Something to lighten the mood

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But back in those days, steam engine was the dominant mechanical power source.
My great uncle left to me one of his engineering handbooks. It gives six men as equal to a horse for producing work. It also notes horses having four legs do their best work on level ground. It suggests men are the preferred power source when the ground is not level.

The last time I used that tidbit was during the excavation for an American football stadium. The laggard excavation contractor expected to spend two to three months on the site prep work. I pointed out it should take 300 men a week to do the work with just shovels. That also would translate to 50 horses. Just how many horsepower did his excavation equipment provide, more than four?

Of course for those in the know an actual horse provides significantly more than one horsepower! James Watt started the horsepower standard. Some have argued a horse working all day actually does less than one horsepower! However most figure peak output is ten to fifteen horsepower per horse. My reference book figures about two and a half horsepower for a then standard twelve hour work day.
 
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Wasn't the treadmill effectively invented by the gods, to punish Sisyphus ?
Apparently Mario Cipollini can produce 2,000 watts ( for a short time ) Eddie Hall can produce as much as a small car ( a small car in the UK is different to a small car in the US... ) , but presumably for VERY short duration. I think a certain Texan ( chemically enhanced ) could produce 550 watts continuously.

I presume a Shire horse in it's prime could produce more than a miniature on a bad day.
" when steam was the primary source of power " - it would be interesting to know the division between steam and wind when steam was at it's Hight ( although quite a lot of electricity still comes from steam )
 
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Anyone up for some fox tossing?
Something very polite and advanced compared to:


😱

Dwarf-tossing
, also called midget-tossing, is a pub/bar attraction in which people with dwarfism, wearing special padded clothing or Velcro costumes, are thrown onto mattresses or at Velcro-coated walls. Participants compete to throw the person with dwarfism the farthest. Dwarf Tossing was started in Australia as a form of pub entertainment in the early 1980s.