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England had an advantage in that coal mines, iron mines and limestone quarries were reasonably close together, facilitating the smelting of iron.
by Merrill 7y ago
England had an advantage in that coal mines, iron mines and limestone quarries were reasonably close together, facilitating the smelting of iron.
- agumonkey 7y agofunny how geology factors our reality even at the technological layer
- blaser-waffle 7y agoThe logistics of space -- not outer space, just, like distance -- are pretty damn tricky. Most of the time there is no way to deal with it other than "brute force" aka haul stuff long distances. Maybe you get a tunnel or pass through a mountain, maybe you get easy access to iron or oil, but otherwise you're a prisoner of logistics.
- agumonkey 7y agoany articles about the link between logistics and entropy ?
- dredmorbius 7y agoWhat's fairly freaky is that current transport cost ratios between modes of transportation are little changed from those of pre-industrial times. Land transport costs about 20x that of sea. The principle differences are: - Rail. Which is roughly the equivalent of a canal or waterway, though with higher speeds. About 1/2 as efficient as large-scale cargo ships. - Air. Extraordinarly expensive, but fast. Also very effective at spreading disease.
- Animats 7y agoRight. Until railroads got going, you had to have all three close together.