Nope,bacon presses have been around since the turn of the century, if not before- the 19th century that is. Google “antique bacon press”. 
Well, you would know more about that than we do. 
I’m not the one who hijacked it by claiming that “reticles” is not an accepted term(as I demonstrated).
You did.
Whatever. The point is, none of us had heard of them. Nor had the mom who impromptu invented one.
Back when I was just a punk kid, working part-time for the school district as a janitor, we sent the head janitor’s cute but dim-bulb daughter off on a search for a paint eraser. 
One of the items we repair at work are the scanner/scale devices that are used in grocery stores, the NCR brand scales actually have a talking diagnostic mode that tells you what component has failed and what to try to repair it, it also talks you through recalibrating the scale…
the procedure is as follows…
Set Zero Pounds on deck then press Scale Zero <blip>
Set Five Pounds on deck then press Scale Zero <blip>
Set Fifteen Pounds on deck then press Scale Zero <blip>
Set Thirty Pounds on deck then press Scale Zero <blip>
Set Zero Pounds on deck then press Scale Zero <blip>
after that sequence it will either end by saying Calibration Complete or Interference during calibration, recalibrate
we’ve lost count of the number of newbs we’ve had looking for that mythical and hard to find Zero Pound weight…
“zero pounds” in NCR scanner-scale speak simply means don’t put any weight on the deck and push the zero button
At one company, I had collected a whole bunch of data and put together these graphs of the data. But there was a lot of debate over just what this set of data should be referred to. I finally got tired of waiting and started calling them the “TPS Reports”. The name stuck.
When I worked on sonar systems, I got to go on a sub for a sea test of our equipment. During the test (which had a number of civilians on board), we picked up some “more uppity up” civilians, and the captain put on a good show.
At one point the captain gets on the comm and announces “Engage the caterpillar drive !” We were already chuckling when the response came back from engineering “Caterpillar drive engaged. Flux Capacitor operating at 100% !”
(This, on a US submarine carrying nuclear tipped missiles - who says the Navy doesn’t have fun ?
Now that the side debate is over… 
It was partly environment specific and partly a non-physical reference. It’s not really a Soldier or initial level of mechanic support serviceable part on the tank sights being referred to. At that level you ordered the entire site assembly, swapped it out, and turned in the old part for rebuild/repair if possible. In some cases the reticle wasn’t even a physical thing. The aiming reticle in thermal site was just pixels lit up by the system.
For the environment, it was a wild goose chase at least on the order of sending someone to 7-11 for a can of Panda Pate. That’s if someone didn’t specify thermal reticle
I like the fact that it is described as an 8-inch Metric Adjustable Wrench. I get what is meant. It just doesn’t seem right.
[hijack] Speaking of stuff not in the guide…
Back in the mid 1980s I worked on Jaguars at a dealer. We were on hand written repair orders.
William Shatner was a customer ( yes that William Shatner, the Captain himself)
Our service manager would take the finished repair order look up the warranty times process them and submit the warranty claims. Our service manager was an ex-Ausie Army without a lot of humor.
(See where this is going?)
One one of Mr. Shatner’s repair order I wrote the following:
Upon inspection found oil leak from left warp drive nacelle due to seal failure. Necessary to remove nacelle, re-seal and re-install. Test ran engine no more leaks.
The office manager told me he about tore his hair out trying to find re-seal warp drive in the Jaguar warranty guide. [/hijack]
Way cool!
Just press “Any Key”.
Also related is the Smoke Theory of Electronic Devices
Except that one is true. If you let out the Magic Smoke, the components don’t work… I’ve let out my share.
It is possible to reintroduce smoke.
http://www.keithbloom.com/vgvanilla/discussion/4/lucas-replacement-wiring-harness-smoke-kit/p1
No, I remember fahrvegnügen: this was something different. As I recall it predates the VW campaign by a fair number of years…assuming the whole thing didn’t exist only in my addled brain…
Well, it’s adjustable! It can be used for either SAE or Metric, depending on how you have it adjusted.
I used to have one at work, an actual Crescent brand, but it was a bit larger. On one side it said “12 inch”; on the other “300 mm”. For reasons best left unsaid, it was often referred to as a “Jud Nichols”.
When I was on the tender, a seaman was sent out to get the fallopian tube calibrator. Said seaman ended up touring the ship, from top to bottom and one end to the other, with someone at each stop suggesting a different location to check, before finally ending up in one of the boiler rooms. The BT chief listened to the story, then took pity on her because she was pregnant and sent her up to Medical…
Torpedo tubes on submarines are tested by flooding them with seawater and cycling them. This is known as shooting a water slug, and it’s common for a NUB* to be sent down to the torpedo room to get the serial number of the water slug that had just been shot.
- New Useless Body
wild goose chases can sometimes be fun in the military. Left handed crescent wrenches do exist. The spiral on many foreign ones is reversed. Pushing away from you with the left hand moves the jaw in the same direction as using your right hand and pushing away on an American crescent wrench.
Metric crescent? 250mm stamped on one side and 10" stamped on the other.
Bucket of steam? Dry ice and a little water in a covered bucket. A bucket of cold steam (water).
Send a new guy back to supply with a box of 300 little fuses because they were all shorted.
Bacon stretcher? Run it through a motorized meat tenderizer. It makes it like expanded metal, ‘stretching’ it.
Mail buoy watch? Make sure you have a black light bulb for the buoy (night use only).
Frequency grease- for narrow band frequencies.
Do you use a left handed screwdriver for left handed screws? They make left twist drill bits as well.
Powdered battery water.
Sauerkraut seed.
Set the watch for Gulf Uniform One One (gull)
and the list goes on…
Reticules, grid squares, chemlight batteries, good times yeah? But y’all forgot one of the most basic and important items in good vehicle and engine maintenance, filter fluid.