title: Operation Entebbe

text: As the crisis unfolded, attempts were made to negotiate the release of the hostages. According to declassified diplomatic documents, the Egyptian government under Sadat tried to negotiate with both the PLO and the Ugandan government. PLO chairman Yasser Arafat sent his political aide Hani al-Hassan to Uganda as a special envoy to negotiate with the hostage takers and with Amin. However, the PFLP-EO hijackers refused to see him.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: When Israeli authorities failed to negotiate a political solution, they decided that their only option was an attack to rescue the hostages. Lt. Col. Joshua Shani, lead pilot of the operation, later said that the Israelis had initially conceived of a rescue plan that involved dropping naval commandos into Lake Victoria. The commandos would have ridden rubber boats to the airport on the edge of the lake. They planned to kill the hijackers and after freeing the hostages, they would ask Amin for passage home. The Israelis abandoned this plan because they lacked the necessary time and also because they had received word that Lake Victoria was inhabited by the Nile crocodile.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: Amnon Biran, the mission's intelligence officer, later stated that the proper layout of the airport was unknown, as was the exact location of the hostages and whether the building had been prepared with explosives.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: While planning the raid, the Israeli forces had to plan how to refuel the Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft they intended to use while en route to Entebbe. The Israelis lacked the logistical capacity to aerially refuel four to six aircraft so far from Israeli airspace. While several East African nations, including the logistically preferred choice Kenya, were sympathetic, none wished to incur the wrath of Amin or the Palestinians by allowing the Israelis to land their aircraft within their borders.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: The raid could not proceed without assistance from at least one East African government. The Israeli government secured permission from Kenya for the IDF task force to cross Kenyan airspace and refuel at what is today Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Kenyan Minister of Agriculture Bruce MacKenzie persuaded Kenyan President Kenyatta to permit Mossad to collect intelligence prior to the operation, and to allow the Israeli Air Force access to the Nairobi airport. MacKenzie's support for the operation came after Sir Maurice Oldfield, the then head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency, put his contacts in Mossad in touch with MacKenzie, who had been an MI6 contact for some time. The Jewish owner of the Block hotels chain in Kenya, along with other members of the Jewish and Israeli community in Nairobi, may also have used their political and economic influence to help persuade Kenya's President Jomo Kenyatta to help Israel.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: Uganda's Ambassador to Lesotho, Isaac Lumago, overheard some of the details of the operation from Kenya Air Force officers who were discussing the possibility of Israeli compensation for the assistance, and forwarded the information to Ugandan commander Isaac Maliyamungu. Maliyamungu did not alert Amin or take any action on the intelligence, allegedly dismissing the report as "gasiya" (rubbish). According to Amin's son, Jaffar Remo, the Ugandan president still managed to receive Lumago's warning via telephone and, after completing his responsibilities at the OAU meeting, boarded a plane and flew back to Uganda. An ex-agent of Uganda's intelligence service, the State Research Bureau, also claimed that Amin was informed by Lumago of the imminent raid. The agent stated that Amin was terrified of possible reprisals in case his troops actually fought the Israeli military, allegedly resulting in his ordering that the Uganda Army should not open fire on Israeli aircraft during a possible raid.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: The Mossad built an accurate picture of the whereabouts of the hostages, the number of hijackers, and the involvement of Ugandan troops, based on information from the released hostages in Paris. Further, Israeli firms had been involved in construction projects in Africa during the 1960s and 1970s: while preparing the raid, the Israeli army consulted with Solel Boneh, a large Israeli construction firm that had built the terminal where the hostages were held. While planning the military operation, the IDF erected a partial replica of the airport terminal with the assistance of civilians who had helped build the original.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: IDF major Muki Betser later remarked in an interview that Mossad operatives extensively interviewed the hostages who had been released. He said that a French-Jewish passenger who had a military background and "a phenomenal memory" had provided detailed information about the number of weapons carried by the hostage-takers. After Betser had collected intelligence and planned for several days, four Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft secretly flew to Entebbe Airport at midnight without being detected by Entebbe air traffic control.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: The Israeli ground task force numbered approximately 100 personnel, and comprised the following elements:


title: Operation Entebbe

text: Taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, the task force flew along the international flight path over the Red Sea, mostly flying at a height of no more than 30 m (100 ft) to avoid radar detection by Egyptian, Sudanese, and Saudi Arabian forces. Near the south outlet of the Red Sea the C-130s turned south and crossed into Ethiopian territory, passing west of Djibouti. From there, they went to a point northeast of Nairobi, Kenya. They turned west, passing through the African Rift Valley and over Lake Victoria.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: Two Boeing 707 jets followed the cargo planes. The first Boeing contained medical facilities and landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. The commander of the operation, General Yekutiel Adam, was on board the second Boeing, which circled over Entebbe Airport during the raid.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: The Israeli forces landed at Entebbe on 3 July at 23:00 IST, with their cargo bay doors already open. Because the proper layout of the airport was not known, the first plane almost taxied into a ditch. A black Mercedes car that looked like President Idi Amin's vehicle and Land Rovers that usually accompanied Amin's Mercedes were brought along. The Israelis hoped they could use them to bypass security checkpoints. When the C-130s landed, Israeli assault team members drove the vehicles to the terminal building in the same fashion as Amin. As they approached the terminal, two Ugandan sentries, aware that Idi Amin had recently purchased a white Mercedes, ordered the vehicles to stop. The first commandos shot the sentries using silenced pistols. This was against the plan and against the orders – the Ugandans were to be ignored, as they were believed not to open fire at this stage. An Israeli commando in one of the following Land Rovers opened fire with an unsuppressed rifle. Fearing the hijackers would be alerted prematurely, the assault team quickly approached the terminal.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: The Israelis left their vehicles and ran towards the terminal. The hostages were in the main hall of the airport building, directly adjacent to the runway. Entering the terminal, the commandos shouted through a megaphone, "Stay down! Stay down! We are Israeli soldiers," in both Hebrew and English. Jean-Jacques Maimoni, a 19-year-old French immigrant to Israel, stood up and was killed when Muki Betser and another soldier mistook him for a hijacker and fired at him. Another hostage, Pasco Cohen, 52, was also fatally wounded by gunfire from the commandos. In addition, a third hostage, 56-year-old Ida Borochovitch, a Russian Jew who had emigrated to Israel, was killed by a hijacker in the crossfire.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: According to hostage Ilan Hartuv, Wilfried Böse was the only hijacker who, after the operation began, entered the hall housing the hostages. At first he pointed his Kalashnikov rifle at hostages, but "immediately came to his senses" and ordered them to find shelter in the restroom, before being killed by the commandos. According to Hartuv, Böse fired only at Israeli soldiers and not at hostages.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: At one point, an Israeli commando called out in Hebrew, "Where are the rest of them?" referring to the hijackers. The hostages pointed to a connecting door of the airport's main hall, into which the commandos threw several hand grenades. They then entered the room and shot dead the three remaining hijackers, ending the assault. Meanwhile, the other three C-130 Hercules aeroplanes had landed and unloaded armoured personnel carriers to provide defence during the anticipated hour of refuelling. The Israelis then destroyed Ugandan MiG fighter planes to prevent them from pursuing, and conducted a sweep of the airfield to gather intelligence.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: After the raid, the Israeli assault team returned to their aircraft and began loading the hostages. Ugandan soldiers shot at them in the process. The Israeli commandos returned fire, inflicting casualties on the Ugandans. During this brief but intense firefight, Ugandan soldiers fired from the airport control tower. At least five commandos were wounded, and the Israeli unit commander Yonatan Netanyahu was killed. Israeli commandos fired light machine guns and a rocket-propelled grenade back at the control tower, suppressing the Ugandans' fire. According to one of Idi Amin's sons, the soldier who shot Netanyahu, a cousin of the Amin family, was killed in the return fire. The Israelis finished evacuating the hostages, loaded Netanyahu's body into one of the planes, and left the airport. The entire operation lasted 53 minutes – of which the assault lasted only 30 minutes. All seven hijackers present, and between 33 and 45 Ugandan soldiers, were killed. Eleven Soviet-built MiG-17 and MiG-21 fighter planes of the Uganda Army Air Force were destroyed on the ground at Entebbe Airport. Out of the 106 hostages, three were killed, one was left in Uganda (74-year-old Dora Bloch), and approximately 10 were wounded. The 102 rescued hostages were flown to Israel via Nairobi, Kenya, shortly after the raid.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: Amin was furious upon learning of the raid, and reportedly boasted that he could have taught the Israelis a lesson if he had known that they would strike. Following the raid, Maliyamungu had 14 soldiers arrested under suspicion of collaborating with the Israelis. Once they were gathered in a room at Makindye Barracks, he shot 12 of them with his pistol. Uganda Army Chief of Staff Mustafa Adrisi reportedly wanted to incarcerate or execute Godwin Sule, the Entebbe Air Base commander, who was absent from his post during the raid. Sule had left the air base early that day to meet a female companion at Lake Victoria Hotel on 4 July. Despite Adrisi's demands, Sule's closeness to President Amin guaranteed his safety.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: Dora Bloch, a 74-year-old Israeli who also held British citizenship, was taken to Mulago Hospital in Kampala after choking on a chicken bone. After the raid she was murdered by officers of the Uganda Army, as were some of her doctors and nurses, apparently for trying to intervene. In April 1987, Henry Kyemba, Uganda's Attorney general and Minister of Justice at the time, told the Uganda Human Rights Commission that Bloch had been dragged from her hospital bed and killed by two army officers on Amin's orders. Bloch was shot and her body was dumped in the trunk of a car that had Ugandan intelligence services number plates. Her remains were recovered near a sugar plantation 20 miles (32 km) east of Kampala in 1979, after the Uganda–Tanzania War ended Amin's rule. Amin also ordered the killing of hundreds of Kenyans living in Uganda in retaliation for Kenya's assistance to Israel in the raid. Uganda killed 245 Kenyans, including airport staff at Entebbe. To avoid massacre, approximately 3,000 Kenyans fled Uganda as refugees.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: On May 24, 1978, Kenya's agriculture minister, Bruce MacKenzie, was killed when a bomb attached to his aircraft exploded as MacKenzie departed a meeting with Amin. Some have asserted that Ugandan president Idi Amin ordered Ugandan agents to assassinate MacKenzie in retaliation for Kenya's involvement and MacKenzie's actions prior to the raid. Others have indicated various other possible causes for the bombing, including that another person aboard the plane may have been the target. Later, Mossad Chief Director Meir Amit had a forest planted in Israel in MacKenzie's name.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: The United Nations Security Council convened on 9 July 1976, to consider a complaint from the Chairman of the Organization of African Unity charging Israel with an "act of aggression". The Council allowed Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Chaim Herzog, and Uganda's foreign minister, Juma Oris Abdalla, to participate without voting rights. UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim told the Security Council that the raid was "a serious violation of the sovereignty of a Member State of the United Nations" though he was "fully aware that this is not the only element involved ... when the world community is now required to deal with unprecedented problems arising from international terrorism." Abdalla, the representative of Uganda, alleged that the affair was close to a peaceful resolution when Israel intervened while Herzog, the representative of Israel, accused Uganda of direct complicity in the hijacking. The US and UK sponsored a resolution which condemned hijacking and similar acts, deplored the loss of life arising from the hijacking (without condemning either Israel or Uganda), reaffirmed the need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all States, and called on the international community to enhance the safety of civil aviation. However, the resolution failed to receive the required number of affirmative votes because two voting members abstained and seven were absent. A second resolution sponsored by Benin, Libya and Tanzania, that condemned Israel, was not put to a vote.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: Western nations spoke in support of the raid. West Germany called the raid "an act of self-defence". Switzerland and France praised the operation. Representatives of the United Kingdom and United States offered significant praise, calling the Entebbe raid "an impossible operation". Some in the United States noted that the hostages were freed on 4 July 1976, 200 years after the signing of the US declaration of independence. In private conversation with Israeli Ambassador Dinitz, Henry Kissinger sounded criticism for Israeli use of US equipment during the operation, but that criticism was not made public at the time. In mid-July 1976, the supercarrier and her escorts entered the Indian Ocean and operated off the Kenyan coast in response to a threat of military action by forces from Uganda.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: The hijacked aircraft's pilot, Captain Michel Bacos, was awarded the Legion of Honour, and the other crew members were awarded the French Order of Merit.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: The Norfolk hotel in Nairobi, owned by a prominent member of the local Jewish community, was bombed on 31 December 1980. The bomb flattened the hotel, killing 20 people, of several nationalities, and injuring 87 more. It was believed to be an act of revenge by pro-Palestinian militants for Kenya's supporting role in Operation Entebbe.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: In the ensuing years, Betser and the Netanyahu brothers – Iddo and Benjamin, all Sayeret Matkal veterans – argued in increasingly public forums about who was to blame for the unexpected early firefight that caused Yonatan's death and partial loss of tactical surprise.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: As a result of the operation, the United States military developed rescue teams modelled on the unit employed in the Entebbe rescue. One notable attempt was Operation Eagle Claw, a failed 1980 rescue of 53 American embassy personnel held hostage in Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: In a letter dated 13 July 1976, the Supreme Commander's Staff of the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces praised the Israeli commandos for the mission and extended condolences for "the loss and martyrdom" of Netanyahu.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: F-BVGG, the aircraft in the hijacking of Air France Flight 139, was repaired and returned to service with Air France. In April 1996, the aircraft was leased to Vietnam Airlines for three months. In December the same year, the aircraft was converted into a freighter and was delivered to S-C Aviation, having been re-registered as N742SC. In 1998 the aircraft was delivered to MNG Airlines and re-registered as TC-MNA. In 2009, the aircraft was placed into storage at Istanbul Atatürk Airport and was scrapped in 2020.


