Toggle

Toggle (pronounced tog-uhl)

(1) A pin, bolt, or rod placed transversely through a chain, an eye or loop in a rope etc, as to bind it temporarily to another chain or rope similarly treated.

(2) In various types of machinery, a toggle joint, or a device having one.

(3) An ornamental, rod-shaped button for inserting into a large buttonhole, loop, or frog, used especially on sports clothes.

(4) In theatre, a wooden batten across the width of a flat, for strengthening the frame (Also called the toggle rail).

(5) In engineering and construction, a metal device for fastening a toggle rail to a frame (also called a toggle iron.); a horizontal piece of wood that is placed on a door, flat, or other wooden structure, but is not on one of the edges of the structure; an appliance for transmitting force at right angles to its direction.

(6) To furnish with a toggle or to bind or fasten with a toggle.

(7) In informal use, to turn, twist, or manipulate a toggle switch; dial or turn the switch of a device (often in the form “to toggle between” alternate states).

(8) A type of switch widely used in motor vehicles until outlawed by safety legislation in the 1960s.

(9) In admiralty jargon, a wooden or metal pin, short rod, crosspiece or similar, fixed transversely in the eye of a rope or chain to be secured to any other loop, ring, or bight.

In computer operating systems and applications, an expression indicating a switch of view, contest, feed, option et al.

(11) In sky-diving, a loop of webbing or a dowel affixed to the end of the steering & brake lines of a parachute providing a means of control.

(12) In whaling, as toggling harpoon, a pre-modern (believed to date from circa 5300 BC) harvesting tool used to impale a whale when thrown.

1769: In the sense of a "pin passed through the eye of a rope, strap, or bolt to hold it in place" it’s of unknown origin but etymologists agree it’s of nautical origin (though not necessarily from the Royal Navy) thus the speculation that it’s a frequentative form of “tug” or “to tug” (in the sense of “to pull”), the evolution influenced by regional (or class-defined) pronunciations similar to tog.  The wall fastener was first sold in 1934 although the toggle bolt had been in use since 1994.  The term “toggle switch” was first used in 1938 although such devices had long been in use in the electrical industry and they were widely used in motor vehicles until outlawed by safety legislation in the 1960s.  In computing, toggle was first documented in 1979 when it referred to a keyboard combination which alternates the function between on & off (in the sense of switching between functions or states as opposed to on & off in the conventional sense).  The verb toggle dated from 1836 in the sense of “make secure with a toggle” and was a direct development from the noun.  In computing, the toggle function (“to toggle back and forth between different actions") was first described in 1982 when documenting the embryonic implementations of multi-tasking (then TSRs (terminate & stay resident programs).  Toggle is a noun, verb & adjective, toggled & toggling are verbs, toggler, toggery and (the rare) togglability are nouns and togglable (the alternative spelling is toggleable) is an adjective; the noun plural is toggles.  Use of the mysterious togglability (the quality of being togglable) seems to be restricted to computer operating systems to distinguish between that which can be switched between and that which is a stand-alone function which must be loaded & terminated.

The Jaguar E-Type (XKE) and the toggle switches

1961 Jaguar E-Type roadster

Jaguar’s E-Type (XKE), launched at the now defunct Geneva Motor Show in 1961, was one of the more seductive shapes ever rendered in metal.  Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) was at the show and part of E-Type folklore is he called it “the most beautiful car in the world”.  Whether those words ever passed his lips isn’t certain because the sources vary slightly in detail and il Commendatore apparently never confirmed or denied the sentiment but it’s easy to believe and many to this day agree.  If just looking at the thing was something visceral then driving one was more than usually tactile and more than sixty years on, the appeal remains, even if some aspects such as the rather agricultural Moss gearbox in the early models was a little too tactile.

