tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 22 20:39:22 1996

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Re: Wish List

peHruS writes:
>Chinese uses "open" and "close" for turn on a switch or turn off a switch;
>but, there is no reason to believe that Klingons think as the Chinese do.

Actually, saying "open" and "close" in reference to an electrical circuit
is common in most languages, at least when it comes to technical writing.
I wouldn't have a problem with this usage, if we had a way to talk about
"circuits".

The phrase "turn on a switch" is really a historical oddity, resulting
from the first electric light switches being designed to emulate the
rotary action of a gas valve.  One "turned" the switch to the "on" or the
"off" position in order to control the incandescent bulb, just as one had
turned a gas valve to control the jet of a gas lamp.

-- ghunchu'wI'               batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj

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