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Joseph Guillotin was an enterprising frenchman who way back in 1791 suggested a humane way of killing people that was “painless”.
Humane? Hmmm that's a bit questionable. Painless? How did he know it was painless I ask myself.
But the point is that forever he will be remembered in association with a pretty gruesome piece of machinery. Some people seek fame and fortune but how would you feel if you knew that your name and your legacy would come up every time someone's head was going to be removed in a rather messy way?
Have you ever thought just how many things in daily use carry the name of their eponymous inventor or discoverer.
In technical matters there are many names and scientific laws named after their founders. Divers need to understand Boyle's law and Charle's law if they are to stay alive. Around the home we have many electrical and electronic devices that depend on understanding of ohms (German Georg Simon Ohm 1789 – 1854), amps (Frenchman Andre Marie Ampere 1775 – 1836) and watts (Scotsman James Watt 1736 – 1819). We wouldn't have mobile phones without the work of Hertz (German Rudlof Heinrich Hertz 1857 - 94)
Geiger counters, the Richter Scale. Then of course there was that gentleman, Fosbury, who had nothing better to do than find a ridiculous but very effective way of throwing himself over a stick.
In medicine and health of course names are used widely such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (mad cow disease), then there is Downs Syndrome, milk is Pasteurised and what about your Adam’s apple? Imagine being remembered with Parkinson's disease which was named after English physician James Parkinson who made a detailed description of the disease in his essay "An Essay on the Shaking Palsy" (1817).
You may (or may not) be interested to know that in 1530 Italian physician and poet Girolamo Fracastoro wrote a poem in Latin, entitled Syphilis sive morbus gallicus. The protagonist of the poem was a shepherd named Syphilus
Some names are unfortunate, I once had a tax accountant who was called John Crook, he got 18 months for tax evasion!
Other names seem to have fallen into disuse. Adolf is not the most common of names any more is it? Judas hasn’t been used a lot lately and you certainly don’t meet many Rasputins when you go to the pub do you?
Some names on the other hand have passed into common usage. How about “hoovering the floor,” and people who visit the Arena Sports Bar will be aware that it is easy to recognise someone who has been “Olaffed” by their absence of shevelledness the following day.
And of course we must not forget Jonathon Condom (known as “Rubber Johnnie” to his friends) who invented those clever neoprene sleeves that keep your beer bottle cold.
Fredrick F. Chainsaw, on the other hand, has a lot to answer for.
Have you ever noticed how ordinary human males suddenly become uncontrollable monsters once they get a chainsaw in their hands. Their eyes become wide and bloodshot, their nostrils flare, white knuckles grasp a throbbing machine and all they can think of is to find something to cut down. Why do they do this? Have I missed something? Could it be that the chainsaw makes up for inadequacies in other parts of their lives? I have noted a few more nice trees lost in Sanur recently but I digress.
When we manage building projects we use a Gantt chart (Henry L Gantt 1861 – 1919). There is of course the venturi (Giovanni B. Venturi 1746 – 1822)
Yale (as in “cunning old bastard has fitted a Yale” from the traditional song “Chastity Belt”) - Linus Yale Junior (1821 – 1868) invented the pin tumbler lock.
When I am out digging in the garden I wear my wellingtons (1st Duke of Wellington1769 – 1852), I stop for lunch and eat a sandwich (the 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718–92) then at the end of the day I go and have a “rest” in the rest room (Thomas Crapper 1836 – 1910) and finally I would sink into the jacuzzi if I had one but I haven't (Candido Jacuzzi 1903 – 1986 Italian born american inventor).
Some people have unusual love affairs.
“Beat me, beat me” says the masochist (Leopold von Sacher Masoch 1835–95).
“No” replies the sadist (the Marquis de Sade).
Then there is Luigi Galvani (1737 – 1798) Italian anatomist. He is noted for his discovery of the twitching of frogs' legs in an electric field (what on earth was he doing to discover that). Hence the term being galvanised (shocked or excited) into action or for the electrochemical process of galvanising steel.
In magnetic fields we find eddy currents discovered by French physicist Leon Foucault in 1851 (he had a dog called Eddy).
Those piddling little fahrenheit degrees were named after German Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit (1686 – 1736) while the bigger better ones came from Swedish Anders Celsius (1701 – 1744). I am not quite sure where Charlie Centrigrade fits in.
Futz on the other hand (to waste time or busy oneself aimlessly) does not come from the famous dancer Futzy Malone but is more likely derived from the Yiddish “arumfartzen” (to fart around).
And what is the relevance of all this eponymous twaddle? Not a lot really.
Phil Wilson
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