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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (48360)	4/23/2005 4:18:30 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

Chirpy thoughts-Environmentalists has always been thick headed and wrong most of the time, they had declared that railways would prevent cows grazing and hens laying. The poisoned air from the locomotives would kill birds as they flew over them, and render the preservation of pheasants and foxes no longer possible!!!! Opposition to building a railway in England At the instance of the introduction of a bill in Parliament in 1825 to build a railway between Liverpool and Manchester, England, many hysterical statements were made. Mr. Samuel Smilez, in his biography of George Stephenson, describes them as follows: "...pamphlets were written and newspapers were hired to revile the railway. It was declared that its formation would prevent cows grazing and hens laying. The poisoned air from the locomotives would kill birds as they flew over them, and render the preservation of pheasants and foxes no longer possible. Householders adjoining the projected line were told that their houses would be burnt up by the fire thrown from the engine-chimneys, while the air around would be polluted by clouds of smoke. There would no longer be any use for horses; and if railways extended, the species would become extinguished, and oats and hay unsalable commodities. Traveling by road would be rendered highly dangerous, and country inns would be ruined. Boilers would burst and blow passengers to atoms. But there was always this consolation to wind up with -- that the weight of the locomotive would completely prevent its moving, and that railways, even if made, could never be worked by steam-power!" Source: Smiles, Samuel. The Life of George Stephenson, Railway Engineer. Columbus, Ohio, Follett, Foster, and Company, 1859. p. 205.