Bedchamber

Bedchamber (pronounced bed-cheym-ber)

A now archaic word for bedroom; the alternative form was bed-chamber.

1325–1375:  From the Middle English bedchaumbre, the construct being bed + chamber.  Bed was from the Middle English bed or bedde, from the pre-1000 Old English bedd (bed, couch, resting-place; garden-bed, plot), from the Proto-Germanic badją (plot, grave, resting-place, bed) and thought perhaps derived from the Proto-Indo-European bhed (to dig).  It was cognate with the Scots bed and bede, the North Frisian baad and beed, the West Frisian bêd, the Low German Bedd, the Dutch bed, the German bett, the Danish bed, the Swedish bädd, the Icelandic beður and perhaps, (depending on the efficacy of the Proto-Indo-European lineage), the Ancient Greek βοθυρος (bothuros) (pit), the Latin fossa (ditch),the Latvian bedre (hole), the Welsh bedd (grave), the Breton bez (grave).  Any suggestion of links to Russian or other Slavic words is speculative.

Chamber dates from 1175-1225 and was from the Middle English chambre, borrowed from Old French chambre, from the Latin camera, derived from the Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára) (vaulted chamber); the meaning “room”, usually private, drawn from French use.  As applied to anatomy, use emerged in the late fourteenth century; it was applied to machinery in 1769 and to ballistics from the 1620s.  The meaning "legislative body" is from circa 1400 and the term chamber music was first noted in 1789, not as a descriptor of any musical form but to indicate that intended to be performed in private rooms rather than public halls.

The Bedchamber Crisis, 1839

A Lady of the Bedchamber, a position held typically by women of noble descent, is a kind of personal assistant to the Queen of England.  A personal appointment by the Queen, they’ve existed for centuries, their roles varying according to the relationships enjoyed.  Most European royal courts from time-to-time also adopted the practice.

The 1839 bedchamber crisis is emblematic of the shifting of political power from monarch to parliament.  Although the eighteenth-century administrative and economic reforms created the framework, it was the 1832 Reform Act which, in doing away with a monarch’s ability to stack parliaments with ample compliant souls, shattered a sovereign’s capacity to dictate election results and within two years the new weakness was apparent.  In 1834, William IV (1765–1837; King of the UK 1830-1837)  dismissed the Whig Lord Melbourne (1779–1848; Prime Minister of the UK 1834 & 1835-1841) and appointed the Tory Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850; Prime Minister of the UK 1834–1835 & 1841–1846).  However, the King no longer enjoyed the electoral influence necessary to secure Peel a majority in the Commons and after being defeated in the house six times in as many weeks, the premier was obliged to inform the palace of his inability to govern, compelling the king to invite Melbourne to form a new administration, one which endured half a decade, out-living William IV.  The king's exercise in 1834 of the royal prerogative proved the last time the powers of the head of state would be invoked sack a prime-minister until an Australian leader was dismissed in 1975 by the governor-general (and in a nice touch the sacked PM had appointed the clearly ungrateful GG).

Queen Mary's State Bed Chamber, Hampton Court Palace (1819) by Richard Cattermole (1795–1858).

By 1839, Melbourne felt unable to continue and the new Queen Victoria (1819–1901; Queen of the UK 1837-1901), reluctantly, invited Sir Robert Peel to assume the premiership, a reticence some historians attribute as much to her fondness for the avuncular Melbourne as her preference for his Whig (liberal) politics.  Peel, knowing any administration he could form would be nominally in a minority, knew his position would be strengthened if there was a demonstration of royal support so asked Victoria, as a gesture of good faith, to replace some of the Whig Ladies of the Bedchamber with a few of Tory breeding.  Most of the ladies were the wives or daughters of Whig politicians and Sir Robert’s request made sense in the world of 1839.

Victoria rejected his request and prevailed upon Melbourne to continue which he did, until a final defeat in 1841.  By then it was clear only Peel could command a majority in the Commons and he insisted on his bedchamber cull, forcing Victoria to acquiesce to the parliament imposing on her the most intimate of her advisors.  This is the moment in constitutional history where the precedent is established of the parliament and not the Crown determining the formation and fate of governments.  Since then, the palace can warn, counsel and advise but not compel.

A lady in, if not of, the bedchamber.  A recumbent Lindsay Lohan in The Canyons (IFC Films, 2013).

Chamber

Chamber (pronounced cheym-ber)

(1) A room, usually private, in a house or apartment, especially a bedroom (now archaic or poetic).

(2) A reception room or audience room in an official residence, palace, etc.

(3) The meeting hall of a legislative or other assembly.

(4) In law, a place where a judge hears matters not requiring action in open court.

(5) In England, the quarters or rooms that lawyers use to consult with their clients, especially in the Inns of Court.

(6) A legislative, judicial, or other like body.

(7) An organization of individuals or companies for a specified purpose.

(8) The place where the moneys due a government are received and kept; a treasury or chamberlain's office (obsolete).

(9) Of or relating to, or performing chamber music.

(10) To put or enclose in, or as in, a chamber.

(11) To provide with a chamber.

(12) The space between two gates of the locks of a canal, dry dock, etc

(13) An enclosure for a cartridge in the cylinder of a revolver or for a shell in the breech of a cannon

(14) An enclosed space, compartment or cavity; the smallest chamber in a cave.

