LAST EDITED ON Sep-02-22 AT 05:06 PM (EDT)
 
Soochow Creek and the river Whangpoo - In modern times, these names are romanized Suzhou and Huangpu, but the official Hanyu Pinyin romanization system in use today wasn't developed until later in the 20th century (it was adopted nationally in 1978 and made an international standard in 1982). These are the same names as they would have appeared on 19th- and early 20th-century British maps of the International Settlement, derived from the so-called "postal" romanization system in common use at the time.

the Empire Aberdeen - The word Empire prepended to the name of a British merchant vessel circa World War II indicated that the ship was the property of the Ministry of Shipping, rather than a private-sector shipping company. Although they were usually operated by commercial crews under contract, the ships remained government property and received their tasking directly from the Ministry.

By the end of the war, there were hundreds of Empire ships in service, but none IRL ever carried the name Empire Aberdeen.

a Wood's lamp - Originally a lamp made with Wood's glass, a type of glass invented by physicist Robert Wood that filters out visible light and permits near-infrared and -ultraviolet to pass. Wood's lamps were used mostly for medical diagnosis, by exploiting near-UV light's tendency to make certain chemicals fluoresce. Nowadays, Wood's technology is long obsolete, but the term is still used generically for any portable ultraviolet light source.

a cobby tom - In cat (and horse) jargon, a cobby animal is one that is thickset and relatively short-legged. Well-known cobby cat breeds include Scottish folds, Persians, and both British and American Shorthairs.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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