Origin of "Cool your jets!" ?
Ted Nolan <tednolan>
"Hold your horses!" came from written SF. I have the feeling it might
be from Doc Smith, but I haven't re-read the Lensmen books in quite a
while.
Does anyone know for sure where the phrase came from? And how did it
enter pop-culture? I've heard my sister say it, and she certainly
didn't get it from Doc Smith..
Ted
David E. Siegel
I think that it was used in the Lensman books, but I could be
mistaken. But that would not establish that it was originated there --
it could have been then-current slang.
-DES
Dorothy J Heydt
David E. Siegel <sie...@acm.org> wrote:
>On Jan 3, 4:24=A0pm, t...@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) wrote:
>> I think the phrase "Cool your jets!" as in "Simmer down!" or
>> be from Doc Smith, but I haven't re-read the Lensmen books in quite a
>> while.
>>
>> enter pop-culture? =A0I've heard my sister say it, and she certainly
>> didn't get it from Doc Smith..
>>
>
>I think that it was used in the Lensman books, but I could be
>mistaken. But that would not establish that it was originated there --
>it could have been then-current slang.
It was certainly used in the Lensmen books. Rather than
then-current slang, it's more likely to have been a space-agey
adaptation of some groundgripping current slang, like "QX"
instead of "OK" -- *IF* Smith didn't just invent it.
Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djh...@kithrup.com
Kurt Busiek
I would assume it's space-opera for "Hold your horses."
kdb
Martin Kaletsch
I don't have a clue about the origin of the phrase, but it was used in a
Futurama episode (the one with the Harlem Globetrotters I think), so this
may be the way it entered pop-culture.
--
Martin Kaletsch
Ted Nolan <tednolan>
No, that would require someone actually watching Futurama..
Great show, but pretty much zero pop-culture mass due to the inept
way Fox ran it, besides, my sister was using the phrase years before
that.
I'm wondering if any of the 50s SF shows used it? Tom Corbett? Captain Video?
Ted
tphile
In Space Cadet, Heinlein uses "Cut your jets and ground" in a similar
case.
and a google of the phrase suggests it was from aviation slang (which
I find doubtful)
It does have a Buck Rogers/Tom Swift feel to it. but would the phrase
predate the invention
of the jet engine and aircraft post WWII?
a word search of Gray Lensman produced all kinds of jet slang
Blow your Jets
Clog you jets
Don't burn out a jet, pal
wait a minute, jet back, brother
I simply haven't got the jets
baffle your jets, kim
clogging my jets is a frequent phrase
tphile
David Tate
>
> I'm wondering if any of the 50s SF shows used it? Tom Corbett? Captain Video?
I'm reasonably certain it was used in the Tom Corbett books by, hmm...
"Carey Rockwell"?
(Looks like Ed Pippin says it was used in the TV show as well,
according to http://www.heinleinsociety.org/rah/history/tomcorbett.html.)
David Tate
Michael S. Schiffer
news:jcvfj.45674$vt2....@bignews8.bellsouth.net:
> In article <j47155-...@middgard.yggdrasil>,
> Martin Kaletsch <man...@gmx.de> wrote:
>>
>>
>>Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
>>> I think the phrase "Cool your jets!" as in "Simmer down!" or
>>> "Hold your horses!" came from written SF. I have the feeling
>>> it might be from Doc Smith, but I haven't re-read the Lensmen
>>> books in quite a while.
>>> Does anyone know for sure where the phrase came from? And how
>>> did it enter pop-culture? I've heard my sister say it, and
>>> she certainly didn't get it from Doc Smith..
>>I don't have a clue about the origin of the phrase, but it was
>>used in a Futurama episode (the one with the Harlem
>>Globetrotters I think), so this may be the way it entered
>>pop-culture.
> No, that would require someone actually watching Futurama..
>
> Great show, but pretty much zero pop-culture mass due to the
> inept way Fox ran it, besides, my sister was using the phrase
> years before that.
