[Tech1] Why "Ditty-Box"?

[Brian Curtis]

Morning All

Whilst we are on the subject of Television (and Film too) terms how did a
"camera crane" or as Wikipedia puts it "wheeled cart" become known as a
"dolly". I know this is maybe more common in the film industry and possibly
in America too but seems to me we use the term "track in" and "dolly in"
interchangeably?

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Brian

On Tue, 16 Jun 2020 at 06:31, Alan Taylor via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk>
wrote:

> Television really took off in the 50s and 60s.  I would assume that most
> people coming into the business would have done some form of National
> Service and that slang or terminology from different services would have
> crept into the television industry that way.  Other words entered
> broadcasting terminology via Post Office engineering. I was told that
> referring to a small screwdriver as a tweaker is a Post Office term.
>
> I’ve always been fascinated by etymology and one of the more plausible
> explanations offered to me was that the word was a shortened version of
> “oddity”.  It certainly fitted in with the way that a ditty box was used by
> sailors either for miscellaneous personal effects, or for tools and
> accessories.
>
> Similarly, the vehicle accompanying the scanner and carrying the cables
> and other equipment is referred to as a tender. That’s a word used by
> sailors for a boat which supports another boat, or railway engineers use
> the word to describe a small wagon supporting the locomotive.  I’d be
> interested to know when OBs first used tenders because descriptions of
> early OBs referred to just three vehicles being used, the scanning vehicle,
> the transmitting van and a mobile generator van. Presumably the cameras and
> cable drums travelled within those vehicles, hopefully well separated.
>
> Alan Taylor
>
> On 15 Jun 2020, at 23:29, Geoffrey Hawkes <geoff.hawkes134 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> From what I found in the Concise OED, I think you’re right. I wondered
> who decided to adopt the name for BBC OB use and how it became generally
> accepted. Just one of those things, I suppose,
> Geoff
>
> On 15 Jun 2020, at 19:02, Alan Taylor via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
> 
> I was told it was a Navy term for a box of bits.
>
> Alan Taylor
>
> On 15 Jun 2020, at 19:00, geoff.hawkes134--- via Tech1 <
> tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
>
> 
>
> Following the talk about the origin of the term “scanner”, I wondered why
> the equipment boxes on the OB trucks were called “ditty-boxes”, quaint when
> “ditty” is the name for a short simple song.
>
> Perhaps our OB colleagues and others would like to think on that and how
> far it goes back, though I doubt if it will need as much discussion as
> previously,
>
> *Geoff*
>
>
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