Vampire

Vampire (pronounced vam-pahyuh)

(1) A preternatural being, commonly believed to be a reanimated corpse, said to suck the blood of sleeping persons at night.

(2) In the folklore of the Balkans, Eastern & Central Europe, a corpse, animated by an un-departed soul or demon, that periodically leaves the grave and disturbs the living, until it is exhumed and impaled or burned.

(3) A person who preys ruthlessly upon others; an extortionist or blackmailer.

(4) A woman who unscrupulously exploits, ruins, or degrades the men she seduces (usually truncated to vamp although nuances in meaning exist).  Despite many early references, vampiress and vampirina never caught on.

(5) A type of blood-sucking bat.

(6) A species of crab.

(7) In the theatre, a stage trapdoor.

(8) In medicine, a colloquial term for a patient suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus, with effects such as photosensitivity and brownish-red stained teeth.

1732: From the now archaic vampyre (spectral being in a human body who maintains semblance of life by leaving the grave at night to suck the warm blood of the living as they sleep), from the French vampire and German vampir, from the Hungarian (Magyar) vampir, from the Old Church Slavonic opiri (related to the Serbo-Croatian vampir, Bulgarian vapir & Ukrainian uper).  The Serbian vàmpīr, was an alteration of earlier upir (by confusion with doublets such as vȁzdūh, ȕzdūh and with intrusive nasal, as in dùbrava, dumbrȁva (grove)) and was related to the Czech upír, the Polish upiór, the Old Russian upyrĭ & upirĭ and the Russian upýr.  Some etymologists suggest the ultimate source was the Kazan Tatar ubyr (witch) but not all agree, many suggesting a Macedonian origin more probable.  An Eastern European creature popularized in English by late nineteenth century gothic novels but scattered English accounts of night-walking, blood-gorged, plague-spreading un-dead corpses have been traced back to 1196 and few doubt there was an oral tradition long pre-dating this.  Influenced by the literature, the blood-sucking bat was named in 1774 by the French gentlemen scientist, Georges-Louis Leclerc, the Comte de Buffon (1707–1788).  Related adjectival forms are vampiric and vampirish, the noun vampirism dating from 1737.

Figurative sense of "person who preys on others" is from 1741, the idea of “one who sucks money from others” being little worse than “one who sucks their blood”.  The word vamp (a seductive woman who uses her charms to exploit men" dates from 1911 and was short for vampire; it’s entirely unrelated to the earlier term “vamp” from the trade of cobbling.  Dracula was the name of the vampire king in Bram Stoker's (1847-1912) Gothic horror novel Dracula (1897), a borrowing from Prince Vlad III of Wallachia (circa 1430-circa 1477; remembered in English as Vlad the Impaler and in Romania (where he is celebrated as a national hero) as Vlad Drăculea.

It was Lord Byron (1788-1824) who did most to popularize in Western literature all things vampiric in his epic poem The Giaour (1813), but it was John Polidori (1895-1921) who in 1819 authored the first true vampire story, called The Vampyre.  Polidori was Byron’s personal physician and the vampire of the story, Lord Ruthven, is based partly on him and the "ghost story competition" that spawned this piece was the same contest which tempted Mary Shelley (1797-1851) to write her 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein (or The Modern Prometheus).  Other early texts include Samuel Taylor Coleridge's (1772-1834) unfinished poem Christabel (circa 1799) and Sheridan Le Fanu's (1814-1873) lesbian vampire story, Carmilla (1872) which remains influential to this day in the depiction of vampires but it’s Bram Stoker's Dracula which remains the definitive version in popular fiction.  The portrayal of vampirism as a disease of contagious demonic possession, with an undertone of sex, blood, and death, suited the zeitgeist of Victorian Europe where tuberculosis, syphilis, typhoid and cholera were common.

In Among the Shadows (2020 (released in some markets as The Shadow Within)), Lindsay Lohan played a vampire (top left), one married to a European Union (EU) politician no less and it’s hard to imagine a more complementary relationship.  In May 2011, Lindsay Lohan was the subject of a vampire-themed session by photographer Tyler Shields (b 1982), called Life is not a fairytale.

On screen, the best evocations of the vampiric remain the Nosferatu films, especially the 1979 re-make of the 1922 original.  Aspiring vampires meet here:

De Havilland Vampire (DH-100) Mark 1.

The de Havilland Vampire was a British jet fighter.  Although development began as early as 1941 and the aircraft first flew in 1943, the problems associated with jet propulsion meant it entered service too late to see combat during World War II, the first Vampires delivered to Royal Air Force (RAF) squadrons only in 1946.  The second jet fighter to be operated by the RAF (the first the Gloster Meteor), it was the first powered by a single engine, a configuration delayed in development because of the poor thrust delivered by the early jets and the Vampire was one of a number of aircraft released in the late 1940s which straddled the engineering and aeronautical practices of the propeller and jet eras of fighters.  The jet engine and the unusual twin-boom configuration aside, it was a conventional design, borrowing much from de Havilland’s wartime practices which had proved so effective including the use of molded plywood for the frame, assembled as a glued sandwich to which was attached the aluminum skin.

