The Runaway Train: A Victorian Expert's BlunderWhen a celebrated mind's calculations went off the rails.

From the show

Historically Bad Advice

Even respected experts can make spectacularly wrong predictions. In the 19th century, famed science popularizer Dr. Dionysius Lardner testified against a new railway tunnel. He argued that if a train's brakes failed on the tunnel's slope, it would accelerate to lethal speeds. His calculations, however, contained a massive, and now famous, oversight. This incident serves as a cautionary tale about applying old principles to new technology without considering all the variables.