Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

jamescookenotthatone OP t1_j9etovt wrote

Something I found amusing.

>Size of stones was central to the McAdam's road building theory. The lower 8 in (20 cm) road thickness was restricted to stones no larger than 3 inches (7.5 cm). The upper 2-inch-thick (5 cm) layer of stones was limited to stones 2 centimetres (3⁄4 in) in diameter; these were checked by supervisors who carried scales. A workman could check the stone size himself by seeing if the stone would fit into his mouth. The importance of the 2 cm stone size was that the stones needed to be much smaller than the 4 inches (10 cm) width of the iron carriage wheels that travelled on the road.[5]

232

Magusreaver t1_j9fpouv wrote

my mouth just dried out thinking about that.

56

lvl2bard t1_j9g1w3z wrote

They probably didn’t have to check every rock. Maybe every third rock?

27

SchtivanTheTrbl t1_j9g3rxw wrote

Just need to check one, then pocket that rock and use it as a template. Bigger than mouth rock? Goes in that pile. Smaller than mouth rock? The other pile over there.

34

VeGr-FXVG t1_j9g7zyi wrote

Surely they had to recalibrate the mouth rock occasionally, to see if it still is up to spec?

22

Xx420PAWGhunter69xX t1_j9g9apm wrote

So like the lightbulb challenge but the extra downside of scraping your teeth and not being able to crush it?

7

dudewiththebling t1_j9gjk74 wrote

I guess those workers had a higher bodily mineral content than the average person

3