When I studied economic history I wrote a thesis on the Coal Hoist, a large machine build to lift train wagons full of coal and tip them over to empty them into ships. Before this was done with shovels and bags, and the instillation of this machine in 1886 started the mechanization of the port of Rotterdam.

The geopolitical situation at the time was that Great Britain was by far the worlds largest coal exporter, and the German Ruhr area wanted in on the action but lacked access to sea. The German coal cartel lobbied ports to install these machines but would not guarantee coal shipments until such a machine was installed; local port businesses on the other hand would not invest in building a coal hoist, until they had guarantees that coal would actually be delivered; an impasse.

The main point of this exponentially quicker method of loading coal was to act as ballast for empty cargo ships (ships need a load for stability reasons), instead of something like bricks. Coal was easy to sell at any subsequent port they would arrive to pick up new cargo. This feature would make the port more attractive.

The port of Rotterdam was recently modernized to function in the new world of steamships, with railroad and hydraulic infrastructure via large private investments. But due to a global depression at the time it quickly went bankrupt after its completion. The municipality bought the port, and it ultimately was the municipality that ponied up the money to build the hydraulic Coal Hoist. They did so explicitly to break the impasse, and noted that the machine itself may never run a profit. The hope was it would kick start further investments in port development.

It worked. The machine ended up paying itself back at least, but more importantly more mechanization efforts followed; till the point where the Port of Rotterdam is one of the largest ports in the world.

This study taught me a concrete example of how large structural dynamics of path dependency, combined with bold individual actors, all within a complex amalgam of institutional interests and incentives, shape our tomorrow; an insight I carry with me when studying Nostr.

Spending sats in Arnhem since 2014 🥳

Right wing extremism? WTF? There's hardly any nazis on here. It's kind of weird, actually.