A striking technology described in Strand, April 1899: The speck is a bundle of hay descending along a wire over a lake in Western Norway.

The Norwegians, who live for weeks and months in the summer on the great heights on either side of their beautiful valleys, send down milk, cheese, hay, etc. to the farms below by suspending them on inclined wires fastened at one end firmly to the ground and at the other to some point on the rocks above.

The snap-shot shows a bundle of hay on its way from a great height on one side of the lake to the farm on the other side. It sped along, the friction causing it to shed sparks in all directions, and was timed to take forty-four seconds.

The editors add: “If the bundle be closely examined the constriction caused by the cord holding it together is distinctly visible.”