1962 Jaguar E-Type roadster with toggle switches.

Another feature of the early (1961-1967) cars admired both for their appearance and pleasure of operation touch was the centrally-located array of toggle switches which controlled functions such as lighting and windscreen wipers.  Even by the slight standards of the 1960s, ergonomically the arrangement wasn’t ideal but, sitting under the gauges, it was an elegant and impressive look the factory would retain across the range for more than a decade, the E-type using the layout until production ended in 1974 (and it endured on the low-volume Daimler DS420 limousine until 1992).  However, while the layout survived, the toggle switches did not, the protruding sharpness judged dangerous by the NHSB (the National Highway Safety Bureau (which in 1970 became the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) under the newly established Department of Transportation) which, since the publication of Ralph Nader’s (b 1934) Unsafe at any Speed (1965) had begun to write legislation which stipulated standards for automobile safety, this in parallel with the growing body of law designed to reduce emissions.

1970 Jaguar E-Type roadster with rocker switches.

In 1968, the new wave of legislation applied almost exclusively to vehicles sold in the US but such was the importance of that market it made little sense for Jaguar to continue to produce a separate line with toggle switches for sale in other countries so the decision was taken to standardize on the flatter, more rounded rocker switches.  At much the same time, other changes were made to ensure the E-Type on sale in 1968 would conform also to a number of other new rules, the most obvious being the banning of the lovely covered headlights which necessitated their replacement with higher-mounted units in a scalloped housing.  In view of the extent of the changes required, it was decided to designate the updated cars as the “Series 2” (S2) E-Type.  Jaguar in 1967 however, while not exactly a cottage industry, was not a mass-production operation along the lines of a computerized Detroit assembly line where there was almost always a clear cut-off in specification between one model run and the next and as a result, some of the Series 1 (S1) cars were produced with S2 parts, individual variations not uncommon during this transitional phase.  That had long been the Jaguar way and for all of the S1 model run there had been continuous product development, most obviously a larger engine and better gearbox but also (sometimes unannounced) were minor changes and improvements, many of which meant certain features (such as the “flat floor”, the unique aluminum interior trim on the early-build cars, the type of hood (bonnet) louvers and the external hood latches) became markers of rarity and thus desirability to collectors.  Noted among these collectors is the phenomenon of "overlap": a Jaguar might be found to include some "later" or "earlier" features than the build date would indicate should be fitted.  It's part of the charm of the breed.   

The pure lines of the S1 E-Type (top) were diluted, front and rear, by the need to comply with US safety legislation, the later head & taillights more clunky.

The process by which S1 evolved was thus a little haphazard and although the factory didn’t use the designations, collectors came to define the transitional late S1 specification cars as S1.25 & S1.5 (both descriptors said to have been "invented" by JCNA (Jaguar Clubs of North America)).  Although no exact records of per-vehicle specification were at the time maintained by the factory, the S1.25 run began on 11 January 1967 after production resumed following the Christmas holiday.  The 1.25 E-Types were a batch for the North American (NA) market (US & Canada) which featured the the open headlights but were otherwise built to the same specification as the other S1 cars built for the RoW (rest of the world) which continued to be equipped with the glass covers, toggle switches, triple SU carburetors, teardrop taillights and so on.  What came to be called the S1.5 began production early in August 1967 and were distinguished by raised headlights (without glass covers), rocker switches (and on US cars twin Stromberg carburetors replaced the triple SUs) and other detail changes although the teardrop tail lights were still fitted.  However, there was in late 1967 still something not wholly consistent about the way stocks of parts were "used up" and some E-Types with the glass covers were completed after August.  Finally, late in the year, the S2 cars proper arrived for the 1968 model year with revised headlights (mounted higher still), taillights below the bumpers, the knock-off wheel hubs replaced with "curly" hubs and a number of detail & mechanical changes.  In the collector market, it's the S1 cars which are most coveted and, although this is entirely impressionistic, based on the behavior in the market of the S1.25s,  buyers (collectors & others) do seem less concerned by the absence of toggle switches than the loss of the glass covers and headlights appear more often to have been been backdated than switches or taillights.

Norway’s Motorhistorisk Klubb Drammen (Historic Car Club of Drammen) from Buskerud county reported on an exhibition hosted on 2 July 2014 by the Norsk motorhistorisk museu (Norwegian Motor Historic Museum) in the village of Brund, the event honoring Lindsay Lohan’s birthday.  The S1.25 Jaguar E-Type was recently restored but it would require a detailed examination to determine whether it was a NA market car or one built late in 1967 to RoW specifications.  Given the location the latter is likely but there’s a two-way trans-Atlantic trade in E-Types (many now restored in Poland) so it may originally have been sold in the US or Canada.

