Dome

Dome (pronounced dohm)

(1) In architecture, a vault, having a circular plan and usually in the form of a portion of a sphere, so constructed as to exert an equal thrust in all directions.

(2) A domical roof or ceiling; a polygonal vault, ceiling, or roof.

(3) Any covering thought to resemble the hemispherical vault of a building or room; anything shaped like a hemisphere or inverted bowl.

(4) In water management, (usually in dam design), a semidome having its convex surface toward the impounded water.

(5) In crystallography, a form having planes that intersect the vertical axis and are parallel to one of the lateral axes.

(6) In geology, an upwarp (a broad anticline (a fold with strata sloping downwards on each side) caused by local uplift).

(7) In geology, a mountain peak having a rounded summit (a structure in which rock layers slope away in all directions from a central point).

(8) As vistadome, in passenger vehicles (usually railroad cars), a raised, glass-enclosed section of the roof of, placed over an elevated section of seats to afford passengers a full view of scenery (not usually truly in the hemispherical shape of a dome).

(9) In horology, the inner cover for the works of a watch which snaps into the rim of the case.

(10) A building; a house; an edifice (obsolete except as a literary device).

(11) As heat dome, a meteorological phenomenon in which the interplay of high & low pressure atmospheric systems interact to produce static, warm air over a large area.

(12) To cover with or as if with a dome; to shape like a dome.

(13) To rise or swell as a dome.

(14) In slang, a person's head (the form chrome dome used of the bald).

(15) In slang (both military and in some criminal classes), to shoot in the head (often in the form “got domed”).

(16) In African-American slang, to perform fellatio upon.

1505–1515: From the Middle French domme & dome (a town-house; a dome, a cupola) (which persists in modern French as dôme), from the Provençal doma, from the Italian duomo (cathedral), from the Medieval Latin domus (ecclesiae; literally “house (of the church)”), a calque of the Ancient Greek οἶκος τῆς ἐκκλησίας (oîkos tês ekklēsías).  Dome is a noun & verb, domed & doming are verbs and domelike, domical, domish & domesque are adjectives; the noun plural is domes.

By the 1650s, the formalized use in architecture ensured the meaning was (more or less) standardized as “a round, vaulted roof, a hemispherical covering of a building” and thus the ultimate specialized evolution from the Greek dōma (a house, housetop (used especially of those with a roof “in the eastern style”), from domos (house), from the primitive Indo-European root dem- (house, household).  The medieval use of the German dom and Italian duomo as verbal shorthand for “cathedral” (essentially a clipping from “house of God”) was picked up in the imperfect way so many words entered English to describe architectural features in the style of hemispherical cupolas, the domes at the intersection of the nave and the transept, or over the sanctuary, characteristic architectural feature of Italian cathedrals.  The sense in English of “a building, a house” had been borrowed in English as early as the 1510s and was used mostly of stately homes and it endures but only as a literary device and it’s rarely seen outside of poetry.

The shape occurs to one degree or another in nature and is common in man-made objects and the built environment so dome is an often seen modifier (cake dome, pleasure dome, lava dome; onion dome et al) and appears in the opening lines of one of the most cherished fragments of English verse: Kubla Khan (1797) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

Some of the use has also been opportunistic and not especially domical.  Vistadomes were raised, glass-enclosed sections built into the roofs of railway carriages, placed over an elevated section of seats to afford passengers a better view of the scenery.  The idea was picked up by General Motors, the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon (1964-1977), the Buick Roadmaster Estate (1991-1996) and the Scenicruiser busses (1954-1956 and made famous in the Greyhound livery some wore until the 1970s) all used raised, partially-windowed sections although none were officially described as “domes”.

The Hagia Sophia, now the main mosque in Istanbul; the minarets were added after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and there are many architectural critics who maintain visually they improve the balance of the structure.  The illustration on the right shows how the Byzantine engineers used pendentives to make the construction of domes possible.     

Domes however are most associated with grand-scale, representational architecture (although quite a few builders of McMansions found them hard to resist).  One intriguing aspect of structural engineering upon which the integrity of a dome depends on what are called pendentives (the triangular segments of the lower part of a hemispherical dome left by the penetration of the dome by two semicircular vaults intersection at right angles).  Dating from 1727, pendentive was from the mid-sixteenth century French pendentif, from the Latin pendentem (nominative pendens) (hanging and the source of the English “pendulous”), the present participle of pendere (to hang) from the primitive Indo-European roots pen & spen- (to draw, stretch, spin).  What pendentives permit is the use of a circular dome over a square void square room or an elliptical one over something rectangular room.  Pendentives, (geometrically the triangular segments of a sphere), taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or elliptical base as required.  As structural supports, pendentives distribute the bulk of a dome’s weight to the four corners (the strongest points) and ultimately to the piers and the foundations below.  The classic example is the Hagia Sophia, the sixth century Byzantine cathedral at Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).  It was converted into a mosque when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and, after a century-odd as a museum, is again a mosque.

Scale model of Germania.  Hitler would spend hours pondering the details but in 1945, he spent even longer looking at the model of what was planned for the Austrian city of Linz where he'd decided to have his tomb installed.

