Trench

Trench (pronounced trensh)

(1) In military (usually army (infantry)) use, an elongated pit for protection of soldiers and or equipment, usually perpendicular to the line of sight toward the enemy.

(2) A system of such excavations, with their embankments etc (usually in the plural).

(3) To dig or construct such a structure; to form a furrow, ditch, etc by cutting into or through something.

(4) In archaeology, a pit, usually rectangular with smooth walls and floor, excavated during an archaeological investigation; any deep furrow, ditch, or cut.

(5) In oceanography, a long, steep-sided, narrow depression in the ocean floor.

(6) To invade, especially with regard to the rights or the exclusive authority of another; to tend towards or encroach upon.

(7) A type of over coat.

(8) To have direction; to aim or tend.

(9) To cut; to form or shape by cutting; to make by incision, hewing, etc.

(10) In (mostly historic military) medicine, as trench foot, a type of foot damage caused by prolonged exposure to moisture.  Those most associated with the trench warfare of the First World War (from which it gained the name), the condition was first described by physicians attached to Napoleon Bonaparte's army during the retreat from Russia in the winter of 1812.

1350-1400: From the Middle English trenche (track cut through a wood or path made by cutting (later long, narrow ditch)) from the Old French trenche (a slice, cut, gash, slash; defensive ditch), from the verb trecncier (to cut, carve, slice), possibly from the Vulgar Latin trincāre (cut into three parts), from the Classical Latin was truncāre (to maim, mutilate, cut off), from truncus (maimed, mutilated).  Truncus also had the meaning "trunk of a tree, trunk of the body" and is of uncertain origin, perhaps from the primitive Indo-European root tere (cross over, pass through, overcome).  The first use by the military for trench in the modern sense was noted circa 1500 with trench foot mentioned in reports in 1915 although the condition had been documented since 1812 and doubtlessly had been long existed.  The trench coat dates from 1916 and, perhaps surprisingly, "trench warfare" didn’t appear in print until 1918.  Trench is a noun & verb, trenching is a noun, verb & adjective and trenched is a verb; the noun plural is trenches.  Forms such as detrench, retrench, entrench etc are coined as needed.  The adjective trenchant once had the meaning "fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp" but this is long obsolete; in figurative use it now conveys "keen; biting; vigorously articulate and effective; severe".

The trench coat

Winston Churchill (1875-1965, right), commanding the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers, with his deputy, Sir Archie Sinclair (1890–1970, right), Armentieres 11 February 1916.  Both are wearing trench coats, Churchill in a French M15 Adrian helmet.

One oft-repeated story of the origin of the trench coat is it was created as a khaki-colored overcoat to offer protection to soldiers suffering in the muddy, sometimes water-logged trenches on the western front during the First World War.  That was certainly where it picked up the name but, (like the medical condition trench food which had been known to army physicians for over a hundred years) the garment long pre-existed the conflict.  It was descended from waterproof coats created by Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh (1766–1843) and self-taught English engineer Thomas Hancock (1786–1865) in the early 1820s.

Macintosh and Hancock’s rain-repellent garment was called the “mac” or “macintosh" names which became generic for the type of product, a usage which, in parts of the UK endures to this day.  Created from a rubberized cotton, the mac was outerwear offering protection from rain or the elements in general, the target market wide in the age of horse-drawn transport and included anyone for whom outdoor activities were a part of the day.  The mac proved popular among those in horse racing, farming and the whole hunting, fishing and shooting set as well as the military officers with which it would later be so associated.  Macintosh continued to refine the material, the fabric by mid-century breathable, and more water-resistant and in 1853, Regent Street tailor John Emary (b circa 1810, his date of death unknown), designed an improved raincoat, which he produced under the name of his company, Aquascutum (from the Latin aqua (water) + scutum (shield).  Aquascutum’s success attracted the attention of Hampshire draper Thomas Burberry (1835–1926) who would, in 1856, found his eponymous company.  Burberry’s innovation in 1879 was the weatherproofing of individual strands of cotton and wool fibres using a coating of lanolin, rather than something applied to a finished textile, Burberry’s gabardine (a borrowing of a word from the 1590s which described a number of garments, all variations of protective, enveloping cloaks) fabric so superior to anything else available that it was instantly successful.

Lindsay Lohan in trench coat, out shopping.

Over the years, both the recently much-troubled Aquascutum and Burberry have taken credit for having invented the trench coat but both were popularisers of a pre-existing product, Burberry’s re-writing of history more successful to the point where the Burberry Trench Coat is definitive of the type, most others imitative even in variation.  The style too remains class-associative, worn during the Great War only by the officer class and thus gentlemen (though as the death-toll of them rose, it came to be worn also by “temporary gentlemen” a wartime necessity of the British class-system).  The genuine Burberry and Aquascutum trench coats were expensive, but their image and utility attracted other manufacturers which soon had more affordable imitations on the shelves; that remains the market segmentation today.

Burberry Long Chelsea Heritage Trench Coat (US$2450.00).

The variation Burberry created for military use was released in 1912, the term “trench coat” appearing in print first in 1916 in a tailoring trade journal.  The classic wartime trench coat was double-breasted, tailored to the waist, and flared to a below-the-knee hemline, the belt equipped with D-rings for hooking accessories.  It was a functional design with a caped back so water to drip off while the storm flap at the shoulder provided ventilation, the pockets were deep, cuffs could be tightened, and the buttons at the neck, although there for traditional reasons, provided valuable protect against poison gas when that began to be used in 1915.  Some coats even came with a warm, removable liner, which could be used as bedding and the emblematic shade of khaki so identified with the Burberry Trench was part of the War Office specification, just a standard British Army color.  According to Burberry, although advances in technology and the introduction of new machinery has meant the patterns for their trench coats have been changed, some stitching methods have been updated and metric dimensions are now used, were a garment now to be fashioned from the originals, it would be visually indistinguishable for the current range.

A model in mini-length trench coat adorning a Citroën 2CV.  The 2CV was a popular prop for the French fashion glossies, editors liking the juxtaposition of high-fashion and basic motoring.

A pre-war design due for release in October, 1939, the 2CV (“deux chevaux” (two horses) an indication of the car being in the “two horsepower” taxation class although the production cars had at least a heady 9 HP) the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945) delayed introduction until 1948.  The 1939 pre-production prototypes had been exercises in utilitarianism as minimalist as any but over the years features were added and in the 1970s some were even built with 33 HP engines.  Although outdated during its first decade of life, the 2CV possessed such a combination of virtues that the last wasn’t built until 1990 and the platform proved versatile enough to support a number of commercial variants including a twin-engined version with AWD (all-wheel-drive) and, unusually, a driver could chose to run in FWD (front-wheel-drive) or RWD (rear-wheel-drive) configuration by choosing to run either engine or both.

Lindsay Lohan in sheer trench coat from DKNY's anniversary collection, Esquire DKNY official opening party, One Embankment, London, June 2014.

The coats became especially popular after the Second World War.  Although the price differential for the genuine article is striking (it can be ten times the cost of a knock-off), the difference is certainly discernible, each coat made from gabardine in Castleford and said to take some three weeks to complete.  A Burberry check, a signature combination of camel, ivory, red and black has lined the coats since the 1920s.  A fashion convention emerged in the late 1960s: Whereas the military tradition was always to use the buckle to secure the belt, true fashionistas prefer to tie.

