Showing posts from category: Science and society
A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “V” Words
”V” for verbiage – a plethora of words!
V (lower case: v) is the twenty-second letter in the Latin alphabet, it appears in the modern English A—Z as well in as the alphabets of other western European languages. Its name in English is pronounced vee. As is the case with its sequential predecessor, “U”, which was the conduit for V’s linguistic journey, “V” ultimately comes from the Phoenician letter waw.The letter “V” in the popular consciousness is forever associated with “victory”, a symbolic nexus forged during the Second World War as a rallying call for the Allies’ war effort. It’s originator, an obscure Belgian politician, largely forgotten by the overarching giantic shadow of the phrase’s populariser, that wallflower of the shrinking violet variety, Sir Winston Churchill, for which the term “V for victory”, along with its accompanying Winnie trademark two-digit gesture, is eternally associated. Again, as with the letter “U”, Latin root words form the nucleus of “V” words in the following list.
<word> <meaning> <derivation>
Vaccimulgence: the milking of cows [L. vacci- (“cow”) + –mulgentia (“milking”)] 🐄 🥛
Vadelect: serving man, part of the household staff; personal servant [L. vadelectus, vad- (“go”) + unknown (?)]
Valetudinarian: a person who is obsessed with some ailment; hypochondriac [L. valēre, (“to have strength”; “to be well.”) + -ian]
Valuta: comparative value of different currencies (USD: AUD, etc) [[L. valēre]
Vaniloquent: speaking only of oneself or speaking egotistically [L. vanus (“vain”) + –loqui (“speak”)]
Vapulate: to beat with a whip [L. vāpulō [Prob. onomatopoeic in its origin, meaning “cry”; “wail”) from which meaning the attested meaning “be beaten, be stricken” evolved]
Veduta: panoramic view of a town; highly detailed, often large scaled painting or print of a cityscape or other vista [It. veduta (“view”)]
Vellichor: the strange wistfulness of used bookstores, which are somehow infused with the passage of time [velli- (unknown?) + -chor (“sing”; “dance”)]
Velocious: with great speed [L. veloc-, velox (“quick”) + -ious] (cf. Velocipede: swift-footed person)
Velologist: collecting of, study of, buying & selling of vehicle tax discs (UK) [L. velo (unknown?) + -logy]
Venator: (also Venerer) hunter; huntsman (cf. Venatrix (Fem.)); (Hist.) a type of Roman gladiator who specialised in hunting wild animals; type of wolf spider 🕷️ [from L. vēnor (“I hunt”) + -tor]
Vendible: capable of being sold [L. vēndere (“to sell”) + -bilis (“capable of being acted upon)”]
Venineman: juror (derivation unknown)
Ventripotent: having a fat belly, or being a glutton [L. ventr-, venter– (“abdomen”) + -potent-, potens, from OldLat. potēre (“to be powerful”)]
Venustaphobia: fear of beautiful women [L. Venus (“Roman goddess of love and beauty”) venust (“beautiful”) + -phobia]
Verbarian: coiner of words [MidLat. verbum (“word”; “verb”) + -arian]
Verbigerate: to continually repeat a word or phrase meaninglessly, usually unconciously [L. verbum (“word”) + -gerare, from gerere (“to carry”)]
Verger: church usher and attendant [L. verge (“rod”; “wand of office”) + -er] ⛪️
Veriloquent: speaking nothing but the truth [L. vērāc– (“true”) + –loqui] (cf. Veridical: veracious; genuine; truthful)
Vernarexia: (also Vernalagnia) a romantic mood brought on by Spring; “Spring Fever” [L. vernal (“spring”) + -orexia (“desire”)]
Versutiloquent: speaking craftily [ L. versūtus, from vertö, versum (“to turn”) + loqui] (cf. Versute: crafty; wily; artful)
Vertiginous: extremely high or steep; giddy, dizziness (affected by Vertigo) [L. veriginosus, from vertigo (“whirling about”)]
Vespertine: happening or active in the evening; flourishing or flowering at night [Gk. Hesperus is from (“evening star”) + -ine] (cf. Vesper: evening; the evening star)
Vesthibitionism: the flirtatious display of undergarments by a woman [L. vestimenta, (“clothes or undergarments”) + –exhibeo, (“to show”) +-ism]
Vestigial: a very small remnant of something once greater or more noticeable; rudimentary or degenerate organ/body part [Unknown, possibly from earlier verstīgium, from L. verrō (“to sweep”), or poss. from vē- + stīgō, from Proto-Indo-European stéygeti (“to walk”)]
Vetanda: forbidden things [Vetanda in Sanskrit vetanda (? “elephant”)]
Vetust: very ancient [L. vetustus (“old, ancient”)]
Vexillologist: a collector of flags for display [L. vexillum (“flag”) + -logist] 🇧🇷🇧🇮🇬🇱🏴🇨🇽🇺🇬🇨🇼
