Shuttle

Shuttle (pronounced shuht-l)

(1) In weaving, a device in a loom for passing or shooting the weft thread through the shed from one side of the web to the other, usually consisting of a boat-shaped piece of wood containing a bobbin on which the weft thread is wound (ie the tool which carries the woof back and forth (shuttling) between the warp threads on a loom).

(2) In a sewing machine, the sliding container (thread-holder) that carries the lower thread through a loop of the upper thread to make a lock-stitch.

(3) In transport, a public conveyance (bus, train, ferry, car, limousine aircraft), that travels back and forth at regular intervals over a particular route, especially a short route or one connecting two transportation systems; the service provided by such vehicles.

(4) In badminton, as shuttlecock, the lightweight object, built with a weighted (usually rubber-covered) semi-spherical nose attached to a conical construction (historically of feathers but now usually synthetic) and used as a ball is used in other racquet games. Shuttlecock was also once widely used as the name of the game but this is now rare.

(5) As space shuttle, vehicle designed to transport people & cargo between Earth and outer-space, designed explicitly re-use with a short turn-around between missions (often with initial capital letters).  The term shuttlecraft is the generic alternative, “space shuttle” most associated with the US vehicle (1981-2011).

(6) To cause (someone or something) to move back and forth by or as if by a shuttle, often in the form “shuttling”.

(7) Any device which repeatedly moves back and forth between two positions, either transporting something or transferring energy between those points.

(8) In electrical engineering, as shuttle armature, a H-shaped armature in the shape of an elongated shuttle with wires running longitudinally in grooves, used in small electrical generators or motors, having a single coil wound upon a the bobbin, the latter usually formed in soft iron.

(9) In diplomacy, as shuttle diplomacy, the practice of a diplomat from a third country shuttling between two others countries to conduct negotiations, the two protagonists declining directly to meet.

Pre 900: Shuttle was a merge from two sources. From (1) the Middle English shutel, shotel, schetel, schettell, schyttyl & scutel (bar; bolt), from the Old English sċyttel & sċutel (bar; bolt), the notion being shut +‎ -le.  Shut was from the Middle English shutten & shetten, from the Old English scyttan (to cause rapid movement, shoot a bolt, shut, bolt), from the Proto-Germanic skutjaną & skuttijaną (to bar, to bolt), from the Proto-Germanic skuttą & skuttjō (bar, bolt, shed), from the primitive Indo-European skewd & kewd- (to drive, fall upon, rush). The -le suffix was from the Middle English -elen, -len & -lien, from the Old English -lian (the frequentative verbal suffix), from the Proto-Germanic -lōną (the frequentative verbal suffix) and was cognate with the West Frisian -elje, the Dutch -elen, the German -eln, the Danish -le, the Swedish -la and the Icelandic -la.  It was used as a frequentative suffix of verbs, indicating repetition or continuousness.  From (2) the Middle English shitel (missile; a weaver's instrument), shutel, schetil, shotil, shetel, schootyll, shutyll, schytle & scytyl (missile; projectile; spear), from the Old English sċytel, sċutel (dart, arrow) (related to the Middle High German schüzzel and the Swedish skyttel), from the Proto-Germanic skutilaz, (related to the Middle High German schüzzel and the Swedish skyttel) and cognate with the Old Norse skutill (harpoon), the idea akin to both shut & shoot.  Shuttle is a noun, verb & adjective, shuttling is a noun & verb and shuttled and shuttles are verbs; the noun plural is shuttles.  The adjectival form shuttle-like is more common than the rare shuttlesque (which is listed as non-standard by the few sources to acknowledge its dubious existence).

A Lindsay Lohan advertising mural on the back of one of the airport shuttle buses run by Milan Malpensa International Airport in northern Italy.

The original sense in English is long obsolete, supplanted by the senses gained from the weaving instrument, so called since 1338 on the notion of it being “shot backwards and forwards” across the threads.  The transitive sense (move something rapidly to and fro) was documented from the 1540s, the same idea attached to the shuttle services in transport, first used in 1895 (although the intransitive sense of “go or move backward and forward like a shuttle” had been in use by at least 1843) in early versions of what would come to be known as intra-urban “rapid transit systems” (RTS), the one train that runs back and forth on the single line between fixed destinations (often with intermediate stops).  This was picked up by ferry services in 1930, air routes in 1942, space travel in 1960 (in science fiction) and actual space vehicles in 1969.  Shuttle in the sense it evolved in English is used in many languages but a separate development was the naming of the weaving instrument based on its resemblance to a boat (the Latin navicula, the French navette and the German Weberschiff).  The noun shuttlecock dates from the 1570s, the “shuttle” element from it being propelled backwards and forwards over a net and the “cock” an allusion to the attached anti-aerodynamic construction (originally of feathers) which resembled a male bird's plume of tail feathers.  The term Shuttle diplomacy came into use in the 1970s thanks to tireless self-promotion by Dr Henry Kissinger although the practice (of “good offices”) dates back centuries.

The Abbotsleigh class of 2020 pondering time flying faster than a weaver’s shuttle.

The motto of the Sydney girl’s school Abbotsleigh is tempus celerius radio fugit (Time flies faster than a weaver's shuttle), the idea behind that said to be: “As the shuttle flies a pattern is woven, with the threads being the people, buildings and events. The pattern is Abbotsleigh as it continues to grow in complexity and richness each year”.  Quite whether a weaver’s shuttle (said by some detractors to have been chosen as symbolic of the "proper" place of women being in a state of domestic servitude for the convenience of men) is appropriate for a girls’ school in the twenty-first century has been debated.  The motto came from the family crest of Marian Clarke (1853-1933), Abbotsleigh’s first headmistress (principle) and was maintained using the family’s grammatically dubious form tempus fugit radio celerity until 1924 when the correct syntax was substituted.  It’s an urban myth the mistake was permitted to stand until 1924 as a mark of respect while Ms Clarke was alive; she lived a decade odd after the change although the family’s heraldry was apparently never corrected.

