For the most part, anything which is timely is out the door. Items which require response from readers are equally difficult to handle. And while history is always a safe topic, since it is not likely change in one's absence, we find that we, without the he-we, quickly run out of steam when it comes to history. Unfortunately, that leaves us with ideas we have gotten via e-mail.

Now mind you, we get some very interesting and informative e-mails. We are greatly amused by a number of friends' jokes although we unhesitatingly admit that most of them are not appropriate for publication in this, or any other, newspaper. We readily cry at the heartbreaking experiences which are often detailed in e-mails. And we are either outraged or encouraged by the on-line petitions we are asked to sign. None of these, of course, made for good material for the column.

Occasionally, however, we do receive an e-mail with we find interesting, being troubled mainly by the fact that we have no idea if it is indeed correct, that we feel we can share. And thus this week, we pass on one we received from former Cooperstonian Doug Preston who counts railroads, not to mention the Cooperstown Fire Department, as one of his favorite topics. We should note that the original e-mail came complete with drawings which have been deleted from this presentation and we have changed some language so as not to offend the innocent.

Railroads

Does the statement, "We've always done it like that" ring any bells? Read this email to the end; you'll love it!

The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the 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 English expatriates built the U.S. Railroads. 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?

Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads?

Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.

The U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's behind came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses!

Now, the twist to the story. When you 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 at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would 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 happens 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, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle 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 behind.

And you thought being a HORSE'S BEHIND wasn't important!

In closing, we thank Doug for sharing this e-mail with us and look forward to his next offering, which, depending on our vacation schedule, may or may not make it into the column.

We remain,

In these Otsego hills,

The Ellsworths

The Ellsworths may be reached by mail at 105 Pioneer Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326, by telephone at 607-547-8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com. They look forward to hearing from you.