It's widely known as the Time Rotor now, and in 'The Doctor's Wife', it's specifically referred to as such. They're definitely talking about the uppy-downy column in the middle of the TARDIS. But in an early adventure with William Hartnell, he makes the first reference to the time rotor, and he isn't talking about the central column. It's rather brilliant to think that the Doctor might've mislabelled the central component of his beloved time machine for all this time. And if it wasn't originally the time rotor, it is now, rotoring through time and space, though not strawberry jam.
