Rat

Rat (pronounced ratt)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Ram Air Turbine

Ram Air Turbine (RAT) diagram.

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

Vickers VC10.

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

RAT in operation.

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

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

1944 Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet  (1944-1945).

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

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

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

Dual & Duel

Dual (pronunced doo-uhl or dyoo-uhl)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Duel Pronounced doo-uhl or dyoo-uhl)

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

(2) Any contest between two persons or entities.

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

Dualism in Philosophy

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

Dualism in Carburetion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Failsafe

Failsafe (pronounced feyl-seyf)

(1) In electronics, pertaining to or noting a mechanism built into a system, as in an early warning system or a nuclear reactor, for insuring safety should the system fail to operate properly.

(2) Anything equipped with a secondary system that insures continued operation even if the primary system fails; something designed to work or function automatically to prevent breakdown of a mechanism, system, or the like.(3) In manned nuclear weapon delivery systems (airplanes), of, relating to, or designating a system of coded military controls in which bombers dispatched to a prearranged point as part of a standard operating procedure cannot advance farther without direct orders from a designated authority and cannot have the nuclear warheads they carry armed until they have passed their prearranged point (known as the failsafe point (sometimes initial capital letter)).

1945: A compound word, fail + safe, apparently a back-formation from the verb phrase to fail safely.  Fail is from the Middle English failen, borrowed from the Anglo-Norman faillir, from the Vulgar Latin fallire (an alteration of the Latin fallere (to deceive, disappoint)), from either the primitive Indo-European bhāl- (to lie, deceive) or the primitive Indo-European sgwhhzel- (to stumble).  It was related to the Dutch feilen & fallen (to fail, miss), the German fehlen (to fail, miss, lack), the Danish fejle (to fail, err), the Swedish fela (to fail, be wanting, do wrong), the Icelandic feila (to fail) and the Spanish fallar (to fail, miss).  Safe is from the Middle English sauf, safe, saf & saaf, from the Old French sauf, saulf & salf (safe), from the Latin salvus (whole, safe”), from the primitive Indo-European solhz- (whole, every).  The meaning "unscathed, unhurt, uninjured; free from danger or molestation, in safety, secure; saved spiritually, redeemed, not damned" emerged circa 1300 from the Old French sauf (protected, watched-over; assured of salvation), from the Latin salvus (uninjured, in good health, safe) and related to salus (good health) & saluber (healthful), all from the primitive Indo-European solwos from the root sol- (whole, well-kept).  The quasi-preposition from circa 1300 was on the model of the French and Latin cognates.  From the late fourteenth century, the sense "rescued, delivered; protected; left alive, unkilled" had formed, along with the meaning "not exposed to danger" (of places) whereas the same thing as applied to actions was attested from the 1580s and “"sure, reliable, not a danger" from about two decades later.  The sense of "conservative, cautious" is from 1823.  The noun term safe-conduct is from the late thirteenth century language of diplomacy, from the Old French sauf-conduit.

In fiction: Failsafe and nuclear weapons

Although most associated with nuclear-weapons delivery systems (The novel Fail-Safe (1962) by Eugene Burdick (1918-1965) and Harvey Wheeler (1918-2004) is about a nuclear attack caused by mechanical error), the term failsafe was used originally by engineers in reference to aircraft construction.  The spellings failsafe and fail-safe are used interchangeably; failsafe is an adjective and a noun; the verbs (used with object) are fail-safed and fail-safeing and the verbs appear always to be hyphenated; the form failsafeish is engineer's humor.