Viātor: “traveller;” “wayfarer” [from L. via (“track or road”) + -tor] (cf. Viaggiatory: traveling frequently)
Vicennial: occurring every twenty years [LateLat. vīcennium, (“period of twenty years”)]
Vicinage: neighbourhood; residents in a neighbourhood [L. vīcīnus (“neighbour”)]
Victrix: female victor [from L. vincere (“conquer”)]
Victualler: one who operates a pub or eatery; supplier of provisions to a naval ship or army; seller of alcohol [L. victus (“food”) + -ler]
Videndum: the thing to be seen [L. vindendus, from videō (“I see”)]
Vigneron: wine-grower 🍷 [from OldFr. vigne, (+ -ron) from L. vīnea (“vines in a vineyard”)]
Vilipend: to treat or regard with contempt; to belittle; to speak slanderously or slightingly of someone [LateLat. vīlipendere, from L. vīlis (“worthless”) + -pendere (“to esteem”)]
Virago: a woman who demonstrates abundant masculine virtues [L. virāgō (“vigorous maiden”) from vir– (“man-like”) + -ago] (cf. Viraginity)
Virgivitiphobia: a fear of being raped [L. virgi (“marriageable girl”?) + -phobia]
Viripotent: fit for a husband; marriageable [L. vir (“man”) + –potens (“fit for”)]
Virvestitism: a preference of some women to wear mens clothing [origin unknown)
y [L. viaggiatore (“traveller”; “voyager”) + -tory)] (cf. Viator:
Viatical: of, like or pertaining to roads or travel (cf. Viatecture: construction of roads and bridges)
Vociferant: clamorous; shout; complain; argue loudly or vehemently [L. vox (“voice”) + –ferre (“carry”)]
Voluptuary: sensualist; person fond of luxury [ LateLat. voluptuārius, from L. voluptārius (“pleasure-seeker”; “agreeable”; “delightful”; “pleasant”; “sensual”), (cf. Volupty: sexual pleasure)
Voraginous: pertaining to something which devours everything [L. vorāginōsus, from vorāgō (“abyss”) + -ous]
Vorago: gulf; chasm; abyss (origin unknown)
Votary: a devoted follower, esp a monk or nun; adherent; a staunch advocate of someone or something else [L. vot (“vowed”) + -ary]
Vulgus: the common people [L. volvō (“I roll”; “turn over”) (cf. Vulgo: commonly; popularly)
Vulpine: pertaining to foxes; (Literal: crafty; cunning [L. vulpinus, from vulpes (“fox”)] 🦊
A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “T” Words
The letter “T”/“t”, in English pronounced tee, numero venti (20) in the Latin alphabet, like many of its letters owes its advent to the Phoenicians et al. It derives from the Semitic Taw 𐤕 and Paleo-Hebrew script (Aramaic and Hebrew Taw ת/𐡕/, Syriac Taw ܬ, and Arabic ت Tāʼ) and once again the linguistic go-between is the Greek letter τ (tau). Unlike the English “T”, Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets. The T-words that follow consist of lexemes and morphemes of all shapes and sizes, including the unholy trinity of the trim, the taut and the terrific, not to forget the terras, the teles, the technos, the thermos, the tachys, and a whole lot more!
<word> <meaning> <derivation>
Tabefaction: wasting away; emaciation (origin unknown)
Tabellary: auditor; carrier of letters [L. tabellārius from tabella (“letter”) + -ārius]
Tabellion: (Hist.) a scrivener under the Roman Empire with some notarial powers; an official scribe or notary public especially in England and New England in the 17th and 18th cent. [from L. tabella + -ion] 🪶
Tacenda: things not to be mentioned [from [L. tacëo (“silent;” “shut up”)] (cf. Tacent: (“to be silent”; “hold one’s tongue”)
Tachyphrasia: the act of talking very fast [Gk. takhús, (“swift”) + -phrasia (“talk”; “say”)] (cf. Tachyphagia: fast eating) (cf. Tachygraphy: shorthand; literally, “speedy writing” ✍️
Taliped: with a club-foot; with a foot twisted out of shape or position [L. talus (“ankle”) (?) + –ped (“foot”)]
Tambour: (Arch.) sloping buttress wall or fortification [Fr. tambour (“drum”), from Arabic ṭunbūr]
Tantième: share of profits or royalties [Fr. tantième (“percentage”;“proportion”)]
Tapinosis: use of degrading or diminutive diction regarding a topic; undignified language that debases something or someone; deliberately using a base word to diminish a person or thing’s dignity [Gk. tapeinós, (“low”)] (cf. Meiosis – using a euphemism to depreciate an object or thing’s size or significance)
Tarantism: (Psych.) an extreme impulse to dance, esp to overcome a feeling of melancholy [It. tarantismo (from Italian city of Taranto (during (15th-(17th. a spider bite from the tarantula was believed to trigger the dancing mania)] 🕷️
Tardiloquent: speaking slowly [L. tardi (“slow”) + –loqui] (cf. Tardigrade: slow-paced)
Tauromachy: the art or practice of bullfighting [Gk. taurus (“bull”) + –machia (“fight”)] 🐂