De Havilland Vampire (DH 113) NF10 prototype G-5-2.

The hybrid of old and new was a product of so much of the design work having been completed before an understanding of the advantages and possibilities of the swept wing pioneered by the Germans, notably with the Messerschmitt 262, had been gained.  Without a swept wing, the Vampire would never achieve the performance of the more cutting edge designs which increasingly appeared in the late 1940s and was the last really simple interceptor to serve with the RAF.  Despite that, for most of its operational life it was far from obsolescent and remained in front-line service until 1953, during which it set altitude records and was the first jet to fly a trans-Atlantic flight; the Sea Vampire naval variant being in December 1945 the first jet to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier.  The last Vampires were retired from RAF service in 1966 but foreign services maintained them in operational use much longer, the Swiss using them still in the 1980s.  Almost 3300 were built and their simplicity and ease of maintenance has meant many now in private hands continue to fly.

Vampire hunting used to be a thing (and debatably should still be) and for enthusiasts, Affiliated Auctions & Realty recently offered an early nineteenth century vampire slaying kit, fitted in a violin case.  The kit includes a bronze crucifix, two wooden stakes, a 15 inch (380 mm) dagger with tusk grip, sterling pommel & bolster and nickel cross-guard, a flintlock pistol with engraved barrel and functioning stock, a brass powder horn in the style of a swimming fish, a hardwood mallet (for driving stakes through the heart), a brass container for shot powder, a wooden container for silver-shot balls, a glass holy water bottle (without seam lines) and a Holy Bible with mother of pearl inlay.

Nosferatu (1979) trailer. 

Vamp

Vamp (pronounced vamp)

(1) The portion of a shoe or boot upper that covers the instep and toes.

(2) Something patched up or pieced together (rare).

(3) In music, an accompaniment, usually improvised, consisting of a succession of simple chords.

(4) A seductive (and not necessarily conventionally attractive) woman who uses her sensuality to exploit men.  In this context a clipping of vampire.

(5) To use feminine charms upon; to seduce.

(6) Slang for vampire (rare, presumably to avoid confusion with vampish women).

(7) Modern urban slang for the act of leaving an area or scene, due usually to wishing no longer to be there.

(8) Modern urban slang for late (or all) night sessions, an allusion to the nocturnal habits of vampires.

1175-1225: From Middle English vampe, borrowed from Anglo-French vaumpé and Old French avantpié (front part of a shoe (hence, something patched)), from avant (to the fore, front) + pié (foot) derived from the Latin pēs.  As applied to music, meaning dates from 1789 but from the early twentieth-century associated mostly with jazz.  Popular usage, as a descriptor of the seductive femme fatale, was first noted in 1911, derived from film and theatre performances inspired by the Kipling poem, The Vampire.  Vamper is verb and noun, vampish the adjective.  The term "re-vamp" (updating or refreshing something) is based upon the use by cobblers (to replace the vamp in a shoe).

The etiquette of toe cleavage

Analogous with other displays, toe cleavage is the partial exposure of toes in shoes cut low at the vamp and specialists in the field have offered opinions.  Noted shoe stylist Manolo Blahnik, although an early advocate, urged some restraint in suggesting one should show “…only the first two cracks" but, given anatomical variation and the production-line standardization of all but the rare bespoke creations, it’s a rule difficult to enforce.  Christian Louboutin, he of the red soles, is less prescriptive, liking toe cleavage and more rather than less.  His designs emphasize the curved form of the foot, the instep, and he tends to conceal “…the heel and reveal the arch, culminating in a low-cut vamp."  Vogue’s venerable editor Anna Wintour, doesn’t specify how much toe cleavage should be displayed but agrees it’s an essential part of a voguette’s dress code; her point being the look "must never be combined with stockings".

Vampish: Lindsay Lohan’s ample toe cleavage on show in Christian Louboutin stilettos.  Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Madrid, 2014.

Protagonist

Protagonist (pronounced proh-tag-uh-nist)

(1) The leading character or hero of a performance or literary work.

(2) A proponent for or a political or other cause (from an incorrect construction but now widely used).

(3) The leader or principal advocate of a political or other cause.

(4) The first actor in ancient Greek drama, who played not only the main role, but also other roles when the main character was off-stage and was thus first amongst deuteragonists and tritagonists.

