title: Atomic mass

text: Similar definitions apply to molecules. One can calculate the molecular mass of a compound by adding the atomic masses (not the standard atomic weights) of its constituent atoms. Conversely, the molar mass is usually computed from the standard atomic weights (not the atomic or nuclide masses). Thus, molecular mass and molar mass differ slightly in numerical value and represent different concepts. Molecular mass is the mass of a molecule, which is the sum of its constituent atomic masses. Molar mass is an average of the masses of the constituent molecules in a chemically pure but isotopically heterogeneous ensemble. In both cases, the multiplicity of the atoms (the number of times it occurs) must be taken into account, usually by multiplication of each unique mass by its multiplicity.


title: Atomic mass

text: The first scientists to determine relative atomic masses were John Dalton and Thomas Thomson between 1803 and 1805 and Jöns Jakob Berzelius between 1808 and 1826. Relative atomic mass ("Atomic weight") was originally defined relative to that of the lightest element, hydrogen, which was taken as 1.00, and in the 1820s, Prout's hypothesis stated that atomic masses of all elements would prove to be exact multiples of that of hydrogen. Berzelius, however, soon proved that this was not even approximately true, and for some elements, such as chlorine, relative atomic mass, at about 35.5, falls almost exactly halfway between two integral multiples of that of hydrogen. Still later, this was shown to be largely due to a mix of isotopes, and that the atomic masses of pure isotopes, or nuclides, are multiples of the hydrogen mass, to within about 1%.


title: Atomic mass

text: In the 1860s, Stanislao Cannizzaro refined relative atomic masses by applying Avogadro's law (notably at the Karlsruhe Congress of 1860). He formulated a law to determine relative atomic masses of elements: "the different quantities of the same element contained in different molecules are all whole multiples of the atomic weight" and determined relative atomic masses and molecular masses by comparing the vapor density of a collection of gases with molecules containing one or more of the chemical element in question.


title: Atomic mass

text: In the 20th century, until the 1960s, chemists and physicists used two different atomic-mass scales. The chemists used an "atomic mass unit" (amu) scale such that the natural mixture of oxygen isotopes had an atomic mass 16, while the physicists assigned the same number 16 to only the atomic mass of the most common oxygen isotope (O, containing eight protons and eight neutrons). However, because oxygen-17 and oxygen-18 are also present in natural oxygen this led to two different tables of atomic mass. The unified scale based on carbon-12, C, met the physicists' need to base the scale on a pure isotope, while being numerically close to the chemists' scale. This was adopted as the 'unified atomic mass unit'. The current International System of Units (SI) primary recommendation for the name of this unit is the dalton and symbol 'Da'. The name 'unified atomic mass unit' and symbol 'u' are recognized names and symbols for the same unit.


title: Atomic mass

text: The term "atomic weight" is being phased out slowly and being replaced by "relative atomic mass", in most current usage. This shift in nomenclature reaches back to the 1960s and has been the source of much debate in the scientific community, which was triggered by the adoption of the unified atomic mass unit and the realization that weight was in some ways an inappropriate term. The argument for keeping the term "atomic weight" was primarily that it was a well understood term to those in the field, that the term "atomic mass" was already in use (as it is currently defined) and that the term "relative atomic mass" might be easily confused with "relative isotopic mass" (the mass of a single atom of a given nuclide, expressed dimensionlessly relative to 1/12 of the mass of carbon-12; see section above).


title: Atomic mass

text: In 1979, as a compromise, the term "relative atomic mass" was introduced as a secondary synonym for atomic weight. Twenty years later the primacy of these synonyms was reversed, and the term "relative atomic mass" is now the preferred term.


title: Atomic mass

text: However, the term ""standard" atomic weights" (referring to the standardized expectation atomic weights of differing samples) has not been changed, because simple replacement of "atomic weight" with "relative atomic mass" would have resulted in the term "standard relative atomic mass."


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: Thorfinn Karlsefni Thórdarson was an Icelandic explorer. Around the year 1010, he followed Leif Eriksson's route to Vinland in a short-lived attempt to establish a permanent settlement there with his wife Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir and their followers.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: The byname "Karlsefni" means "makings of a man" according to the preface of Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, although the Cleasby-Vigfusson dictionary glosses it as "a thorough man", elaborated elsewhere as a "real man", a "sterling man".


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: Thorfinn's expeditions are documented in the "Grœnlendinga saga" ("Saga of the Greenlanders" henceforth Grl.) and "Eiríks saga rauða" ("Saga of Eirik the Red" Henceforth Eir.), which together are referred to as "The Vinland Sagas." The two sources differ significantly in their details (see #Saga sources below).


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: In Greenland, Thorfinn met and married Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, widow of Thorstein Eiriksson. Gudrid was staying under the care of her brother-in-law Leif Eriksson at Brattahlíð, an estate given to Leif by his father Eirik the Red after his death. Eirik had died in an epidemic c. 1003, though "Eir." has him still alive and playing host to Gudrid.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: According to "Grl.," Thorfinn decided to go to Vínland at the insistence of his wife Gudrid. Leif agreed to lend the houses he built in Vinland, but was unwilling to make a free gift of it. Among the other settlers to Vinland was Freydis, the sister or half-sister of Leif Eriksson, who may have accompanied Karlsefni's voyage ("Eir.") or headed an expedition of her own that ended in carnage ("Grl.").


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: The "Grl." records that Karlsefni left Greenland with 60 men and five women, following the route taken by Leif and Thorvald Eiriksson. The "Eir." writes that he took three ships with 140 men aboard, and describes the voyage in greater detail than the "Grl".


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: In Vinland, Gudrid bore Thorfinn a boy, Snorri, who was the first child of European descent known to have been born in the New World. Many Icelanders trace their roots to Snorri. The exact location of Thorfinn's colony is unknown, though it may have been the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: It has been pointed out that "Eiríks saga rauða" ("Eir.") distorts the facts by giving undue credit to Thorfinn.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: For instance, it denies that Thorvald Eiriksson ever led his own voyage to reach Vinland (as "Grl." records), even before Thorfinn. Although Thorvald had met his death by Native American arrows in Vinland before Karlsefni embarked, "Eir." postponed Thorvald's death so he can be made to accompany Karlsefni to Vinland, ultimately to suffer a more fantastical death from a shot fired by a Uniped. "Eir." shifts over to Karlsefni the credit for naming numerous geographic features, from Helluland and Markland to Kjalarnes "Keel Ness", though "this flatly contradicts the "Grœnlendinga saga" and is assuredly wrong". Helluland (Baffin Island) and Markland were named by Leif; Kjalarness was where Thorvald had wrecked his ship, and the keel was left to stand as a monument, and not an anonymous shipwreck as "Eir." puts it.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: According to the "Grœnlendinga saga", Thorfinn Karlsefni's expedition commenced after his marriage to Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir. This marriage to Gudrid was predicted earlier in the saga by Gudrid's first husband Thorstein Eriksson, upon his death. The expedition brought women and livestock, signifying that they planned on being settled in the area for a while. Along the voyage they ate a beached whale. They also cut timber, harvested grapes, and caught fish and game. A bull they brought frightened the native people (Skraelings). They tried to appease the natives by offering milk, but the natives took ill and battles commenced. Guðríðr Þorbjarnardóttir gave birth to Thorfinn Karlsefni's son Snorri before they headed back to Greenland.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: "Eirik the Red's Saga" depicts Thorfinn Karlsefni as a successful merchant from Reynines, Skagafjord, in the north of Iceland. Karlsefni embarks on a trading expedition with 40 men, and arrive at Brattahlid, Greenland where they are hosted by Eirik the Red. Karlsefni marries Gudrid that winter. Karlsefni departs with three ships and 140 men in search of Vinland. Karlsefni's expedition winter on a piece of land, where two scouting slaves found grapes and wild grain. Eating a beached whale causes illness, as well as a rift. Thorhall's group declared the whale to be a boon from Thor, offending the Christian members and they part ways.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: Karlsefni's expedition discovers further south a bountiful area full of wheat, fish, and game. They attempt contact with the natives who travel in hide-covered boats. The natives leave and the Greenlanders winter there, where their livestock flourish. The following spring, the expedition reencounters the natives and engages in trade with them, until a bull breaks free and frightens away the natives. The natives return after three weeks with hostile intent, a skirmish ensues, and the Greenlanders attempt as best they can to flee into the forest. Karlsefni and his men are saved by Freydis, who scares the natives off by slapping her bare breast with a sword taken from one of the fallen Greenlanders.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: The expedition heads back north, and Karlsefni searches for Thorhall in vain. Karlsefni's men encounter the one-legged creature that is said to have shot Thorvald Eiriksson dead with an arrow. Karlsefni's son Snorri is born in the New World. But they eventually leave, and after spending time in Greenland to Eirik the Red, Karlsefni and Gudrid return to Karlsefni's farm at Reynines, in Iceland.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: Thorfinn Karlsefni was born circa 980–985 in Iceland. His father was Thord Horsehead (Þórðr hesthöfði Snorrason), and his mother was named Thorunn (Þórunn). Thord Horsehead was son of Snorri, son of .


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: Thorfinn was presumably raised at his father's estate called Stad (Stað) in Reyniness (). This estate was located in the Skagafjord bay area, which is also where Thorfinn's great-grandfather established roots, at his farm of in . Thorfinn himself also retired in the area in his later years; while "Eiríks saga" says "he went (back) to his farm in Reyniness," "Grænlendinga saga" states he bought new lands at .


