1 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:12,840 Speaker 1: Get in Touch with Technology with tex Stuff from Hey there, 2 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:18,319 Speaker 1: and welcome to episode seven hundred of Tech Stuff. I'm 3 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:25,919 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. Joining me in the studio is Ben bo. Hey, Jonathan, 4 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 1: I just want to let you know that I meant 5 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:32,160 Speaker 1: to rent that tux that I'm always talking about renting 6 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:38,000 Speaker 1: for this show. This is huge, seven hundred episodes. Yeah, 7 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:41,239 Speaker 1: I do appreciate the fact that you have filled the 8 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:47,960 Speaker 1: entire audio podcast studio room with confetti at waste height. Yeah, 9 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 1: was it confetti or money that you wanted? I didn't 10 00:00:50,479 --> 00:00:53,280 Speaker 1: read the end of the email. You know, it looks 11 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 1: like you actually got this confetti from the Department of Treasury, 12 00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:00,520 Speaker 1: because it does look like you've got shredded I assume 13 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 1: you got it from there because you can get shredded 14 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:06,920 Speaker 1: money from them. Yeah. I'm gonna hope that that's in 15 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:09,680 Speaker 1: fact where this is from. But it it's very festive. 16 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,160 Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Hey, thank you. You know, because we 17 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:15,120 Speaker 1: live in an urban environment, we have all kinds of 18 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:17,240 Speaker 1: cool stuff in our city, Like we do have a 19 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 1: federal ment here, right, Yeah, yeah, we have a lot 20 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 1: of cool things in Atlanta. In fact, we could do 21 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:24,840 Speaker 1: a full episode just on the neat stuff in Atlanta, 22 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:26,920 Speaker 1: And now that I'm saying that, I'm kind of regretting 23 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:30,520 Speaker 1: that I didn't think about it beforehand. But the thing 24 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:33,840 Speaker 1: we decided to go with it was several people have 25 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 1: requested over the years of tech stuff that we cover 26 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:43,400 Speaker 1: how subways work. Uh not the sandwich shop, not subway. 27 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:46,280 Speaker 1: Thank you for correcting me before we went on air. Yeah, 28 00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:49,400 Speaker 1: there was an incident beforehand, but we won't speak of it, 29 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: and instead we're going to talk about subway systems like 30 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:59,280 Speaker 1: subway trains because it's a fascinating topic. The technology is 31 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:03,000 Speaker 1: very married from really super simple stuff in the early 32 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:06,000 Speaker 1: early days of subways too pretty sophisticated systems to today 33 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:12,000 Speaker 1: and today. Um. Now, to understand subways, we have to 34 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:15,640 Speaker 1: understand what was the need for a subway. What is 35 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:20,400 Speaker 1: the story of how subways became a necessity? And it 36 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 1: all starts back in the mid nineteenth century when we 37 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:30,880 Speaker 1: start seeing this incredible move people moving from pastoral areas 38 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:37,800 Speaker 1: to urban areas to cities as the opportunities for jobs 39 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:41,680 Speaker 1: and to make money increased in cities and decreased out 40 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: in farmland areas. So industrial revolution is a big part 41 00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:49,200 Speaker 1: of this, right yeah, absolutely. And one of the one 42 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:52,840 Speaker 1: of the strange things is that for a lot of 43 00:02:52,919 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: the people moving into these urban areas and for the 44 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,520 Speaker 1: people who were, you know, the functioning government of these 45 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:03,519 Speaker 1: urban area is nobody was quite sure how to city. Really, 46 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:09,120 Speaker 1: these were built on these medieval medieval if I'm pronouncing correctly, 47 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,079 Speaker 1: I butchered at both times. But they're they're built on 48 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:18,639 Speaker 1: these much older plans, narrow lanes, you know, the ditch 49 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:22,040 Speaker 1: going through the center of the road, and they were 50 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:27,720 Speaker 1: not equipped to handle all these pedestrians, let alone the carts. 51 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:31,280 Speaker 1: You you and I were calling this the bs era 52 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,200 Speaker 1: for before subways, but we we have to paint a 53 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 1: picture for this. And and you have some um specific 54 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:43,240 Speaker 1: statistics too about uh, the just the sheer growth. Right. 55 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: So imagine, if you will. You've got this urban environment 56 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:48,960 Speaker 1: that that Ben was describing. You've got these narrow roads, 57 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: You've got the ditch that's in the middle. You've got 58 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:57,400 Speaker 1: traffic that's pedestrian and horse traffic, cart traffic, wagons, that 59 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:00,520 Speaker 1: kind of stuff all going in these cities. We're gonna 60 00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 1: focus largely on London here because London, as it turns out, 61 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: is the first city to incorporate a subterranean training system. 62 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:13,040 Speaker 1: Uh so London in the in eight hundred, London was 63 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:17,120 Speaker 1: already the world's largest city at that time, and it 64 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 1: had one million people fifty years later, So just five 65 00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:24,520 Speaker 1: decades later it went from one million to two point 66 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:28,960 Speaker 1: five million people. That's explosive growth in a relatively short 67 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:32,400 Speaker 1: amount of time. Yeah, it's an extra London and a half. Yeah, 68 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:37,760 Speaker 1: and imagine if you will what this does with population density, 69 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:41,760 Speaker 1: with traffic. I mean, you had, uh issues with housing. 70 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:44,640 Speaker 1: It was it was hard to get good housing in London. 71 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: Not not that that's you know, that's totally different. Now 72 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:52,039 Speaker 1: if you are incredibly wealthy, it's not hard, I guess, 73 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:54,159 Speaker 1: to get good housing in London, but otherwise it can 74 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:56,800 Speaker 1: be a bit of a challenge. So one of the 75 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:00,920 Speaker 1: things that governments wanted to do was in aspire people 76 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:04,800 Speaker 1: to still live further outside of the city where they 77 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:09,080 Speaker 1: could have a much better living condition and then be 78 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:11,599 Speaker 1: able to come into the city to work and then 79 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:14,719 Speaker 1: leave the city to go back home to commute. Right 80 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:17,599 Speaker 1: So that way they wouldn't be forced to live in 81 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:21,880 Speaker 1: tiny conditions or in slums. Yeah, exactly, they wanted to 82 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:24,039 Speaker 1: you know, that's no way for a person to live. 83 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:26,520 Speaker 1: And now we understand that all the jobs are here, 84 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 1: so we don't want to deny them the access to 85 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:31,320 Speaker 1: the jobs. And we need people to do yeah, but 86 00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:35,680 Speaker 1: we don't need them to be living in human conditions. Right. 87 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:38,760 Speaker 1: And also that's that's dangerous for the city overall, when 88 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: you go to crime, when you go to sanitation. Uh. 89 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:45,120 Speaker 1: But it's it's no secret and I don't think this 90 00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:48,000 Speaker 1: is an offensive thing to say, nor spoiler. It's no 91 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:51,799 Speaker 1: secret that parts of London were pretty rough. So these 92 00:05:51,839 --> 00:05:56,400 Speaker 1: people who had, you know, had jobs, not necessarily um, 93 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:01,440 Speaker 1: very high dollar jobs. Right. The equivalent middle class would 94 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:05,920 Speaker 1: be would ride steam railways, right, coal power rail Yeah, 95 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:10,360 Speaker 1: so the coal was there to generate the heat that 96 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:13,120 Speaker 1: would convert water to steam. The steam would actually power 97 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:16,880 Speaker 1: the train, but you're using coal as the main fuel 98 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:19,440 Speaker 1: to to start the steam in the first place. It's 99 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:21,880 Speaker 1: not like steam just happens on its own. You gotta 100 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:25,040 Speaker 1: heat it up first, heat water up first. So there 101 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:30,080 Speaker 1: were railways that existed in England and they had stations 102 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:35,640 Speaker 1: that terminated on the outskirts what were then the outskirts 103 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:41,160 Speaker 1: of London. But city city officials had passed laws that 104 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:44,400 Speaker 1: that restricted those railways from going any further into the 105 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:47,719 Speaker 1: city because there just wasn't room. There wasn't room for 106 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:50,760 Speaker 1: a train to come in further into London than on 107 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:54,600 Speaker 1: the outskirts. So your big stations at the time were Paddington, 108 00:06:56,400 --> 00:06:59,280 Speaker 1: it was a Houston was another one, and King's Cross. 109 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:02,680 Speaker 1: Those were the three big ones. So you could have 110 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:06,359 Speaker 1: people ride in to those points from further out in 111 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: the countryside, but once they got there, they still had 112 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:13,120 Speaker 1: to make their way further into London to work wherever 113 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:17,040 Speaker 1: they were working, which meant that traffic was still nightmarish. Yeah, 114 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:20,600 Speaker 1: and this is pedestrian traffic, so much of it, which 115 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:27,160 Speaker 1: to me is even more undesirable than being stuck in 116 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:30,640 Speaker 1: a car uh or on a horse I guess I've 117 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 1: never been in a horse jam, but but just being 118 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:38,320 Speaker 1: in this constant crowd because more than seven hundred thousand 119 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:41,920 Speaker 1: people every day rode the train to the edge of 120 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:45,680 Speaker 1: the city and then somehow got to work right. Yeah, 121 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:49,560 Speaker 1: which makes my own commuting stories, like the war stories 122 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: I used to tell, seem pretty fail in comparison. You 123 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:54,000 Speaker 1: have some pretty good wines, though, I do. I mean 124 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:56,520 Speaker 1: I used to have to. I had a commute that 125 00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:58,680 Speaker 1: was three hours a day for a while, that was 126 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:02,080 Speaker 1: you know, total commute from but the commute in and 127 00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:04,480 Speaker 1: the commune it was three hours total. That was it's 128 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 1: a significant chunk of your day just spent getting to 129 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:11,080 Speaker 1: and from your your your job. But there were other 130 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:14,800 Speaker 1: forms of mass trendsit before the subway and beyond the 131 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:18,720 Speaker 1: train systems. There were omnibuses. Now, the original omnibusses were 132 00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:23,600 Speaker 1: not motor vehicles. They were horse drawn wagons essentially. Some 133 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:25,880 Speaker 1: of them, like you could some of them were like 134 00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:28,280 Speaker 1: double decker type things like the old double decker buses, 135 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:31,360 Speaker 1: except a cart drawn by horse. If you ever see 136 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:34,079 Speaker 1: any of the old footage, like there are old films 137 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:37,040 Speaker 1: that show some of the traffic in cities like London 138 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:39,240 Speaker 1: that when when there's still were quite a few horses, 139 00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:41,719 Speaker 1: Like there were some cars by that time, but there 140 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:44,480 Speaker 1: were still a lot of horse traffic. To see the 141 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:47,400 Speaker 1: omnibusses being pulled, it looks terrifying to me, like these 142 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:49,720 Speaker 1: things looked like they would flip over. I get sneezed wrong, 143 00:08:51,160 --> 00:08:53,400 Speaker 1: and people are just packed in them like they're they're 144 00:08:53,400 --> 00:08:56,719 Speaker 1: sitting shoulder to shoulder, and I'm just thinking, boy, the 145 00:08:56,840 --> 00:08:59,800 Speaker 1: poor horses too. I mean, it's gotta be tough. And 146 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:03,480 Speaker 1: there were those also created even more traffic. I mean, 147 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:05,679 Speaker 1: it's not like it's not like that solved a lot 148 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,760 Speaker 1: of problems. Plus where do you put them when you're 149 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:11,160 Speaker 1: not using them? You've gotta have a place to park 150 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:14,040 Speaker 1: these things right, right, they're not they're not small. You 151 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:17,839 Speaker 1: can't really parallel park in omnibus and it's got to 152 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:21,000 Speaker 1: be a pain even with just a single horse, especially 153 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:24,000 Speaker 1: if you have crime. No cars of course came in 154 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:28,200 Speaker 1: everybody who has to pay the various uh traffic usage 155 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:33,520 Speaker 1: taxes in London currently uh probably probably as a couple 156 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:36,640 Speaker 1: of regrets about their cars. Cars. Cars, Honestly, even though 157 00:09:36,679 --> 00:09:39,280 Speaker 1: they came after subways and of course after horses, they 158 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:43,720 Speaker 1: had their own set of similar problems. Most importantly, where 159 00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:47,079 Speaker 1: do I put it? