"Go _balls-out_"

[Wilson Gray]

According to the History Channel, this is the source of that term:

W:pedia -
"A governor, or speed-limiter, is a
device<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine>used to measure and
regulate the
speed <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed> of a
machine<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine>,
such as an engine <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine>. A classic example
is the centrifugal governor<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifugal_governor>,
also known as the Watt <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watt> or
fly-ball governor, which uses weights mounted on spring-loaded arms to
determine how fast a shaft is spinning, and then uses proportional
control<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_control>to regulate
the shaft speed.
"

When a fly-ball-governed machine is operating "balls-out," then it's
producing all of the power that it (safely) can. Whence the expression.

You buy that, Jon? I spent fifteen years working in a power plant with five
steam turbines, each with a fly-ball governor, and didn't once hear the
expression, "balls-out." But that could easily have been sheer
happenstance, since the turbines were never run balls-out, there being no
need for that.

Youneverknow.

--Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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