title: Operation Entebbe

text: In August 2012, Uganda and Israel commemorated the raid at a sombre ceremony at the base of a tower at the Old Entebbe Airport, where Yonatan Netanyahu was killed. Uganda and Israel renewed their commitment to "fight terrorism and to work towards humanity". In addition, wreaths were laid, a moment of silence was held, speeches were given, and a poem was recited. The flags of Uganda and Israel were flown side by side, symbolising the two countries' strong bilateral relations, next to a plaque bearing a history of the raid. The ceremony was attended by Ugandan State Minister for Animal Industry Bright Rwamirama and the deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel Daniel Ayalon, who laid wreaths at the site. Forty years to the day after the rescue operation, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, brother of slain Israeli commando Yonatan Netanyahu, visited Entebbe with an Israeli delegation, and laid the groundwork for further Israeli–sub-Saharan African bilateral relations.


title: Goo Hara

text: Goo Hara (; January 3, 1991 – November 24, 2019), also known mononymously as Hara, was a South Korean pop singer and actress. She was a member of the girl group Kara, and had also appeared in television dramas including "City Hunter" (2011). She made her debut as a soloist in July 2015 with the release of her EP "Alohara (Can You Feel It?)". After Kara disbanded in 2016, she continued her solo career at another agency, KeyEast. Her solo career was interrupted in 2018 after she became embroiled in a legal case with her ex-boyfriend, Choi Jong-Bum, which was initiated when he assaulted Goo and threatened to release their sex video to harm her career. In June 2019, she continued her solo activities in Japan where she was well received by fans. Her last release was a maxi single "Midnight Queen", released on September 19, 2019.


title: Goo Hara

text: Goo's death, ruled as a possible suicide on November 24, 2019, brought worldwide attention to sexual crimes against women in South Korea, one of which was the usage of molka (spy cameras) to discreetly capture voyeuristic images and videos of women. In response several petitions were submitted to the Blue House. One petition demanded a more severe punishment for filming sexual acts without consent and distributing it, and the other represented a need to revise South Korea's inheritance laws to prevent absent parents from claiming inheritance from their neglected children. The inheritance laws were amended on December 1, 2020, with the bill carrying amendments titled "Goo Hara Act". As the amended law could not be applied retrospectively, Goo's brother Goo Ho-in filed a lawsuit against their mother, who was said to have neglected her parental duties, to prevent her from claiming inheritance from Goo Hara's estate. The court awarded their mother 40% of the estate.


title: Goo Hara

text: Goo was born on January 3, 1991, in Gwangju, South Korea. Goo's parents separated when she was eight years old after her mother abandoned the family. Goo and her brother were raised by their grandmother while their father was working as a construction worker around the country to support the family. She attended and , and trained as a track and field athlete for two years. Goo came to Seoul while attending and participated in SM Entertainment's youth appearance tournament in 2005. She later transferred to and then attended Sungshin Women's University. During her school days, she worked as a model for internet clothing stores. In 2007, she unsuccessfully auditioned to join JYP Entertainment.


title: Goo Hara

text: Goo joined the girl group Kara in 2008, following the departure of former member Kim Sung-hee. In October 2009, she became a cast member of the KBS reality show "Invincible Youth". On January 5, 2010, during an appearance on the SBS reality show "Strong Heart", Goo admitted that she had had dental and minor facial cosmetic surgery. She stated that she had always had double eyelids, but had surgery to make them more defined.


title: Goo Hara

text: In 2011, Goo made her acting debut in SBS "City Hunter", where she starred as Choi Da-hye, the daughter of South Korea's president. On January 19, 2011, it was announced that Goo would be terminating her contract with her label DSP Media along with three other members of Kara, and a lawsuit was filed on their behalf. Later that day, it was announced that she would discontinue her involvement with the suit and had rejoined the company, as she apparently was not fully aware of the lawsuit's details. In November 2011, she and Nicole Jung (a fellow member of Kara) became the new MCs for "Inkigayo", and they left the show on August 19, 2012, to focus on Kara's comeback.


title: Goo Hara

text: In 2013, Goo collaborated with Japanese musician and songwriter Masaharu Fukuyama to record a song called "Magic of Love" in Korean under the project group, Hara+. The song was used as a soundtrack for FujiTV's drama "Galileo", in which Fukuyama starred. In October 2013, she was appointed as the blood donation ambassador for the Hanmaum Blood Bank. On December 29, 2014, she appeared in her own reality show titled "On & Off", which aired on MBC Music.


title: Goo Hara

text: In January 2015, Goo started hosting KBS' idol beauty show "A Style For You" along with Super Junior's Kim Heechul, EXID's Hani and Sistar's Bora. In June 2015, she released a beauty book titled "Nail Hara". In July 2015, Goo debuted as a solo artist with the release of the EP "Alohara (Can You Feel It?)", which peaked at #4 domestically. The lead single "Choco Chip Cookies" features South Korean rapper Giriboy. In October 2015, Goo joined the variety show "Shaolin Clenched Fists".


title: Goo Hara

text: On January 15, 2016, Kara disbanded due to Goo and fellow members Park Gyu-ri and Han Seung-yeon leaving DSP Media upon the expiration of their contracts with the company. Goo then signed with KeyEast a few days later to pursue a solo career. In December 2016, she featured in Thunder's single, "Sign". In August 2017, Goo starred in a web movie titled "Sound of a Footstep". In November 2017, she joined the variety show "Seoul Mate".


title: Goo Hara

text: In January 2018, Goo released a soundtrack for the drama "Jugglers", titled "On A Good Day". In April 2018, she hosted the JTBC's beauty show "My Mad Beauty Diary". In July, she was named honorary ambassador for the 6th Animal Film Festival. In August 2018, Goo debuted as a soloist in Japan, releasing the song "Wild". Beginning in October 2018, Goo and her ex-boyfriend, Choi Jong-bum, became involved in a legal dispute that extended into 2019. The nature of the dispute caused issues in both her professional and personal life, including Content Y (a subsidiary of KeyEast that Goo had been actively promoting under since 2017), declining to renew her contract following its expiration in January 2019. After being on hiatus for the first half of 2019, Goo announced in June 2019 that she had signed with to continue her activities in Japan. Goo had previously enjoyed popularity in Japan when Kara was still active and being promoted in Japan, having participated in 62nd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen.


