Baroque

Baroque (pronounced buh-rohk or ba-rawk (French)).

(1) Of or relating to a style of architecture and art originating in Italy in the early seventeenth century and variously prevalent in Europe and the New World for a century and a half, characterized by free and sculptural use of the classical orders and ornament, by forms in elevation and plan suggesting movement, and by dramatic effect in which architecture, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts often worked to combined effect (often used with an initial capital letter).

(2) In music, of or relating to the period following the Renaissance, extending (circa 1600-1750) which tended to be characterized by extensive use of the thorough bass and of ornamentation to create dramatic effects. Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi were great composers of the baroque era.

(3) In literature, a style of prose thought extravagantly ornate, florid, and convoluted in character or style.

(4) An irregularly shaped pearl (rare except in technical use).

(5) In pre-modern twentieth century design or engineering, objects intricately or ornately detailed in a way no longer financially viable.

(6) Descriptively (of any object where the technical definitions don’t apply), variously (1) ornate, intricate, decorated, laden with detail & (2) complex and beautiful, despite an outward irregularity.

(7) In stonemasonry & woodworking, chiselled from stone, or shaped from wood, in a garish, crooked, twisted, or slanted sort of way, grotesque or embellished with figures and forms such that every level of relief gives way to more details and contrasts.

(8) Figuratively, something overly or needlessly complicated, applied especially to bureaucracy or instances like accounting systems which either are or appear to be designed to conceal or confuse.

1765: From the French baroque (originally “pearl of irregular shape”), from the Portuguese barroco or barroca (irregularly shaped pearl) which was in some way influenced by either or both the Spanish berrueco or barrueco (granitic crag, irregular pearl, spherical nodule) and the Italian barocco, of uncertain ultimate origin but which may be from the Latin verrūca (wart).  The etymology is however murky and some suggest the Portuguese words may directly have come from the Spanish berruca (a wart) also from the Latin verrūca (a steep place, a height (and thus “a wart” or “an excrescence on a precious stone”).  Most scholars think at some point it probably conflated with Medieval Latin baroco, an invented word for a kind of obfuscating syllogism although one speculative alternative is the word was derived from the work of the Italian painter Federigo Barocci (1528-1612), a founder of the style, but most think this mere coincidence.  The comparative is baroque and the superlative baroquest, both thankfully rare.  Baroque is a noun & adjective, baroqueness is a noun and baroquely is an adverb, the noun plural is baroques.

Marble Court, Palace of Versailles.  Commissioned in the 1660s by Louis XIV (1638–1715; le Roi Soleil (the Sun King), King of France 1643-1715), the Palace of Versailles is thought one of the the finest example of secular Baroque architecture.

Baroque is one of those strange words in English which has evolved to have several layers of meaning including (1) a term which defines epochs in music & architecture, (2) a term referencing the characteristics in the music & architecture most associated with those periods, (3) a term which is a negative criticism of those characteristics, (4) a term which is (by extension) a negative criticism of the excessively ornate in any field (especially in literature) and (5) a term applied admiringly to things intricately or elaborately detailed.  In English, baroque began as an expression of contempt for the style of architecture which most historians believe began in early seventeenth century Rome and which shocked many with its audacious departure from the traditions of the Renaissance which paid such homage to (what was at least imagined to be) the Classical lines from Antiquity.  In architecture, baroque has never been exactly defined, something some explain by analogy with Clement Attlee’s (1883–1967; UK prime-minister 1945-1951) observation that it was as pointless to define socialism as it was an elephant for “...if an elephant ever walked into the room, all would know what it was”.

Karlskirche, Vienna.The Vatican's Saint Peter’s Square is often used to illustrate Baroque architecture and all those colonnades do make quite a statement but Vienna's Karlskirche better represents the way church architects took to the form.  It was commissioned in 1713 by Charles VI (1685–1740; Holy Roman Emperor 1711-1740) after the end of the last great epidemic of Plague as an act of memorial to Cardinal Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584; Archbishop of Milan 1564-1584), revered as a healer of those suffering from Plague.

