3 ms·

I feel like this story is even better than the wrong meme that sparked it.

• readthenotes1 2y ago
  ' in 1845, Robert Stephenson made the following statement: “If I had been called upon to do so, it would be difficult to give a good reason for the adoption of an odd measure — 4 feet 8 and a half inches.” ' Well, the half inch is accounted for , but not the original 5' plateway.
• jcranmer 2y ago
  I think that the meme even had legs in the first place is due to the fact that 4'8½" is an objectively weird gauge--why the ½"? That the 4'8½" track gauge can be traced to Stephenson's decision isn't hard to figure out, nor is the fact that there is some measure of continuity between older forms of railway-like systems and railways. I expect that the meme came about from someone interpolating those facts to assume that the 4'8½" gauge came from a precise reconstruction of some Roman thing, since it's also decently common knowledge that Roman units are not the same as imperial units. The rest of the meme (tying this fallacious history of the track gauge to the size of a rocket part) is very obviously complete balderdash to anyone with a modicum of railroad engineering. Or put more succinctly: The original meme: 4'8½" exists because exact replica of Romans. The truth: As laid it, it was originally exactly 5'. But we changed what we use to measure gauge, so it's now reported as 4'8". Stephenson changed that to 4'8½" because that allowed him to fix a problem he had without having to replace anything. And honestly, "cheap engineering fix" is a more interesting explanation to a conundrum than "Romans."