3 ms·
How cool, it's still in the ACS logo! Germans have the best names lol. Calibration apparatus.
by chermi 1y ago
How cool, it's still in the ACS logo! Germans have the best names lol. Calibration apparatus.
- namibj 1y agoNo, it's from al kali ne.
- perihelions 1y ago> "Calibration apparatus" I believe it's kali from German Kaliumhydroxid[0] (KOH, what it uses to dissolve CO2), from the same "potassium" root as al-kali in English, from medieval Arabic[1]. (And also metonymically a name for the coastal salt-marsh plant[2] from which medieval workers sourced potash/potassium[3]. I actually submitted that plant to HN [4] a few days ago, but no one was excited about it. They were once an essential ingredient in glassmaking, hence their other name, "glasswort"). [0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliumhydroxid https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliumhydroxid [1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kali#English https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kali#English [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsola_kali https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsola_kali [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potash#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potash#History [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44128748 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44128748
- ahartmetz 1y agoThe literal meaning is indeed potassium apparatus / device / contraption. The Kali part is indeed shortened from Kaliumhydroxid. Strangely enough, the modern German name is Fünf-Kugel-Apparat, "five balls apparatus". I found that one simply by going through "Other languages" on Wikipedia. And benzene is called Benzol in German. And gasoline is called Benzin - that word has false friend potential because it seems more similar to benzene. It is also not derived from the name of Carl Benz of Mercedes-Benz fame who used it in the first practical automobile that he invented.