Invert

Invert (pronounced in-vurt)

(1) To turn upside down.

(2) To reverse in position, order, direction, or relationship.

(3) To turn or change to the opposite or contrary, as in nature, bearing, or effect; to turn something inward or back upon itself; to turn inside out.

(4) In chemistry, to a subject a substance to a reaction in which a starting material of one optical configuration forms a product of the opposite configuration; subjected to a reaction in which a starting material of one optical configuration forms a product of the opposite configuration.

(5) In music, to subject to musical inversion, the transposition between the upper voice part and the lower (to move the root note of a chord up or down an octave, resulting in a change in pitch).

(6) In phonetics, to articulate as a retroflex vowel; to turn the tip of the tongue up and back.

(7) In formal logic, to form the inverse of a categorical proposition.

(8) In psychology & psychiatry, a person who adopts the role of the opposite sex (historically used in clinical practice and law enforcement as an alternative word for homosexual.

(9) In civil engineering (particularly hydrology), the lower inner surface of a drain or sewer; the lowest point inside a pipe at a certain point.

(10) In Architecture, an arch that is concave upwards, especially one used in foundation work; the base of a tunnel on which the road or railway may be laid and used when construction is through unstable ground (and may be flat or form a continuous curve with the tunnel arch).

(11) A sometimes used synonym for divert in certain contexts; to convert to an incorrect use.

(12) In anatomy, to turn the foot inwards.

(13) In biochemistry, as invertasome, a nucleoprotein complex that causes inversion of a DNA sequence.

(14) In skateboarding, a technique in which the skater grabs the board and plants a hand on the coping so as to balance upside-down on the lip of a ramp.

(15) In zoology, an informal term for an invertebrate.

1525–1535: From the Middle French invertir, from the Latin invertere (to turn upside down or inside out), the construct being in- (in) + vertere (to turn), an inflection of vertō (I turn; I change; I reverse), from the Proto-Italic wertō, from the primitive Indo-European wértti from the root wer- (to turn; to bend).  It was cognate with the Sanskrit वर्तते (vártate (to turn)), the Sanskrit वर्तयति (vartáyati (to turn)), the Avestan varət, the Proto-Slavic vьrtěti, the Old Church Slavonic врьтѣти (vrĭtěti (to turn around)), the Polish wiercić (to drill; to fidget), the Russian вертеть (vertetʹ (to rotate)), the Proto-Baltic wert-, the Lithuanian ver̃sti, the Persian گرد‎ (gard (grow; turn)), the Proto-Germanic werþaną (to become), the Old English weorþan (to happen), the English worth and the Old Irish dofortad (to pour out).  The prefix -in is quirky because it can act either to negate or intensify.  The general rule is that when pre-pended to a noun or adjective, it reinforces the quality signified and when pre-pended to an adjective, it negates the meaning, the latter mostly in words borrowed from French.  The Latin prefix in- was from the Proto-Italic en-, from the primitive Indo-European n̥- (not), the zero-grade form of the negative particle ne (not) and was akin to ne-, nē & nī.  In Modern English it is from the Middle English in-, from Old English in- (in, into), from the Proto-Germanic in, from the primitive Indo-European en.  In the Classical Latin, invertere had the literal sense of "turn upside down, turn about; upset, reverse, transpose" and was used figuratively to suggest "pervert, corrupt, misrepresent" while when used of words it implied "being used ironically". Invert, invertibility & inverting are nouns, verbs & adjectives, inversion, inversion & inverter are nouns, inverted is a verb & adjective, invertible & inversive are adjectives and invertedly is an adverb; the noun plural is inverts.

Pittsburgh Police arrest card #25747, from 1932 which circulated on the internet after being published in Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots (2006) by Mark Michaelson, Steven Kasher & Bob Nickas.  Some thought the “Crime” noted was “Invert” (and thus suggesting the offence was homosexuality) or the word was “Invest” what was police slang for “investigate”.  There appears to have been a typo and the correct letter could be either “v” or “s” but it seems most likely he was being investigated as a suspected communist.

Richard Fridolin Joseph Freiherr Krafft von Festenberg auf Frohnberg, genannt von Ebing (1840-1902) was a German psychiatrist remembered for his seminal work Psychopathia Sexualis: eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie (Sexual Psychopathy: A Clinical-Forensic Study) (1886).  Fortunately for all, for most purposes he shortened his name to Richard von Krafft-Ebing and was recognized as perhaps the first acknowledged expert on matters of sexual deviance, his publications either creating or formalizing the diagnostic categories which would remain influential for decades and some of his work remains recognizable in the literature even today.  One of his terms was "sexual inversion" which he used to describe homosexuality and it appeared in the first edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published in 1952.  Dr von Krafft-Ebing had used sexual inversion as a purely descriptive term for homosexuality, reflecting the academic tone he adopted in the hope those other than in the professions of medicine or law would be discouraged from turning the pages.  Very much seriously minded, he didn’t write to satisfy prurient interest.  He did however definitely regard sexual inversion as deviant and in this sense it carried over to the DSM where it was listed as a mental disorder although the operation of the linguistic treadmill meant that when the DSM-II was issued in 1968, the term was replaced with “homosexuality”.  From then on, the profession moved in the last quarter of the twentieth century as legislative change would unfold in the Western world, sometimes moving ahead of the law, sometimes following.  When the fourth edition of the DSM-II was published in 1974, the APA tested the waters by introducing a sort of diagnostic ambivalence about the matter and with the coming of the DSM-III (1980), homosexuality ceased to be considered a mental disorder and was treated as just another variation in the human condition.

Lindsay Lohan contemplating the subliminal messaging of The McDonalds big “M”, McDonald's drive-thru, Santa Monica, California, December 2011.  The car is a Porsche Panamera.

A contemporary of Dr von Krafft-Ebing was of course the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), someone who thought much about the centrality of sex to the human condition and, famously, the role of mothers in its formation.  One admirer (though by no means an uncritical one) of Dr Freud was the Russian-born, US-based clinical psychologist Louis Cheskin (1907-1981) who systematized a process of analysis which tracked the relationship between the aesthetic elements (ie the packaging) of products with customers’ perceptions of the content; this he called “sensation transference”.  Some of his best known work was in colors, working out how people generally understood the messages conveyed by different hues and he applied his findings with great success to product wrappings, corporate logos and even the interior color schemes for department stores and restaurants.  According to him, a restaurant which wants its customers to linger might use blue while a fast-food outlet which wants a high turnover of it chairs and tables should favor orange or yellow.

A practical application of Freud via Cheskin: Charlotte McKinney’s (b 1993) famous advertisement for Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC, Super Bowl XLIX, 2015.

Already famous from his work with the Ford Motor Company, notably for his collaborations with the company’s general manager Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) during which he conducted the research which contributed to the marketing campaigns for the wildly successful Mustang (1964) and Lincoln’s Continental Mark III (1968), Cheskin was retained as a consultant by McDonald’s, then in the throes of one of their periodic changes to the corporate logo.  At the time, McDonald’s management wanted to refocus the business and one aspect of this was to change the stylized “M” (the golden arches), then thought dated.  In this case Louis Cheskin followed Freud and wrote one of his persuasive papers which convinced the executives the big “M” was a asset because, as well as the obvious association with the McDonald’s name, there was also a culinary cum anatomical link: If the “M” was inverted, it summoned in the mind the nurturing image of a mother’s breasts, “subconsciously making hungry customers feel comforted and at home”.  Whether the chain’s slogan at the time (Give mum a night off) was influential in the decision to retain the (uninverted) “M” isn’t clear.”

