This is ultimately flying related, so I figure it meets the criteria of the alias, at least in some tangental way (less than one standard deviation from the norm). -Paul ------ The US standard railroad gauge (width between the two rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. An exceedingly odd number, is it not? So, why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England. The US railroads were designed by English expatriates. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines in England were built by the same people who designed the tramways them, and that's the gauge *they* used. Why did the English build the old tramways that way? Because the people who built the tramways used the very same jigs and tools they used for building the wagons, which used that wheel spacing. So why did wagons had that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on the old long-distance roads spanning England, due to the specific spacing between the ruts which are etched into the roads. Who built those old English 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. The ruts in the road were carved by Roman war chariots, which everyone else had to match, for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. So the US Railroad guage derives from the width a Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. Next time you are handed a spec, and wonder what horses ass came up with it, just know that it was some horse ass pulling an Imperial Roman War Chariot. Now the twist to the story.............. The Space Shuttle has two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are called SRBs (Solid Rocket Booster). The Space Shuttle's SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to give them a bit larger diameter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory runs through a tunnel in the mountains, and 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' asses. So, a major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by some horse's ass. And you thought that reasoning only applied to the policies of Congress... RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