1175-1225: From the Middle English chamber (a room in a (usually private) house) from the eleventh century Old French chambre (room, chamber, apartment), derived from the Late Latin camera (a chamber, room), variant of camara (vaulted room) from the Ancient Greek kamára.  In an interesting linguistic twist, the Old French and Middle English words were also used alone and in combinations to form words for "latrine, privy" from the idea of the "bedroom utensil for containing urine".  The word in the fourteenth century was adopted for use in to anatomy in the sense of "an enclosed space in a body" and this was extended to machinery after 1769, the use in gunnery or ballistics meaning  "part of the bore in which the charge is placed" dating from the 1620s.  The familiar use to refer to the rooms where legislative bodies assemble (ie upper & lower chambers) has been in use since circa 1400.  Chamber music dates from 1789; the distinction being it described a type of music meant to be performed in private rooms instead of public halls.  Chamber-lye, disturbingly to modern ears, meant "urine used as a detergent" and dates from the 1570s and the obviously related chamber-pot (also chamberpot) (vessel for urine used in bedrooms) came into use a decade earlier.  A chambermaid was (1) a female servant who dresses a lady and waits on her in her bedchamber and (2) a woman who makes beds and cleans rooms in a private house, palace or inn, a form which emerged in the 1580s and obviously derived from bedchamber (also bed-chamber) (a room for sleep or repose) which had been in use since the mid-fourteenth century.  Bedchamber is now archaic and used only in relation to royalty (an then mostly in historic reference), expensive hotels and hopeful real-estate salespeople.  The verb chamber was in the late fourteenth century derived from the noun and was used in the sense of (1) to restrain, shut up as in a chamber and (2) to furnish with a chamber" (implied in chambered); the related form was chambering.  The adjective chambered (divided into chambers) was from the same era and was the past-participle adjective the verb.  The famous reference to nautilus shells dates from 1819.

The Court of Star Chamber

Named for the star pattern on the ceiling of the room in Westminster Palace where sittings were convened, the Court of Star Chamber (known almost always as the Star Chamber), was an English law court which operated in parallel with the common-law courts.  The Star Chamber drew its authority from the king's sovereign power and privileges and was not bound by the common law.

The former Court of Star Chamber (1836), drawing by unknown artist.

The Court of Star Chamber was created originally to ensure the enforcement of laws against the socially and politically well-connected, those whom ordinary courts may hesitate to convict and technically, it evolved from the medieval King's Council.  There had been a tradition of the king presiding over a court composed of his Privy Counsellors and in 1487, under the supervision of Henry VII (1457–1509; King of England 1485-1509 and the first Tudor king), the Court of Star Chamber was established as a judicial body separate from the King's Council.  The original rationale was for the Star Chamber to (1) oversee the lower courts, (2) to act as a court of appeal and (3) to hear petitions addressed to the king seeking redress.  Initially the court heard cases only on appeal, but Henry VIII's (1491–1547; King of England 1509-1547) chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1473–1530; Lord High Chancellor of England 1515-1529) encouraged suitors directly to lodge writs of appeal and not await verdicts from the common-law courts.  Although most of the cases heard involved property rights, trade, government administration and public corruption, the Tudors especially were concerned with public disorder and Cardinal Wolsey referred matters involving forgery, fraud, perjury, riot, slander, and anything else he considered a breach of the peace. Following the Reformation, the Star Chamber was used (and much misused) to punish religious dissenters.

Procedurally the Star Chamber would begin a case with a petition or with information brought to the attention of the judges and depositions would be taken to discover the facts.  Accused parties could be put on oath to respond to the charges and answer detailed questions. No juries were used; members of the court decided whether to hear cases, passed verdicts and assigned punishments.  Structurally, court was thus a hybrid with influences from the common law, Roman civil law, developments in Chancery (equity) law and even the later Court of Exchequer.  Interestingly, the court did not have capital jurisdiction so instead declared its choice of punishment was wholly arbitrary and not at all governed by precedent, guidelines or laws. Judges could choose (indeed even invent) the punishment they felt was most appropriate to the crime or criminal. The punishments included fines, time in the pillory (or stocks), whipping, branding, mutilation or imprisonment for any length of time.  There are critics of the NSW ICAC who compare its operations with the Star Chamber; in this they’re only partially correct and certainly not in relation to punishments. 

Tucked up: Lindsay Lohan in her bedchamber.

The Star Chamber offered an expeditious resolution to legal conflicts. It was popular with the Tudors because it could quickly enforce the law when other courts were slow or tainted by corruption and because it could offer satisfactory remedies when the common law restricted punishment or failed to address specific infractions. Under the Tudors, Star Chamber hearings were held in public, so proceedings and verdicts were subject to inspection which led most judges to act with reason and try to deliver fair justice.  In the seventeenth century, the court evolved into something secretive and corrupt. The Stuarts used the court to enforce their royal proclamations, holding sessions in secret and allowing no appeal.  Charles I (1600–1649; King of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1625-1649) saw the court as a substitute for Parliament when he tried to govern without calling the legislature into session and resentment grew as the Stuarts used the court to prosecute members of the nobility who would otherwise not be subject to prosecution in common-law courts.  The Long Parliament abolished the Star Chamber in 1641.   

Except for historic reference, the term "star chamber" is now almost always pejorative and used to describe social and political oppression through the arbitrary use and abuse of the powers wielded.  In political science, the doctrine of separation of powers is held to be the most effective means to prevent abuse of power by the state.  At its most simple, it means politicians can no longer in individual cases impose the sanctions of criminal law, a function which belongs exclusively to the courts.

Privy

Privy (pronounced priv-ee)

(1) Participating in the knowledge of something private or secret (usually as the phrase “privy to”).

(2) Private; assigned to private uses; exclusive; not public; one's own.

(3) Belonging or pertaining to some particular person (in or with reference to constitutional law, especially as applied to a sovereign).

(4) Secret, concealed, hidden, or secluded; acting or done in secret (archaic).

(5) In law (usually of contractual matters, a person participating directly in or having a derivative interest in a legal transaction.

(6) A toilet, lavatory, loo (mostly obsolete and tended to be applied to outside structures (also as outhouse)).

(7) Of or relating to one person only (archaic).

