bomb disposal terms

[Wilson Gray]

On Jul 17, 2005, at 10:36 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: bomb disposal terms
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> --------
>
> OK, Wilson, were you betting a "fat man" as a kid ?  I have nothing
> before 1965.
>
> JL
>

Unfortunately, I can't even hazard a guess as to when I first heard or
read the phrase. It didn't grab my conscious attention till the moment
that I eventually realized that the expression contained a pun. I have
the feeling that that moment of enlightenment didn't come till long
after 1965.

However, I'm still certain that I personally originated the term,
"pimpmobile," in 1963, though. ;-)

-Wilson

> Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: bomb disposal terms
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> On Jul 16, 2005, at 6:08 PM, James A. Landau wrote:
>
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>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: "James A. Landau"
>> Subject: Re: bomb disposal terms
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -
>> --------
>>
>> In a message dated Thu, 14 Jul 2005 11:27:20 -0500
>> "Mullins, Bill" _Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL_
>> (mailto:Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL)
>> writes:
>>
>>> Mulvaney on Bomb Disposal, Supplement to Intelligence Bulletin No.
>>> 85,
>>> Sergeant Robert Vittur, dated 15 September 1945.
>>> online at: http://www.multicians.org/thvv/mulvaney.html
>>>
>>> p. 1
>>>
>>> B.D. (= Bomb Disposal. Not in OED)
>>> "These Russians are very secretive about there B.D. methods."
>>
>>
>>
>> A. B. Hartley _Unexploded Bomb_ New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
>> 1958, no
>> ISBN
>> This book gives numerous jargon terms from British bomb disposal work
>> in
>> World War II, unfortunately with few datable quotations.
>>
>> page 24 "a Bomb Disposla Directorate formed The office of
>> directyor
>> was taken over by the Inspector of Fortifications and Works at the War
>> Office,
>> the new combined appointment being known as I.F. and D. B.D. (or, more
>> familiarly, Ifs and Buts). on teh very day---August 29
>> 1940---that this
>> essential administrative measure came into effect and [Major-General
>> G. B. O.
>> Taylor] took control, the storm burst over London."
>>
>> This strongly suggests that the abbreviation "BD" existed in August
>> 1940.
>>
>>> p. 3
>>>
>>> Chewning (Not in OED. I can't find any other uses of this word
>>> anywhere
>>> else, but it is clear from context that it has some meaning within
>>> the
>>> bomb disposal community. It is a moderately common surname, though.)
>>>
>>> "I don't give a hoot if it is "just as good", Mulvaney -- you get
>>> down
>>> and work that Chewning right!!"
>>
>> Obviously some kind of tool or perhaps procedure for taking care of a
>> certain type of unexploded bomb, and very likely named after somebody
>> named
>> Chewning who invented it. Hartley's book doesn't seem to include
>> "Chewning" but
>> lists other tools named after thier developers.
>>
>>> p. 4
>>>
>>> UXB (= Unexploded Bomb; OED has 1955)
>>> "Danger UXB"
>>>
>>> p. 10
>>>
>>> Fire in the hole (Not in OED; means "an explosion is about to
>>> happen")
>>> "Fire in th' Hole!!"
>>
>>
>> It should be noted that one way of disposing of a bomb (if it is
>> acceptable
>> to blow it up where it is lying) is to set fire to the TNT inside.
>> TNT burns
>> without exploding, and with luck as much as half the TNT can be gotten
>> rid
>> of before the heat of the fire causes the fuze to detonate the
>> remaining TNT.
>>
>>> p. 18
>>> Shaped Charge (OED has 1948)
>>> "You needn't be quite so meticulous with those shaped charges,
>>> Hubert."
>>
>>
>> 1948 is dubious. The principle of the shaped charge ("Munro effect")
>> was
>> discovered by Munro in I think the 1880's. Shaped charges were used
>> in the
>> warheads of the US Army's bazooka during World War II----I don't know
>> if the
>> contemporary British PIAT and German Panzerfaust also used shaped
>> charges.
>>
>
> I've never heard of the British term before, but, as a former avid
> reader of Popular Science, I can vouch for the claim that the
> panzerfaust had a shaped charge. Given that it took a shaped charge to
> pierce through the armor of WWII tanks, I'd bet a fat man that the
> British arm also had a shaped charge. FWIW, PS was also my pre-1945
> source for the term "blockbuster" as the name of a bomb.
>
>>> p. 21
>>> propeller head (OED has 1983. The term is not used, but a cartoon
>>> of a
>>> man with a propeller sticking out of his head, asking a doctor "Is my
>>> case uncommon, doc?" is shown, implying that the term may go back to
>>> 1945 and originate with bomb disposal technicians.)
>>
>
> I'm not particularly familiar with the term, "propeller head," but I
> remember propeller beanies from when I was still in elementary school,
> pre-1950.
>
> -Wilson Gray
>
>>
>> two uses similar to "propellor head"
>> 1) a helicopter pilot is a "rotorhead"---this usage is unlikely to be
>> earlier than the late 1940's since helicopters were rare in World War
>> II and did
>> not become common until the late 1940's.
>> 2) propellor beanies, which for reasons beyond my knowledge were
>> associated
>> with science fiction fans since sometime before 1974 (during the 1974
>> Worldcon
>> I told off a Washington Post reporter for having referred to propellor
>> beanies and/or their wearers in a story he had published in the Post
>> the day
>> before.
>>
>> - James A. Landau
>>
>
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