List of historic technological nomenclature

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Below is a list of historic technological nomenclature. Included items are important technical terminology and a system of words used to name things in a particular process, method, or device in history. As technologies evolves, names are required to describe the processes, methods, and devices. Often, the first names and phrases brought into use by are by the inventor(s), by journalists covering the development, and marketers trying to sell the services and products. Other terms were developed by the public to explain the technology that they used. Some of these terms were initially widely used, then fell out of the common vernacular. Others failed to "catch on" and never entered common usage in the first place. Sometimes, the technologies themselves were superseded, and the term fell into disuse.

Contents

[edit] Computers and the Internet

Information superhighway or Infobahn
1990s terms for the internet.
Microcomputer
1970s-80s term for a small computer. Used to differentiate from minicomputer and mainframe. Today almost all computers the average person encounters are microcomputers, so the term has fallen into disuse.
Home computer
1980s category of inexpensive computers sold through mass-market retailers. The CPU unit and keyboard were usually integrated, with a television set used for display. Today a "home computer" is little different than a computer used for business purposes and the term serves only to designate the location of the hardware.
PC compatible
replaced by Wintel
Floppy disk
The dominant pre-Hard disk storage format.
Joystick
Control device, used almost exclusively for gaming. Now mostly replaced by control pad and mouse/keyboard interfaces. Still sometimes used for flight simulators
CD Caddy
Jewelcase-sized enclosure with a sliding metal shutter used for early CD-ROM drives. Looked like a cross between a 3.5" floppy and a jewel case.
Light pen
Light-sensitive wand used with a CRT monitor for early graphical user interfaces
Blitter
Dedicated coprocessor in 1980s computer hardware for rapidly moving bit blocks in memory. Now incorporated into the GPU on a system's video card.
Floptical
enhanced 3.5" floppy technology, using a laser to store 21MB on 3.5" floppy-sized disks. Superseded by inexpensive CD-RW drives.

[edit] Domestic appliances

[edit] Radio

Wireless
Formerly used as a synonym for "radio" (or for a radio receiver), this once-obsolete term has now reentered the language to describe new uses of radio technology, in particular for computer-related functions like "wireless modems".
Crystal set
Radio receivers using crystal detectors, which required no power source other than the radio signal.
Cat's whisker
A fine wire placed in contact with the crystal in a crystal set, forming part of a point-contact detector diode.
Transistorized
When transistor heralded a new age of mobile music, radios markters advertised that the devices used this technology. Since the first "transistorized" radios were much smaller than vacuum tube radios people were used to, for a time "transistorized" conveyed a device's minaturization. As late as the 1970s some even showed the precise number of transistors.
Earphone
A monaural earbud worn in one ear, usually connected to a portable transistor radio. Replaced by stereo units.
"Left of the dial"
Refers to the location on an analog radio band selector where most independent or college stations were (and are) located. Today many of these stations also broadcast over the internet.

[edit] Audio recording

Gramophone and phonograph
Early 20th century audio technology; used today by audiophiles and collectors of historic audio.
Radiogram
In the 1930s, engineers combined radio receivers and gramophones into an applicance that was widely marketed.
Victrola
A brand name of early wind-up mechanical phonograph built into a furniture cabinet. This popular brand became a common generic name for wind-up phonographs the following generation.
Hi-fi
Contraction of 'high fidelity'. Today known as 'high end audio' or 'audiophile gear'

[edit] TV

"The White Dot"
Television sets, in the past, power-down slowly as the capacitors in the power supply discharged and the picture collapsed down to a white dot in the centre of the screen that then faded away over a period of up to a minute. Many people of the 1940s-70s do remember this moment as the set was turned off at the end of viewing.
Televisor
A word used by pioneer John Logie Baird to describe what we now call a TV set
Sign-off or closedown
Used for the end of transmissions for the day; this has become less frequent in the 24-hour program schedules.
Monoscope
Special form of cathode ray tube that was used to generate, rather than display, a video signal.
UHF
'Ultra High Frequency' band where most local and/or independent TV stations broadcasted. TV sets with analog dials would have 2 knobs, one for VHF stations from 2-13 along with a 'U' position which would select the second dial, which was used to tune in UHF stations. The UHF band will no longer be used for TV transmissions beginning Feb. 2009.

[edit] Transport

Clippy 
Obsolete British expression for a female tram or bus conductor (ticket collector)
Phaeton 
the horse-drawn equivalent of a sports car
Post-chaise 
a fast, two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage
Horseless carriage 
Deprecrated term for an automobile or motorcar, but sometimes used to denote early automobiles. Some American states use "horseless carriage" on their registration plates for what other states classify as "antique" automobiles, those over 25 or 30 years old and not used on the public roads for transportation.

[edit] Materials technology

"Bri-Nylon" 
Neologism of the words British and Nylon made famous by textile fibre manufacturers such as Courtaulds.

[edit] Electrical and electronics

Condenser/condensor 
Early description for a capacitor.
Micro-microfarad 
Historic term for "picofarad".
Cycles per second (cps)
Frequency unit for alternating current, radio frequencies, etc.; replaced by the SI unit hertz (Hz).
Electron tube and thermionic valve
"Tubes" and "valves" are still being made, but these older terms are no longer used.
Williams tube or the Williams-Kilburn tube 
Developed about 1946 or 1947; a cathode ray tube used to electronically store binary data.

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

  • Karen J. Freeze, James C. Williams, Technology and Technical Sciences in History. ICOHTEC Symposium, Dresden, August 25-29, 1986. Technology and Culture, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Oct., 1987), pp. 842-849 doi 10.2307/3105187