Mall

Mall (pronounced mal or mawl)

(1) A clipping of shopping mall, a (usually) large retail complex containing a variety of stores and often restaurants and other business establishments housed in a series of connected or adjacent buildings or in a single large building.  Shopping centre is the usual alternative descriptor but market, plaza, marketplace & mart are also used.

(2) A large area, sometimes lined with shade trees and shrubbery, used as a public walk or promenade (in some places called boulevard, boardwalk, esplanade, alameda, parade or walk).

(3) In urban business districts, a street from which motor-traffic has been excluded and given over entirely to pedestrians.

(4) A strip of land, usually planted or paved, separating lanes of opposite traffic on highways, boulevards etc (use restricted to certain US states).

(5) In the game of pall-mall, either (1) the game itself, (2) the mallet used in the game or (3) the place or alley where pall-mall was played.

(6) The game of polo (obsolete since the late seventeenth century).

(7) To beat with a mall, or mallet; to beat with something heavy; to bruise.

(8) In the jargon of US property development, to build up an area with the development of shopping malls

(9) In slang, (often as malling), to shop at the mall (the “mall rat” being one who frequents such places (usually in a pack) without necessarily intending to shop.

1737: From The Mall, a fashionable tree-lined promenade (then thought of as a “pall-mall alley”) in St James's Park, London where originally the game pall-mall was played.  The name of the game was also spelled palle-malle, paille-maille, pel-mell & palle-maille, pell-mell.  The noun plural is malls.

Eighteenth century woodcut of men playing pall mall.

The use to describe a "shaded walk serving as a promenade" was generalized from The Mall, the name of a broad, tree-lined promenade in St. James's Park, London (the name dating from the 1670s and an evolution of the earlier (1640s) maill), so-called because it operated as open alley used to play the game of pall-mall, an ancestor of the modern croquet.  Pall-mall (although described as a “lawn game”) was played on a surface of compacted & leveled soil, boarded in at each side, using a wooden ball which was struck with a mallet to send it through an iron arch placed at the end of the alley, the winner the one who managed to do so with the fewest shots.  The game's name is from the French pallemaille, from the Italian pallamaglio, the construct being palla (ball) + maglio (mallet), from the Latin malleus (hammer, mallet), from the primitive Indo-European root mele- (to crush, grind).  The French and Italian forms (like the English pall-mall) both refer to a game something like croquet, played in Europe after the sixteenth century.

A View of St James Palace, Pall Mall (1763), oil on canvas by Thomas Bowles (1712-1791).

The mall in the sense of a street in an urban business district from which motor-traffic has been excluded and given over entirely to pedestrians dates from 1951.  The sense of an "enclosed shopping gallery" is from 1962 (although such structures in the US pre-date the descriptor and the mall rat (one who frequents a mall) wasn’t labeled as such until 1985.  Mall is the common term in North America but in many countries they’re called shopping centres, markets, plazas, marketplaces, marts or blends of these words.  Mall is still used in the original sense of a shaded walk but is now rare, plaza, esplanade (especially if riparian, costal etc) or boardwalk tending to be preferred whereas mall is most associated with suburban shopping centres or urban streets given over to pedestrians.  The strip mall is a smaller array of shops, assembled usually in a single line parallel with a major arterial road with parking for cars directly in front.  The Pavilion on the Mali in New York’s Central Park was used in the nineteenth century by the “Park Band:, the mali a paved path lined with trees.

Lindsay Lohan enjoying Wetzel's Pretzels, Americana Mall, Los Angeles, June 2009.

The concept of a large structure or area containing the outlets of many traders wasn’t new, recognizable forms identified in the archeological record of many cultures across millennia.  What distinguished the modern mall was that it was inherently (1) suburban and (2) dependent on customers using private motor vehicles rather than walking or public transport.  It was these factors which enabled malls to develop at scale; the land being bar from city centres was cheap and the customer catchment was vast, needing only to be in driving range so thus could service an area of a hundreds square miles or more, something which explains why malls always had vast, often multi-layered car parks.  Urban geographers regard the Northland Center in Southfield, Michigan (which opened in 1954) as the first mall in the modern sense.  Immediately successful, it spawned imitators, immediately in the US and within a decade around the world, the building of malls tracking the development of road systems and the growth in car ownership.  One effect was the decline of commercial activity in city centres as traders followed their customers’ migration to the suburbs, a trend which really didn’t decline until the 1990s when the fashion for inner-city living returned.  This affected both the viability of malls and interest in developing new ones, something exacerbated by the arrival of the “big box” operations which were either single outlets at scale or thematic clusters of traders within the one geographical space.  For many customers, the clusters were attractive because, unlike the malls which tended to limit the number of similar businesses which could lease space, in a cluster one could find many shops servicing the same market centre, typically specialties such as home improvement or decorating.  Consequently, many malls had during the last quarter century been abandoned, demolished or re-purposed, the twenty-first century growth in on-line shopping accelerating the decline.

Pall Mall “Girl Watching” cigarette advertising, circa 1962.

Pall Mall menthol cigarette advertising, 1969.  By then called “the black demographic”, one of the first widespread uses of African-Americans in advertising published in mainstream media was for menthol cigarettes, reflecting the high market penetration of the product in that group.

The game Pall Mall was the subject of a number of contemporary paintings and sketches and Samuel Pepys (1633–1703; noted English diarist & Admiralty administrator) who had mentioned the game as early as 1661, in May 1663 noted in his diary: “I walked in the park… discoursing with the keeper of Pell Mell who was speaking of it; who told me of what the earth is mixed that do floor the Mall and that over all there is cockel-shells powdered.”  In an entry in 1665, Pepys referred to both street and game as Pell Mell.  There were many “Pall Mall” alleys in London and one of them became the street well known variously as a centre of artistic life, the home of many London clubs, the location of the War Office (when war offices were a thing) and a place on the Monopoly board.  Mall tends to be pronounced mawl in most of the world except in England where Pall Mall is pel mal although, even then, the phonetic influence of the US is such that mawl is often heard for uses other than the street.  In Australia, when the Queen Street Mall was in 1982 opened by Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen (1911–2005; Country Party premier of Queensland, 1968-1987), he insisted it must be pronounced mawl because he had no wish to be reminded of Malcolm Fraser (1930–2015; Liberal Party prime minister of Australia 1975-1983).

Rat

Rat (pronounced ratt)

(1) In zoology, any of several long-tailed rodents of the family Muridae, of the genus Rattus and related genera, distinguished from the mouse by being larger.

(2) In (scientifically inaccurate) informal use, any of the numerous members of several rodent families (eg voles & mice) that resemble true rats in appearance, usually having a pointy snout, a long, bare tail, and body length greater than 5 inches (120 mm).

(3) In hairdressing, a wad of shed hair used as part of a hairstyle; a roll of material used to puff out the hair, which is turned over it.

(4) In the slang of certain groups in London, vulgar slang for the vagina.

(5) As “to rat on” or “to rat out”, to betray a person or party, especially by telling their secret to an authority or enemy; to turn someone in.

(6) One of a brace of rodent-based slang terms to differentiate between the small-block (mouse motor) and big-block (rat motor) Chevrolet V8s built mostly in the mid-late twentieth century but still available (as "crate" engines) from US manufacturers.

(7) As RAT, a small turbine that is connected to a hydraulic pump, or electrical generator, installed in an aircraft and used as a power source.

(8) Slang term for a scoundrel, especially men of dubious morality.

(9) In the criminal class and in law enforcement, slang for an informer.

(10) In politics, slang for a person who abandons or betrays his party or associates, especially in a time of trouble.

(11) Slang for a person who frequents a specified place (mall rat, gym rat etc).

(12) In hairdressing, a pad with tapered ends formerly used in women's hair styles to give the appearance of greater thickness.

