-Pill Krazed-
04-28-2005, 08:56 AM
>Does the
>statement, "We've always done it that way" ring any bells? read to the
>end... it was a new one for me
>The
>US standard
>railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet,8.5 inches. That's an
>exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
>Because
>that's the way they built them in England, and English
>expatriates built the US Railroads.Why did the English build them like
>that? 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 then? Because the people
>who built the
>tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons,
>which
>used that wheel spacing.Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd
>wheel 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's the spacing of the wheel ruts.So who built those old rutted
>roads?Imperial Rome built the
>first long distance roads in Europe (and
>England) for their
>legions. The roads have been used ever since.
>And the
>ruts in the roads?Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which
>everyone
>else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the
>chariots
>were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel
>spacing..
>The
>United
>States standard
>railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original
>specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live
>forever.So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder
>what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the
>Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the
>back
>ends of two war horses.Now the twist to the story.
>When you
>see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster
>rockets
>attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket
>boosters, or
>SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at
>Utah. The
>engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit
>fatter,
>but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch
>site. The
>railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the
>mountains.
>The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than
>the
>railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide
>as two
>horses' behinds.
>So, a major
>Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced
>transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the
>width of
>a horse's ass.....
>and you thought being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't
>important!
>statement, "We've always done it that way" ring any bells? read to the
>end... it was a new one for me
>The
>US standard
>railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet,8.5 inches. That's an
>exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
>Because
>that's the way they built them in England, and English
>expatriates built the US Railroads.Why did the English build them like
>that? 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 then? Because the people
>who built the
>tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons,
>which
>used that wheel spacing.Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd
>wheel 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's the spacing of the wheel ruts.So who built those old rutted
>roads?Imperial Rome built the
>first long distance roads in Europe (and
>England) for their
>legions. The roads have been used ever since.
>And the
>ruts in the roads?Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which
>everyone
>else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the
>chariots
>were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel
>spacing..
>The
>United
>States standard
>railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original
>specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live
>forever.So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder
>what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the
>Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the
>back
>ends of two war horses.Now the twist to the story.
>When you
>see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster
>rockets
>attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket
>boosters, or
>SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at
>Utah. The
>engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit
>fatter,
>but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch
>site. The
>railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the
>mountains.
>The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than
>the
>railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide
>as two
>horses' behinds.
>So, a major
>Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced
>transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the
>width of
>a horse's ass.....
>and you thought being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't
>important!