Macropterous & Brachypterous

Macropterous (pronounced muh-krop-ter-uhs)

(1) In zoology (mostly in ornithology, ichthyology & entomology), having long or large wings or fins.

(2) In engineering, architecture and design, a structure with large, untypical or obvious “wings” or “fins”.

Late 1700s: The construct was macro- +‎ -pterous.  Macro is a word-forming element meaning “long, abnormally large, on a large scale”, from the French, from the Medieval Latin, from the Ancient Greek μακρός (makrós), a combining form of makrós (long) (cognate with the Latin macer (lean; meager)), from the primitive Indo-European root mak (long, thin).  In English it is used as a general purpose prefix meaning “big; large version of”).  The English borrowing from French appears as early as the sixteenth century but it tended to be restricted to science until the early 1930s when there was an upsurge in the publication of material on economics during the Great Depression (ie as “macroeconomy” and its derivatives).  It subsequently became a combining form meaning large, long, great, excessive et al, used in the formation of compound words, contrasting with those prefixed with micro-.  In computing, it covers a wide vista but describes mostly relatively short sets of instructions used within programs, often as a time-saving device for the handling of repetitive tasks, one of the few senses in which macro (although originally a clipping in 1959 of “macroinstruction”) has become a stand-alone word rather than a contraction.  Other examples of use include macrophotography (photography of objects at or larger than actual size without the use of a magnifying lens (1863)), macrospore (in botany, "a spore of large size compared with others (1859)), macroeconomics (pertaining to the economy as a whole (1938), macrobiotic (a type of diet (1961)), macroscopic (visible to the naked eye (1841)), macropaedia (the part of an encyclopaedia Britannica where entries appear as full essays (1974)) and macrophage (in pathology "type of large white blood cell with the power to devour foreign debris in the body or other cells or organisms" (1890)).

The –pterous suffix was from the Ancient Greek, the construct being πτερ(όν) (pter(ón) (feather; wing), from the primitive Indo-European péthr̥ (feather) and related to πέτομαι (pétomai) (I fly) (and (ultimately), the English feather) +‎ -ous.  In zoology (and later, by extension, in engineering and design), it was appended to words from taxonomy to mean (1) having wings and (2) having large wings.  Later, it was used also of fins.  The –ous suffix was from the Middle English -ous, from the Old French –ous & -eux, from the Latin -ōsus (full, full of); a doublet of -ose in an unstressed position.  It was used to form adjectives from nouns to denote (1) possession of (2) presence of a quality in any degree, commonly in abundance or (3) relation or pertinence to.  In chemistry, it has a specific technical application, used in the nomenclature to name chemical compounds in which a specified chemical element has a lower oxidation number than in the equivalent compound whose name ends in the suffix -ic.  For example, sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) has more oxygen atoms per molecule than sulphurous acid (H₂SO₃).  The comparative is more macropterous and the superlative most macropterous.  Macropterous & macropteran are adjectives and macropter & macroptery are nouns; the noun plural is macropters.

Google ngram: Because of the way Google harvests data for their ngrams, they’re not literally a tracking of the use of a word in society but can be usefully indicative of certain trends, (although one is never quite sure which trend(s)), especially over decades.  As a record of actual aggregate use, ngrams are not wholly reliable because: (1) the sub-set of texts Google uses is slanted towards the scientific & academic and (2) the technical limitations imposed by the use of OCR (optical character recognition) when handling older texts of sometime dubious legibility (a process AI should improve).  Where numbers bounce around, this may reflect either: (1) peaks and troughs in use for some reason or (2) some quirk in the data harvested.

Brachypterous (pronounced bruh-kip-ter-uhs)

In zoology (mostly in ornithology & entomology), having short, incompletely developed or otherwise abbreviated wings (defined historically as being structures which, when fully folded, do not reach to the base of the tail.long or large wings or fins.

Late 1700s: The construct was brachy- + -pterous.  The brachy- prefix was from the Ancient Greek βραχύς (brakhús) (short), from the Proto-Hellenic brəkús, from the primitive Indo-European mréǵus (short, brief).  The cognates included the Sanskrit मुहुर् (múhur) & मुहु (múhu), the Avestan m̨ərəzu.jīti (short-lived), the Latin brevis, the Old English miriġe (linked ultimately to the English “merry”) and the Albanian murriz.  It was appended to convey (1) short, brief and (2) short, small.  Brachypterous & brachypteran are adjectives and brachyptery & braˈchypterism are nouns.  The comparative would be more brachypterous and the superlative most brachypterous but because of the nature of the base word, that would seem unnatural.  The noun brachypter does not means “a brachypterous creature; it describes taeniopterygid stonefly of the genus Brachyptera”.

The European Chinch Bug which exists in both macropterous (left) and brachypterous (right) form; Of the latter, entomologists also use the term "micropterous" and use does seem interchangeable but within the profession there may be fine distinctions. 

The difference in the use of macropterous (long wings or fins) and brachypterous (short wings) is accounted for less by the etymological roots than the application and traditions of use.  In zoological science, macropterous was granted a broad remit and came to be used of any creature (form the fossil record as well as the living) with long wings (use most prevalent of insects) and water-dwellers with elongated fins.  The word was applied first to birds & insects before being used of fish (fins being metaphorical “wings” and in environmentally-specific function there is much overlap.  By extension, in the mid-twentieth century, macropterous came to be used in engineering, architecture and design including of cars, airframes and missiles.

Brachypterous (short wings) is used almost exclusively in zoology, particularly entomology, the phenomenon being much more common than among birds which, being heavier, rely for lift on wings with a large surface area.  Short wing birds do exist but many are flightless (the penguin a classic example where the wings are used in the water as fins (for both propulsion and direction)) and this descriptor prevails.  Brachypterous is less flexible in meaning because tightly it is tied to a specific biological phenomenon; essentially a “short fin” in a fish is understood as “a fin”.  Cultural and linguistic norms may also have been an influence in that while “macro-” is widely used a prefix denoting “large; big”, “brachy-” has never entered general used and remains a tool in biology.  So, in common scientific use, there’s no recognized term specifically for “short fins” equivalent to brachypterous (short wings) although, other than tradition, there seems no reason why brachypterous couldn’t be used thus in engineering & design.  If so minded, the ichthyologists could coin “brachyichthyous” (the construct being brachy- + ichthys (fish)) or brachypinnate (the construct being brachy- + pinna (“fin” or “feather” in Latin)), both meaning “short-finned fish”.  Neither seem likely to cath on however, the profession probably happy with “short-fin” or the nerdier “fin hypoplasia”.

The tailfin: the macropterous and the brachypterous

Lockheed P-38 Lightning in flight (left) and 1949 Cadillac (right).

Fins had appeared on cars during the inter-war years when genuinely they were added to assist in straight-line stability, a need identified as speeds rose.  The spread to the roads came from the beaches and salt flats where special vehicles were built to pursue the world land speed record (LSR) and by the mid 1920s, speeds in these contests were exceeding 150 mph (240 km/h) and at these velocities, straight-line stability could be a matter of life and death.  The LSR crew drew their inspiration from aviation and that field also provided the motif for Detroit’s early post-war fins, the 1949 Cadillac borrowing its tail features from the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (a US twin-boom fighter first flown in 1939 and built 1941-1945) although, despite the obvious resemblance, the conical additions to the front bumper bar were intended to evoke the image of speeding artillery shells rather than the P-38’s twin propeller bosses.

1962 Ford (England) Zodiac Mark III (left) and 1957 DeSoto Firesweep two-door hardtop (right).

From there, the fins grew although it wasn’t until in 1956 when Chrysler released the next season’s rage that extravagance truly began.  To one extent or another, all Chrysler’s divisions (Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler, Imperial) adopted the macropterous look and the public responded to what was being described in the press as “futuristic” or “jet-age” (Sputnik had yet to orbit the earth; “space-age” would soon come) with a spike in the corporation’s sales and profits.  The competition took note and it wasn’t long before General Motors (GM) responded (by 1957 some Cadillac fins were already there) although, curiously Ford in the US was always tentative about the fin and their interpretation was always rather brachypterous (unlike their English subsidiary which added surprisingly prominent fins to their Mark III Zephyr & Zodiac (1961-1966).

