...and other long-lost cultural points of reference...

North Sea, May 31, 1916. At the tail end of the British line of battle, HMS Agincourt begins firing full broadsides at the dim outline of the German High Seas Fleet, just emerging from the haze a few thousand yards southward. This weird dreadnought has no fewer than 14 12" guns, in 7 turrets, a larger number of main guns than any other ship in the six decade history of this type of warship. Several thousand yards away, observers on HMS Malaya briefly think the ship had blown up, a sight they'd seen twice earlier that day.

"...like a bloody Brock's Benefit, " says one.

I put my book down, bewildered. What the heck is a Brock's Benefit? I'd seen the term before, in several other accounts by British observers of spectacular explosions, at least up through WW II. In each case, it was evidently assumed that the meaning would just be universally understood, but, at my decades (and ocean's) remove, I was baffled.

I understand that this sort of puzzlement occurs frequently for the translators of ancient texts. The ancient writer will refer to what was, for him (rarely her), a perfectly well-known place, battle, religious figure, or festival. The translator is left to infer from context as best as possible. Full understanding is lost in time, forever.

Fortunately, the early 20th century is not that far removed, and I live in the oughts, and don't need a memory. I've got Google, Wikipedia, and, though not helpful in this instance, E2. What no doubt would have been a dreary afternoon crawling through the stacks at the library, back in the day, now turns into less than an hour clicking 'next' through the first few pages of results.

Brock's, it turns out, was one of the oldest, and probably most famous, British fireworks manufacturer. Founded in the early 18th century by one John Brock, the company's initial manufacturing location was, of all places, the Islington area of London.

Brock's hit upon the brilliant marketing ploy of staging free, public fireworks displays, the first occurring in 1826. From 1865, these became regular events at the famous Crystal Palace, at the site of the great London Exhibition of 1851, and became renowned as "Brock's Benefits".

So well known were they that, for the better portion of a century, any large conflagration or explosion would inevitably be likened by any British witness to one of these displays, with certainty that the term would be understood.

And spectacular they were, too, featuring every type of pyrotechnic wonder that Brock's could conceive, from Queen Victoria's portrait, yards high, outlined in flaming sparklers, to a simulated bombardment of the Dover cliffs by the French fleet (answered by the Royal Navy's sortie to the rescue, naturally), to the familiar exploding mortar shells that we see in modern fireworks shows. Engraved illustrations of the displays appeared in periodicals at least as far afield as the United States, making the Brock's Benefit displays world famous.

The Brock's Benefit displays were continuous, except for a 10 year break from 1910 to 1920, and extended thereafter until the Crystal Palace burned down in 1936, which seems to have been the end of them. As I mentioned earlier, you can find references to the Brock's Benefit in numerous memoirs from WWII.

Sometime after that, however, the term seems to have fallen into disuse. My wife, who grew up in post-WWII Britain, had never heard of it. A bit of everyday English life, washed away in time forever.

How may other examples of this sort of thing are there? What other universally familiar features of life (as it was) have we forgotten?

Which parts of our present popular culture will remain, and which will be similarly lost (until someone troubles to Google it, perhaps by way of the brain implants they will have, and broadcasts it via neutrino broadband to the readers of Everything7) a century hence?

reference: http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/wiki/Brock's_%22Crystal_Palace%22_Fireworks