Diversity

Diversity (pronounced dih-vur-si-tee (U) or dahy-vur-si-tee (non-U))

(1) The state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness; nonuniformity.

(2) The inclusion of individuals representing more than one national origin, color, religion, socioeconomic stratum, sexual orientation etc.

(3) In mathematical logic, the relation that holds between two entities when and only when they are not identical; the property of being numerically distinct.

(4) In politics, the social policy of encouraging tolerance for people of different cultural and racial backgrounds

(5) In politics as multiculturalism or more specific legislation mandating diversity, an attempt to redress historic discrimination.

(6) In biology, as biodiversity, the degree of variation of life forms within an ecosystem.

(7) In zoological taxidermy, as species diversity, the effective number of species represented in a data set.

(8) In genetics, as genetic diversity, the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species.

(9) In agriculture, as crop diversity, the variance in genetic and phenotypic characteristics of plants used in agriculture.

(10) In electronic communications, the principle of the deployment of multiple channels or devices to improve reliability.

(11) In electrical engineering, as diversity factor, the ratio of the sum of the maximum demands of the various part of a system to the coincident maximum demand of the whole system.

(12) In law, a term often used in equal-opportunity legislation when codifying specific metrics.

1300–1350: From the Middle English diversite (originally "variety; range of differences" and by the late fourteenth century "quality of being diverse, fact of difference between two or more things or kinds; variety; separateness; that in which two or more things differ" (usually in a technical or neutral sense), from the Old French diversité (difference, diversity, unique feature, oddness (and when used in a degoratory sense "wickedness, perversity; contradiction") (which survives in the Modern French as the twelfth century diversité), from the Latin diversitatem (nominative dīversitās) (contrariety, wickedness, perversity, disagreement (and in a secondary sense "difference, diversity")), the construct being  diversus (past particle of divertere) (contradiction, difference; turned different ways (and in Late Latin "various") +‎ tas.  The Latin tas suffix was from the primitive Indo-European tehts, from the Ancient Greek της (tēs) and Sanskrit ताति (tāti).  In English, the construct uses the suffix ity which is used to form abstract nouns indicating a state of being.  Suffix is from the Middle English ite, a borrowing from the Old French ité and directly from the Latin itatem (nominative itas).  As used as a suffix denoting state or condition, in Latin it was built with a connective i + tas.  Fowler’s Modern English Usage (1926) notes that in English, a word with the ity suffix usually means the quality of being what the adjective describes, or concretely an instance of the quality, or collectively all the instances whereas a word with an ism appended means the disposition, or collectively all those who feel it.  Diversity is a noun, diverse is an adjective (and collective a noun) and diversely is an adverb; the noun plural is diversities.

Diversity: The path to DEI

Diversity had the distinct negative meaning "perverseness, being contrary to what is agreeable or right; conflict, strife; perversity, evil" in English from late fourteenth century but was obsolete after the seventeenth (although the twenty-first century critiques of wokeness and political correctness has seen "diversity" again used in this way in certain quarters).  Diversity as a virtue in the political construction of nation-states was an idea which grew as modern democracies developed in the decades after the French Revolution (1789) because it was thought essential to prevent one faction from arrogating all power (and discussed in The Federalist (now usually called The Federalist Papers) 85 essays published in 1788 and written by some of the Founding Fathers of the United States to advocate ratification of the constitution).  The word however was also used under the Raj where many of the British colonial "fixes" (at which they excelled) used existing divisiveness (which they encouraged and sometimes even created) as part of the principle of "divide & rule".  Diversity under the Raj was real, cross-cutting and multi-layered but for from the modern sense in which ethnicity, gender and sexual identity are the typical determinates, this use emerging as now understood in the early 1990s, the original purpose being to provide for the "inclusion and visibility of persons of previously under-represented minority identities".

Projecting diversity: Lindsay Lohan in rainbow T-shirt, the T-shirt of the T-shirt created through Yoshirt's portal.

Although the use of diversity (in a positive sense) as applies to race, gender etc. appears to date only from 1992, the term "affirmative action", as government policy designed to promote or achieve diversity in various aspects of life, was first used in an executive order signed by US President Kennedy in 1961.  That was a decree which required that government contractors "…take affirmative action to ensure applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin".  Such policies have become widespread, especially since the 1980s and, in the west, are applied exclusively for the benefit of groups or individuals thought disadvantaged.  Beyond the west, other countries have adopted such policies although sometimes they’re applied for the benefit of a defined majority.  Increasingly, in the US, affirmative action policies are being challenged, sometimes by groups themselves defined as "diverse".

To demonstrate a corporate commitment to workplace DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), always include a brunette in photos. 

