I'll stick with my answer:
At the risk of being a bore:
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MORE HORSES' ASSES THAN HORSES
With apologies for the crudity, be assured that the shoe fits. In fact, we didn't intend to include this one until we found it forwarded to us a sixth time -- and this time from an engineer. Here's the claim:
NASA solid fuel booster rockets are of a certain diameter. That diameter, it was claimed, is set by the size of railroad tunnels, which in turn is limited by the standard railroad "gauge" -- the distance between the rails. The modern gauge was inherited from older rail traditions which were influenced by old wagon makers, who we influenced by the ancient Roman roads which cover Europe.
And why were the ruts in the Roman roads as they were? The claim is that they were worn by Roman war chariots which were pulled by two horses. The span of those wheels, therefore, predicts the size of wagons, then of rails, then of booster rockets. Though long gone, the Romans are driving the space program.
The clever conclusion was: "So the next time you wonder why those SRBs are so narrow, remember it's all because of an ancient Roman horse's ass." The link between ancient Rome and modern NASA programs is charming. It's the kind of thing you want to be true.
It is? I asked the Guru, who calls it one of his greatest challenges yet.
I call it one of his greatest triumphs.
Rome, Roads, and Railroads
Question(s): Is it true that the United States’ standard rail gauge [ distance between the rails] of four feet, eight and one half inches, was used because that’s the gauge railroads used in England, and English railroads were built as wide as English tramways, and English tramways were built as wide as durable English wagons, and durable English wagons were built to match the width of ruts in the Roman roads of England, and the ruts were made by Roman imperial chariots, and Roman chariot wheels were all just wide enough to hitch up two Roman war horses, and that width equaled four feet, eight and one half inches?
Answer: FALSE
History:
The Roman Empire can be credited with many things, but the development of the United States’ standard railroad gauge is not one of its achievements. The exact origin of the standard rail gauge is open to historical speculation, inviting the sprawling theory linking the gauge to the width of a hitched pair of Roman war horses. However, follow the history of the standard gauge back through time and the "Roman rail gauge" theory collapses.
The U.S. standard rail gauge is 4 feet, eight and one half inches. The U.S. railroad industry declared that distance as the national standard in 1886. Most railroad tracks in the U.S. already used the 4’ 8.5" gauge. This included the first U.S. transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869, using that gauge as required by the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The 4’ 8.5" gauge became common in the U.S. between 1830 and 1862 because the most famous early steam locomotive, the "Rocket", used that gauge. The "Rocket" was built in England by George Stephenson and his son Robert for an 1829 locomotive contest.
George Stephenson chose to use of the 4’ 8.5" gauge, but he did not have to. Alternative distances were used in both England and the U.S. before the gauges were standardized. The reasons why Stephenson chose the 4’ 8.5" gauge have been the subject of debate for years. Before Stephenson began manufacturing commercial locomotives and railroads, he built his first locomotives as an engineer for collieries (coal mines) of northeast England. The locomotives Stephenson built for collieries sought to replace horses pulling coal carts over tram rails. The collieries he worked at were in the same region as Wylam, England, where Stephenson was born in 1781. Wylam is just miles from the Newcastle-upon-Tyne River, and not far from a section of Hadrian’s Wall, a defensive structure across northern England, built by the Romans between 120 and 130 A.D. There are also Roman roads in northeast England. Stephenson’s nearness to Hadrian’s Wall and Roman roads grasps at a possible Roman influence on his choice for a rail gauge. However, an understanding of the dimensions involved in the Roman transportation system completely undermines that possibility.
The foot was a Roman measurement for length, but one Roman foot was equal to 0.97 modern feet, or 11.64 inches. Roman measurements in feet equal slightly smaller widths in modern terms. Roads were important enough to be included in the Twelve Tables of 450 B.C., the earliest Roman law code. Table VII: Rights Concerning Land dictated, "The width of a road [extends] to eight feet where it runs straight ahead, sixteen round a bend ..." 420 years later, as the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire, a more extensive and increasingly wide class of roads was developing.
In the Roman Empire, an eight foot road was a by-road. Country roads averaged twenty feet. The widest of Roman roads, the decumanus maximus, spanned forty feet. The primary purpose of the road system was military transportation, and the Roman army did most of the road building. A roman road was built in layers. Construction began with a straight trench. The trench was filled layer by layer: sand, gravel, and crushed rock. Finally, the road was surfaced with smooth stones, cut to fit tightly and sometimes set in mortar. Roman roads demonstrated outstanding durability over time, many of them are still used by modern vehicles.
Roman vehicles, including those of the Imperial army, traveled these roads on wooden wheels. If a road saw heavy traffic and wasn’t maintained even wooden wheels could create ruts in the stone. Most roads were well maintained, so ruts from general wear couldn’t have been common. Still, some Roman roads were purposely rutted to guide vehicles over bad terrain. Some roads were also notched in places to help horses keep their footing. The ruts that do mark Roman roads in places can indicate the average wheel widths for Roman vehicles. That average ranges between 3’ 9" and 4’ 3.25" in modern terms . A 4’ 8.5" width was possible, but it was not average, and could not have been standard.
Finally, consider the average size of a Roman war horse. The Friesian breed of horse was used by the Romans, and earned a reputation as a war horse breed. The average Friesian is fifteen hands high, weighing 1,250 to 1,300 pounds. An animal that size would be 32" to 36" wide. Two of those animals could be hitched 2" to 3" apart. At the minimum widths, a pair of hitched horses that size would span 66" across, or 5’ 6" in modern terms. Roman chariot wheels could not have been spaced as wide as two hitched war horses. The average wheel widths of Roman vehicles were nowhere near that wide.
An accurate depiction of Roman transportation buries the "Roman rail gauge" theory. A hitched pair of war horses were wider than 4’ 8.5". The average Roman wheel widths were narrower than 4’ 8.5". Wider horses pulling narrower vehicles could not trace out the 4’ 8.5" ruts that future generations would absolutely and slavishly have to follow to transmit that exact distance from the Roman Empire to England over the course of more than 1,300 years separating the death of the empire and the birth of locomotives . The "Roman rail gauge" theory is way off track.
Infosweep Research Staff
Sources
Traditional:
Chevallier, Raymond. Roman Roads. Berkeley: California University Press, 1976.
Landels, J.G. Engineering in the Ancient World. Berkeley: California University Press, 1978.
Margary, Ivan. Roman Roads in Britain. London: John Baker, 1973.
Van Doran, Charles. A History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991.
Web Sites:
Federal Railroad Administration <www.fra.dot.gov/site/index.htm>
British National Railroad Museum Collections: "Rocket" <www.nmsi.ac.uk/nrm/html/coll%5Fpb/st_rock.htm>
George Stephenson <www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RAstephensonG.htm>
Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site-Exploring the Wall <www.hadrians-wall.org/explore.htm>
How to get to Wylam [England] <www.netcomuk.co.uk/~sesmith/Travel.html>
Law of the Twelve Tables <www.humanities.ccny.cuny.edu/history/reader/romanlaw.htm>
Measurement Conversion Calculator <calc.entisoft.com/scripts/UnitsCGI.Exe>
The Roman Army Appendix B: Army Animals <www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/6622>
The Friesian Horse Association of North America FAQ <www.fhana.com/FAQs.htm>
"The Construction and Makeup of Ancient Roman Roads" by Adam Pawluk <www.unc.edu/courses/rometech/public/content/trans.../Construction_and_Makeup_of.htm>
Copyright 2000 by Theatre Arts Enterprises
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