[Milsurplus] Mil Spec

[Lloyd]

Couldn't resist adding this

HOW MIL SPEC LIVES FOREVER
The U.S Standard railroad gauge (distance between rails) is 4 feet 8 �
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 this 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 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 manner of wheel spacing.

Thus we have the answer to the original question. The United States Standard
Railroad Gauge of 4 feet, 8 � inches derives from the original
specifications of an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specs and bureaucracies
live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horses ass
came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war
chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back-ends of
two war horses.



Lloyd Godsey  KK7IZ
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