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: A more detailed genealogy (under "Eiríks saga rauða", ch. 7) is interpolated in the "H" or Hauksbók text of Haukr Erlendsson. Haukr had particular interest since he himself claimed descent from Thorfinn. However, Haukr's ancestral trace before Karlsefni's great-grandfather Thord of Hofdi deviates from other sources, and the "Landnámabók" version is deemed more reliably accurate.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: Though not shown in the family tree (right), Thorfinn also claims descent from the matriarch Aud the Deep-Minded through Thord Gellir.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: In the early twentieth century, Icelandic sculptor Einar Jónsson was commissioned by Joseph Bunford Samuel to create a statue of Thorfinn Karlsefni through a bequest that his wife, Ellen Phillips Samuel, made to the Fairmount Park Art Association (of Philadelphia, now the Association for Public Art). Her bequest specified that the funds were to be used to create a series of sculptures "emblematic of the history of America." "Thorfinn Karlsefni" (1915–1918) was installed along Philadelphia's Kelly Drive near the Samuel Memorial and unveiled on November 20, 1920. There is another casting of the statue in Reykjavík, Iceland.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: When the statue became a meeting point and place of reverence for racist, white nationalists, Philadelphians pushed it into the Schuylkill river. As reported on October 1, 2018, they toppled the statue and then dragged it into the near-by Schuylkill River. "It appeared the statue was pulled off its massive stone base, which measures 12-by-12 feet wide. Bits of stone were scattered across drag marks on the ground and the bronze could be seen bubbling underwater in the river." - NBC Philadelphia


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: The 1967 comedic science fiction novel "The Technicolor Time Machine" by Harry Harrison reveals at its ending that the character named Ottar—an 11th-century Viking hired by a film studio as consultant and actor—is indeed Thorfinn Karlsefni.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: Elizabeth H. Boyer published "Freydis and Gudrid" in 1978, a fictionalized account of the first Vinland settlement.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: Margaret Elphinstone's “The Sea Road” (2000) is a novel told in the first person. As an old woman, Gudrid recounts her childhood in Iceland, her family's harrowing voyage to Greenland, her marriages, and the trip to Vinland led by Thorfinn Karlsefni.


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: A fictionalized version of Thorfinn Karlsefni is the protagonist of the Japanese Manga series "Vinland Saga" by author Makoto Yukimura. The popular manga also received a 24-episode anime television series adaptation by Wit Studio which aired on NHK General TV in Japan from July to December 2019


title: Thorfinn Karlsefni

text: and released worldwide on Prime Video. This anime was recontinued for another season for another 24 episodes (48 in total) and was adapted by MAPPA airing in January 2023


title: Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway

text: The Samruddhi Mahamarg or "Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Expressway" (officially known as Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg) is a partially opened 6-lane wide (expandable to 8), 701-km long access-controlled expressway in Maharashtra, India. It is amongst the country's longest greenfield road projects, which will connect the two capital cities of the state, its capital, Mumbai, and its third-largest and vice-capital city, Nagpur. The project is being led by the state infrastructure arm Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), and is designed under the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) model.


title: Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway

text: With the route alignment connecting Shivmadka village in Nagpur district to Amane village in Thane district, the expressway is capable of providing an enhanced connectivity to the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions. The total project cost, including the land acquisition cost, is around . The Government of Maharashtra believes that the expressway will become a prosperity corridor for the overall socio-economic growth of the state.


title: Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway

text: The Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway will travel through 10 key districts directly and 14 districts indirectly via feeder roads, 24 talukas, and 392 villages. The 10 main districts are Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Jalna, Aurangabad, Nashik, Ahmednagar and Thane. The other 14 districts include Chandrapur, Bhandara, Gondia, Gadchiroli, Yavatmal, Akola, Hingoli, Parbhani, Nanded, Beed, Dhule, Jalgaon, Palghar and Raigad.


title: Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway

text: To create a fast logistics gateway for national and international trade, the expressway will connect the country's largest container port JNPT in Mumbai to Mihan in Nagpur. The expressway will allow access to several industrial & economic corridors through 24 interchanges at strategic locations. It will widely connect the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, Bengaluru-Chennai Economic Corridor, Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, Chennai-Vizag Economic Corridor and Golden Quadrilateral. Apart from JNPT other seaports including Kandla MBPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam and Ennore will also have indirect connectivity.


title: Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway

text: To expedite the pre-construction work on the expressway, MSRDC decided to divide the design work into 5 packages and hired a separate consultancy firm to prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for each package. On 31 May 2017, the Government of Maharashtra incorporated 'Nagpur Mumbai Super Communication Expressway Limited', a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to manage the financial requirement for the construction and operation of this project.


title: Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway

text: The construction work of 701 km long Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway is divided into 16 packages, with work awarded to 13 different contractors including Afcons Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Reliance Infrastructure.


title: Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway

text: As of 31 May 2021, out of the total 1699 structures including flyovers, viaducts, major & minor bridges, tunnels, interchanges, etc., construction of 1286 structures has already been completed and the construction of 253 structures are inching towards completion. Total 6 tunnels will be built along the expressway and the construction for all of the tunnels is underway in full swing.


title: Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway

text: The Government of Maharashtra has authorized MSRDC to act as the New Town Development Authority to venture into the long-term development of 19 new towns at strategic nodes, which is also coined as 'Krushi Samruddhi Nagar.' The provisions are enacted under sub-sec (1) and section 113 of the MR & TP Act, 1966. The developmental objective to propose these new towns is to encourage the self-employment potential of the regional population through their primitive occupation i.e., agriculture or agro-related businesses.


title: Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway

text: Every township developed under the initiative of Krushi Samruddhi Nagar will be built in a land area of approximately 1000-1500 hectares. The new towns shall serve as the utility economic nodes for food processing industry, integrated logistics, and domestic food markets along with education centers, skill development institutes, healthcare facilities, and commercial & residential housings. The new townships will offer huge industrial land-banks with a focus on dedicated export-oriented infrastructure and integrated logistics to ease supply chain with enhanced road connectivity for domestic markets.


title: Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway

text: The 19 new towns will be developed at strategic intersections at a distance of 30 to 40 km from each other. These towns will be developed in two phases; phase one includes seven townships while the remaining eleven townships will be developed in phase two. The new towns will encompass essential facilities including schools, Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), skill development centers, institutes providing technical education & amp, higher education, hospitals, police stations, playgrounds, open spaces, parks and sports complexes. The new townships will be easily accessible from main roads, feeder roads, national or state highways intersecting the Samruddhi Expressway through the public transport system. The MSRDC adopted land pooling model for land acquisition, wherein 30 percent of the total land acquired under 'Krushi Samruddhi Kendra' program will be returned to landowners. The farmers will also receive compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare for non-irrigated land and Rs 1 lakh every year for irrigated land for the next 10 years. Based on the suggestions from Wildlife Institute of India (WII), wildlife mitigation measures are planned and necessary structures like cattle underpasses are being built for uninterrupted wildlife movement. Around 320 private communicators were trained and deployed by MSRDC for land acquisition negotiations with prospecting landowners.


title: Sheila Sim

text: Sheila Beryl Grant Sim, Baroness Attenborough (5 June 1922 – 19 January 2016) was an English film and theatre actress. She was also the wife of the actor, director and peer Richard Attenborough.


title: Sheila Sim

text: Sheila Beryl Grant Sim was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, only daughter of banker Stuart Grant Sim (1893–1975) and his wife Ida Isabel Carter, who were married in April 1920. Brought up at "Carnlea" overlooking Calderstones Park in Liverpool and later, 18 The Ridge at Purley in Surrey, Sim was privately educated before training at RADA. Sim was mainly active as an actress in the 1940s and 1950s. She appeared in the Powell and Pressburger film, "A Canterbury Tale" (1944); she acted alongside her husband in the Boulting brothers' "The Guinea Pig" (1948); and starred opposite Anthony Steel in "West of Zanzibar" (1954).


title: Sheila Sim

text: In theatre, she co-starred with her husband, Richard Attenborough, in the first cast of "The Mousetrap" by Agatha Christie, from its London premiere in 1952. Sim played the role of Mollie Ralston.


title: Sheila Sim

text: After recruitment by Noël Coward, Sim actively served the Actors' Charitable Trust for more than 60 years. She was instrumental in the success of two redevelopments of the actors' care home, Denville Hall, in the 1960s and 2000s, and was a Trustee and Vice-President of the charities.


title: Sheila Sim

text: Sim was a significant benefactor to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where she originally trained; her husband was RADA's president from 2003 until he died in 2014.


title: Sheila Sim

text: Sim married Richard Attenborough on 22 January 1945 and they had lived in a house on Richmond Green in London from 1956 until 2012, when her husband placed it for sale at £11.5 million.


title: Sheila Sim

text: The couple had three children, Michael (born 13 February 1950), Jane (30 September 1955 – 26 December 2004), and Charlotte (born 29 June 1959). Jane, along with her 15-year-old daughter, Lucy, and her mother-in-law, also named Jane, were killed in the Indian Ocean tsunami as it struck their villa on the coast of Thailand on 26 December 2004. Michael and Charlotte are both involved in the dramatic professions: he as a director, she as an actress. Sim's younger brother, Gerald, who died on 11 December 2014, was also an actor.


title: Sheila Sim

text: In June 2012, shortly before her 90th birthday, Sim entered the actors' retirement home Denville Hall, for which she and her husband had helped raise funds. In July 2012, while her husband Richard had been battling health issues in recent years, it was announced that Sim had been diagnosed with senile dementia.


title: Sheila Sim

text: In March 2013, in the light of his deteriorating health, Richard Attenborough moved into Denville Hall to be with his wife, confirmed by their son Michael. Her younger brother Gerald likewise lived in Denville Hall until his death in December 2014.


