Talk:Spanner (journal)

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A different take on the noun spanner here. In the article, the journal Spanner is "so-called because it aimed to ‘span’ opinion across the...". However, spanner does also, historically, have a slightly subversive connotation - "a spanner in the works".

This usage refers to sabotaging early assembly lines where, for example, automobiles to be assembled, were moved along the line by way of chains below the factory floor.

The chains connected through slits in the floor to the carriage onto which the car was affixed.

If a worker was for some reason dissatisfied with work conditions (the word 'disgruntled' comes to mind) it was easy to drop a spanner down the slit and stop the line for a while; thus "a spanner in the works".

Deemdanna 12:45, 8 August 2007 (UTC)