Macropterous: Lindsay Lohan with wings, generated with AI (artificial intelligence) by Stable Diffusion.

Even at the time the fins attracted criticism although it was just as part of a critique of the newer cars as becoming too big and heavy with a notable level of inefficiency (increasing fuel consumption and little (if any) increase in usable passenger space with most of the bulk consumed by the exterior dimensions, some created by apparently pointless styling features of which the big fins were but one.  The public continued to buy the big cars (one did get a lot of metal for the money) but there was also a boom in the sales of both imported cars (their smaller size among their many charms) but the corporation which later became AMC (American Motor Corporation) enjoyed good business for their generally smaller offerings.  Chrysler and GM ignored Ford’s lack of commitment to the macropterous and during the late 1950s their fin continued to grow upwards (and, in some cases, even outwards) but, noting the flood of imports, decided to join the trend, introducing smaller ranges; whereas in 1955, the majors offered a single basic design, by 1970 there would be locally manufactured “small cars”, sub-compacts”, “compacts” and “intermediates” as well as what the 1955 (which mostly had been sized somewhere between a “compact” and an “intermediate”) evolved into (now named “full-size”, a well-deserved appellation).

1959 Cadillac with four-window hardtop coachwork (the body-style known also as the "flattop" or "flying wing roof") (left) and 1961 Imperial Crown Convertible (right).

It was in 1959-1961 that things became “most macropterous” (peak fin) and the high-water mark of the excess to considered by most to be the 1959 Cadillac, east of the towering fins adorned with a pair of taillights often described as “bullet lights” but, interviewed year later, a member of the General Motors Technical Center (opened in 1956 and one of the mid-century’s great engines of planned obsolescence) claimed the image they had in mind was the glowing exhaust from a rocket in ascent, then often seen in popular culture including film, television and advertising.  However, although a stylistic high, it was the 1961 Imperials which set the mark literally, the tip of those fins standing almost a half inch (12 mm) taller and it was remembered too for the “neo-classical” touch of four free-standing headlights, something others in the industry declined to follow.

Tending to the brachypterous: As the seasons went by, the Cadillac's fins would retreat but would not for decades wholly vanish.

It’s a orthodoxy in the history of design that the fins grew to the point of absurdity and then vanished but that’s not what literally happened in all cases.  Some manufacturers indeed suddenly abandon the motif but Cadillac, perhaps conscious of having nurtured (and in a sense “perfected”) the debut of the 1949 range must have felt more attached because, after 1959, year after year, the fins would become smaller and smaller although decades later, vestigial fins were still obviously part of the language of design.  In Europe, others would also prune.

Macropterous to brachypterous.  Sunbeam Alpine: 1960 Series I (left) and 1966 Series V. 

Built in five series between 1959-1968, the fins on the Sunbeam Alpine would have seemed a good idea in 1957 when the lines were approved but trend didn’t persist and with the release in 1964 of the revised Series IV, the effect was toned down, the restyling achieved in an economical way by squaring off the rake at the rear, this lowering the height of the tips.  Because the release of the Series IV coincided with the debut of the Alpine Tiger (fitted initially with a 260 cubic inch (4.2 litre) V8 (and later a 4.7 (289)), all the V8 powered cars used the “low fin” body.

Macropterous to brachypterous. 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE Lang (Long) (left) and 1971 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 coupé.

Regarded by some as a symbol of the way the Wirtschaftswunder (the post war “economic miracle” in the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany, the old West Germany)) had ushered away austerity, the (slight) exuberance of the fins which appeared on the Mercedes-Benz W111 (1959-1968) & W112 (1961–1965) seemed almost to embarrass the company, offended by the suggestion they would indulge in a mere “styling trend”.  Although the public soon dubbed the cars the Heckflosse (literally “tail-fins”), the factory insisted they were Peilstege (parking aids or sight-lines (literally "bearing bars")), the construct being peil-, from peilen (take a bearing; find the direction) + Steg (bar) which marked the extent of the bodywork, this to assist while reversing.  That may have been true (the company has never been above a bit of myth-making) but when a coupé and cabriolet was added to the W111 & W112 range, the fins were noticeably smaller, achieving an elegance of line Mercedes-Benz has never matched.  Interestingly, a la Cadillac, when the succeeding sedans (W108-W109 (1965-1972) & W116, (1972-1979)) were released, both retained a small hint of a fin although by 1972 it wasn’t enough even to be called vestigial; the factory said the small deviation from the flat was there to increase structural rigidity.

Macropterous to brachypterous: 1962 Vanden Plas Princess 3 Litre (left) and 1967 Vanden Plas Princess 4 Litre R (right).

The Italian design house Pinninfarina took to fins in the late 1950s and applied what really were variations of the same basic design to commissions from Fiat, Lancia, Peugeot and BMC (British Motor Corporation, a conglomerate created by merger in 1952 which brought together Morris, Austin (and soon Austin-Healey), MG, Riley, Wolseley & Vanden Plas under the one corporate umbrella.  There were a several BMC “Farinas” sold under six badges and the ones with the most prominent fins were the “big” Farinas, the most expensive of which were Princess 3 Litre (1959-1960), Vanden Plas Princess 3 Litre (1960-1964) and Vanden Plas Princess 4 Litre R (1964-1968); the “R” appended to the 4 Litre’s model name was to indicate its engine (which had begun life as a military unit) was supplied by Rolls-Royce, a most unusual arrangement.  The 4 Litre used the 3 Litre’s body with a number of changes, one of which was a change in the shape and reduction in the size of the rather chunky fins.  Although the frumpy shell remained, the restyling was thought quite accomplished though obviously influenced by the Mercedes-Benz W111 & W112 coupés & cabriolets but if one is going to imitate, one should choose to emulate the finest.

Heptadecaphobia

Heptadecaphobia (pronounced hepp-tah-dech-ah-foh-bee-uh)

Fear of the number 17.

1700s: The construct was the Ancient Greek δεκαεπτά (dekaepta) (seventeen) + φόβος (phobos).  The alternative form is septadecaphobia, troubling some the purists because they regard it as a Greek-Latin mongrel, the construct being the Latin septem (seven) + deca, from the Latin decas (ten), from the Ancient Greek δεκάς (dekás) (ten) + the Ancient Greek φόβος) (phobos) (fear).  Heptadecaphobia deconstructs as hepta- “seven” + deca (ten) + phobos.  The suffix -phobia (fear of a specific thing; hate, dislike, or repression of a specific thing) was from the New Latin, from the Classical Latin, from the Ancient Greek -φοβία (-phobía) and was used to form nouns meaning fear of a specific thing (the idea of a hatred came later).  Purists use the spelling heptadekaphobia to avid the mix.

There are a variety of theories to account for the Italian superstition which had rendered 17 the national “unlucky number”.  The most accepted is that in Roman numerals 17 is XVII which, anagrammatically, translates to VIXI (Latin for “I have lived” (the first-person singular perfect active indicative of vīvō (to live; to be alive)), understood in the vernacular as “my life is over”.  That would have been ominous enough but Romans noted also that Osiris, the Egyptian god of, inter alia, life, death, the afterlife and resurrection, had died on the 17th day of the month, 17 thus obviously a “death number” to the logical Roman mind and the worst 17th days of the month were those which coincided with a full moon, an intensifier in the same sense that in the West the conjunction leading to a Friday the 13th is so threatening.  Mashing up the numerical superstitions, that 17 is an “unlucky number” shouldn’t be surprising because it’s the sum of 13 + 4, the latter being the most dreaded number in much of East Asia.

Just because a “fear of a number” is listed somewhere as a “phobia” doesn’t mean the condition has much of a clinical history or even that a single case is to be found in the literature; many may have been coined just for linguistic fun and students in classics departments have been set assessment questions like “In Greek, construct the word meaning “fear of the number 71” (the correct answer being “hebdomekontahenophobia”).  Some are well documented such as tetraphobia (fear of 4) which is so prevalent in East Asia it compelled BMW to revise the release strategy of the “4 Series” cars and triskaidekaphobia (fear of 13) which has such a history in the West it’s common still for hotels not to have a thirteenth floor or rooms which include “13”, something which in the pre-digital age was a charming quirk but when things were computerized added a needless complication.  The use of the actual number is important because in such a hotel the “14^th” floor is of course the 13^th (in the architectural sense) but there’s little to suggest there’s ever been resistance from guests being allocated room 1414.

