NH94YJ
03-31-2001, 07:38 PM
The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4
feet, 8.5 inches. That is an exceedingly odd number. Why was that
gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and
the U.S. railroads were built by English expatriates.
Why did the English build them that way? Because the first rail lines
were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways,
and that's the gauge they used.
Why did "they" use that gauge? Because the people who built the
tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building
wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
So why did the wagons have that particular odd spacing? Well, if they
tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some
of the old, long distance roads in England, because that was the
spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in
Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions.
The roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts in the roads? The ruts in the roads, which everyone had
to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels, were first formed
by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for (or by)
Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
The U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet-8.5 inches derives from
the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
Specifications and bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what
horse's *** came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the
Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate
the back end of two war horses.
Thus we have the answer to the original question.
Now for the twist to the story.
When we see a space shuttle sitting on it's launching pad, there are
two booster rockets attached to the side of the main fuel tank. These
are solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at
their factory in Utah.
The engineers who designed the SRB's might have preferred to make
them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped by train from the
factory to the launch site.
The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the
mountains. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and
the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' rear-ends.
So, a major design feature of what is arguably the worlds most
advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years
ago by the width of a horse's rear!
Don't you just love engineering?
feet, 8.5 inches. That is an exceedingly odd number. Why was that
gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and
the U.S. railroads were built by English expatriates.
Why did the English build them that way? Because the first rail lines
were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways,
and that's the gauge they used.
Why did "they" use that gauge? Because the people who built the
tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building
wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
So why did the wagons have that particular odd spacing? Well, if they
tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some
of the old, long distance roads in England, because that was the
spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in
Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions.
The roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts in the roads? The ruts in the roads, which everyone had
to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels, were first formed
by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for (or by)
Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
The U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet-8.5 inches derives from
the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
Specifications and bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what
horse's *** came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the
Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate
the back end of two war horses.
Thus we have the answer to the original question.
Now for the twist to the story.
When we see a space shuttle sitting on it's launching pad, there are
two booster rockets attached to the side of the main fuel tank. These
are solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at
their factory in Utah.
The engineers who designed the SRB's might have preferred to make
them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped by train from the
factory to the launch site.
The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the
mountains. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and
the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' rear-ends.
So, a major design feature of what is arguably the worlds most
advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years
ago by the width of a horse's rear!
Don't you just love engineering?