"The annihilation of space and time"

August 27, 2016 7:36 AM

“When I closed my eyes this sensation of flying was quite delightful, and strange beyond description.” British actress Fanny Kemble provides a spirited account of the first passenger railroad trip in 1830.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI (14 comments total)

The steam-horse metaphor is charming. A child could operate it you say? I suppose it is Victorian times. Oh, and sure you tried to walk through Niagara falls.

The carriage … was set off at its utmost speed, thirty-five miles an hour, swifter than a bird flies (for they tried the experiment with a snipe)

What's a snipe? Is that something a bird would chase, like, a bug or a worm?
posted by adept256 at 8:15 AM on August 27, 2016

By contrast, most people now traveling at thirty-five miles an hour are tailgating somebody, and cussing at him.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 8:34 AM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Right now-ish the BBC are doing Full Steam Ahead and it's an excellent series even if you're tepid about trains.
posted by sukeban at 8:37 AM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

adept256 a snipe is a type of bird. Given they're waders, maybe they startled one and overtook it on the section of the railway running through the moss (peaty/marshy ground - I don't know how local that term is for relatively firm marshland, but it's pretty common across the Liverpool hinterland :-)
posted by amcewen at 9:13 AM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

But here, take this flashlight and caw loudly about every 30 seconds. I'm sure you'll find it if you start walking west
posted by The Gaffer at 10:11 AM on August 27, 2016 [13 favorites]

"The annihilation of space and time"

brings to mind a great passage I read years ago in a historical fiction (was it by Robert Anton Wilson?) where two nineteenth century science types are riding in a train and watching a horse gallop along next to them at roughly half their speed. Meanwhile the field on which the horse is galloping is still, relatively speaking. Except it's not, it's receding at roughly twice the speed that the horse is -- it's the train that's still, relatively speaking.

The experience of velocity changes everything.
posted by philip-random at 10:42 AM on August 27, 2016

a snipe is a type of bird.

The difficult shooting of which, during the Raj, was dubbed "to snipe". Hence sniper.
posted by BWA at 10:54 AM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

There's a rather nice account of an automobile ride by Edith Wharton, her first one, where she was unable to take in any scenery or catch things like a charming country church because everything was going too fast.

They would've been going, at most, 10 miles an hour.
posted by The Whelk at 10:57 AM on August 27, 2016 [6 favorites]

Thanks, the snipe is a bird. It'd be silly to cover a train with bugs and worms.
posted by adept256 at 11:07 AM on August 27, 2016

That was really a lovely account. But something was missing: how, pray tell, did she secure her uterus?
posted by littlesq at 1:09 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Fascinating stuff! Anyone who wants to explore the early history of railways should get hold of Wolfgang Schivelbusch's The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century; from the publisher's blurb:

In a highly original and engaging fashion, Schivelbusch discusses the ways in which our perceptions of distance, time, autonomy, speed, and risk were altered by railway travel. As a history of the surprising ways in which technology and culture interact, this book covers a wide range of topics, including the changing perception of landscapes, the death of conversation while traveling, the problematic nature of the railway compartment, the space of glass architecture, the pathology of the railway journey, industrial fatigue and the history of shock, and the railroad and the city.

posted by languagehat at 2:25 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I just paused reading this thread to make lunch, with the intention of coming right back here to link to Schivelbusch's book--but languagehat has beat me to it! I second the recommendation very highly--it's a classic history of technology/industry/infrastructure text, and for good reason. It's also a lot of fun to read. The chapter on "railway spine" and changing medico-legal perceptions of the physical and psychological maladies attributed to rail accidents is particularly fascinating--and aha, available in pdf form here.
posted by karayel at 2:48 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

*disclosure, I am an interested party, BUT...

If you like trains and live near or can get to New England, the Downeaster has the dome car on loan until 9/18. It is a nice ride.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 5:36 PM on August 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

There is something else--among many other things--that make train travel the best mode of transport ever. She refers to it in her account: on a train, one goes through terrain not traversed by any other means of transport. Still true!

In the USA, for example, the Interstate highways are not particularly exciting. The back roads are way more interesting, if you have the time. But the trains...they go through everybody's back yards. Amazing views of the country. (Plus, off the topic of trains and time: if you have the chance to book a sleeping car, do it. Not cheap, but wonderful. As a child of decades past, I have fond memories of falling asleep to the rhythm of the rails.)
posted by kozad at 6:59 PM on August 27, 2016 [2 favorites]