Some number phobias are quite specific: Rooted in the folklore of Australian cricket is a supposed association of the number 87 with something bad (typically a batter being dismissed) although it seems purely anecdotal and more than one statistical analysis (cricket is all about numbers) has concluded there's nothing “of statistical significance” to be found and there’s little to suggest players take the matter seriously.  One English umpire famously had “a routine” associated with the score reaching a “repunit” (a portmanteau (or blended) word, the construct being re(eated) +‎ unit) (eg 111, 222, 333 etc) but that was more fetish than phobia.

No fear of 17: Some Lindsay Lohan Seventeen magazine covers.  Targeted at the female market (age rage 12-18), the US edition of Seventeen is now predominately an on-line publication, printed only as irregular "special, stand-alone issues" but a number of editions in India and the Far East continue in the traditional format. 

Other illustrative number phobias include oudenophobia (fear of 0), (trypophobia (fear of holes) said to sometimes be the companion condition), henophobia (fear of 1) (which compels sufferer to avoid being associated with “doing something once”, being the “first in the group” etc), heptaphobia (fear of 7) (cross-culturally, a number also with many positive associations), eikosiheptaphobia (fear of 27) (a pop-culture thing which arose in the early 1970s when a number of rock stars died messy, drug-related deaths at 27), tessarakontadyophobia (fear of 42) (which may have spiked in patients after the publication of Douglas Adams’ (1952–2001) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979-1992), enenekontenneaphobia (fear of 99) (thought not related to the Get Smart TV series of the 1960s), tetrakosioeikosiphobia (fear of 420) (the syndrome restricted presumably to weed-smokers in the US), the well-documented hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (fear of 666), heftakosioitessarakontaheptaphobia (fear of 747) (though with the withdrawal from passenger service of the tough, reliable (four engines and made of metal) Boeing 747 and their replacement by twin-engined machines made increasingly with composites and packed with lithium-ion batteries, a more common fear may be “not flying on a 747”).  Enniakosioihendecaphobia (fear of 911) (presumably, in the US, sometimes a co-morbidity with tetrakosioeikosiphobia or suffered by those with a bad experience with a pre-modern Porsche 911 which, in inexpert hands, could behave as one would expect of a very powerful Volkswagen Beetle) and the rare condition nongentiseptuagintatrestrillionsescentiquinquagintanovemmiliacentumtredecimdeciesoctingentivigintiquattuormiliatrecentiphobia (fear of 973,659,113,824,315) (that one created presumably by someone determined to prove it could be done). There’s also compustitusnumerophobia (fear of composite numbers), meganumerophobia (fear of large numbers), imparnumerophobia (fear of odd numbers), omalonumerophobia (fear of even numbers), piphobia (fear of pi), phiphobia (fear of the golden ratio), primonumerophobia (fear of prime numbers), paranumerophobia (fear of irrational numbers), neganumerophobia (fear of negative numbers) and decadisophobia (fear of decimals).  The marvellous Wiki Fandom site and The Phobia List are among the internet’s best curated collection of phobias.

The only one which debatably can’t exist is neonumerophobia (fear of new numbers) because, given the nature of infinity, there can be no “new numbers” although, subjectively, a number could be “new” to an individual so there may be a need.  Sceptical though mathematicians are likely to be, the notion of the “new number” has (in various ways) been explored in fiction including by science fiction (SF or SciFi) author & engineer Robert A Heinlein (1907–1988) in The Number of the Beast (1980), written during his “later period”.  More challenging was Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by English schoolmaster & Anglican priest Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838–1926) which was published under the pseudonym “A Square”, the layer of irony in that choice revealed as the protagonist begins to explore dimensions beyond his two-dimensional world (in Victorian England).  Feminists note also Ursula K Le Guin’s (1929–2018) The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) in which was created an entirely new numerical system of “genderless" numbers”.  That would induce fear in many.

Lindsay Lohan's cover of Edge of Seventeen appeared on the album A Little More Personal (2005).  Written by Stevie Nicks (b 1948), it appeared originally on her debut solo studio album Bella Donna (1981).

In entymology, there are insects with no fear of the number 17.  In the US, the so-called “periodical cicadas” (like those of the genus Magicicada) exist in a 17 year life cycle, something thought to confer a number of evolutionary advantages, all tied directly to the unique timing of their mass emergence: (1) The predator satiation strategy: The creatures emerge in massive numbers (in the billions), their sheer volume meaning it’s physically impossible for predators (both small mammals & birds) to eat enough of them to threaten the survival of the species. (2) Prime number cycles: Insects are presumed to be unaware of the nature of prime numbers but 17 is a prime number and there are also periodic cicadas with a 13 year cycle.  The 13 (Brood XIX) & 17-year (Brood X) periodic cicadas do sometimes emerge in the same season but, being prime numbers, it’s a rare event, the numbers' least common multiple (LCM) being 221 years; the last time the two cicadas emerged together was in 1868 and the next such event is thus expected in 2089.  The infrequency in overlap helps maintain the effectiveness of the predator avoidance strategies, the predators typically having shorter (2-year, 5-year etc) cycles which don’t synchronize with the cicadas' emergence, reducing chances a predator will evolve to specialize in feeding on periodical cicadas. (3) Avoidance of Climate Variability: By remaining underground for 17 years, historically, periodical cicadas avoided frequent climate changes or short-term ecological disasters like droughts or forest fires. The long underground nymph stage also allows them to feed consistently over many years and emerge when the environment is more favorable for reproduction.  Etymologists and biological statisticians are modelling scenarios under which various types of accelerated climate change are being studied to try to understand how the periodic cicadas (which evolved under “natural” climate change) may be affected. (4) Genetic Isolation: Historically, the unusually extended period between emergences has isolated different broods of cicadas, reducing interbreeding and promoting genetic diversity over time, helping to maintain healthy populations over multiple life-cycles.

In automotive manufacturing, there was nothing unusual about unique models being produced for the Italian domestic market, the most common trick being versions with engines displacing less than 2.0 litres to take advantage of the substantially lower tax regime imposed below that mark.  Thus Ferrari (1975-1981) and Lamborghini (1974-1977) made available 2.0 litre V8s (usually variously in 2.5 & 3.0 litre displacements), Maserati a 2.0 V6 (a 3.0 in the Maserati Merak (1972-1983) although it appeared in 2.7 & 3.0 litre form in the intriguing but doomed Citroën SM (1970-1975)) and Mercedes-Benz created a number of one-off 2.0 litre models in the W124 range (1974-1977) exclusive to the Italian domestic market (although an unrelated series of 2.0 litre cars was also sold in India).

US advertisement for the Renault 17 (1974), the name Gordini adopted as a "re-brand" of the top-of-the-range 17TS,  Gordini was a French sports car producer and tuning house, absorbed by Renault in 1968, the name from time-to-time used for high-performance variants of various Renault models.

One special change for the Italian market was a nod to the national heptadecaphobia, the car known in the rest of the world (RoW) as the Renault 17 (1971-1979) sold in Italy as the R177.  For the 17, Renault took the approach which had delivered great profits: use the underpinnings of mundane mass-produced family cars with a sexy new body draped atop.  Thus in the US the Ford Falcon begat the Mustang and in Europe Ford got the Capri from the Taunus/Cortina duo.  Opel’s swoopy GT was (most improbably) underneath just a Kadett.  It wasn’t only the mass-market operators which used the technique because in the mid 1950s, Mercedes-Benz understood the appeal of the style of the 300 SL (W198, 1954-1957) was limited by the high price which was a product of the exotic engineering (the space-frame, gullwing doors, dry sump and the then novel mechanical fuel-injection), the solution being to re-purpose the platform of the W120, the small, austere sedan which helped the company restore its fortunes in the post-war years before the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) was celebrated in 1959 with the exuberance of the Heckflosse (tailfin) cars (1959-1968).  On the W120 platform was built the 190 SL (W121, 1955-1963), an elegant (it not especially rapid) little roadster which quickly became a trans-Atlantic favourite, particularly among what used to be called the “women’s market”.