1671: From the Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής (prōtagōnistḗs) (actor who plays the first part; principal character in a story, drama), the literal translation being “first combatant” and according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word first appeared in English in 1671 in the writings of the English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright John Dryden (1631–1700).  The construct was πρῶτος (prôtos) (first) + ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs) (one who contends for a prize; a combatant; an actor), from the primitive Indo-European root per (forward (hence "in front of, first, chief")) + agōnistēs (actor, competitor), from agōn (contest), from the primitive Indo-European root ag- (to drive, draw out or forth, move).  The link between the two is the notion of one who contends for some prize in a contest (agōn).  The general meaning "leading person in any cause or contest" is from 1889. The mistaken sense of "advocate, supporter" (1935) is from misunderstanding of the Greek prōt- meaning the same as the Latin pro- (for; in favor of) (thus the comparison with antagonist).  The Deuteragonist "second person or actor in a drama", is attested from 1840.  The general meaning "leading person in any cause or contest" seems first to have been used only as late as 1889.  Linguistic sloppiness saw some, by 1935, add the sense of "advocate or supporter", probably from a misreading of the Greek prōt & prōtos, either equating or confusing it with the Latin pro (for).  More than tolerated, it seems in English to have become a standard meaning and is often used in sub-electoral politics.  The relatively rare silver medallist, the deuteragonist (second person or actor in a drama), is attested from 1840.

The protagonist’s opponent is the antagonist (from the Ancient Greek ἀνταγωνιστής (antagōnistḗs) (opponent)) and in classical Greek drama, the protagonist was the hero, the antagonist the villain.  A protagonist was central to the plot, although, there could be sub-plots, each narrative with its own protagonist.  There were plays with two protagonists tangled in one plot, but that happened where the first had died, the second then assuming the role.  Some playwrights would introduce false protagonists, soon to vanish.  Modern material (as opposed to the modernist), does not always adhere to the classical Greek form.  For content-providers, especially on screens, having multiple protagonists within the one plot is far from unusual.

In his highly recommended book The Surgeon of Crowthorne (1998), historian Simon Winchester (b 1944) noted the dispute between two of the great authorities in the matter of the English language: the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and Henry Watson Fowler (1858–1933), author of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926).  The OED quoted Dryden’s passage from 1671 (the first known instance in English of “protagonist”) in which the poet used the word in the plural whereas, as Henry Fowler well knew, in any Greek drama there could only ever be one protagonist.  It had of course always been possible for a critic to write about protagonists if comparing two or more productions but that was a function of syntax, not meaning.  Henry Fowler disapproved of much which was modern and in the matter of a play with two protagonists, he rules not only was that wrong but also “absurd” because, a protagonist being the most important figure in the text, there couldn’t be two: “One is either the most important person or one is not”.  So Fowler’s entry of 1926 and the OED’s of two years later stood for decades as contrary judgements, factions in support of one or the other presumably forms from the handful of earnest souls on the planet who care about such things.  When Sir Ernest Gowers (1880–1966) revised A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (the second edition published in 1965), he retained Fowler’s original condemnatory paragraphs but added a coda, noting the original sense from Antiquity but acknowledging that in a dynamic, living language like English, meanings can shift and words can be re-appropriated, adding that in the case of “protagonist”, it seemed “The temptation to regard protagonist as the antonym of antagonist seems irresistible…”  In 1981 when the OED published one of their supplements, it was made clear Fowler was correct if the word is used in the context of Greek theatre (for which it was coined) but that English had moved on and there had for at least centuries been works of fiction with two or more characters of equal importance and it was both convenient and well understood by all when they were so labelled.            

Lindsay Lohan, vampiric protagonist

Directed by Tiago Mesquita with a screenplay by Mark Morgan, Among the Shadows is a thriller which straddles the genres, elements of horror and the supernatural spliced in as required.  Although in production since 2015, with the shooting in London and Rome not completed until the next year, it wasn’t until 2018 when, at the European Film Market, held in conjunction with the Berlin International Film Festival, that Tombstone Distribution listed it, the distribution rights acquired by VMI, Momentum and Entertainment One, and VMI Worldwide.  In 2019, it was released progressively on DVD and video on demand (VOD), firstly in European markets, the UK release delayed until mid-2020.  In some markets, for reasons unknown, it was released with the title The Shadow Within.

It was Lindsay Lohan’s first film since The Canyons (2013).  In Among the Shadows, she plays a character married to an EU politician, a hint it’s somewhere on the horror continuum, the twist being she’s also a vampire.  Which makes sense.  When you think about it.  What unfolds is a murky mix of political intrigue and mass-murder in which the vampire and a woman with her own secrets are thrown together as protagonists struggling to stop the politician being horribly slaughtered by a pack of werewolves.

