Giubo = Giunto Boschi

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

In AD7-718 Jaap Bouma asks "What the hell does giubo MEAN? Is it italian for 
wotsit thingamijig, or does it actually mean something? Sorry, just curious. 
;-)"

The etymology has been on the digest a few times. Last August, after Scott 
Fisher wrote, probably tongue in cheek,  

"As for giubo vs. guibo, because I've only read the terms on the Internet, 
where correcting someone's spelling is considered Bad Form, I have no idea 
what the actual Italian word is.  I am left to assume that a giubo goes on a 
Giulia or Giulietta, and a guibo goes on a Guilia or a Guilietta."

I replied:

"Il Topo recently sent me a photocopy of a hand-written letter, 24 maggio 
1986, by GianPaolo Garcea, a singularly literate engineer who was one of 
Orazio Satta's right-hand men as Assistant Director of the Design and 
Experimental Department. The letter, with lavish freehand illustrations, 
confirms and elaborates on what Topo had previously told me and others, that 
"the ing. Boschi had invented and patented the elastic joint (giunto) and 
later formed his firm GIUBO SpA, which manufactured the first giubos for the 
1900. "GIUBO" = GIUnti BOschi.=Boschi joints, and the pronunciation is 
(gee-yew-bow  or jew-bow)." That is the straight squeak from what is, as far 
as I know, the last surviving purebred Portello mouse."

The person I irreverantly called Il Topo in those days is Don Black, who had 
met Dr. Boschi when he was working at Portello in the sixties. Black's friend 
and mentor GianPaolo Garcea, who was a design engineer at Portello from 1935 
to 1982, thus spanning from the late Jano era to the late Hruska era, is the 
author of a memoir "La Mia Alfa" which I believe is still available from the 
Libreria dell'Automobile. It is a singularly charming work, presented with 
the printed text and photos on the right-hand page and the beautifully 
handwritten manuscript and illustrative sketches on the left-land page. I 
suppose it is an anachronism, writing and engineering without typewriters and 
drafting machines, let alone computers, but there once were engineers who 
didn't need spellcheckers, and this book is a window into that world, for 
those who may be interested.

John H.
Raleigh, N.C.

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