Only in Italy: The Renault 177.

Using the same formula, the Renault 17 was built on the underpinnings of the Renault 12, a remarkably durable platform, introduced in 1979 and, in one form or another, manufactured or assembled in more than a dozen countries, the last not produced until 2006.  Like the Ford Capri, the 17 was relatively cheap to develop because so much was merely re-purposed but for a variety of reasons, it never managed to come close to match the sales of the wildly successful Ford, front wheel drive (FWD) not then accepted as something “sporty” and Renault's implementation on the 17 was never adaptable to the new understanding of the concept validated by FWD machines such Volkswagen’s Sirocco GTi & Golf GTi.  Like most of the world, the Italians never warmed to the 17 but presumably the reception would have been even more muted had not, in deference to the national superstition about the number 17, the name been changed to “Renault 177”, the cheaper companion model continuing to use the RoW label: Renault 15.

Dagmar

Dagmar (pronounced dag-mahr)

(1) The stage-name adopted by Virginia Ruth "Jennie" Lewis (née Egnor; 1921-2001), a star of 1950s US television (initial upper case).

(2) Slang term for the symmetrically-paired bumper extensions used by a number of US vehicle manufacturers and associated mostly with Cadillac 1946-1958 (initial lowercase).

(3) In the study of marketing, as DAGMAR, the acronym of Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results (usually all upper case).

(4) A female given name from the Germanic languages and of Norse origin, in occasional use since the last nineteenth century (initial upper case).

Pre-1000: A given name of Scandinavian origin, almost always female.  It was the name of a queen of Denmark (1185–1212), a Czech by descent, originally Dragomíra (related to the contemporary Slovak Drahomíra), the construct being the Old Church Slavonic dorgb (dear) + mirb (peace), rendered in medieval Danish under the camouflage of dag (day) + már (maid).  In Danish the meaning is listed as “day” and “glory” and it’s used also in Slovakia, Poland (Dagmara), the Netherlands, Estonia and Germany.  The ultimate source was the the Old Norse name Dagmær, the construct being dagr (day) + mær (daughter; mother; maiden).

The Tsarina (Princess Dagmar; 1847–1928) in 1885 (colorized).

Maria Feodorovna  was known before marriage as Princess Dagmar of Denmark.  She became Empress of Russia upon marriage to Alexander III (1845-1894; Tsar 1881–1894) and was the mother of the last Tsar, Nicholas II (1868–1918; Tsar 1894-1917).  Historians regard Maria Feodorovna as the most glittering of all the Tsarinas.  Renowned for her beauty, her dark eyes were mentioned in both poems and diplomatic dispatches and a glance was said to be able to "fix men to the spot".  She was also one of the most admired "clothes horses" in Europe, her statuesque, slender figure ("tall, thin and sort or weird looking" as the fashion photographers describe their ideal) of the type seen today on catwalks and in London, Paris and Milan, couturiers in the fashion houses  would write letters to the Russian court (including sketches), sometimes offering their services in exchange for nothing more than the royal imprimatur.

The evolution of Cadillac’s dagmars, 1941-1959

Lockheed P-38 Lightning (left) & 1949 Cadillac (right).

On first looking at the 1949 Cadillac, a borrowing of the motif of the tail fins and propeller hubs from the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (1941-1945 and first seen in prototype form in 1938) does seem obvious but while it appears to be true of the fins, all contemporary evidence suggests the conical additions to the front bumper bar were intended by the stylist Harley Earl (1893–1969; then General Motors' (GM) vice president of design), to evoke the idea of a speeding artillery shells.  In the twenty-first century, it may seem curious to use the imagery of military munitions in the marketing of consumer goods but that's the way things were once done.  GM claimed also they afforded additional collision protection but given it wasn’t until the 1970s that regulations existed to require front and rear bumpers to be the same height, in many impacts, it’s likely they acted more like like battering rams used on medieval siege engines.

1941 Cadillac.

The bumper guards (later called over-riders) on the 1941 Cadillac were neither novel nor unique but, being on a Cadillac, they were bigger and shinier than many.  Nor was the linking bar unusual, offered by many manufacturers and emulated too by aftermarket suppliers, used often as a mounting bracket for accessory head lamps.  There was in 1941 nothing new about the idea of additional bumper guards (or over-riders) which were not unknown in the early days of the automobile in the nineteenth century and similar devices, entirely functional as protective protuberances, can be identified on horse-drawn and other forms of transport dating back centuries.  It was only in the twentieth century they became a styling feature.

1942 Cadillac.

A chromed pair, recognizably dagmaresque, made their debut in the 1942 model year, production of which began in September 1941.  Just as stylists had drawn from earlier influences such as aeronautical streamlining and art deco architecture, Cadillac’s designers, although the US was not yet a belligerent in what was still a European war, picked up a motif from the military: the conical shape of the artillery shell, presumably to invoke the imagery of speed and power rather than destruction.  One quirk of the early dagmars was that after the US entered the war in December 1941, the government immediately imposed restrictions on the use of certain commodities for consumer goods and this affected chrome plating so the last of much of the the 1942 production runs left the factory with painted bumpers.  Automotive production for civilian sale in the US ceased on 22 February 1942, the  manufacturing capacity converted rapidly to war purposes.

1946 Cadillac.

Although the administration had allowed car production to continue until April, most of the output was used to create a stockpile of over half a million cars and light trucks, made available for the duration of the war to those for whom the allocation was deemed essential.  The sale of cars to private buyers was frozen from 31 December 1941 by Office of Production Management (OPM) although, upon application, local rationing boards could issue permits for cars to be delivered if the contract had been executed before 1 January.

By April 1944, only some thirty-thousand new cars remained in the stockpile and the manufacturers received authorization to undertake preliminary work on experimental models of civilian passenger cars with the proviso there must be no interference with war work and limits were imposed on the resources allocated.  At this stage, the invasion of mainland Europe had not happened and although progress on the atomic bomb was well-advanced, it was top-secret and not even tested so planning continued with the expectation conflict would continue into 1946 or even 1947.  The war instead ended in August 1945 and that month, Cadillac finished its last M-24 tank, the production lines reverting to cars as soon as September.  By the first week of October, car production was in full swing, the 1946 models essentially the 1942 range with a few detail differences.  The dagmars were retained and re-appeared also on the 1947 line.  Even by 1942 Americans had become accustomed to annual updates to the appearance of automobiles but such was the pent-up demand from the years of wartime restrictions that people in 1946-1947 queued to fill the order books for what were "new" versions of 1942 cars.  In the special circumstances of the time the approach worked in a way recycling for 2016 crooked Hillary Clinton's failed candidacy for the 2008 nomination didn't work for the Democratic party.

1948 Cadillac.

Smaller and more agile, Studebaker was the first manufacturer with a genuinely new post-war range and reaped the benefits although there was some resistance to the modernist lines which seemed then so radical.  GM was more conservative but nobody would mistake the 1948 Cadillacs for something earlier although while the bodies were new, the drive-train substantially was carried over.  Tail-fins weren’t entirely new to cars because the aviation influence had been seen pre-war but this was the model which began Detroit’s tail-fin fetish which, although starting modesty, would grow upwards (and occasionally outwards) for more than a decade.  Although inspired by the P-38 Lightning, the fins served no aerodynamic purpose, but unlike Mercedes-Benz’s later claim the fins on the 1959 Heckflosse were Peilstege (parking aids), Cadillac never bothered to suggest they were there to assist those reversing; at the front, a tribute to the Lockheed's twin propeller hubs seemed to compliment the fins.  The fins were mostly admired but the big news for 1949 was the new overhead valve (OHV) V8 which marked the start of a power race which would run for almost a quarter century before environmental concerns, safety issues and the first oil crisis (1973-1974) wrote finis for such things for a generation.

