Classical element to use the term "element (στοιχεῖον, "stoicheion")" in reference to air, fire, earth, and water. The ancient Greek word for element, "stoicheion" (from "stoicheo", "to line up") meant "smallest division (of a sun-dial), a syllable", as the composing unit of an alphabet it could denote a letter and the smallest unit from which a word is formed. A similar alphabetic metaphor may be the origin of the equivalent Latin word "elementum" (from which the English word comes), possibly based on the names of the letters 'l', 'm', and 'n', though the validity of this idea is debated. In his "On
Capacitor discharge ignition were vulnerable to vibration which drastically shortened their lifetime. In an automotive application, the thyratron CD ignition would fail in either weeks or months. The unreliability of those early thyratron CD ignitions made them unsuitable for mass production despite providing short term benefits. One company at least, Tung-Sol (a manufacturer of vacuum tubes) marketed a thyratron CD ignition, model Tung-Sol EI-4 in 1962, but it was expensive. Despite the failings of thyratron (tube type) CD ignitions, the improved ignition that they gave made them a worthwhile addition for some drivers. For the Wankel powered NSU Spider of 1964, Bosch resurrected