Loggerhead

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Loggerhead could refer to:

• the Loggerhead Sea Turtle
• the Loggerhead Shrike
• USS Loggerhead (SS-374)
• an iron instrument with a long handle and a ball at its end used to melt pitch in a fire
• A web interface to the Bazaar revision control system.

Loggerheads can refer to:

• the feature film Loggerheads
• the coat of arms of Shrewsbury
• the coat of arms of the county of Shropshire

or at least two villages in the United Kingdom

• Loggerheads, Staffordshire
• Loggerheads, Wales

Other use:

• The terms go to loggerheads, to be at loggerheads, or to come to loggerheads means to come to blows or to have a strong difference of opinion. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origin of this use is obscure. It is suggested that the terms may have originated to describe a conflict wherein the iron loggerhead instruments described above are used as weapons.

The tavern across the street from the battle green in Lexington, Massachusetts, has a display of loggerheads. [Make a link to Paul Revere] [Make a link to famous statue] A loggerhead is an 18th century tool for reheating drinks. It consists of an iron cylinder about 2 cm. in diameter and 5 cm. long affixed to an iron or wooden rod. It is used by first putting it in the fire until it is heated red, then the red-hot metal is plugned into a cup containing the cold drink. The drink is quickly re-heated. Discussion of the loggerheads is a standard part of the tour at the tavern.

The term is also spelled "lager head", which is close to its American Colonial meaning of "beer heater".

The term term "coming to loggerheads" means picking up a loggerhead and using it as a weapon. A red hot piece of metal on a short stick would make a good weapon and would be at the ready during a drunken brawl in a tavern.

Eric Sloane's books on early American tools may have a section on loggerheads -- need to verify.

The Indiana Jones movie where the Nazi appears to take a red-hot poker out of a fire at a tavern -- that might be a loggerhead, not a poker.