Actually, although etymologists would say that's true, that’s not how the word is actually often applied because the terms baroque and rococo are often used interchangeably by non-specialists when speaking of just about any building adorned with the elaborate details not seen since modernism, functionalism & brutalism prevailed.  What distinguishes things is less the actual shapes than the feeling imparted, baroque and rococo both noted for asymmetry, luxuriant detailing, extravagant, unexpected curves & lines and a polychromatic richness but where baroque’s language is of grandeur, weight & monumentalism, rococo’s implementations summon thoughts of lightness, playfulness and frivolity.  Tellingly, rococo, when used as a critique is applied almost always in the negative, suggesting something fussy, pointlessly elaborate and overstated whereas baroque is often used admiringly, literature about the only field in which use is universally negative.  The other common use of baroque in the negative applies to bureaucracy or tangled administrative systems when it’s used as a synonym of byzantine.  For those seeking a rule of thumb, except in literature, baroque tends not to be used negatively and when describing objects which contain ornate or intricate detailing, it’s adopted usually to suggest something complex and beautiful, despite an outward irregularity.  Baroque suggests restraint and good taste (there are many other words with which to describe the garish, crooked, twisted or grotesque) and to damn something as silly, over detailed and laden with decorations with no functional or aesthetic purpose, there’s rococo.

Winter Palace, Saint Petersberg.  Some do find the Winter Palace a bit rococo and there are elements of that in the interior but architecturally, it's an example of early baroque, albeit much modified by later renovations.  It was built as a residence of Peter the Great (Peter I, 1672-1725; Tsar of Russia 1682-1725) and remain an official palace of the Romanov Tsars between 1732 and the 1917 revolutions.  The present appearance reflects both the restorative work of the late 1830s when it was rebuilt after a severe fire and the restoration after the damage suffered during the Siege of Leningrad (1941-1944).

The use in the language of literary criticism is, like any application of “baroque” in the non-visual arts, inherently imprecise.  Even in music, it’s understood as a period and many of the compositions which emerged from the era do have a style which is recognisably “baroque” but there was also much which was anything but.  The same can of course be said of the European buildings of the same period, the overwhelming majority of which were neither “baroque”, nor memorable, the adjective in what is now called the “built environment” making sense only when used of representational architecture.  That’s a well-understood distinction in architecture and even painting but more contentious in music, something made murkier still by musicologists having divided the baroque into the “early”, “middle” and late”, mapped onto a range of styles which were sometimes particular to one country and sometimes popular in many.  Interestingly, although as a generalized descriptor it needs still to be thought of as something which began as a term of derision in architecture (and it is from there it gained its parameters), there is an earlier, anonymous piece of (not especially serious) opera criticism which labelled a work as du barocque (in the sense of the original meaning “pearl or irregular shape”), damning the music as un-melodic, discordant and a roll-call of just about every known compositional device; something more like a student’s assignment than a opera.  It’s a critique not greatly different from that made some three centuries later by comrade Stalin (1878–1953; leader of the USSR, 1924-1953) who’d been displeased by one of comrade Dmitri Shostakovich’s (1906-1975) operas, calling it формализм (formalism), "chaos instead of music", a self-indulgence of technique by a composer interested only in the admiration of other composers.

L'Estasi di Santa Teresa (The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa) by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) is a sculptural group rendered in white marble, set in an elevated aedicule in the Cornaro Chapel of the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.  It’s thought one of the sculptural masterpieces of the High Roman Baroque and depicts Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish Carmelite nun and saint, in a state of religious ecstasy, a spear-holding angel watching over her.  The installation in 2007 (briefly one supposes) gained baroque sculpture a new audience when it was used in a popular meme which noted some similarity with an early morning photograph of Lindsay Lohan resting in a Cadillac.

The last days of baroque: 1967 Mercedes–Benz 600 Pullman Laudaulet (left & rght) and 1971 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Cabriolet (centre).  There was intricate detailing on the W111 and W100s, the last truly coach-built Mercedes-Benz.  Most were produced between 1963-1971 although the W100s continued in a trickle, substantially hand-built, until 1981.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), remembered as the philosopher who loomed over the French revolution, was also a composer and in his Dictionnaire de la musique (Dictionary of Music, 1767) declared baroque music to be that “...in which the harmony is confused, and loaded with modulations and dissonances. The singing is harsh and unnatural, the intonation difficult, and the movement limited...”, noting the term was a re-purposing of baroco (an alternative spelling of baroko (from a mediaeval mnemonic chant and a mode of syllogism used whenever some point seemed to be exist only pointlessly to obfuscate), used since the thirteenth century by philosophers discussing the tendency by some of their peers (usually those in the Church or university) needlessly to complicate simple concepts and arguments, just for the sake of grandiose academic gloss; formalism as it were.  Etymologists however remain unconvinced by Rousseau’s speculation and cite earlier evidence which suggests it was from architecture that the use in painting and music was derived, pondering that had Rousseau’s musicology been influenced by him being an architect rather than a philosopher, he too may have identified the source in brick and stone.  Anyway, baroque music as it’s now understood is a surprisingly recent construct, discussed as a thing only in the twentieth century, the term widely used only after the 1950s when the advent of long-playing (LP) records made the packaging and distribution of long-form composition practical and the industry became interested in categorizations, the Baroque something different from the Renaissance and the Classical despite the popular association of them all as one.

