42, It's not just a number

theatlantic:

Harry Houdini, A Trickster for the Industrial Age

Time was when we still thought about physical work in terms of manpower, that which workers could actually accomplish with the strength of their muscles. As the steam engine swept across the world during the 19th century, though, that notion of power became hard to sustain. In 1911, a Scientific American writer calculated that the British Isles’ 45 million people had access to 7 million horsepower, or based on a Bhutanese sherpa’s carrying capacity, 175 million manpower. 

In the last decades of the 19th century, the legend of John Henry had made the price of competition against our machines clear: you could beat a steam hammer in a race, perhaps, but it would kill you. 

But there had to be another way. If man wasn’t stronger than his creations, perhaps he was smarter, or at least more clever. And that’s where Harry Houdini, born Erik Weisz, made his mark on the American imagination. He might not have been able to break his iron chains, but he could shed them. We celebrate him today because it would be his 137th birthday (as noted by Google’s Doodle) — and because he is awesome.

See photos of Houdini in action at The Atlantic

(Source: The Atlantic)