3 ms·

Great horse manure crisis of 1894

14 points by janandonly 3y ago

nf3 3y ago
Interesting. How about: the great CO2 crisis of 2023 century? In order to remove the CO2 spewed by machines running on fossil fuels we'll need to introduce more machines that run on fossil fuels...
- BSDobelix 3y ago
  >the great CO2 crisis of 2023 century? That's another article -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_atmosphere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_at... But do I understand you correctly that if we switched our "energy conversion" from fossil engines to horses, we would not have a "CO2 crisis"? >In order to remove the CO2 spewed by machines running on fossil fuels we'll need to introduce more machines that run on fossil fuels... I don't know where you read that.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
ajb 3y ago
Many houses in London suffer from damp, one cause of which is "raised ground level" - where higher soil bridges the damp course (if present) and prevents evaporation from the wall base. Why did the ground level get raised? Because inhabitants were collecting horse manure to fertilise their gardens, for several decades after the houses were built. (The cure is to replace it with gravel next to the wall)
derbOac 3y ago
This Wikipedia article seems oddly written to me? The original story about the "great horse manure crisis of 1894" seems to have no known basis in historical record, but the Wikipedia article is written in such a way that this part is sort of obscured. Someone quickly reading through it might be under the impression that the claimed 1898 meeting was poorly documented or something, but going to the cited pieces it's much more fundamental than that. Reading through everything I get a kind of playful feeling about a lot of it, that it's all a sort of humorous, satirical way of making an important point, but this seems lost in the Wikipedia entry. I'm not sure why I'm fixated on it... maybe I'm having trouble figuring out if the crisis itself or the backstory to the story is of main interest?
- leor17 3y ago
  My understanding is that the manure crisis was never a reality. Just a projection of what might happen given current (circa 1894) transportation tech and population growth.

14 points by janandonly 3y ago

nf3 3y ago

Interesting. How about: the great CO2 crisis of 2023 century? In order to remove the CO2 spewed by machines running on fossil fuels we'll need to introduce more machines that run on fossil fuels...

BSDobelix 3y ago
>the great CO2 crisis of 2023 century? That's another article -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_atmosphere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_at... But do I understand you correctly that if we switched our "energy conversion" from fossil engines to horses, we would not have a "CO2 crisis"? >In order to remove the CO2 spewed by machines running on fossil fuels we'll need to introduce more machines that run on fossil fuels... I don't know where you read that.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

ajb 3y ago

Many houses in London suffer from damp, one cause of which is "raised ground level" - where higher soil bridges the damp course (if present) and prevents evaporation from the wall base. Why did the ground level get raised? Because inhabitants were collecting horse manure to fertilise their gardens, for several decades after the houses were built. (The cure is to replace it with gravel next to the wall)

derbOac 3y ago

This Wikipedia article seems oddly written to me? The original story about the "great horse manure crisis of 1894" seems to have no known basis in historical record, but the Wikipedia article is written in such a way that this part is sort of obscured. Someone quickly reading through it might be under the impression that the claimed 1898 meeting was poorly documented or something, but going to the cited pieces it's much more fundamental than that. Reading through everything I get a kind of playful feeling about a lot of it, that it's all a sort of humorous, satirical way of making an important point, but this seems lost in the Wikipedia entry. I'm not sure why I'm fixated on it... maybe I'm having trouble figuring out if the crisis itself or the backstory to the story is of main interest?

leor17 3y ago
My understanding is that the manure crisis was never a reality. Just a projection of what might happen given current (circa 1894) transportation tech and population growth.