Talk:Death of Henry H. Bliss

Biography assessment rating comment
The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- KenWalker | Talk 03:30, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Western Hemisphere
he became the first recorded motor vehicle fatality in the Western Hemisphere

Clearly not, since Bridget Driscoll was killed in 1896 at Hyde Park Corner, which is west of Greenwich. Flapdragon 00:40, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Hyde Park Corner is not west of Greenwich. However, Mary Ward died in Ireland, which is in the Western Hemisphere. Crazysnailboy 16:14, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Hyde Park Corner IS west of Greenwich; Greenwich lies to the east of central London, and defines the Prime Meridian, whereas Hyde Park Corner is west of Central London at -0.15125W. However, the accident in question was in Sydenham, which is also west of Greenwich (although only just). Stephenog (talk) 11:16, 5 January 2012 (UTC)


 * The Marriam Webster's dictionary of United States of American English gives only one definition of "western hemisphere" as "the half of the earth comprising North and South America and surrounding waters". And clearly that is the meaning the authors of the text on the plaque had in mind.


 * I removed the wikilink since it pointed to an article about the technical Western Hemisphere and not about the "New World" Western Hemisphere. Thus it is confusing.


 * I also renamed this section, because the authors of the plaque did not use "Western Hemisphere" to mean "USA". In fact, the author used it specifically to include all of the other countries in North and South America, including those in the Caribbean.


 * Finally, this entire thing seems to me to be almost trolling, to get a rise out of people living in the Western Hemisphere, because in North America English there is no doubt whatsoever about the meaning of "Western Hemisphere" on that plaque. Very few words, or word phrases, have just one meaning. This entire section, and the paragraph in the article, depend on willfully, and knowingly, taking a meaning for the phrase that is not what the authors meant, when it is obvious that there is an absolutely correct meaning for the phrase. Nick Beeson (talk) 17:16, 15 April 2015 (UTC)
 * This is absolutely NOT trolling. There were at least two deaths from car accidents in the true western hemisphere before that of the unfortunate Mr Bliss. Whilst certain speakers of American English may not like it (for some unknown reason) wishful thinking does not move most of the UK and all of Ireland into the eastern hemisphere. They are clearly in the western hemisphere, and therefore the statement on the commemorative plaque is simply incorrect. Stephenog (talk) 15:19, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

Intentional manslaughter?
Arthur Smith, the driver of the taxicab, was arrested and charged with manslaughter but was acquitted on the grounds that it was unintentional.

Huh? How could manslaughter possibly be intentional? Its very definition precludes such a thing. --  Jack of Oz   [your turn]  22:28, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

not just killed by a car
Perhaps it should also be noted that his wife's death on 30 August 1895 resulted in a spectacular trial of his stepdaughter Mary Alice Livingston "Fleming", for her murder, (though she was in the end, after much lurid yellow journalistic coverage, acquitted) (detailed in the book Arsenic and Clam Chowder by James D. Livingston), and that his son H.E. Bliss was the developer of the Bliss cataloguing system. - Nunh-huh 10:14, 3 July 2012 (UTC)

Mary Ward (scientist)
Mary Ward (scientist) She was killed when she fell under the wheels of an experimental steam car built by her cousins. As the event occurred in 1869, she is the first person known to have been killed by a motor vehicle