1175–1225: From the Middle English pryvy & prive (secret, concealed, not made known in public), from the Old French privé (close friend (adjective) & private place (noun), from the Latin prīvātus (private; deprived), the perfect passive participle of prīvō (I bereave, deprive; I free, release).  The adjectival form came first in the sense of something "secret, concealed, not made known in public", the noun forming later to describe places secluded or deliberately hidden" a direct use of the Old French privé (friendly, intimate; a private place) from the Latin prīvātus.  The now familiar phrase “privy to” (participating something a secret to most others) is from the late fourteenth century.  The phrase Privy member (organ of sex; the genitals) was from the late thirteenth century.

A privy.

The sense of the noun privy meaning "latrine, outdoor toilet in a small shed (outhouse) dates from circa 1200, from Old French privé & privee used in the same sense, the meaning in French literally "private place, the noun derived from the adjective.  Historically, the outdoor facilities for urination and defecation were differentiated by being either open (latrine) or enclosed (privy).  Privy (the spelling privie is obsolete) is a noun & adjective, privier & priviest are adjectives, privily (the spellings prively, priuely, pryvely & pryuely long obsolete) is an adverb and priviness is a verb; the noun plural is privies.  A privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England, analogous with places like the pope's apartment in the Vatican, the flat in 10 Downing Street or the residence in the White House.  In the English (and later the UK's) monarchy, the term privy chamber referred nominally to the place but more broadly to the sovereign’s private office and staff.  In an age when the authority of kings and queens was greater than now, the privy chamber was the most influential department in the royal household and thereby the system of government.  In the sixteenth century, as the role and extent of government expanded, the Privy Chamber came to be understood as a political institution, something distinct from the king's apartment (loosely referred to as the bedchamber).  In that way, the privy chamber became the outer chamber (often styled as the "presence chamber" or "chamber of the presence) although historians have noted that the key to influence lay in access to the bedchamber.  The privy purse was literally a ceremonial bag carried at ceremonies by the keeper of the privy purse (it’s not clear of ever it was used to carry cash or indeed anything) and the phrase is still use to refer to (1) the British monarch's private income from various sources, (2) the net total of the monies available to the monarch for private or personal expenses (as distinct from what's incurred in the discharge of official duty as head of state) and (3) the official and the office which acts as comptroller of the monarch's finances.

Privy to secrets: Deconstructed, Mean Girls (2004) was about who was privy to secrets and who was not.

In England, the term Privy Council emerged circa 1300 in a general sense and the familiar use to describe the organ of government dates from the late fourteenth century although, reflecting the court practice of the age, it was originally styled (using the French word order) as consaile priue and existed as a group of advisors to the monarch who were summoned or not at his pleasure.  That evolved to a system in which those summoned were those supporting the government of the day and that is essentially the present form although those no longer in favor don’t cease to be privy councilors; they are just not summonsed.  In practice, the advisory body is now the cabinet (all of whom will be privy councilors) although larger assemblies of the Privy Council are sometimes convened for constitution or ceremonial occasions such as the recent proclamation of King Charles III as monarch.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) in session.

The historic judicial functions of the King-in-Council are now performed by Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC). The JCPC consists of senior judges appointed as Privy Councillors: predominantly Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom although senior judges from the Commonwealth can still be appointed. The Privy Council formerly acted as the High Court of Appeal for the entire British Empire (other than for the United Kingdom itself) and continues to hear judicial appeals from some other independent Commonwealth countries, as well as Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories.  Although the Privy Council’s decisions are mostly not binding on the UK’s domestic courts, the rulings are held to be extremely persuasive as other respected tribunals (US Supreme Court, Supreme Court of Canada etc) are regarded.  One quirk of the Australian Constitution is that, the 1986 Australia Acts notwithstanding, the High Court can issue a certificate referring certain cases to the council but none has been granted for a century and the court has long made clear there’ll be no more.  As a bit of a relic of English constitutional history and the established church, in the United Kingdom, the Privy Council retains appellant jurisdiction some domestic matters:

(1) Appeals from the Arches Court of Canterbury and the Chancery Court of York in non-doctrinal faculty causes

(2) Appeals from the High Court of Chivalry.

(3) Appeals from the Court of Admiralty of the Cinque Ports and Admiralty prize courts.

(4) Appeals from the Disciplinary Committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

(5) Disputes under the House of Commons Disqualification Act, essentially a role similar to that the High Court of Australia discharges as the Commonwealth’s Court of Disputed Returns.

The JCPC (always referred to as “the Board”) was long noted (and much admired) for handing down single judgments without dissenting opinions; a fine example of judicial clarity and efficiency that other courts showed no inclination to follow.  Unfortunately, in recent decades, multiple opinions have been allowed.

Looking the other way while the Supreme Leader is engaged.

The Supreme Leader, mid-engagement.

The statesman who has done most to advance privy design is Kim Jong-un (Kim III, b 1983; Supreme Leader of the DPRK (North Korea) since 2011).  On the rare occasions the Supreme Leader leaves the DPRK (traveling usually by train), included in his inventory is a customized state limousine (either a Mercedes Maybach S62 or a Mercedes Maybach S600 Pullman), said by some to include a "built-in toilet".  No photographic evidence of the convenient installation seems to have appeared but the "information" has appeared on the internet so users regard it vested with whatever veracity seem appropriate.  Apparently, it's easy to tell when the Great Leader is relieving himself inside his mobile privy because the security detail always discreetly looks away from the car.  Other than the rumored privy plumbing, the cars are distinguished from the standard models by a longer wheelbase, an armored floor and laminated windows, all features designed to withstand attacks by firearms or explosives & bullets.  It's further claimed (un-named) "diplomatic sources" have confirmed the DPRK's security agencies (there are several, all of which also monitor and investigate each other) had the vehicles commissioned to prevent foreign spies from taking stool or urine samples which could be analyzed to allow Kim Jong-un's state of his health to be determined.  The Supreme Leader is probably right to take precautions because several sources have reported the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has made more than one attempt to collect his fecal samples (nice work if you can get it).  Quite how the DPRK obtains their fleets of Mercedes-Benz has been the subject of speculation because the sanctions imposed by the EU (European Union) and others should prevent such transactions so either there's been some sanction-busting (a long and lucrative tradition) or the Supreme Leader has resorted to buying used cars, a thing analysts think most improbable. 

