The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That is an exceptionally 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 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. 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's 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 ass 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 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' behinds. So, the major 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!!!
Don't you just love engineering?
MC
------------------ Mike Clayton MC Graphics Barnegat, NJ http://mcgraphics.visualnoise.com/ mike@visualnoise.com AOL IM: mcgrafix
"Youth and enthusiasm is no match for old age and treachery!"
Posts: 508 | From: New Jersey | Registered: Apr 1999
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I got this one sent to me a while back.... was surprised that something that ancient could determine something this modern (if you get my meaning)
So.... who determined how wide two horses behinds were? *grin*
------------------ From Katie Wright (aka Kookaburra), 17 year old signie wannabe from Australia
"The world is my garden. A place where magic grows on trees"
Posts: 530 | From: Brisbane, Australia | Registered: Feb 1999
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GOD ...when they built the arc of the covenate..and then GOD & NOAH when they built the ARC.....they are so many "cubits" by so many "cubits", and a cubit is about the same size as HORSES A**..... think this will go without any disagreements? hehehehehehehehe
------------------ joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-944-5060 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND
Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Okay, let's see if I have this straight-- It is possible to reverse engineer this whole width of the tunnel, width of the railroad tracks, etc, all the way back a couple of thousand years to the time of the Romans and the width of two of their horses rear ends. I have to ask-- why the hell bother when all you have to do is hit the highways of America the beautiful and you will find all the horse's asses you could ever want.
------------------ Bill Preston Fly Creek, N.Y. USA wpreston2@stny.rr.com
Posts: 943 | From: Fly Creek, N.Y. USA | Registered: Jan 2000
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To Convert From ______Into ______Multiply By Cubits…………………….Centimeters……..45.72 to 55.9 Feet…………….....…1.5 Inches……………....18 to 22 Cubit is the distance from the elbow to the finger tip: Cubit (Bible)……………..Inches……………21.8 Cubit (Egypt 2650BC)…...Inches………...….20.6 (Babylon 1500BC)...Inches……………20.9 (Assyrian 700BC)…Inches...………….21.6 (Jerusalem 1 AD). Inches….………..20.6 (Druid Eng 1 AD)… Inches……...……20.4 (Black,Arabia 800AD) Inches…………21.3 (Mexican – Aztec)…Inches……………20.7 (Ancient Chrina)….Inches…………...20.9 (Ancient Greece)…..Inches……………18.2 (England)…………..Inches……………18 (Northern3000BCto1800AD)..Inches..26.6
Katie, to answer your question about who decided how wide two horses asses are... my guess is that it was the guy standing behind the two horsesafter he found out he had to build the chariots.
------------------ Chris Elliott 1longshot@msn.com cell 620-845-0264
[This message has been edited by Chris Elliott (edited September 01, 2001).]
[This message has been edited by Chris Elliott (edited September 01, 2001).]
Posts: 686 | From: Scottsdale, AZ & Anthony, KS, USA | Registered: Dec 1999
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