Two films from 1964, Sidney Lumet's (1924-2011) Fail-Safe and Stanley Kubrick's (1928-1999) Doctor Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb were both about the fear of a nuclear holocaust.  Kubrick had his project in pre-production in early 1963 when he learned another production house had purchased the rights to the Fail-Safe, planning a cinema release before Dr Strangelove.  Not happy, Kubrick alleged plagiarism and threatened a lawsuit, asserting the novel Fail-Safe was "copied largely” from the book on which Dr Strangelove was based, Peter George's (1924-1966) Red Alert.  Rather than pursuing the matter through the courts, Columbia Pictures, committed to Dr Strangelove, chose the M&A route and took over distribution of Fail-Safe which it scheduled for a release after Dr Strangelove.  Kubrick probably needn’t have worried, Dr Strangelove, a masterpiece of dark humour, was a critical and commercial success while Fail-Safe, although praised by many scholars and military analysts wasn't well received by reviewers who though it melodramatic and found the plot implausible, dooming it at the box-office.

US war-room film set for Dr Strangelove.  Upon becoming president in 1981, Ronald Reagan (1911-2004, US president 1981-1989) was reportedly disappointed no Situation Room quite so dramatic actually existed, the room in the White House something like what would be used by an insurance company to conduct sales training seminars.  The story is thought likely apocryphal but there is documentary evidence Reagan did sometimes confuse historic fact with depictions he's seen in movies.

Demand

Demand (pronounced dih-mand (U) or dee–mahnd (non-U))

(1) To ask for with proper authority; claim as a right.

(2) To ask for peremptorily or urgently.

(3) To call for or require as just, proper, or necessary.

(4) In law, to lay formal claim to.

(5) In law, to summon, as to court.

(6) An urgent or pressing requirement.

(7) In economics, the desire to purchase, coupled (hopefully) with the power to do so.

(8) In economics, the quantity of goods that buyers will take at a particular price.

(9) A requisition; a legal claim.

(10) A question or inquiry (archaic).

1250-1300: From Middle English demaunden and Anglo-French demaunder, derived from the Medieval Latin dēmandāre (to demand, later to entrust) equivalent to dē + mandāre (to commission, order).  The Old French was demander and, like the English, meant “to request” whereas "to ask for as a right" emerged in the early fifteenth century from Anglo-French legal use.  As used in economic theory and political economy (correlating to supply), first attested from 1776 in the writings of Adam Smith.  The word demand as used by economists is a neutral term which references only the conjunction of (1) a consumer's desire to purchase goods or services and (2) hopefully the power to do so.  However, in general use, to say that someone is "demanding" something does carry a connotation of anger, aggression or impatience.  For this reason, during the 1970s, the language of those advocating the rights of women to secure safe, lawful abortion services changed from "abortion on demand" (ie the word used as an economist might) to "pro choice".  Technical fields (notably economics) coin derived forms as they're required (counterdemand, overdemand, predemand et al).  Demand is a noun & verb, demanding is a verb & adjective, demandable is an adjective, demanded is a verb and demander is a noun; the noun plural is demands.

Video on Demand (VoD)

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.

Video on Demand (VoD) and streaming services are similar concepts in video content distribution but there are differences.  VoD is a system which permits users to view content at any time, these days mostly through a device connected to the internet across IP (Internet Protocol), the selection made from a catalog or library of available titles and despite some occasionally ambiguous messaging in the advertising, the content is held on centralized servers and users can choose directly to stream or download.  The VoD services is now often a sub-set of what a platform offers which includes content which may be rented, purchased or accessed through a subscription.

Streaming is a method of delivering media content in a continuous flow over IP and is very much the product of the fast connections of the twenty-first century.  Packets are transmitted in real-time which enables users to start watching or listening without waiting for an entire file (or file set) to download, the attraction actually being it obviates the need for local storage.  There’s obviously definitional and functional overlap and while VoD can involve streaming, not all streaming services are technically VoD and streaming can also be used for live events, real-time broadcasts, or continuous playback of media without specific on-demand access. By contrast, the core purpose of VoD is to provide access at any time and streaming is a delivery mechanism, VoD a broad concept and streaming a specific method of real-time delivery as suited to live events as stored content.

