Another mistake

[William W]

Back in the school days, I was taught that the "proper" name was "hexagonal wrench" and that an "Allen wrench" or "Allen key" was a hexagonal wrench made by the Allen Manufacturing Company. In the same vein as we refer to a using a search engine to find something as to "Google" it, the Allen name is commonly (but technically incorrectly, in most cases) used.

Like "I shall hoover the carpet" (as opposed to "vacuum clean the carpet".

We now have a worm of cans...

The "Allen" (and "Hoover" and "Google") I understand are all Eponyms.

BUT - "Hoover" and "Google" are a examples of special class of Eponym, because they became verbs which describe the action of using the product for which they are Eponyms: poor Mr Allen of Connecticut, it would be nice to say "I shall Allen that screw".

***

Those funny star shaped ones are correctly known as torx heads; many Euro made autos use them extensively, as on my Bimmer. Haven't seen a torx head on any camera gear so far, but they're now appearing in construction . . .

Zen

Thank you!
The tool was needed to remove part of a sound system from a car. A Jag.


***

This is where CiC is so much fun.

[rpcrowe]

When I don't like something in a digital image, I Eponym it out with Photoshop.

I just changed the Arca Clamp on my camera cage. It was attached with a standard Phillps screw which was a nice surprise

[Pippan]

You'd really be screwed if your name was Allen Phillips, wouldn't you.

[zen]

You'd really be screwed if your name was Allen Phillips, wouldn't you.

Ah, a tri-partite bit of wag!

[Ken MT]

Got to carry cash, a credit card just won't work!

[xpatUSA]

The [torx head screwdriver] was needed to remove part of a sound system from a car. A Jag.

Bill, I am reminded of upgrading my first 256K [sic] RAM Macintosh to 512K, the so-called 'fat Mac'. The memory card came with a long torx screwdriver which one had to return after the job was done.

I sit here typing this on a machine with 16GB of RAM ...

[Andrew1]

And then there's a "Security Torx" I run into occasionally.

Too many Engineers involved and you get these.

https://www.disassociated.com/tag/screw-heads/