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, if you are 160 00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:49,360 Speaker 1: if you are living in a city that's built on 161 00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:53,360 Speaker 1: a medieval city plan, at least parts of the city 162 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:56,880 Speaker 1: are that way, there probably aren't that many places where 163 00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:59,439 Speaker 1: you could put a car, right, you know, And then 164 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:02,079 Speaker 1: it's it's kind of like New York City to there 165 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:04,480 Speaker 1: there are parking areas in New York City. They're like 166 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:06,640 Speaker 1: parking garages and parking decks and that sort of thing. 167 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:09,280 Speaker 1: But street parking is one of those things that people 168 00:10:09,280 --> 00:10:12,320 Speaker 1: just guard jealously. Oh yeah, the whole story about you 169 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:15,200 Speaker 1: circle a block sixty times waiting for a spot to 170 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:16,800 Speaker 1: open up so that way you don't have to walk 171 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:21,520 Speaker 1: an extra fift or whatever. And there there's still people 172 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:26,320 Speaker 1: who who just uh, stay in a parking space and 173 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:29,760 Speaker 1: wait until the cleaners come, the street cleaners, and just 174 00:10:29,840 --> 00:10:32,319 Speaker 1: move it for the street cleaners and then park back 175 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:35,520 Speaker 1: because it's that valuable. It's it's crazy and one of 176 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:39,120 Speaker 1: one of the things when these cars didn't um really 177 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:42,760 Speaker 1: solve them many problems, Like the railways can only do 178 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:45,840 Speaker 1: so much. The horses weren't helping, although I'm sure they 179 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:49,160 Speaker 1: you know, we're doing their best. It's because all of 180 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:52,679 Speaker 1: these forms of transit had one thing in common. They 181 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:55,680 Speaker 1: were all competing for the same space. They wanted to 182 00:10:55,679 --> 00:10:58,959 Speaker 1: go above ground, right there was no no other means 183 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:03,000 Speaker 1: of getting around. They didn't have elevated pathways, so you 184 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:07,320 Speaker 1: couldn't go above the traffic, so that really limited what 185 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:09,600 Speaker 1: you could do. You know, any solution you had just 186 00:11:09,679 --> 00:11:13,280 Speaker 1: been adding more fuel to the fire right. Uh, and 187 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:15,800 Speaker 1: so here's some other challenges. Let's say that you've got 188 00:11:16,280 --> 00:11:18,520 Speaker 1: a great design for your city. Let's say that you 189 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:20,800 Speaker 1: you have planned this out from the beginning. There's certain 190 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:26,040 Speaker 1: cities that had the benefit of early civil engineering planning 191 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:28,920 Speaker 1: from the start, Like Salt Lake City is a great example. 192 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:33,240 Speaker 1: It's laid out in a grid that's very easy to understand. 193 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:35,840 Speaker 1: It's very easy for you to navigate. Um. There are 194 00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:37,800 Speaker 1: other cities that are laid out in a way that 195 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:43,360 Speaker 1: defies logic. Atlanta, Georgia, just throwing it out there, we 196 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:47,800 Speaker 1: don't really have blocks in Atlanta, Georgia. We've got blobs, 197 00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:51,440 Speaker 1: you know, surrounded by one way streets that only direct 198 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:54,560 Speaker 1: you into some sort of nether region where Cathulu rains 199 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:57,199 Speaker 1: or something. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have. 200 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:02,040 Speaker 1: I've been there as well. Right, So in this case, 201 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:04,760 Speaker 1: you know, how do you if it's been planned out 202 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:09,959 Speaker 1: really well, you may not be able to make any alterations, 203 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:11,640 Speaker 1: Like you might be able to make the streets wider 204 00:12:11,679 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 1: to allow for a street car, for example, And even 205 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:16,240 Speaker 1: if you did have a street car, that's still on 206 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: the surface, it's still competing for that same space here 207 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:22,000 Speaker 1: in Atlanta. We can tell you we just had not 208 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:25,480 Speaker 1: not too long ago, a street car prototype program rolled out, 209 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:30,120 Speaker 1: literally rolled out, and we've already had multiple incidents of 210 00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 1: accidents right rolled out. I'm sorry, no, no, no, no, 211 00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:40,760 Speaker 1: it's my show on car stuff. Right. The the the 212 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:43,880 Speaker 1: street car is kind of a proof of concept and 213 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:47,679 Speaker 1: we're and what you're saying is absolutely true. We're seeing, uh, 214 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:53,000 Speaker 1: a spate of accidents or incidents maybe and luckily there 215 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:56,120 Speaker 1: haven't been any serious injuries or anything. But it's because 216 00:12:56,360 --> 00:13:00,640 Speaker 1: an entire city of drivers, uh that's normal only in 217 00:13:00,679 --> 00:13:02,400 Speaker 1: that part of town, when they're in a hurry to 218 00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:06,400 Speaker 1: ur from somewhere, is trying to navigate around this thing 219 00:13:06,559 --> 00:13:09,000 Speaker 1: that moves at its own pace, right, and they're not 220 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:12,240 Speaker 1: familiar with it, and uh, you know, it's it's one 221 00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:14,120 Speaker 1: of those things. It's growing pains. It's one of those things. 222 00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:17,839 Speaker 1: And there there are other arguments about the street car 223 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:20,360 Speaker 1: we won't go into because they're very hyperlocal and if 224 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:22,160 Speaker 1: you're not in Atlanta, you're not gonna care. Yeah, it's 225 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:24,640 Speaker 1: gonna be weird. But there there's another solution to right, 226 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:27,920 Speaker 1: not just the street Yeah, there's also the elevated solution 227 00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:30,800 Speaker 1: the elevated trains like the L in Chicago. Um, have 228 00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:33,680 Speaker 1: you ever written the L? I have? I have? I 229 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,720 Speaker 1: love the L. I thought it was amazing. So just 230 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:43,680 Speaker 1: quick sidebars. So my girlfriend took me to Chicago for 231 00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:46,760 Speaker 1: my birthday and I'm a big old chief skate and 232 00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:48,640 Speaker 1: I didn't want to. Yeah, I don't want to. I 233 00:13:48,679 --> 00:13:50,720 Speaker 1: don't want to do anything. So I just told crab 234 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 1: apple until you know. We got on the plane and 235 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:56,680 Speaker 1: hit me, we're really going. And it was so exciting 236 00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:59,440 Speaker 1: to just get on this train because the views are great. 237 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:04,040 Speaker 1: You can go pretty much anywhere. Uh And and as 238 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:07,520 Speaker 1: a transit rider in Atlanta, that's not the case right 239 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:10,800 Speaker 1: at the Atlanta Transit's very very limited. Now. The system 240 00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:12,920 Speaker 1: we have in Atlanta has a series of trains that 241 00:14:13,160 --> 00:14:15,480 Speaker 1: some some sections of the track are above ground, some 242 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:17,880 Speaker 1: are below ground. Right, Yeah, so ours is kind of 243 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:21,960 Speaker 1: a hybrid surface and subway system and the and the 244 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:25,200 Speaker 1: But the elevated thing, as as great as it can be, 245 00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:27,760 Speaker 1: it's not gonna work for every city. Right You you 246 00:14:28,080 --> 00:14:31,320 Speaker 1: still have to build supports for that elevated system. Right, 247 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:34,240 Speaker 1: you have to be able to secure the bridge that 248 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:37,040 Speaker 1: the tracks are onto something whether it's pylons or two 249 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:41,880 Speaker 1: buildings or whatever, and that solution works in some situations 250 00:14:41,880 --> 00:14:45,880 Speaker 1: but not in others. So you've pretty much exhausted all 251 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:49,920 Speaker 1: your other opportunities. The only thing left to you is 252 00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:53,920 Speaker 1: to go down below street level so that you're no 253 00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:58,000 Speaker 1: longer competing for that landscape and you can just get 254 00:14:58,040 --> 00:15:02,480 Speaker 1: people to and from locations underground. Thus they're not impacting 255 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:05,760 Speaker 1: traffic at all. You can actually help alleviate traffic by 256 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:08,280 Speaker 1: encouraging a lot of people to go underground as opposed 257 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:13,800 Speaker 1: to cluttering up the streets. So sounds well, it sounds 258 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:16,640 Speaker 1: like it's a logical solution, but then it also sounds 259 00:15:16,640 --> 00:15:20,160 Speaker 1: like it's an incredibly difficult one to do. Oh yeah, 260 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:23,920 Speaker 1: for numerous reasons. I mean the cost alone, not just 261 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:28,520 Speaker 1: not just the cost of the actual materials and labor 262 00:15:28,640 --> 00:15:30,880 Speaker 1: to create this, but the cost to the city from 263 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:35,520 Speaker 1: lost business activity. There's actually also human cost. I mean, 264 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:39,960 Speaker 1: there are there are incidents where during the the excavation 265 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:43,600 Speaker 1: of various tunnels, Uh do there might be an accident? 266 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:47,640 Speaker 1: You know? I think for the New York City subway system, 267 00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:51,480 Speaker 1: there were several incidents of people who lost their lives 268 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:54,600 Speaker 1: and tragic accidents. It's one of those deals where this 269 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:58,520 Speaker 1: is a giant undertaking, it is filled with risk, particularly 270 00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:01,160 Speaker 1: whenever you are digging new or a body of water. 