History's big decisions, replayed without hindsight.
Drawer
How armies were fed and how goods moved by road, rail and air, from Roman grain to the Berlin Airlift, with every quantity and price tied to a named source.
4 replays on file; the lead file comes first, the rest newest first.
Logistics & EconomicsLogistics arithmetic
By our conversion of Polybius's ration, a Roman legion's 4,200 foot soldiers needed about 3.5 to 3.9 tonnes of wheat a day, before cavalry and pack animals.
Filed
"A Roman Legion" by Marco Dente — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marco_Dente,_A_Roman_Legion,_1515-1527,_NGA_150374.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
Logistics & EconomicsLogistics arithmetic
By a 1949 US Air Force summary, the Berlin Airlift flew about 2.3 million tons into Berlin; about two-thirds was coal and about 20 to 23 percent food.
Filed
"C-47s at Tempelhof Airport Berlin 1948" by U.S. Air Force — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:C-47s_at_Tempelhof_Airport_Berlin_1948.jpg — Public domain (U.S. federal government work, 17 U.S.C. §105; U.S. Air Force photograph, National Museum of the U.S. Air Force 050426-F-1234P-008; National Museum of Naval Aviation 2000.043.012)
Logistics & EconomicsLogistics arithmetic
The 1862 Pacific Railroad act lent 16 US bonds of $1,000 a mile, treble that for 300 mountain miles and double between them. Our conversion: $16,000 to $48,000.
Filed
"East and West shaking hands at the laying of the last rail" by Andrew J. Russell — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:East_and_West_Shaking_hands_at_the_laying_of_last_rail_Union_Pacific_Railroad.jpg — Public domain (Andrew J. Russell d. 1902; US: published before 1931 (file page tag); EU: author died more than 70 years ago; Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Illustration
Logistics & EconomicsLogistics arithmetic
Richthofen wrote of Seidenstrassen, silk roads, on pp. 496–507 of his 1877 China; his map of the trade covers 128 BC–AD 150. Plus distances between six places.
Filed
Illustration: Treaties & Tradeoffs. Generated schematic image — not a photograph or historical record. © Treaties & Tradeoffs, all rights reserved.