Re: horses and space shuttles

But aren't those wobbly calf trails fun?

When I was little, we went to Pine Lodge in the Capitan Mountains, a 50-mile
trip on a dirt and gravel road. Glen and I rode in the back of the '36 Ford
pickemup, sometimes sitting on the tailgate when we had to go real slow.

Heading west, we passed 13-Mile Hill, then on to Jones Ranch, the Sand
Hills, the Windmill, Rattlesnake Ridge, then down the Stair Steps to
Purcella flats, hoping it had not rained recently so we could get through.
If we made it that far, we passed 17-mile corner, then Cactus Hill, and past
Bugtussel, on to 4-Mile Corner. The road got even rougher, and we passed
the Rocks at the old Lumber Mill, on past the Campground, and we were almost
there!

By then it was very dark, and the cabin only had kerosene lanterns for
light. I trimmed the wicks and cleaned the globes with newspapers, using a
flashlight. Dad started the fire in the fireplace while Mom started supper.
We sat down to eat, when Dad saw "something" outside the window. He stared,
and I dived under the table....

Nowadays, the road has been paved, straightened, and totally avoids The
Stair Steps and Purcella Flats. Back then, getting there or not getting
there was half the fun!

Neal
"Barbara Carlson" <bbcarlson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:39qdnZYqxLMgL6zVnZ2dnUVZ_s3inZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
This reminds me of one of my very favorite poems called, "The Cowpath."

Essentially it starts with a wobbly calf staggering along his first
unsteady steps, making a slight depression in the grass. Of course other
animals followed this slightly easier pathway, to larger ones, to country
pathways and to roads, all following that path the wobbly calf took
instead of straightening the road to make it efficient. New England is
full of matured "Cowpaths".

Barb C.
"Ed Chait" <edchait4remove@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0e-dnURUSN2sA6zVnZ2dnUVZ_hzinZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet,
8.5 inches. That is 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 build them that
way? 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 & tools that they used for building wagons, which used that
wheel spacing. So why did the wagons have that particular odd 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. So who built those old rutted roads? The
first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial
Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts
in the roads? The ruts in the roads, which everyone had to match for fear
of destroying their wagon wheels, were first formed by Roman war
chariots.

Since the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome,they were all
alike in the matter of wheel spacing. The U.S. standard railroad gauge of
4 feet-8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial
Roman war chariot. Specifications 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 war
chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back end of two
war horses.

Thus we have the answer to the original question. Now the twist to the
story... When we see a space shuttle sitting on its launching pad, there
are two booster rockets attached to the side of the main fuel tank. These
are solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at
their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRB's might have
preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped by
train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the
factory had to run thru a tunnel in the mountains. The tunnel is slightly
wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as
two horses' behinds. So, the major 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 ass!








.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: I had to post this
    ... >> built the US Railroads. ... >> they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. ... >> on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the ...
    (rec.models.railroad)
  • Re: horses and space shuttles
    ... Because that's the way they built them in England, ... So why did the wagons have that particular odd spacing? ... on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the ... spacing of the wheel ruts. ...
    (sci.med.transcription)
  • Re: horses and space shuttles
    ... Because that's the way they built them in England, ... So why did the wagons have that particular odd spacing? ... spacing of the wheel ruts. ... So who built those old rutted roads? ...
    (sci.med.transcription)
  • Re: horses and space shuttles
    ... Because that's the way they built them in England, ... which used that wheel spacing. ... break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's ...
    (sci.med.transcription)
  • Re: What Car?!
    ... icy single track roads a good few times. ... I say I've nearly got stuck a few times, ... Fabia with the standard Continental tyres and it's been great on snow ... How does ASR deal with a wheel slip on one side then, ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
Loading