Cup

Cup (pronounced kuhp)

(1) A small, open container now manufactured usually using ceramics, plastic, glass or metal, typically with a single handle and used as a receptacle from which to drink fluids (tea, coffee, soup etc) and often categorized by design according to their nominal use (tea cup, coffee cup etc); many cups are supplied in sets with a saucer on which the cup sits protecting surfaces from spillage and offer a place on which a stirring spoon may sit.  A cup can be made from glass but may not be a “glass” while a glass made from glass may also have a handle while mugs are essentially cups but called something else.

(2) The bow-like part of a goblet or the like.

(3) A cup with its contents (“a cup of tea” et al).

(4) The quantity contained in a cup (which can be a general reference to any cup or a precisely defined measure).

(5) As a customary unit of measure, a defined unit of capacity frequently used in cooking, the quantum of which varies between (and sometimes within) markets but historically based on a half pint (now usually expressed as 220-250 ml or 14-20 tablespoons).  Measuring cups are available with graduations.

(6) An ornamental bowl, vase, etc especially of precious metal, offered as a prize for a contest (the use of “cup” often persisting even when trophies have been re-designed in a different form); a sporting contest in which a cup (or some other trophy) is awarded to the winner (collective known as the “cup competitions”).

(7) Any of various mixed beverages with one ingredient as a base and historically served from a bowl (claret cup burgundy cup, gin cup, cider cup etc).

(8) In Christianity, the chalice used in the Eucharist (used also of the consecrated wine of the Eucharist).

(9) Something to be partaken of or endured; one's portion, as of joy or suffering.

(10) In many fields, any cup-like utensil, organ, part, cavity etc; anything resembling a cup in shape or function.

(11) In botany, parts such as the flower base of some plants.

(12) In women’s underwear, the two forms containing the breasts in a bra or other garment in which an apparatus with a similar function is integrated (camisoles, bathing suits etc).

(13) In certain sports, a concave protective covering for the male genitalia, reinforced with usually with rigid plastic or metal (in some markets called a “box”, “cup” the common form in North America).

(14) In golf-course construction, the metal receptacle within the hole or the hole itself.

(15) In astronomy, a constellation or a crater.

(16) In pre-modern medicine, as “cupping glass”, a glass vessel from which air can be removed by suction or heat to create a partial vacuum, formerly used in drawing blood to the surface of the skin for slow blood-letting (also called the “artificial leech”).  The concept (cupping) remains in use (though without the blood-letting) in certain beauty treatments popular in East-Asia.

(17) In metalworking, a cylindrical shell closed at one end, especially one produced in the first stages of a deep-drawing operation; to form (tubing, containers etc) by punching hot strip or sheet metal and drawing it through a die.

(18) In mathematics, the cup-like symbol ∪, used to indicate the union of two sets.

(19) As CUP, the international standard (ISO 4217) currency code for the Cuban peso.

(20) In tarot card reading, a suit of the minor arcana or one of the cards from the suit.

(21) In ultimate frisbee competition, a defensive style characterized by a three player near defense cupping the thrower (or those three players).

(22) A flexible concave membrane used temporarily to attach a handle or hook to a flat surface by means of suction (the “suction cup”, the origins of which were in biomimicry (octopodes et al)).

(23) To take or place in, or as in, a cup.

(24) To form into a cuplike shape.

Pre-1000: From the Middle English cuppe & coppe, created by a blending of the Old English cuppe (cup) and the & Old Northumbrian copp (cup, vessel), from the Late Latin cuppa which etymologists list as being of uncertain origin but thought probably a variant of the earlier cūpa (tub, cask, tun, barrel) which may have been cognate with the Sanskrit kupah (hollow, pit, cave), the Greek kype (gap, hole; a kind of ship), the Old Church Slavonic kupu, the Lithuanian kaupas, the Old Norse hufr (ship's hull) and the Old English hyf (beehive).  Etymologists are divided on whether the source of the original Latin was the primitive Indo-European kewp- (a hollow) or the non Indo-European loanword kup- which was borrowed by and from many languages.  The Old English copp was from the Proto-West Germanic kopp (round object, bowl, vessel, knoll, summit, crown of the head), from the Proto-Germanic kuppaz, from the primitive Indo-European gew- (to bend, curve, arch), the source also of the obsolete English cop (top, summit, crown of the head) and the German Kopf (top, head).  The Middle English word evolved also under the influence of the Anglo-Norman cupe & the Old French cope & coupe.  The Late Latin cuppa begat many words meaning “cup” including the Old French coupe, the Saterland Frisian & West Frisian kop, the Old Frisian kopp, the Italian coppa, the Middle Dutch coppe, the Dutch kop & kopje, the Middle Low German kopp, the German Low German Koppke & Köppke, the Danish kop, the Spanish copa and the Swedish kopp.  It was a doublet of coupe, hive and keeve.  The German cognate Kopf now means exclusively “head”.  The first cups doubtlessly were formed by a “cupping” of the hands in order to drink and that action would have been pre-human and an important evolutionary step in the development of the brain.  Later, whatever fell conveniently to hand (sea-shells, the shells of nuts etc) would have been used before drinking vessels came to be fashioned from clay, wood or other materials.  Cup is a noun & verb, cupped & cupping are verbs; the noun plural is cups.