That may have been the flaw in the plot.  A film in which most of the members of the European Council, European Commission and (perhaps especially) the European Parliament are murdered by werewolves, preferably in the bloodiest ways imaginable, would probably have been a blockbuster.  Even without social distancing, from Bristol to Berlin, the queues outside cinemas would likely have stretched for blocks.  As it was, without the bodies of eurocrats piled high, critical and commercial reaction was muted, some interesting technical points raised about the editing and even the sequence of filming.  Still, it’s Lohan-noir, Lindsay as a vampire, gruesome killings, werewolves and a Scottish detective, just the movie for a first date during a pandemic.  There is a trailer.

Coffin

Coffin (pronounced kof-in (U) or kaw-fin (non-U))

(1) The box or case in which the body of a dead person is placed for burial; in US use, usually called a casket.

(2) In veterinary science, the hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone.

(3) In printing, the bed of a platen press; the wooden frame around the bed of an early wooden press.

(4) In cooking, a casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie (archaic).

(5) In fingernail art, one of the standard shapes.

(6) In cartomancy, the eighth Lenormand card.

(7) A type of basket (obsolete).

(8) Industry slang for a storage container for nuclear waste.

(9) A conical paper bag, used by grocers (obsolete).

(10) In engineering, an alternative name for a flask or casting mold, especially those used in sand casting.

1300-1350: From the Middle English cofin, from the Old Northern French cofin (sarcophagus (and earlier basket & coffer) from the Latin cophinus (basket, hamper), a loanword from the Ancient Greek κόφινος (kóphinos) (a kind of basket) of uncertain origin, the Latin the source also of the Italian cofano and the Spanish cuebano (basket).  The original meaning in fourteenth century Middle English was "chest or box for valuables", preserved in the modern coffer (see most frequently in the plural form coffers), meaning, inter alia, a specialized type of container for storing money or other valuables.  The funereal sense, "chest or box in which the dead human body is placed for burial" is from 1520s; before that the main secondary sense in English was "pie crust, a mold or casing of pastry for a pie" (late 14c.). The meaning "vehicle regarded as unsafe" is from 1830s; coffin nail (cigarette) is slang from 1880; the phrase "nail in (one's) coffin" (a thing that hastens or contributes to one's death) has been in use since 1792.

Shapes of boxes

A coffin is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, either for burial or cremation, although it’s increasingly common for elaborate and expensive coffins to be used only for the funeral ceremony with the dead actually buried or cremated in simple boxes made from cheaper timber or even reinforced cardboard.  Use for burial became two-pronged.  The Old French cofin, (basket), evolved into coffin in English whereas the modern French form, couffin, means cradle.  Within the English-speaking world, coffin is rare in the US where the preferred form is usually casket; elsewhere the words are used interchangeably.  However, some undertakers (now often gentrified as "funeral directors") do note detail differences between the two, a casket denoting a four or eight-sided (almost always a rectangular or long octagonal) shape, while a coffin tends to be six or twelve-sided (almost always an elongated hexagonal or elongated dodecagonal).

1937 Cord 812 Phaeton

Probably because of the morbid association, the coffin has never been widely used as a design metaphor except where adoption is dictated by functional need.  It was however the most famous feature of the Cord 810/812 (1936-1937), known from its debut as the “coffin nose” and probably still the most memorable car of the art deco period.  Despite the elongated hood (bonnet) and coming from an era during which the configuration was widely used, the Cords were fitted not with straight-eight engines but used a 289 cubic inch (4.7 litre) Lycoming V8, the generous length necessitated by something unusual for the time: front wheel drive.  This demanded additional space to achieve the desired lines so the semi-automatic four-speed gearbox was mounted in front of the engine.  In the improving economy of the mid-1930s sales were initially brisk but reliability problems dampened demand and the rectification programme proved so expensive production ceased in 1937, the recession of 1938 dooming hopes of any revival.

Coffin-shaped fingernails painted in Dior 999.

With a distinctive curve which tapers to an obtuse end, the elegant and much-admired coffin is one of the standard shapes in fingernail art.  The name is also sometimes misapplied: If the tapering is more severe, the nail should properly be called an almond and if rounded, it’s an oval or squoval (although some manicurists list those variations as a pipe).

Lindsay Lohan with coffin during vampire-themed photo-shoot.

Propeller

Propeller (pronounced pruh-pel-er)

(1) A person or thing that propels.

(2) A device with a hub to which are attached evenly spaced & shaped radiating blades, rotating on a shaft to pitch against air or water to propel an aircraft, ship etc.

(3) A wind-driven (usually three-bladed) device that provides mechanical energy, as for driving an electric alternator in wind plants (not a universal use).

(4) A steamboat thus propelled; a screw steamer (now rare).

(5) In fishing, a spinnerbait.

