22. The Introduction of Rail Technology Gave Rise to Ridiculous Beliefs
The arrival of new technologies, as with the arrival of many unknowns, often gives rise to fears about their possible negative impacts. Unsurprisingly, 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 operating 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, there were widespread fears 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 pioneering Rocket, built by Robert Stephenson in 1829, were capable of maximum speeds of 28 miles per hour. Quite slow, by today’s standards, but until 1829, it is unlikely that any humans had ever experienced such speeds. So beliefs cropped up that the very act of moving at such unprecedented velocity was dangerous in itself.