The US (left) and USSR (centre) space shuttles compared with a badminton shuttlecock (right).  The shuttlecock is rendered in a larger scale than the shuttles.

The US Space Shuttle was operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) between 1981-2011 as the low Earth orbital vehicle which was the platform for its Space Transportation System (STS).  The plans, based on ideas first explored in science fiction a decade earlier, for a (mostly) reusable spacecraft system were first laid down in 1969 and despite intermittent funding, test flights were first undertaken in 1981.  Five Space Shuttles were eventually built to completion and between 1981-2011, there were over a hundred missions.  The stresses imposed on the craft were considerable which meant both the mission turn-arounds were never as rapid as had been hoped and the extent to which components could be reused had to be revised.  There was controversy too about the failures of NASA’s procedures which resulted in the two accidents in which all seven crew aboard each shuttle were killed.  The programme was retired in 2011.

Lindsay Lohan getting off the NAPA Shuttle, The Parent Trap (1998).  The term "to disembark" was borrowed from nautical use and of late "to deplane" has entered English which seems unnecessary but the companion "to disemplane" was more absurd still; real people continue to "get on" and "get off" aircraft.

The Soviet Union’s space shuttle, construction of which began in 1980, unsurprisingly, was visually very similar to the US vehicle, there being only so many ways optimally to do these things.  The USSR’s effort was the Буран (Buran) (Snowstorm or Blizzard), the craft sharing the designation with the Soviet spaceplane project and its spaceships, known as "Buran-class orbiters".  Although more than a dozen frames were laid down, few were ever completed to be flight-ready and the Buran’s only flight was an un-crewed orbital mission in 1988 which was successful.  The deteriorating economic and political situation in the Soviet Union meant the programme stalled and in 1993 it was abandoned by the new Russian government.  The striking similarity between the profile of the US & Soviet space shuttles and a badminton shuttlecock is coincidental but not unrelated.  The space craft are designed as aerodynamic platforms because, although not of relevance in the vacuum of space, they did have to operate as aircraft while operating in Earth’s atmosphere whereas the shuttlecock is designed deliberately as an anti-aerodynamic shape.  The shuttle’s shape was dictated by the need to maximize performance whereas a shuttlecock is intentionally inefficient, the shape maximizing air-resistance (drag) so it slows in flight.

Henry Kissinger, shuttling between dinner companions (left to right), Dolly Parton (b 1946), Diane von Furstenberg (b 1946), Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-1997) and Carla Bruni (b 1967).

The term shuttle diplomacy describes the process in which a mediator travels repeatedly between two or more parties involved in a conflict or negotiation, in circumstances where the protagonists are unable or unwilling to meet.  Ostensibly, the purpose of shuttle diplomacy is to facilitate communication between the parties and reach a resolution of the dispute(s) but, being inherently political, it can be used for other, less laudable goals.  The practice, if not the term has a long history, instances noted from antiquity and the Holy Roman Empire was renowned for the neutral diplomats who would travel back and forth between kings, princes, dukes and cardinals.  During both the Conference of Vienna (1814-1815) and the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920) the negotiations were marked by intransigent politicians sitting in rooms while a (notionally) disinterested notable shuttled between them, giving and taking until acquiescence was extracted.  A celebrated example of the process played out between 1939-1940 when Swedish businessman Birger Dahlerus (1891-1957) played a quixotic role as amateur diplomat, shuttling between London and Berlin in what proved a doomed attempt to avoid war.  It was for years seen as something romantic (if misguided) and it was only years later when the UK Foreign Office’s papers on the matter were made available the extent of the Swede’s conflicts of interest were revealed.

Richard Nixon meets Henry Kissinger.

The term entered the language in 1973 when Dr Henry Kissinger (1923-2023; US national security advisor 1969-1975 & secretary of state 1937-1977) used it to refer to his efforts to negotiate an end to the Yom Kippur War between Israel and its Arab neighbors.  Kissinger shuttled between Tel Aviv, Cairo and other Middle Eastern capitals in an attempt to broker a ceasefire and improve diplomatic relations, enjoying some success, achieving a bilateral peace between Egypt and Israel as well as a number of disengagement agreements.  Some historians and foreign policy scholars however, while acknowledging what was achieved, have suggested that it was the Kissinger’s approach to the region in the years leading up to the war which contributed to the outbreak of hostilities.

Kissinger has also been criticized on the basis that shuttle diplomacy was never anything more than him playing a game of realpolitik on a multi-dimensional chessboard rather than an attempt to imagine a regional architecture which could produce a comprehensive peace plan in the Middle East, his emphasis on securing something in the interest of the US (a treaty between Egypt and Israel) meaning the vital issue of Palestine and its potential to assist in securing long-term peace in the region was not just neglected but ignored.  Cynics, noting his academic background and research interests, compared his shuttle diplomacy with the travels of emissaries in the Holy Roman Empire who would travel between the Holy See, palaces and chancelleries variously to reassure the troubled, sooth hurt feelings and cajole the diffident.  There was also the idea of Henry the self-promoting celebrity who could bring peace to Vietnam and Nixon to China, the political wizard who solved problems as they arose.  Certainly, the circumstances in which Kissinger was able to use shuttle diplomacy as a political narrative were unique.  He’d first undermined and then replaced William Rogers (1913–2001; US secretary of state 1969-1973) as secretary of state and even before becoming virtually the last major figure still standing from Richard Nixon’s (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) first term as the Watergate affair took its toll, essentially took personal control of the direction of US foreign policy.  As he put it “…one of the more cruel torments of Nixon’s Watergate purgatory was my emergence as the preeminent figure in foreign policy”.

