Mercury (pronounced mur-kyuh-ree)
(1) In chemistry, a heavy, silver-white, highly toxic
metallic element (uniquely liquid at room temperature), once widely used in barometers
& thermometers and still a component of pesticides & pharmaceutical
preparations. In industrial use it
provides the reflecting surface of mirrors, can still be a part of dental amalgams
and is used in some switches, mercury-vapor lamps, and other electric apparatus. It’s also used as a catalyst in laboratories. Symbol: Hg; atomic weight: 200.59; atomic
number: 80; specific gravity: 13.546 at 20°C; freezing point: −38.9°C; boiling point:
357°C. It’s known also as quicksilver or
hydrargyrum.
(2) In clinical pharmacology, the metal as used in various
organic and inorganic compounds, used usually to treat infections of the skin.
(3) In mythology, the Roman god who served as messenger
of the gods and was also the god of commerce, thievery, eloquence, and science,
identified with the Greek god Hermes (initial capital letter).
(4) In astronomy, the planet nearest the sun, having a
diameter of 3,031 miles (4,878 km), a mean distance from the sun of 36 million
miles (57.9 million km), and a period of revolution of 87.96 days, and having
no satellites; the smallest planet in the solar system (diameter and mass:
respectively 38 and 5.4% that of earth) (initial capital letter).
(5) Borrowing from mythology, a messenger, especially a
carrier of news (largely archaic).
(6) In botany, any plant belonging to the genus
Mercurialis, of the spurge family, especially the poisonous, weedy M. perennis
of Europe. Historically, it was most
associated with the annual mercury (Mercurialis annua), once cultivated for medicinal
properties (the fourteenth century French mercury or herb mercury).
(7) In botany, a similar edible plant (Blitum
bonus-henricus), otherwise known since the fifteenth century as English mercury
or allgood.
(8) In botany, in eighteenth century US regional use, the
poison oak or poison ivy.
(9) In the history of US aerospace, one of a series of
U.S. spacecraft, carrying one astronaut and the first US vehicle to achieve suborbital
and orbital manned spaceflights (initial capital letter).
(10) Liveliness, volatility (obsolete since the
mid-nineteenth century).
1300–1350: From the Middle English Mercurie, from the Medieval Latin, from the Classical Latin Mercurius (messenger of Jupiter, god of
commerce) and related to merx (merchandise), Mercury, mercuriality & mercurialist are
nouns, mercurial is a noun & adjective, mercurous, intramercurial &
mercuric are adjectives and mercurially is an adverb; the noun plural is
mercuries.
The late fourteenth century adjective mercurial (pertaining
to or under the influence of the planet Mercury) evolved by the 1590s to
include the sense “pertaining to the god Mercury, having the form or qualities
attributed to Mercury (a reference to his role as god of trade or as herald and
guide)”. The meaning “light-hearted,
sprightly, volatile, changeable, quick” was in use by the 1640s and was intended
to suggest the qualities supposed to characterize those born under the planet
Mercury, these based on the conduct of the god Mercury (which seems a generous interpretation
given some of his antics), probably also partly by association with the
qualities of quicksilver. A variant in this sense was the now rare noun mercurious,
in use by the 1590s. The adjective mercuric
(relating to or containing mercury) dates from 1828 and in chemistry applied specifically
applied to compounds in which each atom of mercury was regarded as bivalent. Mercurous was by the 1840s applied to those in
which two atoms of mercury are regarded as forming a bivalent radical.
In the mythology of Antiquity, the Roman Mercury (or
Mercurius) was identified with the Greek Hermes, protecting travelers in
general and merchants in particular. He
was depicted as the messenger of Jupiter and in some tales even as his agent in
some of Jupiter’s amorous ventures (famously in Amphytrion (circa 188 BC) by the playwright Titus Maccius Plautus
(circa 254–184 BC)). The location of Rome’s
first Temple of Mercury was chosen because it was so close to both the port and
the commercial precinct, the god of commerce thus well-placed. Although it’s not entirely certain, the
structure was thought to date from 496 BC and historians note the sanctuary was
built outside the pomerium (the city’s
religious boundary), leading to speculation the cult may have been of foreign
origin. Mercury’s attributes included
the caduceus (the wand), a variety of very fetching broad-brimmed hats, winged
sandals (essential for one so “fleet of foot” and the purse (symbolizing the
profits merchants gained from their trade).
The tales from Antiquity are not consistent (and in some cases
contradictory but Mercury in some traditions was the father of Evander or of
Lares (charged with the supervision of crossroads and prosperity); Lares was
born after Mercury raped Lara, the water Nymph in the kingdom of the dead. The identification of Mercury with the Greek Hermes
was ancient but in the early medieval period he was linked also with the Germanic
Woden and noting his role as a messenger and conveyor of information, since the
mid-seventeenth century Mercury was often used as a name for newspapers
although has been a common name for a newspaper and some critics have adapted
it for their own purposes: In Australia the Hobart Mercury was in the 1980s
sometimes derisively called the “Hobart
Mockery”.
