Ernie,
I just happended to read your brief article on the advantages of round tubing over the square type originally used on the Caesar Type ll chariots. You of course are aware that Julius Caesar's top man was Marc Antony. But the guy that ran motor pool (actually chariot pool) was a fella named Pontius Cubealos. At that time they had been using square axles in all the chariots!
Many of the Roman legions went to battle in the square tube and square wheel type chariots. Caesar and Marc Antony's worker's compensation was driving them nuts-what with all the dislocated spinal vertabra and eposodic incidents of villusectomy, etc.
Marc went to Pontius and told him they had need of a better way to transport troops to battle. Pontius "the Cube" went to work immedaitely and in a few short weeks came out with the oblong axles we read about in the time of the Turkish invasion of Constantinople. The axles were a great improvement. However, as you can no doubt imagine the constant up and down, up and down, up and down motion generated by the oblong axles was making the Roman soldiers giddy,and somewhat sea sick. The soldiers tried driving slower and this didn't work. They tried going faster and this was even worse. The even tried "pusher" horses instead of "pullers". This was a terrible idea as they had no way of steering. This is where the term "bump steer" came from! Finally, in 603 AD they discovered "air ride" suspension and their problems were solved.
Glad to be of help.
Harris