>
> I'm wondering if any of the 50s SF shows used it? Tom Corbett?
> Captain Video?
I can't confirm or deny that. I traced it at least as far back as a
1978 Forbes article: 'So cool your jets, all you baby Rockefellers
and high-rise de Medicis. Follow instead the advice of the cool-
headed print curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Colta Ives:
"Don't buy art as an investment. Don't pay more for it than it is
worth to you to have it hanging on your wall."', Limited Edition
Lithography: Buyer Beware! Forbes July 10, 1978.
Searching the Chicago Tribune, the first hit I get is 1979, quoting
the advice columnist in a high school newspaper.
A search in Google Books with a ceiling of 1978 gets four hits, with
the earliest in 1977 (Jeffrey Archer, _Shall We Tell the President?
_, "Cool your jets, man."). (Two hits appeared at first to be from
1960 and 64, but they're periodicals, and the actual publications
turned out to be from the early 80s.)
I'm tentatively leaning towards the expression emerging in the early
to mid-70s, given some lag for getting into print.
Mike
--
Michael S. Schiffer, LHN, FCS
msch...@condor.depaul.edu
Quadibloc
> It does have a Buck Rogers/Tom Swift feel to it. but would the phrase
> predate the invention
> of the jet engine and aircraft post WWII?
Since the Nazis had jet engines (for example, in the "buzz bomb", but
also in experimental aircraft), the jet engine was not invented after
World War II: Nazi Germany no longer existed once that war was over.
John Savard
Wayne Throop
:: phrase predate the invention of the jet engine and aircraft post WWII?
: Quadibloc <jsa...@ecn.ab.ca>
: Since the Nazis had jet engines (for example, in the "buzz bomb", but
: also in experimental aircraft), the jet engine was not invented after
: World War II: Nazi Germany no longer existed once that war was over.
More to the point, a quick google finds
http://www.phy6.org/stargaze/Sgoddard.htm
For instance, in 1913, [Goddard] made the following priority list ("order")
of things-to-do:
Order: complete patent application if necessary of nozzle and
plurality; take out application on reloading feature; also complete
application for electric pump; repeat calculation carefully, for
smaller intervals; look up Darwin's theory of the lunar motion;
and look up meteors. Also try a jet.
And other references on that page make it clear that the exhaust of a rocket
was known as a "jet". So, in the 1920's, the notion of "jet" as something
to do with propulsion, and the usage of "cool your jets"
seems a reasonable non-anachronism.
Wayne Throop thr...@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw
Taki Kogoma
allegedly proclaimed to rec.arts.sf.written:
I'd hardly call the Me-262 and Meteor "experimental".
--
Capt. Gym Z. Quirk (Known to some as Taki Kogoma) quirk @ swcp.com
Just an article detector on the Information Supercollider.
tphile
> On 2008-01-05, Quadibloc <jsav...@ecn.ab.ca>
In any case I don't recall any natzi sf writers contributing stories
to Astounding SF pulps
or the comics, with the exception of Mein Kampf ;-)
and indirectly of course by giving many allied and american creators
lots to write about.
The rockets and buzz bombs were very familiar to the home front
especially England
but was that true also about the nazi jet aircraft that only saw
limited use near the end of
the war and may have been classified.
I do recall in the Doc Savage pulps he had several aircraft that were
powered by what we now
know as jets. Even a jet powered flying wing iirc
besides I can't see the term being of german origin anyway, certainly
not while on the western front
tphile
J Larson
wrote:
Indeed, I have to remind myself every so often that JPL stands for
Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was established by the California
Institute of Technology in the fall of 1936. If they used the term
jet in their name I would think they would expect it to be a known
term, therefore it should have been an established term for more than
a couple of years prior to the founding of JPL.
J Larson
Michael Alan Chary
Michael S. Schiffer <msch...@condor.depaul.edu> wrote:
>A search in Google Books with a ceiling of 1978 gets four hits, with
>the earliest in 1977 (Jeffrey Archer, _Shall We Tell the President?