Tautochronous: lasting the same amount of time [Gk. tauto (“the same”) + –khrónos (“time”) + -ous]
Tautonym: word composed of two identical words/spellings/sounds (in repetition) eg, paw-paw, yo-yo 🪀 [Gk. tautó, (“the same”) + –onuma (“name”)]
Technopole: place where high-technology industries are located; tech hub [Gk. tékhnē, (“skill”) + –pólis (“city”)] (cf. Tectiform: shaped like a roof) (cf. Tectonic: structural component of a building/construction)
Telegenic: having an appearance and exhibiting qualities thought to be attractive to television viewers [Gk. têle, (“at a distance”; “far off”; “far away”; “far from”) + -genḗs, (“offspring”; “kind”)]
Telekinetic: (Psychic.) supposed skill to move objects at a distance by exercising your mental power only [Gk. têle + –kinēsis (“motion”) from -kinein (“to move”)]
Telos: ultimate object or aim; provides the moral justification [Gk. télos, (“end”; “purpose” or “goal'”)]
Temporality: (Philos.) linear projection of past, present and future; existing within or having some relationship with time; temporal [L. temporālis (“of time”) + –itāt, itās]
Tempore: in the time of; in historical literature, denotes a period during which a person whose exact lifespan is unknown, was known to have been alive or active, or some other date which is not exactly known, usually given as the reign of a monarch [L. tempus (“time”; “period”)] (cf. Temporise: to delay; to procrastinate) 🕰️
Tenebrific: producing darkness [NewLat. tenebrae (“darkness”) + -i- + -ficus] cf. Tenebrose: dark; gloomy) 🌃
Tentamen: experiment; attempt [L. tentāmen (“attempt”)] (cf. Tentation: experiment by trial and error)
Tentigo: priapism, tumescence; morbid lasciviousness [L. tentīgō (“lust”), from tendō (“stretch”)] (cf. Tentiginous: “lust-provoking”)
Teratology: study of monsters, freaks, abnormal growths or malformations [Greek terat-, téras– (“sign sent by the gods”; “portent”;“marvel”; “monster”) + –logie (“-logy”)] (cf. Teratoid: resembling a monster) (cf. Teramorphous: of abnormal or monstrous form)
Terdiurnal: three times per day [L. ter (“thrice”) + LateLat. –diurnalis “daily”)
Terebration: a pain that feels as though a drill is boring through some body part [L. terebro, (“to bore”) + -ion]
Tergal: of, like or pertaining to the back; (Zool.) relating to the terga of an arthropod [L. terga (“the back”)]
Tergiversation: the act of evading any clear course of action or speech, of being deliberately ambiguous; equivocation; fickleness [L. tergiversātiō, from tergiversārī (“to turn one’s back, to evade”; to avoid”) + -tiō (“-tion]
Termagant: a violent, nagging, brawling woman; a shrew [MidEng. termagaunt, earlier tervagaunt, alteration of OldFr. tervagan (“name of the imaginary deity”)]
Terraneous: of, like or pertaining to the earth [L. terrenum (“land”; “ground”), from terra (“earth”) + -ous] (cf. Terrigenous: produced on land; produced by the land)
Terremotive: (Geology) relating to an earthquake; seismic [L. terra (“earth”) + –mōtus (“movement”)]
Terrisonant: having a terrible sound [L. terrëo (“frighten”; “terrify”; “scare away” + -ant]
Tessaraglot: a person who is capable of speaking in four languages [Gk. téssara (“four”) + –glôssa (“tongue”)] 👅
Tessellation: fitting together exactly; leaving no spaces; surface tiling with no gaps or overlays [L. tessella (“small square”) from Gk. tessera, (“four”)]
Tesserarian: of, like or pertaining to games of dice [Gk. tessera + -ian] 🎲
Testicond: having the testes concealed within the body [L. testis (“testis”) + –condere (“to hide”)]
Thalassic: marine; of seas; of inland seas [Gk. thalassa (“sea”)] (cf. Thalassography: science of the sea) 🌊
Thanatopsis: the contemplation of death; considering one’s mortality [Gk. thanatos (“death”) + –opsis‘ (“view”; “sight”)] (cf. Thanatoid: apparently dead; deathly; deadly)
Thaumaturgic: performer of miracles, esp a magician or a saint [Gk. thaumatourgós (“performer of wonders (as an acrobat”) + -ia – y]
Theandric: divine and human at the same time [Gk. theandros (“God-man”)]
Thelemite: one who does as he or she pleases; libertine [Fr. thélémite, from L’Abbaye de Thélème, imaginary abbey with the motto “Do as you please” in Gargantua (1535) by François Rabelais (1553) + -ite] (cf. Thelemic: allowing people to do as they wish [Gk. thelema (“will”) + -ic)
Thelyotokous: having only female offspring [Gk. thêlus, “female”) + –tókos, (“birth”)]
Theologaster: petty or shallow theologian [Gk. theológos, (“one who talks about the gods”; “theologian”) + L. –aster (“inferior”; “shallow”, etc.)
