This is the first
TMRC Dictionary, which I wrote in June, 1959. The original document is shown in
a typewriter font, and my comments now (September, 2005) are in italics.
By Peter R. Samson
(There was a
second edition in 1960; here is a link to it.)
PubRelComm
Jun 59
The
Club had given me the position of "Public Relations Committee" and it was under
this title that I issued the Dictionary.
AN ABRIDGED DICTIONARY
of the TMRC LANGUAGE
---The words defined in
this dictionary are the property of the Tech
Model Railroad
Club of M. I. T. and all rights to use and define
these words are
strictly reserved.---
ABANDON MITCO NOW: cry of
friction fans as opposed to traction fans.
MITCo
was the trolley line (known in the jargon as electric traction) on the club
layout. Non-trolley modelers would
heckle "Abandon MITCo now!" The social meaning "Troublemakers versus
trolley lovers," balances the mechanical meaning "Screech of unlubricated
rotary fans, unlike smooth-running electrical ones."
ACQUISITION: a means of
getting something for nothing. There are many
of these:
Acquisition A: you dials your number, and you gets your/his
train.
Acquisition B: you dials your number, and you gets the
Outside Line (q.v.).
Acquisition C, D, etc. see an ancient FOB.
The
usual use of the term "acquisition" was the first of these, for an engineer to
initially get control of his train (or someone else's, by mistake or mischief).
The FOB is described below.
A.S.A.P.: (getting
nowhere fast) as soon as possible.
It
seems that the term was typically used in vain.
BK TOWER: a non-portable
brakeman's board for switches and occupancies
in the
Berkmannville Area. Has a buzzer
which sounds like
the
Fuse Alarm (q.v.) and the Raunch Alarm (q.v.).
A
user-interface flaw: three different alerts with the same indication.
BLACK BOX: has random
inputs and (for cash) outputs.
Tools
and parts not properly put away were subject to confiscation, and said to be
put in the Black Box until redeemed on payment of a nominal fine. The
definition works on the engineering sense of a black box, whose internal
workings are unknown and which can be described only by observing the relation
between its inputs and outputs.
BLOCK 29: a hypothetical
block connecting block 27 with 1) block 28; 2)
block
20; 3) almost anywhere. At
present, an occupancy in
block
29 trips the multiflush (q.v.).
A
debated addition to the layout, variously proposed to interconnect other
blocks. See the second edition for its eventual resolution.
BLURB: public
enlightenment.
PubRelComm's
tongue-in-cheek self-endorsement.
BOX: 1) a large cardboard
box under the layout, labeled from
A1 to BB6
bearing electrical goodies; 2) a larger wooden enclosure,
under
the east end of the Tower, labeled from C2R to OJG,
bearing members' goodies.
This
contrasts the systematic labeling of boxes under the layout, holding club
property, with the unordered labeling of members' boxes by their initials.
BRODERICK: 1) a station
on the TNP; 2) a little man who lives in 10-050
and
gives us lots more electrical goodies than we have room
for.
The
station on the layout was named for the man (laboratory manager for MIT's
Electrical Engineering Dept.)
BUNKIE: a chair or person
that is ridden.
The
club had several bunkies: short wheeled stools that could be sat on to move
comfortably under the layout. The term was also a disdainful epithet,
popularized in a novelty song of the 1950s by The Old Philosopher: "Is that
what's bothering you, bunkie?"
CABEESE: defined plural
of caboose.
Goose
-- geese; caboose -- cabeese.
CASBAH: that nook of the
clubroom which houses the Desk and Files.
Maximum occupancy at one time = 1-1/2 persons.
In
the late 1950s "Come with me to the Casbah" was a cliché.
CLOD: beneath our feet.
Both
literal and figurative senses were used at the time.
COCA-COLA: subject of
discussion and confusion, mostly consumption.
Club
members drank lots of Coca-Cola. When buying the beverage from a machine down
the hall, members were expected to donate some change to the Coke Fund (see
below).
COCA-COOLER: a cooler for
Coca-Cola.
A
conflation.
COCA-COOLIE: a coolie for
the Coca-Cola Company. See Coolie.
Another
conflation.
COKE
FUND: abolished June 2, 1959.
Replaced by Emergency Fund2 and
Coke
Machine Fund.
It
was decided at a club business meeting that the club would buy its own Coke
machine and keep the profits.
