Monochrome

Monochrome (pronounced mon-uh-krohm)

(1) A painting or drawing in different shades of a single color (now rare).

(2) The art or technique of producing such a painting or drawing.

(3) The state or condition of being painted, decorated, etc, in shades of a single color.

(4) A “black-and-white” photograph or transparency (an image reproduced in tones of gray.

(5) By analogy, something devoid of any distinctive or stimulating characteristics; bland or colourless.

(6) In ceramics, a ceramic glaze of a single colour; an object so glazed.

1655-1665: From the Medieval Latin monochrōma (painting or drawing done in different tints of a single color) from the Ancient Greek μονόχρωμος (monókhrōmos or monokhrōmatos) (of the one colour), the construct being μόνος (mónos) (one; single; alone), from the primitive Indo-European root men- (small, isolated) + χρῶμα (khrôma) (genitive khrōmatos) (colour; complexion, skin).  In Classical Latin, the most-used form was monochromos (literally “having one color”).  The sense it’s understood in photography dates from 1940 when (presumably almost instantly), the verbal shorthand became “mono”, exactly the same pattern of use when the need arose to distinguish between color printers and those using only black consumables.  The word was used as an adjective after 1849 although monochromatic (of one color, consisting of light of one wavelength and probably based either on the French monochromatique or the Ancient Greek monokhrōmatos) had been used thus since at least 1807 (presumably it pre-dated this because the adverb monochromatically is documented since 1784.  The alternative forms are both self-explanatory: unicolour used usually single solids and monotint, rare and used mostly as a technical term in art-production where, properly, it describes a reproduction of a multi-color image using just shades of a single color.  Monochrome is a noun & adjective, monochromaticity, monochromy & monochromist are nouns, monochromic is an adjective and monochromatically is an adverb.

Monochromic images of Lindsay Lohan smoking.

The classic mono laser printer of the late twentieth century: Hewlett-Packard LaserJet III (1990) in the HP Museum.

In the narrow technical sense, a monochromic image is composed of one colour or values of one colour (technically also called a monotint).  In modern use, a linguistic paradox exists because an image consisting of just one colour (eg red, yellow, blue etc) is not usually described as monochrome yet most images rendered in multiple gradations of gray-scale (just about any image described as black & white) almost always are.  For most purposes, in casual use, monochrome versus colour is a binary describing both the devices used in the production process and the output.  There’s also a scientific quirk.  Monochromatic light is electromagnetic radiation of a single frequency but, no source of this exists because that would demand a wave of infinite duration which the laws of physics don’t permit.

In fashion, the monochromatic is a place on the continuum of tonality, the effect at its most dramatic when tied to a model’s skin-tone, hair and eye-color.  In truth, what matters most is sometimes less how she appears in the flesh than how well the effect translates to photographs, something complicated by certain combinations suffering under natural light and suited only to artificial environments.  For that reason, when the most uncompromising monochrome ensembles are seen, there’s always the suspicion filters and post-production have played a part.

Lindsay Lohan at the Christian Siriano Fall 2023 show, New York Fashion Week, February 2023.

Slurring effortlessly into the auburn hair, the satin two-piece used shades of copper, burnt orange and peach, the spectrum not disturbed by anything intrusive, a shimmering peach-infused copper eye shadow with flared lashes blended by chocolate eye pencil, a luminescent focus achieved with satin glossed lips while apricot blush and bronzer was applied with an austerity which many should emulate; all part of the monochromatic moment.

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro (pronounced kee-ahr-uh-skyoo-roh)

(1) The distribution of light and shade in a picture.

(2) In painting, the use of deep variations in and subtle gradations of light and shade in color, especially to enhance the delineation of character and for general dramatic effect.

(3) In monochrome painting, using light and dark only, as in the grisaille technique.

(4) The artistic distribution of light and dark masses in images.

(5) A woodcut print in which the colors are produced by the use of different blocks with different colors.

(6) A sketch in light and shade.

1680-1690: From the Italian chiaroscuro (disposition of light and dark in a picture (literally "bright-dark"), the construct being chiaro (clear, bright) from the Latin clārus ((clear, bright, renowned, famous, illustrious)) + oscuro (dark) from the Latin obscūrus (dark, dusky, shadowy, indistinct, unintelligible, obscure, intricate, involved, complicated, unknown, unrecognized; (of character) reserved, secret, close). Related forms are the nouns chiaroscurist and chiaroscurism.  The seventeenth century Italian forms were chiaroclear and oscuroobscure.  Chiaroscuro is a noun & adjective, chiaroscurist is a noun and chiaroscuroed is an adjective; the noun plural is chiaroscuros or chiaroscuri.

