Bunker

Bunker (pronounced buhng-ker)

(1) A large bin or receptacle; a fixed chest or box.

(2) In military use, historically a fortification set mostly below the surface of the ground with overhead protection provided by logs and earth or by concrete and fitted with above-ground embrasures through which guns may be fired.

(3) A fortification set mostly below the surface of the ground and used for a variety of purposes.

(4) In golf, an obstacle, classically a sand trap but sometimes a mound of dirt, constituting a hazard.

(5) In nautical use, to provide fuel for a vessel.

(6) In nautical use, to convey bulk cargo (except grain) from a vessel to an adjacent storehouse.

(7) In golf, to hit a ball into a bunker.

(8) To equip with or as if with bunkers.

(9) In military use, to place personnel or materiel in a bunker or bunkers (sometimes as “bunker down”).

1755–1760: From the Scottish bonkar (box, chest (also “seat” (in the sense of “bench”) of obscure origin but etymologists conclude the use related to furniture hints at a relationship with banker (bench).  Alternatively, it may be from a Scandinavian source such as the Old Swedish bunke (boards used to protect the cargo of a ship).  The meaning “receptacle for coal aboard a ship” was in use by at least 1839 (coal-burning steamships coming into general use in the 1820s).  The use to describe the obstacles on golf courses is documented from 1824 (probably from the extended sense “earthen seat” which dates from 1805) but perhaps surprisingly, the familiar sense from military use (dug-out fortification) seems not to have appeared before World War I (1914-1918) although the structures so described had for millennia existed.  “Bunkermate” was army slang for the individual with whom one shares a bunker while the now obsolete “bunkerman” (“bunkermen” the plural”) referred to someone (often the man in charge) who worked at an industrial coal storage bunker.  Bunker & bunkerage is a noun, bunkering is a noun & verb, bunkered is a verb and bunkerish, bunkeresque, bunkerless & bunkerlike are adjectives; the noun plural is bunkers.

Just as ships called “coalers” were used to transport coal to and from shore-based “coal stations”, it was “oilers” which took oil to storage tanks or out to sea to refuel ships (a common naval procedure) and these STS (ship-to-ship) transfers were called “bunkering” as the black stuff was pumped, bunker-to-bunker.  That the coal used by steamships was stored on-board in compartments called “coal bunkers” led ultimately to another derived term: “bunker oil”.  When in the late nineteenth century ships began the transition from being fuelled by coal to burning oil, the receptacles of course became “oil bunkers” (among sailors nearly always clipped to “bunker”) and as refining processes evolved, the fuel specifically produced for oceangoing ships came to be called “bunker oil”.

Bunker oil is “dirty stuff”, a highly viscous, heavy fuel oil which is essentially the residue of crude oil refining; it’s that which remains after the more refined and volatile products (gasoline (petrol), kerosene, diesel etc) have been extracted.  Until late in the twentieth century, the orthodox view of economists was its use in big ships was a good thing because it was a product for which industry had little other use and, as essentially a by-product, it was relatively cheap.  It came in three flavours: (1) Bunker A: Light fuel oil (similar to a heavy diesel), (2) Bunker B: An oil of intermediate viscosity used in engines larger than marine diesels but smaller than those used in the big ships and (3) Bunker C: Heavy fuel oil used in container ships and such which use VLD (very large displacement), slow running engines with a huge reciprocating mass.  Because of its composition, Bucker C especially produced much pollution and although much of this happened at sea (unseen by most but with obvious implications), when ships reached harbor to dock, all the smoke and soot became obvious.  Over the years, the worst of the pollution from the burning of bunker oil greatly has been reduced (the work underway even before the Greta Thunberg (b 2003) era), sometimes by the simple expedient of spraying a mist of water through the smoke.

Floor-plans of the upper (Vorbunker) and lower (Führerbunker) levels of the structure now commonly referred to collectively as the Führerbunker.

History’s most infamous bunker remains the Berlin Führerbunker in which Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) spent much of the last few months of his life.  In the architectural sense there were a number of Führerbunkers built, one at each of the semi-permanent Führerhauptquartiere (Führer Headquarters) created for the German military campaigns and several others built where required but it’s the one in Berlin which is remembered as “the Führerbunker”.  Before 1944 when the intensification of the air raids by the RAF (Royal Air Force) and USAAF (US Army Air Force) the term Führerbunker seems rarely to have been used other than by the architects and others involved in their construction and it wasn’t a designation like Führerhauptquartiere which the military and other institutions of state shifted between locations (rather as “Air Force One” is attached not to a specific airframe but whatever aircraft in which the US president is travelling).  In subsequent historical writing, the term Führerbunker tends often to be applied to the whole, two-level complex in Berlin and although it was only the lower layer which officially was designated as that, for most purposes the distinction is not significant.  In military documents, after January, 1945 the Führerbunker was referred to as Führerhauptquartiere.

Führerbunker tourist information board, Berlin, Germany.

Only an information board at the intersection of den Ministergärten and Gertrud-Kolmar-Straße, erected by the German Goverment in 2006 prior to that year's FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association (International Federation of Association Football)) World Cup now marks the place on Berlin's Wilhelmstrasse 77 where once the Führerbunker was located.  The Soviet occupation forces razed the new Reich Chancellery and demolished all the bunker's above-ground structures but the subsequent GDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic; the old East Germany) 1949-1990) abandoned attempts completely to destroy what lay beneath.  Until after the fall of the Berlin Wall (1961-1989) the site remained unused and neglected, “re-discovered” only during excavations by property developers, the government insisting on the destruction on whatever was uncovered and, sensitive still to the spectre of “Neo-Nazi shrines”, for years the bunker’s location was never divulged, even as unremarkable buildings (an unfortunate aspect of post-unification Berlin) began to appear on the site.  Most of what would have covered the Führerbunker’s footprint is now a supermarket car park.

The first part of the complex to be built was the Vorbunker (upper bunker or forward bunker), an underground facility of reinforced concrete intended only as a temporary air-raid shelter for Hitler and his entourage in the old Reich Chancellery.  Substantially completed during 1936-1937, it was until 1943 listed in documents as the Luftschutzbunker der Reichskanzlei (Reich Chancellery Air-Raid Shelter), the Vorbunker label applied only in 1944 when the lower level (the Führerbunker proper) was appended.  In mid January, 1945, Hitler moved into the Führerbunker and, as the military situation deteriorated, his appearances above ground became less frequent until by late March he rarely saw the sky,  Finally, on 30 April, he committed suicide.

Bunker Busters

Northrop Grumman publicity shot of B2-Spirit from below, showing the twin bomb-bay doors through which the GBU-57 are released.

Awful as they are, there's an undeniable beauty in the engineering of some weapons and it's unfortunate humankind never collectively has resolved exclusively to devote such ingenuity to stuff other than us blowing up each other.

The use in June 2025 by the USAF (US Air Force) of fourteen of its Boeing GBU-57 (Guided Bomb Unit-57) Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP) bombs against underground targets in Iran (twelve on the Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant and two on the Natanz nuclear facility) meant “Bunker Buster” hit the headlines.  Carried by the Northrop B-2 Spirit heavy bomber (built between 1989-2000), the GBU-57 is a 14,000 kg (30,000 lb) bomb with a casing designed to withstand the stress of penetrating through layers of reinforced concrete or thick rock.  “Bunker buster” bombs have been around for a while, the ancestors of today’s devices first built for the German military early in World War II (1939-1945) and the principle remains unchanged to this day: up-scaled armor-piercing shells.  The initial purpose was to produce a weapon with a casing strong enough to withstand the forces imposed when impacting reinforced concrete structures, the idea simple in that what was needed was a delivery system which could “bust through” whatever protective layers surrounded a target, allowing the explosive charge to do damage where needed rtaher than wastefully being expended on an outer skin.  The German weapons proved effective but inevitably triggered an “arms race” in that as the war progressed, the concrete layers became thicker, walls over 2 metres (6.6 feet) and ceilings of 5 (16) being constructed by 1943.  Technological development continued and the idea extended to rocket propelled bombs optimized both for armor-piercing and aerodynamic efficiency, velocity a significant “mass multiplier” which made the weapons still more effective.

