Monitor (pronounced mon-i-ter)
(1) A student appointed to assist in the conduct of a class or school, as to help take attendance or keep order (largely obsolete).
(2) A person appointed to supervise students, applicants, etc., taking an examination, chiefly to prevent cheating; proctor.
(3) A person who admonishes, especially with reference to conduct.
(4) Something that serves to remind or give warning.
(5) A device or arrangement for observing, detecting, or recording the operation of a machine or system, especially an automatic control system.
(6) An instrument for detecting dangerous gases, radiation, etc.
(7) A receiving apparatus used in a control room, especially to provide a steady check of the quality of an audio or video transmission.
(8) A similar apparatus placed in various parts of a studio so that an audience can watch a recorded portion of a show, the performer can see the various segments of a program, etc.
(9) Any such receiving apparatus used in a closed-circuit system, as in an operating room.
(10) The screen component of a computer, especially a free-standing screen.
(11) In early computing, a control program which handled the primitive file-loading, essentially a precursor to operating systems.
(12) A type of armored warship of very low freeboard, having one or more turrets and used for coastal defense (now obsolete).
(13) In architecture, a raised construction straddling the ridge of a roof and having windows or louvers for lighting or ventilating a building, as a factory or warehouse.
(14) An articulated mounting for a nozzle, usually mechanically operated, which permits a stream of water to be played in any desired direction, as in firefighting or hydraulic mining (also called giant).
(15) Any of various large predatory lizards of the genus Varanus and family Varanidae, of Africa, southern Asia, the East Indies, and Australia, fabled to give warning of the presence of crocodiles.
(16) To listen to or observe something.
(17) In Engineering, a tool holder, as for a lathe, shaped like a low turret, and capable of being revolved on a vertical pivot so as to bring the several tools successively into position.
1540-1550: From the Latin monitor (one who warns) from perfect passive participle monitus (warning) from the verb monēre (to remind, bring to (one's) recollection, tell (of); admonish, advise, warn, instruct, teach) from the primitive Indo-European moneie- (to make think of, remind), source also of the Sanskrit manayati (to honor, respect) and the Old Avestan manaiia- (making think), a suffixed (causative) form of the root men- (to think), source also of the Latin memini (I remember, I am mindful of) & mens (mind). The notion was "one who or that which warns of faults or informs of duties". Most sources list the eighteenth century monitress ((1) a female mentor or advisor; a female observer or (2) a female monitor, or school leader) as rare or dated but, except in historic references, it's probably now extinct. Monitor & monitoring are nouns & verbs, monitorability, monitorization, monitorer, monitress & monitorship are nouns, monitorize & monitored are verbs, monitorless, monitorial & monitorable are adjectives; the noun plural is monitors.
The first
use in English was to describe a "senior pupil at a school charged with
keeping order" (vaguely analogous with the block kapo in a Nazi concentration
camp), from the Latin monitor (one who reminds, admonishes, or checks," also "an overseer, instructor, guide, teacher"). The lizard picked up the name in
1826 because of the fable in which it was said to give warnings of Nile crocodiles. The squat, slow-moving ironclad warship was
first used in 1862 during the US Civil War, the name chosen by the inventor, Swedish-born U.S. engineer John Ericsson (1803-1889), because it was meant to "admonish" (in the sense of the function of the senior school pupils appointed monitors) the Confederate (the pro-slavery states south of the Mason-Dixon Line that sought to secede from the Union) leaders in the US Civil War. Use in broadcasting dates from 1924 when it meant "a device to continuously check on the technical quality of a radio transmission signals" and it was borrowed in 1931 during the development of early television broadcasts to describe "a TV screen displaying the picture from a particular camera." It soon came to mean electronic screens of any type. The general sense of monitoring stuff emerged
in 1944 to describe certain wartime intelligence operations although as early as 1818 the romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) used it in the sense of "to guide", a nod to the origins in Latin.
“Monitorlogically”
does not exist but “Logic Monitor” is a generic term used for IT (information
technology) infrastructure monitoring platforms. Often hybrid-devices (components sometimes
not even inter-connected), they’re intended usually to allow SysAdmins (system
administrators), developers and MSPs (managed service providers) to track the
health, performance, and availability of all or some of a technology stack
(which might extend to networks, cloud services, servers, databases, backups
and applications) from a single, unified dashboard. Some are better than others.
Lindsay Lohan in SCRAM bracelet (left), the SCRAM (centre) and Chanel's response from their Spring 2007 collection (right).
A very twenty-first century monitor: Before Lindsay Lohan began her “descent into respectability” (a quote from the equally admirable Mandy Rice-Davies (1944-2004) of MRDA fame), Lindsay Lohan inadvertently became of the internet’s early influencers when she for a time wore a court-ordered ankle monitor (often called “bracelets” which etymologically is dubious but rarely has English been noted for its purity). At the time, many subject to such orders often concealed them under clothing but Ms Lohan made her SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor) a fashion statement, something that compelled the paparazzi to adjust their focal length to ensure her ankle of interest appeared in shots. The industry responded with its usual alacrity and “ankle monitor” purses were soon being strutted down the catwalks.
