to make a

nice, solid attachment point. Everything
that we do will be based on those two

pull points.

From their bench tests, they learned
that placing an object in the path of

cord as it snapped back caused it to
curve around in a nice slicing arc.

So they weld a large metal tank to the
floor.

We need something to anchor to the
ground to make the cable snap to one

do what we want.

Well, that's a cigar cutter.

Now to check the bite power of their
cutter.

They power it up.

And it cuts the steel like it's a piece
of string.

Damn, brother.

Their first test is going to be with
rope.

Jamie ties the rope to the rigging, then
they crank it until it's nice and tight

and position it over the bollard.

I hope we didn't waken it right there.

Time to truck in their victim.

This is our first test subject.

This is horrible.

They raise Piggy up on a hook.

They don't smell as pristine as they did
the other day.

And Adam gives him a reassuring pep
talk.

When the rope breaks, I want it to come
whipping around here.

And truthfully... I want it to slice
right through your hide.

Due to the danger factor, our
MythBusters insurance company insisted

test has to be executed and filmed using
remote equipment.

When we snap these cables, they are
going to be, you know, 50 -foot cables

to swing possibly in a 50 -foot arc and
slice not only our pigs, but

potentially... Jamie or I are a crew
member in half, so in order to do this

experiment, we need to be completely
separated from it. The rope is too

for the hydraulic tensioner to pull
tight enough, so they're going to heave

with a little something else.

Adam's so excited to be driving one of
his favorite forms of transportation, he

does 360s of joy in the parking lot.

It's like a lovely ballet, isn't it?

Man, I love driving this big equipment.

I've got to get one of these for myself.

The forklift is attached to the rope
with a long pulley system of lines that

stretch all the way outside.

The last touch is to place the cutter on
the rope, and they're ready to slice

some ham.

Pull. Let's roll.

The team has been stepping back in time
to dig up and dust off the myth of

archaeoacoustics, that ancient pottery
contains sounds from the past that can

tapped into.

To recreate a very possible
archaeoacoustic scenario straight out of

potter's studio, they put their freshly
made, unfired pot on the wheel and stand

the drum next to it. On top of the drum,
they place the stylus, a piece of

straw. Tori does a sound check.

Look at that. Look how much it vibrates
when I do that.

Their stylist works, and M5 becomes an
ancient times recording studio.

Pottery record!

Tori will be the talent.

Let's get ready to record!

And carry pottery record producer.

All right, ready? In three, two, one.

Pottery record!

I see little frequencies.

They look for a sign in the line that
Tori's magnificent tenor -like tone has

left an imprint.

Definitely, look at this.

Yeah, I can see it. It's actually all
through here. It looks almost like a

braid. Has Tori's voice been stamped
into the surface?

Then Carrie steps up to the mic.

Pottery!

The girl's got some pipes.

Oh, I can see a little zigzag. I can see
it. It's really, really fine, but it's

there. The zigzag patterns on the clay
could be sound imprints, but they won't

be able to test their pots until they're
completely dry.

If we tried to extract anything off of
them right now, we'd probably end up

destroying the groove because it's just
too soft.

So the Pompeii scenario pottery
recording seems to be going pretty well.

next? Well, there was another version of
this myth that appeared on one of those

forensic TV shows recently.

And, you know, same idea with the
pottery on the pottery wheel. But

the drum, they just had kind of a brush
going along.

But they were able to extract audio off
of it and get some clue that helped them

solve the case.

Wait, wait, wait. They're taking the
drum out of the equation, which means

have to rely entirely on the brush to
pick up the vibrations from your voice?

To test the freaky forensic show
scenario, the team will spin an unfired

pot on a wheel, and as it turns, they'll
hold a brush against it and make a

noise.

This time, the drum won't be there to
help. So to get the sound to stamp onto

the clay, it's all down to the stylus.

Potters often use straw as a finishing
tool. So Grant cuts up long pieces from

broom. The longer the straw is, the
better chance it'll have of vibrating

then maybe making an impression on the
pot.

Carrie very helpfully tests the stylus.

Yeah,

yeah, something like that.

Maybe it's too low pitch.

is fun. You don't get to do it anymore.

Grant secures his straw brush to a metal
stand next to the pottery wheel.

You're going to win first place in the
fair.

Maybe second place.

And Carrie says what all forensic
investigators wish they could.

You crazy killer!

I didn't realize you were going to do it
that loud.

I'm trying to get a good chance to make
my left ear go deaf.