COKE MACHINE FUND: a
demonstration of the Club's railroading talent: an
example of Machine legislation.
Political
puns, of course, on railroading and machine.
COMM.: short for
Committee, or bureaucracy.
In
TMRC usage, nearly always a committee consisted solely of its chairman.
Nonetheless, that person had to be duly constituted.
COOLIE: one who does
menial labor; always in demand.
There
were always many club projects in need of work. The term was used without
ethnic implications.
CROCK: 1) something which
fails the purpose of its design from the
moment
of its conception on; 2) something which by normal
or
accelerated decay is utterly worthless; 3) (by acrophony)
a
Coca-Cola.
Sense
1) refers to something designed on a fundamentally bad principle. Sense 2) is in general use, e.g. "old crock."
CRUD: cruft (q.v.).
The
gag here is to define the obvious word in terms of the more obscure.
CRUFT: that which
magically amounds in the Clubroom just before you walk
in to
clean up. In other words, rubbage.
The
word was in use at the club when I wrote this definition. The sense is of
detritus, that which needs to be swept up and thrown out. The dictionary has no
definition for "crufty," a word I didn't hear until some years later. Rubbage
is a rare term for rubbish, but I had heard it used growing up in New England.
CUBBYHOLE: small
cardboard box under the north end of the Tower,
labeled from 1A to 9K.
Continuing
the joke about box labeling.
CUPBOARD: a drawer with a
door.
There
really were a lot of storage areas around the clubroom, and a lot of different
names to distinguish them. This definition was included for its internal rhyme.
DISMAL: steam-less.
The
late 1950s saw the general replacement of steam locomotives by diesel. Those at
the club who mourned the lost glamor and majesty of steam power referred to
diesel engines as dismals.
DISPATCHER: He who is in
nominal charge of an operating session at which
it is
stated that the dispatcher is in charge.
Generally in
(near-)empathy with the S-Board Operator (if one phone is
busy,
so is the other.)
It
had become the practice for the dispatcher to operate the switches on the
layout (controlled by the panel called S-Board). The definition says obliquely
that the dispatcher and the S-Board operator are the same person.
DOORBELL: sonorous chime
deep in the System (q.v.) which sounds like
the
East Campus Line bell. Last one
who can be proven to
have
entered the Clubroom must answer.
Aside
from the running gibes about different signals that sound alike, the joke here
is the ambiguous modifier -- is it the one who is last proven to have entered,
or the one who is proven to have entered last?
DOORBELL TESTER: does not
test doorbells.
It
contained a doorbell, and was used to test electrical continuity.
DRAWER: 1) that in the
Desk which holds miscellany; 2) those all over
the
place that hold members' equipment.
Continuing
the catalog of storage places.
DT: time/infinity.
A
pithy but unsound definition of a mathematical term.
DURGIN-PARK: Real New
England Cooking.
A
long-established restaurant near Faneuil Hall in Boston. In the late 1950s it
was TMRC custom to escort new freshman members there for lunch one Saturday in
the fall.
EAST CAMPUS LINE:
sometimes called the Outside Line (q.v.).
Our only
official link with the outside world. In true TMRC style,
since
it is essential, it doesn't often work.
Its bell
sounds
like the doorbell. Newcomers can't
tell them apart.
Provides great fun to watch them panic.
More
similar-sounding signals. (Since then the club made great strides in
distinguishing them.)
ELI'S:
price x 2-1 surplus.
A
technoid way of saying half price. Eli Heffron ran an electronics-surplus store
with a startling variety of equipment.
EMERGENCY FUND: 1) that
which until June 2, 1959 was known colloquially
as the Coke Fund (q.v.);
2) that which after June 2, 1959,
gains
some obscure function of the profits from the Coke
Machine (q.c.e.).
Here,
q.v. is the well-known abbreviation for the Latin quod vide, "which see;"
q.c.e. is the previously-unknown abbreviation for the Latin quas cocas eme,
"which Cokes buy."
ENTRIPOPPITY: short for
entropy, or inverse neatness. Is to be conserved
at all
cost.
In
a closed system, entropy (a measure of disorder) must increase. To suggest
conserving it is ironic, at best.
ERGO: therefore. E.g. the
System: "Cogito ergo sum."
If
a machine does it, can it be called thinking?
FLUNKIE: a rideable
follie: flunkie equals follie plus
bunkie / 2.
A
mathematical description of a portmanteau word.
