On: The History of Fire Escapes (2018)

[eatonphil]

Sort of related, I was reading a biography about Ford and after a fire at their factory in 1910 or something, they rebuilt it with "fire walls". Fire walls! Of course our term is borrowed from history. I was surprised. :)

[unwind → eatonphil]

The term is also used in cars, the wall separating the engine compartment from the passenger cabin. The wiki [1] says:

The name originates from steam-powered vehicles, where the firewall separated the driver from the fire heating the boiler.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(engine)

[teachrdan → eatonphil]

A "dash board" was originally a part of a carriage that protected passengers from mud thrown up by dashing horses.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/dashboard