Looks like this is our week of slidewalks. One Alfred Speer in 1873 had an idea that would have made New York's Broadway somewhat different from as it was.
Speer at least made provisions for foul weather. In fact, his system was basically an elevated streetcar track with a moving boarding platform.
Comparisons to the Loop train in Chicago are pretty obvious, I think. The major drawback to this system is that of all such continuous-run systems, namely power demands. Not running it from 0100 to BDNT would be a help on that side, but the rest of the time it would need power, and a lot of it.
On a side note, in Asimov's "The Caves of Steel", the slidewalks there were of course in an enclosed environment, and therefore weather was not a consideration. But he never explained how the power demands were met, either. Anymore than Bellamy did in "Looking Backward".
Heinlein at least had sun-power screens to supply the rolling roads. Although I've always been dubious about whether they'd work as advertised.
2 comments:
Looks like a grand sushi parlor...
Speer at least made provisions for foul weather. In fact, his system was basically an elevated streetcar track with a moving boarding platform.
Comparisons to the Loop train in Chicago are pretty obvious, I think. The major drawback to this system is that of all such continuous-run systems, namely power demands. Not running it from 0100 to BDNT would be a help on that side, but the rest of the time it would need power, and a lot of it.
On a side note, in Asimov's "The Caves of Steel", the slidewalks there were of course in an enclosed environment, and therefore weather was not a consideration. But he never explained how the power demands were met, either. Anymore than Bellamy did in "Looking Backward".
Heinlein at least had sun-power screens to supply the rolling roads. Although I've always been dubious about whether they'd work as advertised.
cheers
eon
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