Evolution of the big “M” since 1942 (left) and inverted (right).  One can see what Louis Cheskin was getting at.

Recto & Verso

Recto (pronounced rek-toh)

(1) A right-hand page of an open book or manuscript (almost always bearing the odd numbers); the front of a leaf.

(2) The front of a loose sheet of printed paper

1815–1825: A clipping of the Late Latin phrase rēctō foliō (on the right-hand (leaf or page)), ablative of the Latin rēctus (in this context “right”).  Recto is a noun; the noun plural is rectos.  The Latin rēctus (past participle of the verb “regere” (to rule; to guide; to straighten) and perfect passive participle of regō (to keep or lead straight, to guide)) was from the Proto-Italic rektos, corresponding to the primitive Indo-European hreǵtós (having moved in a straight line), from reǵ- (to move in a straight line; to direct).  It was used to mean “straight”, “upright” and “correct” as well as “right”.  In general use it was used in the sense of “right, correct, proper, appropriate, befitting with a particular emphasis on “morally right, correct, lawful, just, virtuous, noble, good, proper, honest”.  The association with “straightness” and “rightness” also influenced other derivatives in Latin and Romance languages, such as rectum (straight (and its use in anatomy)), rectitude (moral uprightness) and words in modern languages (rectify, direct etc).

Verso (pronounced vur-soh)

(1) A left-hand page of an open book or manuscript (almost always bearing the even numbers); the back of a leaf.

(2) The back of a loose sheet of printed paper.

(3) In numismatics, the side of a coin opposite to the obverse (the reverse)

1830–1840: A clipping of the New Latin phrase versō foliō (the leaf having been turned; the turned side of the leaf; on the turned leaf), the construct built with the Latin verb vertere (to turn; to revolve; to change) + folium (a leaf). 

Vertere ultimately was from the primitive Indo-European root wert- (to turn; to rotate).  Verso was the ablative form of versus (turned; facing; a line or verse in poetry, (originally meaning “a turning of the plow”), thus, as used in versō foliō , the reference was to the back (reverse) side of a page in a book or manuscript (as opposed to the recto (the front side).  The primitive Indo-European root wert- also provided the ultimate source of a number of related words in Indo-European languages, all of which is some way emphasize the concept of “turning” or “change”, the modern descendants including verse, invert, revert, and versatile, all of which preserve the idea of turning or changing orientation.  Verso is a noun; the noun plural is versos.

Recto is the front (right) and verso the back (left) side of a leaf of paper in something assembled permanently (ie bound or in some way joined permanently at the spine) in a book, codex or such.  The terms have always been used to refer to the finished article, not the material used in production.  This was not something of significance when books were assembled from single sheets which then were bound but in mechanical printing, it became common for larger sheets (the folium) to be printed with many pages, later to be folded (prior to binding) so the numbers on those larger sheets weren’t sequential when the page was flat but became so when folded.  Rēctō foliō (on the right side of the leaf) and versō foliō (on the back side of the leaf were thus created in the bindery, not by the scribe).  The use of the terms for loose leaf sheets came later.

Recto & Verso are sometimes referred to as part of the architecture or archeology of printing, correctly, they’re an aspect of codicology (the study of codices) and there is some academic dispute about the origins, the Australian historian Martyn Lyons (b 1946) suggesting the term rēctum (right, correct, proper) for the front side of a leaf was derived from the use of papyrus in late antiquity, based on a different grain running across each side with on one suitable for writing upon (the “correct”, smooth side).  In an echo of that, even modern paper has a “grain” (by virtue of the way the pulp is laid in the production process) and when using heavily textured bond paper, the most fastidious technicians ensure the stock is “laid” the “correct” way.  Recto and verso are reversed when language read right-to-left are used (so regardless of language, the verso is read first).  In publishing, the convention is for the first page of a book (page 1) to be a recto so almost all recto pages have odd numbers and all versos even numbers.

On-line editions of publications are not simply digital replications of the layout used in print where the recto-verso model remains in use.  The migration to screens has been cited as the prime reason the “two-page spread” is now less common in print.

With the coming of computers, pages came to be viewed on screens and as technology improved, it became possible to display two pages, side-by-side, thereby permitting publications such as pictorial magazines to maintain the recto-verso model and for readers to consume the content presented in the same visual format as the printed edition.  However, the screens of eBook readers, smartphones and tablets have a smaller surface area than the typical computer monitor and tend to be optimized for single-page display (although may do have a two-page option).  For that reason, publications which maintain both traditional print editions and on-line versions, have been compelled to create a different visual model for each format (there can be several) because the old “two-page spread” simply doesn’t work was well, viewed a page at a time.  The layout of on-line content is not simply a replication of a print edition (which follows the classic recto-verso model) and it seems clear the small has had a great influence on the large.

Louis Vuitton Recto Verso in Monogram Empreinte leather (left) and Louis Vuitton Pochette Cles (Vivienne collectors edition). 

Lindsay Lohan with Louis Vuitton Pochette Cles (key pouch) from LV’s Vuitton Monogram Charms collection.  

Among the many problems troubling the world, some have to ponder whether to buy a Louis Vuitton Recto Verso card holder or a Louis Vuitton Pochette Cles (key pouch), two items similar in size and function.  LV describes the Pochette Cles as a “…playful yet practical accessory that can carry coins, cards, folded bills and other small items, in addition to keys. Secured with an LV-engraved zip, it can be hooked onto the D-ring inside most Louis Vuitton bags, or used as a bag or belt charm.”  The Recto Verso is said to be a “…versatile accessory offers multiple practical features, including a flap pocket, a zipped compartment with a wide, L-shaped opening, and four card slots. It also has a concealed hook and chain which allow it to be attached to a bag or belt.”

Amber Ashleigh’s guide to choosing between Louis Vuitton's Retro Verso and Pochette Cles (Key Pouch).

The retail price of the Retro Verso is between US$590-720 while the Pochette Cles lists between US$320-410 (the price varying with the material used in the construction) and while the solution obviously is to buy at least one of each, not all modern young spinsters can afford that so they should watch Amber Ashleigh’s invaluable guide.  Ms Ashleigh says this is among her “most requested videos.”

Vermiform

Vermiform (pronounced vur-muh-fawrm)

Resembling or having the long, thin, cylindrical shape of a worm; long and slender.

