Good Morning Bill!
Wednesday 01 April 1998 21:54, Bill Wunsch /wrote schreef to/ aan Jim 
nders:
 BW> Greetings, Jim!
 BW>   On 01 Feb 98, Jim Sanders entered the following ASCII codes for the
 BW> express viewing pleasure of All:
 JS>> I often wonder why the news media continues to use the archaic
 JS>> term "tarmac" when writing of airfield locations or areas.
 BW> Seems to be a common term in newspapers around here.  It is used when
 BW> referring to any hard surfaced area.
 BW> Perhaps they don't have access to go onto the airfield and see if the 
area
 BW> BW> they are commenting on is concrete (usually called cement (my pet
 BW> peeve - BW> you use cement to make concrete, the finished product is not
 BW> "a cement walk", it is concrete), asphalt, or a new layer of asphalt 
ver
 BW> an old concrete base.
Long ago I learned at school that Mr MacAdam/McAdam invented a cheap way of 
quick road construction using clay, stones, and pressure. A good road when it 
stayed a bit moist. Perhaps to avoid dust where that mattered somebody added 
some tar. (Never heard of a feathermac.) Tarred Macadam does not sound nice.
Therefore it became Tarmac. But one speaks only of tarmacs on airfields. No 
carpark surface is ever called tarmac. Tarmac is a term connected with 
airfields.
There is a stuff used against pain with the brand name Asperine - All 
painkillers were called asperines - There is a polymere type polyamide 66 
with the brandname Nylon  - Lots off synthetic products were called nylon.
IMHO the word tarmac is used for any platform on any airfield where planes 
are waiting to be leaving or being talked about
Greetings from Rob                     | quantumt@worldonline.nl
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