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Reminiscences from the end of the horse era in New York City (1952)
- ggm 3y agoA comment my mother made, from her experiences as a child in the UK in the 1920s was that if London hadn't moved to mechanical transport, the city would have drowned in horse-shit if the population rise continued. It was a nightly obligation to deal with the prodigious amounts of horse manure, every day, without fail. I might add that many fine multi-million pound houses now exist inside the horse stables, the "mews" of London. They're a feature of many films in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
- syndacks 3y agoUnfortunately NYC is still in a horse era with these beasts strapped to carriages towing tourists around Central Park, smelling like a fucking barn, kicking hay filled shit particles in the air on a hot summer day, just so the slob of a horse pimp can make a buck? TheFuckOuttaHere!!
- bozhark 3y agoWho hurt you and why was it a horse
- shiroiuma 3y agoI'd prefer not to see horses used this way too, but I think the pollution and danger from all the cars and buses is much, much worse. They should ban the private cars, and force the taxis and buses to be EVs, and install protected cycling lanes to get more people onto bicycles.
- onetokeoverthe 3y ago[dead]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- anonymou2 3y agocycle lanes protected from what?
- shiroiuma 3y agoCars, trucks, and buses, what do you think?
- LemmyInThePub 3y ago> I'd prefer not to see horses used this way What a truly, utterly bizarre thing to say! Why on earth do you object to horses pulling carriages? Do you object to horse riding also? If so, why? One can only suspect you are used to living in a city and somewhat divorced from nature, though I'd be interested to hear your response.
- lgkk 3y agoThose carriages could lose the horse and become fully autonomous and electric. Waymo could run those, you can book them and it’s just a carriage that is motorized.
- shiroiuma 3y agoThat would actually be really cool. You'd miss out on getting to see a horse, but you'd be spared from the not-so-great things about being near a horse (horse poo smell), and even better, you wouldn't have to deal with the driver. And you could probably book a timeslot in advance too, see how much it costs, etc.
- paleface 3y agoPresumably, you’re more of a donkey (ass) man?!…
- fsckboy 3y ago(1952)? these reminiscences are of the end of the horse era back at the turn of the century (1900)
- flanbiscuit 3y agoI was visiting Charleston South Carolina recently and in the old quarter they have horses taking around tourists on carriages (like little mini horse drawn open air buses). The smell of horse piss and manure in the area was gross and very strong (this was summer). I can't imagine what it would be like to have that many horses in NYC as the main mode of transportation. The smell back then must have been awful. I get everyone just put up with it.
- jvm___ 3y agoThey couldn't clear dead horses until Sunday as the roads were too busy and crowded...
- ljf 3y agoDon't forget that there was also no deodorant for the humans back then, I think it is easy to forget just how bad cities in general must have smelt back then. Plus coal fires, people smoking, people washing their bodies and their clothes irregularly. (my father tells a story of how in the 50s he only had one work shirt and 10 removable collars - he'd wear the same shirt for 2 weeks just changing the collar daily)
- dcminter 3y ago> I think it is easy to forget just how bad cities in general must have smelt back then. I refer you to London's "Great Stink" of 1858 during which the smell was so bad that Parliament seriously considered moving to a different city: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink
- raffraffraff 3y agoWell, people either shit in the streets or emptied their piss-pots into them. If you were lucky enough (?) to have access to a communal toilet it was shared with a large number of people and likely just emptied into the street anyway. Everything eventually flowed to the Thames which must have stank. Horse shit everywhere. I'm sure there was dog shit everywhere too. Honestly the smell of feet and armpits was probably tame and "natural" by comparison.
- dieselgate 3y agoRoads in Salt Lake City need to be wide enough so someone operating a horse carriage can turn around "without cursing" - from what I've heard while in the area.
- raffraffraff 3y agoMormons don't curse anyways, unless you count "shut the front door", "cheese and rice", "mother father" and "Got down sat on a bench"
- bobsmooth 3y agoCar exhaust smells better than horse droppings. Couldn't imagine living in the age of horses.
- thorin 3y agoPotentially, but it has a lot more health impacts!
- zubairq 3y agowonderful read!
- teleforce 3y agoIn one of the pictures of the horse drawn fire engine similar to the one that I saw in one of the The Return of Sherlock Holmes episodes namely "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" indicated the year 1905 in the old photograph with Koch Bros company building at the background. This seems to be rather improbable (in Holmes' unique voice) since Koch Bros company founder will only be five years old at the time according to Wikipedia, unless Koch senior has already had a business before his son or it's totally different company altogether. Fun facts, this particular episode was based on the short story publication around the same time as indicated in the old photograph or 1903 to be exact.
- 082349872349872 3y agoWill AI keep a few of us around as pasture decorations? ("now, now, Mr. 9872, if you keep hitting up the replicator like that you're bound to get founder!")
- linksnapzz 3y agoIt'll also have 90% of the males castrated to make them more tractable.
- 082349872349872 3y agoAt least it's unlikely to be interested in eating the least tractable males.
- kouru225 3y agoAs long as humans are capable of producing more than we consume, AI will keep us around.
- 082349872349872 3y agoThat was the point of my comment: humans used to keep horses because they produced more than they consumed. Nowadays some horses are still kept for that reason, but I'd bet the majority are kept for more sentimental reasons. eg https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Evolution-of-the-horse-population-in-France-from-1800-to-2010-translated-from-French_fig1_338480301 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Evolution-of-the-horse-p...
- Animats 3y agoWhat fraction of the US population currently passes that test?
- kouru225 3y agoI’ll take it one step further: As long as humans are capable of producing more than they consume at some point in the future, then it’s logical to keep them around if your goal is production.
- js2 3y agoI watched Naked City (1948) the other night and there's a scene with a milkman delivering from a horse drawn carriage. I wondered, how long did horse-drawn carriages continue to be used in NYC (not including the carriage rides in Central Park)? Which led me to this lovely article. I submitted it a day or two ago; I guess the HN mods thought it worthy of the second chance pool[1]. Thank you HN mods! :-) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/pool https://news.ycombinator.com/pool
- nyc111 3y agoWhat is “pool”, I don’t have such a link on my orange band.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- MarcScott 3y agoSometimes Dang sees an article that never made it to the front page that he thinks we'll enjoy. He shoves it on to the front page for a while, so it gets some visibility and upvotes.
- morog 3y agowith great power comes great responsibility
- Brajeshwar 3y agoQuite a lot of links are not in the orange band. Check this one https://news.ycombinator.com/lists https://news.ycombinator.com/lists Sometimes a good but forgotten submission (even after 24-48 hours), would get invited. HN sends you an email and if you OK it, it goes into the roaster.
- js2 3y agodang did a show HN for the second-chance pool: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308