Kimiko Ross (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
autodidacticrobogirl) wrote2010-07-11 03:35 pm
autodidacticrobogirl) wrote2010-07-11 03:35 pm
Entry tags:
oo8 | Specifications | Audio/Open
The U.S. standard railroad gauge is 4 feet, 8.5 inches.
[And now it's time to play the 'lets pretend that never happened' game!]
That's actually a pretty odd number to use. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the U.S. railroads were built by English expatriates. The first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. In addition, the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. So why did the wagons have that particular odd 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.
The first really long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. The ruts in the roads, which everyone had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels, were first formed by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for, or by, Imperial Rome, they were naturally all standard in the matter of wheel spacing. The U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
...
There's a reason why I'm officially banned from philosophy conferences.
[And now it's time to play the 'lets pretend that never happened' game!]
That's actually a pretty odd number to use. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the U.S. railroads were built by English expatriates. The first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. In addition, the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. So why did the wagons have that particular odd 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.
The first really long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. The ruts in the roads, which everyone had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels, were first formed by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for, or by, Imperial Rome, they were naturally all standard in the matter of wheel spacing. The U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
...
There's a reason why I'm officially banned from philosophy conferences.
[ audio ]
But nobody's going to stop being stupid because they all think they're smarter than that. They're embarrassed to act intelligently, because they're afraid of looking stupid in front of the others.