USAF test-flight footage of Northrop B2-Spirit dropping two GBU-57 "Bunker Buster" bombs.

Concurrent with this, the British developed the first true “bunker busters”, building on the idea of the naval torpedo, one aspect of which was in exploding a short distance from its target, it was highly damaging because it was able to take advantage of one of the properties of water (quite strange stuff according to those who study it) which is it doesn’t compress.  What that meant was it was often the “shock wave” of the water rather than the blast itself which could breach a hull, the same principle used for the famous “bouncing bombs” used for the RAF’s “Dambuster” (Operation Chastise, 17 May 1943) raids on German dams.  Because of the way water behaved, it wasn’t necessary to score the “direct hit” which had been the ideal in the early days of aerial warfare.

RAF Bomber Command archive photograph of Avro Lancaster (built between 1941-1946) in flight with Grand Slam mounted (left) and a comparison of the Tallboy & Grand Slam (right), illustrating how the latter was in most respects a scaled-up version of the former.  To carry the big Grand Slams, 32 “B1 Special” Lancasters were in 1945 built with up-rated Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 engines, the removal of the bomb doors (the Grand Slam carried externally, its dimensions exceeding internal capacity), deleted front and mid-upper gun turrets, no radar equipment and a strengthened undercarriage.  Such was the concern with weight (especially for take-off) that just about anything non-essential was removed from the B1 Specials, even three of the four fire axes and its crew door ladder.  In the US, Boeing went through a similar exercise to produce the run of “Silverplate” B-29 Superfortresses able to carry the first A-bombs used in August, 1945. 

Best known of the British devices were the so called “earthquake bombs”, the Tallboy (12,000 lb; 5.4 ton) & Grand Slam (22,000 lb, 10 ton) which, despite the impressive bulk, were classified by the War Office as “medium capacity”.  The terms “Medium Capacity” (MC) & “High Capacity” referenced not the gross weight or physical dimensions but ratio of explosive filler to the total weight of the construction (ie how much was explosive compared to the casing and ancillary components).  Because both had thick casings to ensure penetration deep into hardened targets (bunkers and other structures encased in rock or reinforced concrete) before exploding, the internal dimensions accordingly were reduced compared with the ratio typical of contemporary ordinance.  A High Capacity (HC) bomb (a typical “general-purpose” bomb) had a thinner casing and a much higher proportion of explosive (sometimes over 70% of total weight).  These were intended for area bombing (known also as “carpet bombing”) and caused wide blast damage whereas the Tallboy & Grand Slam were penetrative with casings optimized for aerodynamic efficiency, their supersonic travel working as a mass-multiplier.  The Tallboy’s 5,200 lb (2.3 ton) explosive load was some 43% of its gross weight while the Grand Slam’s 9,100 lb (4 ton) absorbed 41%; this may be compared with the “big” 4000 lb (1.8 ton) HC “Blockbuster” which allocated 75% of the gross weight to its 3000 LB (1.4 ton) charge.  Like many things in engineering (not just in military matters) the ratio represented a trade-off, the MC design prioritizing penetrative power and structural destruction over blast radius.  The novelty of the Tallboy & Grand Slam was that as earthquake bombs, their destructive potential was able to be unleashed not necessarily by achieving a direct hit on a target but by entering the ground nearby, the explosion (1) creating an underground cavity (a camouflet) and (2) transmitting a shock-wave through the target’s foundations, leading to the structure collapsing into the newly created lacuna. 

The etymology of camouflet has an interesting history in both French and military mining.  Originally it meant “a whiff of smoke in the face (from a fire or pipe) and in figurative use it was a reference to a snub or slight insult (something unpleasant delivered directly to someone) and although the origin is murky and it may have been related to the earlier French verb camoufler (to disguise; to mask) which evolved also into “camouflage”.  In the specialized military jargon of siege warfare or mining (sapping), over the seventeen and nineteenth centuries “camouflet” referred to “an underground explosion that does not break the surface, but collapses enemy tunnels or fortifications by creating a subterranean void or shockwave”.  The use of this tactic is best remembered from the Western Front in World War I, some of the huge craters now tourist attractions.

Under watchful eyes: Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (b 1939; Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic of Iran since 1989) delivering a speech, sitting in front of the official portrait of the republic’s ever-unsmiling founder, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900-1989; Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic of Iran, 1979-1989).  Ayatollah Khamenei seemed in 1989 an improbable choice as Supreme Leader because others were better credentialed but though cautious and uncharismatic, he has proved a great survivor in a troubled region.

Since aerial bombing began to be used as a strategic weapon, of great interest has been the debate over the BDA (battle damage assessment) and this issue emerged almost as soon as the bunker buster attack on Iran was announced, focused on the extent to which the MOPs had damaged the targets, the deepest of which were concealed deep inside a mountain.  BDA is a constantly evolving science and while satellites have made analysis of surface damage highly refined, it’s more difficult to understand what has happened deep underground.  Indeed, it wasn’t until the USSBS (United States Strategic Bombing Survey) teams toured Germany and Japan in 1945-1946, conducting interviews, economic analysis and site surveys that a useful (and substantially accurate) understanding emerged of the effectiveness of bombing although what technological advances have allowed for those with the resources is the so-called “panacea targets” (ie critical infrastructure and such once dismissed by planners because the required precision was for many reasons rarely attainable) can now accurately be targeted, the USAF able to drop a bomb within a few feet of the aiming point.  As the phrase is used by the military, the Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant is as classic “panacea target” but whether even a technically successful strike will achieve the desired political outcome remains to be seen.

Mr Trump, in a moment of exasperation, posted on Truth Social of Iran & Israel: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing."  Actually, both know exactly WTF they're doing; it's just Mr Trump (and many others) would prefer they didn't do it.

Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) claimed “total obliteration” of the targets while Grand Ayatollah Khamenei admitted only there had been “some damage” and which is closer to the truth should one day be revealed.  Even modelling of the effects has probably been inconclusive because the deeper one goes underground, the greater the number of variables in the natural structure and the nature of the internal built environment will also influence blast behaviour.  All experts seem to agree much damage will have been done but what can’t yet be determined is what has been suffered by the facilities which sit as deep as 80 m (260 feet) inside the mountain although, as the name implies, “bunker busters” are designed for buried targets and it’s not always required for blast directly to reach target.  Because the shock-wave can travel through earth & rock, the effect is something like that of an earthquake and if the structure sufficiently is affected, it may be the area can be rendered geologically too unstable again to be used for its original purpose.

Within minutes of the bombing having been announced, legal academics were being interviewed (though not by Fox News) to explain why the attacks were unlawful under international law and in a sign of the times, the White House didn't bother to discuss fine legal points like the distinction between "preventive & pre-emptive strikes", preferring (like Fox News) to focus on the damage done.  However, whatever the murkiness surrounding the BDA, many analysts have concluded that even if before the attacks the Iranian authorities had not approved the creation of a nuclear weapon, this attack will have persuaded them one is essential for “regime survival”, thus the interest in both Tel Aviv and (despite denials) Washington DC in “regime change”.  The consensus seems to be Grand Ayatollah Khamenei had, prior to the strike, not ordered the creation of a nuclear weapon but that all energies were directed towards completing the preliminary steps, thus the enriching of uranium to ten times the level required for use in power generation; the ayatollah liked to keep his options open.  So, the fear of some is the attacks, even if they have (by weeks, months or years) delayed the Islamic Republic’s work on nuclear development, may prove counter-productive in that they convince the ayatollah to concur with the reasoning of every state which since 1945 has adopted an independent nuclear deterrent (IND).  That reasoning was not complex and hasn’t changed since first a prehistoric man picked up a stout stick to wave as a pre-lingual message to potential adversaries, warning them there would be consequences for aggression.  Although a theocracy, those who command power in the Islamic Republic are part of an opaque political institution and in the struggle which has for sometime been conducted in anticipation of the death of the aged (and reportedly ailing) Supreme Leader, the matter of “an Iranian IND” is one of the central dynamics.  Many will be following what unfolds in Tehran and the observers will not be only in Tel Aviv and Washington DC because in the region and beyond, few things focus the mind like the thought of ayatollahs with A-Bombs.

