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Old 02-23-2019, 06:38 PM   #12
SoWhat
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bayview View Post
Isinglass is an historic gelatin produce made from fish bladders. The stuff we use today is sheet vinyl.
Isinglass is a thin mica sheet used for windows in 16/1700's. Then it was commonly used in boilers, lanterns and wood stoves due to heat resistance. There was a company called Eisenglass that made sheets of transparent gelatin for early autos and carriages. Rogers and Hammerstein referenced Isinglass curtains in Oklahoma (Surrey with a fringe on top, 1943). Vinyl became readily available in 1900. So my theory is the words merged to become a generic name for roll up windows but is slowly dropping out of common usage.

I own a trawler, but it's not really a trawler, and my wife will always call the deck the floor. Throttles forward.
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