The Guys Encounter a MAD SCIENTIST | American Pickers (S16) | History

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FRANK: Today, Mike and I are winding our ways through the backroads of Pennsylvania. The sun is shining, it’s a perfect day for a pick.
$phoneringing$

MIKE: Dani D!
FRANK: What’s up, Danielle?
MIKE: How are you?
DANIELLE: Pretty good. Busy day at the office, other than that, great.
MIKE: I love to hear that! What’s going on?
DANIELLE: Ooh, I got a lead for you. You guys have a minute right now?
FRANK: Of course we do.
MIKE: Always.
DANIELLE: Okay, I’m sending you to a guy named Morgan, and I’m telling you, this guy reminds me of you as a kid, Mike. As a kid he would actually mow lawns so that he could make money to buy dynamite and blow things up in his yard.
MIKE: $laughs$
FRANK: Cool.
MIKE: That dude’s rad!
DANIELLE: Yeah, I thought you’d think that. I haven’t really seen much in photos of what he’s got, but I know he’s got militaria, he’s got a giant Tesla coil, he has all kinds of fun stuff to pick through.
MIKE: Hey, I’m there, man, if you said that this guy was buying dynamite when he was a little kid and blowing up stuff in his yard…
DANIELLE: I know, he’s maniacal like you.
FRANK: We’ll let you know how it works out.
MIKE: We’ll call you and let you know how it goes.
DANIELLE: Alright, bye.
FRANK & MIKE: Bye.

FRANK: What is that?
MIKE: I don’t know…
FRANK: Dude, it’s got, like, machine guns on it!
MIKE: It’s a tank, man!

♪ ♪

MORGAN: Hey! This is private property! What can I do for you?
MIKE: When a guy pulls up to you in a tank, and asks you what you’re doing there, you better have a good answer.
MIKE: Are you Morgan?
MORGAN: Yes…?
MIKE: We’re Mike and Frank, did you talk to Dani on the phone? She tell you we’re coming?
MORGAN: Oh! Oh yeah, yeah… I didn’t know you were coming yet. Tell you what, I’ll… I’ll turn around here, and you can follow me up.
MIKE: Okay. Thank you!
MORGAN: Alright.
MIKE: He was kind of mad too.
FRANK: Was he?
MIKE: Frankie and I are used to seeing tractors, combines, things like that coming down the road, not a tank!
MIKE: This is Robbie, this is Robbie, dude! In 20 years.
FRANK: Yeah, I can see him having one of these.
MIKE: Driving around with this. Here, get a flyer.
FRANK: Gotcha.
MIKE: Hey! ♪

MIKE: What’s going on, man? Those machine guns work?
MORGAN: Oh, no not really, I don’t want to be in jail.
MIKE: $laughs$
FRANK: How’re you doing?
MORGAN: Okay.
MIKE: Sorry we rolled up on ya. I thought Dani would have called you and told you we were coming.
MORGAN: Oh, I’m sorry too, I thought, uh, you were coming tomorrow or something.
MIKE: Okay, yeah no worries, man.
FRANK: Here’s some of the stuff Danielle might have went over with you.
MORGAN: Yeah, I got some of this.
MIKE: So, I saw a license plate on the back, is this registered for the road?
MORGAN: Yes, it is. I had to unscrew the guns to… so I didn’t get the politicians in Harrisburg riled up.
MIKE: Oh those, those… these come off?
MORGAN: Yeah, they come off, they’re not real, they are, they are simulated 30-calibre machine guns, but they actually don’t shoot.
MIKE: What is it, exactly?
MORGAN: This is a British Ferret… it was made in 1954, it’s a British vehicle, there was only like 5,000 of them made.
MIKE: Where’d you get it at?
MORGAN: I got it, okay, I found out, I got a military collector magazine, and it was advertised in there.

MIKE: When Dani told us that Morgan collects militaria, science and electronics, I didn’t really know what to expect. But now after meeting him, and seeing the tank, I really don’t know what to expect! I really don’t know what to expect!

MIKE: So Danielle said you got some electronics, old, like, you got old stereo equipment, like speakers and turntables?
MORGAN: Oh, there’s a lot of stuff up– it’s all over the place.
MIKE: Oh yeah, I see that.
MORGAN: I’m sort of a scientist, or at least I’ve always wanted to be.
MIKE: $laughs$ Yeah?
MORGAN: I’d done all kinds of things for a living. I taught science and chemistry for a year. Worked on cars. Worked at a TV shop for a little bit.
MIKE: What is this?
MORGAN: That is my telescope.
MIKE: This is a telescope…
MORGAN: Yep.

MORGAN: I always describe myself as sort of a mad scientist, and I tell everybody, it’s fun to be crazy, because it opens so many more options. Have fun in life.