Of the word "bust"

The Great Bust: The Depression of the Thirties (1962) by Jack Lang (left), highly qualified porn star Busty Buffy (b 1996, who has never been accused of misleading advertising, centre) and The people's champion, Mr Lang, bust of Jack Lang, painted cast plaster by an unknown artist, circa 1927, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia (right).  Remembered for a few things, Jack Lang (1876–1975; premier of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) 1925-1927 & 1930-1932) remains best known for having in 1932 been the first head of government in the British Empire to have been sacked by the Crown since William IV (1765–1837; King of the UK 1830-1837) in 1834 dismissed Lord Melbourne (1779–1848; prime minister of the UK 1834 & 1835-1841).

Those learning English must think it at least careless things can both be (1) “razed to the ground” (totally to destroy something (typically a structure), usually by demolition or incineration) and (2) “raised to the sky” (physically lifted upwards).  The etymologies of “raze” and “raise” differ but they’re pronounced the same so it’s fortunate the spellings vary but in other troublesome examples of unrelated meanings, spelling and pronunciation can align, as in “bust”.  When used in ways most directly related to human anatomy: (1) “a sculptural portrayal of a person's head and shoulders” & (2) “the circumference of a woman's chest around her breasts” there is an etymological link but these uses wholly are unconnected with bust’s other senses.

Bust of Lindsay Lohan in white marble by Stable Diffusion.  Sculptures of just the neck and head came also to be called “busts”, the emphasis on the technique rather than the original definition.

Bust in the sense of “a sculpture of upper torso and head” dates from the 1690s and was from the sixteenth century French buste, from the Italian busto (upper body; torso), from the Latin bustum (funeral monument, tomb (although the original sense was “funeral pyre, place where corpses are burned”)) and it may have emerged (as a shortened form) from ambustum, neuter of ambustus (burned around), past participle of amburere (burn around, scorch), the construct being ambi- (around) + urere (to burn),  The alternative etymology traces a link to the Old Latin boro, the early form of the Classical Latin uro (to burn) and it’s though the development in Italian was influenced by the Etruscan custom of keeping the ashes of the dead in an urn shaped like the person when alive.  Thus the use, common by the 1720s of bust (a clipping from the French buste) being “a carving of the “trunk of the human body from the chest up”.  From this came the meaning “dimension of the bosom; the measurement around a woman's body at the level of her breasts” and that evolved on the basis of a comparison with the sculptures, the base of which was described as the “bust-line”, the term still used in dress-making (and for other comparative purposes as one of the three “vital statistics” by which women are judged (bust, waist, hips), each circumference having an “ideal range”).  It’s not known when “bust” and “bust-line” came into oral use among dress-makers and related professions but it’s documented since the 1880s.  Derived forms (sometimes hyphenated) include busty (tending to bustiness, thus Busty Buffy's choice of stage-name), overbust & underbust (technical terms in women's fashion referencing specific measurements) and bustier (a tight-fitting women's top which covers (most or all of) the bust.

The other senses of bust (as a noun, verb & adjective) are diverse (and sometimes diametric opposites and include: “to break or fail”; “to be caught doing something unlawful / illicit / disgusting etc”; “to debunk”; “dramatically or unexpectedly to succeed”; “to go broke”; “to break in” (horses, girlfriends etc): “to assault”; the downward portion of an economic cycle (ie “boom & bust”); “the act of effecting an arrest” and “someone (especially in professional sport) who failed to perform to expectation”.  That’s quite a range and that has meant the creation of dozens of idiomatic forms, the best known of which include: “boom & bust”, “busted flush”, “dambuster”, “bunker buster”,  “busted arse country”, “drug bust”, “cloud bust”, belly-busting, bust one's ass (or butt), bust a gut, bust a move, bust a nut, bust-down, bust loose, bust off, bust one's balls, bust-out, sod buster, bust the dust, myth-busting and trend-busting.  In the sense of “breaking through”, bust was from the Middle English busten, a variant of bursten & bresten (to burst) and may be compared with the Low German basten & barsten (to burst).  Bust in the sense of “break”, “smash”, “fail”, “arrest” etc was a creation of mid-nineteenth century US English and is of uncertain inspiration but most etymologists seem to concur it was likely a modification of “burst” effected with a phonetic alteration but it’s not impossible it came directly as an imperfect echoic of Germanic speech.  The apparent contradiction of bust meaning both “fail” and “dramatically succeed” happened because the former was an allusion to “being busted” (ie broken) while the latter meaning used the notion of “busting through”.

Blister

Blister (pronounced blis-tah or blis-ter)

(1) A thin vesicle on the skin, containing watery matter or serum and induced typically by caused by friction, pressure, burning, freezing, chemical irritation, disease or infection.

(2) In botany, a swelling on a plant.

(3) A swelling containing air or liquid, as on a painted surface.

(4) In medicine, something applied to the skin to raise a blister; a vesicatory (blister agent) or other applied medicine (mostly archaic).

(5) In glass-blowing, a relatively large bubble occurring during the process.

(5) In roofing, an enclosed pocket of air, which may be mixed with water or solvent vapor, trapped between impermeable layers of felt or between the membrane and substrate.

(7) In military jargon, a transparent bulge or dome on the fuselage of an airplane, usually for purposes of observation or mounting a gun but used sometimes as a housing for rearward air extraction.

(8) In photography, a bubble of air formed where the emulsion has separated from the base of a film, usually as a result of defective processing.

(9) In metallurgy, a form of smelted copper with a blistered surface.

(10) A dome or skylight on a building.

(11) The moving bubble in a spirit level.

(12) The small blister-like covering of plastic, usually affixed to a piece of cardboard or other flat sheet, and containing a small item (pens, hardware items etc).

(13) As “blister pack” or “blister card”, the packaging used for therapeutic or medicinal tablets in which the pills sit under small blister-like coverings, often labeled sequentially (1,2,3 or Mon, Tue, Wed etc) to aid patients.

(14) As “blister packaging” a type of pre-formed packaging made from plastic that contains cavities; a variant of bubble-wrap.

(15) In slang, an annoying person; an irritant.

(16) The rhyming slang for “sister”, thus the derived forms “little blister”, “big blister”, “evil blister” etc).

(17) In slang, a “B-lister” (ie a celebrity used for some purpose or invited to an event when it’s not possible to secure the services of an “A-Lister”.  In industry slang, the less successful celebrity managers are “blister agencies”.

(18) To raise a blister; to form or rise as a blister or blisters; to become blistered.

(19) To criticize or severely to rebuke (often as “blistering attack”).

(20) To beat or thrash; severely to punish.