title: Goo Hara

text: Goo's final release prior to her death was the maxi single "Midnight Queen", which was released in September 2019. She also embarked on a mini tour, titled "Hara Zepp Tour 2019: Hello", to support the album. The tour consisted of four concert dates held across Japan in November 2019, ending on the 19th. Goo had a successful solo career in Japan and was well received by her Japanese fans during the mini tour. On January 12, 2020, the music video for "Hello", a B-side track from "Midnight Queen", was released posthumously. Its lyrics were penned by Goo to thank her supporters, and the video featured her against the night-time cityscape of Tokyo, which she had loved. As a follow up to the music video, a photobook, memorializing Goo with photos taken just before her death, was released posthumously on April 6, 2020.


title: Goo Hara

text: Goo dated hairdresser Choi Jong-Bum after the two first met on the set of the beauty TV program "My Mad Beauty Diary". At around 1 a.m. of September 13, 2018, a drunken Choi broke into Goo's house while she was sleeping and started an argument that escalated into violent assault, when he allegedly tried to break up with her. The police arrived at Goo's house after Choi reported her for assault. Goo claimed that the incident was two-sided and then both parties posted images of their injuries to the internet to explain their side of the story. After the incident, Goo underwent a medical examination, and she was found to be suffering from uterus and vagina hemorrhage, and was also diagnosed with "cervical sprain", "facial contusions and sprain", "lower leg contusions and sprain", and "right forearm and additional sprains." Following this, Goo filed a lawsuit against Choi for threatening to release a sex video filmed without her consent in an attempt by him to end her career.


title: Goo Hara

text: In the first trial session held on April 18, 2019, Choi was presented with the charges of filming the sex video, injury, intimidation, coercion, and property damage. Choi denied all charges except destruction of property. On May 26, 2019, Goo attempted suicide in her apartment and was immediately taken to the hospital, after which she apologized for worrying her fans. As a result, Goo did not attend the second trial session on May 30, 2019. She was originally scheduled to appear as a witness in court. In the third trial session on July 18, 2019, the presiding judge, Oh Duk-Shik, requested that the video be submitted as evidence to the court as the content in the video was disputed. After objections from Goo's lawyers over the possibility that the public might view the video in court, the judge viewed the video privately in his chamber to confirm the content of the video. Additionally, Goo testified to Oh in private for two hours as well.


title: Goo Hara

text: In August 2019, Choi was acquitted of the charge of filming the sex video without permission as the court agreed that the filming was done without her consent, but because she remained in the relationship they found him not guilty of illicit filming. However, he was sentenced to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years after probation, after being convicted of threatening to upload the sex video, coercion, physical assault, and destroying Goo's property. After news of her sex video went public, Goo was harassed online on social media, despite being the victim of a crime. Upon closure of an appeal to the suspended sentence on July 2, 2020, Choi was sentenced to a year in prison, with the court stating that Choi "was well aware that the degree of damage would be very serious if the sex videos were leaked, given that the victim was a famous celebrity". The prosecution team appealed to the Supreme Court for a heavier sentence on July 8, 2020. On September 23, Choi applied for bail while awaiting for the decision from the Supreme Court over the prosecution's appeal that was set for October 15. The Supreme Court denied his bail stating, "There is no significant reason to grant bail for Choi Jong-Bum. This decision was made with the consensus of the Supreme Court Justices involved." The Supreme Court upheld the one-year sentence on October 15, 2020.


title: Goo Hara

text: On November 24, 2019, Hara was found dead at her home in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam by her manager, with the cause of death ruled as a possible suicide. Police found a suicide note written by Goo, and concluded that there was no foul play, as she was seen on CCTV footage returning home at 12:40 am, with no further visitors except for the housekeeper who found her body at 6 p.m. the same day. An autopsy was not performed after the police consulted the prosecutor in-charge and took into consideration her family's request. The body was handed over to her family on November 26. Goo's death occurred over a month after her close friend and fellow idol Sulli had committed suicide.


title: Goo Hara

text: Goo's funeral was privately held at Gangnam Severance Hospital by family members and friends, while a separate memorial service for fans took place on November 25–26 in in Gangnam. On November 27, Goo's body was cremated and her remains were enshrined at the in Bundang, Gyeonggi-do.


title: Goo Hara

text: Goo’s death brought worldwide attention to sexual crimes against women in South Korea. Following her death, a petition was submitted to the Blue House with over 200,000 signatures demanding a more severe punishment for filming sexual acts without consent and distributing it. Moreover, it was revealed that Goo had helped reporter Kang Kyung-yoon investigate Jung Joon-young's chatroom case prior to her death.


title: Goo Hara

text: Goo Hara's elder brother, Goo Ho-in, started a petition to revise South Korea's inheritance law, to prevent a parent from claiming inheritance if they had neglected their parental duties, after being contacted by their estranged mother for a share of Goo Hara's inheritance. The petition was successful, after gathering 100,000 signatures in 30 days. Goo Ho-in then pushed the legislature to introduce the law in Goo Hara's name, as the "Goo Hara Act". However, the bill failed to pass in the 20th National Assembly, claiming that it needed further review. The 21st National Assembly continued to look into the prospective law. At the plenary session held on December 1, 2020, the revised law was passed by the 21st National Assembly, along with other unrelated bills.


title: Goo Hara

text: Goo Ho-in also filed a lawsuit to prevent their mother from seeking 50% of Goo Hara's assets as inheritance, as she reportedly did not fulfill her parental duties to the siblings. The revised law would not be applicable against their mother's claim, due to another law preventing retrospective application of new laws on old cases. Their father passed his claim of the inheritance to Goo Ho-in. On December 22, 2020, the Gwangju Family Court ruled that their mother would receive 40% of the inheritance while Goo Ho-in would receive the remaining 60%.


title: Goo Hara

text: On the second anniversary of Goo Hara's death in 2021, Goo Ho-in announced that he would auction 10 oil paintings done by Goo Hara of which proceeds would partially be donated to a Japanese non-profit organisation, Florence, whose primary clients are of single parent families.


title: Fuel cell

text: A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requiring a continuous source of fuel and oxygen (usually from air) to sustain the chemical reaction, whereas in a battery the chemical energy usually comes from substances that are already present in the battery. Fuel cells can produce electricity continuously for as long as fuel and oxygen are supplied.


title: Fuel cell

text: The first fuel cells were invented by Sir William Grove in 1838. The first commercial use of fuel cells came more than a century later following the invention of the hydrogen–oxygen fuel cell by Francis Thomas Bacon in 1932. The alkaline fuel cell, also known as the Bacon fuel cell after its inventor, has been used in NASA space programs since the mid-1960s to generate power for satellites and space capsules. Since then, fuel cells have been used in many other applications. Fuel cells are used for primary and backup power for commercial, industrial and residential buildings and in remote or inaccessible areas. They are also used to power fuel cell vehicles, including forklifts, automobiles, buses, trains, boats, motorcycles and submarines.


title: Fuel cell

text: There are many types of fuel cells, but they all consist of an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte that allows ions, often positively charged hydrogen ions (protons), to move between the two sides of the fuel cell. At the anode a catalyst causes the fuel to undergo oxidation reactions that generate ions (often positively charged hydrogen ions) and electrons. The ions move from the anode to the cathode through the electrolyte. At the same time, electrons flow from the anode to the cathode through an external circuit, producing direct current electricity. At the cathode, another catalyst causes ions, electrons, and oxygen to react, forming water and possibly other products. Fuel cells are classified by the type of electrolyte they use and by the difference in startup time ranging from 1 second for proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEM fuel cells, or PEMFC) to 10 minutes for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). A related technology is flow batteries, in which the fuel can be regenerated by recharging. Individual fuel cells produce relatively small electrical potentials, about 0.7 volts, so cells are "stacked", or placed in series, to create sufficient voltage to meet an application's requirements. In addition to electricity, fuel cells produce water vapor, heat and, depending on the fuel source, very small amounts of nitrogen dioxide and other emissions. The energy efficiency of a fuel cell is generally between 40 and 60%; however, if waste heat is captured in a cogeneration scheme, efficiencies of up to 85% can be obtained.


title: Fuel cell

text: The first references to hydrogen fuel cells appeared in 1838. In a letter dated October 1838 but published in the December 1838 edition of "The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science", Welsh physicist and barrister Sir William Grove wrote about the development of his first crude fuel cells. He used a combination of sheet iron, copper and porcelain plates, and a solution of sulphate of copper and dilute acid. In a letter to the same publication written in December 1838 but published in June 1839, German physicist Christian Friedrich Schönbein discussed the first crude fuel cell that he had invented. His letter discussed current generated from hydrogen and oxygen dissolved in water. Grove later sketched his design, in 1842, in the same journal. The fuel cell he made used similar materials to today's phosphoric acid fuel cell.


title: Fuel cell

text: In 1932, English engineer Francis Thomas Bacon successfully developed a 5 kW stationary fuel cell. The alkaline fuel cell (AFC), also known as the Bacon fuel cell after its inventor, is one of the most developed fuel cell technologies, which NASA has used since the mid-1960s.


title: Fuel cell

text: In 1955, W. Thomas Grubb, a chemist working for the General Electric Company (GE), further modified the original fuel cell design by using a sulphonated polystyrene ion-exchange membrane as the electrolyte. Three years later another GE chemist, Leonard Niedrach, devised a way of depositing platinum onto the membrane, which served as catalyst for the necessary hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction reactions. This became known as the "Grubb-Niedrach fuel cell". GE went on to develop this technology with NASA and McDonnell Aircraft, leading to its use during Project Gemini. This was the first commercial use of a fuel cell. In 1959, a team led by Harry Ihrig built a 15 kW fuel cell tractor for Allis-Chalmers, which was demonstrated across the U.S. at state fairs. This system used potassium hydroxide as the electrolyte and compressed hydrogen and oxygen as the reactants. Later in 1959, Bacon and his colleagues demonstrated a practical five-kilowatt unit capable of powering a welding machine. In the 1960s, Pratt & Whitney licensed Bacon's U.S. patents for use in the U.S. space program to supply electricity and drinking water (hydrogen and oxygen being readily available from the spacecraft tanks). In 1991, the first hydrogen fuel cell automobile was developed by Roger E. Billings.


