Re: OT: Cracking Speech by JDV!

On Tue, 25 Feb 2025 07:34:17 -0800, john larkin <JL@gct.com> wrote:

On Tue, 25 Feb 2025 10:31:26 +0000, liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid
(Liz Tuddenham) wrote:
>

Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
>

On 25/02/2025 6:31 am, john larkin wrote:

On Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:30:14 +0000, liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid
(Liz Tuddenham) wrote:
 

Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote:
>
[...]

Bring back horse drawn stages coaches and you can save even more money.

>
...and the pollution is bio-degradeable.

 
London was vile when horses did all the heavy work.

 
And every other large city.
 

And before rail transportation, everyone had to live close to work.
Most people walked.

 
Canals and fast barges weren't a quick as railroads but they were faster
than walking and a lot less like hard work than riding.

>
Rather surprisingly (and not very well known):  one of the biggest
side-effects of canals was the expansion of London.  It had reached a
size where the transport of feed for the horses in the centre needed
much larger numbers of horses coming in from the surrounding farmland.
Likewise, the horses that removed the dung had to be fed and their dung
also had to be removed.  This put a limit on how big London could grow.
>
When canals were built and one horse could tow a 30-tonne boat, the need
for so many transport horses reduced and the feed and dung could be
brought in from much further out, so the built-up area could be
enlarged.

>
Horse droppings, coal smoke, open sewage ditches, dirty water. Must
have been nasty. And unhealthy.

London hasn't changed a bit - except to say you're far more likely to
get stabbed to death by an illegal immigrant nowadays. Aside from
that, much the same.