In the West, not all approve of diversity positive initiatives.  In March 2018, the University of Sydney Union issued a statement noting the application of an affirmative action policy to its debating team would promote diversity and prevent domination by “affluent, white, privately educated students”.  The union’s press release was prompted by a report in the Murdoch press that the new affirmative action policies will mean the university would be sending not necessarily its best team to the annual debating tournament, but one “…meeting quotas for women, people of colour, and others oppressed by the white male supremacy”.

Former senator Eric Abetz

Anxious always to expose conspiracies by communists, LGBTQQIAAOP agitators, Trotskyists, trade unionists and other malcontents, then Senator Eric Abetz (b 1958; senator for Tasmania (Liberal) 1994-2022) labelled the move “Stalinist dogma’’ dressed up as progressive thinking, adding the union’s move was evidence of “stifling political correctness’’ which threatened to “damage the future generations who are taught this nonsense as fact’’.  The former senator was perhaps not someone good at recognizing white privilege or understanding its implications for those from diverse backgrounds but he did take a Churchillian stand defending the nation when the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands declared war on Australia so there's that.

The young ladies of Alpha Gamma Delta: ἐννέα κόραι, ἑπτὰ αὐτῶν ξανθαί (ennéa kórai, heptà autôn xanthai).

Alpha Gamma Delta (ΑΓΔ and clipped usually to "Alpha Gam") decided to adopt “DEI best practice” in choosing their webpage banner, including not one but three brunettes.  Dating from 1904 when the first chapter was founded at New York’s Syracuse University, AGD is an international women's fraternity and social organization with over 200,000 members, some 200 collegiate chapters and over 250 alumnae groups.  There is an on-line shop (Alpha Gam Boutique) with lines of hats, T-shirts, stoles, tank-tops & such and there's the helpful facility of "custom chapter orders".

Quadraphonic

Quadraphonic (pronounced kwod-ruh-fon-ik)

(1) Of, noting, or pertaining to the recording and reproduction of sound over four separate transmission or direct reproduction channels instead of the customary two of the stereo system.

(2) A quadraphonic recording.

(3) A class of enhanced stereophonic music equipment developed in the 1960s.

1969: An irregular formation of quadra, a variant (like quadru) from the older Latin form quadri- (four) + phonic from the Ancient Greek phonē (sound, voice).  All the Latin forms were related quattor (four) from the primitive Indo-European kwetwer (four).  Phonē was from the primitive Indo-European bha (to speak, tell, say) which was the source also of the Latin fari (to speak) and fama (talk, report).  Phonic, as an adjective in the sense of “pertaining to sound; acoustics" was used in English as early as 1793.  Quadraphonic is a noun and adjective.

Those for whom linguistic hygiene is a thing approved not at all of quadraphonic because it was a hybrid built from Latin and Greek.  They preferred either the generic surround sound which emerged later or the pure Latin lineage of quadrasonic (sonic from sonō (make a noise, sound)) which appeared as early as 1970 although it seems to have been invented as a marketing term rather than by disgruntled pedants.  Quadraphonic, quadrasonic and surround sound all refer to essentially the same thing: the reproduction of front-to-back sound distribution in addition to side-to-side stereo.  In live performances, this had been done for centuries and four-channel recording, though not mainstream, was by the 1950s, not uncommon.

Surround sound

Quadraphonic was an early attempt to mass-market surround sound.  It used four sound channels with four physical speakers intended to be positioned at the four corners of the listening space and each channel could reproduce a signal, in whole or in part, independent of the others.  It was briefly popular with manufacturers during the early 1970s, many of which attempted to position it as the successor to stereo as the default standard but consumers were never convinced and quadraphonic was a commercial failure, both because of technical issues and the multitude of implementations and incompatibilities between systems; many manufacturers built equipment to their own specifications and no standard was defined, a mistake not repeated a generation later with the CD (compact disc).  Nor was quadraphonic a bolt-on to existing equipment; it required new, more expensive hardware.

Quadraphonic audio reproduction from vinyl was patchy and manufacturers used different systems to work around the problems but few were successful and the physical wear of vinyl tended always to diminish the quality.  Tape systems also existed, capable of playing four or eight discrete channels and released in reel-to-reel and 8-track cartridge formats, the former more robust but never suited to the needs of mass-market consumers.  The rise of home theatre products in the late 1990s resurrected interest in multi-channel audio, now called “surround sound” and most often implemented in the six speaker 5.1 standard.  Modern electronics and the elimination of vinyl and tape as storage media allowed engineers to solve the problems which beset quadraphonic but there remain audiophiles who insist, under perfect conditions, quadraphonic remains the superior form of audio transmission for the human ear.

Highway Hi-Fi record player in 1956 Dodge.

