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Topic: Standardisation.... (Read 1029 times) |
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pete from Hull
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Non Scorpio at the moment, but still interested...
 
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Standardisation....
« on: Mar 1st, 2008, 11:46am » |
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I found this on another forum and thought it quite interesting..... what thinks you?
Standardisation
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4ft 8.5". That is an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used?
It is because that was the way railways were built in England, and British expatriates built the US railroads.
So why did the English build them like that?
This is because the first rail lines were constructed by the same people who built the pre-railroad horse drawn tramways, and that is 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.
Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd width between the > wheels?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would not match the ruts on the old, long distance highways.
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 became the standard rut. Otherwise your wagon would not fit and would break. And, long before the EU, it was the same standard for the whole of Europe. > The USA standard railroad gauge of 4ft 8.5" is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
And why pray did the Imperial Roman war chariots come up with this standard size?.
Easy. So that two Imperial Roman horses could fit into the shafts of an Imperial Roman war chariot (or the back end of two war horses if you prefer).
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 in a factory in 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. 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 backside!!.
Now ain't that interesting?
Pete
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Bring back fair wages.........
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gozz
Senior Member
Been around awhile
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Re: Standardisation....
« Reply #1 on: Mar 1st, 2008, 12:22pm » |
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Pete.
Yes very interesting ! What colour were the horses,and when is the next thrilling instalment ?
GOZZ.
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TiberiuS
Senior Member
Ex. 1996 2.3 Ultima - RIP P789 KHJ
Posts: 2257
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Re: Standardisation....
« Reply #2 on: Mar 1st, 2008, 9:13pm » |
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Just teleport back 2000 years and pass legislation to feed all horses on McDonalds. then there won't be a problem because the railroad tracks and tunnels will be so bleedin' wide that you could fit the whole of southern Brazil through them 
Great stuff Pete
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Bruce - '07 Jaguar XKR coupe, '95 Jaguar XJ Sport 4.0, '82 Ford Capri 2.0 Ghia, '15 Honda Civic (sloooooww..)
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Jonnycab
Senior Member
Former owner of 2.3 Ultima Facelift saloon
Posts: 3900
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Re: Standardisation....
« Reply #3 on: Mar 2nd, 2008, 3:01am » |
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Wow......it's amazing how modern day things, that we take for granted, have come from ancient times & have probably been thousands of years in the making.
But didn't Romans take their ideas from the ancient greeks, who took their ideas from the ancients before them ? 
I still remember reading about the ancient sites of Sodom & Gomorrah (4000 years ago).....that were destroyed by fire & brimstone in biblical texts .....
But modern day discoveries of green layers of glass underneath the ancient sites may have proved another theory that mankind has been here before & it destroyed itself
When the Americans were testing atomic bombs over the desert, the results were that the sand turned to green glass 
Are we really the first intelligent life to reside on this planet, or in the 65 million years since the dinosaurs died out, have there been others ?
Any Jehovahs need not answer this question  ....
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taliban aka Cheekyboy2
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Re: Standardisation....
« Reply #4 on: Mar 2nd, 2008, 12:15pm » |
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yeah, unfortunately we dont take enough from ancient times; the egyptians built the pyramids to within millimetres of tolerance and its often said they used pye a couple of thousand years before pythagorus (sp?) was born, however, 1950's southwark council builders were not able to build a single straight wall in my flat, makes tiling the bathroom etc a real pain....
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Simmo
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Re: Standardisation....
« Reply #5 on: Mar 2nd, 2008, 2:34pm » |
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Pythagoras Phil . You did ask
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Now I'm an OAP
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Scorpio_Mike
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Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0 V6 & 2.8 Sierra XR4i 4x4
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Re: Standardisation....
« Reply #6 on: Mar 4th, 2008, 11:13am » |
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on Mar 2nd, 2008, 12:15pm, taliban aka Cheekyboy2 wrote:| yeah, unfortunately we dont take enough from ancient times; the egyptians built the pyramids to within millimetres of tolerance and its often said they used pye a couple of thousand years before pythagorus (sp?) was born, however, 1950's southwark council builders were not able to build a single straight wall in my flat, makes tiling the bathroom etc a real pain.... |
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By some strange coincidence the pyramids just happen to be constructed at the exact centre of the worlds land masses :
The Pyramid is located at the exact center of the Earth's land mass. That is, its East-West axis corresponds to the longest land parallel across the Earth, passing through Africa, Asia, and America. Similarly, the longest land meridian on Earth, through Asia, Africa, Europa, and Antarctica, also passes right through the Pyramid. Since the Earth has enough land area to provide 3 billion possible building sites for the Pyramid, the odds of it's having been built where it is are 1 in 3 billion.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_facts_about_The_Great_Pyramid_of_Giza
Lucky guess or maybe not...
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Star sign is Scorpio !
Sierra XR4i's are great...especially when fitted with 4WD
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Jonnycab
Senior Member
Former owner of 2.3 Ultima Facelift saloon
Posts: 3900
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Re: Standardisation....
« Reply #7 on: Mar 4th, 2008, 11:24am » |
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I knew it.......ALIENS !! ......
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mr._floppy
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Re: Standardisation....
« Reply #8 on: Mar 4th, 2008, 12:06pm » |
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Interesting, but a bit speculative.
UK railways were within a gnat's nadger of adopting the 7ft gauge proposed by Brunel but the cheaper to build and less safe 4ft 8.5in won out eventually.
There's no need to get bogged down in Ox's behinds and chariots and stuff.
The gauge was chosen, like most things, because it was a compromise decision and of no great significance.
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taliban aka Cheekyboy2
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Re: Standardisation....
« Reply #9 on: Mar 4th, 2008, 6:58pm » |
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you have to spoil everything flop....
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