herb

Does the statement, "We've always done it that way" ring any bells...?

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, bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a spec and told we have always done it that way and wonder what horse's behind came up with that, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war 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 in 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 behind.

And you thought being a horse's behind wasn't important ??

crobtex

Good one, Herb.

Shovelhead

Aaaand the winnnnner is!!!!

Claim: The United States standard railroad gauge derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
Status: False.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2000]
http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.htm

herb

Dude, you've got to much free time on your hands !!

mikmaze

phew , lotta reading, gotta say, shovel's favorite website has to be a close call to make, this one or snopes. yet another story cleared up.

herb

Must be he is retired

Shovelhead

I wish.

I'm not THAT old yet.......

Geico266

I think herb is way too attached to the horse's behind thing, and I'm seeing a pattern here with the whole "donkey for an icon thing" too. Hmmmm. Just an observation herb......

herb

but truthfully now, isn't it easier to clean up after a donkey than an elephant ?

bentwings

I think our band width is used up on this one

newriverSpecon

Did you guys here about the Boeing engineer in Seattle a couple of week ago? He apparently did not take into account the size of the SRB before in went in the tunnel. His buddy got it on video and is being charged with trespassing.

They say all that rain make you do stupid things Is it that much different then what the gov is doing to us already?

Randy