• Heavybell@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    While I love this, I can’t pass up the opportunity to explain “pop goes the weasel”.

    The song references the cost of food items in its first verse, followed by “that’s the way the money goes, pop goes the weasel”. What exactly a weasel was is up for debate; it could be rhyming slang for a coat, or it could mean the pre-electric type of iron that was heated on a stove before use on clothing. In any case, “pop” was slang for pawning an item for money.

      • Heavybell@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        “Weasle-and-stoat, coat”, yeah. Tho I prefer the pre-electric iron theory, personally. I feel like I read somewhere that those were common things to pawn when money was tight, back in the day.

        • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          How does one get from weasel to clothes iron? I’d imagine an iron would garner more money than a poor person’s coat, what with it being just a big bar of metal with a handle on.

          • Heavybell@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            That’s part of why I prefer that option. While I believe coats were probably more costly vs a poor person’s income than they are today, I agree a clothes iron would likely have been worth more, making it the more obvious thing to pawn; plus in the cold of England you’d probably rather be without your iron than your coat while waiting for payday.

            • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
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              10 months ago

              So I had to have a look.
              And there’s a few theories, the coat theory, but the others are pretty interesting too:

              There has been much speculation about the meaning of the phrase and song title, “Pop Goes the Weasel”.[1][6] Some say a weasel is a tailor’s flat iron, silver-plate dishes, a dead animal, a hatter’s tool, or a spinner’s weasel.[1][23][17] One writer notes, “Weasels do pop their heads up when disturbed and it is quite plausible that this was the source of the name of the dance.”[1]

              Emphasis is mine.

  • space_gecko@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Pilot: Mayday mayday mayday, we’ve had an engine out

    Tower: Is it a full or partial engine out?

    Pilot: Partially out of the cowling

    • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 months ago

      Extreme compression relief, makes starting it easier.

      Did the cylinder really seize and get pushed away from the block? That must be exciting to hear/see.

      • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Exiting to hear/see & that exciting extra split second to actually comprehend what you already understand happened.

        Basically dafooqing.

  • robdor@lemmynsfw.com
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    10 months ago

    Maybe the little piston just got curious and wanted to see what the outside world was lol about.

  • Gork@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Isn’t… the engine cowling supposed to prevent that sort of thing from occurring?

    • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      On jet engines the cowling/housing is suppose to contain the blade shrapnel.

      On a piston engine, as seen in the picture, the cylinder is never suppose to become detached from the engine block. There are a few ways a cylinder can detach, but most likely is lack of maintenance.

    • brianorca@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The skin of that cowling doesn’t look thick enough to do more than streamlining. You’re thinking of the containment ring found in jet engines.

    • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Nope - contain blades on jets yes but the cowling isn’t going to stop a solid metal chunk that the head didn’t stop.

  • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Starboard engine experienced a spontaneous ejection in one of its internal combustion cylinders. No Bueno.