PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Nov 28, 2010 13:53:53 GMT -5
If you've ever been given a speeding ticket console yourself that 'twas ever thus: Unfortunate motorist caught in a speed trap 1905. The general speed limit then was 20mph. I found this in a box of ephemera I bought some time ago. No other details, just the words 'speed trap' and the date on the back of the print. I had to do quite a lot of cleaning up. PeterW
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Nov 28, 2010 15:16:32 GMT -5
Peter, I thought you were going to say that you had been caught in a speed trap. Dave
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mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on Nov 28, 2010 15:48:35 GMT -5
He must be a lawyer. Notice how carefully he is checking the ticket.
Mickey
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photax
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Post by photax on Nov 28, 2010 16:52:58 GMT -5
Peter, A very rare picture ! How did the policemen estimate the speed ? Did they had more than 20 mph top speed at that time ? I have a glass plate, showing a Viennese street from about 1910 with a sigh that says: top speed for cars 6 kmh ! ( 3,7 mph ). Here is a copy of a privat made stereo plate picture from 1905, the final result of speeding: If you ever come to Austria watch out for this boxes, former powered by Agfa/Nikon or Robot/Schneider-Kreuznach with a 500 picture film, now digital and endless flashing: MIK
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Nov 28, 2010 18:55:41 GMT -5
MIK,
As far as I can gather, the police method of eastimating the speed was quite crude and not very accurate.
Two policemen were involved, one in plain clothes and one in uniform.
You can see the one in plain clothes behind the car. I have read that the usual method was that he used to stand at one end of a straight stretch of country road and would raise his arm as soon as the driver passed him.
At the end of a measured distance further on (usually measured by pacing) the uniformed policeman would either stick a long pole in the grass verge or tie a cloth on the hedge as a marker.
He then moved about twenty or thirty yards further along and hid in the hedge. When the plain clothes policeman raised his hand the uniformed man would start a stop watch. He would stop it again when the driver passed the marker.
A quick glance at the watch would tell the uniformed man that the car was speeding, and he would jump out with a raised hand to stop the driver.
The man at the start was in plain clothes so as not to pre-warn the driver but the man at the end had to be in uniform to have the authority to stop the car.
Can you imagine such unscientific methods being allowed in a court today?
Mickey, Motorists read the tickets thoroughly because some country constables were only sem-literate in those days and a good lawyer could have the ticket annulled if there were any glaring errors.
However, this was very seldom carried through unless the fine was really punitive as local magistrates were usually "horsey" squires and very anti-motorist. They would convict regardless, and an appeal to the County Court, seldom successful, cost more than the original fine.
It was a case of curse your luck but grin and bear it.
I was wondering who took the picture? Maybe the previous unfortunate driver who decided to stop further up the road and walk back with a camera to get a picture of the next unfortunate driver?
PeterW
PS modification. Since writing the above I took another, closer look at the "print" using a loupe and found a very fine screen dot pattern which I hadn't noticed before. It would seem that even though it looks like a somewhat battered and dirty old glossy print, and I took it to be such, it was actually cut from a glossy magazine of the time, carefully pasted down to a thicker piece of paper and trimmed. Why I don't know.
I've never seen it reproduced in books on motoring history. Perhaps the original was lost years ago and no copies of the magazine exist any more except possibly in the British Museum Library, but finding an individual picture among all the tens of thousands of magazines there there would be a most daunting task.
So much historic material was lost during the war in the drive to collect and recycle old newspapers, magazines and books. Publishers as well as the general public turned out tons of stuff.
MIK, The 20 mph speed limit was set in 1903. Before then it had varied betwen 4 and 14 mph. The 20 mph limit actually stayed in force until January 1930 when it the Government abolished it on the grounds that police speed traps were no longer carried on, and the limit was so seldom obeyed that the law was being brought into disrepute.
PW
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Post by pompiere on Nov 29, 2010 8:51:56 GMT -5
Can you imagine such unscientific methods being allowed in a court today?
Some states stll use aircraft to enforce speed laws, and the method is pretty much the same. Stripes are painted on the road, a measured distance apart. The man in the air times the cars and radios the description of speeders down to the officer on the ground who pulls them over. Most localities use laser or radar because it is less expensive than operating an aircraft.
A lot of small towns have speed traps at the edge of town to catch people where the speed limit changes. Some towns have been notorious for shaking down tourists with high fines. Thankfully, most of them have been brough into line by overriding state laws.
Ron
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