271 00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:04,160 Speaker 1: I mean, obviously in London it would have been the 272 00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:08,160 Speaker 1: Thames River as well as the Fleet River. Um, those 273 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:11,680 Speaker 1: were both big concerns. In fact, there's an interesting thing 274 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:13,360 Speaker 1: about the Fleet River. I'll talk about that when we 275 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:16,560 Speaker 1: get a little further in where they had a clever 276 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:22,280 Speaker 1: way of getting around that spoilers. Yet I think people 277 00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:25,880 Speaker 1: will enjoy that when du The cool thing though, is that, 278 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:31,440 Speaker 1: to paraphrase this quote I'm stealing from somebody. Uh, necessity 279 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:38,360 Speaker 1: is the mother of subways. So now we're going to 280 00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:44,920 Speaker 1: turn our focus specifically on London. Londinium as a as 281 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:47,080 Speaker 1: as the character from the I T. Crowd would call 282 00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:49,640 Speaker 1: it again, the largest city in the world in the 283 00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:53,480 Speaker 1: mid nineteenth century, and they had these restrictions. They couldn't 284 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:55,920 Speaker 1: allow the railroads to go any further into the city, 285 00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:59,120 Speaker 1: and they had to figure out how were they going 286 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:03,120 Speaker 1: to alleviate this massive amount of traffic and this influx 287 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:09,600 Speaker 1: of people that we're living in increasingly poor conditions. Uh 288 00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:12,560 Speaker 1: So this was when I say people by the way, 289 00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:14,679 Speaker 1: I should point out that I'm really talking about the 290 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:22,440 Speaker 1: middle class, and and the stories that you'll hear are 291 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:25,760 Speaker 1: grim in many ways because people in the lower classes 292 00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:31,000 Speaker 1: were really not cared for or thought about or taking 293 00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:36,040 Speaker 1: care of. They were essentially the victims of progress in 294 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:41,640 Speaker 1: this case, which is a tragic and common tale. Right 295 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:44,359 Speaker 1: whenever you get to this thing where we're making improvements 296 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:47,359 Speaker 1: to the city, it benefits a certain part of the population, 297 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:50,440 Speaker 1: and other parts of the population are essentially forced out, 298 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:53,720 Speaker 1: and that's a tragic part. It is, however, something that 299 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:57,320 Speaker 1: I wanted to acknowledge because I think those people obviously 300 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:00,639 Speaker 1: should not be forgotten or a gloss over. Now, to 301 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:03,920 Speaker 1: be fair, a lot of them were also the criminal 302 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:08,040 Speaker 1: element of London. Well sure, yeah, you know that's there 303 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:11,919 Speaker 1: are a thousand ways to analyze that, but it is 304 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:14,560 Speaker 1: a fact, and it could be you could argue, and 305 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:17,720 Speaker 1: I think convincingly argue that they were largely the criminal 306 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:20,800 Speaker 1: element because their conditions meant that they could not get 307 00:18:21,359 --> 00:18:24,679 Speaker 1: work in a legal sense, so they were kind of 308 00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:26,600 Speaker 1: their hand was forced. You know, you still have to 309 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:28,800 Speaker 1: make a living somehow, you have to. You have to survive. 310 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:32,400 Speaker 1: So we could go down on a long rabbit hole 311 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:36,560 Speaker 1: a Dickensie and rabbit hole and talk about this, but 312 00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:39,560 Speaker 1: we'll we'll just leave it at that. So you get 313 00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:43,400 Speaker 1: a guy named Charles Pearson, our hero of the story. Yes, 314 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:47,840 Speaker 1: he's a London solicitor that means lawyer to you and me. Uh, 315 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:51,040 Speaker 1: And he argued that London should allow essentially located train 316 00:18:51,119 --> 00:18:53,520 Speaker 1: station to allow people to commute into the city without 317 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:55,960 Speaker 1: clogging it up. So he was His first idea was, 318 00:18:56,359 --> 00:19:00,480 Speaker 1: let's extend the railways that already terminate at the a 319 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:04,040 Speaker 1: perimeter of London then perimeter of London and allow them 320 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:05,840 Speaker 1: to come further end. And the city said, no, we 321 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:08,440 Speaker 1: can't do that. There's just not space. It's not feasible. 322 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:11,600 Speaker 1: Stop asking. We can't even a horse in this thing, 323 00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:14,520 Speaker 1: right right you you're barking up the wrong tree. So 324 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:18,320 Speaker 1: that's when he said, well, what if instead of that 325 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:23,479 Speaker 1: we end up looking at a subterranean train system. And 326 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:26,600 Speaker 1: he goes around and talks to some rich friends of his, 327 00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:31,399 Speaker 1: and his rich friends ce Pearson as someone who has 328 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:39,120 Speaker 1: a pretty radical but potentially lucrative idea, because seven thousand 329 00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:43,399 Speaker 1: people community every day, if you can charge those people 330 00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:47,560 Speaker 1: even a small amount to take a subterranean train station 331 00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:51,040 Speaker 1: system so they can get to their jobs. You have 332 00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:54,560 Speaker 1: revenue just pouring in, so the investors say, you know, 333 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:56,520 Speaker 1: this risk is worth it. We're going to put our 334 00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:59,240 Speaker 1: money together. So here's one thing that I thought was 335 00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:01,880 Speaker 1: really cool that I did not realize before we started 336 00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:07,399 Speaker 1: researching that the underground the tube in London started out 337 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:13,880 Speaker 1: as a private enterprise. It was not a government funded thing. 338 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:17,439 Speaker 1: And especially when you think of England, we think of 339 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:22,840 Speaker 1: a lot of government funded programs, much more socialist style economy. Um, 340 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:25,720 Speaker 1: it's not pure socialism, obviously, they're only their elements that 341 00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:28,280 Speaker 1: are very socialist. And you would think, oh, well, the 342 00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:30,199 Speaker 1: subway system must have been one of us. No, it 343 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:33,600 Speaker 1: was a private enterprise, and in fact it would become 344 00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:39,160 Speaker 1: a competitive private enterprise. So uh, the decision to go 345 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:44,080 Speaker 1: ahead was made, and so how would they move forward? Well, 346 00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:47,760 Speaker 1: they started looking at what the various techniques would be 347 00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:50,880 Speaker 1: to actually create this underground system. Because all right, they've 348 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:54,239 Speaker 1: decided they're gonna build these tunnels. They clearly didn't have 349 00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:57,400 Speaker 1: the magic tunneling machine like. It wasn't like the League 350 00:20:57,400 --> 00:21:00,800 Speaker 1: of Extraordinary Gentleman where some jewels verned hie device comes 351 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:03,960 Speaker 1: up with a nose cone as threads on it, and 352 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:06,639 Speaker 1: it just drills down and lays down track behind it. 353 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:09,760 Speaker 1: That's not how it worked. So let's talk about the 354 00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:13,639 Speaker 1: technique they use to build a tunnel. Okay, well all right, yeah, 355 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:16,640 Speaker 1: let's do it. This is crazy. Put your put your 356 00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:20,480 Speaker 1: mind back in the in the body in the context 357 00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:24,760 Speaker 1: of someone in eighteen sixty and and picture you're hanging 358 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:27,080 Speaker 1: out with the rest of your mover and shaker friends. 359 00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:30,560 Speaker 1: You know, some aristocrats there and they're talking about putting 360 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:34,480 Speaker 1: people in the ground in a moving vehicle. This is bizarre. 361 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:40,000 Speaker 1: So they started out in they started out kind of 362 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:44,760 Speaker 1: creating a new level of surface. Um, because they dug 363 00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:47,240 Speaker 1: a big trench and you know, like maybe twenty ft 364 00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:50,720 Speaker 1: across in an existing road. Then they would lay two 365 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:53,480 Speaker 1: tracks side by side and they would cover that over 366 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:56,200 Speaker 1: with brick. So it's kind of like they were raising 367 00:21:56,320 --> 00:22:00,119 Speaker 1: the surface a little bit. And they only put This 368 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:03,639 Speaker 1: wasn't perfect. They called it cut and cover. Um it was. 369 00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:06,080 Speaker 1: It was a massive paint. We're a family show, so 370 00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:08,200 Speaker 1: it's a massive paint. And the key star for all 371 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:11,879 Speaker 1: this construction. Um, Like, were you ever around during the 372 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: big dig days? Did you ever go to Boston? Oh, 373 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:18,640 Speaker 1: I I went to Boston when they were not during 374 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:20,399 Speaker 1: the Big dig it was after that, but it was 375 00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:25,200 Speaker 1: I was in Boston when there were still some fallout 376 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:29,800 Speaker 1: from Big dig It. It's crazy to stop a city 377 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:34,440 Speaker 1: like that. And uh so, um there there's some interesting 378 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:39,000 Speaker 1: statistics here about just how much of a problem all 379 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:41,399 Speaker 1: of this construction. Sorry, because they didn't start with just 380 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:44,880 Speaker 1: like one tunnel. They did a network of them. Uh 381 00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:47,480 Speaker 1: and they and they said, what we're going to do 382 00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:51,200 Speaker 1: is build something that connects these rail stations like king Cross, 383 00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:56,280 Speaker 1: King's Cross excuse me, to a more central location called Farrington. Yes, 384 00:22:56,280 --> 00:23:01,960 Speaker 1: Barrington was the first underground station to station on the 385 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:06,600 Speaker 1: London Underground and so it connected to these other various 386 00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:09,800 Speaker 1: rail stations. So this was like the centralized point and 387 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:11,959 Speaker 1: people would have to pay a ticket. They first they 388 00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:13,920 Speaker 1: had to pay a ticket to ride whatever rail line 389 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,560 Speaker 1: they were on. They had to pay an extra ticket 390 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:19,040 Speaker 1: to get on the underground to get into London. But 391 00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,160 Speaker 1: if that's your your options so that you can get 392 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:25,000 Speaker 1: to work without spending six hours behind the horses butt, 393 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:28,320 Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna pay that money if you can. 394 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:32,160 Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, because come on, time is money. 395 00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:36,080 Speaker 1: So this cut and cover method meant that whenever they 396 00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:40,840 Speaker 1: were installing the rail lines, that entire street was off limits. 397 00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:44,320 Speaker 1: You could not go down that street as at least 398 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:46,120 Speaker 1: not in a in any kind of vehicle. You might 399 00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:48,440 Speaker 1: be able to walk along the very sides of it, 400 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:52,440 Speaker 1: but it meant that it was incredibly disruptive to businesses 401 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,719 Speaker 1: to homes. Whenever the tunnel was being built along that 402 00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:59,080 Speaker 1: particular stretch of the street, and they would build up 403 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:03,080 Speaker 1: this this this framework around the trench they had made. 404 00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:04,800 Speaker 1: That's where they would break it up so that it 405 00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:08,800 Speaker 1: would become an enclosed tunnel. And it actually reminds me 406 00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,399 Speaker 1: a little bit of the way disney World was built. 407 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,760 Speaker 1: Because at disney World, uh, they wanted to make an 408 00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:19,119 Speaker 1: underground system. They call it the Utilo doors the utility corridors. 409 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:21,880 Speaker 1: But the problem with the Disney World is that it's 410 00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:25,240 Speaker 1: in Florida. And by that I mean in Florida, your 411 00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:27,679 Speaker 1: water table is really close to the service of the ground. 