Periscope

Periscope (pronounced per-uh-skohp)

(1) Any of a number of optical instruments used to view objects that are above the level of direct sight or in an otherwise obstructed field of vision, consisting essentially of a tube with an arrangement of prisms or mirrors and, usually, lenses; used especially in submarines and military reconnaissance.

(2) A periscopic lens.

(3) A now defunct live video streaming app for Android and iOS, acquired by Twitter (before launch) in 2015 and depreciated between 2016-2021.

(4) A general or comprehensive view (obsolete).

1815–1825: The construct was peri + scope, a back formation from periscopic from the Ancient Greek periskopein (to look around).  Peri- was from the Ancient Greek περί (perí) (about, around) and was cognate with the primitive Indo-European via.  Scope was from the From Italian scopo (purpose), from the Latin scopus (target), from the Ancient Greek σκοπέω (skopéō) & σκοπός (skopós) (examine, inspect, look to or into, consider), from σκέπτομαι (sképtomai), from the primitive Indo-European speḱ- and etymologically related to both skeptic and spectrum.  Periscope is a noun (and a largely archaic verb), periscopic is an adjective and periscopically an adverb.  The present participle is periscoping and the past participle periscoped); the noun plural is periscopes.

Periscope concepts using mirrors and lens.

Although variations of the device had existed for decades, the word periscope either wasn’t used or was at least not in general use before 1899 but as early as 1865 it attested as a technical term in photography.  The concept of the periscope (then called the polemoscope) and using two angled lens had been described as early a 1647 in a work discussing the geological nature of the moon although then it was envisaged as device suitable for military observation.  Undocumented and undated sketches thought to date from decades earlier have also been unearthed but, although conceptually accurate, their exact purpose is unclear and they may have been architectural drawings.

Kim Jong-un (b circa 1994, Supreme Leader or DPRK (North Korea) since 2011), looking through the periscope of DPRK submarine.

The first naval periscopes appeared in 1854, constructed by placing two mirrors in a vertical tube, fixed at each end at a 45° angle and were a noted feature of the early submarines used in the US Civil War (1861-1865); by the dawn of the twentieth century they’d begun regularly to be part of the design although the great innovation was the retractable periscope in 1902, then known as the skalomniscope or omniscope.  The retractable periscope quickly became a standard fitting to submarines and proved an important factor in the success they enjoyed during the First World War.

Kim Jong-un looking at South Korea through infantry observation periscopic binoculars.

Surprisingly, given how simple the adaptation would have been, periscopes were little-used by nineteenth century armies but proved to be an invaluable addition to the kit in the trench warfare of 1914-1918, providing a wide vista for observation without exposing the viewer to the risk of attracting sniper fire.  One invention which proved of less utility was the so-called periscope-rifle, a kind of remote-controlled infantry rifle mounted atop the trench parapet, aimed and fired by a soldier in a safe position below.  Success was limited.  More useful were devices called stereoscopic rangefinders, periscopic binoculars with grids which enabled trained observers to estimate the distance to a target.

The Lamborghini Countach "Periscopio"

1971 Lamborghini Countach LP500 concept (note periscopio bulge in the centre of roof).

When shown at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show, the Jaguar E-Type (XKE) created a sensation.  At the same event, ten years later, the Lamborghini Countach LP500 created almost as much excitement and its lines have been the template for most Lamborghinis since.  In a sense, progress in the design of such machines paused at that point, everything since (and not just by Lamborghini) a refinement of the yellow wedge.  Although it was a small and functionally unsatisfactory aspect of the dramatic LP500, it was the abortive periscopio (periscope) which would be used to characterize the first 157 (some sources insist 158) LP400 production cars, the periscopio rear view concept lending the roof its distinct shape.  The factory’s documents don’t reveal whether the idea of the periscope was the inspiration of an individual or emerged from a committee but the thought was that in such a low-slung vehicle, the driver would be afforded a better view from a lens mounted atop the roof than would be provided by a conventional rear-view mirror aligned with the rear-window.  Donnelly Corporation in the US delivered a working version of the periscope mirror system, a number of which had actually be built in the era for use in the ESV (Experimental Safety Vehicle) projects which a number of manufacturers had developed to test their implementation of the engineering which would be required to conform with the safety regulations soon to come into force.

1974 Lamborghini Countach LP400 roof detail.

However, during testing, it became obvious it was not a desirable solution, the positioning dictated by the then unique profile requiring the driver too often to avert their eyes from what was ahead adequately to focus on what lay behind.  Nor did the designers warm to the small bulge which would have to be added to the roofline to accommodate the hardware; aesthetics meant little to those who penned ESVs but they were prized by Italian stylists and consequently the periscope was abandoned.  However, whether for reasons of economy or constraints of time, although the bulge was deleted, the remaining periscopio roof shape was retained and in 1974 entered production as part of the LP400 although it now provided no obvious functional advantage except making the cabin a little brighter and perhaps adding some rigidity to the structure although there may have been some aerodynamic cost, the interruption to what would otherwise be a smooth surface presumably generating additional drag.  Whatever the drawbacks however, stylistically, it’s always been admired.

1977 Lamborghini Countach LP400.

Those first 157 LP400s were also the closest the production cars would be to the original, unadorned wedge which had made such an impact when displayed at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show as the Lamborghini LP500 concept.  That it was described as a concept was important because the LP500, although fully-functional, was no prototipo (prototype), and the uncompromising original could not without modification be transformed into a practical production car, hence the many scoops to ensure adequate cooling as well as the deletion of the periscope, changes to the construction method used for the frame, a reduced-capacity engine, the substitution of analogue instruments for the space-age electronica and some enlargement of the platform to make the thing more habitable.  Still, the LP400 was remarkably close to the startling original and tellingly, of all two-thousand odd which would in five generations be produced between 1974-1990, it would be the one with the best aerodynamics, the wings, flares and fat tyres added over the years all adding to drag.  If the smooth roof, introduced on the LP400 S in 1978, improved aerodynamics, it wasn’t enough to compensate.

The influential but short-lived service

The evolution of the internet since it began to assume its modern form (after the world wide web was “bolted on” in 1991, gaining something like critical mass around 1993) is characterized by a number of separate, parallel and sometimes intersecting threads and probably no application (although technically it was a service) was so emblematic of the trends than Periscope.  Periscope was created because someone found the then text-only Twitter (now X) compelling but was annoyed at having to go elsewhere look for video feeds relating to what was being tweeted.  The Periscope model was to take advantage of the ubiquity of (1) smartphones meaning high-definition video could, worldwide, be created by billions of users at a moment’s notice and (2) the increasing availability of bandwidth which made real-time streaming practical and what emerged was a system noted for its simplicity; a few taps and whatever one was filming was being streamed.

Send (left) & receive (right): Periscope's simple streaming model.    

In the way corporations sometimes do things, Twitter bought Periscope even before the product’s official release and success was immediate, the service quickly among the most popular with support notably coming from legacy broadcasters including the BBC which used the system as a low-cost form of content dissemination; in effect what used to be an “outside broadcast van” (literally a truck packed with cameras and transmission equipment which, with staff and other overheads cost sometimes millions a year to run and could be in one place at a time) was suddenly in the pockets of every staff member.  It was also in the pockets of everyone else, some of who were entrepreneurial and before long, Periscope streams of live events (for which broadcasters and others had paid sometimes millions for exclusive rights) and content on screens (cinemas, televisions etc) were being packaged for profit, cannibalizing many pay-per-view (PPV) business models.  A flurry of takedown notices (a specialized form of a C&D (cease & desist letter) ensued.  Periscope however became a victim of its own success, its model quickly available in many other ways and its functionality was “folded into” Twitter, the service discontinued in March 2021, much of the (not legally challenged) legacy content remaining available on X to this day.