First commercially available in 1965, the eight-track cartridge format (which would later become the evil henchman of quadraphonic) convinced manufacturers it was the next big thing and they rushed to mass-production and one genuine reason for the appeal was that the 8-track cartridge was the first device which was practical for use as in-car entertainment.  During the 1950s, the US car industry had offered the option of record players, neatly integrated into the dashboard and in the relatively compact space of a vehicle's interior, the sound quality could be surprisingly high.  Although not obviously designed with acoustic properties optimized for music, the combination of parallel flat surfaces, a low ceiling and much soft, sound absorbing material did much to compensate for the small size and range offered by the speakers.  However, although they worked well when sitting still in showroom or in certain vehicles, on the road things could be different.  The records (the same size as the classic 7 inch (180 mm) 45 rpm "singles") played by means of a stylus (usually called "the needle") which physically traced the grooves etched into the plastic disks rotating at 16.66 rpm which, combined with an etching technique called "ultra micro-grooving" meant the some 45 minutes of music were available, a considerable advance on the 4-5 minutes of the standard single.  The pressings were also thicker than other records, better to resist the high temperatures caused by heat-soak from the engine and the environment although, in places like Arizona, warping was soon reported.  To keep the stylus in the track, the units were fitted with a shock-absorbing, spring enclosure and a counterweighted needle arm.  Improbably, in testing, the system performed faultlessly even under the most adverse road conditions so the designers presented the product for corporate approval.  At that point there was a delay because the designers worked for the Colombia Broadcasting Corporation (CBS) which had affiliations with thousands of radio stations all over the country and no wish to cannibalize their own markets; if people could play records in their cars, the huge income stream CBS gained from advertising would be threatened as drivers tuned out.  The proposal was rejected.

Highway Hi-Fi record player in 1956 Plymouth.

Discouraged but not deterred, the engineers went to Detroit and demonstrated the players to Chrysler which had their test-drivers subject the test vehicles to pot-holes, railway tracks and rolling undulations.  The players again performed faultlessly and Chrysler, always looking for some novelty, placed an order for 18,000, a lucrative lure which convinced even CBS to authorize production, their enthusiasm made all the greater by the proprietary format of the disks which meant CBS would be the exclusive source.  So, late in 1956, Chrysler announced the option of "Highway Hi-Fi", a factory-installed record player mounted under the car's dashboard at a cost of (US$200 (some US$1750 in 2023 terms)).  Highway Hi-Fi came with six disks, the content of which reflected the reactionary tastes of CBS executives and their desire to ensure people still got their popular music from radio stations but the market response was positive, Chrysler selling almost 4000 of the things in their first year, the early adopters adopting with their usual alacrity.

The second generation of players used standard 45 rpm singles: Austin A55 Farina (left) and Beatle (lead guitarist) George Harrison's (1943–2001) Jaguar E-Type (right).  These two users presumably listened to different music although the player hardware was the same.  All four Beetles had the players fitted in their cars and Harrison is pictured here stocking his 14-disk stack. 

At that point, problems surfaced.  Tested exclusively in softly-sprung, luxury cars on CBS's and Chrysler's executive fleets, the Highway Hi-Fi had to some extent been isolated from the vicissitudes of the road but when fitted to cheaper models with nothing like the same degree of isolation, the styluses indeed jumped around and complaints flowed, something not helped by dealers and mechanics not being trained in their maintenance; even to audio shops the unique mechanism was a mystery.  Word spread, sales collapsed and quietly the the option was withdrawn in 1957.  The idea however didn't die and by the early 1960s, others had entered the field and solved most of the problems, disks now upside-down which made maintaining contact simpler and now standard 45 rpm records could be used, meaning unlimited content and the inherent limitation of the 4 minute playing time was overcome with the use of a 14-disk stacker, anticipating the approach taken with CDs three decades later.  Chrysler tried again by the market was now wary and the option was again soon dropped.

1966 Ford Mustang with factory-fitted 8-track player.

Clearly though, there was demand for in-car entertainment, the content of which was not dictated by radio station programme directors and for many there were the additional attractions of not having to endure listening either to advertising or DJs, as inane then as now.  It was obvious to all tape offered possibilities but although magnetic tape recorders had appeared as early as 1930s, they were bulky, fragile complicated and expensive, all factors which mitigated against their use as a consumer product fitted to a car.  Attention was thus devoted to reducing size and complexity so the tape could be installed in a removable cartridge and by 1963, a consortium including, inter alia, Lear, RCA, Ford & Ampex had perfected 8-track tape which was small, simple, durable and able to store over an hour of music.  Indeed, so good was the standard of reproduction that to take advantage of it, it had to be connected to high quality speakers with wiring just as good, something which limited the initial adoption to manufacturers such as Rolls-Royce and Cadillac or the more expensive ranges of others although Ford's supporting gesture late in 1965 of offering the option on all models was soon emulated.  Economies of scale soon worked its usual wonders and the 8-track player became an industry standard, available even in cheaper models and as an after-market accessory, some speculating the format might replace LP records in the home.

