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a brief history of motion - from the wheel to the car to what comes next tom standage. bloomsbury publishing hardback. 247pp illus. £20

a brief history of motion - tom standage

attending 'an evening with graeme obree' in edinburgh's corn exchange several years ago, the flying scotsman was quoted as saying, "man's two greatest inventions are the bicycle and the duvet". i've yet to find anyone who would disagree with that sentiment, but it seems plain to see that, had man not invented the wheel in the first place, the bicycle would not be what it is today. or perhaps simply, would not be here today.

the invention of the wheel effectively changed, quite literally, the horizons of the human race. almost immediately it was possible to travel a farther in one day than had previously been possible by walking, a means of transport that drastically reduced the effort required to actually get anywhere meaningful. in the opening chapter of tom standage's superb new book, this is underlined in the very first sentence of the very first chapter.

"It all starts with the wheel."

the invention of the wheel allegedly took place in 3500 bce, its emergence long assumed to have been in mesopotamia. pictograms discovered on clay tablets appear to show wheeled wagons; historically, potters' wheels were already in use around this time, so to transform these vertically, doesn't seem to be stretching credibility too far. however, recent advances in radio-carbon dating, would now suggest that the wheel originated in europe. "The earliest known wheeled object is a clay model of a bull, mounted on four wheels, found in the Carpathian Mountains of western Ukraine and carbon-dated to 3950-3650 bce."

but as the author points out in the chapter's opening paragraph, "Only in the past century or two, in a world that runs on wheels, has its usefulness become universally apparent." and oddly enough, even ancient civilisations that had knowledge of the wheel, declined to use it at all (the egyptians built the pyramids during the third millennium bce, without resorting to the wheel at all). as mr standage cleverly points out, the wheel has been both a blessing and a hindrance to humanity, achieving greatness, but frequently at unforeseen cost.

the wheel appears to have signalled its usefulness in the bronze age, when some bright spark hit on the idea of attaching four of them to the base of a wicker basket, thus easing the process of transporting copper from the ore-rich carpathian mountains. this idea gained greater traction (if you'll pardon the pun), when the ability to steer the two front wheels increased the flexibility of this great invention. however, arguably greater usefulness arrived in the shape of the first mobile homes, allowing nomadic peoples to carry food, supplies and other items.

early cities, however, were not impacted by the wheel's invention, with the continuing practice of building without streets; movement between closely adjacent buildings continued to be across the roofs "In Europe and Mesopotamia, the layout of settlements - what we now call urban planning - was entirely driven by the needs of people, not vehicles." that is an important point to be made this early in the book, for as mr standage proceeds through history, it becomes all too obvious that this particular consideration soon gave way to the converse.

by 3000 bce, two-wheeled vehicles or carts had arrived, offering greater manouevrability, a process that eventually led to the chariot. in time, the original solid wheel became the spoked wheel, built by dedicated wheelwrights, and making them lighter and thus faster. but the primary motive force right up until the 19th century was the ubiquitous horse, though slower modes of wheeled travel often featured oxen or cattle. and it was the horse, or rather the effects of horse-drawn transport, that first led to the next stage in transport development. for horses, quite frankly, tend to leave unsavoury deposits on the streets along which they travel, streets which themselves had been improved at the behest of those travelling by horse and cart.

"By the 1890s around 300,000 horses were working on the streets of London, and more than 150,000 in New York City. Each of these horses produced an average of twenty-two pounds (ten kilograms) of manure a day, plus a quart (about a litre) of urine. Collecting and removing thousands of tons of waste from stables and streets proved increasingly difficult."

as the author makes plain, this became possibly the first unforeseen consequence of the invention of the wheel. the invention and development of the steam engine aided and abetted the possibilities of mass transport, such as trains and trams, while development of the bicycle offered greater flexibility of personal transport. there's just a hint of possibility that transport matters would have stabilised, had things remained thus. but the application of the wheel to motorised transport, both electric and petrol-driven, signalled the next level of unintended consequence. for who could have foreseen that divesting the streets of horse manure, would lead to levels of pollution that have now come back to bite us?

the advent, development and exponential growth of the motor car soon impacted on every last corner of human existence (and still does to this day). where once urban planning catered to the needs of the people, it now very notably catered to the demands of the motor car. and as has been shown countless times over the past century and beyond, the increase in numbers of cars on the roads, led, not unsurprisingly, to an increase in deaths from road accidents.

"In a speech in 1906, Woodrow Wilson, then president of Princeton University, worried that loutish motorists were fanning the flames of resentment toward the rich: (early motor vehicles were pretty much the preserve of the wealthy) 'Nothing has spread socialist feeling in this country more than the use of automobiles."

yet, rather than blame car drivers for the increase in injuries and deaths, it became the hapless pedestrian who took the fall (both literally and metaphorically). these accidents were not the fault of careless driving or reckless speed, but the inattention of the pedestrian. the introduction of penalties for 'jaywalking', signalled the end of streets being prioritised for people, and the beginning of their existence predominantly as the preserve of the motorist.

Tom Standage has produced a volume which ought to be required reading for everyone on two legs, whether they move about by foot, on two wheels or on four. his well-researched and essentially unbiased narrative demonstrates an impassionate perspective that seems all too necessary as we move to the next stage of electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles and the desperate need for change brought about by the climate emergency, once again, one unforeseen consequence of our chosen means of transport. motor cars have killed (and continue to do so) more individuals than the coronavirus, yet very little has been done to lessen this state of affairs.

Mr Standage offers no single solution to the transport problem, for in truth, i doubt such a thing exists. a brief history of motion, if nothing else, demonstrates that human beings are every bit as myopic today as they were 5600 years ago, still concentrating on the details, and rarely seeing the big picture. the author ends the book with a plea, prior to a comprehensive bibliography and index:

"...we now have an opportunity to learn from history and choose a way forward in which the world is no longer built around the automobile. As we consider the road ahead, it is worth taking a careful look in the rearview mirror."

a brief history of motion, by tom standage is published by bloomsbury publishing on 19 august.

sunday 15 august 2021