FIRST BUS PASSENGERS
WERE FRENCH
G'day folks,
The first public buses began to run in 1662 – an idea probably 200 years ahead of its time. The service, introduced in Paris, was abandoned in 1675 and public transport did not return to the streets of any major city until 1895.
The idea was promoted by Blaise Pascal
who was a man of many talents: physicist, philosopher, mathematician,
inventor, author – the list went on. The Governor of Poitou, the Duke of
Ronanes, thought it was such a good idea that he decided to back it and
had seven horse-drawn carriages built, each capable of carrying eight
passengers.
The scheme received royal blessing when King Louis XIV granted the Duke a monopoly, which meant that any competitors would face having their horses and vehicles confiscated.
The scene was set, then, for a grand opening ceremony of the service on
18 March and the Carosses a Cinq Sous, as the buses were called, began
work. So a ride in the carriage (carosse) cost five sous, a sou being
the least valuable coin in the French currency.
There are conflicting theories concerning the failure of the enterprise.
One researcher thought that the service was very well received at first
but since people were riding for amusement only, after a few weeks the
popularity of the buses waned and the carriages faded into oblivion.
Elsewhere, it was suggested that the new mode of transport was taken up
by fashionable members of Parisian society who crowded out the less
advantaged citizens. Nobility and gentry were allowed to ride the
coaches, but not soldiers and peasants.
As a result, the poor decided that buses were not for them and when the "trendy set" became bored the service was discontinued.
Pascal is best known today for other achievements: an early calculating
machine and work on atmospheric pressure (Pascal's Law).
Wired Magazine reports that he also contributed numerous theorems in
geometry and binomial mathematics, laying the groundwork for Fermat,
Leibniz and Newton, and inspiring the name of a 20th-century programming
language. His letters and philosophical works are still read, studied
and admired.
Clancy's comment: There ya go. Busses are now a vital form of transport around the globe.
I'm ...
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