(13) In the slang of blue-water sailors, a place in the sea with rapid currents and crags where a ship is prone to being broken apart in stormy weather.

(14) In zoology (in casual use), a clipping of muskrat.

Pre 1000: From the Middle English ratte, rat & rotte, from the Old English ræt & rætt, and the Latin rodere from the Proto-Germanic rattaz & rattō (related also to the West Frisian rôt, the German Ratz & Ratte and the Swedish råtta & the Dutch rat), of uncertain origin but perhaps from the primitive Indo-European rehed- (to scrape, scratch, gnaw).  Zoological anthropologists however point out it’s possible there were no populations of rats in the Northern Europe of antiquity, and the Proto-Germanic word may have referred to a different animal.  The attestation of this family of words dates from the twelfth century.  Some of the Germanic cognates show considerable consonant variation such as the Middle Low German ratte & radde and the Middle High German rate, ratte & ratze, the irregularity perhaps symptomatic of a late dispersal of the word, although some etymologists link it with the Proto-Germanic stem raþō (nom); ruttaz (gen), the variations arising from the re-modellings in the descendants.

Mall rats.  In North America and other developed markets, there is now less scope for habitués because changing consumer behavior has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the volume of transactions conducted in physical stores and some malls are being either abandoned or re-purposed (health hubs and educational facilities being a popular use).  

The human distaste for these large rodents has made rat a productive additive in English.  Since the twelfth century it’s been applied (usually to a surname) to persons either held to resemble rats or share with them some characteristic or perception of quality with them. The specific sense of "one who abandons his associates for personal advantage" is from the 1620s, based on the belief that rats leave a ship about to sink or a house about to fall, and this led to the meaning "traitor” or “informant" although, perhaps surprisingly, there no reference to rat in this sense prior to 1902 where as the modern-sounding sense of associative frequency (mall-rat, gym-rat etc) was noted as early as 1864, firstly as “dock-rat”.  Dr Johnson dates “to smell a rat”, based on the behaviour of cats, to the 1540s.  Sir Boyle Roche (1736-1807), was an Irish MP famous for mangled phrases and mixed metaphors, of the best remembered of which was “I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I'll nip him in the bud".  There’s the rat-terrier (1852), the rat-catcher (1590s), the rat-snake (1818), rat-poison, (1799), the rat trap (late 1400s), the rat-pack (1951) and rat-hole which in 1812, based on the holes gnawed in woodwork by rats meant “nasty, messy place”, the meaning extended in 1921 to a "bottomless hole" (especially one where money goes).  Ratfink (1963) was juvenile slang either coined or merely popularized by US custom car builder Ed "Big Daddy" Roth (1932-2001), who rendered a stylised rat on some of his creations, supposedly to lampoon Mickey Mouse.

Cricket's most infamous rat (mullygrubber), Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1981.  Brown & beige was then a fashionable color combination.

Rat has a specific meaning in the cricketing slang of the West Indies, referring to a ball which, after being delivered by the bowler, rather than bouncing off the pitch at some angle, instead runs along the ground, possibly hitting the stumps with sufficient force to dislodge the bails, dismissing the batsman, the idea being of a rat scurrying across the ground.  In Australian slang, the same delivery is called a mullygrubber which, although it sounds old-fashioned, is said to date only from the 1970s, the construct thought based on the dialectal rural term mully (dusty, powdery earth) + grub(ber) in the sense of the grubs which rush about in the dirt if disturbed in such an environment.  Such deliveries are wholly serendipitous (for the bowler) and just bad luck (for the batsman) because it's not possible for such as ball to be delivered on purpose; they happen only because of the ball striking some crack or imperfection in the pitch which radically alters it usual course to a flat trajectory.  If a batsman is dismissed as a result, it's often called a "freak ball" or "freak dismissal".  Of course if a ball is delivered underarm a rat is easy to effect but if a batsman knows one is coming, while it's hard to score from, it's very easy to defend against.  The most infamous mullygrubber was bowled at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on 1 February 1981 when, with New Zealand needing to score six (by hitting the ball, on the full, over the boundary) of the final delivery of the match, the Australian bowler sent down an underarm delivery, the mullygrubber denying the batsman the opportunity to score and securing an Australian victory.  Although then permissible within the rules, it was hardly in the spirit of the game and consequently, the regulations were changed.

The Ram Air Turbine

Ram Air Turbine (RAT) diagram.

The Ram Air Turbine (RAT) is a small, propeller-driven turbine connected to a hydraulic pump, or electrical generator, installed in an aircraft to generate emergency power.  In an emergency, when electrical power is lost, the RAT drops from the fuselage or wing into the air-stream where it works as a mini wind-turbine, providing sufficient power for vital systems (flight controls, linked hydraulics and flight-critical instrumentation).

Vickers VC10.

Most modern commercial airliners are equipped with RATs, the first being installed on the Vickers VC10 in the early 1960s and the big Airbus A380 has the largest RAT propeller in current use at 64 inches (1.63 metres) but most are about half this size.  It’s expected as modern airliners begin increasingly to rely on electrical power, either propeller sizes will have to increase or additional RATs may be required, the latter sometimes the desirable choice because of the design limitations imposed by the height of landing gear.  A typical large RAT can produce from 5 to 70 kW but smaller, low airspeed models may generate as little as 400 watts.  Early free-fall nuclear weapons used rats to power radar altimeters and firing circuits; RATS being longer-lasting and more reliable than batteries

RAT in operation.

The airline manufacturers have been exploring whether on-board fuel-cell technology can be adapted to negate the need for RAT, at least in the smaller, single-aisle aircraft where the weight of such a unit might be equal to or less than the RAT equipment.  The attraction of housing a in an airliner's wing-body fairing is it would be a step towards the long-term goal of eliminating an airliner's liquid-fuelled auxiliary turbine power unit.  Additionally, if the size-weight equation could be achieved, there’s the operational advantage that a fuel-cell is easier to test than a RAT because, unlike the RAT, the fuel-cell can be tested without having to power-up most of the system.  The physics would also be attractive, the power from a fuel cell higher at lower altitudes where as the output of a RAT declines as airspeed decreases, a potentially critical matter given it’s during the relatively slow approach to a landing that power is needed to extend the trailing edge of the wing flaps.

If the weight and dimensions of the fuel cell is at least "comparable" to a RAT and the safety and durability testing is successful, at least on smaller aircrafts, fuel-cells might be an attractive option for new aircraft although, at this stage, the economics of retro-fitting are unlikely to be compelling.  Longer term research is also looking at a continuously running fuel cell producing oxygen-depleted exhaust gas for fuel-tank inerting, and water for passenger amenities, thereby meaning an aircraft could be operated on the on the ground without burning any kerosene, the fuel-cell providing power for air conditioning and electrical systems.

1944 Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet  (1944-1945).

The only rocket-powered fighter ever used in combat, the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet had a small RAT in the nose to provide electrical power.  The early prototypes of the somewhat more successful (and much more influential) Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter also had a propeller in the nose for the first test flights but it wasn't a a RAT; it was attached to a piston engine which was there as an emergency backup because of the chronic unreliability of the early jet engines.  It proved a wise precaution, the jets failing on more than one occasion.

Small and big-block Chevrolet V8s compared, the small-block (mouse) to the left in each image, the big-block (rat) to the right.

Mouse and rat are informal terms used respectively to refer to the classic small (1955-2003) and big-block Chevrolet V8s (1958-2021).  The small-block was first named after a rodent although the origin is contested; either it was (1) an allusion to “mighty mouse” a popular cartoon character of the 1950s, the idea being the relatively small engine being able to out-perform many bigger units from other manufacturers or (2) an allusion to the big, heavy Chrysler Hemi V8s (the first generation 331 (5.4 litre), 354 (5.8) & 392 (6.4) cubic inch versions) being known as “the elephant”, the idea based on the widely held belief that elephants are scared of mice (which may actually be true although the reason appears not to be the long repeated myth it’s because they fear the little rodents might climb up their trunk).  Bee might have been a better choice; elephants definitely are scared of bees.  The mouse (small-block) and rat (big-block) distinction is simple to understand: the big block is externally larger although counterintuitively, the internal displacement of some mouse motors was greater than some rats.        