title: Fuel cell

text: UTC Power was the first company to manufacture and commercialize a large, stationary fuel cell system for use as a cogeneration power plant in hospitals, universities and large office buildings.


title: Fuel cell

text: In recognition of the fuel cell industry and America's role in fuel cell development, the United States Senate recognized 8 October 2015 as National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day, passing S. RES 217. The date was chosen in recognition of the atomic weight of hydrogen (1.008).


title: Fuel cell

text: Fuel cells come in many varieties; however, they all work in the same general manner. They are made up of three adjacent segments: the anode, the electrolyte, and the cathode. Two chemical reactions occur at the interfaces of the three different segments. The net result of the two reactions is that fuel is consumed, water or carbon dioxide is created, and an electric current is created, which can be used to power electrical devices, normally referred to as the load.


title: Fuel cell

text: At the anode a catalyst oxidizes the fuel, usually hydrogen, turning the fuel into a positively charged ion and a negatively charged electron. The electrolyte is a substance specifically designed so ions can pass through it, but the electrons cannot. The freed electrons travel through a wire creating the electric current. The ions travel through the electrolyte to the cathode. Once reaching the cathode, the ions are reunited with the electrons and the two react with a third chemical, usually oxygen, to create water or carbon dioxide.


title: Fuel cell

text: A typical fuel cell produces a voltage from 0.6 to 0.7 V at full rated load. Voltage decreases as current increases, due to several factors:


title: Fuel cell

text: To deliver the desired amount of energy, the fuel cells can be combined in series to yield higher voltage, and in parallel to allow a higher current to be supplied. Such a design is called a "fuel cell stack". The cell surface area can also be increased, to allow higher current from each cell.


title: Fuel cell

text: In the archetypical hydrogen–oxide proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) design, a proton-conducting polymer membrane (typically nafion) contains the electrolyte solution that separates the anode and cathode sides. This was called a "solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell" ("SPEFC") in the early 1970s, before the proton-exchange mechanism was well understood. (Notice that the synonyms "polymer electrolyte membrane" and "proton-exchange mechanism" result in the same acronym.)


title: Fuel cell

text: On the anode side, hydrogen diffuses to the anode catalyst where it later dissociates into protons and electrons. These protons often react with oxidants causing them to become what are commonly referred to as multi-facilitated proton membranes. The protons are conducted through the membrane to the cathode, but the electrons are forced to travel in an external circuit (supplying power) because the membrane is electrically insulating. On the cathode catalyst, oxygen molecules react with the electrons (which have traveled through the external circuit) and protons to form water.


title: Fuel cell

text: In addition to this pure hydrogen type, there are hydrocarbon fuels for fuel cells, including diesel, methanol ("see:" direct-methanol fuel cells and indirect methanol fuel cells) and chemical hydrides. The waste products with these types of fuel are carbon dioxide and water. When hydrogen is used, the CO is released when methane from natural gas is combined with steam, in a process called steam methane reforming, to produce the hydrogen. This can take place in a different location to the fuel cell, potentially allowing the hydrogen fuel cell to be used indoors—for example, in fork lifts.


title: Fuel cell

text: The materials used for different parts of the fuel cells differ by type. The bipolar plates may be made of different types of materials, such as, metal, coated metal, graphite, flexible graphite, C–C composite, carbon–polymer composites etc. The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) is referred to as the heart of the PEMFC and is usually made of a proton-exchange membrane sandwiched between two catalyst-coated carbon papers. Platinum and/or similar type of noble metals are usually used as the catalyst for PEMFC, and these can be contaminated by carbon monoxide, necessitating a relatively pure hydrogen fuel. The electrolyte could be a polymer membrane.


title: Fuel cell

text: Phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFCs) were first designed and introduced in 1961 by G. V. Elmore and H. A. Tanner. In these cells, phosphoric acid is used as a non-conductive electrolyte to pass protons from the anode to the cathode and to force electrons to travel from anode to cathode through an external electrical circuit. These cells commonly work in temperatures of 150 to 200°C. This high temperature will cause heat and energy loss if the heat is not removed and used properly. This heat can be used to produce steam for air conditioning systems or any other thermal energy consuming system. Using this heat in cogeneration can enhance the efficiency of phosphoric acid fuel cells from 40 to 50% to about 80%. Since the proton production rate on the anode is small, platinum is used as catalyst to increase this ionization rate. A key disadvantage of these cells is the use of an acidic electrolyte. This increases the corrosion or oxidation of components exposed to phosphoric acid.


title: Fuel cell

text: Solid acid fuel cells (SAFCs) are characterized by the use of a solid acid material as the electrolyte. At low temperatures, solid acids have an ordered molecular structure like most salts. At warmer temperatures (between 140 and 150°C for CsHSO), some solid acids undergo a phase transition to become highly disordered "superprotonic" structures, which increases conductivity by several orders of magnitude. The first proof-of-concept SAFCs were developed in 2000 using cesium hydrogen sulfate (CsHSO). Current SAFC systems use cesium dihydrogen phosphate (CsHPO) and have demonstrated lifetimes in the thousands of hours.


title: Fuel cell

text: The alkaline fuel cell (AFC) or hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell was designed and first demonstrated publicly by Francis Thomas Bacon in 1959. It was used as a primary source of electrical energy in the Apollo space program. The cell consists of two porous carbon electrodes impregnated with a suitable catalyst such as Pt, Ag, CoO, etc. The space between the two electrodes is filled with a concentrated solution of KOH or NaOH which serves as an electrolyte. H gas and O gas are bubbled into the electrolyte through the porous carbon electrodes. Thus the overall reaction involves the combination of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas to form water. The cell runs continuously until the reactant's supply is exhausted. This type of cell operates efficiently in the temperature range 343–413K and provides a potential of about 0.9V. Alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cell (AAEMFC) is a type of AFC which employs a solid polymer electrolyte instead of aqueous potassium hydroxide (KOH) and it is superior to aqueous AFC.


title: Fuel cell

text: Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) use a solid material, most commonly a ceramic material called yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), as the electrolyte. Because SOFCs are made entirely of solid materials, they are not limited to the flat plane configuration of other types of fuel cells and are often designed as rolled tubes. They require high operating temperatures (800–1000 °C) and can be run on a variety of fuels including natural gas.


title: Fuel cell

text: SOFCs are unique because negatively charged oxygen ions travel from the cathode (positive side of the fuel cell) to the anode (negative side of the fuel cell) instead of protons travelling vice versa (i.e., from the anode to the cathode), as is the case in all other types of fuel cells. Oxygen gas is fed through the cathode, where it absorbs electrons to create oxygen ions. The oxygen ions then travel through the electrolyte to react with hydrogen gas at the anode. The reaction at the anode produces electricity and water as by-products. Carbon dioxide may also be a by-product depending on the fuel, but the carbon emissions from an SOFC system are less than those from a fossil fuel combustion plant. The chemical reactions for the SOFC system can be expressed as follows:


title: Fuel cell

text: SOFC systems can run on fuels other than pure hydrogen gas. However, since hydrogen is necessary for the reactions listed above, the fuel selected must contain hydrogen atoms. For the fuel cell to operate, the fuel must be converted into pure hydrogen gas. SOFCs are capable of internally reforming light hydrocarbons such as methane (natural gas), propane and butane. These fuel cells are at an early stage of development.


title: Fuel cell

text: Challenges exist in SOFC systems due to their high operating temperatures. One such challenge is the potential for carbon dust to build up on the anode, which slows down the internal reforming process. Research to address this "carbon coking" issue at the University of Pennsylvania has shown that the use of copper-based cermet (heat-resistant materials made of ceramic and metal) can reduce coking and the loss of performance. Another disadvantage of SOFC systems is the long start-up, making SOFCs less useful for mobile applications. Despite these disadvantages, a high operating temperature provides an advantage by removing the need for a precious metal catalyst like platinum, thereby reducing cost. Additionally, waste heat from SOFC systems may be captured and reused, increasing the theoretical overall efficiency to as high as 80–85%.


title: Fuel cell

text: The high operating temperature is largely due to the physical properties of the YSZ electrolyte. As temperature decreases, so does the ionic conductivity of YSZ. Therefore, to obtain optimum performance of the fuel cell, a high operating temperature is required. According to their website, Ceres Power, a UK SOFC fuel cell manufacturer, has developed a method of reducing the operating temperature of their SOFC system to 500–600 degrees Celsius. They replaced the commonly used YSZ electrolyte with a CGO (cerium gadolinium oxide) electrolyte. The lower operating temperature allows them to use stainless steel instead of ceramic as the cell substrate, which reduces cost and start-up time of the system.


title: Fuel cell

text: Molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) require a high operating temperature, , similar to SOFCs. MCFCs use lithium potassium carbonate salt as an electrolyte, and this salt liquefies at high temperatures, allowing for the movement of charge within the cell – in this case, negative carbonate ions.


title: Fuel cell

text: Like SOFCs, MCFCs are capable of converting fossil fuel to a hydrogen-rich gas in the anode, eliminating the need to produce hydrogen externally. The reforming process creates emissions. MCFC-compatible fuels include natural gas, biogas and gas produced from coal. The hydrogen in the gas reacts with carbonate ions from the electrolyte to produce water, carbon dioxide, electrons and small amounts of other chemicals. The electrons travel through an external circuit creating electricity and return to the cathode. There, oxygen from the air and carbon dioxide recycled from the anode react with the electrons to form carbonate ions that replenish the electrolyte, completing the circuit. The chemical reactions for an MCFC system can be expressed as follows:


title: Fuel cell

text: As with SOFCs, MCFC disadvantages include slow start-up times because of their high operating temperature. This makes MCFC systems not suitable for mobile applications, and this technology will most likely be used for stationary fuel cell purposes. The main challenge of MCFC technology is the cells' short life span. The high-temperature and carbonate electrolyte lead to corrosion of the anode and cathode. These factors accelerate the degradation of MCFC components, decreasing the durability and cell life. Researchers are addressing this problem by exploring corrosion-resistant materials for components as well as fuel cell designs that may increase cell life without decreasing performance.


