Wired Magazine sends me email, periodically, reminding me of news articles that I might be interested in - your basic internet marketing spam

But this time the article was about a short film strip - "A Trip Down Market Street" - that was edited by Denis Shiryaev - who has assembled a whole stable of open source software to edit film to uprez it to 4k, increase the frame rate to 60 fps, colorize the film via AI, and generally improve the quality of the film - much like was done in the recent film about WWI "They Shall Not Grow Old" which stabilized the film display speed so that it didn't vary like hand cranked films did.

On April 14, 1906 the Miles brothers secured a moving camera to the front of an street car running down the middle of Market Street - the film has been uprezzed, cleansed of dust and debris, colorized via AI, appropriate sound added, and the frame rate raised and smoothed to create the impression of a much more recent film. Not entirely historically accurate as to sound or color, but the impression is very much like you were there over a century ago.

I found the film fascinating for what it displayed - the renovation made it easier to watch truly - but I was amazed by the number of vehicles - gas powered, horse drawn, electric and cable powered, as well as the almost totally random paths chosen by all the vehicles, pedestrians, and horses.

I noticed that most of the cars were steered from sitting on the right side of the vehicle - like in the UK. Apparently, cars with drivers on the left side of the vehicle really began with the 1908 model T in USA, even though Yanks have always driven on the right side of the road.

The history of left- and right-hand trafficDistribution of traffic on a road to a certain side makes it possible to avoid various congestions and collisions of carts and phaetons - it was noticed long time ago. But until now, mankind could not agree on how to organize traffic in order to suit everyone.idaoffice.org

Notice the abrupt U-turns across 5 or 6 lanes of vehicles, notice that there is no uniformity or direction of travel, and how crowded the roadway is, and how often vehicles cut in front of each other - its amazing anyone survives, other than their speeds were not quite as fast as modern traffic. The number of pedestrians passing across, around, by, and hanging on to vehicles is pretty surprising. Children playing in traffic. Lots of impressive brick buildings, and a paved 6 lane roadway. Make sure your browser is displaying the film in 4K resolution - 4 days later this scene will change -

You will have to leave Cake and go to Youtube to see it full screen 4K, but I think it is worth it to see the details captured and replayed in the film. Just click on Youtube in the play box you see when you hit the play button.

Watch the end of the film which displays the appearance of Market Street on the afternoon of April 18, 1906 too.

1906 San Francisco earthquakeThe 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI ( Extreme). High-intensity shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area.en.wikipedia.org

The second film is an uprezzzed film from 1896 filmed by the Lumiere brothers, and edited by Denis Shiryaev again, but no colorization this time. Again, notice the people and their clothing from 124 years ago

Comments and observations encouraged heartily.

FANTASTIC!!!! I watched every delicious second of the San Francisco film — twice. Damn.

The New York one is just as good:

What struck me is how dressed up most people were. The hats! Especially among the women. Oh my God. And people seemed on the whole less heavy. They moved well. I guess most were pretty young.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Seeing New York in 1911 was interesting too. They're still sitting on the right side of cars, despite the left seated drivers position of the 1908 Model T.

Here is a short film Denis created from a gif captured in 1888 - one of the earliest motion short clips, caught in a family garden in Leeds England

And a much better quality film from 1902 shot in Wuppertal Germany from a suspended train

Apparently the suspended train is still in use in Germany. Google has a whole series of modern images of it. It is the oldest suspended electric train the world, and still carries ~ 25 million passengers annually.

Wuppertal SchwebebahnSchwebebahn between Adlerbrücke and Alter Markt Overview Locale Wuppertal, Germany Transit type Suspension railway Number of lines 1 Number of stations 20 Daily ridership 82,000[1] Operation Began operation 1 March 1901; 119 years ago Operator(s) Wuppertaler Stadtwerke (WSW) Technical System length 13.3 km (8.3 mi) System map The Wuppertaler Schwebebahn ( Wuppertal Suspension Railway) is a suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany.en.wikipedia.org

This film of Paris!!!! 😍👏 The clothes! No wonder they became the fashion capital of the world.