1780: The construct was propel + -er and the original sense was “one who or that which that propels”, an agent noun from the verb propel.  The verb propel was a mid-fifteenth century form from the Middle English propellen (to drive away, expel), from the Latin propellere (push forward, drive forward, drive forth; move, impel), the construct being pro- (the prefix here use in the sense of “forward direction, forward movement”) + pellere (to push, drive), from the primitive Indo-European root pel- (to thrust, strike, drive).  The meaning “to drive onward, cause to move forward” emerged in the 1650s.  The –er suffix was from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought most likely to have been borrowed from the Latin –ārius where, as a suffix, it was used to form adjectives from nouns or numerals.  In English, the –er suffix, when added to a verb, created an agent noun: the person or thing that doing the action indicated by the root verb.   The use in English was reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (the Anglo-Norman variant -our), from the Latin -ātor & -tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  When appended to a noun, it created the noun denoting an occupation or describing the person whose occupation is the noun.  The alternative spelling propellor dates from the early days of aviation in the first years of the twentieth century and is now extinct.  The standard abbreviation is “prop”, the use noted from military aviation since 1914.  Propeller is a noun; the noun plural is propellers.

Although the concept was used in antiquity and inventors and others (most famously Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519))  had for centuries experimented, the use of the word in mechanical engineering dates from 1809 and was from nautical design describing the application of a “device for moving vessels on or under the water”.  In aircraft design the theory of the use of “propeller” appears in papers and drawings in the 1840s (in what were then described as “flying machines”) and models were built which demonstrated a “proof of concept” although it would be decades before lightweight engines of sufficient power existed to allow experiments in aerodynamics and construction to be powered.  The first known rendering of an aircraft propeller in a recognizably modern form dates from 1853.  The modern propeller uses two or (usually) more twisted, airfoil-shaped blades mounted around a shaft which are spun to provide propulsion of a vehicle through water or air, or to cause fluid flow, as in a pump.  The lift generated by the spinning blades provides the force that propels the vehicle or the fluid although this lift does not of necessity have to induce an actual upward force; its direction is simply parallel to the rotating shaft.

Lindsay Lohan getting off the propeller driven (technically a turbo-prop) NAPA Shuttle, The Parent Trap (1998).

The term “to disembark” was borrowed from nautical use and of late "to deplane" has entered English which seems unnecessary but the companion “to disemplane” seems more absurd still; real people continue to “get on” and “get off” aircraft.

The terms “impeller” & “propeller” both describe devices which use various implantations of the “rotating blade(s) design and are used in mechanical systems to take advantage of the properties of fluid dynamics to harness specific energy for some purpose.  A propeller is a type of rotating device with blades designed to propel or move a fluid (typically a gas or a liquid) by generating thrust; they are most associated with marine vessels, aircraft and some industrial applications.  In aircraft, propellers can be attached to wing-mounted engines or mounted just about anywhere on a fuselage although historically a location at the front has been most common.  In marine applications, propellers have on specialized vessels been located to the sides of the hull but they almost always emerge at or close to the stern.  An impeller is a rotating component with blades or vanes (almost always enclosed in a housing), typically used for fluid or air distribution, such as a pump or a compressor, the primary purpose being to increase flow or pressure.  The classic impellers those in centrifugal pumps where they spin, creating a flow of fluid (liquid or air) by imparting centrifugal force to the substance; in practice, impellers such accelerate liquids are more common.

So an impeller & propeller do much the same thing, using blades to propel some form of fluid.  The use of different terms is helpful because in practice they are very different devices and the distinction that one is external and the other located within a housing is handy and the origin of that seems to lie in the construct of impeller which came first, dating from circa 1680 (as an agent noun from the verb impel) in the sense of “someone or something which impels”.  What the design of an impeller does is use the energy from the rotation to increase the flow or pressure of the fluid and it that it’s the reverse of a turbine, the rotation of which extracts energy from, and reduces the pressure of the flow.  Engineers also have a number of highly technical rules about what is and is not defined as an impeller base on the whether the entry and exit of the fluids occur axially or radially but it seemed impossible to construct such definitions as absolutes so for most the simpler distinctions are more helpful.  In engineering, impellers have been recorded as a machine or component name since 1836.

News Corp website 22 January 2024.  To refer to a jet engine’s nacelle as a propeller could (almost) be defended on the basis it’s the jet engine which “propels” the aircraft but this is more likely an example of (1) the decline in the quality of journalists and (2) what happens when there are no sub-editors to correct the mistakes.  In time, artificial intelligence (AI) should improve things.    

The verb impel dates from the early fifteenth century and was from the Middle English impellen, from the Latin impellere (to push, strike against; set in motion, drive forward, urge on), the construct an assimilated form of in- (into, in, on, upon), from the primitive Indo-European root en- (in) + pellere (to push, drive), from the primitive Indo-European root pel- (to thrust, strike, drive).  The construct of the Latin impellō was in- +‎ pellō (push, drive), from the Proto-Italic pelnō or pelnaō, a nasal-infix present derived from the primitive Indo-European pelh- (to drive, strike, thrust).  The Latin prefix –in could be appended to create a negative (un-, non-, not etc) but here was used as an intensifier, another possible meaning (in, within, inside) coincidental to the mechanical devices being usually mounted within housings.