title: Sheila Sim

text: Her death was announced on 19 January 2016. Sim was cremated and her ashes were interred in a vault at St Mary Magdalene church in Richmond beside those of her husband, daughter Jane Holland and her granddaughter, Lucy, both of whom had died in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.


title: I know that I know nothing

text: "I know that I know nothing" is a saying derived from Plato's account of the Greek philosopher Socrates: ""For I was conscious that I knew practically nothing..."" (Plato, Apology 22d, translated by Harold North Fowler, 1966). Socrates himself was never recorded as having said this phrase, and scholars generally agree that Socrates only ever asserted that he "believed that he knew nothing", having never claimed that he "knew that he knew nothing". It is also sometimes called the Socratic paradox, although this name is often instead used to refer to other seemingly paradoxical claims made by Socrates in Plato's dialogues (most notably, Socratic intellectualism and the Socratic fallacy).


title: I know that I know nothing

text: This saying is also connected or conflated with the answer to a question Socrates (according to Xenophon) or Chaerephon (according to Plato) is said to have posed to the Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, in which the oracle stated something to the effect of "Socrates is the wisest person in Athens." Socrates, believing the oracle but also completely convinced that he knew nothing, was said to have concluded that "nobody" knew anything, and that he was only wiser than others because he was the only person who recognized his own ignorance.


title: I know that I know nothing

text: The phrase, originally from Latin ("'"), is a possible paraphrase from a Greek text (see below). It is also quoted as "'" or """". It was later back-translated to Katharevousa Greek as "", ["hèn oîda hóti"] "oudèn oîda").


title: I know that I know nothing

text: This is technically a shorter paraphrasing of Socrates' statement, "I neither know nor think I know" (in Plato, "Apology" 21d). The paraphrased saying, though widely attributed to Plato's Socrates in both ancient and modern times, actually occurs nowhere in Plato's works in precisely the form "I know I know nothing." Two prominent Plato scholars have recently argued that the claim should not be attributed to Plato's Socrates.


title: I know that I know nothing

text: Evidence that Socrates does not actually claim to know nothing can be found at "Apology" 29b-c, where he claims twice to know something. See also "Apology" 29d, where Socrates indicates that he is so confident in his claim to knowledge at 29b-c that he is willing to die for it.


title: I know that I know nothing

text: That said, in the "Apology", Plato relates that Socrates accounts for his seeming wiser than any other person because he does not imagine that he knows what he does not know.


title: I know that I know nothing

text: <br>... I seem, then, in just this little thing to be wiser than this man at any rate, that what I do not know I do not think I know either. [from the Henry Cary literal translation of 1897]


title: I know that I know nothing

text: A more commonly used translation puts it, "although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is – for he knows nothing, and thinks he knows. I neither know nor think I know" [from the Benjamin Jowett translation]. Regardless, the context in which this passage occurs is the same, independently of any specific translation. That is, Socrates having gone to a "wise" man, and having discussed with him, withdraws and thinks the above to himself. Socrates, since he denied any kind of knowledge, then tried to find someone wiser than himself among politicians, poets, and craftsmen. It appeared that politicians claimed wisdom without knowledge; poets could touch people with their words, but did not know their meaning; and craftsmen could claim knowledge only in specific and narrow fields. The interpretation of the Oracle's answer might be Socrates' awareness of his own ignorance.


title: I know that I know nothing

text: <br>[So now I do not know what virtue is; perhaps you knew before you contacted me, but now you are certainly like one who does not know.] (trans. G. M. A. Grube)


title: I know that I know nothing

text: Here, Socrates aims at the change of Meno's opinion, who was a firm believer in his own opinion and whose claim to knowledge Socrates had disproved.


title: I know that I know nothing

text: It is essentially the question that begins "post-Socratic" Western philosophy. Socrates begins all wisdom with wondering, thus one must begin with admitting one's ignorance. After all, Socrates' dialectic method of teaching was based on that he as a teacher knew nothing, so he would derive knowledge from his students by dialogue.


title: I know that I know nothing

text: There is also a passage by Diogenes Laërtius in his work "Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers" where he lists, among the things that Socrates used to say: "", or "that he knew nothing except that he knew that very fact (i.e. that he knew nothing)".


title: I know that I know nothing

text: Again, closer to the quote, there is a passage in Plato's "Apology", where Socrates says that after discussing with someone he started thinking that:


title: I know that I know nothing

text: I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.


title: I know that I know nothing

text: It is also a curiosity that there is more than one passage in the narratives in which Socrates claims to have knowledge on some topic, for instance on love:


title: I know that I know nothing

text: I know virtually nothing, except a certain small subject – love (τῶν ἐρωτικῶν), although on this subject, I'm thought to be amazing (δεινός), better than anyone else, past or present.


title: I know that I know nothing

text: "Socratic paradox" may also refer to statements of Socrates that seem contrary to common sense, such as that "no one desires evil".


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Alice is an American sitcom television series that aired on CBS from August 31, 1976, to March 19, 1985. The series is based on the 1974 film "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore". The show stars Linda Lavin in the title role, a widow who moves with her young son to start life over again, and finds a job working at a roadside diner in Phoenix, Arizona. Most of the episodes revolve around events at Mel's Diner, where Alice is employed.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Alice Spivak Hyatt (Lavin) is an unemployed widow after her husband Donald is killed in a trucking accident, and with her young son Tommy (played by Alfred Lutter in the television pilot, reprising his role from the film, but portrayed by Philip McKeon thereafter) heads from their New Jersey home to Los Angeles to pursue a singing career. Her car breaks down in Phoenix, and we meet her soon after she has taken a job as a waitress at Mel's Diner, in Phoenix. (The later seasons' exterior shots were of a real diner, named Mel's, still in operation in Phoenix.) Alice works alongside Mel Sharples (Vic Tayback), the grouchy, stingy owner and cook of the greasy spoon, and fellow waitresses and friends, sassy, man-hungry Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry (Polly Holliday), and neurotic, scatterbrained Vera Louise Gorman (Beth Howland).


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Each episode invariably started inside the diner, and most if not all subsequent scenes took place there as well. A frequent set for non-diner scenes was Alice's one-bedroom apartment in the Desert Sun apartments. (Tommy used the bedroom and Alice slept on a sleeper sofa in the living room.) Vera and Mel's studio apartments and Flo's trailer were occasionally seen. Two of the diner's biggest competitors, Barney's Burger Barn and Vinnie's House of Veal, were sometimes mentioned.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The diner had its share of regular customers through the years, such as Tommy's basketball coach Earl Hicks (Dave Madden), local trucker Chuck (played by Duane R. Campbell), and Henry Beesmeyer (Marvin Kaplan), a telephone repairman who always joked about Mel's cooking. Henry's oft-mentioned wife Chloe was seen in one episode, played by Ruth Buzzi. Celebrities playing either themselves or other characters (including Martha Raye, George Burns, Robert Goulet, Art Carney, Desi Arnaz, and Jerry Reed) were a hallmark of the show.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Polly Holliday left the show to star in her own spin-off series, "Flo". In the episode airing February 24, 1980, Flo leaves to take a hostess job in Houston. On the way to Houston, Flo stops at her hometown Fort Worth, Texas (which she refers to by its moniker "Cowtown"). Flo decides to buy and run a failing roadhouse bar there, which she renames Flo's Yellow Rose. Polly Holliday never made a guest appearance on "Alice" after beginning "Flo", although flashbacks including Flo were shown in the final episode of "Alice". Vic Tayback made one guest appearance on "Flo".


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Diane Ladd, who received an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Flo in the film version joined the cast in 1980 as Isabelle "Belle" Dupree, a hard-edged but kind-hearted woman. She had been a waitress of Mel's in the past, during which the two had a romantic relationship. Despite Ladd's Golden Globe- performance as Belle, the character was not retained for the duration of the series and was replaced early in 1981, the character making one last appearance in which she telephones the diner to inform everyone that she had taken a job as a backup singer in Nashville, Tennessee. It has been said that Ladd clashed with her co-stars, and no flashbacks including Belle were shown during the series' final episode.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Theatre actress Celia Weston then joined the cast as the good-natured, boisterous truck driver Jolene Hunnicutt, who came from Myrtle Point, South Carolina. Jolene arrives as she and her male driving partner are in the midst of an argument over his unwelcome advances, during which she throws and breaks many of Mel's dishes. Mel agrees to hire her "temporarily" to work off the cost of the dishes, but she stays until the end of the series. Jolene frequently mentions her grandmother, "Granny Gums", who had only three or four teeth. Jolene also mentions her distant relative Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg, a character from the concurrent CBS series "The Dukes of Hazzard." In one episode Sorrell Booke guest stars in this role, along with fellow "Dukes" character Enos (Sonny Shroyer).