Okay. I think you got it.

Carrie, you're killing me not so softly.

They grab a fresh pot.

This time she's just going to say a
single word. It could have more impact.

So like Carrie or Tori. Okay. Carrie
releases her inner pain.

Tori!

You got some groove.

Is it deep enough?

Any one of those grooves could be...

could capture that information.

There are definitely some mystery cuts
and nicks on the clay, but were they

caused from sound vibrations, or was it
just the force of Carrie's breath that

moved the straw?

Tori has an idea to reduce the chance of
any falsetto markings.

You know how when they record music,
they have the little windscreen?

It's like a piece of pantyhose that just
goes over, and that keeps it from the

wind hitting the element.

You want to make one?

Yeah. Do you have your pantyhose here?
I'm wearing them. I can take them off.

Get the spare pair in your toolbox.

A windscreen should help block Carrie's
breath.

Got your pop screen all ready? Yep.

To try and focus the sound on the stylus
even more, they cut back the bristles

on the brush, so just one piece of straw
is concentrated on the clay.

A quick vocal warm -up, and the voice of
an angel rings out.

Or maybe make that the devil. That was a
good one, Carrie.

I know what it would be like to be
married to you.

But they got their best clear marking on
the clay yet.

It's perfect.

Yeah. The forensic pottery sessions were
a hit.

I'm going to go double porcelain.

Newsflash. A snapping cable can cut you
in two.

Or that's the myth.

And Jamie and Adam are about to find
out. For their first test, they're going

start with rope.

All ropes and cables have different
safety ratings. Once they start

the guys will monitor the pounds of
force they're at. And when it maxes out,

the trigger switch of the cutter.

I'm just waiting on the Heinemann to
give me that thumbs up.

All systems are go.

Adam moves the forklift forward, and
little by little, the rope inside

1 ,000.

The pressure rises.

2 ,000.

Okay, it's at 3 ,000.

And Jamie activates the cutter.

How did that work? Did it seem good? I
just left this thing, all the valves

open, and turned on the pump. Okay. And
it just immediately went.

Excellent. So it was right at 3 ,500.

So we're going to take a look?

I think so.

Well, it kind of looks like it made
contact with the pig.

From examining the pig's hide, it looks
like the first cut isn't always the

deepest. Sometimes all you get is rope
burn.

It doesn't look like it did any real
damage.

Damage sustained by pig? Nothing.

Don't get me wrong.

If you were standing here, you might be
in a lot of pain at this point, but you

would not be in two halves.

They check the high -speed camera
footage to see how the rope flew when it

snapped. Yeah, it just wrapped around
it.

Again, looking at that shot, I'm
thinking the pig wants to be close to

whipping point. The guys move the pig
closer to where the point of impact

be.

What we want to get is the pig right at
the end point of the whip, the three

-quarter point where the centrifugal
force is the greatest and where

the speed would be the highest.

They get a new section of rope, stretch
it out, and try again.

Jamie does the count. 2 ,000.

And Adam pulls the rope.

3, 2, 1.

That sounded more like it.

That sounded like a gunshot.

3 ,000 pounds on the nose.

And you pulled the trigger.

Yep, I got it right. It sounded like a
whip crack.

So how's the hog looking?

Always like Christmas, finding out if
actual fires occurred.

Hey, dude.

There's some visible damage here. Does
the mark go all the way around or just

right there?

No, there's a little bit of a mark over
here.

Even though the rope was traveling at
227 miles per hour and they got their

first real solid whipping action, again,
it didn't even cut through the pig's

skin. We got a real strike from the rope
test, and it seems to have left one

heck. of a nasty rope burn on our test
subject here. It would not be pleasant.

However, I don't think that it would
have killed a person.

Time to move on to something with teeth.

It's not got enough beef to it.

Or, should I say, pork.

Time to fire your writer.

Sit back, relax, and hum along to the
theory of archaeoacoustics that you can

record and listen to sounds on pottery
just like your favorite piece of vinyl.

Using Edison's dictation machine that
recorded voices onto cylindrical

of wax as their inspiration, Tori! the
team may have got some sounds to stick

onto their pottery.

Now, how do they play them back?

I peed out something very fabulous from
your pottery there.

In the lab over at X -Files, they used
an extraordinary sound extraction laser

device to pull out an ancient insult.

What is it? It's Aramaic.

It's the language of Christ. It
literally says, I am the bearded cow

beast.