FOB, or FULL OF BULL:
just what the name implies, we have to give
them
away. Always worth the purchase
price.
The
FOB was the club's internal newsletter. In railroading, the abbreviation means
"Free on Board" for freight.
FOLLIE: a wheeled wooden
container, too high to ride and too unstable
to
stand on. Suspected
etymology---"Flat dolly". See Flunkie.
If
this etymology is correct, "flunkie" would be a second-order conflation.
FOO:
the sacred syllable (FOO MANI PADME HUM); to be spoken only when
under
inspiration to commune with the Deity.
Our first
obligation is to keep the Foo Counters turning.
Use
of this word at TMRC antedates my coming there. A foo counter could simply have
randomly flashing lights, or could be a real counter with an obscure input.
FRESHMAN FOLLY: filling
out a White Card, a Green Card, and a Salmon Card.
The
TMRC freshman folly was a construction project set aside for new members. The
definition refers to the official application to study at MIT.
FREUDIAN: schöner
Götterfunken.
From
Freud to Freude. See the entry for 9th, below.
FRIODES: reversible
diodes.
A
diode conducts electricity in one direction; a friode, in both directions or
none. It's been fried.
FROTSI: plural of frotsus
(q.v.).
The
pseudo-scholarly plural.
FROTSUS: a protruding arm
or trunnion.
This
word, meaning a mechanical part sticking out, was used at TMRC. I don't know
its origin.
FROWN: fall from the
official faces.
The
FOB would sometimes bestow editorial smiles and frowns, to praise or criticize.
Fall from face -- fall from grace.
FUNCTION OF, A: post hoc,
ergo propter hoc.
An
intentionally dubious definition of the technical usage meaning "dependent on."
FUSE ALARM: a buzzer
which goes off indicating a fuse is blown. Do not
ignore
or disconnect; play it smart and press the silence
button
on the power switch.
Why
cure the disease when we provide a way to suppress the symptom?
GENERAL OPERATING RULES
AND QUALIFICATION PROGRAM: Members whose duties
are
prescribed by these rules must provide themselves with a
copy. This book is the
property of the Tech Model Rail Road
Club
and is to be returned when asked for, or when the person
holding it leaves the club or that person shall forfeit
fifteen cents.
From
the TMRC rule book, this paragraph seemed curious enough to warrant being
quoted verbatim.
G.P.'s: general
principles.
A
straightforward definition of what appeared to be a local usage.
GRONK: to cut, sever,
smash, or similarly disable.
Gronking parties
are
held at random intervals.
Perhaps
onomatopoeic.
GRONKERS: things which
can gronk (q.v.).
The
usefulness of this word is in its ambiguity: maybe cutters, maybe a hammer....
GRUNGE: 1) that which
fills the Cambridge atmosphere; 2) to fill
the
Cambridge atmosphere.
Airborne
crud (though it may settle on things).
HACK: 1) something done
without constructive end; 2) a project under-
taken
on bad self-advice; 3) an entropy booster; 4) to produce,
or
attempt to produce, a hack3.
I
saw this as a term for an unconventional or unorthodox application of
technology, typically deprecated for engineering reasons. There was no specific
suggestion of malicious intent (or of benevolence, either). Indeed, the era of
this dictionary saw some "good hacks:" using a room-sized computer to play
music, for instance; or, some would say, writing the dictionary itself.
HACKER: one who hacks, or
makes them.
A
hacker avoids the standard solution. The hack is the basic concept; the hacker
is defined in terms of it.
HAIR: complication
without end. Gives "hairy" or
utterly deep.
Taking
endless effort to disentangle.
HNO3: nitric acid.
Sometimes
said humorously instead of HOn3, below.
HOBIE: a handful.
Tiny
parts were measured by the heaping hobie.
HOn3: three-foot narrow
gage in HO scale.
Not
to be confused with HNO3, above.
HOn8: rewrite of HOn3.
I
think someone at the club carelessly wrote a 3 that looked like an 8, giving me
another variant to document.
HORSE-TRADING see
Hill. Or don't see Hill.
Referring
to a club member of the time.
I.E.: means i.e.
This
defines i.e., but i.e. is used to give a definition.
"IS IT REALLY NECESSARY?"
famous last words.
A
club president used this phrase to try and cut off frivolous discussion, and
was invariably unsuccessful. The phrase fell out of use and this entry was
dropped from the second edition.
