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Re: MtMan-List: "Steve Anderson" <blkpowdr@htc.net>: How Specs Live Forever (http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~mdbrown2/specs.htm)
That is remarkable information. Reminds me of the PBS show a few years back
that traced similar strings from antiquity to modern times. A lot more such
examples exist than one would suppose. Thanks for sharing. I can't think
of the name of the show for the life of me. Old Timers Disease once again
raises its ugly head.
Lanney Ratcliff
-----Original Message-----
From: michael pierce <hawknest4@juno.com>
To: hist_text@lists.xmission.com <hist_text@lists.xmission.com>;
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Date: Sunday, November 22, 1998 11:26 AM
Subject: MtMan-List: "Steve Anderson" <blkpowdr@htc.net>: How Specs Live
Forever (http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~mdbrown2/specs.htm)
>just got this in from a friend of mine that knew i liked historical
>background and thought i would share it---
>
>it is a bit of historical information on why a waggon and a train are the
>same gage---in reality the us standard gage is 54 3/4 in and is larger
>than the european gage----some good information to store in your files
>for future reference---this may cause the same palaber as the bit on the
>upstream and the downstream of a river---
>
>let the discussion begin----
>
>HAWK
>MICHAEL PIERCE
>1-813-771-1815
>E-MAIL ADDRESS==hawknest4@juno.com
>--------- Begin forwarded message ----------
>From: "Steve Anderson" <blkpowdr@htc.net>
>To: "Mike Pierce" <HAWKNEST4@juno.com>
>Subject: How Specs Live Forever
>(http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~mdbrown2/specs.htm)
>Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 21:47:21 -0600
>Message-ID: <003c01be15d3$722babe0$0ac0a5d0@blkpowdr>
>
>This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
>
>------=_NextPart_000_0004_01BE1598.84B1A700
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> charset="iso-8859-1"
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>
>
>How Specs Live Forever
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>-------
>
>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 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 who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they =
>used.=20
>
>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 use that odd =
>wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons =
>would break on some of the old, long distance roads, because that's the =
>spacing of the old wheel ruts.=20
>
>So who built these old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in =
>Europe were built by Rome for the benefit of their legions. The roads =
>have been used ever since. And the ruts? The initial ruts, which =
>everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons, were =
>made by Roman war chariots and they all had identical wheel spacings.=20
>
>Thus, we have the answer to the original questions. The United States =
>standard railroad gauge of 4 feet 8.5 inches derives from the original =
>specification for a Roman war chariot. Specs and bureaucracies seem to =
>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 chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the =
>ass-ends of two war horses.=20
>
>-Unknown=20
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>-------
>
>Thought you might enjoy this...Steve
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>-------
>=20
>
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><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
><HTML>
><HEAD>
>
><META content=3Dtext/html;charset=3Diso-8859-1 =
>http-equiv=3DContent-Type><TITLE>How Specs Live Forever</TITLE><BASE=20
>href=3Dhttp://www.students.uiuc.edu/~mdbrown2/specs.htm>
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><HR>
>
><P>The US Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet
>=
>8.5=20
>inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? =
>Because=20
>that's the way they built them in England, and the U.S. railroads were =
>built by=20
>English expatriates. Why did the English build them like that? Because =
>the first=20
>rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad =
>tramways,=20
>and that's the gauge they used.=20
><P>Why did they use that gauge then? Because the people who built the =
>tramways=20
>used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which =
>used that=20
>wheel spacing. Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if =
>they=20
>tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the =
>old, long=20
>distance roads, because that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts.=20
><P>So who built these old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in
>=
>Europe=20
>were built by Rome for the benefit of their legions. The roads have been
>=
>used=20
>ever since. And the ruts? The initial ruts, which everyone else had to =
>match for=20
>fear of destroying their wagons, were made by Roman war chariots and =
>they all=20
>had identical wheel spacings.=20
><P>Thus, we have the answer to the original questions. The United States
>=
>
>standard railroad gauge of 4 feet 8.5 inches derives from the original=20
>specification for a Roman war chariot. Specs and bureaucracies seem to =
>live=20
>forever, so the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what
>=
>horse's=20
>ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Roman =
>chariots were=20
>made to be just wide enough to accommodate the ass-ends of two war =
>horses.=20
><P>-Unknown=20
><HR>
><BR><U><FONT color=3D#800080>Thought you might enjoy =
>this...Steve</FONT></U>
><HR>
> </BODY></HTML>
>
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>
>
>--------- End forwarded message ----------
>
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