412 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:30,880 Speaker 1: You can't dig very deep before you hit water. So 413 00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:34,600 Speaker 1: instead of digging down, what they did was they built 414 00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:37,840 Speaker 1: the Utilo doors. Then they dumped ground on top of 415 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:41,560 Speaker 1: the utilodors and effectively built the ground up. So it's 416 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:44,160 Speaker 1: kind of like that. It's not quite as extenct as 417 00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:47,240 Speaker 1: as extreme as that, because they did dig trenches. But 418 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:52,000 Speaker 1: in general these trains were just a you meters below 419 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:55,960 Speaker 1: the service of the street. The very early ones were um. 420 00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:58,600 Speaker 1: And you were saying that it was a massive pain 421 00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:01,200 Speaker 1: in the key star. That's putting it lightly. More than 422 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:05,600 Speaker 1: twelve thousand people were displaced from their homes during the 423 00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:10,000 Speaker 1: construction of the Farrington station. Those were twelve thousand people 424 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,760 Speaker 1: who were in that low low class in London. So 425 00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:18,160 Speaker 1: some people, like the middle class largely considered a positive 426 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:22,560 Speaker 1: thing because they thought about cleaning out London a little gentrification. Yeah, 427 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:25,000 Speaker 1: they emptied out the slums, right, they got rid of 428 00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:30,480 Speaker 1: the undesirable. Clearly, if you were one of those said undesirables, 429 00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:34,040 Speaker 1: it was not such a pleasant experience. No, no, it 430 00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:37,879 Speaker 1: wasn't a pleasant experience. And and furthermore, Jonathan, even if 431 00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:39,800 Speaker 1: you're on in the middle class people who says, you 432 00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:45,399 Speaker 1: know what, I am done walking with the schmucks and 433 00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:47,800 Speaker 1: the norms. I'm going to ride the train. Then I'm 434 00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:49,760 Speaker 1: gonna pay extra for the underground. Even if you could 435 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:51,960 Speaker 1: afford to do that. You would find that this was 436 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:57,280 Speaker 1: not an ideal situation because the same kind of thing 437 00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:01,879 Speaker 1: that they put above the ground is the same, the 438 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:08,000 Speaker 1: same uh, same steam and smoke burping, uh metal monstrosities 439 00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:12,000 Speaker 1: they put above grounds are the same ones they put underground. Yeah, 440 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:15,000 Speaker 1: they were using steam powered trains. This is before they 441 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,800 Speaker 1: were moving to electric trains. We'll we'll get to that later. 442 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:23,359 Speaker 1: So again, you're using coal coal fire to heat up 443 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,120 Speaker 1: a boiler so that it generates steam, which is what's 444 00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:29,879 Speaker 1: giving you the ability to create the power needed to 445 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,040 Speaker 1: move a train. Right. So some of the some of 446 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:36,680 Speaker 1: the steam engine designs they had had steam capturing systems, 447 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,960 Speaker 1: so it wasn't blowing tons of steam into these underground tunnels, 448 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:44,600 Speaker 1: but you still had coal smoke. Yeah, so did you 449 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:49,720 Speaker 1: see any pictures of the earliest underground trains. They they 450 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:53,920 Speaker 1: had uncovered trains like it was a wagon essentially being 451 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:56,920 Speaker 1: pulled by a steam engine. So you're getting if you're 452 00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:00,280 Speaker 1: worried about not hitting your daily coal smoke in take 453 00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:02,760 Speaker 1: just hop on the train because it would hit you. Yeah. 454 00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:06,240 Speaker 1: They actually got to a point where customers were complaining 455 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,800 Speaker 1: about the smell of sulfur and smoke and all the steam, 456 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:13,920 Speaker 1: to the point where the company that had created this 457 00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:18,720 Speaker 1: underground line did a pr blitz where they talked about 458 00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:24,080 Speaker 1: the beneficial elements of steam and smoke inhalation. I'm not 459 00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,120 Speaker 1: making that. They're like, it's good for you, except I'm saying, 460 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:32,680 Speaker 1: to the British accent, it's jolly well good for you. Yeah, 461 00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:37,600 Speaker 1: So breathe deeply, enjoy the smooth smell of coal smoke. 462 00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:41,560 Speaker 1: Of course that's not, you know, sustainable, and that's not 463 00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:46,359 Speaker 1: the case today. So so they continued making some improvements, 464 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:50,760 Speaker 1: right yeah, and the big ones would be at the 465 00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:55,760 Speaker 1: end of the nineteenth century. So in so, while London 466 00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:59,840 Speaker 1: was recovering from the terrible antics of Jack the Ripper, 467 00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:04,520 Speaker 1: the subway system was starting to really come into its own. 468 00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 1: There are two really big things that started to happen 469 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:11,879 Speaker 1: at this point. One was that they started to dig 470 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:16,520 Speaker 1: deeper tunnels because they were creating this network of train systems. Now, 471 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:19,600 Speaker 1: keep in mind that first rail system that was put 472 00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:23,320 Speaker 1: in was from one company, but other private companies saw 473 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:25,720 Speaker 1: how successful that was and decided they were going to 474 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:28,720 Speaker 1: connect other points of London to one another, and they 475 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,360 Speaker 1: just started to dig their own tunnels. So you had 476 00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:39,600 Speaker 1: competing companies making subway lines. Now they weren't linking together necessarily, 477 00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:42,280 Speaker 1: and and the points where they would share a station, 478 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:44,680 Speaker 1: like you would get this uneasy partnership where they'd be like, 479 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,960 Speaker 1: all right, we'll build a station where your line can 480 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:51,040 Speaker 1: stop there and our line can stop there. But if 481 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:53,640 Speaker 1: you're a passenger and you need to switch from one 482 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:55,240 Speaker 1: line to the other, you have to buy a new 483 00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:59,560 Speaker 1: ticket because one line is operated by one company and 484 00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:01,800 Speaker 1: the other lines operated by another company. So if you're 485 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:03,880 Speaker 1: on the Piccadilly line and you need to get on 486 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:06,880 Speaker 1: I wish I knew in the name of another line, 487 00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:09,320 Speaker 1: then you would have to pay extra to switch to 488 00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:13,400 Speaker 1: transfer because they're operated by two different entities. That was 489 00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:17,440 Speaker 1: that was unfortunate. Yeah, But the reason it was so 490 00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:20,600 Speaker 1: possible was because they were able to dig these deeper tunnels. 491 00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:24,160 Speaker 1: And the reason for that actually dates back to the 492 00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:26,880 Speaker 1: early eighteen hundreds, but was an idea that had not 493 00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:31,760 Speaker 1: been been implemented for the subways. It was to use 494 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,440 Speaker 1: a tunneling shield, which was an invention from a guy 495 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:43,480 Speaker 1: named Mark is Ambard Brunel, French expatriot. Actually, um, yeah, 496 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:45,240 Speaker 1: he he had come up with this idea, and his 497 00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:48,720 Speaker 1: idea was pretty simple. He's all right, let's let's create 498 00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:54,320 Speaker 1: a cast iron circular or at least a like a 499 00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:55,960 Speaker 1: a thing that would have kind of like an arched 500 00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,960 Speaker 1: top shield. All right, So it's it's made off cast iron. 501 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,320 Speaker 1: It's very sturdy, and you put that at the the 502 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:07,680 Speaker 1: the rock face or the earth face of your tunnel, 503 00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:11,240 Speaker 1: and it has compartments in it that people can be 504 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:14,520 Speaker 1: inside and they can dig from that point, so it's 505 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:18,440 Speaker 1: almost like it's a portal, but instead of it leading anywhere, 506 00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:21,640 Speaker 1: there's just earth there. So you get your your miners 507 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:25,200 Speaker 1: there with hand tools. We're talking shovels, pick axes, that 508 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:29,920 Speaker 1: kind of stuff. Um digging away the ground and they 509 00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:33,680 Speaker 1: dig as far as they can uh to kind of 510 00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:36,520 Speaker 1: clear out the space immediately in front of the shield. 511 00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:39,960 Speaker 1: When there's enough space moved out of the way, enough 512 00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:43,160 Speaker 1: earth moved out the way, they could use jack's to 513 00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:47,120 Speaker 1: jack the shield forward into the tunnel until it's pressing 514 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:49,840 Speaker 1: up against the earth again, and then they would continue. Now, 515 00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:53,400 Speaker 1: the purpose of this was to provide stability in the 516 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:57,080 Speaker 1: earth as they went lower down, because they're actually digging underground. 517 00:30:57,080 --> 00:30:59,400 Speaker 1: Now they're no longer, digging a trench and then covering 518 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:03,239 Speaker 1: the trench, digging down and the horizontal exactly. So they 519 00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:07,160 Speaker 1: dig a shaft first and then install this shield and 520 00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:10,920 Speaker 1: start digging their horizontal tunnel. And they needed to make 521 00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:13,880 Speaker 1: sure that the tunnel was going to remain sturdy and 522 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:17,000 Speaker 1: stable and not collapse in on the minors. So when 523 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,040 Speaker 1: they would move forward, there'd be another team that would 524 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:24,280 Speaker 1: lay bricks to create stability in the in the area 525 00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:28,080 Speaker 1: that had just been excavated. So it's a very painstaking process. 526 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:32,000 Speaker 1: Dig dig, dig, remove the spoil as much as possible, 527 00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:35,200 Speaker 1: push forward the shield, laid down the bricks in the 528 00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:39,200 Speaker 1: now new tunnel, and keep on going until you're finished, 529 00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:45,080 Speaker 1: which sounds crazy now. Runelle had come up with this 530 00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:49,880 Speaker 1: while trying to create a tunnel that went across the 531 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,719 Speaker 1: underneath the Thames. Now the Thames divides London. You've got 532 00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:56,440 Speaker 1: a northern section of London in a southern section of London, 533 00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:59,600 Speaker 1: and the Thames runs through, so he wanted to create 534 00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:03,120 Speaker 1: a tom hold that would allow horse traffic to go 535 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:07,320 Speaker 1: underneath the Thams. So this wasn't meant originally as a subway. 536 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:10,320 Speaker 1: It was meant as a tunnel for for just regular 537 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,200 Speaker 1: horse drawn carriages and carts and that kind of thing. 