1720-1730: From the Medieval Latin vermiformis, the construct being vermis (worm) + forma (form).  Vermis was from the primitive Indo-European wr̥mis and cognates included the Ancient Greek ῥόμος (rhómos) and the Old English wyrm (worm (which evolved into the Modern English worm)).  Form was from -fōrmis (having the form of), from fōrma (a form, contour, figure, shape, appearance, looks).  The root of the Latin vermis was the primitive Indo-European wer- (to turn, bend), an element most productive, contributing to: adverse; anniversary; avert; awry; controversy; converge; converse (as the adjectival sense of "exact opposite”); convert; diverge; divert; evert; extroversion; extrovert; gaiter; introrse; introvert; invert; inward; malversation; obverse; peevish; pervert; prose; raphe; reverberate; revert; rhabdomancy; rhapsody; rhombus; ribald; sinistrorse; stalwart; subvert; tergiversate; transverse; universe; verbena; verge (as the verb meaning "tend, incline"); vermeil; vermicelli; vermicular; vermiform; vermin; versatile; verse (in the sense of the noun "poetry") version; verst; versus; vertebra; vertex; vertigo; vervain; vortex; -ward; warp; weird; worm; worry; worth (in the adjectival sense of "significant, valuable, of value") worth (as the verb "to come to be"); wrangle; wrap; wrath; wreath; wrench; wrest; wrestle; wriggle; wring; wrinkle; wrist; writhe; wrong; wroth & wry.  Vermiform is an adjective.

Commonly used in medicine to describe the appendix, Modern French also gained the word from Latin as the adjective vermiforme (plural vermiformes), the spelling of the medical use apéndice vermiforme (plural apéndices vermiformes).  The only known derived form in English is the adjective subvermiform, used apparently exclusively in the disciplines of zoology, including entomology.  The meaning was defined in a dictionary from 1898 as “shaped somewhat like a worm” which is surprisingly imprecise for the language of science but that vagueness appears adequate for the purposes to which it’s put.  For whatever reason, vermiform was a word much favored by the US humorist HL Mencken (1880-1956).

The female Eumillipes persephone: 1,306 legs & 330 segments.  

Because the scientific literature has for some time been dominated by COVID-19 and all that flowed the brief, sudden prominence of two vermiform creatures, one ancient, the other more recent, was an amusing distraction.  The younger animal was a new species of millipede which boasted not only more legs than any other creature on the planet but was the first of its kind to live up to its name.    

Since circa 1600, the term millipede has been applied to any of the many elongated arthropods, of the class Diplopoda (a taxonomic subphylum within the phylum Arthropoda (the centipedes, millipedes and similar creepy-crawlies) with cylindrical bodies that have two pairs of legs for each one of their many body segments and, although milliped was long regarded as the correct spelling by scientists who work with myriapods, millipede is by far the most common form in general use (although there’s the odd specialist who insists on millepede).  Millipede was from the Latin millipeda (wood louse), the construct being mille (thousand) + pes (genitive pedis) (foot), from the primitive Indo-European root ped (foot) (probably a loan-translation of Greek khiliopous).  When named, it wasn’t intended as a mathematically precise definition, only to suggest the things had lots of legs though, certainly many fewer than a thousand.  The creature has always possessed a certain comical charm because, despite having usually twice the number of legs as centipedes, the millipede is entirely harmless whereas there are centipedes which can be quite nasty.  For centuries millipede was thought a bit of a misnomer, with no example ever observed with more than 750 legs and that deep-soil dweller was an outlier, most having fewer with a count in two figures quite common.  The new species also lives in the depths: Eumilipes persephone (Persephone, the daughter of Zeus who was taken by Hades to the underworld), a female was found to be sprouting 1,306 legs.  Pale and eyeless, it’s vermiform in the extreme, the body-length almost a hundred times its width and instead of vision, it used a large antennae to navigate through darkness to feed on fungi.

The sheer length of the thing does suggest a long lifespan by the standards of the species, most of which tend not to survive much beyond two years.  The persephone however, based on a count of the body segments which grow predictably in the manner of tree rings, seems likely to live perhaps as long as a decade.  One factor which accounts for the longevity is the absence of predators, the persephone’s natural environment banded iron formations and volcanic rock some 200 feet (60 m) beneath the surface of a remote part of Western Australia.  Entomologists didn’t actually venture that deep to explore, instead using the simple but effective method of lowering buckets of tempting vegetation down shafts drilled by geologists exploring for minerals, returning later to collect whatever creatures had been tempted to explore.

Artist’s impression of an Arthropleura: half a metre wide and perhaps nearly three metres in length, the latter dimension similar to a small car.  

Days after the announcement from the Western Australian desert, livescience.com also announced researchers in the UK found the fossilized exoskeleton of an Arthropleura, the largest arthropod yet known to have lived.  The length of a modern car, the giant millipede-like creatures appear to have done most of their their creeping and crawling during the Carboniferous Period, between 359 million and 299 million years ago.

Although the Arthropleura have long been known from the fossil record, there’d not before been any suggestion they ever grew quite so large and the find was quite serendipitous, discovered on a beach in a block of sandstone which had recently fallen and cracked apart.  The exoskeleton fragment is 30 inches (750 mm) long and 22 inches (550 mm) wide which means the giant millipede would have been around 102 inches (2600 mm) long and weighed around 110 lbs (50 kg)m making it the biggest land animals of the Carboniferous era.  Despite its bulk however, the physics of movement and the need to support its own weight mean the leg count is nowhere near as impressive as its young relation what is now on the other side of the world (what are now the Australian and European land masses were closer together during the Carboniferous) and it’s still not clear if Arthropleura had two legs per segment or every two segments but either way it adds up to much fewer than a hundred.

Ultimately, Arthropleura was a victim of changing conditions.  In its time, it would have been living in a benign equatorial environment but, over millions of years, the equator can shift because of the phenomenon of TPW (true polar wander) in which the outer layer of Earth shifts around the core, tilting the crust relative to the planet’s axis.  This last happened some eighty-four million years ago.  So, the conditions which for so long had been ideal changed and changed suddenly and Arthropleura was unable to adapt, going extinct after having flourished for nearly fifty-million years.  The reasons for their demise are those seen repeatedly in the fossil record: In an abruptly changed environment, there was suddenly more competition for fewer resources and the Arthropleura lost out to animals which were stronger, more efficient and better able to adapt.

The human appendix.

Thousands of years after first being described, the human appendix, a the small blind-ended vermiform structure at the junction of the large and the small bowel remains something of a mystery.  For centuries the medical orthodoxy was it vestigial, a evolutionary dead-end and a mere quirk of human development but the current thinking is it exists as a kind of “safe-house” for the good bacteria resident in the bowel, enabling them to repopulate as required.  However, being blind-ended, although intestinal contents easily can enter, in certain circumstances it can operate as a kind of one-way, non-return valve, making exit impossible which results in inflammation.  This is the medical condition appendicitis and in acute cases, the appendix must surgically be removed.  That's usually fine if undertaken in good time because it's a simple, commonly performed procedure but unfortunately, in a small number of cases, a residual "stump" of the structure may escape the knife and in this inflammation may re-occur, something surgeons resentfully label “stumpitis”.  Apparently the most useless part of the human anatomy, there is noting in the medical literature to suggest anyone has noticed any aspect of their life being changed by not having an appendix.

Obsolete & Obsolescent

Obsolete (pronounced ob-suh-leet)

(1) No longer in general use; fallen into disuse; that is no longer practiced or used, out of date, gone out of use, of a discarded type; outmoded.

(2) Of a linguistic form, no longer in use, especially if out of use for at least the past century.

(3) Effaced by wearing down or away (rare).