Theotherapist: faith-healer; treatment of illness or disease by prayer and other religious exercises [Gk. theó, (“god”) + -therapeía, “(service”; “medical treatment”)]
Thereoid: bestial; savage [Gk. thēr, thērós (“beast”; “animal”) + –oid (“-like”)]
Thereology: the art of healing; therapeutics [Gr. therein=therapeuein, (“to tend the sick”) + -logy]
Theriacal: (Medic.) of, like or pertaining to antidotes [Gk. thēriakḕ, “of or related to poisonous reptiles”), from thēríon, “little beast”) from thḗr + -al]
Therianthropic: combining human and animal forms [Gk. thērianthrōpos (“beast-man”)]
Theriatrics: the science of veterinary medicine [Gk. thḗr, (“wild beast”) + iatrós, (“doctor”)]
Thermoplegia: (Medic.) heat- or sunstroke [Gk. thermos (“heat”) + –plēgē (“paralysis”; “stroke”)]
Thesmothete: law-giver; (Hist.) a junior archon or magistrate responsible for legislation in Ancient Greece [from Gk. thesmothétēs]
Thirdborough: petty provincial constable [MidEng. thridborro, probably by folk etymology, from frithborg (“frankpledge”)]
Thooid: resembling a wolf; (Zool.) relating to an obsolete group of carnivores including wolves, dogs and jackals [Gk. thōs jackal + -oid]
Threnody: a lament for the dead (poem, speech, song) [Gk. thrēnōidia, from thrēnos, (“dirge”)]
Threpterolagnia: A lust for female nurses [Gk. threptero(?) + –lagnia (“coitus”; “lust”)]
Thyestean: cannibalistic [from Greek mythology, Thyestes, a king of Olympia, was served his own children’s flesh by his vengeful twin brother Atreus as revenge for adultery]
Thygatrilagnia: an incestuous desire by a father for his own daughter [Gk. thygatro (“daughter”) + –lagnia]
Tibialoconcupiscent: having a lascivious interest in watching women put on stockings [L. tibia (“shinbone”?) + -lo (?) + –concupiscēns, –concupiscere (“to conceive an ardent desire for”)]
Timbromaniac: an avid stamp collector; a passionate philatelist [Fr. from timbre (“postage stamp”) + -o- + -mania]
Tirocinium: a soldier’s first battle; military baptism of fire [L. tirocinium (“first military campaign”; “inexperienced raw recruit”; “first attempt”]
Tmesis: a word compound that is divided into two parts, with another word infixed between the parts for emphasis, thus constituting a separate word compound, eg, “Absar—bloody—lutely!”; “in—fucking—credible!” [Gk. tmēsis (“a cutting”) from temnō, (“I cut”)]
Tolutiloquent: pertaining to a smooth talker, characterised by fluency or glib utterances [L. tolutim, “trotting along”) + –loqui (“speak”)]
Tomecide: the act of “murdering” or destroying a book, esp by the act of book burning [Gk. tomḗ + -cide]
Toponym: (Onomastics) a name by which a geographical place is known or a word derived from a place name or from a topographical feature eg, cashmere from Kashmir, lima beans from Lima [Back-formation from toponymy Gk. topos (“place”) + -nym] (cf. Toponymics: the study of place names)
Toxophilite: archer; fond of or an expert in archery [Gk. toxon, (“bow and arrow”) + -phil + -ite]
Tranch: a portion (literally: slice) of something [OldFr. trenche, (“slice”)]
Tritavia: (Ancient Rome) the female ascendant in the sixth degree; the great grandmother of one’s great grandmother; the mother of either an atavus or atavia [L. trēs (“three”) + –avus (“(“grandfather;” “uncle”)] (cf. Tritavus: great grandfather of one’s great grandfather)
Tropoclastics: the science of breaking habits [Gk. trope᷄ (“a turning”) + -klastos (“shattered”) from –klan (“to break”)
Tuism: apostrophe; reference to or regard to a second person [L. tu (“thou”) + -ism]
Tumultuary: chaotic; haphazard [L. tumultus; perhaps akin to Sanskrit tumula (“noisy”)]
Turgescence: act or process of swelling; swollenness [L. turgescent-, turgescens, turgescere (“to swell”)] (cf. Tumefy: to swell)
Turnverein: (Hist.) (19th-(20th. German-American association of gymnasts (members called “turners” promoted German culture, physical culture, and liberal politics); athletic club [Ger. turnen (“to practice gymnastics”) + verein (“club”; “union”) ]
Turriform: (Arch.) shaped like a tower [L. turris, (“tower”) from Gk. turrhís + ‑form]
Tutelary: having the guardianship of a thing [from L. tūtēla (“tutelage, guardianship; dependent, client”) + -ārius ]
Twain: two; couple or pair [MidEng. from OldEng. twēgen ] 👯
Twire: to peep out; to leer [origin unknown, perhaps akin to MidHighGer. zwieren (“to wink”)] 👀
Tycolosis: accident prevention (origin unknown)
Typhlology: the study of blindness [Gk. tuphlós (“blind”) + -logy] 🕶️
Tyroid: resembling cheese; cheesy [Gk. tyros (“cheese”) + -oid] (cf. Turophile: a connoisseur of cheese; a cheese fancier) 🧀
Lake Rotomahana, New Zealand: Once were Travertine Terraces
There’s only a handful of natural travertine rock formations𝔞 in the entire world, but after 1886 there was was one less. In that year in New Zealand’s Rotorua/Bay of Plenty area, the terraced hot springs wonderland known to Pākehā New Zealanders as the “Pink and White Terraces”𝔟 (Ōtukapuarangi and Te Tarata) were obliterated from sight in a massive eruption from nearby Mt Tarawera (Māori: “burnt spear/peaks”)𝔠.
🌋 Charles Blomfield’s painting of the volcanic occurrence
Fallout from the volcano’s eruption blanketed some 15,000 sq kms of countryside with ash in the air travelling as far away as Christchurch, over 800 km to the south. The explosion of volcanic craters reduced Lake Rotomahana (“warm lake”) to mud and ash. The deafening noise and lightning of the dome volcano exploding caused some in Auckland to think that Russian warships were attacking the city [‘The Night Tarawera awoke’, New Zealand Geo, www.nzgeo.com]. The human casualties were almost all Māori, about 120 people died, as well as 10 Māori settlements destroyed or buried.
