History Lesson

[pico996969]

Does the statement, "We've always done it that way"
ring any bells? .. read to the end... it was a new one
for me.
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.
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
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 at 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 ass.
....and you thought being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't
important!
THE END?

[bighap]

My head hurts.

[Chip&Chop]

LOL

[necrolop]

LOL, Funny. But one thing, I dont think the shuttle is arguably one of the most advanced space craft built. The saturn V which is much older is by far superior. Shuttle=Space Crop Duster.

[idiiot]

I beg to differ like necrolop did. My opinion is that my ass is one of the most advanced space craft built. It could bring a horse's ass to shame. If the chariots were based on my ass, we would live in a better world today.

[pico996969]

uhhhmmmm.yeah

[thetieger]

ahhh that is kind of stupid, is there no alternative way to ship the boosters?

[idiiot]

if the chariots were based on my ass the tunnel would be wide enough. History......connects NASA to my behind...

[pico996969]

just some email i got....i didn't make it up

[ShadowKnyght]

idiiot... yeah frankly... next... from...left...rear.blue...dirt.

make any sense... neither does your post...

another shameless attempt to increase my post standing...

up to 58th best poster... and only cheated a couple of time like this one..

another meaningful and wise post from the Shadow!