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Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

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Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#41

Post by galaxyLogic »

delichon wrote: post #3

I'd guess that Heinlein was aware of it and scaled it up in his imagination. The Roads must roll — they are the arteries of the nation. When they stop, everything stops. Factories idle, food rots, men starve. The nation cannot live without its Roads. A thousand feet wide, level as a floor, strip after strip moving past in ordered procession. The slow strips on the outside moved at five miles an hour; the inner ones f…

I read this as a teenager in a Sci-Fi compilation without paying much attention to the author, so I forgot where I read it or who wrote it or where I could find it again. But I composed and tape-recorded a melody to the lyrics which still hums in my head :

  While you ride
  While you glide
  We are watching down inside
  that your roadways go rolling along. ...
Thanks for posting.

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#42

Post by illusive4080 »

LiquidPolymer wrote: post #7

I love the kid who is hamming it up at the bottom of the frame. I've been a photographer/videographer for my entire professional career and have run into this kid many, many times. Adults exhibit this behavior too but it is usually much more moderated. This kid had to know what a camera was, which end was filming (some early film cameras appeared to be simple boxes), and wanted to make his mark on the final product.

It’s crazy to me watching this and thinking that if that kid lived to 100 he would’ve died 30+ years ago. That unknown child will be forever captured on this film.

Every time I watch old films with children in them I always think about how they’ve been dead, hopefully of old age, for a long time already.

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#43

Post by jacobsenscott »

LiquidPolymer wrote: post #7

I love the kid who is hamming it up at the bottom of the frame. I've been a photographer/videographer for my entire professional career and have run into this kid many, many times. Adults exhibit this behavior too but it is usually much more moderated. This kid had to know what a camera was, which end was filming (some early film cameras appeared to be simple boxes), and wanted to make his mark on the final product.

Some guy smacks the kid with a light left hook at about 1:14.

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#47

Post by cguess »

moritzwarhier wrote: post #32

Modern urban car infrastructure is neither space- nor energy-efficient, but urban planning is long-term, and decisions shift all efficiency considerations in the long-term in a way that's hard to undo. For example, transportation of people with the modern extensive net of streets would be most convenient and efficient if there was some kind of public transportation in small buses, available on demand and price being…

> available on demand

This doesn't work in cities. The vast majority of peoples movement are not immediately necessary. They can wait 10-15 minutes (or plan ahead) for efficiency. This also cuts down on costs for everyone.

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#48

Post by cguess »

excalibur wrote: post #15

> It’s fair to say that few of us now marvel at moving walkways, those standard infrastructural elements of such utilitarian spaces as airport terminals, subway stations, and big-box stores. You've gotta be referring to escalators here. Never seen a moving walkway in a big-box store, or a subway station for that matter.

Not in the US, but in Europe it's more common. Shopping malls in Eastern Europe they're not uncommon.

Re: Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

#49

Post by netsharc »

deadbabe wrote: post #9
nashashmi wrote: post #2

That kid getting slapped on the face in the film! What did he do?

Doesn’t matter, he’s dead now.

Someone else in these comments said s/he wonders what lives the people ended up living who were seen in old photos/videos. Your comment makes me wonder what life this boy (well, he's our senior) lived, and what his impact is beyond being a participant of a curious event in a YouTube video. I guess he had a paper trail, relatives, etc, but there's probably no way to identify him from the present (except if someone's grand-grandkid can give us an anecdote about his grand-grandfather seeing a kid being shoved at the moving walkways in Paris..
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