Propellers and impellers both use blades (although those of the latter are often in the form of a single piece wither cast, molded, or (occasionally) forged.  Turbines also use blade-like parts but these are called vanes and an industry which seems unable to decide on terminology is the burgeoning business of wind-power; the huge rotating assemblies on wind turbines are referred to variously as vanes, blades or rotors.  Rotor blades are familiar for the use in helicopters which is essentially an airframe where a large-scale propeller sits atop the structure, pointing upwards and rather than “propeller blades”, the accepted term is “rotor blades”, the design of which permits both lift and directional thrust although some exotic multi-engined machines have rotors in housings which, to maximize performance, can themselves be rotated to operate as conventional propellers.

Supermarine Seafang (1946) with contra-rotating propellers.  The Seafang was powered by the Rolls-Royce Griffon and was the final evolution of the Spitfire-derived Seafire and Spiteful, the trio all designed for use on Royal Navy aircraft carriers, the series enjoying success despite the basic design being hampered by the narrow undercarriage which made landings a challenge (something corrected on the Spiteful & Seafang).  Series production of the Seafang was contemplated but eventually only 18 were built because the jet-powered de Havilland Sea Vampire proved capable of carrier operations, surprising some at the Admiralty who doubted the jets could operate from anywhere but land.

The evolution of aircraft influenced propellers.  Once they had been fashioned from wood before the need for faster, more efficient shapes dictated the use of aluminium or other light metals.  By the time the first modern monoplane fighters appeared in the mid 1930s propellers were still two-bladed but as power increased over the years (something which accelerated during World War II (1939-1945)), three, four and five-bladed solutions were engineered.  The rising output however, although it permitted higher performance, created challenges for engineers, notably the “torque effect” which meant a tendency to cause the aircraft to roll in the direction of the propeller’s spin, a problem especially serious during take-offs.  In twin-engined aircraft the solution was to have the propellers rotate in opposite directions but in airframes with a single power-plant, sometimes used were contra-rotating propellers which, although introducing additional complexity and demanding additional maintenance, did offer advantages including: (1) harnessing more of an engine’s power, (2) increased thrust efficiency by a reduction in energy losses, (3) counteracting the torque effect, (4) improved low-speed manoeuvrability and ground-handling and (5) improved acceleration and climbing performance.

A flight of Republic P-47D Thunderbolts with under-wing drop-tanks.

The propeller also influenced other aspects of the aircraft.  When the prototype Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (1941-1945) first took to the air, it was the largest, heaviest single-seat piston-engined fighter ever produced (a distinction it still enjoys today).  Even the early versions used an engine rated at 2000 horsepower (later this would rise to 2800) and to harness this output demanded a large propeller.  The 12 foot (3.7 m) diameter of this four-bladed monster meant the landing-gear had to be extraordinarily long and the only way it could be accommodated was to have them retract inward, otherwise the heavy wing armament (8 x .50 inch (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns (425 rounds per gun)) wouldn’t have fitted.

Chrysler XI-2220 V16.  The splined shaft is where the propeller attaches.

With things like the Thunderbolt, the Hawker Tempest and the later Supermarine Spitfires (and its derivatives), the piston-engined fighter achieved its final evolutionary form, the jet engine offering a path to performance unattainable while the physics of propellers imposed limits.  However, had the use of the A-Bombs not ended the war in 1945, development of the propeller aircraft would have continued because the early jets lacked thrust and reliability as well as suffering a rate of fuel consumption which rendered them unsuitable for long-distance operations.  With the war against Japan envisaged as lasting well into 1946, development of faster, more powerful piston engines continued although, given the parlous state of the Japanese military, it’s dubious at least there was much of a rationale for this but the military industrial complex is a creature of inertia and Chrysler’s research had perfected a new aero-engine for the Thunderbolt.  The XI-2220 was a 2,220 cubic inch (36.4 litre) V16 which was rated at a basic 2450 horsepower with some 4000 hp available when tuned for wartime use but with the end of the conflict, all such developments were cancelled and attention switched to the brave new world of jets and swept wings.  Thus ended the era of the big propeller-driven fighters, the V16 stillborn, as was the other extraordinary aero-engine on the drawing board: Britain's 32-cylinder Napier-Sabre H-32 which was a scaled-up version of their H24.

Exsanguinate

Exsanguinate (pronounced eks-sang-gwuh-neyt)

(1) To kill by means of blood loss.

(2) To die by means of blood loss.

(3) To drain a body (living or dead) of blood.