Art Deco and the coffee cup.

By the late fourteenth century, “cup” had come to be used of just about in the shape of what is now understood as a cup, the sense of “quantity contained in a cup” emerging about the same time.  The sense of a “cup-shaped metal vessel offered as a prize in sport or games” dates from the 1640s, the origin thought to be the traditional ceremonial ritual of celebrating victory by drinking wine or some other alcoholic brew and while it’s speculative, anthropologists have suggested there may be some symbolic link with the idea of “drinking the blood of the vanquished”.  The idea obviously persists, and among the more disgusting versions is drinking from a shoe or boot worn by the victor during the event.  That particular form of podophilic mixology actually has a long history but of late it’s become something of a fetish on the podiums in motor-sport; the term “shoey” was coined in the barbarian nation of Australia.

The origin of the use of “one cup in life” is in the Biblical scripture: And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39 (King James Version (KJV, 1611))).

The word cup appears in many scriptural verses which refer to God's judgment or a time of great suffering, Christ Himself asking James and John if they could "drink the cup" (Matthew 20:22) assigned to Him (by which he meant the suffering that He would soon endure on the cross, experiencing God's judgment for the sins of humanity.  It’s an important theological point, emphasized (Hebrews 4:15) by Jesus seeming to be overwhelmed and saddened by the prospect and awfulness of his crucifixion, praying to God he be spared this fate.  Jesus was, although the son of God, also fully human and few humans wish to suffer humiliation, torture, and death so his prayer was natural but critically, almost at once he submits and resolves to obey the will of the Father.  Whatever his human anguish at what is to come, his absolute commitment is to obeying God.  The idea then is that “suffering is to be endured” was by the fourteenth century expressed in phrases like “the cup of life” and whatever may be the cup, it is “something to be partaken of” because it is the will of God.  In figurative use thus, “one’s cup” is that which is one’s lot to be endured; that which is allotted to one for good and bad.

The daffodil (one of the common names of flowers of the genus Narcissus); as in many flowers, the alternative name for the corona is the cup.

To be in one's cups was to be “intoxicated”, a use dating from the 1610s which may have been a direct development from the mid-fourteenth century Middle English cup-shoten (drunk, drunken).  One’s “cup of tea” is what interests one and came into use in the 1930s of things or concepts although it’s documented from 1908 applying to persons; tellingly, the use of “not my cup of tea” is more common.  The “cup-bearer” was an early fifteenth century job description to describe the “attendant at a feast who conveys wine or other liquor to guests” but a more specialized use was of the court official who carried with him the cups, plates and other utensils to be used by those fearing poisoning (usually royalty or feudal barons).  The phrase “storm in a tea cup” refers to a fuss being made over a trivial matter and is in the same vein as “much ado about nothing”, “tempest in a teapot”, “storm in a teapot”, “lightning in a bottle” and “make a mountain out of a molehill”.

Example of the idiomatic use of cup in the phrase “one’s cups runneth over”: Model Adriana Fenice (b 1994) in 32G (10G or anything between 70-82G in some markets) bra.

The verb use “to cup” was a part of pre-modern medicine by the fourteenth century, describing the use of something cup-like to press against the skin to draw blood closer to the surface prior to “slow blood-letting”.  Medical dictionaries note there were two modes of cupping: one in which the part is scarified and some blood taken away to relieve congestion or inflammation of internal parts (“wet cupping”, or simply “cupping”), the other in which there was no scarification no blood was abstracted (“dry cupping”).  The concept (as “cupping” and without the bleeding) is still used in certain beauty treatments popular in East-Asia.  The cupful (quantity; that a cup holds, contents of a cup) was known in late Old English and persists to this day, the phrase “cup runneth over” is used to refer an over-supply of anything and was from the Hebrew Bible (Psalms:23:5) where the message was “I have more than enough for my needs” and thus a caution against greed, or in the words of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): Ich habe genug (I have enough) now a most unfashionable view although one with which Adriana Fenice might concur.  Modifiers are appended as required, hyphenated and not including the teacup (circa 1700), the egg-cup (used for making the eating of boiled eggs easier (1773)) and the cupcake (1828).  Cupcakes were “small cakes intended for one” and were an invention of US English, the name derived either from cup-shaped containers in which they were baked or from the small measures of ingredients used.  The slang use to describe an “attractive young woman” was another American innovation from the 1930s.

Art Deco and the tea cup: 1934 "Tango" trio by Royal Doulton in bone china, the cup with the classic pointed handle.