Domes have long been a favorite of emperors, dictators and those other megalomaniacs: architects.  A truly monumental one would have been the Volkshalle (People's Hall and known also as the Große Halle (Great Hall) & Ruhmeshalle (Hall of Glory), the centerpiece of Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) never realized plan to re-built Berlin as Germania, a worthy Welthauptstadt (world capital) of his “thousand year Reich”.  Although Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) was Germania’s chief architect, in some aspects he was really a glorified draftsman, correcting the technical errors in the drawings passed to him by the Führer who had be sketching parts of the design since the early 1920s.

Even by the standards of the super-dimensionality which was characteristic of the Third Reich, the domed hall would have been extraordinary.  The oculus would have been 46 m (151 feet) in diameter which would have accommodated the entire rotunda of Hadrian's Pantheon and the dome of St Peter's Basilica.  The  250 m (820 feet) diameter of the dome was (and this was a signature of Speer’s approach), bigger even than Hitler had requested and he was much displeased to learn of a rival architect’s plans for a dome 15 m (49 feet) greater in diameter to sit atop the city’s new railway station.  As things turned out, none of the grandiose structures were ever built and although a tinge of regret can be found in Speer’s post-war thoughts, even he admitted the designs were a failure because of “their lack of human scale”.

Berlin's rebuilt Reichstag with steel & glass dome.

Berlin did however eventually get a new dome, albeit it one rendered not in granite but the glass and steel the Führer thought was fine for factories and warehouses but which would have appalled him as a method of construction for public, representational architecture.  Plonked atop the rebuilt Reichstag, it was said to symbolize the reunification of Germany although quite how it managed that has never really been explained although the distinctive structure has become a city landmark and people seem to like it.  A clever design, it sits directly above the chamber of the Bundestag (the lower house of the bicameral federal parliament) and permits public observation, the clever design also reducing energy use by optimizing the input of natural light while moving shrouds minimize glare and heat-soak.

Cinerama Dome, Los Angeles in 1965, the year of its greatest commercial success.

The Cinerama Dome movie theatre sits on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard.  Opened in 1963, the Cinerama Dome introduced a new concept for film projection, a curved screen which sat inside a geodesic dome based on the design developed by US systems theorist & architect Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), one attraction of which was such things could be built at lower coast and in much less time than a conventional theatre building.  Intended to be the first of perhaps thousands around the planet, it was built in a still remarkable four months but it remains the only concrete geodesic on the planet and while it has operated intermittently since being closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, its future is uncertain and although it will probably be preserved as a historic building, it’s likely to be re-purposed as retail or restaurant space.

Lindsay Lohan at the Scary Movie V premiere, Cinerama Dome, April 2013.

The end of the line for Cinerama is another marker in the evolution of the technology which underpinned the evolution of the US economy from one based on agriculture, to one increasingly industrial to one geared around the military & entertainment.  In the 1950s, cinema’s greatest challenge came from television and the film studios fought back by creating differentiation in their products.  The venture into 3D proved a cul-de-sac for a number of reasons but one thing cinemas could do was make their big screens huge and during the 1950s the wide-screen Cinemascope enjoyed a boom.  However, there was a limit to how much screens could grow, hence the interest in Cinerama which projected onto a curved screen designed to take advantage of the way the human eye sees and processes images, the system at its best when provided by three synchronized projectors.  The idea lives on in the curved screens which have become popular among gaming freaks who enjoy the sense of “envelopment”.  It was also the era during which populations moved further from city centres into suburbs and thus, cinemas also needed to move, more of which (but often smaller) would be required.  Thus the attraction of the geodesic dome came which, largely pre-fabricated, was cheap to produce and quick to assemble.  However, Cinerama was expensive to film, to print, to produce and the sheer size and weight of the prints meant it was costly even to ship the material to venues and the conversion process to something which could be used with conventional projection.

Heat Domes

July 2023 Global heat map from the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, USA.  For those unconvinced, Fox News continues to provide alternative facts.

The “heat dome” is a weather phenomenon, the physics of which has for decades been understood but of late the term has entered general use as much of the northern hemisphere has suffered from prolonged, unusually high temperatures, July 2023 measured as the hottest month ever recorded.  A heat dome occurs when a large, high-pressure system traps and concentrates hot air in a specific region, leading to prolonged and extremely high temperatures. Under a heat dome, the atmospheric pressure aloft prevents the hot air from rising and dissipating, effectively acting as a lid or cap over the area, thus the image of a dome sitting over the land.

The UK's Royal Meteorological Service's simple illustration of the physics of a heat dome.  Heat domes are also their own feedback loop.  A static areas of high pressure which already contains warm or hot air trapped under the high will become hotter and hotter, creating a heat dome.  Hot air will rise into the atmosphere, but high pressure acts as a lid and causes the air to subside or sink; as the air sinks, it warms by compression, and the heat builds. The ground also warms, losing moisture and making it easier to heat even more.

Penthouse

Penthouse (pronounced pent-hous)

(1) An apartment or dwelling on the roof of a building, usually set back from the outer walls.

(2) Any specially designed apartment on an upper floor, especially the top floor, of a building.

(3) A structure on a roof for housing elevator machinery, a water tank etc.

(4) Any roof-like shelter or overhanging part.

(5) In Real Tennis, a corridor having a slanted roof and projecting from three walls of the court.

(6) As mechanical penthouse, a floor, usually directly under a flat-roof, used to house mechanical plant & equipment.

(7) A special-interest magazine, aimed at a mostly male audience and published in several editions by a variety of owners since 1965.