Within the borders of the DPRK, the logistics are simpler, the Supreme Leader always provided with a portable privy for his exclusive use, at all times under military guard to ensure no others intrude.  It's believed whenever he leaves the privy, recalling an old DPRK adversary, he utters the words "I shall return".

Closet

Closet (pronounced kloz-it)

(1) A small room, enclosed recess, cupboard or cabinet for storing clothing, food, utensils etc.

(2) A small private room, especially one used for prayer, meditation etc.

(3) A state or condition of secrecy or carefully guarded privacy.

(4) A clipping of “closet of ease” and later “water closet” (WC), early names for the flushing loo (toilet; lavatory; privy with a waste-pipe and means to carry off the discharge by a flush of water).

(5) Of or pertaining to that which is private; secluded or concealed; undertaken unobserved and in isolation.

(6) To shut up in a private room for some purpose.

(7) A private room used by women to groom and dress themselves (obsolete).

(8) A private room used for prayer or other devotions (archaic).

(9) A place of (usually either fanciful or figurative in that typically it referred to the state of thought rather than where it took place) contemplation and theorizing (archaic).

(10) The private residence or private council chamber of a monarch accompanied by a staff establishment (page of the chamber; clerk of the closet etc) and related to the bedchamber (archaic).

(11) In a church, a pew or side-chapel reserved for a monarch or feudal lord (regarded as obsolete but the concept endures in that the order of precedence is often used when seating is allocated for ceremonial events conducted in churches).

(12) In heraldry, an ordinary similar to a bar but half the width.

(13) A sewer (Scots dialectical, now obsolete).

1300-1350: From the Middle English closet (a small private room for study or prayer), from the Old French closet (small enclosure, private room), the construct being clos (private space; enclosure) +‎ -et (the suffix used to form diminutives), from the Latin clausum (closed space, enclosure, confinement), the neuter past participle of claudere (to shut).  In French, it tended to be applied to small, open-air enclosures.  The suffix –et was from the Middle English -et, from the Old French –et & its feminine variant -ette, from the Late Latin -ittus (and the other gender forms -itta & -ittum).  It was used to form diminutives, loosely construed.  Some European languages picked up the Old French spelling while others used variations including Czech (klozet) & Spanish (clóset).  Closets can be tiny or fair-sized rooms so the appropriate synonym depends on context and architecture and might include: cabinet, container, locker, room, vault, wardrobe, bin, buffet, depository, receptacle, recess, repository, safe, sideboard, walk-in, ambry, chest of drawers & cold storage.  Closet is a noun, verb & adjective, closeting is a verb (which some dispute) & adjective (plural closets) and closeting is a noun & verb.  The noun plural is closets.

The adjective dates from the 1680s in the sense of “private, done in seclusion”, extended by 1782 as "fitted only for scholarly seclusion, not adapted to the conditions of practical life" (ie in the sense of the “ivory tower”).  The meaning "secret, not public, unknown" was first applied to alcoholism in the early 1950s but by the 1970s had come to be used principally of homosexuality.  This, and the earlier forms (closet anarchist, closet alcoholic, closet Freemason, closet smoker etc) were all based on the idiomatic “skeleton in the closet” (which existed also as “skeleton in the cupboard”), describing some undisclosed fact which, if revealed would cause reputational damage (or worse) to a person.  Literally, the imagery summoned was of someone with a human corpse secreted in a closet in their house, one which had sat there so long the flesh had decomposed to the bone.  The earliest known appearance in print was in 1816 but it’s not known how long it’d been in oral use and it usually implied culpability for some serious offence though not necessarily anything involving a corpse.

Lindsay Lohan's walk-in closet.  To optimize space utilization, the hangers are very thin and covered with black velvet to ensure no fabrics are marked.  In a well-organized closet, items can be arranged in a number of ways such as color, season or type and some do it by manufacturer, the name of the label printed on rail-tags.

The phrase “come out of the closet” (admit something openly) was first recorded 1963 and the use rapidly became exclusive to homosexuals and lent a new meaning to the word “out”.  This meaning itself became nuanced: “To come out” (openly avowing one's homosexuality) emerged as a phrase in the 1960s and was an overtly political statement (obviously different from the earlier “a confessed homosexual” whereas “outing” and “outed” came to be used in the 1970s to refer to people making the homosexuality of others public knowledge.  Outing became controversial because of the argument (made sometimes by those within the gay community) that it was justified if exposing hypocrisy (usually a conservative politician who publicly condemned homosexuality while in private indulging in the practice).  In Spanish use (most notably in Latin America) the noun clóset is used to refer to the state of being secretly gay (from salir del clóset), the plural being clósets.

Lindsay Lohan in part of her walk-in closet, here choosing what to pack for an appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, May 2014.

The verb closet (shut up as in a closet) was originally usually for purposes of concealment or private consultation and dates from the 1680s.  The water closet (WC and described also in the delightful phrase “closet of ease”) was the ancestor of the familiar modern loo (toilet; lavatory; privy with a waste-pipe and means to carry off the discharge by a flush of water), the term first used in 1755 and later perfected by the famous plumber, Mr Thomas Crapper.  The phrase “walk-in” was used first in the 1890s as a slang term by hotel check-in clerks to refer to those arriving without a reservation (it’s now a standard statistical category in hotels) and by 1928 was used in many forms of commerce to mean “customer who arrived without an appointment”.  The “walk-in closet” was first advertised in the US in 1946 where it described a built-in wardrobe large enough to walk into, some equipped with mirrors, tables, chairs etc).