(21) In cooking, to sear after blanching

1250–1300: From the Middle English blister & blester (thin vesicle on the skin containing watery matter), possibly from the Old French blestre (blister, lump, bump), probably from the Middle Dutch blyster & bluyster (swelling; blister), from the Old Norse blǣstri (a blowing), dative of blāstr (swelling).  All the European forms are from the primitive Indo-European bhlei- (to blow, swell), an extension of the root bhel- (to blow, swell).  The verb emerged late in the fifteenth century in the sense of “to become covered in blisters” and the medical use (of vesicatories) meaning “to raise blisters on” is in the literature from the 1540s.  The noun & adjective vesicatory dates from the early eighteenth century was from the Modern Latin vesicularis, from vesicula (little blister), diminutive of vesica (bladder).  In historic medicine, a vesicant (plural vesicants) or vesicatory (plural vesicatories) is used as an agent which induces blistering.  Typically a chemical compound, the primary purpose was intentionally to create a blister to draw blood or other bodily fluids to the surface, often in an attempt to relieve inflammation, improve circulation in a specific area, or treat various conditions indirectly by this counter-irritation technique.  Historically, vesicatories were commonly used with substances like cantharidin (from blister beetles) being applied to the skin to achieve this effect but in modern medicine the practice is (mostly) obsolete because more effective and less invasive treatments now exist.  Blister & blistering are nouns, verbs & adjectives, blistered is a verb & adjective, and blisterlike, blisterless & blistery are adjectives; the noun plural is blisters.

1968 MGC Roadster with bulge, blister and the bulge's curious stainless steel trim.

The MGC (1967-1969) was created by replacing the MGB’s (1962-1980) 1.8 litre four cylinder engine with a 2.9 litre (178 cubic inch) straight-six, something which necessitated a number of changes, one of which was the bonnet (hood) which gained a bulge to accommodate the revised placement of the radiator and, on the left-hand side, a small blister because the forward of the two carburettors sat just a little too high to fit even with the bulge.  Because to raise the whole bulge would have the bonnet look absurd, the decision was taken just to add a blister.  A blister (in this context) is of course a type of bulge and where a blister ends a bulge begins is just a convention of use, blisters informally defined as being smaller and of a “blister-like shape”, something recalling one appearing on one’s foot after a day in tight, new shoes.  A blister (which some seem to insist on calling a “teardrop” in they happen to assume that shape) also differs from a scoop in that it’s a enclosed structure whereas a scoop has an aperture to permit airflow.  There are however some creations in the shape of a typical blister which are used for air-extraction (the aperture to the rear) but these tend to be called “air ducts” rather than blisters.  MGC’s bulged and blistered bonnet has always been admired (especially by students of asymmetry) and both the originals (in aluminium which is an attraction in itself) and reproduction items are often used by MGB owners, either just for the visual appeal or to provide greater space for those who have installed a V8.  The apparently superfluous stainless steel trim piece in the bulge (there's no seam to conceal) is believed to be a motif recalling the small grill which was in a similar place on BMC’s (British Motor Corporation) old Austin-Healey 3000 (1959-1967), the MGC created because the 3000 couldn’t easily be modified to comply with the increasingly onerous US regulations.  Because there were doubts the cost of developing a replacement would ever be recovered, the decision was taken to build what was, in effect, a six-cylinder MGB.  The considerable additional weight of the bigger engine spoiled the MGB’s almost perfect balance and although a genuine 120 mph (195 km/h) machine, the MGC was never a critical or commercial success with only 8,999 (4,542 roadsters & 4,457 coupés) produced during its brief, two season life.

Republic P-47C Thunderbolt with the original colonnaded canopy (top) and the later P-47D with blister canopy (bottom).

When the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (1941-1945) entered service with the USAAF (United States Army Air Force) in 1942, it was the largest, heaviest, single seat, piston-engined fighter ever produced, a distinction it enjoys to this day.  However, one thing it did share with some of its contemporaries was the replacement in later versions of the colonnaded canopy over the cockpit by an all-enveloping single panoramic structure which afforded the pilot unparalleled visibility, something made possible by advances in injection molding to fabricate shapes in Perspex, then still a quite novel material.  These canopies were adopted also for later versions of the The Supermarine Spitfire (1938-1948) and the North American P-51 Mustang (1941-1946) but the historians of aviation seem never to have settled on a description, opinion divided between “bubble-top” and “blister top”.

In military aviation, “blister” is more familiar as a use to describe the transparent bulge (or dome) on the fuselage of an airplane, usually for purposes of observation or mounting a gun but used sometimes to house a rearward air extraction device.  However, because of other linguistic traditions in military design, the “blisters” used as gun mounting position were also described with other words, the use sometimes a little “loose”.  One term was barbette (plural barbettes), a borrowing from the French and used historically to mean (1) a mound of earth or a platform in a fortification, on which guns are mounted to fire over the parapet and (2) (in naval use), the inside fixed trunk of a warship's gun-mounting, on which the turret revolves and used to contain the hoists for shells and cordite from the shell-room and magazine.

Meme-makers know whatever the advantages conferred by blister-packs, getting to the tablet can take a vital second or two.  Imodium is a medication used to treat occasional diarrhea.

Also used was turret, from the Middle English touret, from the Old French torete (which endures in Modern French as tourette), a diminutive of tour (tower), from the Latin turris.  In architecture (and later adoptions like electronic circuitry and railcar design), turrets tended to be variations of or analogous with “towers” but in military use there was a specific evolution.  The early military turrets were “siege towers”, effectively a “proto-tank” or APC (armoured personnel carrier) in the form of what was essentially a “building on wheels”, used to carry ladders, casting bridges, weapons and soldiers equipped with the tools and devices need to storm so fortified structure such as a fort or castle.  From this evolved the still current idea notion of an armoured, rotating gun installation on a fort or warship and as powered land vehicles and later flying machines (aircraft) were developed, the term was adopted for their various forms of specialized gun mountings.  In aircraft, the term blister came later, and allusion to the blister-like shape increasingly used to optimize aerodynamic efficiency, something of little concern to admiralties.

Mar-a-Lago, Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach, Florida.

Another military blister was the cupola (plural cupolas or cupolae), from the Italian cupola, from the Late Latin cūpula (a small cask; a little tub), from the Classical Latin cuppella, from cuppa & cūpa (tub), from the Ancient Greek κύπελλον (kúpellon) (small cup), the construct being cūp(a) + -ula, from the primitive Indo-European -dlom (the instrumental suffix) and used as a noun suffix denoting an instrument.  The origin in Latin was based on the resemblance to an upturned cup, hence the use to describe the rounded top of just about any structure where no specific descriptor existed.  In military use, a cupola is basically a helmet fixed in place and that may be on a building, a ship or an armored vehicle, the function being to protect the head while offering a field of view.  Sometimes, especially in tanks or armored cars, guns or flame-throwers were integrated into cupolas and in naval gunnery, there was the special use to describe the dome-like structures protecting a (usually single) gun mounting, something which distinguished them from the larger, flatter constructions which fulfilled the same purpose for multi-gun batteries.  Turrets and cupolas are among the architectural features of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s (b 1946; US president 2017-2021) winter palace on Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach, Florida.

Northrop P-61 Black Widow:  A prototype with the troublesome dorsal blister turret (left), the early production P-61A with the blister removed (upper right) and the later P-61B with the blister restored (lower right).

The attractive aerodynamic properties of the classic blister shape was an obvious choice for use in aircraft but even then, they weren’t a complete solution.  The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was the first aircraft designed from a clean sheet of paper as a night-fighter, cognizant of the experience of the RAF (Royal Air Force) which during the Luftwaffe’s (the German air force) Blitz of London (1940-1941) had pressed into service day-fighter interceptors.  Designed to accommodate on-board radar, the Black Widow was heavily gunned and incorporated notable US innovations such as remote control firing mechanisms.  Part of the original was a remotely-controlled blister turret on the dorsal section which proved the shape’s aerodynamic properties worked only when pointed in the appropriate direction; when pointed at right-angles to the aircraft’s centre-line, the tail section between the twin-booms suffered severe buffeting.  Accordingly, the blister turret was deleted from the early production versions but the early experience of the military confirmed the need for additional firepower and after a re-design, it was restored to the slightly lengthened P-61B.  The integration of so many novel aspects of design meant the P-61 didn’t enter service until 1944 and, as the first of its breed, it was never a wholly satisfactory night-fighter but it was robust, had good handling characteristics and offered the advantage of being able to carry a heavy payload which meant it could operate as a nocturnal intruder with a lethal disposable load.  It was however in some ways a demanding airframe to operate, the manufacturer recommending that when fully-loaded in its heaviest configuration, a take-off run-up of 3 miles (4.8 km) was required.  Although its service in World War II (1939-1945) was limited, remarkably, like the de Havilland Mosquito (DH.98), the Black Widow was also a Cold War fighter, both in service until 1951-1952 because of a technology deficit which meant it wasn’t until then jet-powered night-fighters came into service.  The Black Widow was in 1949 (by then designated F-51), the first aircraft in service in the embryonic USADC (US Air Defense Command), formed to defend the country from any Soviet intrusion or attack.