KENNEL KLUB: 1 - DP (what
is left after Durgin-Park).
An
eating place (some say in Kendall Square, Cambridge; others say in Kenmore
Square, Boston).
LOSE: to not succeed; to
not win. To miss one's station.
A
railroading metaphor for misunderstanding one's position in life.
LOSER: chronically
succumbs to Domine non sum dignus.
Lord,
I am not worthy.
M.I.T. RAILROADERS
ASSOCIATION: save your souvenir locomotive wheels,
boys,
the MITRRA shall rise again!
By
the time of the dictionary, this organization (of railroad enthusiasts at MIT)
was defunct.
MRC: the Midnight
Requisitioning Committee.
Less
grandiosely known as ScroungeComm.
MTA: the Metro (politan
Transit Authority).
At
that time, the name of the Boston transit system.
MULTIFLUSH:
break-all-circuit-breakers-and-occupy-block-29 button. Next
best
thing to switch 19.
Known
to later generations as the foo switch, it stopped all trains at once.
MULTISCHLUNKER: changes bei
eisenbahn into marsch, und schnell!
Timing
relays in the System, which would click rhythmically whenever a train was being
run. The Germanic sound of "schlunker" may have prompted this definition.
MUNG: mash until
no good.
David
Sawyer, a club member, would make vocal sound effects; his "mung" sound
represented a mechanical part vibrating. I took it to refer to one part hitting
another, and concocted this anti-acronym. The term has since spread and taken
on figurative meanings.
MURPHY'S LAWS: 1. If
something can go wrong in a system, it will.
2. There is always something to go wrong.
3. When things go wrong, they do so in the manner
that
yields the most difficulty.
In
this form, Murphy's laws roughly parallel the three laws of thermodynamics.
MUSIC: TIDDLEY-POO:
onomatopoeia for music of the same sound.
ZOOM-ZOOM: string quartets, quintets, etcets.
PING-PONG: harpsichord selections.
In
the 1950s, when we students listened to music, it was classical music.
NODE: a point on the
layout (but not on the TNP) where all unconnected
lines
become infinitely connected.
This
distinguishes the TNP (the railroad that the club nominally modeled, called the
Tech Nickel Plate) from the layout of track that modeled it. The TNP was, in
concept, a point-to-point line, but the layout contained various switches
connecting points that on the TNP were far apart.
NX: a myth. Why else the Opium Den? (q.v.)
One
operating position duplicated the NX interlocking of real railroads. At the
time of this dictionary, it didn't work; since the cramped space under the
Tower was called the Opium Den, I alluded to the NX as a pipe dream. (This
entry was dropped from the second edition of the dictionary, because the NX had
been brought back into service.)
OPIUM DEN: space under
the Tower, holding out-of-use relays, raincoats,
and
typewriters.
The
out-of-use relays were the NX (see above).
OUTSIDE LINE: 1) the East
Campus line; 2) an Institute Extension;
3) an
outside line (e.g. UN 4- ). Attained
by Acquisition B.
At
the time of this dictionary, of these three definitions the club was known to
have only the first, a line on the MIT dormitory phone system. If other
connections existed they were secret.
"PEOPLE ARE NO DAMNED
GOOD." Just ask the President.
This
was a cliché of the time, quoted frequently by a club president.
PILE: a vile of which is
usually referred to.
A
contorted way to refer to a "vile pile."
PLATES: Turned on by the
plate button, except that they don't exist any
more. Synonym for System
DC.
Had
previously meant the plates (anodes) of rectifier tubes in the System power
supply.
POTTY AWARD: anually
disposed upon the one who took the little boy....
A
duty of guides at club open houses. Is that a typo for "annually?"
PRINCIPLE OF MAXIMUM
INCONVENIENCE: Murphy's Third Law (q.v.).
Well
known to engineers (and modelers).
RAUNCH ALARM: a buzzer,
deep in the System, which indicates that two
control boards are operating the same train. Sounds the
same
as the Fuse Alarm and the BK Tower signal.
This
alarm indicated that two control boards had become intimately connected.
RELAY: a global and
systematic rotator.
They
make the world go round.
RULE G: liberation (pun).
In
railroad rule books, Rule G prohibits working under the influence of alcohol. I
saw a remote pun between liberation and libation.
S-BOARD: Control board to
throw track switches. Communes
with
Dispatcher on ethereal topics.