Pit

Pit (pronounced pit)

(1) A naturally formed or excavated hole or cavity in the ground.

(2) A covered or concealed excavation in the ground, serving as a trap for animals.

(3) In extractive mining, an excavation made in exploring for or removing a mineral deposit (also known (at scale) as “open-cut” as opposed to “underground” (although in casual use sometime used also of the mineshafts used in underground operations.  It can in mining slang also refer to an entire mine site, regardless of the mode of extraction.

(4) The stone of a fruit (cherry, peach, plum etc) and technically, the hard, inner layer (the endocarp) of certain drupes.

(5) The abode of evil spirits and lost souls; hell; the depths of Hades.

(6) In slang (as “the pits”) an extremely unpleasant, boring, or depressing place, condition, person, etc; the absolute worst (used also as a clipping of armpits).

(7) A hollow or indentation in a surface (in substances like glass or when referring to surfaces (paint, varnish etc), treated usually as an imperfection).

(8) In physiology, natural hollow or depression in the body, organ, structure or part; fossa (used most often of the small of the back).

(9) In medicine, a small, indented scar, as one of at the site of a former pustule after smallpox, chicken pox or similar diseases; a pockmark.

(10) In music, a section of the marching band containing mallet percussion instruments and other large percussion instruments too large to march, such as the tam tam; the area on the sidelines where these instruments are placed.

(11) In botany, any of various small areas in a plant cell wall that remain un-thickened when the rest of the cell becomes lignified (used especially of the vascular tissue).

(12) In archaeology, a hole or trench in the ground, excavated according to grid coordinates, so that the provenance of any feature observed and any specimen or artifact revealed may be established by precise measurement.

(13) An enclosure, usually below the level of the spectators, as for staging fights between dogs, cocks, or, formerly, bears (as cockpit later extended to aircraft, cars, boats etc).

(14) In physical markets (such as a commodity exchange), a part of the floor of the exchange where trading is conducted (known in some places as “as open outcry pits” because transactions were done by traders shouting offers & acceptances at each other).

(15) In architecture, all that part of the main floor of a theater behind the musicians (in UK use also the main floor of a theater behind the stalls); sometimes used as “orchestra pit” (the area that is occupied by the orchestra in a theatre, located in front of the stage)

(16) In a hoist-way, a space below the level of the lowest floor served.

(17) In motorsport, an area at the side of a track, for servicing and refueling the cars (the use later adopted by cycle racing).

(18) In ten-pin bowling, the sunken area of a bowling alley behind the pins, for the placement or recovery of pins that have been knocked down.

(19) In track athletics,  the area forward of the takeoff point in a jumping event, as the broad jump or pole vault, that is filled with sawdust or soft earth to lessen the force of the jumper's landing.

(20) In casinos, the area or room containing gambling tables.

(21) In aviation, the part of the aircraft (usually the bottom of the fuselage) given over to freight; a luggage hold.

(22) In American football, the center of the line.

(23) In hospital slang, the emergency department.

(24) Literally, the bottom part (lowest point) of something; figuratively an undesirable location (especially if dirty, dangerous etc).

(25) In military slang, a bed (some evidence also of civilian (presumably ex-military) use).

(26) In nuclear physics, the core of an implosion nuclear weapon, consisting of the fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded to it.

(27) To mark or indent with pits or depressions.

(28) In medicine, to scar with pockmarks.

(29) In physiology (of body tissue) temporarily to retain a mark of pressure, as by a finger, instrument, etc.

(30) To place or bury something in a pit, as for storage.

(31) To set in opposition or combat, as one against another (usually in the forms “pit against” or “pitted against”).

(32) In motorsport, to exit from the track, entering the pits, to permit the pit-crew to effect a pit-stop.

(33) To remove the stone of a fruit (cherry, peach, or plum), sometimes with the use of a pitter (if something done vocationally, by a pitter, usually with the use of a pitter).

Pre 900: From the Middle English noun pit, pittle, pite, pute, put & putte, from the Old English pytt (natural or man-made depression in the ground, water hole, well; grave (the Kentish variation was “pet”), from the Proto-West Germanic puti, from the Proto-Germanic putt- (pool, puddle) which was the source also of the Old Frisian pet, the Old Saxon putti, the Old Norse pyttr, the Middle Dutch putte, the Dutch put, the Old High German pfuzza and the German Pfütze (pool, puddle), an early borrowing from Latin puteus (pit, trench, shaft) (etymologists noting the phonetic difficulties which exist also in the speculated relationship between puteus and the primitive Indo-European root pau- (to cut, strike, stamp).  Because the short u makes it unlikely puteus was from paviō (to strike), it might instead be linked to putāre (to prune) but the distance between the meanings makes etymologists just as sceptical and some suggest puteus may be a loanword though the spelling might be mysterious.  The use in the context of stone fruit was an Americanism dating from 1841, from the Dutch pet (kernel, seed, marrow), from the Middle Dutch pitte & pit (kernel, core (and cognate with pith)), from the Proto-Germanic pittan (the dialectal German Pfitze (pimple) was an oblique of the Proto-Germanic piþō), from the Proto-Germanic pithan- (source of pith).  Like the use in other contexts, each instance of the verb was derivative of the noun.  Pit is a noun & verb, pitter is a noun and pitted & pitting are verbs; the noun plural is pits.

Ford GT40 pit-stop, Sebring 12 Hours, International Championship for Makes, Sebring, March 1966.

The meaning “abode of evil spirits, hell” dates from the late twelfth century, one of the many means in the medieval world of referring to hell.  The meaning “very small depression or dent in the surface of an object” was in use by the early 1400s, the anatomical sense of “natural depression or hollow in some part of the body” from more than a century earlier.  The “pit of the stomach” was in the literature by the 1650s and it was so-called from the slight depression there between the ribs; the earlier terms used by doctors were the late fourteenth century breast-pit and heart-pit from circa 1300.  The meaning “part of a theater on the floor of the house, lower than the stage” was known by the 1640s while in market trading, the sense of “that part of the floor of an exchange where business is carried on” was first documented in 1903 as a coining in US English.

One of the high-water marks of the analog era: cockpit of the Anglo-French Concorde.