De koppelaarster (The Matchmaker) (1625) by Gerrit van Honthorst (1592–1656).

In oil painting, the technique of Chiaroscuro emerged during the Renaissance.  Essentially, it aimed to create the optical illusion of three-dimensional forms by emphasizing the tonal contrasts between light and dark. It’s a clever artistic trick achieved by having light fall against the edges of solid, darker forms and the most celebrated exponents were Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt.

Three photographs of Lindsay Lohan following the chiaroscuro technique.

Now less fashionable in painting, probably because modern artists are understandably not anxious to seek comparison with old masters, it’s perhaps the dominant technique in photography and when working in monochrome, it can produce fine results.  Called the Rembrandt technique or Rembrandt lighting, it’s also been occasionally adopted by film directors although it’s difficult to execute and ultimately renders a product not at all realistic which sometimes can be the director’s intent; sometimes perhaps not.  In the case of some Soviet cinema, the technique was adopted and is considered a distinctive element in many works in the genre of "socialist realism" although that is something quite distinct from "appearing realistic".  Soviet art was riddled with such paradoxes.

Paris-based Bulgarian photographer Elina Kechichevna (b 1979) created Dior’s 2021 Spring Summer collection (SS21) campaign, emulating Caravaggio’s (1571-1610) masterful handling of the technique of chiaroscuro.  Thematically, Kechichevna explored a number of strands including feminist thought, romanticism and the interplay of chiaroscuro’s layering of light with tricks of geometry in placement.

Triptych

Triptych (pronounced trip-tik)

(1) In fine art, a set of three panels or compartments side by side, bearing pictures, carvings, or the like.  Panels are sometimes hinged so the two wing panels fold over the larger central one; historically, they were often used as altarpieces.

(2) By extension, any group of three people or things, if representative of a particular field or theme.

(3) A hinged, three-leaved tablet, written on, in ancient Greece and Rome, with a stylus.

(3) In philately, a set of three se-tenant (from the French se tenant (holding each other), the present participle of se tenir (to hold each other) postage stamps that form a composite picture.

(4) In film production, a film or video sequence intended to be shown on a triple screen with the use of linked projectors.

(5) In figurative use, any set of three closely connected ideas or concepts with a constant thematic link.

1731: From the Ancient Greek τρίπτυχος (tríptukhos) (consisting of three layers, threefold; of three plates), the construct being τρι- (tri-) (three) + ptych (stem of ptýx) (plate) and ptykhos, genitive of ptyx, (fold or layer) (and influenced by πτυχή (ptukhḗ) (a fold).  The use to describe three-part altar-piece carvings or pictures hinged together was first noted in 1849 and was based on the Italian triptica (which substituted tri- (three) on model of diptych (from the Late Latin diptycha (plural), from the Ancient Greek, neuter plural of δίπτυχος (díptukhos) (folded; double), the construct being δι- (di-) + πτυχή (ptukhḗ) (fold, layer).

The Descent from the Cross (1614) by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).

A triptych is a specific form of the polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works.  Traditionally, the centre is the largest but works can be constructed from identically sized pieces or may be wholly asymmetric.  Triptychs can be an integrated work, thematically connected in some other way, or three unrelated panels.  Origin of the layout is in the sacred art of the early Christian church, and triptychs attained great popularity in the medieval Byzantine church.  Artistic merit aside, the hinged-triptychs were a good design because they could be folded into a type of self-contained packing crate for ease of transportation, probably the main reason for the common 25/50/25% aspect ratio.  The format migrated, first to Islam and Buddhism, later to secular art including sculpture and jewelry.  Structurally, the critical point about the triptych is that it should be displayed with the three components joined together.  If their pieces are intended to be shown together but hung with a gap between, that properly is called "sectional art". 

Yes, Yessongs (1973), polyptych created with two diptychs 

In the era of the 12 inch vinyl long-playing (LP) album, record album, the covers were a sub-genre of pop-art and gatefold covers (two sleeves hinged at the centre) were sometimes used, even when the product shipped as a single piece of vinyl.  Sometimes there were even triple albums (finding that not enough, Chicago issued a set of four), described sometimes by critics as the "dreaded triple album" but in the era, there was little attempt to take advantage of the inherent structure of the packaging to create triptychs, something which seems surprising given the emphasis which was put on the cover art.  Yes, with the release of Yessongs (1973) was one of the few to take up the idea but they used four-fold packaging, creating a sort of polyptych with a pair of diptychs.

