[r-t] Asymmetric Doubles

[Richard Smith]

Leigh Simpson wrote:

>> Surely the origin of the term "single" is from single change?
>> Presumably originally minor where it is essential (for extents in many
>> methods), actually a single change and would also have been rung widely
>> around the time the term was coined.
>
> Are you sure it wasn't for Grandsire Doubles - where the parity requires a
> single change to produce the extent?

I think its precise orgin in lost in the mists of time. 
The use of 'single' as a noun to refer to a single change 
introduced into a method, probably by a conductor saying 
'single', in a place where there would otherwise be a double 
change was already established by 1668 when Tintinnalogia 
was published.  It could well have originated in Grandsire 
Doubles; certainly it seems likely its origin was in doubles 
rather than minor.

RAS