Simile, Metaphor & Analogy

Simile (pronounced sim-uh-lee)

(1) A figure of speech expressing the resemblance of one thing to another of a different category usually introduced by as or like.

(2) An instance of such a figure of speech or a use of words exemplifying it.

1393: From the Middle English simile, from the Latin simile (a like thing; a comparison, likeness, parallel), neuter of similis (like, resembling, of the same kind).  The antonym is dissimile and the plural similes or similia although the latter, the original Latin form, is now so rare its use would probably only confuse.  Apart from its use as a literary device, the word was one most familiar as the source of the “fax” machine, originally the telefacsimile and there was a “radio facsimile” service as early as the 1920s whereby images could be transmitted over long-distance using radio waves, the early adopters newspapers and the military.

The simile is figure of speech in which one thing is explicitly compared to another, usually using “like” or “as”; both things must be mentioned and the comparison directly stated.  For literary effect, the two things compared should be thought so different as to not usually appear in the same sentence and the comparison must directly be stated.  Dr Johnson (Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)) thought a simile “…to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subject." but many long ago became clichéd and far removed from nobility.

It went through me like an armor-piercing shell.
Slept like a log.
Storm in a tea cup.
Blind as a bat.
Dead as a dodo.
Deaf as a post.

Metaphor (pronounced met-uh-fawr)

(1) A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.

(2) Something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.

1525-1535:  From the Middle French métaphore & the (thirteenth century) Old French metafore from the Latin metaphora, from the Ancient Greek μεταφορά (metaphorá) (a transfer, especially of the sense of one word to a different word; literally "a carrying over”), from μεταφέρω (metaphérō) (I transfer; I apply; I carry over; change, alter; to use a word in a strange sense), the construct being μετά (metá) (with; across; after; over) + φέρω (phérō, pherein) (to carry, bear) from the primitive Indo-European root bher- (to carry; to bear children).  The plural was methaphoris.  In Antiquity, for a writer to be described in Greek as metaphorikos meant they were "apt at metaphors”, a skill highly regarded: “It is a great thing, indeed, to make a proper use of the poetical forms, as also of compounds and strange words. But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars" (Aristotle (384-322 BC), Poetics (circa 335 BC)).

The words metaphor, simile and analogy are often used interchangeably and, at the margins, there is a bit of overlap, a simile being a type of metaphor but the distinctions exist.  A metaphor is a figure of figure of speech by which a characteristic of one object is assigned to another, different but resembling it or analogous to it; comparison by transference of a descriptive word or phrase.  It’s important to note a metaphor is technically not an element or argument, merely a device to make a point more effective or better understood.  It’s the use of a word or phrase to refer to something other than its literal meaning, invoking an implicit similarity between the thing described and what is denoted by the word or phrase.  It has certain technical uses too such as the recycling or trashcan icons in the graphical user interfaces (GUI) on computer desktops (a metaphor in itself).  The most commonly used derivatives are metaphorically & metaphorical but in literary criticism and the weird world of deconstructionism, there’s the dead metaphor, the extended metaphor, the metaphorical extension, the mysterious conceptual metaphor and the odd references to metaphoricians and their metaphorization.  Within the discipline, the sub-field of categorization is metaphorology, the body of work of those who metaphorize.  

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,--
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Richard II (circa 1594), Act 2 scene 1.

Analogy (pronounced uh-nal-uh-jee)

(1) A similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based:

(2) A similarity or comparability.

(3) In biology, an analogous relationship; a relationship of resemblance or equivalence between two situations, people, or objects, especially when used as a basis for explanation or extrapolation.

(4) In linguistics, the process by which words or phrases are created or re-formed according to existing patterns in the language.

(5) In logic a form of reasoning in which one thing is inferred to be similar to another thing in a certain respect, on the basis of the known similarity between the things in other respects.

(6) In geometry, the proportion or the equality of ratios.

(7) In grammar, the correspondence of a word or phrase with the genius of a language, as learned from the manner in which its words and phrases are ordinarily formed; similarity of derivative or inflectional processes.

1530-1540: From the Old French analogie, from the Latin analogia, from the Ancient Greek ἀναλογία (analogía), (ratio or proportion) the construct being ἀνά (aná) (upon; according to) + λόγος (logos) (ratio; word; speech, reckoning), from the primitive Indo-European root leg- (to collect, to gather (with derivatives meaning “to speak; to pick out words”).  It was originally a term from mathematics given a wider sense by Plato who extended it to logic (which became essentially “an argument from the similarity of things in some ways inferring their similarity in others”.  The meaning “partial agreement, likeness or proportion between things” fates from the 1540s and by the 1580s was common in mathematics; by the early seventeenth century it was in general English use.  The plural is analogies and the derived forms include the adjective analogical and the verbs analogize & analogized.  In critical discourse there’s the “false analogy” and the rare disanalogy.

An analogy is a comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it, aiming to explain the idea or thing by comparing it to something that is familiar.  Further to confuse, metaphors and similes are tools used to draw an analogy so an analogy can be more extensive and elaborate than either a simile or a metaphor.

The day is done, and the darkness

Falls from the wings of Night,

As a feather is wafted downward

From an eagle in his flight.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), The Day Is Done (1844).

“They crowded very close about him, with their hands always on him in a careful, caressing grip, as though all the while feeling him to make sure he was there. It was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the water.”

George Orwell (1903-1950), A Hanging (1931).

The Mean Girls mall scene, at the water hole in the jungle clearing where the “animals gather when on heat”.

Similes, metaphors & analogies are used frequently as devices in fiction including in Paramount Production’s Mean Girls (2004) and the similes were quite brutish including “You smell like a baby prostitute”; “She's like a Martian”; & “Your face smells like peppermint”.  The metaphors were obvious (this was a teen comedy) but worked well.  The “Plastics” implied the notion of things artificial, superficial, and shiny on the outside but hollow inside while “Social Suicide” would to the audience have been more familiar still.  The idea of the “Queen Bee” (a metaphorical position of one individual as the centre of the hive (school) around which all dynamics and activities revolve) was one of several zoological references.  The idea of it being “…like a jungle in here” was a variation of the familiar metaphorical device of comparing modern urban environments (the “concrete jungle” the best known) with a jungle and in Mean Girls stylized depictions of wild animals do appear, the school’s mascot a lion, a link to the protagonist having come from the African savanna.  There was also the use of a malapropism in the analogy “It's like I have ESPN or something”, the novelty being it used an incorrect abbreviation rather than a word.  The Mean Girls script is not the place to search for literary subtleties.

Of Pluto

The New Zealand physicist Lord Rutherford (1871-1937), who first split the atom (1932), explained its structure by drawing an analogy with our solar system.  Rutherford always regarded physics as the “only true, pure science” while other disciplines were just expressions of the properties or applications of the theories of physics.  In 1908, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “…for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances.”  It was said he was amused by the joke.

This image includes Pluto as a planet.  Historically, the Galileian satellites of Jupiter were initially called satellite planets but were later reclassified along with the Moon.  The first observed asteroids were also considered planets, but were reclassified when became apparent how many there were, crossing each other's orbits, in a zone where only a single planet had been expected.   Pluto was found where an outer planet had been expected but doubts were soon raised about its status because (1) it was found to cross Neptune's orbit and (2) was much smaller than had been the expectation.  The debate about the status of Pluto went on for decades after its discovery in 1930 and the pro-planet faction may have become complacent, thinking that because Pluto had always been a planet, it would forever be thus but, after seventy-six years in the textbooks as a planet, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2006 voted to re-classify Pluto as a dwarf planet on the basis that the icy orb failed to meet a set of criteria which the IAU claimed had for decades been accepted science.