Studies in monochrome in three aspects of Lindsay Lohan smoking (2014).

New Zealand photographer Jane Trotter deconstructed the history of the triptych and identified four categories by which they may be classified.  The first is the Three Part Narrative, there images telling a story, the implication of course the beginning, middle and end of the three-act play.  Such a triptych is inherently sequential with each panel contingent upon the other, the whole story not fully revealed unless all three are viewed together.  The second category is Transformation, often the representation of the passing of time or a depiction of something symbolic.  A typical example is the one flower shown as a bud, in full bloom and finally withered, a metaphor of life and death, the transience of beauty and impermanence of life.  Third is what she calls Reconstruct to give New Meaning.  It sounds ominously post-modern but it really describes giving the viewer a new perspective of perhaps familiar objects by using fragments of a whole and re-assembling them in a novel way or having them juxtaposed with something unexpected.  Once something is reconstructed to give new meaning, it is possible some of the new meaning will come from the viewer and that it may differ between individuals who might see different connections between objects or afford some a prominence to the extent others are ignored.  Her final category is Expand Visual Connections.  Sometimes, she notes, a single image isn’t enough to encapsulate or complete the whole visual conception of a work.  This can be done by using three images to create something unified or they can act as agents of disassociation, depending on the effect the artist is trying to achieve.

The Garden of Earthly Delights, oil on oak panels by Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450–1516)

One of the best known triptychs is the much re-produced The Garden of Earthly Delights (believed to have been painted between 1490-1510) by Hieronymus Bosch; the title is a modern designation and nothing has survived which gives any clue about what the artist intended it to be called.  The three panels represent (1) the Garden of Eden, (2) a fantastical imagining of life which is not Earth yet not quite Heaven and often thought to be the artist’s conception of a utopia and (3) Hell, a subject which Bosch painted several times.  Theologians, art critics, psychoanalysts and others have over the centuries written extensively on the work and while opinion will vary about what their thoughts reveal about the intent of the artist, their pieces can be an insight into their own world view. 

For very good, practical reasons, an artist will often focus more on their relationships with their patron or their critics and less on the viewers of their works.  However, modern technology now allows an objective measure of at least one aspect of the viewers’ reaction to art and a heat-map of the public exhibition space in the gallery of the Prado museum in Madrid The Garden of Earthly Delights revealed visitors spent most time looking at right-hand panel: Hell.  Clearly, eternal damnation draws the eye more than the paradise of prelapsarian Eden or the pleasantly sinful life of man in the world after the fall.  A reasonable conclusion of the meaning of the triptych is that “for everything one does there’s a price to be paid” and it may have been this theme which focused the mind.

Researchers from the Miguel Hernández University in Alicante used spectacles with sensors to track eye movements and responses in a sample of 52 visitors and found that on average, 16 seconds per square metre were devoted to the left panel, 26 seconds per metre to the centre and a winning 33.2 seconds to each square metre of Hell.  The work typically absorbed four minutes of each viewer’s time.  What was also discovered was that the pupils of females contemplating the Eden panel swelled from 5.2 to 5.4 mm when observing the delights panel and reached 5.8 when contemplating Hell.  In contrast, the pupils of men reacted in a different way, at their most dilated (8.6mm) when looking at the delights, followed by the Hell which scored 6.8 and Eden at 6.4.

Three studies of Isabel Rawsthorne (1966) by Irish artist Francis Bacon (1909–1992).

Cammer

Cammer (pronounced kham-ah)

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

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

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

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

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

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

jennicam.org (1996-2003)

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

Jenni and pussy.

Although there were more publicized moments, jennicam.org was mostly a slideshow of the mundane: Jennifer studying at her desk, doing the laundry or brushing her teeth but it hinted at the realisation of earlier predictions, Andy Warhol's (1928–1987) fifteen minutes of fame and Marshall McLuhan's (1911-1980) global village.  While not exactly pre-dating reality television, jennicam.org was years before the genre became popular and was closer to real than the packaged products became.

The 1964 Ford 427 SOHC (the Cammer)

1964 426 HEMI in Plymouth race-car.

