"colmascope" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Trademark name (see citations for discussion).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "colmascopes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "colmascope (plural colmascopes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English genericized trademarks",
          "parents": [
            "Genericized trademarks",
            "Terms by etymology",
            "Trademarks",
            "Terms by usage"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Undetermined quotations with omitted translation",
          "parents": [
            "Quotations with omitted translation",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "Stephen R. Wilk (2021) Sandbows and Black Lights, pages 47–",
          "text": "A device like those in which one polariser is fixed and the other rotatable — often with marked gradations — is called a polariscope or a polarimeter. One in which the polarisers are fixed at right angles is often called a \"colmascope\", but this name is actually a trademarked device, first registered by American Optical company... the trademark has lapsed effective 1997. The term \"colmascope\" has suffered the same fate as Kleenex and cellophane, shifting from trademark to generic name. I still see old Colmascopes in labs and workshops...\nWhy did American Optical come up with the name \"Colmascope\" …? Certainly they wanted a name that would set their device apart from the other polariscopes on the market, so they cast about for something without \"polari-\" in the name. Their choice seems to derive from Greek root kolmo- meaning \"perpendicular\", since it has the two axes of polarisation of the two polarizers set immovably perpendicular to each other."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An instrument for visualising stressed regions, especially internal regions, in substances such as glass, by detecting differences in the degree of rotation of the plane of polarisation, generally by placing the object between crossed polarizers."
      ],
      "id": "en-colmascope-en-noun-~m4j4yRr",
      "links": [
        [
          "instrument",
          "instrument"
        ],
        [
          "visualising",
          "visualise"
        ],
        [
          "stress",
          "stress"
        ],
        [
          "region",
          "region"
        ],
        [
          "especial",
          "especial"
        ],
        [
          "internal",
          "internal"
        ],
        [
          "substance",
          "substance"
        ],
        [
          "detect",
          "detect"
        ],
        [
          "degree",
          "degree"
        ],
        [
          "rotation",
          "rotation"
        ],
        [
          "polarisation",
          "polarisation"
        ],
        [
          "general",
          "general"
        ],
        [
          "object",
          "object"
        ],
        [
          "polarizer",
          "polarizer"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "polariscope"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Wikipedia"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "colmascope"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Trademark name (see citations for discussion).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "colmascopes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "colmascope (plural colmascopes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "polariscope"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English genericized trademarks",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "Undetermined quotations with omitted translation",
        "Undetermined terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "Stephen R. Wilk (2021) Sandbows and Black Lights, pages 47–",
          "text": "A device like those in which one polariser is fixed and the other rotatable — often with marked gradations — is called a polariscope or a polarimeter. One in which the polarisers are fixed at right angles is often called a \"colmascope\", but this name is actually a trademarked device, first registered by American Optical company... the trademark has lapsed effective 1997. The term \"colmascope\" has suffered the same fate as Kleenex and cellophane, shifting from trademark to generic name. I still see old Colmascopes in labs and workshops...\nWhy did American Optical come up with the name \"Colmascope\" …? Certainly they wanted a name that would set their device apart from the other polariscopes on the market, so they cast about for something without \"polari-\" in the name. Their choice seems to derive from Greek root kolmo- meaning \"perpendicular\", since it has the two axes of polarisation of the two polarizers set immovably perpendicular to each other."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An instrument for visualising stressed regions, especially internal regions, in substances such as glass, by detecting differences in the degree of rotation of the plane of polarisation, generally by placing the object between crossed polarizers."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "instrument",
          "instrument"
        ],
        [
          "visualising",
          "visualise"
        ],
        [
          "stress",
          "stress"
        ],
        [
          "region",
          "region"
        ],
        [
          "especial",
          "especial"
        ],
        [
          "internal",
          "internal"
        ],
        [
          "substance",
          "substance"
        ],
        [
          "detect",
          "detect"
        ],
        [
          "degree",
          "degree"
        ],
        [
          "rotation",
          "rotation"
        ],
        [
          "polarisation",
          "polarisation"
        ],
        [
          "general",
          "general"
        ],
        [
          "object",
          "object"
        ],
        [
          "polarizer",
          "polarizer"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Wikipedia"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "colmascope"
}