The origin of the chemical name of mercury (Hg) reflects
the influence of Scientific Latin on early-modern chemistry; Hg is an
abbreviation of the Latin name of the element: hydrargium (literally “water-silver”),
from the Ancient Greek hydrargyros (liquid
silver), an allusion to its unique quality of being a silvery liquid when at
room temperature (all other metals being solid). The older English name was quicksilver (still
prevalent in literary & poetic circles) which was coined in the sense of “living
silver”, a reference to the liquid tending to move “like a living thing” when
provoked with the slight provocation.
The “quick” referred not to speed but “alive” in the sense of the Biblical
phrase “the quick and the dead”. Alchemists
called it azoth and in medical and sometimes chemical use that’s still occasionally
seen. As late as the fifteenth century,
in mainstream Western science the orthodox view was that mercury was one of the
elemental principles thought present in all metals. In Antiquity, it was prepared from cinnabar
and was then one of the seven known metals (bodies terrestrial), coupled in
astrology and alchemy with the seven known heavenly bodies (the others: Sun/gold,
Moon/silver, Mars/iron, Saturn/lead, Jupiter/tin, Venus/copper. In idiomatic use, (with a definite article),
because of the use in barometers & thermometers, “the mercury” was a
reference to temperature thus “mercury rising” meant “warmer”, the use dating
from the seventeenth century and it has persisted even as the devices have
moved to digital technology. The name mercury
was adopted because the stuff flows quickly about, recalling the Roman god who
was the “swift-footed messenger of the
gods”.
The same rationale appealed to the astronomers of
Antiquity who noted the swift movement of the planet which required only 88
days for each solar orbit. Mercury is
sometimes visible from the Earth as a morning or evening star and in our solar
system and is the both the smallest and the closest planet to the Sun. Second in density only to Earth, it’s a lifeless
(as far as is known or seems possible) place with a cratered surface which
makes it not dissimilar in appearance to Earth's Moon. It behaves differently from Earth in that
the rotational period of 58.6 days is two-thirds of its 88-day annual orbit,
thus it makes three full axial rotations every two years. The atmosphere is close to non-existent,
something which, combined with the rotational & orbital dynamics and the
proximity to the Sun produces rapid radiational cooling on its dark side, meaning
the temperature range is greater than any other planet in our solar system (466°-184°C
(870°-300°F)). Being so close to the
Sun, Mercury is visible only shortly before sunrise or after sunset, observation
further hindered by Earth’s dust & pollution, this distorting the planet’s
light which obliquely must pass through the lower atmosphere. It wasn’t until circa 1300 that the Classical
Latin name for the planet was adopted in English while a (presumably hypothetical)
resident of the place was by 1755 a Mercurian or a century later as Mercurean. The novel adjective intramercurial (being within the orbit of the planet Mercury) was
coined in 1859 to describe a hypothetical planet orbiting between Mercury and
the Sun. The idea had existed among
French astronomers since the 1840s but became a matter of some debate between
1860-1869 until observations of solar eclipses finally debunked the notion. The origin of the noun amalgamation (act of
compounding mercury with another metal), dating from the 1610s, was a noun of
action from archaic verb amalgam (to alloy with mercury), the figurative,
non-chemical sense of “a combining of different things into one uniform whole”
in use by 1775.
Reflecting
the philosophy of Henry Ford which put a premium on engineering and price, concepts
like product differentiation & multi-brand market segmentation came late to
the Ford Motor Company. Unlike General
Motors (GM) which throughout the 1930s fielded seven brand-names, it wasn’t
until 1938 that Ford added a third, using until then just Ford and Lincoln and
even they operated as separate companies whereas GM maintained a divisional
structure. The debut in 1938 of the
Mercury label, sitting on the pricing scale between Ford and Lincoln made sense
in a way that twenty years on, Edsel never did and, until internal cannibalization
began in the 1960s, the Mercury brand worked well. Even after that, the marketing momentum
accrued over decades maintained Mercury’s viability and it wasn’t shuttered
until 2011, a victim of the industry’s restructuring after the Global Financial
Crisis (GFC 2008-2012). Debatably, the Mercury
brand may yet prove useful and, should a niche emerge, there may be a
resurrection, Ford maintaining registration of the trademark.
Perhaps
it was the experience of GM which had discouraged Ford. Although Harvard had begun awarding MBAs since
1908, history unfortunately doesn’t record whether any of them were involved in
the brand-name proliferation decision of the mid 1920s which saw the
introduction of companion offerings to four of GM’s five existing divisions,
only the entry-level Chevrolet not augmented.