538 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:17,720 Speaker 1: But what would happen is it would take decades from 539 00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:19,800 Speaker 1: the finish this. By the way, there were a lot 540 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:23,520 Speaker 1: of problems. There were political issues where funding was ran 541 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,400 Speaker 1: out and then they couldn't get funding for a long time. 542 00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:30,080 Speaker 1: There was a change of politicians, and then he was 543 00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:33,560 Speaker 1: able to get funding again and complete it um and 544 00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:36,400 Speaker 1: finished it sometime in the eighteen forties. It started in 545 00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:39,760 Speaker 1: the eighteen twenties, it finished in the eighteen forties, and 546 00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:43,800 Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty five, uh one of the one of 547 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:48,600 Speaker 1: the underground companies, one of the company's running trains, purchased 548 00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:54,520 Speaker 1: the tunnel and repurposed it for trains running underneath the Thames, 549 00:32:55,000 --> 00:33:00,000 Speaker 1: which very very intelligent move. But they started to actually 550 00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:03,480 Speaker 1: use this very technique to make new subway tunnels like 551 00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:08,719 Speaker 1: subway tunnels on purpose as opposed to converting it. And 552 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,280 Speaker 1: we we should also say that at this point in 553 00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:15,880 Speaker 1: our story, the public is not as adverse to the 554 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:19,560 Speaker 1: Underground as they were originally. You you can see some 555 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:24,240 Speaker 1: pretty self assured, uh selfissured people. I mean, history is 556 00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,320 Speaker 1: full of people who say, like, well, if the good 557 00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:31,600 Speaker 1: Lord intended us to fly, he would have given us yes, 558 00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:37,320 Speaker 1: or at least some copter device attached directly ours. Right, 559 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:40,760 Speaker 1: So people were saying that Pearson and then um that 560 00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:46,080 Speaker 1: that later Brunell were essentially kind of quacks for saying 561 00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:50,280 Speaker 1: get put people underground and h Now when we see 562 00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:52,200 Speaker 1: his new tunnels being dug, and we see all this 563 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:56,800 Speaker 1: intrigue coming and going but not permanently stopping this progress, 564 00:33:56,840 --> 00:34:01,000 Speaker 1: we also see the public u becoming at least diverse. Right, 565 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:04,120 Speaker 1: And once they were able to demonstrate that this was 566 00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:07,600 Speaker 1: an effective means of getting around London, people took to 567 00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:12,800 Speaker 1: it quickly. So before I go on into the further improvements, 568 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:16,439 Speaker 1: let's take another quick break. Let's let's take a look 569 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:20,000 Speaker 1: at what it must have been like the day that 570 00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:26,040 Speaker 1: the original underground station Farrington opens and how that turned out. 571 00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:31,400 Speaker 1: So it opened on January nine, eighteen sixty three. For context, 572 00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:35,680 Speaker 1: in the United States, that's when the Civil War is 573 00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:39,040 Speaker 1: raging here in the States. So civil wars raging here 574 00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:42,760 Speaker 1: in the States. Meanwhile, in London, the first subterranean train 575 00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:48,000 Speaker 1: station opens. So uh, that first train had those uncovered 576 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:50,960 Speaker 1: carriages I was talking about, pulled by a steam engine 577 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:55,319 Speaker 1: powered by coal so not necessarily the most comfortable way, 578 00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:59,600 Speaker 1: but it was incredibly efficient and it was a huge success, 579 00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:04,040 Speaker 1: and manned required the company to increase capacity very quickly, 580 00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:07,000 Speaker 1: Like it wasn't long before they had to have enough 581 00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:10,960 Speaker 1: trains so that one would be arriving every ten minutes, right, 582 00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:17,560 Speaker 1: because this quickly went from being fanciful too indispensable and um, 583 00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 1: and I I love that you're pointing out the larger 584 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:26,040 Speaker 1: historical context there with the Civil War, because there's a 585 00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:29,160 Speaker 1: tendency we have sometimes when we look at history to 586 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:34,040 Speaker 1: see each event as occurring in its own isolated timeline, 587 00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:37,000 Speaker 1: like like it like it's all completely here and nothing 588 00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:40,160 Speaker 1: else in the world is going on at that time, right. Yeah. 589 00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:42,600 Speaker 1: So one of the things that I thought was interesting 590 00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:45,279 Speaker 1: was that on the first day they actually had to 591 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:47,759 Speaker 1: shut the station down at one point because there were 592 00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:50,399 Speaker 1: too many people who wanted to ride the train. Yeah, 593 00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:52,520 Speaker 1: it was just a was too crowded. So again, they 594 00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:56,400 Speaker 1: needed to get this capacity up to deal with the demand. Um. 595 00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,120 Speaker 1: But that also meant that you had more smoke and 596 00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:01,680 Speaker 1: steam filling up these tunnels because you had more trains 597 00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:05,400 Speaker 1: running through, And that really wrote brought to to people's 598 00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:08,320 Speaker 1: attention that this was not ideal, and they had talked 599 00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:12,560 Speaker 1: about possibly using other methods to move trains through the system, 600 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:16,080 Speaker 1: including a cable system where the train would actually be 601 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:18,360 Speaker 1: attached to a cable that would be winched and it 602 00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:21,759 Speaker 1: would pull the train through the system, or pneumatic systems 603 00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:25,799 Speaker 1: or hydraulic systems. But it turned out steam was the 604 00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:29,640 Speaker 1: cheap way, and the cheap way one and the non 605 00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:32,960 Speaker 1: experimental way as well. To remember that, Yeah, it was 606 00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:36,719 Speaker 1: a proven methodology for getting people around. And one last 607 00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:39,040 Speaker 1: story I wanted to mention about the opening day. One 608 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:42,840 Speaker 1: of my favorite bits was that the company invited the 609 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:47,680 Speaker 1: Prime Minister of England, Henry John Temple, the Vicount Palmerston's. 610 00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:50,200 Speaker 1: So we call him Palmerston because that's the way the 611 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:54,040 Speaker 1: Brits do, you know, name them by their title. Um. 612 00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:56,000 Speaker 1: He was seventy nine at the time and he was 613 00:36:56,040 --> 00:37:00,480 Speaker 1: invited to ride on the first carriage and his reply 614 00:37:00,719 --> 00:37:03,680 Speaker 1: was that he declined because he said he quote wished 615 00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:08,560 Speaker 1: to remain above ground a little longer end quote. See 616 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:12,239 Speaker 1: I totally get that. That's that's first off, that's way 617 00:37:12,239 --> 00:37:17,759 Speaker 1: more polite than it needs to be British. It's incredible, 618 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:21,440 Speaker 1: very dry like he's years old. I wish to remain 619 00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:24,760 Speaker 1: above ground just a little longer. And and for the record, 620 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:27,440 Speaker 1: I'm sure everybody knows this, but we say that as 621 00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:30,920 Speaker 1: a huge compliment because we love dry humor. Oh yeah, no, 622 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:35,200 Speaker 1: I'm not criticizing. I adore it. So the time we 623 00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:38,640 Speaker 1: get to the nineties, when they're digging these deep holes, 624 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:41,560 Speaker 1: that's when they hit the other big advance. So the 625 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:44,000 Speaker 1: deep holes were great because it meant that they could 626 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:46,680 Speaker 1: actually lay out a lot more track. Obviously, if you 627 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:49,880 Speaker 1: layout track using the cut and cover method, you can't 628 00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:53,560 Speaker 1: really have a crossing track that way, right, so you 629 00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,440 Speaker 1: have to dig underneath in order to do that. The 630 00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:59,480 Speaker 1: deep holes, the deep lines allowed that to happen. The 631 00:37:59,560 --> 00:38:03,759 Speaker 1: other big development that really improved things was the use 632 00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:08,960 Speaker 1: of electrical system so you could use electrical trains. Huge 633 00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:11,040 Speaker 1: difference because now you don't need the smoke, you don't 634 00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:15,799 Speaker 1: have the steam, um and it was an enormous improvement 635 00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:19,680 Speaker 1: in the experience of taking the underground the tube. Yeah, 636 00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:25,080 Speaker 1: it was also many times more complicated. Yeah yeah, it 637 00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:28,080 Speaker 1: meant that you had to have a third and fourth rail. Actually, 638 00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:31,400 Speaker 1: with the London one, they had a direct current approach. 639 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:34,000 Speaker 1: All subways, as far as I am aware, All subways 640 00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:37,359 Speaker 1: that are electrical anyway run on direct current, which has 641 00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:39,040 Speaker 1: its own issues that we'll talk about in a second. 642 00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,640 Speaker 1: But they had a third rail in the fourth rail. 643 00:38:41,719 --> 00:38:44,680 Speaker 1: One was essentially the positive rail. One was the negative rail, 644 00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:48,000 Speaker 1: and that's what provided the electricity to the electric cars 645 00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:52,440 Speaker 1: so that they could move through without the need for steam. Um. 646 00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:57,840 Speaker 1: Very important development. And we still have the continuation of 647 00:38:57,880 --> 00:39:01,680 Speaker 1: all these private companies operating these lines. Yeah. Yeah, by 648 00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:05,400 Speaker 1: the way, funny trivia, I'm guessing here, but that's probably 649 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:11,040 Speaker 1: the etymology of the third rail as a figure of speech, right, yeah, exactly, Yeah, 650 00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:14,520 Speaker 1: it comes from this era. So and then electric trains 651 00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:17,400 Speaker 1: in general, because some ways are one version, but there 652 00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:20,120 Speaker 1: are other electric train systems obviously. And then and then, 653 00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:23,320 Speaker 1: you know, as you were saying, there's this hodgepodge of 654 00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:28,560 Speaker 1: this motley crew, if you will, of different private companies 655 00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:31,799 Speaker 1: that are teaming up or they're not teaming up. And 656 00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:36,240 Speaker 1: historically when we see stuff like that, what it leads 657 00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:41,440 Speaker 1: to will be a great first phase of competition inovation. 658 00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:45,800 Speaker 1: So then you get this incredible outburst of growth throughout 659 00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:49,839 Speaker 1: the city. But the as anybody who has ever tried 660 00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:54,600 Speaker 1: to find the right charger for a cell phone knows. Uh. 661 00:39:54,680 --> 00:40:00,719 Speaker 1: The standards can be different, and eventually that creates enormous problem. Well, 662 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,600 Speaker 1: especially if you wanted to Let's say that you have 663 00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:07,520 Speaker 1: a complicated commute and you need to change trains twice. 664 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:10,080 Speaker 1: Let's say that would that might mean that you have 665 00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:12,839 Speaker 1: to pay three times once to get on the first train, 666 00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:14,919 Speaker 1: then you change, had to pay again, and you change, 667 00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:17,880 Speaker 1: you had to pay again, and that was not a 668 00:40:17,880 --> 00:40:21,120 Speaker 1: good experience for consumers and people are starting to complain 669 00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:26,680 Speaker 1: about it, and that led to Parliament creating the London Transport, 670 00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:32,040 Speaker 1: which was created in nineteen three. So the purpose of 671 00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:35,240 Speaker 1: the London Transport was to bring all these companies together 672 00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:40,759 Speaker 1: and itself was a public corporation financed by private companies 673 00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:43,040 Speaker 1: that unified the system. So if you bought a ticket 674 00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:45,560 Speaker 1: on one system, it was good for your trip all 675 00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:48,720 Speaker 1: the way through. UH. You know, a lot of subway 676 00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:52,920 Speaker 1: systems are essentially built on that same principle, although many 677 00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:56,640 Speaker 1: of them have kind of a metered approach. UH. In 678 00:40:56,640 --> 00:40:59,000 Speaker 1: in London, they have different zones and if you're traveling 679 00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:01,359 Speaker 1: from one zone to another zone, there may be an 680 00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:03,880 Speaker 1: extra amount that you have to pay in order to 681 00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:08,560 Speaker 1: use the subway system. So the the logic there is 682 00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:11,719 Speaker 1: the further you travel, the more your ticket is going 683 00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:15,040 Speaker 1: to cost, which is not unusual. There are other places 684 00:41:15,080 --> 00:41:17,680 Speaker 1: like Atlanta where it doesn't matter how far you're going, 685 00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:22,040 Speaker 1: you your your ticket is is one specific cost. But 686 00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:25,279 Speaker 1: it also really doesn't matter because it doesn't go that 687 00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:27,839 Speaker 1: many places. Yeah, I like to think of it as 688 00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:31,480 Speaker 1: a working progress man. One thing that they one thing 689 00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:35,120 Speaker 1: that they found as