Unnecessary knowledge
Exciting curiosities
1. The first fine
The bookkeeper Carl Oscar Henning Forslund was arrested on May 26, 1900 on Strandvägen in Stockholm for speeding. Five days later he was sentenced to a ten kronor fine for “excessive speed” and thus entered the history books as the first person to be convicted of speeding in Sweden.
There was no official speed limit, but 6 km/h was considered acceptable as it corresponds to walking with a horse.
2. The world's most expensive fine
A 37-year-old Swede was a little too liberal with the accelerator when he was caught by police in Switzerland one day. He had been driving at 300 km/h – 180 km/h too fast!
Speeding fines in Switzerland are based on what you earn in combination with the speed violation. In this case, the fine amounted to 7.5 million Swiss francs!
3. Horsepower
One horsepower is the force required to lift 75 kg one meter above the ground in one second. Sound fuzzy? Then we can make it even more complicated by telling you that a real horsepower – the power a horse possesses – is equivalent to 0.7 of the physical unit of power, horsepower.