1520–1530: Despite the appearance penthouse is not a portmanteau (pent + house) word.  Penthouse is an alteration (by folk etymology) of the Middle English pentis, pentiz & pendize (and other spellings), from the Old French apentiz & apentis (appendage, attached building), the construct being apent (past participle of apendre (to hang against)) + -iz (the French -is ) from the unattested Vulgar Latin –ātīcium (noun use of neuter of the unattested –ātīcius, the construct being the Latin -āt(us) (past participle suffix) + -īcius (the adjectival suffix)).  Old French picked up apentis from the Medieval Latin appendicium (from the Classical Latin appendo (to hang) & appendere (to hang from).  A less common alternative variant to describe a shed with a sloping roof projecting from a wall or the side of a building was pentice.  Penthouse is a noun; the noun plural is penthouses.

1965 Iso Grifo Bizzarini A3/C, Le Mans, 1965.

One of the most admired of the trans-Atlantic hybrids of the post-war years (1945-1973) which combined elegant coachwork, (hopefully) high standards of craftsmanship and the effortless, low-cost power of large-capacity American V8 engines, the Iso Grifo was produced between 1965-1974 by the Italian manufacturer Iso Autoveicoli.  Styled by Bertone’s Giorgetto Giugiaro (b 1938) with engineering handled by the gifted Giotto Bizzarrini (b 1926), the Grifo initially used a 327 cubic inch (5.3 litre) version of the small-block Chevrolet V8, coupled with the equally ubiquitous Borg-Warner four & five speed manual gearbox or robust General Motors (GM) automatics.  Later, after some had been built with the big-block Chevrolet V8, GM began to insist on being paid up-front for hardware so Iso negotiated with the more accommodating Ford Motor Company and switched to 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) versions of their 335 (Cleveland) engine.

1955 Iso Isetta.

Iso was already familiar with the mechanical configuration, production of their Rivolta coupe, equipped also with the Chevrolet 327, having begun in 1962.  The Rivolta, let alone the Grifo was quite a change of direction for Iso which until then had produced a variety of appliances, scooters & moto-cycles, it’s most famous product the Isetta, one of the generation of “bubble cars” which played such a part in putting Europeans back on (three or four) wheels during the re-construction of the post-war years.  Surprisingly, despite the prominence of the Isetta name and the Italian association, barely a thousand were actually manufactured by Iso, the overwhelming majority produced in many countries by BMW and others to which the a license was granted.  Powered by tiny two and four-stroke engines, their popularity waned as “real” cars such as the Fiat 500 (1955) and later the Mini (1959) emerged; although costing little more than the bubble cars, they offered more space, performance and practicality.  By the early 1960s, the bubble cars were driven almost extinct but, as a tiny specialized niche, they never completely vanished and the Isetta is enjoying a twenty-first century revival as model urban transportation, including the option of electric propulsion.

1968 Iso Rivolta.

The Rivolta was thus quite a jump up-market and, while the engine wasn't the bespoke thoroughbred found in a Ferrari or Aston-Martin, the rest of the specification justified the high price.  Unlike some of the British interpretations using American V8s, Iso insisted on modernity, the platform probably the best of the era, the body welded to a pressed-steel chassis, a combination which proved both light and stiff.  Just as importantly, given the high rate of corporate failure among those attracted to this potentially lucrative market, it was cost-effective to manufacture, reliable and easy to service.  Probably the feature which let it rank with the most accomplished of the era was the sophisticated de Dion rear suspension which, combined with four wheel disc brakes, lent it a rare competence.  The de Dion design was not an independent arrangement but certainly behaved as if it was and, despite what Mercedes-Benz claimed of their beloved swing-axles, was superior to many of the independent setups on offer.  A noted benefit of the de Dion system is it ensures the rear wheels remain always parallel, quite an important feature in an axle which has to transmit to the road the high torque output of a big V8, a lesson Swiss constructor Peter Monteverdi (1934–1998) applied later in the decade when he went into production using even bigger engines.  Iso, with a solid base in accounting and production-line economics, ran an efficient and profitable operation not beset by the recurrent financial crises which afflicted so many and the elegant Rivolta was a success, remaining available until 1970.  Some eight hundred were sold.

1967 Iso Grifo Series One.

The Rivolta’s platform proved adaptable.  In 1965, Iso released the Grifo coupé, more overtly oriented to outright performance and strictly a two-seater.  With lovely lines and a modified version of the Rivolta’s fine chassis, the Grifo was another product of the fertile imaginations of Giugiaro & Bizzarrini but, in something not untypical in Italian industry of the time, the relationship between the latter and Iso’s founder Renzo Rivolta (1908–1966) soon became strained and was sundered.  Bizzarrini would go on to do remarkable things and Iso’s engineers assumed complete control of the Grifo after the first few dozen had been completed.  Bizzarrini had pursued a twin-stream development, a competition version called the A3/C with a lower, lightweight aluminum body as well as the road-going A3/L and when he decamped, he took with him the A3/C, to be released also under his name while Iso devoted its attentions to the A3/L, again using engine-transmission combinations borrowed from the Corvette.

