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John, your recollections are always a delight. Keep 'em coming!
Don
On Fri, Jan 2, 2015 at 8:44 AM, John Macartney <john.macartney@ukpips.org.uk
> wrote:
> Hi, List
>
> Over the Christmas and New Year break, Liz and I have been busy going
> through our possessions. We're 'downsizing' home-wise and too much of the
> stuff "that'll come in useful one day" has had to be reviewed. As you can
> imagine, as someone who spent a lifetime in the UK auto industry, I've
> managed to accumulate quite a lot of "come in useful one day" items. Dec 26
> saw me making a start on evaluating several thousand 35mm colour slides of
> vacations in Europe in Standard cars (Vanguards and a Standard Ten
> Companion
> - aka Triumph Ten Wagon) when they were new and I've kept back too many
> cherished pix to be later scanned to a hard disk. It's only sentiment as I
> just can't bring myself to throw them out.
>
> I then got into some of Dad's many internal reports from Canley days dating
> from the mid-fifties and early sixties - before Leyland appeared in
> Coventry
> - and there are two little aspects I've uncovered this far that I thought
> might entertain you?
>
> The first one relates to the hieroglyphics (my spelling?) on instrument
> panel controls. Standard Triumph was probably the first UK manufacturer to
> adopt them on the 1200 Herald / TR4 and this was not without its problems
> back in the day. Up until then, car users had long become accustomed to
> words on a knob to describe its function while today, several generations
> have grown up intuitively knowing what a symbol means. For example, the
> image of a heater matrix radiating warm air was perceived to be something
> to
> do with a set of false teeth (!!!!) while the symbol of a throttle
> butterfly
> in a venturi for the choke completely foxed the majority. It was a series
> of
> reports about these hieroglyphs and overseas markets that I found most
> entertaining but that's worth another story when I've read the rest of the
> reports. It seems the French and the Italians were greatly against English
> words on control knobs and argued with some rationale that they should
> reflect the local languages. They argued that if you could build a car with
> varying national specs (laminated windscreens, different wiring looms to
> meet local requirements and laws, LH steering, kilometre speedos et al)
> then
> local wording on knobs shouldn't be a problem.
>
> The French argued and won for 'Eclairage' for lights, 'Chauffage' for
> heating (where the false teeth symbol would later appear), 'Essuies' for
> wipers, 'Dist d'Air' for the heater directional air control etc. All well
> and good. Somehow, a budding linguist in Engineering failed to fully
> research his dictionary for 'Choke' and probably tried to in-build the term
> 'strangler' into his deliberations. He could have used 'Melange' which was
> the pre-WW2 term for 'mixture' or its then more modern and current
> equivalent of 'Starter'. Note, this does not mean the engine start button
> on
> sidescreen TR's or the twist switch on the ignition. Instead, the
> translator
> made a noun out of the French verb to "choke on a piece of food" which is
> 'Etouffer' and modded it to 'Etouffeur.' Shrieks of laughter from French
> who
> always love to mock the Brits and claimed this term *could* also be
> interpreted into a person who chokes people to death. So all this
> precipitated a mad rush for revised knobs in the correct terminology to fit
> to cars in dealer stocks before they could be sold!!!!!
>
> However, things didn't stop there. A few weeks later, the words for
> 'wipers'
> in Italian was found to have been translated into a slang expression of a
> particular local Italian dialect which common decency prevents me from
> clarifying any further and I leave that to your imaginations. Suffice it to
> say it is associated with Restrooms / Toilets :)
>
> I suppose all these little issues are probably par for the course but my
> amusement at these 'faux pas' was greatly heightened when I read that the
> company making these various knobs had contracted with the factory for an
> initial stock of 50,000 items of each in four different languages and there
> was no way they were willing to scrub round the mistake or absorb the cost
> for changing the tooling for revised wording.
>
> So when you operate the knobs on your Herald, Vitesse, Spitfire which all
> have the images on them, spare a thought for what happened to the words.
> I'm
> currently reading the reports between Engineering, Quality Control,
> Purchasing and Final Inspection on the tacit issues of the problems
> encountered with all the hieroglyphs on the very early knobs which kept
> falling out because the insert was a tad too large for the hole and the
> glue
> to hold them in place didn't last. More anon
>
> Jonmac
> (aka John Macartney)
>
>
> ---
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> protection is active.