In a manner echoing pre-war practice, the new 331 cubic inch  (5.4 litre) V8 was actually smaller than its predecessor; that would not be the post-war trend and Cadillac’s V8s would grow to 500 cubic inches (8.2 litre) until reality bit in the 1970s and that reality did intrude on what was planned.  When Cadillac introduced their 331 V8 in 1949 it was designed with expansion in mind, able to be enlarged to around 430 cubic inches (7.0 litres), a displacement expected not ever to be required, such had been the advances in efficiency of internal combustion engines compared with pre-war units.  However, the American automobile became bigger & heavier while the highway network expanded, ushering in high-speed motoring, meaning the demand for more powerful engines grew too and by 1964, the Cadillac V8, then enlarged to 429 cubic inches (7.0 litres) had reached the end of its development potential and it was known both Chrysler and Ford would soon release V8s of even greater capacity.  Accordingly, in late 1967 they trumped the Chrysler 440 (7.2) and Ford's 462 (7.6) with the Cadillac 472 (7.7), a block designed to be able to grow to a remarkable 600-odd cubic inches (circa 10 litres), the precaution taken to ensure the corporation was ready for whatever market trends or regulatory impositions (fuel economy standards weren't envisaged in an era of "cheap, limitless oil") might emerge.  It was a shame because the Cadillac 429 was (by Detroit's seven litre standards) a compact and economical unit.  As things transpired, after growing in 1970 to 500 cubic inches, progressively the behemoth was down-sized to 425 (7.0) and 368 (6.0) before being retired in 1984 when it was the last of the US "big block" V8s still in passenger car use.  If Greta Thunberg (b 2003) thinks such things are bad now, she may be assured they used to be worse.

1949 Ford Custom Convertible “single spinner” (left) and 1951 Ford Country Squire “twin spinner” (right).

The industry’s inspiration certainly came originally from the military, influenced either by artillery and aviation.  The first new Fords of the post-war years came to be known as “single spinners” (1949-1950) and “twin spinners” (1951), referencing the slang term for propeller and even then that a backward glance, jets, missiles & rockets providing designers with their new inspirations, language soon reflecting that.  Over eight generations, the Country Squire was between 1950-1991 the top of the Ford station wagon line, distinguished from lesser models by the timber (or fake timber) panels.  Only the first generation (1950-1951) were true “woodies” with wood (mahogany paneling, accented by birch or maple surrounds) from Ford-owned plantations processed at the company’s Iron Mountain plant in upper Michigan.  As a genuine "woodie" the Country Squire’s production process was capital and labour-intensive, three assembly plants involved with transportation of the partially-finished cars required between locations.  The initial assembly of the steel body was undertaken at Dearborn with the shells then shipped to Iron Mountain plant for the fitting of the timber components.  Upon completion, the bodies were on-shipped to various Ford assembly facilities for mounting onto ladder-frame chassis and the installation of interior & exterior trim.  To reduce costs, in 1951 final assembly was out-sourced to the Ionia Body Company which had for years assembled wood-bodied station wagons for General Motors and in 1952 the mahogany was replaced with 3M’s (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, the corporation not to be confused with the "Three Ms" of the 1950s who were the actresses Mamie Van Doren (b 1931), Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) & Jayne Mansfield (1933–1967), the "blonde bombshells" of the era) synthetic DI-NOC which emulated the appearance and although eventually it would fade, did prove durable.  The next year, use of birch and maple was discontinued and “timber-look” fibreglass moldings were fitted.  For better or worse, DI-NOC would for decades be a feature of the American automobile (including even convertibles!) but Ford’s attempts to tempt the British and Australians proved brief and abortive.

The “bullet nose” Studebaker Commander: 1950 (left) and 1951 (right).

Like many nicknames, the “single spinner” appellation applied to the 1949-1950 Fords appeared only in retrospect, after the 1951 facelift added a second.  To the public the use of “spinner” probably was obvious because the look did obviously recall the bosses on a twin-engined propeller aircraft but what people decide something should be called doesn’t always accord with what the designer had in mind.  The distinctive look of the 1950 Studebaker Commander came from the ever-vivid imagination of French born US designer Raymond Loewy (1893–1986) who was inspired not by jet engines (soon to emerge as a popular motif in many fields because jets became sexy) but an earlier technology.  Loewy had had in mind the prominent snout of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (the headlights serving as analogues for the engine nacelles) which later would provide the model for the modest tailfins on the 1948 Cadillac but despite that, the 1950s Studebakers came to be called “the bullet-nose”.  At Studebaker, the feeling soon must have been the moment was at least passing because in 1951 the outer-ring of the assembly was painted to blend in more with the bodywork but the reduction of the vanes from four to three was probably nothing more than the usual “change for the sake of change” although the P-38 did always use three-blade propellers.  The “beak” differed little from Loewy’s conceptual sketches but did become part of one of the era’s more celebrated fueds, Studebaker’s styling department employing designer Virgil Exner (1909–1973) who was there by virtue of having in 1944 been fired by Loewy.  Two of the great names of mid-century US design, the clash of egos continued and, triggered by Loewy receiving credit for his work styling the landmark 1946 Studebaker, Exner quit and went to work for Chrysler where, for a decade he influenced automotive design on both sides of the Atlantic.  As a footnote, the way the front bumper-bar was handled on the 1950-1951 Commander was visually a preview of the technique many manufacturers would adopt from 1973 to conform with the US impact regulations, the closest implementation probably to “diving board” design used by BMW. 

"Dagmar", Virginia Ruth "Jennie" Lewis (née Egnor, 1921–2001).

Television was the great cultural disrupter of the post-war years, creating first a national and eventually an internationally shared experience unimaginable in the diverse media environment of the twenty-first century.  Television needed content and, beginning in 1949, some of it was provided by Dagmar.  Ms Lewis adopted the persona of the "dumb blonde" but soon proved to be no airhead, becoming the star of the show on which she'd been hired as the supporting act, parlaying her fame to become one of the celebrities of the era.  She was also impressively pneumatic which may have accounted for her popularity with at least some of the audience and the vague anatomical similarity to the Cadillac's chromed pieces quickly saw them nicknamed "dagmars".  She was said to be amused by the connection, exploiting it whenever possible and Harley Earl's notion of speeding explosive shells was soon forgotten.

Art and Engineering: The automobile, the sweater, the "bullet" or "torpedo" bras and the cross-over of techniques from the structural to the decorative; from jet aircraft & rockets to fashion, in the 1950s, the industry had no shortage of inspiration and role models.  Unfortunately, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) didn't live to see the dagmars sprout from cars and while it may be assumed he'd have thought them worthy of analysis, probably he'd have conceded "sometimes a bumper is just a bumper".

1951 Cadillac.

For 1951, the dagmars not only grew but evolved stylistically from their bolt-on beginnings to become visually integrated with the bumper itself although, technically, they remained separate parts.  The growth of the dagmar is illustrative of Charles Darwin's (1809-1882) theory of natural selection; beneficial mutations within the genetic code that aid an organism's survival will be passed to the next generation.  The sales performance of the brand in the post-war years would proved Darwin correct, the increasing bulk of Cadillacs rewarded on the sales charts and for much of Cadillac’s next twenty-five years, bigger would be better.  While the dagmars soon would reach an evolutionary dead-end and go extinct, for a (human) generation or more, size would continue to matter.

1953 Cadillac.

Whether or not Cadillac was influenced by the cultural impact of Ms Lewis isn’t documented but in one way the anthropomorphism became a little more explicit in 1953, this time with uplift, supported still by the bumper but notably higher.  However, for 1953, the dagmars also returned to their military roots with the addition of small stabilizer fins so those seeking meaning in the metal should make of that what they will.  It was in 1953 the Cadillac Eldorado first appeared as a low volume convertible, production prompted after the positive response to the 1952 El Dorado “Golden Anniversary” show car.  Lavishly equipped, it featured a unique body and is notable for the first appearance on a Cadillac of the “wrap-around” windscreen which would become an industry feature for almost a decade and one historian suggested the several days of incapacity suffered by Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) during the 1960 presidential campaign (his knee damaged by the “dog-leg” windscreen pillar in his Chevrolet) may have been a factor in him losing the contest by “an electoral eyelash”.  The 1953 Eldorado was very expensive and only 552 were built but despite that, in subsequent decades, US manufacturers often couldn't resist the lure of such unprofitable ventures, justified usually as "prestige projects".