The Mercedes-Benz SSKL and the Demand Supercharger

The Mercedes-Benz SSKL was one of the last of the road cars which could win top-line grand prix races.  An evolution of the earlier S, SS and SSK, the SSKL (Super Sports Kurz (short) Leicht (light)) was notable for the extensive drilling of its chassis frame to the point where it was compared to Swiss cheese; reducing weight with no loss of strength.  The SSKs and SSKLs were famous also for the banshee howl from the engine when the supercharger was running; nothing like it would be heard until the wail of the BRM V16s twenty years later.  It was called a demand supercharger because, unlike some constantly-engaged forms of forced-induction, it ran only on-demand, in the upper gears, high in the rev-range, when the throttle was pushed wide-open.  Although it could safely be used for barely a minute at a time, when running, engine power jumped from 240-odd horsepower to over 300.  The number of SSKLs built has been debated and the factory's records are incomplete but most historians suggest it was either four or five, all completed (or modified from earlier builds) between 1929-1932.  The SSK had enjoyed success in competition but even in its heyday was in some ways antiquated and although powerful, was very heavy, thus the expedient of the chassis-drilling intended to make it competitive for another season.  Lighter (which didn't solve but at least to a degree ameliorated the high tyre wear) and easier to handle than the SSK (although the higher speed brought its own problems, notably in braking), the SSKL enjoyed a long Indian summer and even on tighter circuits where its bulk meant it could be out-manoeuvred, sometimes it still prevailed by virtue of sheer power.

Sometimes too it got lucky.  When the field assembled in 1931 for the Fünfter Großer Preis von Deutschland (fifth German Grand Prix) at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, even the factory acknowledged that at 1600 kg (3525 lb), the SSKLs, whatever their advantage in horsepower, stood little chance against the nimble Italian and French machines which weighed-in at literally less than half that.  However, on the day there was heavy rain and most of race was conducted on a soaked track and the lightweight, twitchy Alfa Romeos, Maseratis and the especially skittery Bugattis proved less suited to the slippery surface than the truck-like but stable SSKL, the lead built up in the rain enough to secure victory even though the margin narrowed as the track dried.  Time and the competition had definitely caught up by 1932 however and it was no longer possible further to lighten the chassis or increase power so the factory had aerodynamics specialist Baron Reinhard von Koenig-Fachsenfeld (1899-1992) design a streamlined body, the lines influenced by wartime aeronautical experience.  This coaxed from the SSKL, one last successful season.  Crafted in aluminum by Vetter in Cannstatt, it was mounted on Manfred von Brauchitsch's (1905-2003) race-car and proved its worth at the at the Avus race in May 1932; with drag reduced by a quarter, the top speed increased by over 12 mph (20 km/h) and the SSKL won its last major trophy on the unique circuit which rewarded straight-line speed like no other.  It was the last of the breed.  Subsequent grand prix cars would be pure racing machines with none of the compromises demanded for road-use.

Evolution of the front-engined Mercedes-Benz grand prix car, 1928-1954

1928 Mercedes-Benz SS

1929 Mercedes-Benz SSK

1931 Mercedes-Benz SSKL

1932 Mercedes-Benz-SSKL Streamliner

1934 Mercedes-Benz W25

1935 Mercedes-Benz W25B

1937 Mercedes-Benz W125

1938 Mercedes-Benz W154

1939 Mercedes-Benz W165

1954 Mercedes Benz W196R

1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Streamliner

Drone

Drone (pronounced drohn)

(1) A male bee in a colony of social bees, stingless and making no honey whose sole function is to mate with the queen

(2) An unmanned aircraft or ship that can navigate autonomously, without manned control or beyond line of sight.

(3) In casual use, any unmanned aircraft or ship that is guided remotely.

(4) A person who lives on the labor of others; a parasitic loafer.

(5) A drudge.

(6) To make a dull, continued, low, monotonous sound; a hum or buzz.

(7) To speak in a monotonous tone.

(8) To proceed in a dull, monotonous manner.

(9) In music, originally, a continuous low tone produced by the bass pipes or bass strings of musical instruments (later extended to the notion of "drone music", a "clearing house" term for a range of sub-genres and elements).

(10) The pipes (especially of the bagpipe) or strings producing this tone or the bagpipe equipped with such pipes.