So, opportunistic his initiatives may have been but there were after all real problems to be solved and it seems unfair to criticize Kissinger for doing what he did rather than constructing some counter-factual grand design which might have created a permanent, settled peace in the Middle East.  However, among realists (and Kissinger was dean of the school), even then there were few who believed such a thing was any longer possible possible (certainly since the conclusion of the six-day war in 1967) and Kissinger certainly achieved something and to do that it’s necessary to understand there are some problems which really can only endlessly be managed and never solved.  Some problems are insoluble, something lost on many US presidents infected more than most by the diminishing but still real feelings of optimism and exceptionalism that have for centuries characterized the American national character.  Until he met Elizabeth Holmes (b 1984; CEO of US biotech company Theranos 2003-2018), nothing fooled Henry.

Declarative

Declarative (pronounced dih-klar-uh-tiv)

(1) Serving to declare; having the quality of a declaration; make known, or explain.

(2) Making or having the nature of a declaration.

(3) In the study of learning, acquiring information one can speak about.

(4) In psychology and structural mnemonics, as declarative memory, a type of long-term memory where facts and events are stored (one of two types of long term human memory).

(5) In computing, as declarative statement (or declarative line or declarative code) that which declares a construct.

(6) In computing, as declarative programming, a paradigm in programming where an objective is stated, rather than a mechanism or design.

(7) In formal grammar, a grammatical verb form used in declarative sentences.

1530-1540: From the Middle English declarative (making clear or manifest, explanatory), from the French déclaratif, from the Late Latin dēclārātīvus (explanatory), past participle stem of the Classical Latin declarare (make clear, reveal, disclose, announce), the construct being de- (presumed here to be used as an intensifier) + clarare (clarify) from clarus (clear).  The meaning “making declaration, exhibiting” dates from the 1620s and in the mid-fifteenth century it was in common use as a noun meaning “an explanation”.  In some contexts, declarative is often a synonym of declaration.  The companion adjective enunciative (declarative, declaring something as true) also dates from the early sixteenth century and was from the Latin enunciates (technically enuntiativus), from the past participle stem of enuntiare (to speak out, say, express).  In English, it’s rare compared to declarative (1) because of that form's wide use in documents explaining the rules and conventions of English and (2) because enunciate was captured by the speech therapists and elocution teachers who refused to give it back.  Declarative is a noun & adjective and declaratively an adverb; the noun plural is declaratives.

In psychology, psychiatry and structural mnemonics, there are three defined types of memory: declarative, semantic & episodic.  Declarative memory (known also as explicit memory) is a type of long-term memory where knowledge & events are stored.  Semantic memory is a sub-category of declarative memory which (1) stores general information such as names and facts and is (2) a system of the brain where logical concepts relating to the outside world are stored.  Episodic memory is a sub-category of declarative memory (1) in which is stored memories of personal experiences tied to particular times and places and (2) is a system of the brain which stores personal memories and the concept of self.

A gang of four Sceggs, all of whom would speak in the accent known as the “declarative middle-class voice”.

Although technically only marginally related to declarative as otherwise used in English, as a specific category in studies of social class the “declarative middle-class voice” is an accent taught or honed by private girls’ schools.  Optimized for husband-hunting expeditions, training involves reciting school mottos such as Luceat Lux Vestra (Let your light shine), borrowed by Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar (SCEGG) from Matthew 5:16.  Over the Sydney Harbor Bridge, at Abbotsleigh the motto is tempus celerius radio fugit (Time flies faster than a weaver's shuttle), the idea behind that said to be: “As the shuttle flies a pattern is woven, with the threads being the people, buildings and events. The pattern is Abbotsleigh as it continues to grow in complexity and richness each year”.  Quite whether a weaver’s shuttle (said by some detractors to have been chosen as symbolic of the "proper" place of women being in a state of domestic servitude for the convenience of men) is appropriate for a girls’ school in the twenty-first century has been debated.  The motto came from the family crest of Marian Clarke (1853-1933), Abbotsleigh’s first headmistress (principle) and was maintained using the family’s grammatically dubious form tempus fugit radio celerity until 1924 when the correct syntax was substituted.  It’s an urban myth the mistake was permitted to stand until 1924 as a mark of respect while Ms Clarke was alive; she lived a decade odd after the change although the family’s heraldry was apparently never corrected.

One of history's more fateful declarative statements: Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) delivers a speech to members of the Reichstag, declaring war on the United States.  Kroll Opera House, Berlin, 11 December 1941, the US responding the same day with declarations of war against Germany and Italy.  Appearing in this image are a number of the Nazi hierarchy who would (1) later sit together as defendants  in the Nuremberg Trial (1945-1946) & (2) be hanged from the same gallows (1946).  Interestingly, although militarily hardly inactive over the last few decades, the declarations of war in June 1942 (essentially a "tidying up exercise" to satisfy legal niceties) against Romania, Bulgaria & Hungary were the last by the US.  From the moment the declaration was made, historians and others have puzzled over Hitler's state of mind, given Germany was under no legal obligation to declare war and his decision meant the wealth and industrial might of the US was suddenly added to the forces opposing the Reich.  Much has been written on the subject exploring the understanding of Hitler, his general & admirals had of the potential of the US rapidly to project military power simultaneously across both the Atlantic and Pacific and there are a variety of thoughts but all can be boiled down to what defence counsel in the 1970s offered as the streaker's defence: "It seemed a good idea at the time".