The use of “cup” in recipes is probably one of the less helpful uses of the word and for those not familiar with the conventions, they were probably baffled and wondering which of the various sized cups they had should be used.  The origin of “cup” as a measure lies in the old English unit which was ½ an imperial pint and thus (10 imperial ounces (284 ml), often later rounded to 300 ml.  Elsewhere, countries did their own thing: In Australia & New Zealand it was set at 250 ml after the conversion to metric measurements in 1973; In the US it was a liquid measure equal to 8 fluid ounces (237 ml which was usually rounded to 240); In Canada it was set at 8 imperial ounces (227 ml and rounded to 250).  The “metric cup” is now a universal 250 ml and for recipes this appears to be the preferred use even in North America.

Bra cups

Example of the idiomatic use of cup in the phrase "storm in a D Cup": Lindsay Lohan in demi-cup bra, from a photoshoot by Terry Richardson (b 1965) for Love magazine, 2012.

If in cooking "cup" has been (just about) standardized around the world, the bra cup, that other use of cup as an expression of volume is bafflingly diverse, anomalies appearing even within a manufacturer's catalogue.  The use of cup in the bra business seems to have begun in the 1930s although among historians of the bra (a surprisingly well populated niche in the discipline of the history of fashion) many differ in detail; the vague consensus seems to be the term was first used in this context in the early 1930s, was wide-spread by 1940 and almost universal by the early 1950s.  The principle of the cup size was compelling simple in that there were two variables (1) the torso and (2) the breasts.  The measurement of the torso was expressed by the bra band size (measured under the bust) in inches (or its metric equivalent) such as 30”, 32”, 34” etc, the graduations between the numbers handled by the fastening mechanism (usually a hook & eye arrangement) allowing a “tight” or “loose” fit so a 32” band could be worn by someone with a torso measurement in a 31-33 inch range.  The cup size range corresponded with the volume of the breast and (in ascending order) these were expressed in letters: A, B, C, D etc so when combined, the products were called 32B, 34C etc.  In theory, the two values worked progressively so the cup size of a 32C was the same as a 30D and a 34B.

Bra size multi-national conversion chart by Fredericks of Hollywood.  It seems an industry crying out for an ISO.

Unfortunately the manufacturers complicated things in a number of ways.  Given the A,B,C,D ascending sequence, it would have been reasonable to assume E,F,G & H would follow and in some cases they did but not all, some adopting a double letter convention yielding DD, EE etc but these did not represent fractional sizing-steps between single letters; what was to some manufacturers a DD was an E to others and some were so taken with the idea they added triple lettered sizes so a 32DDD was nominally the equivalent of a 32F from another house.  Some quirks were understandable such as the one which explains the rarity of the I cup, the explanation being the character might be confused with a numeric 1 which, given the syntax of the system, seems improbable but one can see their point.  Then there was the band size.  Most countries of course use the metric system so dimensions had to be converted but the convention for those advertised in inches was to use increments of 2 (28, 30, 32 etc) while for metric users it was in jumps of 5 cm (70, 75, 80 etc) which is close but not quite the same (28” = 71.12 cm; 30” = 76.2 cm; 32 = 82.28 cm).

Under the A-B-C-D etc cup-sizing system, a given designation varies in dimensions (and thus volumetric capacity) according to the band size, the cup of a 28A smaller than that of a 32A (which should share size and shape with that used on a 30B).      

More of a problem was that for the system to work, some math was required because the number from the under-bust measurement didn’t directly translate to the advertised bra size: What the buyer had to do was take the number and add 5 inches (12.7 cm) so if one’s under-bust measurement was 29” (73.7 cm), one (at least in theory) needed something with a 34” band (86.4 cm, the closest in the metric countries being the 85 cm range).  However, if the number was over 33” (83.8 cm), then one added only 3” (7.6 cm).  At that point, one needed to determine the appropriate cup.  This required a further measurement, one taken which represented the bust at its fullest projection, the somewhat misleadingly named “over-bust” number which was actually taken following the nipple line.  Many recommended taking it while wearing a bra but if that was a poor fit, that would hardly be helpful and the ideal method turned out to be (and usually this was necessary only if the volume was above a certain point) holding the breasts in place at the desired location while another did the measuring.  An ideal project then in which to involve one’s boyfriend or girlfriend, the only instructions needed being (1) the tape should rest lightly on the skin and (2) it should straight across the back, parallel to the floor.  The relationship between the over-bust measurement and the band size indicated the needed cup size: if the difference is 1” (2.54 cm) then it dictates an A cup; 2” (5.08 cm) and it’s a B cup and so on.  In many cases the simple under/over equation will work but not in all and some authorities have added additional measurements to be taken while in different positions, the 6 listed including lying flat on one's back and leaning forward so the breasts are perpendicular to the ground.  Definitely, the more dimensions which are taken, the more this seems a job for two.  

The math of cup sizes.