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The latter years of the show focused on some character development, such as the hasty courtship and marriage of Vera and lovable cop Elliot (Charles Levin). Tommy eventually goes to college and is seen less frequently. In the final season, the character of Alice was absent several times due to Lavin's directing a number of episodes and playing the character of Mrs. Walden, Vera's wizened, abrasive landlady of arbitrary foreign origin. The final story arc began in the spring of 1985, when country singer Travis Marsh (played by Lavin's real-life husband Kip Niven), discovering that he's falling for Alice, "kidnaps" her to take her to Nashville, telling her it's time to follow her dream there. Bewildered at the thought of her dreams finally coming true, Alice agrees, but not without extracting a promise from Travis to drive her back to Phoenix so she can get her affairs in order, including ending her current relationship with a writer.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: In the series finale, which aired March 19, 1985, typical of sitcoms of the era, news of several life-changing events is revealed within a matter of minutes. After 9 years of trying, Alice finally gets a recording contract and is moving to Nashville with Travis Marsh. Vera announces she is pregnant and decides to be a full-time mother, Elliott having been promoted from officer to detective. Jolene's "Granny Gums" dies and leaves her enough money to open her own beauty parlor in her hometown. Besides all three waitresses suddenly leaving simultaneously, by an amazing coincidence Mel has just sold the diner for a large amount of money to a real-estate developer and must close within days. On closing day, he surprisingly gives each waitress a $5,000 farewell bonus. The remainder of the episode shows flashback to humorous and major events, and many of the big stars who had appeared on the show, including Polly Holliday. Finally, while cleaning out her locker, Alice finds the "Waitress Wanted" sign that first drew her to the diner. The series' regular customers, including Henry, Chuck, and Earl, say their emotional farewells, followed by Elliot, and finally the principal characters Tommy, Jolene, Vera, and Alice. The last thing we see is Mel putting up the "Closed" sign and locking up.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Flo's catchphrase, "Kiss my grits!", enjoyed widespread popularity at the time the character appeared on "Alice". According to Polly Holliday, the line was originally written as, "Kiss my honeydew!", but did not get any laughs. (In the original film, Flo, as played by Diane Ladd, tells Mel in one scene to "Kiss me where the sun don't shine.") Another of Flo's catchphrases was, "When donkeys fly!" Since her portrayal of Flo, Polly Holliday has refused to repeat her famous "grits" line.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: In an attempt to duplicate the success of Flo's "Kiss my grits!", Belle began using a new put-down: "Butter my biscuits!" Belle often used the phrase, "My little voice", who called her "Isabelle", which she usually used when starting to tell others what she thinks is best.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Mel would snipe, "Stow it!" at anyone he had qualms with, especially his waitstaff. "Stow it!" was usually followed by either "Alice", "Vera", "Flo" "Belle", or "Blondie" (in reference to Jolene). He would also bark, "Bag it, Blondie!" to Jolene. He eventually gave Vera the nickname "Dingy" and would occasionally bellow "Stow it, Dingy" at her. Jolene would sometimes say, "When pigs wear perfume."


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: In a handful of episodes, Alice put on a double-breasted suit and fedora to assume the character of husky-voiced "Sam Butler", a mobster she made up as a ruse to fool her intended target. Linda Lavin also played the role of Mrs. Walden in the last season, once even playing both Alice and Mrs. Walden in a split-screen dual role.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Part of Mel's Diner was often destroyed, such as by Flo's crashing a truck through the front, Mel chopping down a tree which landed on the diner, Mel accidentally having the building targeted for demolition, and the waitresses crashing a hot air balloon through the roof (upon which Jolene cries, "We went to the bad place and it looks just like Mel's!"). In one episode, a wrecking ball destroyed the front of the diner because someone could not read Mel's handwriting. In another, a group of men literally hoisted up the entire front of the diner with their bare hands.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Mel was a stickler for punctuality. In the fourth season, he installs a time clock, which ends up working to the waitresses' advantage due to significant overtime (since before then they were forced to clean the storage room on Sundays without extra pay), and he finally smashes it onto the floor. Mel also had a strict rule against moonlighting, often leading to one or more waitresses getting fired, but he always rehired them before the end of each episode.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Although he had a fairly loyal clientele, Mel's food and cooking were constantly criticized by his waitresses and customers alike—especially Henry, who always blamed it for his indigestion. However, Mel's chili con carne was popular and became a plot point of several episodes. During the first season, a newspaper food critic (played by Victor Buono) dropped dead while eating Mel's chili, but it turned out that tainted Peking Duck from a Chinese restaurant was to blame. Art Carney guest-starred in one episode as the spokesman for retail distribution of Mel's Chili ("Chili con Carney") who backed out when he discovered Vera was a distant relative with part ownership in the venture. The popularity of Mel's Chili also led to an appearance on Dinah Shore's talk show, which led to some bickering among the waitresses because Mel could take only one person along, but everyone ended up going. Mel refused to reveal his "secret ingredient" to Dinah and her TV audience during the cooking demonstration.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Notable guest stars include: Eve Arden, Desi Arnaz, Brice Beckham, Fred Berry, Sorrell Booke (as Boss Hogg), George Burns (as himself), Ruth Buzzi (as Chloe Beesmeyer, Henry's wife), Art Carney (as himself), Corey Feldman, Robert Goulet, Joel Grey (as himself), Florence Halop, Eileen Heckart (as Rose Hyatt, Alice's interfering mother in-law), Florence Henderson, Jay Leno, Bill Maher, Rue McClanahan, George Wendt, Nancy McKeon (Philip's sister, appearing twice, in different roles), Frank Nelson, Donald O'Connor (as himself), Janis Paige, Kelly Parsons, Jerry Reed (as himself), Debbie Reynolds, Kim Richards, Michael Rupert, Telly Savalas (as himself), Sonny Shroyer (as Enos Strate), Jerry Stiller, and Jim Varney.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The show's theme was called "There's a New Girl in Town", with music by David Shire, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman; performed by Linda Lavin. Several arrangements of this tune were used throughout the series' run; the lyrics were altered after the second season.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: In the opening credits Alice and Tommy pass under overhead road signs that say "Phoenix" and "El Paso". The only location this occurs in this configuration is at the northern end of Interstate 19 in Tucson.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The Mel's Diner set made changes over the years; in the pilot the diner contained a blue refrigerator, but in the series the refrigerator was a dirty stainless steel, then later was changed to clean and shiny stainless steel in 1979–81 and much later the set featured an even shinier stainless steel refrigerator and better appliances. The rest of the set, however, remained the same.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The men's and ladies' restrooms were confined to one room in the pilot and during the first season. From 1977 to 1985, there were separate restrooms with "Ladies" and "Men" written on them.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The storeroom was inside the diner where the men's restroom would later be and said "Private" on it during the 1976–77 season. The storeroom from 1977 to 1985 was confined to the back of the diner. Here, the waitresses took their breaks, had their lockers, and stored their uniforms. Mel also conducted his business from this space.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The payphone was a touch tone and was located on the left of the "Restrooms" door in the pilot episode. For the first season, it was moved to the right of the doors that led to the kitchen section of the diner. For the second season, it was moved to the wall between the two doors that became two separate restrooms and was replaced by a phone with a rotary dial. From 1978 to 1985, the phone was a touch tone and was located at a section that was a few steps away from the entrance to the diner.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: In the first season, the diner was decorated in an Aztec and cowboy motif to accommodate the feel of Arizona. For the second season, the walls had pink wallpaper with red lines on it. For the third season, the walls had wallpaper with orange leaves on it.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The giant "14-ounce coffee cup" sign used in later seasons was seen by a producer scouting Phoenix for an establishing shot for the show's later seasons. It was at "Chris' Diner" and the owner agreed to change the name to Mel's for the show.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The cash register was a Sweda Model 46 and was fully functional for the first few seasons. Later in the series it no longer worked and was shown with the "0" in the cents position off-center due to the register being locked up.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Alice's apartment remained more or less unchanged during most of the show's run; the apartments of Mel and Vera and Flo's trailer were occasionally seen. (The set for Flo's trailer was also used on the spinoff "Flo".)


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The pilot episode was taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood, California. After this, the series was taped at The Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Arthur Marx, son of Groucho Marx, co-wrote (with writing partner Robert Fisher and others) 39 episodes of the series, from season two through season six.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: "Alice" had many contrasts with the film on which it was based, "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore". The tone and style of the series differed greatly from the film, and there were a number of factual differences concerning the characters and setting.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: "Alice" was shown on the Ten Network in Australia from 1977. It was mostly aired on a sporadic basis, with broadcast schedules and timeslots varying between each city, and by the 1980s was more commonly scheduled to air during summer ratings hiatus.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: "Alice" was shown in the UK by Channel 4, starting on 27 August 1984. At first, the series was shown each weekday at 5.00pm, before moving to a twice-weekly slot later. No breaks between seasons were made and the final episode was shown in October 1986.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: On June 27, 2006, six episodes of "Alice" were released on DVD by Warner Bros. Home Video as part of the "Warner Bros.' Television Favorites" compilation series. The episodes were hand-picked by fans at SitcomsOnline.com, as follows:


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: Warner Home Video has released all nine seasons on DVD in Region 1 via their Warner Archive Collection. These manufacture-on-demand (MOD) releases, available through Warner's online store Warner Archives Collection, are sold only in the US. The complete ninth and final season was released on March 12, 2019.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The entire series is available from Apple iTunes Store and Amazon Video for downloading. In addition, a holiday episode from Season 3 is available from Amazon.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: A book chronicling the development of the TV series, entitled "Alice: Life Behind the Counter in Mel's Greasy Spoon (A Guide to the Feature Film, the TV Series, and More)", was published by BearManor Media in September 2019.


title: Alice (American TV series)

text: The "Tommy's Lost Weekend" episode, written by Bob Bendetson, Howard Bendetson, and Robert Getchell, based on a story by Arnold Anthony Schmidt, received an Emmy nomination in 1984.


title: Black site

text: In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black operation or black project is conducted. According to the Associated Press, "Black sites are clandestine jails where prisoners generally are not charged with a crime and have no legal recourse, with no bail or court order."