In the real world, a laser would pick up
every speck of dust and dirt on a clay

pot. So Grant is designing a playback
system using old turntables. That's more

retro, but also more reliable.

This is a technique that was pioneered
in the late 60s. Basically what it

consists of is the tone arm from a
record player, and you connect that to

amplifier. It's better to use some type
of physical stylus that contacts the

medium to get the best audio quality.

First, he removes the arm off one of the
turntables.

Then he needs to make a new stylus,
because the one that came with the

player is too sharp to put onto clay.

that I've taken off of the record player
has a little needle on it.

But if we drag that needle across any
pottery, it's probably going to destroy

them. There's a way around that, and
that is to make a glass stylus.

Must be the reinforced glass.

Yeah, whatever, muscles.

Finally, Grant manages to break the
reinforced glass and melts a broken

with a blowtorch. Hey, we're making a
little swan.

You're like a little glass sculptor. Do
you want me to add to your collection a

poodle this time?

All you really have to do is heat the
glass until it's pliable, and you pull

out in a very thin string.

Once that cools, you can break it off,
and you have a perfect thread of glass.

Heat it up and make a little ball in the
end, and you glue it right onto your

record player stylus.

By attaching the glass stylus to the arm
and hooking up an amplifier...

That's the sound of my fingerprint.

DJ BC is in the house and ready to rock
some pots.

All right.

Now we need her some pots with some
sounds on them.

Well, the myth we're testing, in case
you haven't been paying attention, is

whether or not a cable under an extreme
amount of tension can break.

And when it snaps after it breaks, that
whipping cable can slice you in

half. In their first test, Jamie and
Adam snapped ropes at a deceased

Even though they got some direct hits,
the court didn't give the pig anything

more than a case of nasty rope burn. But
steel cable is a whole lot stronger.

I suspect this is totally possible to
achieve.

And I want to see.

some severed flesh from some cable.
Cable comes in different sizes and

strengths. So for their first test,
they're starting on the thin side.

The less the surface area, maybe the
greater the cutting action.

This time we're using 3 -8's cable.
Having something like this would be

something like a guy wire or a radio
tower or possibly even some kind of

hoisting operation.

Because cable doesn't stretch and recoil
as much as rope, To try and increase

the width factor, they're going to use
140 foot lengths and use a two -handed

approach to get it tight.

We're using the extended reach forklift
to pull all of the slack out and even

put a fair amount of tension on the
cable with it.

and then finally when we get it up to a
pretty high level, we'll use the piston

to pull the rest of it out, and we cut
it.

Everyone except Adam exits the building.

Slowly and very carefully, he pulls out
the slack in the line, then hightails it

outside. I pulled the limit of what the
fork can pull.

It's got nine inches, so let's go for
broke. All right. They put the hydraulic

pump into gear.

There we go. All right.

How to create a table in 3, 2, 1.

I love hearing big sounds in the next
room.

Wow. I mean, it looks like it couldn't
have been more successful.

He took quite a hit.

This time, Piggy went for a trot. This
little Piggy went to market.

If you think about how much force it
takes to give him...

A pop that will move him about 10 feet.

It might not slice your legs off, but it
might render them needing to be

amputated or something.

Looking at the Robo replay, they almost
got barbecued pork.

Did you see the sparks off the barrel?

That ought to tell you something.

Untiling can false us for not giving it
the right amount of force, tension, and

macking. That is brutal.

Make your heart stop.

But the 3 -8 cable still didn't cut it.
This was perfect for cutting in half if

it was going to, and it didn't. 3 -8
cable is done as far as I'm concerned.

It's probably time to bump up to a
bigger gauge.

Okay. Bigger is sometimes better. So the
guys reel out 5 -8 cable that has a

mighty breaking strength of 40 ,000
pounds. That is super thick monster

And we're going to see if that has
enough energy to do the damage that

looking for.

Jamie secures the heavyweight cable to
the puller. I wouldn't want to be

anywhere near this stuff when it
snapped.

No, this is going to be a bit of a
different beast.

The hydraulic puller puts 30 ,000 pounds
of pressure on the cable, and it's time

to unleash this monster.

Okay, ready?

Cutting 5 -inch cable.

In 3, 2, 1.

That kind of wound you up, didn't it?
Wow.

They go inside to inspect the whack
factor.

The pig's still in one piece, but it
went a little further, didn't it? It

lot further. The pig took a massive hit,
but he's still not cut in half.

Dude, that is so brutal. That was a good
hit. I

don't reckon that there's any other hit
we could have gone for that would do any

better than that.