Metropolitan

Metropolitan (pronounced me-truh-pol-i-tn)

(1) Of, noting, or characteristic of a metropolis or its inhabitants, especially in culture, sophistication, or in accepting and combining a wide variety of people, ideas, etc.

(2) Of or relating to a large city, its surrounding suburbs, and other neighboring communities:

(3) Pertaining to or constituting a mother country.

(4) A person who has the sophistication, fashionable taste, or other habits and manners associated with those who live in a metropolis.

(5) In the Orthodox Church, the head of an ecclesiastical province, ranking between archbishop and patriarch

(6) An archbishop in the Church of England (now of technical use only).

(7) In the Roman Catholic Church, an archbishop who has authority over one or more suffragan sees and thus the authority to supervise other bishops..

(8) In ancient Greece, a citizen of the mother city or parent state of a colony.

1300–1350: From the Middle English, from the Late Latin mētropolītānus (of or belonging to a metropolis), from the Ancient Greek μητροπολίτης (mētropolítēs), the construct being mētropolī́t(ēs) + the Latin ānus (a ring (in the geometrical sense and here trucated as an).  Root was the Late Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis) (mother city) from μήτηρ (mḗtēr) (mother) + πόλις (pólis) (city or state).  In the hierarchy of the Christian Church, the title of metropolitan was a fourteenth century clipping of metropolitan bishop, one who has oversight over bishops (Pope Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) was Metropolitan Archbishop of Buenos Aires between 1998-2013).  In the Western Church the office now roughly corresponds to archbishop, but in the Orthodox, ranks above it.  The meaning "belonging to a chief or capital city" is from 1550s, the first reference to underground city railways is attested from 1867.  In technical use, historians, city planners and others used the constructed forms intermetropolitan, supermetropolitan & intrametropolitan (sometimes used with hyphens).  Metropolitan is a noun & adjective and metropolitanism is a noun; the moum plural is metropolitans.

Metropolitans in the metropolis: Lindsay Lohan (b 1986, right) and her sister Ali (b 1993, left) shopping in New York City, 2012.  Despite their respective stances, both are right-handed. 

The New York Met

Final performance at the old Met Opera House, New York, 16 April 1966.

The Metropolitan Opera (the Met) was founded in 1880; the first performance in 1883.  It owes its origin to a class-struggle which was unusual because it was among rather than between the bourgeoisie and the rich.  The founders were new money, New York industrialists excluded from membership in the older Academy of Music Opera House.  The Met has long-been the largest classical music organization in North America and presents more than two-dozen different operas each year, the season running between September and May. The works are in a rotating repertory schedule with up to seven performances of four different pieces each week, performed in the evenings from Monday to Saturday with a matinée on Saturday.  Several new works are presented in new productions each season, sometimes as co-productions with other houses, the Met located on Broadway at Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City.  Part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, it opened in 1966, the operation having outgrown the original site which is now a Times Square Starbucks.

The Nash Metropolitan

1956 Hudson Metropolitan Sedan.

In production between 1953-1961, the Nash Metropolitan is a curious footnote in the history of the Anglo-American automobile. At the time it was built, the US industry hadn't yet formalized the market segments based on size (Full-size / intermediate / compact / sub-compact / small / micro)  and it was, in the nomenclature of the day, offered variously as a “small”, “economy” or “second” car, and often made explicit in the marketing materials associated with the last category was that it was a car for women (wives & mothers).  The car was a response to a genuine market demand for smaller, more economical cars and Nash devoted much attention to minimizing production costs, such as the unusual door-panel pressings which were interchangeable for use on either the left or right side.  However, it became clear that even if sales volumes were projected with quite undue optimism, Nash could never profitably design, tool and produce such a car.  Accordingly, the decision was taken to create what came to be called a “captive import”, a car produced overseas exclusively for the US market and in a remarkably short time, Austin of England was selected as the manufacturer and the design, a co-development by Nash and the Italian house Pininfarina, would be powered by the 1.2 litre (73 cubic inch) four-cylinder engine already familiar to many Americans, Austin in the early 1950s one of the most numerous imports.

1953 Nash Statesmen Custom Sedan.  It was the larger Nash models from which the Metropolitan's styling motifs were borrowed.

