ISO History Lesson?

[JodiB]

I have a presentation to make and while i somewhat recall the connection between the space shuttle and the Romans, I can't remember what part of the space shuttle it was.

What i'm talking about is : there is a part of the spaceshuttle (payload compartment?) that had to be redesigned to fit onto a truck to be shipped from where it was manufactured. The truck axle is a particular size because it stems from the railroad car axles, which are a particular size because of the width of the railroad track, which is a particular width because of the ruts in the road which fit the axles of wagons which were designed to fit within the width of the early roads, which were made that size to fit 4 Roman soldiers walking abreast.

Or something to that effect. It's the cute little example of how standards come into being and how they continue to affect things long after.

Although I'm told that modern ISO came into play as a result of WWII military weapons standards, this other one is more dramatic.

Can anyone help out with the correct version???

[Marc]

Are you wanting to discuss the standards organization (the International Organization for Standardization) its self, or ISO 9001 (and it's companion documents)?

[JodiB]

The history of standardization. Do you know the example of the road width? That's the one that I'm wanting. I don't remember all the particulars - or at least I'm not sure if it's exactly right the way I remember it.

So I guess I shouldn't have referred to it as ISO history, but rather standards history.

Lucinda,

This is what you wanted. It won't take 1 minute to show. Is this really what you want for a presentation. or, is just a sort of ice breaker to get the show on the road?

Railroad Track Width


Why are the Railroad Tracks 4 feet 8.5 inches apart?


The English built their railroads to this size and so when America was developing it's railway system, English expatriates used the same methods and guages.

Why did the England build them like that? Their railways were built by people that built the pri-railroad tramways, and thats the guage they used.

Why did tramways and wagons have that particular wheel spacing? Wheels would break on the old long distance roads in England if other than the standard wheel spacing was used because of the ruts in the road.

Who built the old rutted roads? The first roads built in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the legions. The ruts in the road were formed by Roman chariots and everyone else had to match these wheel spacings or else destroy their own wagon wheels.

Why did the romans use this wheel spacing? Because the chariots were just wide enough for two horses.

An interesting twist to this is......The next time you see a Space Shuttle on the launch pad, notice the two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These solid rocket boosters are made by Thiokol in Utah. Nasa engineers wanted them larger in diameter, but because these are shipped from Utah on the railroad, they must fit through several tunnels.

So it is interesting that the width of the rails can be traced back to the width of the rumps of two old Roman chariot horses. And today, the world's most advanced transportation system (the Space Shuttle) is limited by a system determined over two thousand years ago.

[Marc]

> Although I'm told that modern ISO came into play as a
> result of WWII military weapons standards

If you're referring to ISO 9001 (and it's companions) - Not so. That IS part of the history of quality assurance and the role the US government plays in setting 'quality' standards (or did for many years). But - you can in reality take that back to the Civil War (in the US) where military contractors were supplying bad product. Even worse, unintential bad product was less of an issue (like bullets and such) than the issue of outright fraud (bullets with little or no gun powder - stuff like that - on purpose).

Page through the first part of http://Elsmar.com/Imp/ ISO 9001 is a result of the European Common Market of the 1960's and they were looking for liability control. I'd go through the whole bit but most of it's in the link I posted.

[JodiB]

You the man!!

This is exactly what I was looking for!! Thank you thank you.

Yes, this is icebreaker/opener to what I'm talking about today and this has arrived just in time!

Gotta run---

Lucinda

[JodiB]

Yay energy!!!

Not that I don't appreciate your contribution also Marc....

Originally posted by Marc
> Although I'm told that modern ISO came into play as a
> result of WWII military weapons standards\
If you're referring to ISO 9001 (and it's companions) - Not so.

I'm feeling "abused")

This is excerpt from my excellent Powerpoint Presentation on ISO that I uploaded here just for you!
•(AQAP) Allied Quality Assurance Publication..WW11. A series of publications on everything from production efficiency to selection of suppliers.
•AQAP Series was adopted by the UK Ministry of Defense for the British Arms Forces.
•A trickle down effect was more organizations began to require Quality Assurance Programs from their Suppliers.
•1979 British Standard (BS) 5750 adopted based largely on the AQAP Series. The British version addressed the diversity issues emerging in the requirements for different organizations
•BS 5750 was so effective, it was adopted with very little changes by ISO in 1987 as ISO 9000.
•The formation of the European Union and the perception that it (ISO) was required in order to do business with Europe, lead to the widespread acceptance of the ISO series.