well. Okay, first, I don't want 690 00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:38,520 Speaker 1: to discount that innovation because I know it's not of 691 00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:42,080 Speaker 1: tech thing, but it is more. It is more than 692 00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,800 Speaker 1: just the bureaucracy. It may sound like this really made 693 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:50,080 Speaker 1: made the whole thing a m not an organism, but 694 00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:52,600 Speaker 1: you know, it made it one thing instead of you know, 695 00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:57,520 Speaker 1: eighteen and that meant that they were able to address 696 00:41:57,600 --> 00:42:02,400 Speaker 1: some bigger problems collectively as a unit. Because one of 697 00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:04,759 Speaker 1: the big questions that a lot of you guys are 698 00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:08,200 Speaker 1: probably waiting for us to talk about will be what 699 00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:11,480 Speaker 1: do you find in the ground. I dig a tunnel 700 00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:15,240 Speaker 1: deeper and deeper and deeper. Yeah, so one thing water 701 00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:18,160 Speaker 1: you could find water awkwifers could be a problem where 702 00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:19,640 Speaker 1: you have to figure out, well, how do we deal 703 00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:22,080 Speaker 1: with this, and usually you would have to bring in pumps, 704 00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:24,840 Speaker 1: pump water out until you had gotten a dry system, 705 00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:27,120 Speaker 1: and then you create your tunnel and you seal it 706 00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:28,960 Speaker 1: up as fast as you can so that water can't 707 00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:33,080 Speaker 1: get in. That was a big one also. Well, the 708 00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:37,040 Speaker 1: same things that caused issues for traffic were also issues 709 00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:40,800 Speaker 1: for things like getting water around your city, like supplying 710 00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,800 Speaker 1: water to people, or sewer lines to take waste away, 711 00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:48,879 Speaker 1: or electrical conduits to get power to people. As time 712 00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:52,359 Speaker 1: went on and many places would bury these, but that 713 00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:54,440 Speaker 1: means that you have to worry about that when you're 714 00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:57,279 Speaker 1: digging your tunnel, and depending on how old the system is, 715 00:42:57,320 --> 00:43:00,120 Speaker 1: there may not even be records of where these things 716 00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:03,000 Speaker 1: are now, so you had to be really careful when 717 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:05,799 Speaker 1: you were digging, and you might encounter something that wasn't 718 00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:09,400 Speaker 1: on your plans, like there's a sewer pipe here, I 719 00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:12,040 Speaker 1: don't know if it's still in use. That could be 720 00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:18,360 Speaker 1: a bad thing. It's also another good example. So with 721 00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:22,840 Speaker 1: the case of conduits, sewer lines, water lines, uh either 722 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,040 Speaker 1: you would end up having to excavate around them. That 723 00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:29,600 Speaker 1: was often the most the most logical approach was to 724 00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:33,160 Speaker 1: try and just alter the plan a little bit so 725 00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:37,360 Speaker 1: that you would avoid them, or you could actually incorporate 726 00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:40,640 Speaker 1: them into the design. So some of these had uh 727 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:44,839 Speaker 1: they would suspend pipes or sewer you know, sewer pipes 728 00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:47,600 Speaker 1: or water pipes or electrical conduits or whatever from the 729 00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:50,040 Speaker 1: ceiling of the tunnel. They would be built in so 730 00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:52,799 Speaker 1: that you would have supports from the ceiling holding these 731 00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:55,880 Speaker 1: in place. Because keep in mind, originally they were buried 732 00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:58,280 Speaker 1: in the ground, they were completely supported by the ground 733 00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:00,920 Speaker 1: below them. So in this case they just replaced the 734 00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:03,280 Speaker 1: ground below them with whatever supports they have and suspended 735 00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:06,920 Speaker 1: from the ceiling. Uh. So there were a couple of 736 00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:10,080 Speaker 1: different options there, and one of the other ones one 737 00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:11,600 Speaker 1: of the other things I thought was really cool. Remember 738 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:14,000 Speaker 1: I mentioned about the Fleet River and that was going 739 00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:19,120 Speaker 1: to yeah, yeah, so Farrington itself was built on the 740 00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:22,520 Speaker 1: river bed of the Fleet River. That was that was 741 00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:26,279 Speaker 1: where they decided to place this. It made the most 742 00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:29,319 Speaker 1: sense logistically, but then you have the question of what 743 00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:32,440 Speaker 1: the heck do you do with the river? Well, what 744 00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:35,799 Speaker 1: they did was they made pipes, They let the river 745 00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:39,439 Speaker 1: flow into the pipes. They buried the pipes below the 746 00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:42,920 Speaker 1: ground of where the riverbed was, so now the Fleet 747 00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:46,919 Speaker 1: River flowed below the its original riverbed, which is where 748 00:44:46,960 --> 00:44:53,000 Speaker 1: Farrington Station was. This, however, caused issues occasionally. Yeah, whatever 749 00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:57,120 Speaker 1: would rain really hard, the river would overflow and the 750 00:44:57,239 --> 00:45:00,200 Speaker 1: station would start to flood, which in the day is 751 00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:04,759 Speaker 1: of the electric trains, meant that sometimes you had shorts, 752 00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:08,040 Speaker 1: so sensors would start shorting out, and sensors shorting out 753 00:45:08,040 --> 00:45:10,600 Speaker 1: would mean that the whole system would have red lights 754 00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:13,239 Speaker 1: go up, which it tells the drivers they can't go 755 00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:17,120 Speaker 1: any further because there was no longer a reliable means 756 00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:20,360 Speaker 1: of making sure that the track was clear ahead of you, 757 00:45:20,800 --> 00:45:24,160 Speaker 1: so it would require people to actually go out and 758 00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:28,160 Speaker 1: physically check the tracks to try and find the shorts. 759 00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:32,239 Speaker 1: And I watched uh a documentary before we came in here. 760 00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:36,320 Speaker 1: It was it was the Tube and Underground History of London, 761 00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:39,920 Speaker 1: and it was this hour long documentary, really well done. 762 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:44,640 Speaker 1: And it starts off with this supervisor of the Farrington station. 763 00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:47,040 Speaker 1: And as soon as he gets in, he's, you know, 764 00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:50,440 Speaker 1: he's showing the crew around, he's explaining things. He gets 765 00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:54,200 Speaker 1: a call that says there has been this this problem 766 00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:57,160 Speaker 1: of sensors no longer working and they're all these red lights, 767 00:45:57,200 --> 00:45:59,439 Speaker 1: so you've got to be kidding me. And it goes 768 00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:02,680 Speaker 1: down into the into the tunnels, and he says, oh, 769 00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:06,600 Speaker 1: this is the worst shift of mine bloody life. He's 770 00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:10,279 Speaker 1: walking around checking for these these sensors. And then he 771 00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:13,200 Speaker 1: got back up and explained what I just explained. That 772 00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:15,319 Speaker 1: it was on the bed of the old Fleet River, 773 00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:18,840 Speaker 1: and then the river itself was flowing underneath the station 774 00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:22,000 Speaker 1: and occasionally it would come up on the station level 775 00:46:22,080 --> 00:46:24,240 Speaker 1: because of too much train. That's right for the world's 776 00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:29,320 Speaker 1: first subway system. This London buried the river alive. You 777 00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:32,239 Speaker 1: think about it, I mean, you know, you gotta do 778 00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:34,960 Speaker 1: what you gotta do. And the river really was just 779 00:46:35,160 --> 00:46:38,000 Speaker 1: it was Look, you got a nice rover here, U 780 00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:42,200 Speaker 1: shape someone buried? Uh. So before we before we get 781 00:46:42,239 --> 00:46:45,520 Speaker 1: into uh into too much trouble for our for our 782 00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:48,680 Speaker 1: river jokes, which you and I both have several more. Yes, 783 00:46:48,719 --> 00:46:53,719 Speaker 1: we are dancing around river jokes, river joke dancing. I'm 784 00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:55,839 Speaker 1: not going to take the bay man, but but we 785 00:46:55,880 --> 00:46:59,720 Speaker 1: we we should talk about um the modern era today, 786 00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:04,080 Speaker 1: right right? So your your trains are running on electric 787 00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:06,520 Speaker 1: systems for the most part, New York system uses six 788 00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:09,960 Speaker 1: volts of direct current to power trains. London uses six 789 00:47:10,040 --> 00:47:12,840 Speaker 1: thirty volts of direct current UH and has both the 790 00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:15,279 Speaker 1: third and fourth rail. New York's as just the third 791 00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:20,520 Speaker 1: rail UM, So they're carrying high current but relatively low voltage. 792 00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:24,640 Speaker 1: High voltage would be considered over one volts. So the 793 00:47:24,680 --> 00:47:29,840 Speaker 1: reason why they're it's it's relatively low voltage is to 794 00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:36,200 Speaker 1: minimize the risk of electrocution. Electrocution, of course, means death 795 00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:40,480 Speaker 1: through when you encounter an electrical current with enough voltage 796 00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:43,359 Speaker 1: to kill you. Electrocution like you wouldn't say I got 797 00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:46,799 Speaker 1: electrocuted if you got shocked. Electrocuted means you are no 798 00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:51,320 Speaker 1: longer alive. Is always fatal, Yes, it is by definition, 799 00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:56,000 Speaker 1: So they wanted to make sure that this was safe. 800 00:47:56,600 --> 00:48:00,400 Speaker 1: So they're using direct current, they're using relatively low voltages. 801 00:48:00,880 --> 00:48:05,200 Speaker 1: That meant they had to use high current to push 802 00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:07,760 Speaker 1: the power to the trains and make it an effective 803 00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:10,040 Speaker 1: means for the trains to receive the power they needed 804 00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:13,360 Speaker 1: to operate. It also meant that sins using direct current, 805 00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:16,839 Speaker 1: you had to have lots of different substations throughout the 806 00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:22,239 Speaker 1: system to provide that electricity. Because direct current, the effectiveness 807 00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:26,279 Speaker 1: of direct current decreases as the distance increases between you 808 00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:30,080 Speaker 1: and wherever the electricity is being generated. This was the 809 00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:33,440 Speaker 1: problem Edison ran into when he was advocating for direct 810 00:48:33,440 --> 00:48:37,480 Speaker 1: current to be the standard in the United States. Westinghouses 811 00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:40,799 Speaker 1: argument was, if we go a direct current, Uh, the 812 00:48:40,840 --> 00:48:44,399 Speaker 1: effectiveness of direct current decreases the further the further way 813 00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:47,680 Speaker 1: you placed the load from the point of generation, the 814 00:48:47,880 --> 00:48:50,479 Speaker 1: less effective direct current is. I mean that we would 815 00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:53,640 Speaker 1: have to build power stations every couple of miles, which, 816 00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:56,480 Speaker 1: as you pointed out when we were talking earlier, Edison 817 00:48:56,520 --> 00:48:59,759 Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily adverse to. Yeah, he had no problem with that, 818 00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:03,160 Speaker 1: And as you pointed out, Westinghouse, however, it was not 819 00:49:03,760 --> 00:49:07,920 Speaker 1: convinced that lining Edison's pockets with substations was the best right. 820 00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:11,680 Speaker 1: So Westinghouse's argument was to use alternating current, which allows 821 00:49:11,719 --> 00:49:15,080 Speaker 1: you to create transformers where you can step up or 822 00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:18,560 Speaker 1: step down the voltage relatively easily, just using a couple 823 00:49:18,600 --> 00:49:21,600 Speaker 1: of different coils of wire. Uh. That was not that's 824 00:49:21,640 --> 00:49:23,239 Speaker 1: not an option with the trains. They wanted to go 825 00:49:23,280 --> 00:49:26,680 Speaker 1: with direct current. Um. So that's why you have to 826 00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:30,400 Speaker 1: have these electric substations throughout your system, so that the 827 00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:34,360 Speaker 1: power is is uh distributed properly so the trains keep moving. 