[Milsurplus] Mil Spec

[mikea]

On Mon, May 26, 2003 at 06:52:00PM -0700, Lloyd wrote:
> 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.

It's a good story. Too bad it's totally bogus. Visit www.snopes.com 
for the quick take on it, but be aware that even Australia has _three_
different gauges in _current_ use, that there are at least two in use
in the US, and that the situation in Europe and Asia is much, much
more confused. 

-- 
Mike Andrews
mikea@mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin since 1964