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kengrAll thru the ages, from the days of a trader on foot with a pack on his back, thru caravans, wagons, boats, ships planes and train to starships visiting other stars and continua craft visiting other times or timelines, some things remain constant.
The trade goods, or cargo impose limits on how much of what you can carry. The limits pretty much boils down to size & mass.
A block of aerogel may only weigh a few kilos, but occupy more space than is available. That's known as "bulking out". Where you can carry more weight but have run out of cargo space.
Contrawise, a 1 meter cube of platinum doesn't take much space, but at over 22 tonnes, may be all you can carry (or more). That's "massing out".
Combined, these lead to occasionally interesting cargo ladings. Say, some heavy machinery mixed with toilet paper as a load. Or odd choices in "packing". I recall an episode of Death Valley days (like most based on a real incident) where there was only one road that wagons could take from a silver mine. Bandits would cheerfully ambush the wagons and ride off with the silver. Riding on back trails they couldn't be caught easily.
Came the day the mine owner came up with a solution. Next time the bandit ambushed a wagon load of silver the driver just threw back the canvas over the load and said "help yourselves". The bandit stare to the huge blocks of silver that filled the bed of the wagon. Blocks far too big to be carried by a horse. And if they took the wagon, they'd have to take the road which meant they'd ride right into the law.
In various places I've participated in discussion of "problematic" cargoes (mostly in the context of RPGs)
The obvious are very high value, small bulk cargoes. Drugs, spices, gems, precious metals, etc.
Then there are ones that are dangerous: corrosives, explosives, highly toxic, radioactive, biohazards and more. Add cursed and other magically problematic items for FRPGs.
Ones that are illegal (at least in some places) are yet another. Better not have to make an emergency landing on the Planet of the Bible Thumpers with a cargo of porn. :-)
But there are also the ones that aren't dangerous, just highly annoying. The classic one on the Traveller RPG mailing List was Denebian tree-oxen. Live cargo is major nuisance at the best of times, but there were especially bad. Large, needing things to climb on and producing copious waste (which pretty much had to be shoveled out by hand while dodging the oxen. not to mention being wary of walking under one perched on a branch. And the smell...
But there are other cargoes that have the potential to be exceedingly annoying if something minor goes wrong. Two examples from current times. Bunker C and Sulfur.
Bunker C is a grade of fuel oil, used in power plants and some ships. Sulfur is sulfur. :-)
The catch is that both are solid at room temp and are carried in heated tanks on ships. If the heating fails, it's often not practical to reheat them. Mostly because they'll have resolidified inside the piping and valves. Fortunately, unlike water, they contract upon solidifying.
But the result is that you have "mine" them out of the tanks thru inspection hatches and them steam clean the nooks and crannies as well as the piping and valves. *Ever* so much fun (not!)
I'm sure this well give writers ideas for situations to inflict on characters.
The trade goods, or cargo impose limits on how much of what you can carry. The limits pretty much boils down to size & mass.
A block of aerogel may only weigh a few kilos, but occupy more space than is available. That's known as "bulking out". Where you can carry more weight but have run out of cargo space.
Contrawise, a 1 meter cube of platinum doesn't take much space, but at over 22 tonnes, may be all you can carry (or more). That's "massing out".
Combined, these lead to occasionally interesting cargo ladings. Say, some heavy machinery mixed with toilet paper as a load. Or odd choices in "packing". I recall an episode of Death Valley days (like most based on a real incident) where there was only one road that wagons could take from a silver mine. Bandits would cheerfully ambush the wagons and ride off with the silver. Riding on back trails they couldn't be caught easily.
Came the day the mine owner came up with a solution. Next time the bandit ambushed a wagon load of silver the driver just threw back the canvas over the load and said "help yourselves". The bandit stare to the huge blocks of silver that filled the bed of the wagon. Blocks far too big to be carried by a horse. And if they took the wagon, they'd have to take the road which meant they'd ride right into the law.
In various places I've participated in discussion of "problematic" cargoes (mostly in the context of RPGs)
The obvious are very high value, small bulk cargoes. Drugs, spices, gems, precious metals, etc.
Then there are ones that are dangerous: corrosives, explosives, highly toxic, radioactive, biohazards and more. Add cursed and other magically problematic items for FRPGs.
Ones that are illegal (at least in some places) are yet another. Better not have to make an emergency landing on the Planet of the Bible Thumpers with a cargo of porn. :-)
But there are also the ones that aren't dangerous, just highly annoying. The classic one on the Traveller RPG mailing List was Denebian tree-oxen. Live cargo is major nuisance at the best of times, but there were especially bad. Large, needing things to climb on and producing copious waste (which pretty much had to be shoveled out by hand while dodging the oxen. not to mention being wary of walking under one perched on a branch. And the smell...
But there are other cargoes that have the potential to be exceedingly annoying if something minor goes wrong. Two examples from current times. Bunker C and Sulfur.
Bunker C is a grade of fuel oil, used in power plants and some ships. Sulfur is sulfur. :-)
The catch is that both are solid at room temp and are carried in heated tanks on ships. If the heating fails, it's often not practical to reheat them. Mostly because they'll have resolidified inside the piping and valves. Fortunately, unlike water, they contract upon solidifying.
But the result is that you have "mine" them out of the tanks thru inspection hatches and them steam clean the nooks and crannies as well as the piping and valves. *Ever* so much fun (not!)
I'm sure this well give writers ideas for situations to inflict on characters.
