08-28-2003, 07:03 AM | #1 (permalink) |
itty bitty titty committee chairman
|
How Specifications Live Forever
How Specifications Live Forever
================================ When you see a space shuttle sitting on the launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are the solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Morton Thiokol at a factory in Utah. Originally, the engineers who designed the SRBs wanted to make them much fatter than they are. Unfortunately, the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site in Florida and the railroad line runs through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to be made to fit through that tunnel. Now, the width of that tunnel is just a little wider than the U.S. Standard Railroad Gauge (distance between the rails) of 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Did you ever wonder why that gauge was used? Because US railroads were designed and built by English expatriates, and that's the way they built them in England. Okay, then why did the English engineers build them like that? Because the first rail lines of the 19th century were built by the same craftsmen who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. I'll bite, why did those craftsmen choose that gauge? Because they used the same jigs and tools that were previously used for building wagons, and you guessed it, the wagons used that wheel spacing. Now I feel like a fish on a hook! Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if the wagon makers and wheelwrights of the time tried to use any other spacing, the wheel ruts on some of the old, long distance roads would break the wagon axles. As a result, the wheel spacing of the wagons had to match the spacing of the wheel ruts worn into those ancient European roads. So who built those ancient 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. And since the chariots were made by Imperial Roman chariot makers, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Well, here we are. We now have the answer to the original question. 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. That's nice to know, but it still doesn't answer why the Imperial Roman war chariot designers chose to spec the chariot's wheel spacing at exactly 4 feet, 8.5 inches. Are you ready? Because that was the width needed to accommodate the rear ends of two Imperial Roman war horses!!! Well, now you have it. The railroad tunnel through which the late 20th century space shuttle SRBs must pass was excavated slightly wider than two 1st century horses' butts. Consequently, a major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was spec'd by the width of a horse's behind! So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horses' rear end came up with it, you may be exactly right. Now you know what is "behind" it all. ~Author Unknown~
__________________
Goodbye! |
08-28-2003, 07:24 AM | #2 (permalink) |
Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
|
nothing is ever really new, everything is built on some existing technology.
__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. |
08-28-2003, 07:28 AM | #3 (permalink) |
Super Agitator
Location: Just SW of Nowhere!!! In the good old US of A
|
That was very interesting - thanks for the research.
__________________
Life isn't always a bowl of cherries, sometimes it's more like a jar of Jalapenos --- what you say or do today might burn your ass tomorrow!!! |
08-28-2003, 09:00 AM | #4 (permalink) |
Tilted
Location: Seattle
|
Sorry, I've got to call B.S. on this. I read this story and thought "wait a minute, they redesigned the Space Shuttle because the boosters wouldn't fit through a train tunnel?"
There are lot's of ways to transport oversized item like that, so I did some research and found this: http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.htm By the way Snopes.com is the best place to go whenever you get something like this in your e-mail. Last edited by i_t_man; 08-29-2003 at 11:34 AM.. |
08-28-2003, 10:13 AM | #6 (permalink) |
Banned
|
The answer here is amazingly simple.
Sionce when are UNITED STATES railroad sizes the standard at all? Yes it's true about how the US standard has evolved (according to out friend I T MAN, thank you!) But the reality is that the european railway size was definitely influenced by the size of two horses. Interstingly I t Man has been devious in a small way in the information he provided... There are differences of opinion about how wide a horses ares is. The three gauges of railroad mentioned in the article were within 4 inches of width of each other. THEY WERe ALL STILL influenced by the percieved size of the width of a horse cart. For me ... being within 4 or even six inches is enough to say that ASDF's story is true. Thanks for the opportunity to comment skippy |
08-28-2003, 11:20 AM | #7 (permalink) |
Tilted
Location: Seattle
|
I should have been more clear, sorry.
I don't pretend to know anything about railroad gauges. They could be based on the alignment of the stars for all I know. My objection was that like most stories/facts, the internet takes it and details keep getting added to make the story more interesting. The facts about railroad gauges are interesting but they would be a lot more interesting if we could somehow tie it to the space shuttle or something modern and high tech. But often the person or people that put these "yarns" together often overshoot the mark into ridiculousness as is the case here. |
08-28-2003, 12:37 PM | #8 (permalink) |
Registered User
Location: Oklahoma
|
I work in a highly technical field, yet I see this all the time. We do things because that is the way it has always been done. A barrel of oil is 42 gallons. How did this come about? It was the size of the containers used to transport oil when the first oil wells were drilled. Other countries sell oil by the cubic meter rather than the barrel. It also applies when people use their problem solving skills. They use the same methods over and over without really questioning why they are doing something a certain way.
|
08-28-2003, 12:48 PM | #9 (permalink) |
Loser
|
Everything is based on everything else.
And although is might be because of not wanting to change, it is more likely because of economy of implimentation. Why recreate the wheel? But this will be true for ANYTHING even the most modern and sophisicated standards of measurement are based on an agreement of parties to use that standard. If aliens came down here, they would be asking WHY are you using that scale? http://www.remote-control.net/convert/tables/general/ Why a second? Or a meter? Or a liter? For example, why is the second based on it's standards? You can see in the link above there are four different ways of measuring a second. But let's say you pick seconds as a portion of minutes, then it's based on... "The second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom" http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/current.html and that's officially derived by only one country's standards http://www.nist.gov/ BTW, this link is fascinating...look at how many different measurements there are, ways of calculating them and the implications of each. Some might save fractions of a penny, that add up to billions in the long run maybe on a national or global scale. I love this kind of shit. How one thing affects another, and so on. Last edited by rogue49; 08-28-2003 at 12:55 PM.. |
01-31-2005, 03:14 AM | #14 (permalink) |
Jarhead
Location: Colorado
|
Pretty old thread, but I thought I'd comment. The supposed fact that the ruts in roads were caused by "Roman war chariots" is, in actuality, not a fact, but instead, bullshit. By the time Rome had become an Imperial power, chariots as war machines had been obsolete for centuries. The only purpose a chariot would have served in Imperial Rome would be ceremonial. A better answer would be that those ruts were caused by wagons, because yes, the ancients had wagons just like less ancient people did, and used them for many things, including trade and supplying armies and so on.
__________________
If there exists anything mightier than destiny, then it is the courage to face destiny unflinchingly. -Geibel Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else. -Marcus Aurelius Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever? -GySgt. Daniel J. "Dan" Daly |
Tags |
forever, live, specifications |
|
|