Hitler addressing the members of the Reichstag, 1939 (left) & 1941 (right), the most obvious difference (at least politically) between the two the presence on the front row (lower left) of Rudolf Hess (1894–1987; Nazi deputy führer 1933-1941), who in June 1941, on the eve of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, flew to Scotland on a personal mission to negotiate the end of hostilities between Germany & the UK, something that remains one of the more bizarre episodes of the war.  By the time war was declared on the US, Hess was some six months into a period of captivity which would last until his death more than forty-five years later although when Hitler made the declaration, he had been moved from the Tower of London, his imprisonment there a distinction much envied by Baldur von Schirach (1907–1974), one of Hess's fellow inmates in Spandau Prison for close to twenty years.  Reserved usually for royalty and those accused of high treason, Hess would be the last prisoner to be held in the Tower of London.  The photograph from 1941 is sometimes confused with one taken from the same angle on 30 January 1939 when Hitler delivered the speech most remembered for his infamous prediction that another world war would ensure "the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe", the relevant passage being:

"I have very often in my lifetime been a prophet and have been mostly derided. At the time of my struggle for power it was in the first instance the Jewish people who only greeted with laughter my prophecies that I would someday take over the leadership of the state and of the entire people of Germany and then, among other things, also bring the Jewish problem to its solution. I believe that this hollow laughter of Jewry in Germany has already stuck in its throat. I want today to be a prophet again: if international finance Jewry inside and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, the result will be not the Bolshevization of the earth and thereby the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe". 

The declarative sentence in English

In English grammar, there are four types of sentences:  Declarative, exclamatory, imperative, and interrogatory and the declarative, whether in fiction or non-fiction the declarative is by far the most frequently used.  The declarative sentence is one which makes a statement, provides a fact, offers an explanation, or conveys information.  To be a declarative sentence (also known as a declarative statement), it needs to be in the present tense, usually ends with a period (full-stop) and typically, the subject appears before the verb.  A declarative sentence can also be called an assertive sentence it if asserts something is factual.

There are two types of declarative sentences: the simple and the compound (or elaborated declarative sentence.  A simple declarative sentence consists of only a subject and predicate (“Lindsay Lohan is an actor”).  A compound declarative sentence usually joins two related phrases with a comma and a conjunction (such as and, yet, or but) but the link can also be provided by a semicolon (a form which litters literary novels) and can be accompanied by a transition word (such as besides, however or therefore).  (“Lindsay bought a Mercedes-Benz, crashing it several days later”).  The song 88 lines about 44 women (The Nails, 1981) was interesting because although composed essentially as 88 simple declarative sentences, it was performed as 44 compound declarative sentences.

88 lines about 44 women by David Kaufman, Douglas Guthrie, George Kaufman & Marc Campbell (1981).

Deborah was a Catholic girl

She held out till the bitter end

Carla was a different type

She's the one who put it in

Mary was a black girl

I was afraid of a girl like that

Suzen painted pictures

Sitting down like a Buddha sat

Reno was a nameless girl

A geographic memory

Cathy was a Jesus freak

She liked that kind of misery

Vicki had a special way

Of turning sex into a song

Kamala, who couldn't sing,

Kept the beat and kept it strong

Zilla was an archetype

The voodoo queen, the queen of wrath

Joan thought men were second best

To masturbating in a bath

Sherry was a feminist

She really had that gift of gab

Kathleen's point of view was this

Take whatever you can grab

Seattle was another girl

Who left her mark upon the map

Karen liked to tie me up

And left me hanging by a strap

Jeannie had a nightclub walk

That made grown men feel underage

Mariella, who had a son

Said I must go, but finally stayed

Gloria, the last taboo

Was shattered by her tongue one night

Mimi brought the taboo back

And held it up before the light

Marilyn, who knew no shame

Was never ever satisfied

Julie came and went so fast

She didn't even say goodbye

Rhonda had a house in Venice

Lived on brown rice and cocaine

Patty had a house in Houston

Shot cough syrup in her veins

Linda thought her life was empty

Filled it up with alcohol

Katherine was much too pretty

She didn't do that shit at all

Uh-uh, not Kathrine

Pauline thought that love was simple

Turn it on and turn it off

Jean-marie was complicated

Like some French filmmaker's plot

Gina was the perfect lady

Always had her stockings straight

Jackie was a rich punk rocker

Silver spoon and a paper plate

Sarah was a modern dancer

Lean pristine transparency

Janet wrote bad poetry

In a crazy kind of urgency

Tanya Turkish liked to fuck

While wearing leather biker boots

Brenda's strange obsession

Was for certain vegetables and fruit

Rowena was an artist's daughter

The deeper image shook her up

Dee Dee's mother left her father

Took his money and his truck

Debbie Rae had no such problems

Perfect Norman Rockwell home

Nina, 16, had a baby

Left her parents, lived alone

Bobbi joined a New Wave band

Changed her name to Bobbi Sox

Eloise, who played guitar

Sang songs about whales and cops

Terri didn't give a shit

Was just a nihilist

Ronnie was much more my style

Cause she wrote songs just like this

Jezebel went forty days

Drinking nothing but Perrier

Dinah drove her Chevrolet

Into the San Francisco Bay

Judy came from Ohio

She's a Scientologist

Amaranta, here's a kiss

I chose you to end this list

There are also special classes of declarative sentences such as the interrogative sentence which poses a direct question so necessitating a question mark at the end.  (What is your name?).  The imperative sentence delivers an instruction, command, or request and, depending on this and that, will end either in a period or an exclamation mark (thus “Pass me the remote.” or “Shut the fuck up!”).  An exclamatory sentence will almost invariably end with an exclamation mark and if would be only as a deliberate literary device that an author would use an exclamatory sentence without one (and there are critics who insist that without one, it can’t be an exclamatory sentence although one can discern the difference between “I love you!” and “I do love you.”).