To be a planet, the IAU noted, the body must (1) orbit a star, (2) be sufficiently massive to it pull itself into a sphere under its own gravity and (3), “clear its neighbourhood” of debris and other celestial bodies, proving it has gravitational dominance (cosmic hegemony in its sphere of influence by political analogy) in its little bit of the solar system.  Pluto fails the third test.  Because it orbits in the Kuiper Belt (a massive ring of asteroids and planetoids that stretches beyond the orbit of Neptune), Pluto is surrounded by thousands of other celestial bodies and chunks of debris, each exerting its own gravity.  Pluto is thus not the gravitationally dominant object in its neighborhood and therefore, not a planet and but a dwarf (a sort of better class of asteroid).  The IAU’s action had been prompted by the discovery in the Kuiper Belt of a body larger than Pluto yet still not meeting the criteria for planethood.  Feeling the need to draw a line in the sky, the IAU dumped Pluto.

However #plutoisaplanet is a thing and Pluto’s supporters have a website, arguing that while it’s universally accepted a planet should be spherical and orbit the Sun, the “clearing the neighbourhood” rule is arbitrary, having appeared only in a single paper published in 1801.  The history is certainly muddied, Galileo having described the moons of Jupiter as planets and there are plenty of other more recent precedents to suggest the definitional consensus has bounced around a bit and there are even extremists really to accept the implications of loosening the rules such as the moons of Earth, Jupiter and Saturn becoming planets.  Most however just want Pluto restored.

The most compelling argument however is that the IAU are a bunch of humorless cosmological clerks, something like the Vogons (“…not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous.”) in Douglas Adams' (1952–2001) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979-1992) and that Pluto should be restored to planethood because of the romance of the tale.  Although lacking the lovely rings of Saturn (a feature shared on a smaller scale by Jupiter, Uranus & Neptune), Pluto is the most charming of all because it’s so far away; desolate, lonely and cold, it's the solar system’s emo.  If for no other reason, it should be a planet in tribute to the scientists who, for decades during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, calculated possible positions and hunted for the elusive orb.  In an example of Donald Rumsfeld's (1932–2021; US secretary of defense 1975-1977 & 2001-2006) “unknown knowns”, the proof was actually obtained as early as 1915 but it wasn’t until 1930 that was realized.  In an indication of just how far away Pluto lies, since the 1840s when equations based on Newtonian mechanics were first used to predict the position of the then “undiscovered” planet, it has yet to complete even one orbit of the Sun, one Plutonian year being 247.68 years long.

Kosher

Kosher (pronounced koh-sher)

(1) In Judaism, a legal definition of food fit or allowed to be eaten or used, according to the dietary or ceremonial laws of the of the Talmud; in conformity with canonical texts or Rabbinical edict, the kosher rules can be applied also to non-food items such as clothing.

(2) In Judaism, adhering to the laws governing such fitness.

(3) In informal use (without any religious connotations), proper, legitimate, genuine, authentic.

1851: From the From Yiddish כּשר‎ (kosher), from Hebrew כָּשֵׁר‎ (kāshēr, kasher and kashruth) (right, fit, proper), the Yiddish reflecting the original meaning.  In the US, in the mid-nineteenth century, the forms kasher & coshar were also in use and beyond the Jewish community, the use as a general verbal shorthand for proper, legitimate, genuine, authentic etc dates from 1896 or the 1920s depending on source although it’s only “kosher” (the original, simplified form of the Hebrew) which endured thus.  Kosher is a verb, adjective & adverb, kosherness is a noun, kosherize, koshering & koshered are verbs and kosherly an adverb.  Because the state of kosherness is a matter of fact under the rules of the Talmud, the adjectives nonkosher & unkosher are often used though whether there are nuances which dictate the choice of which (or even if any such nuances are consistent) isn’t clear.  Although it’s grammatically non-standard, kosher & non kosher are sometimes used as nouns.  Even among those who tend to work in English or an English-Yiddish mix, the transitive verb “to kasher” is commonly used to describe the preparation of food to conform to Jewish law.  As a modifier it’s applied as required thus formations such as kosher salt, kosher kitchen, kosher pickle etc.

Lindsay Lohan on a visit to Westminster Synagogue with former special friend Samantha Ronson, London, March 2009.

The rules for kosher foods are codified in the Torah in the kashrut halakha (dietary law) which exists mostly in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.  Food that conforms is called kosher; that which does not is treif.  Although many elements of the rules are well known (no hare, hyrax, camel, and pig; no shellfish or crustaceans, no creeping things that crawl the earth and no mixing of meat and dairy at the same meal), for adherents, it can at the margins be complex and sometimes the adjudication of the rabbi is needed although, Judaism as practiced is not monolithic and while those who are practicing will probably adhere to a core set or rules, the interpretation varies between communities, their traditions and their level of observance.  The history is also acknowledged by scholars of the texts and it’s admitted many of the original rules about the consumption of animal flesh were a kind of health code in the pre-refrigeration era, the proscriptions applied to the animals which had been found most prone to spread illness or disease if eaten after too long after slaughter or subject to inadequate preparation.  However, despite advances in technology & techniques meaning health concerns no longer apply, because of the long tradition, the rules have no assumed the function of a devotional obligation.

McDonald's at Abasto Mall, Buenos Aires, Argentina, said to be the world’s only kosher McDonald's outside of Israel.  On some days, it’s open until 2am.

The core rules of kosher food

(1) Animals must be slaughtered with a specific method: The beast must be killed by a trained kosher slaughterer (a shochet) using a sharp blade without nicks or imperfections.  The animal must be healthy and not suffer during the process.

(2) Only certain animals are considered kosher: The Torah lists several permitted animals including cows, sheep, goats, and deer. Pigs, camels, rabbits, and other animals are proscribed.

(3) If from the sea, river or lake, only fish with fins and scales may be considered kosher; crustaceans & shellfish are proscribed.

(4) Certain parts of an animal must not  be eaten including the sciatic nerve and certain fats.

(5) Insects which dwell or habitually crawl on the ground are proscribed but flying and leaf-dwelling insects such as locusts are permitted.

(6) Fruit and vegetables must carefully be inspected for bugs and other contaminants; a contaminated item can be cleaned if only touched by a bug but if partially eater, it must be discarded.

(7) Meat and dairy must never be mixed; not stored, prepared, cooked or consumed together.  Separate utensils and dishes must be used for each.

Athenaeum

Athenaeum (pronounced ath-uh-nee-uhm or ath-uh-ney-uhn)

(1) An institution for the promotion of literary or scientific learning.

(2) A library or reading room.

(3) A sanctuary of Athena at Athens, built by the Roman emperor Hadrian, and frequented by poets and scholars (always with initial capital letter).

1727:  Adopted in English from the Latinized form of Greek Athḗnaion (the temple of Athene) in ancient Athens, in which professors taught and actors or poets rehearsed. The meaning "literary club-room or reading room" is from 1799 while the generalized "literary or scientific club" emerged in the mid 1860s.  The academy of learning in Rome was established near the Forum in circa 135 AD by the Emperor Hadrian.  The alternative (mostly US) spelling is athenaeum.

Ruins of the Athenaeum, Rome, now a working archaeological dig.

The Emperor Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus, 76–138; Roman emperor 117-138) built the Athenaeum as a place for the promotion of literary and scientific studies (ingenuarum artium), the name borrowed from the Hellenic original in acknowledgement of the still admired intellectual traditions of classical Athens.  The Athenaeum was situated near the Capitoline Hill and the ruins were discovered in 2009 during excavations for the construction of a underground rail line, in the middle of what is now Piazza Venezia.