Available from 1953 in closed and convertible form, the Metropolitan was notable for adopting the styling cues of the larger Nash cars, down-scaling them to fit the dimension of a small, economy vehicle, something some English manufacturers would also try before realizing the compromises created just to many distortions.  Detroit however would stick to the approach for decades and over the years some truly ghastly stuff was created.  With an attractive exchange-rate (Sterling in September 1949 having being devalued from US$4.03 to US$2.80), the Metropolitan was profitable for Nash although sales, initially encouraging, never grew substantially but remained sufficiently buoyant for production to continue until 1961 but it always suffered the difficulty faced by many small cars in the era: for not much more money, buyers could get considerably more.  Detroit, always good at producing big cars, ensured customers received “much metal for the money” and even the Volkswagen beetle, the other notable small car of the 1950s, was somewhat bigger yet no more expensive.  Still, for reasons such as the cost of operation and maneuverability, there were buyers who actually wanted a smaller car and the Metropolitan certainly delivered superior fuel economy although its usefulness for driving in congested urban environments was compromised by the enclosure of the front wheels, meaning the turning circle was similar to that of a medium-sized truck which made parking a chore.  It did though find a niche (in 1959 it was the second biggest selling import in the US although Volkswagen sold more than five times as many Beetles), sold also under the Hudson name after 1954 when Nash and Hudson American Motors Corporation (AMC) and Austin would in 1956 negotiate an arrangement whereby they could offer Metropolitans in markets where AMC didn’t operate.  Under the terms of this deal, it was sold variously as a Nash, Austin or Metropolitan, all these models benefiting from the fitment of an 1.5 litre (91 cubic inch) engine.  One benefit of the UK versions being built with right had drive (RHD) was their small size made them ideal for police forces in US cities which purchased them for their parking patrols, the enforcement officers able to reach through the window to place a ticket on the windscreen, all without leaving their seat.  In a New York winter, that would have been better than a shift on a motorcycle. 

1959 Metropolitan Convertible.

Even in the mid 1950s however the Metropolitan looked outdated and by early in the next decade, when Detroit’s new generation of compacts (Ford’s Falcon, Chevrolet’s Corvair & Chevy II (which became the Nova) and Chrysler's Valiant (which originally wasn't a Plymouth)) debuted, it seemed a museum piece, sales collapsing from over 13,000 in 1959 to not even 1000 the following year.  Even AMC had moved on, the sub-compact Rambler American (1958-1969) something in engineering and styling two generations removed from the Metropolitan and although sales of the latter lingered into 1962, by then it was all but forgotten.  The little car had however, along with the Volkswagen, proved Americans would buy smaller cars and Detroit’s compacts were a reaction to both although, had they not allowed the standard US automobile to assume the absurdly (and inefficiently) large size the cheap fuel and booming economy of the late 1950s permitted, it’s at least possible such things may not for years have been needed.

The original Metropolitan Fifth Avenue (with bunnies), New York, 1960 (left) and a well-executed replica (right).  The badge (centre) for the replica was a custom casting.

The Metropolitan may not have been a typical American automobile but it possessed certain qualities which meant that for a longer time than many others which came and went during its life, it found a niche.  One unique quality was “cuteness” and taking advantage of this, AMC prepared a Metropolitan convertible for the 1960 Easter Parade in New York City, held on 17 April.  Dubbed the “Metropolitan Fifth Avenue” (the little machine apparently by 1979 forgotten when Chrysler introduced the up-market “Fifth Avenue” option for the big New Yorker), the body was finished with 15 hand-rubbed coats of pearl-pink lacquer while the interior was trimmed in pink-and-white cowhide upholstery with pink fur carpeting.  “Fifth Avenue” lettering appeared on the rear fenders, complimented at the front by triangular badges combining the national flags of the US & UK, a tribute the trans-Atlantic gestation.  At the rear, the utilitarian vinyl cover for the external spare tyre was replaced by one in body-colored metal but in an indication this really was a show car, the soft-top and its folding mechanism was removed, lending a cleaner appearance.  For the parade, the Metropolitan Fifth Avenue was driven by a woman who, like her passenger, was dressed in a head-to-toe bunny costume; they looked most fetching although the look was more modest than that of the Playboy bunnies.  Until the day of the parade, the pink machine had been an exhibit rotating on a turntable at the Coliseum where the 1960 New York Auto Show was staged and there it would return, remaining until the show closed on 24 April.  At the show, the interior was filled with large, plush stuffed bunnies and these the models in their suits and ears would each hour present as raffle prizes.  Coincidently, in the winter of 1962 Hugh Hefner (1926-2017) opened one of his dozens of Playboy Clubs at the corner of East 59^th Street & Fifth Avenue but times change and it was closed in 1986, a revival in 2018 lasting barely a year.

