BillyVance 34 #1 July 23, 2010 My father was a chemical engineer at Thiokol Corp for 35 years, more or less, but he was not on the solid rocket booster project. He sent this to me and I found it interesting, and funny! AN INTERESTING 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."Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 3 #2 July 23, 2010 QuoteMy father was a chemical engineer at Thiokol Corp for 35 years, more or less, but he was not on the solid rocket booster project. He sent this to me and I found it interesting, and funny! Oh really? Because this one's been floating around the internet for at least 10 years. http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.aspquade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skyrider 0 #3 July 23, 2010 Quote Quote My father was a chemical engineer at Thiokol Corp for 35 years, more or less, but he was not on the solid rocket booster project. He sent this to me and I found it interesting, and funny! Oh really? Because this one's been floating around the internet for at least 10 years. http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp You don;t think he could be over 10 years old? It had to start somewhere.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BillyVance 34 #4 July 23, 2010 Quote Quote My father was a chemical engineer at Thiokol Corp for 35 years, more or less, but he was not on the solid rocket booster project. He sent this to me and I found it interesting, and funny! Oh really? Because this one's been floating around the internet for at least 10 years. http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp He didn't say it was true. Of course it's a joke. Engineers have a strange sense of humor."Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
usedtajump 1 #5 July 23, 2010 Weeping Jesus on the cross!! There's two minutes of my ever increasingly all too short, sweet life down the shitter. The older I get the less I care who I piss off. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 3 #6 July 23, 2010 Quote Weeping Jesus on the cross!! There's two minutes of my ever increasingly all too short, sweet life down the shitter. Dude, you were already on DZ.Com. It's not in that time like you were going to cure cancer.quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
usedtajump 1 #7 July 23, 2010 Gimmie time, I'm working on it, Jeez. The older I get the less I care who I piss off. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