Propeller

Propeller (pronounced pruh-pel-er)

(1) A person or thing that propels.

(2) A device with a hub to which are attached evenly spaced & shaped radiating blades, rotating on a shaft to pitch against air or water to propel an aircraft, ship etc.

(3) A wind-driven (usually three-bladed) device that provides mechanical energy, as for driving an electric alternator in wind plants (not a universal use).

(4) A steamboat thus propelled; a screw steamer (now rare).

(5) In fishing, a spinnerbait.

1780: The construct was propel + -er and the original sense was “one who or that which that propels”, an agent noun from the verb propel.  The verb propel was a mid-fifteenth century form from the Middle English propellen (to drive away, expel), from the Latin propellere (push forward, drive forward, drive forth; move, impel), the construct being pro- (the prefix here use in the sense of “forward direction, forward movement”) + pellere (to push, drive), from the primitive Indo-European root pel- (to thrust, strike, drive).  The meaning “to drive onward, cause to move forward” emerged in the 1650s.  The –er suffix was from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought most likely to have been borrowed from the Latin –ārius where, as a suffix, it was used to form adjectives from nouns or numerals.  In English, the –er suffix, when added to a verb, created an agent noun: the person or thing that doing the action indicated by the root verb.   The use in English was reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (the Anglo-Norman variant -our), from the Latin -ātor & -tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  When appended to a noun, it created the noun denoting an occupation or describing the person whose occupation is the noun.  The alternative spelling propellor dates from the early days of aviation in the first years of the twentieth century and is now extinct.  The standard abbreviation is “prop”, the use noted from military aviation since 1914.  Propeller is a noun; the noun plural is propellers.

Although the concept was used in antiquity and inventors and others (most famously Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519))  had for centuries experimented, the use of the word in mechanical engineering dates from 1809 and was from nautical design describing the application of a “device for moving vessels on or under the water”.  In aircraft design the theory of the use of “propeller” appears in papers and drawings in the 1840s (in what were then described as “flying machines”) and models were built which demonstrated a “proof of concept” although it would be decades before lightweight engines of sufficient power existed to allow experiments in aerodynamics and construction to be powered.  The first known rendering of an aircraft propeller in a recognizably modern form dates from 1853.  The modern propeller uses two or (usually) more twisted, airfoil-shaped blades mounted around a shaft which are spun to provide propulsion of a vehicle through water or air, or to cause fluid flow, as in a pump.  The lift generated by the spinning blades provides the force that propels the vehicle or the fluid although this lift does not of necessity have to induce an actual upward force; its direction is simply parallel to the rotating shaft.

Lindsay Lohan getting off the propeller driven (technically a turbo-prop) NAPA Shuttle, The Parent Trap (1998).

The term “to disembark” was borrowed from nautical use and of late "to deplane" has entered English which seems unnecessary but the companion “to disemplane” seems more absurd still; real people continue to “get on” and “get off” aircraft.

The terms “impeller” & “propeller” both describe devices which use various implantations of the “rotating blade(s) design and are used in mechanical systems to take advantage of the properties of fluid dynamics to harness specific energy for some purpose.  A propeller is a type of rotating device with blades designed to propel or move a fluid (typically a gas or a liquid) by generating thrust; they are most associated with marine vessels, aircraft and some industrial applications.  In aircraft, propellers can be attached to wing-mounted engines or mounted just about anywhere on a fuselage although historically a location at the front has been most common.  In marine applications, propellers have on specialized vessels been located to the sides of the hull but they almost always emerge at or close to the stern.  An impeller is a rotating component with blades or vanes (almost always enclosed in a housing), typically used for fluid or air distribution, such as a pump or a compressor, the primary purpose being to increase flow or pressure.  The classic impellers those in centrifugal pumps where they spin, creating a flow of fluid (liquid or air) by imparting centrifugal force to the substance; in practice, impellers such accelerate liquids are more common.

So an impeller & propeller do much the same thing, using blades to propel some form of fluid.  The use of different terms is helpful because in practice they are very different devices and the distinction that one is external and the other located within a housing is handy and the origin of that seems to lie in the construct of impeller which came first, dating from circa 1680 (as an agent noun from the verb impel) in the sense of “someone or something which impels”.  What the design of an impeller does is use the energy from the rotation to increase the flow or pressure of the fluid and it that it’s the reverse of a turbine, the rotation of which extracts energy from, and reduces the pressure of the flow.  Engineers also have a number of highly technical rules about what is and is not defined as an impeller base on the whether the entry and exit of the fluids occur axially or radially but it seemed impossible to construct such definitions as absolutes so for most the simpler distinctions are more helpful.  In engineering, impellers have been recorded as a machine or component name since 1836.

News Corp website 22 January 2024.  To refer to a jet engine’s nacelle as a propeller could (almost) be defended on the basis it’s the jet engine which “propels” the aircraft but this is more likely an example of (1) the decline in the quality of journalists and (2) what happens when there are no sub-editors to correct the mistakes.  In time, artificial intelligence (AI) should improve things.    