Lindsay Lohan's A Little More Personal (Raw) as it would have appeared if released in the 8-Track format.

That never happened although the home units were widely available and by the late 1960s, the 8-track was a big seller for all purposes where portability was needed.  It maintained this position until the early 1970s when, with remarkable suddenness, it was supplanted the the cassette, a design dating from 1962 which had been smaller and cheaper but also inferior in sound delivery and without the broad content offered by the 8-track supply system.  That all changed by 1970 and from that point the 8-track was in decline, reduced to a niche by late in the decade, the CD in the 1980s the final nail in the coffin although it did for a while retain an allure, Jensen specifying an expensive Lear 8-track for the Interceptor SP in 1971, despite consumer reports at the time confirming cassettes were now a better choice.  The market preferring the cheaper and conveniently smaller cassette tapes meant warehouses were soon full of 8-track players and buyers were scarce.  In Australia, GMH (General Motor Holden) by 1975 had nearly a thousand in the inventory which also bulged with 600-odd Monaro body-shells, neither of which were attracting customers.  Fortunately, GMH was well-acquainted with the concept of the "parts-bin special" whereby old, unsaleable items are bundled together and sold at what appears a discount, based for advertising purposes on a book-value retail price there’s no longer any chance of realizing.

1976 Holden HX LE

Thus created was the high-priced, limited edition LE (not badged as a Monaro although all seem still to use the name), in metallic crimson with gold pin striping, fake (plastic) aluminium wheels, fake (plastic) burl walnut trim and crushed velour (polyester) upholstery; in the 1970s, this was tasteful.  Not designed for the purpose, the eight-track cartridge player crudely was bolted to the console but five-hundred and eighty LEs were made, GMH pleasantly surprised at how quickly they sold.  When new, they listed at Aus$11,500, a pleasingly profitable premium of some 35% above the unwanted vehicle on which it was based.  These days, examples are advertised for sale for (Aus$) six-figure sums.  Those who now buy a LE do so for reasons other than specific-performance.  Although of compact size (in US terms) and fitted with a 308 cubic inch (5.0 litre) V8, it could achieve barely 110 mph (175 km/h), acceleration was lethargic by earlier and (much) later standards yet fuel consumption was high; slow and thirsty the price to be paid for the early implementations of the emission control devices bolted to engines designed during more toxic times.      

1971 Holden HQ Monaro LS 350

The overwrought and bling-laden Holden HX typified the tendency during the 1970s and of US manufacturers and their colonial off-shoots to take an elegant design and, with a heavy-handed re-style, distort it into something ugly.  A preview of the later “malaise era” (so named in the US for many reasons), it was rare for a facelift to improve the original.  The 1971 HQ Holden was admired for an austerity of line and fine detailing; what followed over three subsequent generations lacked that restraint.

Sandwedge

Sandwedge (pronounced sand-wej)

(1) As Operation Sandwedge, a proposed clandestine intelligence-gathering operation against the political enemies of US President Richard Nixon.

(2) As sand wedge, a specialized golf club, an iron with a heavy lower flange, the design of which is optimized for playing the ball out of a bunker (sand trap).

1971: The name was chosen for a “dirty tricks” covert operation as a borrowing from golf, the sand wedge a club used to play the ball from a difficult position.  The construct was sand + wedge.  Dating from pre-1000, sand was from the Middle English sand, from the Old English sand, from the Proto-West Germanic samd, from the Proto-Germanic samdaz, from the primitive Indo-European sámhdhos, from sem- (to pour).  Wedge was a pre 900 from the Middle English wegge (wedge), from the Old English wecg (a wedge), from the Proto-Germanic wagjaz (source also of the Old Norse veggr, the Middle Dutch wegge, the Dutch wig, the Old High German weggi (wedge) and the dialectal German Weck (a wedge-shaped bread roll) and related to the Old Saxon weggi.  It was cognate with the dialectal German weck derived from the Old High German wecki and Old Norse veggr (wall).  The Proto-Germanic wagjaz is of uncertain origin but may be related to the Latin vomer (plowshare).  Sandwedge is a noun; should the plural ever be needed, it would be sandwedges (ie phonetically a la the use in golf (sand wedges)).

In golf, when using a sand wedge, the player’s stance and the way in which the club addresses the ball differs from what’s done when using a conventional iron.  Noted golfer Paige Spiranac (b 1993) demonstrates the difference although there may be some variations depending on an individual's weight distribution. 

Richard Nixon.