Metropolitan Royal Runabout (AMC publicity shot).  Even then, promotional images were one of the few places parasols were seen.

Inspired by the positive reaction, AMC used the Metropolitan as a platform for other stylistic variations with “regional” themes such as the “Palm Beach”, “Cape Cod” and “Westerner” while a curious creation was the “Royal Runabout”.  The inspiration for the Royal Runabout was a one-off Metropolitan convertible in black with green leather upholstery and carpets, built by Austin and presented to Princess Margaret (1930–2002), Elizabeth II's (1926-2022; Queen of the UK and other places, 1952-2022) younger sister.  Other than the paint (since 1956 almost all Metropolitans had been two-tone) and trim, the specification was standard and the princess liked it, driving it often, presumably finding its size made negotiating London’s streets and alleyways easier than her Rolls-Royce Phantom IV.  When one day it was stolen, Lord Beaverbrook’s (Maxwell Aitken, 1879-1964) Daily Express called it the “Royal Runabout” and this was the name which so impressed AMC’s marketing department, the decision taken to create a show car in the style.  However, AMC stuck more closely to the historic color used for cars in the Royal Mews, the single-tone deep maroon paint similar to the royal household’s traditional claret and this they augmented with gold accents on the door top recesses.  They also found disappointing Austin’s lack of bling, adding wide whitewall tires (a thing at the time), shiny wheel covers and a hard metal spare-tire cover painted to match the body.  To both rear fenders was script spelling out “Royal Runabout” along with the emblem of a crown which probably wasn’t quite correct as a piece of heraldry but people would get the idea.  The interior trimmed in maroon and gold leather and by the standards of small, economy cars it was unusually sumptuous, a Cadillac Cimarron decades before its time.

Polysphere

Polysphere (pronounced pol-ee-sfeer)

(1) In mathematics, a product of spheres.

(2) In mechanical engineering, a design of combustion chamber formed by the two shallow concave domes under the intake and exhaust valve seats.

1955: A compound word, the construct being poly + sphere.  Poly is from the Ancient Greek πολύς (polús or polys) (many, much), from the primitive Indo-European polhiús (much, many) from the root pele (to fill), akin to the Old English fela (many).  Sphere is from the Middle English spere, from the Old French spere, from the Late Latin sphēra, from the Classical Latin sphaera (ball, globe, celestial sphere), from the Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaîra) (ball, globe), of unknown origin.  Despite spread of the myth by some medieval writes, sphere is not related to superficially similar Persian سپهر‎ (sepehr) (sky).  Poly, in modern English (especially in industrial and scientific application) use became a word-forming element meaning "many, much, multi-, one or more" with derivatives referring to multitudinousness or abundance.  It was equivalent to the Latin multi- and should properly be used in compounds only with words of Greek origin but this, etymologically slutty English ignores.  Polysphere is a noun and polyspheric is an adjective; the noun plural is polyspheres.

Lindsay Lohan with polyspheric hair.  Polyspheric hair styles are possible, the classic example of which is the symmetrical “twin dome” look which is difficult exactly to achieve and harder still to maintain for more than a brief time.  They’re thus seen usually only at photo-shoots or for one-off events but the design element is popular with asymmetric styles.

Chrysler, the poly, the hemi and the hemi which is really a poly

Chrysler didn’t invent hemispherical combustion chambers but they certainly made a cult of them.  In internal combustion engines (ICE) of the mid-late twentieth century, especially as the availability of higher octane gas (petrol) made possible higher compression ratios, the hemispherical combustion chamber was one of the best designs with with to provide an efficient burn-space while minimizing thermal loss and permitting the use of large diameter, canted-valves to optimize intake and exhaust flow.  The early Chrysler Hemi V8s (1951-1958) were the most powerful of their generation but there were drawbacks.  To take advantage of the large valves at diverging angles, the valve train assembly was both bulky and heavy, needing two rocker shafts rather than the single unit possible with in-line arrangements and adding to the cost and complication were the inherently more expensive casting and machining processes required to produce the hemispherical shape of the combustion chambers in the cylinder heads.  To enable the mass-production of a less expensive V8 to use in their lower-priced lines, Chrysler created new cylinder heads with what they named polyspheric (two shallow concave domes under the in-line valves) which, as a companion to the Hemi, quickly was nicknamed "“Poly”.  Although less powerful than the Hemis, the Polys, with  more quickly machined combustion chambers and a single rocker shaft, enjoyed significantly lower unit production costs so the economics were attractive although it wouldn’t be until the 1960s Chrysler standardized engines across their divisions; an early adoption of such economies of scale might have saved the corporation more money than retaining an exclusively Hemi-headed line would have cost.

