Where the saying 'Flash in the Pan' came from...

[Gobbla2001]

Did you know:

A 'flash in the pan' was referring to the "pan" on a flintlock musket?

There was a flash, which was the powder in the flash'pan' going off, but it was not enough to ignite the powder in the barrel....

hmmmmmmmmmm

[Bandera YaYa]

Lol...you must be as bored as I am tonite........ ;) :D

[Bullaholic]

Gobbla---Do you know where the "rule of thumb" came from?

[PhiI C]

Interesting analysis on the flash in the pan. On rule of thumb I would guess from the Gladiator games in Rome. If the thumb went up by Caesar the loser would live if it went down he was killed off.

[Gobbla2001]

There may or may not have been some English law that said a husband could beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb... meaning rule of thumb, right?

I don't think the 'rule' was ever 'legal' as folk think it 'was', but I believe this is where it comes from...

[Bullaholic]

Originally posted by Gobbla2001
There may or may not have been some English law that said a husband could beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb... meaning rule of thumb, right?

I don't think the 'rule' was ever 'legal' as folk think it 'was', but I believe this is where it comes from...

Correct! Very good, Gobbla, as Phil C would say. And the rule was adopted in some of the colonies. Ya Ya, I know you just love this bit of American history.

[Gobbla2001]

My grandmother, mother and aunts used the 'rule of pinky' on me...

"Boy, go get me a switch no thicker and no thinner than my pinky"...

If it was a lot thinner than their pinky, they'd resort to the 'rule of thumb' :eek: :(