Transport
Discover facts about transport. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Transport
What the black triangle by an airplane window means
If you ever spot a tiny black triangle sticker on the cabin wall, congratulations, you found the best seat for structural analysis. These secret markers tell…
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Pallet four-way entry allows universal access
The simple wooden pallet underwent a radical design shift just to appease forklift drivers. By removing the solid side blocks and replacing them with notched…
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Wheelchair footrests swing away for transfers
Standing up while your feet are trapped behind a metal bar is a recipe for a horrific face-plant. Wheelchair footrests are explicitly designed to unlock and…
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Subcompact cars notoriously sacrifice rear passenger space
The tragic reality of buying an incredibly tiny, aggressively efficient vehicle is that your friends will fundamentally hate you. To heavily compress the…
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Why cyclists shave their legs
If you think hairless calves make a noticeable aerodynamic difference, you are highly mistaken. It is actually done so that when they inevitably scrape…
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Why some runners choose to go barefoot
A very vocal subset of runners decided that throwing away comfortable cushions and striking the pavement with bare skin is the only pure way to move. They…
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India's railway employs more people than some countries
It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes 1.4 million people to make sure a train gets from Mumbai to Delhi. Indian Railways is the world’s…
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Steam locomotives use real steam to blow their whistles
That iconic, romantic train whistle is actually just pressurized vapor screaming through a metal slot. The boiler that pushes the massive drive wheels also…
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Toyota started by making looms, not cars
The company that currently dominates global highway traffic started out just trying to weave fabric faster. Sakichi Toyoda invented an automatic power loom…
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These buses are built from carved wood
Instead of relying on mass-produced stamped metal panels, these vibrant rural transport vehicles are built directly onto truck chassis using intricately…
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Why engineers fire chickens at airplane windshields
In what can only be described as the most disrespectful use of groceries in scientific history, engineers simulate bird strikes by literally yeeting thawed…
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Saddle mounts let trucks carry three cabs
Instead of putting trucks on a train, haulers literally lock the front wheels of one truck over the rear chassis of another. You wind up with four truck cabs…
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Leon Trotsky had a rolling propaganda train
Why give speeches on a boring stage when you can do it from a heavily armored locomotive? During the Russian Civil War, Leon Trotsky lived on a massive…
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Saab built fighter planes before it built cars
Before they became the quirky car of choice for turtleneck-wearing architects, Saab was busy preparing for global warfare. Founded in 1937, Svenska Aeroplan…
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How astronauts watch movies in orbit
Living in a multi-billion-dollar tin can gets incredibly boring. The International Space Station features a massive digital library of blockbuster films.…
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Why wealthy women traveled with personal maids
Elite women simply refused to travel without an entire staff to dress them on a moving train. Buying a ticket meant buying three more for the exhausted…
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Why airships flew low enough to wave at crowds
Captains would intentionally fly massive, highly flammable airships dangerously low just to show off. The temptation to wave at admiring peasants from a…
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Keyless ignitions render physical car keys entirely obsolete
We still call them keys, but they are just plastic lumps broadcasting a proximity signal. You just awkwardly carry it in a pocket, pressing a dashboard button…
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Rudolf Diesel vanished before his engine took over
The inventor of the diesel engine took a completely normal boat trip to London in 1913 and simply ceased to exist. He went into his cabin, neatly folded his…
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Why planes go quiet before landing
That reassuring hum of the engines gets awfully quiet right before landing because the pilots have basically turned them to idle. To drop from cruising…
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How a muffler makes explosive engines quieter
Combustion engines are fundamentally just contained explosions, meaning they are naturally deafeningly loud. A muffler doesn't merely absorb this horrific…
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The Titanic had a mechanical camel
When you have too much money and zero imagination, standard gym equipment simply will not suffice. The Titanic’s luxurious gymnasium featured a mechanical…
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Roundabouts force vehicles to enter in a single direction
Instead of waiting for a light to turn green, you are forced into an endless circular ballet of yielding. By making everyone flow in the exact same…
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Farmers once thought steam trains would poison their fields
Fear of progress inevitably leads to completely insane agricultural rumors. When steam trains first chugged across the countryside, furious farmers were…
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