The Dangers of Locomotives
George Stephenson, the inventor of the steam engine, had to face heavy odds in convincing the leaders of his time about the social viability of his invention. Working in a colliery near Newcastle, England, in 1814, he had developed an engine for the mines which could pull eight trucks loaded with 30 tons of coal at a speed of 4 mile per hour. After some further development it could even attain a speed of 12 mph. This was quite a spectacular speed at that time.
The problem came when the cities of Manchester and Liverpool applied to the parliament for permission to construct railway lines. Stephenson himself appeared before a committee appointed by the parliament. His scheme was ridiculed as "the most absurd that ever entered the head of a man." The list of objections, raised by the politicians, read almost like the output of a "reverse brainstorming" session (i.e., in how many ways the idea would be a failure"). Some examples of what would happen when people see this terrible spectacle of an engine rushing by:
- ladies would have miscarriage,
- cows would cease to give milk,
- hens would stop laying eggs,
- the poisoned air would kill the livestock and the birds in the district,
houses near the railway line would catch fire from the sparks from the locomotive,
- since there would be no more work for horses, the species would die out,
- coachmen and innkeepers along the deserted roads would lose business and become beggars,
- the engine boilers would burst and burn the passengers, and
- in any case, passenger would go mad because no person can stand the speed of more than 10 miles per hour.
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