Digital Vernier Calliper

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Do such things exist?  Vernier calliper – yes. Digital calliper – yes.  Digital vernier calliper ???

However it appears there are many adverts for Digital vernier callipers !

Bob

[cedric 1Participant @cedric]

Language changes over time. Many words in use today carry a meaning totally different from what they meant years ago.

Vernier has become the generic term for vernier calipers. When I started work in the 70s, such callipers in pre digital times were just called verniers in common speech.

So when they went digital, they were commonly called digital verniers. Contradictory, but so is much of the English language.

If such language creep didn’t happen, we’d all be speaking in Chaucer’s Old English or perhaps something even older.

As the Bard said, a rose by any other name is still a rose.

 

[NealebParticipant @nealeb]

In a world where people buy a Dyson “hoover” and “transparent” means “visible” all bets are off and words just mean what you think they mean! And if I see another sign that says, “Your statutory rights are not effected” I shall scream…

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Thermos for any brand of vacuum-flask…

Epicentre for centre… and other technical terms mis-used by people no cleverer than they should be, trying to sound edumificated.

Granite for surface-plates that are of igneous rock but not granite. (Blame the masonry trade that calls any hard rock “granite”, and any other rock that can be polished, a “marble” – e.g. ‘Purbeck Marble’).

Calipers, though, Vernier or Digital –

Ah, what about Calipers, Plain…? Or Calipers, Odd-leg?

And yes, I use them occasionally.

 

You may know that dotty old painting, “The Ancient of Days“, depicting God as a hirsute naturist leaning down from the Heavens to measure the Earth with a huge pair of dividers. I think the artist and certainly The Lord would have used the proper tool for the task, but the incorrect instrument dominates the painting and suspiciously looks as if quoting an ancient organisation’s badge!

 

As for signs… there was for years a grocery franchise shop sign in Weymouth town-centre, proclaiming “Eat’s”. The frequent  public comments were no doubt useful publicity, but it has been corrected.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Nigel, Thanks for curating that list. The optics of some of this new usage is not good and don’t get me started on the below comments which haven’t been written yet.Anyway I mist set off on my diverted  perambulation as the footway is closed.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Is it “l” or “ll” ?

[bernard towers]

On bernard towers Said:

Is it “l” or “ll” ?

^^^ Depends on your location

MichaelG.

[cedric 1Participant @cedric]

The American “caliper” has become ubiquitous in recent years, largely I think through the international automotive trade and brake calipers there-in. Both are considered acceptable these days, with the “ll” first preference in UK.

[cedric 1Participant @cedric]

How words such as vernier change meaning over time

Nice once meant unfortunate or bad.

Silly once meant good  or innocent.

Awful once meant awe-inspiring or good.

Girl once meant a child of either gender. (I suppose these days some might say any gender.)

Egregious once meant famous or prominent.

These date back to Old English , so 700 years or so. But it can happen more quickly. In our own lifetime think about the change in meaning of the word “gay” for instance. You never hear it used to describe happy or cheerful these days. Likewise  I think vernier has come to mean the type of sliding cal(l)iper in general.

 

[JAParticipant @ja]

Yo, all – a street greeting from the late 1980s early 90s, probably of Afro-Caribbean origin but also used by Shakespeare. I have often wondered about this.

Would a self-drive car have digital caliper brakes?

I have nothing against new words and uses but some are just bad like experimentisation (OK, I may have made that up). For this reason alone, I would to see this progress slowed a bit. However at the age of 79 I am allowed to be perplexed by the modern world.

JA

[JA]

On JA Said:

…

I have nothing against new words and uses but some are just bad like experimentisation (OK, I may have made that up). For this reason alone, I would to see this progress slowed a bit. However at the age of 79 I am allowed to be perplexed by the modern world.

JA

It sounds like you may be suffering hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia!

[JA]

On JA Said:

Yo, all – a street greeting from the late 1980s early 90s, probably of Afro-Caribbean origin but also used by Shakespeare. I have often wondered about this.

 

JA

..might it (Yo – and perhaps ?Ho – also in wide post-med. currency) derive from a classical or protohistorical  language?

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Technically, most digital calipers tend to use an interference pattern for measurement, which might be considered to be a form of vernier. But ‘digital vernier caliper’ as as wrong as people talking about their 8.2kW batteries and 3.5kWh inverters.

It’s just ignorance of the correct usage or units and should be corrected at every opportunity.

Yes, I’ve discovered after 68 years that I am somewhere on the ‘autism spectrum’, but won’t accept that incorrect usage is a justified by ‘language change’.

Bah! Humbug!

 

I haven’t seen a digital, vernier caliper. It would be trivial to put the markings on the back of the caliper with a vernier scale and transparent section on the carriage to read the result. I suspect that the market would be limited to a small number of oddballs (Yes please, where can I get one from? 😀 )

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

I have an imperial fractional (128″ accuracy) / metric vernier caliper – quite useful for those old steam loco drawings.