Dual & Duel

Dual (pronunced doo-uhl or dyoo-uhl)

(1) Of, relating to, or denoting two.

(2) Composed or consisting of two people, items, parts, etc., together; twofold; double; having a twofold, or double, character or nature.

(3) In the formal grammar of Old English, Old Russian, Arabic and Ancient Greek, denoting a form of a word indicating that exactly two referents are being referred to (a form in the dual, as the Old English git (you two), as opposed to ge (you) referring to three or more.

(4) In mathematics and formal s logic (of structures or expressions) having the property that the interchange of certain pairs of terms, and usually the distribution of negation, yields equivalent structures or expressions

1535–1545: From the Latin duālis (containing two, relating to a pair), the construct being du(o) (two) + -ālis (-al) The Latin duo was from the primitive Indo-European root dwo (two).  The General sense of "relating to two, expressing two, composed or consisting of two parts" is from 1650s.  Dually is the adverb.  The general sense of "division into two" has been in use since 1831.  The noun duality (two-fold nature, state of being two or divided in two) is a late fourteenth century form from the Late Latin dualitas.

The noun dualism dates from 1755 as a term in philosophy, the sense being "a way of thinking which explains phenomena by the assumption of two independent and absolute elements," from the French dualisme (1754).  The theological adoption to describe the doctrine of “two independent divine beings or eternal principles” was first noted in 1847.

Duel Pronounced doo-uhl or dyoo-uhl)

(1) A prearranged combat between two persons, fought with deadly weapons according to an accepted code of procedure, especially to settle a private quarrel.

(2) Any contest between two persons or entities.

1585–1595: From the earlier English form duell (a single combat (also "a judicial single combat”), from the late thirteenth century Medieval Latin duellum (combat between two persons), a poetical variant of the old Latin form of bellum (war) (related to bellicose), probably maintained and given the sense “duel” by folk etymology with the Latin duo (two).  The Old Latin word was retained in poetic and archaic language, the fancied Medieval connection with duo organically creating the linguistic semi-coincidence.  In pre-Modern English, the Italian form duello was also used.  By the 1610s, the English word had taken on the specialized sense of "premeditated and pre-arranged single combat involving deadly weapons in the presence of at least two witnesses", the general sense of "any contest between two parties" dating from the 1590s.  The related verbs are duels, dueling & dueled , dueler & duelist are nouns and duelistic an adjective.  The US spelling favors the double “l”.

Dualism in Philosophy

In Metaphysics, dualism holds there are two kinds of reality: the physical world (material) and the spiritual world (immaterial).  In the philosophy of mind, Dualism is the position that mind and body are in some categorical way separate and that mental processes and phenomena are, at least in some respects, non-physical.  Both positions are radically different from even nuanced flavors of monism (which, at its most pure, maintains there is but the universe and that any form of division of the whole is artificial and arbitrary) and pluralism suggests there are many kinds of substance and not just dualism’s two.  In the pre-enlightenment age, dualism had some appeal but it’s now of only historic interest except as a device to train the mind to explore speculative paths.

Dualism in Carburetion

1967 Shelby C7zx dual quad-aluminum intake manifold for Ford 427 FE.

From the late 1950s, Detroit’s V8s, with a sudden and increasing rapidity, grew bigger and more thirsty, the most rapacious of the engines out-pacing the capacity of the carburetors brought from outside suppliers, with the result the only solution was to use two or even three carburettors.  The manufacturer did eventually produce units with sufficient throughput but it took a while for supply to meet demand.  For street use, triple induction was for some time quite a good solution because the three-in-a-row layout lent itself to a good compromise, the engine most of the time being fed only by the central two-barrel carburetor, the outer two used only when the throttle was pushed wide open.  It meant engines with great available power were actually surprisingly economical most of the time although the delicate business of tuning could be a challenge, especially in conditions where there were notable variations in temperature or humidity.  For the high performance engines however, the best cost-performance equation (ignoring the fuel consumption which was the customer's problem) was dual induction, two four barrel carburettors, mounted either in-line or side-by side, the air-flow dynamics of the latter delivering the optimal top-end-power.

