Entomology and origins of phrase "Copper Plated Bitch"

BarryKirk wrote:Does anybody here know the origins and entomology of the phrase, "Copper Plated Bitch"?

I first came across that turn of colorful invective in an Honorverse book, and had occasion to use it. But now I'm wondering where it came from.

Hutch wrote:

BarryKirk wrote:Does anybody here know the origins and entomology of the phrase, "Copper Plated Bitch"?

I first came across that turn of colorful invective in an Honorverse book, and had occasion to use it. But now I'm wondering where it came from.

I thought this would be an easy Google, but I haven't been able to find any references in an very short scan.

So two guesses:

(1). Copper-plating is not all that easy to do, and I could imagine those involved early in the process using impolite terms to discuss their efforts.

(2). (And more likely IMHO), the British Navy in the 18th century used copper plates as sheathing for their men-o-war, to prevent degradation of the wooden hulls. While not copper-plating, I can see sailors of the day using that term, and since ships are normally mentioned as female and at least some of them would be poor handlers and a misery to be on, and since navy personnel have been known throughout history for their 'colorful idioms...", it seems likely to me that the Royal Navy gave us this term.

However, that is speculation on my part and if anyone does have a better (and referenced) explanation) I'd love to learn.

BarryKirk wrote:Does anybody here know the origins and entomology of the phrase, "Copper Plated Bitch"?

I first came across that turn of colorful invective in an Honorverse book, and had occasion to use it. But now I'm wondering where it came from.

jgnfld wrote:Science Police here : "Entomology" is the study of insects!

A Brief History of Electroplating: The original nanotechnology.

Did you know that we just passed the 200th birthday of Electroplating, which coincided with the 40th anniversary of Moore’s Law? Back around 1800, Luigi Brugnatelli, a friend of Allisandro Volta, started experimenting with Volta’s ‘voltaic piles’ and various solutions. In 1805, Brugnatelli electroplated gold on silver becoming the first to ever electroplate something. Moreover, it may have been the first deposition, as CVD and PVD would not come for more than 100 Years. By the 1850’s plating was a big business as Britain was in the midst of its industrial age. By the 1900’s, Science had moved in a different direction. Universities were chasing other problems, as the plating business matured and commoditized. As a result, it gained a dirty, lotech reputation, as it got grouped with the rest of industrial age technologies. After all, it was based on a pile, right? It always amazes me how one bad word can trip up a technology. The Army’s use of the word bomb to describe the first high pressure oxidation systems doomed this technology to perennial questions about its safety. It never made it. Anyway, the 1950’s represent the bridging of the Industrial and Information Ages. We get the birth of Hi-Tech: electronics that comes with the first commercial computers and the discovery of the transistor. Meanwhile, electroplating lay dormant until the 1970’s, when IBM’s Lubomyr Ramankiv aligned the research of plating with the business of plating. He took it from the Art Studio, through the Science Lab, and into Manufacturing. But their early applications were all in packaging. He was routinely kicked out of fabs for proposing the electroplating of copper for interconnect as a cheap alternative to sputtering. Then serendipity happened. In the 1980’s, Hitachi was convicted of Industrial Espionage against IBM. Part of the sentence was that Hitachi had to disclose everything it was doing. Through that, IBM learned of Hitachi’s use of copper interconnect with PVD. IBM launched an internal research program and in the 1990’s IBM, started researching Cu ECD. Initially they started working with Semitool, but the program was shifted to Novellus in 1995 over a disagreement. This is why both companies are strong today in this technology. Putting it in Novellus’ hands meant that it would soon become a big deal, as Novellus is so good at marketing. Two years later, in 1997: Novellus video launched the Copper Revolution (you can see this video at http://www.chiphistory.org ). Then in 2000: Copper went into high volume manufacturing and electroplating moved from Lab to Fab. So why could electroplating be the first nanotechnology? Plating is about ion’s chasing electrons, which all occurs at less than 100nm. More importantly, you are making entropy work for you. So what is nanotechnology? It’s about making molecules working for you. It’s less than 100nm and many include the concept of self-assembly. That’s exactly what’s happening with electroplating: self-assembly. Therefore: Plating = Nanotech, which leaves me with the question, did Brugnatelli invent Nanotechnology?

HB of CJ wrote:I THINK, (not sure) that it comes from an old Navy term meaning any wood sailing ship that for whatever reason had less than desirable or even reasonable sailing qualities.

This would include being over sailed, under sailed, unbalanced, tippy, pitchy, wet, slow, rolling, sluggish response to the helm, wheel or tiller or any combination of the above. A horrible ship.

HB of CJ (old coot) The "Copper Plated" part comes from that starting around 1780 or so, (more or less) Navies started plating the bottom of their ships with copper sheets. Merchant ships much later, if at all.

Expensive, but it was felt that the copper had some qualities that retarded certain if not all marine organisms that got through to the wood and quickly rotted it out. Wood hulls sometimes lasted only 5-10 years.