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

1963 Chevrolet 427 "Mystery Motor"

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

Beware of imitations.  1961 Ford Galaxie Starliner & 1962 Starlift (brochure).

Ford stayed and cheated, though not yet with engines.  Their streamlined two-door, the 1961 Galaxie Starliner, possessed the aerodynamic qualities needed on the big ovals and was a successful race-car but, after early enthusiasm, sales dropped so it was replaced in 1962 with a more palatable notchback roofline.  That sold well but lacked the slipperiness of the Starliner so performance on the track suffered.  To regain the lost aerodynamic advantage, Ford fabricated a handful of fibreglass detachable hard-tops which essentially transformed a Galaxie convertible back into a Starliner.  Not wishing to incur the expense of actually offering them as an option they knew few would buy, Ford gave the plastic roof the name “Starlift”, allocated a part-number and even mocked-up a brochure for NASCAR to read.  Only three had been built with one race won when NASCAR, not fooled, rapidly issued a ban.  After Ford took one of the black-balled Starlifts, now fitted with a 483 cubic inch (7.9 litre) engine, to the Bonneville salt flats and set a number of international speed records, NASCAR took the opportunity to impose a 7 litre (usually expressed as 427 cid) displacement limit, one rule that was easy to enforce.

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

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

1964 Chrysler 426 HEMI DOHC Prototype.

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

1965 Ford 427 FE.

That meant Ford’s 427 FE was eligible but Chrysler’s 426 HEMI was not and a disgruntled Chrysler withdrew from NASCAR, shifting their efforts to drag-racing where the rules of the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) were more accommodating (though it's not clear if Chrysler complied even with those though the NHRA welsomed them anyway).  In 1965, Chrysler seemed happy with the 426 HEMI's impact over the quarter-mile and Ford seemed happy being able to win just about every NASCAR race.  Not happy was NASCAR which was watching crowds and revenue drop as the audience proved less interested in a sport where results had become predictable, their hope the rule changes would entice GM back to motor-sport not realised.

1966 Chrysler 426 Street HEMI

It was 1967 before everybody was, (more or less) happy again.  Chrysler, which claimed it had intended always to make the 426 HEMI available to the general public and that the 1964 race programme had been just part of engineering development, for 1966 introduced the 426 Street HEMI, a detuned version of the race engine, a general-production option for just about any car in which it would fit.  NASCAR responded quickly, announcing the HEMI now complied with the rules and was welcome, with a few restrictions, to compete.  Ford assumed NASCAR needed them more than they needed NASCAR and announced they would be using the 427 Cammer in 1966.  NASCAR was now trapped by its own precedents, conceding only that Ford could follow Chrysler’s earlier path, saying the 427 Cammer would be regarded “…as an experimental engine in 1966… (to) …be reviewed for eligibility in 1967."   In other words, eligibility depended still on mass-production.

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

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

Ford 427 Cammer in 1967 Fairlane.

While the 426 HEMI DOHC never ran (the display unit's valve train was electrically activated), the 427 Cammer was produced for sale in crates and although the number made seems to be uncertain, most sources suggest it may have been as high as three-hundred and it enjoyed decades of success in various forms of racing including off-shore power boats.  Whether it would ever have been reliable in production cars is questionable.  Such was Ford’s haste to produce the thing there wasn’t time to develop a proper gear drive system for the various shafts so it ended up with a timing-chain over six feet (1.8m) long.  For competition use, where engines are re-built with some frequency, that proved satisfactory but road cars are expected to run for thousands of miles between services and there was concern the tendency of timing-chains to stretch would impair reliability and tellingly, Ford never considered the 427 Cammer for a production car.  Production cars, unlike racing engines, attract warranties.  The 427 Cammer attracted a following and, even today, it’s possible to buy all the parts needed to build one.

Roadster

Roadster (pronounced rohd-ster)

(1) An early automobile having an open body, a single seat for two or three persons, and a large trunk or a rumble seat.

(2) A horse for riding or driving on the road (archaic).

(3) A two-seater, convertible sports car.

(4) A sea-going vessel riding at anchor in a road or bay.

(5) In coastal navigation, a clumsy vessel that works its way from one anchorage to another by means of the tides.

(6) A bicycle, or tricycle, adapted for common roads, rather than for the racing track, usually of classic style and steel-framed construction (archaic).

(7) Slang for one who drives much or one who lives along the road (UK (8) archaic).

