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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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2nd May 2018, 7:35 pm | #121 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
Airfield, nice bit of grass for proper flying off and onto. Tea, cakes and beer available.
Aerodrome, same as above with concrete runways for posher aircraft. Free "stand your spoon up in the cup" tea available. Airport, place for big flying busses combined with interminable waiting. Very expensive tea, cakes and beer available. |
3rd May 2018, 12:00 am | #122 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
In the 1910-11 edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittannica, an "aerodrome" is the name given to a type of fixed-wing aircraft constructed by Langley, an avionics pioneer and contemporary of the Wright Brothers. At that time the wings of flying machines were called "aeroplanes".
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3rd May 2018, 3:23 am | #123 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
'Supersonic' used to mean higher-pitched than would be audible. Hence Supersonic Heterodyne.
David
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3rd May 2018, 8:25 am | #124 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
So when and why did 'supersonic' take on its modern meaning?
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3rd May 2018, 8:44 am | #125 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
..and when did a 'torch' suddenly become a 'flashlight' ..i think most people would find it very irritating trying to get around the cellar with a flashing light.
Also motion picture film is far from dead...film companies are archiving even their digital films on 35 mm film simply because obviously nobody knows what the future digital format might be... and will anybody have anything to play the old ones on in say 30 years time?...History repeating itself from the early days of videotape when today many of those programmes now survive as film copies, as many of the machines to play those tapes on clapped out and 'awaiting spares'. |
3rd May 2018, 9:02 am | #126 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
'Flashlight' isn't a term I would use, and I don't think it is in common use these days. I recall as a youngster in the 50's it was used by my grandparents and others of their generation. I wonder if it was because the basic zinc-carbon batteries available then didn't have much capacity, so you used your 'flashlight' sparingly by just flashing it?
Or maybe simply because you could flash it, unlike candles/gas-lamps/oil-lamps or a burning torch of the type which magically burn continuously in the old Robin Hood films? |
3rd May 2018, 9:09 am | #127 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
The rot started when British Railways became British Rail.
I think of a railway line as the whole caboodle and the track as the actual metal bit the carriages (coaches?) run on. Gordon |
3rd May 2018, 9:23 am | #128 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
According to the shorter OED, the earlier meaning came in to use around 1919 and the latter around 1945. Others claim that the modern meaning dates from 1934. The modern term for 'sound with frequencies above the range of human hearing', ultrasonic, dates from 1923, apparently. Ultrasonic is more consistent with ultraviolet. Ultraviolet dates from about 1840. Interestingly, infrared used to be called ultrared, even though the term infrared predates it.
Super- and ultra- both come to us from Latin, but, amusingly, hyper- (as in hypersonic) is from the Greek. |
3rd May 2018, 9:31 am | #129 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
British Rail was when 'Corporate Identity' became more important than running a railway.
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3rd May 2018, 9:37 am | #130 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
The Spedding Wheel could be described as a flashlight, lot's of flashes.
Lawrence. |
3rd May 2018, 9:38 am | #131 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
Airstrip!
Remember when dope was something you put on the wings to make them rigid, but simultaneously was a general name for pep pills eg benzedrine. Ah, the wonderful steam powered Langley Aerodrome. This and other a/c of the time (one of which had so many wings it had the general appearance of a venetian blind (How do you make a venetian blind..? I don't know, Brough, how do you make a venetian blind?) make the goon show look like a documentary. |
3rd May 2018, 9:39 am | #132 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
The only times I can recall hearing "flashlight" when I was a child in the 1950's was on the radio when they played "How much is that doggy in the window?", usually on Uncle Mac's Children's Favourites, verse three I think: "I read in the paper there are robbers, with flashlights that shine in the dark....".
Dad had an Ever Ready "Torch", and that was the only expression I recall people using. |
3rd May 2018, 10:14 am | #133 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
When I was a "nipper" in the war years, I was given a torch for Chistmas, with the strict instruction that it was under no circumstances to be used out of doors during the hours of darkness lest "The Enemy" should spot it, and bomb us.
Took all the fun out of it! Flashlights seemed to start being mentioned in the early Fifties, as I recall. Tony |
3rd May 2018, 12:07 pm | #134 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
Flashlight is a North American term. It probably found its way over to this side of the Atlantic in WWII or perhaps in American films or pop music of the '50s.
John |
3rd May 2018, 12:21 pm | #135 | |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
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3rd May 2018, 1:05 pm | #136 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
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3rd May 2018, 3:55 pm | #137 | |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
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3rd May 2018, 4:17 pm | #138 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
I fear there are far too many Americanism's creeping into our language, for instance, yesterday after work we went shopping, bad enough you might think but it can be quite entertaining. We then, on our way home, popped into "named after the American underground railway" to get a coffee, they make quite good coffee there. A younger lad came in behind us & when he made his order he began by saying, "So, can I get a......", we both cringed. Why are so many people these days beginning a sentence with "so.."?
And no you may not get anything, you are the other side of the counter for a good reason, you are a customer not a helper.
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3rd May 2018, 4:23 pm | #139 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
A lot of it comes from American films that get shown to us all the time.
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3rd May 2018, 4:35 pm | #140 |
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Re: Vintage technology terminology
Holy smokestack lightnin' Casey.
Lawrence. |