Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Invention of Buses

worksinprogress.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–15 of 15 posts

Re: The Invention of Buses

#11

Post by MisterTea »

> Ancient urban fabric of Damascus. Very few of these roads are wide enough for a carriage, and none is wide enough for two carriages to pass each other.

This stood out as I immediately thought "How the heck did they move building materials and other large items around?" Though I guess the likely answer is by hand or some kind of wheeled cart.

Re: The Invention of Buses

#12

Post by fsckboy »

another similar "business model" for transportation also did not get invented till "late": a "packet ship" is a ship that sails between ports on a schedule, independent of whether it's fully loaded. I don't know why it's a packet boat, not a big deal but I read a lot of seafaring books as a kid and it was always ship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_boat

Re: The Invention of Buses

#14

Post by euroderf »

InitialLastName wrote: post #9
almcd wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Paris, the renovations overseen by Georges-Eugène Haussmann between 1853 and 1870 shaped much of the centre of Paris. Overcrowding and sanitation were publicly cited as the main motives for this renovation, although social control was also a factor with the new boulevards deliberately being designed to enable suppression of street-level insurrection.

To expand, the various governments running Paris had a big issue in the early and mid- 19th century with urban insurrections being able to hamper military movement by setting up barricades across streets. There are multiple revolutions and major insurrections that were able to establish strongholds and fortified, highly defensible areas out neighborhoods by building walls out of furniture and debris. It's much harder…

Nowadays potential insurrections are starved by population dispersion into low-density areas, like suburbs. It's getting hard to form an angry mob.

Re: The Invention of Buses

#15

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

rob74 wrote: post #5
InsideOutSanta wrote: post #2

The last stagecoach traveled over the Gotthardpass in the Swiss Alps in 1881, steered by Alois Zgraggen. There's a song about him that ends with: Now I no longer travel southward, and I pray to God: My Lord, grant me rest soon, I’m no good for anything here anymore, so if you would be merciful to me, let me soon pass through Heaven’s gate. I’m no good for anything here anymore, so if you would be merciful to me, let…

Interestingly enough, stagecoaches are called "Postkutsche" in German-speaking countries (because they also carried mail), and Switzerland's regional buses ("PostBus") are still operated by a subsidiary of the Swiss Post: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostBus_Switzerland . So some ideas live longer than you might expect... Something similar also exists in Austria and is still called "Postbus", although it's been oper…

Can't really seperate that sort of stuff in DACH.

The railways also did Post and Packages, as well as operating Buses, operating "Bahnbus", at least in .de.

For some more history of that in roughly reverse chronological order:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurn-und-Taxis_Post

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserliche_Reichspost

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omodeo_Tasso

( Now singing: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoch_auf_dem_gelben_Wagen )

Post reply on HN