The phrase money-pit in the sense of “an edifice or project requiring constant outlay of cash with little to show for it” is quite modern, dating only from 1986 and assumed derived from the popular movie of the same name of the same name released that year (though it’s not impossible it had earlier been in regional use).  The prior use had been in the 1930s when it was used of the shaft on Oak Island, Nova Scotia which legend suggested would lead one to treasure buried by Captain Kidd or some other pirate.  Popular Mechanics magazine in September noted wryly the term might better refer to the millions spent trying to get the treasure out than the hoard of gold itself and in 2022, entrepreneurial engineer Elon Musk (b 1971) produced a variation, describing the factories in Europe building the electric Tesla cars as “money furnaces”.  The ash-pit (repository for ashes, especially the lower part of a furnace) dates from 1797 and it replaced the earlier (1640s) ash-hole, reflecting the implications of industrialization as forges and furnaces grew larger.  The venomous snake the pit-viper was so-named in 1872 because of the characteristic depression between the eyes and nose.  In commercial forestry, the pit-saw was first described in the 1670s, referring to a large saw operated by two men, one (the pit-sawyer) standing in the pit below the log being sawed, the other (the top-sawyer) standing atop.  Pitman was one of a wealth of vocationally-derived surnames which began to appear late in the twelfth century and it referred to one who dwelled literally “in or by a pit or hollow”, the use to describe someone who “works in a pit or mine” not documented until 1761.  Pitman shorthand, a popular form of hand-written transcription of spoken-word text which could later be read by a typist (often the “shorthand-taker) came into use in the 1860s, having been devised by English teacher & publisher (and devoted vegetarian) Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897) in 1837.  The phrase “flea-pit” dates from the 1920s and was used of cinemas, an allusion to the seats being infested with fleas or other bugs.

A Lindsay Lohan pit-stop from the blooper tape, Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005).

The noun armpit was a mid-fourteenth century description of the “hollow place under the shoulder” and it ran in parallel with the earlier arm-hole although the latter use faded as it came to be used of clothing and as an anatomical descriptor it was obsolete by the mid seventeenth century.  There was also the early fifteenth century asselle, from the Old French asselle, from the Latin axilla but armpit prevailed.  The colloquial phrase “armpit of the nation” was used as a term of derision for any place thought ugly and disgusting and it’s not clear when it emerged but it was well-documented from the early 1960s.  The general term “the pits” was a variation and from late in the twentieth century applied to anything or anyone thought the worse possible of their type (ie based on something hairy, smelly and ugly).  Infamously, it was used by the US tennis player John McEnroe (b 1959) who at Wimbledon in 1981 called an umpire “the pits of the world” during one of their discussions.  The noun pitter (curved instrument for removing stones from cherries and other fruit” appeared in 1868 when pitters were made available as a commercial product (doubtlessly they had for centuries been improvised or adapted from other utensils) and where they were used vocationally, the user was also called a pitter, the same linguistic process which produced the dual use of shucker in the oyster business (the termed adopted also by others).  Pit-a-pat & pitter-pat, being imitative, are wholly unrelated and date from the 1520s, the noun emerging in 1580.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner cockpit.

The original cockpits were first described in the 1580s and were a “pit or enclosed space for fighting cocks”, the use soon extended to any space in which animals were set to fight to the death, the audience betting on the outcome.  From this came the verb use “to pit against” which meant “to put or set in or into a pit” and this soon extended to boxing; by the eighteenth century in figurative use it was used on any conflict, argument or rivalry.  The general verb use (make pits in; form a small pit or hollow) had been in used (as pit, pitted & pitting) by the late fifteenth century.  The dog breed pit-bull dates from 1922 and was short for pit-bull terrier (first registered in 1912), a type noted for its aggression a fighting abilities.  Cockpit was used of ships early in the eighteenth century of midshipmen's compartment below decks and in some cases was later applied also to the enclosed cabins located towards the centre of the deck began to replace the steerage systems at the stern (later universally known as the “bridge”.  It was picked up for the pilot’s compartment in aircraft in 1914 and (by extension) was used in racing cars in the 1930s.  The word cesspit was created in the 1860s because advances in plumbing meant something was needed to distinguish more modern systems handling sewerage from the earlier cesspool, in use since the 1670s.  The mid fourteenth century pitfall (concealed hole into which a person or animal may fall unawares) was a description of a physical danger which came into figurative in the early 1600s to refer to “any hidden danger or concealed source of disaster.  In mining, a pitfall could also be literally a collapse of the internal structure of a mineshaft, sometime because of the catastrophic failure of pit-props (the timbers which provided the structural integrity of a shaft).  Sometimes a mile or more deep, pitfalls frequently were fatal and the death-toll among miners was high, the phrase “pit-hell” often heard.

The original pits at the Indianapolis Speedway, 1913. 

It was difficult and expensive (and often impossible) to lift heavy machinery to allow mechanics to work on engines or other components so, where possible, it was better to construct a pit underneath from which people could work.  The concept was well documented in workshops by 1839 and the term was by 1912 picked up in motorsport to describe the “area at the side of a track where cars are serviced and repaired” and the early pits were often holes in the ground with waist-high surrounds in which the crew could stand.  They were used also to store spare tyres, parts lubricants etc.  As the sport boomed, the pits quickly became fully enclosed service areas and even garages, built along pit-lane.  When a driver brought his car into the pits (located on the stretch of track called pit-straight), they were said to be pitting to be worked on by the pit crew who might during the pit-stop make repairs, re-fuel or change tyres, either in front of or behind the pit-wall.  Pit crew became a popular term beyond the tracks, used of airline baggage handlers, sea-port staff etc.  In motorsport, a pit-babe is an attractive young lady who is in the pit area for some reason, not necessarily directly related to the competition.

The pit-babes: coming or going, they always look good. 

Belt

Belt (pronounced belt)

(1) A band of flexible material, as leather or cord, used for encircling the waist, historically to in some way secure a garment (coat or trousers) but also as a decorative or functional (tool belt, utility belt, gun belt etc) item.

(2) In any context, any encircling or transverse band, strip, or stripe.

(3) In geography, an elongated region having distinctive properties or characteristics.

(4) In machinery, an endless flexible band passing about two or more pulleys, used to transmit motion from one pulley to the other or others or to convey materials and objects.

(5) In (usually military) ballistics, a cloth strip with loops or a series of metal links with grips, for holding cartridges fed into an automatic gun.

(6) A band of leather or webbing, worn around the waist and used as a support for weapons, ammunition etc.

(7) In naval architecture, a series of armor plates forming part of the hull of a warship.

(8) In construction, a broad, flexible strip of rubber, canvas, wood, etc., moved along the surface of a fresh concrete pavement to put a finish on it after it has been floated.

(9) A road, railroad, or the like, encircling an urban center to handle peripheral traffic (as beltway also used in political discourse).

(10) In slang, a hard blow or hit (often in the forms belted or belting), either a person or an object (the latter noted especially in bat & ball sports).

(11) In slang, a shot of liquor, especially as swallowed in one gulp (often in the form “a quick belt”).

(12) In tyre technology, strip of material used in tyre construction, placed between the carcass and the tread for reinforcement (in the forms steel-belted & fabric-belted).

(13) In sport, in a color based ascendency (brown, black etc), a ranking system in various martial arts).

(14) In sport (notably boxing), a form of trophy worn by the holder of a title (WBO Heavyweight Belt, IBF Cruiserweight Belt etc).

(15) As seat belt, an apparatus used in air, sea & land vehicles to secure a passenger, pilot, driver etc in place.

(16) To gird or furnish with a belt.

(17) To surround or mark as if with a belt or band.

(18) In slang, as “belt out”, loudly (though not necessarily pleasingly) to sing or, as “belting along”, rapidly to proceed.

(19) In cricket, as “belter”, a description of a placid pitch ideal for batting and offering little assistance to bowlers.

(20) In astronomy, a collection of small bodies (such as asteroids) which orbit a star; one of certain girdles or zones on the surface of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, supposed to be of the nature of clouds.

(21) In baseball, the part of the strike zone at the height of the batter's waist.

