It sounds very unlikely, but actually, it seems that it is probably true.
The Roman chariots were built with a wheel spacing wide enough to accommodate two horses, and they were standardized.
Those chariots made ruts in the Roman roads, so everyone else who made chariots or wagons made them to the same width, because otherwise the chariot ruts would break the wheels of the odd-sized ones. This practice continued long after the Roman chariots were gone, because the ruts never changed.
The builders of the first early railroad used templates for construction based off of wagons from that day: with wheel spacing to fit those ruts.
The builders of the first more modern railroads used the same width because they saw no reason to change it.
The builders of US railroads used the same width, because that's what they were used to using, and it would make parts compatible across the Atlantic.
The booster rockets of the space shuttle had to be transported by rail, and one section of the trip passed through a tunnel that was barely wide enough for a train. The designers of the rockets would have preferred a fatter rocket, but had to make do with this width.
And that's how a Roman official designing the standardized chariot to fit two horses affected the design of the space shuttle...
If he only knew.
(Distilled and paraphrased from a much longer e-mail I received)
The Roman chariots were built with a wheel spacing wide enough to accommodate two horses, and they were standardized.
Those chariots made ruts in the Roman roads, so everyone else who made chariots or wagons made them to the same width, because otherwise the chariot ruts would break the wheels of the odd-sized ones. This practice continued long after the Roman chariots were gone, because the ruts never changed.
The builders of the first early railroad used templates for construction based off of wagons from that day: with wheel spacing to fit those ruts.
The builders of the first more modern railroads used the same width because they saw no reason to change it.
The builders of US railroads used the same width, because that's what they were used to using, and it would make parts compatible across the Atlantic.
The booster rockets of the space shuttle had to be transported by rail, and one section of the trip passed through a tunnel that was barely wide enough for a train. The designers of the rockets would have preferred a fatter rocket, but had to make do with this width.
And that's how a Roman official designing the standardized chariot to fit two horses affected the design of the space shuttle...
If he only knew.
(Distilled and paraphrased from a much longer e-mail I received)