1964 Iso Grifo Spider.

The Grifo weighed a relatively svelte 1430 kg (3153 lbs) in what must have been a reasonably slippery shape because the reports at the time confirmed some 240 km/h (150 mph) was easily attained, an increase on that managed by the Corvette and, when configured with the taller gearing the factory offered, the factory claimed 260 km/h (162 mph), was possible.  A test in the UK in 1966 almost matched that with a verified 161 mph (259 km/h) recorded and two year later, the US publication Car & Driver 1968 tested a 327 Grifo but didn't to a top-speed run, instead estimating 157 mph (253 km/h) should be possible given enough road.  There were surprisingly few variations, fewer than two-dozen made with a targa-style removable roof panel and a single, achingly lovely roadster was displayed on Bertone's stand at the 1964 Geneva Motor Show; it remained a one-off although a couple of coupés privately have been converted.

1970 Iso Grifo Series Two.

The bodywork was revised in 1970, subsequent cars listed as series two models.  The revisions included detail changes to the interior, improvements to the increasingly popular air-conditioning system and some alterations to the body structure, the hydraulics and the electrical system, most necessitated by new regulatory requirements by some European countries but required mostly in an attempt to remain compliant with the more onerous US legislation.  The most obvious change was to the nose, the headlamps now partially concealed by flaps which raised automatically when the lights were activated.  Presumably the smoother nose delivered improved aerodynamics but the factory made no specific claims, either about performance or the drag co-efficient (CD) number.

1972 Iso Lele & 1972 Iso Fidia.

In 1972, an unexpected change in the power-train was announced.  After almost a decade exclusively using Chevrolet engines, Iso issued a press release confirming that henceforth, the series two Grifo would be powered by Ford’s 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) 335 series (Cleveland) V8.  In the state of tune chosen by the factory (essentially the same as fellow Italian specialist De Tomaso were using in their mid-engined Pantera), the Ford engine was similar in size, weight to the small-block Chevrolet and delivered similar power and torque characteristics so the driving experience differed little although there were 22 high-performance Leles using a tuned 351, all with a ZF five-speed manual gearbox.  The other improvement in performance was presumably Iso’s balance sheet.  The switch had been made because internal policy changes at GM meant they were now insisting on being paid up-front for their product whereas Ford was still prepared to offer an invoice with a payment term.  The change extended to the other models in the range, the Lele coupé and Fidia saloon and while the Chevrolet/Ford split in the Lele was 125/157, the circumstances of the time meant that of the 192 Fidias made, only 35 were fitted with the 351.

1969 Iso Grifo 7 Litre (427).

One of the trends which made machines of the 1960s so memorable was a tendency never to do in moderation what could be done in excess.  In 1968, Iso announced the Grifo 7 Litre, built following the example of the US manufacturers who had with little more than a pencil and the back of an envelope worked out the economics of simple seven litre engines were more compelling than adding expensive components like overhead camshafts and fuel-injection to five litre engines.  Petrol was, of course, cheap and limitless.  Petrol actually wasn’t as cheap in Italy or the rest of Europe but Iso’s target market for the Grifo was those who either could afford the running costs or (increasingly) paid their bills with other people’s money (OPM) so fuel consumption wasn’t something often considered.  The new version used a 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) version of the big-block Chevrolet V8, bigger and heavier than the 327 so the driving characteristics of the nose-heavy machine were changed but contemporary reports praised the competence of the chassis, the de Dion rear-end notably superior in behavior compared with the Corvette’s independent rear suspension although some did note it took skill and often a sense of restraint, effectively to use the prodigious power.  Tellingly, the most receptive market for the Grifos, small and big-block, was the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, the old West Germany) with its network of highways without the tiresome speed limits elsewhere imposed and (even in Italy), often enforced.  The autobahn really was the Grifo's native environment.   

1970 Iso Grifo Can Am (454).

Faster it certainly was although the factory’s claim of a top speed of 186 mph (a convenient 300 km/h) did seem optimistic to anyone with a slide-rule and there appears not to be any record of anyone verifying the number although one published test did claim to have seen well over 255 km/h (150 mph) with the Grifo still "strongly accelerating" before “running out of road”.  It had by then become a genuine problem.  Gone were the happy times when testers still did their work on public roads; increased traffic volumes by the late 1960s meant the often deserted stretches of highway (in 1956 an English journalist had taken a Mercedes-Benz 300SLR Coupé to 183 mph (294 km/h) on the autobahn) were now rare but whatever the terminal velocity, nobody seemed to suggest the 7 litre Grifo lacked power.  In 1970, after Iso’s stock of the by-then out-of-production 427 were exhausted, the big-block car was re-named Can-Am and equipped instead with a 454 cubic inch (7.5 litre) version, the name an allusion to the unlimited displacement Group 7 sports car racing series run in North America in which the big-block Chevrolets were long the dominant engine.  Despite the increased displacement, power actually dropped a little because the 454 was detuned a little to meet the then still modest anti-emission regulations.

1971 Iso Grifo Can Am (454).

Unlike the 427 which breathed through three two barrel carburetors, the 454 was equipped with less intricate induction, a single four barrel and, officially, output dropped from 435 horsepower to 390 but, these were gross (SAE) numbers and Detroit’s high-performance engines in this era were rated at something around what a manufacturer thought would be acceptable (all things considered), rather than an absolutely accurate number but the 454 certainly was just a little less potent than the 427 although it's probable few owners often went fast enough to tell the difference.  What didn’t change between the 7 Litre and the Can Am was its most distinctive feature, the modification to the hood (bonnet) made to ensure the additional height of the 427's induction system could be accommodated.  The raised central section, the factory dubbed "the penthouse".