(4) In biology, imperfectly developed or rudimentary in comparison with the corresponding character in other individuals, as of a different sex or of a related species; of parts or organs, vestigial; rudimentary.

(5) To make obsolete by replacing with something newer or better; to antiquate (rare).

1570–1580: From the Latin obsolētus (grown old; worn out), past participle of obsolēscere (to fall into disuse, be forgotten about, become tarnished), the construct assumed to be ob- (opposite to) (from the Latin ob- (facing), a combining prefix found in verbs of Latin origin) + sol(ēre) (to be used to; to be accustomed to) + -ēscere (–esce) (the inchoative suffix, a form of -ēscō (I become)).  It was used to form verbs from nouns, following the pattern of verbs derived from Latin verbs ending in –ēscō).  Obsoletely is an adverb, obsoleteness is a noun and the verbs (used with object), are obsoleted & obsoleting; Although it does exist, except when it’s essential to covey a technical distinction, the noun obsoleteness is hardly ever used, obsolescence standing as the noun form for both obsolete and obsolescent.  The verb obsolesce (fall into disuse, grow obsolete) dates from 1801 and is as rare now as it was then.

Although not always exactly synonymous, in general use, archaic and obsolete are often used interchangeably.  However, dictionaries maintain a distinction: words (and meanings) not in widespread use since English began to assume its recognizably modern form in the mid-1700s, are labeled “obsolete”.  Words and meanings which, while from Modern English, have long fallen from use are labeled “archaic” and those now seen only very infrequently (and then in often in specialized, technical applications), are labeled “rare”.

Obsolescent (promounced ob-suh-les-uhnt)

(1) Becoming obsolete; passing out of use (as a word or meaning).

(2) Becoming outdated or outmoded, as applied to machinery, weapons systems, electronics, legislation etc.

(3) In biology, gradually disappearing or imperfectly developed, as vestigial organs.

1745–1755: From the Latin obsolēscentum, from obsolēscēns, present participle of obsolēscere (to fall into disuse); the third-person plural future active indicative of obsolēscō (degrade, soil, sully, stain, defile).  Obsolescently is an adverb and obsolescence a noun.  Because things that are obsolescent are becoming obsolete, the sometimes heard phrase “becoming obsolescent” is redundant.  The sense "state or process of gradually falling into disuse; becoming obsolete" entered general use in 1809 and although most associated with critiques by certain economists in the 1950s, the phrase “planned obsolescence was coined” was coined in 1932, the 1950s use a revival.

Things that are obsolete are those no longer in general use because (1) they have been replaced, (2) the activity for which they were designed is no longer undertaken.  Thing that are considered obsolescent are things still to some extent in use but are for whatever combination of reasons, are tending towards becoming obsolete.  in fading from general use and soon to become obsolete. For example, the Windows XP operating system (released in 2001) is not obsolete because some still use it, but it is obsolescent because, presumably it will in the years ahead fall from use.

Ex-Royal Air Force (RAF) Hawker Hunter in Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ) livery; between 1963-2002 twenty-six Hunters were at different times operated by the AFZ.  Declared obsolete as an interceptor by the RAF in 1963, some Hunters were re-deployed to tactical reconnaissance, ground-attack and close air support roles before being retired from front-line service in 1970.  Some were retained as trainers while many were sold to foreign air forces including India, Pakistan and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe since 1980).

Despite the apparent simplicity of the definition, in use, obsolescent is highly nuanced and much influenced by context.  It’s long been a favorite word in senior military circles; although notorious hoarders, generals and admirals are usually anxious to label equipment as obsolescent if there’s a whiff of hope the money might to forthcoming to replace it with something new.  One often unexplored aspect of the international arms trade is that of used equipment, often declared obsolescent by the military in one state and purchased by that of another, a transaction often useful to both parties.  The threat profile against which a military prepares varies between nations and equipment which genuinely has been rendered obsolescent for one country may be a valuable addition to the matériel of others and go on enjoy an operational life of decades.  Well into the twentieth-first century, WWII & Cold War-era aircraft, warships, tanks and other weapon-systems declared obsolescent and on-sold (and in some cases given as foreign aid or specific military support) by big-budget militaries remain a prominent part of the inventories of many smaller nations.  That’s one context, another hinges on the specific-tasking of materiel; an aircraft declared obsolescent as a bomber could go on long to fulfil a valuable role as in transport or tug.

In software, obsolescence is so vague a concept the conventional definition really isn’t helpful.  Many software users suffer severe cases of versionitis (a syndrome in which they suffer a sometimes visceral reaction to using anything but the latest version of something) so obsolescence to them seems an almost constant curse.  The condition tends gradually to diminish in severity and in many cases the symptoms actually invert: after sufficient ghastly experiences with new versions, versionitis begins instead to manifest as a morbid fear of every upgrading anything.  Around the planet, obsolescent and obsolete software has for decades proliferated and there’s little doubt this will continue, the Y2K bug which prompted much rectification work on the ancient code riddling the world of the main-frames and other places unlikely to be the last great panic (one is said to be next due in 2029).  The manufacturers too have layers to their declaration of the obsolete.  In 2001, Microsoft advised all legacy versions of MS-DOS (the brutish and now forty year old file-loader) were obsolete but, with a change of release number, still offer what's functionally the same MS-DOS for anyone needing a small operating system with minimal demands on memory size & CPU specification, mostly those who use embedded controllers, a real attraction being the ability easily to address just about any compatible hardware, a convenience more modern OSs have long restricted.  DOS does still have attractions for many, the long-ago derided 640 kb actually a generous memory space for many of the internal processes of machines and it's an operating system with no known bugs.  

XTree’s original default color scheme; things were different in the 1980s.

Also, obsolescent, obsolete or not, sometimes the old ways are the best.  In 1985, Underware Sytems (later the now defunct Executive Systems (EIS)) released a product called XTree, the first commercially available software which provided users a visual depiction of the file system, arranged using a root-branch tree metaphor.  Within that display, it was possible to do most file-handling such as copying, moving, re-naming, deleting and so on.  Version 1.0 was issued as a single, 35 kb executable file, supplied usually on a 5.25" floppy diskette and although it didn’t do anything which couldn’t (eventually) be achieved using just DOS, XTree made it easy and fast; reviewers, never the most easily impressed bunch, were effusive in their praise.  Millions agreed and bought the product which went through a number of upgrades until by 1993, XTreeGold 3.0 had grown to a feature-packed three megabytes but, and it was a crucial part of the charm, the user interface didn’t change and anyone migrating from v1 to v3 could carry on as before, using or ignoring the new functions as they choose.