Blomfield’s painting of Te Tarata
19th century tourist attraction Nature’s violent removal of the Rotomahana travertines brought an abrupt end to a lucrative little 19th century tourism earner for the local region. Artist Charles Blomfield who painted the two terraces on multiple occasions was an eye witness to the tourist boom, observing groups of “moneyed people” bathing in the hot springs𝔡 while their lunches of potatoes and koura were cooking in the boiling pools (NZ Geo)𝔢. Village residents benefitted—some Māori guides netted incomes of up to £4,000 a year—but the First Nation community also copped the downside from the economic boost, rising illness and rampant alcoholism [‘Tarawera Te Maunga Tapu’, Rotorua Museum, www.rotoruamuseum.co.nz].
Lost and found? For 120 years New Zealanders thought that all trace of the iconic terraces—the two largest known formations of silica sinter on earth—had vanished. Scientific curiosity in recent decades has speculated whether the terraces has been destroyed altogether or perhaps permanently entombed. Recently, Geologists, drawing on Ferdinand von Hochstetter’s 1859 topographic and geological survey of Lake Rotomahana as a primary source, believe they have found traces of the lost White Terraces in the naturally-restored, crater-enlarged lake [‘A natural wonder lost to a volcano has been rediscovered’, Robin Wylie, BBC, 28-Apr -2016, www.bbc.com]. The terraces are thought submerged under sediment and 50-60 m of lake water.
🔻 1860 lithograph of Hochstetter talking to the Māori rangatira of the White Terraces
New Zealand’s miniature ‘Pompeii’ Right in the firing line of Mt Tarawera when it exploded in 1886 was the tiny village of Te Wairoa and its inhabitants the Tuhourangi people. Engulfed and obliterated by the eruption, it became known as the “Buried Village” of Te Wairoa. These days it has brought back tourism to the area. The excavated village is New Zealand’s most popular archaeological site.
(Source: Flickr.com)
Postscript: the Rotomahana travertines are destroyed but is at least one terraced hydro-thermal springs in the North Island remains. Wairakei Terraces, situated 90 km south of Tarawera in Taupō, is a smaller version of the Pink and White Terraces. This commercial operation is a combination of the synthetic (man-made geyser) and the natural (pink, blue and white silica steps).
🔻Pamukkale, Turkey
🌋 one of the most outstanding examples of travertine formations on the planet is the “Cotton Castle” of Pamukkale in eastern Turkey, with its glistening white-terraced geo-thermal springs sharing the site with the ruins of a Greco-Roman city Hierapolis, making it a world-class tourist magnet. Other extant travertines include Badab-e-Surt in Iran, Mammoth Hot Springs in Wyoming, USA, and Egerszalok in Hungary.
Pink Terraces (Photo: Charles Spencer/ Te Papa)
•••➖•••➖•••➖•••➖•••➖•••➖•••
𝔞 travertines are formations of terrestrial limestone and calcium carbonate deposits around mineral (especially hot) springs, which are often terraced
𝔟 their names in the Māori tongue translate respectively as “fountain of the clouded sky” and “tattooed rock”
𝔠 nicknamed Te Maunga Tapu (“the sacred mountain”), the volcano lies within a caldera (collapse crater) area
𝔡 the actual numbers of Europeans who visited New Zealand’s version of the “8th Wonder of the World” was not as high as might be thought, owing to the terraces not being easily accessible – from the closest settlement Rotorua it was a trek over hills by horse or buggy followed by a canoe trip and the last section on foot [New Zealand’s Pink and White Terraces’, (Tourism NSW), www.media.newzealand.com]
𝔢 English novelist Anthony Trollope was one of the European ‘celebs’ who fronted up to bathe in the pools and sleep in a whare (Māori hut) next to the terraces (NZ Geo). Trollope found nothing like its waters in the world – “you strike your chest against it, it is soft to the touch, you press yourself against it and it is smooth” [Australia and New Zealand, (Vol.II, 1873]
L’Aérotrain Experiment: The Rise and Fall of a French Hovertrain
Before the Maglev (magnetic levitation) very fast train (VFT) system was developed—which we can observe today in commercial operation in Japan, China and South Korea—there was the Aérotrain prototype in France✳. Its story starts in the early 1960s when France was faced with a need to revitalise its declining railway sector. In 1963 aviation engineer Jean Bertin pitched his Aérotrain concept for a VFT mass transit system to France’s public transport czars. Over the next two years the government created a state company to study the Aérotrain while Bertin developed his 1:20 scale model train into the full-scale prototype.
Bertin’s invention was a Tracked Air Cushion Vehicle (TACV), a hovertrain riding on a cushion of air atop “a simple reinforced concrete track or guideway”∆. The Aérotrain design borrowed from the lifting technology of hovercraft vessels and from the arliner’s turbo fan. Both the ‘wheelless’ vehicle and the T-shaped track were radical designs at the time. Bertin’s intention was to come up with a simpler and cheaper alternative to the Maglev trains then in experimentation (‘France’s Aérotrain’, Ian Brown, Google Sighting, 10-Oct-2013, www.googlesighting.com).