Penthouse on 1969 Iso Grifo 7 Litre (427).

Not everyone admired the stark simplicity, supposing, not unreasonably, that Giugiaro might have done something more in sympathy with its surroundings.  Critics more stern would have preferred a curvaceous scoop or bulge and thought the penthouse amateurish, an angular discordance bolted unhappily atop Giugiaro’s flowing lines  but for those brought up in the tradition of brutalist functionalism, it seemed an admirable tribute to what lay beneath.  The days of the big-block Grifo were however numbered.  In 1972, with Chevrolet no longer willing to extent credit, and Ford’s big-block (429 & 460) engines re-tuned as low-emission (for the time) units suitable for pickup trucks and luxury cars, the Can-Am was retired.  So the small-block 351 Grifo became the sole model in the range but it too fell victim to changing times, production lasting not long beyond the first oil shock in October 1973 which made petrol suddenly not only much more expensive but sometimes also scarce and the whole ecosystem of the trans-Atlantic machines became threatened and in little more than a year, Iso was one of the many dinosaurs driven extinct.  Decades later, the survivors of the 412 sold are highly desirable; fine examples of the small-block Grifos attract over US$500,000, the few dozen penthouse cars can sell for up to a million and the rare early A3/Cs for well over.

Not fans of brutalist functionalism were the Lancia-loving types at Road & Track (R&T) magazine in the US.  Late in 1974, R&T published their 1975 buyer’s guide for imported and domestically-built smaller cars (R&T neither approving of nor understanding why anyone would wish to buy a big American car) and surprisingly, there were reviews of the Grifo, Lele and Fidia although the last of these sold in the US some two years earlier had been titled as 1973 models, the company having never sought to certification to continue sales although, given nothing had been done to modify them to meet the new safety regulations, that would likely have been pointless unless the strategy was to seek a "low volume" exemption, something improbable by 1975.  The distributors had however indicated to the press all three would return to the US market in 1975, supplying publicity photographs which included a Series II "penthouse" Grifo although the big-block cars hadn't been built in Italy since 1972.  A further complication was that during 1974, Ford had discontinued production of the high-performance 351 (the "Cleveland" 335 series) V8 so it wasn't clear what power-train would have been used.  Others had the same problem, De Tomaso (which withdrew from the US market in 1974) switching to use tuned versions of the Australian-built Cleveland 351s but for Iso, the whole issue became irrelevant as the factory was closed late in 1974.  R&T's last thoughts on the penthouse appeared in the buyer's guide:

"However, the clean lines of the original Grifo have been spoiled by that terrible looking outgrowth on the hood used for air cleaner clearance.  For US$28,500 (around US$150,000 in 2024 $ although direct translation of such a value is difficult to calculate because of the influence of exchange rates), a better solution to this problem should have been found."

View from the penthouse in which Lindsay Lohan lived in 2014, W Residences, Manhattan, New York City.

Probe

Probe (pronounced prohb)

(1) To search into or examine thoroughly; question closely; an investigation, especially by a legislative committee, of suspected illegal activity.

(2) To examine or explore with or as if with a probe; the act of probing.

(3) A slender surgical instrument for exploring the depth or direction of a wound, sinus, or the like.

(4) In aerospace, an unmanned exploration spacecraft.

(5) A projecting, pipe-like device on a receiving aircraft used to make connection with and receive fuel from a tanker aircraft during refuelling in flight.

(6) A device, attached by cord to an oven that can be inserted into food so the oven shuts off when the desired internal temperature of the food is reached.

(7) In biochemistry, any identifiable substance that is used to detect, isolate, or identify another substance, as a labelled strand of DNA that hybridizes with its complementary RNA or a monoclonal antibody that combines with a specific protein.

(8) In electronics, a lead connecting to or containing a measuring or monitoring circuit used for testing; a conductor inserted into a waveguide or cavity resonator to provide coupling to an external circuit

1555–1565: From the Medieval Latin proba (examination (“test” in Late Latin)), derivative of probāre (to test, examine, prove), from probus (good).  The Spanish tienta (a surgeon's probe) came from tentar (try, test).  The dual meanings in Latin ((1) instrument for exploring wounds etc and (2) an examination) persist in English.  The sense "act of probing" is from 1890, from the verb; the figurative sense of "penetrating investigation" is from 1903.  The use to describe a "small, unmanned exploratory spacecraft" is attested from 1953; unrelated to this is the curious popularity of aliens subjecting humans to examinations with anal probes in stories of alien abduction.  Probe is a noun & verb, probing & probed are verbs, probeable is an adjective and probingly is an adverb; the noun plural is probes.

The Voyager 1 space probe launched by NASA in 1977.

Originally (with companion probe Voyager 2) a twelve-year mission, it’s expected to remain a functional scientific instrument until 2025 and is now some 24 billion km (15 billion miles) away, the most distant human-made object from Earth (only our radio waves have travelled further).  There are some who claim the probes have already reached inter-stellar space while other astronomers  maintain the edge of our solar system extends much further than was once thought and they're travelling still through a sort of cosmic limbo.  The Voyager probes, even after they're long inert, may continue their journeys for thousands or millions of years because, although the universe is a violent, destructive swirl, there is vast distance between threatening stuff.