Xanax (Alprazolam), a fast-acting benzodiazepine.  It is marketed as anti-anxiety medication and supplied in blister packs.

Lindsay Lohan released the track Xanax in 2019.  With a contribution from Finnish pop star Alma (Alma-Sofia Miettinen; b 1996), the accompanying music video was said to be “a compilation of vignettes of life”, Xanax reported as being inspired by Ms Lohan’s “personal life, including an ex-boyfriend and toxic friends”.  Structurally, Xanax was quoted as being based around "an interpolation of" Better Off Alone, by Dutch Eurodance-pop collective Alice Deejay, slowed to a Xanax-appropriate tempo.

Xanax by Lindsay Lohan

I don't like the parties in LA, I go home

In a bad mood, pass out, wake up alone

Just to do it all over again, oh

Looking for you

Only one reason I came here

Too many people, I can't hear

Damn, I got here at ten

Now it's 4 AM

I can't be in this club

It's too crowded and I'm fucked

Ain't nobody here for love

Ain't nobody care about us

I got social anxiety, but you're like Xanax to me, yeah

Social anxiety, when you kiss me, I can't breathe

No, I can't be in this club

It's too crowded and I'm fucked

Ain't nobody here for love

Ain't nobody care 'bout us

 

I got social anxiety, but you're like Xanax to me, yeah

Social anxiety, when you kiss me, I can't breathe, yeah

 

But you're like Xanax to me

When you kiss me, I can't breathe

 

I try to stay away from you, but you get me high

Only person in this town that I like

Guess I can take one more trip for the night

Just for the night

 

Only one reason I came here

Too many people, I can't hear

Damn, I got here at ten

Now it's 4 AM

 

I can't be in this club

It's too crowded and I'm fucked

Ain't nobody here for love

Ain't nobody care about us

I got social anxiety, but you're like Xanax to me, yeah

Social anxiety, when you kiss me, I can't breathe

No, I can't be in this club

It's too crowded and I'm fucked

Ain't nobody here for love

Ain't nobody care 'bout us

 

I got social anxiety, but you're like Xanax to me, yeah

Social anxiety, when you kiss me, I can't breathe, yeah

 

But you're like Xanax to me

When you kiss me, I can't breathe

 

But you're like Xanax to me

When you kiss me, I can't breathe

Xanax lyrics Universal © Music Publishing Group

Triple

Triple (pronounced trip-uhl)

(1) Threefold; consisting of three parts (matching or not).

(2) Of three kinds; threefold in character or relationship.

(3) Three times as great; multiplied by three (numbers or quantities in general).

(4) In international law or international relations, as triple entente, triple alliance etc, a treaty or some state of arrangement between three states.

(5) In baseball (also called the three-base hit), a hit which enables the batter safely to reach third base.

(6) In (ten-pin) bowling, three strikes in succession.

(7) In basketball, a three-point field goal.

(8) In curling, takeout shot in which three stones are removed from play.

(9) In musical time or rhythm, having three beats in each bar

(10) As triple crown, in various sporting competitions (Rugby Union, thoroughbred racing, motor sport etc), a (sometimes informal) acknowledgement of victory in three specific events (use based on the triple crown (sometimes as triple tiara) once used for the coronation of the Roman Catholic Pope).

(11) In internal combustion engines (ICE), an engine with three pistons or rotors.

(12) One of three; a third (obsolete and the source of some misunderstandings when found in historic texts).

(13) In programming theory, as Hoare triple, a description of how the execution of a piece of code changes the state of the computation in Hoare logic, consisting of (1) a command to be run, (2) a pre-condition that holds true beforehand, and (3) a post-condition that holds true afterwards.

(14) In mathematics, a sequence of three elements or 3-tuple.

1325-1375: From the Middle English triple (there was also þripell), from the Old French triple or the Medieval Latin triplare (to triple) from the Latin triplus (threefold, triple), from the primitive Indo-European tréyes.  Triple is a noun, verb & adjective, tripled is a verb, tripling is a noun & verb, triply is an adverb and triplet is a noun; the noun plural is triples.

In English, the Latinate multiplier “triple” is but one of many ways the value three (3) is in some way expressed or applied.  “Three” is the highest value, single digit cardinal number, as an ordinal it’s “third” (the Latinate ordinal is “tertiary”), the adverbial form is “thrice” (or the more mundane “three times”, as a multiplier the term is “threefold” (also as “three-fold”), the distributive is “triply”, the collective “tripartite”, “trio” or “threesome” (ménage à trois a popular version which has tended to limit the utility of “threesome” for other purposes), the multiuse collective “triplet”, the Greek or Latinate collective “triad”, the collective prefix (from both Latin & Ancient Greek (the latter also had “trito”)) was “tri”, the fractional expression is “third” (the Latinate fractional prefix was “trient-”, the elemental “thrin” & “triplet” and a period of three years is a triennium.  However, while there are weeks, fortnights & months, there’s no accepted term which express a measure of 21 days although three months is often described as “a quarter” although in the context of the nine month gestation associated with human pregnancy, the three month blocks are "trimesters" (first, second & third).  The use in obstetrics extended to education and in systems where academic years exist in four semesters (or terms), there is also the "fourth trimester".

Boss & Co SxSxS 16-bore triple-barrel shotgun #4690.

Originally an adjective, the noun emerged in the early fifteenth century.  The use in baseball dates from 1880 while the various uses of triple-deck, triple-decker etc (a development of the earlier double-decker) for cakes, sandwiches, bunk-beds etc all came into use in the early 1940s.  Triple-barrel carburetors were rare but did exist, Porsche for example using them on their flat sixes.  Rugby Union in 1883 was the first to use “triple crown”, awarded in the UK to the side which won the three “home countries” (England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales) matches.  That was based on the use of the papal triple crown (sometimes as triple tiara) then used for the coronation of the Roman Catholic Pope and was later picked up in US thoroughbred racing: The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes comprise the Triple Crown which was first officially awarded in 1919 although the term didn’t become widely used until the 1930s.  In motorsport, despite the popular perception, it’s never been an official award and many branches of the sport have their own triple crowns, most barely known outside of the small circle of their cognoscenti.  The three events which comprised the classic triple crown were (1) the Indianapolis 500 (first run in 1911), the 24 Hours of Le Mans (first run in 1923) and the Monaco Grand Prix (first run in 1929) and it’s been achieved only once.  That was by Graham Hill (1929–1975) who completed the set at Le Mans in 1972 and although he and others have suggested the Formula One World Championship should be included instead of the Monaco Grand Prix, the original arrangement seems still the accepted triple crown.

Triple sec liqueurs

First distilled as a commercial product in France, “triple sec” is the generic term for an orange-flavoured liqueur which, while rarely consumed alone, is one of the most widely used ingredients in cocktails and other mixed drinks.  It’s this one of the “essentials” in any cocktail bar and the best-known triple sec is Cointreau.  Curiously, there is no consensus about the origin of the term “triple sec” and the theories include (1) the reference in some of the early instructions for the production process to “triple distillation”, (2) the use of three types of orange peel (bitter, sweet & dried) or (3) the meaning “three times as dry”, the literal translation of the French sec being “dry”.  The last, while obvious, is discounted by historians of the industry because Triple Secs have probably always been quite sweet.  Whatever the origin, it’s now a universally used term for many orange liqueurs.

