Remembering ‘Why Are Fire Engines Red?’
Greetings from the English countryside - with special thanks to the fabulous Eave’s family grounds - thank you thank you thank you.
While discussing the length of something I was reminded of the rhyme my father taught me:
Why are Fire Engines Red?
Fire engines are red because they have 8 wheels and 4 people ride it.
8 and 4 is 12.
Twelve inches is a foot.
A foot is 30cm.
30cm is a ruler.
Queen Elizabeth was a ruler.
Queen Elizabeth was the name of a ship that sailed in the sea.
Fish swim in the sea.
Fish have fins.
The Finns fought the Russians.
The Russian’s which are red.
And that’s why fire engines are red - because they are always rushin’.
- Not awfully politically correct I admit, but it is fantastic play of words and sounds, and ensured that I learned forever after some important conversions: "12 inches is a foot is 30cm is a ruler"
A happy relaxed day to you, I’m off to make an apple crumble.
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February 11th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
more important than the fire engine, how did the crubmel turn out? They’re even better with custard.
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:54 pm
it reminds me of a story I read once about the American Railroad - and I’m so glad I just found it back on the internet. It’s a funny legend and I never checked the truth preferring the story. I quote it in lengh:
The US standard railroad gauge (width between the two 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 the US railroads were built by English expatriates.
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? The first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots first formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse’s ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. Thus, we have the answer to the original question.
Now the twist to the story . . .
There’s an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges and horses’ behinds. When we 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 in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might 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 had 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 is about as wide as two horses’ behinds. So, the major 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 Ass!
February 23rd, 2007 at 2:34 am
LOVE THIS story Astrid!! I did know the history about train tracks the width of chariots but I love the new twist - echoes a thought I had in in (old) York the other weekend. Was being delightfully narrated too about the English town’s history by fab. Matthew (thanks barrie and joan too) and on looking at the way the old walls were built - in York you can see Roman walls and then Viking and then English walls built on top of each other - and reflected that we seem to be going backwards in our abilities …
so there you go - lots to learn from history, and story.
Oh and Justin - my crumble rocks ;)