Operation Sandwedge was a covert intelligence-gathering operation intended to be conducted against the political enemies of Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974).  Beginning in 1971, the early planning was done by Nixon's Chief of Staff HR Haldeman (1926-1993), his assistant for domestic affairs, John Ehrlichman (1925-1999) and Jack Caulfield (1929–2012), then attached to Ehrlichman’s White House staff “handling special assignments” and also involved (though paid not by the White House but from external campaign funds) was Tony Ulasewicz (1918-1997), later a bit-player in the subsequent Watergate affair.  The core of Caulfield’s plan was to target the anti-Vietnam War movement and those figures in the Democratic Party Nixon had identified as the greatest threat to his re-election in 1972, including Ted Kennedy (1932–2009; US senator 1962-2009), Ed Muskie (1914–1996; US senator 1959-1980), William Proxmire (1915–2005; US Senator 1957-1989) and Birch Bayh (1928–2019; US senator 1963-1981).  Of interest too was a settling of scores with those who had prevented G Harrold Carswell (1919–1992) being confirmed by the Senate as Nixon's nominee for the Supreme Court and the president's net was internecine too, others of the targeted figures in his own Republican Party.

G Gordon Liddy.

Operation Sandwedge was intended to be clandestine but it wasn’t subtle and included physical and electronic surveillance, the intelligence of particular interest that which could be used either to feed damaging leaks to the press or for purposes of blackmail including dubious financial transactions, mental health records and sexual proclivities.  However, the operation never proceeded beyond the planning stages because Haldeman and Ehrlichman thought the methods of Caulfield (a former New York Police Officer) unsophisticated so transferred the project to G Gordon Liddy (1930–2021), a lawyer, one-time FBI agent and later one of the great characters of the Watergate affair.  Caulfield had chosen the name sandwedge because, as a dedicated golfer, he knew the sand wedge was the club of choice when one was in a difficult spot and if well-played, it was what could transform a bad situation into something good.  At the time, the code-names were probably among the more imaginative things to emerge from Pennsylvania Avenue, the name chosen for the squad to investigate leaks of information to the press was dubbed “the plumbers”.

The Watergate complex, Washington DC.

The Watergate affair was of course the most celebrated of the “dirty tricks” operations run out of (or at least connected with) the Nixon White House but it was far from unique.  Back channel operations had actually begun even before the 1968 election but by 1971 the vista had expanded to include what would now be called fake news plants, the infiltration of the staff of political opponents and break-ins and burglary, among the most infamous of which was “the plumbers” (including Liddy) breaking into the office of the psychiatrist treating Daniel Ellsberg (b 1931), the former Defence Department military analyst who had leaked the “Pentagon Papers”.  Ellsberg’s file revealed nothing of interest but the burglary gained a place in history, being recorded by Ehrlichman (who approved the operation) as "Hunt/Liddy Special Project No 1".  There would be more.

Paige Spiranac with sand wedge.

Sandwedge had been envisaged as an intelligence gathering operation, the most novel aspect of which was that while the project documents presented an overview of something using conventional methods of surveillance and the compilation of publicly available material, privately Caulfield advised illegal electronic surveillance would also be used, something any expect presumably could have deduced from the size of the requested budget.  Of the greatest interest were financial records (relating particularly to tax matters), mental health conditions, undisclosed legal problems and sexual conduct, especially if illicit and preferably unlawful.  The idea greatly interested Haldeman and Ehrlichman but they had never been convinced by Caulfield’s “lack of background” by which they meant education and political experience.  Accordingly, Sandwedge and all intelligence matters were transferred to Liddy, the article of faith in the White House being that anything run by a trained lawyer would be legally secure, not something they believed of ex-NYC policemen.

New York Times, Saturday 2 March 1974.

Liddy revelled in the role as the White House’s clandestine clearing house for “covert ops” and created his own list of spy-like code names (Gemstone, Diamond, Ruby et al) to an range of activities expanded beyond Sandwedge including physical espionage, infiltration of protest groups, secret wire-taps, sabotage of opposition campaigns and, of course, “honey-pot traps”.  Even for Haldeman and Ehrlichman the implications of becoming essentially gangsters was too much but the shell of Liddy's structure was in 1972 approved and even then it included a range of unlawful activities, including the one which would trigger the chain of events which would culminate in Nixon’s resignation of the presidency and see dozens of the conspirators (including Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Liddy) jailed: the break in and bugging of the Democratic Party offices in the Watergate complex.  As the affair unfolded, suspicion fell upon Caulfield until it was realised his role in Operation Sandwedge had ended before any dubious operations began and he’d never been part of Liddy’s more ambitious plans.  He was compelled to resign from government but was never prosecuted, maintaining to his dying day that if he’d been left to run Operation Sandwedge, there would have been no burglaries in the Watergate complex or anywhere else and thus none of the cascading scandals which at first paralysed and later ended the second term of the Nixon administration.