The Triple Alliance and Triple Entente were diplomatic arrangements formed in Europe in the decades prior to the First World War (1914-1918).  The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary & Italy was signed in 1882 as a defensive system directed entirely against France.  It was an integral part of the series of treaties and agreements variously negotiated or imposed by Otto von Bismarck (1815-1989; chancellor of the German Empire (the "Second Reich") 1871-1890) and needs to be understood in the way it interacted with other cogs in the Bismarck machine.  That machine, a collection of inter-locking treaties and agreements (some of them secret) worked to further the interests of (1) the German Empire and (2) a general peace in Europe and was a good device in Bismarck’s capable hands but it proved lethal when less competent practitioners (who didn’t fully understand the implications) inherited the tool.  The Triple Entente was between France, Russia and the UK and was formed in 1907; in the narrow technical sense it was not a formal military alliance but an “understanding” between the three to counter the growing power of Germany and the Triple Alliance.  The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria would become attached to the Triple Alliance with the onset of war although Italy initially remained neutral before (in what would continue to be an Italian tradition) switching sided in 1915 to join the Alliance.  Both the Alliance and the Entente played their parts in the escalating tensions which culminated in the outbreak of hostilities which would trigger the chain reaction of declarations of war.  Had Bismarck still been in Berlin, it’s unlikely things would have been allowed to assume their own momentum.

Six-pack: Lindsay Lohan re-imagined as one of identical triplets in matching LBDs.

The word is used also as a modifier as required such as triple-barreled (used with three-element surnames and in various manufactured items but best known in shotguns), triple-headed (again widely used but probably still most associated with creatures from mythology, tripledemic (a term used in public health and epidemiology to describe the simultaneous outbreak of three epidemics or pandemics), triple fault (in computing a third (and fatal) error instance in a CPU attempting a graceful recovery from a double fault, triple jump (an athletic (track & field) event involving three different types of jump), triple goddess (a female deity who is either three goddesses in one or one who is triune (both three and one at the same time) and triple X syndrome (a chromosomal variation characterized by the presence of an extra X chromosome in each cell of a human female).

The papal triple tiara

Pius XII (1876-1958; pope 1939-1958) in the papal triple tiara, at his coronation, 12 March, 1939.

The papal triple tiara is a crown which has been worn by popes of the Roman Catholic Church since the eighth century.  Traditionally it was worn for their coronation but no pontiff has been so crowned since Paul VI (1897-1978; pope 1963-1978) in 1963 and he abandoned its use after the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II, 1962-1965).  The name tiara refers to the entire headgear and it has used a three-tiered form since a third crown was added during the Avignon Papacy (1309–1378).  It's also referred to as the triregnum, triregno or Triple Crown.  In a piece of one- (or perhaps four-) upmanship, Suleiman I (Süleyman the Magnificent, 1494-1566, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1520-1566) commissioned from Venice a four tier helmet to show, in addition to the authority claimed by popes, he could add the symbol of his imperial power.  Often put on display as the centrepiece of Ottoman regalia to impress visitors, there's no documentary evidence the sultan ever wore the four layer tiara, crowns not part of the tradition and, fashioned from gold and gemstones, it would anyway have been extraordinarily heavy.

A representation of the triregnum combined with two crossed keys of Saint Peter continues to be used as a symbol of the papacy and appears on papal documents, buildings and insignia.  Remarkably, there’s no certainty about what the three crowns symbolize.  Some modern historians link it to the threefold authority of the pope, (1) universal pastor, (2) universal ecclesiastical jurisdiction and (3) temporal power.  Others, including many biblical scholars, interpret the three tiers as meaning (1) father of princes and kings, (2) ruler of the world and (3) vicar of Christ on Earth, a theory lent credence by the words once used when popes were crowned:  Accipe tiaram tribus coronis ornatam, et scias te esse patrem principum et regum, rectorem orbis in terra vicarium Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi, cui est honor et gloria in saecula saeculorum (Receive the tiara adorned with three crowns and know that thou art father of princes and kings, ruler of the world, vicar on earth of our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory for ever and ever).

Lindsay Lohan triple-pack DVD bundle.

Documents in the Vatican Archive suggest by 1130 the papal tiara had been modified to become a conventional (and temporal) symbol of sovereignty over the Papal States.  In 1301 during a dispute with Philip IV (Philip the Fair, 1268–1314, King of France 1285-1314), Boniface VIII (circa 1230–1303; pope 1294-1303) added a second layer to represent a pope’s spiritual authority being superior to an earthly king’s civil domain.  It was Benedict XII (1285–1342; pope 1334-1342 (as the third Avignon pope)) who in 1342 who added the third, said to symbolize the pope’s moral authority over all civil monarchs, and to reaffirm Avignon’s possession.  A changing world and the loss of the Papal States deprived the triple crown of temporal meaning but the silver tiara with the three golden crowns remained to represent the three powers of the Supreme Pontiff: Sacred Order, Jurisdiction and Magisterium.

Not since 1963 has a pope worn the triple crown.  Then, the newly-elected Paul VI, at the end of his coronation, took the tiara from his head and, in what was said to be a display of humility, placed it on the altar.  In a practical expression of that humility, the tiara was auctioned; the money raised used for missionary work in Africa although, keeping things in house, the winning bidder was the Archdiocese of New York.  Popes Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022) and Francis (1936-2025; pope 2013-2025) received tiaras as gifts but neither wore them.  Benedict’s, in a nice ecumenical touch, was made by Bulgarian craftsmen from the Orthodox Church in Sofia, a gesture in the name of Christian unity.  Benedict would have appreciated that, having always kept a candle burning in the window to tempt home the wandering daughter who ran off to Constantinople.

The Mercedes-Benz triple rotor Wankel

The original (although there was a prototype rendered in the tradition of functional brutalism) Mercedes-Benz C111 with triple rotor Wankel engine (1969).

Triple cylinder engines in cars were something of a niche in the early post war years but of late they’ve achieve a new popularity, improvements in electronics and combustion chamber design meaning three cylinders can now achieve what once required four and even with an equivalent displacement their efficiency is inherently greater because of the reduction in internal friction.  Obviously compact, they’ve proved an ideal power-plant in hybrid vehicles.  One quirky triple was the Mercedes-Benz C111 which first appeared in 1969 with a 1.8 litre (110 cubic inch) three-rotor Wankel engine, something then thought to have a great future; it seemed at the time a good idea.  The C111, although produced in a small run and finished in some cases to production car standards was only ever a test bed, not only for the doomed rotary engine but also developments in suspension design, anti-lock braking (ABS; Anti-Bloc System) and safety engineering.  The gullwing body really was designed by an Italian-born stylist but so long had he been in Germany that Teutonic ways had entered his soul so the C111 was less lovely than what might have emerged from a studio in Turin but at the time it still caused a stir, even though finished in what the factory called “safety orange”, their standard high-visibility paint for prototypes and test-beds.  Later versions were fitted with a four-rotor Wankel, a variety of diesels and even a 4.8 litre (292 cubic inch) V8, the fastest of the rotaries said to be capable of 300 km/h (188 mph) while the V8 version (C111-II-D) in 1976 set a new closed-course record on the Nardò Ring in Italy, clocking in at 403.978 km/h (251.815 mph).

Triple carburetors

1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/C (Gran Turismo Berlinetta Competizione (denoting a grand touring coupé built to competition-specification)).

