[PW] "Tipping Point"

Tue Oct 16 12:51:10 PDT 2007

Dear Kristen L. Mastel:
 	The concept of "tipping Point" has been around for quite some time.
Put the phrase in quotation marks, and then go to print.google.com, and
search for the term used in books between 1800 and 1960, and you'll get a
large number of hits.
	The phrase (aka "Culminating Point" which was explained posthumously
by Carl von Clausewitz in 1832) is also an old one in military science where
the psychological impetus of an attack is overwhelmed by the ferocity of the
defense, or vice versa; and in mining engineering where the weight of the
machinery can over-tip an item on stilts, platforms or other erections.
	Certainly, as a phrase in English shipbuilding, the concept goes back
to at least the Mary Rose, which rolled over in part due to excess weight
above the waterline, and she sank in front of King Henry the Eight. Many
sailing boats and ships, in addition to a centerboard, have extra weight
added to the keel to counter-act the weight of sails and wind pressure. 
	A less elegant term is "turned turtle" which means the ship turned
upside down when it sank. It indicates poor marine engineering, and is also
why many otherwise well constructed sunken ships, such as the Titanic and the
Bismarck, land on the sea floor more or less upright when they sink, even if
holed on only one side.
	It is also an old English accounting term using a scale, which
indicates the point where profits exceed costs. It dates from at least
whenever people last used scales for counting money, which I presume was
before 1960.

Lee

R. Lee Hadden
Geospatial Information Library (GIL)
Topographic Engineering Center
ATTN: CEERD-TO-I (Hadden)
7701 Telegraph Road
Alexandria, VA 22315-3864
(703) 428-9206
Robert.L.Hadden at erdc.usace.army.mil

See some of my writings, both online and on paper, at my author page at:
http://www.librarything.com/author/haddenrobertlee

-----Original Message-----

Message: 4
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:08:24 -0500
From: "Kristen L. Mastel" <meye0539 at umn.edu>
Subject: [PW] 2 quotation questions
To: <list at project-wombat.org>
Message-ID: <019601c80f6f$869000f0$93b002d0$@edu>
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I have two quotation questions that need authenticating, but for the life of
me I can't track them down.  I have checked almost a hundred quotation books,
including the classics such as Bartlett, Webster's, Oxford, Modern
Dictionary, Readers Digest Treasury of Modern Quotations, Evans Dictionary of
Quotations, and Hoyt's, just to name a few.  I also checked Oxford Reference
Desk with no luck.

Any suggestions or tips on where else to look?

1.        Patron needs to find the origin/author of this quote: maximum
independence comes through/from maximum accountability

2.       A professor is trying to find the origins of the phrase "tipping
point". All I've been able to find is a reference to the 1960's sociologist
Morton Grodzins who first coined the phrase in regard to white flight from
black neighborhoods. Our faculty member is convinced that there must be an
earlier usage of the phrase, perhaps related to scales or equilibrium. I have
looked in various phrase/word origin reference materials as well as the OED,
but to no avail.

Many thanks for your time and effort in advance.

Respectfully,

Kristen Mastel  

Kristen Mastel, Reference Librarian
MINITEX, 15 Andersen Library
222 21st Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Direct: 612-626-9843
WATS:800-462-5348
Fax: 612-625-3569

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