The Gay Bob Doll

Gay Bob; note the man-bag.

There’s evidence that for much of human existence, homosexuality has been at least widely tolerated and often accepted but in the West, under the influence of the Christian churches, it came to attract much disapprobation though even in the nineteenth century there were those who (without much success) campaigned for legislative and social change, the odd self-declared homosexual sometimes urging others to out themselves.  However, it wasn’t until the 1960s that the still embryonic “gay liberation” movement understood that “coming out en masse” was of importance because with critical mass came political influence.  Social attitudes did change and it was perhaps an indication of acceptance that in 2005 the cartoon show South Park could run an episode called Trapped in the Closet in which the Scientologist film star Tom Cruise (b 1962) refuses to come out of a closet.  Not discouraged by the threat of writs, South Park later featured an episode in which the actor worked in a confectionery factory packing fudge.  Attitudes and legislative changes didn't always move in unison and things unfolded gradually but that process was still incomplete when, in 1977, the Gay Bob doll was released.

Clothes and accessories were available, including those for dressing the “gay farmer”.

The winds of change were clearly blowing by 1977 because in that year Harvey Milk (1930–1978; member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, 1978) became the first openly gay man elected to public office in California (and it’ll never be known how many of his predecessors were still in the closet).  However, if Milk was out of the closet, Gab Bob came neatly packaged in his own (cardboard) closet buyers able to out him and put him back as required.  Designed to look like popular film stars of the era, Gay Bob’s creator described the doll as perfect for “…an executive’s desk, dash board ornament, the attaché case, the bathtub rim or a health club gym bag”, a notable feature was the doll’s “anatomical correctness”, presumably a sales feature but one which necessitated production being out-sourced to Hong-Kong because US manufacturers declined the contract. 

Gay Bob stepping out of the closet.

Just so there were no misunderstandings, Gay Bob was supplied with a fashion catalog which contained an explanation:  Hi boys, girls and grownups, I’m Gay Bob, the world’s first gay doll.  I bet you are wondering why I come packed in a closet. “Coming out of the closet” is an expression which means that you admit the truth about yourself and are no longer ashamed of what you are.  Gay people are no different than straight people.  If everyone came out of their closets, there wouldn’t be so many angry, frustrated, frightened people.  It’s not easy to be honest about what you are, in fact it takes a great deal of courage.  But remember, if Gay Bob has the courage to come out of his closet, so can you!

Popular since the nineteenth century, mail-order was the on-line shopping of the analogue era.

Conservative activists were of course appalled by Gay Bob, his anatomical correctness and his threateningly optimistic message, describing it all as “a threat to family values” and more “…evidence of the desperation the homosexual campaign has reached in its effort to put homosexual lifestyle, which is a death style, across to the American people”.  The forces of capitalism either agreed or were unwilling to risk a backlash because attempts have the big department stores stock Gay Bob on their shelves were unsuccessful so the doll was sold via mail order, advertisements placed in gay magazines.  One doll cost US$19.50 (including shipping and handling within the US) while a pair could be purchased at a discounted US$35 (and to take advantage of the anatomical correctness, buying a brace was presumably in vogue.  Over two thousand were sold within months and in liberal New York and San Francisco, some boutiques would later carry the product.  Something of a footnote to the LGBTQQIAAOP timeline, Gay Bob is a now a collector’s item, examples in good condition realizing over US$200 at on-line auction sites and of course, those with a pristine, un-violated closet will command a premium.

Cammer

Cammer (pronounced kham-ah)

(1) A content-provider who uses a webcam to distribute imagery on some basis (applied especially to attractive young females associated with the early use of webcams).

(2) Slang for a V8 engine produced in small numbers by Ford (US) in the mid-late 1960s.

(3) A general term for any camera operator (now less common because the use in the context of webcam feeds prevailed).

1964: A diminutive of single overhead cam(shaft).  Cam was from the sixteenth century Middle English cam, from the Dutch kam (cog of a wheel (originally, comb)) and was cognate with the English comb, the form preserved in modern Dutch compounds such as kamrad & kamwiel (cog wheel).  The association with webcams began in the mid-1990s, cam in that context a contraction of camera.  The Latin camera (chamber or bedchamber) was from the Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára) (anything with an arched cover, a covered carriage or boat, a vaulted room or chamber, a vault) of uncertain origin; a doublet of chamber.  Dating from 1708, it was from the Latin that Italian gained camera and Spanish camara, all ultimately from the Ancient Greek kamára and the Old Church Slavonic komora, the Lithuanian kamara and the Old Irish camra all are borrowings from Latin.  Cammer was first used in 1964 as oral shorthand for Ford’s 427 SHOC (single overhead camshaft) V8 engine, the alternative slang form being the phonetic “sock” and it became so associated with the one item that “cammer” has never been applied to other overhead camshaft engines.  The first web-cam (although technically it pre-dated the web) feed dates from 1991 and the first to achieve critical mass (ie “went viral”) was from 1996.  Cammer is a noun; the noun plural is cammers.  While cammer is the generic term for those content providers distributing material captured with webcams, "cam-girl" describes the most popular of the breed.   

Girl on cam: Lindsay Lohan on webcam in Get a Clue (2002) a Disney Channel original movie.

