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<blockquote data-quote="royinidaho" data-source="post: 609884" data-attributes="member: 2011"><p><span style="color: black"> <span style="font-size: 15px"><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">This has got to be one of the funniest and most informative pieces of trivia I have ever read. You really have to read it to the end to get the full extent of what it is about.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"></span></p><div style="text-align: center"><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></span></span></div><p> </p><p> <span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <div style="text-align: center"><div style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Algerian'">Railroad tracks.</span></span></strong></span></div> </div><p> <span style="font-size: 18px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <span style="font-size: 18px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England , and English expatriates designed the US railroads.</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <span style="font-size: 18px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">Why did the English 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.</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <span style="font-size: 18px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><div style="text-align: center"><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"><span style="font-size: 18px"><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.2&disp=emb&zw" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></span></span></span></div><p> </p><p> <span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <span style="font-size: 18px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel 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.</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p> </p><div style="text-align: center"><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"><span style="font-size: 18px"><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.3&disp=emb&zw" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></span></span></span></div><p> </p><p> <span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <span style="font-size: 22px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'"><span style="font-size: 26px">And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.</span></span></span></strong></span></span></p><div style="text-align: center"><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"><u><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="color: #000000"><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.4&disp=emb&zw" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></span></span></u></div><p> <span style="font-size: 26px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <span style="font-size: 26px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's *** came up with this?' , you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><div style="text-align: center"><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"><u><span style="font-size: 18px"><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.5&disp=emb&zw" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></span></u></div><p> </span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <span style="font-size: 18px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">Now, the twist to the story:</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <span style="font-size: 18px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><div style="text-align: center"><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"><u><span style="font-size: 18px"><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.6&disp=emb&zw" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></span></u></div><p></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p> </p><p> <span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <span style="font-size: 18px"><strong><span style="color: #400040"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><div style="text-align: center"><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"><span style="font-size: 18px"><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.7&disp=emb&zw" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></span></span></span></div><p> </p><p> <span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <span style="font-size: 18px"><strong><span style="color: red"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'">So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ***. And you thought being a horse's *** wasn't important? Ancient horse's asses control almost everything...</span></span></strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> <strong><span style="color: red"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'"><span style="font-size: 26px">and............</span></span></span></strong></span></span></p><p> <span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"><strong><span style="color: red"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'"></span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"><strong><span style="color: red"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'"></span></span></strong><strong><span style="color: #010101"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">CURRENT</span></span></strong><strong><span style="color: red"><span style="font-family: 'Papyrus'"> Horses Asses in Washington are controlling everything else.</span></span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"> </span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'"></span></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="royinidaho, post: 609884, member: 2011"] [COLOR=black] [SIZE=4][COLOR=black][FONT=Tahoma]This has got to be one of the funniest and most informative pieces of trivia I have ever read. You really have to read it to the end to get the full extent of what it is about.[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE] [/COLOR] [CENTER][COLOR=black][FONT=Comic Sans MS][IMG]https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw[/IMG][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER] [COLOR=black][FONT=Comic Sans MS] [CENTER][CENTER][SIZE=5][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Algerian]Railroad tracks.[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE][/CENTER] [/CENTER] [SIZE=5][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus]The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=5][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus]Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England , and English expatriates designed the US railroads.[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=5][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus]Why did the English 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.[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=5][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus]Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [/FONT][/COLOR] [CENTER][COLOR=black][FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=5][IMG]https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.2&disp=emb&zw[/IMG][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER] [COLOR=black][FONT=Comic Sans MS] [SIZE=5][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus]Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel 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.[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [/FONT][/COLOR] [CENTER][COLOR=black][FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=5][IMG]https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.3&disp=emb&zw[/IMG][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER] [COLOR=black][FONT=Comic Sans MS] [SIZE=6][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus]So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus][SIZE=7]And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/B] [CENTER][U][SIZE=5][COLOR=#000000][IMG]https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.4&disp=emb&zw[/IMG][/COLOR][/SIZE][/U][/CENTER] [SIZE=7][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus]Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=7][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus]So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's *** came up with this?' , you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [CENTER][U][SIZE=5][IMG]https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.5&disp=emb&zw[/IMG][/SIZE][/U][/CENTER] [SIZE=5][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus]Now, the twist to the story:[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=5][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus]When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [CENTER][U][SIZE=5][IMG]https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.6&disp=emb&zw[/IMG][/SIZE][/U][/CENTER] [/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=black][FONT=Comic Sans MS] [SIZE=5][B][COLOR=#400040][FONT=Papyrus]The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [/FONT][/COLOR] [CENTER][COLOR=black][FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=5][IMG]https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=a824c908a6&view=att&th=1354f860176e0eb9&attid=0.7&disp=emb&zw[/IMG][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER] [COLOR=black][FONT=Comic Sans MS] [SIZE=5][B][COLOR=red][FONT=Papyrus]So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ***. And you thought being a horse's *** wasn't important? Ancient horse's asses control almost everything...[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE] [B][COLOR=red][FONT=Papyrus][SIZE=7]and............[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/B] [B][COLOR=red][FONT=Papyrus] [/FONT][/COLOR][/B][B][COLOR=#010101][FONT=Tahoma]CURRENT[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][B][COLOR=red][FONT=Papyrus] Horses Asses in Washington are controlling everything else.[/FONT][/COLOR][/B] [/FONT][/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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