Blot til lyst!
Jeg vil glede kolleger med vedlagte analyse. Den viser til fulle at
tilsynelatende rasjonelle tekniske beslutninger er dypt forankret i
historien.
Jeg hadde særlig glede av det siste avsnitt som innfører enheten
HR som mål på spennvidden i byråkratiske beslutninger.
Vennlig hilsen
Lars O. Svaasand
> 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.
> Okay! 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? The first long distance roads
> in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their
> legions. The roads have been used ever since. 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.
> Since the chariots were made for, or by Imperial Rome, they were
> all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
> Thus, we have the answer to the original question.
> The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives
> from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
> Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So, the next time you
> are handed a specification and wonder which horse's rear came up
> with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman war
> chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate two war-horses.
Dr. Lars O. Svaasand
Professor of Physical Electronics
Department of Physical Electronics
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
e-mail NORWAY: svaasand_at_fysel.ntnu.no
phone. + 47 73 59 4421
fax. + 47 73 59 1441
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