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Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod. A show about the past. Rediscovered.

When Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House again in early January, the moment

became symbolically official when the new minority leader handed her the gavel.

In transferring the gavel, a mallet made of lacquered maple, the Republicans are letting go of one of the oldest symbols of legislative power in Washington.

Sam Rayburn, the Speaker in three periods from 1940 to 1961, once said,

In the speakership, the gavel becomes almost part of the office.

It's habit.

Any gavel you use has a lot of sentiment attached.

That is, until it, like a bipartisan dream, is shattered.

Throughout American history, speakers have pounded their gavels so hard in search

of order that they wind up smashing the gavel itself into smithereens. This is not the fault of

the house carpentry shop, whose workers have diligently and expertly produced the mallets for decades,

but rather a legislative process that often veered out of control in a world before the time

of microphones. In an era without sound amplification, the speakers really had to

pretty insistently wrap that gavel to bring the house to attention.

That's Matthew Wozniewski, the historian for the House of Representatives.

It is not known exactly how many speakers have shattered their gavels throughout history,

but two speakers are notable for their violence toward these important and innocent mallets.

One is Joseph Cannon, whose last name adorns the oldest congressional office building in

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