1610–1620: From the Late Latin exsanguinātus (bloodless, deprived of blood), past participle of exsanguināre, the construct being ex- (out) + sanguinem, from sanguis (blood).  The construct in English was ex- + sanguine, + -ate.  The ex- prefix was from the Middle English, from words borrowed from the Middle French, from the Latin ex (out of, from), from the primitive Indo-European eǵ- & eǵs- (out).  It was cognate with the Ancient Greek ἐξ (ex) (out of, from), the Transalpine Gaulish ex- (out), the Old Irish ess- (out), the Old Church Slavonic изъ (izŭ) (out) & the Russian из (iz) (from, out of).  The “x” in “ex-“, sometimes is elided before certain constants, reduced to e- (eg ejaculate).  Sanguine was from the Middle English sanguine, from the Old French sanguin, from the Latin sanguineus (of blood), from sanguis.  The Latin sanquis, perhaps surprisingly, is of uncertain origin but may be from the primitive Indo-European hsh-én- from hésh₂r̥ (blood).  The suffix -ate was a word-forming element used in forming nouns from Latin words ending in -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as estate, primate & senate).  Those that came to English via French often began with -at, but an -e was added in the fifteenth century or later to indicate the long vowel.  It can also mark adjectives formed from Latin perfect passive participle suffixes of first conjugation verbs -ātus, -āta, & -ātum (such as desolate, moderate & separate).  Again, often they were adopted in Middle English with an –at suffix, the -e appended after circa 1400; a doublet of –ee.  Exsanguinate & exsanguinating are verbs, exsanguinated is a verb & adjective, exsanguination is a noun; the noun plural is exsanguinations.

As an adjective, exsanguine (bloodless) is attested from the mid-seventeenth century in both literal and figurative use and is now probably a technical word used only by embalmers, in clinical pathology, in the veterinary sciences or in slaughterhouses.  The word being a bit cumbersome, use never extended to kitchens, despite much exsanguination historically being part of the workings of production kitchens (before modern supply chains); where required, chefs prefer the punchier “drain”.  In use the verb is intransitive in the sense of “to die by means of blood loss” and transitive in the sense of “to kill by means of blood loss” or “to drain a body (living or dead) of blood”.

Gory: Lindsay Lohan was photographed in 2011 & 2013 by Tyler Shields (b 1982) in sessions which involved knives and the depiction of blood.  The shoot attracted some attention and while the technical achievement was noted, it being quite challenging to work with blood (fake or real) and realize something realistic but it was also criticized as adding little to the discussion about the pornography of violence against women.  There was a time when such photographs would has shocked but that moment has long passed and the most thoughtful comments on the photographs were that while it's a necessary discussion, it's one that should be conducted with words and such staged images do nothing but add to cultural desensitization.

Technical notes on the process of stunning & exsanguination in a slaughterhouse.  Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

(1) Stunning process

Criteria for a good slaughter method:

(1) Animals must not be treated cruelly or unnecessarily stressed.

(2) Exsanguination must be as rapid and as complete as possible.

(3) Damage to the carcass must be minimal, and the method of slaughter must be hygienic, economical and safe for abattoir workers.

To avoid the risk of cruelty, animals must be stunned or rendered unconscious before exsanguination.  When religious reasons do not allow stunning, extra care is needed to ensure exsanguination causes the minimum of distress to the animal.  In the Kosher method of killing, conscious cattle are suspended with the head stretched back, and then the throat and its major blood vessels are severed. Drugs cannot be used in the meat industry to induce unconsciousness in animals for slaughter because unacceptable residues would remain in the meat.

Animals can be effectively stunned by concussion which may be induced by a bullet or a bolt that penetrates the cranium or by the impact of a fast-moving knocker on the surface of the cranium.  In modern abattoirs, the primitive pole-axe has been replaced by devices which use expanding gas, either from an air-compressor or a blank ammunition cartridge. First, the animal is restrained in a narrow pen or knocking box in order to minimize its head movements, then the concussion instrument is then accurately located at a point on the midline of the skull, above the level of the brow ridges of the eye sockets.  Concussion stunning should not be applied on the neck or posterior part of the skull.

The knocker is a heavy instrument held with both hands.  There is a safety catch on the handle, but the actual trigger protrudes from the head of the knocker and is activated as the knocker is tapped against the animal's head.  The captive bolt pistol resembles a heavy hand gun but a blank cartridge rather than a bullet is used to propel a cylindrical bolt into the skull.  After penetration, the bolt is withdrawn into the barrel of the pistol and the pistol is reloaded.  Steers, heifers and cows are normally stunned with a knocker or a heavy captive bolt pistol, but bulls and boars which have massive skulls are sometimes shot with a rifle bullet. Pigs and lambs may be stunned with a light-weight captive bolt pistol.

Thirsty work.  A vampire exsanguinates.