1954 Cadillac.

Cadillac slightly enlarged the tails fins for 1954 but abandoned the little fins on the dagmars, the shape returning not merely to something approximating Ms Lewis but hinting also at the bullet bra style so associated with the era.  Why the dagmars dropped a cup size in 1954 isn't known but although it must at the time have seemed a good idea, the era's mantra of "never do in moderation what can be done in excess") soon prevailed.  It was clear there was demand for something like the Eldorado but the stratospheric price of the exclusively bodied 1953 car had meant buyers were few.  In 1954 Cadillac re-positioned the Eldorado as a blinged-up version of the regular-production line, enabling the price to be reduced by 35%; in response, sales almost quadrupled and almost immediately the thing was among the most profitable in the GM stable, something which encouraged over the years a number of “special edition” Eldorados with predictably fanciful names.

1955 Cadillac.

Peak dagmar was reached in 1955.  Although techniques in steel fabrication existed to allow them further to grow, imagining such things can conceive of them only as absurd and there's no evidence in the GM archives that anything bigger was contemplated; from now on, they would have to evolve in another way.  Such was the importance of the dagmar, to afford them additional space, the parking lamps were moved to a spot directly below the head lamps and 1955's uplift was quite explicit, the superstructure suggestive of the cantilever effect which underlay the structural engineering of the underwire bra.  Pursuing the metaphor, this was definitely up a couple of cup sizes from the year before; while it’s hard to be exact, by 1955 Cadillac was well into the alphabet.  Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner (1926-2017) drove a 1955 Cadillac Series 62 convertible; amateur psychoanalysts may be inclinded to ponder on that.

1956 Cadillac.

Apparently now content with the shape of the protrusions, Cadillac may have realized that even by their standards the 1955 fittings may have been too big so slightly they were pruned and some attention was devoted instead to the surrounding details, the grill now with a finer texture and the parking lamps moved to lacunae cut into the bumpers.  A novelty for 1956 was the option of the grill being embellished in gold as an alternative to the standard satin finish and the fins, although higher than the originals, remained restrained.  That was not to last.

1955 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Show car (left) and 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (right).

Longer to lengthen the lingerie link, the uplifted dagmars now gained padding (which were technically more like pasties given they didn't increase a dagmar's size), the rubber attachments actually quite a good idea given how far their chromed metal predecessors stuck out.  Although obviously not at the time foreseen, the idea would be revived by some in the early 1970s as a quick, cheap solution to meet the new frontal-impact regulations and the rubber buffers must in 1957 have prevented some damage, both to victim and perpetrator.  Predictably, they were quickly nicknamed “pasties”, a borrowing of the term used in the female underwear business to describe a stick-on attachment designed for purposes of modesty.  The quad headlamps previewed on 1955 Eldorado Brougham Show car became lawful in many US states in 1957 (and soon all 48) and that meant the front end was becoming very busy with its array of circular shapes.

1958 Cadillac.

GM's corporate body for 1958 was released with the usually high expectations.  However, not only was the a brief, though sharp, recession which affected sales but the ranges suffered stylistically against the sleek new Chryslers which more than any embodied the "longer, lower, wider" motif which would characterize the era.  The Cadillacs were certainly longer in 1958, one aspect addressed in response to the perception the 1957 models had looked, remarkably, too short; a thing of relative proportions as well as absolute dimensions.  Still padded, the dagmars moved towards the edges and the fins grew, losing the forward slope on some models which had contributed to the sense of stubbiness.  What GM's designers looked at most longingly however were the Chrysler's sweeping tail-fins; they would respond.

1959 Cadillac.

Cadillac retired the dagmars for 1959; Darwinian natural selection again. (1) The dagmars, even if padded, did cause damage, both to themselves and whatever it was they hit (2) the adoption of the newly lawful quad headlamps in 1957-1958 created an opportunity for stylists render something new and (3) whatever may have be the linkage with women’s fashion, the old imagery of artillery shells or twin propellers was outmoded in the jet-age, the new inspiration being the twin-engined nacelle seen on the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and the Convair B-36 Peacemaker, four of which Cadillac grafted on, two for the head lamps, two for the park lamps.  Even in Detroit in the 1950s, to add a pair of dagmars to that lot might have been thought a bit much.  As it was, probably few noticed or long lingered over their absence because for the 1949 range it was the tail-fins and tail-lamps which drew the eye.

Translatable motifs: The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and the 1959 Cadillac.

Built between 1952-1962, the B-52 has been in service under 14 presidents and has seen several generations of airplanes come and go; when first it flew, Joe Biden (b 1942; US president 2021-2025) was nine, Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) was six and crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) was five (though even then probably already lying about her age).  No longer used for its original purpose which was to overfly Russian & Chinese targets, dropping gravity bombs, the platform has proved adaptable and been subject to a number of upgrades and revisions, new generations of engines (quieter, more economical and less polluting) fitted and some modern materials integrated to replace the some of the period steel & aluminium.  The most obvious updating however is that the B52s still in service are hybrids in that they're a mix of analogue and digital, the flight controls, weapons systems and other avionics reflecting in some cases almost all of the technical generations of the last sixty-odd years.  It’s not impossible some may still be in service in 2052, a century after the first flight.  In most ways, the B-52’s design has proved more durable than the 1952 Cadillac.

Translatable motifs: The Convair B-36 Peacemaker and the 1959 Cadillac.

The nacelles of aircraft engines provided Cadillac with a rich source of inspiration and if they couldn't decide between propellers and jets, some aircraft offered both.  The earliest of Messerschmitt's prototype twin-jet ME-262s were equipped also with a propeller driven by a Jumo 210 engine, a necessity for the test-pilots given the unreliability of the early jets and many manufactures adopted the approach for their prototypes.  For some aspects, Cadillac settled on one which, unusually, combined both propulsion systems in a mass-produced model: the Convair B-36 Peacemaker (1946-1954) a transitional airframe which straddled the two eras and was one of the earliest strategic bombers designed specifically as a delivery system for nuclear weapons.  With a greater payload even than the B-52, in its final configuration the B-36 was powered by a remarkable ten engines, six radial propeller units and four jets which lent the B-36 its slogan within Strategic Air Command (SAC): "six turnin' and four burnin' ".  However, the propellers were in an unusual pusher configuration, facing the opposite direction from the usual practice so it would have been a challenge to continue the tribute to Ms Lewis.  Instead, for 1959 Cadillac "mixed and matched": the B-52's twin nacelles at the front, the B-36 lending its lines to the tail lamps at the rear.

Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967) in her 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarrritz.

She may neither have noticed nor cared that Cadillac deleted the dagmars on the 1959 range but Jayne Mansfield anyway brought her own when she bought a 1959 Eldorado convertible.  As a marketing ploy, the two-door hardtops had for some time been called the "Eldorado Seville" while the companion convertible was the "Eldorado Biarritz".  The dagmars may have gone but it's for the "twin bullet" tail-lamp assemblies that the 1959 range is remembered; while not the tallest fins on the era (the 1961 Imperials taking that dubious award by just under an inch (25 mm)), they probably were the most extravagant.  Also, despite the number of pink 1959 Cadillacs now in existence, none ever left the factory painted thus, a rose-colored exterior hue offered in only 1956.  It was that Elvis Presley (1935-1977) owned a pink Cadillac and the use of the phrase in popular culture (song & film) that made the trend a thing although his car was a 1955 Fleetwood Sixty Special which was originally blue with a black roof.  The roof was later re-sprayed white but people adopting the motif usually go all-pink.

1948 Chrysler Newport Limousine (left), 1949 Chrysler Town & Country Convertible (centre) and M4 Sherman “Rhino” Tank (France, 1944, right).