828 00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:39,040 Speaker 1: So yes, speaking of the trains, what's going on with 829 00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:42,920 Speaker 1: them the lake? How have you ever looked inside the 830 00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:47,080 Speaker 1: the Marta train and seeing the person driving, or looked 831 00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:50,520 Speaker 1: at the controls that they operate. I would love to 832 00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:54,719 Speaker 1: do that one day, but apparently you have to train qualified. 833 00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:57,360 Speaker 1: I've never been in the cabin while they've operated it. 834 00:49:57,440 --> 00:50:00,239 Speaker 1: But you know, there are some Marta trains where they 835 00:50:00,239 --> 00:50:03,839 Speaker 1: have the sections at the front of the train car. 836 00:50:04,200 --> 00:50:05,840 Speaker 1: You might not be You're not You're not in the 837 00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:07,560 Speaker 1: front of the train. You're somewhere in the middle or 838 00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:09,960 Speaker 1: towards the pack or whatever. But you give me right 839 00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:12,759 Speaker 1: there where you might be on another train car that's 840 00:50:12,760 --> 00:50:14,719 Speaker 1: a driving car. It's just not being used as a 841 00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:17,440 Speaker 1: driving car. Point. And then you can look in at 842 00:50:17,440 --> 00:50:20,000 Speaker 1: the controls all you like and no one freaks out 843 00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:23,120 Speaker 1: because there's no one in there. But the controls are 844 00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:27,440 Speaker 1: really basic, right. There's there's essentially a throttle control, which 845 00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:30,759 Speaker 1: tells the motor how hard to work and thus how 846 00:50:30,840 --> 00:50:33,640 Speaker 1: fast the train will go. And then there's a break 847 00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:35,440 Speaker 1: and there are a couple of other controls for things 848 00:50:35,480 --> 00:50:39,040 Speaker 1: like the doors there's a radio system generally speaking, so 849 00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:43,120 Speaker 1: that if passengers have an emergency or need to communicate 850 00:50:43,160 --> 00:50:46,400 Speaker 1: to the driver for some reason, they can do so. Uh. 851 00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:50,520 Speaker 1: And these trains have a specific name in the industry. 852 00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:55,799 Speaker 1: They're called rolling stock. Weird. That makes me think of 853 00:50:55,920 --> 00:50:59,520 Speaker 1: cattle the same here, and sometimes I feel like it 854 00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:02,239 Speaker 1: and I'm on com on one of these trains. But yeah, 855 00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:05,319 Speaker 1: that's that's their general name, is rolling stock. Uh. Some 856 00:51:05,440 --> 00:51:07,959 Speaker 1: of them are entirely computerized, so you don't even have 857 00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:11,600 Speaker 1: drivers on those trains. They're all automated. It makes me 858 00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:16,960 Speaker 1: think of the the plane train at Hartsfield internationally. You 859 00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:18,920 Speaker 1: know they they there's no driver on that, it's a 860 00:51:18,920 --> 00:51:21,399 Speaker 1: computerized it's just the thing that kind of goes around 861 00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:25,160 Speaker 1: the airport. Yeah, whereas we're talking about these, there would 862 00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:28,719 Speaker 1: be for the entire system. So New York City subways 863 00:51:28,840 --> 00:51:31,640 Speaker 1: are being upgraded over time, and they would be fully 864 00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:34,719 Speaker 1: computerized once the upgrade is done, and you wouldn't have 865 00:51:34,840 --> 00:51:37,200 Speaker 1: subway train drivers. It would all be computerized. And there's 866 00:51:37,239 --> 00:51:40,040 Speaker 1: there's still like a human being in a supervisory position. 867 00:51:40,120 --> 00:51:42,480 Speaker 1: It's sure. Yeah, you have to have people who are 868 00:51:42,520 --> 00:51:45,560 Speaker 1: overseeing the system itself, so you think of a like 869 00:51:45,600 --> 00:51:49,480 Speaker 1: a control sense, like like like mission control for space. 870 00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:52,400 Speaker 1: For a space mission, you have people who are overseeing 871 00:51:52,400 --> 00:51:55,359 Speaker 1: the track systems, monitoring them, making sure that you're still 872 00:51:55,400 --> 00:51:58,120 Speaker 1: getting a signal on all the tracks. You know. That's 873 00:51:58,160 --> 00:52:00,560 Speaker 1: one nice thing about using electric tracks is that if 874 00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:04,160 Speaker 1: there's a break in that connection, you're gonna know about it, 875 00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:06,319 Speaker 1: because you're going to suddenly have a section of track 876 00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:08,680 Speaker 1: where there's no electricity generator. You're gonna see that there's 877 00:52:08,680 --> 00:52:12,080 Speaker 1: no longer a complete circuit. Uh Their sensors placed along 878 00:52:12,080 --> 00:52:14,759 Speaker 1: the tracks to make sure you know the position and 879 00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:17,399 Speaker 1: the motion of any given train on any given part 880 00:52:17,400 --> 00:52:21,239 Speaker 1: of the system. They're usually surveillance cameras that allow you 881 00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:23,640 Speaker 1: to get a look at that. Uh So, these are 882 00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:27,520 Speaker 1: all very important elements of any subway system, whether it's 883 00:52:27,520 --> 00:52:31,520 Speaker 1: computerized or whether it's still operating mainly under manual control. 884 00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:34,879 Speaker 1: You want to have this kind of command center where 885 00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:37,319 Speaker 1: you can see what's going on and make sure that 886 00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:40,279 Speaker 1: if maybe there's a signal that's not functioning properly and 887 00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:44,160 Speaker 1: it's telling drivers that they cannot go forward, if you 888 00:52:44,200 --> 00:52:47,799 Speaker 1: are the administrator and you see that the train needs 889 00:52:47,800 --> 00:52:50,120 Speaker 1: to move forward, so that passengers can get off the 890 00:52:50,160 --> 00:52:53,480 Speaker 1: train safely, and then they can then send out the 891 00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:56,799 Speaker 1: maintenance crew. They you know, the administrators can actually see 892 00:52:56,800 --> 00:52:59,759 Speaker 1: ahead and say, all right, your path is clear, or 893 00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:02,560 Speaker 1: may be you need to switch. We're gonna switch you 894 00:53:02,600 --> 00:53:05,080 Speaker 1: to this other track so that you can pull in safely, 895 00:53:05,560 --> 00:53:09,080 Speaker 1: and then we'll shut everything down and fix it. I've 896 00:53:09,120 --> 00:53:11,399 Speaker 1: been on a train where that has happened, and it's 897 00:53:11,440 --> 00:53:16,319 Speaker 1: not the fastest uh experience. Right, It's not always the 898 00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:19,719 Speaker 1: most smooth process, but it is one of those things 899 00:53:19,760 --> 00:53:24,440 Speaker 1: that these these operations have to keep take into consideration. Uh. 900 00:53:24,600 --> 00:53:28,800 Speaker 1: Some of the other modern trains have regenderative regenerative breaking, 901 00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:32,560 Speaker 1: so they can regenerate some electrical power. They can store 902 00:53:32,600 --> 00:53:37,319 Speaker 1: that in batteries for whenever they're having to apply breaks. Um, 903 00:53:37,480 --> 00:53:41,719 Speaker 1: and you usually you have, uh. The only other thing 904 00:53:41,719 --> 00:53:43,600 Speaker 1: you have to worry about are the various if if 905 00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:46,040 Speaker 1: you're talking about manually driven trains, are those lights I 906 00:53:46,160 --> 00:53:50,799 Speaker 1: was talking, Ah, yes, yeah, and this is look, I'm 907 00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:52,839 Speaker 1: gonna be honest with you. Yeah, And this is one 908 00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:55,000 Speaker 1: of those things that I like to say would be 909 00:53:55,040 --> 00:53:58,360 Speaker 1: a dream job, but I think it's just because I 910 00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:01,520 Speaker 1: I want to do it for an app after New Yeah, 911 00:54:01,640 --> 00:54:04,960 Speaker 1: so if anybody listening to this show, well, yeah, it's 912 00:54:05,040 --> 00:54:07,480 Speaker 1: kind of like kind of being an engineer on a 913 00:54:07,520 --> 00:54:09,719 Speaker 1: train or a conductor on it. Like I said that, 914 00:54:09,880 --> 00:54:14,520 Speaker 1: I mean there is this I think lots of people 915 00:54:14,920 --> 00:54:17,120 Speaker 1: have this desire, like it's just kind of a cool 916 00:54:17,840 --> 00:54:21,200 Speaker 1: sort of experience to do once. I imagine there is 917 00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:23,640 Speaker 1: some skill to it because you have to know exactly 918 00:54:23,719 --> 00:54:26,840 Speaker 1: where to pull up in a station. Um, some stations, 919 00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:30,720 Speaker 1: like like in Martha, we have different lengths of train 920 00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:33,600 Speaker 1: depending upon the routes they're going on. So some of 921 00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:36,279 Speaker 1: them are express trains and they're shorter, uh, and they 922 00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:39,760 Speaker 1: make a much shorter run along the line than the 923 00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:42,400 Speaker 1: full length trains. So you have to know where to 924 00:54:42,440 --> 00:54:45,400 Speaker 1: pull up in a short train compared to a long train, 925 00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:48,640 Speaker 1: because it makes a big difference. You don't want you 926 00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:51,120 Speaker 1: don't want everyone having to run all the way down 927 00:54:51,200 --> 00:54:52,880 Speaker 1: the platform in order to get on your train. I 928 00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:57,360 Speaker 1: think maybe sometimes, But Okay, So the reason I'm bringing 929 00:54:57,360 --> 00:55:01,239 Speaker 1: this up is because it sound is like this might 930 00:55:01,360 --> 00:55:03,319 Speaker 1: this might be our last chance, man, this might be 931 00:55:03,320 --> 00:55:08,760 Speaker 1: our last chance to be human human subway drivers, what 932 00:55:08,760 --> 00:55:12,640 Speaker 1: what's the future of the subway? So computerization is definitely 933 00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:15,759 Speaker 1: a big one. And then there are some other proposed 934 00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:20,719 Speaker 1: methods of getting people around in trains through tunnel systems 935 00:55:21,480 --> 00:55:24,399 Speaker 1: that owe a lot to subways but operate on a 936 00:55:24,520 --> 00:55:28,200 Speaker 1: very different level, and the big one being the hyper loop, 937 00:55:28,719 --> 00:55:31,080 Speaker 1: which tech Stuff did a full episode about the hyper 938 00:55:31,080 --> 00:55:33,640 Speaker 1: loop if you're curious what the hyper loop is. It 939 00:55:33,760 --> 00:55:38,040 Speaker 1: was a proposal that Elon Musk or Elon Musk made 940 00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:42,720 Speaker 1: um where he said, think about a tunnel system where 941 00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:46,320 Speaker 1: trains can travel through the system. It's uh, the air 942 00:55:46,360 --> 00:55:49,320 Speaker 1: has been largely pumped out. It's not a true vacuum, 943 00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:53,120 Speaker 1: but it's close to vacuum so that you have minimal 944 00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:57,120 Speaker 1: air resistance, and you could make these incredibly rapid train 945 00:55:57,880 --> 00:56:00,799 Speaker 1: trips between San Francisco and law So Angeles and a 946 00:56:00,880 --> 00:56:03,200 Speaker 1: fraction of the amount of time it would normally take 947 00:56:03,239 --> 00:56:06,680 Speaker 1: you to get between those. That could be a future 948 00:56:06,960 --> 00:56:10,720 Speaker 1: of train systems too, although granted that works really better 949 00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:15,920 Speaker 1: for long distance travel, not sure city travel. So I 950 00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:18,960 Speaker 1: do think computerization is the way it's gonna go. And 951 00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:22,840 Speaker 1: we have some fun, little cool facts about subways in 952 00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:24,839 Speaker 1: general that we just thought, you know, it didn't really fit. 953 00:56:25,040 --> 00:56:27,959 Speaker 1: And the rest of the episode. Um. One of those 954 00:56:28,040 --> 00:56:31,200 Speaker 1: is that you may have heard about abandoned subway lines 955 00:56:31,239 --> 00:56:34,120 Speaker 1: and abandoned subway stations, and those are totally a thing. 956 00:56:34,680 --> 00:56:38,040 Speaker 1: They're real, And I know it sounds like some X 957 00:56:38,120 --> 00:56:43,120 Speaker 1: Files episode or spy thriller, but human civilization it turns 958 00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:48,480 Speaker 1: out as depressingly good at losing things, including subways. In London, 959 00:56:48,520 --> 00:56:53,600 Speaker 1: for example, when population density has changed and commuting patterns changed, 960 00:56:53,719 --> 00:56:58,279 Speaker 1: some stations became irrelevant or obsolete, and so they would 961 00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:02,040 Speaker 1: stop servicing those stations, and sometimes there would be entire 962 00:57:02,160 --> 00:57:05,560 Speaker 1: lines that would be obsolete, so tunnels would be unused. 963 00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:10,000 Speaker 1: And there are still stations underneath the streets of London 964 00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:13,600 Speaker 1: that look more or less the way they did when 965 00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:16,800 Speaker 1: they closed. They haven't haven't changed significantly. I mean, for 966 00:57:16,840 --> 00:57:22,840 Speaker 1: one thing, getting down into the subway is incredibly dangerous 967 00:57:22,880 --> 00:57:28,600 Speaker 1: and not easy to do very much. Yeah, so it's 968 00:57:28,640 --> 00:57:31,160 Speaker 1: not like this is the kind of place where squatters 969 00:57:31,160 --> 00:57:34,600 Speaker 1: are going to, you know, find their way down there. 970 00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:38,880 Speaker 1: But there are some subway stations and subway lines that exist, 971 00:57:39,360 --> 00:57:42,200 Speaker 1: but there are in no way used anymore. And that's 972 00:57:42,240 --> 00:57:45,080 Speaker 1: kind of interesting. It's not just London that's a good example, 973 00:57:45,280 --> 00:57:48,640 Speaker 1: just the oldest, but the um there are other ones 974 00:57:48,680 --> 00:57:52,400 Speaker 1: in other subway systems as well. Another is that subway 975 00:57:52,440 --> 00:57:56,120 Speaker 1: systems have to have massive ventilation systems, even after the 976 00:57:56,200 --> 00:58:00,840 Speaker 1: steam coal era. They need them because you're underground and 977 00:58:00,880 --> 00:58:04,440 Speaker 1: while you might have stations that are open to the air, uh, 978 00:58:04,480 --> 00:58:08,560 Speaker 1: that's not enough to circulate air through the whole system. 979 00:58:08,600 --> 00:58:12,920 Speaker 1: And if you're in an underground station waiting with a 980 00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:15,640 Speaker 1: bunch of other commuters, you're all breathing in and out, 981 00:58:16,040 --> 00:58:19,640 Speaker 1: You're all breathing out carbon dioxide that starts to accumulate. 