A Nineteenth Century Myth About Trains
New technologies, as is often the case with many new unknowns, often give rise to fears about their possible negative impacts. Human imagination being what it is, some or many of those fears turn out to be irrational and ridiculous. A prime example of that occurred when the then-new technology of trains that operated on railway lines made its appearance. Although there was widespread optimism about the new technology, there were also widespread fears. Some concerns were reasonable. Others… not so much.
When steam locomotive passenger trains entered service in the first half of the nineteenth century, many feared that their high speeds – at least high by the standards of their era – would prove lethal to passengers. Not lethal in the way most people today might picture, however. New locomotives, such as the Rocket, built by Robert Stephenson in 1829, maxed out at 28 miles per hour. Slow, by today’s standards, but until 1829, it is unlikely that any humans had ever experienced such speeds. So a myth cropped up that such unprecedented velocity was dangerous in and of itself.
