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April/May 2004 Issue
Traditions – Hard to shake ’em
by Darrell Anderson
It has been a while since I have written a column full of useless facts (and I know some of you are saying that I do that every issue).
Regardless, here we go!
I am always amazed at the difficult task we all have in trying to “shake off” traditions that have become such an integral part of our lives.
Some are good traditions.
But some are antiquated traditions that really don’t contribute to the value of our lives or to the commodities that we produce.
The following useless facts should make us stop and ask, “Why?”
The
Why was that gauge used?
Because that’s the way they built them in
Why did the English build them with that distance between the rails?
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 were used for building wagons, which used that exact wheel spacing.
Okay, so why did the wagons have that particularly 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
Why?
Because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So, who built those old rutted roads?
The first long-distance roads in
And the ruts?
Roman war chariots first made the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels and wagons.
Because the chariots were made for – or by – Imperial Rome, they were all alike in wheel spacing.
Thus, we have the answer to the original question.
The
of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
By the way, that distance was determined by the exact width of the back end of two war-horses.
This would be a good spot for me to make some smart comment about this being another example of how horses’ rear-ends dictate policy for us, but I’m going to resist.
Oh, and don’t be discouraged – my tale of useless facts isn’t over yet.
There’s another twist to this story.
When you see a space shuttle sitting on its launch pad, you’ll notice two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are called solid rocket boosters, or SRBs.
Thiokol makes the SRBs at their factory in
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 had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you remember, 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 by the width of a horse’s rear end!
Think about it!
Maybe some of the traditions that have trapped you were designed or shaped by a similar path of circumstances. This would be a great time to step back and take a serious look at why you do the things you do.
We are living in an exciting time – don’t let traditions of the past hold you back from enjoying the opportunities of the future!
