Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Mirror Image

You Can Read This sdrawkcaB, Can't You?

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON


No, I haven't laterally flipped this image. And, no, I haven't flipped my lid either. Have you ever wondered why the words 'Fire' or 'Ambulance' are reversed on the front of emergency vehicles? Because when those vehicles are behind you in traffic, you can see the words displayed correctly on your rear-view mirror. This shot of a Country Fire Authority tanker was taken here in Melbourne. And no, the crew members weren't taking a smoke break.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know - no one told me about this one, until one day about a week after I got my license I was driving in Sydney and heard the ambulance behind me... I looked in the rear vision mirror, saw the ambulance and had an epiphany!

Chertiozhnik said...

I wonder who first had the idea, and whether he or she took out patents.

Simple, effective idea, I wish I had a few more like that!

Cuckoo said...

Yeah, I knew about it since I was a child. :)

david mcmahon said...

Hi Steph,

I think I worked out that one by osmosis. And no, I wasn't too quick with it either!

Cheers

David

david mcmahon said...

Hi Chertiozhnik,

That's a fair point. Sometimes the people who have the best concepts never patent their ideas.

From memory, the guy who came up with the famous Ctrl-Alt-Delete key sequence never achieved any personal gain from it.

Cheers

David

david mcmahon said...

Hi Cuckoo,

You were streets ahead of me! I was probably a slow learner!

Cheers

David