• Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      There was a railway built to my town which had a big industry supplying ice to the large cities in the south. There was a long conveyor belt built into the lake leading to a large building stuffed with saw dust that kept ice well into the summer. It created a lot of winter work for the locals that dried up after refrigeration was invented. The railway lost its usefulness and also got torn up. And now the bay doesn’t even freeze anymore.

      • someguy3@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        When did the bay stop freezing?

        Fun fact to add: it gave farmers a winter income, right when they weren’t busy.

        • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          It’s been less and less for the last ever. It did freeze over solid, as did all the Great Lakes, about 10 years ago but that seems to be an outlier. Now there’s been not much by the shore let alone any for ice fishers. I’m talking about Georgian Bay, off Lake Huron.

  • HocEnimVeni@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Fun fact in case anyone didn’t already know but the diesel engine was originally powered by whale oil but it’s such a resilient engine that it was later fueled by what was once considered a waste byproduct of gasoline refinement.

    • jqubed@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      My understanding is it can actually run on a pretty wide variety of fuels (in general; not every specific model can run on a wide variety).

      • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Biodiesel was gonna be the next big thing before EVs started gaining traction. Arnold drove around a Hummer that was modified to run on vegetable oil while he was governor.

  • stoly@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    And then the drive towards petroleum started. We traded one terrible earth destroying thing for another.