[Ads-l] Amalgamated Rust

[Peter Reitan]

Very few examples on newspapers.com.

I presume that "Amalgamated Rust" is a play on the early steel monopoly 
(1880s) Amalgamated Steel.  References to steel workers unions around 
1900 also refer to the "Almagated Steel Workers."  Replacing Steel with 
Rust for humorous effect might easily have been thought of independently 
by different people at different times.

There is a single example of something similar in a humorous story 
published in 1910.

"Chapter One - 'The airship is flying!' These words thrilled the host of 
willing workers in the offices of the Amalgamated Rust Scraping 
Corporation, Ltd.  All the pretty stenographers rushed to the elevator 
for the roof."

Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1910, Metropolitan Section, page 2.

A sports columnist from San Mateo named Ron Reid used it a couple times 
in the San Mateo Times in late-1960s.



------ Original Message ------
From: "Martin Kaminer" <martin.kaminer at gmail.com>
To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
Sent: 2/24/2019 8:46:04 AM
Subject: Amalgamated Rust

>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Martin Kaminer <martin.kaminer at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      Amalgamated Rust
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I used the phrase Amalgamated Rust (humorous name of
>generic/fictitious corporation) recently and a friend asked me about
>it.  I always thought it originated from a Bob & Ray routine but that
>turns out not to be the case.  A quick search turned up a few
>instances in economics textbooks but not much. Interested in any
>information anyone has about frequency or origin.
>
>TX
>
>Martin Kaminer
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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