In practice it transpired the human body wasn’t so accommodating of production line rationalization but the system worked well enough for it to have endured for decades although only a percentage of women find an ideal fit without the help of an in-store fitter.  Quite what that number is depends on who is asked but it’s clear it’s a long way short of 100%.  The outcomes for bra wearers wasn’t helped by the lack of standardization in either the labeling or the technical specification of the cup size.  The inches vs cm thing was manageable but even in some countries which had long switched to the metric system, bras sizes were often expressed in inches (a similar aberration to the (almost) universal use of inches for certain products including the wheels used on cars and computer monitors) and because of the internationalized nature of the market with so much imported product, in many countries, both sizing regimes simultaneously were on sale, often in the same shop.  Helpfully, many displayed wall charts with conversion tables.  For some reason, in Australia and New Zealand, the decision was taken to use the dress sizing standard used in the antipodes (8 = 30”, 10 = 32” etc), thus bra sizes like 8C, 10D etc which local users presumably adapted to but it seems a needless complication.  Additionally, regardless of what country one was in, there was no guarantee a given size from one manufacturer would exactly align with that from another and in England, a comparison by a consumer organization revealed band and cup size differences existed in stated sizes even between various styles produced by the same manufacturer; not all 32Ds were created equal.  Given that, it seems obvious it’s best to seek the assistance of a fitter but in the internet age, customers found capitalism offered a handy on-line, home delivered alternative, the trick being to order half a dozen bras of slightly different declared sizes (eg 32C, 30D, 32E etc), the ones not quite right being able to returned for credit at no cost, the site paying all the P&H (postage & handling).  That approach has attracted much criticism because of the environmental impact and it’s a significant cost to the distributor and some have now moved to restrict the practice.

Nursing bras use specialized cups: Lindsay Lohan inspects the apparatus in Labor Pains (2009).

The most obvious specialized cup is that used with nursing bras which feature an arrangement whereby most of the cup’s fabric can be semi-separated from the superstructure, enabling breast-feeding without the need to remove the whole garment.  Between manufacturers, there are different implementations by which this is achieved but it’s not clear if chest-feeders (the preferred term among the woke to describe those who used to be called “breast-feeding women”) find one approach preferable or if some suit some more than others.  It may be simply that for manufacturers the economics of being able to adapt the specialized cups to the structures used for conventional bras are compelling, dictating the choice.  Chest-feeders presumably use whichever is most convenient and it may be a choice of some significance given how often heard is the complaint that the process is “tiring”.  To those who will never chest-feed it sounds relaxing rather than tiring but they all say it so it must be true.  Other variations include the demi-cup (also called the half-cup), the bullet cup, the adhesive cup, the padded cup and the seemingly paradoxical cupless (or open-cup), the last a niche market.  There are also bras for those who have lost a breast, the cups of which are “double-skinned” in that they feature an internal “pocket” into which a prosthetic form can be inserted.  Those who have had a unilateral mastectomy (the surgical removal of one breast) can choose a cup size to match the remaining one while those who underwent bilateral surgery can adopt whatever size they prefer.  There are now even single cup bras for those who have lost one breast but opt not to use a prosthetic, an approach which reflects both an aesthetic choice and a reaction against what is described in the US as the "medical-industrial complex", the point being that women who have undergone a mastectomy should not be subject to pressure either to use a prosthetic or agree to surgical reconstruction (a lucrative procedure for the industry).

The theory: Individual results may vary.

Demi, Hemi & Semi

Demi- (pronounced dem-ee or dem-ahy)

Of less than full size, status, or rank.

Circa 1350s: From the Middle English demi (half, half-sized, partial), from the twelfth century Anglo-Norman demi (half), from the Vulgar Latin dimedius, from the Classical Latin dīmidius, the construct being dis- (apart; in two) + medius (middle).  The French demi which English borrowed was a combining form which existed as noun, adjective, and adverb.  It appears in loanwords from French meaning “half” (demilune), “lesser” (demitasse), or sometimes used with a pejorative sense (demimonde) and, on that model, is also prefixed to words of English origin (eg demigod).

Hemi- (pronounced hem-ee)

A combining form meaning “half,” used in the formation of compound words (eg hemispherical, hemimorphic, hemicardia et al).

Pre 900: From the Middle English hemi from the Ancient Greek prefix ἡμι- (hēmi-) (half), from ἥμισυς (hḗmisus) (half).  It was cognate with the Classical Latin sēmi- and, as a word -forming element meaning "half", was a Middle English borrowing from the Latin hemi- which was taken directly from the Greek hēmi- (half) from the primitive Indo-European semi-, source also of the Sanskrit सामि (sāmí), the Old High German sami- (half) the Old English sam- and others, all soon denoting a partial or imperfect condition as well as the classically correct “half”.

Semi- (pronounced sem-ee)

(1) Half (strictly speaking) as in “semicircle”.

(2) In informal use, a proportion of something less than the whole.

(3) In English, a combining form or prefix (sometimes hyphenated) appended to words of any origin, usually with the senses of “partially,” “incompletely” or “somewhat” (eg semi-final, semi-trailer, semiautomatic, semi-articulated, semi-detached et al).

