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Comment by GeoAtreides | Hacker News Reader

Ah, yes, England and its innumerable traditions; turns out, Gormenghast is actually a documentary.

Well, how would you alert boat traffic of work going on under a bridge?

I got to thinking and a bale of straw isn't a bad idea.

My first thought was a flag on a rope, but wind can make it blow up and become less visible. So it needs to have weight in order to hang down and be visible at the right height. It needs to be disposable and cheap. And it can't damage boats.

So a bale of straw is not a bad idea even in 2023.

This is what I was thinking as well. Everyone is kind of "teehee"ing about this but it seems like a pretty damned good solution. PLUS if a boat accidentally hits it, it's relatively soft and not going to cause any damage which something like a barrel full of water could (plus that'd weigh a lot more)

It'd also make a nice soft but loud bump on a boat for any skippers that didn't see anything

Up to 1973, London Taxis were required to carry a bale of hay (for benefit of the long absent horse). https://www.ludlowthompson.com/property_news/searching-for-a...

Is that really true? Section 51 of the London Hackney Carriage Act 1831 (to which the article refers) doesn't seem to require that; it (among other things) forbids a taxi driver feeding another driver's horses with anything other than corn or hay - but doesn't say anything about requiring them to carry hay for this purpose. There is no other reference to "hay" in the act.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1831/22/pdfs/ukpga_1831...

I think you're right, the relevant part is actually forbidding feeding your own horse with anything but hand-held hay or corn, implicitly requiring carrying the same, but if you don't have a horse, that's moot ...

> Section 51 of the London Hackney Carriage Act 183

I think its one of those cause and effect things.

You have a horse-drawn taxi. You wish to feed your horse at some point during the day.

The law says you can only do so with either (a) your own hay or (b) hay or corn held in your hands.

So the restrictions of the law push you in the obvious direction of keeping a stack of hay on your carriage.

I'm from the continent and it doesn't seem particularly strange or quirky to me. Just a practical thing that hasn't changed since many centuries ago because why would it.

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