When submitting to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation) the application to homologate the 275 GTB/C for sports car racing, there was some glitch in the factory’s administrative processes because the document certifying the existence of a six-carburetor option for the 275 GTB wasn’t part of the paperwork enclosed.  That meant the 275 GTB/C could appear on the grid only with triple carburetors so to compensate, Ferrari had Weber produce a run of 40 DF13 units which in addition to their higher flow-rate featured lightweight magnesium bodies instead of the aluminium housing and were distinguished also by the distinctive, rearward-facing inlet trumpets.  As might be expected, original Weber 40 DF13s now command a premium price.  Twelve 275 GTB/Cs were built and the model was a turning point in being the last Ferrari built for racing to use the classic Borrani wire wheels.  Such had been the advances in tyre technology that by 1966 the grip generated transferred stresses so acute that in extreme conditions the spokes could break, a tendency exacerbated by the wheels’ additional width (7 inch front 7½ rear); there were accidents.  Such was the concern the two 275 GTB/Cs built as road cars were factory-fitted with aluminum-alloy wheels although the lovely Borranis continued to be made available for the later and much heavier 365 GTB/4 (Daytona, 1968-1973) and 365 GTC/4 (1971-1972), the factory cautioning they were suitable only for road use.  In truth, using a 275 GTB/C on the road was a dubious proposition because, as a weight-saving measure, the body panels had been fabricated in thin 20-gauge aluminium; about half the thickness of the metal used for the road cars, it could be dented just by being touched and the dainty bumperettes (which offered at least some protection on the other variants of the 275 GTB) were wholly fake and merely affixed to the panels with no underlying structure.

1960 Jaguar XK150S 3.8 (left) and schematic of typical installation of Jaguar's auxiliary enrichment thermo-carburetor (right).

The last in the XK series (XK120 (1948-1954), XK140 (1954-1957) & XK150 (1957-1961)), the Jaguar XK150 debuted with a version of the twin carburetor 3.4 litre XK-Six used since 1948.  Increased weight had blunted the XK150's performance, something not wholly off-set by the slight increase in power coaxed from the engine and in 1958 the option of an "S" specification was made available as the XK150S, restoring the pace of the earlier cars, the raised output achieved with a revised cylinder head and triple carburettors (seen earlier in the 1950s on the C-Type, D-Type & XKSS).  The final and fastest of the species was the 3.8 litre version of the XK150S, introduced in 1960; the engine in essentially this configuration would later be shared with the early E-Types (XKE) and Mark X, the triple carburetor arrangement carried when the 4.2 litre versions were released in 1964.  The triple carburetor engines were in 1968 withdrawn from the US market because the anti-emission regulations made the cost of certification prohibitive although, while in North America buyers had to be content with twin-carburetor units, the triples continued for RoW (rest of the world) vehicles exported to other places or sold in the home market.  When the last of the six-cylinder E-Types was made in 1971, that was the end of the line for the triple carburettor Jaguar.  It is however misleading to suggest the XK150S, E-Type and Mark X/420G were the only series-production Jaguars with triple carburetors because on some cars during the 1950s & 1960s, the factory fitted a smaller electromagnetically controlled “auxiliary carburetor” which augmented the main pair, making starting easier.  The unusual arrangement acted as a choke but it was a complicated solution to a simple problem and, while performing faultlessly in testing, in the real world with gas (petrol) of varying quality and in different climatic conditions, it sometimes proved troublesome and there were owners who gave up and installed a conventional choke.

1966 Pontiac 2+2 421 HO Tri Power.

The early carburetors were all single throat (later also as “choke” or “barrel”) devices and almost all were gravity-fed; it wasn’t until the 1930s the first two-barrel (then called a “duplex”) units appeared.  That design was such an advance because the duplexing allowed “fuel separation” manifolds which more accurately sent the mixture to the most distant cylinders; the adoption if this technology in 1934 allowed the output of Ford’s then new “flathead” V8 to rise from 60 to 85 horsepower (HP).  Buick in 1941 created what was, in effect, the first four-barrel system by installing two two-barrel units, the second becoming active only when the throttle had been opened far enough to operate the progressive linkage.  The advantage of that was economy of operation because the additional fuel-burn happened only on demand; it was an approach Detroit would use (in gradually diminishing numbers) until 1971.  Four-barrel carburettors which operated on the same model appeared at scale in the 1950 and became an industry standard, some even installed in pairs on the high-performance vehicles.  Ideal in many ways for the V8 layout, the problem for the manufacturers was the engines grew at a much greater rate than the carburetors and while the dual four-barrel configuration was suited to some, a better compromise for many was to use triple two-barrels.  Pontiac and Oldsmobile chose that path in 1957 and Chevrolet and Cadillac followed in 1958.  Ford flirted only briefly with the triple two-barrel before switching for a few years to dual four barrels for their high performance V8s, their first venture in 1958 when three were bolted onto the big, heavy 430 cubic inch (7.0 litre) MEL V8 although in that form it appeared only on one Mercury for that single season.  As higher-volume four-barrel carburetors became widely available, the rationale for the triple option faded and Chevrolet ceased use for all but the full-sized line and the Corvette; the last triple carburetor Corvettes were built in 1969.  Chrysler was last to adopt the idea and the last to offer it, Trans-Am themed 340 cubic inch (5.5 litre) Plymouth ‘Cudas and Dodge Challengers made in 1970 while the 440 cubic inch (7.2 litre) (advertised variously as “Six Pack” by Dodge and “Six Barrel” by Plymouth) was available in several models between 1969-1971 (it's said six 1972 cars were so configured) although its last appearance was in the Jensen SP, the last of which was built in 1973.  Jensen's experiment had at the time seemed a good idea because, with the engines outlawed in the US, they obtained the surplus stock at an attractive price but in the Interceptor's smaller engine bay and equipped with air-conditioning (something Chrysler never coupled with the triple carburetor engines), the SP proved troublesome and production was terminated, Jensen not taking up to option to buy the remaining stock, 

"Triple" is used of many things: Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

Of taillights and exhaust tips 

1957 DeSoto Adventurer Convertible.

DeSoto's signature triple stacked taillights were a footnote in Detroit's macropterous era of the late 1950s, the style making possible the distinctive vertical arrangement.  Chevrolet would for years make triple taillights a trademark of their more expensive lines (although, apart from the odd special built for the show circuit, they resisted the temptation to add a third to the Corvette (the additional rear apertures on the abortive 1963 Corvette Grand Sport (GS) were for air extraction)) but they appeared always in a less memorable horizontal array.  DeSoto's motif was Chrysler's most successful use of the fins but it wasn't enough to save the brand  which was crowded out of the mid-priced market, not only by competition from General Motors (GM) and Ford but also by intra-corporate cannibalization, squeezed from below by Dodge and from above by Chrysler's new Newport line.  Demand for DeSotos collapsed and that 3034 1961 models were built in late 1960 happened only to use up the large inventory of the few parts still exclusive to the brand.  The last of the line, heavily discounted, were not sold until well into 1961 by which time DeSoto was a single-model range and any loyal customer unable to be supplied with one after stocks were exhausted was rewarded instead with a similarly configured Chrysler Newport, a notch up the corporate hierarchy.  The 47-day production run of the 1961 DeSotos was short but it was longer than that of Ford's doomed 1960 Esdel, 2864 of which left the production line over 34 days late in 1959. 

More sharing of stuff than before: 1960 DeSoto Fireflite four-door hardtop (left) and 1960 Chrysler New Yorker four-door hardtop (right).

Note the New Yorker's larger rear window.  Remarkably (by today's standards), the Chryslers of this generation offered two different designs of rear glass, the extra surface-area described in the brochures as the “Extra-large rear window” and it was a time when such flourishes were a matter purely for designers and accountants whereas now it would require a separate programme crash-testing several vehicles.  The big glass was standard on all two-door hardtops & New Yorker four-door hardtops and optional at various times on the Saratoga, Newport and Windsor four-door hardtops.