1400s: From the Middle English semi, from the Latin sēmi- (half).  It was connected with the Old English sōm- & sām- (half) (and related to the modern dialectical sam-), the Old High German sāmi-, the Sanskrit सामि (sāmí) and the Ancient Greek hemi-.  Ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European sēmi.

The word-forming prefixes semi-, hemi-, and demi- all began life meaning “half” but have evolved to mean other things too and exist also not just as prefixes but as stand-alone forms.  As a prefix, there appears to be 951 words with a “semi-” prefix, around 215 with a “hemi-” while a “demi” is appended only to 172, and, although it’s never been a rule, because of the origins, “demi-” is probably best paired with words of French origin, whereas “semi-” is a more natural fit with words with a Latin root.

Semi- may refer to something happening more than once (usually twice) within a certain time and is probably most familiar as “semi-final” to describe the matches of a competition which will determine the finalists.  In English it was used first to mean “half but became soon attached to concepts impossible to quantify (eg semi-abstract; semi-permanent) and thus came to mean also “virtually” or “somewhat.”

Hemi- is often employed in the hard-sciences.  It’s less commonly used than semi-, the association with the technical language of fields such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology and anatomy tending to mean it’s applied with more exactitude but even here, practices of use have produced anomalies.  In general use, it’s perhaps best known as a descriptor of the shape of the combustion chamber of certain internal combustion chambers to the extent of “Hemi” the noun being a Stellantis (the holding company of which Chrysler is now a part) trademark, even though many of the engines the company now market as such use a different shape.

Lindsay Lohan in demi-cup bra, photoshoot by Terry Richardson (b 1965) for Love Magazine, 2012.

The demi-cup style is most associated with the “push-up” bra of which Playtex's Wonderbra is the best known.  As the name implies, a demi-cup bra is one where the fabric covers rather less than the mainstream “full cup” bra although not necessarily half, some more revealing than others and the demi-cup is designed better to display the cleavage but need not do so in the exaggerated manner of the push-up bra, almost all of which use a kind of demi-cup.   Many demi-cup bras don't use the push-up engineering though they typically include most of the familiar components (padding, underwires etc).  A variation of the demi style is also inherent to the “plunge bra”, designed to accommodate garments with a low cut but why the industry settled on demi-cup rather than semi-cup isn't known and the term isn't universal, some manufacturers preferring "half cup".  Still, it's definitely all about the cup and to be regarded as a demi bra, it should be constructed with partial cups which cover between 50-75% of the breast and coverage should be the same all across the bra (similar to a balconette bra) as opposed to Plunge or T-Shirt bras where there's a slight dip in the middle.  Additionally, most demis use an underwire in a slightly wider than usual U-shape, evenly arched.

Demi- is used suggest something of less than full-size or status although it doesn’t of necessity imply something inferior.  In English, it’s the rarest of the three forms and, in English, was first used in heraldry, where things like demi-angels, demi-lions, demi-horses were applied to escutcheons.  It also held sway in certain niches such as the military (demi-brigade) and fashion (demi-cap; demi-lustre; demi-worsted) and coach-building (demi-limousine).  Of late, it has absorbed the sense of “virtual” as well as “lesser” and is quirky too: A demigod, while certainly not quite the real thing can be applied with either negative or positive connotations.

1969 Ford Torino Talladega.

Although modest by comparison with Chrysler’s radial Daytona and Superbird, Ford’s aerodynamic enhancements to the Torino proved surprisingly effective.  Actually, so good was the Talladega that when the sleek-looking replacement was released, the racers found it was slower and kept their Talladegas in service as long as they were eligible.  Ford had produced enough of their Fairlane-based Torino Talladegas to run them on the NASCAR circuits but needed to sell five-hundred cars with their new BOSS 429 V8 engine to reach the homologation threshold.

A helpfully inserted quirk in the NASCAR rules allowed them to put the engine in the Mustang rather than the larger Torino which would actually be used for competition.  That was good because the BOSS 429 Mustang attracted great interest and Ford sold more than enough to comply, something few were confident of doing with the Torino.  Additionally, and again helpfully, any doubts about the eligibility of the new engine had been resolved when NASCAR nudged the displacement limit by a couple of cubes.  The capacity limit of 428 cubic inches (7014 cm³) had been imposed in 1963 after Ford, caught cheating using a specialized aerodynamic part called a Starlift roof, sent one of the now-banned cars, fitted with a 483 cubic inch (7.9 litre) engine, to the Bonneville salt flats and set a number of international speed records.  NASCAR was watching what had started out as a "stock car" racing series in which essentially amateur teams could on a good day compete with the professionals, turn into a place where to be competitive, what was required was a big-budget operation, supported by the factories making available exotic and expensive components which had no purpose except on a race track.  Knowing where that 483 would be heading, NASCAR cracked down.  There would be plenty of other squabbles about engines during the 1960s but by the time the BOSS 429 came along, all was forgiven, NASCAR raising the limit to  430 cubic inches (7046 cm³).

