<html><P><BR>There was such a device in a Joan Phipson book--she is/was an Aussie writer of books for older kids [and shares/ed an editor, Margaret McElderry, with David Randall and my friend Nancy Bond]. I think it may have been a mail trolley over a stream in some small town. Also used for groceries and in one book--from the 50's ?--the kids crossed the stream in it when the water was too high. Linda</P>
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<P>---------- Original Message ----------<BR>From: Ranjit Bhatnagar <ranjit@moonmilk.com><BR>To: fictionary <fictionary@swarpa.net><BR>Subject: [Fictionary] hold on to your hats - it's the wind trolley results!<BR>Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:48:38 -0400<BR><BR>"There are so many delightful mechanical definitions from the<BR>Industrial Age, it makes it hard to pick just two." - Nicolas<BR><BR>And the results? Kite trolleys are quite popular, earning six points<BR>for Hutch and seven points for Jean-Joseph, who claimed another two<BR>points by guessing the REAL definition, which is the little string<BR>that keeps your hat from blowing away in the wind.<BR><BR>Take it away, Jean-Joseph! Or let the wind carry it to you.<BR><BR>- ranjit<BR><BR><BR><BR>wind trolley (n.) -- A spring-powered clockwork credenza on wheels,<BR>invented by Sir Henry Cavendish to shuttle food and dishes between<BR>kitchen and dining room without intrusion by servants. Also called<BR>"deadwaiter".<BR>, wh<BR>-- eLLioTT, with 2 points<BR>2 points from David<BR>I can believe "deadwaiter". Sorry, not "wind trolley". - Hutch<BR>I like the idea of a horizontal counterpart to a dumbwaiter. - Nicolas<BR>Too whimsical. - Jean-Joseph<BR>love the word credenza. - Linda<BR><BR><BR>wind trolley - n. - A device that rides on a kite string and is driven<BR>upward toward the kite by the wind. Upon reaching a button on the<BR>string near the kite, it furls its wings and descends back to the<BR>kite-flyer by means of gravity, to be reset and sent up the string<BR>again.<BR><BR>-- Jean-Joseph - 2 points for correct guess, for a total of 9 points<BR>2 points from Hutch: This one is similar to mine. Would Ranjit have<BR>included them, thinking that everyone would be fooled by two, too<BR>similar definitions? Well DUH! Of course he would! Did he? 2 points<BR>says yes.<BR>1 point from Jim<BR>2 points from Elliott: Lovely idea! Two points.<BR>1 point from Pierre<BR>1 point from Nicolas: This sounds like a plausible (and fun!) toy<BR>add-on to a kite.<BR>The kite runners would love this, if they didn't bloody the device. - Linda<BR><BR><BR><BR>wind trolley - n. - a device consisting of a box attached to a set of<BR>grooved wheels with a sail; loaded onto a kite string, the box can<BR>carry cargo up the kite string to the kite. In 1841, French<BR>photographer Jacques du Jeanville attached an early camera to such a<BR>device and obtained the first ever aerial photographs<BR><BR>-- Hutch, with 6 points<BR>2 points from Jim<BR>2 points from Pierre: I'm voting on a straight kite string ballot<BR>2 points from Linda: I really think this is the real thing.<BR>Lovely idea! But I'm out of points. - Elliott<BR>I think I remember reading about the first aerial photographs in a<BR>history of flight comic book my dad had, and I'm pretty sure they were<BR>from a manned balloon during the Civil War. - Nicolas<BR>Well, looks like I'm not the only one to be familiar with this real<BR>device. Not surprising. I can't remember what they're actually<BR>called. - Jean-Joseph<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>wind trolley - n. - an iceboat using a kite for propulsive power. This<BR>design was common in the mid 19th to early 20th centuries, but has<BR>largely been replaced by sail power, which permits tacking against the<BR>wind.<BR><BR>-- Jim, with 1 point<BR>1 point from David<BR>Pretty sure not. I'm pretty sure that this does exist, or has, at any<BR>rate. The problem is not that you cannot tack with such an<BR>arrangement. (You can.) I believe the problem is that you don't have<BR>the control of a kite that you have of fixed sails. That is, if the<BR>wind drops, fixed sails just luff and then fill as soon as it returns;<BR>a kite falls in the ocean (or on the ice). - Hutch<BR>This one was in the running for me, although I wonder if there'd be<BR>much of a name distinction between the two? - Nicolas<BR>I'm pretty sure real sails were well understood much earlier than<BR>this. - Jean-Joseph<BR>Useful. - Linda<BR><BR><BR>wind trolley, n. A small spring-powered cart used to carry items on a<BR>track in a factory. It is wound with a crank and placed on the track<BR>that leads to its destination.<BR><BR>-- Pierre,with 3 points<BR>1 point from Hutch: This one is the same as the "deadwaiter" above.<BR>But in a manufacturing context, the name "wind trolley" feels<BR>believeable.<BR>2 points from Nicolas: This is relatively mundane, so I can imagine<BR>this being the precursor to a continuous conveyor belt or roller<BR>system.<BR>If it were "wind-up trolley", maybe... - Jean-Joseph<BR>Could get going too fast? - Linda<BR><BR><BR><BR>wind trolley - n. - A string and button (to go in the lapel button<BR>hole) that prevents your hat being blown away by the wind<BR><BR>-- http://www.thehatmovement.co.uk/basics.html#windtrolley<BR>discovered here:<BR>http://ask.metafilter.com/207842/What-is-this-button-on-the-back-of-the-collar-for<BR>2 points from Jean-Joseph: Phrased very informally. Seems like a<BR>giveaway that it could be real. I'll give it two votes.