Re: [tied Change is not Universal.

Dear friends,

   This little historical story should put some of the discussions of late
into some perspective:   Standards & Specs! There's A Reason For It!

   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.

   OK, 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 same
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 and 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 for an Imperial Roman army war chariot.

   So you see, Specs and Bureaucracies live forever... And the next time you
are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you
may be closer to the truth than you realize.... Because the Imperial Roman
chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back-ends of two
war horses!

Best regards, John Piscopo
http://www.johnpiscoposwords.com
PO Box 137
Western Springs, IL 60558-0137
(708)246-7111