Pre 1000: From the Middle English drane & drone (male honeybee), from the Old English drān & drǣn (male bee, drone), from the Proto-Germanic drēniz, drēnuz & drenô (an insect, drone), from the primitive Indo-European dhrēn- (bee, drone, hornet); the Proto-Germanic was the source also of Middle Dutch drane, the Old High German treno (the German Drohne, is from Middle Low German drone), the origin of which may have been imitative (there was the Lithuanian tranni and the Greek thronax (a drone)).  It was cognate with the Dutch drone & Middle Dutch drōnen (male bee or wasp), the Low German drone & German drohne (drone), the dialectal German dräne, trehne & trene (drone), the Danish drone (drone) and the Swedish drönje & drönare (drone).  An earlier variation was the Old English drān, related to the Old High German treno (drone), the Gothic drunjus (noise) and the Greek tenthrēnē (asp) which was the source of the sense of a sound, the meaning emerging 1490–1500, related also to the Middle English droun (to roar), the Icelandic drynja (to bellow) and the Gothic drunjus (noise).

The meaning referring to pilotless airframes appears first to have been used by the military in 1945-1946, initially in the sense of towed target drones, the "pilotless aircraft directed by remote control".  Even in 1946, military theorists were speculating about the potential use of "drones" although much of what was then described was closer to the modern smart bombs or guided missiles.  The meaning "a deep, continuous humming sound" emerged circa 1500, apparently an independent imitative formation in the sense of the 1630s noun threnody (song of lament), from the Greek thrēnōdia (lamentation), the construct being thrēnos (dirge, lament) + ōidē (ode).  The Ancient Greek thrēnos was probably from the primitive Indo-European imitative root dher- (to drone, murmur, hum), source also of the Old English dran (drone), the Gothic drunjus (sound) and the Greek tenthrene (a species of wasp).  The specific technical use "bass pipe of a bagpipe" was first adopted in the  1590s.   The figurative sense of "an idler, a shiftless, lazy worker" (based on the idea of the male bees which make no honey), dates from the 1520s.  Drone quickly became a popular way to describe a mono-tonal, boring speech delivery.

Drones and UAVs

The modern military term for what most people casually call a drone is unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) a more accurate descriptor given the original target drones were either objects towed by “target tugs” or radio controlled aircraft dumbly flying on pre-set paths.  Research on the concept of unmanned flying devices for reconnaissance target practice or even ordnance delivery had begun even before the military had adopted combat aircraft and by the mid-1930s, the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the UK had hundreds of radio controlled biplanes but the word drone appears to have been adopted only in 1945-1946 to describe the objects towed behind piloted aircraft.  Used to provide a moving target for either air-to-air or surface-to-air target practice, the target tugs towing the drone tended to be painted in lurid color schemes to differentiate tug from target although tugs still suffered hits from "friendly fire".  Over time, slang developing as it does, the terms “target drone” and “drone” came often to refer not just to the towed target-object but also the “target tug”, the aircraft towing the target, less a leakage from military use than just a misunderstanding that caught on.  Now, most UAVs sold to hobbyists or for commercial use are marketed as drones.

Paint scheme for target tug towing drone used for surface-to-air target practice on de Havilland Mosquito TT (target tug) Mark 35, No 3 CAACU (Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit), Exeter, UK, 1963.

The use as a target tug (TT) was the last operational role for the Mosquito, one of the more remarkable aircraft of World War Two.  Developed as a private venture by de Havilland, it was greeted by the by the Air Ministry with not their usual mere indifference but outright hostility to the very concept of a light, unarmed bomber made from plywood which relied for protection on speed rather than firepower.  The company however persisted and the Mosquito, which first flew in 1940, became one of the outstanding and most versatile combat aircraft of the war deployed as a fighter, fighter-bomber, night-fighter and bomber in roles as diverse as photo-reconnaissance, maritime strike, long-range surveillance, ground-attack and pathfinder missions guiding heavy bombers.  There was even a naval version for carrier operations, operated by the Fleet Air Arm.

