The birth of a specification
Some of the sharpest minds on the planet spend each waking moment trying to figure out exactly where the World Wide Web will take us.
By Mitch Mac Donald -- Modern Materials Handling, 3/1/2000
Even in a world that moves at "web" speed, there are vestiges of the past that will live on, it seems, forever.In fact, evidence of that came to me recently via, what else? The Internet.
We all know that this Internet stuff is very serious business. I've got to be honest, though. To date, the best part of the Internet for me has been the humorous messages that make their way to my desk each day via e-mail.
Though these messages almost never have anything to do with my job or the industry I cover, there was one recent one that had at least a slight connection to the logistics field. It dealt with how the standard U.S. rail gauge specification came to be precisely 4 feet, 8 and 1/2 inches.
Seems like a decidedly odd number doesn't it? Well, there is a very interesting reason for the particular specification.
To understand the genesis of the number, you have to first step back historically. American railroads were largely built by British expatriates. Since the standard rail gauge in England was 4 feet, 8 and 1/2 inches, they apparently figured that would be the right number here in North America, as well. "But," you might ask, "why is that the rail gauge in England?" Well, it's because early English railroads were built by the same people who built a pre-railroad tramway system throughout Britain.
OK! Why were the trams built to that specification? Simple. The people who made the trams had previously been in the business of building horse-drawn wagons. Those wagon wheels were spaced precisely (are you catching on here?) 4 feet, 8 and 1/2 inches apart. Why? Because if they had used a different spacing, the wagons would have broken on old European roads that were full of ruts that just happened to be 4 feet, 8 and 1/2 inches apart.
So, how did these roads come to have all these ruts spaced at such a seemingly arbitrary distance? You must keep in mind that many of the long-distance roads on the Continent were built to allow movement of the Imperial Roman legions and have been in use ever since.
And the ruts? They were made by some of the first vehicles to travel these roads: the war chariots of Roman armies. Once the ruts were established, other wagons had to match the ruts or risk damaging their wheels and axles.
And finally, "Why were the wheels on a Roman war chariot exactly 4 feet, 8 and 1/2 inches apart?" Because that was the average width of the backsides of the two warhorses used to power it.
So, next time you ask, "What horse's ass came up with that specification," you may have answered your own question simply by asking it!
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