From: JFC (Jefsey) Morfin (jefsey@jefsey.com)
Date: Wed May 18 2005 - 07:14:34 CDT
At 12:34 18/05/2005, Raymond Mercier wrote:
>
>
> >So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long
> distance roads
>A nice tale, but not the whole truth:
>
>"A popular <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend>urban legend traces
>the origin of the 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) gauge even further back then the
>coalfields of northern England, pointing to the evidence of rutted roads
>dating from the <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire>Roman Empire.
>This legend is mostly false, however, except inasmuch that it shows a
>historical tendency to place the wheels of vehicles approximately five
>feet (1500 mm) apart."
>
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge
Try to use an other gauge and drive in Pompei's streets. This guys were
tough on cross-walks.
>However, while we are having fun with standards, can someone explain why
>the length of A4 paper (European not U.S.) 29.7 cm, is identical to the
>Roman foot ? Coincidence, or the product of sideways thinking by some
>eurocrat ?
Size of the monks A0 paper I suppose? Because a Roman Emperor and then a
Pope had no spectacles, hence the size of the documents and books for them
to read them.
jfc
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