Founded in 1824 with an exclusively male membership roll, the Athenaeum is a private club in London, on Pall Mall at the corner of Waterloo Place, the origin of which was to provide a place men of a literary and scientific bent would find convivial, an atmosphere then apparently thought hard to find in the city's more fashionable clubs.  As was the trend in the twentieth century, women sort of "crept in" as guests and later in a segregated space but since 2002 they have been admitted as full members.  In another sign of the time, it’s now a non-smoking building although charmingly, the elegant “smoking room” signs remain.  There are a number of Athenaeum Clubs in cities of the Commonwealth.

South Library, The Athenaeum Club, London.

The Athenaeum Club is noted for its three libraries, housing a collection of manuscripts, documents and books accumulated over two centuries.  The most photogenic of the three is the South Library designed by English architect Decimus Burton (1800–1881).  Although a space in the tradition of the great continental libraries, in one aspect the visual effect has been heightened in the twenty-first century, LED (light emitting diode) illumination now integrated, almost imperceptibly, into the architectural fabric.  In a nod to the layout of a library's shelving, London’s DesignPlusLights created a three-level, horizontal framework, softly to illuminate the spines, cowls added over each light source to ensure there was no leakage of luminosity, only the vertical shelving being lit.  Adding to the ethereal effect, taking advantage of the new possibilities offered by the tiny LED units, miniature spotlights were built-into the central chandelier to upwardly project light to the ceiling rose.  There’s also a trick using light as an architectural device, recessed up-lights within the window frames and fireplace drawing the eye lower, rendering the internal void something more attuned to human scale.

Gullwing & Gull-wing

Gullwing & Gull-wing (pronounced guhl-wing)

(1) In aviation, an airplane wing that slants briefly upward from the fuselage and then extends horizontally outward (ie a short upward-sloping inner section and a longer horizontal outer section).

(2) Of doors, a door hinged at the top and opening upward (applied usually to cars but can be used in aviation, aerospace and architecture).

(3) Anything having or resembling (extended and partially extended) wings of a gull (and many other birds).

(4) In electronic hardware, a type of board connector for a small outline integrated circuit (SOIC).

(5) In historic admiralty jargon, a synonym of goose wing (a sail position).

Gull is from the Middle English gulle, from the Brythonic, from the Proto-Celtic wēlannā (seagull) and was cognate with the Cornish guilan, the Welsh gwylan, the Breton gouelan and the Old Irish faílenn.  The noun Gull was used (in a cook-book!) to describe the shore bird in the 1400s, probably from the Brythonic Celtic; it was related to the Welsh gwylan (gull), the Cornish guilan, the Breton goelann; all from Old Celtic voilenno-.  Gull replaced the Old English mæw.

The verb form meaning “to dupe, cheat, mislead by deception" dates from the 1540s, an adaptation by analogy from the earlier (1520) meaning "to swallow", ultimately from the sense of "throat, gullet" from the early 1400s.  The meaning was the idea of someone so gullible to “swallow whatever they’re told”.  As a cant term for "dupe, sucker, credulous person", it’s noted from the 1590s and is of uncertain origin but may be from the verb meaning "to dupe or cheat".  Another possibility is a link to the late fourteenth century Middle English gull & goll (newly hatched bird" which may have been influenced by the Old Norse golr (yellow), the link being the hue of the bird’s down.

Wing was from the late twelfth century Middle English winge & wenge (forelimb fitted for flight of a bird or bat), applied also to the part of certain insects which resembled a wing in form or function, from the Old Norse vængr (wing of a bird, aisle etc) from the Proto-Germanic wēinga & wēingan-.  It was cognate with the Danish vinge (“wing”), the Icelandic vængur (wing), the West Frisian wjuk (wing) and the Swedish vinge (“wing”), of unknown origin but possibly from the Proto-Germanic we-ingjaz ( a suffixed form of the primitive Indo-European root we- (blow), source of the Old English wawan (to blow).  It replaced the native Middle English fither, from the Old English fiþre & feðra (plural (and related to the modern feather)) from the Proto-Germanic fiþriją, which merged with fether, from the Old English feþer, from the Proto-Germanic feþrō).  The meaning "either of two divisions of a political party, army etc dates from circa 1400; the use in the architectures was first recorded in 1790 and applied figuratively almost immediately.  The slang sense of earn (one's) wings is 1940s, from the wing-shaped badges awarded to air cadets on graduation. To be under (someone's) wing "protected by (someone)" is recorded from the early thirteenth century; the phrase “on a wing and a prayer” is title of a 1943 song about landing a damaged aircraft.

A Gull in flight (left), inverted gull-wing on 1944 Voight Corsair (centre) & gull-wing on 1971 Piaggio P.136 (Royal Gull) (right).

In aviation, the design actually pre-dates powered flight (1903) by half a millennium, appearing in the speculative drawings of flying machines by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and others, an inevitable consequence of being influenced by the flapping wings of birds.  There were experiments, circa 1911, to apply the gull-wing principle to some of the early monoplanes in a quest to combine greater surface area with enhanced strength but it wasn’t until the 1920s it began widely to be used, firstly in gliders for some aerodynamic advantage and later, powered-aircraft.  In powered aircraft, the gull-wing offered little aerodynamically but had structural advantages in that it allowed designers more easily to ensure (1) increasingly larger propellers would have sufficient clearance, (2) undercarriage length could be reduced (and consequently strengthened) and (3) wing-spans could slightly be reduced, a thing of great significance when operations began on aircraft carriers, the gull-wing being especially suited to the folding-wing model.  Depending on the advantage(s) sought, designers used either a classic gull-wing or the inverted gull-wing.  The correct form is for all purposes except when applied to the the (1954-1957) Mercedes-Benz 300 SL coupé is the hyphenated gull-wing; only the 1950s Mercedes-Benz are called Gullwings.

1945 Jamin-Bouffort JB.

Cars with gull-wing doors had been built before Mercedes-Benz started making them at scale and the principle was known in both aviation and marine architecture.  One was the 1945 Jamin-Bouffort JB, the creation of French aeronautical engineer Victor-Albert Bouffort (1912-1995) who had a long history of clever, practical (and sometimes unappreciated) designs.  The Jamin-Bouffort JB was a relatively small three-wheeler built using some of the techniques of construction used in light aircraft, the gull-wing doors the most obvious novelty.  Anticipating the 1950s boom in micro-cars, there was potential but with European industry recovering from the war, most effort was directed to resuming production of pre-war vehicles using surviving tooling and there was little interest in pursuing anything which required development time.  Monsieur Bouffort would go on to design other concepts ahead of their time, some of his ideas adopted by others decades after his prototypes appeared.

Bugatti Type 64 with gull-wing body fabricated using original conceptual sketches on 1939 Type 64 chassis.

In 1939, Jean Bugatti drew up plans for the Type 64, a vehicle with gull-wing doors, his sketches an example of the great interest being shown by European manufacturers in aerodynamics, then called usually streamlining.  Although two Type 64s were completed in 1939, neither used the gull-wing doors and it would be another eighty-odd years before Bugatti’s design was realised when collector & president of the American Bugatti Club, Peter Mullin (b 1941), arranged the fabrication of the coachwork, based on the original drawings.  Built in exactly the same way craftsmen would have accomplished the task in 1939, the body was mounted on the surviving Type 64 chassis (64002), united for the first time with what Jean Bugatti called papillon (butterfly) doors which all (except the French) now call gull-wings.

Mercedes-Benz and the gull-wing.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL prototype (W194).

