The standard railway gauge is based on the width of horses – cartoon
The distance between the tracks of a railway – the gauge – was based on the width between the wheels of horse drawn carriages. The width of horse drawn carriages was determined by the width of horses (or rather of two horses side by side).
The illustration shows pioneer railway engineers in the Isambard Kingdom Brunel mould measuring the width of a horse in order to determine the measurement for the railway gauge.
A cartoon about transport infrastructure, the history of railways, the industrial revolution
Cartoon reference number: a542