“A underscore” logo (Photo: Société des Amis de Jean Bertin)
Exporting the hovertrain By 1966 Bertin & Cie had built its first Aérotrain test track (6.7km-long) at Essonne, south of Paris. Interest in Bertin’s hovertrain concept was international, Britain designed its own version, the RTV-31 Tracked Hovercraft, and constructed a test track in 1970, in the US, Rohr Industries contracted with Bertin’s company to do the same. Bertin developed several prototypes, the ultimate bring the Aérotrain 180 HV, a 25.6m-long hovertrain seating 80 passengers and attaining a world record speed for overland cushion vehicles (430.3 km per hour).
RTV-31, UK (Source: Geograph)
Photo: www.grandsudinsolite.fr
Technical issues L’Aérotrain prototype presented Bertin with a series of design challenges — the system would require new elevated guideways for every implementation; the craft when passing other trains or entering tunnels experienced sudden changes in air pressure; the Aérotrain’s gas turbines operated with giant propellers which generated tremendous noise, necessitating a reduction in speed in urban areas (making it unattractive to some interested authorities) (‘Aerotrain’, Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org).
Photo: www.grandsudinsolite.fr
Aérotrain, not the people’s train? Although the technocrats in the state apparatus were favourably disposed to Bertin’s Aérotrain—especially DATAR (Delegation for Territory Planning and Regional Action)—its acceptance was not universal within France. Technical difficulties like the noise levels turned . many Parisians away from the vehicle. With such a “cutting-edge” special project, a perception grew that Aérotrain travel was for the elite commuter, not the average French worker, “(serving) only a rarefied strata of society”⟴ (Guigueno, Vincent. “Building a High-Speed Society: France and the Aérotrain, 1962-1974.” Technology and Culture, vol. 49, no. 1, 2008, pp. 21–40. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40061376. Accessed 20 June 2021).
180 HV Aérotrain ExpérimentalCost was increasingly a factor working against the Aérotrain, the system, requiring a dedicated track would be costly to implement. The 1973 oil crisis (also see End-note) and the imposition of new strictures on state spending didn’t help, leaving the Aérotrain Company in financial difficulties (Guigueno). Public authorities were increasingly reluctant to fund the Aérotrain project.
SNCF (Photo:www.france24.com)
The modern versus the traditional The bureaucracy and SNCF (French National Railway Company) had its own agenda, which deviated from the objectives of Aérotrain. Transport planning in France was committed to a policy of maintaining the efficacy of “traditional modes of urban transport”, heavily investing in Aérotrain ran counter to that. The influential SNCF saw it as a “competitive threat to the traditional railway” (Guigueno).
Pres. Giscard d’Estaing (Photo: Multimedia Centre)The lethal blow came in 1974. French president, Georges Pompidou, who had been a moderniser, died. His more conservative replacement, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, coming down on the side of traditional technologies terminated the Aérotrain project just two months into office. The reasons for Giscard’s opposition to the project are not certain, Guigueno speculates that perhaps the president was reacting to Aérotrain’s unpopularity with the Paris suburbs and their representatives. The recently-approved Cergy—La Défense link for Aérotrain engendered scepticism from locals due to delays and cost overruns and was also canned by Giscard. Giscard whose previous ministerial job was controlling the nation’s pursestrings probably thought Aérotrain was too much of a financial risk at the time (‘Transport That Never Was Part 1: Aérotrain, a hovertrain in Paris’s western suburbs’, Fabric of France, 18-Feb-2020, www.fabricoffrance.com).
TGV Hi-Speed Train (Photo: EURail Pass)
Replacing a revolutionary VFT with a conventional VFT Aérotrain’s misfortune was TGV’s good fortune. The Giscard government switched from Aérotrain to TGV¶, a rival turbo train design inspired by Japan’s Shinkansen, as the preferred provider for France’s inter-city high-speed rail service. In 1981 TGV became the VFT carrier for the new Paris to Lyon link. Essential to TGV’s triumph over Aérotrain was SNCF’s strategy of “develop(ing) TGV as a supplement to, rather than a replacement for the traditional rail service” (Guigueno)❂. On the matter of infrastructure TGV was a full circuit in front of Aérotrain. The TGV was a better fit with its huge advantage over Aérotrain in compatibility with existing railways in France, and it could extend, beyond the high-speed network, over much greater distances (‘Transport That Never Was’).
Abandoned Aérotrain test track near Orléans: section of Saran—Ruan monorail still in existenceAérotrain’s eclipse was devastating for its inventor … Bertin, already stricken with cancer, died several months later, aged just 58. In 1977 the Aérotrain project was abandoned, bringing an end to the Gallic hovertrain dream.
End-note: The hike in the world oil price after 1973 posed an acute problem for the TGV prototype, being as it was powered by gas turbines. Sagely, the company switched its prototype to all-electric trains to overcome this, and stay cost-competitive with Aérotrain (‘Transport That Never Was’).