(8) Slang for a hunter who keeps to the roads instead of following the hounds across country (archaic).

(9) The pre-modern class of racing car most associated with the classic era of the Indianapolis 500 (1952-1964).

1735–1745: A compound word, road + -ster.  Road was from the Middle English rode & rade (ride, journey) from the Old English rād (riding, hostile incursion) from the Proto-Germanic raidō (a ride), from the primitive Indo-European reydh (to ride). It was cognate with raid, a doublet acquired from the Scots, and the West Frisian reed (paved trail/road, driveway).  The –ster suffix is applied to someone (or something) associated with an act or characteristic, or does something specified.  It’s from the Middle English –ster & -estere from the Old English -estre (-ster, the feminine agent suffix), from the Proto-Germanic –istrijǭ &, -astrijǭ from the primitive Indo-European -is-ter- (suffix).  It was cognate with the Old High German -astria, the Middle Low German –ester and the Dutch -ster.  Roadster is a noun; the noun plural is roadsters.

Roadsters, gullwings and courtesans

1920 Stutz Bearcat, the classic American roadster of the early inter-war years.  Such was its allure, it was (apocryphally) claimed that should anyone die at the wheel of a Stutz Bearcat, they were granted an obituary in the New York Times (NYT).

In the United States of the mid-nineteenth century, a roadster was a horse suitable for travelling and by the early 1900s, the definition had expanded to include bicycles and tricycles.  In 1916, the US Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) defined a roadster as "an open car seating two or three”, a meaning which endures to this day.  Despite the origins, use was patchy in the US with the word applied to vehicles as diverse as the front-engined USAC (Indy) racing cars of the 1950s, a variety of 1930s convertibles and the custom post-war creations otherwise known as hot-rods.

Two of the 1963 Kurtis Kraft Roadsters which ran at the 1963 Indianapolis 500.  Car 56 (Jim Hurtubise (1932–1989)) qualified 3^rd (150.257 mph (241.815 km/h)) but retired on lap 102 after suffering an oil leak.  Car 75 (Art Malone (1936–2013)) qualified 25^th (148.343 (238.735 km/h)) but retired on lap 18 with clutch failure.

Both Kurtis Kraft Roadsters used the supercharged, double overhead camshaft (DOHC) Novi V8 (167–183 cubic inch (2.7–3.0 litres)) which appeared on the Indy 500 grid between 1941-1966.  The Novi was famous for the howl it produced at full cry but it never achieved its potential because chassis and tyre technology didn’t advance to the point its prodigious power could successfully be handled, the adoption of an all-wheel-drive (AWD) platform (then still referred to as four-wheel-drive (4WD) which now is usually reserved for vehicles which claim some off-road capability) coming too late.  The Novi V8 and is sometimes compared to the 1.5 litre (91 cubic inch) BRM V16, another charismatic, supercharged, small displacement engine with a narrow power band.  The unusual fin on car 75 was an attempt to improve straight-line stability, an approach often used in the era before the implications of down-force fully were understood.

The Indy folklore is the adoption of the term “roadster” to describe the final era of the front-engined cars was the result of an act of subterfuge.  What defined the “Indy Roadster” was the engine and drive shaft being offset from the center-line of the car, something which allowed the driver to sit lower in the chassis thereby optimizing the weight distribution for use on (anti-clockwise) oval tracks.  It was in 1952 quite an innovation and the legend is that whenever there were visitors in their workshop, the Kurtis team covered the chassis with a tarpaulin and if asked, casually dismissed what lay beneath as “just our roadster” (then a common term for a “hot rod”, a hobby which became popular in the post-war years).  The name stuck when the car appeared, the design for a decade the dominant configuration in open-wheel oval racing although the writing was on the wall in 1961 when Jack Brabham (1926–2014) appeared at the brickyard in an under-powered mid-engined Cooper Climax which, although out-paced by the roadsters on the straights, posted competitive times because of its superior speed in the curves.  After that, the end of the roadster era came quickly and by 1965 one could manage to finish only as high as fifth, the last appearance at Indianapolis coming in 1968 when Jim Hurtubise’s Mallard retired after nine laps with a dropped piston (something as serious as it sounds).