1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429.

That was also bad because the Boss 429 was a big lump designed to fit in the wide-bodied intermediates and such was the task to shoehorn it into the narrower Mustang that the job had to be out-sourced to a specialist contractor because inserting the labour-intensive programme into the highly-structured Ford production-lines would have been too disruptive.  Thus, cars were delivered to the contractor which also received the 429 engines in crates.  Destined originally to be fitted with the physically smaller 428 SCJ engines, it was no small task to make the 429 fit, the shock towers being moved outwards along with the upper and lower control arms and stiffer springs were fitted and, surprisingly, it actually worked out quite well.  Although the bulky heads made the 429 a wide piece of machinery, they were made of aluminum and the total package was barely heavier than the all-iron 428 and some even included a few magnesium components which were lighter still.  The changes made had the effect of moving the front wheels further apart and increasing their negative camber and this gave the Boss 429 the best handling and road manners of any big-block Mustang although, it was still a front-heavy thing and clumsy to drive at low speed.  Re-locating the battery to the boot helped weight-distribution a little but none of the changes were ever going to make it behave like a Lotus Elan.

1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429.

However, one implication of things being such a tight fit was that there wasn’t the space to fit a free-flowing exhaust system so in the Mustang it was never possible for the engine to breathe as deeply as it did in the big NASCAR stockers and knowing this, Ford made no attempt to configure the it for maximum output, the carburetor smaller than those used on the Boss 302 and Boss 351.  Nor were the internal components assembled in a specification consistently intended to maximize performance, some built (supposedly in error) with a valve train which limited engine speed and the project anyway was a homologation exercise designed to sell the requisite number of parts required to qualify them for competition although, despite the low production spread over only two years, there were three distinct variations.  The first few hundred (S-code) units used heavy connecting rods secured with ½ inch (13 mm) bolts whereas the rest of the 1969 run and most built in 1970 (T-code) were fitted with lighter pieces and ⅜ (9 mm) bolts and initially, the early T-code engines carried over the hydraulic lifters from the S-code but production soon switched to a solid lifters with a somewhat more lumpy camshaft, the magnesium valve covers at the same time replaced with units cast in aluminum.  Finally there was an edition (A-code) which appeared in the last few of those built in 1970 and it varied from the T-series specification only in in some changes to the plumbing associated with what was still a quite rudimentary anti-pollution system.  Whatever its variations, a Boss 429 Mustang was what it was.

The shotgun ports.

It was also what it was not.  Expectations were high and, on paper, not unreasonable because the notion of putting a genuine seven litre racing engine in something as (relatively) small as the Mustang did hint at something special but, with the strangled engine, although quick, it wasn’t a cataclysm on wheels and the opposition was quicker still.  One of the issues was the fundamental design of those exotic heads.  Nick-named shotgun because the intake and exhaust ports reminded many of the double-barrels of a 12-gauge (although each was large enough almost to swallow a tennis ball), they worked admirably in the Talladegas at high-speed where they were matched with a big carburetor and free-flowing exhaust system.  On the street however, the big shotgun ports rarely saw sustained high-speed running and their sheer size meant the fuel at low speed didn’t achieve the flow-rate necessary for the low-end response needed on the street or strip.

1969 Boss 429 on stand with open exhaust headers.

Prior to release there was talk of quarter-mile runs somewhere in the twelve second range but in reality, no stock Boss 429 ever went quicker than low fourteens, enough to put it in the upper echelon of the muscle car era but there were those who expected more.  More did come, as initially disillusioned engine builders began to understand what it responded to, it became for decades one of the dominant forces in drag-racing, the shotgun ports meaning it took to forced aspiration like few engines, twin-turbocharged Boss engines able to generate thousands of horsepower.

1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429.

So it was quite a legacy and the surviving Mustangs now sell for as much as US$250,000.  Although Ford was compelled to build only 500, 857-odd were sold in 1969 and 499 in 1970 so it’s a bit of an oddity, quite a rarity yet almost mass-produced compared with some of the limited production machines of the muscle car era and such is the allure that there are companies now producing reproductions of the famous heads, modified slightly to fit regular production blocks.  It’s never been known how much money Ford lost on each Mustang it sold but, fitted with the famous Holley Dominator 1150 CFM carburetor and open exhaust headers suited to an engine happiest running at full throttle, the BOSS 429 did its job on the circuits and the company seemed happy with the investment although its life as a flag-bearer would be short, motorsport soon to be neglected as a changing world and a onrush of legislation demanding compliance needing the resources the circuits soaked up.

The semi-hemi combustion chamber.

As well as being nick-named the shotgun, it was also called the semi-hemi.  The BOSS 429’s combustion chambers weren’t actually hemispherical but they tended towards the shape (and the ones used in the race cars sometimes were).  Although Ford apparently would have preferred to have them known as a "blue crescent", it didn't catch on and, there being no obvious word in use to describe what they looked like, they came to be known as semi-hemi.  Musicologists had already gone one better than Ford.  Noting that English had contrived to borrow three words from Antiquity in order to have three prefixes meaning “half”, they invented hemidemisemiquaver to describe a sixty-fourth of a note (ie a half of a half of a half of an eighth note), a coining from that year of semi-revolutions: 1848.

