How was the term 'payload' coined?
Solution 1:
Actually Etymonline suggests that the first use dates back to 1917 and is referred to trucks loads while its military application was later, around 1936.
Payload (n.)
also pay-load, 1917, from pay + load (n.). Originally the part of a truck's (later an aircraft's) load from which revenue is derived (passengers, cargo, mail); figurative sense of "bombs, etc. carried by a plane or missile" is from 1936.
Ngram shows that military payload has gained currency by the mid 40's and that suggests that the probable origin is from a truck's load.
The increase in use of the term in the 60's is hard to detect since unluckily Ngram does not help from a semantic perspective. Aircraft payload, passenger payload or industrial payload don't show significant increase in that period.
- Further research ( with the help of StoneyB) shows that actually the term is much older. Paying load" vs "dead load" is found in discussion of railroad freight as far back as 1849 and becomes "pay load" by 1903 where it refers to naval vessel's 'pay load' as its armor and armament.
It is also interesting to note the current meanings of payload:
payload(Noun) That part of a cargo that produces revenue
payload(Noun) The total weight of passengers, crew, equipment and cargo carried by an aircraft or spacecraft
payload(Noun) That part of a rocket, missile, propelled stinger or torpedo that is not concerned with propulsion or guidance, such as a warhead or satellite.
payload(Noun) The functional part of a computer virus rather than the part that spreads it
payload(Noun) The actual data in a data stream.
Solution 2:
From: Los Angeles Herald, Volume XLIV, Number 139, 12 April 1919
Dredged with Elephind.com . The link to the source is here - https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19190412&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-payload-------1
My understanding is that payload was originally the load you literally got paid for in cash. Farmers would haul their harvest to the grain elevators and the elevator operator would cancel their IOUs. The last load was the payload - all the debts had been cleared. Life in agricultural USA was dominated by the idea of the payload for about three decades, and it didn't take long for the advertisers to pick up on the phrase.