The new brands, slotted above or below depending on where the perceived
price-gap existed, mean GM suddenly was marketing nine products in competition
with Ford offering two and one probably didn’t need a MBA to conclude only one
approach was likely correct. As things
turned out, GM’s approach was never given the chance fully to explore the
possibilities, the effects of the Great Depression of the 1930s suppressing
demand in the economy to an extent then unknown, necessitating downsizing in
just about every industrial sector. Axed
by GM in 1931 was Viking (Oldsmobile’s companion), Marquette (added to Buick)
and Oakland (actually usurped by its nominal companion, Pontiac). LaSalle (a lower-priced Cadillac) survived
the cull… for a while.
Ford in the late 1930s had clearly been thinking about
how to cover the widely understood "price-points" in the market, most
of which existed between the mass-market Fords and the Big Lincolns, then a
very expensive range. One toe in the
water of brand-proliferation was the creation in 1937 of "De Luxe
Ford" which, despite some of the hints in the advertising, was neither a
separate company nor even a division; it was described by historians of the
industry as "a marque within a marque". Structurally, this seems little different to
the approach the company had been using since 1930 when it introduced a “Deluxe”
trim option for certain models which could be ordered to make the “standard”
Ford a little better appointed but the 1937 De Luxe Fords were more plausibly
different because some relative minor changes to panels and detailing did make
the two “marques” visually distinct. The
Deluxe vs De Luxe spelling was perhaps too subtle a touch to be noticed by
many.
1968 Mercury Cougar GT-E 427. The tennis court hints at the target market.
A long wheelbase Food Mustang with a higher specification, the original Mercury Cougar (1967-1970) was the brand's great success story. The 1968 GT-E 427 was a tiny part of that but is remembered as the last use of the Le Mans winning 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) V8 and the corporation's only 427 pony-car. Civilized with hydraulic valve lifters and an automatic transmission, it was a glimpse of what might have been had Ford, as it once planned, put the 427 in a Mustang.
The De Luxe Ford line was deliberately positioned between
Ford and Lincoln but intriguingly, at the same time, Ford introduced both a
new, lower priced V12 Lincoln called the Lincoln-Zephyr and the Mercury range,
all three of these ventures contesting the same, now crowded, space. The De Luxe Ford “marque” would last only
until 1940 although Ford’s Deluxe option remained on the books; it’s doubtful
many outside Ford’s advertising agency noticed.
It would seem Ford was hedging its bets and may have decided to persist
with whichever of Mercury and De Luxe Ford proved most successful and as things
transpired, that was Mercury so as the 1941 model year dawned, in the dealers’ brochures
there were Fords, Mercurys, Lincoln-Zephyrs & Lincolns. World War II of course intervened and when
production resumed after the end of hostilities, that was simplified to Fords,
Mercury & Lincoln, remaining that way until the mid-1950s when in a booming
economy, the temptation to proliferate proved irresistible and the exclusive
Continental division was created, followed by the infamous Edsel, the model spread
of which over-lapped the pricing of both Ford and Mercury, an approach which
seems to go beyond hedging. The
Continental experiment lasted barely two seasons and the Edsel just three, the
latter a debacle which remains a case study in marketing departments.
So by 1960 the corporation again offered just Fords,
Mercurys & Lincolns but it was a troubled time for the latter, the huge
Lincolns of the late 1950s, although technically quite an achievement in body
engineering, had proved so unsuccessful that Ford’s new management seriously
considered closing it down as well but it was saved when handed a prototype
Ford Thunderbird coupé which was developed into the famous Lincolns of
1961-1969, remembered chiefly for the romantic four-door convertibles and being
the cabriolet in which John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963)
was assassinated. That was one of the
Thunderbird’s footnotes in corporate history, the other being that when introduced
in 1955 it was the first Ford blatantly to intrude on what, according to
marketing theory, should have been the domain of Mercury, home of the up-market
offerings.
The Thunderbird though was just the first act of trespass and fancier Fords continued to appear, the landmark being the LTD, which began in 1965 as a luxury trim-package for the Galaxie, something which proved so popular it soon became model in its own right, encouraging a host of imitators from the mass-market competition, the most successful of which was Chevrolet’s Caprice (that innovation in retrospect the first nail in the coffins of the now shuttered Pontiac & Oldsmobile). However, like Pontiac & Oldsmobile, Mercury would endure for decades, all three surviving before being sacrificed in the wake of the GFC and between the debut of the LTD and the end of the line, there were many successful years but the rationale for the existence of Mercury which had been so well defined in 1938 when there was genuine product differentiation and a strict maintenance of price points, gradually was dissipated to the point that with the odd exception (such as the wildly successfully Mercury Cougars of the late 1960s), Fords and Lincolns were allowed to become little more than competitors in the same space and the brand never developed the sort of devoted following which might have transcended the sameness. By the twenty-first century, there were few reasons to buy a Mercury because a Ford could be ordered in essentially identical form, usually for a little less money.
Xylo-punk band Crazy and the Brains performing Lindsay Lohan, recorded live, Mercury Lounge, New York City, 2013. Punk bands are said still not widely to have adopted the xylophone.
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