title: Black site

text: Black sites are used extensively by the Egyptian security services. During the Egyptian Crisis (2011–2014) hundreds of protesters alleged that torture occurred at these black sites. The Egyptian security service also operated black sites involved with the CIA’s counter-terror black site program.


title: Black site

text: In Chechnya, gay men have alleged been tortured at black sites by Chechen security forces. Gay men in other parts of Russia have been kidnapped and transported to sites in Chechnya, where over 100 have been tortured, and some killed. Chechen authorities have thwarted attempts by the Russian LGBT Network to help gay people in Chechnya escape to safe locations in Russia, and inhibited investigations by the Kremlin's human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova. Despite protests in major Russian cities against the situation in Chechnya, Vladimir Putin, wanting to maintain good relations with Kadyrov, has denied that any abuses of homosexuals in Chechnya have occurred. Chechnya is arguably the most homophobic area in Russia, with 95% of its population adhering to Orthodox (Sunni) Islam.


title: Black site

text: CIA controlled black sites are used by the U.S. government in its War on Terror to detain enemy combatants.


title: Black site

text: US President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of secret prisons operated by the CIA during a speech on September 6, 2006. A claim that the black sites existed was made by "The Washington Post" in November 2005 and before this by human rights NGOs.


title: Black site

text: A European Union (EU) report adopted on February 14, 2007, by a majority of the European Parliament (382 MEPs voting in favor, 256 against and 74 abstaining) stated the CIA operated 1,245 flights and that it was not possible to contradict evidence or suggestions that secret detention centers where prisoners have been tortured were operated in Poland and Romania. After denying the fact for years, Poland confirmed in 2014 that it has hosted black sites.


title: Black site

text: In January 2012, Poland's Prosecutor General's office initiated investigative proceedings against Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, the former Polish intelligence chief. Siemiątkowski was charged with facilitating the alleged CIA detention operation in Poland, where foreign suspects may have been tortured in the context of the War on Terror. The involvement of Leszek Miller, Poland's Prime Minister from 2001 to 2004, is also considered possible.


title: Enrico Colantoni

text: Enrico Colantoni (born February 14, 1963) is a Canadian actor and director, best known for portraying Elliot DiMauro in the sitcom "Just Shoot Me!", Keith Mars on the television series "Veronica Mars", Louis Lutz on the short-lived sitcom "Hope & Gloria", crime lord Carl Elias on "Person of Interest", and Sergeant Greg Parker on the television series "Flashpoint". He has also had supporting roles in such films as "The Wrong Guy", "Galaxy Quest", "A.I. Artificial Intelligence", "Contagion", and "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood", and guest appearances on "Monk", "Numb3rs", "Party Down", "Stargate SG-1", and "Bones". More recently, he starred as Allen Conner in "Remedy". He played Laura Hollis's father in season three of the online web series "Carmilla". He appeared in HBO's "Westworld" revival and in "Station Eleven". Colantoni directed two episodes of the TV series "iZombie".


title: Enrico Colantoni

text: Colantoni was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Gina, a garment worker, and Quintino Colantoni, a labourer and truck driver. Both his parents were immigrants from Abruzzo, Italy, and his brother, Det. Sgt. Hector Colantoni, is a retired police officer with the Toronto Police Service.


title: Enrico Colantoni

text: He attended the University of Toronto studying psychology and sociology, but transferred to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Colantoni graduated from the Yale School of Drama, winning the Carol Dye Award.


title: Enrico Colantoni

text: Colantoni starred in the TV series "Remedy". He appeared on "Just Shoot Me!" as Elliot DiMauro from 1997 to 2003, and starred in the Canadian TV police drama "Flashpoint" as Sgt. Greg Parker (also airing in the U.S. on ION Television, and airing previously on CBS). His older brother, who was a Toronto policeman for the past 30 years, advised Colantoni on how to play the character. Colantoni played Keith Mars for four seasons on "Veronica Mars", a role he reprised in the 2014 film and the 2019 Hulu revival.


title: Enrico Colantoni

text: Colantoni also had a recurring role on "Person of Interest" as crime boss Carl Elias and on "Travelers" as Vincent Ingram (Traveller 001).


title: Enrico Colantoni

text: Since 2011, Colantoni has been heavily involved with The Tema Conter Memorial Trust, an organization that assists first responders and other service personnel dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. He became their official spokesperson and has been involved in their annual tribute gala in Toronto every year since.


title: Enrico Colantoni

text: He has also been involved in the Companion Animal Protection Society's campaign to boycott commercial pet stores, creating a video to raise awareness about the topic.


title: Chris Patten

text: Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, (; born 12 May 1944) is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was made a life peer in 2005 and has been Chancellor of the University of Oxford since 2003.


title: Chris Patten

text: Raised in west London, Patten studied history at Balliol College, Oxford. Shortly after graduating in 1965, he began working for the Conservative Party. Patten was elected Member of Parliament for Bath in 1979. He was appointed Secretary of State for the Environment by Margaret Thatcher in 1989 as part of her third ministry, becoming responsible for implementation of the unpopular poll tax. On John Major's succession as Prime Minister in 1990, Patten became Chairman of the Conservative Party and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. As party chairman, he successfully orchestrated a surprise Conservative electoral victory in 1992, but lost his own seat.


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten was then appointed the last governor of Hong Kong, to oversee the final years of British administration in the colony and prepare for its transfer to China in 1997. During his tenure, his government significantly expanded the territory's social welfare programmes and introduced democratic reforms to the electoral system.


title: Chris Patten

text: Following his governorship, Patten led the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, a major implementation step of the Northern Ireland peace process pursuant to the Good Friday Agreement from 1998 to 1999. He was European Commissioner for External Relations from 1999 to 2004 and Chairman of the BBC Trust from 2011 to 2014.


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten grew up in an Irish Catholic family in west London, the son of an unsuccessful music publisher whose forebears had come to England from County Roscommon, Ireland. Patten's father, Frank, a jazz-drummer turned popular-music publisher and his mother Joan sent him to a Catholic primary school, Our Lady of the Visitation, in Greenford, and later to the independent St Benedict's School in Ealing, west London, where he won an exhibition to read Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford.


title: Chris Patten

text: After graduating with a second-class honours degree in 1965 and winning a Coolidge travelling scholarship to the US, Patten worked for the campaign of then-Republican New York Mayor John Lindsay, where he reported on the television performance of rival William F. Buckley Jr. He worked for the Conservative Party from 1966, first as desk officer and then director (from 1974 to 1979) of the Conservative Research Department.


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten was the Conservative Party candidate for Lambeth Central at the February 1974 general election, but lost to the Labour Party candidate, Marcus Lipton. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Bath in 1979, and served until he was unseated in 1992.


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Northern Ireland Office in June 1983. He was promoted to be a Minister of State in the Department of Education and Science in September 1985, and was named Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in September 1986.


title: Chris Patten

text: In 1989, he was promoted to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for the Environment and became responsible for the unpopular Community Charge (or so-called "Poll Tax"). Though he robustly defended the policy at the time, in his 2006 book "Not Quite the Diplomat" (published in the United States as "Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain and Europe in the New Century") he claims to have thought it was a mistake on Margaret Thatcher's part. He also introduced, and steered through Parliament, the major legislation that became the Environmental Protection Act 1990.


title: Chris Patten

text: In 1990, John Major made Patten Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party, with responsibility for organising the Conservative Party's re-election campaign for the upcoming general election. As party chairman, he was widely considered to be the main architect of the somewhat unexpected Conservative victory at the 1992 general election. However, he lost his marginal seat of Bath to the Liberal Democrat candidate Don Foster at that election. Patten's defeat was attributed to factors such as the Poll Tax.


title: Chris Patten

text: If Patten had been re-elected in 1992, sections of the media thought he would have been rewarded by appointment as Foreign Secretary, although in his autobiography John Major said that he would have made Patten Chancellor of the Exchequer.


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten turned down offers of a new post and instead, in July 1992, he became the 28th and the last governor of Hong Kong until its transfer of sovereignty to China on 30 June 1997. He was given an official Chinese name, Pang Ding-hong (), a name with an etymology based on the words "stability" and "calm; joyous; healthy". Unlike most previous Hong Kong governors, he was not a career diplomat from the UK Foreign Office although he was not the first former MP to become a governor of Hong Kong.


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten's tenure faced several different challenges, as many in Hong Kong were still reeling from the Tiananmen Square massacre a few years earlier. However the general public regarded him positively. He took steps to get in touch with the people of the colony, and was known for his penchant for taking public strolls around Hong Kong as well as in the media limelight. Hong Kong nicknamed him Fat Pang (), making him the only governor to have a widely recognised Chinese nickname.


title: Chris Patten

text: In contrast to his predecessors, Patten decided not to wear the official Court uniform on formal occasions. Patten's approval rating in Hong Kong in April 1992 was 53% and ended his tenure with an approval rating of 59.7%.


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten's most controversial actions in Hong Kong are related to the 1994 electoral reform. LegCo members returned in 1995 were originally to serve beyond the Handover, thereby providing institutional continuity across the transition of Hong Kong to the PRC. Beijing had expected that the use of functional constituencies with limited electorates would be used to elect this council, however Patten extended the definition of functional constituencies and thus virtually every Hong Konger was able to vote for the so-called indirectly elected members (see Politics of Hong Kong) of the Legislative Council.


title: Chris Patten

text: The Legislative Council became a fully elected legislature for the first time in 1995 and extensively expanded its functions and organisations throughout the last years of colonial rule.


