A RAILWAYS RIDDLE.
Have you ever wondered why the standard gauge of railways should be 4ft B£in? During excavations of parts of the Great Wall, built 1800 years ago by the Emperor Hadrian (writes a contributor in “Tit-Bits”), chariot tracks were found in many places. When they were measured it was discovered that the distance from wheel to wheel was 4ft BJin.
The Roman army’s measure of distance was the “pace,” or double stride —left-right-left. Th length of a Roman mile was a thousand paces, so that the pace wa-s 4ft B|in. All Roman chariots and all military vehicles were made with a standard track of one pace, or 4ft. Biin, to facilitate the building of roads and causeways. Our engineers designed the Continental railways, giving them almost exactly 4ft. 8J in. gaug<j.
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Bibliographic details
Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10830, 31 March 1932, Page 2
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133A RAILWAYS RIDDLE. Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10830, 31 March 1932, Page 2
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