The word came be used for photographic devices as a clipping of the New Latin camera obscura (dark chamber) a black box with a lens that could project images of external objects), contrasted with the (circa 1750) camera lucida (light chamber), which used prisms to produce an image on paper beneath; it was used to generate an image of a distant object.  Camera was thus (circa 1840) adopted in nineteenth century photography because early cameras used a pinhole and a dark room.  The word was extended to filming devices from 1928. Camera-shy (not wishing to be photographed) dates from 1890, the first camera-man (one who operates a camera) recorded in 1908.  The first webcam feed (pre-dating the public availability of the www (world wide web) which permitted feeds to the wild), dates from 1991.  

jennicam.org (1996-2003)

xcoffee cam-feed of Trojan Room coffee pot, University of Cambridge, 1991-2001.

It wasn’t the internet’s first webcam feed, that seems to have been one in started in 1991 (before the worldwideweb was available to the public) aimed at a coffee machine in a fourth floor office at the University of Cambridge's Computer Science Department, created by scientists based in a lab the floor below so they would know whether to bother walking up a flight of stairs for a cup, but in 1996, nineteen year-old Jennifer Ringley (b 1976), from a webcam in her university dorm room, broadcast herself live to the whole world, 24/7.  With jennicam.org, she effectively invented "lifecasting" and while the early feed was of grainy, still, monochrome images (updated every fifteen seconds) which, considered from the twenty-first century, sounds not interesting and hardly viral, it was one of the first internet sensations, attracting a regular following of four-million which peaked at almost twice that.  According to internet lore, it more than once crashed the web, seven million being a high proportion of the web users at the time and the routing infrastructure then wasn't as robust as it would become.  Tellingly, Ms Ringley majored in economics which explains the enticingly suggestive title "jennicam" whereas the nerds at Cambridge could think of nothing more catchy than "xcoffee" although for coffee fiends, that would have been compelling.  

Jenni and pussy.

Although there were more publicized moments, jennicam.org was mostly a slideshow of the mundane: Jennifer studying at her desk, doing the laundry or brushing her teeth but it hinted at the realisation of earlier predictions, pop artist Andy Warhol's (1928–1987) "everybody will be famous for 15 minutes" and the "global village" discussed by Marshall McLuhan's (1911-1980) in The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) and Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964).  While not exactly pre-dating reality television (which in some forms existed in the 1950s), jennicam.org was years before the genre became popular and was closer to real than the packaged products became.

The 1964 Ford 427 SOHC (the Cammer)

1964 426 HEMI in Plymouth race-car.

There was cheating aplenty in 1960s NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) racing but little of it was as blatant as Chrysler in 1964 putting on the grid their 426 HEMI V8, a pure racing engine, in what was supposed to be a series for mass-produced vehicles.  Whatever the legal position (and the corporation did check before fielding the thing), it was hardly in the spirit of gentlemanly competition though in fairness to Chrysler, it didn't start it, NASCAR for years something of a parallel universe.  In 1957, the AMA (Automobile Manufacturers AssociationA) had announced a ban on auto-racing and the public positions of GM (General Motors), Ford and Chrysler supported the stand, leaving the sport to dealer and privateers although, factory support of these operations was hardly a secret.  NASCAR liked things this way believing the popularity of their “stock cars” relied on the vehicles raced being close to (ie "in the condition of those in the dealer's stock of what was for sale") what was available for purchase by the general public.  Additionally, they wished to maintain the sport as affordable even for low budget teams and the easy way to do this was restricting the hardware to mass-produced, freely available parts, thereby leveling the playing field.  It was a noble aim and the façade was maintained until the summer of 1962 when Ford announced it was going to "go racing".  Market research had identified the competitive advantage to be gained from motorsport in an era when, uniquely, the demographic bulge of the baby-boomers, unprecedented prosperity and cheap gas (petrol) would coalesce, Ford understanding that in the decade ahead, a historically huge catchment of 17-25 year old males (the then youthful baby-boomers) with high disposable incomes or available credit were there to be sold stuff and they’d likely be attracted to fast cars.  Thus began Ford's "Total Performance" era which would see successful participation in just about everything from rally courses to the Formula One circuits, including four memorable victories at the Le Mans twenty-four hour endurance classic.

1963 Chevrolet 427 "Mystery Motor".

The market leader, the more conservative GM, said they would "continue to abide by the spirit of the AMA ban" and, despite the scepticism of some, it seems they meant it because their racing development was halted though not without a parthian shot, Chevrolet in 1963 providing their preferred team a 427 cubic inch (7 litre) engine that came to be known as the "mystery motor".  It stunned all with its pace but, being prematurely delivered, lacked reliability and, after a few races, having proved something, GM departed, saving NASCAR the bother of the inevitable squabble over eligibility.

1961 Ford Galaxie Starliner (left) & 1962 Galaxie with “distinguished hardtop styling” (aka “boxtop”, right).

Ford stayed and cheated, though not yet with engines.  The aerodynamic qualities the 1960-1961 Galaxie Starliner, possessed by virtue of its gently sloping rear roof-line, generated both speed and stability on the NASCAR ovals; that made it a successful race-car but in the showrooms, after some early enthusiasm, sales dropped so it was replaced in 1962 with an implementation of the “formal” style which had been so well-received when used on the Thunderbird.  As the marketing department predicted (or, more correctly, worked out from the results of their focus-group sessions), what they called “distinguished hardtop styling” proved more commercially palatable but while customers may have been seduced, the physics of fluid dynamics didn’t change and the “buffeting” induced at speeds above 140 mph (225 km/h) limited performance, adversely affected straight-line stability (especially when in close proximity to other cars); it also increased fuel consumption, in distance racing especially, something as significant as weight, speed and power.  What the “distinguished hardtop styling” had done was make the Galaxie less competitive on the circuits, the loss of up to 3 mph (5 km/h) in top speed the difference being winning and losing; putting on the lipstick had produced a pig.  Ford’s NASCAR teams dubbed the look the “boxtop”, boxes not noted for their fine aerodynamic properties and years later, Chrysler too would discover just how significant at high speed is the slope of the rear roofline.