title: Fuel cell

text: MCFCs hold several advantages over other fuel cell technologies, including their resistance to impurities. They are not prone to "carbon coking", which refers to carbon build-up on the anode that results in reduced performance by slowing down the internal fuel reforming process. Therefore, carbon-rich fuels like gases made from coal are compatible with the system. The United States Department of Energy claims that coal, itself, might even be a fuel option in the future, assuming the system can be made resistant to impurities such as sulfur and particulates that result from converting coal into hydrogen. MCFCs also have relatively high efficiencies. They can reach a fuel-to-electricity efficiency of 50%, considerably higher than the 37–42% efficiency of a phosphoric acid fuel cell plant. Efficiencies can be as high as 65% when the fuel cell is paired with a turbine, and 85% if heat is captured and used in a combined heat and power (CHP) system.


title: Fuel cell

text: FuelCell Energy, a Connecticut-based fuel cell manufacturer, develops and sells MCFC fuel cells. The company says that their MCFC products range from 300 kW to 2.8 MW systems that achieve 47% electrical efficiency and can utilize CHP technology to obtain higher overall efficiencies. One product, the DFC-ERG, is combined with a gas turbine and, according to the company, it achieves an electrical efficiency of 65%.


title: Fuel cell

text: The electric storage fuel cell is a conventional battery chargeable by electric power input, using the conventional electro-chemical effect. However, the battery further includes hydrogen (and oxygen) inputs for alternatively charging the battery chemically.


title: Fuel cell

text: The energy efficiency of a system or device that converts energy is measured by the ratio of the amount of useful energy put out by the system ("output energy") to the total amount of energy that is put in ("input energy") or by useful output energy as a percentage of the total input energy. In the case of fuel cells, useful output energy is measured in electrical energy produced by the system. Input energy is the energy stored in the fuel. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, fuel cells are generally between 40 and 60% energy efficient. This is higher than some other systems for energy generation. For example, the typical internal combustion engine of a car is about 25% energy efficient. Steam power plants usually achieve efficiencies of 30-40% while combined cycle gas turbine and steam plants can achieve efficiencies as high as 60%. In combined heat and power (CHP) systems, the waste heat produced by the primary power cycle - whether fuel cell, nuclear fission or combustion - is captured and put to use, increasing the efficiency of the system to up to 85–90%.


title: Fuel cell

text: The theoretical maximum efficiency of any type of power generation system is never reached in practice, and it does not consider other steps in power generation, such as production, transportation and storage of fuel and conversion of the electricity into mechanical power. However, this calculation allows the comparison of different types of power generation. The theoretical maximum efficiency of a fuel cell approaches 100%, while the theoretical maximum efficiency of internal combustion engines is approximately 58%.


title: Fuel cell

text: In a fuel cell vehicle the tank-to-wheel efficiency is greater than 45% at low loads and shows average values of about 36% when a driving cycle like the NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) is used as test procedure. The comparable NEDC value for a Diesel vehicle is 22%. In 2008 Honda released a demonstration fuel cell electric vehicle (the Honda FCX Clarity) with fuel stack claiming a 60% tank-to-wheel efficiency.


title: Fuel cell

text: It is also important to take losses due to fuel production, transportation, and storage into account. Fuel cell vehicles running on compressed hydrogen may have a power-plant-to-wheel efficiency of 22% if the hydrogen is stored as high-pressure gas, and 17% if it is stored as liquid hydrogen. Fuel cells cannot store energy like a battery, except as hydrogen, but in some applications, such as stand-alone power plants based on discontinuous sources such as solar or wind power, they are combined with electrolyzers and storage systems to form an energy storage system. As of 2019, 90% of hydrogen was used for oil refining, chemicals and fertilizer production (where hydrogen is required for the Haber–Bosch process), and 98% of hydrogen is produced by steam methane reforming, which emits carbon dioxide. The overall efficiency (electricity to hydrogen and back to electricity) of such plants (known as "round-trip efficiency"), using pure hydrogen and pure oxygen can be "from 35 up to 50 percent", depending on gas density and other conditions. The electrolyzer/fuel cell system can store indefinite quantities of hydrogen, and is therefore suited for long-term storage.


title: Fuel cell

text: Solid-oxide fuel cells produce heat from the recombination of the oxygen and hydrogen. The ceramic can run as hot as 800 degrees Celsius. This heat can be captured and used to heat water in a micro combined heat and power (m-CHP) application. When the heat is captured, total efficiency can reach 80–90% at the unit, but does not consider production and distribution losses. CHP units are being developed today for the European home market.


title: Fuel cell

text: Professor Jeremy P. Meyers, in the Electrochemical Society journal "Interface" in 2008, wrote, "While fuel cells are efficient relative to combustion engines, they are not as efficient as batteries, primarily due to the inefficiency of the oxygen reduction reaction (and ... the oxygen evolution reaction, should the hydrogen be formed by electrolysis of water)... [T]hey make the most sense for operation disconnected from the grid, or when fuel can be provided continuously. For applications that require frequent and relatively rapid start-ups ... where zero emissions are a requirement, as in enclosed spaces such as warehouses, and where hydrogen is considered an acceptable reactant, a [PEM fuel cell] is becoming an increasingly attractive choice [if exchanging batteries is inconvenient]". In 2013 military organizations were evaluating fuel cells to determine if they could significantly reduce the battery weight carried by soldiers.


title: Fuel cell

text: Stationary fuel cells are used for commercial, industrial and residential primary and backup power generation. Fuel cells are very useful as power sources in remote locations, such as spacecraft, remote weather stations, large parks, communications centers, rural locations including research stations, and in certain military applications. A fuel cell system running on hydrogen can be compact and lightweight, and have no major moving parts. Because fuel cells have no moving parts and do not involve combustion, in ideal conditions they can achieve up to 99.9999% reliability. This equates to less than one minute of downtime in a six-year period.


title: Fuel cell

text: Since fuel cell electrolyzer systems do not store fuel in themselves, but rather rely on external storage units, they can be successfully applied in large-scale energy storage, rural areas being one example. There are many different types of stationary fuel cells so efficiencies vary, but most are between 40% and 60% energy efficient. However, when the fuel cell's waste heat is used to heat a building in a cogeneration system this efficiency can increase to 85%. This is significantly more efficient than traditional coal power plants, which are only about one third energy efficient. Assuming production at scale, fuel cells could save 20–40% on energy costs when used in cogeneration systems. Fuel cells are also much cleaner than traditional power generation; a fuel cell power plant using natural gas as a hydrogen source would create less than one ounce of pollution (other than ) for every 1,000 kW·h produced, compared to 25 pounds of pollutants generated by conventional combustion systems. Fuel Cells also produce 97% less nitrogen oxide emissions than conventional coal-fired power plants.


title: Fuel cell

text: One such pilot program is operating on Stuart Island in Washington State. There the Stuart Island Energy Initiative has built a complete, closed-loop system: Solar panels power an electrolyzer, which makes hydrogen. The hydrogen is stored in a tank at , and runs a ReliOn fuel cell to provide full electric back-up to the off-the-grid residence. Another closed system loop was unveiled in late 2011 in Hempstead, NY.


title: Fuel cell

text: Fuel cells can be used with low-quality gas from landfills or waste-water treatment plants to generate power and lower methane emissions. A 2.8 MW fuel cell plant in California is said to be the largest of the type. Small-scale (sub-5kWhr) fuel cells are being developed for use in residential off-grid deployment.


title: Fuel cell

text: Combined heat and power (CHP) fuel cell systems, including micro combined heat and power (MicroCHP) systems are used to generate both electricity and heat for homes (see home fuel cell), office building and factories. The system generates constant electric power (selling excess power back to the grid when it is not consumed), and at the same time produces hot air and water from the waste heat. As the result CHP systems have the potential to save primary energy as they can make use of waste heat which is generally rejected by thermal energy conversion systems. A typical capacity range of home fuel cell is 1–3 kW, 4–8 kW. CHP systems linked to absorption chillers use their waste heat for refrigeration.


title: Fuel cell

text: The waste heat from fuel cells can be diverted during the summer directly into the ground providing further cooling while the waste heat during winter can be pumped directly into the building. The University of Minnesota owns the patent rights to this type of system.


title: Fuel cell

text: Co-generation systems can reach 85% efficiency (40–60% electric and the remainder as thermal). Phosphoric-acid fuel cells (PAFC) comprise the largest segment of existing CHP products worldwide and can provide combined efficiencies close to 90%. Molten carbonate (MCFC) and solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are also used for combined heat and power generation and have electrical energy efficiencies around 60%. Disadvantages of co-generation systems include slow ramping up and down rates, high cost and short lifetime. Also their need to have a hot water storage tank to smooth out the thermal heat production was a serious disadvantage in the domestic market place where space in domestic properties is at a great premium.


title: Fuel cell

text: Delta-ee consultants stated in 2013 that with 64% of global sales the fuel cell micro-combined heat and power passed the conventional systems in sales in 2012. The Japanese ENE FARM project stated that 34.213 PEMFC and 2.224 SOFC were installed in the period 2012–2014, 30,000 units on LNG and 6,000 on LPG.


title: Fuel cell

text: By year-end 2019, about 18,000 FCEVs had been leased or sold worldwide. Three fuel cell electric vehicles have been introduced for commercial lease and sale: the Honda Clarity, Toyota Mirai and the Hyundai ix35 FCEV. Additional demonstration models include the Honda FCX Clarity, and Mercedes-Benz F-Cell. As of June 2011 demonstration FCEVs had driven more than , with more than 27,000 refuelings. Fuel cell electric vehicles feature an average range of between refuelings. They can be refueled in less than 5 minutes. The U.S. Department of Energy's Fuel Cell Technology Program states that, as of 2011, fuel cells achieved 53–59% efficiency at one-quarter power and 42–53% vehicle efficiency at full power, and a durability of over with less than 10% degradation. In a 2017 Well-to-Wheels simulation analysis that "did not address the economics and market constraints", General Motors and its partners estimated that, for an equivalent journey, a fuel cell electric vehicle running on compressed gaseous hydrogen produced from natural gas could use about 40% less energy and emit 45% less greenhouse gasses than an internal combustion vehicle.