Of the many inconsistencies in English spelling, none must be seem more mystifying to anyone learning the language than those words affected by the “mute e rule”: the inflections and derivatives formed from words ending in a “silent e”.  The question always is: to e or not to e?  Deciding whether to retain or omit the last letter is easier than once it was because dictionaries seem now to be more consistent in their approach, presumably one of the benefits of their shift to becoming on-line resources although, for historic reasons, we seem stuck with what seem ancient, arbitrary decisions such as ageing and icing continuing in peaceful co-existence.  So, there are words where centuries of particular spellings have become entrenched that to suggest a change would be absurd and that means any rule would have both examples which conform and those which defy.  Henry Fowler (1858–1933) in his A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) acknowledged the impossibility of constructing a rule of absolute validity but as a guide offered (1) an indicative rule and (2) a guide to the exceptions.  The (1) rule was “when a suffix is added to a word ending in a mute e, the mute e should be dropped before a vowel but not before a consonant”.  The condition for (2) an exception was “the mute e should be kept even before a vowel if it is needed to indicate the soft sound of a preceding g or c or to distinguish a word from another with the same spelling”.  Probe is such an exception because if one has a probe, it’s helpful to know if something (or someone according to those who have been abducted by aliens) is probeable and that adjective can’t be spelled “probable” because that has another meaning.

The Mazda MX-6-based Ford Probe (1988-1997, left) and the car it was once mooted to replace, the long-serving “Fox” Mustang (1978-1993).

A competent, inoffensive coupé, the Ford Probe would probably have existed for a decade as a moderate success and then, having been discontinued without a direct replacement, been soon forgotten, had it not been for the furore which ensued when the idea surfaced it might be the company’s replacement for the Mustang.  In 1987, by means of a “controlled leak” the pro-Mustang faction (the beer drinkers) within the corporation let it be known Ford was planning to replace the Mustang with a modified version of a Mazda (championed by the chardonnay faction).  The reaction was vociferous & voluminous, Ford’s mailbox (and in 1987 mail came in envelopes with stamps attached) soon overflowing with complaints, the idea of a front-wheel-drive (FWD) Mustang anathematic, the absence of a V8 apparently beyond comprehension (although the Mustang II had suffered that fate in 1973-1975).  They also put their money where their poison pens were because the previously moribund sales of Mustangs suddenly spiked, the thought that this might be the last chance to buy a “proper” rear-wheel-drive (RWD), V8 powered Mustang enough to push the thing back up the sales chart.  The flow of letters and cash proved enough to persuade Ford and the platform was reprieved, the Mustang surviving to this day as a unique and highly profitable niche.  The Mazda co-project however was well advanced so the decision was taken to proceed and offer both and, badged as the Ford Probe, the modified Mazda lasted a decade-odd and it’s doubtful it cannibalized much of the Mustang’s market, its competition the other mid-sized, FWD Japanese coupés which had become popular.  A typical Japanese product, well engineered with a high build-quality, the Probe was a success (though it never realised Ford’s hopes in overseas markets) and when production ended, the only reason it wasn’t replaced was because the demographic buying the things had shifted to other segments, notably the sports utility vehicles (SUV) which would soon dominate.

1969 M-505 Adams Brothers Probe 16 (Durango 95)

The still controversial film A Clockwork Orange (1971) was based on the dystopian 1962 novel of the same name by Anthony Burgess (1917–1993).  At the time shocking in its depiction of violence, it's set some time in the future and as part of the verisimilitude the car used in the "driving scene" was a M-505 Adams Brothers Probe 16, one of three built.  Only 34 inches (864 mm) high (the prototype was 5 inches (125 mm) lower!), it emerged from the studios of the designers of the quirky Marcos sports cars which were idiosyncratic even by the standards of the cottage industry of low-volume sports cars which flourished in the UK until the early 1970s.  Although utterly impractical (passengers entered and exited through a sliding glass roof) it certainly looked futuristic but performance was disappointing because of the limited power. To create the mid-engined Probe, the designers used the engine and gearbox from the modest Austin 1800, moving the FWD package amidships, an approach later adopted by a number of manufacturers.  Had it been built using the mechanicals from the contemporary Cadillac Eldorado (which improbably had a 472 cubic inch (7.7 litre) V8 driving the front wheels through a chain-drive transaxle), assuming such a thing could be made to fit, it would have offered performance to match the promise of the looks.  In the film, the Probe was given the name “Durango 95” a name which seems to have chosen for no particular reason although the “95” may have been an allusion to 1995, decades away when the book was written.  Although A Clockwork Orange is perhaps not something with which manufacturers would like their products to be associated, many have since used the Durango name for a variety of purposes.

Newspaper headline writers like the word “probe”.  Within the industry, short, punchy words like “probe”, “jab”, “fix”, “bid” et al are part of a subset of English called “headline language”.

Driving scene in A Clockwork Orange (1971): 1969 M-505 Adams Brothers Probe 16 (Durango 95).

Solipsism

Solipsism (pronounced sol-ip-siz-uhm)

(1) An extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires etc; egoistic self-absorption.

(2) In philosophy, the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.  The view or theory that self is the only object of real knowledge or the only thing that is real is technically, an extreme form of scepticism, a denial of the possibility knowledge can exists other than that of one's own existence.