Beware of imitations: Images from Ford's 1962 Galaxie Starlift "brochure" which didn't fool NASCAR.  

Quickly to regain the lost aerodynamic advantage, Ford fabricated a handful of detachable fibreglass hard-tops which could be “bolted on”, essentially transforming a Galaxie convertible back into something as slippery (and even a little lighter) as the previous Starliner.  Having no intention of incurring the expense of designing and engineering them to an acceptable consumer standard (which they knew few anyway would buy) Ford simply gave the hand-made plastic roof the name “Starlift”, allocated a part-number and even mocked-up a brochure for NASCAR to read.  Although on paper it appeared a FADC (factory-authorized dealer accessory) like any other (floor-mats, mud flaps etc), an inspection of the device revealed it was obviously phoney, the rear passenger glass on each side not fitting the sloping C-pillar, demanding the use of a pair of tacked-on plastic fillers to close the gap and it was obvious the thing wasn’t close to being waterproof.  NASCAR outlawed the scam.

The 483 cid Galaxie Starlift at speed, Bonneville, October 1962.

However, because five Starlift-equipped Galaxie convertibles had qualified for an race at Atlanta (postponed before the ban was imposed), they were permitted to run in the re-scheduled event and on the only occasion it was raced in NASCAR competition it won, the 100% win-record ranking it with the exquisite Mercedes-Benz W165 Voiturette created for the 1939 Tripoli Grand Prix in Libya among the sport’s most successful models.  Banned from the circuits though it was, Ford did manage to give the Starlift one final fling.  In October 1962, one fitted with an “experimental” version of the FE V8 with a displacement of 483 cubic inches (7.9 litres) was taken to Bonneville where it was used to set a slew of international speed records, clocked at 182.19 mph (293.21 km/h) and averaging 163.91 mph (263.79 km/h) over 500 miles (804.67 km).  Noting the big numbers, NASCAR took the opportunity to impose a 7 litre (expressed in the US usually as "427 cid (cubic inch displacement)) capacity limit, one rule that was easy to enforce.

Galaxies with "sports hardtop" roofline, Firecracker 400, Daytona International Speedway, July, 1963.

Hobbled by the “distinguished hardtop styling”, Ford managed to win only another four races in a season dominated by sleek Pontiacs but the engineers solved the problem in early 1963 with the “sports hardtop” roofline, a compromise which pleased both the pubic buying cars and the teams racing them.  Remarkably, the revision to the roofline, in conjunction with increasing engine displacement from 406 cubic inches (6.6 litres) to 427 (strictly speaking it was 426 (7.0)) created one of the era’s more improbably successful race cars which enjoyed great success in saloon car events in England, Europe, South Africa, Australia & New Zealand until the lighter and more nimble Mustang became available.

1964 427 SOHC (Cammer).  Note the famously long timing chain.

Ford, which while enjoying great success in 1963 had actually adhered to the engine rules, responded to Chrysler’s 426 HEMI (which had dominated the 1964 season) within a remarkable ninety days with a derivation of their 427 FE in which the pushrods which activated the valves were with two SOHCs (single overhead camshafts), permitting higher engine speeds and valve angles producing more efficient combustion, thereby gaining perhaps a hundred horsepower.  The engine, officially called the 427 SOHC, was nicknamed the Cammer (although some, noting the acronym, called it the "sock").  The problem for NASCAR was that neither the 426 HEMI nor the 427 Cammer existed in a car which could be bought from a showroom.

1964 Chrysler 426 HEMI DOHC prototype.

Not best pleased at what the manufacturers were doing, NASCAR was mulling over these threats to their carefully curated ecosystem when Chrysler responded to the 427 Cammer by demonstrating a mock-up of their 426 HEMI with a pair of heads using DOHC (double overhead camshafts) and four valves per cylinder instead of the usual two.  Fearing an escalating war of technology taking their series in an undesired direction, in October 1964, NASCAR cracked down and issued new rules for the 1965 season.  Although retaining the 427 cubic inch limit, engines now had to be mass-production units available for general sale and thus no hemi heads or overhead camshafts would be allowed  The rule change had been provoked also by an increasing death toll as speeds had gone beyond what the circuits had been designed to safely to handle and certainly the capabilities of the available tyres.

1965 Ford 427 FE.

That meant Ford’s 427 FE was eligible but Chrysler’s 426 HEMI was not and a disgruntled Chrysler withdrew from NASCAR, shifting their efforts to drag-racing where the rules of the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) were more accommodating (while it's not clear if Chrysler complied even with those, the NHRA, attuned to hosting the spectacular they knew people would pay money to come and watch, welcomed them anyway).  In 1965, Chrysler seemed happy with the 426 HEMI's impact over the quarter-mile and Ford seemed happy being able to win just about every NASCAR race.  Not happy was NASCAR which was watching crowds and revenue drop as the audience proved less interested in a sport where results had become predictable, hopes the rule changes would entice GM back to motorsport not realised.  NASCAR audiences were a tribal lot and to attract the "Ford people", "GM people" and "Chrysler people", competitive cars from each corporation needed to be fielded.

