1920s: Psychic Bike Locks
July 11, 2019
By AHNZ
This month in history, 90 years ago (July 1929) shows a startling scene upon the grounds of Christ’s College, Christchurch. Startling to we today.
It’s not simply the huge consumption of bicycles but the lack of security around them that gives a modern viewer pause. (And if I inspected any random High School today, in Winter, would I see this many bikes? Weird things go on up here in Auckland. Kids don’t even have coats or use umbrellas. What’s going on?)
These days we would secure against theft on the Physical Lattice¹, with a bike lock.
In 1929 the same security could be handled purely by the Social Lattice or even the Religious Lattice. It’s a different culture.
“A large number of bikes parked in the Christ’s College grounds during a inter school football match. 17 July 1929².” –Christchurch, The Way Our Ancestors Knew It, Facebook
More and more our society relies upon Physical Lattices, Legal Lattices, and State Lattices to handle our challenges. As we do so we become less and less of a society. It is a response to, and reinforcement of, our slipping Social Capital.
This is a good little case study in Lattice Theory.
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1 Lattice Theory; It’s a way of thinking about history and human nature that I haven’t formally written down yet. Idea being that there are different contexts and forces simultaneously at play that we can identify. I’ll throw the terminology around like I did for TCM (Theory of Moral Cultures) and eventually lay it all out clearly
2 Date of picture is actually 4 July 1929. Ref. below
Ref. Christchurch, The Way Our Ancestors Knew It (C,TWOAKI); Facebook
Image ref. Green and Habn, 05-07-1929; Evening Post (except theirs is not as good as this copy from C,TWOAKI)
Ref. Alexander Turnbull Library of same
6 thoughts on "1920s: Psychic Bike Locks"
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I don’t think all those bikes are parked in the grounds of Christs College. I believe the setting is Rolleston Avenue, tree lined in those days on the western side. To the right of those 2 chaps in shorts are the main gates of the college. The date is likely to match the annual rugby game with Christchurch Boys High School .
Makes sense the way things are now. Because it’s so long ago I give the newspaper the benefit of the doubt when commenting on a photo they’d taken the day before!
Ref. https://natlib.govt.nz/records/19309716
On a trip to Copenhagen back in 1999 i discovered people rode pushbikes everywhere. Parked outside bus or train stations would be hundreds if not thousands of pushbikes left waiting to be reclaimed at the end of the working day or trip taken. The vest majority were unlocked. It appeared Danish people had a large degree of trust in their fellow man.
After talking to a Spanish gentleman and fellow traveler in the hostel I was staying at, I remarked on the flash bike he had with him. He explained that after getting off the train from Spain he saw all the unlocked bikes and chose a good one to use as he continued his journey. Suggesting that what he was doing was stealing, he replied that if they didn’t want them stolen they should lock them up.
25 years and a million Eastern European refugees later, I doubt Danes have the same trust
In-group preference is the basis of trust. And trust is the basis of civilisation. Spanish gentleman not so much a crook as living according to his own culture. But I wonder if Spain was like that during its high age?
Not sure when the “high age” was. The Spanish Inquisition 1478 1834 kept the peasants in line and Franco was popular among the rich, but not so much the socialists.
For me, Spain was memorable for its architecture.
Got thrown out of a pub in Palmerston North for wearing a black beret during the Rainbow Warrior crisis. I attempted to explain I had purchased the beret during a trip to Catalonia. It was all French to the peasants of Palmerston North.
Need a good Inquisition to mop up after the diversity era. But after the purge I reckon they wouldn’t have needed bike locks on their horses.