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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc.

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Old 1st May 2018, 9:17 am   #101
Ancient Geek
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Default Re: Vintage technology terminology

Try telling the time in Dutch. 2:40 in Dutch is "tien over half drie", which translates as 10 minutes past half an hour before three.
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Old 1st May 2018, 3:30 pm   #102
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Originally Posted by SiriusHardware View Post
So, with the clock only showing you roughly how far you were through the hour (and in particular, whether you were less than or more than half way through the hour) it would be natural to look at the nearest whole hour and then to consider (and state) how far past, or how near to, the nearest whole hour the actual time was.
In Dutch we only do that within a quarter of the nearest hour. For example 2:30 would be "half three" 2:40 "ten past half three", 2:45 "quarter to three", 2:50 "ten to three", 3:10 "ten past three", 3:15 "quarter past three", etc.
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Old 1st May 2018, 5:30 pm   #103
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Default Re: Vintage technology terminology

I think that the usage of twenty five past is fairly recent. My grandmother and aunt always said five and twenty past yet my mother would use twenty five past she was 14 years younger than her sister and my grandmother was born in 1888
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Old 1st May 2018, 6:53 pm   #104
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Default Re: Vintage technology terminology

That Dutch way must be very hard to remember.
My father/mother, born around the 1920s, used the five and twenty version and perhaps changed the usage around within my early memory. 60s-70s maybe?
It's fashion.

Bring back Railway Station. I blame the BBC in the main but there are others.
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Old 2nd May 2018, 11:40 am   #105
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Yes. I catch a train at a railway station; that is, a particular stationary point (station) along a railway where trains may be accessed.
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Old 2nd May 2018, 11:46 am   #106
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Anything other than Railway Station (I can't bring myself to type the popular alternative) makes me want to scream! I have been known to turn off otherwise interesting television programmes in despair........
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Old 2nd May 2018, 11:54 am   #107
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My wife and I are at loggerheads over the railway/train debacle. I like railway, she likes train and the puts forward the example "Bus Station".
 
Old 2nd May 2018, 12:05 pm   #108
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Anything other than Railway Station (I can't bring myself to type the popular alternative) makes me want to scream! I have been known to turn off otherwise interesting television programmes in despair........
I'm the same. It always used to be 'railway station' but over recent years it has become 'train station', which I find rather ugly-sounding. I shout at the telly sometimes....
And I haven't yet found a good answer to the 'Bus station' argument!
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Old 2nd May 2018, 12:33 pm   #109
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The "four and twenty" construction was certainly normal in King James's day; that era's translation of the Bible is full of it.
I suspect it persisted longer in America; Poe seems to use it, although that might be down to his penchant of pretending to be French!
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Old 2nd May 2018, 2:01 pm   #110
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The "five and twenty past" thing has never bothered me, granddad used it all the time (pun intended). And like imperial vs. metric I use both without a problem. Mind you when I see a digital time my mind reconstructs a dial.
 
Old 2nd May 2018, 2:11 pm   #111
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Default Re: Vintage technology terminology

Our local railway station, on the Manchester & Bury line opened in 1859, is now designated as a Metrolink Tram Stop.

Also, when referring to the actual permanent way, should we say railway line or railway track?
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Old 2nd May 2018, 2:14 pm   #112
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I don't see any relevance of comparing 'railway station' with 'bus station' or indeed any other form of station (I've never seen a fire at a fire station).
The accepted term has been 'railway station' since the dawn of railways, so there is simply no need to change from what has been in use for the best part of 170 years. The ignorant trendies seem to think that anything railway-related has to involve the word 'train', so a locomotive is referred to as a 'train', railway track is called 'train track' and so on.
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Old 2nd May 2018, 2:20 pm   #113
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Our local railway station, on the Manchester & Bury line opened in 1859, is now designated as a Metrolink Tram Stop.

Also, when referring to the actual permanent way, should we say railway line or railway track?
As Metrolink is a tramway, albeit (in parts) converted out of what were railway lines, I have no problem with 'Metrolink Tram Stop'.

To me, a 'railway line' is the complete thing including the civil engineering of the route, 'railway track' is one component of this assembly.

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Old 2nd May 2018, 5:57 pm   #114
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I don't see any relevance of comparing 'railway station' with 'bus station' or indeed any other form of station.
It all depends on which side of the tracks you come from, I guess...
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Old 2nd May 2018, 6:02 pm   #115
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Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell View Post
Mind you when I see a digital time my mind reconstructs a dial.
I'm the other way round: when seeing an analog clockface I'm always mentally converting it to "An hour and just howmanyminutes".

As an age-related data-point, I'm 59.

Last edited by G6Tanuki; 2nd May 2018 at 6:09 pm.
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Old 2nd May 2018, 6:08 pm   #116
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Default Re: Vintage technology terminology

I tend to think in terms of of train- and bus-stations, not that I've used either of them very much since I learned how to drive.

Equally, I think of an "Airfield" as being intrinsically a Military installation [which I'd be going-to in order to do work-related stuff] while an "Airport" is where I'd go to fly [Jet?] off on my holidays.

An "Aerodrome" is something I'd expect Amy Johnson to be arriving/departing at, in a clattery old piston-propeller aircraft.
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Old 2nd May 2018, 6:09 pm   #117
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As a data-point, I'm 59.
Same as me. But as I said earlier in post 56 (when did preceding an itemised number with an octothorpe come into use?) I can't visualise a digital watch without seeing an analogue face.

However... When I'm filling out times on a form I always convert analogue to digital. I don't think writing 'A quarter to nine' on a switching programme would go down too well!
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Old 2nd May 2018, 6:10 pm   #118
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Default Re: Vintage technology terminology

Well I never expected some of these conversations

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Old 2nd May 2018, 6:49 pm   #119
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An "Aerodrome" is something I'd expect Amy Johnson to be arriving/departing at, in a clattery old piston-propeller aircraft.
I'm afraid I can't agree, given that I worked at Warton Aerodrome from 1974 until retiring six years ago, the British home of the Lightning, Canberra, TSR2, Jaguar, Tornado and Typhoon aircraft - hardly 'clattery old piston-propeller aircraft'!

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Old 2nd May 2018, 6:54 pm   #120
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Default Re: Vintage technology terminology

Oh dear.
Didn't expect to stir that up either - I'll get my coat....

PS. Glad I'm not the only one << isn't he just great?

Last edited by Jon_G4MDC; 2nd May 2018 at 6:56 pm. Reason: missed apostrophe!
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