1- Tonight, WEDNESDAY, May 7, 2008, is the Historical Society
of Berks County's monthly TV show at 7 p.m., cable-cast from
BCTV, 7th and Penn, Reading.

There will be lots of high-quality, rare photographs featured
on this show.

Can't get BCTV?

You can watch it tomorrow on your computer by Internet
access.....

http://www.berkshistory.org/media/

2- This coming Saturday at Hendel House....on the corner of
Centre Ave. and Douglass.....115 footsteps down the street
from our main headquarters.....Michelle Lynch and O. Christopher
Miller will present an illustrated talk on "19th Century Life
in Historic Reading--its Art and Architecture."

This is a FREE attraction, which runs from 1 to 2 p.m.

YOU are invited. Come and bring friends. Seating is LIMITED......

To see EIGHT full-color views of Hendel House, access....

http://www.berkshistory.org/mansion

For a video glimpse with music, access....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYQBrWYIaKQ

4- TWENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND new records have been put online.

The Society's web-master, Doug P. Reinert wrote:

"It has been a while since I transferred new data from the
library's database to the web. I worked on this project
recently and managed to add......"

> church records:- 22,000 of them!
http://www.berkshistory.org/library/churches.html

> cemetery records:- 6,000 of them!
http://www.berkshistory.org/library/cem.html

NOTE: Because of the impending move of all library
operations to our new complex across the street--to
160 Spring Street--the library and all its functions
will be unavailable for a very brief time.

An announcement of the exact time involved will be
announced in News-Bits.

5- RAILROAD TRACKS....a tin-in to our current Reading R.R. exhibit.

(Be sure to read the final paragraph.
Your understanding will depend on the earlier part of the
content.)

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the 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 English expatriates, in large measure,
built the US railroads--during the earliest years.

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.

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? Imperial Rome built
the first long-distance roads in Europe (and England) for
their legions.
The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the
initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear
of destroying their wagon wheels.
Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they
were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore,
the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5
inches is derived from the original specifications for
an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a Specification/ Procedure/
Process and wonder, "What horse's ass came up with it?"
you may be exactly right.

Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to
accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses'
behinds.)
Now, the twist to the story:

When you 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 would 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 happens to run through a tunnel in the
mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through
that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad
track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about
as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle 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 behind.

Believe it or not!

(Submitted by a News-Bits reader.)

6- Altalaha Lutheran Church, Rehrersburg, will be holding
its third Miller-Keystone Blood Drive on Tuesday, May 13,
2008, in conjunction with a take-out only Soup Sale
from 4-7 PM.

Home-made Vegetable Beef and Chicken Corn Noodle Suop will
be available at $5.00 per quart.
To sign-up to donate or to place your soup order call Linda
at 610-488-7173.

If you have any questions you can contact 610-488-7173.

7- On Sunday 5/18/08, the congregation's Annual Old-Fashioned
Hymnsing is scheduled for 2:30 PM. at Old Belleman's Church,
3540 Belleman's Church Road, Mohrsville.



This historic church, built in 1815 and unmodified, is listed
on the NATIONAL Register of Historic Places.

Among its authentic attractions are its single-manual
hand-pumped PIPE organ and wine-glass puplit.






No heat (except for old-time stoves), plumbing or electricity were
ever added to this landmark structure.

YOU are invited to this event. Come and bring friends.
Parking is no problem.

8- The Leesport Lock House is having its annual Strawberry
Social on Saturday, June 7, 2008.

The hours are 11:00 am - 5:00 pm.

Tickets for the pulled-pork sandwich-dinner cost $7.75 and
are available from Elaine Strause 610-926-5770.

Strawberries, ice cream, cake, and hot dogs will be sold
separately. Tickets can be bought the day of the event.

The Leesport Historical Society will be having a table at
this event and will have the historic West Leesport School
building open on this date also.

This four room structure once had classes from 1st grade
through 10th grade high school graduation....in the days
high school in West Leesport was a 2-year course.