The Hemi, 1951-1958 & 1964-1971 (left), the Polyspheric, 1955-1967 (centre) and the new "Hemi" which is really a swirl Chamber, 2003- (right).

The Poly however proved a cul-de-sac.  In an era of cheap gas, larger capacity engines proved a more attractive route to horsepower than sophisticated combustion chamber design and the Hemis were retired in 1958, replaced by engines of larger displacement with wedge-shaped chambers, used by other manufacturers and much more suited to mass-production.  Consigned to the grave with the Hemi were almost all the Polys, only the 318 V8 (5.2 litre) retained as a rare oddity until 1967.  The Hemi would in 1964 return, available as a 426 cubic inch (7.0 litre) race engine (there were also some reduced displacement versions to satisfy local rules) which, for homologation purposes would in 1966 be released in (slightly) detuned form detuned for street use, remaining an expensive option in certain Dodges and Plymouths until 1971.  The name however held such an allure it was in 2003 revived in 2003 (although the corporation's Australian arm between 1970-1981 produced a straight-six "Hemi" (which was really a "semi-hemi")) for Chrysler's new (and perhaps final) generation of V8s.  Like the highly-regarded Australian engine, in the narrow technical sense, the use of "Hemi" for the new V8 (dubbed "Generation III to capitalize on the name's storied legacy") really was a marketing than an engineering term because the combustion chambers were something of a hemispheric cum polyspheric hybrid, the general term describing them for the last fifty-odd years being swirl chambers, a design which, in combination with modern electronic engine management systems (EMS), makes possible autput of power, low emissions and economy which would have been thought impossible to achieve as recently as the 1980s.

Street Muscle's helpful summary of the strange tale of the “318 Poly”; note the unusual arrangement in which the exhaust valve runs parallel to the bore while the intake valve is canted toward the intake manifold.

When Chrysler in 1964 introduced the 273 cubic inch (4.5 litre) V8 as the first of its LA-Series (that would begat the later 318, 340 & 360 (the V10 Magnum used in the Dodge Viper also as descendent)), the most obvious visual difference from the earlier A-Series V8s was the noticeably smaller cylinder heads.  The A engines used a skew-type valve arrangement in which the exhaust valve was parallel to the bore with the intake valve tipped toward the intake manifold (the classic polyspherical chamber).  For the LA, Chrysler rendered all the valves tipped to the intake manifold and in-line (as viewed from the front), the industry’s standard approach with a wedge combustion chamber.  The reason for the change was the decision had been taken to offer the compact (in contemporary US terms; it would have seemed pretty big in most of the planet) Valiant with a V8 but it had been designed to accommodate only a straight-six and the wide-shouldered polyspheric head A-Series V8s simply wouldn’t fit.  So, essentially, wedge-heads were bolted atop the old A-Series block but the “L” in LA stood for light and the engineers wanted something genuinely lighter for the Valiant.  Accordingly, in addition to the reduced size of the heads and intake manifold, a new casting process was developed for the block (the biggest, heaviest part of an engine) which made possible thinner walls.  With the exception of the Hemis, the new big-block engines used wedge-heads and the small block polyspheres (the A-Series) were replaced by the LA except for an export version of the 313 (5.1 litre) which, in small batches, was manufactured until 1965 and the 318, the last of which was fitted in 1967.  Confusingly, the replacement LA engine was also a 318, a product of carrying over certain components, both the 318-A & 318-LA sharing the same bore & stroke.  In an example of production-line rationalization, when Chrysler Australia bored out their 245 cubic inch (4.0 litre) Hemi-six to create the 265 (4.3), the bore chosen was the same as the 318s so pistons could have been shared with the V8 although for technical reasons this wasn't actually done.  The Australian "Hemi" straight sixes used another variation of the combustion chamber in that chambers sat in upper third of the globe, hence the "low hemispherical" slang which wasn't wholly accurate but Ford's Boss 429 V8 had already been dubbed the "semi-hemi" and linguistic novelty was becoming hard to concoct.

