Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.163] on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 at 20:22:57 :
In Reply to: Re: Strange expressions often seen.... posted by John in Utah [166.70.201.2] on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 at 19:33:15 :
In the old days all sorts of clever machinery would be called an "engine". Eli Whitney's cotton "gin" was really slang for "engine". Charles Babbage designed an "analytical engine", which was an early mechanical computer. An "engineer" was a designer or operator of machinery, regardless of whether the machine was a source of power. I've always thought it's kind of silly that some people adamantly insist that a "motor" must be electric an an "engine" must be a fuel-fired source of motive power.
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