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The Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that features prominently in the ''Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote'' cartoons as a running gag featuring outlandish products that fail or backfire catastrophically at the worst possible times. The name is also used as a generic title in many cartoons, films, TV series and comic strips. The company name in the ''Road Runner'' cartoons is ironic, since the word ''acme'' is derived from Greek (''ακμή'' ; English transliteration: ''akmḗ'') meaning ''the peak'', ''zenith'' or ''prime'', and products from the fictional Acme Corporation are both generic and failure-prone. == Origin == The name Acme became popular for businesses by the 1920s, when alphabetized business telephone directories such as the Yellow Pages began to be widespread. There was a flood of businesses named Acme, including Acme Brick, Acme Markets, and Acme Boots. Early Sears catalogues even contained a number of products with the "Acme" trademark, including anvils, which are frequently used in Warner Bros. cartoons.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=ACME )〕 Warner Brothers animator Chuck Jones has said the name Acme was chosen because of its prevalence: The name Acme also had other connotations for people in Los Angeles at the time. Cartoon animation is drawn on paper and cels which have holes punched in them for registration. There were two standards: Acme and Oxberry. Oxberry was an American company started by John Oxberry in New Rochelle, New York, that produced a wide array of motion picture and special effects equipment, and was seen on the American east coast while Acme was dominant on the west coast during the early years of animation production. The Acme film equipment company in California not only made the hole punches but the animation stands used by all the west coast animation studios, as well as lights, some cameras and other film gear. Animators working at Warner Brothers used Acme punched paper shot on Acme animation stands drawn on Acme disks (light tables), so that having products come from Acme in cartoons was an inside joke that any animator would recognize. The traffic lights in Los Angeles during the time the Warner Bros. cartoons were being made were manufactured by the Acme Traffic Signal Company. The traffic lights paired “Stop” and “Go” semaphore arms with small red and green lights. Bells played the role of today’s amber or yellow lights, ringing when the flags changed—a process that took five seconds.〔(CityDig: Should I Stop or Should I Go? Early Traffic Signals in Los Angeles ). ''Los Angeles Magazine''. Retrieved 2015-01-01.〕 The Acme semaphore traffic lights were often used in Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for comedic effect due to their loud bell which was often followed by screeching tires and many sight gags. It is a common misconception that Acme is an acronym standing for such things as "A Company that Makes Everything", "American Companies Make Everything" or "American Company that Manufactures Everything".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=What does ACME stand for? )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Acme Corporation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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