(2) Exsanguination process

Cattle and pigs are usually exsanguinated by a puncture wound which opens the major blood vessels at the base of the neck, not far from the heart (the trade name for this process is sticking).  In sheep, lambs and small calves, the major blood vessels may be severed by a transverse cut across the throat, near to the head.  Poultry can be exsanguinated with a diagonal cut from the corner of the jaw towards the ear on the other side, or by a knife thrust through the roof of the mouth to severe the brain and its major blood vessels. For poultry, the cut may be made on the side of the head if the head is later to be removed automatically by machine.

If the sticking wound is inaccurately placed, exsanguination may be too slow, and it may be almost halted by the formation of large blood clots.  The formation of blood clots is accelerated when large areas of tissue are damaged by repeated inaccurate punctures.  If the trachea is severed by the sticking wound, blood may be drawn into the lungs as the animal breathes. Later in the slaughter procedure, this may necessitate the trimming of blood clots from the pleural membranes after they have been inspected.  If the oesophagus is severed, the vascular system may be contaminated by the entry of food particles into the venous system. If the connective tissues of the shoulder are opened, blood may seep into the shoulder region to form blood clots between the muscles.

Incomplete exsanguination increases the amount of residual blood in the carcass.  The lean meat may then appear unduly dark and the fat may become streaked with blood. On the surface of incompletely exsanguinated poultry, the skin may appear dark and bloody over the breast, neck, shoulders and wings. The microscopic tissue damage that may later be caused by the freezing and thawing of poultry enables residual blood to leak from skin capillaries.  Thus, the results of incomplete exsanguination are often more noticeable to the consumer than to the producer.

The exsanguination or sticking of meat animals in an abattoir is usually performed by severing the carotid arteries and the jugular vein at the base of the neck.  In poultry, these vessels may be cut only on one side of the neck. The sticking knife must be kept clean otherwise bacteria might be introduced into the venous system and spread through the otherwise relatively sterile muscles of the carcass.  Once exsanguination has started, the pulse and mean blood pressure decline rapidly because of the reduced stroke volume of the heart. Blood pressure changes are monitored physiologically by baroreceptors in the carotid sinuses. During exsanguination, respiratory movements of the thorax may be stimulated, and neurogenic and hormonal mechanisms attempt to restore the blood pressure by increasing the peripheral resistance by vasoconstriction.  The heart keeps beating for some time after the major blood vessels are emptied, but stops rapidly if exposed and cooled.  Electrical stunning of pigs may terminate cardiac activity so that, at the start of exsanguination, the blood escapes by gravity rather than being pumped out.  In pigs, cardiac arrest does not affect the rate and extent of exsanguination.  After exsanguination has started, the heart usually re-starts and attempts to pump, until it runs out of energy. Thus, in many cases, there is no reason why animals such as pigs and sheep cannot be killed by electrocution rather than being merely electrically stunned.  In cattle stunned by concussion, more or less complete exsanguination may be obtained without ventricular pumping. Similarly, normal exsanguination is obtained in poultry that have been killed by electrocution rather than by being electrically stunned. In meat animals, "head to back" stunning may be used to stop the heart.

Blood loss as a percentage of body weight differs between species: cows, 4.2 to 5.7%; calves, 4.4 to 6.7%; sheep, 4.4 to 7.6%; and pigs, 1.5 to 5.8%.  Blood content as a percentage of live weight may decrease in heavier animals since the growth of blood volume does not keep pace with growth of live weight. Approximately 60% of blood is lost at sticking, 20-25% remains in the viscera, while a maximum of 10% may remain in carcass muscles. Different stunning methods may modify the physiological conditions at the start of exsanguination and, also, the neural responses to exsanguination.  Electrically stunned sheep lose more blood than those stunned with a captive bolt, but they also have more blood splashes in their carcasses.

Reduction of blood flow to the kidneys causes the release of a proteolytic enzyme, renin, which acts on a plasma protein to produce a polypeptide, angiotensin I.  This polypeptide is converted enzymatically to angiotensin II which then causes widespread vasoconstriction. Vasoconstriction is important because it decreases the retention of blood in meat. Angiotensin II vasoconstriction is operative in both conscious and anaesthetized animals.  Catecholamines and antidiuretic hormone (ADH) may also enhance vasoconstriction during exsanguination.  Speed of exsanguination may modify the balance between neural and hormonal vasoconstrictive mechanisms, with hormonal vasoconstriction predominating in rapid exsanguination.  However, asphyxia prior to exsanguination may result in vasoconstriction due to the activity of the sympathetic nervous system.

Traditionally it has been maintained that poor bleeding leads to dark meat with poor keeping qualities due to microbial spoilage and rancidity but there is little scientific evidence in support of this view and it may be false, even in animals which retain massive amounts of blood in their carcasses.  Delayed exsanguination of cattle may lead to a slight reduction in the amount of blood removed so that the carcass and spleen are slightly heavier but the effects on meat quality are negligible. It is not suggested poor exsanguination is a good thing, but should it occur, it is not the disaster some meat inspectors suppose.