>_, "Cool your jets, man."). (Two hits appeared at first to be from
>1960 and 64, but they're periodicals, and the actual publications
>turned out to be from the early 80s.)
>
>I'm tentatively leaning towards the expression emerging in the early
>to mid-70s, given some lag for getting into print.
I seem to recall it from tv reruns back when I was a kid, in the
early-1970's.
--
The All-New, All-Different Howling Curmudgeons!
http://www.whiterose.org/howlingcurmudgeons
T Guy
> Indeed, I have to remind myself every so often that JPL stands for
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was established by the California
> Institute of Technology in the fall of 1936. If they used the term
> jet in their name I would think they would expect it to be a known
> term, therefore it should have been an established term for more than
> a couple of years prior to the founding of JPL.
(T Guy):
And in Great Britain, Frank Whittle tried to interest the Air Ministry
in his invention, the jet engine, in 1931, IIRR.
No, the BBC implies it was 1929 and wikipedia states 1929 with Whittle
either patenting it in 1930 or being convinced to patent it by Johnny
Johnson in 1930. But wiki does also state that he was assessed by the
R. A. F. (as a pilot) as being 'Exceptional to Above Average.'
As stated elsethread, back then (1920s or so) rocket engines were
considered to be or referred to as jet engines, so this might be the
usage Smith is employing.
T Guy
James Nicoll
he couldn't find funding, IIRC, and abandoned that line of research.
--
http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll
http://www.cafepress.com/jdnicoll (For all your "The problem with
defending the English language [...]" T-shirt, cup and tote-bag needs)
John Schilling
wrote:
>In article <e097aa57-a3e9-43ce...@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
>T Guy <Tim.B...@redbridge.gov.uk> wrote:
>>(J Larson <seagull...@NOTyahoo.com> ::
>>> Indeed, I have to remind myself every so often that JPL stands for
>>> Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was established by the California
>>> Institute of Technology in the fall of 1936. If they used the term
>>> jet in their name I would think they would expect it to be a known
>>> term, therefore it should have been an established term for more than
>>> a couple of years prior to the founding of JPL.
>>(T Guy):
>>And in Great Britain, Frank Whittle tried to interest the Air Ministry
>>in his invention, the jet engine, in 1931, IIRR.
>>No, the BBC implies it was 1929 and wikipedia states 1929 with Whittle
>>either patenting it in 1930 or being convinced to patent it by Johnny
>>Johnson in 1930. But wiki does also state that he was assessed by the
>>R. A. F. (as a pilot) as being 'Exceptional to Above Average.'
>>As stated elsethread, back then (1920s or so) rocket engines were
>>considered to be or referred to as jet engines, so this might be the
>>usage Smith is employing.
> Henri Coanda was playing around with thermojets in 1910 but
>he couldn't find funding, IIRC, and abandoned that line of research.
Except that he apparently did find sufficient funding to build and fly
a thermojet aircraft.
I think the deciding factor on a new line of research, was noticing that
the high-temperature exhaust of his *thermo*jet was not in fact being
ducted harmlessly out to the sides but was very neatly hugging the
sides of the aircraft. Which, while he was pondering the question of
"why is it doing that?", had managed to become somewhat airborne.
Important safety tip, probably even more important for people named
Nicoll than for the Coandas of the world: No matter that every other
airplane you've seen to date has the engine in front, if yours is
A: of wood-and-fabric construction and B: powered by a *jet* engine,
the engine does *not* belong in the front.
Coanda survived the somewhat incendiary crash, and spent the rest of
his career further exploring the "why was it doing that?" question.
Leading to the discovery of the Coanda Effect, of some small aeronautical
importance itself.
Roughly speaking, high-velocity gas streams (like jet engine exhaust)
tend to hug nearby surfaces even if those surfaces curve away from the
stream.
--
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