[Speedy Builder5]

1. On Speedy Builder5 Said:

   I have an imperial fractional (128″ accuracy) / metric vernier caliper – quite useful for those old steam loco drawings.

   I have a digital caliper that reads in 128ths. Purchased on a recent visit to the USA. I thought the same, it would be handy on those old fractional ME drawings. But I find the 128ths more confusing than converting decimals. 64ths would be more familiar and useful.

[Mark Rand]

On Mark Rand Said:

 

 

“Yes, I’ve discovered after 68 years that I am somewhere on the ‘autism spectrum’, but won’t accept that incorrect usage is a justified by ‘language change’.

Bah! Humbug!”

 

 

Then you’d best stop using the term ‘autism spectrum’. Spectrum originally meant an apparition, as in spectre, then changed , by Newton, to mean a range of colours, then changed again to mean a range of radio waves, and then changed again to mean a range in general, then changed very recently to apply to a range of autism.

spectrum etymology

spectrum
/ˈspektrəm/
“Spectrum”
originates from the Latin spectrum, meaning “an appearance, image, apparition, or specter”. Derived from specere (“to look at, view”), it originally described ghostly afterimages in the 1610s. It was applied to light and colors by Isaac Newton in 1671, describing the rainbow band from a prism.  Online Etymology Dictionary +3
Key Etymological Points:
Latin Root: From Latin spectrum, which acts as an “instrumental noun” formed from specere (to look at) + -trum (suffix designating a tool or object).
Ghostly Origins: Early 17th-century usage (1610s) specifically meant a “phantom” or “specter,” a direct reference to a haunting image, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary.
Scientific Shift: Coined for physics in 1671–1672 by Newton to describe the elongated band of colors formed by a prism, transferring the meaning from a “ghostly image” to a “visual image” of light.
Metaphorical Expansion: By 1888, it expanded to cover the full range of radiation wavelengths, and in 1936, it came to mean a broad range of related ideas or things (e.g., “a spectrum of opinion”).
Related Words: It is a doublet of “specter” (or spectre) and is related to words like specere and scope.  Online Etymology Dictionary +5

Spectrum – Etymology, Origin & Meaning
spectrum(n.) 1610s, “apparition, phantom, specter,” a sense now obsolete, from Latin spectrum (plural spectra) “an appearance, image, apparition, specter,” from…

Online Etymology Dictionary

spectrum – Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Mar 17, 2569 BE — From Latin spectrum (“appearance, image, apparition”), from speciō (“look at, view”). Doublet of specter. See also scope.

Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Spectrum – Wikipedia
^ Newton, Isaac (1671). “A letter of Mr. Isaac Newton … containing his new theory about light and colours …”. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of…

Wikipedia

SPECTRUM Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster
Mar 23, 2569 BE — Word History. Etymology. New Latin, from Latin, appearance — more at specter. 1672, in the meaning defined at sense 1a. The first known use of spectrum was in 1…

Merriam-Webster

SPECTRUM Definition & Meaning – Dictionary.com
Origin of spectrum. First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin: “appearance, form,” equivalent to spec(ere) “to look at, regard” + -trum instrumental noun suffix.

[JAParticipant @ja]

I will only accept Doctor Johnson’s Dictionary.

JA

[cedric 1]

On cedric 1 Said:

 

Then you’d best stop using the term ‘autism spectrum’. Spectrum originally meant an apparition, as in spectre, then changed , by Newton, to mean a range of colours, then changed again to mean a range of radio waves, and then changed again to mean a range in general, then changed very recently to apply to a range of autism.

 

 

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Although I would draw the line at quoting anything from Mr Noah Webster’s treatise on how to destroy the English language. 😀

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

If you get confused, just buy a dial caliper.

[old mart]

On old mart Said:

If you get confused, just buy a dial caliper.

What, like this? 😉

Moore & Wright Digital Dial Caliper 0-150mm/6" IP67 BT

Bill

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

That’s impressive,  but it is April 1st ????????

Bob

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Apparently it features “Built in wireless data transfer directly to a Windows application (Excel, Word, Notepad)”, presumably via Bluetooth.  A bit regressive only supported by Windows?  Most target users probably carry an iPhone or Android and it would be much more useful, especially if they provided an App.  Maybe they publish the API so 3rd parties can support.

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

I must say that for some unfathomable reason, I actually kind of like this digital dial caliper!

 

Jimb

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I have never heard of a caliper like that Moore & Wright, it has a backlight feature that could be useful to those with poor eyesight, or in low light conditions. My digital Dasqua has huge readout charactors compared with my old Mitutoyo which I bought in 1989 and sadly no longer functions.

[PeteParticipant @pete41194]

The correct term for each caliper type is simple. A few mouse clicks onto the Mahr, Starrett or Mitutoyo websites will give the proper name for any of them. But that totally incorrect Digital Verniers, or on some forum posts as Digi-Verns is at least irritating, and also teaching the more entry level people incorrectly. I’d ask the seller to explain how the vernier is used on them. 🤣

 

 

[Author]

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