Lava

Lava (pronounced lah-vuh or lav-uh)

(1) The molten, fluid rock that issues from a volcano or volcanic vent (sometimes accumulating (occasionally permanently) in a volcano’s “lava lake”.

(2) The rock formed when this solidifies, occurring in many varieties differing greatly in structure and constitution.

(3) In fashion, as “lava dress” (sometimes volcano dress), a long, flowing gown, classically in orange and black fabric, styled to recall a vertiginous lava flow.

(4) A shade of red which tends to orange, recalling the color of red-hot, molten lava.

(5) As Lava Lamp, the trademarked name of a electric decorative lamp made of a transparent, (usually tapered) cylinder containing a liquid in which a colored wax (or wax-like substance) is stimulated by the heat of the light bulb to change into randomly separating, seemingly luminous shapes which constantly rise and descend.

1740–1750: From the Italian lava (molten rock issuing from a volcano), from the Neapolitan or Calabrian dialectal lava (avalanche, torrent or stream; downpour overflowing the streets).  The original use in Italian was to describe flash flood rivulets after downpours and only later to the streams of molten rock from Mount Vesuvius.  The once commonly supposed link with the Latin lavāre (to wash) (from the primitive Indo-European root leue- (to wash) was based on the idea of “a liquid flowing” but is now thought one of those creations of the medieval imagination and it’s just as unlikely there’s was any relationship with the Arabic لابة‎ (lāba) (black volcanic rock).  Lava is also wholly unrelated to larva (an early stage of growth for some insects and amphibians) which was from the Latin larva (ghost-like, masked) which may have been from the Etruscan Lār (Etruscan praenomen; titulary god) which appeared usually as Lares (guardian deities).  The alternative etymology is from the Latin labes (sliding down, falling), which influenced lābī (to slide, fall or slip) (a labina an “avalanche or landslide”).  The only adjective in modern use is lavalike (or lava-like).  The old adjectives lavatic (1805), lavic (1822) & laval (1883) all fell into disuse by the twentieth century (although their occasional revival in the technical literature would not be unsurprising) and lavaesque seems never to have been coined.  The palindromic Laval did endure in France as both a locality name and surname and is remembered because of Pierre Laval (1883–1945), Prime Minister of France 1931-1932, 1935-1936 & de facto prime minister in the Vichy Government 1942-1944.  He was executed by a French firing squad in 1945.  Lava is a noun and the obsolete lavatic, lavic & lavalike were adjectives; the noun plural is lavas.

Lindsay Lohan in Pucci triangle lava-print bikini, The Bahamas, May 2007.

The terms lava and magma (from the Ancient Greek μάγμα (mágma) (paste)) are sometimes used interchangeably but to geologists and volcanologists the distinction is that Magma is molten rock which exists beneath a planet’s surface and become lava only when it flows from a volcano or volcanic vent.  Magma thus does not always become lava, sometimes cooling and solidifying as rock beneath the surface and sometimes collecting in a magma chamber.  A magma chamber differs from a lava lake in that the pleasingly alliterative latter describes the (usually large) large pool of molten lava that forms in a volcanic crater (although volcanologists do use the term also of lava which “sticks” to a volcano’s surface and doesn’t flow further.  They also in some cases call the extrusive igneous rock formed when it hardens and cools “lava” although this is not in general use, laypeople associating both “magma” and “lava” with the material in its molten state.

Lava lake, Mount Erebus, Antarctica.  Some 60 m (200 feet) in diameter, it sits within a small pit crater within the post-caldera summit and is phonolite in composition.  It may or may not remain a permanent feature.

The rock formations created by cooled magma at Mount Erebus proved especially interesting to those researching the history of the Earth’s magnetic field.  Geophysicist Dr Catherine Constable (b 1958) was studying the data used to refine a model explaining the mechanism of the earth’s occasional magnetic field reverses (from the familiar north & south polarity to the reverse where they swap) and found lava to be a substance keeping a perfect recorder of the field.  All magmas contain enough iron-rich minerals to detect the field and these align themselves toward the field as the lava freezes. As a result, the magnetic field at that moment is recorded: set in time and set in stone.  Over geological time, quite what the frequency (or the rapidity) of the shift isn’t clear and while studies suggest historically there’s be a swap every few hundred thousand years, it’s been almost a million years since the last so while one “might” be (over)due, Dr Constable says there’s no available evidence one is in progress or even immanent.

Catriona Gray (b 1994; Miss Universe 2018) in lava dress by Filipino designer Mak Tumang which used a image of lava flowing down the portrait of the Mayon Volcano rendered, in Swarovski crystals, Bangkok’s Impact Arena, Thailand, December 2018 (left) and lava flow on Tungurahua volcano, Huambalo, Ecuador (right).