However, with the release in 1990 of Microsoft’s Windows 3.0, the universe shifted and while it was still an unstable environment, it was obvious things would improve and EIS, now called the XTree Company, devoted huge resources to producing a Windows version of their eponymous product, making the crucial decision that when adopting the Windows-style graphical user interface (GUI), the XTree keyboard shortcuts would be abandoned.  This mean the user interface was something that looked not greatly different to the Windows in-built file manager and bore no resemblance to the even then quirky but marvelously lucid one which had served so well.  XTree for Windows was a critical and financial disaster and in 1993 the company was sold to rival Central Point Software, themselves soon to have their own problems, swallowed a year later by Symantec which, in a series of strategic acquisitions, soon assumed an almost hegemonic control of the market for Windows utilities.  Elements of XTree were interpolated into other Symantec products but as a separate line, it was allowed to die.  In 1998, Symantec officially deleted the product but the announcement was barely noted by the millions of users who continued to use the text-based XTree which ran happily under newer versions of Windows although, being a real-time program and thus living in a small memory space, as disks grew and file counts rose, walls were sometimes hit, some work-arounds possible but kludgy.  The attraction of the unique XTree was however undiminished and an independent developer built ZTree, using the classic interface but coded to run on both IBM’s OS/2 and the later flavors of Windows.  Without the constraints of the old real-time memory architecture, ZTree could handle long file and directory names, megalomaniacs now able to log an unlimited number of disks and files, all while using the same, lightning-fast interface.  The idea spread to UNIX where ytree, XTC, linuXtree and (most notably), UnixTree were made available.

ZTree, for those who can remember how things used to be done.

ZTree remains a brute-force favorite for many techs.  Most don’t often need to do those tasks at which it excels but, when those big-scale needs arise, as a file handler, ZTree still can do what nothing else can.  It’ll also do what’s now small-scale stuff; anyone still running XTree 1.0 under MS-DOS 2.11 on their 8088 could walk to some multi-core 64-bit monster with 64 GB RAM running Windows 11 and happily use ZTree.  ZTree is one of the industry’s longest-running user interfaces.

The Centennial Light, Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department, Livermore, California.  Illuminated almost continuously since 1901, it’s said to be the world's longest-lasting light bulb.  The light bulb business became associated with the idea of planned obsolescence after the revelation of the existence of a cartel of manufacturers which had conspired to more than halve the service life of bulbs in order to stimulate sales.

As early as 1924, executives in US industry had been discussing the idea of integrating planned obsolescence into their systems of production and distribution although it was then referred to with other phrases.  The idea essentially was that in the industrial age, modern mercantile capitalism was so efficient in its ability to produce goods that it would tend to over-produce, beyond the ability to stimulate demand.  The result would be a glut, a collapse in prices and a recession or depression which affected the whole society, a contributing factor to what even then was known as the boom & bust economy.  One approach was that of the planned economy whereby government would regulate production and maintain employment and wages at the levels required to maintain some degree of equilibrium between supply and demand but such socialistic notions were anathematic to industrialists.  Their preference was to reduce the lifespan of goods to the point which matched the productive capacity and product-cycles of industry, thereby ensuring a constant churn.  Then, as now, there were those for and against, the salesmen delighted, the engineers appalled.

The actual phrase seems first to have been used in the pamphlet Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence, published in 1932 by US real estate broker (and confessed Freemason) Bernard London (b circa 1873) but it wasn’t popularized until the 1950s.  Then, it began as a casual description of the techniques used in advertising to stimulate demand and thus without the negative connotations which would attach when it became part of the critique of materialism, consumerism and the consequential environmental destruction.  There had been earlier ideas about the need for a hyper-consumptive culture to service a system designed inherently to increase production and thus create endless economic growth: one post-war industrialist noted the way to “avoid gluts was to create a nation of gluttons” and exporting this model underlies the early US enthusiasm for globalism.  As some of the implications of that became apparent, globalization clearly not the Americanization promised, enthusiasm became more restrained.

Betamax and VHS: from dominant to obsolescent to obsolete; the DVD may follow.

Although the trend began in the United States in the late 1950s, it was in the 1970s that the churn rate in consumer electronics began to accelerate, something accounted for partly by the reducing costs as mass-production in the Far East ramped up but also the increasing rapidity with which technologies came and went.  The classic example of the era was the so-called videotape format war which began in the mid 1970s after the Betamax (usually clipped to Beta) and Video Home System (VHS) formats were introduced with a year of each other.  Both systems were systems by which analog recordings of video and audio content cold be distributed on magnetic tapes which loaded into players with a cassette (the players, regardless of format soon known universally as video cassette recorders (VCR).  The nerds soon pronounced Betamax the superior format because of superior quality of playback and commercial operators agreed with it quickly adopted as the default standard in television studios.  Consumers however came to prefer VHS because, on most of the screens on which most played their tapes, the difference between the two was marginal and the VHS format permitted longer recording times (an important thing in the era) and the hardware was soon available at sometimes half the cost of Betamax units.

It was essentially the same story which unfolded a generation later in the bus and operating systems wars; the early advantages of OS/2 over Windows and Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) over ISA/EISA both real and understood but few were prepared to pay the steep additional cost for advantages which seemed so slight and at the same time brought problems of their own.  Quite when Betamax became obsolescent varied between markets but except for a handful of specialists, by the late 1980s it was obsolete and the flow of new content had almost evaporated.  VHS prevailed but its dominance was short-lived, the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) released in 1997 which within half a decade was the preferred format throughout the Western world although in some other markets, the thriving secondary market suggests even today the use of VCRs is not uncommon.  DVD sales though peaked in 2006 and have since dropped by some 80%, their market-share cannibalized not by the newer Blu-Ray format (which never achieved critical mass) but by the various methods (downloads & streaming) which meant many users were able wholly to abandon removable media.  Despite that, the industry seems still to think the DVD has a niche and it may for some time resist obsolescence because demand still exists for content on a physical object at a level it remains profitable to service.  Opinions differ about the long-term.  History suggests that as the “DVD generation” dies off, the format will fade away as those used to entirely weightless content available any time, in any place won’t want the hassle but, as the unexpected revival of vinyl records as a lucrative niche proved, obsolete technology can have its own charm which is why a small industry now exists to retro-fit manual gearboxes into modern Ferraris, replacing technically superior automatic transmissions.

Nail

Nail (pronounced neyl)

(1) A slender, typically rod-shaped rigid piece of metal, usually in many lengths and thicknesses, having (usually) one end pointed and the other (usually) enlarged or flattened, and used for hammering into or through wood, concrete or other materials; in the building trades the most common use is to fasten or join together separate pieces (of timber etc).

(2) In anatomy, a thin, horny plate, consisting of modified epidermis, growing on the upper side of the end of a finger or toe; the toughened protective protein-keratin (known as alpha-keratin, also found in hair) at the end of an animal digit, such as fingernail.

(3) In zoology, the basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera; the basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera; the terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks, and other allied birds; the claw of a mammal, bird, or reptile.

(4) Historically, in England, a round pedestal on which merchants once carried out their business.

(5) A measure for a length for cloth, equal to 2¼ inches (57 mm) or 1⁄20 of an ell; 1⁄16 of a yard (archaic); it’s assumed the origin lies in the use to mark that length on the end of a yardstick.

(6) To fasten with a nail or nails; to hemmer in a nail.

(7) To enclose or confine (something) by nailing (often followed by up or down).

(8) To make fast or keep firmly in one place or position (also used figuratively).

(8) Perfectly to accomplish something (usually as “nailed it”).

(9) In vulgar slang, of a male, to engage in sexual intercourse with (as “I nailed her” or (according to Urban Dictionary: “I nailed the bitch”).

(10) In law enforcement, to catch a suspect or find them in possession of contraband or engaged in some unlawful conduct (usually as “nailed them”).

(11) In Christianity, as “the nails”, the relics used in the crucifixion, nailing Christ to the cross at Golgotha.