Upon release in 1955, the Polyspheric V8s were thought such a novelty they generated much publicity, not only in trade or specialist publications but also in the mainstream press.  Although not yet the “space age”, it was already the “jet age” and there was genuine public fascination with apparently new or innovative products, even if many were really variations of something old and the advertising copy was sometimes the most adventurous aspect.  To help the journalists, included in Chrysler’s press-kits were full-color diagrams explain the theory, illustrating the unseen cycle of fluid dynamics happening under the hood (bonnet) thousands of times a second.  However pleasing the graphics, not all were impressed by the name, Motor Trend magazine in their February 1955 edition publishing a letter from a Mr Hal Julian of Los Angeles whose objection was the word “polyspherical” didn’t exist and what Chrysler should have used was “hemispheroid” (used variously to mean (1) having a roughly hemispheric shape and (2) half of a spheroid), definitions of the latter appearing in dictionaries.  However, while it may not have appeared in the shorter (abridged) dictionaries, polysphere (in mathematics & geometry “a product of spheres”) did have entries in both supplements to the twelve volume Oxford English Dictionary (1933) and Webster's New International Dictionary (1934) which weighed in with over 600,000 words and was an impressive eight-odd inches (200 mm) thick.

Drie bollen I (Three Spheres I), houtgravure (wood engraving) (1945) by Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis "M.C." Escher (1898–1972).  The final engraving (left) may be compared with the pencil on paper study (right).  This was one of a number of works in which Escher explored how, with the greatest precision, a three-dimensional form could be represented on a flat surface.

Polyspherical seems first to have appeared in print in the 1920s in papers published by British physicist Sir Edmund Whittaker (1873–1956) and US physical chemist Gilbert Lewis (1875–1946), the latter remembered also for having in 1926 coined the word “photon” to describe the smallest unit of radiant energy.  The two both used “polyspherical” in the context of what they termed “polyspherical coordinates”, used as devices to solve puzzles in partial differential equations in higher-dimensional spaces, an arcane field understood, even now, only by a few although most of us benefit from the implications.  It’s a fork of the discipline replete with terms baffling to most but the experts note “polyspherical coordinates” by the mid-1930s became formalized in its use to refer to systems “generalizing spherical coordinates to higher dimensions using nested angular parametrizations”.  Sounds simple enough.

Sahib

Sahib (pronounced sahb, sah-ib, sa-hib or sa‐heeb)

(1) In India, a form of address or title placed after a man's name or designation, used as a mark of respect, similar to “sir” in English or “San” in Japanese.

(2) In India, under the Raj, a term of respect for a white European or other person of rank in colonial India (historical references only).

(3) In modern India, a polite form of address corresponding with “Mr”.

1670-1680: From the Hindustani (Hindi, Urdu) साहिब (sāhib) & صاحب‎ (sāhib) (lord), from the Persian صاحب‎ (sâheb), from the Arabic صَاحِب‎ (ṣāḥib) (friend, companion) & çāhib (master, literally either “friend” or “owner”).  The Arabic Sahib was the singular of Ashab and the rarer derivation was sahiba (he accompanied).  Under the Raj it operated something like "Mr" or "sir".  Sahib, memsahib & sahibdom are nouns and sahibesque and sahibish have been used (in criticism) as adjectives though both are non-standard; the noun plural is sahibs.

Under the Raj

The female form of sahib was mem-sahib, written sometimes as memsahib (the plural apparently rarely hyphenated).  It appears first to have been documented in 1832 although a number of sources suggest it was not widely adopted until 1857, a notable date in Indian history although the mutiny of that year appears unrelated to memsahib’s etymology.  It was an interesting linguistic hybrid; a merging of the local pronunciation of the English ma'am + the Hindi and Urdu sahib and, under the Raj, was a companion to the latter, functioning as a respectful term of address to a white European woman.  The role of women under the Raj (their relationships with the Indians and their colonial oppressors), was never as well documented or researched as that of men although the subject began to attract academic and popular interest in the 1980s, two books from different perspectives being Margaret MacMillan's (b 1943) Women of the Raj (1988) and Anne de Courcy's (b 1927) The Fishing Fleet: Husband Hunting in the Raj (2012).

Briefly a memsahib: Lindsay Lohan in Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey (BBC Three, 2010).

Although most associated with the Raj, shib and memsahib are still used by English speakers in the sub-continent as a polite form of address in much the same way Mr & Mrs are applied.  It’s also appended to the names of holy places associated with the Sikh Gurus in a similar manner to the way the Japanese have applied San to objects as well as people.  The term Pukka sahib meant "absolutely genuine" and pukka endures among certain classes, though most think it an affectation.

