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History and origin of the term 'Slave Cylinder'

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moon161

Mechanical
Dec 15, 2007
1,184
Is anyone familiar with the history and origin of the english term in hydraulics 'Slave Cylinder'? I got curious in part because the term used by Mercedes, at least was not analogous in other languages- translating roughly to 'Taker Cylinder' in German and 'Clutch Receiver' in French and Spanish.

 
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As in car breaks, the slave follows the master cylinder.
 
The German Wikipedia page;
Geberzylinder.jpg



TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
Thanks!

OK, so in German geber->giver, a giver/taker pair and I anticipate in french and spanish, a sender/receiver pair.

My question is less about the operation which I'm familiar with in automotive hydraulic clutch and brakes than the invention and first use of the master/slave terminology for this.

I'm wondering maybe one of these guys?:
 
I suspect you could go farther back than that... much farther back.
I have no knowledge on the subject of trains, but if we take this as a "pressurized working fluid acting on a chamber to do mechanical work, under the control of another chamber whose position dictates the position of the former cylinder" ...such an arrangement may have been possible on steam locomotives. A quick check of wikipedia tells me that this was not done on steam trains, at least as far as brakes, which used chains, vacuum, or air pressure instead. Still, it is possible for steam to be the working fluid in a two-cylinder arrangement and hence a master-slave cylinder system was possible, for whatever reason.


STF
 
Slave cube - A cube that contains a high pressure workload acting on an engineer, under the control of a manager whose position dictates the remuneration of the former.
 
Thanks sparweb. The early 20th seems to be a bit late to place the conception of such an arrangement, especially considering steam power, as you say, or Bramah's/Maudsley's forge.
 
Hero of Alexandria (ca. 10 BCE) is said to have made many hydraulic devices (e.g. door openers and similar), and would probably be familiar with the term, if not its originator. Heck, he probably stole most of his designs from some distant ancestor (Csestibus?) anyway, who likely copied it from alien dinosaur scrolls that he then destroyed to avoid paying license fees.
 
I am surprised that 'slave cylinder' and 'male-female' connectors are still allowed in an increasingly sensitive world.

old field guy
 
Look at the confusion of client-server description. Other names can be used, but are likely confusing, so the old names tend to remain.

Heck people get confused when I call duplicate systems A and B. I keep getting the question 'which one is the primary, and which is secondary'.
Which just irritates me for some reason.

What about the term thrust bearing?
 
I have read that builders are avoiding the term 'master bedroom', lest it offend someone.
 

oldfieldguy (Electrical)24 May 17 15:15
"I am surprised that 'slave cylinder' and 'male-female' connectors are still allowed in an increasingly sensitive world."

several years ago, while assisting an US utility with a controls problem I was asked not to use the phase "master/slave".
 
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