countdown was: "As If"

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 21, 2005, at 2:37 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      countdown  was: "As If"
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> I've heard, but have no documentation for, that the idea of a
> "countdown" for a missile/rocket launch was an invention of the Germans
> at Peenemuende (where the V-2 rocket was developed), and when they came
> to America after the war, to support V-2 launches at Ft. Bliss
> (1946-1950), and then here to Huntsville for the development of Army
> and
> NASA rockets, they brought countdowns with them.  So the term could
> show
> up in US technical documents as early as 1946 or so.
>
> Contemporary accounts of the Manhattan Project show that a countdown
> was
> used at the Trinity test, but I can't find the word "countdown" in any
> contemporary accounts online.
>
> Robert Heinlein's 1952 novel "The Rolling Stones" calls it a "count
> off":

Which also is of military origin.

-Wilson Gray

>
>      "She answered, "Board green!  Clear from tower! Ready for count
> off!"
>      "Minus thirty! Twenty-nine -- twenty-eight --" He broke off and
> added sheepishly, "It does feel good." "
> [from Amazon.com's Inside the Book]
>
>
> OED has 1953
>
>
>
>
>
>> *In writing this, I began wondering when _countdown_ began--I
>> remember it from pop/rock music radio shows, of the top n
>> hits of the week or (on New Year's Eve) of the year, well
>> before I heard it from those rocketry geeks over at Cape
>> Canaveral, but the OED has lots of rocketry/missile launch
>> cites (beginning 1953) and no entry for the pop radio usage,
>> which is certainly where the "countdown" in shows like
>> tonight's transferred from.  It's now very widespread--ESPN,
>> for example, uses the device constantly for all sorts of
>> shows ranking the top n whatevers (plays of the day, all-time
>> comebacks, on-field blow-ups,...).
>>
>