Saturday, August 18, 2007
Old Stuff
I spent an interesting afternoon today at an old time tractor show. This year was pretty cool since they had several steam traction engines running around. They'd spend some time running a sawmill then run around the show for awhile. Big, noisy, greasy hulking brutes. Very cool.
What I couldn't help but wonder at was while looking over the assorted collection of tractors and related equipment dating back to the turn of the previous century was how open and simple everything was. Manufacturers back then expected you to look out for yourselves. If you couldn't keep you fingers out of the gears, then you probably didn't really need them. There were tappets and valve trains sitting out in the open right on the operators platform. While I'm not saying no safety in mind was right, we certainly have gone overboard.
I'm trying to imagine a lawyer back in 1923 trying to sue a tractor company because some farmer got burned on firebox. Can you see anyone even thinking about suing a restaurant because the coffee was too hot back in 1933? I think there was more than a little Darwinian selection going on back then. If you were too stupid to survive, you didn't. Now if you're too stupid you can hire a lawyer to make you rich.
