The 'Great Manure Crisis' of the 1890s

According to Suskind in his fantastic book from the beginning of the Covid Pandemic, the 'Great Manure Crisis' of the 1890s was quite the boy who cried wolf. But we should expect that anxious boy to rear his head during times of change, the Paul Revere of our childhood fears, “The British Are Coming” may just as well have been “The Bogeyman, the one underneath your bed from your childhood is coming!” Y2K was to be our end. Then the inevitable decline of our civilisation due to overpopulation, till inflation took care of that all by herself (inflation is female in my mind, I don’t know why)

In major cities like London and New York, transportation relied heavily on horses. A horse-drawn tram required a team of eight horses.

A healthy horse can produce between fifteen and thirty pounds of manure a day. One health officer in Rochester, New York calculated that the city's horses produced enough manure in a year to cover an acre of land to a height of 175 feet. Some people even predicted that future city streets would be buried under nine feet of manure.

Moreover, the crisis was not only about manure. Thousands of dead horses littered the roads, often left to decay for easier disposal. In 1880 alone, about 15,000 horse carcasses were removed from New York City.

Policymakers were at a loss for solutions. They couldn't simply ban horses from the streets as they were crucial for transportation. This was evident in 1872 when an equine flu outbreak, known as the 'Horse Plague', brought large parts of the country's economy to a halt.

However, the crisis resolved itself with the advent of the internal combustion engine in the 1870s, which was installed in the first automobile in the 1880s. A few decades later, Henry Ford introduced his famous Model T, making cars accessible to the mass market. By 1912, New York had more cars than horses and the last horse-drawn tram was decommissioned in the city by 1917. Thus, the Great Manure Crisis ended.

With the end of the 'Great Manure Crisis', the landscape of urban transportation underwent a dramatic transformation. The automobile, once a novelty, became an integral part of daily life. The streets of major cities like New York and London, once clogged with horse-drawn carriages and the associated manure, were now filled with vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. Moreover, the transition from horses to cars also led to a significant reduction in the number of dead horses littering the streets.

The internal combustion engine and the automobile not only solved the manure crisis but also revolutionized transportation. Travel became faster, more efficient, and less dependent on animal labor. The advent of cars also paved the way for the development of a network of roads and highways, further transforming the urban and rural landscapes.

In retrospect, the 'Great Manure Crisis' was a turning point in urban development and transportation history. It highlighted the limitations of relying on animal power and the necessity for innovation and technological advancement. The crisis also underscored the role of unforeseen technological developments in solving seemingly insurmountable problems. Ultimately, the resolution of the manure crisis serves as a reminder of the transformative power of technology and human ingenuity.

This article was written especially for AndresB, so may he be less scared of potential doomsday bullshit