Here is an interesting story that ties together 2000 plus years of technology development.
The U.S. 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 is the way they built them in England, and the U.S. 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 is the spacing of the old wheel ruts.
So, who built those 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. So, why did the Romans pick that spacing? Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the backends of two horses.
What's this got o do with the Space Shuttle? The engineers who designed the solid rocket boosters, or SRBs, wanted 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 to the factory runs through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than a railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So,in summary, a major design feature of the world's most advanced transportation system was determined by the width of two horses' behinds!!
rob PS I wrote this up (cleaning up an internet forward) about 12 years ago. It's still floating around on a number of websites.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
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Apparently not only the width but also the nature of horses' behinds has spilled over into the presidential campaign, judging from the exudations and noxious, flatulent emissions coming forth from John McCain. It's hard to tell the difference between these emissions and what issues forth from a horses' behind.
Perhaps McCain should add a veterinary surgeon to his staff, who would be better qualified to explain horseshit as rational policy.
by
Ed Martin (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 33 diaries, 140 comments)
on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 11:17:18 AM
Thanks, Rob, I have always loved that story. Here’s another one that I love, with the same theme. (There are also several versions floating around the net, I found this one at http://www.pass.to/tgmegillah/njokes.asp. Oy veh, dahlink. Of course it comes in gentile versions, too, LOL. I have to admit I was tempted to replace the “brisket” in this story with “pork butt,” to harmonize with your theme of the horses asses, but that just didn’t seem Kosher.)
A young Jewish mother is preparing a brisket one Friday for Shabbat dinner. Her daughter watches with interest as the mother slices off both ends of the brisket before placing it in the roasting pan. The young girl asks her mother why she did this.
The mother pauses for a moment and then says, "You know, I am not sure.....this is the way I always saw my mother make a brisket. Let's call Grandma and ask her. " So, she phones the grandmother and asks why they always slice the ends off the brisket before roasting.
The Grandmother thinks for a moment and then says. "You know, I am not sure why, this is the way I always saw MY mother make a brisket." Now the two women are very curious, so they pay a visit to the great-grandmother in the nursing home. "You know when we make a brisket," they explain, "we always slice off the ends before roasting. Why is that?"
"I don't know why you do it," says the old woman, "but I did it because I never had a pan that was large enough!"
by
Meryl Ann Butler (43 articles, 41 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 343 comments)
on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 3:01:54 PM
2 comments
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