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Message-ID: <004201c711f0$07349be0$fdafecdc@george>
From: "George Lendich" <lendich@optusnet.com.au>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
References: <list-1610326@logan.com>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Re: metric system
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 16:48:19 +1000
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>
> On 27, Nov , at 7:07 AM, Sandy wrote:
>
>> Let me make sure I have this right.
>> Two horse's ass's (how do you spell the plural of ass?) determined the
>> diameter of the Space Shuttle booster rockets.  Is that about it?
>>
>  Ass is another name for a donkey; the word you want is 'arse' and the 
> plural of arse is arses
> The width of a roman road was determined by the wheel tracks of a roman 
> war chariot drawn by two horses side by side. When the railroads were 
> developed in England they followed the main arterial roads which were 
> originally the roman roads, so the rails were laid on the wheel tracks; 
> about 5 feet apart. 19th century rail technology in the US came from 
> England so US railroads indirectly were based on roman roads. The space 
> shuttle boosters were designed to be transported by rail so the width was 
> based on roman two horse chariots.
> That is about it, BR, Dave McC

Hang on Dave, aren't the American tracks wider than the English and 
Australian tracks - perhaps the horses were bigger or fatter. I know we have 
narrow gauge and I believe the US is wide gauge. Can't remember the actual 
measurements.
Interesting thing about the Roman roads though!
George (down under)