______________________________ ✳ the Aérotrain’s levitation anticipated the magnetic floating effect of the later Maglev train (‘1963-1980 The Aérotrain’, Alex Q. Arbuckle, www.mashable.com) ∆ Bertin understood that by compressing and enclosing air under the vehicle, “it was possible to produce an air cushion over which the craft could glide with minimum resistance and power” (Kaushik Patowary, ‘Aerotrain: The High-speed Train That Almost Revolutionized Transport’, Amusing Planet, 19-May-2020, www.amusingplanet.com). ⟴ Aérotrain #02 prototype and the small cabin-sized Tridim for instance are personal-type vehicles, not mass transit vehicles ¶ TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse ❂ Britain followed a similar path to France, the experimental RTV-31 ended up in the dumpster, superseded by the more conventional APT-E tilting high-speed train
Angela’s Germany: A Science-Guided Response to the Present Pandemic
As Europe moves through Autumn, a number of countries are reporting new records for coronavirus infections. This month Italy recorded a 24-hour total of over 10,000 new cases for three consecutive days, while France recorded its highest ever total of new cases for a single day, 32,427. Similarly, the Czech Republic broke the 10,000 barrier for the first time (1,105 cases). Even in Germany, virus cases for a single day reached a pandemic high of 7,830 [‘Italy steps up coronavirus restrictions as Europe fights second wave’, Euronews, 18-Oct-2020, www.euronews.com].
October 4 2020 (Image: WELT)
Not withstanding this current setback in the fight against the pandemic, Germany has easily been the stand-out performer among the larger countries trying to combat Covid-19 in Europe. A raft of factors have been advanced to explain Germany’s success. Obviously, it hinges ultimately on a collective effort by the government, medical authorities and experts, and compliance by the nation. A lot of the credit for steering the ship into relatively safe waters (fingers crossed) goes to the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Almost from day one she did a number of things right. Projecting a visage of calm and composure, she was upfront with the German people. Honestly and transparently, she was prepared to admit when the government didn’t always have the answer at a given time. Building trust requires candour and elicits consent and compliance. From when the pandemic hit, she was proactive and decisive. There was no “coronavirus denying” by the leadership (unlike the errant course charted initially by the US and UK governments), but an immediate marshalling of efforts to tackle the problem facing it※ [‘The secret of Germany’s COVID-19 success: Angela Merkel Is a Scientist’, (Saskia Miller), The Atlantic, 20-Apr-2020, www.theatlantic.com].
There were other factors relating to demographics and the public health response that were vital—average age of coronavirus patients was lower than elsewhere; better delivery of testing than many countries; careful and comprehensive tracking of cases (>90%); modern, maintained public health system;local responses—but in a sense everything flowed from the chancellor who has been at the helm of the German state since 2005. With a science background (PhD in quantum chemistry), Merkel knew to listen to the scientists, the public health experts, like the celebrated virologist Christian Drosten. As a scientist herself she respected their views, knew that this was essential to finding out what was needed⚡. Drawing on the well-funded scientific-research organisations and university medical departments that she had maintained, she was able to coordinate these into a single, effective coronavirus task force (Miller).
(Photo: Getty Images)
One observer has attributed Germany’s (and Merkel’s) success to the “Four L’s” which may in the event of a new wave of Covid be integral to “bending the curve quickly once again – luck, learning, local responses and listening. The ‘luck’ amounted in part to being in the right place at the right time…having acquired and readied the coronavirus PCR tests in advance so they were “available in Munich when the first tests showed up there”, but this could arguably be equally attributable to due diligence and preparedness, and an instinctual willingness to follow hunches. Learning from the experiences of other countries who had prior exposure to coronavirus also played a key part – in this Germany was fortunate to have had a delayed arrival of the disease. The German authorities were able to look at the strategies of countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, see what was working well there, and cherry-pick. Germany’s political structure, emphasising localised divisions of authority (government by lander), permitted a decentralised approach to the pandemic which allowed the bureaucratic response to the crisis to be speeded up. The fourth ‘L’, listening to the scientific experts, was not just what Merkel, but what politicians at the local level in Germany◔ did assiduously [‘The four simple reasons Germany is managing Covid-19 better than its neighbors’, (Julia Belluz), Vox, 15-Oct-2020, www.vox.com].
(Source: www.dw.de/)
Of course Chancellor Merkel’s policies in the crisis have had their detractors—business lockdowns and restrictions that go on for lengthy periods are sure to draw displeasure—her measured approach however has been demonstrably unifying and has resulted in overwhelming support from the electorate rallying behind her (approval ratings for the chancellor during the pandemic have been as high as 86%).
PostScript: Denialists and Bunglers Inc
Last month British PM Boris Johnson, in an all-too characteristically ham-fisted way, tried to deflect criticism of his government’s abysmal handling of the pandemic vis-vís (especially) Germany by putting the UK’s worse handling of the crisis down to the ‘fact’ that the UK is “a freedom loving” country [‘Why is Germany doing better than the UK at fighting a resurgence of Covid-19?’, The Local – De, 26-Sep-2020, www.thelocal.de/].
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※ “communicating with scientific rigour, (and) with calm…(Merkel) disarms hysteria” (Ricardo Roa)
⚡ compare and contrast with you know who!
◔ such as the leader of the Free State of Bavaria, Markus Söder, one of the country’s politicians on the short list to succeed Ms Merkel
Russia’s Coronavirus Anomaly, a Question of What You Count
From the start of this month Russia began a gradual re-opening of services after a ten-week pandemic lockdown. This is happening despite new cases of COVID-19 continuing to materialise – the tally of confirmed case of the virus has now ticked over the 500,000 mark (as at 12-Jun-2020). There are several reasons contributing to the decision to re-open, some political and some economic.