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten's actions were strongly criticised by the pro-Beijing political parties of Hong Kong. Patten was also denounced by some Chinese media and politicians as the "whore of the East" and a "serpent", and was most famously called a "sinner who would be condemned for a thousand generations" () by Lu Ping, the head of China's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. The legislative council which was elected under Patten's governorship was dissolved upon the handover of Hong Kong to the PRC and replaced by a Provisional Legislative Council which did not have any democratic functions until elections were held under the previous rules in 1998.


title: Chris Patten

text: At midnight Hong Kong Time 1 July 1997 (16:00 GMT, 30 June 1997), he sent the telegram: "I have relinquished the administration of this government. God Save The Queen. Patten." This marked the end of British rule in Hong Kong. After the handover ceremony he left the city, together with Prince Charles, on board the British royal yacht, HMY "Britannia". Patten was noted to be in tears throughout the day, notably after his speech at Tamar. He has since commented that his governorship of Hong Kong was a happy time for him personally as he shared this experience with his wife and children.


title: Chris Patten

text: From 1998 to 1999, he chaired the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, better known as the "Patten Commission", which had been established in 1998 as part of the Belfast Agreement. On 9 September 1999, the Commission produced its report, entitled "A New Beginning: Policing in Northern Ireland" and popularly known as the "Patten Report", which contained 175 symbolic and practical recommendations. This report led to the disbanding of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and establishment of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. He is the co-chair of International Crisis Group, overseeing many international operations. He is also a member of the Global Leadership Foundation, an organisation which works to promote good governance around the world. On 23 May 2005 he was appointed by Cadbury as a non-executive director.


title: Chris Patten

text: In 1999, he was appointed as one of the United Kingdom's two members to the European Commission as Commissioner for External Relations where he was responsible for the Union's development and co-operation programmes, as well as liaison with Javier Solana, the High Representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. He held this position within the Prodi Commission from 23 January 2000 until 22 November 2004. Patten oversaw many crises in the area of European foreign policy, most notably the failure of the European Union to come up with a common unified policy before the Iraq War in 2003. Although nominated for the post of President in the next Commission in 2004, he was unable to gain support from France and Germany.


title: Chris Patten

text: According to information from WikiLeaks, Patten was in Moscow in April 2004 and had concluded EU–Russia ministerial consultations in Brussels. He considered that the EU had become overly dependent on Russian energy supplies, and should become more engaged with the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia in order to diversify supplies.


title: Chris Patten

text: According to information from the US Embassy in Brussels (published by WikiLeaks in November 2010): Patten said in April 2004 that Russian President Vladimir Putin has done a good job for Russia mainly due to high world energy prices, but he had serious doubts about the man's character. Cautioning that "I'm not saying that genes are determinant," Patten then reviewed the Putin family history – grandfather part of Lenin's special protection team; father a communist party apparatchik, and Putin himself decided at a young age to pursue a career in the KGB. "He seems a completely reasonable man when discussing the Middle East or energy policy, but when the conversation shifts to Chechnya or Islamic extremism, Putin's eyes turn to those of a killer."


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten was Chancellor of Newcastle University from 1999 to 2009. In 2003, he was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford.


title: Chris Patten

text: In 2016, in the wake of a student movement to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes from a college in Oxford, as had happened in South Africa, Patten said that Oxford students who did not like Cecil Rhodes should "think about being educated elsewhere".


title: Chris Patten

text: On 11 January 2005 Patten was created a life peer as Baron Patten of Barnes, of Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.


title: Chris Patten

text: On the advice of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government led by Prime Minister David Cameron, Patten was appointed by the Queen-in-Council as Chairman of the BBC Trust, and he took office on 1 May 2011, in the place of Sir Michael Lyons whose contract was not renewed. During this time, Patten sat as a crossbencher.


title: Chris Patten

text: As Chairman of the BBC Trust, Patten joined the Prince of Wales and other members of the royal family in the royal box for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert. It came, however, immediately in the wake of widespread criticism of the BBC's live outside-broadcast coverage of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee River Pageant on 3 June 2012, which was castigated in the press and was the subject of 1,830 formal complaints by viewers. Patten said afterwards the Royal Pageant had not been the BBC's "finest hour" and admitted that "The tone was wrong."


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten submitted his letter of resignation as BBC Trust Chairman to the Secretary of State on 6 May 2014; citing health reasons following his heart bypass surgery on 28 April. BBC Trust Vice Chairman Diane Coyle took over as Acting Chairman until the appointment of a new chairman. He returned to sit with the Conservative party in the House of Lords in September of that year.


title: Chris Patten

text: In May 2016, Patten said that the BBC has "lost some of its ambition" in its coverage of science, philosophy and history, and should "stretch" audiences more. Patten bemoaned the fact that much of the corporation's high-brow programming had been moved to BBC Four, the digital channel, and given low budgets that meant shows were "sometimes made with glue and string". In a speech on the future of the BBC, which he said was "one of this country's greatest institutions", Patten called on ministers to respect the "besieged" broadcaster's independence, and set in place measures to stop it becoming "the plaything of the government of the day".


title: Chris Patten

text: In September 2020, he wrote that "Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping's dictatorship is certainly thuggish. Consider its policies in Xinjiang. Many international lawyers argue that the incarceration of over one million Muslim Uighurs, forced sterilisation and abortion, and slave labour meet the UN definition of genocide." Patten said that Chinese company Huawei "is an agent of an unpleasant Chinese state."


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten married Lavender Thornton, a barrister, on 11 September 1971. They have three daughters, including the actress Alice Patten.


title: Chris Patten

text: On 29 September 2005, he published his memoirs, "Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths About World Affairs". In October 2009, Patten was Chief Guest at The Doon School, a boarding school in Dehradun, India, which is a member of the United Kingdom's Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten is a Catholic and oversaw Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom in September 2010. In 2010, "The Tablet" named him as one of Britain's most influential Catholics.


title: Chris Patten

text: In February 2010, Patten was appointed President of Medical Aid for Palestinians, but he stepped down in June 2011.


title: Chris Patten

text: In 2014 Pope Francis appointed Patten to head a body to advise the Vatican on media strategy and on how to handle the press, which he remained on until 2016.


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series "Tory! Tory! Tory!"


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten and his time in Hong Kong was the subject of the 5-part documentary series "The Last Governor", which was filmed throughout his time in Hong Kong, including his arrival, key moments of his government such as the 1995 elections and his final day in office, ending as he departs Government House for the last time.


title: Chris Patten

text: The 1996 Hong Kong parody film "Bodyguards of the Last Governor", presents 'Christ Pattern' as the Governor of Hong Kong. In addition to the name, Pattern appears to be based heavily on Patten, matching his appearance, political affiliation (Conservative) and family (a wife and two daughters with him in Hong Kong). His role however is minor as the film depicts him being replaced with one month to go before the handover. He is portrayed by Noel Lester Rands.


title: Chris Patten

text: Patten is portrayed the video game "Hong Kong 97" as ordering Chin, an unspecified relative of Bruce Lee, to massacre the entire population of mainland China.


title: Chris Patten

text: In 2003 he was awarded an honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Bath. In September 2005 he was elected a Distinguished Honorary Fellow of Massey College in the University of Toronto (the only person so elected except for the Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh, the Duke of Edinburgh) as well as receiving an honorary D.S.Litt. degree from the University of Trinity College, Toronto and an honorary D.Litt. degree from the University of Ulster. In March 2009, Patten received the title Doctor honoris causa by South East European University.


title: Chris Patten

text: In November 2016 Patten was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour, and was presented with the award by the French Ambassador to the United Kingdom Sylvie Bermann at Kensington Palace Gardens.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Jonah Hex is a 2010 American Western superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Directed by Jimmy Hayward in his live-action debut from a screenplay by Neveldine/Taylor, the film stars Josh Brolin in the title role, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, Michael Shannon and Wes Bentley.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Produced by Legendary Pictures, Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance Productions and Akiva Goldsman's Weed Road Pictures, the film was released on June 18, 2010, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was a commercial failure, having grossed only $11 million against a budget of $47 million. It received generally negative reviews and has a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Jonah Hex is a Confederate soldier who refuses an order from his commanding officer Quentin Turnbull to burn down a hospital. Hex is forced to kill his best friend Jeb, Turnbull's son, who draws a pistol on Hex. Turnbull later tracks Hex down at home and takes revenge for Jeb's death by killing Hex's family and branding Hex's face. Hex is found near-death and healed by the Crow people; the experience leaves him with the ability to speak to the dead. Turnbull fakes his death in a hotel fire and Hex, unable to seek revenge, becomes a bounty hunter.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: In 1876, a gang of men led by Turnbull hijack a train carrying components of an experimental weapon invented by Eli Whitney. President Grant realizes that Turnbull is planning to rebuild the weapon and use it attack the U.S. on the Fourth of July. Grant instructs Army Lieutenant Grass to find Hex and hire him to track down and stop Turnbull. Grass' men find Hex in a brothel with a prostitute named Lilah and inform him that Turnbull is still alive.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Hex travels to meet Grass at his encampment and uses his ability to interrogate a dead soldier. The soldier tells Hex to find former Confederate General Slocum, who now runs an illegal fighting pavilion in South Carolina. Hex confronts Slocum, who refuses to reveal Turnbull's location and sarcastically suggests he ask his dead friend Jeb. Hex throws Slocum to his death and burns the pavilion down. He decides to travel to Gettysburg and dig up Jeb's body to ask him for help. Jeb and Hex briefly fight before Jeb accepts Hex's apology for killing him. He grudgingly reveals that his father is at Fort Resurrection. Jeb also warns Hex to avoid death because many in the afterlife have plans for him.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Hex confronts Turnbull at the fort and kills several men before he is shot point blank in the chest. Hex escapes by horse and travels back to find the Crow people. Turnbull orders a man named Burke, who helped kill Hex's family, to track down something Hex loves and bring it to him. While Hex is being healed again, Burke finds and kidnaps Lilah. Turnbull assembles the weapon and conducts a test on a small town in Georgia, completely destroying it.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Hex sends a message to Lt. Grass with Turnbull's location and requests backup. Hex travels to Independence Harbor and infiltrates Turnbull's ironclad warship. He kills Burke, using his abilities to bring him back from the dead and incinerate him. Turnbull holds Lilah at gunpoint and forces Hex to surrender. Hex and Lilah escape their holding cell as Lt. Grass arrives and attempts to arrest Turnbull. Grass and his crew are destroyed by the weapon and Turnbull begins his attack on Washington, D.C.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Hex attacks Turnbull, as they fight Hex jams the weapon with a hatchet before locking Turnbull's neck in the machine. Hex and Lilah escape the boat as the weapon backfires and explodes, killing Turnbull and all of his men. The next day, President Grant gives Hex a large reward and a full pardon before offering him a job as Sheriff of the entire United States. Hex declines, but assures the president they can find him if they need him; he leaves the city with Lilah. The film ends with Hex visiting Jeb's grave to apologize for his father's death before riding off.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: The film also includes John Gallagher, Jr. as Lieutenant Evan, Tom Wopat as Colonel Slocum, and Julia Jones as Cassie; as well as an uncredited Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Jeb Turnbull. Mastodon guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds also made a small cameo appearance.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Prior to Brolin's casting, actor Thomas Jane petitioned the studio for the role by hiring a makeup artist to give him the appearance of Jonah Hex. Jane instead voiced Hex in the 2010 animated short "".


