Message-Id: <6.2.1.2.2.20050518140838.03877030@mail.jefsey.com>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 14:14:34 +0200
To: "Raymond Mercier" <RaymondM@compuserve.com>,
	<unicode@unicode.org>
From: "JFC (Jefsey) Morfin" <jefsey@jefsey.com>
Subject: Re: ASCII and Unicode lifespan
In-Reply-To: <003b01c55b95$32b9f6b0$9f0b2ad9@merciern8z90x8>
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At 12:34 18/05/2005, Raymond Mercier wrote:
>﻿
>
> >So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long 
> distance roads
>A nice tale, but not the whole truth:
>
>"A popular <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend>urban legend traces 
>the origin of the 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) gauge even further back then the 
>coalfields of northern England, pointing to the evidence of rutted roads 
>dating from the <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire>Roman Empire. 
>This legend is mostly false, however, except inasmuch that it shows a 
>historical tendency to place the wheels of vehicles approximately five 
>feet (1500 mm) apart."
>
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge

Try to use an other gauge and drive in Pompei's streets. This guys were 
tough on cross-walks.

>However, while we are having fun with standards, can someone explain why 
>the length of A4 paper (European not U.S.) 29.7 cm, is identical to the 
>Roman foot ? Coincidence, or the product of sideways thinking by some 
>eurocrat ?

Size of the monks A0 paper I suppose? Because a Roman Emperor and then a 
Pope had no spectacles, hence the size of the documents and books for them 
to read them.
jfc

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At 12:34 18/05/2005, Raymond Mercier wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">﻿ <br><br>
<font size=2>&gt;</font><font face="helvetica" size=2>So who built those
old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads<br>
</font>A nice tale, but not the whole truth: <br>
<br>
&quot;A popular <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend">urban
legend</a> traces the origin of the 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) gauge even
further back then the coalfields of northern England, pointing to the
evidence of rutted roads dating from the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire">Roman Empire</a>.
This legend is mostly false, however, except inasmuch that it shows a
historical tendency to place the wheels of vehicles approximately five
feet (1500 mm) apart.&quot;<br><br>
<font size=2><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge</a></font></blockquote><br>
Try to use an other gauge and drive in Pompei's streets. This guys were
tough on cross-walks. <br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""><font size=2>However, while we
are having fun with standards, can someone explain why the length of A4
paper (European not U.S.) 29.7 cm, is identical to the Roman foot ?
Coincidence, or the product of sideways thinking by some eurocrat
?</font></blockquote><br>
Size of the monks A0 paper I suppose? Because a Roman Emperor and then a
Pope had no spectacles, hence the size of the documents and books for
them to read them.<br>
<font size=2>jfc<br>
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