Subj: Roads,Chariots and Trains
Date: 31/05/00 05:54:00 GMT Daylight Time
From: tots(a)moranbah.net.au (tots)
To: CarmarthenFHS2(a)aol.com
The U.S. standard railroad gauge,that is the 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 U.S. 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 also
used the wheel spacing. Okay! Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing?
Well if they tried to use any other spacing wagons would break on some of the
old,long distance roads because that was the spacing of the old wheel ruts.
So who built the 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 Imperial Rome they were all alike
in the matter of wheel spacing.
Thus we 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 chariot.
Specs and bureaucracies live forever,so the next time you are handed a
specification and wonder what horse's....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 end of two horses.
From unknown source on the internet.