pabloback
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2001
- Posts
- 8,255
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 for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in
the matter of wheel spacing. The United States 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 arse came
up with it, 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... There's an interesting extension to the story
about railroad gauges and horses' behinds. When we 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 might 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 is about as wide as
two horses' behinds. So, a major design feature of what is arguably the
world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two
thousand years go by the width of a horse's arse.
_________________________________________________________________
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 for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in
the matter of wheel spacing. The United States 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 arse came
up with it, 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... There's an interesting extension to the story
about railroad gauges and horses' behinds. When we 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 might 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 is about as wide as
two horses' behinds. So, a major design feature of what is arguably the
world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two
thousand years go by the width of a horse's arse.
_________________________________________________________________