However, from the 1940s to the 1960s the dagmar’s path wasn’t lineal.  There’s nothing to suggest Chrysler had any sort of anthropomorphic mutation in mind when the corporation added a third bumper guard for the 1948 range (top left) and the rationale was probably nothing more than “more is better”, a philosophy which in Detroit would linger into the 1970s (the Pentagon has never quite abandoned the notion).  For 1949 there was more still when a fourth bumper guard was added (top right), all now less dagmaresque and the range anyway made its debut some months before Ms Lewis first appeared on television.  More than anything, the 1949 Chrysler’s impressive array recalled the front of the “rhino tank”, the American nickname for Allied tanks to which “tusks” had been added to allow the vehicles to “cut through” the hedgerows (the lines of thick shrubbery which separated parcels of land in the hinterland on which was fought much of the Battle of Normandy which followed the D-Day landings (6 June 1944)).  Originally an ad-hoc battlefield modification fabricated with steel from the defensive devices the Germans had laid upon the beaches, most of the “Rhinos” had three, four or five “tusks” (or “prongs” as the British called them) but Chrysler were never tempted by five and no models left the factory with more than four bumper guards.  Interestingly, although fond of fins, the corporation never jumped on the dagmar bandwagon.

Lycia Naff (b 1962) as the three breasted prostitute (left) in Total Recall (1990), the idea revived on the catwalk, Milan Fashion Week, 2018 (right).

Nor is there any evidence Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven (b 1938) was familiar with the 1948 Chrysler when he conceived the three-breasted sex worker in Total Recall (1990), played by Lycia Naff (b 1962) although his first thoughts were apparently 1949ish because in an interview with The Ringer, the director explained he originally wanted four: “I know that some women had, let’s say, not two nipples, but they have four nipples.  Like a dog, whatever.  That’s what they have.  They exist, basically, and I’ve seen the medical photos when I was at university.  And I knew that. I wanted four nipples and breasts, with big breasts and smaller breasts underneath.  And [special effects specialist] Bob Bottin (b 1959), I think, felt that it was too realistic for the film.  And basically that three breasts would be more, let’s say, in the style of the whole movie.”  Now we know.

The radomes, paired and singular: 1959 Cadillac Cyclone (XP-74) concept car (left) and North American F-86-50-NA Sabre (right).

However, although Cadillac abandoned the use of dagmars in their 1959 models (a rare example of restraint that year), just to remind people what they were missing, simultaneously they toured the show circuit with the Cadillac Cyclone (XP-74) concept car, an example of how far things had come from Ford's "twin spinners" a decade earlier.  Although it was powered by the corporation’s standard 390 cubic inch (6.5 litre) V8, there was some adventurous engineering including a rear-mounted automatic transaxle and independent rear suspension (using swing axles, something far from ideal but not as bad as it sounds given the grip of tyres at the time) but few dwelt long on such things, their attention grabbed by features such as the bubble top canopy (silver coated for UV protection) which opened automatically in conjunction with the electrically operated sliding doors.  This time the link with military aviation was quite explicit, the black dagmars actually functional radomes like those familiar on the F-86-D Sabre, containing the radar-controlled proximity sensors used electronically to alert the driver with an audible signal and warning light should an automobile or other approaching object be detected.  The system apparently worked although it would have been too expensive to offer as an option.  In 2024, such systems are produced by the million at low-cost and are standard equipment on many vehicles.

Ad-hoc modifications to racing Minis in the quest for aerodynamic advantage: A “chop-top” (the “chop” part of “chop & channel” (left) and one of the many implementations of a “streamlined” front section rendered in fibreglass (right).  What the chop to did was (1) reduce frontal area, (2) lower the centre of gravity and (3) reduce weight, all effective measures but in most competitions the technique was soon banned.  The fibreglass front clips also saved weight but the prime objective was to reduce drag; so radical were these modifications they were permitted only in some competitions.  There was however one "loophole".

Fashion & function.  1960 Plymouth Fury Convertible (left) and 1971 Porsche 917K (right).

During the dagmar era, Detroit was no stranger to mendacity, claiming the big tail-fins were there to enhance straight-line stability.  Whether that was true isn’t clear but the theory was sound, the Czechoslovak manufacturer Tatra in 1934 adding a single central fin on the sloping tail of their 77 (1934-1938), the technique borrowed from aviation where aircraft tails equalize the pressure on either side; with swing axles, a rear mounted V8 and advanced aerodynamics which made high speeds possible, more than most the Tatras needed stabilization.  Jaguar famously added an off-set one to the D-Type (1954-1957), speeds previously unexplored on long straights meaning the aerodynamic properties once needed by aircraft were now required closer to the ground.  The principle had been proved and Porsche in the early 1970s added to the 917 a pair not dissimilar in appearance to some of the US cars of a decade-odd earlier but that was a product of wind-tunnel and track testing whereas there’s nothing to suggest what Detroit fitted came from anywhere but the stylists’ drawing boards.

The loophole: Mini with headlight "dagmars".

However, even the industry’s infamously shameless advertising agencies seem never to have claimed the dagmars, despite their shape, conferred any aerodynamic benefit (unlike on missiles and such where as nosecone they provided exactly that).  Given the places in which they were fitted to Cadillacs and such, that restraint was wise but there was one group which saw the potential to use them to gain a slight aerodynamic gain and for that group even the slightest improvement was worth having.  When conceived, BMC’s (British Motor Corporation) Mini (1959-2000) had been designed with only economy and packaging efficiency as objectives but it had been on the market only days when its potential as a “giant killer” became obvious; the light weight, nimbleness and tenacious grip, combined with low fuel consumption and tyre wear made the diminutive machines highly competitive against more powerful, faster opposition.  High-performance versions of the Mini did gain power and they went on to win trophies on the track and in rallies but there were times when Mini raced against Mini in events where the “equalization rules” banned most mechanical modifications.  That meant the usual path to aerodynamic enhancement was barred but one trick not banned was explored by some: The “headlight dagmar” was achieved by the simple expedient of installing a headlight “bucket” (the conical assembly usually concealed within the fender behind the lens) backwards.  Although amateur drivers didn’t have access to wind tunnels so the efficacy of the innovation was never tested, the shape certainly looked more aerodynamic and may have gained a fraction of a second here and there.

Trends in one industry do get picked up in others and it can be difficult to work out who is being influenced by whom, cause and effect sometimes amorphous.  Like the tailfin fad, the dagmar era came and went during the first generation of "the affluent society", a brief, chromed moment during which excess could be enjoyed without guilt although, even at the time, there were critics, some of whom probably were dissenters who actually bought the big Cadillacs, Lincolns and Imperials.  Whether being in the avant-garde of dagmar trends much influenced buying patterns is doubtful because the Cadillac, Lincoln & Imperial crowd tended to be a tribal lot and conquest sales happened at scale only if some thing genuinely innovative (like the 1955 & 1957 Imperials) appeared and even then, Cadillac owners were seen as a breed apart; a separate population.  Only about one thing did probably most concur: everybody likes boobs.

Not only Cadillacs

1958 Lincoln Continental Mark III Convertible. 

Ford's 1958 Lincoln Continental was a reasonable technical achievement, being at the time the largest vehicle of unitary construction ever built and in convertible form it remains the longest the industry made since World War II (1939-1945).  It was also a failure in the market which went close to dooming the Lincoln brand and the reasons for that included the sheer size of the things (there were many garages, even in the affluent society's more respectable places, in which one simply wouldn't fit) and the appearance, a mashup of lines, curves and scallops which made some speculate each part may have been designed by a different committee, all working is isolation.  Ponderously, the body survived for three seasons during which Lincoln apparently couldn't decide about dagmars; after appearing in 1959, they were deleted the next year, only to return for the range's swansong in 1960.  Clearly, Lincoln lacked Cadillac's passion.

1960 Lincoln Continental Mark V Executive Limousine. 

The size did however come in handy when building limousines.  The black car (above) was leased by Ford to the White House for an annual (US$500) fee and was the one presidents used for personal journeys around Washington DC.  Replaced during Lyndon Johnson's (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president 1963-1969) administration as part of the periodic updating of the White House fleet, it was sold by public tender as just another used car.  There wasn't then the same sensitivity attached to objects associated with events and the 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible in which John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) was assassinated was, after being repainted black (it was originally midnight blue), fitted with a permanent roof and titanium armor plating and returned to the White House car pool where it served until 1977, an unsentimental pragmatism probably unthinkable now.  Although their own extravagances were hardly subtle, the fins on Fords, Lincolns and even Edsels never reached the heights or were bent to shape the contortions GM and Chrysler pumped out.  To their eternal credit, Lincoln didn't add dagmars to the memorable 1961 Lincoln; there would have been an absurd clash with the severe lines.