The verb impel dates from the early fifteenth century and was from the Middle English impellen, from the Latin impellere (to push, strike against; set in motion, drive forward, urge on), the construct an assimilated form of in- (into, in, on, upon), from the primitive Indo-European root en- (in) + pellere (to push, drive), from the primitive Indo-European root pel- (to thrust, strike, drive).  The construct of the Latin impellō was in- +‎ pellō (push, drive), from the Proto-Italic pelnō or pelnaō, a nasal-infix present derived from the primitive Indo-European pelh- (to drive, strike, thrust).  The Latin prefix –in could be appended to create a negative (un-, non-, not etc) but here was used as an intensifier, another possible meaning (in, within, inside) coincidental to the mechanical devices being usually mounted within housings.

Propellers and impellers both use blades (although those of the latter are often in the form of a single piece wither cast, molded, or (occasionally) forged.  Turbines also use blade-like parts but these are called vanes and an industry which seems unable to decide on terminology is the burgeoning business of wind-power; the huge rotating assemblies on wind turbines are referred to variously as vanes, blades or rotors.  Rotor blades are familiar for the use in helicopters which is essentially an airframe where a large-scale propeller sits atop the structure, pointing upwards and rather than “propeller blades”, the accepted term is “rotor blades”, the design of which permits both lift and directional thrust although some exotic multi-engined machines have rotors in housings which, to maximize performance, can themselves be rotated to operate as conventional propellers.

Supermarine Seafang (1946) with contra-rotating propellers.  The Seafang was powered by the Rolls-Royce Griffon and was the final evolution of the Spitfire-derived Seafire and Spiteful, the trio all designed for use on Royal Navy aircraft carriers, the series enjoying success despite the basic design being hampered by the narrow undercarriage which made landings a challenge (something corrected on the Spiteful & Seafang).  Series production of the Seafang was contemplated but eventually only 18 were built because the jet-powered de Havilland Sea Vampire proved capable of carrier operations, surprising some at the Admiralty who doubted the jets could operate from anywhere but land.

The evolution of aircraft influenced propellers.  Once they had been fashioned from wood before the need for faster, more efficient shapes dictated the use of aluminium or other light metals.  By the time the first modern monoplane fighters appeared in the mid 1930s propellers were still two-bladed but as power increased over the years (something which accelerated during World War II (1939-1945)), three, four and five-bladed solutions were engineered.  The rising output however, although it permitted higher performance, created challenges for engineers, notably the “torque effect” which meant a tendency to cause the aircraft to roll in the direction of the propeller’s spin, a problem especially serious during take-offs.  In twin-engined aircraft the solution was to have the propellers rotate in opposite directions but in airframes with a single power-plant, sometimes used were contra-rotating propellers which, although introducing additional complexity and demanding additional maintenance, did offer advantages including: (1) harnessing more of an engine’s power, (2) increased thrust efficiency by a reduction in energy losses, (3) counteracting the torque effect, (4) improved low-speed manoeuvrability and ground-handling and (5) improved acceleration and climbing performance.

A flight of Republic P-47D Thunderbolts with under-wing drop-tanks.

The propeller also influenced other aspects of the aircraft.  When the prototype Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (1941-1945) first took to the air, it was the largest, heaviest single-seat piston-engined fighter ever produced (a distinction it still enjoys today).  Even the early versions used an engine rated at 2000 horsepower (later this would rise to 2800) and to harness this output demanded a large propeller.  The 12 foot (3.7 m) diameter of this four-bladed monster meant the landing-gear had to be extraordinarily long and the only way it could be accommodated was to have them retract inward, otherwise the heavy wing armament (8 x .50 inch (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns (425 rounds per gun)) wouldn’t have fitted.

Chrysler XI-2220 V16.  The splined shaft is where the propeller attaches.

With things like the Thunderbolt, the Hawker Tempest and the later Supermarine Spitfires (and its derivatives), the piston-engined fighter achieved its final evolutionary form, the jet engine offering a path to performance unattainable while the physics of propellers imposed limits.  However, had the use of the A-Bombs not ended the war in 1945, development of the propeller aircraft would have continued because the early jets lacked thrust and reliability as well as suffering a rate of fuel consumption which rendered them unsuitable for long-distance operations.  With the war against Japan envisaged as lasting well into 1946, development of faster, more powerful piston engines continued although, given the parlous state of the Japanese military, it’s dubious at least there was much of a rationale for this but the military industrial complex is a creature of inertia and Chrysler’s research had perfected a new aero-engine for the Thunderbolt.  The XI-2220 was a 2,220 cubic inch (36.4 litre) V16 which was rated at a basic 2450 horsepower with some 4000 hp available when tuned for wartime use but with the end of the conflict, all such developments were cancelled and attention switched to the brave new world of jets and swept wings.  Thus ended the era of the big propeller-driven fighters, the V16 stillborn, as was the other extraordinary aero-engine on the drawing board: Britain's 32-cylinder Napier-Sabre H-32 which was a scaled-up version of their H24.

Flute

Flute (pronounced floot)

(1) A woodwind instrument consisting of a tube with a row of finger-holes (or keys) which produce sound through vibrations caused by air blown across the edge of the holes, often tuned by plugging one or more holes with a finger; the Western concert flute, a transverse side-blown flute of European origin (in colloquial use, a recorder, also a woodwind instrument).

(2) An organ stop with wide flue pipes, having a flutelike tone.

(3) In architecture or engineering (particularly the manufacture of firearms), a semi-cylindrical vertical channel, groove or furrow, as on the shaft of a column, in a pillar, in plaited cloth, or in a rifle barrel to cut down the weight.