Paige Spiranac's definitive guide to the use of one's sand wedge.  This is one of a series of invaluable short clips called Paige Quickies.

Desmodromic

Desmodromic (pronounced des-moh-drom-ick)

(1) In internal combustion engines, a valve drive-train in which poppet valves are positively closed by a cam and leverage system, rather than a conventional spring.

(2) By extension, in various mechanical devices, a component having different controls for its actuation in different directions.

1953:  A construct from the Ancient Greek δεσμός (desmós) (band, connection; fibrous connection, ligament; bond or knot) + δρόμος (drómos) (a course; travel; road).  The etymology is likely oblique to all but mechanical engineers but denotes the characteristic of valves continuously being "bound" to the camshaft.  The idea of desmo + dromic is thus often deconstructed as something like “running in unison” or “connected racing” but that’s because of the historic association with engines and speed and the desmo- prefix is also used in medicine and other biological sciences in the sense of “being or maintaining a connection”, a desmosome a filament-like substance with which cells adhere to each-other and desmoplakin" is the protein associated with this intercellular junction.  In zoology, the term most closely analogous to desmodromic valve trains is desmopelmous, a type of foot in birds in which the hind toe cannot be bent independently because planter tendons are united (ie they are connected and work in unison).

Conventional valve activation (left) versus desmodromic (right).

Probably as soon as there were poppet valves engineers began to ponder way of perfecting their opening and closing, the use of a spring for the latter effective but inexact and embryonic ideas would have been discussed but it was the German Daimler company which was first granted a patent for a desmodromic like valve-train system for a V-twin engine in 1889.  After that, designs, prototypes and even the odd racing car appeared so equipped and while there was some success on the track, no manufacturer attempted mass-production because of the high costs inherent in the intricate design and, more practically, the formidably frequency with which the system demanded adjustment to maintain perfect operation.  However, as the trophies won in competition had celebrated, the desmodromic arrangement uniquely permitted very high engine speeds and thus more power without the need to increase displacement and therefore bulk and weight.

A desmodromic valve schematic.

During World War II, there were great advances in metallurgy and the design of internal combustion engines and one manufacturer which had learned much was Daimler-Benz which had perfected the pressurized fuel-injection system which early in the conflict had given Luftwaffe pilots some real advantages over the allied opposition which continued to rely on primitive carburettors for fuel delivery, these adversely affected by gravity while the German aircraft were not.  However, the valve-train relied still on a spring to effect closing and this was a limitation which prevented the advantages of fuel-injection being fully explored.  The big aero-engines in the wartime Messerschmitts has been low-revving so the valve-springs weren’t challenged by physics but the company’s interest has returned to the race tracks and there, the systems limitations were exposed, “valve-float” intruding at high engine speeds.  The dreaded valve float is a phenomenon which occurs at high engine speeds when valve springs can’t return the valves to their seat with the cam follower still in contact with the cam.  This means the valves can be launched too high, even to the point where it can be still wide open when the piston arrives at the top dead centre (TDC), something which in the worst case can result in impact between the two, bending or even snapping the valve.  That will often be catastrophic, the debris perforating and possibly collapsing the hot aluminium piston head.  From that point on, the damage caused will be a matter only of extent, ranging from severe to complete destruction.

The Mercedes-Benz W196 Formula One Grand Prix (1954-1955) car used the desmodromic straight-eight in 2.5 litre form.  A 3.0 litre version was created for the W196S (300 SLR) used in sports car racing.  

That was something desirable to avoid in any engine but especially so in a racing car because, as the saying goes, “to finish first, first one must finish”.  Thus was designed Daimler-Benz’s surprisingly simple desmodromic system for the Mercedes-Benz W196 Formula One car for the 1954 season, ruin under the new 2.5 litre (152 cubic inch) displacement rule.  An amusing mix of new (fuel-injection and the desmodromics) and old (archaic swing axles and a straight-eight configuration), it succeeded, dominating the World Championship in 1954-1955 and in 3.0 litre form as the 300 SLR (technically the W196S), sports car racing too.  One thing which proved vital in all this was that the engineers had removed from the desmodromic hardware the small, final closing spring which had previously been thought necessary.  What the Daimler-Benz engineers discovered was that if a residual clearance of a mere 0.03 mm (0.001181099 inch) was machined, by simply leaving the return “desmo valve” in the closed position, the inertia of the valve and the gas pressure in the cylinder was sufficient to maintain the closure, a variation of the exploitation of the long-documented behaviour of fluid dynamics Chrysler would soon market (somewhat opportunistically) as Sonoramic.  The innovation was made possible by the development of metals stimulated by the demands of war; in the pre-war years, the desmodromic design adopted for the W196 simply wouldn’t have been possible.