(12) As a the nail (unit), an archaic multiplier equal to one sixteenth of a base unit

(13) In drug slang, a hypodermic needle, used for injecting drugs.

(14) To detect and expose (a lie, scandal, etc)

(15) In slang, to hit someone.

(16) In slang, intently to focus on someone or something.

(17) To stud with or as if with nails.

Pre 900: From the Middle English noun nail & nayl, from the Old English nægl and cognate with the Old Frisian neil, the Old Saxon & Old High German nagal, the Dutch nagel, the German Nagel, the Old Norse nagl (fingernail), all of which were from the unattested Germanic naglaz.  As a derivative, it was akin to the Lithuanian nãgas & nagà (hoof), the Old Prussian nage (foot), the Old Church Slavonic noga (leg, foot), (the Serbo-Croatian nòga, the Czech noha, the Polish noga and the Russian nogá, all of which were probably originally a jocular reference to the foot as “a hoof”), the Old Church Slavonic nogŭtĭ, the Tocharian A maku & Tocharian B mekwa (fingernail, claw), all from the unattested North European Indo-European ənogwh-.  It was further akin to the Old Irish ingen, the Welsh ewin and the Breton ivin, from the unattested Celtic gwhīnā, the Latin unguis (fingernail, claw), from the unattested Italo-Celtic əngwhi-;the Greek ónyx (stem onych-), the Sanskrit ághri- (foot), from the unattested ághli-; the Armenian ełungn from the unattested onogwh-;the Middle English verbs naile, nail & nayle, the Old English næglian and cognate with the Old Saxon neglian, the Old High German negilen, the Old Norse negla, from the unattested Germanic nagl-janan (the Gothic was ganagljan).  The ultimate source was the primitive Indo-European h₃nog- (nail) and the use to describe the metal fastener was from the Middle English naylen, from the Old English næġlan & nægl (fingernail (handnægl)) & negel (tapering metal pin), from the Proto-Germanic naglaz (source also of Old Norse nagl (fingernail) & nagli (metal nail).  Nail is a noun & verb, nailernailless & naillike are adjectives, renail is a verbs, nailing is a noun & vern and nailed is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is nails.

Nail is modified or used as a modifier in literally dozens of examples including finger-nail, toe-nail, nail-brush, nail-file, rusty-nail, garden-nail, nail-fungus, nail-gun & frost-nail.  In idiomatic use, a “nail in one's coffin” is a experience or event that tends to shorten life or hasten the end of something (applied retrospectively (ie post-mortem) it’s usually in the form “final nail in the coffin”.  To be “hard as nails” is either to be “in a robust physical state” or “lacking in human feelings or without sentiment”. To “nail one's colors to the mast” is to declare one’s position on something.  Something described as “better than a poke in the eye with a rusty nail” is a thing, which while not ideal, is not wholly undesirable or without charm.  In financial matters (of payments), to be “on the nail” is to “pay at once”, often in the form “pay on the nail”.  To “nail something down” is to finalize it. To have “nailed it” is “to perfectly have accomplished something” while “nailed her” indicates “having enjoyed sexual intercourse with her”.  The “right” in the phrase “hit the nail right on the head” is a more recent addition, all known instances of use prior to 1700 being “hit the nail on the head” and the elegant original is much preferred.  It’s used to mean “correctly identify something or exactly to arrive at the correct answer”.  Interestingly, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes there is no documentary evidence that the phrase comes from “nail” in the sense of the ting hit by a hammer.

Double-headed nails.

Double-headed nails are used for temporary structures like fencing.  When the shaft is hammered in to the point where the surface of the lower head is flat against the surface of that into which it's being hammered, it leaves the upper head standing proud with just enough of the shaft exposed to allow a claw-hammer to be used to extract nail.  There is a story that as part of an environmental protest against the building or demolition of some structure (the tales vary), activists early one morning went to the temporary fencing around the contested site and hammered in all the double-headed nails.  This is believed to be an urban myth.

The sense of “fingernail” appears to be the original which makes sense give there were fingernails before there were spikes (of metal or any other material) used to build stuff.  The verb nail was from the Old English næglian (to fix or fasten (something) onto (something else) with nails), from the Proto-Germanic ganaglijan (the source also of the Old Saxon neglian, the Old Norse negla, the Old High German negilen, the German nageln and the Gothic ganagljan (to nail), all developed from the root of the nouns.  The colloquial meaning “secure, succeed in catching or getting hold of (someone or something)” was in use by at least the 1760; hence (hence the law enforcement slang meaning “to effect an arrest”, noted since the 1930s.  The meaning “to succeed in hitting” dates from 1886 while the phrase “to nail down” (to fix in place with nails) was first recorded in the 1660s.

Colors: Lindsay Lohan with nails unadorned and painted.

As a noun, “nail-biter” (worrisome or suspenseful event), perhaps surprisingly, seems not to have been in common use until 1999 an it’s applied to things from life-threatening situations to watching close sporting contests.  The idea of nail-biting as a sign of anxiety has been in various forms of literature since the 1570s, the noun nail-biting noted since 1805 and as a noun it was since the mid-nineteenth century applied to those individuals who “habitually or compulsively bit their fingernails” although this seems to have been purely literal rather than something figurative of a mental state.  Now, a “nail-biter” is one who is “habitually worried or apprehensive” and they’re often said to be “chewing the ends of their fingernails” and in political use, a “nail biter” is a criticism somewhat less cutting than “bed-wetter”.  The condition of compulsive nail-biting is the noun onychophagia, the construct being onycho- (a creation of the international scientific vocabulary), reflecting a New Latin combining form, from the Ancient Greek ὄνυξ (ónux) (claw, nail, hoof, talon) +‎ -phagia (eating, biting or swallowing), from the Ancient Greek -φαγία (-phagía).  A related form was -φαγος (-phagos) (eater), the suffix corresponding to φαγεῖν (phageîn) (to eat), the infinitive of ἔφαγον (éphagon) (I eat), which serves as aorist (essentially a compensator for sense-shifts) (for the defective verb ἐσθίω (esthíō) (I eat).  Bitter-tasting nail-polish is available for those who wish to cure themselves.  Nail-polish as a product dates from the 1880s and was originally literally a clear substance designed to give the finger or toe-nails a varnish like finish upon being buffed.  By 1884, it was being sold as “liquid nail varnish” including shads of black, pink and red although surviving depictions in art suggests men and women in various cultures have for thousands of years been coloring their nails.  Nail-files (small, flat, single-cut file for trimming the fingernails) seem first to have been sold in 1819 and nail-clippers (hand-tool used to trim the fingernails and toenails) in 1890.

Francis (1936-2025; pope 2013-2025) at the funeral of Cardinal George Pell (1941-2023), St Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican, January 2023.