(4) Any groove or furrow, as in a ruffle of cloth or on a piecrust.

(5) One of the helical grooves of a twist drill.

(6) A slender, footed wineglass with a tall, conical bowl.

(7) A similar stemmed glass, used especially for champagne and often styled as "champagne flute".

(8) In steel fabrication, to kink or break in bending.

(9) In various fields of design, to form longitudinal flutes or furrows.

(10) A long bread roll of French origin; a baguette.

(11) A shuttle in weaving, tapestry etc.

(12) To play on a flute; to make or utter a flutelike sound. 

(13) To form flutes or channels in (as in a column, a ruffle etc); to cut a semi-cylindrical vertical groove in (as in a pillar etc).

1350-1400; From the Middle English floute, floute & flote, from the Middle French flaüte, flahute & fleüte, from the twelfth century Old French flaute (musical), from the Old Provençal flaüt (thought an alteration of flaujol or flauja) of uncertain origin but may be either (1) a blend of the Provencal flaut or  flaujol (flageolet) + laut (lute) or (2) from the Classical Latin flātus (blowing), from flāre (to blow) although there is support among etymologists for the notion of it being a doublet of flauta & fluyt.  In other languages, the variations include the Irish fliúit and the Welsh ffliwt.  The form in Vulgar Latin has been cited as flabeolum but evidence is scant and all forms are thought imitative of the Classical Latin flāre and other Germanic words (eg flöte) are borrowings from French.

Portrait of Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (later Queen Marie Antoinette of France (1774-1792)), circa 1768, oil on canvas by Martin van Meytens  (1695–1770).

Fluted & fluting both date from the 1610 while the verb (in the sense of "to play upon a flute" emerged in the late fourteenth century and the use to describe grooves in engineering dates from 1570s and the tall, slender wine glass, almost a century later although the term "champagne flute" didn't enter popular use until the 1950s.  The champagne flute is preferred by many to the coupé (or saucer) even though it lacks the (since unfortunately debunked) legend that the shape of the latter was modelled on Marie Antoinette’s (1754-1793) left breast.  Elegant though it is, the advantages of the flute are entirely functional, the design providing for less spillage than a coupé, something which comes to be more valued as lunch progresses and the slender, tapered shape is claimed better to preserved the integrity of the bubbles, the smaller surface area and thus reduced oxygen-to-wine ratio maintaining the aroma and taste.

Grand Cru's guide to the shape of champagne glasses.

Among musical instruments, there are a dozen or more distinct types of flute.  Early French flutes differed greatly from modern instruments in having a separate mouthpiece and were called flûte-a-bec (literally "flute with a beak").  The ancient devices were played directly, blown straight through a mouthpiece but held away from the player's mouth, the modern transverse (or "German") flute not appearing until the eighteenth century and the familiar modern design and key system of the concert flute were perfected 1834 by Bavarian court musician & virtuoso flautist Theobald Boehm (1794–1881), the fingering system known to this day as "Boehm system").  The architectural sense of "furrow in a pillar" dates from the mid-seventeenth century and was derived from the vague resemblance to the inside of a flute split down the middle.  One imaginative linguistic adoption was the use (apparently only in US) of "playing the skin flute" in the 1940s to describe gay men (the metaphor of flute based on male anatomy) on the basis of those who play the skin flute.  Use shifted to fruit, either by virtue of use at the time being almost exclusively oral rather than written (linguistically, that’s classified as an example of an imperfect echoic) or because "fruit" was then in use as a gay slur.  Flute is a noun, fluting is a noun, verb & adjective and fluted is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is flutes.

Fluted grill on 1972 Series 1, 4.2 Litre Daimler Sovereign.

In British use, one who plays the flute is a flautist (pronounced flaw-tist (U) or flou-tist (non-U)), from the Italian flautista, the construct being flauto (flute) +‎ -ista.  The -ist suffix was from the Middle English -ist & -iste, from the Old French -iste and the Latin -ista, from the Ancient Greek -ιστής (-istḗs), from -ίζω (-ízō) (the -ize & -ise verbal suffix) and -τής (-tḗs) (the agent-noun suffix).  It was added to nouns to denote various senses of association such as (1) a person who studies or practices a particular discipline, (2), one who uses a device of some kind, (3) one who engages in a particular type of activity, (4) one who suffers from a specific condition or syndrome, (5) one who subscribes to a particular theological doctrine or religious denomination, (6) one who has a certain ideology or set of beliefs, (7) one who owns or manages something and (8), a person who holds very particular views (often applied to those thought most offensive).  The alternative forms are the unimaginative (though descriptive) flute-player and the clumsy pair fluter although the odd historian or music critic will use aulete, from the Ancient Greek αὐλητής (aulētḗs), from αὐλέω (auléō) (I play the flute), from αὐλός (aulós) (flute).  The spelling flutist is preferred in the US and it's actually an old form, dating from circa 1600 and probably from the French flûtiste and it replaced the early thirteenth century Middle English flouter (from the Old French flauteor).

Daimler, the fluted grill and US trademark law

1972 Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas.

Vanden Plas completed only 342 of the Series 1 (1972-1973) Daimler Double Sixes, the later Series 2 (1973-1979) & 3 (1979-1992) being more numerous.  The flutes atop the grill date from the early twentieth-century and were originally a functional addition to the radiator to assist heat-dissipation but later became a mere styling embellishment.  Although some sources claim there were 351 of the Series 1 Double-Six Vanden Plas, the factory insists the total was 342.  British Leyland and its successor companies would continue to use the Vanden Plas name for some of the more highly-specified Daimlers but applied it also to Jaguars because in some markets the trademark to the Daimler name came to be held by Daimler-Benz AG (since 2022 Mercedes-Benz Group AG), a legacy from the earliest days of motor-car manufacturing and despite the English middle class always pronouncing the name van-dem-plarr, it's correctly pronounced van-dem-plass.

