AtD translation: patent dinner pail

[Mike Jing]

Thanks, Monte.

On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 9:28 AM, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Sense 3 for sure. As in "patent medicine," itself a phrase ascendant in
> the US (& Europe? I don't know) of roughly 1870-1920, when commercial
> invention / mass production / national marketing all picked up speed. So
> did imitation of successful new products, and patenting as protection
> exploded. "Jing's Patent Cufflinks" became common shorthand for "There are
> new and different and better and you can't get the real thing from anyone
> but Jing Enterprises."
>
> James Dewar came up with the double-walled vacuum (insulating) vessel in
> 1892, commercialized by Germans as the "Thermos" flask a decade later. I'd
> be surprised if there weren't patent dinner pails -- what we'd now call
> lunch boxes -- in the AtD period  with a separate compartment for ice to
> keep the food chilled.
>
> On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 2:54 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I don't see how the 1st meaning makes any sense here. A dinner pail is,
>> presumably, just a dinner pail. Unlike a smile, which could be sincere or
>> insincere.
>>
>> Apparently, there are plenty patents on dinner pails. Not sure if the
>> term exists though.
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 1:43 AM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Obviously it's the 1st meaning of the adjective:
>>>
>>> adjective
>>> 1 |ˈpātnt, ˈpat-| easily recognizable; obvious: she was smiling with
>>> patent insincerity.
>>> 2 Medicine |ˈpātnt, ˈpat-| (of a vessel, duct, or aperture) open and
>>> unobstructed; failing to close.
>>> • (of a parasitic infection) showing detectable parasites in the tissues
>>> or feces.
>>> 3 |ˈpatnt| [ attrib. ] made and marketed under a patent; proprietary:
>>> patent milk powder.
>>>
>>> But I'm not sure that there didn't exist dinner pails that were patented.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2017-12-29 5:06 GMT+01:00 L E Bryan <lebryan at sonic.net>:
>>>
>>>> I read that to mean a “real” dinner pail instead of a container that
>>>> would do the job, but not an actual or patented dinner pail. Sometimes the
>>>> word “patented” is used to indicate “real” or “authentic”.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> > On Dec 28, 2017, at 7:18 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> > P27.31-35   “Dally, ya little weasel,” Merle greeted her, “the corn
>>>> liquor’s all gone, I fear, it’ll have to be back to the old cow juice for
>>>> you, real sorry,” as he went rummaging in a patent dinner pail filled with
>>>> ice. The child, meanwhile, having caught sight of the Chums in their summer
>>>> uniforms, stood gazing, her eyes wide, as if deciding how well behaved she
>>>> ought to be.
>>>> >
>>>> > Is a "patent dinner pail" a dinner pail with patent leather on the
>>>> outside? Or more likely, glossy like patent leather?
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>> -
>>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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