Samuel Plimsoll was very instrumental in making a safe way to ship goods in England. In the late 1800’s shipping was very dangerous. Ships were often loaded poorly and with too many goods. Accidents on the water and on the docks while loading and unloading were all too common. So dangerous were the times that the people called some of these ships “coffin ships”. These ships were so overloaded and unseaworthy that the lives of the crew were constantly in jeopardy. Samuel had an experience that shook his life. In 1853 he attempted to become a coal merchant in London. He was not successful and he lost literally everything. He had to live for several months in a common lodging. When things began to look up for him, he vowed to serve those of lower means and do all he could to improve their lives. His achievements include being the driving force behind England’s Merchant Shipping Act of 1876. He was the one who championed the Unseaworthy Ships Bill. Both brought about what are now known as Plimsoll lines on commercial ships. The lines indicate the safe levels for loading cargo in the ship’s hold at various states of condition. To learn more, type the term Plimsoll lines into your favorite search engine and you will have it all at your fingers. And here he is :
He could do with a shave , I always had trouble with the laces on my plimsolls so I got ones with elastic
I had some of those too @Barneyrubble . I also had lace up ones when I got to secondary school. One of my friends painted designs on them. I was sent out of Economics class one day tho as the teacher said my feet too stinky
A beard and glasses, signs of incredibly high intelligence and an affinity for reading The Guardian. However, I draw a line at plimsolls.
Pumps were called 'plimsolls' because they had a line all the way round the side. So in fact the pumps are named after tbe line round ships...
And if you want to know why they are called pumps, choose from the myriad of explanations on line. I quite like the origin “pampoesje” from the Dutch who took it from the Javanese referring to a flat heeless shoe. I don’t reckon much to the the idea that they were shoes used for spa town pump room dances or were used by American gas station attendants.
