The name, like many late 19th and early 20th century tradenames comes (partially) from Latin, bos meaning "ox". The vril component of the name comes from Bulwer-Lytton's once-popular 19th century "lost race" novel, The Coming Race[?], in which a subterranean humanoid[?] race have mental control over, and devastating powers from an energy fluid named "Vril".
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump