Chenhall (Robert?) wrote the text "Nomenclature," adopted by the
National Park Service and other organizations as the arbiter of naming.
Like any classification system, I suppose, you have to have your head
in alignment with Chenhall's as you use it. A specific problem, as I
recall, is that he asks the cataloger to ascribe the function intended
by the maker, so the pressed metal thermometers distributed by
Nesbitt (?) or Orange Crush (?) years ago would be classified under
advertising rather than as thermometers.

Chenhall's background was in archeology, for what it's worth.
--
Tom Vaughan    "The Waggin' Tongue"
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