Catriona Gray on the catwalk, lava flowing.

Lava cup-cakes

Lava cakes can pay tributes to volcanologists in different ways.  They can feature a magna chamber which, upon slicing can feed a lava flow or they can formed with an exposed crater in which sits a lava lake.  Professional chefs can produce the effects with room-temperature “lava” but usually these are for display and the cakes work best with hot, melted chocolate and obsessives use a variety of ingredients (peanut butter, raspberries, orange colored icing et al) to attempt to emulate the variegated colors of the real stuff.  They work best with dark chocolate but sweeter types can be used (or a blend).  Lava cakes can be made at larger scales but the laws of physics (both thermal and structural) mean full-sized constructions can be challenging (and messy) so most produce lava cup-cakes.  Because, in a sense, lava cakes are a kind of civil engineering, some very complex recipes have been created but the following will make 6-8 cup-cakes (depending on the size of the muffin tins) and it has the virtue of simplicity:

Ingredients

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature (plus some with which to grease the muffin tray).

A third of a cup of granulated sugar (plus some to sprinkle in the muffin tray).

3 large eggs.

A third of a cup of all-purpose flour.

A quarter teaspoon of salt.

8 ounces of dark chocolate, melted (for best results, delay the melt process until ready to blend (step (8) below).

6-8 squares (from the standard blocks) of dark chocolate.

Icing (confectioners') sugar, for dusting.

Whipped cream or ice cream, for serving (optional).

Fruit for serving (optional and most choose a red or orange variety).

Instructions

(1) Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C).

(2) Grease the cups of muffin tray with butter, ensuring the coasting is light and consistent.

(3) Sprinkle some granulated sugar over the muffin tray and ensure each has buttered cup has a consistent coating.  Shake off any excess grains.

(4) Spoon some granulated sugar into each cup, swirling to make sure the cup is completely lined.

(5) Blend the butter and granulated sugar until the mix is creamy.

(6) To this mix, as the eggs, one at a time, blending them in after each addition.

(7) To this mix, beat in flour and salt (on a low speed) until combined.

(8) To this mix, add the molten chocolate, and beat until combined.  Don’t be off-put if the mix seems either more or less viscous that you might expect.

(9) Pour mix into the greased cups. Fill only to half-way.

(10) In the centre of each cup, place one of the chocolate squares.

(11) Add the remaining mix to each cup but, because the mix will expand, don’t fill higher than three-quarters.

(12) Put tray into the heated oven, baking until the middle of the cakes no longer jiggle (should be no more than 8-12 minutes and if left too long, they’ll cease to be lava cup-cakes and become chocolate cup-cakes).  Because there’s some risk of spillage, place baking paper underneath the tray.

(13) Remove tray from oven and allow it to sit for 7-8 minutes.

(14) Up turn tray on a plate or other suitable flat surface and remove cup-cakes so the conical aspect resembles volcano.

(15) Dust with the icing (confectioner's) sugar and serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, adding some sort of fruit if desired.  Upon being sliced, the magma should ooze out, lava-like.

The Lava Lamp

The decorative lava lamp was invented in 1963 by Edward Craven Walker (1918-2000), a Word War II (1939-1945) RAF pilot who was inspired by a rigged-up egg-timer he saw in a pub, the device made with oil and water in a bottle.  Oil and water being two immiscible (unable to mix) fluids, the time worked by shaking the bottle, the egg deemed to be ready when the resulting blobs of oil had re-coagulated.  Knowing the world was well-supplied with cheap, reliable egg-timers, Craven saw little point in “making a better mousetrap” but he found the behavior of the blobs a pleasing piece of art and in his garage experimented with different fluids until he found a pleasing combination which produced just the effect he’d envisaged.  The characteristic shape of the lamp came about because the one seen in the pub used a standard cocktail shaker and the container in which Craven undertook his early research was an orange-squash bottle which was made in a similar shape; it proved ideal.  They work by the heat-soak from the incandescent light-bulb heating up the blobs, lowering both their density and the liquid's surface tension.  As the warmed blobs rise, they cool, lose buoyancy thus descend to the base where a wire with an active current breaks their surface tension, inducing re-coagulation.

Although associated with psychedelia, as well as lurid colors (the range expanded since the introduction of LEDs), lava lamps with plain black blobs in clear fluid are available.

The first lava lamp patent (Lava Lamp is a registered trademark in some jurisdictions) was applied for in 1963 and they were first displayed in 1965.  Very popular in the early-mid 1970s, by the 1980s the fad had passed, not because of the popular association of them with stoners imagined sitting staring at one for hours while the Grateful Dead played on the turntable, endlessly on repeat but because they’d come to be thought of as plastic kitsch.  However, they never quite went away and while there are spikes in demand (associated usually with some appearance in some prominent piece of popular culture), there is clearly a constant demand for those who just like the look while others furnish according to retro schemes or like the odd ironic piece among their conspicuous good taste.