1954 Jaguar XK120s: Roadster (open two-seater (OTS) in the UK and certain export markets; left) and Drop Head Coupé (DHC; right).  The roadsters were lighter and intended as dual-purpose vehicles which could be road-registered, driven to circuits and with relatively few changes be immediately competitive in racing.  The DHCs were based on the heavier, more luxuriously trimmed Fixed Head Coupé (FHC) coachwork while the roadsters featured cutaway doors without external handles or side windows and a removable windscreen.  Variations on this pre-war pattern was common in the British and parts of the European industry; even the early Chevrolet Corvettes were true roadsters.  

In pre-war Europe (though less so in the UK where “sports-car” or “open two seater” tended to be preferred), roadsters were often those with most rakish or flamboyant bodies, offered either by the factory or outside coachbuilders.  After the war, the term came to be restricted to what were once known as sports cars, the smaller, lighter and most overtly sporty of the line.  British manufacturers also distinguished, within a line of convertible two-seaters between lightweight roadsters and the more lavishly equipped drop-head coupés (DHC) which had features such a full-doors and side windows, neither always fitted to roadsters.  Interestingly, the early Jaguar XK120s and 140s (1949-1957) were marketed as open two-seaters (OTS) in UK and roadsters in the US, the home market not adopting the export nomenclature until the XK150 in 1958.

300 SL gullwing (1954-1957)

Although the public found them glamorous, the engineers at Mercedes-Benz had never been enamored by the 300 SL’s gullwing doors, regarding them a necessary compromise imposed by the high side-structure of the spaceframe which supported the body.  Indeed, the doors had never been intended for use on road-cars, appearing first on the original (W194) 300SL, ten of which were built to contest sports-car racing in 1952.  The W194 had a good season, the most famous victory a 1-2 finish in the 24 Heures du Mans (24 Hours of Le Mans) and this success, along with the exotic lines, attracted the interest of the factory’s US importer who guaranteed the sale of a thousand coupés, essentially underwriting the profitability of full-scale road-car production.  The sales predictions proved accurate and between 1954-1957, 1400 (W198) 300 SL gullwings were built, some eighty percent of which were delivered to North American buyers.  Curiously, at the time, Mercedes-Benz never publicly disclosed what the abbreviation "SL" stood for.  The assumption had long been it meant Sport Light (Sport Leicht), based presumably on the SSKL of 1929-1931 (Super Sport Kurz (short) Leicht) but the factory documentation for decades used both Sport Leicht and Super Leicht.  It was only in 2017 it published a 1952 paper discovered in the corporate archive confirming the correct name is Super Leicht.

300 SL Roadster (1957-1963)

 

That the sales reached the numbers hoped was good because the gullwing was expensive to produce and a certain volume was required to achieve profitability but by 1956, sales were falling.  At that time the US distributer was suggesting there was greater demand for a convertible so the decision was taken to replace the gullwing with a roadster, production of which began in 1957, lasting until 1963 by which time 1858 had been built.  Now with conventional front-hinged doors made possible by a re-design of the tubular frame, the opportunity was taken also to include some improvements, most notably a more powerful engine and the incorporation of low-pivot swing axles in the rear suspension.  The rear axle changes, lowering the pivot-point to 87mm (3.4 inches) below the differential centre-line did reduce the camber changes which could be extreme if cornering was undertaken in an inexpert manner but the tendency was never entirely overcome.  The swing axles, much criticized in later years, need to be understood in the context of their times, the tyres of the 1950s offering nothing like the grip of more modern rubber although it is remains regrettable the factory didn't, for its high-performance road cars, adopt the de Dion rear suspension it used on both road and competition cars during the 1930s.  Although manageable in expert hands, as the Mercedes-Benz Formula One drivers in 1954-1955 proved, the more predictable de Dion would likely have been better suited to most drivers on the roads.  In fairness, the gullwing’s rear suspension did behave better than many of the more primitive swing-axle systems used by other manufacturers but it needed to given that in any given situation, the Mercedes would likely be travelling a deal faster.  Remarkably, the Mercedes-Benz swing-axle arrangement lasted well into the age of the radial-ply tyre, in volume production until 1972 and used until 1981 on the handful of 600 Grossers built every year.

300 SLS (1957)

Less costly to build than the gullwing, a few hundred 300 SL roadsters were sold annually, the price tag reaching even higher in the stratospheric realm.  Unlike the lighter gullwing, the emphasis shifted from a dual-purpose vehicle suited to both road and track to one that was more of a grand-tourer.  The factory however managed to give the car one last fling at competition.  The SCCA (Sports Car Club of America), tired of the gullwing’s domination in the production sports car category, changed the rules to render it uncompetitive and, as the new roadster hadn’t yet achieved the volume needed to qualify for homologation, Mercedes-Benz built a new model: called the 300 SLS (Super Light Sport), two built to contest the SCCA’s modified production class.  Lighter, more powerful and with a few aerodynamic tweaks, the SLS won the trophy.