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: In 2000, 20th Century Fox developed a one-hour television adaptation based on the character, with producers Akiva Goldsman and Robert Zappia involved, but the project never came to fruition. In July 2007, Warner Bros. held the film rights to the character and sought to make a film. Goldsman paired with Andrew Lazar as producers, and Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor wrote the screenplay, which adapted an incarnation of the comic books that combined the Western genre with supernatural elements. In October 2008, Josh Brolin entered talks to be cast as Jonah Hex under the direction of Neveldine and Taylor. In November 2008, Neveldine and Taylors stepped down from being directors due to creative differences with the studio. The studio explored the possibility of hiring Andy Fickman or McG and by January 2009, it chose Jimmy Hayward (who previously directed "Horton Hears a Who!") to direct "Jonah Hex". By the following February, Brolin was set to star alongside John Malkovich, who was cast as the antagonist Quentin Turnbull. Filming began in Louisiana in April 2009.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Brolin would later admit that he hated the experience making the film stating that at one point they had to "[reshoot] 66 pages in 12 days", implying that the filming schedule was hectic. Director Francis Lawrence was brought in to supervise a number of reshoots.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Heavy metal band Mastodon scored the film. Troy Sanders, bassist/vocalist of Mastodon, on their contribution to the film:


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: "Some of it was heavy, some of it was very moody. A lot of it was spacey, Melvins B-sides, Pink Floyd-like, surreal outer space, like Neil Young's "Dead Man". Swirling, nausea music".


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Sanders added that the collaboration felt natural: "Since day one, we've always written albums thinking the music was the score of a movie. Then we'll create the lyrics or storyline on top of that, as if we're writing the dialog to match the movie's cinematography".


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: The soundtrack is an hour-long instrumental, including five full songs and numerous smaller musical themes. Selections were added to scenes in the film by composer John Powell ("Shrek", "The Bourne Identity"), and others were adapted for the London Orchestra for exceptionally epic moments. Sanders explained: "We wrote variations on themes for each character, different variables for a bunch of riffs: faster, slower, heavier, lighter. It's the Darth Vader approach".


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: The film was released in the United States on June 18, 2010, the same day as Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 3".


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: The film was released on both DVD and Blu-ray on October 19, 2010, with some special features (DVD contains Deleted Scenes). It was then released in the United Kingdom on December 13, 2010, on DVD, Blu-ray and Double Play. Special features include Deleted Scenes, The Inside Story of Jonah Hex and a Picture-In-Picture Commentary.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: "Jonah Hex" severely failed at the box office, opening at No. 7 during its debut weekend with only $5,379,365 in 2,825 theaters, averaging $1,904 per theater. On its second weekend, the film only managed to gross $1,627,442, falling to No. 10. The film ended its theatrical run on August 12, 2010, having grossed only $10,547,117 in total on a $47 million budget. Due to its negative domestic take, the film was not widely released internationally, grossing less than $500,000 outside the United States.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Jonah Hex" has an approval rating of based on reviews and an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Josh Brolin gives it his best shot, but he can't keep the short, unfocused "Jonah Hex" from collapsing on the screen." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 33 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: Keith Phipps of "The A.V. Club" gave the film a rare "F" rating, stating "the 81 minutes (including credits) of "Jonah Hex" footage that made it to the screen look like something assembled under a tight deadline, and possibly under the influence." Roger Ebert gave the film a negative review, saying that the film "is based on some DC Comics characters, which may explain the way the plot jumps around. We hear a lot about graphic novels, but this is more of a graphic anthology of strange occult ideas."


title: Jonah Hex (film)

text: The film was named "Worst Picture" of the year by the Houston Film Critics Society at their 2010 awards ceremony. It was given two nominations at the 31st Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Actress (Megan Fox) and Worst Screen Couple (Josh Brolin's face and Megan Fox's accent).


title: History of rail transport

text: The history of rail transport began in the BCE times. It can be divided into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used.


title: History of rail transport

text: The Post Track, a prehistoric causeway in the valley of the River Brue in the Somerset Levels, England, is one of the oldest known constructed trackways and dates from around 3838 BC, making it some 30 years older than the Sweet Track from the same area. Various sections have been designated as scheduled monuments.


title: History of rail transport

text: Evidence indicates that there was a 6 to 8.5 km long "Diolkos" paved trackway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC. Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD. Paved trackways were also later built in Roman Egypt.


title: History of rail transport

text: In China, a railway has been discovered in south west Henan province near Nanyang city. It was carbon dated to be about 2200 years old from the Qin dynasty. The rails are made from hard wood and treated against corrosion while the sleepers or railway ties are made from wood that was not treated and therefore has rotted. Qin railway sleepers were designed to allow horses to gallop through to the next rail station where they would be swapped for a fresh horse. The railway is theorized to have been used for transportation of goods to front line troops and to fix the Great Wall.


title: History of rail transport

text: In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug, a funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel. The line still exists and remains operational, although in updated form. It may be the oldest operational railway.


title: History of rail transport

text: Wagonways (or tramways), with wooden rails and horse-drawn traffic, are known to have been used in the 1550s to facilitate transportation of ore tubs to and from mines. They soon became popular in Europe and an example of their operation was illustrated by Georgius Agricola (see image) in his 1556 work "De re metallica". This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons "Hunde" ("dogs") from the noise they made on the tracks. There are many references to wagonways in central Europe in the 16th century.


title: History of rail transport

text: A wagonway was introduced to England by German miners at Caldbeck, Cumbria, possibly in the 1560s. A wagonway was built at Prescot, near Liverpool, sometime around 1600, possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to a terminus about half a mile away. A funicular railway was made at Broseley in Shropshire some time before 1604. This carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the river Severn to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns. The Wollaton Wagonway, completed in 1604 by Huntingdon Beaumont, has sometimes erroneously been cited as the earliest British railway. It ran from Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham.


title: History of rail transport

text: The Middleton Railway in Leeds, which was built in 1758, later became the world's oldest operational railway (other than funiculars), albeit now in an upgraded form. In 1764, the first railway in America was built in Lewiston, New York.


title: History of rail transport

text: The introduction of steam engines for powering blast air to blast furnaces led to a large increase in British iron production after the mid 1750s.


title: History of rail transport

text: In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company began to fix plates of cast iron to the upper surface of wooden rails, which increased their durability and load-bearing ability. At first only balloon loops could be used for turning wagons, but later, movable points were introduced that allowed passing loops to be created.


title: History of rail transport

text: A system was introduced in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates these became known as plateways. John Curr, a Sheffield colliery manager, invented this flanged rail in 1787, though the exact date of this is disputed. The plate rail was taken up by Benjamin Outram for wagonways serving his canals, manufacturing them at his Butterley ironworks. In 1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway, a double track plateway, sometimes erroneously cited as world's first public railway, in south London.


title: History of rail transport

text: In 1789, William Jessop had introduced a form of all-iron edge rail and flanged wheels for an extension to the Charnwood Forest Canal at Nanpantan, Loughborough, Leicestershire. In 1790, Jessop and his partner Outram began to manufacture edge-rails. Jessop became a partner in the Butterley Company in 1790. The first public edgeway (thus also first public railway) built was the Lake Lock Rail Road in 1796. Although the primary purpose of the line was to carry coal, it also carried passengers.


title: History of rail transport

text: These two systems of constructing iron railways, the "L" plate-rail and the smooth edge-rail, continued to exist side by side into the early 19th century. The flanged wheel and edge-rail eventually proved its superiority and became the standard for railways.