The expression "nail down the lid" is a reference to the lid of a coffin (casket), the implication being one wants to make doubly certain anyone within can't possible "return from the dead".  The noun doornail (also door-nail) (large-headed nail used for studding batten doors for strength or ornament) emerged in the late fourteenth century and was often used of many large, thick nails with a large head, not necessarily those used only in doors.  The figurative expression “dead as a doornail” seems to be as old as the piece of hardware and use soon extended to “dumb as a doornail” and “deaf as a doornail).  The noun hangnail (also hang-nail) is a awful as it sounds and describes a “sore strip of partially detached flesh at the side of a nail of the finger or toe” and appears in seventeenth century texts although few etymologists appear to doubt it’s considerably older and probably a folk etymology and sense alteration of the Middle English agnail & angnail (corn on the foot), from the Old English agnail & angnail.  The origin is likely to have been literally the “painful spike” in the flesh when suffering the condition.  The first element was the Proto-Germanic ang- (compressed, hard, painful), from the primitive Indo-European root angh- (tight, painfully constricted, painful); the second the Old English nægl (spike), one of the influences on “nail”.  The noun hobnail was a “short, thick nail with a large head” which dates from the 1590s, the first element probably identical with hob (rounded peg or pin used as a mark or target in games (noted since the 1580s)) of unknown origin.  Because hobnails were hammered into the leather soles of heavy boots and shoes, “hobnail” came in the seventeenth century to be used of “a rustic person” though it was though less offensive than forms like “yokel”.

Nails and pins

Mug shot “pin” from TeePublic featuring Lindsay Lohan (b 1986, left), Donald Trump (b 1946; POTUS 2017-2021 and since 2025) and Paris Hilton (b 1981, right).  In this context, although the product really is “the badge”, the name was gained from the built-in pin supplied to secure the object to clothing.

As designs, a nail and a pin are similar, obviously differing only in scale but the function of each is different.  A nail’s primary purpose is to function as a structural fastener joining materials (most typically two or more pieces of wood) although there are specialized nails driven into substrate by impact (variously with hammers or nail guns (sometimes called “pin-nailers”, some of which are built to fire “panel pins” (very slender nails) or small “headless nails”).  A nail relies on friction and compression in the surrounding material for its holding strength.  Pins look like scaled-down nails but mostly are used for alignment, retention or pivoting, rather than structural load-bearing.  Because of their more delicate construction, pins often are inserted through specific-purpose, pre-existing holes and in many cases are intended to be temporary and are thus removable.  Visually, both nails and pins have heads (round, flat, clipped etc) and a tapered shank with a tip pointed for pointed tip for penetration (“snub-nosed” nails do exist but are rare) and both are designed slightly to deform the surrounding material when driven.  The most obvious difference is that a pin’s head is very small and some are spherical and made from plastic; they’re designed only to be pushed with finger-pressure rather than being hit with a hammer.  Although the term “pin” is used for some specialized devices used in building and engineering (dowel pin, pivot pin, gudgeon pin (also as wrist pin), roll pin, cotter pin etc), the word is most associated with the tailor’s pin (used mostly in textiles and usually clipped to “pin”).  In jewelry design and textiles there are also variants including the “lapel pin” and the fashion industry’s device of last resort, the “safety pin”.

Pinhead in publicity shot for Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992).

Clive Barker's (b 1952) supernatural horror movie Hellraiser (1987) was based on his novella The Hellbound Heart (1986) and was a surprise hit, making it a franchise which has thus far spawned nine sequels, the most recent released in 2022.  The plot involved a mysterious puzzle box that, when opened, summoned the Cenobites, a group of extra-dimensional, sadomasochistic beings unable to differentiate between pain and pleasure.  It was a good premise for a horror movie but the character who really captured the audience's imagination was the unnamed figure viewers dubbed “Pinhead”.  Although Pinhead appeared in the original film for fewer than ten minutes, the character became the franchise’s focal point and has since dominated the publicity material for subsequent releases.  The popularity of Hellraiser has been maintained and it’s hoped that for the next release the producers will offer the part to Peter Dutton (b 1970; leader of the Liberal Party of Australia 2022-2025).

Peter Dutton captured by a photographer during a happy moment (left), Pinhead with the box able to summon the Cenobites (centre) and and artist's depiction of Mr Dutton in “Pinhead mode” (digitally altered image, right).

No longer burdened with tiresome parliamentary duties since losing his seat in the 2025 Australian general election, Mr Dutton has time for a third career and he should be good at playing an unsmiling character who speaks in a relentless monotone; really, all he need do is act naturally.  It’s suspected also he’ll be good at learning a script given the decades he spent parroting “talking points” and TWS (three word slogans).  While it’s an urban myth Mr Dutton wasn’t offered the part of Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter movie franchise because he was deemed “too scary”, as Pinhead he’d be “just scary enough”.  While the LNP (Liberal National Party) state government in Queensland recently has appointed Mr Dutton to the board of the QIC (Queensland Investment Corporation, the investment manager of the state’s Aus$135 billion in assets), it’s understood his duties in the Aus$130,000 per annum role will be neither onerous or time-consuming so there’ll be ample opportunity for film-shoots.  Although when in opposition the LNP had decried the ALP (Australian Labor Party) government’s frequent appointment of ALP figures to lucrative sinecures, once in office the LNP continued the “jobs for the boys” tradition.  In the modern era, the two most striking characteristics of right-wing fanatics is (1) a fondness for sitting safely in a bunker while advocating for (and sometimes sending) other people's children to go a fight a war somewhere and (2) after a career spent extolling the virtues of “private enterprise” and criticizing “government waste”, being anxious to get back on the public payroll as soon as their political careers end.  Reassuringly for taxpayers who may have been worried Mr Dutton would not be able to continue to enjoy the lifestyle to which their taxes made him accustomed (“entitled” as he might have put it), it’s believed his director’s fees from QIC will not affect his parliamentary pension (understood to be between Aus$260,000-Aus$280,000 per annum).

The Buick Nailhead

In the 1930s, the straight-8 became a favorite for manufacturers of luxury cars, attracted by its ease of manufacture (components and assembly-line tooling able to be shared with those used to produce a straight-6), the mechanical smoothness inherent in the layout and the ease of maintenance afforded by the long, narrow configuration, ancillary components readily accessible.  However, the limitations were the relatively slow engine speeds imposed by the need to restrict the “crankshaft flex” and the height of the units, a product of the long strokes used to gain the required displacement.  By the 1950s, it was clear the future lay in big-bore, overhead valve V8s although the Mercedes-Benz engineers, unable to forget the glory days of the 1930s when the straight-eight W125s built for the Grand Prix circuits generated power and speed Formula One wouldn’t see until the 1980s, noted the relatively small 2.5 litre (153 cubic inch) displacement limit for 1954 and conjured up a final fling for the layout.  Used in both Formula One as the W196R and in sports car racing as the W196S (better remembered as the 300 SLR) the new 2.5 & 3.0 litre (183 cubic inch) straight-8s, unlike their pre-war predecessors, solved the issue of crankshaft flex (the W196's redline was 9500 compared with the W125's 5800) by locating the power take-off at the centre, adding mechanical fuel-injection and a desmodromic valve train to make the things an exotic cocktail of ancient & modern (on smooth racetracks and in the hands of skilled drivers, the swing axles at the back not the liability they might sound).  Dominant during 1954-1955 in both Formula One & the World Sports Car Championship, they were the last of the straight-8s in top-line competition.

Schematic of Buick “Nailhead” V8, 1953-1966.

