Turboencabulator
A fictional machine described in dense, authoritative-sounding nonsense, used as a long-running engineering in-joke to parody impenetrable technical jargon.
EverydayConcepts.io
Origin
British engineer John Hellins Quick wrote the original description for the Institution of Electrical Engineers' Students' Quarterly Journal in 1944, filling it with invented terms like "prefamulated amulite" and "hydrocoptic marzlevanes." Time magazine reprinted it straight-faced in 1946. General Electric slipped a turboencabulator page into its 1962 handbook, and in 1977 a Chrysler film crew produced a deadpan training video that became an internet classic.
Updated February 22, 2026