Saturday 6 August 2016

Inn signs - y Pentan

Here is an inn sign from Mold in North Wales.  It is, as you will have gathered, in Welsh. y Pentan translates as the pentane.  But what, I hear many of you ask, is pentane? 

Pentane is ‘any of three known isomeric, colorless alkanes, CH, occurring in petroleum, etc.: used as a solvent, in low-temperature thermometers, etc.’ 

However, the real translation of y Pentan is an ingle-nook or fireside.  That’s a far more sensible name for an inn but it still doesn’t explain to me why we have a late Victorian or early Edwardian gentleman’s face on the sign! 

3 comments:

  1. Perhaps he's the kind of traveler they want you to think you will meet at their fireside if you stop in. He certainly would make a respectable customer.

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  2. Maybe the inn's name really is about the alkane, and the gentleman was a scientist who did something or discovered something special about pentane.

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  3. My immediate thoughts echoed Meike's.

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