See
Dispatcher.
SALLY:
The
friend of a club member, marvelous beyond description. (This entry was dropped
from the second edition.)
SCALE TIME: measured by
the clock on the (south) wall.
Something
designed to make the S-Board Operator think twelve times
faster.
Model
railroads run on fast time so that their timetables look reasonable.
SCALPS: woven into the
block forest by elves.
Daniel
Whitney asked me to put in this definition of his; scalps were bundles of wire,
and the block forest was the System.
SCROUNGE: 1) to search
for, or find, equipment previously without a
good
home; 2) to acquire; 3) one who scrounges.
A
term apparently adopted from the military.
SCROUNGE CART: a
battlewagon used to cart back booty.
It
was a large flat cart on casters.
SEMAPHORES: wise-foolish
things which move up and down.
A
pun on sophomore.
SIMULTUOUSLY:(L. simul,
simultuously) at the same time.
A
dig at dictionaries that define things circularly.
SNB&TCo: an
institution serving TMRC members for many years.
This
refers to a club member who could be trusted to have (and make) change for
people. See the second edition for the evolution of this service.
STEAM TUNNEL: through
these portals pass the cruddiest wires in the
world:
our East Campus Line.
Dormitory
telephone wires were strung through the campus steam tunnels. They suffered in
that environment.
SUBWAY: where MITCo
passes under P-Yard.
As
far as I can remember, this was just a straightforward definition.
SUCTION FUND: cause of
the Hoover Committee. Now known as
the Emergency
Fund1 (q.v.).
The
Hoover Commission was a U.S. government body in the late 1940s, but the club
version was to buy a vacuum cleaner.
SULFUROUS FUMES:
exclusive property of the Vice-president.
Seek and
ye shall find.
There
was a club vice-president (really a very nice guy) who referred to his
criticisms as sulfurous fumes.
SWITCH 19: that in the
hall upon which we may depend.
This
was a power switch in the hall that controlled some of the outlets in the
clubroom.
SYSTEM, THE: unnecessary;
after all, we could all make model airplanes.
An
exaggeration, though the System made running trains much easier. Model
airplanes were anathema in the clubroom.
S&P: source of light,
though not necessarily of sweetness.
Ask any
officer.
The
Signals and Power Committee chairman at one time had a rather confrontational
personality.
THREE-PHASE: 1) operating
S-Board, M1, and M2 at the same time; 2) 208-
volt
AC powering the System.
When
the layout and the System were working well, it was possible for one person to
run two separate trains and control all the track switches at the same time.
TIMETABLE OPERATION: that
for which yards blame main line, main line
blames
S-Board, S-Board blames Dispatcher, and Dispatcher
blames
timetable. Timetable, as you might
guess, fights back.
I'm
not sure it's apparent from this definition, but timetable operation was
actually a lot of fun.
TOOL: 1) to set one's
brain to the grindstone; 2) a human edge.
The
meaning at MIT was to study hard, or a very diligent student (also called a
grind).
TOOL SHED: machine shop
(for grinding wheels).
A
nonce term for a place, such as an unused classroom, to study in.
TRACK-CLEANING CAR: for
sale.
Various
kinds of model track-cleaning car were tried, and none worked well.
TUCKER (Prof.): our
faculty advisor. The standard
phrase is, "Pro-
fessor
Tucker was in the Clubroom from --- to --- last ---."
His
overt connection with the club was limited to approximately annual visits.
Behind the scenes, he spoke for the club to the MIT administration (and helped
acquire telephone switching gear).
WIN: opposite of lose
(q.v.).
To
succeed, perhaps outstandingly.
WINNER: one or something
that wins.
A
generic term of approbation.
ZORCH: to attack with an
inverse heat sink.
Another
of David Sawyer's sound effects, which I reinterpreted as a colorful variant of
"scorch."
0-2-0: Ingard model,
Kraushaar prototype.
The
0-2-0 is a designation for a locomotive with just one pair of wheels. It uses a
gyroscope to remain upright. Profs. Ingard and Kraushaar taught freshman
physics, which included gyroscopes. My recollection is that this wording was
offered by another member, though I do not now remember who it was.
9TH, THE: a level of
communication attained most eminently by L. von
Beethoven.
Dialing
9 on certain MIT extensions would connect to the outside world (called the 9th
level by some telephone hobbyists). Beethoven's 9th Symphony also communicates,
in a way.