We were pulling 30 ,000 pounds or more
on it when we cut it.

And 30 ,000 pounds, I mean, that's like
10 cars or so of energy

that's getting let go bang, like a shot
of a gun.

Looks like the killer cable myth isn't
such a snap after all. I can't imagine

anybody looking at that footage and not.

thinking that somebody standing there
would have gotten killed. I mean, the

was just brutally hit. He was pulverized
in his midsection.

No, I agree. That is not a survivable
hit, but that's not the myth. The myth

that that snapping cable can slice you
in half, and we don't have a sliced -up

pig.

No, we don't. I don't know what we're
going to do to achieve it. We've got to

figure it out.

Back at Base BC, the team have dug up a
theory that's been buried in the sands

of time, that ancient pottery can
contain sounds from the past. You crazy

killer!

Attempting to record onto clay, they
think they might have got some sound to

embed onto pottery.

Now, to try and play it back.

There's one primary piece of scientific
evidence that does support this myth.

Yeah. In 1969, there was a letter
published in the Proceedings of the

of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
of which I am a member, where they

claim to be able to record and play back
the sounds of a potter's wheel in a

piece of pottery.

To listen, they place the now -fired
Pompeii pod onto the pottery wheel and

it like a record on a turntable.

Then they put Grant's glass stylus in a
groove and are all ears.

Whoa, better get the RPMs right, guys.

Luckily, it didn't break, and they try
again.

Okay, ready?

As the pot rotates, they can clearly
hear the stylus scraping as it moves

the surface of the clay, but nothing
else.

Go to this one, because this is a good
groove here.

Grant finds another groove to trace
further down the pot.

What is that voice?

As Grant puts the glass stylus onto this
pottery, you can hear almost a ghostly

voice.

I'm hearing something.

That was like some crazy voice from
beyond.

They slow down the speed of the wheel.
They might hear the whoop whoop more

clearly.

Are they the words pottery record or is
the team just hearing the voices in

their head more plainly than usual But
there's definitely something there

there's definitely something that's not
just static

Putting their pom -paint pot aside for
now, they're ready to test their

TV show pot, where they used a brush
stylus and no drum.

Again, the team places the stylus on a
groove in the pot and listens closely.

But it's hard to make out if it's
anything more than just static.

There's one area where I hear sort of a,
but it's really faint and I don't know

if I'm making it up in my head.

Huh. probably won't ever be a hit carry,
but it's given our trio hope.

There was some noticeable recording
there that repeated, and it wasn't

So my feeling is it's not your best way
to record sound, but it's possible.

I don't want to crush our little super
group's dreams of pottery record

so we're sending them to a sound lab
very soon to get a pro's take on their

potential. I think it said Armageddon is
in three days.

Dude, at least wait for the weekend.

Go to this one.

Listening to their pottery records, the
team heard some mysterious sounds.

But it was hard to tell if it was a
human voice.

What? So they're off to a professional
sound studio to get this myth cleared

I feel like we're doing a drop -off.

Yeah.

So now that we've gotten all of our
ghost sounds off of our pot and recorded

them onto tapes, we've come down to a
little place called DeNoise. They're

hopefully going to do that forensic show
thing where they clear up all the

background and you get some sort of
discernible words off of this audio

Hello. Meet super sound guy Albert.

Do you have any sort of laser system
that, you know, we could bounce a

laser off our pottery and...

Capture audio off of that. I don't have
a laser system, but I have a very good

restoration tool.

So what we have on this tape, I will be
able to hear.

Albert takes the team into his high
-tech sound studio and Grant beams up.

Number one, set course for Starbase 217.

Engage.

What?

This is the way of your people, isn't
it? Yes, it's part of my history. It's

what we do.

Albert queues up a track from their
Pompeii pod, where the team thought they

their best possible sound imprint.

I will try to use different tools to
increase the sound, to reduce the noise.

He filters out the snap, crackle, and
pop.

I mean, already you can hear it
different. Yeah.

It's gotten rid of all that crazy
static.

And now we try to reduce it.

What? We have something better here.

What do you think?

Yeah, it sounds like it's just scraping
along the pottery.

The sound is so clear, it's positively
sparkling.

Oh, my God. I'm getting excited.

Our good pot might actually have
something. Yeah.

Our trio is full of anticipation.

Will Albert be able to lift off any
comprehensible words so we can share

excitement?

I had some.

Fairly high hopes, because we did have
something that sounds like an audio

signal on our pie.