Schematic of the Mercedes-Benz W196 straight-eight.

The desmodromic valve control system used an opening cam which directly controlled a shoe at the upper end of the cylindrical tappet rod while another (closing) cam used a deliberately out-of-alignment rocker arm which engaged in a hole drilled in the same tappet.  It was simple, precise and effective and reliably delivered such power that even Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) considered matters desmodromic, discussing the matter with Dr Fabio Taglioni (1920-2001) who was working on the idea, his design first used by Ducati in 1954 on their 125 cm³ (7.6 cubic inch) racer and later adopted for many of their production and competition machines, used even to this day. 

Lindsay Lohan with Ducati Monster 600 (Desmodromic) in Freaky Friday (2003).

Not needing return springs, the valves being positively opened and closed by a cam and leverage system, desmodromic offered higher engine speed, more power and a variety of improvements to specific efficiencies.  Despite that, except for Ducati, it never became a system used by volume manufacturers (or indeed low-volume operations) because of the disadvantages which included complexity, cost, noise (especially as the cylinder count grew) and, critically, more frequent maintenance.  It was advances in high-speed photography and later computer analysis which rendered desmodromic an engineering cul-de-sac.  With a frame-by-frame view of how valves and valve springs behaved, designers were able to engineer solutions to the problems previously though inherent to conventional valve-trains and, by the 1980s, vastly more powerful computers permitted the virtual testing of every design permutation.  Eventually, the advantages offered by desmodromics became so small that few attempted to justify to additional cost and maintenance penalty.

2002 Ducati MH900e (desmodromic).

What the photography revealed was that valve float was caused mostly by resonance in the springs which generated oscillating compression waves among the coils and that at specific resonant speeds, the springs were no longer making contact at one or both ends, leaving the valve “floating” before crashing into the cam on closure.  The solutions were varied and some, such as Norton's “mousetrap” or “hairpin” spring were soon discarded because, although they worked well, the engineering challenges in integrating them with existing combustion chamber designs created as many problems as were solved.  A less elegant but more manageable approach was to install as many as three concentric valve springs, sometimes nested inside one other; not for more force (the inner ones having no significant spring constant), but to act as dampers, both absorbing and reduce oscillations in the outer spring (engineers delighting in calling the additional springs “snubbers”).  Again, the advances in metallurgy made possible what was once though unattainable.  Complex valve springs were engineered which did not resonate, being progressively wound with a varying pitch varying diameter and dubbed “beehive springs” because of the shape.  The number of active coils in these springs would vary during the stroke, the more closely wound coils located at the static end, becoming inactive as the spring compressed or (as in the beehive) where the small diameter coils at the top were stiffer.  Thus valve float was conquered with springs.

2023 Ducati Multistrada V4, the first Ducati in decades to use conventional valve activation.

But Ducati persists to this day, their raucous machines, once a cult known to a few now enjoying a wider audience which seems prepared to accept both the frequency of with which valve-train adjustments are required and the inherent clatter (which is admittedly quite spine-tingling if sampled at speed when wearing a crash helmet).  Tellingly, Ducati’s motor-cycles are almost all V-twins because the noise level does become intrusive as the cylinder count increases and their recent Multistrada V4 was the first in decades to not use desmodromic valves, the owner rewarded, inter alia, with recommended maintenance intervals of 60,000 km (37,500 miles), a considerable advance on the traditional 12-18,000 km (7500-11,200 miles).  Advances in engineering techniques have allowed the noise of the desmodromic arrangement to be reduced and there are now four-cylinder Ducatis using the system, appealing to those who lust for top end power.  Among collectors of US muscle cars, Ferraris, Jaguars and such there are those who can think of no more pleasurable way to spend a day than adjusting solid valve lifters or tinkering with an array of carburettors (the fascination of intricacy its own reward), the synchronization of which defy all but the chosen priesthood of such things so Ducati seems likely to offer the devoted their desmodromics as long as such things remain somewhere lawful.

Pith

Pith (pronounced pith)

(1) In botany, the soft, spongy central cylinder of parenchymatous tissue in the stems of dicotyledonous plants such as the soft, albedo, fibrous tissue lining the inside of the rind in fruits such as orange and grapefruit.  Also called medulla botany: the central core of unspecialized cells surrounded by conducting tissue in stems.

(2) In zoology, the soft inner part of a feather, a hair etc.

(3) By analogy, the important or essential part; essence; core; heart.

(4) Significant weight; substance; solidity.

(5) In pathology, the spinal cord or bone marrow (archaic).

(6) Strength, force, or vigor; mettle (archaic).

(7) In the veterinary sciences, to sever or destroy the spinal cord of a vertebrate animal, usually by inserting a needle into the vertebral canal.