MIKE: What year is the Jeep?
MORGAN: I’m not sure the exact year, but I’m guessing 1946.
MIKE: Okay. What are you going to do with this, do you ever sell anything, like will you ever get this running and sell it, or…?
MORGAN: I just like to sort of collect the stuff more than sell them.
MORGAN: I just love military stuff.
MORGAN: It, like my scientific desires, I’m just born with it.
MIKE: Okay.
MORGAN: It might be sort of like, a past life, because I hypnotize people and talk about that too.
MIKE: Oh, you hypnotize people?
MORGAN: Oh yeah.
MIKE: How’d you learn how to do that?
MORGAN: I read books.
MIKE: Really…
MORGAN: What happened is, I wake up in the middle of the night, instead of staying up later, going ‘duh,’ I read all this stuff. So I’m keeping up on it.
MIKE: How long have you been hypnotizing people?
MORGAN: Oh, man. 40 years.
MIKE: Really.
FRANK: No kidding.
MIKE: I mean, for money you were doing it?
MORGAN: No, but they’d give me beer and stuff. $grouplaughing$
MIKE: Did you ever hypnotize anybody because they had problems like weight or…?
MORGAN: Yes. A lot of trying to quit smoking and a lot of trying to lose weight.

MIKE: So, can you hypnotize him?
MORGAN: Well sure, if you want to try it.
FRANK: I’d try anything. Once.
MORGAN: Okay. $laughs$

FRANK: I can’t be hypnotized. You’re not going to see Frank Fritz, on the ground, quacking like a duck.

MIKE: As Morgan goes and finds a chair to hypnotize Frank, I find a search light.
MIKE: Is this something you’d sell? This old search light, do you know where that came off of?
MORGAN: I don’t even know. How about 50?
MIKE: 40 bucks.
MORGAN: 45.
MIKE: I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you the 50 bucks if you can hypnotize him.

MIKE: This is a win-win for me. So what if I have to throw out another 5 bucks, if I’m going to see Frank walk around like a duck and quack!

MORGAN: Okay, I’ll have you close your eyes, and…
FRANK: They’re closed.
MORGAN: …and fall back, and I’ll have you go deeper and deeper asleep. My voice will change, because there might be a sort of mind meld here.

MORGAN: The actual hypnosis is within… a person being hypnotized; the actual power is there. I just guide this power, like you guide the power of a car driving down the road.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

MORGAN: Alright, we’ll start here. Now…
MIKE: He looks completely relaxed.
MORGAN: Now… concentrate on my voice, nothing but my voice, let there be no other distractions. No other distractions…
Now concentrate on falling back… baack… baaack… just let yourself go… we’ll catch you, just let yourself go… Soon you’ll be deeeeeeeep asleep. Deeeeeeeep sleep. Deeeeeeeep… sleep…
So relaxed now, so very relaxed. As you go even deeper… and deeper… deeeeeeeep asleep. Deeeeeeeep… asleep…
Now tighten your eyelids up, let them become very tight, let your eyes become very tight, now they’re very tight now, your eyelids are so very tight, now you can’t open them! Try now, you can’t open your eyes…

MORGAN: Okay, 45 bucks.
Morgan & Mike laughing
MORGAN: A lot of times, it’s better if the patient has a few beers first. $laughs$ It helps relax them.
MIKE: Alright, 45 bucks.
MORGAN: Alright, 45 bucks.
FRANK: I was definitely deep into something, but it wasn’t sleep.

MIKE: What was this building utilized for? I mean, this thing is huge!
MORGAN: That, I built and designed it myself for…
MIKE: You built this?
MORGAN: …the big giant lightning machine.
MIKE: What?
FRANK: He’s got a big lightning machine.
MIKE: Okay, so she said you had a Tesla coil, we’ve seen those before.
FRANK: Yeah.
MORGAN: Yeah, did you ever see one two storeys high?
MIKE: $laughs$ Are you serious?
MORGAN: And puts out a million and a half volts.
FRANK: No.
MIKE: You built that?
MORGAN: I built it, I designed and built it, yes.

FRANK: Mike and I have seen Tesla coils before, but on a smaller scale.
Mike & Frank laughing

MORGAN: For safety’s sake, you can’t be in by the coffin; you gotta stand here behind the coffin…
MIKE: Alright.
MORGAN: And by the way, you don’t want to touch the coffin either.
MIKE: Really!
FRANK: Oh, because it gets electrified?
MIKE: Do I need a lead vest or anything?
MORGAN: No, but I would stand back here a little bit further, if you could.
MIKE: Alright.

FRANK: Morgan is concerned about the metal, but this whole barn is made of wood… one stray lightning bolt could set this place up like a Roman candle!

MORGAN: I’m going to go turn off the lights and turn on a rotary spark gap.
FRANK & MIKE: Alright.

FRANK: Whoa…
MORGAN: Now, I’ll get this… bulb here to show you, you can light a bulb in your hand too. So here goes… this is a million and a half volts!
MIKE: Holy!
FRANK: Whoa!

FRANK: He flips this thing on, it’s the biggest cracking noise I’ve ever heard, you know, it’s like thunder and it’s all over the place!

♪
MIKE: The amount of energy, the power that was surrounding us, was epic! I smelled the hair on Frank’s back burning!
MORGAN: Oops.
MIKE: Dang!
MORGAN: The breaker went, but that’s alright. That’ll work.
MIKE: $laughs$
MORGAN: I didn’t tell them how much noise it was going to make so I can see them jump.

MIKE: Good luck with your research, my friend.
MORGAN: Good luck, you too.
FRANK: Thank you very much.
FRANK: Take care, thanks for showing us that coil.
MORGAN: Thank you for coming.
FRANK: Alrighty, have a great day.
MORGAN: I just enjoyed the whole day. And I told them, it’s fun to be crazy because it opens up so many more options.
$honkshorn$
MIKE: Good luck, buddy!