(22) In music, a vocal tone produced by singing with chest voice above the break (or passaggio), in a range typically sung in head voice.

(23)To invest a person with a belt as part of a formal ceremony (even one where as physical belt is not involved or even a historic part).

Pre 1000: From the Middle English belt, from the Old English belt (belt; girdle; broad, flat strip or strap of material used to encircle the waist), from the Proto-Germanic baltijaz (girdle, belt) (source also of the Old High German balz, the Old Norse balti & belti and the Swedish bälte), an early Germanic borrowing from the Latin balteus (belt, girdle, sword-belt) which may be of Etruscan origin.  It was cognate with the Scots belt (belt), the Dutch belt, the German Balz (belt), the Danish bælte (belt), the Swedish bälte (belt, cincture, girdle, zone) and the Icelandic belti (belt).    Synonyms vary according to context including circle, girdle, surround (to encircle), buckle, fasten, strap (to fasten a belt); bash, clobber, smack, wallop. strap, thrash, whip (to hit with a belt); gulp, slurp, guzzle (rapidly to drink); speed, whiz, zoom (rapidly to move).  Belt is a noun & verb, belted is a verb & adjective, belting is a noun, verb & adjective and belter is a noun; the noun plural is belts.

Lindsay Lohan in trench coat, the belt tied and not buckled.

The verb emerged in the early fourteenth century in the sense of “to fasten or gird with a belt” and was derived from the noun.  The meaning "to thrash (as with a belt)" was from the 1640s while the general sense of "to hit, thrash" seems not to have been used until 1838. The colloquial meaning "to sing or speak vigorously" dates from 1949 and was first used in the US, south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  As a development, the noun meaning "a blow or stroke" dates from 1885.  The transferred sense of "broad stripe encircling something with its ends joined" dates from the 1660s while that of a "broad strip or tract" of any sort, without notion of encircling (as in the “wheat belt") emerged by 1808.  As a mark of rank or distinction (sometimes associated with a specific honor in the form of a belt or sash), use began in the mid-fourteenth century and in pugilism, boxing championship belts were first awarded in 1812.  The use in mechanical engineering (drive belts, pulley belts, serpentine belts etc) was first noted in 1795.  The sword-belt dates from the early fourteenth century while the Old English had sweordfætels (sword-belt).  The adjective beltless came from the fashion industry to describe a style without a belt and was from 1854, the belt-loop (through which a belt passes) noted the following year (although such things had existed for centuries).  In the sub-culture of the trench coat, the military tradition was always to use the buckle to secure the belt while true fashionistas prefer to tie, bucklers thought a bit naff.

Lindsay Lohan demonstrates the possibilities offered by belts.

Many languages adopted belt including those of the Raj, the Hindi being बेल्ट (belṭ), the Bengali বেল্ট (belṭ) & the Urdu بیلٹ‎ (belṭ); Afrikaans picked up belt from the Dutch and other variations were the Assamese বেল্ট (belto), the Irish beilt (Welsh & Scots picked up belt), the Japanese: ベルト (beruto) and the Oriya ବେଲ୍ଟ୍ (belṭ).  If used as a proper noun (a surname or place-name), it appears always with an initial capital.  In astronomy, there’s no initial capital when used as a general descriptor but one is used when referring to a specific region (eg as an ellipsis of Main Asteroid Belt).  The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or B&R and known originally as One Belt One Road (OBOR)) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a trans-national infrastructure project (the strategy of which depends on who is providing the interpretation) dating from 2013 and integral to the PRC’s foreign policy.  As physical infrastructure, it’s analogous with the old Silk Road, the ancient trade route which linked China with the West, carrying goods and (more dangerously) ideas between the two great civilizations of Rome and China.

Lindsay Lohan beltless  (or un-belted); note thumbs fetchingly hooked in belt loops (right).

In idiomatic use, “below the belt” means “not in accord with the principles of fairness, decency, or good sportsmanship” and was drawn from the rules of boxing where restrictions were maintained on blows to the genitals.  To have something “under one's belt” is to have something in one’s literal or figurative (a qualification or achievement) possession.  To tighten one’s belt is “to be more frugal; to undergo hardship patiently” and is often used as an injunction by politicians (directed at others).  Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) invented “tighten the belten” for the faux German used in his film The Great Dictator (1940).  The use to describe specific regions can be literal (wheat belt, corn belt etc), meteorological (sun-belt, snow-belt) or more figurative (mortgage belt, Bible belt etc), the latter probably more accurately described as “zones” but the meaning is well-understood and some have emerged recently (such as rust belt which refers to once vibrant industrial areas now in economic decline).  A beltway is a road system which encircles (not necessarily in a circular design) a city and is intended to reduce congestion in the inner region; the phrase “beyond the beltway” is US political slang to differentiate the interests and priorities of those “within the beltway” of Washington DC (ie the political class (executive government, the congress, the upper reaches of the civil service etc)) and the general population.  The US term references Interstate 495 around Washington DC (the Capital Beltway, opened in 1964), the figurative use (the culture of the political class) dating from 1978, exclusively in the negative.

Lindsay Lohan demonstrates more possibilities offered by belts.

Seat belts, although began in any volume to be fitted only in the 1960s although they’d been used in ships (both by fishermen and in the navy) and in the early day of aviation without ever becoming standardized fittings although, in a sense, as a safety restraint they were known even in Antiquity.  In Greek mythology, the Sirens were deadly creatures who used their lyrical and earthly feminine charms to lure sailors to their death; attracted by their enchanting music and voices, seafarers would sail their ships too close to the rocky coast of the Siren’s island and be shipwrecked.  Not untypically for the tales from antiquity, the sirens are said to have had many homes.  The Romans said they lived on some small islands called Sirenum scopuli while later authors place them variously on the islands of Anthemoessa, on Cape Pelorum, on the islands of the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or in Capreae.  All were places with rocky coasts and tall cliffs.  It was Odysseus who most famously escaped the sirens.  Longing to hear their songs but having no wish to be ship-wrecked, he had his sailors fill their ears with beeswax, rendering them deaf and to be certain, Odysseus ordered them to tie him to the mast, thereby inventing the seat-belt.  Sailing past, when he heard their enticing voices, he ordered his men to release him but they tightened the knots, not releasing him till the danger had passed.  Some writers claimed the Sirens were fated to die if a man heard their singing and escaped them and that as Odysseus sailed away they flung themselves into the water and died.  That's not a popular twist in the tale but there since Antiquity there have been (mostly male) authors who have delighted in finding ways for women to die.

Lindsay Lohan demonstrates still more possibilities offered by belts.

In the late 1940s, the rising death toll attracted interest but few cars were at the time fitted with seat-belts and research was difficult with such small sample sizes although it was indicated there was some positive although instances were also noted of injuries being caused by the belts’ then primitive and unregulated design and it was these findings which encouraged the first “inertial reel” (retractable) designs.  A couple of US manufacturers during the 1950s dabbled with the concept, either installing seat belts as standard or offering them as an extra-cost option but the take-up rate was low and some buyers ever returned the cars to dealers to have them removed.