By 1951, although the Wirtschaftswunder (the post-war German “economic miracle”) still lay ahead, structural changes (the most important being the retreat by the occupying forces in the western zones from the punitive model initially adopted and the subsequent creation in 1948 of the stable deutschmark), had already generated an economy of unexpected strength and Mercedes-Benz was ready to make a serious return to the circuits.  Because the rules then governing Formula One didn’t suit what it was at the time practical to achieve, the first foray was into sports car racing, the target the ambitious goal of winning the Le Mans 24 hour race, despite a tight budget which precluded the development of new engines or transmissions and dictated the use of as much already-in-production as possible.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL prototype (W194).

It was the use of a production car engine designed not for ultimate power but smoothness, reliability and a wide torque band which ultimately dictated the use of the gull-wing doors.  The engine was the 3.0 litre (183 cubic inch) M186 straight-six used in the big 300 limousines and its two door derivatives, of advanced design by the standards of the time but also big, tall and heavy, attributes not helpful to race-car designers who prefer components which are compact, light and able to be mounted low in a frame.  A new engine not being possible, the factory instead created a variation, the M194, which used the triple-carburetor induction of the 300S coupés in an improved cylinder head, the innovation being the iron-block now lying at a 50^o angle, thereby solving the problem of height by allowing it to be installed while canted to the side, permitting a lower bonnet line.  Using the existing gearbox, it was still a heavy engine-transmission combination, especially in relation to its modest power-output and such was the interest in lightness that, initially, the conventional wet-sump was retained so the additional weight of the more desirable dry-sump plumbing wouldn’t be added.  It was only later in the development-cycle that dry-sump lubrication was added.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL space-frame (W194).

The calculations made suggested that with the power available, the W194 would be competitive only if lightness and aerodynamics were optimized.  Although the relationship between low-drag and down-force were still not well-understood, despite the scientific brain-drain to the US and USSR (forced and otherwise) in the aftermath of the war, the Germans still had a considerable knowledge-base in aerodynamics and this was utilized to design a small, slippery shape into which the now slanted straight-six would be slotted.  There being neither the time nor the money to build the car as a monocoque, the engineers knew the frame had to be light.  A conventional chassis was out of the question because of the weight and they knew from the pre-war experience of the SSKL how expensive and difficult it was to reduce mass while retaining strength.  The solution was a space-frame, made from tubular aluminum it was light, weighing only between 50-70 kg (110-155 lb) in it’s various incarnations yet impressively stiff and the design offered the team to opportunity to use either closed or open bodies as race regulations required.

However, as with many forms of extreme engineering, there were compromises, the most obvious of which being that the strength and torsional rigidity was in part achieved by mounting the side tubes so high that the use of conventionally opening doors was precluded.  In a race car, that was of no concern and access to the cockpit in the early W194s was granted by what were essentially top-hinged windows which meant ingress and egress was not elegant and barely even possible for those of a certain girth but again, this was though hardly to matter in a race car.  In this form, the first prototypes were built, without even the truck-like access step low on the flanks which had been in the original plans.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL production coupé (W194).

Actually, it turned out having gull-wing windows instead of gull-wing doors did matter.  Although the rules of motorsport’s pettifogging regulatory body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation) were silent on the types and direction of opening doors and, in the pre-war era they had tolerated some essentially fake doors, their scrutineers still raised objections during inspection for the 1952 Mille Miglia.  The inspectors were forced to relent when unable to point to any rule actually being broken but it was clear they’d be out for revenge and the factory modified the frame to permit doors extending down the flanks, thereby assuming the final shape which would come to define the gull-wing door.  Relocating some of the aluminum tubing to preserve strength added a few kilograms but forestalled any retrospective FIA nit-picking.  To this day, the FIA's legions of bureaucrats seem not to realise why they’ve for so long been regarded as impediments to competition and innovation.

The W194 at Le Mans, 1952.

First tested on the Nürburgring and Hockenheimring in late 1951, the W194, now dubbed 300 SL for promotional purposes, was in March 1952 presented to the press on the Stuttgart to Heilbronn autobahn.  In those happy days, there was nothing strange about demonstrating race cars on public highways.  The SL stood for Super Leicht (super light), reflecting the priority the engineers had pursued.  Ten W194s were built for the 1952 season and success was immediate, second in the Mille Miglia; a trademark 1-2-3 result in the annual sports car race in Bern and, the crowning achievement, a 1-2 finish in the twenty-four hour classic at Le Mans.  Neither usually the most powerful nor the fastest car in the races it contested, the 300 SL nevertheless so often prevailed because of a combination of virtues.  Despite the heavy drive-train, it was light enough not to impose undue stress on tyres, brakes or mechanical components, the limousine engine was tough and durable and the outstanding aerodynamics returned surprising good fuel economy; in endurance racing, reliability and economy compensate for a lot of absent horsepower.

As a footnote (one to be noted only by the subset of word nerds who delight in the details of nomenclature), for decades, it was said by many (even normally reliable sources) that SL stood for Sports Leicht (sports light) and the history of the Mercedes-Benz alphabet soup was such that it could have gone either way (the SSKL (1929) was the Super Sports Kurz (short) Leicht (light)) and from the 1950s on, for the SL, even the factory variously used Sports Leicht and Super Leicht.  It was only in 2017 it published a 1952 paper (unearthed from the corporate archive) confirming the correct abbreviation is Super Leicht.  Sports Leicht Rennsport (Sport Light Racing) seems to be used for the the SLRs because they were built as pure race cars, the W198 and later SLs being road cars but there are references also to Super Leicht Rennsport.  By implication, that would suggest the original 300SL (the 1951 W194) should have been a Sport Leicht because it was built only for competition but given the relevant document dates from 1952, it must have been a reference to the W194 which is thus also a Sport Leicht.  Further to muddy the waters, in 1957 the factory prepared two lightweight cars based on the new 300 SL Roadster (1957-1963) for use in US road racing and these were (at the time) designated 300 SLS (Sports Leicht Sport), the occasional reference (in translation) as "Sports Light Special" not supported by any evidence.  The best quirk of the SLS tale however is the machine which inspired the model was a one-off race-car built by Californian coachbuilder ("body-man" in the vernacular of the West Coast hot rod community) Chuck Porter (1915-1982).  Porter's SLS was built on the space-fame of a wrecked 300 SL gullwing (purchased for a reputed US$500) and followed the lines of the 300 SLR roadsters as closely as the W198 frame (taller than that of the W196S) allowed.  Although it was never an "official" designation, Porter referred to his creation as SL-S, the appended "S" standing for "scrap". 

W194 roadsters at Nürburgring, 1952.

After the triumph at Le Mans, the SL won at the Eifelrennen and was then entered into in a race on the Nürburgring and to shed some weight, engineers converted three of the coupés to roadsters, emulating the body of one of the original ten which had been open-topped from the start.  To avoid any unpleasantness with the FIA, the section of the doors extending into the side of the car was retained and a smaller windscreen was installed to improve aerodynamics and afford the driver some protection from the weather and bugs unfortunate enough to be caught in the path.  The roofectomy reduced weight by about 100 kg (220 lb) which presumably helped, the four finishing in the first four places.

Winning W194, 1952 Carrera Panamericana Mexico, the protective metal struts were an ad-hoc addition after a bird strike.

One final adventure for the year yielded a perhaps unexpected success.  In November 1952, the factory entered two coupés and two roadsters in the third Carrera Panamericana Mexico, a race of 3100 kilometres (1925 miles) over five days and eight stages, their engines now bored out to 3.1 litres (189 cubic inches) increasing power from 175 bhp (130kw) to 180 (135).  The cars finished 1-2-3 although the third was disqualified for a rule violation and the winning car endured the intrusion at speed of a vulture through the windscreen.  Unlike the 300 SL, the unlucky bird didn’t survive.  There was however one final outing for the W194.  In 1955 it won the Rally Stella Alpina, the last time the event would be run in competitive form, one of many cancelled in the wake of the disaster at Le Mans that year in which 84 died and almost two-hundred injured.  Coincidently, that accident involved the W194’s successor, the 300 SLR.

