How Mil Specs Live Forever

[edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com (Alfredo el Bufon)]

Poster: edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com (Alfredo el Bufon)

How Mil Specs Live Forever

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? Because that's the way they built them in England, and
the US railroads were built by English expatriates.

Why did the English people build them like that? Because the first
rail lines were built by the same people who built the
pre-railroad tramways, and that's 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, which used that wheel spacing.

Okay! Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if they
tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of
the old, long distance roads, because that's the spacing of the
old wheel ruts.

So who built these old rutted roads? The first long distance roads
in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their
legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? The
initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of
destroying their wagons, were first made by Roman war chariots.
Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome they were
all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.  Thus, we have the answer
to the original questions. The United State standard railroad gauge
of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification
(MilSpec) for an Imperial Roman army war chariot. MilSpecs and
Bureaucracies live forever.

So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what
horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the
Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to
accommodate the back-ends of two war horses.
_____________________________________________
The above story came to me by email; I don't know
who started it or if it's true.  It seems to me there
should be one more step in the story: some Roman unit
of length that the gauge is some round multiple of.
Also, I thought every country in Europe had a different
RR gauge (to force invaders to switch trains at the border).

-- Alfredo
 
Alfredo el Bufon
Elvegast, Windmaster's Hill, Atlantia
edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com
______________________________________

A man held a makework political job, polishing the cannon in front of the
county courthouse. It kept him fed and let him put a little money aside,
but he wasn't getting ahead in the world. So one day he withdrew his life's
savings, bought a brass cannon -- and went into business for himself.
   -- Robert A. Heinlein, _The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress_

=======================================================================
List Archives, FAQ, FTP:  http://sca.wayfarer.org/merryrose/
            Submissions:  atlantia@atlantia.sca.org
        Admin. requests:  majordomo@atlantia.sca.org