generaljmwlee
Well-Known Member
INTERESTING HISTORY LESSON
Railroad tracks. Be sure to read the final paragraph; your understanding of it will
depend on the earlier part of the content.
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.
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 Romans 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. Therefore 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 specification/procedure/process and wonder
'What horse's *** came up with it?', you may be exactly right.
Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the
rear ends of two war horses. (Two horse's asses.) 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 SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who
designed the SRB's would 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 happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB's 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 ***. And you thought being a horse's *** wasn't important? Ancient
horse's asses control almost everything.... and there are still horses asses trying to
control everything, called politicians."
Railroad tracks. Be sure to read the final paragraph; your understanding of it will
depend on the earlier part of the content.
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.
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 Romans 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. Therefore 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 specification/procedure/process and wonder
'What horse's *** came up with it?', you may be exactly right.
Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the
rear ends of two war horses. (Two horse's asses.) 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 SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who
designed the SRB's would 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 happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB's 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 ***. And you thought being a horse's *** wasn't important? Ancient
horse's asses control almost everything.... and there are still horses asses trying to
control everything, called politicians."
