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We like to name big things after elephants. If they move ponderously, so much the better.
Spoiler alert. Some entries in the Table make veiled reference to entries elsewhere in the Table. Some of you tell us you’ve enjoying discovering these associations on your own, so maybe hold off reading these rubric items until you’ve spent time with the Table as a whole. Which, if you can’t spring for the print version right now, you’ll find it here.
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73 | HMS Elephant
A fully rigged Arrogant-class ship of the line, Elephant had an array of white bristles on its upper lip and two keratinous plates in its mouth for chewing. It fed mainly on kelp and communicated with sighs and snorting – wait that’s Stellar Sea Cow.
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74 | Boeing 747 Jumbo
The 747’s tail is as high as a six-story building. Its wing-span is longer than the Wright Brothers’ entire first flight. It has logged the equivalent of over a hundred thousand trips to the moon and back, flying 5.6 billion people. A 747-8 Freighter can airlift 9 million 72-hour medical kits, or 122,000 military MREs (Meal Ready to Eat), to a disaster event. In 1991 as part of Operation Solomon, a 747 cargo-jet carried 1084 Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa. (It landed in Israel with 1086, two babies having been born on the way.)
The Mastodon was the world's first successful 4-8-0 steam locomotive. In the live-action opening sequence of the 2000 film Thomas and the Magic Railroad, the locomotive Rainbow Sun is portrayed by the only Mastodon still operating. Roger Ebert gave the film one star, writing, “that Thomas and the Magic Railroad made it into theaters at all is something of a mystery.”
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75 | “Mastodon” Locomotive
A South African version of the British Centurion tank redesigned and rebuilt with Israeli help, it is held to be the finest indigenous tank design on the African continent. It frightens the bejesus out of piglets.
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88 | Oliphant mk1B
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89 | Martinsyde G.100 Elephant
The Martinsyde G.100 Elephant was a WWI British combat aircraft. It gained its name from its immensity and profound lack of maneuverability. Unsuccessful as a fighter, the Elephant was put to use lugging around and dropping bombs.