<BR>*LOL* - Hutch<BR>This does seem like a problem in need of a solution, but I suspect<BR>there were other more common ones. - Nicolas<BR>Geeky, but practical. Did it catch on in Chicago? - Linda<BR><BR><BR><BR>wind trolley, n. A skilled goalkeeper in football (soccer),<BR>particularly one known for long airborne dives. From the Ukrainian<BR>VB5@2V7:8.<BR><BR>-- Eric<BR>Note from Ranjit: I double-checked the VB5@2V7:8 with Eric.<BR>I just don't get this. "wind" for long airborne dives, I suppose, but<BR>why would a goalie be a "trolley"? And what does the "VB5@2V7:8" code<BR>mean? Was that supposed to be letters with diacritic marks? - Hutch<BR>The Ukrainian what?? Assuming these are krokozyabry, they could be<BR>ЦВҐАў — the letter ў is Belarusian, not Ukrainian. - Pierre<BR>I assume an encoding error ruined the punchline? - Nicolas<BR>What's that last bit, some kind of mangled Cyrillic Unicode? Or<BR>obscure chess notation? If it had come through cleanly, I probably<BR>would have voted for this one. - Jean-Joseph<BR>If not for the Ukranian, I might have given points. - Linda<BR><BR><BR>wind trolley, v. to wind the wire on the crank of a mail trolley, as<BR>in the kind used to deliver mail in a box over a stream in a rural<BR>setting. Very common in outback Australia. They pun with upwind and<BR>downwind to designate the to and fro directions from one side of the<BR>stream to the other.<BR><BR>-- Linda<BR>Neat idea, but the definition doesn't sound 'dictionary-ish' enough. - Hutch<BR>Believable, but the text doesn't sound very dictionary. - Nicolas<BR>Admiration for making it a verb, but it unfortunately seems really<BR>awkward. - Jean-Joseph<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>wind trolley, n. On a rigid airship, the armature used to launch small<BR>fixed-wing aircraft. Loose translation of the German term<BR>"Hochgeschwindigkeitsluftstromwaggon".<BR><BR>-- Nicolas, with 3 points<BR>1 point from Eric<BR>1 point from Jean-Joseph: Hmm. Hmm hmm hmm. Well, I have to give my<BR>other vote to something, and I can't come up with a good reason not to<BR>give it to this one.<BR>1 point from Linda: One point for the airship def. My husband has<BR>collected airship books for decades.<BR>Several interesting paragraphs from Hutch, which I shall reproduce<BR>below the ballot.<BR>That would be "-wagen". - Pierre<BR>Mine. I got silly with the German. - Nicolas<BR><BR><BR>wind trolley - n. - a tea tray with an insufficient quantity of canapés.<BR><BR>-- David, with 3 points<BR>2 points from Eric<BR>1 point for good taste, from Elliott<BR>I think someone's blood sugar is down. What does "not enough cheesy<BR>poofs" have to do with EITHER "wind" or "wind"? The public demands an<BR>explanation!!! :-D - Hutch<BR>Heh. - Nicolas<BR>If it had run out completely, and had nothing left to serve but<BR>wind... - Jean-Joseph<BR>Very funny! - Linda<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>Hutch, on the Hochgeschwindigkeitsluftstromwaggon:<BR><BR>On the cover of a REALLY HORRIBLE science fiction novel I have<BR>somewhere, is a drawing of small, fixed-wing craft landing and taking<BR>off, from a strip on the back of a large rigid airship ("zeppelin").<BR>I've always wondered about that and this definition made me think<BR>about it and run some numbers.<BR><BR>Now, the runway length needed for STOL is 450 m. This might seem to<BR>limit such a possibility as the length of the pre-World War II<BR>Zeppelin airships (the Hindenburg) was only 245 m. However, the<BR>Hindenburg could also maintain an airspeed of 140 kph. A Cessna 172<BR>(for example) has a stall airspeed (flaps fully retracted!) of 100<BR>kph. In other words, you could posit an aircraft setting down on a<BR>Zeppelin-type airship vertically (or even moving in reverse, relative<BR>to the airship!), so the length isn't an issue.<BR><BR>The next question is the arch of the back: could a fixed-wing craft<BR>land on that circular surface? The Hindenburg had a 41 m diameter. On<BR>its back, the curve of the skin has dropped less than 10 cm at a<BR>distance of 6 m from centerline, and just over 25 cm at a distance of<BR>10 m from centerline. This gives a 20 m-wide runway space with arch of<BR>25 cm from edge to center. One website I saw recommended building a<BR>grass strip with a 30 cm arch (for drainage). The wingspan of the same<BR>Cessna 172 is just over half that width (11 m) and, more importantly,<BR>the landing gear track is only 2.5 m, or 1/8 the "runway" width.<BR><BR>In fact, you could imagine a Cessna-type aircraft flying over the back<BR>of a Hindenburg-sized airship, matching airspeeds, and then picture<BR>"ground" crew muscling the landing aircraft into a space BETWEEN other<BR>tied-down aircraft.<BR><BR>All that said, there was such a device in use on German airships<BR>during WWI and similar devices were explored by the US military<BR>between WWI and WWII. However, this name just doesn't have a military<BR>kind of flavor to it.</P></html>
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