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This isn't just an old tradition. It's a coded signal - and one that the river users can be assumed to understand. There's no principle difference between this
by esquivalience 3y ago
This isn't just an old tradition. It's a coded signal - and one that the river users can be assumed to understand. There's no principle difference between this use of straw to caution navigators on water, and the use of (for example) "
300 status codes to signal redirection to to navigavators of the internet.
- hermannj314 3y agoAncient website still uses archaic human-centric deci-mal number 301 to redirect traffic. Early humans believed these were powerful and called them "magic[al] strings".
- sgarland 3y agoThey also apparently communicated the need for a hot caffeinated beverage with the sequence 418. It is unknown how the receiver of this code would communicate their intent to fulfill the request, leading historians to ponder if sending such a signal might result in a torrential flood of the beverage.
- red-iron-pine 3y agoincorrect implementation of the protocol AFAIK > The HTTP 418 'I'm a teapot' client error response code indicates that the server refuses to brew coffee because it is, permanently, a teapot. A combined coffee/tea pot that is temporarily out of coffee should instead return 503.
- derbOac 3y agoThis isn't a criticism of the practice but I did think it might be more effective to use something in safety green or orange, maybe with reflective surface, or maybe blinking lights. But I'm not an expert with this, and I can see how a straw bale might also catch your attention.
- harimau777 3y agoThis is 100% pure speculation, but I wonder if, at the time that the bylaw was made, a straw bale was the happy medium of being relatively soft (in case someone passing under the bridge ran into it) but also relatively cheap.
- saalweachter 3y agoI would also speculate the height of the bale would be significant -- lower the bale to the new safe height of the bridge, and if you can't go under the bale, you can't go under the bridge.
- floren 3y agoSoft to a boat, but not soft if you happen to be standing on deck and run into it. A modern straw bale is going to weigh about a hundred pounds. When this bylaw was written, straw was gathered and stored loose and they'd have been just tying a bundle together for this purpose.
- benj111 3y agoI used to help out on a farm in my youth. Collection of bales was manual. Picking them up with a hay fork and lifting them up to an increasingly high person on a trailer. This was ok with the ancient baler, but when that broke and he borrowed another the bales were twice as heavy, which isn't fun when the pile on the trailer is 9ft high.
- toast0 3y agoAt night, a white light is required to be hung. As the rule seems to be quite old, high vis hay bales were unavailable, and noticable lighting during the day would also be unlikely.