1963 Ford Galaxie 500XL convertible (G-Code 406 Tri-power).

Notably, GM's other divisions rarely tried to match Cadillac in the size, lift and projection of dagmars, Buick the most committed though other manufacturers, albeit spasmodically, would use the theme.  Mercury and Packard offered them on various models between 1953-1956 and Chevrolet's were modest and often rubber-padded.  That idea was picked up by Ford in the early 1960s, their final  A-cup fling on the 1963 Galaxie; perhaps as a sign of the times, uniquely, they were offered only as an optional extra.  In a distinctly un-dagmaresque way, a pair appeared also on the rear bumper and were obviously there genuinely to offer some modest protection against the damage which might be suffered in low-impact events such as those suffered in car parks.  The insurance industry had already noted the disproportionately large costs they were incurring fixing damage suffered while parking and, hiring more lobbyists (ie those who traded "campaign financing" for laws), were planning their own strategy.

Clockwise from top left: 1974 Jaguar XKE (E-Type), 1974 Triumph TR6, 1978 Triumph Spitfire and 1973 Dodge Monaco.

There was no suggestion of anything organically Darwinian about the sudden addition of ungainly blocks of rubber to certain US-market cars in the early 1970s.  They were a consequence of the lobbying efforts of the insurance industry proving more effective in having the congress pass legislation imposing "bumper standards" than were those of the car industry to delay or prevent their introduction.  Presumably also, the "donations" of the insurance industry were both greater and better "packaged".  Some US manufacturers bolted them on as a stop-gap solution while the engineering was done to create the "railway-sleeper" bumpers to comply with the next year's tougher standards while some British sports cars would see out their final years so disfigured.  A few were built on platforms designed in the 1950s which either couldn’t be adapted or were so close to end-of-life the economics were not compelling.  The quick and dirty solution produced what proved to be distinctly non-anthropomorphic dagmars, this time made almost entirely of padding so predictably dubbed “falsies”.  Awkward looking though they were, worse was to come; some of the solutions used to meet the rules were truly ghastly, a few of which lasted well into the 1980s.  It was Ronald Reagan (1911-2004; US president 1981-1989) who, as part of the war his administration waged on regulations and red tape, ended the growth of the bumper bars he called "battering rams".

Sabrina, the English Dagmar

Television penetrated most of the Western world during the 1950s and in an era of generally (though not without the odd hiccup) rising prosperity, the sets became increasingly ubiquitous in domestic households.  The content however was much more regionally specific than would become the trend in succeeding decades.  While production centres in the UK did distribute some of their product elsewhere (and not only in the English-speaking world), by volume and cultural influence the US were by far the most successful, much of what was seen on many screens was locally produced, something easier to achieve in an era when 24 hour TV was not yet a thing and it was industry practice to repeat broadcasts with some frequency.  Additionally, there were often “local content” requirements (quotas) which were industry protection trade barriers erected obsessively to save viewers from what even then was understood as “cultural imperialism”.  Although that phrase had been used even prior to World War I (1914-1918), it wasn’t until it appeared in Mass Communications and American Empire (1969) by US sociologist Herbert Schiller (1919–2000) that it would become part of the mainstream language of critical theory.  However, not only was the particular phenomenon of American cultural influence well documented in the 1950s, it was also appreciated that television would be a force like no previous form of distribution, a concept Dr Schiller also discussed as “packaged consciousness”, an idea later refined as “encapsulated cultural hegemony”.

1962 Reliant Sabre (1961-1963): It was only the early cars which were adorned with the rather bizarre “sabrinas”.

But in the 1950s, more cultural references than now were regionally specific, although international trade (globalization had actually been well underway before World War I (1914-1918) and its aftermath of decades imposed an intermission) meant objects spread and in fields like architecture something like an “international style” had emerged.  So, the dagmars on the cars made it to Europe but, without Ms Lewis appearing of screens, the nickname didn’t come into use.  Except for Detroit’s cars, not many examples of the classic dagmar bumpers were seen but England did have Norma Ann Sykes (1936–2016), better known by her stage name: Sabrina.

Sabrina in some characteristic poses.

Sabrina’s early career was as a model, sometimes in various stages of undress, but it was when in 1955 she was cast as a stereotypical “dumb blonde” in a television series she achieved national fame.  On stage or screen, she remained a presence into the 1970s but without great critical acclaim although the University of Leeds did confer an honorary D.Litt (Doctor of Letters) for services to the arts so there was that.  What was of course noticed was her "presence" and as well as the unusual fittings to the nose of the Reliant Sabre, the “sabrina” moniker was applied to parts of equipment on machinery as varied as heavy trucks and Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter jets.

Triumph sabrina engine in TRS, Le Mans, 1960.

There was also a “sabrina” engine, or more correctly its cylinder head.  For various reasons, it wasn’t easy for European manufacturers to pursue the path to power and performance by adopting the American approach of big displacement so they chose the alternative: greater specific efficiencies & higher engine speeds.  In Italy, as early as 1954 Alfa Romeo had proved the once exotic double overhead camshaft (DOHC) configuration was viable in relatively low-cost, mass-production machines and even in England, MG’s MGA Twin Cam had been released, short-lived though it was.  Triumph’s sports cars had enjoyed much success, both in the marketplace and on racetracks but their engines were based on one used in a tractor and while legendary robust, it was tuneable only up to a point and that point had been reached, limiting its potential in competition.  The solution was a DOHC head atop the old tractor mill and this the factory prepared for their racing team to run in the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hour classic, naming the car in which it was installed the TR3S, suggesting some very close relationship with the road-going TR3 although it really was a prototype and a genuine racing car.

The Le Mans campaigns with the sabrina Engine: TR3S (1959, left), TRS (1960, centre) and the TRS team crossing the line in formation for what was a "staged  photo-opportunity", none of the cars having completed the requisite number of laps to be classified a "finisher" (1960, right).  In 1961, all three went the distance, taking the "Teams Prize".    

Some resemblance in the mind's eye of an engineer: Sectional view of the sabrina.

Triumph used the sabrina engine for three consecutive years at Le Mans, encountering some problems but the reward was delivered in 1961 when all three cars completed the event with one finishing a creditable ninth, the trio winning that year’s team prize.  Satisfied the engine was now a reliable power-plant, the factory did flirt with the idea of offering it as an option in the TR sports cars but, because the differences between it and the standard engine were so great, it was decided the high cost of tooling up for mass production was unlikely to be justified, the projected sales volumes just not enough to amortize the investment.  Additionally, although much power was gained by adding the DOHC Hemi head, the characteristics of its delivery were really suited only to somewhere like Le Mans which is hardly typical of race circuits, let alone the conditions drivers encounter on the road.  As a footnote in Triumph’s history, it was the second occasion on which the factory had produced a DOHC engine which had failed to reach production.  In 1934 the company displayed a range-topping version of their Dolomite sports car (1934-1940), powered by a supercharged two litre (121 cubic inch), DOHC straight-8.  The specification was intoxicating and the lines rakish but, listed at more than ten times the price of a small family car, it was too ambitious for the troubled economy of the 1930s and only three were built.

Professor Regitz-Zagrosek's "bikini triangle": Lindsay Lohan illustrates (left) and with (as imagined by an engineer) with overlaid "Sabrina" timing gear (right).

When viewing the casing containing the gears & timing chains running from the bottom-end to the front camshaft bearings, one can see why Sabrina rapidly would have entered the mind of an engineer.  Apparently it began with a chance remark at the assembly bench but nobody could think of a more appropriate description so the official project name it became, the original "20X" soon forgotten.  Anatomically, the engineers were of course about right because the front sectional view of the sabrina engine’s internals do align with what Dr Vera Regitz-Zagrosek (b 1953; Professor of Cardiology at the University of Zurich), describes as “the bikini triangle”, that area of the female human body defined by a line between the breasts and from each breast down to the reproductive organs; it’s in this space that is found all the most obvious anatomical differences between male & female although the professor does caution differences actually exist throughout the body, down to the cellular level.