[alfa] SU carbies and internet abbreviations

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Fielding writes "I think you will find that SU stands for Skinner Union and not Skinner's Union.  Incidentally the original SU carb was designed for the WO Bentley aero engine to allow the planes to fly inverted.  Prior to this change the allied airmen were at a severe disadvantge to the Bosch who at the time had already fitted fuel injection to the Luftwaffe planes and had no problems flying inverted.  The aero version had a swivelling float chamber that always kept the fuel the right way up, irrespective of the planes attitude."
 
I had always heard that it was Skinner's Union, with an apostrophe, but that was an integral part of an attribution which in the USA is called an 'urban legend', whether it is inherently 'urban' or not. Since the company involved the whole family, and not a single Skinner, by academic American English punctuation standards it should be Skinners' Union rather than Skinner's Union, but the company website says, at the end of the sixth paragraph on the second page of company history, that S.U "is the abbreviation of Skinner's Union." I won't seriously argue either way; don't have a dog in that fight (or dhaditf, if you prefer). 
 
OT, there is an unusually enjoyable book on punctuation recently out, under the title "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" (the punch-line of a shaggy-panda joke). Probably none of the iM generation will be interested, but others may.
 
Walter Owen Bentley was born in 1888, thus would have been a precocious seventeen or eighteen when the patent was granted in January 1906 for the 'carbie' which was designed to allow his aero engine to fly inverted against the Luftwaffe. In what I assume must have been the Boer War? I am very sketchy on the chronology of the period, it is late and I am still foggy from the flu, so will gladly concede the point to John Fielding. 
 
Enjoy yours (Ey?)
 
John H.
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