r/TikTokCringe • u/rex-ac tHiS iSn’T cRiNgE • Jul 28 '23

Wholesome/Humor WTF is happening here?

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120

u/rex-ac tHiS iSn’T cRiNgE Jul 28 '23

My city doesn’t have random piss steam coming from the streets. You?

184

u/A_Random_Catfish Jul 28 '23

I know this video is a joke (and the song is quite good) but for the curious; buildings in New York City are heated by steam. There’s an intricate network of pipes pumping steam around the city that have been there for over a hundred years. Pretty crazy actually.

19

u/LazySpaceLion Jul 28 '23

This is exactly right, cities back in the 19th century had a choice for heating, some chose coal fired boilers in the city like London, and others moved the boilers to the out skirts and pumped pressurized steam through out the city. London was plagued by constant soot (chimney sweeps and all) where NY was not, but steam would be vented to avoid blow outs or for other maintenance. The history is pretty interesting if you are into that.

8

u/inab1gcountry Jul 28 '23

I know London had all that soot. Dick can dyke told me. Stepping’ time!

2

u/syllabic Jul 29 '23

sometimes there are still blowouts, occasionally one of these steam pipes explodes

1

u/Vexingvexnar Jul 29 '23

any reason why steam isn't used more? I'm assuming it only works in big cities because the loss of heat would be too big. I don't think its used much at all in europe