1953 300 SL Prototype.

The 300 SL was re-engineered for the 1953 season, the bodywork now made from magnesium, lighter even than aluminum, the design of which had seen the car return to the wind-tunnel after which it gained a revised front section which not only reduced drag but also improved cooling by optimizing airflow to the radiator and engine compartment.  Power rose too.  Again drawing from wartime experience with the DB60x V12 aero-engine used in many German warplanes, direct fuel-injection was introduced which boosted output from 180 bhp (135 kw) to 215 bhp (158 kW).  Nor were the underpinnings neglected, the rear suspension design improved (somewhat) with the addition of the low-pivot single-joint swing axle (which would later appear on some production 300 SLs) while the transmission was flanged on the rear axle, not quite a transaxle but much improving the weight distribution.  The wheelbase was shortened by 100 millimetres (4 inches) and 16-inch wheels were adopted.  Even disk brakes were considered but the factory judged them years from being ready and it wouldn’t be until 1961 that they appeared on a Mercedes-Benz, more than half a decade after others had proved the technology on road and track.  There was however one exception to that, a disc brake had been installed between propeller shaft and differential on the high-speed truck built in 1954 to carry the Grand Prix cars between the factory and circuits in Europe.

The revised 300 SL however was never raced, the factory’s attention now turning to the Formula One campaign which, with the W196, would so successfully be conducted in 1954-1955, an off-shoot of which would be the W194’s replacement, the W196S sports car which would be based on the Grand Prix machine and dubbed, a bit opportunistically, the 300 SLR (Sport Leicht Rennen (Sport Light-Racing)).  Such was the impression made by the futuristic W194 that it would inspire production of the road-going 300 SL Gullwing (W198), 1400 of which were built during 1954-1957 (including 29 with aluminium bodies).

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (W194) (1954-1957).

Although the public found them glamorous, the engineers at Mercedes-Benz had never been enamoured by the 300 SL’s gull-wing doors, regarding them a necessary compromise imposed by the high side-structure of the space-frame which supported the body.  Never intended for use on road-cars, it was the guarantee of the US importer of Mercedes-Benz to underwrite the sale of a thousand gull-wing coupés that saw the 300 SL Gullwing enter production in 1954.  The sales predictions proved accurate and of the 1400 built, some 80% were delivered to North American buyers.  The W198 300SL was the model which became entrenched in the public imagination as “the Gullwing” and it’s the only instance where the word doesn’t need to be hyphenated.  Glamorous those doors may have been, they did impose compromises.  The side windows didn’t roll down, ventilation was marginal and air-conditioning didn’t exist; in a hot climate, one really had to want to drive a Gullwing.  There was also the safety issue, some drivers taking the precaution of carrying a hammer in case, in a roll-over, the inability to open the doors made the windscreen the only means of escape and roll-overs were perhaps more likely in a Gullwing than many other machines, the nature of the swing axles sometimes inducing unwanted behavior in what was one of the fastest cars on the road although, in fairness, on the tyres available in the 1950s that was less of an issue than it would become on later, stickier rubber.

In the US in 1956, a "fully optioned" Gullwing would have been invoiced at US$8894.00 and apart from the car itself, some of those options would proved a good investment, items like the knock-off wheels adding by the 2020s at least tens of thousands to the selling price and even the fitted luggage attracts a premium.  The options affecting the mechanical specification (notably the camshaft and choice of final drive ratio) had a significant influence on the character of the car, the former raising the rated horsepower from 220 to 240 and in its more powerful form the top speed would have been 140-155 mph (225-250 km/h) depending on the gearing.  Those serious about speed could opt for the "package" of the aluminum body with "full competition equipment" including the Rudge wheels and upgraded engine & suspension, supplied with two complete axles in a choice of gear ratios.  That package listed at US$9300.00 which in retrospective was another reasonable investment given the aluminum Gullwing from Rudi Klein's "junkyard collection" sold at auction in October 2024 for US$9,355,000.  Still, all things are relative and average annual income in the US in 1956 was about US$3600 and while it was possible to buy what would now be called a "house & land package" for around US$8000, the typical house sold for more than twice that.  The 300 SL would still have been a sound investment because although one would have incurred maintenance, running and storage costs over the decades, a well maintained 1956 aluminum Gullwing would now sell for well in excess of US$10 million while US$9600 placed in the S&P 500 index would by 2024 be worth less that three million.  There have been better investments than aluminum Gullwings but not many.   

Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR (W196S), Stirling Moss & Denis Jenkinson, Mille Miglia, Italy, 1955.

The 300 SLR (W196S) was a sports car, nine of which were built to contest the 1955 World Sportscar Championship.  Essentially the W196 Formula One car with the straight-eight engine enlarged from 2.5 to 3.0 litres (152 to 183 cubic inches), the roadster is most famous for the run in the 1955 Mille Miglia in Italy which was won over a distance of 992 miles (1597 km) with an average speed of almost 100 mph (160 km/h); nothing like that has since been achieved.  There's infamy too attached to the 300 SLR; one being involved in the catastrophic crash and fire at Le Mans in 1955.

1955 300 SLR (W196S “Uhlenhaut” coupé). 

Two of the 300 SLRs were built with coupé bodies, complete with gull-wing doors.  Intended to be used in the 1955 Carrera Panamericana Mexico, they were rendered instantly redundant when both race and the Mercedes-Benz racing programme was cancelled after the Le Mans disaster.  The head of the programme, Rudolf Uhlenhaut (1906-1989), added an external muffler to one of the coupés, registered it for road use (such things were once possible when the planet was a happier place) and used it for a while as his company car.  It was then the fastest road-car in the world, an English journalist recording a top speed of 183 mph (295 km/h) on a quiet stretch of autobahn but Herr Uhlenhaut paid a price for the only partially effective muffler, needing hearing aids later in life.  Two were built (rot (red) & blau (blue), the names based on their interior trim) and for decades they remained either in the factory museum or making an occasional ceremonial appearance at race meetings.  However, in a surprise announcement, in June 2022 it was revealed rot had been sold in a private auction in Stuttgart for a world-record US$142 million, the most expensive car ever sold.  The buyer's identity was not released but it's believed rot is destined for a collection in the Middle East.  It's rumoured also the same buyer has offered US$100 million should an authentic 1929 Mercedes-Benz SSKL ever be uncovered.  

1970 Mercedes-Benz C-111 (1968-1970 (Wankel versions)).

Although the C-111 would have a second career in the late 1970s in a series of 5-cylinder diesel and V8 petrol engined cars used to set long-distance endurance records, its best remembered in its original incarnation as the lurid-colored (safety-orange according to the factory) three and four-rotor Wankel-engined gullwing coupés, sixteen of which were built.  The original was a pure test-bed for the Wankel engine in which so many manufacturers once had so much hope.  The first built looked like a failed high-school project but the second and third versions were both finished to production-car standards with typically high-quality German workmanship.  Although from the school of functional brutalism rather than the lovely things they might have been had styling been out-sourced to the Italians, the gull-winged wedges attracted much attention and soon cheques were enclosed in letters mailed to Stuttgart asking for one.  The cheques were returned, apparently there had never been plans for production even had the Wankel experiment proved a success.  The C-111 was fast, the four-rotor version said to reach 300 km/h (188 mph), faster than any production vehicle then available.