title: Fuel cell

text: In 2015, Toyota introduced its first fuel cell vehicle, the Mirai, at a price of $57,000. Hyundai introduced the limited production Hyundai ix35 FCEV under a lease agreement. In 2016, Honda started leasing the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell. In 2020, Toyota introduced the second generation of its Mirai brand, improving fuel efficiency and expanding range compared to the original Sedan 2014 model.


title: Fuel cell

text: Some commentators believe that hydrogen fuel cell cars will never become economically competitive with other technologies or that it will take decades for them to become profitable. Elon Musk, CEO of battery-electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors, stated in 2015 that fuel cells for use in cars will never be commercially viable because of the inefficiency of producing, transporting and storing hydrogen and the flammability of the gas, among other reasons. In 2012, Lux Research, Inc. issued a report that stated: "The dream of a hydrogen economy ... is no nearer". It concluded that "Capital cost ... will limit adoption to a mere 5.9 GW" by 2030, providing "a nearly insurmountable barrier to adoption, except in niche applications". The analysis concluded that, by 2030, PEM stationary market will reach $1 billion, while the vehicle market, including forklifts, will reach a total of $2 billion. Other analyses cite the lack of an extensive hydrogen infrastructure in the U.S. as an ongoing challenge to Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle commercialization.


title: Fuel cell

text: In 2014, Joseph Romm, the author of "The Hype About Hydrogen" (2005), said that FCVs still had not overcome the high fueling cost, lack of fuel-delivery infrastructure, and pollution caused by producing hydrogen. "It would take several miracles to overcome all of those problems simultaneously in the coming decades." He concluded that renewable energy cannot economically be used to make hydrogen for an FCV fleet "either now or in the future." Greentech Media's analyst reached similar conclusions in 2014. In 2015, "CleanTechnica" listed some of the disadvantages of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. So did "Car Throttle". A 2019 video by "Real Engineering" noted that, notwithstanding the introduction of vehicles that run on hydrogen, using hydrogen as a fuel for cars does not help to reduce carbon emissions from transportation. The 95% of hydrogen still produced from fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, and producing hydrogen from water is an energy-consuming process. Storing hydrogen requires more energy either to cool it down to the liquid state or to put it into tanks under high pressure, and delivering the hydrogen to fueling stations requires more energy and may release more carbon. The hydrogen needed to move a FCV a kilometer costs approximately 8 times as much as the electricity needed to move a BEV the same distance.


title: Fuel cell

text: A 2020 assessment concluded that hydrogen vehicles are still only 38% efficient, while battery EVs are 80% efficient. In 2021 "CleanTechnica" concluded that while hydrogen cars are far less efficient than electric cars, the vast majority of hydrogen being produced is polluting grey hydrogen, and delivering hydrogen would require building a vast and expensive new infrastructure, the remaining two "advantages of fuel cell vehicles – longer range and fast fueling times – are rapidly being eroded by improving battery and charging technology." A 2022 study in "Nature Electronics" agreed.


title: Fuel cell

text: , there were about 100 fuel cell buses in service around the world. Most of these were manufactured by UTC Power, Toyota, Ballard, Hydrogenics, and Proton Motor. UTC buses had driven more than by 2011. Fuel cell buses have from 39% to 141% higher fuel economy than diesel buses and natural gas buses.


title: Fuel cell

text: In 2018, the first fuel cell-powered trains, the Alstom Coradia iLint multiple units, began running on the Buxtehude–Bremervörde–Bremerhaven–Cuxhaven line in Germany. These trains offer the advantages of electric trains over Diesel locomotives and DMU’s in eliminating smokestack emissions from the trains themselves without the use of electrification by overhead catenerary infrastructure. Such trains have been ordered or are being tested in Sweden and the UK.


title: Fuel cell

text: In December 2020, Toyota and Hino Motors, together with Seven-Eleven (Japan), FamilyMart and Lawson announced that they have agreed to jointly consider introducing light-duty fuel cell electric trucks (light-duty FCETs). Lawson started testing for low temperature delivery at the end of July 2021 in Tokyo, using a Hino Dutro in which the Toyota Mirai fuel cell is implemented. FamilyMart started testing in Okazaki city.


title: Fuel cell

text: In August 2021, Toyota announced their plan to make fuel cell modules at its Kentucky auto-assembly plant for use in zero-emission big rigs and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. They plan to begin assembling the electrochemical devices in 2023.


title: Fuel cell

text: In October 2021, Daimler Truck's fuel cell based truck received approval from German authorities for use on public roads.


title: Fuel cell

text: A fuel cell forklift (also called a fuel cell lift truck) is a fuel cell-powered industrial forklift truck used to lift and transport materials. In 2013 there were over 4,000 fuel cell forklifts used in material handling in the US, of which 500 received funding from DOE (2012). Fuel cell fleets are operated by various companies, including Sysco Foods, FedEx Freight, GENCO (at Wegmans, Coca-Cola, Kimberly Clark, and Whole Foods), and H-E-B Grocers. Europe demonstrated 30 fuel cell forklifts with Hylift and extended it with HyLIFT-EUROPE to 200 units, with other projects in France and Austria. Pike Research projected in 2011 that fuel cell-powered forklifts would be the largest driver of hydrogen fuel demand by 2020.


title: Fuel cell

text: Most companies in Europe and the US do not use petroleum-powered forklifts, as these vehicles work indoors where emissions must be controlled and instead use electric forklifts. Fuel cell-powered forklifts can provide benefits over battery-powered forklifts as they can be refueled in 3 minutes and they can be used in refrigerated warehouses, where their performance is not degraded by lower temperatures. The FC units are often designed as drop-in replacements.


title: Fuel cell

text: In 2005, a British manufacturer of hydrogen-powered fuel cells, Intelligent Energy (IE), produced the first working hydrogen-run motorcycle called the ENV (Emission Neutral Vehicle). The motorcycle holds enough fuel to run for four hours, and to travel in an urban area, at a top speed of . In 2004 Honda developed a fuel cell motorcycle that utilized the Honda FC Stack.


title: Fuel cell

text: Other examples of motorbikes and bicycles that use hydrogen fuel cells include the Taiwanese company APFCT's scooter using the fueling system from Italy's Acta SpA and the Suzuki Burgman scooter with an IE fuel cell that received EU Whole Vehicle Type Approval in 2011. Suzuki Motor Corp. and IE have announced a joint venture to accelerate the commercialization of zero-emission vehicles.


title: Fuel cell

text: In 2003, the world's first propeller-driven airplane to be powered entirely by a fuel cell was flown. The fuel cell was a stack design that allowed the fuel cell to be integrated with the plane's aerodynamic surfaces. Fuel cell-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) include a Horizon fuel cell UAV that set the record distance flown for a small UAV in 2007. Boeing researchers and industry partners throughout Europe conducted experimental flight tests in February 2008 of a manned airplane powered only by a fuel cell and lightweight batteries. The fuel cell demonstrator airplane, as it was called, used a proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell/lithium-ion battery hybrid system to power an electric motor, which was coupled to a conventional propeller.


title: Fuel cell

text: In 2009, the Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL's) Ion Tiger utilized a hydrogen-powered fuel cell and flew for 23 hours and 17 minutes. Fuel cells are also being tested and considered to provide auxiliary power in aircraft, replacing fossil fuel generators that were previously used to start the engines and power on board electrical needs, while reducing carbon emissions. In 2016 a Raptor E1 drone made a successful test flight using a fuel cell that was lighter than the lithium-ion battery it replaced. The flight lasted 10 minutes at an altitude of , although the fuel cell reportedly had enough fuel to fly for two hours. The fuel was contained in approximately 100 solid pellets composed of a proprietary chemical within an unpressurized cartridge. The pellets are physically robust and operate at temperatures as warm as . The cell was from Arcola Energy.


title: Fuel cell

text: In Norway, the first ferry powered by fuel cells running on liquid origin is scheduled for its first test drives in December 2022.


title: Fuel cell

text: The Type 212 submarines of the German and Italian navies use fuel cells to remain submerged for weeks without the need to surface.


title: Fuel cell

text: The U212A is a non-nuclear submarine developed by German naval shipyard Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft. The system consists of nine PEM fuel cells, providing between 30 kW and 50 kW each. The ship is silent, giving it an advantage in the detection of other submarines. A naval paper has theorized about the possibility of a nuclear-fuel cell hybrid whereby the fuel cell is used when silent operations are required and then replenished from the Nuclear reactor (and water).


title: Fuel cell

text: Portable fuel cell systems are generally classified as weighing under 10 kg and providing power of less than 5 kW. The potential market size for smaller fuel cells is quite large with an up to 40% per annum potential growth rate and a market size of around $10 billion, leading a great deal of research to be devoted to the development of portable power cells. Within this market two groups have been identified. The first is the microfuel cell market, in the 1-50 W range for power smaller electronic devices. The second is the 1-5 kW range of generators for larger scale power generation (e.g. military outposts, remote oil fields).


title: Fuel cell

text: Microfuel cells are primarily aimed at penetrating the market for phones and laptops. This can be primarily attributed to the advantageous energy density provided by fuel cells over a lithium-ion battery, for the entire system. For a battery, this system includes the charger as well as the battery itself. For the fuel cell this system would include the cell, the necessary fuel and peripheral attachments. Taking the full system into consideration, fuel cells have been shown to provide 530Wh/kg compared to 44 Wh/kg for lithium ion batteries. However, while the weight of fuel cell systems offer a distinct advantage the current costs are not in their favor. while a battery system will generally cost around $1.20 per Wh, fuel cell systems cost around $5 per Wh, putting them at a significant disadvantage.