982 00:58:19,960 --> 00:58:24,120 Speaker 1: You don't have any circulation. Things could get uncomfortable and 983 00:58:24,240 --> 00:58:28,240 Speaker 1: deadly fairly quickly. Actually doesn't take that long, depending on 984 00:58:28,280 --> 00:58:33,080 Speaker 1: where you are, especially in some places like the Moscow 985 00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:38,440 Speaker 1: subway system, which is has famously deep stations like that 986 00:58:38,560 --> 00:58:41,400 Speaker 1: is out and out dangerous. Yeah. Yeah. And and even 987 00:58:41,440 --> 00:58:43,360 Speaker 1: if you're thinking, well, I'm not going to be in 988 00:58:43,440 --> 00:58:46,120 Speaker 1: the station that long, just think we're talking about a 989 00:58:46,120 --> 00:58:50,320 Speaker 1: continuous flow of people coming down there breathing out carbon dioxide. 990 00:58:50,360 --> 00:58:53,200 Speaker 1: Because it's not just when you're there, it's all the 991 00:58:53,240 --> 00:58:55,040 Speaker 1: people who came before you, it's all the people who 992 00:58:55,040 --> 00:58:57,240 Speaker 1: are coming after you. It's going to eventually get to 993 00:58:57,280 --> 00:58:59,960 Speaker 1: the point where it's so stuffy. It's not it's not breathable. 994 00:59:00,400 --> 00:59:03,480 Speaker 1: So there are all these ventilation systems built into subway systems. 995 00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:07,160 Speaker 1: There are ventilation shafts. They are giant air essentially climate 996 00:59:07,200 --> 00:59:11,000 Speaker 1: controlled style systems to recirculate air, to pull fresh air 997 00:59:11,080 --> 00:59:14,160 Speaker 1: from the surface down into the tunnels to make it safe. 998 00:59:14,840 --> 00:59:17,280 Speaker 1: The New York City one has a system that is 999 00:59:17,320 --> 00:59:19,840 Speaker 1: capable of moving six hundred thousand cubic feet of fresh 1000 00:59:19,840 --> 00:59:23,520 Speaker 1: air every single minute. That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's that's 1001 00:59:23,560 --> 00:59:26,920 Speaker 1: pretty necessary. I mean, I've been to the New York subway. 1002 00:59:27,160 --> 00:59:29,400 Speaker 1: More fresh air the better, in my opinion. And there's 1003 00:59:29,480 --> 00:59:34,280 Speaker 1: there's also so there's this continual operation that is sort 1004 00:59:34,320 --> 00:59:37,160 Speaker 1: of behind the curtain. For the average subway user, you 1005 00:59:37,280 --> 00:59:42,200 Speaker 1: will probably not ever see the massive amount of work 1006 00:59:42,520 --> 00:59:45,600 Speaker 1: that makes it possible for people to go underground and 1007 00:59:45,640 --> 00:59:48,760 Speaker 1: then come back out alive. Ventilation is one of those, 1008 00:59:48,800 --> 00:59:50,520 Speaker 1: but that's not the only one. No. The other one 1009 00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:53,720 Speaker 1: being that you're on a train. The trains running on rails, 1010 00:59:54,080 --> 00:59:56,320 Speaker 1: you have to make sure those rails are lined up properly. 1011 00:59:56,360 --> 00:59:57,920 Speaker 1: I mean, these are these rails, aren't It's not like 1012 00:59:57,960 --> 01:00:01,800 Speaker 1: it's one solid rail that goes the entire length of 1013 01:00:01,960 --> 01:00:04,920 Speaker 1: the of the train line right, it's in segments, and 1014 01:00:05,040 --> 01:00:09,840 Speaker 1: segments means that over time the ground might shift the train. 1015 01:00:10,000 --> 01:00:12,040 Speaker 1: Just the wear and tear of trains going on, it 1016 01:00:12,080 --> 01:00:15,320 Speaker 1: could make things shift where a lot of lines can 1017 01:00:15,360 --> 01:00:17,640 Speaker 1: get out of alignment, like two rails might get out 1018 01:00:17,640 --> 01:00:20,960 Speaker 1: of alignment with one another, and that could lead to 1019 01:00:21,240 --> 01:00:24,760 Speaker 1: very dangerous conditions like a train derailing if it's not 1020 01:00:25,080 --> 01:00:28,360 Speaker 1: if the tracks aren't aligned properly. So in order to 1021 01:00:28,400 --> 01:00:31,000 Speaker 1: make sure the tracks are lined up, a lot of 1022 01:00:31,040 --> 01:00:37,000 Speaker 1: subway systems use UH geometry trains, which sounds like it's 1023 01:00:37,080 --> 01:00:40,120 Speaker 1: my least favorite subject in school being forced upon me 1024 01:00:40,240 --> 01:00:44,440 Speaker 1: in a mass Transit mean it, but it's not. No 1025 01:00:44,600 --> 01:00:49,720 Speaker 1: geometry trades. Geometry trains are specifically designed to check the 1026 01:00:49,760 --> 01:00:54,960 Speaker 1: alignment of rails, and they have UH equipment aboard, including 1027 01:00:54,960 --> 01:00:59,720 Speaker 1: a computer system that can analyze data and a collection system. 1028 01:01:00,040 --> 01:01:04,000 Speaker 1: It usually involves infrared like UH infrared laser type system 1029 01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:06,320 Speaker 1: to check for alignment. It can check how out of 1030 01:01:06,480 --> 01:01:10,080 Speaker 1: true a rail is and if it goes outside a 1031 01:01:10,080 --> 01:01:14,040 Speaker 1: certain threshold, it created you know it logs it says, 1032 01:01:14,840 --> 01:01:18,480 Speaker 1: at this point, this rail is no longer aligned within 1033 01:01:18,800 --> 01:01:23,000 Speaker 1: the safety zone and it may very well be that 1034 01:01:23,040 --> 01:01:25,800 Speaker 1: it's still all right to use at that moment, but 1035 01:01:25,840 --> 01:01:30,640 Speaker 1: it's getting dangerously close to not being okay. So then 1036 01:01:30,680 --> 01:01:33,640 Speaker 1: it logs that sends in a maintenance request and the 1037 01:01:33,680 --> 01:01:35,840 Speaker 1: maintenance crew will have to go out to that point 1038 01:01:36,040 --> 01:01:40,840 Speaker 1: and adjust the tracks so that they were in alignment. Again. Uh, 1039 01:01:40,840 --> 01:01:45,200 Speaker 1: it's very useful system to have that um and it's 1040 01:01:45,240 --> 01:01:48,680 Speaker 1: one of those things that is necessary over And one 1041 01:01:48,680 --> 01:01:50,880 Speaker 1: other cool fact it's not in our our notes, but 1042 01:01:51,000 --> 01:01:52,920 Speaker 1: it was one that we talked about briefly before we 1043 01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:55,520 Speaker 1: came in here, is that subway systems have been used 1044 01:01:56,320 --> 01:02:01,360 Speaker 1: to keep people safe during wartime and related type events, 1045 01:02:01,400 --> 01:02:06,439 Speaker 1: like in in the Blitz when London was being bombed. Often, uh, 1046 01:02:06,760 --> 01:02:11,560 Speaker 1: citizens of London would end up retreating into the underground 1047 01:02:11,680 --> 01:02:15,520 Speaker 1: because there was enough of protection there to keep them 1048 01:02:15,520 --> 01:02:18,240 Speaker 1: safe during the bombings. Yeah. So if you were lucky 1049 01:02:18,320 --> 01:02:22,360 Speaker 1: enough to live near a subway station, if there's some 1050 01:02:22,440 --> 01:02:26,800 Speaker 1: sort of blitz, which I hope never happens to anyone, 1051 01:02:26,880 --> 01:02:29,880 Speaker 1: but if there's some sort of situation like that, then 1052 01:02:29,920 --> 01:02:32,160 Speaker 1: that is one of the best bets for you to go. 1053 01:02:32,440 --> 01:02:35,520 Speaker 1: As long as the ventilation is working. Yeah, I often 1054 01:02:35,600 --> 01:02:39,080 Speaker 1: think of like when I've been I've been in downtown 1055 01:02:39,120 --> 01:02:43,200 Speaker 1: Atlanta a couple of times when um tornadoes have moved through, 1056 01:02:44,040 --> 01:02:47,000 Speaker 1: that's my go to, like I want to get underground. 1057 01:02:48,680 --> 01:02:53,400 Speaker 1: Now you know, we actually had tornadoes moved through Atlanta 1058 01:02:54,040 --> 01:02:58,160 Speaker 1: several years ago. Now, yeah, they went straight through downtown 1059 01:02:58,680 --> 01:03:00,720 Speaker 1: like it was like it was like nadoes were looking 1060 01:03:00,760 --> 01:03:03,760 Speaker 1: for dragon Con. It was all the dragon Con locations 1061 01:03:03,800 --> 01:03:05,880 Speaker 1: got hit. They might have been cause players, it could 1062 01:03:05,880 --> 01:03:07,280 Speaker 1: have been it could have been people, it could have 1063 01:03:07,320 --> 01:03:11,520 Speaker 1: been people saying. And my here's my theory. People from 1064 01:03:11,560 --> 01:03:15,080 Speaker 1: the future coming back in time to attend dragon Con 1065 01:03:15,240 --> 01:03:19,840 Speaker 1: makes sense cause playing as Sharknado not realizing they overshot 1066 01:03:19,880 --> 01:03:24,000 Speaker 1: their travel and went back to before Sharknado people. Yeah, 1067 01:03:24,200 --> 01:03:26,920 Speaker 1: time travel is like just the scheduling is tricky, and 1068 01:03:26,960 --> 01:03:29,720 Speaker 1: they didn't stick around to apologize or explain because they 1069 01:03:29,720 --> 01:03:33,000 Speaker 1: were so embarrassed that they had overshot. When they needed 1070 01:03:33,040 --> 01:03:35,120 Speaker 1: to come back, they're like, oh, that's Sharknado is not 1071 01:03:35,160 --> 01:03:37,400 Speaker 1: even out. Our costumes don't make sense. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah, 1072 01:03:37,400 --> 01:03:39,360 Speaker 1: I mean, work hard on a costume. It's so easy 1073 01:03:39,400 --> 01:03:42,080 Speaker 1: to feel dumb. It all makes sense to me. Now, well, 1074 01:03:42,120 --> 01:03:46,800 Speaker 1: I am going to possibly cosplay as piercing. That would 1075 01:03:46,800 --> 01:03:48,920 Speaker 1: be good. You could go around and try and convince 1076 01:03:48,960 --> 01:03:50,960 Speaker 1: people to give you lots of money to go underground, 1077 01:03:51,160 --> 01:03:53,440 Speaker 1: and I just need to start digging, right, Jonathan, That's 1078 01:03:53,440 --> 01:03:55,960 Speaker 1: pretty much it. Yeah, just get a shovel, a shovel 1079 01:03:56,000 --> 01:03:57,840 Speaker 1: and a song on your heart and you're good to go. 1080 01:03:58,720 --> 01:04:00,760 Speaker 1: So this was a lot of fun to look into. 1081 01:04:00,800 --> 01:04:02,640 Speaker 1: I mean, this was one of those things where I 1082 01:04:02,720 --> 01:04:06,600 Speaker 1: know it became a large largely a history lesson, but 1083 01:04:07,000 --> 01:04:11,360 Speaker 1: to know sort of the massive undertaking it requires to 1084 01:04:11,440 --> 01:04:14,320 Speaker 1: build something like a subway system, it really lets you 1085 01:04:14,360 --> 01:04:19,640 Speaker 1: appreciate that technology is more than a story about how 1086 01:04:19,840 --> 01:04:23,480 Speaker 1: an object works when you flip a switch, what is happening? 1087 01:04:23,960 --> 01:04:29,040 Speaker 1: The story of technology goes well beyond circuits or motors 1088 01:04:29,160 --> 01:04:32,760 Speaker 1: or engines. It goes into the story of the people 1089 01:04:32,800 --> 01:04:36,320 Speaker 1: around it. Who were the people responsible for bringing that 1090 01:04:36,360 --> 01:04:39,880 Speaker 1: technology to life. What sort of hoops did they have 1091 01:04:39,960 --> 01:04:42,280 Speaker 1: to jump through in order for it to become a reality. 1092 01:04:42,840 --> 01:04:45,720 Speaker 1: Was it something that was adopted early on or was 1093 01:04:45,760 --> 01:04:48,720 Speaker 1: it something that that ended up being dormant for years 1094 01:04:48,760 --> 01:04:52,000 Speaker 1: before people said this is a brilliant idea. Those to 1095 01:04:52,120 --> 01:04:54,960 Speaker 1: me are the really amazing stories that I get to 1096 01:04:54,960 --> 01:04:57,600 Speaker 1: tell on this podcast. And Ben, I am so thankful 1097 01:04:57,640 --> 01:04:59,920 Speaker 1: you could join me for this poet. The pleasure is 1098 01:05:00,080 --> 01:05:03,040 Speaker 1: absolutely all my and Jonathan. And that was a really 1099 01:05:03,360 --> 01:05:05,959 Speaker 1: uh that was very well said, and I think it's 1100 01:05:06,120 --> 01:05:09,440 Speaker 1: I think it's so appropriate for such a milestone episode 1101 01:05:09,560 --> 01:05:12,800 Speaker 1: as well. I'm kind of inspired now I want I 1102 01:05:12,800 --> 01:05:16,920 Speaker 1: want to go out and invent a train system. I 1103 01:05:16,960 --> 01:05:19,640 Speaker 1: would like to at least, you know, leave some sort 1104 01:05:19,680 --> 01:05:24,360 Speaker 1: of positive impact before I shuffle off this mortal coil. Uh. 1105 01:05:24,440 --> 01:05:26,800 Speaker 1: And if this podcast happens to be it that, I'm 1106 01:05:26,840 --> 01:05:29,440 Speaker 1: cool with that. Not not this particular episode. I'm not 1107 01:05:29,440 --> 01:05:31,440 Speaker 1: ready to go right now. I mean this podcast in general. 1108 01:05:32,680 --> 01:05:36,080 Speaker 1: You want to Stay above Ground a little bit longer? Yeah, yeah, 1109 01:05:36,240 --> 01:05:38,240 Speaker 1: me and me and the Prime Minister of England. We 1110 01:05:38,280 --> 01:05:40,640 Speaker 1: want to Stay above Ground was a little bit longer. Uh. 1111 01:05:40,680 --> 01:05:42,880 Speaker 1: So this was a lot of fun And of course 1112 01:05:43,400 --> 01:05:48,400 Speaker 1: you can all find Ben's work all over How Stuff Works. 1113 01:05:48,800 --> 01:05:51,880 Speaker 1: Car Stuff is the podcast you do with Scott Benjamin, Yeah, 1114 01:05:51,920 --> 01:05:54,840 Speaker 1: who's also appeared on this show and uh got a 1115 01:05:54,960 --> 01:05:57,520 Speaker 1: show called stuff They don't want you to know. Now. 1116 01:05:57,560 --> 01:05:59,960 Speaker 1: You and I are thick as thieves. We hang out 1117 01:06:00,120 --> 01:06:03,120 Speaker 1: on brain stuff, and we hang out on what the stuff, 1118 01:06:03,360 --> 01:06:07,240 Speaker 1: and then sometimes we just uh, we just make interesting things. 1119 01:06:07,280 --> 01:06:10,280 Speaker 1: But I do want to do something that I've done 1120 01:06:10,720 --> 01:06:14,640 Speaker 1: most times when I get a guest spot here on 1121 01:06:14,720 --> 01:06:17,680 Speaker 1: your show, and that is to plug your other show 1122 01:06:17,880 --> 01:06:21,120 Speaker 1: forward thinking to anybody, for anybody who hasn't checked it out. 1123 01:06:21,160 --> 01:06:23,280 Speaker 1: If you like, if you like tech stuff, if you 1124 01:06:23,400 --> 01:06:27,560 Speaker 1: like talking about especially the stories around technology and possibilities, 1125 01:06:27,800 --> 01:06:32,000 Speaker 1: then do check that show out on YouTube and iTunes. Yeah. Yeah, 1126 01:06:32,080 --> 01:06:34,640 Speaker 1: that's ah. That shows a lot of fun to do. Uh. 1127 01:06:34,720 --> 01:06:39,240 Speaker 1: The the video series is phenomenal. Uh. I get to 1128 01:06:39,240 --> 01:06:42,200 Speaker 1: work with some of the most talented people, the producers, 1129 01:06:42,240 --> 01:06:45,560 Speaker 1: the editors, the writers, because I want to Yeah, it 1130 01:06:45,640 --> 01:06:47,760 Speaker 1: can't be really funny. They wanted to They wanted to 1131 01:06:47,800 --> 01:06:51,480 Speaker 1: see the future through my eyes, and you can't do 1132 01:06:51,520 --> 01:06:54,880 Speaker 1: that without being a little corny and goofy Uh. It's 1133 01:06:55,000 --> 01:06:57,440 Speaker 1: largely serious, but I do get to have fun with it, 1134 01:06:57,640 --> 01:06:59,840 Speaker 1: and um, very fun to do. And then of course 1135 01:06:59,840 --> 01:07:02,680 Speaker 1: the audio podcast has Laurens vogelbamb and Joe McCormick in it, 1136 01:07:03,320 --> 01:07:07,160 Speaker 1: both of whom have been obviously guest podcasters, and Lauren's 1137 01:07:07,160 --> 01:07:09,880 Speaker 1: my former co host, So if you miss that interaction, 1138 01:07:10,000 --> 01:07:13,040 Speaker 1: you should go check that out. It's fantastic. This has 1139 01:07:13,040 --> 01:07:16,120 Speaker 1: been great, guys. I am so happy to have reached 1140 01:07:16,120 --> 01:07:20,520 Speaker 1: episode seven hundred. I can't wait to get episode four hundred. 1141 01:07:20,840 --> 01:07:24,439 Speaker 1: I'm even gonna skip anything special for one thousand. That's 1142 01:07:24,480 --> 01:07:26,480 Speaker 1: not true. I don't know. I don't know what I'll 1143 01:07:26,520 --> 01:07:28,720 Speaker 1: do for one thousand. That's in like three years. So 1144 01:07:28,800 --> 01:07:33,280 Speaker 1: let's have a parade. How parades work, Jonathan. Everyone always 1145 01:07:33,320 --> 01:07:36,160 Speaker 1: asks me to do how how stuff works works or 1146 01:07:36,240 --> 01:07:39,160 Speaker 1: how tech stuff works. But I've done those. You need 1147 01:07:39,200 --> 01:07:42,040 Speaker 1: to look at episodes five hundred and six hundred. But 1148 01:07:42,880 --> 01:07:45,000 Speaker 1: it is a lot of fun to do these kind 1149 01:07:45,000 --> 01:07:47,800 Speaker 1: of special episodes. And of course I'm always interested to 1150 01:07:47,840 --> 01:07:50,280 Speaker 1: hear what our listeners have to say. If you guys 1151 01:07:50,320 --> 01:07:53,480 Speaker 1: have any requests for specific episodes, maybe there's someone you 1152 01:07:53,520 --> 01:07:56,040 Speaker 1: want me to interview, Maybe there's a particular guest host 1153 01:07:56,120 --> 01:07:59,160 Speaker 1: you really want to have back on for a particular topic. 1154 01:07:59,480 --> 01:08:02,160 Speaker 1: Let me send me a message. The email addresses tech 1155 01:08:02,200 --> 01:08:04,640 Speaker 1: stuff at how stuff works dot com. Drop me a 1156 01:08:04,680 --> 01:08:07,280 Speaker 1: line on Twitter, Facebook or Tumbler. The handle it all 1157 01:08:07,360 --> 01:08:10,600 Speaker 1: three is text stuff h s W, and we'll talk 1158 01:08:10,640 --> 01:08:18,960 Speaker 1: to you again. Releases for more on this and bathands 1159 01:08:18,960 --> 01:08:31,000 Speaker 1: of other topics. Does it have stuff works dot com