THE SPACE SHUTTLE AND TWO HORSE'S BUMS
The Standard railway gauge in the USA (and in Britain) is 4ft 8 1/2 ins. An
odd number, one might think. Why not 5ft? Or 7ft (ask I K Brunel)?
The USA takes its railway gauge from England because English emigrants built
the first railroads in that country. But why did the English come to that
measurement? The simple answer is that railways developed from plateways -
sometimes called tramways - upon which horses pulled carts. In fact it was
theoretically possible for a horse to pull a cart straight onto a tramway
from a road because the cast iron 'plates' or rails were set to the width of
the wheels on the cart.
So why use that width? Simply because the same people who built the tramways
also built the carts and used the same jigs and tools.
The spacing of the cart or wagon wheels was very much dictated by the wheel
ruts on English roads - which became turnpikes - many of which were first
laid out by Roman invaders. Trying to drive a wagon or cart of different
width would cause severe problems.
A wagon on the Little Eaton Tramway, nr Derby, (1790 - 1908) the 'plates'
are cast iron and lie on stone sleepers. (From an original glass plate
negative)
The Romans' chariots would have made the first ruts in the roads.Those
chariots were made by or for Imperial Rome with a wheel spacing of 4ft 8
1/2 ins simply because this was the most comfortable width in which to
harness a pair of horses. So the chariot is the origin of railway Standard
Gauge.
The most advanced transportation system we have yet seen, the Space Shuttle,
relies on two huge booster rockets in order to escape earth's gravity.
The width of the booster rockets is largely dictated by the fact that they
are brought to the assembly site by train on a railroad which passes through
a tunnel in the mountains. That tunnel is only a little wider than the
railroad, the gauge of which is the width of two horse's bums.
Thus the most advance transport system in the world is at least partly
defined by one of the oldest systems - the width a pair of horses' bums from
Imperial Rome!
*A version of this story first appeared in "The Yardstick", April 2000
My Comments:
What the BWMA doesn't want its supporters to know is that feet and inches
varied over time and had multiple variations at the same time. To say this
width was chosen because it was comfortable is trying to hide a fact that
makes imperial look bad. We may have discussed this before, but the four
feet 8.5 in width may have been a more rational "foot" length when old Roman
feet were used, or it could have been based a different unit, like cubits.
It could have been 5 Roman feet, if the Romans had a standard foot. They
also fail to tell their supporters that elsewhere, the width is now 143 cm
and 143 is a lot easier to use than 4-8-1/2.
Gl�ckliches Neues Jahr!
Happy New Year!
John
Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrt�mlich glaubt
frei zu sein.
There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they
are free!
wagon.jpg