1871: A invention of Modern English from the Latin, the construct being sōlus (alone) +‎ ipse (self) +‎ -ism.  The origin of sōlus is murky, some suggest a link with the earlier swolos, from the Proto-Italic swelos, from the primitive Indo-European swé, a reflexive pronoun from whence came se (oneself) + -los, hence the meaning "by oneself".  Another theory references solhz (whole, healthy) which would make it akin to sollus and salvus.  The third alternative is a connection with the Proto-Germanic sēliz, the Gothic sēls, (happy, good) and the Old English sēlra (better), again from the primitive Indo-European sōlhz (from whence sōlor (to console)).  Ipse (feminine ipsa, neuter ipsum; the demonstrative pronoun) was compounded from the primitive Indo-European éy and swé and, for highly technical reasons, was ipsus in the pre-classical lexicon.  Root of the –ism suffix was either the Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós), a suffix that forms abstract nouns of action, state, condition, doctrine; from stem of verbs in -ίζειν (-ízein) (from which English gained -ize), or was from the related Ancient Greek suffix -ισμα (-isma), which more specifically expressed a finished act or thing done.  Solipsism is a noun, solipsist is a noun & adjective, solipsistic is and adjective and solipsistically is an adverb; the noun plural is solipsisms.  For whatever reason, the potentially useful solipsismal seems never to have been coined.

Much ado about nothingness

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (circa 1818) by Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840).  German painters of the Romantic weren't necessarily the most solipsistic of the era but can seem so.  They painted under Hegel's long shadow. 

In casual use, solipsism is a useful word to refer to the self-obsessed and there are a lot of them about.  There is a solipsism quiz to work out the extent of one’s own tendency to the solipsistic.  Solipsism is the (ultimately wholly abstract) position in metaphysics that the mind is the only thing that can be known to exist and that knowledge of anything outside the mind is not merely false but unjustified.  It can be thought of as a sceptical hypothesis of life and, if pursued to as close to a logical conclusion as it allows, can lead only to a belief that the whole of reality and the external world and other people are merely representations of the individual self, having no independent existence of their own, and may not even exist.  It differs therefore from pure scepticism in that the solipsist is actually asserting something; it should instead be thought of as a fork of pure idealism.  In Philosophy 101 classes, it’s one of the tools to train the mind.  Lecturers find it amusing because there’s sometimes a student who takes all this seriously and starts to worry; sometimes for years.  Debates between nihilists and solipsists can’t of course happen but they do, descending often to a contest of onedownmanship about who holds the most extreme position.

For the modern young solipsist, there is only self & shopping.

The origins of Solipsism in western philosophy are in the writings of the Greek pre-Socratic sophist philosopher Gorgias (483–375 BC) who asserted (1) nothing exists, (2) even if something exists, nothing can be known about it and (3), even if something could be known about it, knowledge about it cannot be communicated to others.  That of course is internally perfect and can go no further but because solipsism can be neither proved nor disproved, some otherwise sensible folk felt obliged to bolt it onto the universe.  Philosopher Bishop George Berkeley (1685–1753), argued physical objects do not exist independently of the mind that perceives them and that an item truly exists only so long as it is observed (otherwise it is not only meaningless but simply non-existent).  Berkeley however argued this as part of his world-view which included God and God, even if one accepts he’s probably an Anglican, surely can’t be a solipsist although, if he is, truly we do know the mind of God.

Noose

Noose (pronounced noos)

(1) A loop with a running knot, as in a snare, lasso, or hangman's halter, that tightens as the rope is pulled; a device to restrain, bind, or trap.

(2) A tie or bond; snare.

(3) To secure by or as by a noose.

(4) To make a noose with or in (a rope or the like).

1400-1450: From the late Middle English nose (noose, loop), of unclear origin.  Etymologists have speculated it may be from the Old French nos or Old Occitan nous & nos (both forms known also in the descendent Provençal), the nominative singular or accusative plural of nou (knot), with the meaning shifting from the knot to the loop created by the knot, the French forms from the Latin nōdus (knot; node), from the primitive Indo-European root ned (to bind; to tie).  If that’s true, it was cognate with the French nœud (knot), the Portuguese nó (knot) and the Spanish nudo (knot).  The alternative etymology (which most authorities appear to find more convincing) is it was borrowed from Middle Low German nȫse (loop, noose, snare), also of obscure origin although it may have been derived from an incorrect division of ēn' ȫse (literally “a loop”), from the Middle Low German ȫse, from the Old Saxon ōsia, from the Proto-West Germanic ansiju (eyelet, loop).  It’s possible the Saterland Frisian Noose (loop, eyelet) & Oose (eyelet, loop) may have emerged from the same process.  In English, use of noose was rare prior to the early seventeenth century.  Although it’s a popular tale, it’s a myth a hangman’s noose always has 13 coils.  The old spelling nooze is long obsolete.  Noose is a noun & verb; nooser is a verb, nooselike & nooseless are adjectives and noosed & noosing are verbs; the noun plural is nooses.

The Nazis and the noose

Soviet cartoon Caricature of the defendants and the anticipated Nuremberg judgment (1946) by the Soviet artists known as the Kukryniksy: Porfiry Krylov (1902-1990), Mikhail Kupriyanov (1903-1991) & Nikolai Sokolov (1903-2000).  As the trial wore on, at least two of the defendants were recorded as requesting shirts with "larger collars" and one once removed his tie, explaining it was "suddenly feeling tight".