1991 Mercedes-Benz C112.

The C112 was an experimental mid-engined concept car built in 1991.  Designed to be essentially a road-going version of the Sauber-built C11 Group C prototype race car developed for the 1990 World Sports-Prototype Championship, it was powered by the 6.0 litre (366 cubic-inch) M120 V12 used in the R129 SL and C140/W140 S-Class variously between 1991-2001.  The C112 does appear to have been what the factory always claimed it was: purely a test-bed for technologies such as the electronically-controlled spring & damper units (which would later be included on some models as ABC (active body control)), traction control, rear wheel steering, tyre-pressure monitoring and distance-sensing radar.  As an indication it wasn't any sort of prototype intended for production, it offered no luggage space but, like the C111 twenty years earlier, it’s said hundreds of orders were received.  It was 1991 however and with the world in the depths of a severe recession, not even that would have been enough for a flirtation with thoughts of a production model.  After the C112, thoughts of a gull-wing were put on ice for another two decades, the SLR-McLaren (2003-2009) using what were technically “butterfly” door, hinged from the A-pillars.

2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS-AMG (2101-2014).

The factory’s most recent outing of the gull-wing door, the SLS, which used the naturally aspirated 6.2 litre (379 cubic inch) M159 DOHC V8, was produced between (2010-2014), a roadster version also available.  To allay any doubt, it was announced at the time of release that SLS stands for Super Leicht Sport (Super Light Sport) although such things are relative, the SLS a hefty 1600-odd kg (3,500 lb) although, in fairness, the original Gullwing wasn’t that much lighter and the SLS does pack a lot more gear, including windows which can be opened and air-conditioning.  In the way of modern marketing, many special versions were made available during the SLS’s relatively short life, even an all-wheel-drive electric version with a motor for each wheel.  Such is the lure of the gull-wing motif for Mercedes-Benz, it’s unlikely the SLS will be the last and a high-priced revival is expected to become a feature of the marketing cycle every couple of decades but we're unlikely to see any more V8s or V12s unless perhaps as a swan-song, AMG indicating recently they expect their 4.0 litre (244 cubic inch) V8 to remain in production for another ten years, Greta Thunberg (b 2003) and her henchmen the humorless EU bureaucrats permitting.

Lindsay Lohan at the Nicholas Kirkwood (b 1980; shoe designer) catwalk show with a prop vehicle (one of the gull-wing DMC DeLoreans modified closely to resemble the one used in the popular film Back to the Future (1985)), London Fashion Week, 2015.

Tesla Model X with falcon-wing doors.

Such was the allure of the 300 SL’s gull-wing doors that in the shadow they’ve cast for seventy-odd years, literally dozens of cars have appeared with the features, some of questionable aesthetic quality, some well-executed and while most were one-offs or produced only in small runs, there’s been the occasional (usually brief) success and of late some Teslas have been so equipped and with the novelty of them being the back doors, the front units conventionally hinged.  Tesla calls them “falcon wings” because the design was influenced by the bird.  However, the biomimicry was (for obvious reasons) not an attempt to gain the aerodynamic advantages of the falcon’s wing shape which affords exceptional maneuverability in flight but simply an adoption of the specific bone structure.  Unlike the fixed structure of the classic gull-wing door, the Tesla’s falcon-wing is fitted with an additional central joint which permits them to be opened in cramped spaces, aiding passenger ingress and egress.  Some Tesla engineers have however admitted the attraction of them as way to generate publicity and (hopefully) attract sales may have been considered during the design process.

Bricklin SV-1 (1974-1975, left) and DMC DeLorean (1981-1983, right).

Two of the best known of the doomed gull-wing cars were the Bricklin SV1 and the DeLorean, both the creations of individuals with interesting histories.  Malcolm Bricklin’s (b 1939) first flirtation with the automotive business was his introduction into the US market of the Subarus, built by the Japanese conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries.  Having successfully imported the company’s scooters for some years, the model Mr Bricklin in 1968 chose was the 360, a tiny, egg-shaped device which had been sold in Japan for a decade, the rationale underlying his selection being it was so small and light it was exempt from just about any regulations.  Although really unsuited to US motoring conditions it was (at US$1300) several hundred dollars cheaper than a Volkswagen Beetle and had a fuel consumption around a third that delivered by the even the more economical US-built cars so it found a niche and some ten-thousand were sold before that gap in the market was saturated.  Ever imaginative, Mr Bricklin then took his hundreds of unsold 360s and re-purposed them essentially as large dodgem-cars, renting unused shopping-mall car-parks as ad-hoc race tracks and offering “laps” for as little as $US1.00.  He advertised “no speed limits” to attract the youth market but given the little machines took a reported 56 seconds for the 0-60 mph (0-100 km/h) run, reaching the legal limit in a car-park would have been a challenge.  Mr Bricklin achieved further success with Subaru’s more conventional (in a front wheel drive (FWD) context) 1000 and the corporation would later buy out his US interests for was thought to be a most lucrative transaction for both parties.

1969 Subaru 360 Deluxe.

His eponymous gull-winged creation was the SV-1 which, although nominally positioned as a “sports car” was marketed also as a “safety-vehicle” (hence the SV).  It certainly contained all of the safety features of the time and in that vein was offered mostly in lurid “high visibility” colors although the prototypes for an up-market “Chairman” version were displayed in more restrained black or white.  It was ahead of its time in one way, being fitted with neither ash-trays nor cigarette lighters, Mr Bricklin not approving of smoking and regarding the distractions of lighting-up while at the wheel a safety hazard.  Whether in stable conditions the car could have succeeded is speculative but the timing was extraordinarily unlucky.  The V8-powered car arrived on the market in 1974 shortly after the first oil shock saw a spike in the price of gasoline and in the midst of the recession and inflation which followed in the wake of that.  Between its introduction and demise, the costs of the SV1 more than doubled and there were disruptions to the production process because supply problems (or unpaid bills depending on who was asked) meant the AMC engine had to be replaced with a Ford power-plant.  By the time production ended, some 3000 had been built, but, not discouraged, Mr Bricklin would go on to import Fiat sports cars and the infamous Yugo before being involved with a variety of co-ventures with Chinese partners.

1970 Pontiac GTO convertible.

John DeLorean (1925–2005) was a genuinely gifted engineer who emerged as one of the charismatic characters responsible for some of the memorable machines General Motors (GM) produced during its golden age of the 1950s & 1960s.  Under Mr DeLorean’s leadership, Pontiac in 1964 released the GTO which is considered (though contested by some) the first “muscle car” and the one responsible for the whole genre which would flourish for a crazy half-dozen years and in 1969 the Grand Prix which defined a whole market segment.  Apparently, the Grand Prix, produced at a low cost and sold at a high price was one of the most profitable lines of the era.  Given this, Mr DeLorean expected a smooth path to the top of GM but for a variety of reasons there were internal tensions and in 1973 he resigned to pursue his dream of making his own car.  It took years however to reach fruition because the 1970s were troubled times and like the Bricklin SV1, the DeLorean Motor Company’s (DMC) gull-winged DeLorean was released into a world less welcoming then had been anticipated.  By 1981, the world was again in recession and the complicated web of financing arrangements and agreements with the UK government to subsidize productions could have worked only if the design was good, demand was strong and the product was well-built, none of which was true.

1969 Pontiac Grand Prix 428 SJ.

As the inventory of unsold cars grew, so did the debt and desperate for cash, Mr DeLorean was persuaded (apparently without great difficulty) to become involved in the cocaine trafficking business which certainly offered fast money but his co-conspirator turned out to be an FBI informant who was a career criminal seeking a reduced sentence (on a unrelated matter) by providing the bureau with “a big scalp”.  At trial in 1984, Mr DeLorean was acquitted on all charges under the rule of "entrapment" but by then DMC was long bankrupt.  In the years since, the car has found a cult following, something due more to its part in the Back to the Future films than any dynamic qualities it possessed.  It was competent as a road car despite the rear-engine configuration and the use of an uninspiring power-plant but, apart from the stainless-steel bodywork and of course the doors, it had little to commend it although over the years there have been a number of (ultimately aborted) revivals and plans remain afoot for an electric gull-wing machine using the name to be released in 2024 or 2025.