Thought for the day :"Someone asked me what do I know about dwarves? Very little I said ...."
a little bit of music to start the day....
Right here - Right now
In other news... I have been telling a tale for many years about the size of the railways in the USA.
Today I found a graphic version so thought I would share for posterity ... Interestingly- it was on Twitter and caused a furore of reactions - mainly from people who said it was "British" gauge not "English" and similar reactions - nothing about he actual tale!! Sad this Social Media Stuff!
Anyway - Back to Rail tracks....
A history lesson for people who think that history doesn't matter: What's the big deal about railroad tracks? 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?
Well, because that's the way they built them in England..and English engineers designed the first US railroads. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the wagon tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
So, why did 'they' use that gauge?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that same wheel spacing. Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break more often on some of the old, long distance roads in England .
You see, 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 (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.
Today I found a graphic version so thought I would share for posterity ... Interestingly- it was on Twitter and caused a furore of reactions - mainly from people who said it was "British" gauge not "English" and similar reactions - nothing about he actual tale!! Sad this Social Media Stuff!
Anyway - Back to Rail tracks....
A history lesson for people who think that history doesn't matter: What's the big deal about railroad tracks? 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?
Well, because that's the way they built them in England..and English engineers designed the first US railroads. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the wagon tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
So, why did 'they' use that gauge?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that same wheel spacing. Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break more often on some of the old, long distance roads in England .
You see, 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 (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.
And what about the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match or run the risk of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing...
Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's
ss came up with this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)
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 in Utah .
The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but they had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.
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?
So, Ancient horse's asses control almost everything and....
CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else.
Oh - and of course there is an expert out there who knows that the gauge is also untrue - but never spoil a good story with the truth !!!
Well I enjoyed that ....
In Other news - the water bed has seen its final days .. Not because it was bad or leaking - but because we are not sure it it is giving the support that we need as we get a little older....
So a day of emptying the water bed was an interesting task...
Hosepipe down the stairs and out onto the street - I have no idea what the neighbours thought about the water running down the gutters !!
And now...
Cheers !
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