1976 Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas two door.

The rarest Double-Six Vanden Plas was a genuine one-off, a two door built reputedly using one of the early prototypes, a regular production version contemplated but cancelled after the first was built.  Jaguar would once have called such things fixed head coupés (FHC) but labelled the XJ derivatives as "two door saloons" and always referred to them thus, presumably as a point of differentiation with the XJ-S produced at the same time.  Despite the corporate linguistic nudge, everybody seems always to have called them coupés.  Why the project was cancelled isn't known but it was a time of industrial and financial turmoil for the company and distractions, however minor, may have been thought unwelcome.  Although fully-finished, apart from the VDP-specific trim, it includes also some detail mechanical differences from the regular production two-door Double-Six although both use the distinctive fluted finish on both the grill and trunk (boot) lid trim.  The car still exists.  The two-door XJs (1975-1978) rank with the earliest versions (1961-1967) of the E-Type (XKE; 1961-1974) as the finest styling Jaguar ever achieved and were it not for the unfortunate vinyl roof (a necessity imposed by the inability of the paint of the era to cope with the slight flexing of the roof), it would visually be as close to perfect as any machine ever made.

Using one of his trademark outdoor settings, Norman Parkinson (1913-1990) photographed model Suzanne Kinnear (b 1935) adorning a Daimler SP250, wearing a Kashmoor coat and Otto Lucas beret with jewels by Cartier.  The image was published on the cover of Vogue's UK edition in November 1959.

Although Daimlers had, in small numbers, been imported into US for decades, after Jaguar purchased the company in 1960, there was renewed interest and the first model used to test the market was the small, fibreglass-bodied roadster, probably the most improbable Daimler ever and one destined to fail, doomed by (1) the quirky styling and (2) the lack of product development.  It was a shame because what made it truly unique was the hemi-headed 2.5 litre (155 cubic inch) V8 which was one of the best engines of the era and remembered still for the intoxicating exhaust note.  The SP250 was first shown to the public at the 1959 New York Motor Show and there the problems began.  Aware the small sports car was quite a departure from the luxurious but rather staid line-up Daimler had for years offered, the company had chosen the pleasingly alliterative “Dart” as its name, hoping it would convey the sense of something agile and fast.  Unfortunately, Chrysler’s lawyers were faster still, objecting that they had already registered Dart as the name for a full-sized Dodge so Daimler needed a new name and quickly; the big Dodge would never be confused with the little Daimler but the lawyers insisted.  Imagination apparently exhausted, Daimler’s management reverted to the engineering project name and thus the car became the SP250 which was innocuous enough even for Chrysler's attorneys and it could have been worse.  Dodge had submitted their Dart proposal to Chrysler for approval and while the car found favor, the name did not and the marketing department was told to conduct research and come up with something the public would like.  From this the marketing types gleaned that “Dodge Zipp” would be popular and to be fair, dart and zip(p) do imply much the same thing but ultimately the original was preferred and Darts remained in Dodge’s lineup until 1976, for most of that time one of the corporation's best-selling and most profitable lines.  The name was revived between 2012-2016 for an unsuccessful and unlamented compact sedan.

US market 2001 Jaguar Vanden Plas (X308).  These were the only Jaguars factory-fitted with the fluted trim.

Decades later, US trademark law would again intrude on Jaguar’s Daimler business in the US.  The company had stopped selling Daimlers in the US with the coming of January 1968 when the first trickle (soon to be a flood) of safety & emission regulations came into force, the explanation being the need to devote and increasing amount of by then scarce capital to compliance, meaning the marketing budget could no longer sustain small-volume brands & models.  In Stuttgart, the Daimler-Benz lawyers took note and decided to reclaim the name, eventually managing to secure registration of the trademark and Daimlers have not since been available in the US.  However, there was still clearly demand for an up-market Jaguar and so the Sovereign name (used on Daimlers between 1966-1983) was applied to Jaguar XJ sedans which although mechanically unchanged were equipped with more elaborate appointments.  Sales were good so the US market also received some even more luxurious Vanden Plas models and during the XJ’s X308 model run (1997-2003), the VDP cars were fitted with the fluted grill and trunk-lid trim as an additional means of product differentiation.  It would be the last appearance of the flutes in North America.

Pim Fortuyn in Daimler V8, February 2002 (left), paramedics attending to him at the scene of his assassination a few paces from the Daimler, 6 May 2002 (he died at the scene) (centre) and the car when on sale, Amsterdam, June 2018 (right). 

Jaguar became aware the allure of the flutes was real when it emerged a small but profitable industry had emerged in the wake of the company also ceasing to use the Daimler name in European markets; by the 1990s, it was only in the UK, Australia & New Zealand that they were available.  However, enterprising types armed with nothing more than a list of Jaguar part-numbers had created kits containing the fluted trim parts and the Daimler-specific badges, these shipped to dealers or private buyers on the continent so Jaguar XJs could become “Daimlers”.  The company took note and re-introduced the range to Europe, Germany a particularly receptive market.  One notable owner of a real long wheelbase (LWB) Daimler V8 (X308) was the Dutch academic and politician Pim Fortuyn (1948-2002), assassinated during the 2002 national election campaign, by a left-wing environmentalist and animal rights activist.

Lindsay Lohan with stainless steel Rolex Datejust (Roman numeral dial) with fluted white gold bezel.