Well, son, here is an example of the origin of those wonderful documents
containing the exact requirements for the designs of everything. Why
our beloved Tiger is built to over one thousand Specifications,
Practices, and Standards that weigh more than a dozen Tigers themselves.
> How 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 States
>standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original
>specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot. Specs 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.
--
Steve Laifman < Find out what is most >
B9472289 < important in your life >
< and don't let it get away!>
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