title: History of rail transport

text: Cast iron was not a satisfactory material for rails because it was brittle and broke under heavy loads. The wrought iron rail, invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820, solved these problems. Wrought iron (usually simply referred to as "iron") was a ductile material that could undergo considerable deformation before breaking, making it more suitable for iron rails. But wrought iron was expensive to produce until Henry Cort patented the puddling process in 1784. In 1783, Cort also patented the rolling process, which was 15 times faster at consolidating and shaping iron than hammering. These processes greatly lowered the cost of producing iron and iron rails. The next important development in iron production was hot blast developed by James Beaumont Neilson (patented 1828), which considerably reduced the amount of coke (fuel) or charcoal needed to produce pig iron. Wrought iron was a soft material that contained slag or "dross". The softness and dross tended to make iron rails distort and delaminate and they typically lasted less than 10 years in use, and sometimes as little as one year under high traffic. All these developments in the production of iron eventually led to replacement of composite wood/iron rails with superior all-iron rails.


title: History of rail transport

text: The introduction of the Bessemer process, enabling steel to be made inexpensively, led to the era of great expansion of railways that began in the late 1860s. Steel rails lasted several times longer than iron. Steel rails made heavier locomotives possible, allowing for longer trains and improving the productivity of railroads. The Bessemer process introduced nitrogen into the steel, which caused the steel to become brittle with age. The open hearth furnace began to replace the Bessemer process near the end of 19th century, improving the quality of steel and further reducing costs. Steel completely replaced the use of iron in rails, becoming standard for all railways.


title: History of rail transport

text: James Watt, a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, greatly improved the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen, hitherto used to pump water out of mines. Watt developed a reciprocating engine in 1769, capable of powering a wheel. Although the Watt engine powered cotton mills and a variety of machinery, it was a large stationary engine. It could not be otherwise: the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder; this required a separate condenser and an air pump. Nevertheless, as the construction of boilers improved, Watt investigated the use of high-pressure steam acting directly upon a piston. This raised the possibility of a smaller engine, that might be used to power a vehicle and he patented a design for a steam locomotive in 1784. His employee William Murdoch produced a working model of a self-propelled steam carriage in that year.


title: History of rail transport

text: The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by Richard Trevithick, a British engineer born in Cornwall. This used high-pressure steam to drive the engine by one power stroke. The transmission system employed a large flywheel to even out the action of the piston rod. On 21 February 1804, the world's first steam-powered railway journey took place when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. Trevithick later demonstrated a locomotive operating upon a piece of circular rail track in Bloomsbury, London, the "Catch Me Who Can", but never got beyond the experimental stage with railway locomotives, not least because his engines were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track then in use.


title: History of rail transport

text: The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray's rack locomotive "Salamanca" built for the Middleton Railway in Leeds in 1812. This twin-cylinder locomotive was not heavy enough to break the edge-rails track and solved the problem of adhesion by a cog-wheel using teeth cast on the side of one of the rails. Thus it was also the first rack railway.


title: History of rail transport

text: This was followed in 1813 by the locomotive "Puffing Billy" built by Christopher Blackett and William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery Railway, the first successful locomotive running by adhesion only. This was accomplished by the distribution of weight between a number of wheels. "Puffing Billy" is now on display in the Science Museum in London, making it the oldest locomotive in existence.


title: History of rail transport

text: In 1814, George Stephenson, inspired by the early locomotives of Trevithick, Murray and Hedley, persuaded the manager of the Killingworth colliery where he worked to allow him to build a steam-powered machine. Stephenson played a pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of the steam locomotive. His designs considerably improved on the work of the earlier pioneers. He built the locomotive "Blücher", also a successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotive. In 1825, he built the locomotive "Locomotion" for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the north east of England, which became the first public steam railway in the world, although it used both horse power and steam power on different runs. In 1829, he built the locomotive "Rocket", which entered in and won the Rainhill Trials. This success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives for railways in Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, and much of Europe. The first public railway which used only steam locomotives, all the time, was Liverpool and Manchester Railway, built in 1830.


title: History of rail transport

text: Steam power continued to be the dominant power system in railways around the world for more than a century.


title: History of rail transport

text: The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen in Scotland, and it was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Thus it was also the earliest battery electric locomotive. Davidson later built a larger locomotive named "Galvani", exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The seven-ton vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors, with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators. It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour (6 kilometers per hour) for a distance of . It was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use. It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their job security.


title: History of rail transport

text: Early experimentation with railway electrification was undertaken by the Ukrainian engineer Fyodor Pirotsky. In 1875, he had electrically-powered railway cars run on Miller's line, between Sestroretsk and Beloostrov. During September 1880, in St. Petersburg, Pirotsky put into operation an electric tram he had converted from a double-decker horse tramway. Although Pirotsky's own tram project was taken no further, his experiment and work in the field did stimulate interest in electric trams globally. Carl von Siemens met with Pirotsky and studied exhibits of his work carefully. The Siemens brothers (Carl and Werner) began commercial production of their own design of electric trams soon after, in 1881.


title: History of rail transport

text: Werner von Siemens demonstrated an electric railway in 1879 in Berlin. One of the world's first electric tram lines, Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, opened in Lichterfelde near Berlin, Germany, in 1881. It was built by Siemens. The tram ran on 180 Volt DC, which was supplied by running rails. In 1891 the track was equipped with an overhead wire and the line was extended to Berlin-Lichterfelde West station. The Volk's Electric Railway opened in 1883 in Brighton, England. The railway is still operational, thus making it the oldest operational electric railway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram opened near Vienna in Austria. It was the first tram line in the world in regular service powered from an overhead line. Five years later, in the US electric trolleys were pioneered in 1888 on the Richmond Union Passenger Railway, using equipment designed by Frank J. Sprague.


title: History of rail transport

text: The first use of electrification on a main line was on a four-mile stretch of the Baltimore Belt Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1895 connecting the main portion of the B&O to the new line to New York through a series of tunnels around the edges of Baltimore's downtown.


title: History of rail transport

text: Electricity quickly became the power supply of choice for subways, abetted by the Sprague's invention of multiple-unit train control in 1897. By the early 1900s, most street railways were electrified.


title: History of rail transport

text: The first practical AC electric locomotive was designed by Charles Brown, then working for Oerlikon, Zürich. In 1891, Brown had demonstrated long-distance power transmission, using three-phase AC, between a hydro-electric plant at Lauffen am Neckar and Frankfurt am Main West, a distance of 280 km. Using experience he had gained while working for Jean Heilmann on steam-electric locomotive designs, Brown observed that three-phase motors had a higher power-to-weight ratio than DC motors and, because of the absence of a commutator, were simpler to manufacture and maintain. However, they were much larger than the DC motors of the time and could not be mounted in underfloor bogies: they could only be carried within locomotive bodies.


title: History of rail transport

text: In 1894, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Kandó developed a new type 3-phase asynchronous electric drive motors and generators for electric locomotives. Kandó's early 1894 designs were first applied in a short three-phase AC tramway in Evian-les-Bains (France), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898.


title: History of rail transport

text: In 1896, Oerlikon installed the first commercial example of the system on the Lugano Tramway. Each 30-tonne locomotive had two motors run by three-phase 750 V 40 Hz fed from double overhead lines. Three-phase motors run at constant speed and provide regenerative braking, and are well suited to steeply graded routes, and the first main-line three-phase locomotives were supplied by Brown (by then in partnership with Walter Boveri) in 1899 on the 40 km Burgdorf–Thun line, Switzerland.


title: History of rail transport

text: Italian railways were the first in the world to introduce electric traction for the entire length of a main line rather than just a short stretch. The 106 km Valtellina line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz works. The electrical system was three-phase at 3 kV 15 Hz. In 1918, Kandó invented and developed the rotary phase converter, enabling electric locomotives to use three-phase motors whilst supplied via a single overhead wire, carrying the simple industrial frequency (50 Hz) single phase AC of the high voltage national networks.


title: History of rail transport

text: An important contribution to the wider adoption of AC traction came from SNCF of France after World War II. The company conducted trials at 50 Hz, and established it as a standard. Following SNCF's successful trials, 50 Hz (now also called industrial frequency) was adopted as standard for main lines across the world.


title: History of rail transport

text: Earliest recorded examples of an internal combustion engine for railway use included a prototype designed by William Dent Priestman, which was examined by Sir William Thomson in 1888 who described it as a "[Priestmans' petroleum engine]... mounted upon a truck which is worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes.". In 1894, a two axle machine built by Priestman Brothers was used on the Hull Docks.


title: History of rail transport

text: In 1906, Rudolf Diesel, Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing diesel engines since 1898. The Prussian State Railways ordered a diesel locomotive from the company in 1909. The world's first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–Romanshorn railway in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success. The locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883 kW with a maximum speed of 100 km/h. Small numbers of prototype diesel locomotives were produced in a number of countries through the mid-1920s.


title: History of rail transport

text: A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when Hermann Lemp, a General Electric electrical engineer, developed and patented a reliable direct current electrical control system (subsequent improvements were also patented by Lemp). Lemp's design used a single lever to control both engine and generator in a coordinated fashion, and was the prototype for all diesel–electric locomotive control systems. In 1914, world's first functional diesel–electric railcars were produced for the "Königlich-Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen" (Royal Saxon State Railways) by Waggonfabrik Rastatt with electric equipment from Brown, Boveri & Cie and diesel engines from Swiss Sulzer AG. They were classified as . The first regular use of diesel–electric locomotives was in switching (shunter) applications. General Electric produced several small switching locomotives in the 1930s (the famous "44-tonner" switcher was introduced in 1940) Westinghouse Electric and Baldwin collaborated to build switching locomotives starting in 1929.


title: History of rail transport

text: In 1929, the Canadian National Railways became the first North American railway to use diesels in mainline service with two units, 9000 and 9001, from Westinghouse.