title: Fuel cell

text: As power demands for cell phones increase, fuel cells could become much more attractive options for larger power generation. The demand for longer on time on phones and computers is something often demanded by consumers so fuel cells could start to make strides into laptop and cell phone markets. The price will continue to go down as developments in fuel cells continues to accelerate. Current strategies for improving micro fuel cells is through the use of carbon nanotubes. It was shown by Girishkumar et al. that depositing nanotubes on electrode surfaces allows for substantially greater surface area increasing the oxygen reduction rate.


title: Fuel cell

text: Fuel cells for use in larger scale operations also show much promise. Portable power systems that use fuel cells can be used in the leisure sector (i.e. RVs, cabins, marine), the industrial sector (i.e. power for remote locations including gas/oil wellsites, communication towers, security, weather stations), and in the military sector. SFC Energy is a German manufacturer of direct methanol fuel cells for a variety of portable power systems. Ensol Systems Inc. is an integrator of portable power systems, using the SFC Energy DMFC. The key advantage of fuel cells in this market is the great power generation per weight. While fuel cells can be expensive, for remote locations that require dependable energy fuel cells hold great power. For a 72-h excursion the comparison in weight is substantial, with a fuel cell only weighing 15 pounds compared to 29 pounds of batteries needed for the same energy.


title: Fuel cell

text: According to FuelCellsWorks, an industry group, at the end of 2019, 330 hydrogen refueling stations were open to the public worldwide. As of June 2020, there were 178 publicly available hydrogen stations in operation in Asia. 114 of these were in Japan. There were at least 177 stations in Europe, and about half of these were in Germany. There were 44 publicly accessible stations in the US, 42 of which were located in California.


title: Fuel cell

text: In 2012, fuel cell industry revenues exceeded $1 billion market value worldwide, with Asian pacific countries shipping more than 3/4 of the fuel cell systems worldwide. However, as of January 2014, no public company in the industry had yet become profitable. There were 140,000 fuel cell stacks shipped globally in 2010, up from 11,000 shipments in 2007, and from 2011 to 2012 worldwide fuel cell shipments had an annual growth rate of 85%. Tanaka Kikinzoku expanded its manufacturing facilities in 2011. Approximately 50% of fuel cell shipments in 2010 were stationary fuel cells, up from about a third in 2009, and the four dominant producers in the Fuel Cell Industry were the United States, Germany, Japan and South Korea. The Department of Energy Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance found that, as of January 2011, stationary fuel cells generated power at approximately $724 to $775 per kilowatt installed. In 2011, Bloom Energy, a major fuel cell supplier, said that its fuel cells generated power at 9–11 cents per kilowatt-hour, including the price of fuel, maintenance, and hardware.


title: Fuel cell

text: Industry groups predict that there are sufficient platinum resources for future demand, and in 2007, research at Brookhaven National Laboratory suggested that platinum could be replaced by a gold-palladium coating, which may be less susceptible to poisoning and thereby improve fuel cell lifetime. Another method would use iron and sulphur instead of platinum. This would lower the cost of a fuel cell (as the platinum in a regular fuel cell costs around , and the same amount of iron costs only around ). The concept was being developed by a coalition of the John Innes Centre and the University of Milan-Bicocca. PEDOT cathodes are immune to monoxide poisoning.


title: Fuel cell

text: In 2016, Samsung "decided to drop fuel cell-related business projects, as the outlook of the market isn't good".


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: David Seth Kotkin (born September 16, 1956), known professionally as David Copperfield, is an American magician, described by "Forbes" as the most commercially successful magician in history.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: Copperfield's television specials have been nominated for 38 Emmy Awards, winning 21. Best known for his combination of storytelling and illusion, his career of over 40 years has earned him 11 Guinness World Records, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a by the French government. He has been named a Living Legend by the US Library of Congress.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: His illusions have included the disappearance of a Learjet (1981), the vanishing and reappearance of the Statue of Liberty (1983), levitating over the Grand Canyon (1984), walking through the Great Wall of China (1986), escaping from Alcatraz prison (1987), the disappearance of an Orient Express dining car (1991) and flying on stage for several minutes (1992).


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: As of 2006, he has sold 33 million tickets and grossed over US$4 billion, more than any other solo entertainer in history by a large margin. In 2015, "Forbes" listed his earnings at $63 million for the previous 12 months and ranked him the 20th highest-earning celebrity in the world.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: When not performing, he manages his chain of 11 resort islands in The Bahamas, which he calls Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: Copperfield was born David Seth Kotkin in Metuchen, New Jersey, the son of Jewish parents Rebecca Kotkin (née Gispan; 1924–2008), an insurance adjuster, and Hyman Kotkin (1922–2006), who owned and operated Korby's, a men's haberdashery in Warren, New Jersey. His mother was born in Jerusalem, while his paternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from the Ukrainian SSR (present-day Ukraine). In 1974 he graduated from Metuchen High School.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: When he was 10, he began practicing magic as "Davino the Boy Magician" in his neighborhood, and at age 12, he became the youngest person admitted to the Society of American Magicians. Shy and a loner, the young Copperfield saw magic as a way to fit in and, later, to meet women. As a child, he attended Camp Harmony, a day camp in nearby Warren, New Jersey, where he began practicing magic and ventriloquism, an experience to which he credits his creative style. He said, "At Camp Harmony, we spent two weeks searching for a guide who'd been kidnapped by Indians. It was just a game, but I was living it. My whole life goes back to that camp experience when I was three or four." As a teenager, he became fascinated with Broadway and frequently sneaked into shows, especially musicals featuring the work of Stephen Sondheim or Bob Fosse. By age 16, he was teaching a course in magic at New York University.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: At 18, Copperfield enrolled at New York City's Jesuit-based Fordham University, but three weeks into his freshman year he left to play the lead role in the musical "The Magic Man" in Chicago. It was then he adopted the stage name David Copperfield, taken from the famous Charles Dickens novel, because he liked its sound. He sang, danced and created most of the original illusions used in the show. "The Magic Man" became the longest-running musical in Chicago history.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: At age 19, he created and headlined for several months the first "Magic of David Copperfield" show at the Pagoda Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii, with the help of sound and lighting designer Willy Martin. Copperfield's career in television began in earnest when he was discovered by Joseph Cates, a producer of Broadway shows and television specials. Cates produced a magic special in 1977 for ABC called "The Magic of ABC", hosted by Copperfield, as well as several "The Magic of David Copperfield" specials on CBS between 1978 and 2001. There have been 18 Copperfield TV specials and 2 documentaries between September 7, 1977, and April 3, 2001.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: Copperfield also played the character The Magician in the 1980 horror film "Terror Train" and had an uncredited appearance in the 1994 film "Prêt-à-Porter". Most of his media appearances have been through television specials and guest spots on television programs. His illusions have included the disappearance of a Learjet (1981), the vanishing and reappearance of the Statue of Liberty (1983), levitating over the Grand Canyon (1984), walking through the Great Wall of China (1986), escaping from Alcatraz prison (1987), the disappearance of an Orient Express dining car (1991) and flying on stage for several minutes (1992).


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: One of his most famous illusions occurred on television on April 8, 1983: A live audience of 20 tourists was seated in front of a giant curtain attached to two lateral scaffoldings built on Liberty Island in an enclosed viewing area. Copperfield, with help from Jim Steinmeyer and Don Wayne, raised the curtain before lowering it again a few seconds later to reveal that the space where the Statue of Liberty once stood was empty. A helicopter hovered overhead to give an aerial view of the illusion and the statue appeared to have vanished, with only the circle of lights surrounding it still present and visible. Before making the statue reappear, Copperfield explained in front of the camera why he wanted to perform this illusion. He wanted people to imagine what it would be like if there were no liberty or freedom in the world today and what the world would be like without the freedoms and rights we enjoy. Copperfield then brought the statue back, ending the illusion by saying that "our ancestors couldn't (enjoy rights and freedoms), we can and our children will". Both the disappearance and the reappearance of the statue were filmed in long take to demonstrate the absence of camera tricks. This illusion was featured in season four of "The Americans", in an episode entitled “The Magic of David Copperfield V: The Statue of Liberty Disappears,” and in the 2019 HBO documentary "Liberty: Mother of Exiles".


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In 1986, Copperfield debuted a new variation on the classic sawing a woman in half illusion. Copperfield’s Death Saw illusion was presented as an escape gone wrong, sawing himself, rather than an assistant, in half with a large rotary saw blade which descended from above. Copperfield’s Death Saw has become one of his most well-known illusions.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In 1996, in collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola, David Ives, and Eiko Ishioka, Copperfield's Broadway show "Dreams & Nightmares" broke box office records in New York at the Martin Beck Theatre. Reviewer Greg Evans described the sold-out show in "Variety" magazine: "With a likable, self-effacing demeanor that rarely comes across in his TV specials, Copperfield leads the audience through nearly two hours of truly mind-boggling illusions. He disappears and reappears, gets cut in half, makes audience members vanish and others levitate. Copperfield climaxes his show with a flying routine, seven years in the making, that defies both logic and visual evidence, he could probably retire just by selling his secrets to future productions of "Peter Pan"".


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: Also in 1996, Copperfield joined forces with Dean Koontz, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Bradbury and others for "David Copperfield's Tales of the Impossible", an anthology of original fiction set in the world of magic and illusion. A second volume, "David Copperfield's Beyond Imagination", was published in 1997. In addition to the two books, Copperfield wrote an essay as part of NPR's "This I Believe" series and This I Believe, Inc.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In May 2001, Copperfield entertained guests at a White House benefit for UNICEF by performing an illusion in which he sawed singer and actress Jennifer Lopez into six pieces. This illusion was an update of one he performed in one of his early TV specials on actress Catherine Bach.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: On April 5, 2009, Copperfield made his first live TV appearance for some time when he entertained the audience at the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards with two illusions. First, he made singer Taylor Swift appear inside an apparently empty translucent-sided elevator as it was lowered from the ceiling; he then sawed her in half in his Clearly Impossible illusion.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: On May 7, 2009, Copperfield was dropped by Michael Jackson from Jackson's residency at the O2 Arena after a disagreement over money. Copperfield wanted $1 million (£666,000) per show. Copperfield denied the reports of a falling-out, saying "don't believe everything you read." News of Copperfield's collaboration with Jackson first surfaced on April 1, 2009, and has since been described as a possible April Fool's prank.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In January 2011 Copperfield joined the cast of the feature film "Burt Wonderstone" with Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, James Gandolfini and Olivia Wilde. Copperfield and his team developed illusions used in the film. He also coached Carell and Wilde on how to perform the 'Impossible Sawing' illusion, in which Wilde's character is sawed in half and her halves separated without the use of any covering or camera tricks. Copperfield has served as technical advisor on several other films, including "The Prestige" and "Now You See Me". He also served as a co-producer of the film "Now You See Me 2".


