Pre-Archaic Industrial Jargon

[James A. Landau <JJJRLandau@netscape.com>]

A few more anachronisms in daily, though not necessarily industrial usage:

"Tilt" - originally a signal from a pinball machine, but electro-mechanical pinball machines are nowadays very rare

several terms from photography: "film" for a movie is becoming obsolete, now that many movies are distributed in digital format.  "Celluloid" meaning film, obsolete since celluloid (nitrocellulose plus camphor), also known as "nitrate film", was replaced by the much less flammable "safety film" in the 1930's.  "Cel", meaning one frame of a movie, is a shortening of "celluloid" used in animated films.

One might argue that "camera" itself is obsolete, since it is short for "camera obscura" and they simply don't exist any more.

Oliver Cromwell's "Fear God and keep your powder dry" became obsolescent circa 1870 when most armies had switched over to metallic cartridges and was totally obsolete in the 20th Century with the advent of nitrocellulose-based "smokeless powder".  Actually, Cromwell himself was guilty of anachronism.  The "powder" of "gunpowder" refers to the original composition, sometimes called "meal powder", which was a powder that was dangerous to handle.  By 1600 meal powder had been replaced by "corned powder", which is not only much safer but a granular substance.  Modern-day smokeless powder is also not a powder but more of a gelatinous substance.

And of course a piece of Pre-Archaic Industrial Jargon that antedates the English language: "making bricks without straw".

    - James A. Landau


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