Belted: Model (and confessed “childless cat lady” who may be on J.D. Vance's (b 1984; VPOTUS since 2025) enemies list) Cristal Dale (b 2002) in two aspects, demonstrating the adaptability of the belt, imagined as denim cupless bandeau bra, AFW (Australian Fashion Week), Sydney, May 2025.  AFW 2025 was run by the AFC (Australian Fashion Council) and the paucity of the previously ubiquitous “influencers” and “TikTokers” was welcomed by many critics.  Ms Dale's outfit was in the tradition of minimalist fashion and the belt might better be described as a "re-purposing" rather than an "adaptation" in that being un-modified, it is dual-purpose: denim bandeau bra in the warmer months; denim belt when cooler.  As worn by Ms Dale, it also fulfilled its other dual-purpose (catching the eye of photographers & click-bait for content providers).  The system works. 

Beltless: Highly qualified content provider Busty Buffy (b 1996) wearing leather braces and denim “cut-off” shorts (without belt).  For Busty Buffy (presumably uncomfortably) to adopt Ms Dale's imaginative use of the denim belt, placement would be challenging, as would movement.

In idiomatic use, the phrase “belt and braces approach” is used to describe the inclusion of redundancy in design, ensuring mutual backups in the event of one system failing.  The phrase is from the notion of the use of either a belt or set of braces to prevent one’s trousers falling down and although both accessories are now (at least to some extent) decorative fashion items, in the era before tighter fitting clothes, they were essential and the especially cautious wore both, avoiding the dreaded SPF (single point-of-failure).  In the US, the equivalent form is “belt and suspenders approach”, “suspenders” (also as “suspender belt”) elsewhere usually understood as the device used by women to hold up their stockings, a device in US English styled as “garter belt”.

Lindsay Lohan demonstrates yet more possibilities offered by belts.  A belt usually will include a loop next to the buckle, used to keep the end of belt in place: it is called the "keeper". 

Although its nineteenth century origin was as a durable material used for work-wear by miners, farm-workers and others engaged in manual labor, denim’s ease of mass-production, strength and affordability led to it being adopted by the urban working class.  However, although it may once have been a “class-identifier”, by the mid twentieth century, it was a fashion item embraced first by youth and the counter-cultures of the post war years before being picked up by fashion houses which understood the sex-appeal and knew there was no reason why there wouldn’t be a market for a thousand dollar pair of jeans, provided the designer’s label was appropriately obvious.  Denim is thus often called “class-fee” and while that term is well-understood, it’s nuanced in that denim products definitely are sort of “class-identifiers”, in that the fabric is now just another platform on which a consumer conspicuously can “pin the price-tag”.

1973 AMC Levi’s Gremlin (left), Volkswagen’s 1974 “Jeans Kit” (centre) and 2016 Volkswagen Beetle “Denim Edition” convertible (right).

Even car manufacturers co-opted the fabric.  In 2016 Volkswagen did a run of 2000 denim-trimmed (half in Pure White, half in Stonewashed Blue) Beetles, marketed as homage to the “Jeans Bug” of the 1970s.  The Jeans Bug was manufactured by Volkswagen’s South Africa operation between 1973-1978 and such was the appeal that in 1974 a “Jeans Kit” appeared in the catalogue, allowing owners of other beetles to emulate the look, the package including denim slipcovers, a gear-shifter pommel, hubcaps, mud-flaps, and a set of stickers similar to the original Jeans Beetle.  Beginning in 1975, Volkswagen in Mexico also produced Jeans Beetles, the last sold in 2000.  Volkswagen used just the fabric but in the US, AMC (American Motors Corporation), having between 1972-1973 collaborated with Pierre Cardin (1922-2022) for the interior of a special edition of their Javelin pony car (1968-1974), decided in 1973 a tie in with Levi Strauss & Co was the way to lend credibility to the denim trim of their low-cost Gremlin (1974-1983).  Thematically consistent with the company’s jeans in that the orange stitching, buttons with even the famous Levi’s tab appearing, the car sold well and one is said to have been purchased by George HW Bush (George XLI, 1924-2018; POTUS 1989-1993) for his son (George W Bush (George XLIII, b 1946; POTUS 2001-2009) to drive while attending university.  By contrast, the tie-in with Pierre Cardin remains among examples listed in marketing courses in case-studies of the way in which brand-value can be diminished by too prolific a use of a brand on products not suited to a desired image (it was the fashion house which suffered, not AMC, the latter for much of its existence making abortive attempts to change what could really have been a successful image had it stuck to what proved a success) .

Knocking back a bracer: Crooked Hillary Clinton enjoys a quick belt of Crown Royal Bourbon Whiskey, Bronko's restaurant, Crown Point, Indiana, Saturday 12 April, 2008.

Automobile safety, the seat belt and the Chevrolet Corvair 

The familiar modern three-point (lap & sash) belt evolved in the late 1950s with much input from US designers but it was Swedish manufacturers which first made them a standard fitting, Scandinavia being often dark and icy, drivers sharing the roads with large elk.  The modern seatbelt design (conceptually unchanged to this day) is credited to Swedish mechanical engineer Nils Bohlin (1920–2002) who was employed by Volvo which made them a standard fitting in 1959, following the example of Saab which had added them the previous year.  During the 1960s, US states gradually imposed a requirement they be fitted until, in 1969, federal law mandated the rule for all cars sold in the country.  The laws requiring them actually to be worn proved more difficult to implement but other countries quickly made both the fitment and wearing of seat-belts compulsory, initially only for those seated in the front seat(s) but before long it extended to all seats.  Although examples existed early in the twentieth century (fitted often by those with experience in aviation) rudimentary seat-belts first appeared in production cars during the 1950s but the manufacturers must have thought the public indifferent because their few gestures were tentative such as in 1956 when Ford had offered (as an extra-cost option) a bundle of safety features called the “Lifeguard Design” package which included:

(1) Padded dashboards (to reduce head injuries).

(2) Recessed steering wheel hub (to minimize chest injuries).

(3) Seat belts (front lap belts only)

(4) Stronger door latches (preventing doors flying open in a crash)

(5) Shatter-resistant rear-view mirror (reducing injuries caused by from broken glass).

Ford Lifeguard advertising copy, 1956.  In Western popular culture and advertising, there have been many friendly bears, including this one happily buckled-up with a "Ford seat belt. One third stronger than required for airliners."

The standard features included (1) the Safety-Swivel Rear View Mirror, (2) the Deep-Center Steering Wheel with recessed post and bend-away spokes and (3) Double-Grip Door Latches with interlocking striker plate overlaps; Optional at additional cost were (4) Seat Belts (single kit, front or rear, color-keyed, nylon-rayon with quick one-handed adjust/release aluminium buckle)  (US$5).  There were also "bundles", always popular in Detroit.  Safety Package A consisted of a  Padded Instrument Panel & Padded Sun Visors (US$18) while Safety Package B added to that Front-Seat Lap Seat Belts (US$27).  On the 1956 Thunderbird which used a significantly different interior design, the options were (1) the Lifeguard Padded Instrument Panel (US$22.65), (2) Lifeguard Padded Sun Visors (US$9) and (3) Lifeguard Seat Belts (US$14).

Years later, internal documents would be discovered which revealed conflict within the corporation, the marketing department opposed to any mention of "safety features" because that reminded potential customers of car crashes; they would prefer they be reminded of new colors, higher power outputs, sleek new lines and such.  So, with not much done to promote the “Lifeguard Design”, public demand was subdued and the soon the option quietly was deleted from the list.  At the time, apart from improving the quality of roads (which actually meant resulted in higher speeds) the government had done little about either safety or vehicle emissions but both the rising highway death toll and the worsening air quality in cities was attracting attention meaning things would change, decades of legislation soon to unfold.