Everyone is all ears.

I hear something, but there is so much
noise in the middle.

No, no potter air con.

An unexplained squeak? Yes.

But an easily distinguishable human
voice?

No.

The best we got today was a squeak.

And at most, it's not like you get
pottery record.

All we heard was... Looks like their
pottery record won't ever make the

Archeoacoustic Hot 100.

Sorry, kids. Them's the breaks.

So you mean everything we see on TV
isn't real?

I'm afraid so, Tori. So what's Albert's
take on the myth?

You can imagine that you can record
almost anything on a media that's hard

enough to keep the groove, okay? Not on
butter, but on anything else like

plastic or wax. But if you do it
intentionally, if not, it will be only

Seems as a recording medium, Clay just
doesn't cut it.

What's your gut feeling?

No.

No recording.

As a Frenchman and a sound engineer?

No, pas possible.

Pas possible.

Pas possible.

Playing piggy in the middle hasn't been
a whole lot of fun for Adam and Jamie.

It took quite a hit, but you know what?
It doesn't look like it cut him. So far,

trying to snap a dead pig in two with a
whipping cable, Porky has emerged

victorious and still intact every time.
I can help.

This is one way to cut a pig in half.

These results...

They're not only counterintuitive to
what I thought was possible, but they're

really frustrating. So I had a research
team call pretty much every national,

federal, military safety organization
that they could get on the phone to ask

for evidence of this myth.

And while there's tons of anecdotal
evidence and there's not a fisherman

who doesn't think this myth is true, we
could not locate a single definitive

confirmed case of someone being sliced
in half by a cable.

Well, the myth says the cable will slice
you in half like a hot knife through

butter. Well, there are plenty of
recorded fatalities, and we showed that

snapping cable can kill you. Well, you
know what happens now.

Yes, I do. We've got to get back down
there and find out what it'll take to

actually cut one of those pigs in half
with a cable.

Exactly.

For their next attempt, they hogtie
Adam's nemesis. Basically, so I'm

his torso perfectly rigid to the cable,
whack, going right through his body

here. That's what I want, right through
his body, through it.

This time, the idea is to combine the
best of both worlds, from thick and thin

cable, mass and cutting action, by
attaching a piece of 316th cable to the

of the monster line.

We're hoping that this little whip gets
such high speed from its instantaneous

yank from the big cable that it'll cut
the pig.

Pressurizing the cable. 5 -inch cable
with a 3 -16 -inch whip.

The tension builds.

But will they get their release?

Okay, cutting the cable in 3, 2, 1.

Made a good loud sound.

Damn. It sounded satisfying.

But the pig was faking.

No dice, no slice.

The myth's not looking good at this
point. No, we're not getting anywhere

the carnage we thought we'd be able to
get.

The stress of no success is making Adam
a little loopy. This time, we're

actually going to attach a loop of 316th
cable to the 5 -8th around the pig

anchored to the grid.

You see what I'm talking about?

You see what we're doing?

I think we're good to go, man.

I've got the loop.

Everything's tied down.

If he doesn't get a result this time,
please don't hold me responsible for his

actions.

Final death loop.

Oh, please, please let there be a big
cut in half in there.

That's it?

He's not cut in half at all.

Sorry, Adam. The hog is still whole.

Let's go get a sword.

A meat cleaver.

If anything is about to snap, it's Adam.
That's all we can do, right?

Jamie, never say that to a man whose
eyes are glazed over.

Well, look, I'm just going to go back to
the forklift and pull back the fork

until that cable goes through his
midsection.

Okay. Warning. If you're a sensitive
soul, now is the time to avert your

Things are about to get a little
disturbing.

All right.

All right, I'm good to go. Like a man
possessed, Adam floors the forklift and

proves pigs really can fly.

There we go.

Hey!

Woo!

Oh, man.

It smells even worse now.

Pork salad.

Let's get her into the truck. I'll take
the top half.

I'll split the duty.

I have to say, we're asked a lot if
we're surprised by the results. This one

perhaps the most surprising thing we've
ever done to me. I was completely

convinced at the beginning of this
testing that we would be able to slice.

Up one of those pigs with one of those
cables under tension. 20 ,000, 30 ,000

pounds of pressure. I just thought it
was completely going to happen. And

halfway through, when I saw what was
happening, I was like, you know what? I

don't think this is possible. And it was
absolutely right.

Nope. It'll kill you, but it won't slice
you in half.

Amazing. Busted.

Totally busted.