The story about Jack Denny getting the names out of a Latin dictionary is legendary in British club cycling circles. The way I was told it was there was a cycling copper (policeman) from Stamford Hill or Tottenham nick (police station) who wanted a new frame made. He went into the shop and spoke with Jack Denny, this copper was a flash bugger and used all of the police speak and slang of the day. One of the questions he asked of Mr.Denny was why are your frames so special as opposed to Spanner Rensch's MO. Jack said what the hell is an MO. The reply was that its short for modus operandi and it means a particular way a person performs a task and action or simply their method of working. This I was told sowed the seed for the flash Latin names. The copper is supposed to have buggered off and bought a Galibier! Regarding drop-outs the correct term is fork-end. Until the early 1920's the standard fork end was the rear opening type, which is still used on track bikes of today. Allin & Grubb that's the famous F.Grubb, Davey I never know if that is Dave or Charlie and F.W.Evans have all laid claim to inventing the forward-opening dropout. It even caused the split between Ching Allin and Fred Grubb. The best definition is from A.L.Pullen a prolific English cycling writer " The drop-out in the fork end should be, for ease of wheel removal and replacement, vertically downwards, but in practice this is seldom the case". This excludes track drop-outs to me. we all know them as track ends and not drop-outs. I have been cycling all my life started out in a Watsonian sidecar on my uncles GA tandem and have never stopped. So all I can relay is my recollections and experiences from all these cycling years.
Thats all for now. Keep those wheels spinning, in your memories if not still on the road. Be lucky Mick Butler Huntingdon UK.