The sahib, the Mahātmā and the memsahib:  Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900–1979; last viceroy and first governor-general of India 1947-1948), Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948; lawyer & Indian anti-colonial political leader) and Edwina, Countess Mountbatten (née Ashley, 1901–1960), Government House, New Delhi, India, 1947.  When Edwina died, she was buried at sea, prompting the Queen Mother (1901-2002) to remark: "That's Edwina, she did like to make a splash".

Joe Randolph (JR) Ackerley (1896–1967), an English part-time writer and full-time homosexual, spent only a few months in colonial India but it was long enough for him to form a low opinion of the colonists, noting their racism, snobbery and ingratitude.  In his writings, he mentioned the anecdote of a memsahib, accompanied by a servant, returning one evening to her bungalow when suddenly a krait, one of India’s most venomous snakes, slithered directly into her path.  The memsahib was quoted as saying:  “Then the servant did a thing absolutely without precedent in India—he touched me!—he put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me back … Of course if he hadn’t done that I should undoubtedly have been killed; but I didn’t like it all the same, and got rid of him soon after.”

Cruciform

Cruciform (pronounced kroo-suh-fawrm)

(1) In geometry, a geometric curve, shaped like a cross, which has four similar branches asymptotic to two mutually perpendicular pairs of lines (equation: x ² y ² – a ² x ² – a ² y ² = 0, where x = y = ± a are the four lines).

(2) In engineering or design, being in the shape of a cross; cross-shaped.

(3) An emblem or escutcheon in the shape of a cross.

(4) In aeronautical engineering, a type of tail structure.

(5) In genetics, a cross shape in DNA (known also as the Holliday junction).

1814: From the Modern Latin cruciformis (1655-1665), the construct being from crux (genitive crucis) (stake, cross) + forma (form, shape), both Latin words of unknown origin; the he English form was first documented in 1814.  Early etymologists suggested crucis might have links with the Irish cruach (heap, hill), the Gaulish krouka (summit), the Old Norse hryggr (backbone) or the Old English hrycg (back) but modern scholars, although offering the odd speculation, concede only it may have been borrowed from “somewhere” an observation which, while probably true, isn't a great deal of help.  Form first entered Old English around the turn of the thirteenth century as forme & fourme (semblance, image, likeness), a direct borrowing from the Old French forme & fourme (physical form, appearance; pleasing looks; shape, image; way, manner), from the Latin forma (form, contour, figure, shape; appearance, looks; a fine form, beauty; an outline, a model, pattern, design; sort, kind condition), again a word of unknown origin, the most accepted theory being it may be from or cognate with the Ancient Greek morphe (form, beauty, outward appearance).  Cruciform is a noun & adjective, cruciformity is a noun and cruciformly an adverb; the noun plural is cruciforms.

Empennages: the cruciform & the T-Tail

On airframes, a cruciform tail is an empennage (the tail assembly, almost always at the extreme rear of an aircraft, provides directional stability while in flight, as the feathers on an arrow generate, the word derived from the French empenner (to feather an arrow)), a configuration which, when viewed in direct frontal or rearward aspect, assume a cruciform (lower case †) shape.  The accepted practice is for the horizontal stabilizer to intersect the vertical tail close to the middle, well above the fuselage.

Cruciform tail: Rockwell B-1 Lancer

The cruciform tail is a compromise.  While not offering all the aerodynamic advantages of the T-Tail (where the horizontal stabilizer is mounted atop the tail (upper case T) and thus almost completely removed from the wake of the engines), it doesn’t demand the additional structural strengthening (and thus weight) or suffer the same vulnerability to metal fatigue.

T-Tails: Lockheed C-141 Starlifter (produced 1963-1968), Wright-Patterson USAF (US Air Force) Base, Dayton Ohio (left), Vickers VC10 (produced 1962-1970) in BOAC livery, BOAC promotional photograph, 1964 (centre) and Lockheed C-5M Galaxys (produced (all versions) 1968-1989) at USAF Base, Dover, Delaware (right).

The T-Tail is used in aviation for a variety of reasons.  On freighters, the advantage is the horizontal stabilizers are moved away from the rear of the fuselage, meaning the space-consuming mechanical and hydraulic assemblies don't intrude on the rear-loading area, permitting both a larger door aperture and an uninterrupted load-path.  One unusual use was the Vickers VC10, a design distinguished by the four engines being mounted in the tail section, something which precluded the conventional placement of horizontal stabilizers.  The VC10 was a design cul-de-sac but as the K.3 aerial refueling tanker, the airframe remained in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) until 2013.

The cruciform (left) and the T-Tail (right) can be borrowed from aeronautical design and applied to hairstyles: Lindsay Lohan demonstrates.