As a prelude to the main Nuremberg Trial (1945-1946) of the most notable or representative Nazis, the list of two-dozen-odd defendants was assembled to be indicted variously for (1) conspiracy to commit a crime against peace, (2) planning or waging wars of aggression, (3) war crimes and (4) crimes against humanity.  Even before the trial started it was known the International Military Tribunal (IMT) enjoyed capital jurisdiction (although in his opening remarks the president of the tribunal took care to explain the legal basis of their right to impose death sentences) and the court-appointed psychologist noted from his interviews with the accused that all expected the proceedings to be nothing more than a Stalinesque “show trial” with the death penalty inevitable for all, something the assurances of their (German) defense council seemed little to assuage.  As representatives from the world’s press (not yet called “the media”) began to arrive they were reported as mostly sharing the assumption and even as the trial unfolded and the defendants came to realize that for at least some of them there was the prospect of avoiding the noose or perhaps even securing an acquittal, the straw polls among the journalists still thought the death sentence likely for the majority.

Soviet cartoon The twelfth hour of the Hitlerites by Boris Efimov (1900-2008), from the series Fascist Menagerie, Izvestiia, 1 January 1946.

The prospect of imminent death is said “to focus the mind” and among the military defendants, all more than once expressed the opinion that as soldiers, they were entitled to execution by firing squad rather than by the hangman’s noose, the gallows too associated with the fate of common criminals (although one avoided that by having hanged himself (technically by act of strangulation) before the trial began.  In the end, of those present in the dock, 11 were sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead, Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945 and Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) avoiding the indignity of the noose by committing suicide, poisoning himself on the eve of his scheduled execution in circumstances which have never been clear.  Another, Erich Raeder (1876–1960; head of the German Navy 1928-1943) lodged one of the more unusual appeals after being sentenced to life imprisonment, asking that he instead receive the death penalty, life in prison apparently a worse prospect than being hanged; his appeal was declined.  Many lurid stories about the botched nature of some of the hangings circulated in the post-war years but while some might not have caused instant death, it’s unlikely any took anything like the 17 minutes it was claimed some took to die.

Caricature of Rudolf Hess at Nuremberg (1946) by David Low (1891-1963).  The author Rebecca West (1892–1983) covered the trial as a journalist and wrote some vivid thumbnail sketches, noting: "Hess was noticeable because he was so plainly mad: so plainly mad that it seemed shameful that he should be tried.  His skin was ashen and he had that odd faculty, peculiar to lunatics, of falling into strained positions which no normal person could maintain for more than a few minutes, and staying fixed in contortion for hours. He had the classless air characteristic of asylum inmates; evidently his distracted personality had torn up all clues to his past.  He looked as if his mind had no surface, as if every part of it had been blasted away except the depth where the nightmares live."

The strangest case in so many ways was that of Rudolf Hess (1894–1987; Nazi deputy führer 1933-1941).  Before the proceedings formerly commenced, the tribunal had been about to discharge Hess because it seemed clear there was sufficient doubt his mental state was adequate to ensure a fair trial and it was only an extraordinary admission from Hess himself that his display of amnesia had to that point been merely “tactical” and he was quite lucid and able to understand all that was going on.  He’d actually achieved the very thing sought by yet denied to so many defendants yet he chose instead to be tried.  His conduct thereon was just as bizarre, declining to enter a plea (the court recorded “not guilty” as a formality), often preferring to read novels rather than follow the proceedings and when his sentence was announced, he claimed not to have listened, saying, apparently without much concern he assumed it was death.  Actually, he was sentenced to imprisonment for life and with six others entered Berlin’s Spandau Prison where he would remain until 1987 when, aged 93, he hanged himself, having fashioned a noose from a length of electrical cable.  For the last two decades, he was the sole inmate of the huge facility designed to accommodate hundreds and, having entered captivity in 1941 after his bizarre “peace mission” to Scotland, had by the time of his death been locked-up for 46 years.

Burberry’s hoodie with noose, 2019, (left) and Kylie Jenner wearing a Givenchy Noose Necklace, 2023.

Because of the association with suicide, slavery and the history of lynching in the century after the US Civil War (1861-1865), the noose can be a controversial thing if invoked in an insensitive way.  Controversy though is just another technique to be weaponized when there’s the need to generate publicity and in the fashion business, it’s no longer enough to just to design something elegant or otherwise pleasing to the eye because it will barely be noticed on the catwalk and probably won’t make the magazines or become clickbait.  Thus the temptation to try to shock which will guarantee the desired publicity, the added attraction being the certainty the will do its job then quickly subside.  The Givenchy Noose Necklace model Kylie Jenner (b 1997) wore in January 2023 at Paris Fashion Week had been see before, causing a bit of a stir on the catwalk in 2021 when it was used in the fashion house’s Spring/Summer 2022 show.  Then, on cue, The Guardian called it out as “blatantly offensive”, guaranteeing even wider coverage although Givenchy solved the short-term problem by responding to the paper’s request for a comment with an Élysée-like “The house does not have an official response on this”.  They may have learned that in such matters apologies probably make things worse from Burberry’s "We are deeply sorry for the distress caused by one of the products that featured in our Autumn/Winter 2019 collection”, issued after being condemned for showing a hoodie with a noose.