(8) As pith hat or pith helmet, a type of headgear made from the fibre sholapith, worn by during the nineteenth century by European explorers and imperial administrators in Africa, Asia and the Middle East before being adopted by military officers, rapidly becoming a symbol of status or rank, latterly re-defined as a symbol of oppression, especially because of their association with the British Raj in the Indian sub-continent.

Pre 900:  Middle English from the Old English piþa or pitha from the Proto-Germanic piþô, cognate with the West Frisian piid (pulp, kernel), the Dutch peen (carrot) & pitt and the Low German peddik or pedik (pulp, core).  All were derived from the earlier piþō (oblique pittan), a doublet of pit.  Both the Old English piþa (pith of plants) and the Germanic variations enjoyed the same meaning but the figurative sense (most important part(s) of something) existed only in the English form.  The pith helmet dates from 1889, replacing the earlier pith hat (1884), both so called because they were made from the dried pith of the Bengal spongewood.  The verb meaning from the veterinary sciences "to kill by cutting or piercing the spinal cord" is first attested in 1805.

The Pith Helmet

The pith helmet, known also as the sun helmet, safari helmet, topi, topee, or sola topee is a lightweight cloth-covered piece of headgear made of the pith of the sola or shola (Indian spongewood) plant, covered with white cotton and faced with (often green) cloth.  Topee (pith helmet) was from the Hindi टोपी (ṭopī) (hat) and the Urdu ٹوپی‎ (ṭōpī) (hat).  The form has some linguistic overlap, the long -e phonetic suffix (variously and inconsistently as -e, -ie, -ee) often appended to create slang forms, affectionate diminutives or to indicate something was a smaller version of an original.  In Indian English for example, a coatee was a hook upon which one hangs one's coat, something unrelated to the original use in English where a coatee was a coat with short flaps, a mid-eighteenth century Americanism, the formation modeled on goatee, a style of beard at the time especially popular south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Symbols of the Raj, the pith helmet and the G&T.

Most associated with the military and civil services of the European powers during the colonial period of the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, they were routinely issued to or chosen by those going to hot climates.  As a general principle, the army used dark colours and civilians light, even white helmets but under modern conditions, the military found them not suitable for the battlefield; the British Army withdrawing them from active use in 1948 although they continue to be worn on some ceremonial occasions although the famous plumed helmets are now seen less often.  Widely popular now only in Vietnam where it’s a remnant of French influence, its niche now is in the nostalgia-fashion industry although, as a symbol of white colonialism, use can be controversial.

George V (1865–1936; King of the United Kingdom & Emperor of India 1910-1936) with Lord Hardinge (1858–1944; Viceroy of India 1910-1916), Government House, Calcutta, 1911.  Of fashions under the Raj, the fictional depictions on screen where white linen suits often predominate can be misleading; pith helmets, especially during the cooler months, were paired with any daywear.  Until 1911, Calcutta (now Kolkata) was the capital of British India.

While First Lady, Melania Trump’s (b 1970) choice of clothing was often analysed in search of political meaning, a deconstruction her husband escaped except for the commentary about the length he chose to allow his ties to hang and those observations were more personal than political.  Mrs Trump as well aware of the media's interest and in October 2018, on safari near Nairobi, Kenya, wore a pith helmet, attracting criticism for donning a symbol of white colonial rule.

Presumably, even had she been unaware (which is unlikely), the White House would have spelled out the implications so the pith helmet was worn to be provocative and the reaction wouldn’t have been unexpected because a few weeks earlier, while visiting a migrant child detention centre, she choose a Zara jacket (US$39) emblazoned across the back with the words I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?.  Clearly a garment for a photo-opportunity, it was worn not while in the presence of the children but only when entering the aircraft and helicopter used for the trip.

The press of course sought comment which elicited from the White House the contradictory responses which typified the media-management of the Trump administration (something which under President Biden has if anything become more frequent and just as confused), the president saying it was a message to the “fake news media” while the first lady’s communications chief insisted it was “just a jacket” and that there was “no hidden message”.  Melania Trump herself later (sort of) clarified things, telling ABC News the jack “was a kind of message, yes”, adding that while it was obvious she “didn't wear the jacket for the children” and that it was donned only “to go on the plane and off the plane.... It was for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticizing me.  I want to show them I don't care. You could criticize whatever you want to say.  But it will not stop me to do what I feel is right.”

Mrs Trump went on to reiterate he own critique of the media for being "obsessed" about her clothing, noting it was only the jacket which attracted any attention rather than any matters to do with child detention or immigration more broadly: “I would prefer they would focus on what I do and on my initiatives than what I wear.”  It might seem curious a former model would express surprise at interest being taken in the clothes a woman wears but, well aware nothing can be done about that, she proved adept at weaponizing her messages than most of the White House staff ever managed.