Across the Atlantic, the US manufacturers also abandoned their straight-8s.  Buick introduced their overhead valve (OHV) V8 in 1953 but, being much wider than before, the new engine had to be slimmed somewhere to fit between the existing inner-fenders (it would not be until later the platform was widened).  To achieve this, the engineers narrowed the cylinder heads, compelling both a conical (the so-called “pent-roof”) combustion chamber and an arrangement in which the sixteen valves pointed directly upwards on the intake side, something which not only demanded an unusual pushrod & rocker mechanism but also limited the size of the valves.  So, the valves had to be tall and narrow and, with some resemblance to nails, they picked up the nickname “nail valves”, morphing eventually to “nailhead” as a description of the whole engine.  The valve placement and angle certainly benefited the intake side but the geometry compromised the flow of exhaust gases which were compelled by their anyway small ports to make a turn of almost 180^o on their way to the tailpipe.  As an indication of the heat-soak generated by that 180^o turn, the surrounding water passages were very wide. 

It wasn't the last time the head design of a Detroit V8 would be dictated by considerations of width.  When Chrysler in 1964 introduced the 273 cubic inch (4.5 litre) V8 as the first of its LA-Series (that would begat the later 318 (5.2), 340 (5.5) & 360 (5.9) as well as the V10 made famous in the Dodge Viper), the most obvious visual difference from the earlier A-Series V8s was the noticeably smaller cylinder heads.  The A engines used as skew-type valve arrangement in which the exhaust valve was parallel to the bore with the intake valve tipped toward the intake manifold (the classic polyspherical chamber).  For the LA, Chrysler rendered all the valves tipped to the intake manifold and in-line (as viewed from the front), the industry’s standard approach to a wedge combustion chamber.  The reason for the change was that the decision had been taken to offer the compact Valiant with a V8 but it was a car which had been designed to accommodate only a straight-six and the wide-shouldered polyspheric head A-Series V8s simply wouldn’t fit.  So, essentially, wedge-heads were bolted atop the old A-Series block but the “L” in LA stood for light and the engineers wanted something genuinely lighter for the compact (in contemporary US terms) Valiant.  Accordingly, in addition to the reduced size of the heads and intake manifold, a new casting process was developed for the block (the biggest, heaviest part of an engine) which made possible thinner walls.  "Light" is however a relative term and the LA series was notably larger and heavier than Ford's "Windsor" V8 (1961-2000) which was the exemplar of the "thin-wall" technique.  This was confirmed in 1967 when, after taking control of Rootes Group, Chrysler had intended to continue production of the Sunbeam Tiger, by then powered by the Ford Windsor 289 (4.7 litre) but with Chrysler’s 273 LA V8 substituted.  Unfortunately, while 4.7 Ford litres filled it to the brim, 4.4 Chrysler litres overflowed; the Windsor truly was compact.  Allowing it to remain in production until the stock of already purchased Ford engines had been exhausted, Chrysler instead changed the advertising from emphasizing the “…mighty Ford V8 power plant” to the vaguely ambiguous “…an American V-8 power train”.

322 cubic inch Nailhead in 1953 Buick Skylark convertible (left) and 425 cubic inch Nailhead in 1966 Buick Riviera GS (with dual-quad MZ package, right).  Note the “Wildcat 465” label on the air cleaner, a reference to the claimed torque rating, something most unusual, most manufacturers using the space to advertise horsepower or cubic inch displacement (CID).

The nailhead wasn’t ideal for producing top-end power but the design did generate prodigious low-end torque, something much appreciated by Buick's previous generation of buyers who much had relished the low-speed responsiveness of the famously smooth straight-8.  However, like everybody else, Buick hadn’t anticipated that as the 1950s unfolded, the industry would engage in a “power race”, something to which the free-breathing Cadillac V8s and Chrysler’s Hemis were well-suited.  For that, the somewhat strangulated Buick Nailhead was not at all suited and to gain power the engineers were compelled to add high-lift, long-duration camshafts which enabled the then magic 300 HP (horsepower) number to be achieved but at the expense of smoothness; tales of Buick buyers (long accustomed to straight-8s that ran so smoothly at idle it could be hard to tell if the things were running) returning to the dealer to fix the “rumpity-rump” became legion.  Still, the Nailhead was robust, relatively light and offered what was then a generous displacement and the ever inventive hot-rod community soon worked out the path to power was to use forced induction and invert the valve use, the supercharger blowing the fuel-air mix into the combustion chambers through the exhaust ports while the exhaust gases were evacuated through the larger intake ports.  Thus, for a while, the Nailhead enjoyed a role as a niche player although the arrival in the mid 1950s of the much more tuneable Chevrolet V8s ended the vogue for all but a few devotees who continued use well into the 1960s.  Buick acknowledged reality and, unusually, instead of following the industry trend and drawing attention to displacement & power, publicized their big torque numbers, confusing some (though probably not Buick buyers who were a loyal crew who sometimes would look down on more expensive Cadillacs because they were "flashy").  The unique appearance of the old Nailhead retains some nostalgic appeal for the modern hot-rod community and they do sometimes appear, a welcome change from the more typical small-block Fords or Chevrolets.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (1964-1999).

Not confused about numbers was the USAF (United States Air Force) which was much interested in power for its aircraft but also had a special need for torque on the tarmac and briefly that meant another quirky niche for the Nailhead.  The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (1964-1979) was a long-range, high-altitude supersonic (Mach 3+) aircraft used by the USAF for reconnaissance between 1966-1998 and by the NASA (National Aeronautics & Space Administration) for observation missions as late as 1999.  Something of a high-water mark among the extraordinary advances made in aeronautics and materials construction during the Cold War, the SR-71 used Pratt & Whitney J58 turbojet engines which featured an innovative, secondary air-injection system for the afterburner, permitting additional thrust at high speed.  The SR-71 still holds a number of altitude and speed records and Lockheed’s SR-72, a hypersonic unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is said to be in an “advanced stage” of design and construction although whether any test flights will be conducted before 2030 remains unclear, the challenges of sustaining in the atmosphere velocities as high as Mach 6+ onerous given the heat generated and stresses imposed by the the fluid dynamics of air at high speed.

Drawing from user manual for AG330 starter cart (left) and AG330 starter cart with dual Buick Nailhead V8s (right).

At the time, the SR-71 was the most exotic aircraft on the planet but during testing and early in its career, just for the engines to start it relied on a pair of even then technologically bankrupt Buick Nailhead V8s.  These were mounted in a towed cart and were effectively the turbojet’s starter motor, a concept developed in the 1930s as a work-around for the technology gap which emerged as the V12 aero-engines became too big to start by hand but lacked on-board electrical systems to trigger ignition.  The two Nailheads were connected by gears to a single, vertical drive shaft which ran the jet up to the critical speed at which ignition became self-sustaining.  The engineers chose the Nailheads after comparing them to other large displacement V8s, the aspect of the Buicks which most appealed being the torque generated at relatively low engine speeds, a characteristic ideal for driving an output shaft, torque best visualized as a "twisting" force.  After the Nailhead was retired in 1966, later carts used Chevrolet big-block V8s but in 1969 a pneumatic start system was added to the infrastructure of the USAF bases from which the SR-71s most frequently operated, the sixteen-cylinder carts relegated to secondary fields the planes rarely used.