Tuesday, June 21, 2011

transport etymology 1 - funicular

In his book, David Parsons states on page 178: "strictly speaking, referring to this operation [the Wellington Cable Car] as a 'cable car' is a misnomer. It is really a funicular railway with each car counterbalancing the other."

Actually the word funicular comes from the Latin word for rope - funis, thus funiculus - so strictly speaking, every railed vehicle system which uses a rope, i.e. cable, as the means of propulsion is a funicular, including elevators (lifts) in buildings. In fact, the early term for the latter in the US was a vertical railway.  The notion perpetrated by a few people such as Mr Parsons that somehow a cable car is only a system using an endless rope gripped and released by a grip mechanism on the vehicle is really quite strange.  Both cable car systems used in Wellington between Lambton Quay and Kelburn are different forms of funicular!

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