Günter Dinhobl (Hrsg.): Sonderband 7. Eisenbahn/Kultur – Railway/Culture (2004)
IV. Die Eisenbahn-Technik / Railway-technics - Manfred E. A. Schmutzer: Iron Rules Rule Iron Rails. Cultures and Their Technologies
Iron Rules Rule Iron Rails. Cultures and Their Technologies engines were used for locomotion. Horses provided the necessary “horsepower“ to pull tons of coal to the boats. The logic behind this was at least twofold: the first reason was that transport could in this manner proceed without repeated unloading and reloading, the second reason that railroads permitted relatively frictionless transport compared to unpaved roads. The advent of the steam-engine changed this scene quickly. To be precise: not the steam-engine as such, but a particular type of engine, the high-pressure engine as developed by O. Evans. This engine, small enough to be put on wheels, at first served to transport coal in the Newcastle area. The driving force behind the move was not only steam but also economic rationality. The exuberant prices of feed for horses in comparison to the negligible ones of coal, particularly in the mines themselves, paved the way away from animal traction of the carriages. This idea must be conceded absolute novelty as it combined for the first time in history the source of power with the vehicle, thus creating the first true „automobile“. In contrast however to what we usually associate today with automobiles, i. e. liberty of unconstrained movement, the railroad was chained to rails and deprived of this liberty for reasons pointed out above. Not only because of this the steam locomotive had all the desirable qualities of a slave. In comparison with horses it offered submissiveness and endurance, its running costs were modest and it was relatively easy to control. This principal submissiveness made it a most welcome partner for enterprises in many respects, as e.g. it outdid also water-transport which was tied to seasonal imponderables. Chaining the source of power to the vehicle and the vehicle to rails made a complete system emerge which was subject to control. Clearly this system did not spring fully equipped, like the goddess Athena, from the head of its creator, but developed its properties fully only in the course of time. It also took time to discover the necessary accompanying techniques which made the slave perform optimally. One such addition was the telegraph, developed a little later. Prometheus Re-bound It is a Hegelian insight that the master is bound to his slave or, to use a less derogatory phrase, that a system requires obedience to the principal rules of its working by every part, regardless of where the parts are located. But not even this is sufficient, the system demands adaptation of the entire environment along and beyond its borders. When the railway outgrew the coal-mines, interest in the novel manner of transport 309
