Marcu 21, 1907 | 
NATURE 
491 
which is simply a contraction 
of ‘‘display.’? The ‘“tender,’’ or attender, of the 
vessel or locomotive, and the ‘‘ tender ’’ supplied by 
the contractor, though of such different meanings, 
are derived primarily from the same Latin word, 
meaning “* to reach out.’’ On the other hand, the 
verb ‘‘fuse’? comes from the Latin, meaning ‘‘ to 
pour,’’ and the noun “‘ fuse,’’ together with ‘‘ fusee,’ 
from a word meaning “‘ spindle.’’ It is interesting to 
note that several w ords, such as magnetic, type, amal- 
gamate, wire, and cable, have been borrowed from 
the technical vocabulary and applied to the language 
of ordinary affairs, and no doubt as mechanical appli- 
ances enter more and more into the essentials of 
social existence this process will be increasingly 
carried on. Perhaps the most interesting history of 
all is that of the word ‘‘ pole,’’ as used by electrical 
engineers. Its original is a Latin term meaning 
simply an axis of rotation. From this it has been 
applied to the particular axis on which the earth 
rotates, thence to the two points on that axis of 
special interest, to the ends of a suspended magnetic 
needle, and so to the points of intensity of any 
magnet. By analogy it has finally been applied to 
the terminals of an electric cell, and it is hard at 
the present day to see in its application—whether to 
the battery or the dynamo—any likeness to the 
original sense of the word. 
Many of our oldest terms have simply accompanied 
the ideas they express into engineering practice from 
architectural, nautical, smithy, and domestic uses. 
Examples are swivel, lathe, pump, gauge, list (from 
the same root as ‘‘lust’’), fish-joint, brake, and 
most of the terms connected with masonry—construc- 
tion, Some of Latin origin are interesting, e.g. 
piston (pinsere=to pound, cf. ‘‘ pestle ’’),. camber 
(camerare=to enclose or vault), filter (filtrum=felt), 
and vice (vitis=the tendril of a vine). Some are 
derived from European languages—scarf (Scand. 
skarf=a joint), cam (Dut. kam), bush (Dut. bus= 
a box), ratchet (Eng. rack), calipper (Eng. calibre), 
and jetty, rabbet, tunnel, pulley, quoin, from the 
French. Others the derivations of which have never 
been traced are sprocket, cotter, journal (in the 
mechanical sense), and spline. 
Of the methods employed to-day for. christening 
new engineering conceptions, the favourite is the use 
of analogy. Probably more than a third of our ex- 
pressions have been introduced in this way. In 
many the analogy is obvious—sleeper, bed, jacket, 
feed, booster fa WES: colloquialism). Sine are due 
to a likeness in appearance—crane, nose, shaft (from 
the arrow), groin (from its position), muff, worm; 
others to a similarity of function or movement—dead- 
beat, torpedo (the name of a fish), dog and jack 
(originally applied to any domestic implements of 
humble usefulness), pinion (from the joint of a bird’s 
wing), valve (from anatomy), and siren (originally 
‘one of certain sea- nymphs, who . sang with 
bewitching sweetness,’’ dictionary!). In one or two 
the analogy is more subtle. Thus a ‘‘ washer’? is 
really a kind of lubricant, and so was considered to 
resemble the film of water between the hands in 
washing. ‘ Bogie’’ is said to be from ‘‘ bogey,’’ a 
fiend, the bogie coal-waggon being so called because, 
from its suddenly turning when people least expected 
it, they used to exclaim that the new waggon was 
‘Old Bogey ”’ himself. | “‘ Steelyard,;”’ according to 
many dictionaries, owes its origin to the yard in 
London where steel was sold by German ‘merchants, 
and where this kind of balance was in use. 
Somewhat akin to this class are the one or two 
compound words we have formed—flywheel, manhole, 
breakwater, ingot (an ancient example, from ‘fin’ 
NO. 1951, VOL. 75] 
origin of the term, 
and Anglo-Saxon ‘‘ géotan,’’ to pour)—and words 
coined with the aid of suffixes, such as spin-dle (very 
old), tire (tie-r), troll-ey, tap-pet, span-ner. 
Many technical terms have been formed directly 
from Latin and Greek words. There are old ex- 
amples—pawl, carpentry, canal, cylinder; one or two 
of more modern date, such as electricity, annular, 
hydraulic; and a host of recent ones, telegraph, 
telautograph, microphone, vulcanite, dynamo, electro- 
technics, asbestos, torque, rheostat, &c. 
In general, it would seem that the terms used in 
construction work and machinery have been intro- 
duced mostly by the use of analogy, while the 
pioneers of industries—such as electrical engineering 
-—-more closely related to pure science, whose work 
has often been carried on in the university labor- 
atory, have favoured the classical method in coining 
words. 
Eight words used by electrical engineers form a 
class by themselves in that, instead of slowly making 
their way from some _ individual's suggestion to 
general recognition, they have been established by a 
parliament of scientific men, and have found an 
immediate and universal ‘adoption. Thesé are the 
electrical units. The original two—ohm and volt— 
were suggested by Sir C. Bright and Mr. Latimer 
Clark. These, together with ampere, coulomb, and 
farad, were made ‘Tegal at the International Congress 
in 1881, and three fresh ones, joule, watt, and henry, 
were authorised by the Chamber of Delegates at the 
Chicago Exhibition in 1893. One striking feature of 
each of these words is its terseness, a virtue so often 
lacking to scientific expressions. 
Proper names have been introduced in other ways 
as well. The most famous example is ‘‘ macadam.” 
Others are tramway (Outram’s ways—from the in- 
ventor), galvanic, voltaic (in use before the unit was 
suggested), magnet, catalan. (from Catalonia, the 
home of the catalan forge), derrick (the name of a 
hangman of the seventeenfh century), and, a queer 
hybrid sometimes seen in print, marconigram. 
A few words have been abstracted from foreign 
languages. Such are quay (an old example), 
voussoir, turbine, barrage, tuyere (also spelt, accord- 
ing to the dictionaries, twyer, tweer, tuyer, and 
twier), automobile, and chassis. 
About the only scientific term (outside the advertise- 
ment columns) that can properly be called an inven- 
tion is the word “ gas.’’ This we owe to a Dutch 
chemist, van Helmont, of the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries. His explanation is that, ‘‘ because 
the water which is brought into a vapour by cold is 
of another condition than a vapour raised by heat; 
therefore . for want of a better name, I have 
called that vapour Gas, being not far severed from 
the Chaos of the Auntients.’’ The word ‘‘ clack,” 
formerly applied to the non-return valve, is an echoic 
formation, but it was not coined to describe the valve, 
its first use being to express the sound produced by 
such mechanical appliances. It seems a little strange 
that the engineer, whose work is so often associated 
with original invention, should so seldom resort to 
original methods in devising names for his produc- 
tions. 
There are still many cases of inventions that have 
come into general use which are badly in want of a 
short, expressive title: Thus we have nothing better 
to describe the practice of signalling betw een 
mutually invisible points through the medium of the 
zther than “ wireless telegraphy’’; the only name 
available for the class of prime mover which works 
by the explosion of a vapour is ‘‘ internal combustion 
motor’; and surely a handy substitute would be 
welcomed for “electric power supply,’’ and some 
