Decisions carry through
HISTORY can be fascinating. Decisions taken in ancient Rome still affect the American space programme. One needs to work back through the linkages.
The US standard railroad gauge is 4 feet, 8.5 inches (1.2408m), an exceedingly odd and seemingly arbitrary number. Why was that gauge used? Because that’s the way they built them in England, and English expatriates designed 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’s the gauge they used.
Why did “they” use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jig and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
But why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long-distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts.
Why were the wheel ruts spaced that way?
Because imperial Rome built the first long-distance roads in Europe, including England. The first wheel ruts were made by Roman war chariots. Others had to match those wheel spacings, otherwise their own wagon wheels would be destroyed.
But why that awkward spacing of 4 feet, 8.5 inches?
Because that is the width of two horses’ rear ends. Roman war chariots were designed around that.
So the wheel ruts, the tramways and the railways owe their gauge to horses’ asses? Correct. But not just those – the Space Shuttle as well. The Space Shuttle? Yes. When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, you will notice two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters – SRBs.
The SRBs are made at a factory in Utah. They have to be brought by train to the launch site. The railway line from the factory runs through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs have to fit through that tunnel. And the railway track, as we’ve seen, has a gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches – the width of two horses’ behinds.
So the Space Shuttle’s SRBs owe their dimension to two horses’ asses and design decisions taken in ancient Rome. The continuities of history. Fascinating.
Thingy
A CHAP who’s in the motor trade says a woman came into the spares department the other day and asked for a “710 thingy”. Hers had somehow fallen off.
“A 710 thingy? What’s that?”
“It’s that thingy in the middle of the engine. Mine fell off, that’s why I came by taxi. I don’t want to drive the car without it.” “Can you draw it for me?” She drew a circle and put inside it the figure “710”.
“Look, let’s go to the workshop