1966 Chrysler 426 Street HEMI.

It was 1967 before everybody was, (more or less) happy again.  Chrysler, which claimed it had intended always to make the 426 HEMI available to the general public and that the 1964 race programme had been just part of engineering development, for 1966 introduced the 426 Street HEMI, a detuned version of the race engine, making it a general-production option for just about any car in which it would fit (and soon they'd use a metaphorical shoehorn to force it into places it really didn't fit).  Of the 11,000-odd sold between 1966-1971, most ended up in two door sedans and hardtops but there were also some 200 convertibles and, in the first year of availability, a reputed five were installed in Dodge Coronet four-door sedans (the industry legend being two were special orders for the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) although Chrysler did decline one request to build a Street HEMI station wagon.  NASCAR responded quickly, announcing the HEMI now complied with the rules and was, with a few restrictions on the induction side (the race cars were permitted only a single carburetor while the street versions were sold only in "dual-quad" configuration with a pair of in-line, four barrel carburetors) was welcome back.  Ford assumed NASCAR needed them more than they needed NASCAR and announced they would be using the 427 Cammer in 1966.  NASCAR, feeling trapped its own precedent of having tolerated the HEMI in 1964, conceding only that Ford could follow Chrysler’s earlier path, saying the 427 Cammer would be regarded “…as an experimental engine in 1966… (to) …be reviewed for eligibility in 1967."   In other words, eligibility depended still on mass-production (ie "mass" as defined by NASCAR's minimum annual production threshold of 500 and "production" meaning available to the general public in showrooms).

427 SOHC installed in a replica (by ERA) of a 1966 Shelby American AC Cobra 427 S/C (Semi-Competition).

Ford, although unable easily to create a 427 Street Cammer, recalled the Starlift trick and announced the SOHC was now available as a production item.  That was, at best, economical with the truth, given not only could nobody walk into a showroom and buy a car with a 427 Cammer under the hood but it seemed at the time not always possible to purchase one even in a crate.  Realising the futility of kicking the can down the road, NASCAR decided to kick it to the umpire, hoping all sides would abide by the decision, referring the matter to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation), the world governing body for motor-sport, at that point not yet the byword for dopiness it would become.  Past-masters at compromise, the FIA approved the 427 Cammer but imposed a weight handicap on any car in which it was used.

Cutaway Ford FE V8s: the 427 (left) and 427 SOHC (right).

Ford called that not just unfair but also unsafe, citing concerns at the additional stress the heavier vehicles would place of suspension and tyres, adding their cars couldn’t “… be competitive under these new rules."  Accordingly, Ford threatened to withdraw from NASCAR in 1966 but found the public’s sympathy was with Chrysler which had done the right thing and made their engine available to the public.  Ford sulked for a while but returned to the fray in late 1966, the math of NASCAR’s new rules having choked the HEMI a little so the dual carburetor 427 FE (it could be bought by the public with either one or two) remained competitive, resulting in the curious anomaly of the 426 Street HEMI running dual four-barrel induction while on the circuits only a single unit was permitted.  Mollified, Ford returned in force for 1967 and the arrangement, which ushered in one of the classic eras of motorsport, proved durable, the 427 FE used until 1969 and the 426 HEMI until the big block engines were finally banned after the 1974 season, three years after the last 426 Street HEMI appeared in a showroom.

Ed Pink (1931-2025) at work on a Ford 427 SOHC “Cammer” V8 mounted on his static test-bed; it was one of the cammers which was his last build.

Among the builders of the big engines used in drag racing (an inventive and occasionally crazy crew) Ed Pink was a revered figure, hinted at by his nickname: “The Old Master”.  His corporate slogan (T-shirts, coffee mugs etc) was “Think Pink” and he was was the industry's acknowledged "Cammer Guru", tuning and re-building many; he lived to 94, torquing-down the bolts on his last Cammer at 92.  One approach to the solving the "inherent problem" of the long timing chain was to fabricate a gear-driven system and some did just that but Mr Pink overcame the issues using many calculations and much experimentation, changing the chain length timing from one bank to the other; even in the highly stressed conditions of "Top Fuel" drag racing, his modifications proved reliable.    As well as many V8s for drag-racing, Mr Pink also built engines for many other fields in motorsport including NASCAR, Can-Am, and IndyCar but it was those built for the uniquely extreme stresses of ¼ mile runs which most fascinated him.  Very much a sport of numbers (time, speed, horsepower), even the highly tuned big-block V8s which might peat at 9000 rpm (crankshaft revolutions per minute) typically will perform only around a thousand of those revolutions between the start and end of the run but the forces being imposed (in many directions) on that large, heavy reciprocating mass are such that catastrophic failures are not uncommon, hence the need for precision in designing, building and maintaining the things.

Ford 427 Cammer in 1967 Fairlane.

While the 426 HEMI DOHC never ran (the display unit's valve train was electrically activated), the 427 Cammer was produced for sale in crates and although the number made remains uncertain, most sources suggest it was probably as high as several-hundred and it enjoyed decades of success in various forms of racing including off-shore power boats.  Whether it would ever have been reliable in production cars is questionable.  Such was Ford’s haste to produce the thing there wasn’t time to develop a proper gear drive system for the various shafts so it ended up with a timing-chain over six feet (1.8m) long.  For competition use, where engines are re-built with some frequency, that proved satisfactory but road cars are expected to run for thousands of miles between services and there was concern the tendency of chains to stretch would impair reliability and tellingly, Ford never considered the 427 Cammer for a production car, a breed which, unlike racing engines, attract warranties.  Even some sixty years on there’s still a mystique surrounding the cammer and if one can’t find an original for sale (one sold at auction in 2021 for US$60,000), from a variety of manufacturers it’s possible still to buy all the bits and pieces needed to build one (in a quirk of timing and the overlap of simultaneous product development, some of the very early SOHCs used the top oiler block although most were side oilers and the third party reproductions over the years have always been the latter).  Although the production numbers have never been verified (which seems strange given Ford's accounting system recorded everything which emerged with a serial number), what all agree is the horsepower of a stock SOHC was somewhere over 600, the number bouncing around a bit because there were versions with single and dual four barrel carburetors, different camshaft profiles and variations in the cylinder heads and while it never made it into a production car, it remains the ultimate FE.