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subzero*psia
07-03-2001, 01:47 AM
Here is some interesting information on Engineering Specifications.

The U.S. standard railroad gauge (width between the two rails) is 4 feet 8.5 inches. That seems to be an odd number, why was that gauge used? Because that is the way they built them in England, and the U.S. railroads were built by English expatriates.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people that built the pre-railroad tramways, and that was 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.

Alrighty Then! 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 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? Roman war chariots formed the first ruts which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome they were all the same in wheel spacing. So the U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet 8.5 inches is derived from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. As you can see specifications 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 Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accomodate the back ends of two war horses... and now we know the answer to the original question.

Here is the kicker...

When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters. They are made of highly technical substances at there factory in Utah. The Engineers who designed them may have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the rocket boosters had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The solid rocket boosters had to fit through a tunnel in the mountains. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track which is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So the major design feature of the worlds most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horses ass!

:p

Dan
13-03-2001, 06:00 AM
As much as I love the tail wagging the dog stories, I generally find them untrue, upon inspection. Thus, I won't inspect this story so I can continue my enjoyment of it.

Why train wheels have a bevel, and the tracks slightly so is an interesting thing to think about as well. Somebody had to figure out the proper bevel, somewhere along that highway. No different that what our front wheels do in our cars.

How the US and UK hold on to our various non-metric measurements is also fascinating... especially because the sciences prefer absolute, or metric measurements.

Animals appear to be quite important. I wonder if the meter had some original basis on the size of a horse's ass. It seems proportionate to me.

Even avoirdupois is base upon an animal's weight, perhaps the weight of a horse's ass. Either that or a human. I see little difference, philosophically.

Perhaps, in the UK and the USA, quantum physics attempts to describe the world as an ass's horse.

It is actually amazing that people accomplished incredible inventions with such odd and differing means of measurement.

Methinks farmers were there. It would be the farmer who tells the scientist, as he loads his train, "I think you are gonna have a problem there, son."

And perhaps that is how we ultimately build a space station composed entirely by metrical units.

Dan

starman
26-03-2001, 11:18 PM
Hey Dean,

I liked your story, gave me something to laugh about in this O so serious world :)