> http://www.avast.com
>
>
> ** triumphs@autox.team.net **
>
> Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<div dir=3D"ltr">John, your recollections are always a delight.=C2=A0 Keep =
'em coming!<div><br></div><div>Don</div></div><div class=3D"gmail_extra=
"><br><div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Fri, Jan 2, 2015 at 8:44 AM, John Macar=
tney <span dir=3D"ltr"><<a href=3D"mailto:john.macartney@ukpips.org.uk"; =
target=3D"_blank">john.macartney@ukpips.org.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br><bl=
ockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #=
ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi, List<br>
<br>
Over the Christmas and New Year break, Liz and I have been busy going<br>
through our possessions. We're 'downsizing' home-wise and too m=
uch of the<br>
stuff "that'll come in useful one day" has had to be reviewed=
. As you can<br>
imagine, as someone who spent a lifetime in the UK auto industry, I've<=
br>
managed to accumulate quite a lot of "come in useful one day" ite=
ms. Dec 26<br>
saw me making a start on evaluating several thousand 35mm colour slides of<=
br>
vacations in Europe in Standard cars (Vanguards and a Standard Ten Companio=
n<br>
- aka Triumph Ten Wagon) when they were new and I've kept back too many=
<br>
cherished pix to be later scanned to a hard disk. It's only sentiment a=
s I<br>
just can't bring myself to throw them out.<br>
<br>
I then got into some of Dad's many internal reports from Canley days da=
ting<br>
from the mid-fifties and early sixties - before Leyland appeared in Coventr=
y<br>
- and there are two little aspects I've uncovered this far that I thoug=
ht<br>
might entertain you?<br>
<br>
The first one relates to the hieroglyphics (my spelling?) on instrument<br>
panel controls. Standard Triumph was probably the first UK manufacturer to<=
br>
adopt them on the 1200 Herald / TR4 and this was not without its problems<b=
r>
back in the day. Up until then, car users had long become accustomed to<br>
words on a knob to describe its function while today, several generations<b=
r>
have grown up intuitively knowing what a symbol means. For example, the<br>
image of a heater matrix radiating warm air was perceived to be something t=
o<br>
do with a set of false teeth (!!!!) while the symbol of a throttle butterfl=
y<br>
in a venturi for the choke completely foxed the majority. It was a series o=
f<br>
reports about these hieroglyphs and overseas markets that I found most<br>
entertaining but that's worth another story when I've read the rest=
of the<br>
reports. It seems the French and the Italians were greatly against English<=
br>
words on control knobs and argued with some rationale that they should<br>
reflect the local languages. They argued that if you could build a car with=
<br>
varying national specs (laminated windscreens, different wiring looms to<br=
>
meet local requirements and laws, LH steering, kilometre speedos et al) the=
n<br>
local wording on knobs shouldn't be a problem.<br>
<br>
The French argued and won for 'Eclairage' for lights, 'Chauffag=
e' for<br>
heating (where the false teeth symbol would later appear), 'Essuies'=
; for<br>
wipers, 'Dist d'Air' for the heater directional air control etc=
. All well<br>
and good. Somehow, a budding linguist in Engineering failed to fully<br>
research his dictionary for 'Choke' and probably tried to in-build =
the term<br>
'strangler' into his deliberations. He could have used 'Melange=
' which was<br>
the pre-WW2 term for 'mixture' or its then more modern and current<=
br>
equivalent of 'Starter'. Note, this does not mean the engine start =
button on<br>
sidescreen TR's or the twist switch on the ignition. Instead, the trans=
lator<br>
made a noun out of the French verb to "choke on a piece of food" =
which is<br>
'Etouffer' and modded it to 'Etouffeur.' Shrieks of laughte=
r from French who<br>
always love to mock the Brits and claimed this term *could* also be<br>
interpreted into a person who chokes people to death. So all this<br>
precipitated a mad rush for revised knobs in the correct terminology to fit=
<br>
to cars in dealer stocks before they could be sold!!!!!<br>
<br>
However, things didn't stop there. A few weeks later, the words for =
9;wipers'<br>
in Italian was found to have been translated into a slang expression of a<b=
r>
particular local Italian dialect which common decency prevents me from<br>
clarifying any further and I leave that to your imaginations. Suffice it to=
<br>
say it is associated with Restrooms / Toilets :)<br>
<br>
I suppose all these little issues are probably par for the course but my<br=
>
amusement at these 'faux pas' was greatly heightened when I read th=
at the<br>
company making these various knobs had contracted with the factory for an<b=
r>
initial stock of 50,000 items of each in four different languages and there=
<br>
was no way they were willing to scrub round the mistake or absorb the cost<=
br>
for changing the tooling for revised wording.<br>
<br>
So when you operate the knobs on your Herald, Vitesse, Spitfire which all<b=
r>
have the images on them, spare a thought for what happened to the words. I&=
#39;m<br>
currently reading the reports between Engineering, Quality Control,<br>
Purchasing and Final Inspection on the tacit issues of the problems<br>
encountered with all the hieroglyphs on the very early knobs which kept<br>
falling out because the insert was a tad too large for the hole and the glu=
e<br>
to hold them in place didn't last. More anon<br>
<br>
Jonmac<br>
(aka John Macartney)<br>
<br>
<br>
---<br>
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protec=
tion is active.<br>
<a href=3D"http://www.avast.com"; target=3D"_blank">http://www.avast.com</a>=
<br>
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** <a href=3D"mailto:triumphs@autox.team.net";>triumphs@autox.team.net</a> *=
*<br>
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//www.team.net/donate.html</a><br>
Archive: <a href=3D"http://www.team.net/archive"; target=3D"_blank">http://w=
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</blockquote></div><br></div>
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