Job done, the factory withdrew from circuit racing although private teams would continue to campaign 300 SLs into the 1970s.  The road-going version continued with little visual change until 1963 although the engineering refinements continued as running changes, disk brakes adopted in 1961, the last few dozen built with a lighter aluminum engine block replacing the cast-iron casting.  When retired, it wasn’t replaced, the W113 (pagoda) and their successors (R107) roadsters a different interpretation of the genre.  It would be decades before Mercedes-Benz would again offer anything like the 300 SL.

190 SL (1955-1963)

The reception afforded the 300 SL prompted the US distributor to suggest a lower cost sports car would also be well-received.  The economics of that dictated the exotic features of the gullwing (dry-sump lubrication, the doors, fuel-injection) couldn’t be used so the factory instead grafted attractive roadster coachwork atop a shortened saloon car platform, the pedestrian four-cylinder engine barely more powerful than when found in its prosaic donor.  Still, the 190 SL (W121) looked the part and could be sold for well under half the price of a gullwing though even then it was hardly cheap, costing a third more than a Chevrolet Corvette and by then the Corvette had been transformed into a most estimable roadster with the addition of the new Chevrolet 265 cubic inch (4.3 litre) small-block V8.  Pleasingly profitable, nearly twenty-six thousand 190 SLs were built over an eight-year run beginning in 1955 and there were even plans for a 220 SL, using the 2.2 litre (134 cubic inch) straight-six from the “pontoon” saloon range (W120-121-105-128-180; 1953-1963) which had provided the roadster's platform.  Prototypes were built and testing confirmed they were production-ready but the continuing success of the 190 SL and capacity constraints first postponed and finally doomed the project.  After production ceased in 1962 (none were built in 1963 but the factory listed the final 104 cars as 1963 models), it wouldn’t be until the 1990s that the concept of a smaller roadster (the R170 SLK) to run alongside the (R129) SL was revived although, since the early 1970s, the SL (R107) had simultaneously been available with engines of different sizes and accordingly placed price-points.

190 SL Rennsport, Macau Grand Prix, 1957.

Though never designed with competition in mind, the factory did construct half a dozen higher-performance Rennsport (motor-racing) packages (referred to internally as the 190 SLR), the most important aspect of which was diet, the weight-reduction achieved with aluminium doors, a smaller Perspex windscreen and the deletion of non-essential items such as the soft top, sound insulation, the heater (they're surprisingly weighty devices) and bumpers.  Although never part of a major racing campaign, it did enjoy success including a class win in a sports car event at Morocco and victory in the 1957 Macau Grand Prix.

Last of the Adenauers: 300d (W189, 1957-1962) Cabriolet D (upper) & the "standard" 300d saloon (four-door hardtop).

Although some of its customers during the mid-twentieth-century (notably between 1933-1945) are understandably neglected in their otherwise comprehensive attention to history, Mercedes-Benz has always acknowledged and publicized the drivers and clients of the 1950s.  Their Formula One drivers (especially Juan Manuel Fangio (1911–1995) & Stirling Moss (1929–2020) were honored for decades after their retirements and Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor of the Federal Republic, was even afforded the unique distinction of being the nickname for the 300 (W186 & W189, 1951-1962), the big limousine of the era which used a substantially similar engine to the 300 SL's unit.  Note that although the top image is of a convertible, it's a "cabriolet" and not a roadster.  According to Mercedes-Benz, a roadster is a two door, two seater convertible although, since the 1960s, the factory has sometimes offered the option of single (transverse) or conventional rear seat for occasional (and sometimes uncomfortable) use.  Small, these seats were really suitable only for very young children and no pretence was made that they make a roadster into a true four-seater, 2+2 the usual (generous) description.  Being Germans, during the 1930s, Daimler-Benz decided there were sufficient detail differences between the coachwork and hood (in the sense of folding roof) assemblies offered and formalized definitions of five distinct flavors of Mercedes-Benz cabriolets.

Fraulein Rosemarie Nitribitt with 190 SL and Joe der Hund.

