>
> An excellent example of the institutionalist explanation of human behavior
> - worth more than all econ bs and assorted "systemic" theories combined.
>
> wojtek
>
>
>
> >Here is a look into the corporate mind that is very interesting,
> >educational, historical, completely true, and hysterical all at the same
> >time:
> >
> >The US standard railroad gauge (width between the two 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 the US railroads
> >were built by English expatriates.
> >
> >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 in the roads? Roman war
> >chariots first formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match
> >for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made
> >for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel
> >spacing.
> >
> >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 what horse's ass came up with it, you
> >may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made
> >just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. Thus,
> >we have the answer to the original question.
> >
> >Now the twist to the story..............
> >
> >There's an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges and
> >horses' behinds. When we 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 SRBs. The SRBs are made by
> >Thiokol at their factory in Utah.
> >
> >The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a
> >bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to
> >the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a
> >tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The
> >tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track
> >is about as wide as two horses' behinds.
> >
> >So, the major 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!
> >
>
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu