It's because a brake (as a noun) is a device for clamping and then bending metal.

You can have various kinds of brake for forming different kinds of folds, such as a box-and-pan brake (which uses inserts to form box shapes).

A press brake uses 'presses' which in this context are punch and die combinations allowing quite flexible folds to be formed.

To take your examples, in fly-press and hydraulic-press, the word press is the noun and the terms fly- and hydraulic- are modifiers telling you how they are actuated. In press-brake and box-and-pan-brake, the word brake is the noun and the press- or box-and-pan- terms are modifiers telling you what kind of folds they can make, and the names don't tell you how they are actuated at all. You can have manual press brakes, hydraulic press brakes or ones driven by a flywheel coupled to an electric motor.

Forgive the perhaps over detailed response, but you did ask…

Well that is a rather interesting first post David and gave me food for thought. I like Adrian's explanation and think the hard part is accepting in one's mind that 'brake' has another meaning apart from it's use on wheels.

"Brake n.

In certain cultures I think the term "brake" has been used as a synonym for machine, presumably derived from the various mechanisms to crush grain and plant fibres which were some of the earliest industrial mechanisms. So, using that line of thought a Press Brake is just a Press Machine.

Sorry, I have seen this written down somewhere with reasonable authority but can't remember where

Rod

I had never honestly thought about it. And on reflection, don't think I really care. Will make a nice factoid for a Wine & Wisdom, but can't see it being a critical bit of knowledge in my life. However, I await other, and possibly more far fetched explanations with interest to see how far the explanation can be stretched.

In anticipation,

Richard.

Alternative noun describing an estate car?

It's a two-door estate car for carrying guns.

Or it was, as the meaning has been diluted by applying it to posher estate cars.

Shooting Brake:

A Brake in the 19th century was a light carriage used for breaking-in horses to carriage work – mis-spelt 'brake' in later use, which has stuck. Such a vehicle was later modified to carry luggage (a luggage-brake) and developed into the 'station waggon' intended to collect Fortum & Mason boxes from, and deliver parcels for the eldest son running the Empire to, the nearest railway station. In the US, the term 'Depot wagon' was also used. Another version was the 'Shooting Brake' which had seats (for the shooters) around the top of a box which could hold dogs, guns, lunch etc. (The beaters, being working class, walked.)

As such vehicles were generally only found on gentlemen's estates, the term 'estate car' was used in some areas when makers of motorised versions sought a wider market. The fancy patterning and woodwork on more recent estate cars is an echo of the shooting brake with a ventilated box so the dogs could get air.

Regards, Tim

Yes, Morris Traveller – but I'm not sure what question you are asking. If it helps, I was suggesting that the wood (etc) was merely symbolic, a sort of folk-memory, rather like the early railway carriages which had coach-lines around the doors to remind people of the mail Coaches they were used to.

The dogs that needed the air were the original ones, crammed under the seat, and not the spaniel in the Woodie.

Cheers, Tim

>Er…. Morris 1000 Traveller? Most of the ones I knew were well ventilated.<

and well insulated from engine heat

Why why press brake and not brake press?

Post Office Telecommunications used to have a "rate book" that listed all the items you could get from their stores. Convention was that the noun appeared first in the description followed by an adjective if applicable. I was initially puzzled why everyone in the lab called a terminal block a "block terminal" but it was a result of this strange paractice. Presumably after a few more years someone would rename it a terminal block as by common usage the roles of noun and adjective had reversed.

As for a "mounting core dust", guess what that was?

In a similar vein you stop off the end of a pipe or gutter with a stopend, rather than an end stop, which is what I would ask for at the plumbers merchants before I was 'educated'.