While we are on the subject of horse's asses and rail gauges, there is another
tale. The Russian railroads, at least those built between 1880 and 1940,
including the TransSiberian railway, used a wider gauge than the Western
European (Roman) standard. During the German invasion 1941-1945, the German
army had to move supplies deep into Russia, and they originally had to use
captured Russian rolling stock and transfer all goods from German cars to
Russian cars at the border stations. German army engineers decided it would be
more efficient to move the Russian track to accommodate the narrower European
gauge engines and carriages. Then a second problem arose -- the Russian coal
tenders, being wider and higher, carried about 40% more coal than a German
tender, and the locomotives had bigger steam tanks. The Russian coaling and
water stations were therefore about 40% further apart than the German ones, and
the German engines could not go far into Russia even after re-gauging the
track. So the German engineers built new coaling and water stations between
the Russian ones. Largely as a consequence, the operating railways in the
Ukraine and Belarus are now standard gauge, but Mother Russia still has a mix. (01)
-Ed (02)
--
Edward J. Barkmeyer Email: edbark@xxxxxxxx
National Institute of Standards & Technology
Engineering Laboratory -- Systems Integration Division
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8263 Office: +1 301-975-3528
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8263 Mobile: +1 240-672-5800
________________________________________
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Pat Hayes [phayes@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2013 3:28 AM
To: deddy; [ontolog-forum]
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Architectural considerations in Ontology
Development (03)
On Feb 16, 2013, at 3:06 PM, deddy wrote: (04)
> Aït-Kaci -
>
>>
>> only reason the width of a Roman horse's ass over 2000 years ago!
>>
>
> Likely largely true.
>
> But... this being America (which I assume is likely the same sort of chaos
>elsewhere)... (05)
In the UK there was a war between the current standard gauge used by Stevenson
and the wider 7 foot gauge preferred by Brunel. Some lines had three rails to
allow both to be used. (06)
Pat (07)
>
> Around the Civil War there were approximately 21 rail gauges east of the
>Mississippi.
>
> Clearly the issue of there being a plethora of "standards" is not a new
>challenge.
>
>
> The corporate game of intentional lack of interoperability is not new.
>
> ______________________
> David Eddy
> Babson Park, MA
>
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