However, in a fate shared with some of the most valued clients of the three-pointed star between 1933-1945, nor does the factory’s historic literature dwell on someone perhaps the 190SL’s best known owners, Rosemarie Nitribitt (1933-1957).  Fraulein Nitribitt was, by 1957, Frankfurt’s most illustrious (and reputedly most expensive) prostitute, a profession to which she seems to have been drawn by necessity but at which she proved more than proficient and, as the reports of the time attest, there was nothing furtive in the way she practiced her trade.  Something of a celebrity in Frankfurt, the republic’s financial centre, her black roadster became so associated with her business model that the 190SL was at the time often referred to as the “Nitribitt-Mercedes”, her car seen frequently, if briefly, parked in the forecourts of the city’s better hotels.  Unlike the contemporary connection with Herr Adenauer, the factory never acknowledged this nickname.

190 SL sales breakdown

The lives of prostitutes, even the more highly priced, can descend to their conclusion along a Hobbesian path and in 1957, aged twenty-four, she was murdered in her smart apartment, strangled with a silk stocking, the body not found for several days.  Given Fraulein Nitribitt operated at the upper end of the market, her clients tended variously to be rich, famous & powerful and that attracted the raft of inevitable conspiracy theories there had been a cover-up to protect their interests, a rather botched police investigation encouraging such rumors.  The murder remains unsolved.  It has been suggested sales of the 190 SL suffered because of the connection, the little roadster briefly attracting the moniker “whore’s taxi” and indeed, there was a decline in the period.  However, 1956 was the first year of full-production and a second-year drop-off in sales is not unknown, gullwing production for example dropped to 308 in 1956, quite a fall from the 855 achieved the previous year and while, at least in Germany, the association with the dead courtesan may have been off-putting, without qualitative data, one really can’t say.  There was a precipitous decline in 1958 but that was the year of the worst US recession of the post-war boom where most of the drop was booked and sales anyway quickly recovered on both sides of the Atlantic.

Frankfurt police officers examining Helga Matura's 220 SE cabriolet.  Note the jackboots.

In a coincidence of circumstances, a decade later, Fraulein Helga Sofie Matura (1933-1966) was another high-end prostitute murdered in Frankfurt, the weapon this time a stiletto (the stylish shoe rather than the slender blade).  Never subject to the same rumors the Nitribtt case attracted, it too remains unsolved.  In another coincidence, Fraulein Matura’s car was a convertible Mercedes, a white (W111) 220 SE Cabriolet.  Despite the connection, the W111 never picked up any prurient nicknames and nor did its reputation suffer, the most valuable of the W111 cabriolets now attracting prices in excess of US$300,000 for original examples while German turning houses which update the drive-trains to modern standards list them at twice that.

Helga Matura (1966) by Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter (b 1932) is a German visual artist whose work encompasses glass as well as aspects of both photography and painting.  Although most noted for working in illusionistic space, some of his output has belonged to various schools of realism and he seems to place himself in many of the traditions of modernism, acknowledging surrealism, the primacy of the object and the purpose of art.  Of particular interest was his 1988 series of fifteen photo-paintings (18 October 1977) depicting four members of the Red Army Faction (RAF) (better, if a little misleadingly, known in the English-speaking world as the Baader-Meinhof Gang).  Created using monochrome photographs taken mostly before their deaths, the work was an interesting exploration of time, meaning and form.

His portrait of the late Helga Matura is representative of his technique in photo-paintings, applying the practices of the Fluxus movement to material not originally created as art.  Blurred and variously in and out of focus, it takes the entirely representational image of a photograph which is then disrupted; disruptions may be for the purposes of the artist, the subject or the viewer and indeed time, the nature of the work changing whether viewed with or without knowledge of her life and death.

Crashed, California, 2005.

In 2005, Lindsay Lohan went for a drive in her Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG roadster.  It didn’t end well.  Based on the R230 (2001-2011) platform, the SL 65 AMG was produced between 2004-2012, all versions rated in excess of 600 horsepower, something perhaps not a wise choice for someone with no background handling such machinery though it could have been worse, the factory building 350 of the even more powerful SL 65 Black Series, the third occasion an SL was offered without a soft-top and the second time one had been configured with a permanent fixed-roof.

Fixed, Texas, 2007.

However, by 2007, the car (California registration 5LZF057), repaired, detailed & simonized, was being offered for sale in Texas, the mileage stated as 6207.  Bidding was said to be “healthy” so all's well that ends well.