1961 Chrysler brochure (page 7).

The phrase "EXTRA-LARGE REAR WINDOW" really did appear (capitalized) in the brochures and the simplicity in the description wasn't always typical of the advertising copy of an era during which words like "vista", "panoramic" or "dioramic" might have been expected when extolling the virtues of having more glass.  In the same (1961) brochure, the plain-speaking language may be compared with "FLIGHT-SWEEP DECK LID", used to describe the fake spare tyre cover the agency further explained was a "smooth sculptured circle" which added "a distinctive finishing touch".  In the wild, the "flight sweep deck lid" was tended to be called the "washing machine lid" or "toilet seat".  "Flight-Sweep" was an allusion to a pair of concept-cars Chrysler sent around the show circuit in 1955 and they genuinely did have the spare tyre housed under the mounting although the complexity of the assembly would have seen it vetoed by the accountants as too expensive for mass-production.  When "Flight Sweep" was used as an advertising hook for the 1956 range, while some of the styling cues from the show cars did appear the "toilet seat" did not but it was a feature (many suggesting, even then, a blemish) between 1957-1960 when it was fitted as standard on some of the higher-priced lines and an option on others.  There were buyers who chose the option so the "toilet seat look" must have had some appeal.   

By 1959 the writing was on the wall for the once popular DeSoto and the 1960 range would prove its swansong, the last of the breed barely modified Chryslers and the only real hint of the past was the taillight's triple frets.  On the DeSoto the ridges were a modest attempt to retain brand identity but in optics such things have a purpose and are known as “Fresnel lenses” or “Fresnel ribs”, the name from French civil engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827), remembered for his research into optics which led eventually to the near-unanimous acceptance of the nature of light being a wave (he was half-right but light was later proved to possess a wave-particle duality).  His more enduring Fresnel lens used the catadioptric (reflective/refractive) principle and what the “stepped” design did was extend the reach of lighthouse beams, doubtlessly saving the lives of many seafarers.  Fresnel’s invention was a refinement of the dioptric (refractive) stepped lens, a concept first published by the French cosmologist and mathematician Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) and Fresnel’s enhancements better distributed and directed the light, improving visibility from longer distances and a greater range of angles.

By 1960 (left) the DeSoto's taillights were a shadow of the way the triple-stack motif had been defined in 1959 (right): This juxtaposition is DeSoto Red Tail Lights in Black and White by Paul Ward.  Many designers probably will prefer the later interpretation but there's a charm to the triple stack. 

1969 Dino 206 GT by Ferrari in Azzurro Metallizzato (left), 1974 Ferrari 365 GT4 in Rosso Corso (centre) and 1975 Ferrari 365 GT4 BB in Verde Germoglio.

Unexpectedly, in the early 1970s, Ferrari had a flirtation with triple taillights and they doubled-down for the 365 GT4 BB (better known as the Berlinetta Boxer), adding a pair of triple tail-pipe apparatuses (thus a count of six rather than the usual four) for the 4.4 litre Flat-12.  Before the decade was out it must have been decided four of either was enough and the factory decided for a while (mostly) to stick to the classics: as designs like the Dino 206 GT illustrate, less can be more.  Since the BB however, Ferraris have also appeared with two and three tailpipes (some in the 1970s had but one) and in the twenty-first century many cars come with just a minimalist pair of taillights.  Ascetically, no arrangement works as well as the traditional template: four lights, four pipes.

The fetish of motorcycle exhaust systems

1980 Laverda Jota 1000 (3-into-2, far left), 1973 Suzuki GT750 "Water Buffalo" (3-into-4, centre left), 1972 Kawasaki 750 Mach IV (H2) (3-into-3, centre right) and 2017 MV-Agusta Dragster 800Rc (3-into-3, far right).

Triple cylinder engines have been a feature of motorcycle engines for decades and different manufacturers have taken various approaches to the exhaust systems, an item which exerts upon riders a special fascination.  It’s not unusual to fit single systems (3-into-one) but there are also some which “siamesed” the central header pipe, the derived pair joining the two outer pipes to duct into two mufflers.  Unusually, Suzuki for a while offered 380, 550 & 750 cm³ machines with 3-into-4 systems, the central header again “siamesed” but with the novelty of terminating the two pipes in separate mufflers, thereby emulating the appearance of a four-cylinder machine.  It was a curious arrangement which Suzuki abandoned and other manufacturers choose not to follow (although there had been after-market suppliers which concocted 2-into-4 systems which exchanged the "advantage" of "the look" for the drawback of additional weight and needless complexity).  Greatly at the time, Suzuki must have valued symmetry.

1973 Kawasaki H2 Mach IV 750 (left), 1975 Triumph X-75 Hurricane (centre) and 2020 MV Agusta Dragster 800 RC 75^th Anniversario (right).

Somewhat earlier, asymmetry hadn’t frightened Kawasaki which used pragmatic 3-into-3 engineering for their range (250, 350, 400, 500 & 750 cm³) of charismatic, highly strung two-strokes, one pipe to the left, two to the right and it was a distinctive feature which, although sometimes seen on the track, remains rare on the road.  In the same era, Triumph on their X75 Hurricane took 3-into-3 asymmetry to its logical conclusion, its three pipes arranged in a radically upswept stack on the right.  It looked dramatic and was much admired but didn’t catch on although there’s been the odd revival, the Italian house MV-Agusta adopting the look and engineering a particularly aggressive interpretation on their Dragster 800RC.  The Italians can make even exhaust pipes artistic statements.  When the Guggenheim Museum in New York staged The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition (October 2001-January 2003), one featured machine was the MV Agusta F4, and there was a focus on the way its four pipes exited rakishly from the tail section.

1969 Triumph Trident T150.

So there have been triple-cylinder motorcycles with exhaust systems configured as 3-into-1, 3-into-2, 3-into-3 & 3-into-4 but the early versions of the Triumph Trident and BSA Rocket 3 (1968-1975) offered a unique take on things with a design which had the three headers ducted into two mufflers, each of which terminated with three exhaust stubs so it can be described as a 3-into-2-into-6 which seems one layer of complication too many.  The styling on the early Trident and Rocket wasn’t well received and was revised for 1971.  Neither motorcycle was a commercial success because they arrived too late; had the pair been released in 1966 as was planned, things might have been better because genuinely they were fast and offered a level of refinement beyond the parallel twins which for years had been a mainstay of the British industry.  As it was, within weeks of their debut, Honda’s epoch-making 750-Four was on the market, a generation (or more) advanced compared with the competition and when the Kawasaki 900 later followed, even the (slight) performance advantage enjoyed by the British triples vanished.

2022 Triumph Rocket 3 GT in triple black.

When Triumph announced the Rocket 3 in 2019, most attention was on the numbers, the 2458 cm³ (150 cubic inch) triple being the largest displacement engine available in a motorcycle and the (163 ft-lb) (221 N⋅m) torque generated also industry leading, topping even the big Ducatis and the straight-six BMW.  Triumph since 2004 been at the top of the displacement tree with the Rocket III’s 2294 cm³ (140 cubic inch) engine and the updated model was very much a modernization exercise, something which may account for the decision to switch from the traditional Roman numerals to a digitally compliant “3”.  Being a triple there were of course options for how to handle the exhaust ducting and for the GT model Triumph opted for the asymmetric on the model of the old Kawasaki two-strokes rather than reprise its own X-75 Hurricane of nearly half a century earlier.  Unlike Kawasaki, Triumph didn’t make asymmetry a signature feature, choosing to route the third exhaust, almost inconspicuously, just under the swing-arm on the left side, a curious juxtaposition with the visual statement of intent made by the two on the right.  Doubtlessly the engineering behind the decision was sound and to add a bit of high-tech bling, some Rocket 3’s had carbon-fibre exhaust tips and most conspicuously they were carbon-fibre.