Chanel's boot-mounted ankle purse in matching quilted black leather.
In one of several examples of this instance of Lohanic influence on design, in their Spring 2007 collection, Chanel included a range of ankle bags. Functional to the extent of affording the wearing a hands-free experience and storage for perhaps a lipstick, gloss and credit card (and the modern young spinster should seldom need more), the range was said quickly to "sell-out" although the concept hasn't been seen in subsequent collections so analysts of such things should make of that what they will. Chanel offered the same idea in a boot, a design actually borrowed from the military although they tended to be more commodious and, being often used by aircrew, easily accessible while in a seated position, the sealable flap on the outer calf, close to the knee.
A Masonic Monitor is a printed volume containing lists of the rituals,
symbols, ceremonies, and teachings of the fraternity. Typically a Monitor will include prayers, scriptural
readings associated with degrees as well as procedural instructions for meetings,
funeral rites and other ceremonies. The
foundational text (which to this day remains a template for Monitors) was The Freemason's Monitor or Illustrations of
Masonry, published in 1797 by Boston-born Thomas Smith Webb (1771-1819). Webb’s work drew much from Illustrations of Masonry (1772) by the
Scottish printer William Preston (1742–1818) but his innovation was structural,
the Monitor arranged in a way which allowed the various temples and lodges to “localize
the text” as required while substantially retaining Masonic standardization in
forms, rituals and procedures. Being a
publicly available document, no Monitor ever contains esoteric secrets,
specific grips (the infamous Masonic handshake) or passwords, these passed down
only orally or by example. Also, despite
the tempting name, subsequent publications with titles such as The Order of the Secret Monitor reveal
no more and hint little at the more mysterious rituals or the plotting and
scheming for which the Masons are notorious.
The Monitors
Monitors were curious looking, relatively small warships which, while neither fast nor heavily armored, carried disproportionately large guns, sometimes a single barrel as large as 18 inches (460 mm). First used in recognizable form the US Civil War (1861-1865), they saw service with several navies during both world wars and some were built by the USN (US Navy) as late as the 1960s to support costal operations in the war in Vietnam (1955-1975). Essentially a floating gun platform, they could be used only in shallow waters and were thus restricted to river and coastal duties where they were deployed as shore bombardment vessels. Although something of a footnote in naval architecture, the most heavily gunned monitors enjoy the distinction of firing heavier shells than most other warships, only the IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1945) ever equipping two doomed battleships with 18 inch guns.
HMS Marshall Ney (1915-1957)
The RN (Royal Navy) has a sense of history and
maintains in the service a great veneration for her most illustrious ships,
names like Dreadnought & Vanguard often re-used on newer vessels
to maintain links with a tradition which dates back almost five centuries. One ship however not often mentioned in
the Admiralty's annals is HMS Marshal Ney, laid down in 1915 as the first of two monitors
of her class. Designed to use 15 inch (380
mm) guns using mounts and turrets which became available when the Admiralty
opted to reconfigure the battleships Renown and Repulse as battle cruisers, Marshal
Ney and her sister ship Marshal Soult were named in recognition of the then historically
unusual situation of the French being allies rather than enemies. Built with the same armor as earlier monitors
which mounted 12 inch (300 mm) guns, the original plan had been also to use the
same well-regarded and reliable engines but an unfortunate decision was taken
to use some diesel engines which were otherwise unallocated. In short order, HMS Marshal Ney would come to be
known as “the worst ship in the navy”.
The Vickers engines in the Marshal Soult, though
underpowered, were reliable but those in her sister ship, built by the German
company of MAN were a disaster, the problems thought a consequence of it being
impossible in wartime to employ the German technicians experienced in servicing
them or obtain the spare parts needed to fix them. On the rare occasions the engines
successfully started, they rarely ran for long without something “blowing up”
and the engineers reports make clear, this expression was literal rather than
used in the figurative sense often heard in engine rooms, pieces of shrapnel flying around with disturbing frequency. Remarkably, there were only minor injuries. As a
result, the navy removed the big gun and installed it on the better performing monitor
HMS Terror though in one of the coincidences of war, one of its barrels
was on HMS Repulse when she was sunk by the Japanese in 1941. The Admiralty re-armed the Marshal Ney,
firstly with a single 9.2 inch (235 mm) gun and later with six 6 inch (150
mm) bores but made no attempt to replace the engines, using the ship instead as
a floating gun platform in the Channel, towed from port to port as required. Despite being “the worst ship in the navy”,
HMS Marshal Ney had a longer life on the active register than many more storied
warships. After the World War I (1914-1918), she
became first a depot vessel and later an accommodation ship, renamed three times
between 1922-1947, becoming successively Vivid, Drake and Alaunia II. She was decommissioned in 1957 and sold for
scrap, something which many sailors believed she'd been from the day rolled down the slipway.