A baby lying in the parcel shelf under the rear window of an early Chevrolet Corvair (1960-1969), the company’s first offering in the new “compact” market segment.

The photograph was shot while the car was parked but for years it circulated as a meme claiming to be an example of the way parents transported their infants in the 1960s, reference sometimes made to Sir Isaac Newton's (1642–1727) First Law of Motion (known also as the Law of Inertia): “An object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will continue in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced external force.”  As a satire, it worked because it was known automotive safety was, in the pre-seat belt era, a rather haphazard business but on some sites it did prompt recollections from those of a certain age recalling that as children they not only occupied the spot but actively sought it, rushing to their parent’s Corvair to ensure they got the prized “window seat”, one commenting nostalgically: “I remember sleeping in the back window well of my parent ’65 Corvair on the way home from long trips to my parents friends houses.  Spent a lot of time back there.  I never allowed my sister back there, it was all mine!”  Actually, it was a shame the parcel shelf couldn’t (or at least shouldn't) be used for a baby because the warmth and soothing vibration from the rear-mounted flat-6 might well have lulled them to sleep a phenomenon well-known to young mothers who find taking for a drive infants unwilling to go to sleep a remarkable effective soporific.

1964 Chevrolet Corvair Greenbrier (left) and the Child Bed (centre & right).  Being fitted atop the front seat, it could be used only when the van was parked.

Instruction sheet for Child Bed installation, Chevrolet Division of General Motors (GM) part-number 985359 (Corvair Greenbrier Sportswagon).  Chevrolet of course never added a “parcel shelf child’s bed” to the Corvair’s option list but did make available a “bed for two children” which could be fitted atop the front seat of the Greenbrier Sportswagon to augment the sleeping accommodation for adults in the (optional) “Custom Camper Unit” or other configurations (including a roof-mounted (!) tent for two.  The Corvair Greenbrier (1961-1965) was essentially Chevrolet’s borrowing of the Volkswagen Type 2 (the Kombi/Microbus etc) concept in that it put a “one-box” van body atop the Corvair’s chassis, just as the VW Type 2 used a modified Type 1 (Beetle) platform.

An early (1960-1963) Chevrolet Corvair with single pivot swing axles, swinging (upper left), diagram of the early (single-pivot) and later (double-pivot) rear suspension (lower left) and swing spin (right), Volkswagen making making a virtue of necessity, a long-running theme in the advertising for the Beetle, the “Think Small” campaign conceived by US agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). 

Ultimately, the Corvair was doomed by decisions taken even before production began.  During the inter-war years, swing axles were genuinely an improvement on the solid units then in use and were the most cost-effective way an independent rear suspension could be brought to market but as speeds rose and the grip of tyres improved, their inherent limitations were exposed although the very behavior which could be lethal on the road delighted racing drivers who found it was faster to get around a corner if "steering" with the rear wheels; in skilled hands, oversteer is an asset.  By the time the Corvair debuted it was in Europe close to the twilight of both most rear-engines and swing axles although the latter proved surprisingly persistent for a few hold-outs and Mercedes-Benz, despite their experience with the superior de Dion layout) was still producing a handful of 600s (the W100 Grosser; 1963-1981) with swing axles as late as 1981 but the Germans (to a degree) tamed the behavior with clever anti-squat & anti-dive geometry as well as a compensating centre device.  Chevrolet did not and with a weight distribution which was even more exaggerated rearward by a relatively heavy and long engine, the Corvair’s handling could be unpredictable, something which the engineers wanted to alleviate by fitting a handful of parts (the cost under US$40) but this the accountants vetoed.  The ensuing crashes, death toll and law suits attracted the interest of consumer lawyer Ralph Nader (b 1934) who wrote Unsafe at Any Speed (1965), a critique on the industry generally although in the public mind it’s always been most associated with the failings of the Corvair which the author made the subject of the opening chapter.  After publication, GM hired private investigators to "dig up dirt" on Nader, but not only was no evidence found of the hoped-for homosexuality but using attractive women as "honey pots" proved no more of a lure.  To add insult to injury, GM's stalking, attempted entrapment and phone-tapping was in 1966 exposed in hearings before the US Senate hearing led by Robert F Kennedy (RFK, 1925–1968; US attorney general 1961-1964).  GM's CEO was forced publicly to apologize and while that may not have been sincere (although the regret at being caught doubtlessly was) it was still instrumental in Nader later being awarded damages of $US425,000 when he brought an action against the corporation for invasion of privacy.

The lovely, Italianesque lines of the second generation Corvair (1966-1969).

Actually, the problems as described applied only to the Corvairs built between 1959-1963 (a partial fix to the suspension applied in 1963 and the double-pivot system installed for 1965) but the damage was done, neither its reputation or sales figures ever recovered (although increasing competition in its market segment (including by Chevrolet's own Chevy II!) certainly affected the latter) and it was only the corporation’s desire to save face which saw the much improved car restyled for 1965, production dwindling but lingering until 1969; it may be that Nader’s book actually prolonged the life of the thing.  It was unfortunate because the restyled Corvair was one of the better-looking machines of the era, only the truncated length of the bodywork forward of the cowl detracting from the elegance.

Curiously, after its demise came a coda.  In 1970, responding to pressure from Nader, the Nixon administration commissioned a study comparing the 1963 Corvair with five “similar” vehicles and a report was in 1972 issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which concluded, inter alia, the Corvair’s handling and propensity to roll was comparable with that of “other light domestic cars.”  Nader dismissed the study as “a shoddy, internally contradictory whitewash” and accused the NHTSA of using “biased testing procedures and model selection.”, noting they assessed the 1963 Corvair which Chevrolet significantly had modified to ameliorate the worst of the deficiencies found in those built earlier (a proper "fix" would come with the 1965 range).  The Nixon administration ignored him, presumably taking the view what was good for General Motors was good for the country.  The origin of that famous “quote” is an answer given by Charles Erwin Wilson (1890–1961; US Secretary of Defense 1953-1957) during a confirmation hearing prior to his appointment to cabinet.  Then serving as president of GM (General Motors), he was asked whether, as head of the Department of Defense, he’d be prepared to make decisions that might be detrimental to GM. He responded: “For years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors, and vice versa.”  From that came “What's good for General Motors is good for America.” which was at the time an accurate reflection of the corporate world view.

Seatbelt not required: 1964 Mercedes-Benz 230 SL with Kindetsitz.  Like the un-belted baby in the Corvair, the occupant of the kinder seat would be subject to Newton's First Law of Motion.

Lest anyone gain the impression that in carrying unsecured babies on a car's rear parcel shelf the Americans were being uniquely cavalier with young lives, for much of the 1960s Mercedes-Benz offered the not uncommonly ordered option of transverse single seat (centre) for the W113 (230, 250 & 280 SL, 1963-1971) roadster, making it one of the rare post-war 2+1s.  While it could accommodate an adult-sized human, the factory listed it as the Kindetsitz (child's seat, code 565) although German men often preferred Schwiegermutterplatz or Schwiegermuttersitz (mother-in-law seat).  That the factory would offer (in a convertible!) a "child's seat" which sat sideways and was fitted with no restraint system is an indication of how things have changed.

