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I hope to know who first used the name "Hawaiian Earrings."

Barratt, Milnor(1962) says "This example was suggested by Steenrod" in its Introduction:
https://www.ams.org/journals/proc/1962-013-02/S0002-9939-1962-0137110-9/S0002-9939-1962-0137110-9.pdf

And this is Steenrod(1949):
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1969589

But these two articles don't use the term "Hawaiian Earrings."


I posted this question at Reddit and got a recommendation for this forum.
Also kindly proposed was Kaminker, Schochet(1977):
https://www.ams.org/journals/tran/1977-227-00/S0002-9947-1977-0431136-9/S0002-9947-1977-0431136-9.pdf

Any additional suggestions will be appreciated.

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    E.C.Zeeman: Dihomology I, Proc. London Math. Soc.(1958,1962)636 "One of the simplest examples is the Hawaiian earring, which is the familiar countable bunch of circles" –  Sep 07 '20 at 22:12
  • Isn't there some Google search tool that will do a "dive" into all available literature and make a graph of the existence of a word or phrase vs. time(year of publication)? I don't recall how to run that but I know it's out there somewhere. – Carl Witthoft Sep 08 '20 at 11:38
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    @Carl Witthoft, Google Scholar returns 7 results for ["Hawaiian Earring" OR "Hawaiian Earrings"] between [1940-1980]. The oldest was Kaminker, Schochet(1977). "https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22Hawaiian+Earring%22+OR+%22Hawaiian+Earrings%22&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=1940&as_yhi=1980" –  Sep 08 '20 at 14:33
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    R.M.Dudley: Continuity of homomorphisms, Duke Mathematical Journal(1961) says in p.590 [P is the fundamental group of the "clamshell" or "Hawaiian earring", the union of the circles], and citing 2 articles of H.B.Griffiths. But those 2 articles don't contain "Hawaiian Earring", if I didn't miss it. –  Sep 08 '20 at 14:48
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    The following books seem to have no "Hawaiian Earring." (I hope I missed, though :-) P. Alexandroff, Elementary Concepts in Topology(1932) -good old thin Dover- I. Pontrjagin, Topological Groups(1946). S. Lefschetz, Introduction to Topology(1949). N. Steenrod, Topology of Fibre Bundles(1951). S. Eilenberg, N. Steenrod, Foundations of Algebraic Topology(1952). E. Artin, Elements of Algebraic Geometry(1955). H. Cartan, S. Eilenberg, Homological Algebra(1956). K. Borsuk, The Theory of Retracts(1966). –  Sep 08 '20 at 15:11
  • The link to E.C.Zeeman(1958,1962) https://www.lms.ac.uk/sites/lms.ac.uk/files/1962%20Dihomology%20I.%20Relations%20Between%20Homology%20Theories.pdf –  Sep 08 '20 at 15:34
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    @CarlWitthoft I believe that you are thinking of the google ngram tool which is part of the google books app. I did a search for the period 1900-1970 and the result indicates first usage in 1958, though none of the linked books for this period appear to be about mathematics. The first maths text linked is Homology Theory by Hilton and Wylie published in 1962. – nwr Sep 08 '20 at 19:50
  • about Google Scholar and Google ngram "https://support.google.com/websearch/thread/70164519" –  Sep 11 '20 at 21:29

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