Concern for the damage sustained by the Russian economy by the pandemic was foremost to the Kremlin but President Putin also wanted things functioning as close to normal in time for two upcoming events important to him. The 75th end of WWII anniversary military parade in Red Square—a PR showcase of Russian power—postponed from May is rescheduled for 24th of June. Even more personally important for the Russian leader is the July 1 vote✱, Putin has put up far-reaching constitutional amendments for approval, the main outcome of which could see Putin’s iron-grip on the federation extend till 2036.
(Photo: Reuthers / SPUTNIK)
Discontent with Russia’s approach to the crisis
An underlying reason for the hasty end to the national lockdown might be that it hasn’t been as successful as hoped. The tracing app utilised in Moscow (the epicentre of the country’s COVID-19 outbreak) has had issues with its effectiveness. Putin’s personal popularity was at risk with public resentment voiced at the prolonged restrictions (murmurings of Orwellian and Soviet-like echoes). The medical response by the Kremlin has been called out by many front-line responders for its shortcomings⊘. One doctor, Anastasia Vasilyeva (leader of a Russian doctors’ union), frustrated at the president’s insistence that the public health crisis was under control, has been at great risk to herself distributing PPE to medical workers on the front-line, provoking retribution from the Kremlin [‘The doctor who defied a President’, ABC News, (Foreign Correspondent, Eric Campbell), 06-Jun-2020, www.abcnews.com.au]. This is symptomatic of Moscow’s neglect of the regions who are expected to handle both the outbreaks without the medical infrastructure to deal with a large volume of cases✩ and the economic fallout from the crisis without adequate financial assistance [‘Russia’s coronavirus cases top 300,000 but deaths suspiciously low: ‘We conceal nothing’ Kremlin says’, (Holly Ellyatt), CNBC, Upd 21-May-2020, www.cnbc.com].
Counting the virus’ toll: a small exercise in data massaging? Some Russia watchers have cast doubts about the reported COVID-19 figures released by Moscow. This includes WHO has questioned Russia’s low death toll, describing it as ‘unusual’ [‘WHO asks Russia to review its Covid-19 death toll in rare rebuke’, (Natalia Vasilyeva), The Telegraph, 11-Jun-2020, www.telegraph.co.uk]. While the number of Russian virus cases is comparatively high, the official record of fatalities is disproportionately low compared to the rest of Europe…Russia’s fatality rate is 0.9% cf. UK’s, 14.4% (roughly 10% of the mean figure for Western Europe) [‘How Russia’s Coronavirus Outbreak Became One of the World’s Worst’, (Madeline Roache), Time, 15-May-2020, www.time.com]. The Kremlin has rejected the criticism that it is withholding the full impact of the pandemic, but outside observers pinpoint an anomaly in the methodology it uses to count cases. Unlike say Belgium (which is strictly inclusive), Russia has not counted deaths as caused by the coronavirus where other co-morbidities are present, ie, if a patient tested positive for the virus and then had a subsequent critical episode, the cause of death is not recorded as COVID-19 [‘Russia Is Boasting About Low Coronavirus Deaths. The Numbers Are Deceiving’, (Piotr Sauer & Evan Gershkovich), The Moscow Times, 14-May-2020, www.themoscowtimes.com].
A deserted, locked-down Red Square (Source: www.citizen.co.za)
Compartmentalising the fatalities This persuasively accounts for the recent discordant mortality statistics reported by Russian sources, eg, if you separate fatalities directly attributable to coronavirus from other fatalities for May, the unexplained “excess deaths” recorded for Moscow is up about 5,800 on that occurring during the previous three Mays [‘New data suggests Russia may have a lot more COVID-19 deaths than it says it has’, (Alexandra Odynova), CBS News, 11-Jun-2020, www.cbsnews.com]. A look at Dagestan, a region with one of the largest clusters outside of the capital, is also instructive. As of mid-May it had experienced 35 deaths listed as caused by coronavirus, but in the same timeframe it recorded 650 deaths attributed to “community-acquired pneumonia”. One explanation from Russia watchers is that “local officials want to present Moscow with ‘good’ figures” (Ellyatt). If the Kremlin were to publish both sets of figures in its official data, such transparency would deflect much of the doubt and questioning by outsiders (Sauer & Gershkovich).
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✱ that Putin is prepared to push through the referendum at this time and risk aggregating the public health and safety of Russians, confirms for many the president’s prioritising of his own political motives [‘Russian officials, citing COVID-19, balk at working July 1 constitutional referendum’, CBC News, 11–Jun-2020, www.cbc.ca]
⊘ many medical practitioners in Russia have been disaffected by both a critical shortage of equipment to fight the virus and by unpaid wages [‘Exclusive: Did Russia pass the coronavirus test? Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov Responds’, (M Chance, Z Ullah & N Hodge), CNN, 09-Jun-2020, www.amp.cnn.com]
✩ the COVID-19 emergency has exposed the deteriorating state of the Russian health service in the Putin era – the Semashko system infrastructure allowed to run down while the private medical sector has flourished [‘Can the Russian Health Care System Cope with the Coronavirus?’, (Estelle Levresse), The Nation, 09-Jun-2020, www.thenation.com]