From jperryl@ecs.fullerton.edu Fri Oct 25 16:47:56 1996 Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 11:20:17 -0700 (PDT) From: Judy Perry Reply-To: csd-l@ecs.fullerton.edu To: csd-l@ecs.fullerton.edu Subject: How Standards Get Established (fwd) Ain't it the truth?? Judy ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 13:30:12 -0700 From: MacWay@aol.com Reply-To: macway@solutions.apple.com To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: How Standards Get Established I don't know if this is a true story, but it sure sounds good. And I never let the truth get in the way of evangelism. :-) This story might explain more than just the railroad gauge standard. :-) Guy 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 State 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. ________________ Do you believe in Macintosh? Please check out and join the EvangeList mailing list by sending an email to .