May 18, 2005

Huzod?

Returning from Pittsburgh yesterday, I took a taxi from the airport in Philly, and happened to notice the following message printed on a small sticker pasted to the bullet-proof partition between the rear and front seats:

PARTITION MANUFACTURED BY SAFE AMERICA CORP
USING HUZOD MATERIAL

The word "huzod" puzzled me. Google finds nothing in response to a query for {"huzod material"}, so I'm still puzzled. There are 1,380 hits for "huzod", all apparently in Hungarian, which doesn't help.

Safe America Corp. is indeed listed by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission as a "partition manufacturer", located in Long Island City. (Most Philadelphia taxis are recycled New York taxis, brought here after they've exceeded their legal lifetime there...)

[Update: mystery solved. Ray Girvan emails:

Almost certainly a typo for HYZOD polycarbonate.

Ray
ex materials scientist

Ah, HYZOD.]

Posted by Mark Liberman at May 18, 2005 10:10 AM