Three-dimensional model of electricity consumption in Manchester (1954) | Hacker News Reader

Three-dimensional model of electricity consumption in Manchester (1954)

collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk

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The model description doesn't label axes. The biggest faux-pas in data visualization, so let's fix it:

X: Days between October 1951 to April 1954.

Y: City-wide electricity consumption (Megawatt-hours (?)) in increments of 5MWh.

Z: Half-hours in day.

Additional info on daily card:

- sunrise-sunset time.

- several fields for weather information.

- illumination.

- free form "notable events" annotated on card.

Unbelievable someone cut these cards by hand in half-hour, 5MWh increments. Together with keeping track of notable events related to electricity consumption, some administrator filled a full-time job generating this data.

You did not label your axes either :)

In your left-handed (?) coordinate system, Y is up, and X is right.

Another labeling comes more naturally to me: a right-handed coordinate system where Z is up. That swaps Z and Y relatives to yours (thus changes handedness), and left me really puzzled over your labels.

Of course, you're right, right-hand axes labels are more common.

A good example of the problems we get into it when axes aren't labelled on the original visualization.

I doubt it was a full-time job. Cutting out one card does not take a whole day.

Interesting to compare this to modern UK demand curves: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/....

There seem to be dips in the middle of the day in the 1954 data (lunch breaks), and pronounced peaks and drops at the start and end of the working day, suggesting that the demand was strongly dominated by industrial use. UK demand curves today don't show this much - presumably because people still leave their office computers, servers, etc. on over lunch and overnight.

There's also a smaller bump at 22h in the 1954 data and it's still somewhat present today in the summer data. I can't think of a good explanation for it. Perhaps street lighting, only visible as a second bump when they turn on only much later (summer) than the tapering off industrial demand? (An example of different demand types: those following fixed working hours and those following varying day/night light hours).

Yeah, as I understand it industry used to be a heavy consumer of electricity in the UK and it just isn't in that way anymore - particularly in places like Manchester and the North where a lot of the heavy industry was based - because the UK is no longer a major industrial player. I even saw talk by the National Grid in one of their planning reports about not replacing some of the transmission infrastructure up north when it ages out because with industry gone they just don't need that much capacity anymore.

Maybe electric blankets and a last cup of tea before bed?

The news used to come on at 10PM, I wonder if it was that.

> in an enclosure of chrome steel uprights, mounted on a wooden base, with a handle at each end

That sounds so much better than “built on an upturned coffee table” ;-)

But I jest - it’s very cool. I love the physicality - makes it feel much more real than 3D graphs represented on a screen.

I bet this was really beautiful when it was new. It’s still fascinating, but it looks quite old and faded.

There’s so much stuff like that, things still around from the 1950s and 60s in particular, that I wish I could have seen while it was still shiny.

One other thing that’s interesting about pure analog data like this, is how they were able to freeform annotate on the cards without messing anything up. It’s always interesting to me comparing systems that work via pen and paper, and how much looser and more flexible they can be (while still functioning well), compared to computer programs.

The physicality of a constructed graph like this draws me in. I used to work in commercial construction and the superintendent would print out the Gannt chart schedule on a large plotter, stick it to the wall, and use a fishing line and plumb to show the current date. That really motivated the subcontractor who was behind schedule and on the critical path better than an email with an .mpp attachment could ever do.

A large physical display of complex relationships is easy to read, far more memorable than screen space, and politically and psychologically persuasive.

We evolved to experience space, not just look at 2D maps of it.

As a compromise I would love to have wall-sized displays - better, wall-sized holograms - which would show all the relationships between files in a project and keep them editable at the same time.

I was expecting a CGI 3D chart. This is much more impressive.

One funny thing I noticed, in the remark section a lot of those cards describe weather as 'Dull', a lot of them.

That's Manchester for you!

It's not only three dimensional, it's even haptic!

Huh, neat.

Frivolous business idea: implement an Excel-to-3d-printer "graph" printer.

You can use a simple printer, cut them and stock them, as they did...

Fascinating model. Loved the random annotations on the individual pages. For instance, a brief spike on 25 Mar 1953 was labeled as "Press load following death of Queen Mary".

There's a note on one of them, 3am 25th March 1953:

https://coimages.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/images/290/874/me...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/24/ne...

Interesting. I was expecting a 2D plot of consumption by location, extruded to a 3D volume over time.

"The graph shows peaks in the winter and dips during warmer months."

I found this interesting, as it is the opposite in my area. During the summer, the electric use is much higher with the need for A/C, with a significant drop off in winter as people heat with natural gas.

It is in my experience a lot more uncommon in Europe. English wikipedia says so without any details. French wikipedia says:

> In 2016, three countries concentrate two thirds of currently working A/C units: China (35,1 %), USA (23 %) and Japan (9,2 %); UE is at 6%.

Traditionally, domestic air conditioning isn't that common in the UK as the climate doesn't really call for it. But it's starting to become more common, particularly in the South East, as summers get hotter and longer.

1950s was before the UK had widespread gas heating, so electric heating may well have been higher than it is now.

We're a cold country!

It makes me think about old devices that used 3-d mechanical cams.

Wow. So 1950s. I wonder if this was the very first data visualisation then?

er, what? People have been making graphs of data for hundreds of years, if not much longer.

https://thinkinsights.net/digital/data-visualization-history...

Great article

Florence Nightingale used charts. See https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/aug/13/floren...

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