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In July 2012, OWN-TV network aired a one-hour special and interview with Copperfield as part of the network's "Oprah's Next Chapter" series. The show featured many aspects of Copperfield's personal life and family—with tours of his island home and Las Vegas conjuring museum—and a sampling of his illusions and magic effects. During the interview, he and his girlfriend Chloé Gosselin, a French fashion model, announced their engagement and appeared together briefly with their young daughter, strolling down the beach on the island.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In 2018, the New York Historical Society hosted “Summer of Magic: Treasures from the David Copperfield Collection.” The exhibit recounted the history of magic in New York and displayed some of Copperfield’s most popular illusions, like the Death Saw, and historical magical ephemera, including some of Copperfield’s collection of Houdini memorabilia.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: Copperfield made the missing star from the original Star-Spangled Banner flag reappear in an illusion on Flag Day 2019, in partnership with Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The missing star, which is believed to have been removed in the nineteenth century, reappeared inside a box that seemed to levitate.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: Copperfield notes that his role models were not magicians, that "My idols were Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and Orson Welles and Walt Disney ... they took their individual art forms and they moved people with them... I wanted to do the same thing with magic. I wanted to take magic and make it romantic and make it sexy and make it funny and make it goofy ... all the different things that a songwriter gets to express or a filmmaker gets to express". This approach, despite its obvious popularity with audiences, has its share of detractors within the profession. One magician has described Copperfield's stage presentations as "resembling entertainment the way Velveeta resembles cheese".


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: Copperfield owns the International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts, which houses the world's largest collection of historically significant magic memorabilia, books and artifacts. Begun in 1991 when Copperfield purchased the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts, which contained the world's largest collection of Houdini memorabilia, the museum comprises approximately 80,000 items, including Houdini's Water Torture Cabinet and Metamorphosis Trunk, Orson Welles' Buzz Saw illusion, and automata created by Robert-Houdin. Copperfield's 1991 Mulholland purchase, which formed the core of his collection, engendered criticism from some magicians. One told a reporter, "David Copperfield buying the Mulholland Library is like an Elvis impersonator winding up with Graceland." In 1992, Copperfield agreed to purchase the largest private magic collection in the world from Dr. Robert Albo to add to the museum. It houses the world's largest collection of "Houdiniana" (the second largest being Houdini Museum of New York).


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: The museum is not open to the public; tours are reserved for "colleagues, fellow magicians, and serious collectors". Located in a warehouse at Copperfield's headquarters in Las Vegas, the museum is entered via a secret door in what was jokingly described by actor Hugh Jackman as a "sex shop" and by "Forbes" as a "mail-order lingerie warehouse". "It doesn't need to be secret, it needs to be respected", Copperfield said. "If a scholar or journalist needs a piece of magic history, it's there."


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In 2006, Copperfield bought eleven Bahamian islands called Musha Cay. Renamed "The Islands of Copperfield Bay", the islands are a private resort. Guests have reportedly included Oprah Winfrey and John Travolta. Google co-founder Sergey Brin was married there. Copperfield has said that the islands may contain the Fountain of Youth, a claim that resulted in him receiving a Dubious Achievement Award from "Esquire" magazine in 2006.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: David Copperfield's Magic Underground was planned to be a restaurant based on Copperfield's magic. At Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, a sign on Hollywood Boulevard during the late 1990s indicated the restaurant was coming soon. Signs also appeared around Pleasure Island and outside Disney-MGM Studios. A Magic Underground restaurant was also to open in New York's Times Square. Plans included eventual expansion into Disneyland in Anaheim, California, as well as Paris and Tokyo. The restaurants were to have magic props and other items on the walls; magicians would go around to tables doing sleight of hand tricks. There was also to be a larger stage for larger stunts. The restaurant in Times Square was 85% completed, but amid disputes between the creative team and the financial team and enormous cost overruns, finances dried up from the investors, the project was canceled, and Disney canceled the lease. Copperfield was not an investor in the project; the investors reportedly lost $34 million, and subcontractors placed $15 million in liens.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In October 2012, Maryland residents received a robocall from Copperfield supporting a ballot initiative that would expand gambling in the state.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: Copperfield's magic secrets and related technological innovations are etched into nickel plates, designed to last billions of years, as part of the Arch Mission Foundation "lunar library" that crashed into the moon in April 2019 during an attempted landing of the lunar module Beresheet. It is believed the payload survived.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: On March 11, 1984, while rehearsing an illusion called "Escape From Death" where he was shackled and handcuffed in a tank of water, Copperfield became tangled in the chains and started taking in water and banging into the sides of the tank. He was pulled from the water after 80 seconds, hyperventilating and in shock, taken to a Burbank hospital, and found to have pulled tendons in arms and legs. He was in a wheelchair for a week and used a cane for a period thereafter.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: While doing a rope trick at a show in Memphis in 1989, Copperfield accidentally cut off the tip of his finger with sharp scissors. He was rushed to the hospital and the fingertip was reattached.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: On December 17, 2008, during a live performance in Las Vegas, a 26-year-old assistant named Brandon was sucked into the spinning blades of a high industrial fan that Copperfield walks through. The assistant sustained multiple fractures to his arm, severe bleeding, and facial lacerations that required stitches. Copperfield canceled the rest of the performance and offered the audience members refunds.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: Since 2016, Copperfield has campaigned for Congressional Resolution 642, which would “recognize magic as a rare and valuable art form and national treasure". The campaign has been unsuccessful as of November 2022.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Copperfield was performing daily, with 15 shows scheduled each week, at the David Copperfield theater in the MGM Grand Las Vegas. Each show was 90 minutes in duration.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: On July 11, 1994, Copperfield sued magician and author Herbert L. Becker in order to prevent publication of Becker's book which reveals how magicians perform their illusions. Becker won the lawsuit but, because of a secrecy agreement Becker signed with Copperfield and an independent finding that Becker's description of Copperfield's methods was inaccurate, the publisher removed the section on Copperfield from the book before publication. In 1997, Becker sued Copperfield and Lifetime Books for $50 million for breach of contract between himself and Lifetime Books, the publisher of his book "All the Secrets of Magic Revealed". Copperfield settled at the last moment and the publisher lost during the court trial.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In 1997, Copperfield and Claudia Schiffer sued "Paris Match" for $30 million after the magazine claimed their relationship was a sham, that Schiffer was paid for pretending to be Copperfield's fiancée and that she did not even like him. In 1999, they won an undisclosed sum and a retraction from "Paris Match". Herbert L. Becker, whom Copperfield asked to testify to the validity of the relationship, did so. Copperfield's publicist confirmed that Schiffer had a contract to appear in the audience at Copperfield's show in Berlin where they met but was not under contract to be his "consort".


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: On August 25, 2000, Copperfield unsuccessfully sued Fireman's Fund Insurance Company for reimbursement of a $506,343 ransom paid to individuals in Russia who had commandeered the entertainer's equipment there.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In 2004, John Melk, co-founder of Blockbuster Inc., and previous owner of Musha Cay, sued Copperfield for fraud after Copperfield purchased the island chain, alleging that Copperfield had deliberately obscured his identity during the purchase and that he would not have sold the island to Copperfield. Copperfield claimed that Melk had agreed to sell the property to Copperfield's Imagine Nation Company, and that Copperfield negotiated the deal through a third party because he feared Melk was "seeking to exploit" Copperfield's celebrity status by demanding an unfair price. The case was settled in 2006. The terms of the settlement are undisclosed.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: On November 6, 2007, Viva Art International Ltd and Maz Concerts Inc. sued Copperfield for nearly $2.2 million for breach of contract and the Indonesian promoter of Copperfield's canceled shows in Jakarta held on to $550,000 worth of Copperfield's equipment in lieu of money paid to Copperfield that had not been returned. Copperfield countersued, and the dispute was resolved in July 2009.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In 2018, a lawsuit alleging that a British tourist and audience member Gavin Cox was injured during a November 2013 performance, was resolved in Copperfield's favor. He was found "not liable".


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: Copperfield was accused of sexual assault in 2007 by Lacey L. Carroll. A federal grand jury in Seattle closed the investigation in January 2010 without bringing charges. In January 2010, the Bellevue City Prosecutor's Office brought misdemeanor charges against Carroll for prostitution and allegedly making a false accusation of rape in another case. Carroll filed a civil lawsuit against Copperfield, which was dropped in April 2010. In January 2018, Copperfield was accused of drugging and assaulting a teenager in 1988. Copperfield published a statement in response on January 24, 2018.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In 1993 at a Berlin celebrity gala Copperfield met German supermodel Claudia Schiffer when he brought her on stage to participate in a mind-reading act and his flying illusion, and in January 1994 they became engaged. During the engagement, Schiffer sometimes appeared on stage with Copperfield to act as his special guest assistant in illusions including being sawn in half. She also appeared alongside Copperfield in "David Copperfield: 15 Years of Magic" (1994), a documentary in which she played the role of a reporter interviewing him, and at the end of which they reprised their performance of the "Flying" illusion. After a nearly six-year engagement, in September 1999 they announced their separation, citing work schedules.


title: David Copperfield (illusionist)

text: In April 2006, he and two female assistants were robbed at gunpoint after a performance in West Palm Beach, Florida. His assistants handed over their money, passports, and a cell phone. According to his police statement, Copperfield did not hand over anything, claiming that he used sleight of hand to hide his possessions, although later admitting that doing so was "very stupid. It was a reflex that could have got me shot." One of the assistants wrote down most of the license plate number, and the suspects were later arrested, charged, and sentenced.