4 ms·
Ever hear the phrase "Balls out" when referring to pushing something to the max? Comes form the balls of the centrifugal engine governor. At maximum speed the b
by MisterTea 3mo ago
Ever hear the phrase "Balls out" when referring to pushing something to the max? Comes form the balls of the centrifugal engine governor. At maximum speed the balls extended all the way outward giving us the term "Running balls out."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifugal_governor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifugal_governor
edit: I once said this phrase at a work meeting and someone objected to my use of a crude term which I then explained much to everyone's surprise. They thought it had something to do with testicles.
- jscott817 3mo agoSimilar to balls to the walls (or similar). Coming from the analog aviation controls I believe.
- CalRobert 3mo agoBalls to the van der Waals
- taneq 3mo agoEngaging in a little hydrogen bonding, eh?
- buildsjets 3mo agoExample, throttle controls on a Dogulas DC3. All engine controls forward is the typical convention for full power. (At sea level, neglecting the altitude effect on required engine fuel/air mixture.) https://www.douglasdc3.com/dc3throt/dc3throt.htm https://www.douglasdc3.com/dc3throt/dc3throt.htm
- conartist6 3mo agoThat said, i'm sure the pilots were aware of the double entendre
- dijksterhuis 3mo agotbh, any time i've said it i've been referring to testicles, but thanks for the helpful excuse in future.
- glinscott 3mo agoDefinitely a fun note :). I think I heard it first from a Jay Leno youtube video where he was showing his amazing collection of steam powered machinery. This is from the article, but governors also played a role in kicking off modern control theory! """ In 1868, James Clerk Maxwell studied when these oscillations grow or die away in his paper “On Governors”[https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gold/pdfs/teaching/old_literature/Maxwell1868.pdf https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gold/pdfs/teaching/old_lite...]. This became one of the beginnings of modern control theory. """
- emmelaich 3mo agoIndeed, and of course "governor" in Greek is κυβερνήτης (kubernetes).
- goodmythical 3mo agoI suppose this is also the less colorful true origin of "balls to the wall" than the phrase itself suggests?
- dghlsakjg 3mo agoNope. Balls to the wall refers to the balls on the end of throttle levers in aircraft cockpit. Going balls to the wall means pushing the throttle and mixture all the way in to the firewall/instrument panel for maximum power.
- teachrdan 3mo agoNit: I believe this originated with locomotives, predating aircraft by quite a bit!
- dghlsakjg 3mo agoEvery source I can find says it was a mid century phrase first found written in the 1960s from pilots. Pre aircraft locomotives would have been steam driven. Largely operated by a complex series of valves, mostly rotating so no wall to push them to. They did have a governor balanced by rotating balls, which when at full RPM would be fully extended, or: balls out. https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-phrase-balls-to-the-wall-comes-from-warplanes-not-that-other-thing https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-phrase-balls-to-the-wall-c...
- taneq 3mo ago> When the engine slows, the balls fall and open the cock again. The choice of wording makes me suspect that they intended both entendres. ;)
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- somat 3mo agoEuphemisms are weird, what was originally intended as a way of saying a thing without actually saying that thing, becomes the unspeakable thing in the first place. and the original meaning fades. The one I like is why do we use birds to refer to female anatomy? I also heard something the other day and had an epiphany, but the sort you can't really tell anyone. "Oh... it means pouch that makes so much more sense, it's not a cat."
- yunnpp 3mo ago[dead]
- icase 3mo agoand i suppose “fuck” is actually an acronym for “fornicating under command of king,” right?
- chrisweekly 3mo agoFor Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is the acronym I've encountered most
- bos 3mo agoWhile fun and satisfying, this is extremely unlikely to be true. The first attested use is from 1945, on the nose of a P-47 Thunderbolt flown by Captain Milton Thompson of the 509th Fighter Squadron. And his art was exactly what you'd expect: a charging bull with the words "balls out".
- lebuffon 3mo agoThere is also a steam engineers term called "high-balling" which referred the little ball in the steam pressure gauge used in the early days. So high-balling was travelling at high speed.
- chrisweekly 3mo agoplausibly related to a "high ball" (cocktail glass shape, or slang for a personal-use amount of cocaine)
- akoboldfrying 3mo agoWhat about the phrase "testicles out"?
- inigyou 3mo agoThat one, although widely believed to refer to the steel balls in a centrifugal governor of a steam engine, actually refers to testicles.
- Daz912 3mo ago[dead]