8 ms·

> More people paid to watch others ride these early coasters rather than ride themselves I had no idea roller coasters have been around this long. The photos a

> More people paid to watch others ride these early coasters rather than ride themselves I had no idea roller coasters have been around this long. The photos are laugh-out-loud terrifying. I was shocked that anyone would pay to ride them until I read the quote above. Now it makes sense. I’d pay to watch that too!

jollybean 4y ago
In that era, there weren't even seatbelts on cars. We used to have a much different view on systematic rare danger.
- akira2501 4y ago
  If you're trading a horse for the car, a seatbelt might not be the first thing you'd think of. I don't think our views on danger have changed, it's just that any new technology requires a period of adjustment to it.
  - jollybean 4y ago
    Our views have changed. We used to throw lawn darts, have fireworks, guns all over. Not even helmets on motorcycles. When I was a kid, we used to rid maybe 6 kids in the back of a pickup truck flat bed. That was normal. It would not only be illegal today, but probably considered very immoral. Hockey players didn't even wear helmets, not even the goalies (!). Nobody wore helmets when I grew up skiing, now almost everyone does. We are considerably safer about everything today.
    - space_fountain 4y ago
      Idk how old you are, but I have ridden on public roads in the back of a pickup certainly as late as the 2005 as a child. I think it might be more common than you think in some parts of the country
      - CSMastermind 4y ago
        That's still going on today in many parts of the country, I literally saw a truck driving down the road with kids in the back last week. Likewise, I've never once worn a seatbelt in an NYC taxi.
    - bawolff 4y ago
      We also used to knock on wood to prevent bad things happening. I think an argument could be made that we shifted from interventions that dont work to interventions that do.
      - jollybean 4y ago
        We still knock wood. We have more science, more education. 10% of kids under age 1 would die at the turn of the century (1900), which means, everyone knew a family with a child that had died, and that's traumatic. Our views of safety and risk have evolved. My grandfather, he worked in a lumber camp, the stories ... my god. We also react to it differently now. Even in our language i.e. 'I feel unsafe' or people talk about 'harm' or 'violence' with just language.
    - edejong 4y ago
      We have a very substantial part of the population becoming chronically ill after an infection of a disease labeled “mostly mild”, yet we decided low-key interventions such as masking and air filtration are not worth it.
    - 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
      When I was a kid, we used to rid maybe 6 kids in the back of a pickup truck flat bed. where i live, because of paucity of transportation means, it is not uncommon to have the back door of a car straight open and 3 kids sit there, dangling their feet. that is considered very normal in these parts of the world.
mgdlbp 4y ago
Having first read your comment, the photo wasn't as bad as I expected. The supports don't look too unreasonable for a single wooden car with two passengers. Modern trains are an order of magnitude heavier--~20 people and a gross weight of ~20 tonnes. A video of the coaster in the photo exists (the playback framerate seems somewhat too fast): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flip_Flap_Railway_early_film.webm https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flip_Flap_Railway_ea... Modern tubular steel rails also allow for rickety-looking yet safe single-car coasters: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rat%C3%B3n_Vacil%C3%B3n.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rat%C3%B3n_Vacil%C3%...
jzl 4y ago
One of the most mind-blowing images on Wikipedia is this one of the first ever Ferris Wheel from the Chicago World's Fair in 1893: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Chicago-ferris-wheel.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Chicago-... Note how large the cars relative to the tiny people standing in them. This thing was unimaginably massive. It's easy to think of 1893 as being before the modern technological era, but we were more modern than most people like to think.

jollybean 4y ago

In that era, there weren't even seatbelts on cars. We used to have a much different view on systematic rare danger.

akira2501 4y ago
If you're trading a horse for the car, a seatbelt might not be the first thing you'd think of. I don't think our views on danger have changed, it's just that any new technology requires a period of adjustment to it.
- jollybean 4y ago
  Our views have changed. We used to throw lawn darts, have fireworks, guns all over. Not even helmets on motorcycles. When I was a kid, we used to rid maybe 6 kids in the back of a pickup truck flat bed. That was normal. It would not only be illegal today, but probably considered very immoral. Hockey players didn't even wear helmets, not even the goalies (!). Nobody wore helmets when I grew up skiing, now almost everyone does. We are considerably safer about everything today.
  - space_fountain 4y ago
    Idk how old you are, but I have ridden on public roads in the back of a pickup certainly as late as the 2005 as a child. I think it might be more common than you think in some parts of the country
    - CSMastermind 4y ago
      That's still going on today in many parts of the country, I literally saw a truck driving down the road with kids in the back last week. Likewise, I've never once worn a seatbelt in an NYC taxi.
  - bawolff 4y ago
    We also used to knock on wood to prevent bad things happening. I think an argument could be made that we shifted from interventions that dont work to interventions that do.
    - jollybean 4y ago
      We still knock wood. We have more science, more education. 10% of kids under age 1 would die at the turn of the century (1900), which means, everyone knew a family with a child that had died, and that's traumatic. Our views of safety and risk have evolved. My grandfather, he worked in a lumber camp, the stories ... my god. We also react to it differently now. Even in our language i.e. 'I feel unsafe' or people talk about 'harm' or 'violence' with just language.
  - edejong 4y ago
    We have a very substantial part of the population becoming chronically ill after an infection of a disease labeled “mostly mild”, yet we decided low-key interventions such as masking and air filtration are not worth it.
  - 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
    When I was a kid, we used to rid maybe 6 kids in the back of a pickup truck flat bed. where i live, because of paucity of transportation means, it is not uncommon to have the back door of a car straight open and 3 kids sit there, dangling their feet. that is considered very normal in these parts of the world.

mgdlbp 4y ago

Having first read your comment, the photo wasn't as bad as I expected. The supports don't look too unreasonable for a single wooden car with two passengers. Modern trains are an order of magnitude heavier--~20 people and a gross weight of ~20 tonnes. A video of the coaster in the photo exists (the playback framerate seems somewhat too fast): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flip_Flap_Railway_early_film.webm https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flip_Flap_Railway_ea... Modern tubular steel rails also allow for rickety-looking yet safe single-car coasters: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rat%C3%B3n_Vacil%C3%B3n.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rat%C3%B3n_Vacil%C3%...

jzl 4y ago

One of the most mind-blowing images on Wikipedia is this one of the first ever Ferris Wheel from the Chicago World's Fair in 1893: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Chicago-ferris-wheel.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Chicago-... Note how large the cars relative to the tiny people standing in them. This thing was unimaginably massive. It's easy to think of 1893 as being before the modern technological era, but we were more modern than most people like to think.