The post-war career too was notable.  Equipped with the latest radar, the Mosquito was retained as a front-line, all-weather fighter until 1951-1952 when night-fighter versions of the Gloster Meteor and de Havilland Vampire entered service.  The last of the 7771 Mosquitos produced did not leave the production line until 1950, the long Indian summer necessitated by the UK’s technology deficit and although few probably thing of the Mosquito as a Cold War fighter but that was its unexpected penultimatum.  The less celebrated but valuable swansong came as a target tug, painted in vivid colors to decrease the danger from “friendly fire” and these platforms remained in operational service until finally retired in 1963, some of the decommissioned aircraft subsequently used by film studios for wartime features.  In addition to the RAF’s Mark 35s, a number of Mark 16 bombers were converted to TT Mark 39s, operated also by the Royal Navy and two ex-RAF Mark 6 (fighter-bombers) were in 1953-1954 converted to the TT Mark 6 standard for the Belgian Air Force which used them as target tugs at the Sylt firing ranges.  For an airframe which the authorities were at the time inclined to reject, the Mosquito enjoyed a remarkable operational life of over two decades; the Treasury got their money's worth.

The Germans, the Russians and Drone Music

Although musicologists categorize “drone music” as a sub-genre in the minimalist tradition, when produced thus it’s really an application of a element of sound which has been a component of many pieces nobody would describe as even vague drone-like.  Ethno-musicologists also object to the usually Eurocentric treatment of the topic, pointing out that musical traditions from Morocco to Mongolia contain much that can only be called a drone and along with a rhythmic beat, the two are probably the basis of most of the early music created by humans.  As a modern form however, to be thought of as “drone music”, compositions tend to be long and characterized by slight or sudden, jarring harmonic shifts.  The form obviously pre-dates means of electronics production but the availability in the twentieth century essentially allowed the genre to be created and it was figures such as Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007) and Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995) who created the works which first came to public attention.  The critical response varied, those attracted to the avant-garde anxious not to seem reactionary while others would probably have agreed with comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953) who condemned as “formalists” those artists who pursued novelties and technical challenges just to impress their peers and a small elite cohort.  The public reaction to the form in its early years seems mostly to have varied between scepticism and the dismissal of the very idea such sounds could be called “music”.  Still, it endured and although never more than a niche as a stand-alone product, continues to underpin many popular forms, notably those listened to in clubs or at festivals by those under the influence of some substance and as the artists well know, there is a relationship between the drone and the chemicals.

By the time the German experimentalists Tangerine Dream released Zeit (Largo in four movements, 1972), it’s possible all that could be done in droning had been done and it can be argued everything since has been a variation but that hasn’t stopped the explorations, the Europeans especially entranced although it was the film-makers who found snatches of drone so useful in creating dramatic effects.  Curiously, there are those who have argued the credit (or the blame, depending on one’s view) for the emergence of drone music belongs to Richard Wagner (1813–1883), on the basis that by the end of his career, tonality had constantly shifting key centres, modulated so often there was little but ambiguity about what the final notes should be.

That’s fine but, so the argument goes, if there are more and more shifting key centres, there comes a point at which there’s no longer a centre of pitch, thus Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) twelve-tone system in which instead of a composition being based on major or minor scales and chords, a tone row was created, the twelve appearing in a specific order (thus the nickname “tone row”).  Musically (and politically, according to some), the idea of a tone row is methodically to avoid a preference for one note over another; all are equal.  Unlike tonal music in which pull active tones “pull” to resolve to resting tones, what came to be called “atonal music” came about because so far had Wagner pushed the boundaries that tonality could do nothing but disintegrate.  For the avant-garde, this created a gap in the market for “critic-ready compositions” because just as a visual form like cubism deconstructed the “bits” of the image and let them be seem in isolation as part of a whole, music could be rediced to a collection of drones and these could be performed singularly, in parallel or as a lineal set.  “By Schoenberg, out or Wagner” is an intriguing explanation for the origin of drone music and not all will agree.