An interesting history lesson .........

[greenberetTFS]

AN INTERESTING HISTORY LESSON.
Railroad tracks. This is fascinating.
Be sure to read the final paragraph; your understanding of it will depend on the earlier part of the content.
The US standard railroad gauge (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 English expatriates built the US railroads.
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.
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 used that wheel spacing.
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.
So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England ) for their legions The roads have been used ever since.
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. 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.
So the next time you are handed a Specification/Procedure/Process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with it?' 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.) Now, the twist to the story:
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 SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRB's would 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 happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB's 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.
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 ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important? Ancient horse's asses control almost everything... and CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else.

GB TFS

[Red Flag 1]

The Romans have given us so much. I knew about the railway track width as related to the vehicle behind the horses asses. Somehow I missed the Space Shuttle connection.

Having spent time in jolly old England, you can easily pick out the Roman roads vs the English roads. The Roman roads are dead on straight. No matter what, they were staight.

In Trier, Germany, there is a huge church ( a Dom ) built by the Romans. Impressive structure that has the vestments cast lots for at the crucifiction, and the burial vault of Roman Emperor Constatine's Mother. In the late 1950's a German contractor was hired to fix the cracks in the walls of the structure. After some investigation, is was found that the water table had fallen enough to allow the huge wooden pilings the Romans had driven into the ground as the foundation, to begin to rot. The structure was unsuppoerted by any foundation. The pilings were exposed under the structure. Cement was injected deep into the ground around the pilings. This took several years to complete. The contractor was then able to repair the cracks in the walls.

For what it is worth, I am Italian. The Romans have given us much.

RF 1

[Richard]

FWIW - FALSE...but interesting to ponder.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp

On the other hand, here is a true interesting History lesson which came from the OSS Society.

Martin Tytell was a typewriter repairman and expert -- that's it. But in his 70-year career, which ended on his retirement in 2000, Tytell was so influential that when he once made a mistake on a typewriter that was set up for Burmese (he accidentally inserted the slug for one character upside down), the mistake became standard -- even in Burma (now Myanmar). His Manhattan shop, where he advertised "Psychoanalysis for Your Typewriter", was frequented by writers like Dorothy Parker, newsmen like David Brinkley, and politicians like Dwight D. Eisenhower. Mail addressed simply to "Mr. Typewriter, New York" were delivered to him. When a museum curator needed a hieroglyphics typewriter, Tytell was able to build it. Tytell even invented a reverse carriage for languages that read from right to left. Tytell started early: he got the contract to service the typewriters in a hospital before he even
graduated from high school. In 1943, The Office of Strategic Services asked him to convert a batch of 100 machines to type in 17 different languages. When he was done, they were airdropped to O.S.S. units along the front lines. "I'm 83 years old and I just signed a 10-year lease on this office," he said in 1977. "I'm an optimist, obviously." As for typewriters themselves, "I hope they do survive," he said. "Manual typewriters are where my heart is. They're what keep me alive." Some do survive, but Tytell died September 11 from cancer. He was 98.

Richard

[Pete]

It looks to me that Snopes really had to streatch a bit to get the False on that one.

An interesting section was on the Civil War - The North had one size and the south had three. Snopes contention was that the US went with one size only because the North won.

However else the war might have turned out you had 50% at one size in the north and about 16% each of three different sizes in the south. Faster commerce after the war would have driven the smaller size lines to convert to the more common one.

[Team Sergeant]

I've nothing good to say about snopes, they have gone from amusing to extreme left wing and very little credibility, about as believable as wikipedia.

Believe nothing that's on the internet until you have done due diligence.

And delete "all" those messages that are "forwarded" to you as "facts".

Just my .02 cents.

TS

[Richard]

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/r/railwidth.htm

How about this one?

Richard

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by Richard

FWIW - FALSE...but interesting to ponder.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp

On the other hand, here is a true interesting History lesson which came from the OSS Society.

Martin Tytell was a typewriter repairman and expert -- that's it. But in his 70-year career, which ended on his retirement in 2000, Tytell was so influential that when he once made a mistake on a typewriter that was set up for Burmese (he accidentally inserted the slug for one character upside down), the mistake became standard -- even in Burma (now Myanmar). His Manhattan shop, where he advertised "Psychoanalysis for Your Typewriter", was frequented by writers like Dorothy Parker, newsmen like David Brinkley, and politicians like Dwight D. Eisenhower. Mail addressed simply to "Mr. Typewriter, New York" were delivered to him. When a museum curator needed a hieroglyphics typewriter, Tytell was able to build it. Tytell even invented a reverse carriage for languages that read from right to left. Tytell started early: he got the contract to service the typewriters in a hospital before he even
graduated from high school. In 1943, The Office of Strategic Services asked him to convert a batch of 100 machines to type in 17 different languages. When he was done, they were airdropped to O.S.S. units along the front lines. "I'm 83 years old and I just signed a 10-year lease on this office," he said in 1977. "I'm an optimist, obviously." As for typewriters themselves, "I hope they do survive," he said. "Manual typewriters are where my heart is. They're what keep me alive." Some do survive, but Tytell died September 11 from cancer. He was 98.

Richard

Richard,

You nailed me again,I knew I should have checked that info before posting it....

GB TFS