The significance of a horse's behind
The US standard railroad gauge (the distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That is an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that is the way that railroads were built 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 is the gauge they used. Why did they use that gauge? Because the same tools that were used for building wagons were later used for building tramways.
Okay, so why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Because there were already ruts in the roads in England that matched that size, and if their wagons didn't conform to that the wheels would break. So who built those old rutted roads? Well, Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe for their legions. Those roads have been used since Imperial Roman times. And the ruts in those roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying the wheels on their various vehicles. Because the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they all had the same wheel spacing. Therefore, the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
The Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the asses of two war-horses.
When we see a NASA Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two large booster rockets attached to the sides of the main tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. Thiokol Propulsion makes those SRBs at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit wider, 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 is about as wide as two horses' asses
A major engineering component, the dimensions, of one of the most sophisticated pieces of machinery in the modern world had to be designed to the specification of the asses of two horses.
The US standard railroad gauge (the distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That is an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that is the way that railroads were built 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 is the gauge they used. Why did they use that gauge? Because the same tools that were used for building wagons were later used for building tramways.
Okay, so why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Because there were already ruts in the roads in England that matched that size, and if their wagons didn't conform to that the wheels would break. So who built those old rutted roads? Well, Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe for their legions. Those roads have been used since Imperial Roman times. And the ruts in those roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying the wheels on their various vehicles. Because the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they all had the same wheel spacing. Therefore, the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
The Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the asses of two war-horses.
When we see a NASA Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two large booster rockets attached to the sides of the main tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. Thiokol Propulsion makes those SRBs at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit wider, 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 is about as wide as two horses' asses
A major engineering component, the dimensions, of one of the most sophisticated pieces of machinery in the modern world had to be designed to the specification of the asses of two horses.
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