English term
abandoned machines and motors (in 1922)
at first glance I interpreted “machines” in the passage below as “cars”, but this happened about 1922: were there so many abandoned cars at that time?
Could machines refer instead to other kinds of appliances?
Thanks so much and have a nice weekend!
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From age four, Feynman’s parents essentially locked him out of the house, behind which was a junkyard.
The young Feynman would tinker with ** abandoned machines and motors **, and eventually began to fix clocks.
| 3 +7 | machine = any piece of machinery |
Darius Saczuk
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| 4 +1 | (old, scrap) cars |
Tony M
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| 3 | cars and engines |
AllegroTrans
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Non-PRO (1): Tony M
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Responses
United States
The Slanguage Buff
Native in: Polish (Variant: Standard-Poland) 
, English (Variant: US)
Works in: Polish to English, Spanish to English, English, and 4 more.
machine = any piece of machinery
| Thank you Dariusz for your help! I said "appliances" because I though of "household appliances", maybe "sewing machines"... |
| agree |
Tina Vonhof (X)
: I don't think 'appliances' fall under machines.
2 mins
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Thank you, Tina.
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| agree |
Tony M
: But in those days, fewer domestic appliances (which are after all a kind of machine) — but probably thinks like agricultural or industrial machinery, etc.
21 mins
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My thoughts exactly. Thank you, Tony.
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| agree |
Terry Richards
: Anything you might find in a junk yard (a wonderful place for a boy to play!)
49 mins
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Thank you, Terry.
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| agree |
philgoddard
3 hrs
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Thank you, Phil.
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| agree |
Jack Doughty
4 hrs
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Thank you, Jack.
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| agree |
acetran
2 days 3 hrs
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Thank you, Acetran.
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| agree |
GILLES MEUNIER
2 days 15 hrs
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Thank you, GILOU.
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(old, scrap) cars
| agree |
Lingua 5B
1 hr
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Thanks, Lingua!
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| neutral |
philgoddard
: We can't be sure, but I think this is less likely because it's a contemporary text and people don't call cars motors any more. // True. Remember this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'Ullo_John!_Gotta_New_Motor?
1 hr
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Actualyl, in the UK they do, albeit in a different register! But I think here they speaker might have been looking back and using the terminology of the period.
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United Kingdom
Sensible solutions
Native in: English (Variant: Wessexois) 
Works in: French to English, English, English to French
cars and engines
A junkyard can be expected to have both abandoned engines and car bodies
| neutral |
Tony M
: Y-e-s — but we much less often refer to car engines as 'motors' — which si evry much a modern, informal usage, I believe; so in 1922, one might have expected it to be electric motors. Which is what makes me think that 'motor-cars' is more plausible
2 hrs
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Discussion
During my research on the Internet, I've also found that Feynman work is associated with "molecular machines and motors": I don't know anything about physics and chemistry, but, who knows, maybe in saying "machines and motors", the authors were also been influenced by these discoveries...
Thank you so much for your help!
Have a nice week!
Cars were abandoned by this time:
"In the 1920s, the automobile graveyard became a new, specialized junkyard, where customers could purchase obsolete automobiles for scrap or purchase individual parts off junked automobiles in order to repair other automobiles."
https://books.google.es/books?id=BFaB5xsGbaMC&pg=PA451
So by 1922 there certainly could have been abandoned cars in the junkyard behind Feynman's home (in Queens, NY).
"Motor" was already used to mean "a motor car; an automobile" by 1913.
http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/motor
That meaning is still listed in the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary. Given that this is reporting what Feynman told someone, albeit many years later, I think he could have used the word "motors" to refer to cars, though this is far from certain, of course. It could mean motors from motorised machines or appliances.
A junkyard is a place that buys scrap cars and sells the parts. I'm sure they had them in 1922 as well.
before, the authors say:
We heard a terrifically illustrative story about Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, from a friend who had met him when she was about fourteen years old. Given the chance to pick his brain, she asked him how he got so smart. He said it was simple. From age four, his parents….
So Feynman's words may not be contemporary...
My doubt, however, is: was it really possible that parents sent a little child in a place where cars were destroyed? Did such places already exist in 1922? Could "junkyard" mean a "junk dealer", instead?
I agree with Tony that when it was written could be a clue. People don't usually refer to cars as motors these days.
In your context, that would make a lot more sense than simply non-specific motors of some kind...