• irate944@piefed.social
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      6 days ago

      Iirc, Liverpool had a health crisis due the expansion of the city during the industrial revolution. A lot of streets were very narrow, making it very difficult to clean up waste and provide access to firemans.

      If a street was too narrow, they actually would demolish one of the buildings to make space

      Edit: or buildings in plural now that I think about it. You couldn’t just demolish one of them if they are so close

    • rockerface🇺🇦@lemmy.cafe
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      6 days ago

      Maybe he’s checking whether a horse can fit through there. That would probably be important when making a city map back then.

    • OfCourseNot@fedia.io
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      6 days ago

      It also would’ve been better measured by holding the tape with the numbers facing him and the tip actually against the wall. Kind of reminds me of these stock pictures about any trade with someone lying bricks with the help of a hammer, using a stethoscope without putting it in their ears, or grabbing a soldering iron by the tip and probing into a computer board…

      • CentipedeFarrier@piefed.social
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        6 days ago

        Unless the point of it was a verifiable record of the measurement, I suppose. I don’t really know the state of photography back then, if that would be cost prohibitive for a government to employ or even worth doing.

  • melfie@lemmy.zip
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    6 days ago

    The sad part is that even if had important safety concerns, he’s from Liverpool, so nobody can understand a fucking thing he’s saying.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    6 days ago

    The North American Truck Builders should have hired that guy years ago before things got completely out of hand.