Short & Long-Ram Sonoramic dual quad intake manifolds.  The difference was that the short versions had 15 inch (380 mm) tuned intake runners while the long rams had their entire 30 inch (760 mm) length tuned.  

Most dramatic in appearance of all the dual quad setups were the Sonoramics, offered by Chrysler on a handful of models between 1959-1963.  Sonoramic was a linguistic novelty but the engineering principles of tuned resonance in thermal dynamics had been known for decades, the trick being to create a shape which essentially caused the fuel-air mixture to “bounce around”, emulating a low-boost “ram-air” effect.  There were two different versions which looked externally similar but differed internally, the rare so-called “short-ram” tuned for top-end power, the “long-ram” for the mid-range torque which was ideal for street use because the additional performance was delivered in the speed-ranges at which highway passing manoeuvres typically were undertaken.

Jaguar E-Type 4.2 with triple SUs (top) & with dual Strombergs (bottom).

From its introduction in 1961, the Jaguar E-Type (XK-E for the cars delivered in North America) used triple SU HD.8 carburetors but in 1967, to conform to US emission control rules, the switch for the units delivered there was made to dual Stromberg 175 CD2SEs.  Unlike some manufacturers which arranged a separate specification for the US and other markets with more rigorous regulations, Jaguar applied the change to the entire range.  Power and torque dropped a bit, especially higher in the rev range, a prelude to the malaise which would affect so many in the 1970s.  The changes made by Jaguar to comply with the US regulations were marked by the change in designation from Series I to Series II and the most obvious modifications were (1) the carburetors, (2) the slight truncation of the cigar-shaped tail & the substitution of the elegant tail-lamps with rather more agricultural-looking units, (3) the use of safer, softer rocker switches on the dash instead of the stylish but sharp toggle switches and (4) the deletion of the lovely, fared-in head-lamp covers, the slightly elevated  replacements lending the car a slight bug-eyed look.  There were a host of other changes, most of which made the Series II a better car but it was just a bit slower and didn't look as good.

The lovely, pure lines of the Jaguar E-Type Series 1 (1961-1968, left).  It's not certain Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) really did say it was "the most beautiful car ever made" but he never denied it and he was a fair judge of such things.  The Series 2 cars (1968-1971, right) were a little more cluttered.

However, unlike the US manufacturers (and most of the Germans), even by 1967 there were cottage-industry aspects to some of Jaguar's production facilities and the E-Type changed from Series I to Series II in increments rather than one distinct movements and even then there were inconsistencies and these detail differences intrigue the E-Type cognoscenti, concerned as many are with originality.  For this reason, although the factory never used the designations, informally, what are thought “transitional cars” are often referred to as Series 1.25 or 1.5, base on the mix of earlier & later features present, the identification of which is sometime challenging because many later models were modified to make them appear partially or in whole “classic” Series 1 E-Types.  The first of the 1.25s are regarded as the models built for US delivery after January 1967 and fitted with the open head-lamps, this change not applied universally until phased in over June-July the same year.  The 1.5 designation is used of those built after August-October which in addition to certain detail changes received the dual Stromberg carburetors (if built for delivery to North America) and the rocker switches (the open head-lamps at this point slightly raised by the use of a different assembly) but the “teardrop” tail-lamps above the rear bumpers were retained.  Once the revisions were made to the tail and the tail-light, the transition to Series 2 was complete (the Series 2 cars also receiving slightly larger head-lamps).  However, in recent years the factory records have been reviewed and it’s clear some of the cars built in 1967 for delivery to North America had the covered head-lamps so these, combined with the Series 1.25 & 1.5 cars modified retrospectively, mean the task of verifying the originality of the later Series 1.X cars can be challenging.

Apparently, at the premiere of Disney’s The Parent Trap (1998), then CEO Michael Eisner (b 1942; chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company, 1984-2005), believing the central parts in the film had been played by identical twins asked her “Where's your twin?”.  She told him she didn’t have one and that she should have been paid double.