Search results

Is it likely that an isolated USA would not have had the universalising missions often associanted with "America?"

If the States does something that liberal, can the rest of the world ever be far behind? If the Soviets didn't make their internet available to the public, they would have seen the Americans setting up the internet and making it available to the public as doing something "dumb." I understand...

The internet, as we know it, is chiefly American, and liberal American for that matter. It was founded in a freedom concious country, and has given those freedoms to people around the world. In fact, it began Los Angeles, notable for its many freeways, and having less urban transit than almost...

See this article. Suppose that the first who wanted to release these albums actually seeked permission from Columbia to release them, whether they were prepared to pay royalties, or were given royalty free permission to do so. I imagine that more stores would have carried the LPs, and not been...

Gauge in North America Canada also started with 5'6'' and the south also had a similar gauge, yet Northern US did use a gauge narrower than either of them.

But the BART seems to be the only broad gauge heavy rail installation left anywhere in North America, despite that fact that many early North American railways were built to a wider gauge than standard. And it began only in the 1970s. It has other non-standard features, and its fleet renewal is...

Indeed, hence the idea of an alternate history when it appeared much earlier and also had a longer run before electrical recording.

Mechancally reproduced sound Actually, no powered amplifiers were involved in acoustical recording. It was simply recorded with a large horn and a cutting stylus. Reproduction of sound was also purely mechanical, just a simple horn loaded diaphram with a stylus attatched, with the exception of...

Thanks for the links I've just looked that those discussions.

The first permanent photograph appeared in the mid 1820s. If the phonograph had been invented in the same decade, it would have been a century before electrical recording instead of only 30-40 years. Just imagine that. It also wouldn't be as ironic if you think about it. Photogarphy requries a...

The first ever single track vehicle was the draisene. As far as I know, it was made of the same pre-industrial materials and was technologially similar to horse drawn carts. So imagine if the balance bicycle, without pedals, had appeared long before the industrial revolution, maybe having been...

Wow that's interesting So a lot of US states were keen on level crossing elimination at a time when wigwags were still fitted to new crossings, and back in the 1920s, crossing signals with pairs of alternate red flashing lights did not yet exist.

I thought only the interstate lines serving Werstern Australia were standard gauge, I know Perth suburban is narrow gauge. It puzzles me that they didn't chose broad gauge given how flat they are. I didn't know that New Zealand ever used this track gauge.

Reasons for removing more crossings earlier And the level crossing removal would have make-work with other benefits. First of all, we still have something here called trams. At the time, fourteen crossings between tramways in our streets and railways* (obviously not in the road but at street...

And one of those improvements would have been more level crossing removals in the Melbourne Metropolitan area. I can't think of any others. Also, I think Western Australia is our flattest state, and yet (as I know) their railways are narrow gauge. Queensland is the other narrow gauge state on...

Difference between the gauges. The Irish gauge doesn't differ than much from the English gauge.

The first railway in this country was right here in Melbourne, between Melbourne town (now our CBD) and Sandridge (now a suburb called Port Melbourne). It was built to the track gauge mentioned above, also the track gauge used in Ireland. New South Wales originally agreed to build to this...

I'm not familiar with the make-work concept, but level crossing removals would have provided work for the soldiers too, I think. As for gauge, that's for another alternative history thread. I don't see how a road could be built as a war memorial.

Point missed As far as I know, the Great Ocean Road was built as a tourist attraction.

But we did remove some level crossings very early on. This happened in the time of cable trams, many level crossings were grade separated along tramlines as they were constructed, the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus (MT&OC) company was required by Victoria Railways (VR) to cover the cost of it...