Donald Healey Motor Company’s Speed Equipment Catalogue 1960-1961.

Dubious though the safety credentials of the Kindetsitza may now seem, at least Mercedes-Benz secured it to the structure with good, German high-tensile nuts and bolts and that can be C&Ced (compared & contrasted) with the approach the British once took when designing a child’s seat.  Listed in the 1960-1961 Speed Equipment Catalogue from the Donald Healey Motor Company was a child’s seat for the Austin-Healey Sprite, a diminutive roadster which was definitely a two-seater (although “rear seats” were at time offered, both third-party miniature “buckets” and a factory “bench” although the latter, supplied without a squab, is better described as a “padded parcel shelf”).  Unlike the Germans, the Healey product was held in place only by the pressure the four steel prongs exerted on the transmission tunnel on which it sat and while that meant it was quick and easy to fit and remove, were one’s Sprite suddenly to come to a halt (ie crashing into something), child and (depending on velocity at point of impact) seat would be subject to Newton’s second law of motion.  Clearly, the UK’s latter day reputation as a latter-day hotbed of H&S (health & safety) legislation and enforcement was unknown in 1960.

Awaiting "installation" and lucky young passenger: Donald Healey Motor Company’s Child's Seat for Austin-Healey Sprite.

Pros: Well made and finished (no sharp edges on the metal; was comfortable for a child; finished in good-quality leathercloth (a non-porous vinyl emulating the appearance of natural hide but offering the advantage of the inevitable spilled milkshakes etc being easily cleaned with nothing more than a damp cloth) with contrasting piping to match interior trim; can be installed or removed in literally seconds (facilitating cleaning or allowing the space to be used for other purposes); location permits child to use feet to play with gear shifter, keeping them amused on long trips.

Cons: Does restrict elbow room for both driver and passenger; absorbs the space favored by women for placing handbag; limits the convenience of access to rear-storage area; unsecured installation means in the event of an accident, depending on speed of impact, it would function like an ejector seat and, were the roadster’s roof at the time not erected, trajectory of seat and child would be either (1) into or (2) over windscreen; location permits child to use feet to play with gear shifter, possibly (1) knocking car out of gear or (2) selecting incorrect gear.

1960 Austin-Healey Sprite (left) and a 1958 Sprite ("Bugeye" or "Frogeye") with Healey's infamous "child's seat" in place.

The “child's seat” was a Donald Healey Motor Company part number and not one which appeared in the lists of BMC (British Motor Corporation) which was the corporate umbrella under which Healey operated.  Although advertised only during the era of the Austin-Healey Sprite Mark 1 (1958-1961; the so-called “bugeye” or “frogeye”), the useful option could be fitted to most subsequent Sprites or the companion (and substantially identical) MG Midget. When the revised Sprite first was revised in 1961, simultaneously the MG Midget was released and it continued until 1980 while the Sprite lasted only until 1971 (and in its final season sold as the “Austin Sprite” after the contract with Donald Healey expired).  Perhaps predictably, Healey’s child’s seat was not a big seller and although (hopefully) no longer used for its intended purpose, the rarity and shock value (to twenty-first century eyes) make it a prized option in the Sprite community.  The memorable phrase “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” is the opening line in the novel The Go-Between (1953) by the English writer L. P. Hartley (1895–1972) well it described the lost world of the Sprite's child seat and a youthful son or daughter sleeping on the parcel shelf of a speeding Corvair.

1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 Sc Cabriolet (left) and 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 Sc Roadster.

The Mercedes-Benz W188 was produced exclusively in two-door form and offered as a coupé, cabriolet or roadster.  In cabriolet form the coachwork was designated “Cabriolet A” which described a convertible with no rear-quarter windows and seating for two with “occasional” seating for one or two (the so-called 2+2 or 2+1) behind.  The roadster differed from the cabriolet in that the folding roof disappeared entirely into the bodywork which made for smoother lines but did mean the intrusion reduced both cabin space and the capacity of the trunk (boot).  Between 1951-1958 it was produced in two versions (300 S: 1952-1955 & 300 Sc: 1955-1958) and production levels were low but given in the US it cost as much as three Cadillacs, to have sold 760 of the things was a reasonable achievement and it was superbly built, even the ashtrays (there was a time when manufacturers of luxury cars would boast of the number of ashtrays and cigar (not cigarette) lighters provided) minor masterpieces of precision fabrication in stainless steel.  The line shared many of its mechanical components with the 300 SL (W198; Gullwing 1954-1957 & Roadster 1957-1963) and the big 300 “Adenauer” sedans and four-door cabriolets (Cabriolet D) (W186 1951-1957 & W189 1957-1962) so it was thus the mixture of ancient and modern which would characterize many of the company’s models as late as the 1980s.

The 300 Sc had many detail changes from its predecessor but most significant was the adoption of Bosch mechanical direct fuel injection to replace the previously used triple Solex carburetors, an advance announced boldly by an almost garish badge on the rear bumper reading: Einspritzmotor (literally “injection engine”).  That identifier was later clipped to and “E” which appeared as part of the designation in ranges where fuel-injection was sometimes fitted (eg 220 SE vs the carburetor-equipped 220 S) but wasn’t used where it was standard equipment (such as the various SLs).  By the 1990s when the technology was fitted across the board, the E was re-purposed as a designator for the as the E-Klasse (E-Class, the mid-range or “executive” sedans) with the alpha-numerics in the nomenclature used for model designations switching order (eg the 300 E became the E 300).

1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 Sc.

Even more so than Jaguar’s XK sports cars (XK120 1948-1954, XK140 1954-1957 & XK150 1957-1961) which were produced with variants of similar coachwork, the W188, stylistically, owned more to the pre-war styling than the modernity of the 1950s and both the British and German machines probably were a glimpse of how the luxurious grand tourers and big roadsters of the 1930s might have evolved to by circa 1946-1947 had World War II (1939-1945) not seen the development of passenger cars halted for half a decade.  That abrupt interruption also meant the W188’s specification was more modest than would likely have happened without the war for by 1941 Mercedes-Benz has planned to replace the 540K (powered by a 5.4 litre (330 cubic inch) straight-8) with the 600K, using a new 6.0 litre (365 cubic inch) V12.  However, by 1940, the factory was compelled to devote its resources to producing inverted V12s for the Luftwaffe’s Messerschmitts, Heinkels and such so the W188 never used more than a 3.0 litre straight-6 (albeit a version of the engine which won the 1952 Le Mans 24 hour endurance classic in a 300 SL (W194)) and the fuel injection system was developed using the experience gained with the wartime aero-engines).

1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 Sc Coupé with Kindstsitz.

The W188 roadsters are remembered as “the last of the big, open, two seaters grand touring cars Mercedes-Benz would produce” and it’s a reasonable observation because although a rear bench “seat” (with separate cushion & squab) was installed, it really was more of a well-upholstered parcel shelf although small children would comfortably fit.  The seating in the rear compartment of the coupé & cabriolet was more generous and there was the option of a Kindetsitz which was not an innovation in pre-war automobiles but existed also in the days of horse-drawn carriages; carried over into the 1950s, it was rarely installed in the W188s but went on to achieve its greatest success on the option list of the W113.  In the more capacious cockpit of the W188, the Kindetsitz option would have been ideal for a couple with a child and perhaps a dog to transport.